March 13th, 2010

Robin and Vanessa's birthday! Dos Pisces mommas; I wish them well!

Snow is falling today. Pretty snow; like in the fall, before compressed, dirty, slick, old snow forms into ice, therefore; putting a treacherous element into all things outdoors for four months.

Now that the old crap is clear, I welcome a nice blanket of new snow which will soon dissappear, like snow is supposed to do. Time for spring anyhow!

Today, I am making 5 more gallons of Mead (honey wine), which is now my favorite drink. Sorry Beer!!! This is the most ancient drink in the world; they have archeological evidence of this. Mead is easier to make than beer and wine. It consists of honey, water, and yeast. Takes 30 minutes to make 5 gallons, and a month to drink it! For less than 2 bucks a bottle...

Also marinated some asparagus (tis the season!), and salmon, to be grilled on the stove, due to inclimate weather (The weather here is known for its "inclimantness").


Thats all for today, Im too hungry to write..

Ok, I ate the Salmon and aspharagus and it was so good that i feel like sharing the recipe with you:

*when cooking fish you best be extra vigilant! One or two minutes here or there will cause problems. The trick is to take it off the heat exactly in its proper time. Salmon is easy to cook since the red flesh turns white when cooked. I say keep it at a light whitish pink for edibility purposes. Otherwise its either raw , fishy, or dry as shit! This is how I cook a 2/3 inch thick, 3/4 pound salmon fillet:
(do each step like I suggest or your screwed!)

1. rinse fillet off in cold water, this will remove all surface bacteria, fish pus, and other foul things.

2. Blot filet on paper towel till fairly dry.

3. Sprinkle on your favorite dry salmon cooking spice. I use either garlic powder/oregano/ cayenne pepper/ black pepper/ lemon pepper, and some other fish spice I cant recall; or I just hit the fish with a sprinkle of Mrs Dash original spice mix.

4. Rub the spices in good and let sit for ten minutes or more.

5. drizzle a bit of lemon juice on the bastard, let sit for ten more minutes.

6. Put fish in ziploc bag pour olive oil all over it and squish to distribute.

7. Refrigerate for an hour or more.

8. Do the same to the aspharagus using the same spices as the fish.

****REMEMBER TO SNAP THE BIG ENDS of the ASPARAGUS OFF WITH YOUR FINGERS FIRST OR YOU WILL BE EATING A WOODY PULP!

9. Either grill your Asparagus direct on the grill (MEDIUM HIGH HEAT), keeping them moving every minute and basting with marinade; or just make a rectangular foil boat, with sides about 3/4 inch high, and allow the olive oil to gently fry the asparagus on the cooler side of the grill. In a frying pan just gently grill on low/medium for 20 minutes turning on occasion. Sprinkly a little soy sauce mid way, which is all the salt we add for this.

10. Since the veggies take longer, we do them first and wrap them in paper towels to keep them warm and remove some grease.

11. Get the grill or stove up to medium hot (setting 7 or 8 if you are dim).

12. Place the salmon filet meatside down for 4 minutes, or till the white gets about half way up the thickness of the meat.

13. Flip it skin side down, and dump a bit of soy on the top to taste, wait a couple minutes and splash a bit of wine on the fish. Then let sit for about six minutes until the cross section of the fish, looks white on top and bottom and a sliver of pink in the middle.

14. Remove fish, toss on the plate with remaining wine/soy/oil gravy.

IF YOU MADE THIS LIKE I ASKED, YOU WILL BE IN HEAVEN!

Night all, I hope you enjoyed your cooking lesson today.

AL