Out of Gas

Tonight's dinner plan was to be salmon fillets on the grill. I love grilling...because my husband does it. I bought the frozen salmon at my discount grocery store (DGS) about a week ago: 3 lbs. for $10--what a deal! The fillets were individually vacuum-wrapped and in a bag with a large yummy looking, garnished, table-ready fillet on the front. The front of the bag read: Premium Atlantic Salmon. The fine print read: farm raised in Chile. Hmmm? How can they be from the ocean AND raised on the farm, I wondered. Well, this is how they do it:

Ocean Farms:

Young salmon are grown in freshwater for a period between half a year to over one year. The salmon are then released into net pens in the ocean (typically 100 meters across and 30 feet deep) where they are reared into adulthood.

So, there you have it! At the time I purchased this salmon, I was tempted to buy a second bag, the price being so reasonable and all. But, I hesitated due to a very bad experience with individually wrapped frozen tilapia fillets I purchased at Walmart a couple years ago. I'm pretty sure those fish had been fed river bottom mud, because that's what they tasted like....and I should know. I'm from the Ozarks and have played in a lot of rivers with mud bottoms and, on occasion, unintentionally swallowed some of that muck. Anyway, it was so awful, even my husband wouldn't eat it--and he's the opposite of that Mikey kid on TV who hates everything...hubby will eat anything (except yukky tilapia from Walmart). I was wary of stocking up on too much of an untested (by me) farm fish. If I'd been smart I would've dashed home, thawed some of the fillets, cooked and served them for dinner (the purchase was late in the afternoon). If they'd passed the taste test, I should've been first in line when the DGS opened the next a.m. and snagged another bag. Food in that store sprouts wings and flies out of there. Well, woulda, shoulda, coulda. Didn't do it.

Tonight I put 3 fillets on a platter, rubbed them with some olive oil, sprinkled on freshly ground pepper, some salt, a little onion and garlic powder and handed the platter to the chef and shooed him out to the patio to work his magic on the salmon. His fire stick belched a flame, but had nothing to light. Alas, the fuel tank was empty. Change of plan, change of chef. Heated some olive oil in a skillet, added the fillets and it wasn't long before they were beautifully browned and crispy on both sides, sprinkled on a little brown sugar, let it melt and....Ta da!...dinner! Tasted great! Shoulda bought more. They sold out on the second day.

To round out the meal, there was fresh organic cauliflower (purchased at the DGS for $.49/head), leftover Mexican mac & cheese (frozen side dish from the DGS) and 2 Tbsp. of spinach (DGS), leftover from last night's dinner.

This meal didn't take a single thing off my overstocked shelves but it did make a little more room in the freezer and vegetable crisper.