- Tonight on WPBS Weekly.

Inside the Stories, Mike Bailine, owner of Chef Mike's Kitchen and Market prepares wood plank salmon with skewer shrimp and vegetables.

On this episode's, Johnny On Fire and The 1000 Islands Wanderer showcases some of Gananoque's and Lands Downs, beautiful hiking trails.

Also, Laura tiberiu is back.

Her review of the book, Normal People by Sally Rooney, might just convince you it's your next must read.

Your story is your region coming up right now on WPBS Weekly?

Inside the store, - WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is brought to you by I - When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing Close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the North country.

We're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the north country Strong, at claxtonhepburn.org Today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories.

I'm Michael Riecke.

There is something fishy going on in Johnny Spezzano's Kitchen tonight.

While it is fish salmon.

To be specific tonight, he is joined by Chef Mike Bailine, owner of Chef Mike's Kitchen and Market to cook up some wood plank salmon with skewered shrimp and vegetables.

It's a recipe that will have you hooked and thinking about the summer.

Hey, - Come on.

- Well, hello my friends.

Welcome to another episode of Johnny on Fire.

I'm Johnny Spezzano.

Welcome to my kitchen.

Mike Bailine.

Hi, Johnny - Spezzano.

- So Mike is from Chef Mike's Kitchen and Market brand new on State Street and Watertown.

We're gonna be talking about that in just a little bit.

Not to mention you've been a chef here and a restaurateur here in the north country for many years, so, - Correct.

- Yeah, we'll learn a, you don't see him 'cause he's in the kitchen.

We'll learn more.

All right.

What are we making today?

What are we making, - Johnny?

What are we making?

We're gonna have wood plank salmon in your oven.

- Oh, - We're gonna do some skewered shrimp scampy.

Don't - Walk the plank.

- That's it.

We're gonna walk this plank with that salmon.

- All right.

Shrimp scampy.

- Yeah, we're gonna put that on some skewers.

- All right.

- We're gonna roast some vegetables.

- All right.

Sounds good.

Some of our ingredients, obviously, shrimp, salmon, veg.

And then we've got some other items over here like honey, little mustard, little soy sauce, little white vinegar, sea salt, and a little white wine.

- We're gonna put, make a little honey, soy sauce for our salmon.

Top it with that.

Roast it.

- And of course we're gonna cook it on fire.

That's what this is all about.

All right, so let's get started, my man.

We're gonna mix up our sauce first.

- That is correct.

All right, Johnny, we're gonna hit this with a little bit of your mustard.

- Okay.

- Alright.

Then we're gonna take this vinegar.

Hit that.

All right, let's do some soy sauce.

Eh?

We'll give it a good shot.

- I like it.

Okay.

So far, so good.

All these ingredients, - Squeeze that lime in there for me.

- Okay.

All these ingredients look good.

Thank you for giving me something to do.

- You're welcome.

- Okay.

Got - Two.

I'm trying to judge two.

We'll give a little more honey.

Got - Your acid.

You've got your sweet.

You got your salty here.

- Yeah.

We'll put a little bit of your co sauces on there, even though you know what I like to use - All these things are great.

Did you throw that over your - Shoulder?

I did not.

Look, I did, this is my kitchen.

I didn't do it.

I didn't do it.

I'm just - Teasing.

You could have, isn't that good - Luck?

It was too much or, - Okay.

- Alright.

All right.

So all, so what are we gonna do?

We're gonna mix this up here.

- Okay.

- See what we've got.

- You know, I would've let you throw it over your shoulder.

- I know.

- I don't care.

- Then the cat would've been over here licking it up.

- Yeah.

We, by the way, if a cat walks across the screen, it's, it's - Okay.

- It's okay.

'cause my cat Eelee is watching the filming here.

Special guest.

Normally it's a dog house, but tonight it's a cat - House.

Johnny, we were gonna brush this on, right?

We have a brush.

Yeah, I see our brush.

I see our brush.

- We're gonna, we're gonna brush our salmon.

- You want me to brush it now?

- Yeah, do.

- And then we're gonna put it on the plank.

- Is that okay if we let it do its thing on there?

Yeah.

Yes.

Then we're gonna get our veg ready.

So just so everybody knows, at home, if you cook salmon on a cedar plank, - Make sure you put wa, make sure you soak it in water.

- Make sure you soak it in water.

Water.

Why it's gonna catch on fire.

- I think it will, - Obviously, - Especially this oven, - A very popular thing to do is to cook on your grill at home.

Yeah.

And if you got flames coming up at it, if it's not good and saturated, it will ignite.

So we've been soaking this all day.

Why don't you place the salmon on here?

- I will.

Okay.

We'll just fly this one right here.

- Yeah.

And what's is, now we're gonna let set this aside and it's gonna kind of infuse into that salmon.

So I'm kind of excited about that.

I'll just set that right there.

All right.

We got some veg.

What are we gonna do our veg?

Mikey, - I need - Oh, you need a paper towel?

Okay.

Grab a paper towel there.

- No problem.

What are we gonna do with our veggie?

We, we want it to get the pan really hot.

- We - Want to roast it in there.

We're gonna put a little olive oil.

- Alright.

- A little salt and pepper.

- So I think let's just douse it up.

'cause you'd be shocked in that wood fire oven.

- Okay.

Okay.

Let's do, - We don't need to, - Let's do - It.

Preheat it.

'cause it will be preheated the second it goes in.

- Let's do it.

Let's put some olive oil all over this.

- You're from Florida originally, aren't you, Mike?

- I am South Florida.

Pompano beach, Deerfield area.

- Yeah.

You gotta cook a lot of seafood down that way, right?

- We do.

Fresh seafood.

Fresh.

Yeah.

- We couldn't get any marlin or anything.

- No, we couldn't get any Marlin.

We tried, but - We - Can't get it into like fish that, let's put a little white wine.

- Oof.

- Where's you at?

Put a little, - What do we got?

Little garlic.

Little, little, little Montreal steak season.

- Yeah, that's what we'll call it.

- Okay, - Perfect.

- Okay, - Throw it in.

Johnny, - We're gonna throw this in the oven.

Let our vegetables do their thing.

Yeah, let's do it.

All right.

Mike Bailine.

The vegs are doing their thing.

Not gonna take long for those to cook.

Okay, I got some.

Let's do it.

Got some butter here.

Now obviously we're gonna do some scampy.

We do garlic?

Yeah, we're butter olive.

Ooh.

Okay.

You want me to mix this together a little bit?

Yeah.

Heat it up a little bit.

It'll mix up.

Really?

Put it in the - Fire.

- Put it right in the fire.

All right.

Put it - On the edge.

Let's, - We can do that.

Oh, - Got on fire.

- As a matter of fact, we'll take the veg out right now.

Yeah, - Perfect.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm gonna start skewering these.

Where did we do with the skewers?

They're right here.

Okay.

Actually, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna, let's cut.

Let's cut some lemon - Here.

Alright.

Show me how it's done.

Chef Mike.

- We're just gonna quarter these and we're gonna put 'em on our skewers.

- So I'm curious, you've opened a new place, chef Mike's Kitchen and Market on State Street, right over by the Park circle.

- Correct.

- Right over by where people remember Poor Richards used to be back in the day.

- Right.

Poor Richards.

- And look at you skewering away there.

Tell me a little bit about what you're cooking over there.

Right - Now, we're gonna do some skewered shrimp scampy.

- Well, I know you're doing that here, but what I wanna know is what you're doing at your, oh, what we're doing over there at your - Restaurant.

We're going to do some, we have a self basting rotisserie wood oven.

- Oh, - Okay.

We like that.

So we're gonna do some roasted ribs and some roasted chicken, barbecue, cilantro, lime, and regular flavor.

And we're gonna do smash burgers and we're gonna do pastas, we're gonna do desserts, we're gonna do beverages.

- You're gonna find it all there.

And I guess people, now the new, the new trend is, is DoorDash Kitchens.

And Togo Kitchens.

And that's what this is, right?

- It is.

It's an online delivering company.

You can pick it up, but you can also order right from your seat at - Handyman.

The future is here now.

- So let's, - These shrimp look great.

- Oh, let's put another one of these on here.

- Okay.

- Alright.

- I'm gonna put a little bit of our secret.

- Beautiful.

- Yes.

- Season.

So we're gonna pop those in the oven and then we're gonna, how's our sauce doing?

Let's take a - Look.

- Move this over.

- It's melted.

It looks like scampy to me.

Yeah.

- Perfect.

Get a fork in here.

Mix that around a little bit.

We're gonna do some Parmesan cheese when it comes out of the end so it doesn't burn it, and it's gonna be delicious.

All right, Johnny, so what are we gonna do?

Start roasting - Our, yeah, so we've got our salmon, we've got our shrimp.

We just have to put 'em in the oven and let 'em do their thing.

Are you ready?

I know our cat Eelee's ready?

Yeah.

Eelee, are you ready?

- Eelee's ready.

All - Eelee's ready.

All right, well, let's go.

What do you think the salmon take longer to cook than the shrimp?

The - Salmon will take a little bit longer.

- All right.

Go ahead and put it right in.

Mike, don't burn yourself now.

- Okay.

- As a chef, you do that a lot, don't you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Comes with the territory and then our shrimp.

All right.

Mikey.

Oh, look at - This.

That's beautiful, Johnny.

- All - Right.

Let's, it looks delicious.

Let's bring it - Out.

Let these shrimp out.

- Oh, we're gonna put our little scampy butter on it.

Some Parmesan cheese.

Be ready to roll.

It's beautiful.

- Put a little butter on there.

- Yeah, for sure.

How's the salmon doing?

- Ready for it to come out.

- All right, let's do - That.

The, the cedar plank is smoky and good.

- That's beautiful.

That's beautiful.

Give it another coating.

- Okay.

Again, honey vinegar, sea salt, lemon.

- Put a little mustard in there.

- Little mustard.

Olive oil.

- All right.

- Squeeze a lime.

This salmon looks outrageously good.

Okay.

- The cedar plank smells good too.

- Yeah, it's amazing the smell that that gets off.

Yeah.

- Really - Burning it.

Look how it, it burned all the way around.

- Yep.

- All right.

- And if we didn't have it soaking it, the whole thing would've burned.

Perfect.

- And our skewers.

- Yeah.

Looks great.

- Dude.

What about our veg?

We have - To put our veg on the plate also.

Okay.

- We'll get the veg.

Look at this Here.

- It's, I'm gonna put a lemon on there for us.

- Okay.

Man.

We're eating like kings today.

- We are eating like - Kings.

I'm so glad that you came.

I'm so excited for your new business that everybody's been enjoying.

Know you can get it on DoorDash now I'm gonna talk a little bit to Mike about, you know, his background, but get, get a load of this.

Yeah, - That looks good.

Quick, easy, delicious, fresh.

- Mm, mm mm.

All right.

So make sure you try out Chef Mike's Kitchen and Market on State Street.

Of course, you of course used to be behind Last Call Barn - Grill.

I was for - Out Evans Mills for - Quite some time.

- For quite a while.

- Yep.

- And then you came up from Florida originally, right?

- I did South Florida.

- You were involved in a restaurant business down there.

I was.

So that's why you know how to cook seafood.

- Sweet.

Yeah, we can cook anything.

Johnny.

- Well make sure you try his stuff.

I understand too.

You're gonna be open late.

- We are gonna be open late.

And we are going to, we're going to do something kind of unique in this area.

We're gonna have a market, so whatever we buy, you can buy and you'll be able to see that online and check out the market.

So that's gonna be something that's, - I can't wait to come in and try the chicken.

- Yes.

- The ribs.

The - Ribs.

The smash burgers, the pastas, the - Pasta, - The milkshakes.

- And now I can't wait any longer to try this.

- Yeah, let's do it Johnny.

- Okay, so I'm gonna go with the salmon first Again.

We've got wood fired, cedar planked salmon with a little honey.

Soy.

- I wanna pull the shrimp off the skewer and I'm gonna do it in my hands 'cause it'll be so much easier.

Yes, it will.

- I'm going in for seconds here.

Okay.

This, this salmon is delicious.

- Yeah, I wanna try the shrimp - And the smokiness is unreal.

All right.

- Yeah.

- How's the shrimp?

- So much flavor.

So much flavor.

- All right.

I'll try a piece.

- And they're really moist.

This oven is amazing.

- I'll try a piece of shrimp.

- Yeah.

- Okay, here we go.

I'll - Try the sandwich, honey, - Like candy.

- Yeah, - Absolutely delicious.

- I love the little chard that the, that the oven put on the, on the end of the salmon's Delicious.

- You can check out the recipe online.

WPBStv.org.

Okay.

Johnny on fire.

Of course, you can always listen to the dinner at Johnny's podcast.

You can listen to me on the border 1 0 6 7 radio station.

- You're everywhere.

- And check out Chef Mike's kitchen.

Yeah.

Brand new.

- Yes.

Thank you for having me, - Johnny.

Hey, my pleasure.

Thanks for coming to cook with me.

You're welcome.

Appreciate it.

Everybody have a great one.

Hmm.

I get my business Shrimp.

Shrimp are delicious.

Right.

- If you're looking for more great fire grilled recipes from Johnny, just visit wpbstv.org and scroll through our library.

Also, if you'd like to be a guest on the segment, just drop us an email at WPBSweekly@wpbstv.org.

Make sure you include your name and of course, your fire grilled recipe idea.

Well, after you've finished your salmon, why not take a hike?

Summer is a great time to get some exercise while enjoying the great outdoors Tonight, Canadian filmmaker and Thousand Islands, Mitch Beatie showcases some scenic, hiking and walking trails in Ganaoque and Lands Down Ontario.

- Come down here, you coward.

Hey everybody.

Welcome back to another episode of A thousand Islands Wanderer.

Today we're gonna showcase some of the beautiful walking trails and hiking trails, not just in Gananoque, but also up in Lands down.

Our first stop is right downtown at Confederation Park.

And you can walk over, there's two sides of the dam.

One here, and then a dam on this side that usually has a waterfall running, but there's a big fountain in the middle.

turtle.

Oh, he just went away.

Oh, darn it.

There he is.

He's popping up.

Hello.

If you got kids, there's a lot of little turtles you can find hidden all over the place.

We got the big fountain in the middle.

And what else is here?

Terry Baby Geese.

Oh, right now there's lots of baby geese around as well.

So we're out at the tourism center.

We're gonna go in quickly and just find out where a couple hikes are in the area that we can do, - Thank you so much.

Hi there.

Welcome to the Thousand Islands Visitors Center.

My name's Aiden Canty and I'm a tourism officer here.

Today I'm gonna tell you what the trails and the leads in a thousand islands.

In Gananoque, we have all different ranges of difficulties.

The Marble Rock Trail is more of a nature route.

When you visit Marble Rock, you get away from the busy tourist areas and kind of get a calm feel for Gananoque.

- As per Aiden's recommendation, we are checking out Marble Rock really quickly.

Naturey, nature Tree, nature Bee, come down here, you cowered.

We really enjoy hiking, so I have no idea how we have not heard about this trail yet, but it is very beautiful.

Let's go check the lookout out's.

Let almost there.

Wow.

Ooh, look, you can see the bottom way down there.

Oh yeah.

I'd say the first part of this hike is fairly moderate, but then there's some more challenging pathways as well that might not be as kid friendly, but the the main path seems to be pretty kid friendly.

For our last hike of the day, we are at Landon's Bay just off of the parkway.

This trail is a lot easier, I would say, for kids and is a pretty easy hike up until you get to the lookout and then you got a little bit of a incline to get up to the top of there.

Look at that from the parking lot.

It's only about a 10 minute hike until you get to the stairs.

Up to the lookout.

Here we go.

- Finally tonight, discover your next read.

Avid reader, Laura Tiberiu shares her views on the book, Normal People by Sally Rooney, a contemporary novel exploring the complex and evolving relationship between two Irish teenagers as they navigate the challenges of love, social class, and personal identity.

Here's Laura with more.

- I've been a reader my whole life, but it was definitely during COVID that that love for reading grew exponentially and I found myself waiting for any free moment in the day to just pick up a book and go into another world.

And today I'm excited to talk about Normal People by Sally Rooney, which is the first book I read during the pandemic and the book that single handedly made me obsessed with reading, grew my collection of books and propelled just this passion for literature and for stories and for really deep intricate characters.

So normal people is a wonderful, wonderful book.

On the shorter side as well, it's it's easy to digest quickly.

I remember I had a meeting for a project.

I was in university when I was reading this, and I dreaded having to put the book down to do schoolwork.

Could not wait.

The moment that meeting ended, I finished the rest of the book and there's actually a TV series out with two fantastic actors as the main characters, and I watched the entire thing.

That night.

I pulled an all-nighter because this book was so good and left such an impact on me.

Now about the actual book.

This is literary fiction and it's very character driven.

There isn't so much of a underlying plot throughout or something that we're working towards.

At the end, we follow Marianne and Connell from high school to university and see how this web of their relationship has been built from not really knowing each other, but knowing each other's presence to being very close to then having a moment happen, which leads to a lot of distance to then reconnecting and so on and so forth, like a roller coaster from the start to the finish.

And it leaves you on the edge of your seat because they're both so deeply problematic in their own minds.

They're wonderful people, but they have so much trauma they need to work through.

And I think both of them are quite anxious people as well.

And so knowing that they feel a certain way, but then act or speak differently from how they really feel gets infuriating.

Miscommunication is a big, big part of this book, but it also makes it beautiful and human because I act like that and I know so many people in my life act like that, and I'm sure you do as well, where sometimes we know what we really want, but it seems so hard to voice what we actually want.

And then there's this butterfly effect of everything else that unravels because we couldn't be honest.

It's a beautifully written book.

I adore this author.

I would read Sally Rooney's Grocery List just to read more of what she has put out in the world on the overall themes of the book.

Definitely love and relationships, whether it's familial, platonic or romantic.

Also, social class.

There are quite a few in-depth conversations between Marianne and Connell, but also just mentions throughout the book of how they're in very different social classes are two main characters and how that affects them and their relationship and the world around them from the start when we see them in high school all through about to finish university.

And it really broadened my perspective.

This was also the first really intriguing romantic book that I read, which also dealt with social class and politics really, really well.

I think it weaved the two, the three themes incredibly.

And so you were getting to broaden your knowledge about different things while also just giggling and kicking your feet because you were so happy when they were happy, which isn't very often in this book.

Overall, this book definitely examines the complexities of being in your early twenties and how to navigate relationships and mental health and love and all of the wonderful and dreadful things about growing up and just feeling those growing pains and how it affects basically every aspect of your life.

So it is incredibly relatable and so touching So beautiful.

I've read it three times and I cannot wait to read it again.

I've also gifted this book to people I love.

I've annotated it for them and given it to them because I think it is such an applicable book to almost anyone, and you have so much to learn from it and appreciate about it.

And I could go on and on for ages, but I'll leave it at that.

If you pick up this book, I hope you absolutely adore it like I did.

- We're taking a break from next week's show to bring you our upcoming membership drive beginning May 30th.

We hope you tune in as we ask our viewers for continued support.

Your support allows us to forge on with the programs you value right here on WPBS.

Then join us again June 10th for a fresh look inside the stores.

The Spire Arts and Community Hub in Kingston is home to more than 20 arts and community organizations encouraging people of all ages to come together to celebrate the arts.

And Brian's Record Option in Kingston is more than just a record store and cultural landmark.

You'll find stories, memories, and a true piece of Kingston history.

Also meet Atom Ghost, the three man rock band, sharing their philosophy of creativity, community, and inspiration throughout the north country and beyond.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we would love to learn more.

All you need to do is drop us an email at WPBSweekly@wpbstv.org we'll share it with the region.

That's it for now.

Everyone have a safe night.

We'll see you next time.

Take care.

- WPBS weekly Inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School, comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most.

- North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country.

We're protecting one another, like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the north country strong, at claxtonhepburn.org Today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- All right, Mikey.

Oh, look at this.

- That's beautiful, Johnny.

All right, let, it looks delicious.

Let's bring it - Out.

These shrimp out.

- Oh, we're gonna put our little scampy butter on it.

Some Parmesan cheese.

Be ready to roll.

It's - Beautiful.

Put a little butter on there.

- Yeah, for sure.