Do you remember my posts about Deer Lake in Canada? They were from July 2013. Deer Lake is a gorgeous property owned by our friends, Paul and Kim Howard. Barb and Terry Fenzl, Dave and I, and the Howards had a wonderful week at the lake that summer. Afterward, we talked about having a reunion dinner in our backyard. We were supposed to do that in the fall of 2013, but it didn’t happen.

When Barb, Kim, and I were at Rancho la Puerta in September, we were talking and realized we still needed to have our reunion dinner. On Saturday night, we finally did!

I decided on a Fall Picnic theme and then I asked Kim to bring the appetizer and Barb to bring the dessert.

All of the recipes will be posted in the coming week, with decorating ideas to boot.  Today, we’ll start with the salad.

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Easter is quickly approaching which means Lent is nearly over… and I have only posted one fish recipe… sorry! I’m not actually into frying fish at home… we’ll leave that to the church social halls. But with two Fridays left – including Good Friday, it’s not too late to get a fish recipe posted, so how about a little mahi-mahi and shrimp?

Contrary to popular belief the mahi-mahi is not related to the dolphin family of mammals. They are one of the fastest-growing fish and are carnivorous- feeding on crabs, squid, and mackerel. Mahi-mahi’s sweet taste and firm flesh make it perfect for poaching; along with halibut, swordfish, and salmon- just in case you are looking for a good substitute.

If you eat a lot of fish, a fish poacher is a great pan to have in your kitchen. Often thought of for cooking whole fish, it works wonderfully with fillets as well. If you are in the market for a poacher, you can check out this link or visit your local kitchen store. If you don’t have and are not interested in a poacher, no problem, a larger skillet with a tight-fitting lid will work just fine. And please don’t be intimidated or turned off by the long list of ingredients… the majority are either spices or items just dropped into the poaching liquid.

As a vegetable side, I made sautéed fennel and red peppers with capers and olives. I then used the fennel stalks in the poaching liquid and the fronds as garnish. I’ll be posting that recipe tomorrow, but in case you want to do your grocery shopping today here is the ingredient list: 1 fennel bulb, 1 small onion, 1 red bell pepper, capers, and Kalamata olives. And if you decide against this side dish, leave the fennel out of the poaching liquid – it is listed as optional.

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When I wrote about how we were out at the Queen Creek Olive Mill on Valentine’s Day, I failed to mention that we made a stop at The Pork Shop, which is just down the road. You wouldn’t think that a little shop that sells only pork products would be packed on Valentine’s Day at 1 PM, but there was barely room to turn around- or as my dad says, “It was so crowded, you didn’t have room to change your mind.” So, of course, we were caught up in the frenzy, and bought just tons of stuff; brown sugar cured bacon, pepper cured bacon (both sliced to order), brats, maple syrup sausage, jalapeno-cream cheese summer sausage, and these huge pork chops! During the summer, I mentioned The Pork Shop in a post, but at that time they did not have a website, now they do, so please be sure to check it out HERE.

I went back through the “tags” on the site to see if I had ever talked about celery root, also known as celeriac, and was shocked to find that I haven’t! Shocked, because I adore celery root and use it often. It actually is a type of celery but is grown as a root vegetable rather than for its stalks and leaves. Unlike most other root vegetables, celery root is relatively low in starch. And unlike potatoes, which are stored at room temperature, celery root needs to be refrigerated and loosely wrapped in the plastic where it will last for a couple of weeks. It is used raw (shredded or julienned in a classic Celery Root Salad), braised, boiled, baked, roasted, or even grilled.

As you can see, the outer surface is ugly and gnarly and should be thinly sliced off with a knife instead of a vegetable peeler. It is fantastic added along with potato chunks for mashed potatoes or thinly sliced and added in for a potato-celery root gratin. I once enjoyed the hollow stalk of the plant used as a straw in Bloody Mary at a high-end resort brunch, but I have no idea where to purchase the stalks.

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