Okay so I cheated you out of a recipe last week. I'm sorry, but every time I started writing about the one I'm going to give you this week, my ADD kicked in and I got off track, rambling on and on and on about manhattans on the rocks.

By the way — if you've never had a manhattan, you really should. Not only are they delicious — they're back in vogue. They went out of style a while back, being labeled an old-fashioned drink for old fogies.

Now, thanks to whiskey being the hip new booze for 20-somethings, it's cool to sit at a bar, remove your edgy new sunglasses, lean back and cross your legs, and order a manhattan or whiskey, straight up. I'm not kidding you. Do it. Even if you don't like it the respect that you'll gain from the bartender will make it worth it. Plus you'll feel great after drinking it.

I didn't know I was ADD until my friend Dan Witt was talking to me in Hannaford one day and I wasn't focusing on what he was saying. He was standing right in front of the frozen petite peas. I wanted some. They're almost as good as fresh. Anyway, he noticed, and informed me I had ADD. I'm pretty sure he was right.

I just Googled ADD. Apparently I'm a dreamer, a goof-off, a slacker, a troublemaker and a bad student. The good news? I can focus on things that interest me, and I could focus on any other tasks if I really wanted to.

Okay Suzi. Focus. The recipe of the week, folks, is salt fish dinner.

Like manhattans, salt fish dinner, which presumably no one outside coastal Maine, or coastal Italy or Portugal, has ever had, went out of style a while back. Probably because it is so bad, nutritionally. But in every other way it's so good.

For starters it's wicked salty.

My mother grew up in Thomaston in a seafaring family. Her father used to hang a big slab of salted cod to dry in the barn. When she was a kid she and her friends would rip pieces of it off and chew on it. Probably where I got my love of salt.

So salt fish dinner was a regular at my house when I was a kid. My mother and brothers and sister and I all loved it. My father hated it, and would opt for a bowl of Pilot crackers with milk.

He loved that.

I don’t know a lot of people who have ever had, never mind liked, salt fish dinner. I remember a few boyfriends being grossed out simply by the smell when it was served at our dinner table. It was probably time for them to be taking a hike anyway, so no great loss there. Except for Jay Couser, my taste in high school boys left a lot to be desired.

One of my ex-husbands, Richard, loves salt fish dinner, but again, that's something for the memoirs. (By the way, lest you think I'm a serial divorcee, there are only two ex-husbands.)

OK ready?

Dried salt cod. It used to be cheap. A friend just told me her grandmother used to send her to the store with a nickel for a small box of salt cod. I picked one up in Hannaford last weekend. $11.99. For a small box — probably a half pound. And it stinks, so be prepared.

You'll also need a hunk of salt pork, potatoes, apples and molasses. Aside from the salt cod, it's a pretty cheap meal.

Soak the fish in cold water for a couple hours, drain, and repeat. You might repeat a few times, or overnight, if you're not a salt freak like me.

Add a little more water and simmer for a few minutes, until it flakes apart with a fork. Boil some potatoes. Cut the salt pork up into small cubes and fry until they turn golden brown. Do not dump that fat out! Pour it into a pretty little pitcher.

Boil the potatoes in a little water. Peel, core and fry the apples with a little molasses, in the pan still coated with salt pork salt fat.

Now throw some boiled potato on each plate, throw a hunk of the salt cod on top, and mash. You will have a mound of smelly white stuff on the plate. Persevere. It will be worth it.

Dribble some of the fat (I know – sorry) over it. Sprinkle some of the little salty, golden brown pieces of fried salt pork on top and Serve it with a big spoonful of the fried apples. Those are healthy, sort of, and the sweetness, after a bite of the saltiness of the white stuff, makes for a perfect melding.

My cousin Raul is part Portuguese. He brought a Portuguese friend to Cushing a few years ago, and she whipped up a family rendition of salt fish dinner — bacalhau, which really simply translates to dried salted cod and dates back to the 15th century. She, too, used salted cod and potatoes, but there were also onions in there, and a few other ingredients.

According to the Months of Edible Celebrations website, George Washington was a fan of salt fish dinners: “Then George Washington came to New England, home of the salt fish dinner. As Commander of the Continental Army he lived in Cambridge where Harvard students were demanding salt fish in preference to fresh fish in the college dormitories,” it read.

My friend and neighbor in Cushing, Melanie (Wissemann) Essex, is a Harvard grad. She isn't one to throw that into idle conversation over drinks on the deck, but I like to. I don't know how she feels about salt fish dinner though. Her family, from Long Island, New York, has spent summers at Bird Point since 1968, but I'm not sure they've ever indulged.

OK this column has been dragging on for half a year now. Time flies when you're writing something fun. I’ve really had a blast writing it, and I'm loving all the great feedback I've gotten from readers. Thank you. I'm not kidding. For once I'm being serious.

As a reward I was going to give you a test. Ten questions, like “What was dirty about Dirty Pete, other than his fingernails.” And “What is my favorite dessert of all time?”

But now I've rambled on and on about salt fish dinner, and there's no room left. Plus you're probably sick of me and ready to go on to something important and productive.

So study up. Test next week. The prize will be a manhattan and dinner at a cheap roadside joint.

See ya then.

I’m not a chef. I lay no claim to being an authority on food or cooking. I’m a good cook, and a lover of good food. And I know how to spell and put a sentence together. This column is simply meant to be fun, and hopefully inspiring. So to anyone reading this whose hackles are raised because you know more about the subject of food than I, relax. I believe you. And always feel free to email me with compliments or complaints: suzithayer@boothbayregister.com.