Summertime and the grillin is easy. Fresh grilled halibut topped with mango salsa is a quick and easy meal - ideal for cottage guests.

With cottage season in full gear, it seems we have visitors booked from now until Labour Sunday. While it’s great to have friends come and visit, those extra mouths to feed can really wear a person out.

Here’s a quick and easy dinner that takes 35 minutes from start to finish - grilled halibut with mango salsa. The salsa can be prepped up to six hours in advance. You can also substitute halibut for salmon, walleye or lake trout.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of fish
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• sea salt or kosher salt

Prep fish 30 minutes before grilling by removing from fridge, pat dry and brush on sesame oil. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and return to fridge. Heat barbecue to medium-high. I use a fish basket on the barbecue, but if you don’t have one, clean the grill thoroughly and brush on olive oil. Lay fish skin side down and cook for 5 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet. Turn over and cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove from grill , top with mango salsa and serve immediately.

Salsa

• 2 cups of fresh chopped mangoes
• 1 cup chopped red bell peppers
• 2/3 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice (approx 2 limes)
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper - finely chopped (make sure to remove any seeds)

Mix together, season with salt and pepper and refrigerate until fish is served.

Cheers,

Julie

Created in Cuban, enjoyed by Hemingway, the Mojito (pronounced moh-hee-toh) has finally made it’s way to Horne lake. A minty, slightly sweet drink originally from La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba, seems to be making a big splash here in Canada.

Loaded with mint leaves and lime juice, this Cuban cocktail is a refreshing and deceptively healthy drink (it also contains sugar and alcohol - but then again so does red wine and it’s healthy isn’t it?).

Listed below is the authentic Mojito recipe according to TasteofCuba.com. The drink is served in “collins” glasses, but authentic Mojito glass sets are available online. I’m currently in the process of trying to track down a wooden muddler to smash the mint leaves, but the back of a spoon will also do the trick.

Mojitos

• 1 tsp white sugar
• juice froom 1 lime ( 2 ounces)
• 4 mint leaves
• white rum ( 2 ounces)
• 2 ounces of club soda

Place the mint leaves into a tall collins glass and squeeze the juice from a cut lime into it ( 2 ounces). Add white sugar, then gently mash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with the muddler. Add crushed ice, stirring in rum. Top with club soda and garnish with a sprig of mint.

To see a video of how it’s made click on www.bacardimojito.com. Don’t get sucked into buying the $12 muddler online at this website - they charge $15 just for shipping alone.

This is a great cocktail for happy hour at the cabin!

Cheers,

Julie

Penny Caldwell, the editor of Cottage Life magazine is pondering a TV for the cottage. In this month’s summer edition she writes:

“The cottage is not a place where you take a TV set. TVs lead to unsightly towers and moral degradation (they don’t call them idiot boxes and boob tubes for nothing). Bringing one to the cottage is the first tumble on the slippery slope toward unstoppable development on our shoreline. In effect, TV at the cottage signals the decline of cottage country as we know it…”

While it is true that your brain uses less activity watching television than it does sleeping thereby earning it the title, “Boob Tube,” I’m not sure watching an occasional movie at the cabin is going to destroy cottage life as we know it.

Penny’s tongue-in-cheek article is part of our Canadian psyche which states, “You should be outside playing on a sunny day not watching TV,” a sentiment echoed by Chritian Lander, author and blogger of StuffWhitePeopleLike.com.

There is no doubt that once I turn on the boob tube I have a hard time turning it off even though there is absolutely nothing worth watching, but according to Penny’s editorial, her sole reason for wanting a TV at the cottage is to watch movies. Never once does she mention missing Peter Mansbridge or Rex Murphy- who incidentally are the only two things you’re going to be watching without a satellite dish in cottage country.

Is there anything wrong with watching movies at the cabin? A bowl of popcorn, a blanket and a good movie is a very enjoyable evening. I think we’re loathe to change traditions at the cabin. It’s our rituals that hold us hostage. Old rocking chairs, lumpy mattress and no dishwashers might be the way my parents cottaged, but I’m not sure I want that to be part of my experience.

Penny, I strongly urge you to break down and buy a DVD player. They’re lightweight and portable. Technically, you’re not watching TV, and more importantly, you’ll be able to watch movies in your hammock!

Cheers,

Julie

When it comes to cooking fish, there are four ingredients that no kitchen should be without:

• Limes
• Sea Salt
• Cracked Pepper
• Corriander

Marinating and grilling any white fish using the above combination can bring any fish hater to their knees, myself included. We’ve used it on tuna, snapper and halibut. The result? We now eat more fish.

If you’re entertaining a gang at the cottage and are looking for something unique, consider making fish fajitas. It’s a simple, straightforward meal that can be prepped in advance leaving you free to enjoy a drink with your guests. I like to serve them with corn on the cob and Spanish rice.

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• juice from one lime
• dash of hot pepper sauce

Mix all ingredients in a bowl; refrigerate.

Fish

• 1 3/4 pounds of halibut (or any white fish)
• juice from 3 limes
• course sea salt
• cracked pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander

Squeeze lime juice over fish (front and back). Sprinkle with salt, pepper and fresh corriander. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Tortillas

• 12 large white tortillas
• spicy fresh salsa

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Heat skillet over medium heat. Stack 2 tortillas. Sprinkle top with water. Place in skillet, wet side down. Heat 1 minute. Sprinkle top with water. Turn stack over, heat 1 minute. Transfer stack to large sheet of foil. Repeat. Enclose tortillas in foil. Place in over to keep warm.

Grill Fish

Place fish on a clean, lightly oiled preheated barbecue grill (I use a wire fish basket). Cook at medium heat approx. 4 minutes per each side depending on the thickness of the fish. Fish is cooked when flesh just flakes when tested. Cut into pieces.

Spread a teaspoon of sauce on each warm tortilla. Place several small chunks of fish on top. Add a teaspoon of fresh salsa and roll together, folding in the corners.

Serve with corn on the cob, nachos and cold Coronas.

Cheers,

Julie

Oh the buzz has started. School’s almost out and the kids are raingy. The warm days and long nights have us staying up later and later. Cottage season kicks into high gear this long weekend and I’m excited. After months of being pent up indoors, I’m looking forward to getting to the cabin and playing hard.

One of my favourite play toys is our XM Satellite Radio. I can’t say enough good things about this gadget or the service. The technology continues to improve and the price keeps dropping to the point where we are now considering getting one for our boat.

While I love peace and quiet at the cabin, I also love my music. This week I’m doing a count down to Canada Day and today it’s all about the music.

Below are tunes I’m downloading onto my iPod taking to the cabin. If you have a favourite - leave me a comment.

iTunes Play List

• Viva la Vida - ColdPlay
• Money Honey - State of Shock
• Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
• Shake it - Metro Station
• I Kissed a Girl - Katy Perry
• Camp Rock - Jonas Brothers (for Jillian)
• Underneath - Alanis Morissette
• Dirty Little Secret - The All- American
• Never Too Late - Hedley
• Vertigo - U2

What are you listening to this weekend?

Cheers,

Julie

I’ve written a lot about hosting guests at the cottage. We’ve had some interesting experiences and we had some awesome experiences. This past weekend was a guest experience of the awesome kind.

One thing I’ve come to realize that doing everything yourself, the cooking, the cleaning and the entertaining is NOT the way to go.

Heading into the weekend I was so tired I was actually kind of dreading it. Turns out my worries were unfounded. While the gals, myself excluded, ended up cooking most of the meals, everyone pitched in and helped out.

It was great. I know some people like to fuss over their guests. I want my guests to have a good time and not fuss over them. I think the secret for me is inviting people to the cottage with whom I feel comfortable and can ask them for help.

Despite finding a dead mouse in the bed and dead spiders underneath it, my guests were undeterred. The weather was awesome, the new boat worked and the food - red berries and all, was fabulous.

Here’s to great weekends and great friends to share them with.

Cheers,

Julie

The above photo is Jean and I enjoying ice cream at the Coombs Country Market - a great start to our weekend.

Why is June the busiest month of the year? Just when the weather turns nice and the cabin is open and waiting patiently to be used, our social calendar fills up.

Baseball is into playoffs. There are piano recitals, barbecues and cocktail parties. It seems everyone wants to get together before the kids break for summer holidays. And there sits the cottage, and the new boat, begging to be played with.

I just look at our calendar and roll my eyes. At the rate we’re going we might not get there until August. Is it rude to say, “Not this weekend we have a cottage?” I’m free from September through till May. November is wide open.

I’m not sure why people feel this sudden urge to socialize. I have some theories. Once the weather turns warmer, and the days are longer, we want to be outside. Barbecuing and drinking beer in the backyard is a great way to entertain friends, especially friends with young children.

Our plan to spend Father’s Day at the cabin has been squashed. Baseball games, year-end activities and fatigue means another weekend spent in the city. Sigh.

For those of you who are able to say “NO” and not feel guilty - Bravo! I hope you have a great time.

For the rest of us, I’m taking orders for “NOT THIS WEEKEND -I HAVE A COTTAGE” T-Shirts.

What’s keeping you from your cottage?

Cheers,

Julie

Question: What follows two days of rain? Monday.

The cold damp weather we’ve been experiencing on the west coast has a lot of cottagers rolling their eyes. ‘Not again,’ we’re silently thinking to ourselves. Cold, rainy summers spell disaster for cottagers, especially those who are renting seasonal properties.

Heather Bayer, a fellow cottage blogger, has some great tips on stocking your cottage for the rainy weather. I know the last thing I want is to be cooped up inside my cabin for the weekend, but sometimes the best offense is a good defense.

Here are some things you might want to do to rain proof your cottage. It may also preserve your sanity.

Rain Proof Ideas:

Board Games

Monopoly, Scrabble (Jr. Scrabble is great too), Labyrinth, Pictionary, Checkers, Luck of the Draw

Puzzles - Ravensburger make great puzzles - I find the ones for ages 9+ to be enough of a challenge for everyone

Activity Books - Sudoko, Cross-Word Puzzles, Word Searches, sticker books for the younger crowd, and colouring books these soft cover books are available at any chapters and provide a good mental workout as well

Projects Kits - Solar kits, bird houses, models - ships, cars, airplanes, knitting, and stitching are all great activities to work on with kids

Chick Lit - There is nothing worse than finishing a good book early in the holiday and then have nothing else to read. Here are some of my recommended summer reads:

• The Friday Night Knitting Club
• Lullabies for Little Criminals
• Glass Castles
• Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea
• Something Borrowed

DVD’s - a must for any cabin and with Rogers and Blockbuster selling off recent releases for a fraction of the price, owning is much cheaper than dragging the whole family to the theatre. Here are some of our favourites:

• Devil Wears Prada
• Enchanted
• Indiana Jones Series
• Star Wars
• Weeds Season 3 (Start at season one if you haven’t seen it and make sure the kids are asleep before you start watching it)
• Planet Earth
• P.S. I Love You
• Anne of Green Gables

Hopefully the weather will break and the prediction of this being the hottest summer in North America will come true. But just in case they’re wrong, I will be stocking up for the rainy season a.k.a. summer.

Cheers,

Julie

If you happened to miss Wednesday’s Globe and Mail article, Retro Cuisine Goulash Goes Haute, then you likely aren’t aware that crock-pots are making a comeback. According to the article “The crock-pot is back transforming cheap, cuts of meat…into fashionable home dinners.”

I have been crock-potting for the last 11 years, largely a result of my husband. He crock-potted his way through university. We are still using his original pot and the recipe book that came with it.

While the crock-pot is usually reserved for cold nights and comfort food, it’s a great appliance to have at the cabin. You can make dinner in the morning, leaving you free to enjoy a good book or your guests.

One of my favourite dishes is Braised Lamb Shanks - think Osso Buco made with red wine.

Ingredients - makes 6 servings

• 1 cup dry red wine
• 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth
• 2 heaping tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons kosher or coarse sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 5 to 6 pounds lamb shanks, not trimmed of fat
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 medium yellow onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut in 1/4-inch slices
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
• 2 heaping tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Directions

In a large skillet, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add lamb and cook until lightly browned on both sides. Transfer to slow cooker.

In a small bowl mix the red wine, chicken broth, mustard, salt, and pepper and place in the insert of the slow cooker. Layer the shanks in the insert so they fit. Scatter the remaining ingredients around and on the shanks. Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 hours. Use tongs to reverse the position of the shanks, top to bottom. Reduce the setting to LOW and cook for an additional 6 hours.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the shanks to a serving platter. Skim the fat from the cooking juices, taste, and add salt and pepper, if needed. Pour the juices over the shanks, and serve. Alternatively, puree juices in a food processor and then simmer for 5 minutes in a saucepan. Pour over meat and serve on a bed of egg noodles.

Cheers,

Julie

PS - Did you know peeking or removing the crock-pot lid adds 20 minutes to your cooking time?

The chalkboard signs advertising “Fresh Halibut” are starting to appear; another sign that spring is finally here. Despite living on the west coast I’m not a big lover of fish and will go out of my way to avoid salmon at all costs. That said, I have mastered the art of making fish taste good.

Today’s menu is one of my favourite west coast meals: Halibut with Mayonnaise Dressing, Baby Potatoes with Fresh Dill and Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Vinegar.

Roasted Halibut with Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients:

• 4 6 to 7 oz pieces of halibut (I like nice thick pieces so avoid the tail pieces)
• 3/4 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise
• 1/4 marmalade jam or citrus jam like apricot
• sea salt to taste

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pat the fish dry with a paper towel and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. In a measuring cup, stir in mayonnaise and jam. Mix well and pour over the halibut pieces, coating the top and sides. Bake at 400 for 10 - 15 minutes (will vary depending on the thickness of the fillets.) Serves four.
Baby Potatoes with Dill

• 12 - 16 new potatoes
• fresh dill
• 2 tbsp butter
• sea salt

Wash potatoes and steam in a pot. Once cooked, drain pot and add butter, chopped dill and sprinkle of sea salt. Once butter’s melted pour over potatoes, coating them evenly and serve immediately. Makes four servings.

Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Vinegar

• 1 pound fresh asparagus (12 to 14 medium), trimmed and peeled
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 500°F. In a large shallow baking pan toss asparagus with oil and salt and pepper to taste until coated well. Roast asparagus, shaking pan every 2 minutes, until tender and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and drizzle vinegar over asparagus, shaking pan to combine well. Sprinkle with fresh parmesan and serve immediately. Serves four.

These dishes are very simple to make and they taste delicious. Depending on where you purchase your vegetables and fish, it might even qualify for the 100 Mile Diet.

Cheers,

Julie