salads

I've been eating a lot of salads recently. Which is a really new thing- I've been pretty scornful of salads in the past because they are just so boring and such. But the friend I mentioned who doesn't eat raw veggies, he particularly laments that he can't eat apples in salads anymore. So I thought, well yeah, that sounds pretty good and I've got a jillion apples. But really, I found the key to good salads.

Kalamata olive tapenade/olivada. Mix it with a little more olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and mustard and it's a truly delicious salad dressing. I've had it with apples, raisins, walnuts, red pepper, spinach, romaine, hard boiled egg, tomato, crutons, carrots, etc. Not all at the same time mind you.

This is the salad I had tonight- yep it's as enormous as it looks. It's spinach, lettuce and blanched kale with bacon, apples, paprika peppers and radish with the dressing above. Gosh it's good. I just love kale, blanched and sauteed or baked, or whatever. It's so good and chewy.

I got my first winter csa box yesterday- squash, sweet potatoes, normal potatoes, kale, spinach, radish, beets, celeriac, turnips, leeks, lettuce, brussel sprouts (good braised wiht bacon and mustard seed but that's about it for me and brussels), onions, carrots, and my garden still has eggplants!

Hey tab, the green tomato jam is just bad. Yich. I don't like green tomatoes. what a bummer- a real waste of 5 c of sugar and an orange and apple. Oh well! I'm actually still gonna try the carrot cake jam.

stale

For breakfast I had a bowl of stale old coco puffs mixed with stale old cookie crisp

Mushroom Seitan Currry

Yep - last week was busy - I'm glad it's done. I decided to make apple hand pies this weekend. *I break into this posting for an aside. I almost didn't create this blog because I didn't want you guys to know how much I get obsessed on a particular food. I tend to make something over and over for a couple of weeks or months and then move on. You may have noticed the hand pie theme....

Anyway I basically made an applesauce with Prairie Spy, Northern Spy, Anise Hyssop, a little sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and star anise. I thought that by putting it in a hand pie it would be like a normal pie - Not so. I just don't like applesauce. Give me pie, crisp, cider, or raw apples - no applesauce, not even in a hand pie.

Tonight I made an "interesting" yummy quick curry. Sauteed some shallots and ginger in butter; add mushrooms, seitan and sweet curry powder saute further; add goat yogurt, a little home canned tomatoes, a little pumpkin ale, and a little water - simmer till good and serve over rice.

shake n' bake vs. slop n' glop

I was over at Allisons for dinner. She was going make chicken fingers - basically strips of chicken coated in bisquick. So I wasn't watching as she mixed up the egg and added the bisquick - butter- spices. So she goes to coat the chicken but all it is is a big bunch of glob. So I read the directions. She was suposed to cover with the egg and then the dry ingredients would stick. Suprisingly it tasted fine. But it sure looked gross as we tried to glob muck on the chicken.

Chutney n such

Hey ya. So I guess I haven't really eaten anything interesting lately. Hence the lack of posts. Well, actually I have eaten interesting things, but I had friends over and it seemed weird to wave my laptop in front of the food before we eat. Maybe I'll get used to it...

So this here is my leftover roast chicken from Wed (I roasted one of Kristen's enormous birds with herb butter under the skin, served with root veggies, spinach salad and apple crisp)in a sandwich. I've been getting into the chutney thing lately so this is with a rhubarb curry chutney I made last spring. It keeps forever in the fridge. My late lunch doesn't look very good, but it tasted good.

I've got two recipes planned for this weekend: green tomato, mint and apple chutney and carrot cake jam! Carrots, currants, sugar, apples, cinnamon, walnuts... MMmmmm!

pumpkin seeds

Matt and I had fun with pumpkins on Saturday, We carved them and roasted/toasted the seeds. It was a nice day to sit in the grass. They are not handling the warm temps real well, drying out and getting funny looking, but perhaps that makes them more halloweeney.
I had my first okra cooking experience last week. (ominous dun dun dunnnns) but it was pretty good. They came in our CSA so I figured I should cook them up right away, otherwise I probably would have "forgot" about them. I roasted them in the oven with radishes and zucchini, and ate them with cheesy herbed polenta. I'm sporting a nasty burn on my wrist from the polenta, but it turned out tasty.

26 varieties and dinner

I went to an apple orchard this weekend that had 30 varieties for sale! I took their purple sharpie and wrote the names on 26 of them so I could try and learn which one's I especially like. I'll have to peel the names away before I eat the whole apple, but I think it's a worthy venture anyways. I'll let you know what I conclude as I eat my way through them! I don't want to slice all of them all at once, I'm just going to take notes as I go.

Then, here's my dinner: a salmon cake on swiss chard with sorrel sauce. I just discovered the salmon in a tuna-type pouch. Less mercury than tuna and if it's Alaskan wild-caught, then it's sustainable too! My salmon cake could use some refining- it was kinda tough but tasty anyways. Oh and it's in the living room so you have a chance to see some new scenery- the davenport, the coffeetable eppie made, and even the rubber tree.

Lentil Ham Soup

For dinner I made a lentil ham soup and was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. I hit and miss with thrown together soups.

Saute in olive oil 3 shallots and 2 cloves of garlic. Add a ham bone and one leek finely chopped - saute 4 minutes. Add water, large sprig of sage, one diced turnip, one diced kohlrabi, 1/3 cup lentils, 1/3 cup diced ham, salt and cumin; bring to a boil then simmer till done. Serve with parmesan.

Friday Fun

Yesterday Stephen & I visited Frontenac State Park and visited the Alexis Bailly Vineyard. My work week was Sun-Thurs so Stephen took Friday off to gallivant with me. The mushroom picture is from our walk along the Mississippi River. The park trails are about 15-20 feet in from the Mississippi shore and 8-10 feet higher than the water line. Very steep trails from the cliff edge to the river. Tons of fun mushrooms to take pictures of - if you want more mushroom pics let me know.

There is a vineyard 10 miles south of Hastings, along our route back to St. Paul. I've never stopped at a winery before so we tried it. For $5 per person we tried all of the wines they produce - 2 whites, 2 rose, 4 reds, and 3 dessert. I ended up purchasing a bottle of their ice wine even though they cheat. Ice wine is supposed to be made with grapes they leave on the vine to freeze. Then while the grapes are frozen they squeeze any of the remaining liquid out. Instead they press their grapes, freeze the liquid and discard the frozen water...Oh Well. It was fun.

Ole's boller! (oliebollen)

I dub them tasty!
I made them with currants but without the candied lemon. The candied lemon peel really would be great in them, although I was thinking while eating one that lemon icing would do in a pinch. I rolled them in sugar to add some sweetness. Thanks for the recipe Tab!
Time for a cup of tea now...

Honey Carmel Corn

Tab made some so I had to. Only I was out of corn syrup, and had only half of the required brown sugar.

Epp, you said you wanted the recepie;

20 cups popped corn

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 plus 2 tb. honey
1 tsp salt
MIX ALL BOiL for 5 Min
ADD 1/2 tsp Soda
PUT IN 250 Oven, stir every 15 min for 45 min.
Drool
eAt
Drool
EAt

Roasting tomatoes

Hi guys, tonight I used up a batch of Roma Tomatoes. Last spring on an episode of good eats, alton brown made a tomato sauce out of romas roasted in the oven and run through a food mill. Since I don't have a food mill, I peeled them first, roasted them, and put them in the blender. They turned out pretty great, I left them in the oven for a good hour probably. At the same time I roasted a bit of zucchini and egglplant to add to the sauce. Topped off with some crumbled goat cheddar, it was tasty!

Who is going to make me these doughnuts?

Instead of walking home from my bus stop in Highland I looked for cookbooks at Half Price Books and took myself out to tea at the TeaSource while waiting for Stephen to pick me up. It was sample day at the TeaSource - 5 3oz samples of tea for $3.00 - a good deal. I had Lavenderberry (yicky rooibos based - smells like rust), Yunnan Puerh (I gave it a good try but it tastes like a damp cave), Milk Oolong (absolutely delicious - tastes like sweet butter with a slight floral edge), Some sort of fruit flavored green tea, and Prairie Passion (ya'll have had that).

For $10.00 Half Price coughed up three lovely books for me. One buck for The Festive Bread Book, one buck for Crepes, and seven for Will Write For Food.

The following recipe is from The Festive Bread Book. Supposedly this was "an American favorite in eighteenth-century New York". I think it sounds fascinating because of the grated apples and candied lemon peel - might be a good one to try for Thanksgiving.

Oliebollen
2/1/2 - 3 cups flour
1/2 T yeast
3 T sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup cream
2 T butter
2 egg yolks
1 cup coarsely grated apples
1/3 cup raisins (I would use currents instead or omit them all together)
1/4 cup candied lemon peel

Heat milk, cream and butter till hot. Sift dry ingredients. Beat all ingredients together add flour to make a soft dough. Rise until double. Beat dough down and form into balls the size of a walnut. Fry in 375 degree oil.

the turkey is in the bag!

I don't know what mine/our/yours plans are yet for Thanksgiving but my money is down on a heritage breed from my favorite meat farmers- Jordandal Farm.

Yum! That reminds me Tab I've got apple cider in the fridge and a bottle of Jameson- hmmm yum! Brandy might be better but Jameson does cut the sweetness. I'm going to have to acquire a cold between now and the pm hours so I can earn a hot toddy.

SUGAR!

I've been craving sugar. What better thing to satisfy that craving than with Carmel Corn? It's finally back to decent temperatures so I cooked up a batch this evening. YUM!

Soon I'll be drinking my spiced cider - it's been mulling for the last hour and a half with cinnamon stick, cardamon pod, star anise, allspice and cloves so it should be good now - add a little brandy and it's medicine for my cold.

yumm

asparigus

Yumm Yumm,
we had asparagus for dinner with homemade spinach and squash ravioli with marinara sause.
It was great!
for desert we are eating homemade apple pie alla mode.

I love having a CSA

Our fall CSA started on Thursday and it is superb. It included beans, radishes, mixed greens, turnips (pink on the outside, a huge buch of mustard greens, and eggplants, oh and broccoli too! So so fun. It is crazy that I am getting a "fall" csa and it is consistently in the 70s and 80s everyday. On Thursday I made Turnip Soup with Guyere Croutons, from Deborah Madison's Veg for everyone. It was really tasty (I had no idea I liked turnips!), I couldn't believe it when I read the recipe and had both turnips and guyere in the fridge, it was destined to be... Last night I wanted to use the mustard greens, but could not find a good recipe, so I made a crustless quiche with eggplant, mustard greens, and goat cheese, with brownies for dessert.
The quiche is reheating now for breakfast, then we'll head over to the farmers market, today is the last one for the year. Oh, and if anyone wants to send me a jug of apple cider, I'm open for trades!

it's clear I'm stalling

So I tend to write about breakfast. Could it be I'm trying to stall beginning work for the day? Could be... Well here's the fruits of my recent labors- the morning's breakfast of apple pie (Absolute BEST breakfast in the world) with my three recent jams: chocolate pear, apple raspberry cherry and rhubarb vanilla. Thanks for the recipes Tab!

I was hearing on the radio recently about what happens to people's brains when they pursue the craft (and by craft I mean the creation of something) they love- they loose their sense of time because of the physiology of the brain and the centers for artistic pursuit and time are quite separate. That happens to me when I'm cooking. All of a sudden it's 11pm and I swear I've only begun.

Mom and Sarah came over for Craft Night. Knitting fun was had. Stephens game was cancelled so he made us dinner - vegetable stir fry with seitan. I'm generally not a fan of stir fry but he did all of the vegetables separately so they turned out excellent. Thanks for dinner Stephen!

Note Sarah's drink. Stephen gave her a dragon embellish - I added a treat from Atilda & Earl in its mouth.

One Tough Cookie

Whatever the results of the pathology report - This is our Mom - One Tough Cookie.

eggs

Today for breakfast I ate scrambles eggs with chopped up polish sausage. It was not bad.
But I always end up with watery eggs when ever I scramble, any one know why?

Stephen's Request

Vegetable Pie by Beatrice Ojakangas. Loads of farmer market vegetables in a sour cream pastry crust. Vegies used: napa cabbage, carrots, kolorabi, parsnips and leeks. Other: gouda cheese, thyme and salt.

yum

This was my breakfast. Two pieces of toast: one with yogurt cheese and raspberries the other with butter and pears. Both sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Wowee the pear one was really good! The pears were just firm enough and just ripe enough and boy were they good with butter and warm toast. I made the chocolate pear jam last night and the pears were so good I saved myself half of one pear for breakfast.

French Toast for Me

What I really wanted for dinner was mashed potatoes and gravy. Unfortunately I have no potatoes and no sort of meat for gravy. What I did have is leftover bread from my baking on Saturday - thus French Toast.

Once upon a time I had delicious Miso Gravy. I have no idea how to make it myself - if any one has a decent sounding recipe send it my way. I wonder if miso gravy would be good with mashed white sweet potatoes? My refrigerator is currently home to mellow white, red and adzuke bean miso.