Rum Glazed Salmon?

I can fix salmon hundreds of ways. No. Countless ways. From a homemade Filet-O-Fish to en papillote and everything in between.

I often do a maple mustard glaze with dill. Or teriyaki. Salmon is wonderful with a teriyaki sauce.

I was inspired by this Bourbon Glazed Salmon recipe but...didn't have any bourbon in the house. Shocking. I know. I gave it some thought and decided I'd use some dark rum I had in the pantry.

Now who wouldn't want to eat this?
Here's what I did:

• ¼ cup dark rum
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Juice from 1 lime

My cooking is generally "little bit of this and little bit of that". Adjust those amounts to whatever might suit your taste. That made enough for maybe a pound of fish. I mixed everything except the lime juice in a bag. I added my skinless salmon fillets (wild Atlantic Salmon) and marinated for 5 hours or so in the refrigerator.

An hour before cooking the fish I added the lime juice to the bag. I didn't want the acid in the lime juice to mess up the texture of the fish.

I put a cast iron skillet in my oven and preheated the oven to 425° F. While the oven was heating I poured the marinade into a small sauce pan and reduced it.

I put the fish on the cast iron skillet skin side up. This way the fish gets a nice sear on it. Follow the 10 minutes in the oven per inch of fish rule. My fillets took about 7 minutes. Check them often! About a minute or so before I thought the fish was done I spooned the reduced marinade over it so it would glaze.

I paired it with a Pinot Noir. I'm not sure I even have the words to describe how good it was. Really a stellar dish.

One Bored Mare

L is a big, strong, healthy vibrant horse. There's no way I can work her long enough or hard enough to tire her out. I can ride hard for 3 hours and she's still fresh as a daisy. I've often thought we should maybe take up endurance riding! And...she's smart. So it's hard to distract her sometimes and keep her entertained.

Couple of months ago she began tormenting her stablemates in the night. Now, I think this is hilarious. She'd chew holes in her wall and peak at her neighbors through the holes. And of course then they'd scream and kick and she was really making her little sister P all kinds of upset. And obviously not everyone thought this was so funny. Besides. Not good for her to be chewing wood. After the *3rd* time a wall was kicked *down* I had to do something. Mares tend to have a lot of ...um, personality. Even when they're not in heat.

More hay wasn't going to help. She blows through hay like a demon. Besides. She's too fat. As a temporary measure we put her nighttime hay in a hay net so she'd have to work at it. And ...she got really mad. L isn't the kind of horse that would find a Jolly Ball very entertaining. Then there's those Likit things which are expensive and don't last hardly an hour.

L likes to nibble on things and flap her lips. You know that thing you do with your finger where you flap your lips? Well..L likes to do that. Sometimes she'll even furiously flap her lips on your forehead. And she likes to rub her teeth on rough surfaces. This time of year one of her favorite things is to (again, *furiously*) run her teeth up and down your jacket zipper. Try putting a bridle on when she's doing that! So I got her one of these...

The Pas-A-Fier
At first...she didn't pay it much attention. But then...one night..our barn manager noticed a quiet unfamiliar sound...in an otherwise pretty quiet barn. And I noticed the nubs getting chewed on a little and...the shaft where it sits in the brackets is shiny. And now the footing has been treacherous. All kinds of frozen ridges and sheets of ice under the snow. The horses have been in their stalls for almost a week now and it's very stressful. And that Pas-A-Fier has been rolling to beat the band all night long. No new holes in the wall. Nobody screaming and kicking in the night. I wish I'd bought two of them!

Fish Sticks Again?!

Yes! Fish sticks are a favorite!

Wild Atlantic Salmon Fish Sticks
This is my universal fish stick recipe you just can't beat.

• Fish. Whatever you like. Salmon, cod, haddock, halibut, pollock, trimmed into fish stick size pieces.
• Whole wheat flour
• 1 or 2 eggs depending on the amount of fish, beaten, with a tablespoon or 2 of water
• Whole wheat bread crumbs

Here's what you do:

Heat your oven to 450° F.
Season the fish with salt and pepper. Dust the fish in whole wheat flour, shake off the excess, dip into the beaten egg mixture, dip into the whole wheat bread crumbs to coat, put them a on a cookie cooling rack. Put the cookie cooling rack on a half sheet pan and put the fish sticks in a 450° oven for just 6 or 8 minutes. I follow the 10 minute per inch of fish rule and check early. When the breading goes golden brown and they barely start to flake they're done.

I've made salmon, cod, haddock, halibut and pollock fish sticks all with this single recipe. The salmon I find is especially good. Biting into a fish stick and finding salmon inside is just *crazy*. Of course you can use any kind of bread crumbs but I find bread crumbs from homemade bread will make a real difference.

Salmon Fish Sticks Up Close. Ridiculously good.
This is the very same recipe I use for homemade Filet-O-Fish. I use a sandwich sized fish fillet and I do the exact same thing with it and have it on a bun. With <gasp>cheese. Aw c'mon, who doesn't like a Filet-O-Fish?

Mix some mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish and lemon juice for a nice homemade tartar sauce. For salmon I mix up a sauce using mayonnaise, dill, a splash of lemon juice and a little bit of maple syrup. [Edited to add]: And I put a spot of Dijon mustard in that mix for salmon.

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Hunting season is over! We're so very happy to be back in the fields and woods. We stay very close to the barn during hunting season.

Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas

My barn friends decorated L's stall for Christmas with this little tree and red berries. I thought it was rather sweet.

25 December 2014
Shotgun season on deer closed almost 2 weeks ago and just Wednesday afternoon while I was out running I heard shots in the woods. It's still black powder season until the end of the year but these were shotgun shots.

Most people are serious and responsible. But it only takes one.

Rainy Days

Well. After several days of steady rain it's time for a....

Mudbath!
Most horses love mud baths but she just brings it to a whole other level. It took some doing to clean her up after that.

My summer project

I enjoy martinis. Martinis pair *really* well with food. All kinds of cuisine, all kinds of food.

That's a bowl of olives. On the right
For as long as I've enjoyed martinis my gin of choice has always been...

Bombay Sapphire
I never thought about it much. My very first martini was a Bombay Sapphire martini. I'd been told it made the best martini and I'd seen the snobby people order it.

Then last spring I unexpectedly...ran out of Bombay Sapphire! But there, in the back of the bottom shelf was a bottle of...Gordon's Gin. I made my martini...with Gordon's.. and...much to my surprise...made the best martini *ever*. So I decided over the summertime I'd try different gins and...eventually...different vermouths. I wanted to make up my own mind. See if my own experience would give me a preference. I'd already tried a Tanqueray martini and while Tanqueray is my favorite for gin and tonic I think it makes an awful martini.

My method was not at all comprehensive, scientific or thorough. I didn't do blind tasting. I just mixed up a martini over the weekend with different mainstream gins and thought about whether I liked it or not.

My Findings The best martini?

A Gordon's martini
I thought Gordon's Gin also made a perfectly good gin and tonic.

Second best martini? Surprise!

The Plymouth martini
Why is that a surprise? Plymouth Gin is a distilled gin. It's not a London Dry Gin. By the way. Distilled gin makes an absolutely *awful* gin and tonic.

Then came...

Beefeater
I rated the Beefeater martini right along with Bombay Sapphire. It makes a perfectly good martini.

I even tried a Hendrick's martini.

The gimmick here is the cucumber garnish
I thought the Hendrick's martini was just awful.

Vermouth
There are lots of vermouths! I had no idea.

Now, Julia Child had some disparaging comments about an American made vermouth. She never said what vermouth that was but I hunted around most people guess it was Gallo. I've never tried it. I don't plan on it.

I've heard that your dry vermouth is every bit as important as your gin. It's an ingredient. A main ingredient. I've heard people say they can tell if the vermouth hasn't been kept refrigerated. Or been left on the counter a day too long.

I tried Dolin. I tried Noilly Prat. I tried Stock. I tried Martini and Rossi. I tried fresh. I tried refrigerated. I tried stuff that had sat on the counter for 6 weeks.

I found absolutely no difference with the vermouth I used. I typically mix a one part vermouth to 6 or 7 parts gin martini. The vermouth is essential but the gin dominates the cocktail. I'm not saying there aren't people who can tell the difference. Their palates are just *far* better than mine.

Lastly, the presentation. You have to have a martini in a martini glass. Period. Full stop. It just wouldn't be right to have a martini in say, a water glass. I have several different glasses to suit my moods. I've had some really nice ones I've broken. I even have lexan martini glasses I use outside.

Occasionally I like a lemon twist in my martini. Mostly on a searing hot summer day. Generally I prefer olives. Sometimes in a side bowl. At least 3. As a matter of fact sometimes I snack on olives I keep in the refrigerator. In a jar. In a martini.

Edited to add: The glass *has* to be chilled. And of course, you stir a martini. With ice. Never shake. Actually, it should be stirred when mixed in a glass container. And swirled when mixed in plastic or stainless steel.

Contrast

Our first snow this year was 2 November.

This didn't amount to much
But this did! We had some real snow the day before Thanksgiving..

26 November
And of course, the dazzling colors we had this fall are gone. I find the contrast is very striking.

7 December
It's all so...plain and...well, brown.

This time of year, with all the foliage gone, it's easy to see why the barn is such a madhouse of furious activity all summer long. Nests!

A Robin's nest
Not just a few. There are nests *everywhere* in the brush. Really. Hundreds of them! We have tons of Robins...Blue Jays..Goldfinches. Orioles. In the spring I leave piles of horse hair outside for the birds. They use the hair in their nests. The most fascinating one of all is the Baltimore Oriole. We have lots of Baltimore Orioles. They make bag shaped nests that hang from branches very high in the tree tops. The nests always blow down sooner or later and it's quite amazing the way they use the different kinds of hair. Most of the nest is made from tail hair. It hangs using tail hair. The net like outer tail hair is lined with body hair. And the very softest hair lines the bottom of the nest. They're almost always 100% horse hair!

Of course there are also Crows. And hawks. And owls. And Killdeer. Tons of Killdeer.

Even Carolina Wrens.

Carolina Wren's nest
We've had a year round population of Goldfinches for many years now. As long as I can remember. This year they've all gone and I see...replaced..by..Purple Finches! I saw them yesterday while riding L. Dozens and dozens of Purple Finches. I don't know what that's all about. They're very pretty birds and much more timid than the Goldfinches.