Sometimes during the long cold months of winter it is good to have a warm reminder that spring will return. Even a person like me that loves winter, needs flowers now and again. This amaryllis was a New Years gift from a friend. Thanks Vicky.
An annual six legged (or more) race involving a person and a dog and they must stay connected throughout the race. In addition, there are costume contests for all the heats and a grand prize at the end of the races for best overall costume. If you like dogs, skiing and winter, this is about as much fun as you can imagine!
Our neighbor shared some homemade lox with us last year and when I expressed interest in learning how to make our own from freshly caught fish, he volunteered to teach me this year. The first step is having an excellent salmon and he generously provided an Alaskan Sockeye. With a deft hand and a sharp knife he had it quickly filleted and ready to be cured.
Then we spread the cure of salt, sugar, crushed peppercorns across the bottom fillet
Tom had told me last summer to freeze fresh dill from my garden just for this purpose. Here the dill is placed between the two fillets.
The two fillets ready to be wrapped and cured in the refrigerator for five days.
Wrapped and ready. It needed to be turned every twelve hours. By the end of the five days, it was a sticky mess.
The finished product, cold smoked and ready to eat!
I served it with cream cheese and capers and red onions on thinly sliced bread
It doesn’t get much better than this!
So we made it to Open Merc in Twisp this week. Lots of good local musicians playing a nice mixture of original music and famous tunes as well. The Merc has great acoustics and is a wonderful place to hear music. I think they said the next one will be March 23rd. But check with the Merc website to make sure. Don’t rely on my memory! If you are wondering about some of the props in the background, the Merc is also having rehearsals for its upcoming play – The Hobbit. Ken was the last to perform and he had two really fun accompianists – Egon Steinebach on harmonica and Brad Pinkerton playing the mandolin.
Open Merc was re-scheduled and somehow I missed that. Our friends came up from Grant County for a visit and to watch and play music so we came home and had a living room concert instead! Fortunately for our visitors it was one of those picture perfect bluebird sky Methow day so they had plenty of fun and said they didn’t miss the Open Merc at all. They will return to try it another time.
My Everyday Photos 