fish – A Home by the Sea

Salmon Pie Recipe

Preheat Oven to 180 C (350F)

Cheesy Pastry Crust Ingredients

1.5 cups Plain flour

1/2 teaspoon Paprika

125 g Butter

1 cup grated Cheddar or firm Cheese (substitutes are fine as long as it isn’t a cheese that melts too much such as mozzarella)

Rub the butter into the flour using a Food Processor but not so much that it turns into a ball (keep it crumbly)

Add the grated cheese and mix through the pastry.

Set aside 1/4 of the mix to reserve for the pie topping

Press the remainder into an 8-9 inch pottery, or glass, pie dish until it covers the base and sides to form the pastry shell.

Filling Ingredients

220 gram (around 8 oz) can cooked Red or Pink Salmon, preferably boneless

3 Eggs

375 grams Sour cream (13 oz)

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped Chives

2-3 drops of Tabasco sauce (optional)

1/2 cup grated Cheese (extra)

Drain and flake salmon and combine with the rest of the filling ingredients

Place the combined mix into the pastry shell

Crumb the reserved portion of the pastry crumbs on top

Bake 40 – 50 minutes at 180 C (350 F) or until golden brown on top

Delicious served hot or cold the next day with a green salad.

I imagine it started off so well.

There you were, sitting by the side of the lake, on a saturday night, admiring the moon reflecting on the water, the tide gently lapping a romantic lullaby in your ears.

The night was young and you got carried away in the moment, perhaps with your loved one by your side?

But did you remember to take your rubbish with you, when you left?

This sight greeted me on my walk this morning at 6am.

An almost empty can of whisky, a plastic bottle half filled with juice, and some leftover food in a single-use plastic bag.

Dear Litterbug:

If I knew where you lived,

I would gladly return your left belongings to your door.

Did you not realize perhaps that this lake opens out to the sea? A sea where marine animals and fish live? Someone’s else’s home?

When you finished eating your take out meal, (or take away, if you are an Australian), did you not walk directly past the bin? It takes but a second, to look and check for a nearby rubbish bin/trash can and dispose of your waste in a bin that waits there just for that sole purpose. A bin, which has been put there for your convenience. A bin which you might even pay for, with your taxes, or as part of your council rates.

Did you not see the location of the bin was a mere 10 – 20 steps behind you, depending on your height, of course?

Your thoughtless act of carelessness contributes to contamination of our waterways with plastic wastes.

Thanks to you, it will take 20 years for that one plastic bag to break down in the environment and even after that, will still pose a threat to fish and other aquatic life, entering their bodies in the form of micro-plastics.

Fish or aquatic animals, that you, yourself, might eat one day. This means you will also ingest micro plastics in to your gut. Just like this whale. Plastic didn’t do him any good.

If you are a turtle, whale, dugong, or larger marine animal, you might ingest the whole plastic bag, and who could blame you, as bags do look like jelly fish. For these creatures, the consequences are fatal.

All because you forgot or couldn’t care, to dispose of your leftover waste in a responsible manner.

Plastic Waste:
According to an estimate, every year Americans use approximately 1.6 million barrels of oil just for producing plastic bottled water. Plastic waste is one of many types of wastes that take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills.
Plastic bags take 10-20 years to decompose, while plastic bottles take 450 years.

Aluminum Cans:
Every minute, every day, more than 120,000 aluminum cans are recycled only in America. But, at the same time, every three-months, enough aluminum cans are thrown away in America that can rebuild the entire American commercial air fleet.
Aluminum cans take 80-200 years in landfills to get completely decomposed.
environment.about.com

Be a responsible citizen, your planet needs you to be one.

My 2020 plastic audit for the lake near my home continues.

Do you want to conduct your own plastic audit?

Join me in documenting the amount of waste you find in your local environment.

Make people take notice.

Take a Helping Hand Grabber Tool, (so that you don’t have to touch the rubbish), and dispose of it responsibly, for the folks who haven’t yet developed that level of thoughtfulness.