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.

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!

A day at the beach

Actually, make that overnight at the beach!

White Horse Beach, Plymouth MA, 29 July 2013, 7:30 pm
I love the beach. This is only a 40 minute drive for me but, sadly, I rarely have time for it. This was my last trip to the beach. It's been two years? Really? But here my sister and her husband, from the upper midwest, rented a beach house for a week at the height of the summer season. Obviously a *huge* deal for them! Big deal for me too, actually. While I can visit the beach any time the mood strikes, staying overnight is a huge treat. Especially here. On a dead end. Where, by 7:30 pm, it's just the locals and the sand and the waves.

One of my sister's best ideas *ever*.

I have this minor obsession with (wild) Beach Plums.

Beach Plums
Beach Plums grow wild on the beaches from Maine to Maryland but the Massachusetts coast and islands are thick with them. Nothing says "beach" to me more than Beach Plums. The flowers smell wonderful. Yankee Candle had(?) a Beach Plum scented candle that they apparently no longer make. That's a bummer. That was a favorite. Around Labor Day you make the most delicious jam with Beach Plums. If you're lucky enough to have Beach Plums here's how it's done.

There's a fresh fish market not 200 yards from this beach house which provided us with wonderful dinner choices which...brings me to the back story of my last post. We got some clams and some crab cakes and some striped bass and some local corn. We even had some...

Caviar and crackers
But we didn't have...

Oysters!
You see, this market didn't shuck. So we missed out on these beautiful oysters. Looking at this very picture several days later inspired me to try shucking my own oysters! Never again will I miss out. My overnight bag will have a permanent church key can opener. Right alongside my corkscrew :)

I have no idea what these yellow flowers are. But I found them very pretty. I always try to stop and enjoy things like this.

I had such a good time I might just have to rent that beach house myself next year. You see, it's close enough I can still hang out with my horses for some of the day!

Aw Shucks

Oh <groan>. Tell me you didn't see this coming.

There's a back story here I'll explain later.

Between shucking contests and gory stories of knives being pushed through the palms of careless hands, oyster shucking is something I've never done at home. Never even thought of it. Like carpaccio and tartare I've always left oysters to experts.

Oysters. 3 August
I love seafood. I eat seafood 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes more. I especially love oysters! I should be able to do this. So with a bold shrug I decided...what the hell. I'd try shucking oysters at home. Maybe I'd waste a few oysters. Which would be a crime but just maybe I'll add a whole new dimension to dining at home.

Julia Child shucks oysters with a church key can opener. It's really rather easy and safer than using an oyster knife. There's a video here from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home where she uses a can opener to open an oyster. It's about 4 minutes into the video.

I scrubbed the sand and stuff off the outside of my oysters. Don't *ever* rinse the inside! I wrapped the oyster in a towel to more easily hold it, bowl side down (they have a small flat top shell and a bowl shaped bottom shell) with the more pointier end exposed. I gently worked the pointy end of the can opener into the little space in the "hinge" and, working in as far as I could, gently pried it. And...crack, the shell separated just a little. That's as far as you'll get. The muscle still holds the shell on. Here's where you'd use an oyster knife but I used a butter knife. Just slide the butter knife in the seam between the shells and scrape it back and forth along the top shell to cut the muscle loose. With the top shell removed run the knife under the oyster to free it from the bottom shell. Be very careful not to lose any of that liquid. There! Have a look at that! I was so very proud of myself. I could have done a happy dance on the spot.

Add some cocktail sauce and Sauvignon Blanc. Or Champagne. Or beer. Or some sparkling water.

I was a little unprepared for success so my presentation is somewhat lacking. Next time I think I'll have a Mignonette Sauce with them.

That's a Filet-O-Fish?

Well. Quite close actually!

Homemade Filet-O-Fish
Having gained all kinds of confidence with my moderately successful Big Mac I decided I'd try making a Filet-O-Fish. I love Filet-O-Fish sandwiches almost as much as I love Big Macs.

I used a haddock fillet. I used this fish sticks recipe from bon appétit magazine. That's a favorite recipe and it's excellent with haddock. I've used that recipe for years after reading it while waiting for the dentist. So I prepared a patty sized fillet and made fish sticks with the rest.

I used a whole wheat bun. Cheese on the botton, fish patty, tartar sauce on the top bun. Tartar sauce is just (roughly) equal parts mayonnaise and sweet relish with some lemon juice. My fillet broke. Otherwise it would be a more convincing Filet-O-Fish. It was fun to prepare and it was perfectly delicious!

Maybe next time I'll use pollock. McDonald's, last I knew, made their Filet-O-Fish with Alaskan pollock.

A happy accident

I love it when this stuff happens.

Stuffed Quahogs
I love stuffed quahogs (pronounced "cohogs"). I've messed with stuffed quahog recipes for years and I make a pretty good stuffed quahog. It's basically chopped clams mixed with some breading, packed into big clam shells and baked. Oh, I add some olive oil and clam juice and Old Bay and usually serve with a pinch of paprika.

I had planned to stuff some quahogs the other night but my timing was off and decided I'd do them another time. I had smeared some skewered chicken with gremolata and olive oil to have over some pasta for dinner. It's kind of like a parsley/garlic/lemon zest pesto. It's great on chicken. I had a ton of this mixture left over and I just hate throwing stuff away.

So I decided to go ahead and do the stuffed quahogs and, as my stuffing, I'd just mix up chopped clams and bread crumbs with the left over gremolata mixture. I added some clam juice until the stuffing had a "sandy" texture. I packed it loosely into some clam shells and baked them for about 15 minutes in a 350° oven. Just to heat them through and brown the bread crumbs a little bit.

Turns out they were hands down the very best stuffed quahogs I've ever had anywhere.

Crudo?

Crudo at home!

Salmon crudo
I typically don't fix crudo at home. Things like sashimi, ceviche, carpaccio and so on I think are best left to professionals.

Then a few weeks ago I was having something Italian for dinner. I don't remember exactly what but I *really* wanted to start with crudo. Then I had an idea! I stopped at a sushi place on my way home from the barn and I got some tuna sashimi to go. Fresh fish of the highest quality with no other preparation at all. Of course. I can fix crudo with that!

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• Get some sashimi to go. Halibut and scallop crudo are my favorites but you don't see either one as sashimi in the sushi restaurants around here. Tuna and salmon are much more common. Both make very good crudo.
• Lay the fish pieces out on a chilled plate
• Squeeze on some lemon juice
• Dribble on some nice olive oil
• Finish with salt and pepper. Lightly scatter your favorite herbs over the plate. I like chopped green onions.

You want to serve your crudo within 10 minutes or so I think otherwise the lemon juice might "overcook" the crudo.

Simple Salmon

Over a month ago I planned on fixing a simple parchment baked salmon fillet, or salmon en papillote.

There's a salmon fillet in there
You basically seal your food in this parchment paper envelope with some vegetables, herbs, olive oil and a splash of wine, and bake it.

You can use this technique with almost any type of fish or a chicken breast.

It started here
I folded and creased a sheet of parchment paper and trimmed it into a semi circle. I used a salmon fillet. I added cut grape tomatoes, broccoli florets, and parsnips. I just happened to have those around and I wanted to use up the last couple of parsnips. I think broccoli goes well with salmon. If this were halibut I'd have used summer squash and snow peas.

I splashed on some dry vermouth and added some Herbs de Provence. I didn't use any olive oil because I think salmon is moist enough.

Folding the parchment paper can be a little tricky. I looked for videos but couldn't find any I thought worth anything. But really, if I can do this, anyone can do this. You start at one corner and fold the parchment paper over at the edge. Then move along the edge. You start about halfway along your last fold and fold again and crease it, then continue along until you reach the other corner. Use a spring clip to seal it.

Then just pop it in a 425 degree F oven and have some wine.

A Spanish Pinot Noir!
This time of year I like Pinot Noir with salmon.

About 12 minutes later it looked like this:

You put the whole pouch on a plate, cut the top open and eat it right out of the paper.

Simple and delicious. Healthy too.

The path

How on earth did I get here?!

Sushi - Mandarin Garden Platter
I first tried Sashimi maybe 30 years ago in California. I didn't care for it much. I vaguely remember trying Sushi maybe 10 or 12 years ago locally. I didn't care for it much.

Then while having Chinese food some weeks ago I had a view of the Sushi bar and the chefs were fixing some of the most beautiful things.

My date and I had uni for dessert.

Uni. Delicious.
I had to go back for more.

Our Sushi was exquisite and I swear I could have nibbled on Sushi all night long.

Tempura shrimp maki. Crab. Tuna. Nigiri.

The salmon Sashimi? There on the right. It was flavorful and just melted in my mouth. It's up there with the best things I ever ate. The white fish behind the salmon is white tuna. I'd never heard of white tuna before last night. I liked the red tunas better.

My tastes have changed or my fondness for seafood has really taken over my palate. It wasn't always this way.

---

Up until about 3 years ago I don't think I'd eaten fish 3 times in 10 years. It sort of started here:

Not really from Gloucester any more
After losing a lot of weight I became more mindful of healthy eating habits and I wanted to improve my diet. I decided to try the Gorton's breaded fish fillets. I got the parmesan crusted fillets and I liked them. So I tried some others. I liked them too. I think everyone would agree they're probably better for you than Hamburger Helper. I love Hamburger Helper.

After eating the Gorton's stuff for a while I decided I'd try my hand at preparing fish. No wonder I didn't like fish much. I didn't know how to cook it.

Pan seared halibut fillet
Once I learned how to cook fish I found I liked pan seared halibut, oven baked haddock and Flounder Meuniere better than Gorton's! It's not hard. Use the 10 minutes per inch rule.

I'd always liked pickled herring.

Re-discovered herring tidbits
And with my new found confidence even took to liking smoked salmon.

Have crackers and yogurt with this
I even think this is a treat!

Here I'm a greater Boston native and I never liked fish much up until about 3 years ago. Thanks to Gorton's? I sometimes eat seafood for weeks at a time. And I thoroughly enjoy every single bite!

Oh. And I think now I'm going to have to practice using chop sticks!

Squid soup

My (loose) interpretation of this.

Squid soup
I sautéed half a red onion in olive oil for 6 or 8 minutes with some chopped garlic, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a couple of bay leaves and a pinch of salt.

I added 5 or 6 oz. calamari with some tentacles and a cup of vermouth. When the vermouth was reduced by about half I added a 14 and a half oz. can of diced tomatoes and a can of fish stock. I let that simmer gently and after about 40 minutes I turned the heat off and let it sit for a while. I do that a lot with soup.

It needed a tiny bit more salt before serving. And I removed the bay leaves.

It also needed more calamari and more tentacles but it was a delicious soup. One I'll make again. And again.

And it was a great first course for some seared sea scallops!

Seared sea scallops with some spinach

Every year

Come Labor Day I wonder where the summer went. I mean really. It seems Memorial Day was a few days ago! Oh of course I know summer isn't over just yet but unofficially Summer is over. Even though it's not quite Fall yet.

At least this lifted my spirits...

6 September 2011
Of course I love apples. These look like Macoun. AKA Best. Apple. Ever. But I'm not sure.

And these I think are either Fuji or Gala.

Apples!
I was really surprised how far along all these apples were.

Actually I do like this time of year. The days are mostly pleasant. The nights are cold. We can stop and enjoy tree ripened peaches and soon it will be comfort food season.

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I like this picture. Of course one can enjoy this dish anytime but this picture says Summer to me. That's a huge platter I usually reserve for pot luck parties.

Yes yes I know. It needs bread.
I had my heart set on mussels and I must have stopped at 3 different supermarkets to find mussels. I don't know for sure what makes "Napolitana" or "Neapolitan style" but there's *always* tomatoes and garlic in there. And often enough celery and onions. Neapolitan style is a peasant style. No wonder I like Neapolitan style dishes.

Summer in a bottle

If I had a basement I'd buy a couple of cases of this.

2010 Spanish Albariño
My opinions are mostly along the lines of "it's good (shrug)" or, "it's crap". This stuff...this stuff is outstanding. It's light. It's bright. It's dry. Refreshing.

I'm not a critic. I'm not a connoisseur. And while it's more expensive than I'd normally have...

Bay scallops in brown butter with garlic and dill
It is just superb with scallops. Maybe even sensational?

You see the orange colored scallop there, on the left? And the two slightly off white ones? Those are females. They're the best!

I finally learned how to fix bay scallops last year. Rinse and thoroughly dry your scallops. Get some brown butter going in a light skillet with some chopped garlic. Throw in your scallops, shake and flip the skillet every few seconds while you count to 30. Remove from heat, toss in some dill, flip the skillet a couple of times to distribute the dill and serve.

Most memorable

A fine specimen?

Well I don't know about that.

Four or 5 years ago I couldn't walk a quarter mile. Nevermind run 3 miles. I quit smoking cigarettes a year ago yesterday and... to mark the occasion? I *finally* threw out my butts! For the time being I never felt better.

Hey he can cook too!

Seared Tuna
Some would call that overdone but that's just the way I like it. I marinated a 4 oz. tuna steak in soy sauce, lime juice, sake, sesame oil and a tiny bit of honey for about 30 minutes. I seared it for 3 minutes each side in a rocket hot cast iron skillet. You need to be careful with the honey. A tiny bit of honey "caramelizes". A lot of honey "burns".

The dipping sauce is soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, lime juice and finely chopped red onion. It's on a bed of finely chopped lettuce and serano chilis.

I always burn the sesame seeds so I sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds over it when I serve it.

I served it with brown basmati rice and steamed asparagus. Asparagus season will peak this month. This was just *delicious*.

Earlier in the day I'd enjoyed a sensational ride with L. She's strong and she's fit and she's been messing with me. So I had spurs. L has taught me two things. It's important it is to be decisive and it's very important to have your horse's mind.

If I haven't reacted by the time she thinks about it I'm already at a disadvantage. She has to believe I know what she's thinking. And I have to be strong enough to settle it the first time. Actually my trainer taught me that. It's not fair to "poke poke"..."poke poke"..."poke poke". I have to give her what she needs and be done with it.

Those are simple things and when I get them right I swear it's like riding a breeze.

After a nice ride L gets grass...

And I get beer!

By the way. That's a Belgian wheat beer. I never had Belgian wheat beer. It's important to have it in a glass. You have to swirl the yeast in the bottle. Do not drink Belgian wheat beer from the bottle.

Under the (Cuban) Influence

Cuban Style Halibut
This was lick the plate good. I'm just sayin'.

Many years ago we had a Cuban influenced seafood restaurant not far from here. I went there often enough. I liked the food. They prepared the second best calamari I ever had. Then they took banana flan off the menu. And I never went back. I'm sure they had some really good data that said the banana flan wasn't making them any money. I find that hard to believe. They folded a year or two later. Well ya. I don't know whatever possessed them to take banana flan off the menu.

So anyway. Here I've been craving Latin style Island Food for a week and I figure I should be able to make something to satisfy my craving. So I researched Cuban fish recipes. I found...nothing. Because they don't eat fish in Cuba. Not much anyway. No really. Cuba is a poor country. Until recently they didn't have refrigeration inland, so they don't eat fish there. The fishermen are the poorest of the poor and they're about the only ones that eat fish. This is what I read anyway. Ok, peasant food works for me and I'm sure they have some lovely dishes but apparently the Cuban fisherman aren't writing cookbooks.

So. What's so Cuban about my halibut? Nothing really. But it was so delicious.

Peel some tomatoes. Put a little cross slit in the end opposite the stem, dip them in some boiling water for 30 seconds and then dip them in cold water. I used Campari tomatoes. They're about the size of ping pong balls and packaged in a plastic box. They're expensive but they're delicious. I used 6 of them for this. Chop them.

Sauté a chopped yellow onion, 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic and a teaspoon of red pepper flakes in some olive oil for a couple of minutes, just until the onions are soft.

Add a cup of dry white wine. Reserve the rest for drinking. I used pinot grigio. Reduce it by maybe half and add the chopped tomatoes. Make sure you get all their liquid. Add a pinch of salt and cook for a few minutes, until the tomatoes start to break down.

Rinse and dry your fish. I used halibut but you can use cod or haddock just as easily, maybe even striped bass. Halibut is just my favorite fish.

Edit: Season your fish with a little salt and pepper!

Add your fish to the cooking liquid, reduce the heat to low and cover it. This is more braised than poached. I'd say start checking to see if it's done in about 7 or 8 minutes. My halibut was done in about 8 and a half minutes. Just use a fork to gently poke at it and see if it's starting to flake. Finish with a liberal amount of chopped cilantro.

I had rice and green beans with my fish.

Don't be afraid to try new things in the kitchen. I over-reduced my braising liquid beyond my intent. It was still delicious. It just didn't run into the rice like I wanted. Next time I'll be a little more careful. I also forgot to finish the braising liquid with a bit of butter. That would have made the sauce a little more silky and luscious.

Winter won't quit

First full day of Spring.

21 March 2011
I *finally* had mussels for dinner!

See that broth on the bottom of the bowl? Best. Stuff. Ever. The liquor from the mussels really does make all the difference.

You put your mussels in a hot skillet, pour in a half a cup of dry vermouth, some chopped tomatoes, 3 or 4 cloves of chopped garlic and some chopped green onions. Sometimes I throw in some lemon slices. Cover the skillet and the mussels are done as soon as they open. That can take 5 or 6 minutes. Finish with some chopped cilantro immediately before serving.

I've done this with clams and nothing makes that broth like mussels. Just delicious! Goes great with pinot grigio.

One should always pay attention

I *love* mussels! These are not mussels.

Mahogany Clams
I was just dying for mussels. I didn't see any mussels but the nice man behind the counter said they were out back, in the refrigerator, and he went and got me a bag. You know, I didn't even look until I already had a pan on the stove and...nope, not mussels.

So of course I forged ahead.

This is (I think..) a Neapolitan recipe for mussels. You get a really large skillet very hot, put your mussels in, pour in a cup of dry white wine (or vermouth, I like dry vermouth), add some chopped garlic and a couple of chopped tomatoes, cover it and a few minutes later the mussels are open. You add some chopped green onion and cilantro and serve it all in a big bowl. The mussels are *delicious* and the broth is to die for.

So I used the mahogany clams.

First time I ever had mahogany clams. They were ok. Not as good as mussels. Not as good as our local steamers. And they didn't drive away my craving for mussels!

So..lesson learned. One should always pay attention!

Edited to note: As a bowl of steamed shellfish, mussels or littleneck clams would have been better but, I do think these would have been very good in a seafood stew. I'll have them in seafood stew for sure.

Crab Risotto

In the running for one of the best things I've ever eaten:

Crab Risotto
So I better get it down before I forget what I did. I made it up!

I researched crab risotto recipes and every single one of them used chicken stock. Well. I really wanted *crab*. I wanted to get hit right between the eyes with seafood flavor. So I used a quality seafood stock:

I used a 6 oz. foil pack of lump crab. I put it in a bowl and I squeezed a half a lemon over it.

Put the stock in a sauce pan and heat it to near boiling. I covered it to keep it from reducing. I sautéd 1/4 cup of chopped onions in some olive oil with a tiny pinch of salt until they were soft. I cranked the heat up and added about 1/2 cup of arborio rice. Think Rice-A-Roni when you do this. Coat all the rice with oil and let the rice toast a little. When I see the skillet start to smoke I let it go another minute or two and...

Then add 3/4 cup of white wine. I used pinot grigio. By coincidence this was *perfect*. I'd never had it before. I just like pinot grigio and crab.

When the wine boils away start adding the stock a ladle at a time. And stir. Often. As the stock boils away and is absorbed by the rice, add more. It's roughly 3 to 1. Three parts stock to 1 part rice. So for 1/2 cup of rice have a cup and a half of stock at a near boil. And put some water on too in case you need it.

And here's the hard part. Do it until it "feels" done. You'll know. It can take 15 or 20 minutes and it's worth the trouble.

Taste it when you think it's near done. For flavor and texture. I like creamy rice that's a little al dente. I didn't need any more salt in this.

When it's done turn off the heat and add the crab. Mix thoroughly. I then sprinkled maybe a tablespoon and a half of fluffy freshly grated parmesan cheese over it and chopped chiffonade of fresh sage, maybe a tablespoon.

Finally when I served it I sprinkled on some Old Bay. I didn't cook the Old Bay into it because I thought it might turn pink.

This was absolutely delicious.

And whoa look here! A fine dessert! I love espresso and it goes with everything.

Tying troubles

The footing went bad this past Sunday. Everything froze. And we don't have an indoor. It's snowing now and hopefully the snow help re-establish some footing.

Back here I described some problems with L and cross ties. She likes to break them. She's a big strong girl and she learned she could break cross ties at will. Either quickly or slowly. Sometimes I could see her doing a slow lean and I knew within 30 seconds the cross ties were just going to pop. When she did that I had time to smack her in the butt and get her to knock it off. But other times she'd be fine and the next thing you know I had some broken cross ties.

So of course the obvious question here is what did I do about this?

I'm not a trainer. Smacking L in the butt was my trainer's advice and it worked but I wasn't always quick enough.

I learned about tying. Learn the quick release knot and practice it until you can tie it in your sleep. I didn't always use cross ties. Sometimes I'd use a rail or a post and of course sometimes I'd have to tie her off to a trailer. I wanted her to learn that she couldn't break loose so she had to be tied hard and fast. With a bull snap. But of course I didn't want anyone getting hurt either. If you've never seen a horse trying to break loose from a tie that won't break it's very scary. And of course you always want to have your wits about you when you're handling horses.

Now this actually worked. L's a smart girl. She learned she couldn't break a one inch cotton rope with a bull snap and she quit trying. But she still broke cross ties and...there's no reason I shouldn't be able to cross tie her.

Then along comes...

The Clip
Product Review!

The Clip from SmartTie Products. This Clip is designed to let a 1/2 or 5/8 inch nylon line to pay out with some resistance when it's pulled hard. It has some give. The rule of course is pulling your horse is just going to make your horse pull back. So this thing gives when the horse pulls and the horse stops pulling.

My trainer thought this was a good idea.

Like magic, in my case, this works like a charm. The only real challenge was finding ropes. You see, all that nylon lead rope that's 5/8 inch? It's really 3/4 inch. A 3/4 inch rope will not give through the Clip. It's the same as tied fast. And nobody has 1/2 inch nylon lead rope. Oh, I could have bought 5/8 nylon line from a yacht supply company but they all have $100 minimum orders.

Well. Web to the rescue! I found Debbie Hanson on the web and she'll make you anything you want from any kind of nylon rope you want. Something got screwed up and she did right by me - I have nothing but good things (supplier review here?) to say about her.

So I have 3 of these Clips and a spare. I keep two around the barn and I keep one in the trailer. Rigged up with 5/8 inch nylon rope. And L and I haven't had a tying problem in ... oh... 3 or 4 years now.

I've since found there are other such tying things out there but the Clip is the only one I've used and I'm very happy with the Clip.

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Here, make some seafood soup!

I made this one up, inspired by something I had for lunch in a local Chinese restaurant.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup finely chopped celery
  
• 1/3 cup finely chopped yellow onion
  
• 1 tablespoon butter
  
• 1/3 cup carrots cut into match sticks
  
• 3/4 cup dry white wine (vermouth or dry sherry would be good too)
  
• 1/3 cup snow peas
  
• 1/2 pound fish cut into ..oh, 2 inch strips. Haddock or cod, I used haddock.
  
• 1 1/2 cup seafood or fish stock
  
• 4 oz. clams, whole or chopped, cooked, I used canned
  
• 4 oz. bay scallops
  
• 4 oz. lump crab (from a package, cooked)
  
• 4 or 5 medium shrimp, like 41/50
  
• 1 teaspoon corn starch dissolved in an ounce or so of water
  
• salt to taste
  
• cracked black pepper to taste
  
• chopped cilantro - as much as you like
  

Sweat the celery and onion in the tablespoon of butter in a large sauce pan with a pinch of salt and a generous pinch of fresh ground black pepper until they're soft and translucent. This might take 6 or 7 minutes over medium heat. Really cook them down. Then add the carrots and raise the heat to high. After a minute or two when things look like they're cooking add the wine and reduce it by almost half. This will just take another minute or two.

Add the seafood stock and bring to a boil. Add the corn starch and reduce the heat. Let the broth get a little silky. Reduce the heat to low and...

Add the fish. Let this cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the scallops and the shrimp. After another 3 or 4 minutes turn the heat off, add the clams and the crab and the snow peas. Taste the broth and add salt until you like it. Cover and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Add cilantro and serve. This was OMG good and makes enough for two.

The spirit of this recipe is to just load your favorite seafoods into a flavorful broth and heat them up. I think some green peas would be a good substitute for snow peas and I'll try that sometime. I think some clams in their shells, about a pound maybe, would be good instead of canned clams but I just didn't see any I liked when I was at the supermarket. Canned clams are actually pretty good. And I think some lobster would be really good in this soup too.

I had a chardonnay with my soup but I think a pinot grigio would have been a little better with it.