Fishing With Captain Mark

Steve and I were blessed to have the opportunity to do some Lake Huron fishing this past week. I shared this picture on Instagram, but my mom isn't on Instagram so I thought I'd do a post to show you and her the fish we caught that day. It is organized chaos for sure! (A quote from our captain.:)

This is Captain Mark. In the background is Greg. There were four of us in the boat.

Captain Mark sent me this picture of his boat from the outside looking in on beautiful Lake Huron.

Thanks Captain Mark!

It doesn't look like it but I have a fish on and am trying like crazy to get this bad boy up from a depth of 95' to the boat.

Captain Mark ready with the net.

Yay!

Here is Steve netting one for Captain Mark.

Another nice one!

Here Greg has one on and Steve is the net guy.

No, no, I was never the net guy. Too big of a responsibility and I'm outnumbered.

Occasionally a freighter would glide by.

Once we each caught our limit, we headed back in which looked like a good idea anyhow.

Look at them Lakers!! Just a great day fishing!

Now its time to get to work! Captain Mark has an awesome cleaning station.

We vacuum packed most but saved some for dinner. The following pictures won't be my best because it was dark outside and I rarely use the flash on my camera but in this case it was necessary.

This is how I make my Spinach Dip Crusted Laker.

No recipe to print, it is that easy.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

I took one and a half Laker fillets and placed them in a Butter Flavored Pam sprayed 9x13 baking dish.

I took a store bought container of spinach dip...

...and spooned it over the fillets covering them completely.

Then I sprinkled everything with shredded Parmesan cheese. Into the oven it went, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Then I turned on my broiler to high, sat on the floor and peeked through the door until the topping started to bubble and brown slightly - about 3 minutes.

Perfect!

Unlike the picture, but hey, conditions can't always be perfect I guess.

We paired it with broccoli out of our garden.

Let me know if you try this recipe and if you give it a thumbs up or down. Thanks!!

Have a wonderful summer weekend everyone!

~Debi

And Then There Were None...

The day came when one of the four Phoebe siblings jumped out of the nest onto the beam, ruffled its wings a bit and flew away, leaving three Phoebe siblings in the nest outside our back porch.

I think it was Floyd who flew the nest.

But Phillip Jr., Phyllis and Phylicia are content to snuggle in their home and allow a large mammal take their picture.

(Sorry about the photo but I had to stay inside to take this one through the window.)

But then the day came when Phylicia flew the nest leaving two Phoebe siblings.  Phillip Jr. and Phyllis were in a conundrum.

What if mom doesn't come back to feed us? Is she with Phylicia and Floyd? Those were her favorites  right from the start. You go first Phyllis. We have to find them!

And just like that, there were none.

Where the Mule Deer and the Antelope Play...

One of the reasons I LOVE Wyoming SO much is the abundance of wildlife the area has to offer. At any given time we can run into herds of deer and antelope.

In this case it was the mule deer with the Mickey Mouse ears and the antelope hanging out together.

Home, home on the range...where the deer and the antelope play...

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word...

...and the skies are not cloudy all day.

Sigh.

Flowers, Phoebes and Fishing

Just before the rain hit today (hurray!), I wandered outside and took some pictures of my flowers. This is the wild section of my split-rail fence garden: daisies, phlox, irises, yarrow, tired chives with fading purple heads all bloom freely here.

My miniature roses don't usually bloom until fall but this year they came out early.

One of my first lily blooms - and I have many in all colors. I look forward to them one by one showing their pretty faces.

These wave petunias re-seed themselves every year in my pots. No work there!

And my zucchini plant is flowering.

On to the phoebes!

Phoebe and Phil built themselves a nest under our porch by the back door. It is now home to 4 more phoebe's - Phillip Jr., Phyllis, Phylicia, and Floyd.

Not necessarily in that order.

I know it looks as if there are only two birdettes, but believe me there are four.

They are waiting for lunch.

Mama Phoebe is hanging out on the shepherds hook in search of bugs which she swoops out and catches in her beak. Voila! Lunch!

The alpaca fiber hanging in the picture was what she partially used to build her nest. I also caught a finch in there this spring digging out scraps for its nest. 

Lunch is served!

And this is what we've been doing in our spare time - herring fishing! 

We smoked some herring and ate fillets for dinner the past two evenings. So good! 

The first night I placed the fillets on a prepared foil lined cookie sheet. I spooned a layer of store bought spinach dip over each side of the fillets. I baked them in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 7 minutes. Then I turned the oven to high broil, sat on the floor in my jammies (it gets late when we arrive home from a day of fishing and then cleaning and then processing and then showering the scales off of me...) and watched it closely through the oven door window. It took almost 3 minutes for it to get yummly bubbly. So very good and easy I will put it on Cabin Cleaver soon! I've gotten away from posting recipes and need to return. Sorry about that! I'm in the process of putting together a blog about Steve's and my recent project. Will share that soon, too!

Okay, onward...the second night I tried a version of what my son had suggested to me recently. I cut the fillets in half and put them on a plate. In a bowl I mixed italian Panko crumbs, parmesan cheese and a little lemon pepper together. Meanwhile in a skillet I poured in about 3/4 inch of extra virgin olive oil and let it heat up to medium low. I dipped each side of half of the fillets into the crumb mixture, then placed them in the warm, not popping, olive oil. They simmered until I could see the sides browning up, I flipped them, and browned the other side. Once finished I placed them on a paper towel lined platter and repeated the whole process with the fish that was left. Serve with tartar sauce. Very yummy!

Hope you all had a happy fourth!