Clueless

How do I eat this? My first date at age 16 was fraught with danger. When Dad looked up from his evening newspaper and placed his bifocals down his nose even my date was afraid of him. My parents made sure we were seeing a PG movie and would be back by ten.

We went on two dates, then came spring break and we were all in Florida but he was in Lauderdale and I was near Cape Canaveral in a senior community. He hooked up with Sally V, a cheerleader from our school, and was with her for two years. OK with me.

I came back home for the summer after my first year of college and he called me. I was no longer 92 lbs but nearing 110 and his first question was to ask if I was on birth control pills. I go to a Catholic college, NO! I just hated the cafeteria food so loaded up on cereal and what little fruit they had (raisins) in the morning and dessert in the evening.

I was 18 then and allowed to come home by eleven. He took me to dinner at this swanky place nearby and I ordered salmon, never having heard of a salmon “steak.” When we ate fish at home it was always a fillet.

Having no idea where the bones were, I tried to look elegant making the best of a bad situation. A few years later we got engaged, I gave back the ring, we maintained a long distance relationship for years until he asked me to dinner at the best place in town when I was visiting. That was to tell me he was getting married, another former cheerleader, friend of my younger sister. I offered hearty congratulations and asked him to my swanky hotel’s bar and asked if I could have my assistant join us.

You have an assistant? Wow, I’d love to meet her (of course you would). “Hi, I’m Rudy, Dee’s assistant.” WHAT????? He was floored and went out of my life in moments. I miss his mother. She was a great gal who sacrificed everything for her family. And his Dad, who ran a great race and was gone before his time.

As to the salmon, let’s get back to it. I spent my life savings getting out of the rat race and doing something I always wanted to do. I love fish, especially salmon, but can’t cook it at home because my husband is highly allergic even to the scent of fish.

Give me a salmon steak today and I’ve a fish knife that will go all around the bones and then skin it, place it like a heart with two toothpicks, season and make a heart-shaped papilliote and bake it at 450 for 8 minutes. Ingredients are salmon, inverted so it goes together and cooks evenly, salt and pepper and slather it with grainy mustard.

To gild the lily, I like to saute some leeks in butter, salt and pepper beforehand and place them under the salmon in the package. It’s a great dish. I learned how to make it by being uncomfortable on a date! Cheers, Dee