The Skinny Chef's Spicy Tuna Cups. Photo: Jennifer Iserloh

Making proper sushi rice and learning to roll your own takes a lot of practice. But even if you feel overwhelmed wrapping sushi, these little pickled cucumber cups are just the easiest thing to make and you can fill them with all sorts of tasty bites.

These nibbles are made from sushi grade tuna that I buy at The Lobster Place in the Chelsea Market in New York City. But if you don't have a great purveyor locally and aren't a fan of raw fish, you can always use the same amount of baked salmon. It works just as well in my recipe, although the texture will be firmer

So what's the deal with mercury?

Learn more about tuna and mercury and get Jennifer's Spicy Tuna recipe after the jump.

Technically, there is no such thing as National Herring Month.

That said, if herring were to have its own month, it would be June, which marks both the beginning and end of the all too brief New Catch Holland herring season. New Catch Holland herring, or Hollandse Nieuwe, are raw, barely cured herring caught at their fatty peak and prized for their rich, buttery texture: they're like the sushi of Northern Europe.

The New Catch season lasts only a few precious weeks, and functions almost as a PR campaign for the homely, humble herring. While our own country has never given the silvery fish the love it deserves, it has been a staple of the Northern European and Scandinavian diet for centuries, and instrumental in the waxing and waning fortunes of kingdoms and nations.

And fourth-generation co-owner of New York's Russ & Daughters Niki Russ Federman (pictured after the jump) knows from herring (Holland and otherwise). Besides being a shrine to smoked salmon, her family's shop functions as the U.S.'s ground zero for New Catch Holland herring, which they import directly from Holland.

We asked Federman for a Herring 101 and she complied, describing everything from the fish's storied health benefits to its place in European history after the jump.

Fish can easily dry out after a stint in a hot oven; here's a trick to keep it moist and luscious.

The folks over at Grist, an environmental watchdog blog, have taken Mark Bittman -- a cook and food writer for The New York Times whose work boasts a huge, passionate following including the Grist blogger himself -- to task for listing red snapper, a fish many consider endangered, in one of his recipes. A fascinating conversation follows in the comments section including a response from Bittman (aka The Minimalist) himself. Check it out -- but maybe not over a fish dinner, as you may lose your appetite.

Though some Jewish food mavens may beg to differ, we think few dishes are as associated with the children of Israel as gefilte fish. While not as easy-to-love as blintzes, as versatile as horseradish or as soothing as chicken soup, the ubiquitous balls of ground fish make a fine appetizer for almost any holiday meal.

Gefilte fish, which takes its name from gefüllte, the German word for "stuffed," was traditionally made using finely ground pike or carp mixed with eggs, onion, flour, seasonings and either matzoh meal or challah bread. It was then packed into the skin of a deboned fish, poached with onions and carrots, chilled and sliced. Today gefilte fish is typically formed into patties and served cold. It is often preserved in a jellied fish broth and commonly accompanied by horseradish and a slice of carrot.

While gefilte fish isn't one of the symbolic foods on the Passover Seder Plate, it is a traditional part of the meal in many households. Part of its popularity lies in the cultural significance underlying its preparation: Since one can buy it deboned, it doesn't require work at the table, which means that it can be eaten during the Sabbath when work is forbidden. Another benefit is that fish is parve, so kosher consumers can eat it on the same plate with either meat or dairy foods.

Another reason for the aqueous critter's lingering popularity lies in its economy. Originally developed in Europe's Ashkenazi Jewish community, gefilte fish balls incorporated cereals and fillers to stretch the fish itself. The fish was class-free -- accessible enough for the poorest member of a community, yet glitzy enough for the most wealthy.

Today gefilte fish continues to be a popular and enduring cultural motif. On one end of the spectrum, enterprising chefs like Wolfgang Puck are finding ways to make it more exciting; on the other, a strong market for the traditional ground fish and stuffing survives. Brett Werner, manager of Miami Beach's popular Roasters' n Toasters deli, estimates that his store has sold approximately 200 quarter-pound pieces of the fish for this year's Passover already!

How do you feel about gefilte fish?

As much as I love eggs, quiche was never one of my favorite dishes. I could appreciate the taste, but a few bites would always be more than enough. Nevertheless, the other day I decided to make one for myself and it makes all the difference.

Forget recipes with carefully measured ingredients. The key to a perfect quiche is filling it with tastes you love. It's that simple. If you don't want it to be too eggy, use less egg and more filler. If you want it to be less dry, fill it up with your favorite cheeses. If you hate to eat eggs without bread, make sure some grainy flavor and texture comes through in the pie crust.

The above quiche is a super-quick crab and asparagus. The crust was a quick recipe from RecipeZaar, that I threw a little multigrain flour into, as well as an extra cup of ground, toasted pine nuts. The asparagus was chopped and blanched for a few minutes while the quiche came together -- the crust, a generous layer of crab (imitation in this case) and asparagus, plus some chopped shallots, fresh basil and a mixture of leftover cheese. The eggs where whipped up with a generous helping of sour cream and poured in, and the quiche was baked at 350 until the top was firm and gentle pressure didn't release uncooked streams of gelatinous egg.

The pine nuts offered an excellent toasty flavor while the creamy eggs and cheese melded perfectly with the basil, crab, and asparagus. But really -- the flavor is up to you.

What's your favorite quiche flavor combination?

This has always been my favorite time of year -- the cold slowly backs off, everything comes to life, the air smells absolutely wonderful (even in the middle of a big city) and vegetable season is just around the corner.

Since the season is all about freshness, and we're one week into Spring, I thought I'd give you a little foodie play on words -- Tropical Tilapia Spring Rolls. Spring, of course, like the season, but these rolls are also a recipe that thrives on fresh, bright and colorful ingredients -- the perfect sort of recipe for the season that brings things to life, as we put away our thick, hearty and warm winter recipes.

Since this is part of a Nutrition Education Project for a Nutrition Counseling Class at the University of Texas at Austin, there's lots of helpful information in the video -- substitutions, health info, the works!

WC Fields once said "I love children ... if they're cooked properly." As a dedicated meat eater, I tend to have similar feelings about vegans.

While some of my best friends deny themselves the joy of animal products, I simply can't imagine completely divorcing myself from cheese, honey, milk and all the wonderful foods that come from animals. On some level, the idea of approaching life from a tofu haze seems almost suicidally self-abnegating.

In fact, while I have occasionally practiced vegetarianism, I am, at heart, a true carnivore. For health reasons, I try to limit my consumption, but I believe, both philosophically and sensually, that meat is an important part of my diet, if not everyone else's.

But which meat is the best? For health reasons, I'd probably go with chicken or turkey, but if it came to richness, my answer might be duck or veal. In terms of flavor, the answer could be lamb or beef, but for extravagance, it's hard to top a nice big buffalo filet mignon. Then again, in the summer, nothing beats a good grilled swordfish steak ... except for maybe a piece of lightly seared tuna.

Vote for your favorite meat after the jump.

Last month in the New York Times, Melissa Clark published a recipe for broccoli with shrimp roasted in the same pan and described how bite-size pieces of chicken thighs would cook in the same amount of time, too. I tried the chicken idea with cauliflower, and the results were very nice. Since then, roasting protein and veggies together has been my go-to method for no-fuss cooking.

Recently, I was inspired by two recipes in Gourmet's "Every Day" section: Roasted Pacific Cod with Spring Vegetables and Mint and Provençal Chicken and Tomato Roast. I swiped the cod from the first and the tomatoes from the second and threw in capers instead of the black olives that the second recipe called for. The fish and the tomato mixture were cooked perfectly at the same time. This is a tasty, simple recipe that I'm sure to reprise. The method is after the jump.

While I wouldn't describe myself as a complete sardine junkie, I have to admit that I have a definite appreciation of canned fish. My favorite is probably salmon; when I was a kid, we'd fight over the chalky bones, and I still get a smile out of crunching down on them.

Still, sardines are a lot of fun. While the bad ones tend to taste like cat food, the good ones offer a rich, subtle flavor that is delightful. In some cases, I've even had sardines that I would describe as transcendent, with a mild taste and a silky mouthfeel. Even in the worst of circumstances, sardines are cool to look at, and are a cheap meal.

Even if I'm not a sardine fanatic, I have a very warm space in my heart for mildly obsessive-compulsive behavior; for this reason, the Society for the Appreciation of Sardines blog definitely gives me a smile. With sardine reviews, recipes, and lore, it contains everything that a fan of the oily canned fish could possibly want.

Now what about anchovies?

Put me in a good bagel shop, and my normally adventuresome spirit will take its leave and wait outside for me to finish my perennial order of an everything or egg bagel, lox, and scallion cream cheese. This salty breakfast leaves nothing to be desired, and very rarely do I pass it up for more novel but potentially less reliable fare.

This morning, though, curiosity got the better of me as I studied the menu of Goldberg's Deli and Bagels, by a long shot the best bagelry in Atlanta and probably the best one south of the Mason-Dixon line. The cinnamon-sugar matzoh brei almost tempted me, but I wanted savory, so I decided to try kippers and onions for the first time. I'm so glad I did.

Think of kippers and onions as a more hardcore cousin to lox and scallions - similar flavors, but more concentrated. A kipper is a herring that has been split down the back, brined, and hot or cold smoked (in the photo, the kippers are about to be smoked). At Goldberg's, a few kippers are grilled (probably more like griddled) alongside some diced onions. This is nothing like Scandinavian-style pickled or mustard herring. It's definitely still fishy and briney, but for me, that's hardly a deal breaker.

If you like anchovies on your pizza or your salade nicoise, you ought to give kippers and onions a sporting try. Also, the word "kipper" is pretty fun to say.

There's nothing quite like having the desire to use a few ingredients in your fridge, doing a quick Google search, and finding something that incorporates it all right away.

I've been on a mission to clear out my fridge and freezer as much as possible over the next week, go away for a week, and come back and restock (hopefully in a more rational and less "oh my god that looks good!" way). So the lone remnants in my fridge that caught my eye -- imitation crab, lemons, some almost-bad celery, and a jar of horseradish I don't use nearly enough. A quick "crab salad" search brought up this result over at RecipeZaar. Imitation crab meat. Celery. Lemon juice. Horseradish. It answered every whim!

Horseradish mixed with dill, mayo, and lemon and added to seafood is just divine. This shouldn't really come as a surprise considering the fact that horseradish is the backbone of cocktail sauce, but how many of us actually horse up our salads? It's a woefully underused ingredient.

And if you decide to follow the recipe, I urge you to get creative. Mix up the mayo/lemon/etc beforehand with the spices until you get a sauce that makes you wow, then add it to your collection of crab and veggies. I just did it by eye and taste, and it was so very worth it.

The outrageous, irreverent Flora-Bama Lounge and Package straddles the Florida-Alabama border on a thin strip of land called Perdido Key, a few miles of gleaming white sand between the Gulf of Mexico and the Intracoastal Waterway. This part of the country is, for better or worse, also known as the Redneck Riviera, and my family owns a condo there. At any given time, the Flora-Bama sees more action than any other spot on Perdido Key, with the Crab Trap and Shrimp Basket following distantly in the wake.

In the five years we've owned the condo, I ventured into the Flora-Bama for the first time only recently, at the urging of some curious houseguests from up North who were itching for some local color. We'd planned to get appetizers there before heading to supper elsewhere, but the potty-themed lyrics of the live music induced us to stick to the scenery and a round of Coronas with lime.

Corona is Corona, but the scenery is one of a kind. Above a pair of clotheslines on the ceiling weighted down with what must be thousands of seemingly spontaneously donated bras of every shape and color, there is a sign, pictured, listing the Interstate Mullet Toss Age Categories. The Mullet Toss is exactly what it sounds like. Each year, the Flora-Bama holds a competition to see who can throw a dead mullet, a fish native to Gulf waters, farthest across the state line. More on the scenery, including a photo, after the jump.

Last September, in one of those press appearances that was intended to show that he was just a normal guy, Barack Obama appeared on 60 Minutes and made tuna fish salad for his daughters. Although the recipe that he used was exceedingly simple (tuna fish, gherkin pickles, mayo, and dijon mustard), it quickly became political. The Western Fishboat Owners Association used it as an opportunity to shill for troll-caught albacore. With that in mind, they offered the following recipe:

Presidential Tuna Salad Sandwiches
Makes 4 Sandwiches

2 six ounce cans of US troll-caught albacore
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
Salt and pepper to taste
8 slices of bread
Lettuce and tomato slices to serve

Mix all but the last two ingredients together and assemble sandwiches. Enjoy!

I fiddled with this recipe a little bit. Being a fan of crunchiness, I threw in a couple of stalks of chopped celery. Also, as sweet pickle relish is an open invitation to high fructose corn syrup, I switched it out for some finely chopped, homemade bread and butter pickles. I also used low-fat mayonnaise and tossed in a little powdered red pepper, just for fun.

Finally, as I am fairly cheap (and don't like to support trolls), I went with more mainstream tuna fish. After a brief taste test, I determined that my favorite was Bumble Bee Prime Fillet Solid White Albacore. Although it comes in a shiny gold can and has every appearance of being expensive, it actually cost a little bit less than standard albacore. My apologies to America's fishing trolls (or trolling fishermen; I really have a hard time differentiating between the two).

After all my adjustments, the only real distinguishing factor of this tuna salad was its small quantity of mayo and addition of lemon juice. Both of these proved fantastic, and I will definitely be using them in the future. If anybody comes across other examples of Obama cuisine, please send them my way!

Fish are not particularly cuddly animals: they lack warmth, fur, scratchy tongues, and personalities. They don't seem to show much interest in cuddling with humans, playing with catnip, or generally engaging in fun, photogenic activities.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently came to the conclusion that this lack of cuddliness is the reason that so many people eat fish. Consequently, they have begun a campaign to rename the aquatic beasts "sea kittens." As campaign coordinator Ashley Byrne notes, "Most parents would never dream of spending a weekend torturing kittens for fun with their families, but hooking a sea kitten through the mouth and dragging her through the water is the same as hooking a kitten through the mouth and dragging her behind your car."

This argument, admittedly, brings to mind about a million rebuttals, but I am inclined to let the differences between fish and kittens speak for themselves. It seens necessary to point out, however, that cats are friendlier than fish and that fish (aka "tofu of the sea") are far stupider than cats. Moreover, while fish taste like fish, my experience has shown that cats actually taste like sesame chicken.