Can’t Stop on the Kenai.
This fall has been incredible for fishing the Kenai. Maybe it is always like this. It seems like I made the right choice moving up here. We have made friends with our incredible neighbors and some seem even more fanatical about fly fishing than I am.
Dolly Varden and Rainbow Trout have been caught and released by us more times than I can count. Here are a few pictures of the events.
We have been spending a decent amount of time cooking. I am inspired after getting The Food Lab. We caught some trout at a nearby lake. I wrapped them in foil, stuffed them with onions, tomatoes, garlic and lemon, and threw them on the grill while I seared my steaks. I have been using the sous vide method of cooking as much as possible lately. It has been incredible.
I have also been making pasta from scratch. It is a fun and delicious thing to do. The use of a stand mixer with pasta attachments makes it happen a little faster than if we were to roll everything out by hand and then cut it.
For a fast appetizer, I made asparagus with poached eggs and walnut vinaigrette. It was probably the fanciest sounding thing I have made.
Of course, half the fun of cooking is making something unhealthy. I have also been dabbling in frying things. Frying fish and chicken with a side of potatoes was delicious, but really made the house smell like grease and nothing feels very clean for a couple of days. Leftover fish sandwiches on homemade bread. None of this would be complete without dessert. Amanda made an insane gingerbread hollow cake lined with melted chocolate. Then we added homemade eggnog and whipped cream that we make minutes before stuffing our face. It has been a good first winter in Alaska. Who needs many hours of daylight when you can stay inside and cook!
Last ‪#summer‬ we took a trip to ‪‎Montana‬. We stopped in ‪Idaho‬ along the way. The ‪‎cutthroat‬ ‪‎trout‬ were hungry until we saw giant submarine like‪ chinook‬ ‪ ‎salmon‬ swimming by. All the other fish hid as these giant, dark, spawning beasts returned to the ‪ ‎hatchery‬ nearby. I threw a few flies over their head but they were not interested in my offering. It was amazing to see these ‪# fish‬ hundreds of miles from the ocean. It took us a long time to drive to our destination, I cannot imagine what the salmon had to go through. At the end of the day, we had ‪ ‎wine‬ from ‪WallaWalla‬ and food cooked on our campfire. What more do you want?