Sunday at the Lake House with Jay

After the Saturday festivities extended late into the night, Sunday morning started slow. A mystery chef kicked the day off right with a righteous breakfast, starting with a Chard and Chorizo Fritatta recipe that was improvised with found ingredients into a Spinach and Salami Fritatta masterpiece.

Eager to improve his Nephew Utility Index Score, Number 3 pressed his trusty sidekick Tommy into service cleaning and checking out the new old pontoon boat.

After the cleaning, we settled into some football. BALTs and chips accompanied the expected Bears thrashing of Detroit.

Unfortunately, the game did not go according to script  as Jay Cutler defeated the Bears 40-32.

"DETROIT — All the happy talk over Bears quarterback Jay Cutler's mechanics during his team's 3-0 start overlooked the fact that you can't change his wiring. This is who Cutler is as a quarterback in Chicago, the reason the trains run on time one week and the cause of a derailment the next. You can win often in the NFL with Cutler and occasionally lose because of him, depending on the day. Good luck predicting when those days will come. Several smart football men have lost their jobs trying."

Subsequent to the game, Cutler was also found to be responsible for RGIII's injury and other events:

"CHICAGO— After nearly a century and half of mystery, local historians have discovered that current Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was solely responsible for the 1871 fire that destroyed entire city blocks and claimed the lives of hundreds. “Yup, it was totally his fault,” asserted Chicago Historical Society chairman Bob Chianski during a press conference that coincidentally occurred soon after the Bears loss..."

The second shift work crew departed when it was clear the game was over at halftime.  Nothing more to say at this juncture, except...

Further

Too Many Chefs Are Never Enough + Olive Palooza!

We enjoyed a gathering of the Yooper clan  at camp the lake house on Saturday.  The star of the gathering and center of attention was, of course, Olive. After almost five years of the continuing Olive-Palooza chronicles, we are waiting for some small portion of the adorableness factor to begin to wear off.  We will be waiting another year.

I had the distinct privilege of guiding Miss Olive on her first ever fishing expedition. It was a bit windy, so we motored to the sheltered side of the lake. The plan - bamboo pole, hook, worm and bobber. The challenge -catch a bluegill before we reached the end of a 5 year old's attention span.

Olive held the pole, the worm went on the hook and over the side.  I was still rummaging through the tackle box for a bobber when the line started jumping.  Thirty seconds into her first ever fishing expedition she had her first fish in the boat. A keeper blug. She's a natural.

Olive caught two fish before deciding it was time to head back. I offered instruction on proper Neumann style technique for photographing one's catch...

We gave her the option to let them go or eat them. She takes after her grandfather - pure catch & release

[Editors Note: Video to be added here at some unspecified future date].

Speaking of grandpa, back at the ranch a family feast was taking shape...

MK grills some veggies

Wendy bakes an appetizer

Kris took on Sous Chef responsibility

I pound some fruits de mer into submission

You might think that having four chefs working simultaneously in an antique 10 x 12  kitchen might be a little confusing, chaotic and claustrophobic.  You'd be right. Nevertheless - the dinner was a spectacular success.

Parmesan and grape faccacia, calamari steaks with picatta sauce, grilled chicken, brown rice pilaf, green and orzu salads, grilled veggies, and more. Everyone provided something to the feast. Well - except these guys...

 Brian and Tommy were sent out to shoot a few grouse for appetizers...

Zip. Zero. Nada. Nothing. Epic Fail.

But for the rest - dinner was just too good. 

Olive provided after-dinner entertainment and drawing lessons. 

Of course the only proper finish to a day and dinner like this - Fire by Brian:

Olive agrees.

Shift Change

During  the last week Erik makes a bid for the coveted #1 spot on the Most Useful Nephew and/or Niece Report (MUNNR aka the Manservant Ranking).  He made a compelling case:

Keeping the wood rack filled

Battery management

Perhaps his most important role

Fishing with Papa

Stealing pontoon boats and bringing to camp

Instructing neophyte boat drivers on operation of stolen pontoon boat.

In the end, it was not a close call...

By the time Erik departed late Saturday night, he was promoted to MUNNR #1.

Early the next morning Wendy arrived with the next work crew shift...

... including the recently demoted #3.

Big Fish

"Grab the net, Erik."   With the rod bent in two and line streaming into the lake against a strong drag, it didn't require a sophisticated touch to understand that I had a nice fish on the line.   

"Erik? Are ready with the net?"

"Um... Uncle Mike - there is no net in the boat."

"What do you mean there is no net in the boat? 

The line stopped streaming out and I again began to pull the fish off the bottom. 

"There is no net in the boat."

Before you went fishing with Dad yesterday you asked whether to bring a net. What did I say?

"You said always bring a net."

I saw the fish as he broke the surface- a big pike  With a splash he was gone the line was streaming back out again.

"Ok. So where is the net?"

"I couldn't find it."

Long short - After three days of fishing without so much as a nibble my first and only strike was a lunker (for Shag Lake) pike. Luckily, I grabbed a rod & reel with a steel leader out of the random "grab bag" of gear in the shed.  The fish was well hooked and I didn't think there was anyway to lose him. Taking a lesson from Morpheus mishaps of fishing without a net, decided to play him, wait until fish was exhausted, pulled him next to the boat and out by hand. Erik caught some of it on video.


My initial quick and dirty measurement in the boat was sufficient to determine legal size but inaccurate. Net-net: 27" - as documented below. Probably the biggest fish I've ever pulled out of this lake.

Which of course mandates the full-on detailed over-documentation treatment.

Mug Shot

I'll spare the reader the horror of the fillet photos, unless Erik decides to post his iPhone pics shot during the entire gory mess. We used the "Boneless Four Fillet Technique" for dealing with the Y-bones using this YouTube as an instructional video. I was quite pleased with the fillets.

Next step - decide on a prep. This recipe looked good.

Tasty Northern Pike
4 Tbsp butter
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1 Green onion (finely chopped)
Parsley (chopped)
1 tsp Tarragon
2 northern filets
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp lemon juice

In pan, melt butter add garlic, onion, parsley, and tarragon. Simmer for 2 minutes. Season fish with salt & pepper. Cook gently in herb butter sauce until fish flakes. Remove fish to serving plate. Add lemon juice to sauce heat 1minute pour over fish.

Surprisingly, fresh tarragon was not available at Larry's Supermarket in Gwinn. Neither was dried tarragon. So we made a few modifications - more olive oil than butter, more garlic, added some wine and ginger to the sauce. All  in all - a great success. Served with a side of wild rice pilaf.

Erik makes up for the missing net faux pas.