Fried Fish.

So I've really been daydreaming about a good, old school fish fry. Mostly I've been thinking about how we used to go to The Big Foot Inn or Bayshore Lodge on our way to Lake Geneva for Friday Night Fish Fry when I was a kid – when I was a kid and absolutely HATED this ritual. Those long dinners with family friends were 90% begging for quarters to play video games... And I thought the fish was "gross".

Anyway, it suddenly dawned on me that I had some frozen fish, bread crumbs and oil at home, so why not make my own fish fry? This version is not the same as the thick-shelled, beer-battered kind I've been craving, and not nearly as good, but suddenly I was now daydreaming of a slice of light rye bread with a layer of butter folded over a fresh piece of fried walleye from shore lunch.

Hands down, the very best way to eat fried fish is to catch it in the morning, filet it on the shore, and cook it in an enormous cast iron skillet over an open fire outdoors for lunch. Even though it's already fried in oil, I always coat the bread in butter. The butter melts wonderfully into the bread, but the combo also prevents you from burning the hell out of the roof of your mouth when you can't wait to take a bite out of the piping hot fish. Holy Yum. When we go fishing in Canada, this is lunch every day for a week and I absolutely NEVER get sick of it.