Mushroom Alfredo Halibut & Garlic Mashed Potatoes

This was a terrible experience. And as you can see, it looks pretty terrible, too!

There were problems with this dish from the get-go.

For one thing, the little slab of fish I buried underneath my 'mashed potatoes' here was not halibut at all, but cod! It is a decent substitute as a white fish, but I've come to the conclusion that I pretty much hate cooked fish now. Sushi all the way!

I also didn't have tinfoil to bake the fish in, which I was freaked about ruining the dish without, but it didn't seem to affect the taste or moisture outcome. Apparently, foil only helps to lock in moisture, but if you have liberally added an oil or sauce to the fish before baking, it won't get dry in the oven.

It doesn't help that, in helping Sean study the ServSafe book [a guidebook for professional kitchen safety and rules], I learned about all the wonderful, amazing things that various types of seafood can do to ruin your life if improperly prepared! I was convinced that the cod smelled bad aka 'deathly', that it wasn't baked all the way through [Sean's thermometer proved me wrong], and that we were totally going to get Anisakis simplex and we'd be coughing up worms.

This is another reason I prefer sushi: all sushi-grade fish goes through extreme measure to be tested and handled for safety. On the other hand, with most seafood, if it is contaminated, neither freezing nor cooking the fish will cure it anyway. So really, anyone who is wary to try sushi has nothing to lose versus going to a Red Lobster. [Dad]

Fortunately, neither of these happened, but I'm telling you all this to hopefully gain some absolution from my mashed potatoes disaster here. This goop you see here actually tasted great, but I was too busy freaking out over the fish to pay proper attention and I ended up pouring in way too much half and half and making the potatoes like soup. Sadly, this wasn't even my first time making mashed potatoes -- I've made them a million times and they've been awesome -- but for some reason I failed to gradually add the liquid. *Sigh*. This is what I get for blindly following the recipe. I'm serious, you can't make anything decent without bullshitting most of it.

The mushroom alfredo sauce was actually quite awesome, so I am pleased with that. Normally alfredo is VERY fatty, but the recipe calls for fat-free half-and-half instead, which soothes my heart in more ways than one.

Final verdict: I was pretty grouchy about it, but Sean said he liked it all. I love him because he loves all my so-called culinary disasters.