For the last few months, we’ve eaten fish for dinner, every Friday. It started as a Lent thing; all of the local restaurants had fish specials. My husband and my father-in-law love fish, and I began to groove on it again (I used to eat seafood all of them time, long ago and far away). I suggested that we keep our little tradition after Lent ended. My guys seemed happy at the prospect of more fish dinners.

The thing is, going out to eat gets expensive (now that Lent is over, the “fish specials” are over, too). Ken and I are not working, and I don’t want to bankrupt my FIL.

I love to cook, and I am in need of some kind of FUN challenge... You know, as opposed to all of the NOT-fun challenges life has been throwing my way! So, at least every other Friday, I will be cooking up some kind of fish dish, and if all goes well, I will post the recipe here for you guys. Hopefully, I will be able to add photographs.

I’m really jumping into the deep end with this first episode of Fishy Friday. I’d never even TASTED Walleye before, and I purchased the fish without a recipe in mind. I figured I would find something on the Internet. Huh! I found three or four recipes. Some had ingredients that either my husband or my FIL can’t (or won’t) eat. I mixed and matched a little and came up with tonight’s recipe. My guys really enjoyed it... and I did, too. The Walleye has now become my favourite fish. It was not greasy at all, but not dry, either. It was light and flaky, but filling. AND... It didn’t stink up the apartment... So, yeah. I will definitely be doing more experiments with this fish!

Before I give you the recipe, there are a few things that I want to tell you (warn you?) about, for this and any future Fishy Friday blogs I post:

1.    I don’t catch the fish (Wouldn’t it be exciting if I did? Maybe someday...). I never learned how to clean fish, either. Perhaps, if I really get into this, I will learn (I’ve heard that my mother-in-law is an expert; maybe I can get her to teach me at some point.). For now, I’m making good friends in the seafood department of the local market.
2.    All ingredient amounts are estimates. I hardly ever use measuring cups or spoons when I cook. I use my hands and my eyes.

Here are a couple of “rules” in my kitchen (okay, technically, it is my FIL’s kitchen, but when I am cooking, it is my space). Really, it’s just common sense:

1.    Always wash your hands before you touch any food. Wash them again after handling raw ingredients (like fish). Just keep washing and drying your hands!
2.    Keep your hair back and out of the food. Yuck!
3.    Be organized. Get everything you need together before you even preheat the oven. It saves time, helps prevents messes, and keeps you from getting stressed out, searching for something at the last minute.
4.    If you are coughing, sneezing, have a fever, et cetera; get the heck out of the kitchen!
 

Baked Walleye

You will need:

Approximately 1 lb Walleye Fillets (4 fillets)
4 strips Uncooked Bacon
1 cup Sour Cream
½ cup Breadcrumbs
½ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
¼ tsp Ground Thyme
½ tsp Dried Parsley Flakes
2 Tbsp Yellow Onion, finely chopped
3 Tbsp Softened Butter
Salt & Pepper
A shallow baking pan (I line mine with aluminum foil, “dull side” up)

1. Preheat the over to 325 degrees F.

2. Lay the bacon strips out on the pan.

3. Salt and pepper the fish fillets on both sides.

4. In a small bowl (I used the plastic tub that the butter came in), mix the chopped onion and the butter. Spread on both sides of each fish fillet (this is messy, but kind of fun!).

5. Place a fillet on top of each bacon strip (lengthwise) in the pan.

6. In a small mixing bowl, combine the sour cream, grated cheese, breadcrumbs, lemon juice thyme and parsley. Spread this mixture on top of the fish.

7. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

I’m blogging a bit less over here. What little time I do spend writing... Well, I journal a bit and I write poems for National Poetry Month, over on my other Xanga account. I feel lucky to get a poem a day out... and folks, there is only one word to describe my poetry: BAD!

While we are staying with my FIL, the only place for the computer is in the living room, on a coffee table, across from the television. I live with two men who are hard of hearing, so the TV is always on full blast. These same men don’t quite understand that while I am writing, I am unable to hold a conversation. They try to talk to me anyway. Sigh.

I spend a lot of time out on the little (standing room only) porch with my notebook and pen. I can only stay on my feet for so long – and if it rains, forget it (it is an uncovered porch). I don’t get much done, writing-wise.

I feel like I am a “bad blogger,” but then, I’ve rarely felt like a “good blogger.” I’m just a chiquita who likes to write.

In the meantime, I won’t be doing much blogging on this site, just little updates... Oh! Like this:

The Sam is doing extremely well. He has lost one pound in two weeks on his diet. The new food (Turkey & Rice... Two of his very favourite things to eat!) has done wonders for him. He’s been active and playful like a kitten. He enjoys chasing his puppy-cousin, Nibbler, all over the house, up and down the stairs. His coat has become even softer than it was before (think rabbit fur). The fur that was shaved around his backside and tail is growing back in quickly, and beautifully. Even his eyes seem brighter!   

The Sam has a crush on one of his kitty-cousins, a pretty little thing named Princess Gleep. She wants nothing to do with him. He tries to show off for her, flexing his muscles, doing flips, et cetera... The Sam even tries to share his food and toys with her! What does he get for all of his efforts? She hisses and growls, and tries to smack his nose!

The other day, when The Sam was rejected with extreme prejudice, he ran to me, crying. I told my broken-hearted furry little man, “That’s why they call them crushes,” and advised him to back off... But The Sam is somewhat obsessed (Well, Princess Gleep is a beautiful kitty; her coat is black and shiny, with a little tuft of white just beneath her throat, and she has exotic, slightly slanted, bright green eyes); he keeps trying. The Sam doesn’t understand how any female could reject him.

Frankly, neither can I. I find him irresistible! Here he is yesterday, with his favourite toy in the world, my husband, Ken:

Hope to update again soon. Please, keep us in your prayers, and we will keep all of you in ours.  

Sigh.

Recently, The Sam and I each found out that we aren’t exactly young (or athletic) anymore. All of that food we eat nowadays... well, it doesn’t turn into energy like it used to. Now, it basically converts to blubber.

Tomorrow, The Sam and I begin making changes. Good, common sense, doctor-approved/suggested changes to the food we eat and how active we are... The beginnings of a life plan for Not-So-Young-No-More, Not-Very-Athletic-These-Days-Huh Chubbies, one of us slightly furrier than the other.

The Sam is already doing better than I am as far as exercise goes. He has a puppy to chase around, after all.

I am betting he will do better with his diet than I will with mine, too. He gets to eat a lot of turkey (his favourite food).

Neither one of us is having an easy time with this “older” thing... but we’re determined to let it go, take good care of ourselves, and just enjoy the rest of our lives.  

I couldn’t stop laughing – and I wrote it up on Facebook. I had to share that laugh with someone, and it was much too late in the evening to call my best friend, Jeanne.

For almost an hour after it happened, every time I looked at my husband, I’d burst out laughing, and then he’d shake his head and chuckle. Even now, writing this down, I’m giggling to myself... and Ken just asked, “Are you writing about me and the patio door?”

If he’d hurt himself, it would not be funny... but he didn’t, and it was!

Do you laugh at stuff like that?

“Mommy, can we go look at the stream?”
“When we’re done shopping, yes... IF you’re good!”

We’d ask her over and over while she shopped.

It didn’t matter much to us if we’d just been to the beach. We wanted to go see the water.

I do not know if that stream actually has a name. It’s awfully tiny. I think it connects to Mill River (Medi-Mart, now a Walgreens, was on the Southport-Westport line). If you were facing the strip mall, Medi-Mart was all the way to the left. Farther left was a concrete walkway (We always referred to it as “the bridge” – even though it was parallel to the stream.). We’d stand on the “ledge seats” (parts of the concrete wall that were lower and wider) and stare down at the stream.

Sunny afternoons were the best. The sun would shine down on the water, and it would make all of the pebbles sparkle like little gems. Sometimes, in Spring, we’d see big groups of little fishies moving quickly in the water. They also looked like jewels when the sun hit them just right. There was always a froggy or two to be seen, and in the Summer, hordes of butterflies would zoom around in the flowery bushes on the far side of the stream.

We were never allowed to climb down to the bank (it was private property). We’d just stand there, quietly watching the water and whatever wildlife happened to be there.

The Summer before I turned thirteen (I am a September baby), we moved in with my grandmother, down by the beach in Fairfield. My grandmother was suffering from Dementia, and my mother was having a difficult time handling it. Sometimes, I needed to get out. The beach was crowded, so I’d ride my bike up to Medi-Mart (about five miles away, probably a little less). Usually, I brought a sandwich and a soda with me. I’d park my bike, and sit on the ledge. I would eat my lunch and watch the fishies and the frogs and the butterflies. Peace and quiet.

Many years later, when my mother was showing the first signs of Dementia, after a visit with her (She was still living in Grandma’s house; I was not.), I’d drive over to Medi-Mart (It had been a Walgreens for years before that, but I still called it Medi-Mart.). I would park and then sit on the concrete ledge of the bridge for a little while and just watch. I could cry a little if I needed to. It helped clear and calm my mind. Peace and quiet.

I think about that place now and then, that sweet little bit of water with the sun shining on it. My worries are different, and my location is different, but that need for a little peace and quiet is essentially the same. Until I find a place like that out here in Wisconsin, I let my mind wander back east - back in time, too - to see the stream. I think of the sunlight dancing over the pebbles and the little fishies. I visualize the froggies and the butterflies zipping around the flower-bush. Peace and quiet.

Such a tiny stream. So much like my life, full of precious gems.