To Antero and beyond

To Antero and beyond……

After getting back to Antero we had a great time fishing. I’m getting really good at different ways to cook trout. As they are too big to fit in the skillet and it is too breezy for the grill, I’ve also learned to fillet and de-bone them. I’ve come up with a couple of great recipes. One is for fish tacos and the other for patties. Here they are:

FISH TACOS:

Take boneless fillets of fish (I use trout) If they have skin, use a sharp knife and slice between the skin and fish. Cut into inch or so size pieces.  Put into a zip lock bag with 1 beaten egg. Mix well.  In another zip lock or on a plate, mix cornmeal with spices and some salt if needed. I use dill and garlic; or fajita spice; or Cajun spice; or salmon seasoning….anything works. Coat well.  Fry up in a skillet with a little canola oil until golden brown; drain well on paper towels.

While the fish is cooking, heat either flour or corn tortillas. Slice avocados if desired; limes or lemons if you want. Serve with salsa or pico de gallo and hot sauce. 

I make cole slaw and black beans as a side dish. I came up with this recipe for cole slaw by accident, using what I had on hand. I may never go back to sweet slaw again, except at KFC.

Dressing: Use an envelope of Ranch salad dressing mix and mix with mayo, sour cream and a little milk (you want it thick) Add some dried minced onion 1-2 T and powdered garlic 1t. Add 1 t liquid smoke. Mix well and let stand.

Slaw: Take ½ head of cabbage, ¼ head of red cabbage and 4 carrots, grate and mix together. Mix with dressing, a little at a time until you get the right consistency. Add a little milk if too thick. Taste. Add more liquid smoke if you like. Leftovers are good for a few days, but it usually gets eaten quick

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FISH PATTIES:

I make these with smaller trout that are too small to fillet. Put fish into a skillet and add an inch or so of water. Cover and bring the water to a boil. Cook for a few minutes and turn over, cook for a few minutes more. You don’t want them too done, just enough to be able to get the meat off the bones. Take fillets out and cool; bone.  Put flaked fish into a bowl, mix with spices (see above), 1 or 2 beaten eggs, mix well. Mix in enough bread crumbs to hold together…. Don’t use too much.  Make into patties and refrigerate until later or cook right away. Brown on both sides in a little oil in a skillet, drain on paper towels and serve with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce or sour cream mixed with dill or other spices…it depends on what spice you used in the patties. 

Alisha, Billy and the kids joined us for the weekend. They got there just in time to get blown away by the wind! Billy and Jim went out in the kayak, had a lot of fun but fought the wind the whole way. Us girls stayed inside and played UNO. In the 1^st hand we went through the draw pile 8 times before someone went out! I’ve never had that happen before….especially with 5 people. So we modified the rules somewhat for the rest of the game. 

We played on the beach and entertained the gulls and pelicans with fish guts. They got to fish some off the boat jetty but it was too hard to cast into the wind. The most fun was when we took the dogs and walked around the lake. They had a blast in the water and mud, even thought they could catch the geese….. Antero pictures

After they left, we noticed we had a low tire on the motorhome. (Remember in the last blog I said we got new tires for the jeep? Well we had to because we picked up a big hunk of metal in a tire driving on one of the dirt roads on the way back from Lake George.  Our spare was not that great so we decided to go ahead and replace the tires now instead of in September. ) We called our road service and they came out to the lake and changed it out. Turns out it was a loose seal around the rim. Then a couple of days later we drove to another fishing access area and when we got ready to leave we had a flat tire on one of the brand new tires on the jeep! Picked up another piece of metal….where do they come from on dirt roads? ! Now …. We drove all the way to Alaska and back and to Mexico and back and NEVER had any tire issues! And we had 3 in less than 10 days……… not good.  Thank goodness for tire insurance.  And of course the closest Discount Tire was in Grand Junction or all the way back to Denver. Since we were going to go west to the next fishing hole, we decided to go to Grand Junction.  

We went to Buena Vista and north on the highway to Leadville. Then up Tennessee Pass. Pretty mellow so far.  Went past the Camp Hale Memorial Campground which is historic because the 10th Mountain Division, an unit of 15,000 men, trained here in mountaineering and skiing techniques during WWII. Some saw combat in Italy during the war. Most of the buildings have been torn down, but foundations and other "footprints" remain. The 99th Infantry Battalion (Viking Battalion) also trained at Camp Hale. There are interpretive signs along US Rt. 24, explaining the history and accomplishments of Camp Hale.

Boy the drive down the south side was something else! I’m so glad we did not have to go up the side we were going down. It is not a short cut to Buena Vista unless you absolutely have to go that way.

The drive through the Vail valley was beautiful, as was Glenwood Canyon. The rivers are so low! And it is so dry everywhere…as you know from all the fires burning. 

After a very hot day in Grand Junction, we came east back to Rifle, hoping it would be cooler.  It wasn't much cooler during the day but it did cool off at night. A friend of ours that we met in Alaska, Gary, grew up in Rifle and was there visiting his family before his annual pilgrimage to Country Jam. So we stayed in the rest area in Rifle for a couple of days. It is a beautiful place, lots of parking, a RV dump, lots of shade….right next to the Colorado River… I still can’t believe Jim didn’t go fishing while we were there.  We took a ride with Gary one day to try and find some shade and fishing (no luck) but he did show us where he grew up and where his dad had a coal mine. On the way back we encountered a herd of cows, being driven from point A to somewhere up the road. Lucy went nuts! She didn’t bark (she hardly ever does) but she was riveted on those cows and quivered from head to toe…..she must have had some fun with cows in her last life! The cows

Back in Rifle we went back and forth on where to go next. We had 2 weeks before we had to be in Winter Park for the “Blues From The Top” music festival. Jim wanted to fish the Frying Pan and the Roaring Fork over south of Glenwood Springs but we also wanted to try out Trappers Lake. Several fishing buddies at Antero highly recommended it. The heat won out (it was way hot in Glenwood, too)  and we decided to boogie on up to 9000 ft. We convinced Gary to come with us and before you know it we had ourselves a convoy…………

Next stop Trappers  Lake ……….