MORE FOOD

I have a few "foodie" friends, but I myself don't quite fall into that category. Don't get me wrong ... I love to cook!  To me the term foodie indicates, among other things, that someone is using some hard to find ingredients and my lifestyle just doesn't go there. I've always lived in quirky places, be it Gustavus, Alaska, Mazatlan, or here at Refuge Cove, and I haven't exactly had shopping options at my fingertips. I'm a complete ignoramus regarding trendy food items and I'm not a food channel nut (sorry, no tv!). But I like good food. And that last post I wrote about my mom's pie crust just really got my food juices going.

Here at the Cove, I do one or two MAJOR shopping trips for our 5 months here. I hit on all the staples, then throw in a few extras which sets me up for about 50% of our summer grub. The rest is all local, split between the garden (mine or others), eggs from friends' chickens, honey from the local beekeeper, prawns, salmon, and cod from the sea, and our tiny store for everything else. There is one restaurant here in our community and they only serve burgers. Not that we don't like a good burger, but the food at home is WAY better, so why look elsewhere? Believe me, when I'm anywhere else, I'm the first to suggest going out so I don't have to cook, but here I'm in my glory. Home cooking, good home cooking.

Kieran, one of the local teens, caught a 19 pound Chinook salmon last week, and last night we had a most amazing potluck. His grandpa Rick cooked it "wickininish" style - cold smoked all day(placed in a wooden box with the smoke vented from detached alder coals). It is my absolute favorite...incredibly moist and so full of those omega 3's! We all brought our favorite side dish and bottle of wine, and yes, there was a "joint effort" blueberry pie (I made the crust!, Barb picked the berries and made the pie) as the featured dessert. Here, Cathy is carrying the salmon from its cooking box to the table.

Speaking of boxes AND Cathy, she just finished painting Rick's wickininish box, and this was its christening. You should have seen it with the smoke rolling out of it!

As for me, my awareness has truly been on food lately. (Maybe Thanksgiving should be celebrated in summer!) So much so, that I've got a thing going with aprons. All hand-dyed, one-of-a-kinds for sale down at Sandy's shop. Maybe a foodie or two will buy one.