GillBilly.com Style Turkey Day Tuna Surprise

Grilled Albacore with Peach Salsa

(Visit the GillBilly.com Official Blog for more GillBilly recipes and to see the full Official GillBilly product line and movie screenplay development)

Tired of all the same board of fare on your plate on holidays? Do you still have a freezer full of fish from the summer and fall fishing season? How about a surprise for your visiting relatives this year. Southerners might be surprised to learn that California, not Georgia, produces more peaches than any other U.S. state. Oh sure, the South is long on peanuts, but whose ever heard of Goober Salsa? This recipe works well with any fruit in season – whatever looks good in market. The salsa is great on any fish, but GillBilly is partial to pairing it with freshly caught grilled albacore or yellowfin tuna.

Ingredients;

4 servings

4 6 - 8 ounce albacore steaks
olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
3 medium peaches; skin removed and flesh chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 green onions; white part and about half of the green part, minced
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions Rub fish with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Place on a medium-hot

grill for 3 -4 minutes, flip over and cook 1 – 2 minutes more. To prepare salsa, combine remaining

ingredients and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. To serve, place fish on plate and spoon

salsa over middle half.

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Bass fishermen watch Monday night football, drink beer, drive pickup trucks and prefer noisy women with big breasts.  Trout fishermen watch MacNeil-Lehrer, drink white wine, drive foreign cars with passenger-side air bags and hardly think about women at all.  This last characteristic may have something to do with the fact that trout fishermen spend most of the time immersed up to the thighs in ice-cold water. 

Author Unknown

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BAJA 1000 PHOTOS

OLYMPIC SWIMMER – OCEANS NEEDS OUR HELP

It's no secret that U.S. Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Aaron Peirsol has a deep love for the water. That's why the California native has parlayed his interest — and status as a sports figure — into causes to save our planet's oceans. Here, he talks about environmental awareness, education, and his most recent project, Race for the Oceans.

Q: When did your relationship with the water really begin?

A: I have always had a very natural connection to the water, and that connection stems from the ocean itself. I think a more pertinent question would be “Did I ever not have a relationship with the water?”

Q: Can you give a quick rundown of the ocean/water preservation programs and organizations you’ve been involved with?

A: I began working with Oceana, which is the largest international organization that is dedicated to solving the oceans’ problems, about three years ago. As opposed to spreading themselves thin over many environmental issues, Oceana's decision to solely work on the world's oceans enables them to work toward achieving measurable change by conducting specific, fact-based campaigns with fixed deadlines and articulated goals.

Q: What made you decide to lend your time and effort to these causes? Why oceans?

A: I grew up in an area of a lot of growth, in Orange County, California, and spent most of my youth on the beach. I had witnessed the degradation of our Back Bay and the increased number of closed beach days over the years and had come to my own realization that people should make a stand for the things they love and want to see survive infinite generations.

Q: What are you trying to achieve with your involvement? What do you get out of it, personally?

A: I think the best thing I can hope to achieve is to educate, or make aware, as many people as possible on how the little things they do every day really do affect our environment, and how easy it is to fix some of those things. Bringing a canvas bag to the grocery store is a simple and incredibly effective solution. So is being aware of what you dump in your storm drains. Other things include knowing which fish you buy at the store are sustainable. It's no secret our fish populations are dwindling more every year.

Q: What made you decide to become a spokesperson for Oceana?

A: I was incredibly impressed with their scope of what they could do on the international level for conservation. The fact that they used lobbying as a tool to get their message across also seemed extremely effective. And they were really receptive to me when I came to them and asked what I could do to help.

Q: What’s happening to the Earth’s oceans? Why is it so important to save them?

A: It's a case of many oceans around the world being degraded by negligence. The ocean is the lifeblood of our world. If we were to lose our fish that we appreciate so much by overfishing; or if we were to lose some of our favorite beaches to overbuilding and pollution, then how would we feel? It's become a case of not knowing what you've got until it's gone. But by no means is it too late. We can still maintain our coasts and oceans for the generations to come, who deserve what we have.

Q: What needs to happen to clean them up? What can the average person do to help?

A: I believe it's a matter of collective involvement. What I said about the little things making a big difference; I believe that to be very true. I’m a part of a program called Toyota’s Engines of Change Program. The message is that anyone can make a difference in their community or for whatever cause they feel strongly about. Everyone can be an Engine of Change.

For me, I work with Oceana to help save the oceans. But anyone can help. The canvas bags at the grocery market; the buying of sustainable fish at the market; and even the knowledge that every river does lead to an ocean. It really is the easy things that can add up to be a lot. They don't cost a lot of money, just a little time, and a willingness to make a change. It doesn't matter that you live in Oklahoma or Iowa; everyone has a profound effect on the ocean, and the environment in general. Recycling seems easy enough, but here in Austin we only just received recycling bins large enough to take all of our recyclables. There is still a long way to go.

Q: Your Race for the Oceans event just happened last weekend (congrats!). What was the goal of the event, and how did it turn out?

A: On top of just being able to spend a long weekend at Fort Myers Beach, the goal was to raise awareness of the state of our oceans, which I do feel looks incredibly promising. The Lee County government and their sports commission supported this event and helped us get it off the ground. That was a wonderful partnership for us and I can’t say enough great things about their support for this cause and this event. And sponsors like PureSport and B of A [Bank of America], who truly cared about this cause, made all the difference in the world. They had volunteers there to help and made donations to the cause. Truly those supports made all this possible, and hopefully will help us continue for many years to come. With this past weekend being the inaugural event, and it going as well as it did, I think that maybe I can make a positive impact on a much larger scale. The folks that showed up for the event and even the ones just on the beach seemed real receptive to the cause.

Q: Do you think your celebrity status has helped get your message out?

A: The original goal was to get the swimming community involved in the event as much as possible, and I think that my past accolades have helped a bit in that regard. Nonetheless, I think people would be receptive to this cause regardless. The folks at my Race for the Oceans last weekend seemed quite enthusiastic about the event and the cause it represents, to the point where it reinvigorates me to continue to make a difference.

Q: What’s next for you, as an activist? As an athlete?

A: This was only the first Race for the Oceans, and I hope and plan to have many more. As an athlete, I'll be wet, and I’ll be back in the water soon enough to train.

BAJA GIRLS SOFTBALL

Please e-mail me at sitka@truetraveler.com to donate to this league we created here in El Sauzal, Baja California, Mexico

CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES FOR THE 2007 SEASON

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BAJA 1000 RESULTS!

CLICK HERE FOR:

FINAL FINISHING ORDER

POST RACE QUOTES

Official results of the Baja 1000 staged in Ensenada have the #8 team of Roger Norman and Larry Roeseler in the Norman Motorsports Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy Truck winning the event November 21st with an elapsed time of 12:40:33 at an average speed of 49.81 mph. Roeseler, the 51 year-old veteran from Irvine, Calif., has captured the famed SCORE Baja 1000 thirteen times overall – ten on motorcycles and three in cars. Roeseler, who splits driving time with team owner Roger Norman, charged through the rough northern Baja California terrain after his truck broke a power steering belt in the first 100 miles.  Roeseler has captured the last four Class 1 titles in the SCORE Baja 1000 in addition to his overall Baja titles. This win solidifies Roeseler’s status as holding the highest win count as overall racer in SCORE Baja 1000 history.

NASCAR Sprint Cup team owner/driver and three-time SCORE Baja 1000 winner Robby Gordon had a tough start to his 2008 SCORE Baja 1000 run when his Chevy Silverado flipped at mile eight, just outside Ensenada.  Gordon’s crew was able to repair the truck, but the Charlotte, N.C. driver was well off Roeseler’s leading pace.

The new VW clean diesel entry driven off the line by Ryan Aciero finished 13th in the Trophy Truck Class out of 15 Trophy Truck finishers at the line. Contributing to the VW Touareg TDI's finishing position was a defective gearbox seal that required complete replacement of the gearbox -- costing the team precious time and relegating them to a finish outside of the top ten. The team also swapped the rear differential later in the race "just to be on the safe side." Don Tebbe, project manager for the Arciero Miller Racing team, which works in close contact with VW Motorsport, said that work is already progressing on an improved version of the differential. The Touareg TDI Trophy Truck competed in the 41st Baja 1000 race with a 5.5L V-12 clean diesel engine with an output of 550 hp and 625 lb-ft of torque. As could be expected, the Touareg was thoroughly modified for the event's grueling conditions with 25-in. of suspension travel up front and 30-in. of travel in the rear.

Race organizers included the VW factory effort team and VW Motorsport.

Second overall was B.J. Baldwin of Las Vegas, who was driving the event solo in his Chevy Silverado. He had carburetion linkage problems 15 minutes before the start but the problem was resolved and he started the race 4th off the line.

Trailing Roeseler in the SCORE Trophy Truck class and placing third overall, five-time SCORE Baja 1000 overall race winner Larry Ragland of Cave Creek, Ariz., in a Toyota Tundra. Ragland, 65, teamed with his son, Chad, in his quest for another Baja title.

Early race leader and first off the line Brian Collins from Las Vegas had problems south of Mexicali and retired from the race at race mile 217.

First in Class 1 was the team of Chuck Dempsey and John Herder 7th overall across the line.

With 347 starters competing to compete in 28 Pro and 7 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, the granddaddy of all desert races, the event is the finale of the five race 2008 SCORE Desert Series. The starting field, coming from 39 U.S. States and 24 countries, was a record for a “loop” race in the SCORE Baja 1000, bettering the 1977 mark of 346. Although there was approximately 50 fewer entries from the 2007 edition that covered 1,296.4 miles from Ensenada to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, this was one of the five largest fields ever for the Baja 1000.

There was a record number of international entries, including more than 80 from Mexico. Since 1967, the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 has been run over the mysterious Baja California peninsula. Because of the economics and logistics involved, some years it is a peninsula run while most years it is a loop race, starting and finishing in Ensenada.

As usual there was plenty of color to keep you entertained during the staging of this exciting annual event. This website will have more photos and more information about the entire field and the final placement of competitors as more official results are posted by SCORE.

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2008 BAJA 1000 COURSE MAP

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A 2008 BAJA 500 WRAP-UP ARTICLE AND MORE PHOTOS INCLUDED IN OUR JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEWSLETTER

ROBBY BELL FIRST IN THE MOTORCYCLE CLASS

BJ BALDWIN FIRST OVERALL BY JUST 7 SECONDS!