Fishin'

We decided to head to the hills this past weekend to gather those killer nettles for more tea and go fishin'. There is still snow on those far mountains. We're following that silver truck up ahead. That contains the people who do the fishing. Our truck held the people who did the nettle collecting , fish gutting and cooking . Certain people are too squeamish to touch the fish they catch so they leave that to the girls. Is that right? Actually, we don't care really... the gutting is the fun part. Fishing takes too much patience. You have to wait and wait and wait for the fish to bite. Gutting just requires whacking the fish on the head and going at it with a knife. No patience necessary!!! Always a plus in my book. I don't exactly ooze the virtue of patience. In case you were wondering.

Elly May with the first fish..

Whack it sista!!!

I know you wanted to see what was inside..

My fish... dad caught him.

So I get to gut him. After whacking him of course. But I don't have a picture of that. I have video... but I'm not posting that. So there. I really don't mind the feel of fish so I'm not wearing gloves because of that. Just that water does nasty things to my hands so I try to stay out of it as much as possible.

Look at the slime!!

Ve scale de feeesh

The deer are so bold there...

And the frogs are out!

Now that we are home comes the cooking part. Well, first, we must tease the dogs. Because they go bonkers at everything.

I will bite you!!. Jesse was really curious and seemed to be okay with the thing until he brushed his nose up against the fish's teeth. Then I guess he thought it had bit him and that was that. He knew he didn't like it. Frank licked it at first.... then went ballistic.

Okay, now on to cooking. We rinse the suckers again and put them on tin foil. I hate using tin foil but .... well.. I didn't have any alternatives here . Maybe if I lined it with parchment....next time.

Can't get any fresher than that.

We salted and peppered them inside and out, tucked in lots of butter, onions and parsley. Then buried them in the same.

Then Elly May made a cute little packet for them. It still leaked butter....We baked them for 40 min in a 375-400F oven.

Look at the steam...

Help ! it is hot in here!!

They were fall apart tender.

I am dead.

But I am more dead than you! These suckers have very sharp teeth.

Mmmmm, nothing like a meal that can look you in the eye. It was incredibly tender and flavorful and fresh. Very very very good. And not at all fishy . I've had some very fishy trout before but I think what they eat has a huge effect on what they taste like. Well , that is true with anything. Anyway, it was a fun if not exhausting day full of , nettle stings, mushroom throwing, bug bites, fish slime, fish teeth and good eating.