Midwest Boiled Dinner from Gourmet Today

This could be a better picture, but when you're hungry and a table full of people are waiting on you to hurry up and get there so they can start eating...well, food art goes out the window. But you get the idea--Midwest Boiled Dinner (any boiled dinner) is a miracle of cooking efficiency: meat and four veggies that are cooked in the same pot and still retain their unique characters.

The secret is a staggered cooking time, with the potatoes jumping in first, then turnips, followed by carrots and last, cabbage. I had never made a boiled dinner with smoked pork butt--only corned beef, and I will forever more make it with smoked pork--if you're gearing up for St. Paddy's Day and want to try this, look for a 2 lb. piece of smoked pork butt, also called smoked pork shoulder butt, and also sometimes (from what I read) called a Boston butt. Hey, I don't do the naming, I'm just your humble reporter.

And since this recipe isn't on Epicurious, I'll give you the rundown--bring your pork butt to a boil in water to cover, along with 2 bay leaves and 10 peppercorns. Simmer for an hour. (If there's netting, let it cook in the netting for 5 mins, then cut it off). Add 1.25 lbs or so of peeled small yellow potatoes (like Yukon Gold), and simmer for 8 mins; add 3/4 lbs peeled and 1-inch-wedged turnips and simmer for 5 mins (fyi I used radishes which are like little bitty turnips); add peeled carrots that have been cut into 3" lengths and simmer for 10 mins; then finally add 1.5 lbs cabbage (1 small or half large) that's been cut into 6 wedges and simmer for 7-10 mins.

Then take it all out and put it on a platter that you've been keeping in a warming oven (like at 175)--cover with foil. Oh, slice the pork first. And artfully arrange your veggies. Keep the boiling water, you'll want a little bit.

To make the sauce (what? I didn't tell you about the sauce??? It's Brown Butter-Horseradish Sauce!!) melt 6 tbsp butter in a pan and let the milk solids brown (if you've never done this, watch this useful video:)

Please note that I see her sort of jostling the pan around IF YOU HAVE A GAS STOVE DON'T DO THIS because at best you'll get butter on your clothes (which sucks) and at worst you'll have a butter bonfire. Use a wooden spoon (or something) to stir and see what's going on under the foam.

After the butter has browned, take it off the heat and stir in 2 tbsp bottled horseradish, 1 tbsp reserved cooking liquid, 2 tsp white vinegar and 1/4 tsp salt. And there's your sauce! Serve brown mustard on the side and voila--dinner is served.

And hey! The fact that this is called Midwest Boiled Dinner makes me think of my new friends in MN who actually all seem to prefer French Bistro and/or Mexican food. See you guys next week!

Coconut Tuile Cones, because Lady Writers Deserve Fancy Desserts

You heard me right--being a Lady Writer confers certain privileges, and all I can say is if you're a Lady Writer and you're NOT getting a fancy dessert every once in a while, agitate for change. Even if all you have to do is change your mind.

Coconut Tuile Cones is the second to last recipe in the Cookies, Bars and Confections chapter of The Gourmet Cookbook, but I won't be closing it out any time soon since the LAST recipe is Gingerbread Snowflakes. Can't really rush that one, sorry!

Tuiles (French for "tiles"--meant to resemble curved roof tiles) are fun to bake and shape--if you have the right equipment. I'm not sure this recipe gives enough guidance to the uninitiated, so allow me to say a few things: these cookies can be sticky (so use a Sil-Pat--forget buttering your baking sheet) and it's almost impossible to quickly shape two cookies right out of the oven so you might as well resign yourself to baking these one at a time. Come on, you can check FB compulsively in between, like you know you do anyway.

Another modification I made--I didn't wait for the batter to cool--it was much easier to shape when warm. And I flattened it with a measuring cup sprayed w/ non-stick cooking spray (any light layer of oil would do).

These are minor points though--the batter spreads and melts so it really flattens itself during baking.

You'll have to fiddle around with the timing, because the grace period of Perfectly Cooked is really short and speeds towards Burnt with every 5 second interval beyond. I settled on 5:40 minutes, and let my tuiles cool for 1:40 instead of 2 mins for slightly more pliability. Your oven will be different--the first tuile out will tell you how to proceed (kind of like the First Pancake Off the Griddle).

And then there's the shaping part! Don't worry, this is fun and you'll screw at least one up but you can eat it so really it's a win-win. You drape them around a crumpled foil cone. Yes, you'll feel like an elementary school student. Yes, you'll get the hang of it.

And then! The eating with ice cream part! These are not cones you can walk down the street with, admiring the shrubbery, licking your ice cream with confidence you won't drip any on your shirt. Nope, these are filled with holes, totally leaky and best eaten with your favorite ice cream on a plate. I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for your dry cleaning bills.

Lady Writers seem to love these! At least mine did--try them out on yours.

Celery, Sesame and Tofu Salad from Gourmet Today

This is me, learning to love tofu. Okay, if not love, at least learning how versatile it is. Celery, Sesame and Tofu Salad is pretty quick to prepare and as long as you have the celery and tofu chances are you have the rest of the ingredients in your cupboard.

The celery and pressed tofu are tossed with a dressing of rice vinegar, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and a little soy sauce. And, that's it! Here are some things to love about this salad:

1. It's sturdy. Unlike other salads that wilt overnight, this one holds up--for me, over the course of 5 days in the fridge.

2. It's a nice alternative to salad with beans. If you're trying to cut back on meat but are bored with beans, here's a different way to add some protein to the mix. The downside is that this salad isn't especially filling, but oh well.

I'm not sure this salad has the oomph to be a main course (if you were so inclined), but it certainly makes a respectable component to a meal. It would be great with salmon!

The First Annual Parker River Foraged Foods Dinner, or Melissa Gets Wild

You have to feel sorry for my friends sometimes. Why? Because I impose my wacky ideas on them, as much as I try to restrain myself.

My friend Alec Maxon is a wonderful chef and resourceful to the max. He's good at cooking EVERYTHING. His specialty, though, is bringing local foods into the mix, and I don't mean he trots down the street to Tendercrop Farm to buy their chicken.

I mean he digs clams, forages mushrooms, gathers wild ramps...that kind of thing. So when he asked me last summer for help marketing himself, of course I had a brilliant idea, of course!

APOCALYPSE ALEC!

That should be his name, and he should have a website, and this should be his pitch: "When the end of the world comes (not IF but WHEN)--will you be able to feed yourself? Will you be able to feed your family?"

And then he would have private foraging and cooking lessons for people who have bug-out-bags and gold buried in their back yard.

Well, I thought it was a brilliant idea but it turns out that Alec actually doesn't think civilization as we know it is going to come to an end. Still, if it does he would be a superb guy to hang around and not just because he's converted his truck to run on fryalator oil.

What he really wanted help with was getting the word out that he caters small parties. You will want him for that purpose, I promise. He's in Newburyport (or Newbury?)--anyway, north of Rowley on the Parker River, and THAT, my friends, is where he held his First Annual Wild and Foraged Foods Dinner.

(But wait! before I launch into this fabulous meal, here is Alec's contact info. Email him at amaxon100@gmail.com! He will cook tasty food for you and your friends and deliver it right to your door!)

OK, onwards--here's the menu:

welcome friends for foraged and wild foods feasting

Libations:

Elderberry kir royale

Oregon white truffle vodka martini

Iced oregon black truffle vodka

Cold:

Razor clam ceviche

Oysters on the half shell with red grapefruit mignonette, breakfast sausage bites

Edemame and white mountain matsutake mushroom salad

Hot:

oysters Rockafeller

Milkweed and chevre eggrolls

Venison stew

Wild mushroom soup

Hake chowder

Venison satay

giant bean and fish fillet cassoulet, rampy crumbs

Sweet:

Elderflower pot de crème, elderberry and strawberry

Brown butter and white truffle macaroons

Mmmm. Let us begin.

Here's the Parker River and the view from Alec's little house.

Alec takes his skiff from here to dig clams on the mudflats. With these:

First things first, people--how about a drink?

This white truffle infused vodka was an experiment for Alec--I thought it tasted pretty good when it was ice cold (sort of piney and woodsy) but as it got warmer, it was a little strong. I moved on to an Elderberry Kir Royale, made with homemade elderberry "cassis" syrup. Which was so good I had two. (Curious about Kir Royales? Look here.)

Here's a little party prep--Alec putting the Venison Stew into a pan for the steam table:

Alec's friend Duncan (also an amazing chef) preparing Razor Clam Ceviche:

Party time!

Venison Satay:

Not really satay, more like grilled shish-ke-babs but the venison was SO tender. A little sea salt sprinkled on top...mm.

Oysters on the half shell...there were some fried breakfast sausage bits that went with these. I never saw the mignonette but I was doing a lot of talking and could have missed it.

Milkweed and Chevre Egg Roll--these were yummy little fried packages...Alec said that he would make a tomato dipping sauce to go with these next time.

Hake chowder...

This dish wasn't on the menu but must be mentioned: a fois gras bread pudding with cherries. Good lord in heaven was this thing amazing. Duncan made it, and I don't think it falls into the foraged category unless he raises geese. But I don't think he does.

Edamame and Matsutake Mushroom Salad...

Brown Butter and White Truffle Macaroons...I missed these too!

Elderflower pot de creme, with elderberry syrup and strawberry syrup. These were quite incredible. You might see a theme that my favorites involve heavy cream, and I would like to blame that on my Aunt Lottie who gave me a bowl of Frosted Flakes with heavy cream instead of milk when I was a wee little tyke.

So much food! And I didn't even get a chance to try some of it--missed the razor clams, oysters rockafeller and the cassoulet.

The company was likewise splendid and I heard as much Spanish and Italian as I did English. Restaurant owners, former restuarant owners, gourmet food purveyors, writers, people who are or have been in the food biz--friends, foodies all.

Already I'm thinking about what I could contribute to the next one--we live right by a field filled with "onion grass" that would make great compound butter. And of course we're right next to Dogtown, which is famous for its blueberries. And if I could just catch these squirrels that are in my bird feeders all the time they'd make a FINE stew because those little bastards are FAT.

Thanks for inviting me, Alec! As for the rest of you, email this man and improve your life!

P.S. Survivalists, you too--just don't call him Apocalypse Alec.

Oatmeal Wheat Bread from Gourmet Today

Got an overcast, late winter Sunday? Gray snow humped up on the curbs, ice patches everywhere underfoot? Sound like a perfect day for the comforting task of baking bread.

Oatmeal Wheat Bread was the recipe I selected from Gourmet Today, in large part because I had all the ingredients right in the kitchen (well, mostly--but more on that soon).

The recipe asks you to soak rolled oats in heated whole milk (I used vanilla soy milk), and once that was underway I fished three packs of dry active yeast out of the freezer (fyi I've almost never had bad yeast if I keep it in the freezer, even if it's way past the date). I put that in a mason jar with warm water and a little honey and shook it like the devil, which I find is an excellent way to wake a yeast starter up and get it going. While that was sitting I melted butter in the microwave and let it cool.

Once everything was cool enough to not kill the yeast (killing with heat is possible to do because I've done it), I combined the yeast starter, oat/milk mix and melted butter with more honey. Although the recipe calls for mild honey I used madly perfumed lavender honey (thanks, Tom and Alli!) with no discernable perfumey effect.

All this goes together in a mixer (well, KitchenAide) with a paddle attachment, with a combo of WW flour, white flour and salt. The recipe doesn't mention a mixer--it's a by-hand recipe, but I've been using a dough hook to make bread for years and find that breads made that way are moister (because you're not constantly folding in more flour to keep the dough from sticking).

Once the dough started to come together I switched from paddle attachment to the dough hook, then I set the timer for 10 mins and let it do its thing. It's kind of amazing to see the change in the dough--you can see when it's ready because it becomes smooth and satiny, and stops sticking to the side of the bowl--just sort of wraps around the dough hook instead.

Then, it's just the standard bowl-rise followed by a loaf-pan rise. This recipe makes two loaves.

This bread is lovely! Soft, moist, slightly sweet and slightly chewy. Makes great toast and is perfect for sandwiches.

I used a lot of tips and tricks from (hard-earned) bread-making experience, and I'm going to share them with you here:

1. Start your yeast the way I described above, by putting it in a mason jar with warm water and a little sugar or honey. Shake until the yeast is dissolved. This is the best way to start yeast I've ever found and if you don't know if the yeast is good this will tell you quickly. If you don't have a jar full of bubbles in 5-10 minutes, it's no good.

2. Forget all that baloney about how kneading bread is good for your anger issues. You'll almost invariably add too much flour because you don't want the dough to stick to your hands (which will make it too dry and dense). Use a dough hook and follow the measurements in the recipe.

3. If you don't have a KitchenAide (I'm sorry), lightly oil your hands to knead the dough--that will keep it from sticking as well.

4. Let the dough rest in between these stages, as much as your impatient self can stand. It helps the gluten to relax and fulfill its destiny.

5. If you're in a cold climate during the cold time of the year, pre-warm your rising bowl and later your loaf pans by filling them up with hot water before your dough goes in (obviously you dump the water and dry them before putting the dough in.) This will give your dough an encouraging environment.

6. I don't know about you, but my oven runs a little hot. If yours does too, undershoot either the temp or the timer. In the past I've used a digital remote thermometer to let me know EXACTLY when the bread is done (180-190 for soft breads, 200-210 for crusty breads) but this time I didn't--just relied on my sense of smell and that hollow sound you get when you rap on the bottom of the loaf.

7. Oh, and don't freak out if you don't have exactly the right ingredients. Bread is nothing if not amenable to experimentation.

As for this lingering, snowy, icy winter--keep your chin up! 24 days until spring!

Creamy Tofu Salad Sandwiches from Gourmet Today

This may sound kind of odd, but even though I was a vegetarian for twelve years, I still have a mental block when it comes to tofu.

There's just something about how stark it looks, sitting in its little cold water bath. Unapologetically white, cold and watery--sort of the food version of a flourescent light. If tofu were lighting, it's wouldn't make you look good--it would be the kind of lighting where you look at yourself in the mirror and think you should put on sunscreen, go to bed earlier and get a botox injection or three.

Anyway, you can see how I might look at this recipe: Creamy Tofu Salad--and think YEAH RIGHT.

But, you know, that's my instinct talking. Fortunately, my mindchatter is very persuasive (at least to me in my own brain), and when I got to thinking about how egg whites are actually similarly tasteless and sort of rubbery and that really this was all a vehicle for mayonnaise, salt and pepper--well, I decided to give it a shot.

Hey, guess what. This tastes just like egg salad. The tumeric and dry mustard trick the eyes (the same way egg yolks do, I guess), and really it's a mayo, salt/pepper and celery experience. The only thing I would change about this recipe next time is to use a fine-mesh sieve to really let the water fully drain.

My vegetarian friends might already be hip to this switcheroo--but if you're looking for a vegan alternative for lunch, this is worth a try.

(photo by the talented Romulo Yanes, snagged from Epicurious)

Catfish with Green Olives from Gourmet Today

Does your enthusiasm ever wax and wane for the things you love? Mine does--although I can be the most ardent of lovers, sometimes I just get over-saturated and need a break.

So it has been with cooking--I've apparently taken a little mental holiday where I've relinquished cooking control and responsibility to my ever-patient and charming (and handsome) husband who has seen to it that we've been well-fed.

You know how I know this spark has been rekindled? I opened Gourmet Today to a random page--and the recipe was something crazy, like Butter-Toasted Oatmeal with Brown Sugar Glaze (I made that up--blogging in a faraway and cozy upstairs bedroom). And what I felt was a combo of mmm, that sounds good/that's weird and interesting/I'm going to make that. Its not a mind thing, it's a heart/stomach thing.

So aside from cooking ambition, what has been my most recent practical cooking need? Fast, weeknight foods, and that's where Gourmet Today comes in. 30 minutes to make? Yeah, baby.

Don brought home some catfish from H-Mart (along with a lot of unmarked pastries that have no calorie count so they must have no calories, right? Right?) and Catfish with Green Olives presented itself as the obvious dinner choice.

This is a one-pan dish, and I altered it to suit my needs (as you should with quick, weeknight meals). The recipe asks you to heat oil in a pan, lay the catfish in skinned-side down, and top with your mix of chopped green olives, lemon zest and chopped parsley. Lay a round of buttered parchment paper on top to keep the moisture in while it cooks for about 8 mins.

I heated up a little chicken broth instead, and although I had olives and parsley, no lemon--so I sprinked the fish with rice vinegar instead. I skipped the buttered paper and just covered the skillet with a lid--it's the same idea.

The bonus of using broth instead of oil was that after I took the fish out and covered it, I revived leftover rice on one side of the pan and wilted some broccoli slaw on the other. Voila--quick dinner for three.

Catfish can be hard to find in New England, but if you are near an Asian market of any sort you may have better luck there. And if you live in the area but haven't been to H-Mart in Burlington yet--check it out. It's a wonder.

(photo above by Romulo Yanes, snagged from Epicurious)

Melissa Atones by Writing a List

Hey folks, remember when I said my life was sort of kind of a little busy and kind of crazy? Nothing has changed! The bad news is, less time for blogging. The good news is, I'm still cooking.

That's right--these past few months I've been cooking one or two recipes a week out of Gourmet Today, and here they are.

Moscow Mule

Vodka, ginger beer and lime juice. What could go wrong? Nothing! The big revelation here was finding Goya Jamaican Style Ginger Beer, which is ten thousand times better than Cap't Eli's. I had a taste-test (of two) and declare this the winner.

Gumbo Z'Herbes

Friend with overflowing garden + craving soup = thinking this is a pretty good recipe to try. Tons-o-greens in this--we're talking turnip, cabbage, beet, mustard, spinach, parsley...all made much less healthy by a few ham hocks.

And hey, guess what? 1 pound Salt pork DOES NOT EQUAL two pounds of meaty ham hocks! A) I curse Stop n Shop for being so White and b) sadly, I ruined this soup because I was too lazy to drive to Market Basket and get the effing ham hocks.

That doesn't mean I didn't give it a shot. But salty--holy jesus.

Turkish-Style Lamb Burgers with Walnut Sauce

I have a friend, Burak. He's from Turkey, and he not only loves food in general, he loves food from his homeland. We are constantly talking about having a dinner party featuring Turkish food, or going to this or that restaurant that serves Turkish food, so it was with NO SMALL AMOUNT OF GUILT that I whipped up this recipe and didn't alert Burak (who lives two hours away in Portland) to come help us eat it.

I did tell him about it the next time I saw him, though, and carefully described the ingredients of the burgers, and the walnut sauce (which, btw, is just walnuts ground w/ a little water, lemon juice and spices).

When I mentioned cayenne, though, Burak brought me up short.

"That is not Turkish."

"It was just a little bit! Just, like, a tiny little pinch."

"No. There really is no cayenne in Turkish food."

"So putting cayenne in something makes it not Turkish?"

"That's right."

So there you go. That must be why this recipe is called Turkish-STYLE. And the bonus was I didn't have to feel guilty any more.

Lamb Chili with Masa Harina Dumplings

Hey, it's turning cold and what better to take the chill off than a little spicy chili? This is a southwestern-style lamb chili and it's not for the faint of heart what with all the New Mexico chiles and canned chipotle in adobo. Don't make this one for your granny.

How did I screw this one up? By not being able to find masa harina (not even in Market Basket) and just guessing that coarse cornmeal might be pretty much the same thing. Guess what--it's not. So the dumpling batter didn't hold together at all, and really what it ended up being was a flavorful thickener to this already pretty thick chili.

But--delicious! Plain Greek-style yogurt was awesome on top. Oh I forgot the other pain-in-the-ass moment, which was that I could only find lamb shoulder chops (bone-in). Ugh, so tedious to trim those. I hear that meat markets are coming back into style--I have to go find a few that I like because this supermarket stuff is for the birds.

Chockfull Blondies

THESE ARE THE BEST EFFING BAR COOKIES I HAVE EVER EATEN, EVER.

That's all you need to know, really. Go make them.

Chocolate Souffle Cake with Orange Caramel Sauce

Happy 17th birthday to O'Malley! As I do every year, I asked my son what he wanted for a cake. And as is his way, he was far more concerned with the tastes of his guests than what he desired for himself. It went like this:

"Zack doesn't like chocolate."

"Well, it's not Zack's birthday. It's your birthday. What do you want?"

"Aedan LOVES chocolate."

"And I'm guessing Brittany does too. What about Ben?"

"He'll eat anything."

Since O'Malley also likes chocolate, then we went through the chocolate cake options in Gourmet Today--Devil's Food Cake with Marshmallow Frosting, Double Chocolate Layer Cake, Chocolate Sour Cream Layer Cake, and so on. And O'Malley (as is his way) wanted the one that sounded the most sophisticated, which was this one.

This recipe involves making caramel (which I've done a gazillion times now, thanks to The Gourmet Cookbook)--but really the surprise in this recipe is that the orange caramel sauce is not really caramely in the way that you're thinking (like a kind of gooey ice cream topping). It's actually caramel-flavored orange juice, which you pour over the cake.

Not what I was expecting, but very good nevertheless. The kids loved it--ate it up with ice cream while they watched Harold and Maude. Isn't that a cool birthday?

Chai-Poached Apricots and Plums

It's nice to remember every once in a while that dessert doesn't have to involve flour and chocolate. This is a nice poached fruit recipe that calls for chai in the poaching liquid--this is great with vanilla ice cream or just on its own.

And that's my repentant wrap-up! Big thanks to the photographers of Epicurious-all the photos you see here are pulled from that site. I guess it's kind of a symbiotic relationship.

Happy fall, people! Go apple-picking.

************************************************************************

Gluten-free recipes in this post: Chai-Poached Apricots and Plums, Gumbo Z'Herbes, Moscow Mule

Low-carb recipe in this post: Gumbo Z'Herbes

Low-fat recipes in this post: Chai-Poached Apricots and Plums, Gumbo Z'Herbes, Moscow Mule

Recipe WIN in this post: Chockfull Blondies

Mint Lassi

I like lassis a lot, but here's the thing. When it comes right down to it, they're essentially fruit smoothies, if you get the mango kind. Order one with dinner at an Indian restaurant, and you feel like you're having dinner and dessert at the same time. They're sweet and they're filling!

But have you ever been at an Indian place and seen the other option for lassis? Salty. You might be thinking, why the heck would I want a salty smoothie? I know it's not exactly the American Way, but believe it or not a drink that's tart and salty is incredibly refreshing. Add mint and toasted cumin and you'll feel like you're a stranger in a strange but delightful land.

Here's how you make a Mint Lassi: pulse 1/2 cup loosely packed mint leaves, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp toasted cumin seeds in a blender until the mint is pretty well chopped. Add 2 cups of yogurt (the recipe calls for whole milk; I used nonfat) and 2 cups ice (the recipe calls for crushed ice; I used cubes). Blend 'til smooth.

At this point you can refrigerate (as the recipe suggests) to let the flavors meld and then serve over ice. You can also garnish with a lemon wedge and mint leaves. As you can see from the photo above, I poured that sucker right into a glass and drank it straight. Must have been a hot day.

Athletes! This is a GREAT recovery drink after a workout. The salt helps to replace lost electrolytes, and as much as I admire pickle juice for electrolyte recovery, mint lassis taste better. And no, I am not kidding about pickle juice.

Fresh Cod Cakes from Gourmet Today

Astute readers will notice that the last few recipes have been from Gourmet Today, not The Gourmet Cookbook. Why is that, you may wonder?

Well, some of it is because Gourmet Today is Shiny and New. Crisp white pages unmarred by spills or spatters, binding intact, and best of all, over a thousand new recipes that I haven't even started to explore yet (where I have paged through The Gourmet Cookbook hundreds and hundreds of times).

Part of it is that I've exhausted the possibilities for a particular ingredient (as in today's case)--so I turn to the new cookbook for a recipe. Part of it is that it has categories the first book doesn't (can anybody say Cocktails?)

But most of it is because Melissa is The Girl who is Severely Pressed for Time.

I won't be tedious and list off all my vocational and avocational distractions but the beautiful thing is, guess what? I'm the target demographic for Gourmet Today which is to say I'm the person who wants healthy gourmet food super quick because I don't have any frickin' time. In fact, this is the little mental exercises I go through when I read a recipe. If at any point I think to myself "This looks like a pain in the ass", it goes into the "Do it Later--Much Later" category. That cuts out a lot.

So what that means for you, dear reader, is that you can look forward to double the fun here at Melissa Cooks Gourmet--and I am certainly eating my words from when I protested overly much last summer that I was NOT blogging this cookbook (do you hear me?) NOT (except well maybe for Drinks, Grilled Food and Vegetarian Entrees) NOT no matter how flattered I was to get a personal note from Ms. Reichl.

I take it all back, as I so often do.

Which leads us to today's recipe, Fresh Cod Cakes.

In case you don't know, I live on Cape Ann. See where the 39 is? That's about where I live. If you can't see the 39, it's over there by where it says Rockport Harbor. Except I live on land, of course.

And living in such a spiffy location means that it's not unusual for something like this to happen: you're at a party, and a guy is late, and you call him and say WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU and he says OH I JUST GOT OFF THE BOAT I'LL BE RIGHT THERE. And at some point in the night he puts 80 lbs. of filleted fish in the host's fridge and says HEY IF ANYBODY WANTS FISH I PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE. And everybody forgets about the fish and goes home all happy and warm and fuzzy and around midnight the host sends an emergency email saying FOR PETE'S SAKE COME TAKE THIS FISH OUT OF MY FRIDGE!!!!!!! And you go and get some the next day. A lot. And you get some for your friends who live near you who were at the party and you are a fish delivery girl, spreading joy and fish.

And that leads us (again) to Fresh Cod Cakes!

The head notes tell us that traditionally cod cakes are made with dried salt cod and potatoes (and for more on this subject (including recipes) please see the excellent and highly readable book by Mr. Mark Kurlansky called Cod.)

Here, we use fresh cod, bread, a little egg and some veggies (celery, scallions, parsely), which makes it much lighter. The recipe asks for 5 slices of bread for a pound of cod--they say white bread but all I had kicking around was some Ezekial Bread and some other multi-grain stuff and that's what I used. Everything gets pulsed in the food processor, seperately...a batch of bread crumbs, the veggies all together, and then the fish, being careful not to make fish paste.

Only a cup of the crumbs go in the fish mix--the rest are used for coating--and you mix it all up in a bowl with 1 egg and a little s&p. Then make patties and press the remaining crumbs all around the outside. Let them rest in the fridge for about ten minutes and then fry those babies up!

Hey by the way what do you think of my new frying pan? We had some of that expensive Calphalon stuff but now the nonstick whatever it is is starting to come up so we're replacing it. I like it because it's shiny.

Anyway, if you have some fish on your hands, give these a try--they're great. A totally satisfying meal with a simple green salad. Not too bready, and not dense at all.