LAW 105: What's for Dinner?

I want to be up front here. I will eat almost anything, from almost anywhere; i do however draw a line across which food from China will not pass. This may not be fair to Chinese producers, still there has been too much information published that points to all sorts of contamination, why take a chance? Besides the bounty of the Chesapeake Bay makes not eating Chinese seafood hardly a sacrifice. Since we're talking fish here i would also like to point out that i also boycott any 'farm' raised seafood, this to me is also a 'no brainer'. Mungo and i try to eat as locally as possible. Again living on the Bay makes this an easy matter.

So, last Friday we had just walked into Geresbeck's, our locally owned grocery store, making a beeline to the fish market. Justin(the seafood manager) is a great guy. He offers locally sourced seafood, mostly wild caught, as well as the standard offerings. Since we have gone out of our way to 'make friends' with the people we interact with on a daily basis he has been very accommodating; and searching out and delivering at great prices a wide variety of special requests. I've written at length about the glories of the grilled and stewed octopi. So when he and Jack saw us coming they were ready for us.

Turns out that Justin had special ordered a rather special treat for another customer; what he didn't realize was that the smoked black cod fillets came as a two pack. Since this is a very very pricey fish this could have been rather big ouch! But, ahem…. good Samaritan's that we are, we obligingly took it off from his hands. Justin didn't lose any money, we got a great deal, and an almost two pound fillet of smoked sable fish(it's other name).

Mungo trying to distract me, i think the cat's in on it too!

Oh my! Oh my oh my, can i tell you just how drool worthy this piece of finny goodness was? Although neither of us had ever had this particular species of fish smoked before we were not at all worried that we would not like it. I have never met a piece of smoked fish that i didn't like. Go ahead, feel free to call me a smoked fish slut. I grew up in a part of the country where smoked and pickled fish made frequent appearances on the party table, and had lived in Denmark for a year i knew just what to do with this little treasure. Enter a platter of Scandinavian sushi, err, Smorgasbord. Well really a Smorrebrod platter, daintily little open face sandwiches, surrounded by the best fresh vegetable garni and pickles.

Yes, dinner!

So our first night's dinner consisted of the loin of the sable fish, pumpernickel bread, sweet cream butter, Havarti cheese, assorted olives, fresh radishes and green onions, paper thin lemon slices and homemade  Sichuan cucumber pickles.

Culinary heaven!

So in total we managed to dine on this almost two pound piece of piscatorial pleasure for five, no six separate meals. Two supper Smorrebrod platters, two lunch time snacks and a hard to describe, but very delicious concoction i found in one of the late, great Bert Greene's cookbooks. A hybrid cornbread, (made with polenta) quiche, which always features a grated summer squash, lots of onion, and in this case the last little bit of smoked sable fish flaked into the batter. Oh, did i mention lots of cream? It is very good right out of the oven, but frankly i think i like it better as a leftover breakfast or lunch at room temperature.

So all in all it was very good eats this past week.

More later,

Morgainne

LAW 104: Mungo's Dream

One of the greatest joys that comes when you live on water is all the amazing opportunities for bird watching. Here on the Middle River our favorite birds to watch during the summer and early fall are the Ospreys. What wonderful birds of prey. They of course nest all over the upper bay, commandeering virtually all of the tops of channel markers, buoys, any relatively undisturbed flat surface they can find, including tree tops. If you've never seen an osprey nest, they are huge, messy, untidy masses of sticks.

We have been lucky enough to watch at least one or two nesting pairs every summer since we moved onboard. One of our favorite late afternoon pastimes involves relaxing under the 'Drinking Tree', yes, of course with a glass of wine, watching the Ospreys fish for supper. They almost never miss. A sure sign that fall is here, the Ospreys take off for warmer climes.

Any way, Mungo's Dream goes like this……..

The chair in question, visualize the Osprey!

An Osprey lands on the back of an empty lawn chair says "Hey", …. amazed, perplexed, we uncertainly go "Hey?" back. The Osprey continues the conversation, asking us if we were okay, letting us know that they were getting ready to head south for the winter……."We just wanted to make sure you guys would be here next spring, we really enjoy watching you."

Alright, just a little on the surreal side, but….
More later,
Morgainne

LAW 103: Happy Labor Day, Where did August go?

Hmmmmmm. Well, i've been a bad little blogger girl. Some how i have let an entire month slip away unrecorded, unremarked. What can i say, it has been very very hot.

8.26.16.1 & 2, from August Kalends

Every time i went to make paper, it either became brutally hot and humid, or it rained. Average drying time, four days. Not good. Although i am really jonesing to try making paper out of the ubiquitous water weed that is literally coating about half of the river, i'm waiting for cooler weather.

8.24.16.1 & 2, from August Kalends

I did finish my August Kalends project; although with four fewer signatures than i had planned. I had not taken into account the fatness i would get just from the collage work, so slowed down on that front. I'm taking a break from that project right now. I'm thinking i need some new collage material.

Ganesh Mandala, i think it's done!

I did finish, i think, my Ganesh mini quilt/hand embroidery piece. It is still hanging on the studio wall, uncut, as i want to make very sure i am happy with it, before cutting off the backing.

Outline done, no the hard, long part begins

I have started another wall hanging, this one a Phoenix. It will be completely stitched, and i'm thinking of some bead work on it as well. It should take a good long while to finish.

Week two progress, breast feathers

As you can see, Magellan does think that my computer really does belong to him. Here he is from yesterday, employing the Edgar Cayce method of web surfing.

The night before Hermine was scheduled to impact our area this is what the sky looked like. Spooky beautiful.

Okay so that's the round up, i promise to be better. Please feel free to check out all of our other sites, including Mungo's newest; colonizeearth.org.

More later,
Morgainne, aka Gail