Go Fish!

The Fishing Opener in Minnesota (a big thing here - it is the "Land of 10,000 Lakes") is always Mother's Day weekend. I'm not even going to comment on that fact - I could have too much fun with it and I'll never get to the food. The Governor always picks a lake and goes fishing in it and I guess it is a big deal. I never thought about it until the Governor picked White Bear Lake to open the fishing season. White Bear Lake! A once sleepy resort town where gangsters and the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald mingled. A lake of Legends from the Chippewa and the Lakota. A lake with enough charm that Mark Twain rewrote the old legend and it is now inscribed at Matoska Park - a park of bicycles, dogs, Frisbees, ticks and a time machine that takes you back in time by gazing at the lake.

Over night, White Bear Lake was planted, streets were closed, parking not possible and the Lion's Club fed 5,000 people. As I bravely tried to get to the grocers. I came across this by the docks:

Yep. Green elephants for the fishing opener. O-kay. I know the governor is a Republican - but maybe a walleye? A northern? A sturgeon? A fish????? And where do they go next? What do you do with elephant topiaries once they have outlived their use? Food for thought.
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And speaking of food, I did think fish was appropriate for the weekend even if we were not going fishing. I found some nice halibut (I couldn't find walleye in the stores this weekend - go figure - the fisherman are loading their coolers with frozen walleye - in case nothing bites???). And I found a lovely recipe at ALL RECIPES: Halibut with Crusted Hazelnuts over Creamy Garlic Potatoes.

I used less butter than was called for and could have cut even more of it. And I could have used more garlic -but that's me - I can always use more garlic. All in all - it was just fishy enough for the Fishing Opener, easy enough for a busy weekend and warm enough for a wet, cold, rainy day. Oh! Did I forget to mention that Fishing Opener weekend is always chilly and rainy? Not a lot of fish get caught. Perhaps that's why the grocers do a landmark business selling fish during the opener. You can't go home empty-handed. Not after spending Mother's Day weekend fishing.