Salmon Cakes

           In the unlikely event that you have leftover grilled salmon AND mashed potatoes, you can make salmon cakes .Of course you can cook and chill the salmon, and make and chill the mashed potatoes a few hours or a day ahead of time, too, but there is something to be said about getting 2 meals out of one. Eat the grilled salmon one day and the cakes the next.
          Any salmon will work - wild, farmed or canned - but if you are paying attention these days, you will choose wild caught king( silver) or sockeye. Hand/finger flake the chilled cooked salmon. Make real mashed potatoes - garlic mashed would be an excellent choice. Chill.
                Recipe ingredients:
                                               2 1/2 cups mashed potatoes - chilled
                                               1 cup cooked, flaked, chilled salmon
                                               1 egg
                                               1 tablespoon  minced fresh chives
                                               1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or dill
                                               2 cloves minced fresh garlic - not necessary if you are using garlic
                                                  mashed potatoes
                                               -  crushed red pepper to taste
                                               -  olive oil to fry
             Method:
                                               Add herbs, garlic, red pepper and egg to chilled mashed potatoes, mix
                                                      thoroughly and fold in flaked salmon.
                                               Pan fry heaping tablespoons of  oval dollops of salmon and potato
                                                      mixture in generous olive oil in sauté pan on med heat till golden
                                                      brown - 3 to 4 minutes, flip and fry till golden on the backside.
             Serve with a tartar sauce of your choice or your favorite pesto.
             Serve it with over easy eggs and toast for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
                                                     
                          

Tuna Melt Sandwich

        Sometimes you don't feel like cooking cooking, so you make something easy and cool and warm and comfortable, like a tuna melt sandwich. Open faced on whole wheat toast on a bed of fresh spinach - with garden chives, avocados and a slice of tomato. Sharp cheddar cheese. Good lunch.

Bluegills with Pesto

          The 12th of June and the blue gills finally came into the shallows. Caught some 9 inchers off the dock with a fly rod and a black gnat fly.
          I think that just about any fly or small popper would work for a blue gill. I put the popper on when too many small ones are taking the fly. I think the fly was originally
 a dry but it is now a wet one after being ravaged by so many fish. Still works great.
         What I like about fly fishing for sunnies is that you don't have to mess with bobbers and live bait and fish stealing your bait. You get to keep on fishing.
         The object, of course, is to catch delicious fish to eat. Flour and fry them in olive or veg oil over med plus heat.You want to get them brown w/o overcooking them. A minute or two per side is plenty.
         Top with a pesto as in the photo - this one made with fresh tarragon, parsley, garlic, olive oil and parmesan cheese. You don't really need the pine nuts at 10 bucks a lb, or the walnuts at about $7, as you can use sunflower nutmeats at $2 a lb. Or no nuts at all.
        You could use traditional basil, of course, or dill and chives ,or just parsley and garlic. Add lemon juice to all.
       You could eat them with scrambled eggs for breakfast as I did.
        

Crepes with Oranges, Cream cheese and Maple Syrup or Blueberries

       A crepe is basically a thin pancake, a French pancake, a Swedish pancake. Add extra milk to your favorite pancake recipe to make a very thin batter .You can add an extra egg too  if you like that eggy flavor. Cook it in an 8 inch sauté pan - frying pan, non stick or a really well seasoned one so the batter doesn't stick. Less batter is more in this situation. You want a very thin pancake.
       Ladle the batter into the medium hot preheated oiled pan(olive or veg oil)  and tilt pan in a circle till the entire bottom is covered with a thin skirt of batter. Cook a couple of minutes till bronze and flip with fingers, spatula or a fork and bronze the backside. Place on plate in oven and make many more, keeping warm in oven. Serve rolled up around chopped fresh oranges, cream cheese and maple syrup, or with blueberries, cream cheese and maple syrup. Garnish with same and fresh mint - which I didn't do in the photo, but you should. I used whole wheat flour for the nutty taste and nutritional benefits, but you can use white flour or half white and wheat.                                                                                                                     

Eggplant French Fries

                Cut eggplant into strips and soak in milk and salt( 1 tsp per pint)  for 15 minutes, roll in  flour( white or whole wheat) and fry in med heat plus olive oil till golden. Drain on paper towels. Serve with lemon basil garlic mayo for dipping.

A Porterhouse With The Dog Because The Daughter Is Gone

              My 16 yr old daughter is in Florida for a week so my dog Woody and I are sharing a porterhouse steak for dinner. I bone out the steak into the filet mignon ( smaller round side of the bone) and NY strip (long side of the bone) portions, season w/ salt and fresh ground black pepper and cook them in a black cast iron pan over medium heat in a little olive oil for about 3 minutes and flip them and cook  2 more minutes. You want the filet side to be rare. Get the filet out of the pan and do the strip an extra minute or so. The strip side is denser and needs a little more cooking time.  The tender filet less.
             The filet will melt like butter in your mouth, the strip has some chew to it.
              First you want to sauté onions and mushrooms w/chopped garlic in the same pan for about a minute, move to the perimeter of the pan, then add the steaks. You can add chopped spinach and  brandy to the pan for the last half minute.
             Serve over artisanal or whole wheat toast. Give only about one quarter to your dog because it is so good and you don't want to spoil him.  

Grouse Fried Rice and More

                                         You could do this with grouse or pheasant or chicken. Lucky me I am 1 for zero on grouse this yr because my brown lab pup brought me home a grouse the other day. Good dog. It reminds me of my grouse hunting days back in the late 60's at Many Point Scout Camp in NW Mn when I got a triple on grouse once. Two hours for a limit of six was not uncommon.
                                         Jim Kadlec and I were hiking a logging trail up to the Beaver Lakes for ducks on opener.. Grouse were flushing like cazy.  The law said you couldn't shoot anything till noon.  Finally we said to hell with the law because we weren't shooting ducks early which was the point of the law and 5 grouse got up in front of us and I shot one just off the ground and the second about 10 feet up and to the right. Another lighted high in a popple tree to the left of the trail.I was yelling to Jim, " he's in the tree, he's in the tree" and Jim was hip shooting into the woods. I reloaded my JC Penney 12 gauge and shot him out of that tree. A triple on grouse. Best I've ever done.
                                However you get your grouse, one of the best ways to eat it is in a stir fry w/ brown rice and veggies - onions, sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, crushed red pepper, garlic, sage and parsley. Stir a couple of eggs into it. It will remind you of one of your best hunting days ever.