dilly dilly!

No, I’m not tapping into Bud Light’s silly theme of a few years ago (1).  A few weeks back, when the notion to write this just started, Mother Nature was easing along into the Michigan  growing season.  A trip to the Farmers’ Market found mostly prepared products but very little actual fresh produce.  Michigan moves slowly, even in June, and after those glorious asparagus spears, there’s not much fresh out of the ground, although those strawberries make a splash.  The peas come next, snap, shell, and snow.  Some vendors shell out some peas, at a price.  But seeing those peas, for me, makes me want to make that classic spring dish: dilly peas and new potatoes.  Those itty-bitty potatoes show up about the same time.  How convenient.  The dish is an excellent accompaniment to any of those white fish you might want to saute or poach.   I’ve included some recipes for this at the bottom.

Here’s the (well-used) recipe for peas and new potatoes.  It helps that dill is coming up fresh about the same time.

But that recipe presents problems in our household.  Early last year, Kathy signed up for the “PhD weight loss program” (1).  There are many components to it, but clearly the glycemic index (rise in glucose produced by any food) is a target (2).  Good bye starches, noodles, rice, and potatoes!

We’ve been rescued by another white vegetable, the cauliflowere (3).  And such was to be by this late Spring treat.  Here’s the alternative we came up with:

Trust me.  I love me my dilly peas and new potatoes, but this is terrific.

Now that you’ve got that perfect side dish, how about the fish?  If you’ve got a friend who’s handed you a fresh mess of perch, how about going all French on them?

Those slender white fish fillets come in many forms, but they all take well to a little nurturing in the pan.  Here are 3 of my favorites.

Should you come across a whole fish of one of these varieties, feel free to throw it on the grill.  Back in the days when we used to camp on 12-mile Beach in the Pictured Rocks, we’d get whole whitefish and lake trout from the Indians, and I’d fashion a wood stick mesh to hold them over the fire.  Tasty always, but there are many other ways to cook a fish.

References

1.   Dale Kovar.  The ENTIRE Bud Light – Dilly Dilly Saga!!.  YouTube.  https://youtu.be/7Nt1HrgjveI?si=FQSxPV3HAalc4osu

2. PhD Weight Loss.  https://myphdweightloss.com

3. University of Sydney.  Glycemic Index Research and GI News.  https://glycemicindex.com

4. Team Ultrahuman.  Cauliflower rice and glucose explained.  5/30/25 https://blog.ultrahuman.com/blog/how-to-access-your-hrv-data-on-apple-health/