Full Moon on Wednesday Night

The August full moon is called the Full Sturgeon moon, in honor of the Native Americans who lived in areas able for hunting fish. The August full moon was the best time of the year for the catch.

I don't have anything else to say about that except that tonight I made a simple fish dinner that we have been making for 10 years. We learned how to do this when we were on vacation many years ago at a small island in the Exumas (chain of islands in the Bahamas). There is an island called Stocking Island and we'd would boat on over to it from Georgetown in the 18 foot rental boat. It has private houses (many, many more now I'm sure) and an incredible beach on the Atlantic side with a half-buried crashed small plane in the water from the drug-running years in the 70's. It also has Kenny Rolle who served us lunch several times in his restaurant which has a few tables and a small bar and he was the only one there. Lunch was either fresh conch salad, or fish in foil that he'd caught that day. It would be rare to have more than two or three other people there. The conch were in the nearby bay, tied together with a rope so they would not get away. We had a lesson on how to remove the conch, and what parts to toss in the water to the sting rays hanging out by us in one foot of water and that the penis could be eaten for virility (Kenny liked to talk a lot). The fish in the foil packet would be placed on a small grill on the sand and once the fish is poached lunch would be ready. And now that I think of it we were there, with another couple, the first week of August and it was also a full moon. Weird.

Fish in foil for two:
--1 lb or so of fish such as grouper, tilapia, sea bass, etc.
--two small potatoes, cut thin
--one large carrot, sliced thin
--some sliced inion
--one green pepper, sliced in pieces
--sea salt and seasoning such as old bay
--lemon wedges
Layer the vegetables as listed above onto a large piece of foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray or just put olive oil on it (I lay down two overlapping sheets of foil). Sprinkle salt/pepper/seasoning as desired.
Add the fish on top in large pieces.
Add in about 1/2 cup of water and some lemon juice.
Fold the foil so that it is all closed. Put it on the grill for about 20 minutes. We close our grill.
Then when my husband brings it in the house, I usually have to put it back on the grill because it is not cooked enough...
Open up the packet and spoon the goodies and the broth into a shallow dish. Enjoy!

When I think of sturgeon I think of caviar, or roe (eggs). Hmmm, eggs, puberty, full moon... Last night we called the boys out to the screened porch for a "family conference". School starts on Monday and the furious, non-stop video gaming will be gone from weeknights, homework will be done first, rooms cleaned, dishwasher unloaded, You-Oldest will help Middle if he needs any middle school brother-type support, etc. And then my husband began The Talk which in our house the boys get in 3rd grade. And for support and a good reminder to them, the older boys were present too. He started by asking our 3rd grader what does it mean when we talk about bodies changing and his answer was, "It means puberty is starting and in 4th grade I will want to wear deoderant". (how old is this kid? This talk won't have to take long). I left and went into the kitchen to make popcorn. That fish dinner was good, it was too healthy and I was hungry again. From the kitchen I saw our youngest all ears, smiling, and asking questions and talking as usual. The hubs used hand gestures as is his style. And he added that we talk about these things in our family, and other families don't, which is OK, but we don't discuss these things with kids at school, and bodies are private, and you don't talk about anyone else's body. And I felt a ping inside with a little ache that he was my baby and now he has even more knowledge and he sleeps with a bunch of flippen stuffed animals and will he feel weird tonight and will he still want nightly book reading and a snuggle. All that good snuggle stuff still happened, and I have to remember they will always be my boys even though they keep getting older.