True Cod Fish Tacos with Spicy Ranch Sauce

The last year has been one of incredible change in our lives. It was almost exactly one year ago that Dustin and I were celebrating Dustin's birthday (a few days late) and contemplating acceptance of his new job out here at Reef. How fitting it was we were eating at seafood restaurant as we were contemplating moving to Seattle, also known as a seafood lover's heaven.

In this last year, Dustin and I had to make a series of life altering decisions like if we were going to go to the same place after graduation and where that place would be. We went through an incredible number of life changing events, graduating from college, getting engaged, moving halfway across the country, Dustin starting a new job and me searching for one. We've had to become adults, taking care of our own expenses and making adult decisions. It's been a little scary, and definitely a little overwhelming, especially as I try to decide on my career. But for the most part it has been exciting as we get to build our new life together in a completely new place. So far when it comes to all of these life changing decisions, I think we've done a pretty good job.

Seattle has been a really fun city to explore, with what seems like more things to do than in Houston and a completely different culture and feel to it. We especially love the fresh foods at Pike's Place and all of the casual and unpretentious restaurant atmospheres with sophisticated and upscale food. I feel like we've seen a lot, but there is so much more to experience here.

And what better way to celebrate a year of all of these changes than with fresh fish tacos from Pike's Place?

We spent time at Pike's Place where we got fresh true cod, some fresh veggies, and some queso fresco (which we actually scored for free because it was a day past the sell by date, but still perfectly fine). We had even found a recipe for fish taco sauce, and we planned on stopping by the grocery store to get the last few ingredients we needed before dinner.

Unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to make it to the grocery store before we were ready to eat. So we had to get our creative juices flowing and figure out something interesting to put on our tacos from a kitchen that hadn't seen fresh groceries in a week and hadn't been prepared to make fish tacos.

We decided a ranch sauce could be really interesting. We dumped some ranch in a bowl and started adding spices until it tasted good and spicy. We added granulated garlic as well chipotle and adobo powders, which really gave the sauce some kick.

We grilled up the fish and put them in taco shells, adding fresh tomato and red onion, as well as the sauce and then crumbled queso fresco. If only we could keep our cilantro plant alive, it would have been the perfect crowning touch.

As a side dish we pan fried some sweet corn fresh from the cob with a little garlic, salt and pepper– the perfect accompaniment to fish tacos.

I think I can get used to this whole fresh fish right at my fingertips thing. So good.