And we are back!

Sorry about the delay everyone! It has been a crazy two weeks. Transitioning jobs and such means less time for blogging and sharing with you all. Now that we are back and we are entering into the holiday season where stress is bound to increase and people will start spending more time in the mall or in front of their computers buying things for family members.

I am going to share some recipes that you can replace those traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with. These are healthier than the average dinner because guess what, the core ingredient is Salmon!

First of all, if you are going to cook fish you need to start by buying it as fresh as possible. If it was previously frozen salmon, then your chances of great flavor increase. However, if the store has already thawed this fish for you, make sure you are not going to freeze it again. It also may be a good idea to buy a frozen chunk of salmon and thaw it yourself.

Here's a recipe that looks really good and simple to make. Salmon is easy to bake, you just have to treat it with a little bit of care. You should always make sure that you have some moisture in the pan. Salmon is easy to dry out fast.

Soy Glazed Salmon with Watercress Salad

This recipe is straight from Martha Stewart

Ingredients: (some of this is from the salad part)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons honey
2 oranges, peeled cut into segments and juice squeezed
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 salmon fillets (approx. 6 ounces)
1 bunch watercress (3/4 pound) trim thick ends
1/2 small red onion

Directions:

• In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, 3 teaspoons honey and orange juice; add salt and pepper. In a bigger bowl whisk 1 teaspoon glaze, 1 teaspoon honey, vinegar and oil and set aside.
• Heat broiler, with rack 4 inches from heat. Line baking sheet with foil. Add salt and pepper to Salmon and broil for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, brush with glaze and then broil until opaque throughout, around 2 minutes, brushing with glaze once more.
• Add orange segments, watercress and onion to dressing and toss to combine. Add salt and pepper.

This recipe is said to take about 20 minutes to prepare. I would pour the glaze over the salmon before hand and allow it to soak up the flavor before putting it in the oven. It makes the salmon more moist and brings out more flavor. As for the Watercress salad, this is a very healthy alternative to anything you may find on a Thanksgiving table.

F is for Fish

Above we have crew member Kinsi holding a beautiful king salmon.

You can tell a king salmon (Chinook) from a coho (silver) by the coloring. King salmon have black around the tips of their mouths and they are also covered with more spots on the their tail. They also seem to be a bit more gray in coloring through out. Their other name is Chinook. They don't call them King's for nothing, the biggest king salmon ever caught was over 80 pounds. Can you imagine?
I believe the biggest King salmon we have caught is around 30-50 pounds and that seems gigantic.

This chart is from bluefish

They have a lot of information about fishing and salmon populations through the history. If you are interested in learning more, click the link above. Here is a chart with all types of salmon on it. The pictures can be a little bit helpful, although Chinook (king salmon are usually larger than the rest of these fish.

Salmon Factoids:
The largest king salmon caught was 97 pounds and 4 ounces. That was in 1985 by Les Anderson. The biggest coho salmon caught was 26 pounds by Andrew Robbins in 1976. The largest sockeye salmon caught was 16 pounds by Chuck Leach in 1974.
These are the types of fish caught when Trolling in Southeast Alaska. These are also the best types of fish to be frozen at sea and sold in super markets and sushi restaurants.

Check out this big salmon on How to fish for salmon