akaShag

Looks great, smitty. I make a lactose-free (vegan, in fact) cream of asparagus soup. If the consistency is not quite "creamy" enough at the end, I stir in instant potato flakes until I get the consistency I want. Recipe: DOCTOR DOUG’S CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP 1 medium-sized sweet onion, diced 3 tbsp Becel margarine (or butter, or whatever you use) 2 cups+ diced (raw) potatoes (I use Yukon Gold) 900 ml beef or chicken broth (I use Campbell’s beef broth) Large bunch asparagus (maybe five inches in diameter) 4 stalks celery, diced Cream (about 1 cup, I use 5% cream) Salt, pepper, ground nutmeg (grated cheddar) (ham) Saute the onion in margarine or butter until soft, then add the potatoes, spices, and half the broth. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Prepare the asparagus by breaking off the woody ends and cutting the spears into about 2” pieces. Add the asparagus and celery to the pot, add the rest of the broth, and cook over medium/low heat until everything is cooked. Allow the soup to cool enough that you can put it through a blender to puree it, then return the puree to the pot, add the cream, and heat through. I suggest it would not be a good idea to re-boil it, just get it hot enough to eat. Correct the spices if you wish, or let the diners do this themselves with fresh ground pepper or whatever. Another great garnish is grated cheddar cheese. When I re-heated some left-overs I threw in a handful of baked ham chunks before I zapped the soup in the microwave. The ham added a lovely flavor to the soup, and could easily have been part of the original pot. Enjoy! This recipe serves about six. VEGAN version: Use Campbell’s Vegetable broth instead of beef/chicken broth, and omit the cream, cheese and ham. If the soup needs to be thickened, add instant mashed potato flakes, a tbsp. at a time, stirring them in, until you get the consistency you wish. If you do use the potato flakes, you will almost certainly need to add more salt. The flakes absorb the salt and somehow magically remove the saltiness. I don’t know how or why, just trust me on this. So, were you going to share your recipe? Doug

don't count on it..............

Hey Brian, I thought you were going to sell your rigs for a living! Nice stuff there! Doug

Thanks for sharing! Nipigon, or a secret? Doug

Thanks for sharing. Doug

Very interesting! How was it? A bit bland? It almost sounds like a yummy dessert! Doug

Just back from a fishing trip to Haida Gwaii. Fishing was OK but not stellar by any means, and DFO slashed the possession limit on spring (Chinook) salmon from 2 per day/4 in possession, to 1 per day/2 in possession, just before our trip. We caught no lingcod, and only small halibuts, and the springs were not so big either. But the pinks were around in big numbers, so we brought home some pinks as part of our catch. And so, I was making a batch of candied salmon, and a batch of smoked salmon with the pinks. Imagine my dismay when I found that my faithful Big Chief smoker has barely enough heat to make the smoke, and not enough to COOK the fish, even after six hours with thin fillets. 😲 So I finished the candied salmon in the oven, and canned the rest of it. I did not take final photos of the candied stuff, just one of the prepped fillets and one of the fillets before they went into the smoker. It's OK, but it's not nearly as good as coho, spring, or sockeye...........

Sounds interesting. Like a meatloaf, or bread with sausage baked into it? Doug

Owen Sound, during the salmon derby. And back in the day, many Lake Ontario launches during the summer. Two lines of rigs, in the dark, headed for the ramps. Or all summer here on weekends on the bass lakes...........

if it is 5 am and there is nobody else in the parking lot I put my stuff in the boat about fifty feet from the ramp. Somebody can still get in behind me if they are ready to go immediately. But on a weekend day, or during bass season around Kingston, I would not do that. Five guys could pull up in 5 minutes, and I don't want to be in their way. BUT! On some really busy launches, you pretty much have to line up with the rest of the rigs and load your stuff as you are edging towards your actual launch position. Hard to do if you are solo though..........

Last year, maybe the year before, two FAT slugs launched their large boat, maybe a bass boat, I do not remember, and tied it to the dock IN THE LAUNCH RAMP on Loughborough, which is a busy ramp around here. Then they slowly, with great effort and much panting, carried all their crap from their truck (across the parking lot) to their boat, multiple trips. I would have killed them, gleefully, and fed their fat carcasses to the snapping turtles. My fishing partner dissuaded me..........

Now THERE is a pet peeve!!!

I asked that same question of a man with a PhD in materials science (or something like that). He said to me, "would you ever pull this boat up on a sandy beach?" Indeed I would says I, and he says, "buy aluminum." That was three boats ago, all aluminum of course. The second one I bought new in 1998, and sold it this spring for 75% of what I paid for it 24 years ago. And even though I did beach it, and bumped into the odd rock and the odd stump, etc, it was still water-tight, no leaks. BTW most of my fishing is like the OP. Doug

Yes, my favourite brunch is pan-fried deer tenderloins with eggs done in the pan juices. These little elk steaks were fabulous with those nice runny eggs! 😁

So my wife was away last evening and I thawed a package of elk steaks my buddy had brought from BC. No sense sharing elk if I don't have to! I have never butchered an elk, so did not recognize the cut. For sure the small steaks were cut from a larger piece, and my guess is bottom round. Anyways, elk really should be eaten no more cooked than medium rare, and it goes from rare to medium in a heartbeat. Difficult to achieve on the BBQ, even with indirect heat, so I pan-fried them, and even took PICTURES!!! That orange stuff on the plate is a vegetable.

I have heard about this for years but never seen any. Where does one find dry ice? Doug

That would get a bit warm, I think they are powered by a butane flame. 😲 But a Thermarest is a good piece of kit. The long version, that fits your whole body, not the short one! 😉 Doug

It's that time of year............

Absolutely

as suspected. I have seen this before with walleye and perch. Doug

and how's the fishing? Doug

Bait. Use them with teaser heads and flashers. 😉

They seem to be quite a pale colour, and I think I recall some summer pictures you posted, same thing. Is it my eyes, or are those walleye a paler colour than elsewhere? Doug

Tonight's supper was bacon-wrapped halibut chunks, oven-sauteed wild leeks, and fries. It was fairly toothsome. But I am not much of a picture-taker when it comes to food. My wife thinks taking a picture of a meal is downright BIZARRE. (Yes, we are not exactly millenials...) 😉 Hey SINKER! Better haul your butt down here while I still have a piece of halibut for you! Doug

It was after consuming some electric jello aka vodka shooters, so that is a lot like being tazered I think...............😁