back at it in 2015

Just a month in and 2015 is off to a rollicking good start.  We rang in the new year with family-reunion-a-polooza!

It was pretty awesome to get about 2/3 of the family together under one roof for a wee stretch of time.  Awesome, and crazy, and kid fabulous!  9 cousins! Thankfully the weather was mild so nobody froze too bad and the kids were able to range outside for most of the time, where they soldiered on sledding until the very last of the snow melted.  Army-sized meals were prepared, and the decibel level in the house was equivalent to a rock concert at any given time. 

About a month before this insanity all went down I broke down in my own little moment of crazy and brought this home:

Actually, that's about three times the amount of dog I brought home in December.  Puppies grow at an even more exponential rate than children. Artemis "Aurora-Rapunzel-Cinderella."  She has pretty much won us all over heart and soul.  Every time we turn around she is just sitting there with those eyes full of unconditional love seeming to say, "I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me, or feed me scraps of moose meat."

As things slowed down & got very chilly outside towards the end of January and our house seemed strangely quiet (for the first time ever maybe) the kids and I have  been reading lots of books.  We have a cook & book theme going on and they are totally diggin' it.  This week we read

The kids baked the apple pie recipe from it (they did the majority of mixing and chopping themselves) and were quite delighted with the result.

Other than that we are just crafting, and garden dreaming and doing some nesting in this last little stretch of winter time.

sunshine tea

We have an overabundance of fresh eggs right now.  That is kind of the nature of chicken keeping I'm learning.  All winter long--no eggs, no eggs...then spring and summer hit and it's OMG EGGS!  I've been trying to come up with ways to use eggs other than the old stand-byes and I came across this old-school recipe that with some minor tweaks has become one of the kids' favorites over the last few weeks.  This is a really great way to get some healthy calories into little ones who aren't big into breakfast.  It is also an awesome before-bed snack. You don't need fresh eggs to make this--of course, they will taste the best, but the hot water does technically "cook" the eggs in this drink if you are worried about food-borne pathogens.

Sunshine Tea

serves 3

Boil 2 cups of water

 In a blender combine:

2 eggs

1 heaping teaspoon butter

1 heaping teaspoon coconut oil

1 tablespoon of honey (or to taste)

pinch of tumeric

dash of nutmeg

shake of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

While the blender is running

slowly (carefully!) pour the boiling water into the egg mixture 

increase speed of blender and mix until frothy 

pour into cups

Enjoy!

* This recipe is generally fine for those who are lactose-sensitive as butter doesn't contain the milk protein that many people are unable to digest.  That said, if you don't do butter you can substitute a different healthy fat or oil in the recipe, you could also just add a bit more coconut oil.

* for a more hot-chocolate like drink try adding a heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder. 

summer delights

Some things about summertime are just perfect.  Fresh fruit, for one.  And Sadie's new favorite dessert is just another perfect excuse to eat berries (like you really need one). 

Pavlova--it sounds much fancier than it really is.  I made a similar version to this on Saturday using this recipe, and using a home-made custard (to use up the egg yokes, and because I didn't have whipped cream). I thought it was good, but a little too sweet.  I wanted to try it again with less sugar, and the suggested whipped cream.  Its better this way.  I cut the sugar in the recipe by half, and used barely sweetened whipped cream.  I think eventually you will run into problems with the texture of the meringue if you use too little sugar, but I'm going to just keep making this recipe whittling the sugar down in increments until it doesn't work.

It's still plenty sweet with half the sugar, and it fluffed up just fine. 

Like eating a cloud...says Sadie.

 

It's so pretty too.

Although, my amateur foodie photography doesn't really do it justice.

I don't think I'll ever run a perfect food photography show on this channel because 

1. I can't devote kitchen space to all the fun little props that make your photos really shine, and

2. I only have 30 seconds to take pictures before this happens:

 

 

Anyway... Pavlova--just do it.  You won't be sorry!

sweet potato soup with ginger and vanilla

As queen of the kitchen, I have decreed that here-to-fore Thursdays will be soup days in our house.  Anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to cook dinner...anyone, anyone?
Well,  since we have no takers, let me tell you about the soup I made today.

This soup was downright serendipitous.  I stumbled upon the recipe on foodgawker this morning, and since I miraculously had every single ingredient for it in my CSA box that I picked up today, I was thinking this soup and me...well... we were just meant for each other. The author of this soup {recipe found here} describes it as, "vanilla bean and ginger holding hands in a field of sweet potato, with pretty bursts of lime lighting their way, and just a touch of heat."

Now isn't that real nice? You know what else is real nice?  This soup.  Seriously, my taste buds can't decide if it's dinner...or dessert.  I think I might just need to have another bowl so I can make up my mind.  You should make you some too.  It is really quick and easy and aside from vanilla beans there are no fancy or shmancy ingredients. Happy soup Thursday, from my kitchen to yours {which is probably a lot cleaner than mine}

sesame duck

I love me some subsistence foods, but I won't lie, duck is not my fave.  That being said, my fella sure does like the waterfowl hunting, so in spite of my best efforts to persuade him otherwise, our freezer is very full of quackers. I am a firm believer in making the best of what you have, and not letting anything go to waste, so I am always looking for new and tasty ways to cook duck.  This one is good.  It is a recipe designed for chicken--but it was very delish with waterfowl.  Let's just say there were no leftovers.

Sesame Duck- Adapted from Doreen P's Perfect Sesame Chicken:

perfect beer-battered fish

It's summer--or close enough, and here in the greatland that means that it's time to use up the old fish in the freezer to make room in anticipation for the new.  One well loved method of using up said fish is ye ole beer batter and fry.  I have been searching high and low for a beer batter recipe that sticks to the fish and fries up that lovely golden brown color, and stays crisp even if you have to hold it in a warm oven while you fry up a giant batch, you know what I mean?

Well...I found it.  

This is really, really good beer batter.  

And it's really easy.

So easy, in fact that it only contains 2 ingredients
(well, 3 if you count salt)

Mix together: 

approximately 3 cups of flour

20 oz beer

(that's like a beer and a half. You can polish off the other half as you cook)

Use a good, flavorful beer.  I used AK amber.

add a dash of salt.

leave it on the counter covered with a tea towel for a few hours before cooking your fish.

I think this is what makes the batter thick and wonderfully sticky to adhere to the fish.

Season your fish with the delicious spices of your choice before dipping in the beer batter and frying.

plain old salt'n'peppa works fine, but feel free to get fancy if the spirit moves.

fry. 

(we always fry in peanut oil because it is stable at high temps--

coconut oil would be good too--but expensive)

don't burn. 

keep warm in a 200 degree oven until all the fish is done.

use up the extra batter to make some amazing onion rings. 

soooooooo good.

serve with the dipping condiment of your choice. 

You might want to schedule some time to go for a hike after you eat this... 

but you won't be sorry you tried it.

eat your colors.

They say you should eat a rainbow in fruits and vegetables everyday.  Sometimes that is hard for us to do on Wednesdays because we are usually down to the dregs of our CSA box--and of course there isn't a piece of fruit to be found in the house.  By some happy accident today we had some lovely colorful produce leftover, so I made a bastardized Nome version of the Malaysian dish "Gado-Gado."

Ours featured a bed of hearty brown rice topped with

lightly steamed purple cabbage

& green snow peas

fresh orange carrots,

green spinach

& red tomatoes
and a hard-boiled egg.
To add an extra element of delicious we topped the whole thing with a creamy home-made peanut sauce.
mmmmm.....sooooo good.  I extra love that Sadie will totally chow this kind of food, especially if there is sauce involved-- Girl loves her some sauce!

And just to counteract this marvelous healthy dinner I am totally baking a real-deal New York Cheesecake as I type this.  I got the recipe over at the Smitten Kitchen. I figured since she is a New-Yorker that should give her some kitchen cred in the cheesecake department, plus, every recipe I have tried off of that blog has been awesome so far.

So I guess the moral of the story is... eat your rainbow, and then you can have a slice of cheesecake ;)

bread+chocolate= love.

 

Back in my traveling days, Pain au Chocolat was one my favorite indulgences from the tiny bakery cafes in Europe.  To sit and enjoy this with a cup of strong espresso and a good book or my journal to keep me company... 

sigh. It was lovely.

Usually, it comes in the form of a croissant with a big hunk of chocolate baked in.  I don't know about you, but I don't have time to bake croissants. ever. 

Loren & I did rediscover this treat last summer on a trip to Homer where we had the Two Sister's Bakery version of this treat, which is made with a heartier bread dough and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon sugar.  They were wonderful. 

And maybe it's the cold, cold, weather, 

but lately I have been in a bread baking mood.

Here is the recipe, so you can try them out yourself, 

if the spirit moves you.

I think they would make a perfect Valentines treat.

lingonberry-apple pie

 

 Crust:

blend in food processor or blender

2 cups of flour

1 cup cold butter cut up

1tsp salt

slowly add until crust just comes together

1/4 cup vanilla vodka.

Did you know that replacing the water with vodka in your pie crust makes it impossibly flaky?

It does... and you should try it sometime.

Filling:

2 cups lingonberries or cranberries

3 sad looking apples from the fruit bowl that everyone keeps passing by

3/4 c. sugar

4T. cornstarch, or your favorite pie thickener

dash of the vanilla vodka that you didn't need for the crust

2 pats of butter.

toss together

Fill bottom pie crust, put the top crust on, poke some holes, cover edges with foil and bake at 425 for 30 minutes

uncover edges, reduce heat to 350 and cook another 30-40 minutes, until juices are bubbling

and the tantalizing aroma sends you to pie heaven. 

Enjoy!

blue green smoothies

 

1 banana + 1 cup frozen tundra blueberries+ 1 cup plain yogurt + 3 cups kale=

1 happy smoothie drinkin' tot.

winter fruit salad

Do you see what I see?  That would be the Bering Sea... starting to freeze.  

Well, there's no crying about it this year.  All those frozen tears would just add to the ice up.

Nope.

Today we are celebrating the chilly temps and the waning daylight  with this beautiful winter fruit salad, courtesy of the goodness that came in our CSA box this week.

To make it:

Start with 2 cups of water in a sauce pan, add 1/4 cup cane  sugar

1/2 vanilla bean

2 star anise

zested citrus rind of your choice.

(normally I would make a honey infusion with 1/2 cup of honey, but since honey is still on the semi-nos list for Sadie we did the simple syrup.)

Bring to a boil, 

reduce heat and simmer.

While that is simmering, 

cut up 1 1/2 cups of dried fruit of your choice. I used dates and pears, because that's what we had.

Turn heat off on simple syrup. 

Add dried fruit.  

while it softens, 

cut up about 4 cups of seasonal fruit.

I used:

1 pear

1 granny smith apple,

1 persimmon

and 1 pomegranate

Pour  the now cool(ish) dried fruit/s.syrup solution over your diced fruit mix

Top with plain yogurt if you wish.

Serve to a delighted 16-month old.

Enjoy as you watch the sun begin its rapid descent towards the horizon 

at 2 pm.

Thanksgiving dinner triage-HELP!

In spite of little miss "Say-sie"  (guess who says her own name now?) and I pouring over the fanciest of cooking magazines, I am totally uninspired for Thanksgiving dinner this year...and it's coming up fast!  So help a blogger out.  Tell me what will be on your table this year--I need some inspiration soon, because we need to put our CSA order in by Friday.  What's everyone making?  Don't blurk. Leave a comment:)

Some good fall eats.

Today Loren and I planned on having a few folks over for dinner, but our guest list kept dwindling down, so that eventually it included only the three of us.  Honestly, that was fine by me. Without writing you all a hand-lettered invitation to my pity party, I'll just stay it was one of those days.  Like a Monday, but it was a Sunday. Or something.  But Loren, Sadie and I enjoyed a lovely fall dinner, and I thought I would share a couple of recipes, since we didn't get to share the food:)

First up... Brie smothered in caramelized  onions served with crackers, pears and figs.  Do you ever get obsessed with an appetizer for a while?  I think I am going to be obsessed with this one.  It is oh.so.good.  Like Loren says, "I'm not usually a brie man, but this is awesome." There isn't really a recipe for it, you simply slowly cook down an onion in a couple tablespoons of butter until it becomes a lovely golden brown.  At that point I added about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and cooked it down a little bit further.  Pour the hot onions over the top of your brie, it gets all nice and soft... serve.. enjoy!

And this little gem is so worth a try.  It is called a Dimply Plum Cake, and I poached the recipe from over at the Smitten Kitchen. We got a surplus of plums in our CSA box this week, and while Sadie has been diligently munching her way through the red ones, the bag of Italian plums was getting a little smushy. They were perfect in this cake.  It is light, tangy, delicious... a wonderful fall treat, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Well, what are you waiting for?  Go get cooking! 

When life hands you cantaloupe...

...Make Summer Melon and Radish Salsa

The poor cantaloupe is a hard sell these days, what with all the bad press its getting.  Can I just say that I have never been a fan of cantaloupe to begin with...listeria or no.  I think I have been regionally misplaced as far as cantaloupe consumption goes.  Everyone I know likes to eat their cantaloupe in fruit salad.  Bleh... I might have done better liking this melon if I grew up where it was eaten with salt and pepper, or even a thin slice of prosciutto. Well, there was a sad little melon sitting in the fridge, uneated and very ripe, from last weeks organic CSA box, so I thought I would give this recipe (from this week's CSA box) a try.

1 1/2 cups diced melon

1/2 c. diced cucumber

3 green onions, thinly sliced

3 radishes, chopped fine

4t. lemon or lime juice

1T. fresh cilantro, minced

salt and pepper to taste

This is seriously, excellent excellent salsa.  Not only is it pretty, bright, sunny and crispy, it is delicious, as in you could just eat the whole bowl for dinner, and you might.  That being said, the other recipe in this week's box of produce seemed to pair nicely with this salsa, so if you don't want to just eat a straight-up bowl of salsa for dinner, you could try it too:

Black Bean Quesadillas with summer squash

2 T. oil

1 small onion, minced

1 large bell pepper, finely chopped,

1 medium summer squash, chopped

3 oz of mushrooms, also chopped (are you seeing a trend here?)

2 cloves of garlic

1 T. chili powder or other seasoning of your choice 

I used the ancho-chipotle blend from here

1 cup black beans (cooked) 

1/3 cup fresh cilantro, minced

Salt and pepper

tortillas (I make my own using this recipe)

1cup shredded cheese.

Sautee the first 8 items from the list together in order of ones that need the most cooking to the ones that need the least.  Shut off the heat, add the cilantro and then use the veggie mix, tortillas and cheese to make quesadillas.  I'm not going to explain to you how to make a dang quesadilla... if you don't know, maybe you should watch Napoleon Dynamite again, gosh.

You know who else liked this dinner?

My 15-month-old.  

It just goes to show that kids are down with trying new things,

especially when they are bright-colored and bite-sized.

 Here is the plate I made for her... she was definitely a huge fan of the tortillas,

and black beans, but then she ate bits of almost every thing else too.

Happy weekend, and happy cooking to you all:)

M.I.Y. Monday: Challah

I have long been an admirer of these beautiful braided loaves in bakeries and cookbooks, so I thought I would give this recipe a try. While I am not Jewish, nor is it the Sabbath, I do appreciate the symbolism and history baked into this bread.  It is good to remember that even in the hardest times Heaven does provide us with manna... although it might not be exactly what we were expecting.

This last week has been hella stressful for me with a sick, but somehow still wild and crazy baby, a to-do list that seems to grow by three items for every item that gets checked off, and several upcoming trips that are going to make checking items off said to-do list even more difficult. I needed to slow down and do something restorative, and baking this Challah was a little bit of manna for my soul. Do you know what is even better than re-centering yourself by baking a beautiful loaf of bread?

The fact that it's really, really yummy!

a happy cooking mistake!

Meet the "Scookie"

Last night I was trying to multitask by getting Sadie to fall asleep in the Ergo whilst simultaneously whipping up a batch of cranberry orange scones.  As distraction fate would have it, I goofed up on the recipe and came out with something that wasn't very scone-ish.  I thought I would fudge, and go for drop scones--but they actually came out better--lighter, and fluffier and mmmmm.... delish.  So here is a recipe for cranberry orange scookies.  I made them with Nome cranberries, which are actually lingonberries--so tangy and tart and wonderful!

preheat oven to 375.

In a large mixing bowl combine:

2 cups flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

zest of one orange

1 c. frozen cranberries

1/4tsp. nutmeg

1T. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

Whip together and add to dry ingredients:

1/4 c. oil

3/4 c. milk

1egg.

Drop by generous spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes.

I topped these off with a glaze made from the juice of the  zested orange, a dash of vanilla, and some powdered sugar, but they would be good without too. 

enjoy!

Homemade wholegrain goodness.

Multi-Seed/Grain Cracker Recipe:

In the spirit of getting into better shape in 2011 we are trying to cut out empty carbohydrates around here.  Unfortunately, today I was really in need of some crispy, delicious crackers.  I didn't feel like going to the store because one: I haven't put Sadie's new carseat in the truck yet, two: my chevrolegs are too sore from this morning's INSANITY workout to take me there, and three: I really didn't feel like paying $7 for a box of wheat thins today. So I decided to make up my own recipe using all healthy whole ingredients, and it turned out very good.

upsidedown apple cider cake...ahhhhmmmmazing.

I made this for Loren's birthday, and it is really delish, so I thought I would post the recipe here. This cake calls for hard apple cider.  I used Hornsby's, but I think any brand would do nicely. Makes one 8x14" cake.

Topping:
4 tbsp butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
spice of your choice--I used pie spice from here.
apples

thinly slice apples and spread evenly in the bottom of your baking dish.  Sprinkle brown sugar and spice over the apples.  Melt butter and pour over.

Cake:
2 2/3 c. sifted flour
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. softened butter
1 12oz bottle of hard cider
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients alternating with cider.  When batter is well mixed, spoon evenly over "topping" in the bottom of your 8x14" baking dish.  Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove from oven, cool 5 minutes and then invert cake onto platter of your choice.  It is awesome served warm with a little bit of vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Sourdough bread... for cheaters.

I would consider myself a decent bread baker... after countless lessons from my mom, and the Tassajara Bread Book (AWESOME cookbook by the way) I think I can hold my own in the bread baking arena. With one exception... The Sourdough.
Historically my sourdough bread is, well, not so good. In fact many of the loaves would have worked better as weaponry to be hurled at the head of  foe.

Loren took out the sourdough a few days ago to mix it up and feed it.  But after doing so there was a lot left over and he suggested, "why don't you make some sourdough bread?"  ARG.  So after doing a bit of recipe searching online, I came up with one that looked promising. And you know what? Its good.  It does have some yeast in it... so if you are a sourdough bread purist, you can turn your nose up now... but this is the first and ONLY sourdough loaf I have ever made that is not only edible, but delish!

San Francisco Sourdough Bread

 

makes one large loaf.

4 3/4 c. flour

3 T. sugar

2 1/2 t. salt

1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1 cup warm milk (I used powdered)

2 T. butter or olive oil

1 1/2 c. sourdough starter

1 egg, beaten (for brushing tops)

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and dry yeast in large mixing bowl. Add milk and butter or oil. Stir in the starter. Mix in the flour gradually.

2. Turn dough out onto floured surface, knead for 10 minutes.

3. Place in oiled bowl, let rise 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

4. punch down, let rest 15 min. 

5. Shape into loaves, place on baking sheet and let rise one hour. While bread is doing this, preheat the oven to 375. To make a thicker, chewy crust put a pan full of water into the bottom of the oven to create steam while the bread bakes.

6. brush top with beaten egg. Bake 30-40 min.

Enjoy!