Looking Fishy

We finally polished off the turkey leftovers. I was creative and we had Loaded Mashed Potato Soup, Sloppy Toms, and Turkey Potpie. And now it is gone and I don’t want another bite of turkey for awhile. As I was making out the menu for this week I penciled in fish for dinner Sunday. Right after church I pulled 4 packages of fish from the freezer. Each package was different and I set them to thawing. After spending the majority of the afternoon running down various shopping items (needed milk, bananas, kleenex, and sugar) and taking the Christmas photo in for processing, I discovered that one of the fish had not thawed sufficiently to cook. I also discovered that the remaining 3 packages had smoked fish in them. So we had a very Scandinavian dinner. That means it was heavy on the fish and cheese and some dark bread that was more seed than bread!
To the far left is a piece of smoked Trout caught in Indiana, next in the back is a half a smoked steak of Coho Salmon from a secret fishing stream in Michigan, and the small light colored piece in the middle is smoked Brook Trout again caught in Michigan. In the foreground is ~3 Tablespoons of cream cheese with onion, garlic, and bits of smoked Brook trout mixed in. To the side is some special bread Mestemacher Whole Grain Sunflower Seed Rye Bread (toasted). It was a delicious meal and well worth the effort to pick out the few bones.

Before anyone asks – no, I didn’t catch the fish nor did I smoke it. That glory belongs to my former coworker, Mr. Fudd. Fishing is on hiatus until there is a at least 6″ of ice on his lake and he can safely go ice fishing. He has been busy deer hunting. His first day out he managed to get a 9 point buck that about killed him. He had to  haul the 200 lb gutted carcass out of the woods solo and with great effort managed to get it into his truck. He thought his hand wench was in the truck but it wasn’t. He resorted to a tarp and a tow rope and got it in the truck without re-injuring his hernia repair. He is now however wearing a wrist brace. All this fish was gifted to me over the course of this last year and I had been hoarding it because I wasn’t sure I’d ever get more. Now it is all gone and in its place is the faint aroma of fish and a warm glow of satisfaction. We will be splitting a little brown trout for lunch this week (it is barely enough to whet the appetite). I’ll serve acorn squash as a side and maybe cookies (since I’m going to be baking more soon) as a dessert!