Thanks to McCormick's, I've found the ultimate in lazy ways to make cod taste good. It involves a bottle of McCormick's Cajun Seafood Sauce, about a pound and a half of frozen cod, and some Ziploc bags. I just put one or two fillets to a regular sandwich-size bag, pour in enough sauce to coat, and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours before following the directions on the bottle for cooking it. On its own, cod is a pretty bland fish, but this makes it taste great. And following the lazy format, I'll just serve it with some seasoned potato wedges from the freezer case and some corn. Those Glad steamer bags really live up to their claim--I'll never boil frozen vegetables again. It's so much easier to slap them in one of these bags and put them in the microwave for 5-6 minutes, depending on how much you're cooking.
There's currently a show on the history channel about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, trying to determine what really happened, because it ain't like it's always shown in the movies. It's been re-enacted in many a film. I like the movie Tombstone with Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp pretty well. I think that Val Kilmer probably channeled Doc Holliday better than anyone before. Often in movies Holliday was portrayed as a suave, older gent, but the truth is, he was only 36 years old when he died from tuberculosis. Kilmer played him as a charismatic, roguish drunk and gambler who was in pretty rough shape health-wise. He also managed to approximate Holliday's real physical appearance fairly accurately.
Now since I grew up in New Mexico, I have a real affinity for the Southwest and as I've mentioned, I plan to go back there one day. Those old-time gunslingers would be rolling over in their graves if they knew what a laid-back place Tombstone has become. Sure, it's a tourist trap, but I'll admit to feeling a real sense of awe standing in the real Tombstone, walking through the cemetery, meandering around thinking about what it used to be like. I bought lots of books about the colorful characters that made it such an interesting place. Don't get me wrong, I don't romanticize how great living in the Old West would be, in fact I'm damn glad not to be living in that time. But as a half-assed amateur historian, it sure is fun to study!
