Holy mackerel

[kitewithfish]

I just cleaned, gutted, and baked three small mackerel on a bed of new potatoes, for no good reason other than I had them and felt like it.

Cooking was such a chore when I grew up - we hardly ever cooked fresh veggies and foods, and I never felt like I knew what I was doing.

It's been a long slow slog, acquiring the skill and experience and tools and ingredients, to get to the point where it's just easy. Where I could go to the store, grab some fish that haven't been filleted and chopped into bits, and just... bake them. Because I felt like it. And then have dinner and lunches for a couple of days, without it being a big deal.  

Comments

[tei]

Ooh, this sounds awesome! I've only ever prepared fish from the whole fish once, but they were the tiny things you catch out in the middle of the river with a big net in the dead of night and you just scoop out the bones with your finger :P

[kara_mckay]

Sounds yummy! And I hear you about cooking -- I didn't really start until I was in my late thirties. I don't think I"m ever going to win any awards for my cooking, but like you said, I can go to the store, pick up some ingredients without a recipe list, and then make something that's more than just fuel now.

[recently_folded]

Wow, mackerel. I haven't eaten them for years (long ago moved away from their waters) but many memories of taking a rowboat out into the harbor to drift about and catch dinner when we didn't have money for much else. They're still pretty deeply embedded in my sense of How Dinner Should Taste.

[kitewithfish]

They are delicious - I am a late in life convert. I have never caught one, tho, just got them from the store.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Good location and music. *nods*