Fish anyone??

Superman loves to fish. Up 'til now, he has pretty much been a catch and release fisherman. He loves it for the sport, but never kept anything because he hadn't been shown how to clean them and no one would cook them for him. When I found out I put my foot down; he could no longer throw any keeper size fish back. We were going to have fish - and a lesson.

This weekend he, hubby, and one of hubby's cousins went fishing and brought back some bream and shellcrackers.

Lesson time.

First, I showed him how to clean them. Various parts of this grossed some of the girls out. You should read Ri's post from today. She had a problem with, of all things, the scales. Not the scaling so much as the actual scales. She found them completely gross. Her blog post is funny - perhaps more for me given the fact that I've seen her near panic attacks. Superman has been informed that he will clean ALL fish before they enter the house, preferably in an area of the yard she can't see too well from the house. :) Cutting off the heads was another part that some of them disliked (that part didn't bother Ri though), but I was told they found the sound of it worse than watching it. Then, of course, there's the gutting. Some of them should probably never watch someone dressing out a deer.

Next, I showed Ri and Bree how to cook them. In this case, I choose the classic pan frying method - one of the best ways to eat small fish.

And last, but not least, I showed them all how to pull them apart so that it would be easy to find and remove the bones as they were eating them. When I held the skeleton up by the tail fin, in order to show them what it should look like when they were done, T.Lynn just about lost it. She said it was just plain gross to see the bones being pulled out right there at the table. I think we need to try and work on that whole weak stomach thing.

It's been a long time since we've had freshwater fish in the house, so I didn't push the issue of tasting it.......this time. Superman liked them. Of the girls, Bree and Kay ate it, and Ri tried it, although she may be permanently scarred (emotionally speaking) because her's was the only one in which a scale had been missed and she bit into it. She was gracious enough to admit that it tasted good, but I am, as of yet, unable to envision her eating anymore small, freshwater fish. Maybe the ones that are big enough to filet, but not the littler ones - which in my opinion, taste much better.

Delicious!!