Salmon with Dill Sauce and Arugula Salad

Friday October 19

We found a mysterious package from a place called Sunnyland Farms on the porch on Friday when we got home. At first we thought it was a mistake, but then we found "greetings from Helene" on the return address. Inside, we found a two bags of pecans and another of chocolate-covered dried apricots, so a handful of salted giant pecans served as the perfect appetizer as we cooked dinner.
We took a nice-piece-fish, a salmon fillet in this case, and pan-seared it. Still a little frozen, but this worked to our advantage. We crisped the skin side, flipped it, added the traditional splash of wine, covered it. Only a few minutes got it au point: cooked all the way through, but with the center still tender and moist.
The sauce was the simplest: snipped fresh dill from the garden, a swirl of cream, and a dot of butter at the end.
Accompanying the fish was a fresh-picked salad of arugula (boy, this stuff keeps coming back) and the first of the Amish deer's tongue lettuce crop, sown in September by our student and share-cropper, Allison. Ohio tomatoes from the Farmer's Market and a little balsamic vinaigrette went on top of that, to cut the pepperiness of the arugula.

And to end, we had Helene's gift of chocolate-covered apricots for dessert.