The hybrid kits are growing fast and are now a month old. The weights this week are: 490g, 590g, 483g, 567g, 529g, 531g, 515g and 454g. That’s a total increase from last week of 2130g which means they more than doubled in weight.
Monthly Archives: June 2014
Copycat Costco Seafood-Stuffed Salmon
This is based on the real components used in Costco stuffed salmon, except the kind of gross Stove Top Stuffing mix has been replaced with natural ingredients. I love this dish and I know my mom loves it too! It’s actually very simple to put together and produces far better results than the store bought version. It’s easy to get the three main seafood ingredients if you have a boyfriend with a little fishing boat and you live on Vancouver Island. I’m so lucky!
Copycat Costco Stuffed Salmon
6 wild salmon filet portions (plus salt and pepper to season)
1 cup cooked white or brown rice (1/2 cup uncooked rice + 1 cup water)
1 cup fresh cooked crab meat
1 cup fresh cooked prawns, chopped roughly
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 T salted butter
1/2 large yellow onion, minced
1-2 large garlic cloves, minced
4 T mayonnaise
1/2 cup grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 t fresh ground pepper, ground sage, ground rosemary, celery seed
1 t kosher salt, paprika, dill (1 T fresh), parsley (1 T fresh)
1 T fresh lemon juice plus lemon wedges for garnish
1 T olive oil
1/4 t cayenne (optional)
Rinse rice and cook or use leftover rice. Saute onion in butter on medium-high heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for one more minute. Add breadcrumbs and spices and toss well, saute for one more minute. Transfer to bowl and add the rest of the ingredients except the olive oil and the salmon. Mix well.
Slice a slit lengthwise down the middle of each salmon filet and divide your portions of stuffing into balls, pressing them firmly into the centers of each steak. Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium-high, season your salmon with salt and pepper and cook for about 5-7 minutes on each side depending on thickness and desired doneness. Allow to rest off heat for 3 minutes before serving. Garnish with lemon wedges.
Serves six but uncooked extras will keep in the fridge for up to three days, so dinner for two for three days in a row, maybe?
Catch of the Day
Today after a long day of work I was surprised with a most wonderful gift, a huge Chinook salmon, freshly caught for me by my very talented boyfriend. We don’t have a scale, but he seemed to us both to be about 17 pounds. He has now been cleaned and dressed, and shares shelf space in the fridge with fresh Red Rock and Dungeness crab, spot prawns and tiger prawns, and beautiful rock cod and kelp greenling filets, all caught by the two of us in the past two days. I plan to use the salmon, crab and prawns to make a copycat Costco stuffed salmon. If it works we will be eating a lot of them, I can promise you.
Tomorrow we have a full, fun day of fishing planned and I will be collecting some sea asparagus at the marina as a side dish. The poultry may get to try some if there’s any left over. They’ve been very happy to clean up all the fish heads and guts for us in the meantime. Here’s hoping for calm seas!
Breeding Day
Today was Scorch’s inauguration as a breeding buck. He’s grown a lot since I bought him, and he’s a laid-back Californian boy. He was bred to Esther the Creme d’Argent and Samphire, my other Californian. He was excellent with the ladies and I could tell they liked him as they lifted right away. He’s big but he’s gentle. Looking forward to my first litter of hybrid Creme/Californian kits, and hopefully a nice litter of purebred Californians. It will be Samphire’s first litter, so anything or nothing could happen.
Muscovy Ducklings at Six Weeks
The ducklings have been with us for for almost two weeks now and are settling in very well. Today, much of the coop floor is being excavated by the hard-working boyfriend and we’re going to lay at least a foot of woodchips down. This should help cut down on the mud. Bonus is that all the manure-rich material that was dug out went straight into my tomato and tomatillo beds.
If all goes as planned, we’ll have more Muscovy ducklings hatching out the beginning of July. It’s going to be very ducky around here!
Hybrid Kit Weights – 3 Weeks
Although I’ve been breeding rabbits for awhile now, I’ve never done weekly weigh-ins. Since I may keep one of the hybrid does, I’m curious how they compare to other rabbits, so I’m going to try it with this litter.
Esther’s hybrid kits are a day shy of three weeks old today. The recorded weights are 240g, 289g, 227g, 240g, 212g, 300g, 253g and 268g.
You can see the variation in coat color very well now. The kits from this litter are less consistently colored as her previous ones, and I quite like the lighter, reddish ones.
For Sale
I sexed all the older kits today and so now they’re up for sale. Rosalind the Silver Marten decided she didn’t like me this time and threw seven bucks, two does and one I’m pretty sure is a buck, but not positive. One doe has already been sold. The other doe is the runt, who survived despite everything. One buck is reserved and the other six are for sale for $20 each.
Tuna likes me more and gave me four does and four bucks. I don’t need any Standard Rex bucks so they are all up for sale. I have one Self Black, one Blue Otter and two Black Otters for $20 each. I’ll be holding on to the does for another couple of weeks or so until I make my final decision on who will be staying on as a brood doe to replace Io.
Delicious Little Quails
My hard-working boyfriend will be visiting me tomorrow, and I know he’s been itching to try some quail.
My last hatch was about 55% males and so today the extras had to go. They will no longer be calling out for pumpkin pie, as I like to interpret the Coturnix crow. I also have fresh rabbit and Muscovy duck breast resting in the fridge so I’m hoping to satisfy some gustatory lustfulness this trip. I hope he’s hungry! I’m not too worried…
With quail this fresh, it’s hard to do much more than add salt and fresh pepper and saute in butter. The taste is like juicy, tender filet mignon wrapped in bacon with just a touch of gaminess. I know someone’s mouth will be watering as they read this, see you tomorrow Stew!
Sexing the Short-Listed Rexes
Here you can see my cage with the six potential Standard Rex keepers. I am planning to keep one doe, although I’d love to keep more. Standard Rexes are really lovely rabbits, personality-wise. Not to mention their beautiful, unique fur.
I sexed them today, and to my delight I have four does and two bucks. The Self Black is a buck, and so is one of the Blue Otters. The other two Blue Otters, including the largest, and friendliest with the best markings is also a little doe. Jackpot!
So basically, unless something happens I will be keeping this little girl. I’d love to keep the black buck, but who am I kidding, I already have plenty of bucks. That’s the problem with having too many different breeds and wanting to keep them pure.
I did a little posing with them and they all seem to have fairly good body type, although some look a little long in the shoulder. Tuna, their mom is a very nicely-proportioned girl but their sire Timmy is kind of a mess in that department. He’s just a pet store bunny after all.
So now I have to think of a fitting name for this lovely girl. Ideas?
Week Two – Hybrid Kits
Esther’s hybrid kits are all doing very well. I haven’t lost any and I don’t plan to. I’ve been giving them lots of fresh blackberry bramble, dandelions and grass like I did with the last two Rex and Silver Marten litters, as it seems to have done them all good despite fears of introducing greens to kits too early. Esther has been eating greens regularly throughout her pregnancy so I’m not too worried. It saves me food costs and helps to tame the babies as they look forward to my opening the cage every day for treats. These babies are a bit young for that yet, but they’ve already started nibbling on leaves. I also just really like to stick it to the blackberries since they think they own the place.
The kits are all agouti, as usual, although some are darker and some are more reddish than others. I can tell they’re well fed and happy because they are very complacent about being held.
Abernathy's Rabbitry 