Salmon

What do you get when you cross a salmon with a winter coat? Why, a midnight-blue salmon-skin jacket trimmed with luxurious Russian sable, of course! Icelandic designer Eggert Johannsson unveiled his (cleaned and scaled) visions of winterwear last week in a cavernous Washington ballroom, showing a collection of women's jackets made of salmon and perch in tomato, cranberry and lemon - hues, that is. To the amazement of the cheering audience, the fish-skin fabrics turned out to be as soft as suede and with nary a scent of swampy waters, briny seas or even tartar sauce.

Germano's Trattoria is now Germano's. The name change, according to Cyd Wolf, brings two separately named operations, the trattoria and Germano's Cabaret, under one umbrella. The name change comes with the launch of new menu for the cabaret that will feature daily specials, at the request of cabaret regulars, Wolf said. On the new cabaret menu are big plates like osso buco, lasgana, grillled salmon fillet and linguini puttanesca as well as lighter fare like personal pizzas, hamburgers and salmon burgers.

Sous Vide Salmon 2 5-ounce boneless, skinless salmon fillets Olive oil Sea salt Fresh ground pepper 2 fresh thyme sprigs Season the salmon with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Place a fresh thyme sprig on each fillet. Place the fish inside a gallon-sized zipper freezer bag. (Non-freezer plastic bags will be too thin.) Space the fillets at least 1 inch apart and press as much air as possible out of the bag. Submerge all but the top of the still-unsealed bag in a heavy pot of cool water.

NAME: Angus Earl of Havre de Grace OWNER: Bonnie and Darrell String HOW THEY MET: We visited a Bel Air golden retriever breeder. All of the puppies were carried upstairs in a laundry basket. AGE: 2 HOME: Havre de Grace BREED: Golden Retriever BEST TRICK: Angus turns on the TV by pushing the power button with his nose. FAVORITE ACTIVITY: Bounding into snowbanks to retrieve his Kong zinger toy and finding remote controls or telephones. FAVORITE FOOD: Angus loves grilled salmon skin with delectable bits of juicy salmon clinging to the skin.

Not being terribly "continental," we Americans tend to hit the supermarket once a week, rather than shopping for fresh stuff for dinner every day. Hence, the pantry. In your arsenal of fall-back foods to use for dinner when you can't get to the supermarket, there are undoubtedly a few cans of things designed to engender a quick family supper. Soups, undoubtedly. And tuna, most likely. Another goodie you might want to keep in stock is canned salmon. Canned pink or red salmon is even lower in calories than fresh salmon (less fat)

POACHED SALMON HAS A wonderful air of elegance on a buffet. It's every bit as elegant with smaller fillets for weeknight dinners, and makes an easy entertaining entree. This method of poaching is almost effortless. Its very gentle heat keeps the fish moist and succulent. It's equally good hot or cold. Menu Suggestion Steeped salmon with dill-caper sauce Cucumber spears Sliced tomatoes Fresh berries and melon Steeped Salmon With Dill-Caper Sauce 4 servings -- Total time: 30 minutes 2 cups water 1 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine, such as chardonnay 1 each: lemon, fresh dill branch 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns 4 fillets salmon, about 6 ounces each 1 tablespoon each: minced fresh dill, capers 1/2 cup regular or low-fat mayonnaise Heat the water and wine in a large, heavy skillet over high heat.

When Old Mill senior Michelle Salmon took the floor against Annapolis two weeks ago, she knew something that her coach, Pat Chance, didn't.It would be Salmon's last basketball game.Salmon, 17, a member of three consecutive Class 4A state championship teams, informed Chance at the next day's practice that she was leaving the squad to devote more time to playing soccer.She has been invited along with 21 other girls from across the country to participate in the U.S. Soccer organization's under-20 national training camp in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Salmon responds well to a range of cooking methods. Classical cookery often recommends poaching whole salmon but few cooks have the unwieldy fish poacher on hand. Fortunately, there are other options which favor the more convenient fillets and steaks.With its high oil content, salmon does very well on the grill. It cabe grilled plain or bathed in a marinade. The charcoal taste is enough of a flavor enhancement but a small amount of mesquite wood mixed in with the charcoal lends a nuance.Indoors, broiling, steaming, pan cooking, baking and microwavcooking all work well with salmon.

Old Mill senior Michelle Salmon qualified last week for the United States Youth Soccer Association's under-17 All-American girls soccer team.Salmon, who twice has been named Anne Arundel County's girls soccer Player of the Year during her four seasons at Old Mill, has been taking part in tryouts in Boca Raton, Fla. She was expected to arrive home yesterday, said her mother, Carol Salmon.Michelle also is in a pool with 23 other players from throughout the country vying for a spot on the Olympic Development Program's under-20 national traveling team.

LONDON -- British fishery scientists are trying to create a strain of salmon tough enough to survive in the Thames River.They say they're succeeding.Salmon have to be downright streetwise to live in the urban Thames. In London, the river is brown, busy, slow-moving and flecked with debris.Still, it is considered "clean," with about 60 percent of London's tap water coming from the river -- after treatment.Salmon and about 100 other species of fish already live in the Thames. The river is restocked every year with about 180,000 young salmon.

Executive chef Joshua Vazquez reflects: Cooking is really a passion of mine and has been since my childhood. As a child, I grew up in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is truly a wonderful place because of the cultural mix that stems from its history. Growing up there really influenced me not only as a person, but also as a cook. The rich history created a nexus of Indian, European and African influences and flavors that all still inspire me today. These rich flavors and cooking styles, Ceviche for example, always provide a base I can look back to whenever I am in doubt about a dish.

While the en papillote ("in parchment") method of cooking might sound a little too fancy for tailgating, Mark Graham, in his Dinner Tonight column for the Chicago Tribune, has suggested that it's really nothing more than food wrapped in parchment paper and cooked. What may sound intimidating turns out to be a handy method for cooking at a tailgate or other outdoor party. The packets can be easily assembled at home and then grilled at the tailgate party. They travel well in a cooler of ice. Instead of parchment paper, which can be tricky for first-time users, his recipe uses foil for these salmon-and-veggie packets.

Not being terribly "continental," we Americans tend to hit the supermarket once a week, rather than shopping for fresh stuff for dinner every day. Hence, the pantry. In your arsenal of fall-back foods to use for dinner when you can't get to the supermarket, there are undoubtedly a few cans of things designed to engender a quick family supper. Soups, undoubtedly. And tuna, most likely. Another goodie you might want to keep in stock is canned salmon. Canned pink or red salmon is even lower in calories than fresh salmon (less fat)

Don Neuman of Longview, Wash., was looking for a recipe he has lost for salmon chowder. He said that the recipe came from the label on a can of Veg-All back in the 1950s. As he remembers, the chowder was made with canned salmon and also called for a can of Veg-All and other ingredients he cannot recall. After some research, I learned that Veg-All is the brand name for canned mixed vegetables that has been around since the mid-1920s. The product is still being made today. Unfortunately, a search of the Veg-All website did not turn up a recipe for salmon chowder.

Here is an intriguing recipe: Take an ordinary Atlantic salmon, add hormones from a Chinook salmon and an eel-like fish called an ocean pout, and voila ! You have a super-sized salmon, one that grows twice as fast as normal. This recipe has the producers of the fish, the Massachusetts firm AquaBounty Technologies, salivating, promising as it does a plump product in record time. It also has its critics, who have questioned whether it is safe for all consumers and who have raised concerns about its effect on the environment.

Eris Weaver from Cotati, Calif., was looking for a recipe for a pasta salad made with salmon, peas and cottage cheese in the dressing. We had no luck locating the actual recipe, which the reader said came from a newsletter put out by Pacific Gas and Electric sometime in the mid- to late-1980s. However, it seemed like it was worth some research to try and find something similar. This is the time of year when cold pasta salads can make for a wonderful meal, and the combination sounded appetizing.

Prince George's Circuit Judge James P. Salmon was appointed to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals yesterday by Gov. William Donald Schaefer.Judge Salmon, 54, who had been on the Circuit Court since 1988, fills the vacancy on Maryland's second-highest court created by the retirement earlier this month of Judge John J. Garrity.The new appellate judge, who lives in University Park, was formerly an associate and partner in the Upper Marlboro law firm of Sasscer, Clagett, Channing and Bucher.

Old Mill High School sophomore Michelle Salmon recently made the under-16 girls soccer National Team Pool during tryouts at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.Salmon, named the Anne Arundel CountySun's girls soccer player of the year for the 1991 season, became one of eight girls from the Eastern region chosen to make the 32-playerpool. The 15-year-old Millersville resident, the only player selected from Maryland, notched a goal for the East in a 3-2 loss to the South team. Her team would go on to finish the round robin at 0-3."

Sous Vide Salmon 2 5-ounce boneless, skinless salmon fillets Olive oil Sea salt Fresh ground pepper 2 fresh thyme sprigs Season the salmon with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Place a fresh thyme sprig on each fillet. Place the fish inside a gallon-sized zipper freezer bag. (Non-freezer plastic bags will be too thin.) Space the fillets at least 1 inch apart and press as much air as possible out of the bag. Submerge all but the top of the still-unsealed bag in a heavy pot of cool water.

In Alice Sebold's best-selling book "The Lovely Bones," after 14-year-old Susie Salmon is raped and murdered by her next-door neighbor, she ends up in the afterworld: not quite heaven, but a sort of cosmic way station that looks much like Susie's old terrestrial stomping grounds - a typical American suburb, with a junior high school, subdivisions and a mall. In Peter Jackson's film version of "The Lovely Bones," which opens today in Baltimore, Susie's netherworld is an extension of her subconscious, full of trippy dream imagery of extraordinary mountains and forests, giant camellias, mammoth boats in glass bottles and a spooky gazebo in a field of corn.