Ok, we have covered the topic of Minnesota seafood, but I wanted to add a bit more on the subject because I am rather impressed with myself and that doesn't happen very often. Especially in the kitchen.
Yesterday was Thursday and the seafood truck guy came back with his truckload of seafood. I ordered another filet of sea trout because it was divine and asked what else he would recommend, considering the list he rattled off struck no center of recognition for me and fish types (there was a yellow something, I don't know...). He said the best thing on the truck were the prawns. I think he called them king prawns or some such thing. I asked how to prepare and cook them and he gave me good and thorough instructions, so I took my bag of prawns and sea trout happily back to my cabin and prepared for dinner.
Prawns. With their heads on. Complete with eyeballs...and antenna...and legs. Oh my.
Step one: cut off the head. You cannot see my face right now as I recall just that moment, but rest assured I am grimacing quite severely and trying not to gag. I poised the knife above its legs and chop. OH!! Oh great googly moogly! A large spatter of orange goo burst forth from the prawn, its beady black eye looking up at me with disdain. I swallowed, rinsed the knife, vowed I would not vomit, and continued.
Step two: remove the legs and shell. Here is where I have visions of my children's pet hermit crabs crying as I pull off their legs. I remind myself these things are dead and God gave them to us for food, so they don't feel bad, and I shouldn't feel bad. I pulled off their legs and the shell attached to it. Now the fish truck guy said to pinch the tail and the bottom bit of the prawn should squirt out of the bottom, and it did. That part was fun.
Step three: rip out the entrails. Prawns have a black intestinal track running the length of the outside of their body. You simply slice your knife down the back and flick out the offending black bit. Yeah, right. That black bit is sticky and a bit gross and does not want to come out without a fight. Then I noticed another black stripe on the inside curve of the prawn and cut that out, too. I rinsed the prawn off in cold water and set it aside. One down, three to go. So far I have not thrown up.
On my second try, I did find the sweet spot behind the head to avoid the orange burst of guck. All four prawns cleaned and ready and no vomiting. I am rather pleased with myself at this point. I usually can't cut apart a raw chicken without gagging. The final test: can I cook the things and actually eat them now that I have witnessed and participated in their butchering?
I cooked the prawns in a hot pan with butter, salt and pepper, having no garlic to hand, and ate them on a bed of rice. They were delicious! They were the most flavorful shrimp-type things I had ever eaten. It made shrimp from Red Lobster compare to raw rubber bands. And I like shrimp from Red Lobster...especially the coconut shrimp.
I will say as a final caveat, I did have to concentrate on enjoying the flavor of the prawns while trying not to think about what I just did to keep from gagging. But I ate them and enjoyed them.
I have purposefully not included photos for the comfort of my readers.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Of Back Roads and Evil GPS Machines
I have a Garmin. We purchased it for a trip to Kentucky and since it's been laying around virtually unused since then, I figured I would purchase the UK chip and use it in Scotland. It was a brilliant stroke of genius, I thought. No folding of maps or hastily written cryptic directions blowing around my back seat, no. Technology is my friend. Well, apparently not in Scotland.
The Garmin only works if it is plugged into the car. If you take it inside any structure, it has lost it's ability to find you on satellite. Hmmm... It also took two days to find me on said satellite (two days of trying, not two solid days). Anything I wanted to visit, the Garmin had never heard of. But slowly, I was beginning to figure it out. See, in America, I could put in to the Garmin: find the Creation Museum and magically the little red line would snake its way through the states and land on the Creation Museum. Flag planted. Trip planned. But here in Scotland, the Garmin must have become suddenly unhelpful. I would like to go see the Loch Ness Center and Exhibition. The Garmin says, "What? There can't be such a place." So I put in: find Drumnadrochit. Oh! That it can find. Now if you pull off the road half way to Drumnadrochit and put in: find the Loch Ness Center, it can find it...magically. So a long road trip may be managed by breaking it up into bits and then stringing them all together. I found that it can find towns much more easily than attractions. Apparently, the places I visited were rare and wonderful finds since the Garmin could only locate them if we were within 20 miles of the place. If at all.
Besides being unable to locate things, my Garmin has a strange sense of logic when it lays out a trip. Case in point: I wanted to go to Dunvegan Castle by way of Uig. Now there are two roads in all of Skye. On the map, one is red and one is green. If you find yourself on any other road, you are lost. I could not convince my Garmin to go the way I wanted to go, so I went my own way and forced it to recompute. I enjoy that. It's like teasing the voice that bosses me around and scares the crap out of me on long trips. Payback. Recompute!
As vengeance for forcing the thing to recompute on the way there, it decided instead of simply reversing course and taking me back to my B&B on the major road, it would send me down a back road only Satan in his glory could have laid. I kid you not! Seven miles of the scariest road I have ever driven down. Now in Satan's defense, the road was paved, and the paved part was smooth. Unfortunately, it was only one car width wide and the shoulder of the road consisted of a one foot drop off into potholed death. Which I had to venture into because I met a car head on and there were no passing places nearby. At all. The scenery, however, was breathtaking and wonderful, which is why Satan chose to put this road in. To punish us for wanting to enjoy God's glory.
I did, in fact, make it out alive, no thanks to the road that in the last mile decided to lay a sharp switchback followed by a decent only a roller coaster would appreciate. And a man on a bicycle in the switchback who looked like he was ready to die.
Evil Garmin.
The Garmin only works if it is plugged into the car. If you take it inside any structure, it has lost it's ability to find you on satellite. Hmmm... It also took two days to find me on said satellite (two days of trying, not two solid days). Anything I wanted to visit, the Garmin had never heard of. But slowly, I was beginning to figure it out. See, in America, I could put in to the Garmin: find the Creation Museum and magically the little red line would snake its way through the states and land on the Creation Museum. Flag planted. Trip planned. But here in Scotland, the Garmin must have become suddenly unhelpful. I would like to go see the Loch Ness Center and Exhibition. The Garmin says, "What? There can't be such a place." So I put in: find Drumnadrochit. Oh! That it can find. Now if you pull off the road half way to Drumnadrochit and put in: find the Loch Ness Center, it can find it...magically. So a long road trip may be managed by breaking it up into bits and then stringing them all together. I found that it can find towns much more easily than attractions. Apparently, the places I visited were rare and wonderful finds since the Garmin could only locate them if we were within 20 miles of the place. If at all.
Besides being unable to locate things, my Garmin has a strange sense of logic when it lays out a trip. Case in point: I wanted to go to Dunvegan Castle by way of Uig. Now there are two roads in all of Skye. On the map, one is red and one is green. If you find yourself on any other road, you are lost. I could not convince my Garmin to go the way I wanted to go, so I went my own way and forced it to recompute. I enjoy that. It's like teasing the voice that bosses me around and scares the crap out of me on long trips. Payback. Recompute!
As vengeance for forcing the thing to recompute on the way there, it decided instead of simply reversing course and taking me back to my B&B on the major road, it would send me down a back road only Satan in his glory could have laid. I kid you not! Seven miles of the scariest road I have ever driven down. Now in Satan's defense, the road was paved, and the paved part was smooth. Unfortunately, it was only one car width wide and the shoulder of the road consisted of a one foot drop off into potholed death. Which I had to venture into because I met a car head on and there were no passing places nearby. At all. The scenery, however, was breathtaking and wonderful, which is why Satan chose to put this road in. To punish us for wanting to enjoy God's glory.
I did, in fact, make it out alive, no thanks to the road that in the last mile decided to lay a sharp switchback followed by a decent only a roller coaster would appreciate. And a man on a bicycle in the switchback who looked like he was ready to die.
Evil Garmin.
Skipping off to Skye
You can't very well visit Scotland without choosing an island or two to visit. I chose Skye for no other reason than the idea appealed to me. I figured it was no further than a trip to Duluth, so why not drive on over.
The first thing to consider is how to get there. With Skye you have a choice: drive over the bridge, or take the ferry (and there's more than one). In my vast experience with doing brave things, I quickly decided there was no way I was driving my car onto a ferry, so I took the bridge. Caution is the better form of valor, right? Ok, so I am just a chicken. I can take it.
The second thing to consider is what to do when you are there to make the most of your time. I was originally thinking of making it a day trip. Hit a few highlights, take a walk or two, and head back to the cabin. Then I began researching all the possibilities: castles, museums, shopping, hiking, kayaking, seal trips, etc. In reality, I could have spent about five days on Skye just fulfilling my wish list. So I settled on three days, two nights and intended on cramming in as much as I could stand.
The third thing to consider is the weather. If you don't want to hike in a downpour, plan on inside things like museums and shopping in town. If you don't mind hiking in a downpour and have planned ahead and purchased rain pants as well as a rain coat, then by all means, hike in the rain. I had not considered rain pants or really rain at all, so things did not go as planned.
I had planned on leaving in the morning, stopping a few places on the way to tour, and getting into Portree about noon or so, so I could do a few walks before I got to my B&B. Old Man of Stor, Kilt Rock, and the Quiraing were on my list of walks to take and all on the way to the B&B.
When I crossed the bridge into Skye, it started to sprinkle. By the time I got to Portree, it was pouring, windy, and cold. I had planned on stopping in Portree to do some shopping, so I donned my rain coat and stomped around the town. It is always a good idea to stop first at the Information Center and get a map of the area and hit the public toilets (which were very nice), before adventuring out. Oh, and remember where you parked. Portree has quite a few interesting shops to look through, my favorite being Skye Batiks, and many cafes and restaurants, some with gluten free fare.
So, after I was thoroughly soaked and chilled to the bone, I decided against hiking in a windy downpour and continued on to Staffin to the Hallaig Guest House where I was staying for the next two nights. Betty greeted me as I dripped onto her floor and asked if I would like dinner (it was about 4:30 at the time) and she had tomato soup for dinner! Oh joy and rapture! Hot soup! And it was delicious! I went to bed that night, hot soup in my stomach, listening to the wind howl and the rain lash against the windows...and sheep bleating. Really.
Day two I had planned on going to Dunvegan Castle and chatted with Willy (Betty's husband) about the best route to take. He suggested going up around the Quiraing through Uig and around to Dunvegan, so that is the route I took. The scenery was fantastic! I stopped at the Museum of Island Life on the way, which by far had the best gift shop of all the places I stopped. I could have bought one of everything there, but settled on a sweatshirt, and now regret not picking up some other things.
Castles are always fun to tour. I enjoy the art and artifacts, and the architecture of the building. Dunvegan did not disappoint. The castle was worth the tour, but the gardens were amazing! You could spend a good hour or two walking the grounds enjoying garden after garden.
After that, I had to gas up the car, so I found a gas station in town and headed back to the B&B.
Day three I had planned on visiting the Clan Donald Center and then hitting a shop called Ragamuffin (you can google it) which is just off the pier in Armadale. So I said goodbye to Betty and Willy and headed out to Armadale. The drive was fantastic, and the scenery divine. It really makes me think about how blessed we are. God didn't have to make the earth beautiful, but he chose to anyway, to His great glory, and He put a vast quantity of it in Scotland. We used to consider Wisconsin God's country, but I amend that. Scotland is clearly God's country. So off we went. Clan Donald Center is a reading museum, which means there is more to read than see, but they displayed it well and I enjoyed it. They had some artifacts and some excellent paintings and a very good history of the Clan Donald and the Isle of Skye. The castle is a ruin you can walk over to see. It is right on the ocean, so the views are fantastic. And the gardens around make for good walking. After reading my way through the museum, I quickly jaunted off to the ruins, and headed straight for the cafe. I was starving and as I have mentioned previously, fainting from hunger is embarrassing, so best skip all the walking and stuff food in my face, quickly.
The cafe had soup without gluten and dairy so I got the soup, some chips, and gluten free chocolate cake! I almost kissed the guy behind the counter! Chocolate Cake!! Be still my soul.
Back in the car, rain began to pour down, and I headed to the pier. Ragamuffin! It is one of those stores that speaks to me. I want one of everything they sell! I expected it to be expensive so I budgeted the bulk of my spending money just for that. I was planning on buying an outfit, but once I got inside, it was really spendy, so I settled on one thing and bought a sweater. And I love it! I almost skipped to the car, but people were looking, so I squirreled away my treasure and drove on.
I hit Invermoriston by about 2:30 and had about an hour left to drive when I got to the junction for Drumnadrochit and the road was coned over and a van was parked in the intersection. A highway worker came up to my window and reported: there were two serious car crashes on the road ahead, one on the way to Drumnadrochit, and one on the way to Inverness. He said the roads would be closed for hours. I asked him was there an alternate route? He said I could go back to Skye and take the other road over to Beauly. That would be two hours back and two hours going around. He said I could go get a drink at the cafe and enjoy the day. I didn't tell him what I thought of that.
I parked my car at the hotel and bar and went to enjoy the day. Apparently there is a lot to see in Invermoriston when you need to be there for an indeterminate amount of time. I walked over to see a waterfall, walked in the woods, hit some shops in the town, and finally sat in my car and had a snack. While sitting there, I prayed for the crash victims and the emergency workers, and I also asked that they would get the road open before dark so we could all go home safely. About 4:30 they pulled away the cones and we were on our way.
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
The first thing to consider is how to get there. With Skye you have a choice: drive over the bridge, or take the ferry (and there's more than one). In my vast experience with doing brave things, I quickly decided there was no way I was driving my car onto a ferry, so I took the bridge. Caution is the better form of valor, right? Ok, so I am just a chicken. I can take it.
The second thing to consider is what to do when you are there to make the most of your time. I was originally thinking of making it a day trip. Hit a few highlights, take a walk or two, and head back to the cabin. Then I began researching all the possibilities: castles, museums, shopping, hiking, kayaking, seal trips, etc. In reality, I could have spent about five days on Skye just fulfilling my wish list. So I settled on three days, two nights and intended on cramming in as much as I could stand.
The third thing to consider is the weather. If you don't want to hike in a downpour, plan on inside things like museums and shopping in town. If you don't mind hiking in a downpour and have planned ahead and purchased rain pants as well as a rain coat, then by all means, hike in the rain. I had not considered rain pants or really rain at all, so things did not go as planned.
I had planned on leaving in the morning, stopping a few places on the way to tour, and getting into Portree about noon or so, so I could do a few walks before I got to my B&B. Old Man of Stor, Kilt Rock, and the Quiraing were on my list of walks to take and all on the way to the B&B.When I crossed the bridge into Skye, it started to sprinkle. By the time I got to Portree, it was pouring, windy, and cold. I had planned on stopping in Portree to do some shopping, so I donned my rain coat and stomped around the town. It is always a good idea to stop first at the Information Center and get a map of the area and hit the public toilets (which were very nice), before adventuring out. Oh, and remember where you parked. Portree has quite a few interesting shops to look through, my favorite being Skye Batiks, and many cafes and restaurants, some with gluten free fare.
Day two I had planned on going to Dunvegan Castle and chatted with Willy (Betty's husband) about the best route to take. He suggested going up around the Quiraing through Uig and around to Dunvegan, so that is the route I took. The scenery was fantastic! I stopped at the Museum of Island Life on the way, which by far had the best gift shop of all the places I stopped. I could have bought one of everything there, but settled on a sweatshirt, and now regret not picking up some other things.
Castles are always fun to tour. I enjoy the art and artifacts, and the architecture of the building. Dunvegan did not disappoint. The castle was worth the tour, but the gardens were amazing! You could spend a good hour or two walking the grounds enjoying garden after garden.
After that, I had to gas up the car, so I found a gas station in town and headed back to the B&B.
Day three I had planned on visiting the Clan Donald Center and then hitting a shop called Ragamuffin (you can google it) which is just off the pier in Armadale. So I said goodbye to Betty and Willy and headed out to Armadale. The drive was fantastic, and the scenery divine. It really makes me think about how blessed we are. God didn't have to make the earth beautiful, but he chose to anyway, to His great glory, and He put a vast quantity of it in Scotland. We used to consider Wisconsin God's country, but I amend that. Scotland is clearly God's country. So off we went. Clan Donald Center is a reading museum, which means there is more to read than see, but they displayed it well and I enjoyed it. They had some artifacts and some excellent paintings and a very good history of the Clan Donald and the Isle of Skye. The castle is a ruin you can walk over to see. It is right on the ocean, so the views are fantastic. And the gardens around make for good walking. After reading my way through the museum, I quickly jaunted off to the ruins, and headed straight for the cafe. I was starving and as I have mentioned previously, fainting from hunger is embarrassing, so best skip all the walking and stuff food in my face, quickly.
The cafe had soup without gluten and dairy so I got the soup, some chips, and gluten free chocolate cake! I almost kissed the guy behind the counter! Chocolate Cake!! Be still my soul.Back in the car, rain began to pour down, and I headed to the pier. Ragamuffin! It is one of those stores that speaks to me. I want one of everything they sell! I expected it to be expensive so I budgeted the bulk of my spending money just for that. I was planning on buying an outfit, but once I got inside, it was really spendy, so I settled on one thing and bought a sweater. And I love it! I almost skipped to the car, but people were looking, so I squirreled away my treasure and drove on.
I hit Invermoriston by about 2:30 and had about an hour left to drive when I got to the junction for Drumnadrochit and the road was coned over and a van was parked in the intersection. A highway worker came up to my window and reported: there were two serious car crashes on the road ahead, one on the way to Drumnadrochit, and one on the way to Inverness. He said the roads would be closed for hours. I asked him was there an alternate route? He said I could go back to Skye and take the other road over to Beauly. That would be two hours back and two hours going around. He said I could go get a drink at the cafe and enjoy the day. I didn't tell him what I thought of that.
I parked my car at the hotel and bar and went to enjoy the day. Apparently there is a lot to see in Invermoriston when you need to be there for an indeterminate amount of time. I walked over to see a waterfall, walked in the woods, hit some shops in the town, and finally sat in my car and had a snack. While sitting there, I prayed for the crash victims and the emergency workers, and I also asked that they would get the road open before dark so we could all go home safely. About 4:30 they pulled away the cones and we were on our way.
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
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