I envy your situation. Seafood is very expensive and they are seldom on sale.

Consider what I have gotten for the holidays:

Ducks - $1.99 a lb with an additional $2.00 off each discount.

Leg of lamb - $2.99 a lb

Chicken quarters - $0.59 a lb.

Whole chicken - $0.99 a lb.

Prime rib roast - $4.99 a lb.

dcarch

I think seafood can be reasonable with a bit of searching and portion control.
The Baccala salad uses 6-7 oz and serves 5-6 as an appy. Cod is 5-7 a lb now.

We are off work till after the new year and have been enjoying the cooking process together. More than the actual eating...but successes are a delight. The Baccala was a planned app for a later split shell steak but it was so good it became the meal and again for breakfast...

Making an appetizer is never a usual thing except for maybe a sunday. A scallop app is usually 3 each but again with serving of grains and/or a salad/veg, its a meal.
Shrimp, depending on the count size is usually 5 each or 6 if small. A side app with pasta, and a veg, etc. A bit expensive but 2-3 in a chowder with a couple scallops?
A bit of cod...not expensive and bought frozen, just take out a few and thaw.

The salmon fillet was about a lb and a half. The long tail end i cut off while frozen....maybe 1/2 lb, little less, and re-froze for a chowder with mixed seafood or a
bouillabaisse.

Whole local sardines are about 1.40lb. I'm not a fan so DH gets 2 and i'm fine with one with a few grilled shrimp...sometimes we grill sausage along with for a mixed grill.
Had a grinding sausage session yesterday so we will be grilling this afternoon in this heat wave...bizarre 65 today.

Fairway has the odd green/brown Kumato tomatoes right now at 3lbs for 5$. (usually 4.99lb)
I'm a sucker, but they are crisp and lemony. The perfect holiday treat with seafood.

My niece's husband is Italian so she and her family made a Seven Fishes dinner. One of the fishes was Goldfish!

Perhaps Sweets are the focus at the moment. And most have their holiday meals planned...
I'll post this any who in segments...
The ingredients are quite simple. A bit of this and that from holiday shopping...
These are things i often have in the veggie drawer...
Soon to be Baccala...

Goldfish, haha. We have a fish shaped cast iron baker that makes five little fish corn breads.

We've been snacking on this one while taking advantage of the odd warm weather and rebuilding a dry stone front step. Did not think i would get to it till spring...

Layering in a qrt caning jar starting with cucumber, red onion, parsley, celery inner stalks with leaves, and the brussel sprout leaves...green olives and capers...

Marinade is juice of half a lemon, 1/4 cup ac vinegar, tbsp grainy mustard, tsp or tbsp to taste of a sweet, i used maple syrup, and a couple tbsp of good ev olive oil.

Short simmer of the cauliflower, then into a hot cast iron with three cloves of garlic slices and artichoke hearts to give a good roasted flavor.

Used the simmering cauliflower water for the cod to cook five min.

Fish cooks quickly. Just a few minutes. Any firm fish works fine. I'm making another this morning with shrimp and salmon. Using fresh dill along with parsley.

That was enough veggie for about three qrts.

{{!gwi}}

Roasting red pepper...just used about a quarter.

Slices of red pepper, corse flaked cod, a bit more parsley, the garlic/cauliflower/artichoke all
packed in jar. A last squeeze of lemon.
The marinade only comes up the jar barely halfway. That's best. Into the fridge overnight giving a flip upside down and back a few times to let the marinade flow over the fish and top veg. Only want the bottom cukes and veg to sit in the pickle.
Its a pretty tart pickle marinade and could be made with less vinegar, thinned with water, but we like it a bit puckery.
That was about 7 oz of cod.
Met Lydia briefly last Saturday and glanced at her new book. She has a simple fish salad that uses can tuna. A can is about 5oz once emptied of oil/water.
We prefer alot of veggie.

That's quite a pictoral, and the end result looks like something I'd just dig into straight in the jar with a long fork throughout the day!

You say you'll be making more with shrimp and salmon, and that has me wondering if there's any benefit to using salt cod over fresh fish? I've only worked with salt cod once and it was pretty awful. Surely the cook was to blame because the reason I was using it was to try to make something I had been served elsewhere. But that experience made me a little afraid to buy it again.

Anyway, I'm off to Fairway myself now. I saw those Kumato tomatoes yesterday, might buy some. But my real mission is to pick up a bunch of seafood. Clams, shrimp, sea scallop, squid, maybe some mussels. I've suddenly been put in charge of Christmas Eve dinner. Small group, traditionally a simple meal, so I thought I'd throw together a quick moqueca. Hopefully the seafood line isn't too bad, but it can't be worse than the butcher line was yesterday! Worst case, I'll turn around and go to Fresh Market. Spending a few more bucks to maintain sanity sounds like a bargain on a day like today.

Fairway had nice squid last weekend. My NewEngland scallops are from another market.
I wanted frozen seafood so i can use it throughout the week.
Fairway has a nice white balsamic, very thick almost like honey. We had the cod salad for lunch yesterday over baby arugula and the Kumatoes with just a thin stream of the balsamic.

I've salted cod many ways. A quick salting using fresh cod is kosher salt, a 1/4 cup for 2-3 hours in glass in the fridge. It will draw a bit of water and make a slurry rather quickly. Rinse and soak in milk or yogurt milk, (non-fat plain yogurt mixed with water), over night.
Most of my cod this season was in salt for 3-4 days in a slurry created by the salt and water it extracted. I then rinsed and soaked in water 24 hours, portioned and frozen.
-Soaking in milk again before using.
Not a full 'salt' cod that has been air dried. Does not have the 'fishy' deep flavor of a dry salt that i love but the quality does make a difference in a true dry salt fish. Lots of rinsing and a final bath of milk/yogurt helps.

A thick fillet from a large watery fish like cod does benefit from a dry salt brine if only an hour. A good chef or fish-n-chip joint will do just that to extract some surface water before cooking. Similar reasoning to dry brining meats. Though much less time is needed.

I'm making the shrimp/salmon this morning. Adding a few scallops. It will be ready this afternoon with just a few hours in marinade, best left overnight, but need to keep the fork out as it is really for tomorrow...a bit seafood overkill having Bouillabaisse tonight.

That looks really good, the Moqueca. Brazilian.
I just glanced a recipe from Saveur. I even have a Thai basil plant that has survived in a downstairs north window.
Found some cod cheeks in the freeze.

I think you'll be ready for MEAT after Christmas! Here's my seafood for tonight...

!!! yum.
Not needing meat yet...
Seafood Insalada Mista

Crispy CornPone Fishes

Baked ham with collard greens... : )
(on my grandma Nellie's fish platter)

Well, you went from bacalao to collards, LOL, quite a jump!

Elery worked in an Italian grocery when he was a teenager in Monroe, Michigan. He loves the salt cod, I haven't quite developed a taste for it but I've tried a couple of times. Don't hate it, but it isn't my favorite, although I love seafood and fish of all kinds. Elery would like yours, especially with the artichoke, he loves the stuff, calls it some Italian name.

Here we just had beef slaughtered so our freezer has venison, the last of the pork from last year, a couple of heritage turkeys, homegrown chickens, the last of the salmon from the fall run and 478 lbs. of fresh beef. Supper was porterhouse, we had shrimp in the freezer but it's about $10 a pound here, we'll have it some night when we'll appreciate it and not in competition with the steak.

I do love not having to go to the grocery store for supper, but I haven't figured out how to grow my own seafood yet, other than the local fish.

I also have a tub of oysters, I've got to do something with those...

Annie

I do miss having oysters. A holiday tradition growing up on the EasternShore.

The itty-bitty ham was intended for New Years. I did not hide it but did not mention it...lol.
He found it and wanted it after all the seafood. Anything goes during the holidays...and also hate grocery shopping so we take fun and pride in creating what we have on hand from summer garden harvest and meats we have smoked, etc.
...and then, after seafood shopping, and misc why-nots, the freezer is full again, darn.

Annie (i'm an annie also)