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I’m probably not terribly unique in that I know how good fish is for me and yet I don’t eat nearly enough of it. Which is to say I usually fail to consider seafood when contemplating what to make for dinner. It somehow doesn’t register as a versatile protein with which I can get creative, which is silly considering how many excellent seafood options there are to be had. I think what it comes down to is my own limitations in thinking up what to do with it.

I can say without a doubt that the two sea dwellers I’ve made at home most frequently over the years would be shrimp and salmon. While either can be prepared numerous ways, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and to lose interest after too much of the same. And yet I’ve steamed clams and mussels, basted crab legs, and seared scallops. I’ve grilled trout, broiled tuna, and fried halibut. I’m not inexperienced with seafood at home, I just haven’t felt comfortable enough with it to incorporate it fully into a weekly meal.

Enter Good Fish.

While working on this incredible cookbook, I found myself wanting to try all of the recipes. Every single one sounded amazing, and I even had the pleasure of tasting a few of the dishes when attending a photo shoot. (This former scallop-hater started singing a different tune after reluctantly accepting a bite of the Scallop Crudo.)

Now I frequently refer to the cookbook for ideas, and more than that, I refer to it for reassurance. Author Becky Selengut doesn’t give me the chance to doubt my ability to pick out the best piece of fish (the information is right at my fingertips), and she encourages me to get outside my comfort zone and give something different a place at my table. She’s even created a series of videos for preparation techniques that are hard to explain in writing. On top of that, I can feel good about eating the seafood featured in the book because they are all sustainable choices. There is no excuse for being ignorant anymore.

Check out Becky’s seafood technique videos at http://www.goodfishbook.com/gfb/index.asp

And so it was with confidence and excitement that I made my first trip to Mutual Fish to purchase a fillet of black cod—a fish I had yet to try. If Becky says it’s so rich that it could be substituted by a stick of butter, then it has to be pretty incredible, right?

I was not disappointed. The flesh was soft, moist, fatty, and smooth. It was definitely buttery, and yet the flavor was so subtle (not at all fishy) that the meat really acted as more of a base for the other ingredients. If you haven’t tried it yourself, I highly recommend running home to do so immediately.

I fully intend to make every black cod dish in the book, and I won’t stop there. The mouthwatering recipes and glorious photographs have given me just the inspiration I need to make good fish (old standbys and newcomers alike) welcome in my kitchen on a more regular basis.

Roasted Black Cod with Bok Choy and Soy Caramel Sauce

Serves 4

5 ounces red cabbage, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
2 large bulbs bok choy, halved
2 small tomatoes, halved
Salt
4 green onions, white and green parts cut into 3-inch lengths
4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
4 teaspoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
4 slices lime
1 serrano chile, sliced (optional)
1 pound black cod fillet or steaks, cut into 4 equal portions
1/2 cup Soy Caramel Sauce*
4 cups cooked rice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

You’re going to make 4 separate piles on the foil. Each pile will get 1/2 cup cabbage, a bok choy half, a tomato half sprinkled with a little salt, and a quarter of the green onions. Drizzle each pile with 1 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar. Top with a lime slice and sprinkle with some chile pieces. Roast the vegetables in the oven for 20 minutes, or until they are soft and lightly browned around the edges. Keep the oven on.

Remove the pan from the oven, place one piece of black cod, skin side down, on each pile, and drizzle 1 tablespoon soy caramel sauce on each piece of fish. Roast for another 8 to 10 minutes or until a press of the finger reveals a sliding away, ever so gently, of the fish into the beginning of individual flakes. Serve with the rice and remaining soy caramel sauce.

Pairing: An Oregon pinot gris, such as Eyrie Vineyards 2007, Willamette Valley, or a Savennières from the Loire Valley in France.

*Soy Caramel Sauce is referenced in a couple of recipes in Good Fish and pairs well with any number of dishes. Pick up a copy of the book to get the recipe!

While fulfilling my science requirements at Western Washington University, I enrolled in Environmental Science 101. It was in a massive lecture-style classroom that was filled with at least 300 bodies. The professor was a young(ish) man who wore cargo pants and Merrell hiking shoes as a uniform of sorts—a far cry from the tweeds of a college professor cliché, but up in Bellingham it just seemed right. Every day before class our professor played Pearl Jam or Led Zeppelin while we took our seats. Although it was crowded and often stuffy in that lecture hall, the content made the class feel intimate, and it is one of the courses that has left the strongest impression on me, even nine years after it concluded.

Photograph by Clare Barboza

I found it easy to care about the topics in the class—overpopulation, pollution, deforestation—but what really hit home for me was learning about overfishing. When I learned about trawling (which consists of pulling a fishing net behind a boat along the ocean floor and often destroying sensitive habitats, upsetting the reproduction of a species, and unintentionally killing accidentally caught fish or “bycatch”), I was deeply alarmed. When I learned about surface long-lining (dragging lines with hooks along the top of the ocean, catching and killing unintended species such as turtles and birds), I was heartbroken. How, with as much access to technology and resources as we have, was a more conscientious method not implemented, and what could I do about it? It has been nine years since I took Environmental Studies 101, but the distaste lingered, so when I learned that Sasquatch Books was planning to publish Becky Selengut’s Good Fish, I was over the moon.

Overfishing is a topic with growing momentum. Documentary films and TV series, such as The End of the Line, The Cove, and the UK’s Big Fish Fight, as well as numerous websites are bringing more universal awareness to overfishing. But this does not mean that we need to stop eating fish altogether; after all, we know fish is tasty and full of the nutrients we need. But it has never been more important for people to start eating the right kind of fish or, if you will, the good fish.

There are so many simple things we can do, and Selengut is here to school the masses: purchase wild-caught salmon instead of farmed, avoid fish caught in Southeast Asia, ask your grocery store butcher or fish monger where their fish comes from. You can rest easy and eat well knowing you did your part. With Good Fish as my textbook, I now know which fish to buy, where to buy it, and how to cook it.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is from a fairly ridiculous movie, but I find that I can apply it almost any situation: “You can’t change the world, but you can make a dent.” I still consider many of the things we discussed in that crowded and often stuffy lecture hall almost a decade ago, and I make them part of my daily practice. I hope many of my fellow students do as well, and I believe that if we all pitch in, we can make a pretty damn big dent.

The most charming memoir I’ve read in years, The Wisdom of the Radish turns the classic “small-town girl goes to the big city to seek her fortune” story upside down. Instead, Stanford-educated city girl, Lynda Hopkins, leaves the comforts of the city to start a small farm.

[Scroll to the bottom for PLANT A SEED contest instructions]

It isn’t glamorous, but Lynda describes her farming (mis)adventures with a sort of spunk and confidence that almost makes you want to leave everything behind and test yourself on a farm. It’s a comedy, with oversexed roosters and overflowing irrigation systems. It’s a tragedy, with murderous foxes and bug-destroyed crops. It’s a romance, with a dramatic, touching scene in the field at dawn, when . . . wait! I don’t want to spoil that part.

The Wisdom of the Radish is one of those rare nonfiction books with an engaging plot that could masquerade as fiction. Lynda writes like a cheeky girl next door; she makes starting a farm from scratch and raising unruly chickens sound like an amazing adventure story. But the book is also painlessly informative about plants, buying local, and the struggling field of small farming.

But most simply, it’s just a really good book. In one of my first weeks working at Sasquatch, I was assigned to do a backup read of the book right before it was sent to the printer. My boss probably thought I was the most dedicated employee ever: I read that book with such focus, even bringing it with me on my lunch break and reading it on the bus ride home. (Shh, don’t tell him it was just because I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading!)

The book also made me desperately want to go to my local farmers’ market. The small farmers in The Wisdom of the Radish are so real, so likable, and so hardworking that supporting local farmers just seems like the logical thing to do. Plus, I know they must have some juicy farming stories to share, just like Lynda.

Author Lynda Hopkins

So, the pressing question: what is the wisdom of the radish, anyway? I suppose you’ll have to read the book to find out.

***PLANT A SEED contest instructions:

Take inspiration from author Lynda Hopkins and enter our Plant a Seed contest. Send an email to custserv@sasquatchbooks.com with your mailing address and PLANT A SEED in the subject line. The winner will be chosen at random and will receive a collection of seeds from Lynda’s farm, Foggy River, as well as a copy of The Wisdom of the Radish. Best of luck!

For more on Lynda’s adventures, visit her farming blog: wisdomoftheradish.com.

Unless I’d lost a contact lens, I never thought I would find myself outside scanning the ground at 10 p.m. on a cold January night. But after reading The Secret World of Slugs and Snails: Life in the Very Slow Lane by David George Gordon, I decided to go on a snail hunt. I’ve always liked the little guys—they always seem so gentle and friendly—but I discovered a new fondness after reading this book.

I left my apartment building and headed down the street to the park, hoping to find some of these nocturnal creatures stuffing themselves on foliage. A few slime trails glittered in the LED streetlight’s glow. In The Secret World of Slugs and Snails, I had read how slugs and snails propel themselves by secreting mucus that allows them to easily slide over surfaces that defy imagination (including razor blades and sharp glass). This slime is even being used in cancer research as a way to target specific malignant cells without affecting surrounding healthy cells.

Every once in a while, I stopped and pushed aside some wet brown leaves with the toe of my shoe. My breath curled around the flashlight’s beam like steam around a train’s headlight in a film noir. I had nearly submitted to the cold and turned home when I pointed the beam at a wall, where the light fell upon a three-inch-long light grey slug with mottled stripes down its back. Deroceras reticulatum: the Grey fieldslug.

The little fellow in front of me stretched his eyes out, maybe wondering about the bright light that had interrupted his nighttime foraging. The skin that skimmed the concrete wall looked fragile and translucent—like veins in a leaf or the flesh of an orange. These tiny creatures are much more complex than anyone gives them credit for—they’re highly evolved to slowly and steadily survive in a world that rushes on above their heads.

My favorite anecdote in the book comes from Charles Darwin. He wrote of a pair of snails who were placed in a barren garden. The healthier snail left a trail of slime over the wall toward a more abundant garden next door. Observers assumed the snail had said sayonara to its weak buddy, but a day later, they were surprised to see the strong snail return to accompany its mate to the land of plenty.

As I made my way home, I thought about the coexistent nocturnal world I’d never taken the time to notice. If I hadn’t tried to look at the world on the slug’s level, would I have noticed the smell of the soil, the millipede hiding in the gravel, or the beautiful empty snail shell half hidden in the dirt?

David George Gordon will be at the Pacific Northwest Garden Show this Sunday 2/27 giving a seminar called Forging a Lasting Peace with Slugs and Snails at 2:15 PM.

He will also be speaking at Sky Nursery on Sunday 3/5 at 11 AM.

For more information about David George Gordon and a full list of his upcoming events, please check out his website: davidgeorgegordon.com.

While summer novels made us dream about our next Caribbean vacation, and fall cookbooks taught us how to make that delicious holiday fudge, the winter is the perfect time for those thick, satisfying reads you’ve been putting off all year.

You know the type: These are the books that you can disappear into for a few hours, curled up in your favorite chair, listening to the backdrop of rain and your cat purring, and learn something new about the world. Books where you’re constantly nodding your head and “hmm”-ing every time you read another interesting fact. The type of book that annoys your family and friends, as you keep interrupting them every few minutes, saying, Hey, listen to this! Did you know that…

David Douglas, the naturalist namesake of the infamous Douglas fir, thought roasted bald eagle was “very good eating”?

Or that…

His death–via a freak bull-attack–is shrouded in mystery and murder conspiracy theories?

Or that…

Seattle doctors don’t really just flirt and bicker like they do on TV?

So if you’re itching for your first rewarding winter read (and want to learn some fun facts to impress guests at your next cocktail party), try one of these books:

Like Grey’s Anatomy for the literary, The House of Hope and Fear gives the real behind-the-scenes look at Seattle’s biggest hospital. Audrey Young chronicles her years as an attending physician at Harborview Medical Center as she deals with the ecstasy and frustration of trying to help patients in a crowded, bustling urban hospital.

Charles Darwin may have made the strange creatures of the Galapagos Islands famous, but Washington’s famous naturalist, David Douglas, studied these animals a whole decade before Darwin. The Collector, recent PNBA Book Award winner, tells the engaging history of Washington’s natural past through Douglas’s escapades and adventures. Without having to survive on a diet of bald eagle, you can learn what it felt like to explore the Pacific Northwest when it was still wild, uncharted territory.

And now in paperback, both of these substantial, weighty reads will feel much lighter this winter… leaving one hand free for that steaming cup of coffee.

Sarah Asper-Smith created her bright and beautiful book Have You Ever Seen A Smack of Jellyfish? after learning that a group of ferrets is called a business. Delving deeper into the crazy collective nouns we use to describe the animal kingdom comes a book filled with colorful graphics and word combinations that are both fantastical and factual.

HOW TO PLAY:

Can you guess the words that describe these groups of animals?

Email us at custserv@sasquatchbooks.com under the subject CONTEST with your guesses and be entered to WIN:
• Sarah’s new book, Have You Ever Seen a Smack of Jellyfish?
• A tee shirt featuring Sarah’s artwork
• A collection of her beautiful note cards

Example:

Now it’s your turn….

GOOD LUCK, and don’t forget to check out Sarah’s new book, Have You Ever Seen a Smack of Jellyfish available now!

Here at Sasquatch Books, we are pleased to publish a number of Nikki McClure’s inspiring journals, including The First 1000 Days, Remember: A Seasonal Record, and Things to Make and Do. Her latest book, How to Cook a Perfect Day (available just in time for the busy holiday season) harkens back to Nikki’s early days as a paper-cut artist. Not only is it a pleasure to peruse, it also reminds us to take the time to breathe and savor the little moments.

The holidays are a notoriously hectic time full of bad-sweater-themed holiday parties, last-minute trips to the grocery store, and calendar pop-up reminders to DVR A Charlie Brown Christmas. Yet in this time of hustle and bustle, it has never been more important to have a moment of repose. Looking through How to Cook a Perfect Day, I found myself inspired to take a trip down memory lane and to consider: What would my perfect day taste like?

According to Nikki, everyone has a list of recipes that creates his or her very own perfect day. Mine would start off with my grandmother’s homemade challah bread French toast. There truly is nothing more comforting than thick slices of that fluffy, sweet, egg-battered bread.

Next would be a cup of strongly steeped Earl Grey tea with a tiny drop of cream and two spoonfuls of sugar, followed by a midday roasting of fresh pumpkin seeds with Cajun seasoning. The next item in my perfect day would be my secret recipe for spicy marinara sauce, a combination that leaves the air thick with the smells of Italy. (I just might take this sacred sauce recipe to the grave.) I would prepare jars of sauce for use on unexpectedly chilly nights.

For dinner, there would be a traditional Polish holiday feast (in my family, this is truly the most gluttonous meal of the year): fresh handmade Pierogi stuffed with onion, mashed potato, and farmer’s cheese, as well as the staple of any truly Polish household, Kapusta, a mild sauerkraut slowly cooked with bacon, fennel seed, and onion, and last but not least, smoked Kielbasa. Yum.

To finish off my perfect day I’d make Red, White, and Blue Parfaits with fresh strawberries from the garden, foraged wild blueberries, and perfectly sweetened whipped cream.

The wonderful thing about food is that it has the remarkable ability to bring us back to a moment. For me, these recipes are less about eating than they are about moments in my life that I treasure, just as each recipe in Nikki McClure’s How to Cook a Perfect Day is a genuine reflection of her life. She covers all of her favorites, from Lovely Gingerbread Cake to Nettle Soup, and each recipe carries with it a memory. This gem of a book truly inspires us to recall the meals that make life grand and encourages us to savor the taste of every perfect day.

I’ll admit that I floundered while trying to come up with a hook for this post about Something Fishy This Way Comes, the new collection of Alaskan artist Ray Troll’s humorous and scientifically accurate depictions of fish and the wild world of nature. I needed something that would lure blog readers to check out the book. My coworkers at Sasquatch baited me about how on earth I was going to write something that would capture in words the absurd, provocative, and downright bizarre world Troll creates with his paintings and drawings. Luckily, an editorial chum came up with an idea that I snagged. I’m not fishing for compliments, but I hope you don’t find it crappie . . .

As soon as you cast a glance at a Ray Troll classic like “Rebel Without a Cod,” you know you’re angling for a good time. And then you’ll witness how Troll’s combination of visual and verbal puns spawns such masterpieces as “Truth Is Stranger Than Fishin’” and “Kvetch and Release.” And while most of Troll’s subjects swim in oceans, rivers, and lakes, land-dwellers are not speared by his fiendishly clever mind, as you’ll see in “Curio City Killed the Cat” and “The Family That Preys Together Stays Together.” And just for the halibut, the author throws in his uniquely skewed takes on “Pulp Fishin’,” evolution, life and death, and much more.

Rebel Without a Cod by Ray Troll

But by now you’re tired of hearing me carp on and on about Something Fishy This Way Comes, and besides, reading words describing this amazing collection of Troll’s work is bassackwards—you need to pick up the book and see it for yourself. Walk, catch a bus, or ride your bicycle, but whatever you do, hurry to your local bookseller and reel in this whopper of a book!

When I heard that our editorial team wanted to create a new edition of Greg Atkinson’s classic cookbook, Northwest Essentials, I was a bit giddy. As head of the Sales and Marketing department, I knew Greg’s book would be a big success, since the original edition sold over 12,000 copies.

Original book cover, 1st edition, 1999

And as an avid home cook, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the new Northwest Essentials. (Because the original edition was so popular, we sold every last copy years ago, and before I knew it, there wasn’t even one to spare for my personal cookbook collection.) Senior Editor Susan Roxborough envisioned a simple and elegant visual look for the new edition and brought on the talented food photographer Clare Barboza to shoot color photographs for the book. Our former designer, Rosebud Eustace, designed the book, including this lovely cover, and now I finally have my very own copy. Cue my big smile.

New edition of Northwest Essentials, published October 2010.

The beautiful new package of Northwest Essentials is a perfect reflection of Greg’s cooking style: simple and elegant. I reach for Greg’s recipes time and again because they are always delicious and easy at the same time. His ingredient lists are usually short, playing a few flavors to their best expression, which is something I really appreciate when I come home hungry after work and want something that satisfies but doesn’t require elaborate or fussy preparation.

As the title suggests, Atkinson focuses on the Pacific Northwest’s essential ingredients like salmon, berries, wild mushrooms, and hazelnuts. One of the region’s early proponents of cooking in season, Atkinson provides more than 140 recipes for enjoying the best of our local foods. So far, everything I’ve tried from this cookbook has been a winner, including:

Filet of Salmon, Sautéed with Granny Smiths and Cider
Perfect Grilled Salmon with Blackberry Butter Sauce
Fettuccini with Smoked Salmon and Cream

Can you tell that I love salmon? I’ve also made:

Chicken Baked with Plums and Olives
Dream Enchiladas with Bacon and Orange Sauce
Mushroom Ravioli
Hazelnut Tart

Everything has turned out beautifully and gone immediately onto my mental “make again” recipe list. The Hazelnut Tart has already gone two rounds in my household and is on tap for round #3 on our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Last night I served it to an old friend and left the pie plate on the table as we talked into the night. Every now and then one of us would reach back to the pie plate and slice another sliver as we lingered over the table. These are recipes that make you grateful for all that you have and still keep you wanting more.