floundering

So, we at 48 have been engaging in a Community Supported Fishery (or CSF, or Fish Share.) It's called Cape Ann Fresh Catch http://namanet.org/csf/cape-ann-fresh-catch We are splitting it with another household, so every other week or so we get, basically a few whole fish. We will also be getting shrimp, but that has not materialized yet.

This week, we got a whole cod, already gutted, and a flounder, not gutted. gina marie dealt with the cod, I took on the flounder. Sadly, I was in a rush and didn't take any pictures of the gutting and filleting. gina actually did the skinning.

Once that was done, the flounder sat in tupperware in the fridge for a few days. I was thinking of how to use it. I decide to do something inspired by my favorite fish dish that my Norwegian grandmother makes for me - I'm not sure on the spelling, something like "røkt kolje" røkt means smoked and kolje is a kind of white sea fish. I had a white sea fish, but it was not smoked. My grandmother prepares this in a butter sauce with carrots and hard boiled eggs, served with boiled potatoes. I was in a hurry and had no idea how to even make the sauce - so I winged it!


I put most of a stick of butter in a pan. Chopped a carrot, put it in the pan, and let it simmer. I sliced a couple of little farm share potatoes (purple and white) and put those in the pan. I added some salt and pepper. I let it simmer. I added some white wine, I turned the heart up a tad. I added some more butter. Than I popped the tiny flounder fillets on top (my skills aren't great so there was definitely some fish left on the skeleton.) then I let it cook for a while. Flipped the fillets, and let it cook a little more.





The meantime, I was hard boiling two eggs. emily, 48's other non-feline resident, advised me to boil the water, then add both eggs with a slotted spoon, then let barely simmer for ten minutes. I did that. butfor 11minutes. A quick rinse in cold water and I peeled them. Then I used my egg slicer (Norwegian invention!) to cut the eggs both ways.






then I served it on a plate, topped with eggs. It was good! very buttery. I think it could afford to be less buttery, but I hadn't wanted to risk it.

grilled farmshare of joy.

Over the summer there was a lot of grilling. one of the special things that happened was a lot of grilling packets.


to grill in a packet: chop vegetables, add oil or butter, add spices/salt, wrap in tin foil. Grill until delicious.

so easy, and the things taste amazing.

Good combos include: pretty much any vegetable with garlic and oil, any fresh herbs you have are good.


I did an experiment and did some potatoes with butter and some with olive oil. I expected the buttered ones to be better, but actually they were both really good!







You can even do dessert, you'll see some peaches grilled in a packet with ice cream down here.


We also did some skewering, which is nice if you want the char and grill marks, but the packets really pack a flavor punch!

carrot muffins. with frosting. cream cheese frosting.

we have a whole lot of carrots from the farm share.  a whole lot.  like 8 poundsish right now.  We would have more carrots, but last night I made lentil soup with quadruple the normal amount of carrots.  and today I made carrot muffins.  the frosting makes them like dessert.

the recipe was an all-recipes situation.  Check out the original here.  

first I preheated the oven  to 350 degrees and I buttered the bottoms, only, of the muffin tins.

next time I would use muffin cup liners because it was a little hard (but not too hard) to get the muffins out of the tins.

then I mixed together:

1 1/3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

then I whisked briskly 3 eggs and 1 cup of sugar, then I added 3/4 cup of vegetable oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

then I added in the 2 cups of finely grated carrots that I had grated earlier.  I washed the carrots and then grated them.  I thought that maybe I should have peeled the carrots and I was worried that the muffins would be bitter - but they were not!

finally, I folded in the dry ingredients, then I ladled the mix into the muffin tins and baked it for 18 minutes.

while they were baking I put two tablespoons of butter and two ounces of cream cheese in the microwave for about 20 seconds.  then I popped them into a bowl with 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.  then I beat it with a wooden spoon - and it was frosting!

when the muffins came out, I used a knife to help them out and once they had cooled on the rack for a bit, I used a knife to spread frosting on them.  and then I got to eat them, and share them!