Another Mystery

A few years ago I got these bulbs from someone. It was either my mother or a neighbor's mother. I was told at the time that the bulb would send up foliage in the spring that would die back by summer; then in the fall, the bulb would send up stalks that would bear some pink lily-like flowers. I planted these about two or three years ago. Each year I did get the foliage just as they had said that I would, but there was never a stalk to be seen in the fall.

Well earlier this week as I was going to work, I see this:


I knew I was finally getting flowers. Oooo! What would they look like? I was giddy with anticipation!

This morning one of the buds finally opened up.


Interesting. Delicately beautiful. A little exotic - I like that.

But what are they?

Grilled Salmon

I usually don't buy fish that doesn't come prebattered or breaded (except tilapia - BEST FISH EVER!) but I saw this salmon fillet at our grocery store and it just looked so lovely. And it was on sale, so I bought it.



I was planning on cooking it similarly to the pike that I had done a while back. I ended up grilling it instead.

For seasoning I used sea salt, pepper, red wine (cabernet shiraz), and a sprinkling of cayenne pepper.

I have never grilled fish before, and I thought that the fish would get flaky and fall through the grill. So initially I had covered the grill in tinfoil. That didn't seem to work well for flipping the fish, so I tore it off. And you know what? The fish never stuck or started to fall apart - it was beautiful.



I grilled them on both sides until the fish was opaque all the way through. I think it was less than twenty, maybe less than fifteen, minutes total grilling time.



They were delicious! I had a small piece and my husband had a piece, and my son ate this whole plateful that you see here in the picture. He said it was the best fish that he had ever eaten. I would make this again.

I also made a caper sauce for this fish (my husband and son don't like it, but I do). I chopped up three roma tomatoes, added a couple tablespoons of capers, and a teaspoon each of lemon basil and pineapple mint (both from my garden). I heated this in a small sauce pan until the tomatoes were wilted. I thought that this went well with the fish even if I was the only one who would eat it!