Back to Homaha.

No more fresh baguettes, smelly cheeses or red wine for me (unfortunately).

But, I still have my wonderful cookbook to cook through, so on to the next meal..... which last night was Brodetto.

Brodetto is an Italian fish dish made in many different regions with differing variations, but what remains common is the need for a good homemade fish stock.

Onion, celery and tilapia fillets (it should have been fish steak with bones, but due to the hot weather I didn't want to leave my other groceries in the car while buying it) are boiled for 30 minutes to make the stock.

Meanwhile tomatoes are scalded and peeled, more onion and garlic is chopped and fried in olive oil. The fish stock is added to the onion, garlic and tomatoes along with some white wine and saffron threads ($15 for a teeny tiny pouch!). Steamed mussels, squid, octopus, krab, shrimp and the boiled fish are added to the sauce and allowed to simmer for 5 minutes.

The final product was served with a small amount of jasmine rice.

It was yummy! All three of us went back for seconds (minus the rice) and Joshua especially liked to see the sucky pads of the squid :)

Matt compared it to a non salted version of the west indie breakfast Diarra made for the family in France, and I can see what he means. Which reminds me Helena, if you're reading this, can you please email me with that recipe??

The fish steaks would have worked better than the small tilapia fillets, it would have held together better. I also didn't care for the krab, the real thing would have been way better.

Josh followed his meal with a couple scoops of ice cream. I also had one small scoop, but had to fight my way through Matthew to be able to do so. He was quite right though, France has piled on another 6lbs and so I really don't have the room for any special treats yet; not until I meet my first weight loss goal. Don't worry people, I'm not going to starve myself. I just want to get to a place where I don't feel like I'm dragging around extra weight :)

What will I cook next?