Salmon on the grill

Lunch: green salad with poached eggs
Dinner: salmon, olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper; potatoes, garlic; arugula; green salad

LUNCH WAS GOOD ENOUGH: Green salad with poached eggs and a glass of white wine at Parkside Café (404 Santa Rosa Avenue, Santa Rosa, California, 95404; tel. 707-573-5955), an unpretentious but very good eatery. The lettuce was superb: fresh, tender, full of flavor, organic of course, from a Yolo county farm.

Dinner was just as good, if I do say it myself. The sockeye salmon, frozen, came from good old Trader Joe. I marinated it in olive oil and lemon juice for half an hour, with salt and pepper; meanwhile building a fire of grapevine cuttings and rose-canes (I always save them when I prune).

Halved, then sliced thick the potatoes; fried 'em in olive oil with unpeeled garlic cloves, salt, and rosemary.

Grilled the salmon by leaning it up in a clamp-basket affair over the coals, say six minutes, then flip for a minute or two. I plated it out on beds of tender fresh arugula just cut in the garden.

Pinot grigio