I think the biggest issue with buying frozen fish is the inconsistency in size. It is sooooo convenient to open the freezer and pull out perfectly vacuum-packed packages of seafood – but there are, inevitably, portion issues that aren’t always evident by looking at the package.

One solution is to just cook it up and portion it on the plates. Another is to cut it all up and make a stew of sorts.

That is what Victor did last night.

We had roughly 3/4 pound of Alaskan Cod – two pieces of fish that weren’t even close in size. It was time to get creative!

I had been actual grocery shopping a few days ago – my first Wegmans trek since March – and bought twice as much as I had been buying using home delivery – and spent about a hundred bucks less. I knew that the whole InstaCart thing was ridiculously expensive but it took going back to the store to realize really how ridiculously expensive it is.

I think I shall be grocery shopping in person, from now on.

I have to admit that I wasn’t really thrilled with the InstaCart experience. In the beginning, I had a couple of shoppers who were really conscientious and contacted me about every substitution, outage, sent pictures of products, empty shelves… they really took it seriously. The last few, however, were pretty lame, substituting things like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for Wegmans Wheat Crunch cereal. I mean… not even close. Or getting generic andouille sausage instead of the D’Artagnan brand I ordered – and paid for.

Yes, I could have complained, and no, I didn’t. But I did decide that shopping early during senior hours might be better…

So… armed with plenty of fresh produce – I had also done a Trader Joe’s run earlier in the week – Victor went to work.

He created a dish of fennel, asparagus, heirloom cherry tomatoes, baby peppers, jalapeño peppers, onion, garlic, aleppo pepper, oregano, and white wine – and then added the fish to gently cook before serving it all over rice.

Totally fabulous. It was mildly spicy, rich and flavorful, lots of contrasting flavors and textures. The perfect meal.

And I’m really happy about getting back into a grocery store. I always shop with a list, but, in person, I can change things and add or delete things based upon what’s available or what just looks good. It’s win/win for me.

And Victor cooking is win/win for me. I really am a lucky guy.