Free My Prairie Cookbook by Melissa Gilbert Page B

heavy skillet to a depth of 3 inches (7.5 cm) and heat over medium-high heat until hot, but not smoking.
    â€¢ Meanwhile, combine the cornmeal, flour, seasoned salt, garlic salt, lemon pepper, cayenne, and black pepper to taste in a large shallow dish. Thoroughly dredge the catfish fillets in the mixture, gently shaking off the excess.
    â€¢ Working in batches to avoid crowding, fry the catfish in the hot oil, without turning, until golden and crisp, 5 to 6 minutes. Keep the finished pieces warm in the oven while you fry the remaining catfish.
    â€¢ Transfer the fillets with a slotted spatula to paper towels to drain. Season to taste with salt and serve immediately.

    I sure did a lot of fishing on
Little House
. I also love to fish for real—only if someone else will actually clean the fish, though. I’m fine with baiting hooks and so forth. I’m just not very good at handling fish innards. I actually created this recipe after a productive day of fishing with my boys.
    Serves 4
----
    Â½ cup (1 stick/115 g) unsalted butter
    4 (8-ounce/225-g) whole brook, rainbow, or brown trout, cleaned, head and tail intact
    1 teaspoon salt
    Â¾ cup (90 g) all-purpose flour
    3 tablespoons vegetable oil
    2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
    Â¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
    Lemon wedges, for serving
    â€¢ Preheat the oven to 200°F (90°C).
    â€¢ Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 12-inch (30.5-cm) heavy skillet (preferably oval) over low heat, and then remove it from the heat.
    â€¢ Rinse the trout and pat them dry. Brush with the melted butter inside and out and season with ¾ teaspoon of the salt. Mound the flour on a sheet of wax paper, then dredge each fish in the flour to coat completely, shaking off any excess.
    â€¢ Add the oil and 2 more tablespoons of the butter to the skillet over medium-high heat until the foam subsides, then sauté the trout (in two batches if necessary), gently turning them over once using spatulas, until golden brown and almost cooked through, about 7 minutes total (the fish will continue to cook as it stands). Transfer each trout to a plate and keep it warm in the oven.
    â€¢ Pour off the fat from the skillet and wipe the skillet clean. Melt the remaining ¼ cup (½ stick/55 g) of butter over medium-low heat. Add the parsley, pepper, and remaining ¼ teaspoon of salt, swirling the skillet to combine, and remove it from the heat. Add the lemon juice, swirling the skillet to incorporate. Spoon the sauce over the trout and serve them immediately with lemon wedges.

Let me start by saying that there was no way for us to stick strictly to the
Little House
books. If we had done that, there would have been only nine episodes of the show, instead of the hundreds we filmed over nine seasons. The producers took a great deal of dramatic license by adding characters and situations that didn’t exist or happen in the books. For example, the Ingalls family moved
a lot
in real life. They did not live out the majority of their years in Walnut Grove.
    And for the record, there was no Albert Ingalls in real life. Nor was there a James or a Cassandra Ingalls. Mary Ingalls never married in real life, therefore there was no Adam Kendall, nor was there a baby boy who died in a fire. I could go on and on with this list, but if you have read the books, you know what’s what. And this book is about the TV series, after all.
    That, however, doesn’t let us off the hook for some pretty glaring and hilarious bloopers and goofs. Here are a few courtesy of Lennon Parker at thePrairieFans.com web site, with additional commentary from yours truly:
    1. Laura must have carried her baby, Rose, for more than a year. In the season seven episode “I Do, Again,” Laura announces she’s pregnant, and it’s warm enough for Charles and Almanzo to be working outside without coats. Then in “A Wiser Heart,” a pregnant