Day 21 - Happy Mother's Day

The "holiday" brought with it relative and FOOD.  For the past two days I have had to endure not only the barrage of food and drink abound, but also the waste of SOOOOOO much of it - right before my eyes.  It is sickening to continue to see what the kids just discard into the trash after a meal.  Week 4 reward can't come soon enough so that I can start to take advantage of the wastefulness.

I cleaned an prepped striped bass for hours today.  I made some fish cleaning videos and the neighborhood kids all weighed in with their own impressions of the fish and the process of cleaning them.

I made an effort to make the most out of there two wonderful fish.  For lunch I put the two heads right onto the grill.  There is a moderate amount of meat in the head.  I also took several pieces of fish and made small cubes out of the meat.  I rubbed a spice mixture on all sides and then blackened them in a little butter.  Served over rice, these were quick to cook and fantastic to eat!  I will be doing a lot more of that I'm sure.

I carefully cleaned and dried several pieces and sealed them in the fish bin in the refrigerator.  These pieces will first be used for sashimi, then for blackening and also for grilling.  I don't have enough ingredients for my striper Frances so for now the seasoned, grilled and raw will have to suffice.  A ceviche would also be a great way to prepare this fish.  Just not for me right now.

The tail sections of fish were all cleaned, skinned, sliced and placed into my saltwater brine mixture.  These parts will be great on the smoker tomorrow.  I use the tail sections for smoking and dehydrating because there is a lot of fibrous tissue in these sections and it is usually tough to slice into sushi.  Making jerky out of these pieces will be fine - jerky is supposed to be tough.  If I prep all of this fish correctly I should have a wonderful selection of fish to use in a variety of ways for several days.  Things are looking up,

The arugula is growing well and I have been snipping patches of it from the garden as needed.  Asparagus continue to pop up and amaze me every day.  I have a replenished supply of eggs.