Our family is two thirds through celebrating the annual trifecta of birthdays; mine was in July, Constant Companion was last week, and Daughter yet to come in September. I made no entry here for the July round when I merrily spent much of the month enjoying my free treats, savoring the milestone birthday.

Constant Companion, unlike Daughter and me, would rather the day just pass by. That was the plan. No usual especially special dinner was planned as had my monthly trek to Fort Pierce for one of my never-ending projects. Quite unexpectedly, however, I ended up home for dinner because of a minor catastrophe (a flat tire on the Florida Turnpike).*

*I do not recommend this to anyone, especially those who do not know how to operate their IPhone and are unable to find out where in the world you are! Road Ranger came after a fair wait and got me set to return home, via Costco in search of new tire(s).

While in the great halls of Costco, I picked up a nice fish to make the annual birthday dinner for his truly! Sea bream was something different our usual branzino. Once home and rested from the unexpected excitement of the morning, I turned to my friend Google to seek directions for sea bream and found that is the fish is known as tsipoura in Greece .

I chose a recipe to roast it with lemon (so Greek) and potatoes. Our side dish was drawn from the pantry – Korean pancake with zucchini and baby bok choy.

Whole roast sea bream with potatoes. Preheat the oven to 420 degrees F. Boil 6-8 small potatoes about 20 minutes til soft. Cut the potatoes into thick slices and cool; then toss with one chopped garlic clove, a handful of kalamata olives (I omitted this ingredient), olive oil, lemon zest, and salt and pepper. Spread in a nice-sized baking pan.

I used two fish for our dinner. Score both sides of the fish, season with salt and pepper, put lemon slices into the cavities. Place the fish on top of the potatoes and drizzle with the some olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes until the potatoes start to crisp around the edges. Pour one small glass of white wine into the baking pan, return to the oven for ten minutes more until the potatoes have browned and the fish is cooked. Remove the fish from the oven. Plate the fish and potatoes, top with the white wine juices and parsley.

Zucchini/Bok Choy Pancake. Actually, I combined several pancake recipes for this dish that the family enjoys. Julienne one small zucchini. Thinly slice two baby bok choys and ¼ red onion. Gently saute the vegetables.

Whisk together ½ cup of flour, ½ cup cold or iced water, 1 teaspoon corn starch, salt and pepper. Add to the vegetable mixture, fold it together so all the vegetables are covered. Pour into a hot skillet with a bit of oil. Cook on one side til browned. Turn over til second side is browned.* Plate and serve with dipping sauce – 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp rice vinegar, ½ tsp sugar, black pepper (add a pinch of red pepper flakes if you like).

*This time, mine came out a mess; but the family enjoyed it!

Thanks to my unexpected adventure we celebrated the second 2025 trifecta together.