The Coffee House

[Warhorse]

Good morning, on my first cup of Maxwell House, love that new Android commercial.

 

[limr31]

Morning Warhorse! I love it too. It gives me a big goofy smile whenever it comes on

On my first cup of coffee this morning, too. Buzz and I are driving north today for pizza and pictures of an icy Hudson River.

 

[limr31]

Remember the farm with the guinea pig barn.

I couldn't possibly forget - I think about it all the time. Some want to retire to Florida? I want to retire to a farm and be around animals all day long

 

[bribrius]

Good morning coffee housers. So we got our snow coming, like 19 degrees. Charging up the bridge camera. Been a couple weeks i think the dslr needs to go away for a break and the bridge camera looks like it wants to go play.

 

[limr31]

You're getting snow today or tomorrow? We have snow forecast for tomorrow into Monday. Wondering if I'm going to have a 3rd Monday snow day in a row. I have no idea. Forecast says 3-5 inches but very slowly and intermittently. Seems like the plows should easily keep ahead of that. I have a feeling I'll be going in for at least part of the day. But whatever, I don't find out until Monday.

 

[table1349]

Remember the farm with the guinea pig barn.

I couldn't possibly forget - I think about it all the time. Some want to retire to Florida? I want to retire to a farm and be around animals all day long

Hold on there a bit City Girl!!! Everybody loves the country when the visit. That's cause the visit for a few days as someones guest and then leave.

Country is heat and dust and snow where the winters get down to forty below
And the works is hard and the pay sure low and it ain't all roses being country.
So hang in there folks don't do nothin' foolish now
You got yourself a nice high paying job, air conditioned offices.
Yea you got movie theaters right on down the street there.
You got yourself a city park too, now that's country,
and there you don't have to worry about no rattle snakes biting you on your leg,
Or no abominable snowman coming down and tearing off your head or nothing like that there.

Just keep in mind them things don't feed themselves, milk themselves, saddle or break themselves, nor bring you the eggs in a basket, on the bacon on a plate and all of God's green earth is their toilet. They don't clean their toilet either. Home to them is where they pooped last or dropped the last egg and they sure as all get out love to wander around and see new things and poop in new places if they get the chance to get away. Especially if it is outside the fence, barn, corral or pen. They dearly love to play hide and seek by the highway at 3:00 a.m.

 

[snowbear116 47]

Oh, Lenny and Sharon and I are going to start an animal refuge. It's going to look like Ellie May Clampett went wild.

Heading into town today to get some matboard and ink - I have a few things to frame. The quality and selection at the local chains is really bad; besides, the checker at AC Moore really pi$$ed me off the last time I was there.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Gary, I have got to get some of these recipes! They always sound great. We have striped bass from Cape Cod in freezer ready to go!
Since I joined the health club last week, I will have to stay away from the wine tho.

 

[bribrius]

You're getting snow today or tomorrow? We have snow forecast for tomorrow into Monday. Wondering if I'm going to have a 3rd Monday snow day in a row. I have no idea. Forecast says 3-5 inches but very slowly and intermittently. Seems like the plows should easily keep ahead of that. I have a feeling I'll be going in for at least part of the day. But whatever, I don't find out until Monday.

saying tonight through tuesday now. Guessing the kids are getting monday off again. What is sucking is i signed my five year old up for this robotics build your own robot thing and they have canceled two weeks in the row from the storms. KInd of a kids science activity. They keep canceling i hope they plan on giving me my money back.

 

[table1349]

Seared Wild Striped Bass with Sauteed Spring Vegetables

Ingredients
Salt
1 bunch asparagus, snapped where it wants to naturally break
2 cups sugar snap peas, tips and strings removed
1 cup shelled fava beans
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 cup morel mushrooms, cleaned and cut lengthwise in 1/2
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
4 (6-ounce) wild striped bass fillets, with skin
Directions
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice water and salt it well. Place the asparagus in the boiling water and cook until the water comes back to a rolling boil. Remove and place it immediately in the salted ice water. When the asparagus has cooled completely, remove it from the water and reserve. Repeat this process with the sugar snap peas and then the fava beans. You can use the same blanching water for all of the veggies, just be sure to always do the fava beans last. Fava beans have very high iron content and will turn the blanching water black. After the beans are blanched and cooled, remove the tough outer skin to reveal a lovely spring green fava bean.

For the veggies:
Coat a large saute pan with olive oil. Smash the three garlic cloves with the heel of your hand and add to the saute pan. Bring the pan to a medium high heat. When the garlic has become golden brown and very aromatic remove it from the pan and discard it. It has fulfilled its garlic destiny. Add the mushrooms and stock, season generously with salt, and saute for 1 minute. Add the prepared veggies, season with salt and saute until all the ingredients are coated with oil and hot and almost all the stock has evaporated. Serve immediately or later at room temperature.

For the fish:
Take the fish out of the refrigerator about 10 to 15 minutes before using. Pat the skin dry with a paper towel and season the fish on both sides with salt. Heat a large saute pan coated generously with extra virgin olive oil over high heat. Coat the bottom of another slightly smaller saute pan with olive oil. Gently place the fish fillets skin side down in the saute pan and place the other saute pan directly on top of the fish. The purpose of this is to gently press the skin of the bass onto the bottom of the saute pan to create a lovely crispy fish skin. Be sure to oil the bottom of the top saute pan or the fish will stick to it. After a couple of minutes remove the top saute pan from the fish, this will allow the steam to escape and the skin to become very crispy. As fish cooks it turns from translucent to opaque. The idea is to cook the fish 2/3's of the way on the skin side and flip it over for the last 1/3 of the cooking time. The rule for fish is about 7 to 8 minutes per inch of thickness, a little less if you like your fish more on the rare side.

Serve the fish over the sauteed spring veggies.

FYI a glass of wine is good for you. A whole bottle of wine is not. Specially if it is something like Mad Dog 20/20.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Wow, thank you! Sounds delicious.
N

 

[Warhorse]

Mmmmmm...Morel mushrooms.

 

[snowbear116 47]

Rockfish (Striped Bass to those outside of Maryland) is really good when stuffed with crab meat (Atlantic Blue Crab) and baked.

 

[bribrius]

Remember the farm with the guinea pig barn.

I couldn't possibly forget - I think about it all the time. Some want to retire to Florida? I want to retire to a farm and be around animals all day long

i wouldn't fit in in florida. People just look at me they will know i am from Maine. i definitely have the mainah attitude and if you heard me talk i have some serious mainah accent.

 

[Designer]

They keep canceling i hope they plan on giving me my money back.

Your chances are FAT and SLIM.

I took a semester class at a community college some years ago. Half the classes were cancelled, and I was royally miffed. It was after the semester had ended I found out the some of my classmates received a refund, but I asked "too late" to receive a refund.

ROYALLY!!!!

And I'm STILL mad!