Monday, April 13, 2009

Have salmon, will travel

Early last week, our dear friend RantWoman had a salmon emergency on her hands. She had been gifted with a piece of salmon too large for her to handle on her own. The problem was not all inside her head. But since she took it logically, the answer was quite easy. She got on the phone and called the Wenches. Of course, we told her, we'd be more than happy to help her in her struggle to be free--of the salmon.

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The oracle that dispenses freeze dried salmon--i.e., the lid to the box that holds the kitty treats

Back in January the Wenches had a bit of a seafood emergency of our own, a mussels emergency to be exact. When our favorite fishmonger at the local market was more than generous with our request for a pound of mussels, it was RantWoman who came to our rescue. It grieved her so to see us in such a pickle that she dropped everything on the spot and rushed right over to help us eat up all those mussels. I might add that RantWoman is always more than accommodating whenever we ask her to come over and be our guinea pig, I mean taste tester, for a new recipe that we're trying out. So when she called, asking for our help with the salmon, we did not hesitate or misconstrue. We offered our services without intruding or being crude. It is not in RantWoman's nature to be coy; she could see clearly that we had the key--Salmon: A Cookbook, by Diane Morgan. There certainly was no need to discuss much; we quickly made a new plan--the salmon would be frozen in RantWoman's fridge until the weekend.

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The salmon after its uptown journey

Saturday evening RantWoman hopped on the bus and made her way to our house. When she arrived, her many bags contained all manner of surprises that she'd picked up at the Pike Place Market--rhubarb, pears, chocolate, a bouquet of lilies. And of course the salmon. We opted for simplicity when it came to cooking the salmon--mostly because we were too exhausted and not very coherent after a day of teaching, for Curmudgeon, and a day of mandatory work meetings and vet appointments, for Wing Nut (even though it was her day off and her b-day to boot). The salmon was drizzled with olive oil. A few shakes of salt and pepper and a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary were added, and into the oven it went. While the fish baked, RantWoman prepared a rhubarb pear crisp, Curmudgeon made a side dish of sauteed red peppers, kale and great northern beans, and Wing Nut tossed together a salad of spring greens with apples, toasted walnuts and grated parmesan. Half an hour later, we were sitting down to a scrumptious meal together.

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Wing Nut's birthday lilies

Here in the Pacific Northwest these types of seafood emergencies are not uncommon. Luckily for those of us living here, there are at least 50 ways to eat your salmon.

24 comments:

Gail said...

I love emergencies that turn out so well! This story had a great jappy ending....beautiful flowers and the salmon was large! gail

Gail said...

ps that is supposed to be Happy ending! gail

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Now I'm craving salmon. I'm glad you were able to help your friend out. The whole meal sounds so good!

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Girls .. lets all giggle at Gail .. obviously she needs more chocolate .. right ?
Wow !! that is one heck of a salmon and too bad you all aren't closer to us here .. we would have helped you out as you were helping out Rant Woman ! .. Sophie and Emma said they would too !!
PS Thanks again for helping me out of my conondrum (spelling ? ) LOL

Kerri said...

Oh, get out the back Jack! I'm glad you made a new plan, Sam!
I knew there was something you could do to make me smile again :)
I'm an old S&G fan from way back...and salmon...yes, that too!
The meal sounds sumptious. I'm going to bed to dream about eating seafood now.
And. that. song. is. on. my. brain....
Thank you very much girls!
I wonder if it's too late to play their CD....
(very clever post Curmudgeon) :)

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

Okay, I am having a lettuce emergency. Do you think you can help?

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

YMMMMmmm--love salmon!!

our friend Ben said...

Rhubarb crisp... sigh. Your salad and sides sound fab as well. So when are you all heading back to Pennsylvania?!!

Curmudgeon said...

Hi Gail! Yes, this emergency had a very happy, and yummy, ending. Salmon out here seems to only come in large, extra large, huge, and ginormous.

Hi Catherine! That's what friends are for, to help you eat up your extra salmon. LOL!

Hey there GardenJoy! Have you come across Wildside Salmon Cat Treats? Our kiddos love love love 'em. Yes, our pets are very spoiled.

Hi Kerri! Glad we made you smile. I was having a 70s S&G kind of day and got a little silly. I'm usually not very silly.

Hey there Aunt Debbi! A lettuce emergency? Wing Nut can do amazing things with salad greens--I would never eat salad if it wasn't for her. But how can you be having a lettuce emergency with the bunnies around???

Hi Janet! YYYUUUMMM indeed!

Hey OFB! Don't despair, you'll be having rhubarb for dessert soon. Ours really amazed us this year--must be that Mar. application of manure. We are overdue for a trip back east, but that lottery prize just isn't happening for us. LOL!

Anonymous said...

Tasty and nutritious. No leftovers, I bet. Yum.

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Just look at the texture of salmon.... very inviting!! ... cheers!! ~ bangchik

JGH said...

I'm just amazed that there is a whole cookbook devoted to salmon! Your sides sound fantastic, too.

Curmudgeon said...

Hi Grace. Actually, that salmon was so large that we did have leftovers--Monday lunch, and a few tidbits for the 4 legged members of the household.

Greetings Bangchick & Kakdah! I agree with you. Salmon is lovely--the color, the texture.

Hi JGH! We were amazed too when we first saw the book. Only in the PNW.

Sarah Laurence said...

Now those are the emergencies that I love! I enjoyed your Easter flowers too.

Unknown said...

Here on the Best Coast of Canada we have seafood emergencies too; normally with haddock, sole, lobster or scallops, locally caught of course. Or mackeral. Or smelts. Okay, I admit it, I'm a fish/seafood nut, would rather eat good fish than any other type of protein. Even for breakfast. And salmon ranks up there as one of my favourites too. Glad you were able to cope with the emergencies.

A Cuban In London said...

My God, that's the king of salmons! Many thanks for a fantastic post and also I can see (thanks to your popup window for comments) that spring is running wild over there. Narcissus 'Cheerfulness' is beautiful.

Greetings from London.

RantWoman said...

Wow! Thanks Wenches for pictures too.

See, what is so much fun about the Wenches is that bringing flowers to them is like bringing coals to Newcastle even when the flowers are huge lilies which it's much too early for around here. Bringing rhubarb to them is like bringing coals to Newcastle and we still had a blast!

Plus on the trip to Pike Place, I scored a whole lot of asparagus which was a huge hit for Easter.

Give Diva Dog a big scritch on the ears. One of these days maybe I will figure out how to make enough noise on the way to the door not to completely startle her when I knock.

Matron said...

Could Diva dog assist in any way with the salmon emergency?

Kathryn/plantwhateverbringsyoujoy.com said...

Lovely home story. I adore salmon and being along the coast do have access on occasion. Here's my favorite fast and easy recipe. Drizzle olive oil, as you did. They put sliced cloves of garlic on top. And then pour Tamari over the whole thing. Not too much. Oven. Done. Delicious. :)

Bonnie Story said...

Hi! We just had a wonderful seafood-run-amok occasion over here with wonderful Dabob Bay oysters! Hubby and I had to handle about 40 of 'em - and handle we did. I'm getting to be a pretty good shucker these days. Our neighbor has a great oyster connection down the way and she loves to see our eyes light up when she hands over a big ol' mesh bagga oysters. And what pretty lillies! -- Happy belated birthday! Bonnie

Anonymous said...

Un grand merci pour l'info sur les divers noms de la doucette. Quelle diversité !
Bien à toi !
verO

Molly said...

I'd be more than happy to drop everything and help out in the event of a future seafood emergency.

Town Mouse said...

Ah, well, I'd be happy to hop on the bus for salmon any day, but I'll leave lovers and others when mussels appear, having caught hepatitis from them a few years ago (at least they were the most likely culprit). It's no fun being blue, but being yellow is worse...

Curmudgeon said...

Greetings Sarah! Sure does beat the run-to-the-hospital kind of emergency.

Did you say lobster, Jodi? I LOVE lobster. I'd eat it for breakfast if I could afford it. LOL

Greetings Cuban! I grew up eating lots of seafood on the east coast of the US but salmon was not on the list--my dad thought pink fish was queer. My love and appreciation of salmon has definitely blossomed since arriving in Seattle. One of my neighbors once quipped that salmon have more rights and protections than people here in the Pacific Northwest.

Hey RantWoman. Thanks again for sharing your salmon!

Oh she did assist, Matron! As did the one kitty. The other kitty prefers vegetables. She'll eat an entire spear of cooked asparagus, loves corn and peas and carrots too.

Yum Kathryn! That sounds great!

hey Bonnie, your oysters sound marvelous. How wonderful to have "an oyster connection" LOL! I love oyster stew.

De rien verO! Malheureusement, cette année les limaces ont mangé plus que nous.

We'll keep you in mind Molly!

Yikes Town Mouse! Definitely sounds like a bad experience.