A good friend of mine had a great saying years ago. He said, "When the fishing is good, you can feed em bread crumbs off the floor of the boat and they'll be happy. If if it isn't, lunch better be damn good." There is some truth to this, but I am my own worst enemy when it comes to serving good lunches. Once you raise the bar, it's not easy to lower.

Being a fishing guide, much of the day is out of your control. I spoke to this in an earlier post I wrote you can see here.

I did a little cooking last night in preparation for spring steelheading trips last night. I really like lunch to be something special, not only for the guests but for myself.

Last March, I wanted to fish one day, but the weather was miserable outside. Instead, I made enough soup and froze it for my upcoming steelhead trips. I didn't go the whole hog last night, but I did make one of the Three I'll be offering to my folks this spring. I like hot soup and either a sandwich, pioneer sausage on a bun or a burger for the spring steelhead stuff, depending on the day and the river. Add in a few snacks and a River Coffee and it's a pretty satisfying day.

I am a product of my father and I like to make soups the way he wants to eat them. If he's having soup, it better be loaded with the goods. Smokey Sausage and Lentil was the choice last pm. I had a whole ham in my hands at the grocery store for Split pea and ham soup, but I thought I'd ease into it and I also didn't want to tackle eating a whole ham by myself.

I also had a bunch of apples I wanted to use up, so I made a few "Apple crisps" as well to get rid of them. You'll likely never get your lips on these. If I only had an oven. . . . . .naaaaaaw I better not even open up this subject.