Not Lost, Just Fell Behind the Couch

Jul 24, 2012

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After thinking it over for some time, I’m certain that I will come back to writing here, someday soon. I miss it too much, enjoy it too much to stop. I have posts composing in my head every day. But as always happens when I take a break from blogging, I seriously cannot figure out where I found the time. An extra hour or two a day? Nrrr…?

Granted, life has been on high around here. Studying for the Bar is like finals x 100. And occurred directly following finals. Oh yeah, except for the part where we moved our family of four across the continent right in between.

So I have been doing time-and-a-half parenting for some four straight months. Refer to the early January posts to see how I feel about parenting without a break.

Nevertheless, when I stop to tally it, I realize how much else I have managed to do in this time period. Day by day it feels like I barely manage to keep the house from inexcusable filth and my children from clawing each other’s eyes out, but looking back I have lots of good stuff to report– garden work, canning projects, a re-entry to knitting, and lots of afternoons wandering around in the rainy woods with my kiddos, contemplating life, the universe and everything. I guess that’s what I get for my extra non-blogging 1-2 hours/day.

My most recent activity was 20 fat sockeye salmon bought from a friend who commercial fishes. I got them at a great price straight off her boat, which meant days of processing to follow. Gutting, filleting, vacuum packing for the freezer, smoking and canning, and because I’m a fucking freak, don’t forget making fish stock out of those precious carcasses even though all this was done while My Man was out of town and I was/am solo parenting.

Because you have all (whoever of you are left, keeping my stats at over 100 a day, even though I personally haven’t written a damn thing for months!) been so patient, I took pictures of the fish project to share.

I wish we could have a big badass-mama potluck, and I could share some of this red gold goodness with you, and tell you my months’ worth of stories. In leui of that, here’s some pretty pictures…

And yes, that is flagrant tattoo narcissism.

Yum! Dinner!

Comments

21 responses to “Not Lost, Just Fell Behind the Couch”

meily

July 25, 2012

your cutting board is rigged to perfectly cut fish at jar width?? brilliant.

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Jillian

July 25, 2012

I would seriously consider a cross country potluck excursion to have some of that beautiful fish…and to unwind with other badass mamas! Such a lovely surprise to find a post this morning. I admit I have been stalking your site but apparently I am not the only one!

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andrea

July 25, 2012

everyone is packing fish except me!!!

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Anna

July 25, 2012

you are totally badass. especially for the stock. and the canning. oh yeah, and the parenting. :-) wish i was doing the fishy thing this summer, but am gone from home too much.

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Jessica

July 25, 2012

Awesome. One of my favorite memories of our trip to Haines was getting to help pull down your smoked salmon from the drying rack. Actually, it wasn’t so much the pulling down of the salmon, the licking of my fingers afterward that I remember so fondly. And, BTW, I can’t help but admire your tattoo! Bold! It makes total sense.

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skycladwarrior

July 25, 2012

It is great to see you doing and writing so many great things, please try never to stop! Sierra is living down south as am I and she has been sharing wonderful stories with me about you Cordova, her, perhaps a dumpster or two ;-) I miss your presence although I feel it all the time.

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Sister X

July 25, 2012

I was looking at my pantry full of leftover canned fish and a freezer full of frozen fish, all from last year, and right then my mother-in-law called to say, “We’re going dipnetting! How much fish do you want?” Holy Hell, like, one?
The point of this is, if you have wonderful canned salmon recipes to share, please do! I checked out a library book called “Cooking Alaskan” and it’s helping, but there’s really only so much fish 2 people can eat! My ingenuity is running out, and we’re so sick of salmon.

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1. Calamity Jane
  
  July 27, 2012
  
  I’ve somehow never gotten sick of salmon. (Unless it was old, poorly processed or otherwise not very good).
  I have never gotten very creative with it either, I almost always just bake or pan fry with little more than salt and butter. Sometimes onions to mix it up! But I’ll scrub my brain for a list whenever I do the burger recipe. Soon!
  
  Reply
Anisa

July 25, 2012

LOVE this! Miss you and… this completely rocks!
I too wish for the potluck. Someday maybe. I have another friend in Alaska. If we ever can afford a trip up there, you’re on the list of people to have coffee with at least!

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Cgirl

July 25, 2012

I just have to say, LOVE the tattoo.

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dixiebelle

July 25, 2012

Love your tattoo. Love your fish.

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kelsey

July 26, 2012

very nice!!!
does salmon make good stock?? somehow I always thought not and have been composting all of them!!!!!
this september we fly to haida gwaii (just across from you.. Ill wave from the beach!) Mostly to visit my parents but secondly to bring home as much seafood and deer as the airlines will allow!!! we cant wait. Im going to get a little pressure canner tutorial from mom- cause I gotta say that thing scares the crap out of me hissing and rocking on the stove!!!!

enjoy your summer. enjot your fish. you can write when it rains!!!!

:)kelsey

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1. Calamity Jane
  
  July 27, 2012
  
  Great stock! Cover with cold water, bring to a low simmer and cook no more than 30 minutes (much unlike meat stock which is the longer the better). Pressure can in pint jars at 10lbs for 20 minutes.
  Warning! For some reason it doesn’t smell very good, strongly metallic and just… Strange. But it always magically becomes delicious tasting in soup or even fishy gravy or Alfredo sauce.
  
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Erica / Northwest Edible Life

July 26, 2012

I want that fucking cutting board. Also, nice fish, sister. You look like you were born filleting. I dare say you know shit-tons more about fish than I do, but on the off-chance you don’t already do this…I am partial to scraping the bones with the side of a spoon after filleting. A ton of meat comes off the carcass and it’s perfect for salmon cakes or fish burgers or seafood sausage. I’ll come north sometime soon and I’ll hold you to that potluck thing. XOXO.

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1. Calamity Jane
  
  July 26, 2012
  
  Haha, sisters I tell you. Cut from two sides of the same cloth. On my list of ‘hope to get to’ posts is salmon cakes and burgers made from the scraped carcasses. I assume you got your recipe from CI as well. So yummy.
  
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  1. Erica / Northwest Edible Life
    
    July 26, 2012
    
    I did not get my recipe from CI. (Psst…what’s CI?) I just sort of wing it…once I made some Indian spiced salmon cakes with a yogurty kind of sauce. Those were nom nom. I’d love an official go-to recipe though if you have one you love. When I was in culinary school, I had this instructor who was showing us how to scrape the carcasses. Some classmate of mine made this offhanded comments like, “This is stupid, why don’t we just use the fillets we just cut for salmon cakes if we want them?” I had never, ever seen my instructor say a harsh word to anyone but she turned on that kid and said: “*MY* restaurant made money.” in this tone that stopped all discussion. Lesson: when your paycheck and your business is on the line, you don’t waste food. Margin counts. That was one of the most memorable take-aways of two years of professional culinary training, that 15 seconds.
  2. Calamity Jane
    
    July 26, 2012
    
    Cooks Illustrated. Recipe coming.
Arrowleaf

July 26, 2012

Hey, nice to see a blog post, and the salmon looks beautiful! We just ordered pickled salmon from Kodiak to taste test before making our own. It’s pretty good, not too pickle-y but also not shelf stable despite being packed in jars. Maybe they’re just covering their ass? Leaves room for improvement….good to read you’re back into knitting too!

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Kylie

July 28, 2012

Hey? You might be coming back? Does that mean I won’t feel like a weirdo checking in here all the time?
:)
Kylie.

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Rebecca

July 29, 2012

I’m a new reader and this has become one of my top five favorite blogs. Thanks for articulating why I do what I do.

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1. Calamity Jane
  
  July 29, 2012
  
  welcome Rebecca! i’m impressed you could sign on for Top 5 when I havent even been posting for months!
  
  Reply