Saturday, August 4, 2012

Camping!

One week ago Greg and I went camping in the rain! I took these photos during a short time when the rain had paused.


Did you know that there is milk that doesn't require refrigeration? It comes in a box like a juice box, only it is a milk box.

In the background you can also sort of see the lean-to that we got. It was pretty fancy, and also really nice for keeping dry in all the rain. 


Here is Greg in front of the fire he built in the rain. And our tent is in the background. It took 4 days to get it all dried out after this trip was over.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Fish ham and Butter salt

Yesterday Greg made a fabulous dinner. For this week we are one of those families that makes a grocery list for the week and goes shopping for all of it on one day. (Previously life was more chaotic and we only shopped on a day by day basis... or possibly meal by meal... and also bought a lot of pre-made food.)

So Greg decided that one of our meals was going to be fish. I had intended to make fish recently, but ended up making duck when I couldn't find the fish. When we were checking out at the grocery store, the guy at the register commented that the package of fish we got was his absolute favorite. So that sounded pretty good.

And let me tell you! That grocery store kid certainly has good taste! The fish was amazing! We got salmon, which apparently was smoked, although I didn't realize it at the time of purchasing.

Ta Daa! This was such a spectacularly delicious meal. Greg broiled the fish, after putting some things on top of it. I think it was just salt, shallots, and basil? The fish was served on a bed of couscous, with a variety of small tomatoes and a butter sauce.

And did I mention that this meal came with a fabulous salad and a glass of wine?

 
It did. And both were so good. The salad was particularly delightful: greens with half a white peach and a citrus vinaigrette that Greg invented himself. The salad was of dessert caliber.

This was easily the best meal either of us has made since we moved to our new apartment, possibly the best meal either of us has made ever in the world.

We did decide that this meal had an unfair advantage: salt and butter. Basically, any food with this much salt and butter just has to taste good.

We also decided that the combination of a smoked flavor plus salt is the flavor we commonly think of as 'ham'. I ate my first bite of salmon, and it tasted like ham. What?!? So this logically means that ham doesn't really have a flavor of its own. It is simply the combination of smoke and salt.

And now hopefully you have been enlightened on the meaning behind the title of the post.