Great Salmon Run

Of course, I had to work today... and missed this great day of fishing. Joe got to go to Apple Creek, Dad's favorite, this morning with his cousin and little cousins. If you look really close at the photo above, you should see fish, lots of fish, at the bottom. It's the fall salmon run season, and they really caught it right. A very, very rare experience, even for Joe who's been fishing for many years. Everyone, including the little ones, caught big enough fish. Mix of salmon and brown trout. 

Not only did I miss great fishing, but this weekend was probably the best time for the fall colors, too.

 I admit I'm more for eating the fish, but I only wish I could have felt the salmon hooked on the end of my own fishing line!!
Joe even went back to the same spot in the evening by himself and caught a few more big ones in half an hour. Even when I came home from work after 7:30, he was only half way cleaning and filleting the fish.

Joe did grill a couple of nice smaller fish for dinner. Yummy as always. But the fresh salmon roe drizzled with some soy sauce and chopped green onion over freshly cooked white rice!! Priceless.

Too bad I have to work the next couple of days... I'll be making sushi on my next day off for sure!

Filter, Not a Translater

Once again the Japanese delegates paid their visit to the area for a week, and I volunteered to help out with translation in their morning activities. I had an earlier start than my usual work day. Today was the last day. No more double shifts. Still,it was fun meeting new people, visiting places, and learning local history.
Joe and I regretted that we didn't wear our "yukata" summer kimono for the welcome party. Maybe next time.

While I had to work all weekend long, Joe got to go to an auction and found himself a treasure. He got this 8-gallon crock that was painted RED. No idea who and why. But Joe came home and scraped, and scraped....

Just as he hoped, it revealed a stamped red wing marking. No crack, with handles. A pretty good buy. I was even more impressed this was all he bought at the auction. Maybe, perhaps, Joe might soon make some grape wine in it!

Grape Jelly Making

Yesterday, my day off, I had a huge mission. Joe had picked, stemmed, crashed about 12 pounds of grapes, then cooked and squeezed to get the juice. All the hard work. So I spent all afternoon making and canning the jelly. All four batches.  

It was also my day to bake a loaf of bread. What more could you want with fresh homemade grape jelly??

 

Ahi Tuna Friday!

Unfortunately I'm working every day on this 3-day Labor Day weekend, missing out the beautiful weather outside. On Friday, my day off, when everyone else was shopping for hot dogs and corn and such for a cookout, I went straight to get a piece of sashimi grade Ahi tuna. They had a once-in-a-blue-moon (hey, it was a blue moon on Friday!!) seafood sale at our grocery store. I wanted to make "chirashi" sushi to go with the bottle of sake my brother had brought us.
Menu: chirashi sushi with seared Ahi tuna, clear broth with shrimp, and cucumber vinaigrette
The sake was very good, smooth and dangerously easy to drink! Thank you, Yoshi!

On the different note, in the last month or so we broke two mixing bowls out of five. One was the largest and my favorite, used for my bread making every week, as well as for occasional kimchi making. I was soooo sad when I accidentally broke it, with bread dough inside.
Joe found a pretty good deal on line for our favorite Fiesta nesting bowls, a set of 5 in two colors. He got them for me, for my up coming birthday.

I certainly couldn't resist myself from using them!! I didn't need to bake bread just yet, so decided to make a batch of kimchi, in the biggest bowl.

The biggest bowl is really huge, too big for the amount of napa cabbage I had this time. But I was just happy to use the pretty big bowl! Oh, and I'm happy to have some kimchi in stock.