My sisters, their families, and Nick and me, along with my mom, celebrated dad's 69th birthday yesterday at my parents' vacation home on Long Beach Island. Dad is a master filet-er. I have taken lessons, and I can approximate his technique, but my filets are ragged. I save the fish frames to make stock. Although Julia Child says to add the heads as part of the fish frame/stock combo, I don't have it in me, so the heads, along with the innards of fish, go to the laughing gulls and herring gulls who congregate at our dock when the fish come home.
As Dad is a master filet-er, my Mom is the Mistress of fine cuisine. Mom cooked dinner, after dinner, after dinner when I was a child, every meal from 'scratch' and every meal a feast, from salad to entree to dessert. From her I learned how to bake the filets with butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper, with a little flour (a la meuniere, s-il-vous plait) sprinkled on top. Served with sauteed spinach (with garlic and red pepper) and pasta, it made a beautiful dinner.
