I’ve thought about preserving lemons before,  but  all the recipe that seemed to call for them were exotic; apricots and lamb type combinations that neither I nor my family would like.

After chatting with the chefs Saturday night a whole new preserved lemon world has opened.  Beer-chef John suggests adding them to anything savory that I’d put lemon zest into: vinaigrette, soups, marinades, any type of fish and of course mussels, clams and shrimp.  Chef Ed nodded his agreement.  Preserved lemons are easy to make, keep for 6 months and are horrendously expensive to buy ready made.  Meyer lemons, my favorite type, currently in season are the preferred lemon for preserving.  It seemed that all indicators pointed me in the direction lemon preservation.

Cost Plus World Markets has a great array of jars in all shapes and sizes.  I wanted something moderately attractive since it will be sitting on my counter for a month then living in my fridge indefinitely.  Granted, I have a few months before I know if I did everything right and can use them in a recipe but if you want to roll the dice with me here’s what you do:

Preserved Meyer Lemons

6-8 lemons, depending on the size of your jar.

1/2 cup kosher salt

1. Slice five of the lemons crosswise as if you were cutting them into quarters but don’t cut all the way through the base.
2. Open the lemon and pour salt onto the exposed lemon flesh.  
3. Press the quarters back together to look like a whole lemon then press into jar. 
4. Repeat, adding more salt between layers, until the jar is filled.
5. Squeeze the juice from 2-3 remaining lemons and pour into jar.  You don’t need to completely cover the lemons. 
6. Sit jar on the counter for a month. The lemons will continue to release juice.  Invert the jar every few days. 
7. Place in the refrigerator.  The lemons are now preserved.  To use, remove amount needed and rise well to eliminate excess salt.  Slice, mince or leave in chunks (some people discard the pulp).  They will keep for up to 6 months.

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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Having a brother who’s a former chef and current beer rep helps.  Add a friend, also a chef, with a killer house at the end of a surreal, moss lined winding lane.  Add in panoramic views of the Olympic mountains, a beach strewn with oyster shells, and an old timber house with patina of gentility, grace and old, old money.  Add it all up and you get the party of all birthday parties. 

The house has been in the same family since the early 1900’s.  Lovingly cared for with bunks tucked into cozy corners, shelves lined with board games, a stone fireplace, a piano from a bygone era, piles of photo albums, family history.  The house breathes conviviality and the moment we arrived it embraced us as we embraced each other.

My friend likes to celebrate her birthday.  Last year’s party was a two day Twilight road trip.  This gal knows how to have fun and I’m so thankful she’s my friend (not because of the great parties).  Her very cool brother created the menu, each dish contained beer and included a beer pairing, even the fabulous red velvet cake.

Birthday Beer Dinner

February 27, 2010

SOUP

Spicy Cheese and Beer Soup made with Stone Ruination IPA and served with

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA

APPETIZER

Stone Pale Ale Steamed Mussels, Roasted Peppers, Bay Leaves, and Preserved Lemon served with

Stone Pale Ale

SALAD

Poached Pears with Mixed Greens, Pecans, Blue Cheese with Stone Levitation Ale Balsamic Vinaigrette served with

Stone Levitation Ale

MAIN COURSE

Chili Roasted Shrimp Marinated in Stone 13^th Anniversary Ale with Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Watercress, Mango, Avocado, Citrus and Jalapeno Salsa and served with

Victory Prima Pilsner

DESSERT

Fabulous Red Velvet Cake made with Ayinger Brau Weisse and served with

Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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When I lived in Bellevue and worked in North Bend I’d often stop at the Herb Farm.  This was before the fire that caused Jerry Traunfeld and co. to move the charming and famous Herb Farm restaurant from Fall City to Woodinville.

Back then you could buy herbs and flowers and wander the gardens and visit the chickens.  The paths were lined with hazelnut shells that crackled and popped underfoot.  A wooden bench nestled under  a wisteria arbor.  I’d sit there, quietly mesmerized by the sun dappling through the trees and the contented chuckling of the chickens.  

So it’s Jerry Traunfeld’s fault that I want chickens. 

I’ve been trying to convince Ross that three little chickens would be a charming addition to our family but he’s equally convinced they’re troublesome and smelly and the best kind of raccoon bait and our own personal episode of Wild Kingdom.  He’s probably right which is why I haven’t copied some of the wonderful chicken coops I saw at the Northwest Flower and Garden show a few weeks ago. 

But I’m so tempted.  And I can’t stop imagining the perfect chicken coop.

Yesterday while strolling along and mentally designing a raccoon proof chicken fortress I noticed stinging nettles just beginning to sprout.  This got me thinking of Jerry Traunfeld again.  Because he’s a fabulous chef and uses all sorts of local ingredients and according to Carolyn from Sound Food makes the best nettle soup.  She passed on this great recipe and I have to agree with Carolyn; it’s fantastic. 

I don’t have lovage so I substituted fennel but you could also use celery and parsley.  I used homemade chicken stock and mixed clams with mussels.  It was fast and easy and delicious and healthy.  You know to be careful when harvesting but beware: nettles can sting through denim so wear high boots, rubber gloves and a thick coat. 

If you’ve never eaten nettles before it takes a bit of courage to take that first bite, especially if your leg is throbbing where the nettle stung you through your jeans.  Rest assured that blanching nettles cures their sting and they’re perfectly harmless yet filled with all sorts of antioxidants, more iron than any other leafy green and are a tonic to ease arthritis.

Stinging Nettle, Lovage, And Mussel Soup

(6 servings)

• 4 ounces young stinging nettle leaves (handle with gloves when raw)
• 2 pounds small live mussels
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups thinly sliced leek
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon white rice
• ¼ cup young lovage leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Crème fraiche for garnish

Preparation
Boil the nettles in a large pot of salted boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water, and squeeze dry.
Put the mussels and wine in a large pot with a tight fitting lid. Place over high heat until the mussels open, about 4 minutes. Drain the mussels, reserving the liquid, and remove the meat from the shells. You should have about 2 cups liquid. If there is less, add chicken stock to come to 2 cups.
Cook the leek in the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan until softened. Add the mussel liquid, chicken stock, and rice. Cover and cook at an even simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the rice is very soft. Stir in the lovage and nettles. Puree the soup in small batches in a blender until very smooth. Return to the pan and bring it back to a simmer. Taste and add pepper and additional salt if needed. Stir in the reserved mussels. Ladle into warm bowls and drizzle with crème fraiche.
Copyright 2003 © Jerry Traunfeld

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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The recipe below chills the soufflés before baking but you can also freeze them in espresso cups or ramekins, thereby creating a Martha moment when you produce fabulously sexy molten mousse cakes for unexpected company.

Enjoy.

Mexican Chocolate Soufflé Cakes

Makes 6

8 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup unsalted butter, cut into one inch pieces

1 ½ teaspoon instant espresso powder

Pinch of salt

6 large egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large egg whites

Garnish: 1 cup fresh raspberries and mint

Butter six 4 ½ inch diameter tartlet pans with ¾ inch high removable sides and removable bottoms. Place tartlet pans on baking sheet. Stir chocolate and butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Add espresso powder and salt; stir to blend well. Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using electric mixer. Beat egg yolks, all but 1 tablespoon sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in large bowl until mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 5 minutes. Fold ¼ of egg mixture into chocolate mixture. Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture.

Beat egg white in another large bowl until soft peak form. Add 1 tablespoon sugar beat just until firm peaks form. Fold into chocolate mixture. Divide batter among prepared pans. Cover, chill at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

Beat cream in large bowl until soft peaks form.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400. Bake cakes until edges are set and centers are still soft. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve immediately with fresh whip cream, raspberries and mint sprig garnish.

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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Hugh and Cynthia Remash, our guest winemakers make big bodied red wines at their Bainbridge Island winery.  Last fall when we sipped cabernet in their cozy tasting room on Winslow Way we immediately thought of beef bourguignon followed by lots of chocolate. 

We might have gotten a little carried away but it’s February and it’s cold and rainy and Valentine’s day waits out there with it’s big red bulls-eye so we ate chocolate.

Hugh’s wines are big and bold and will stand up the anything.  Lush, full, well rounded a pleasure to drink.  Cynthia’s a professional chef and learned her craft on a ten month sabbatical to Florence in 2002 where Hugh studied art and winemaking.  The youngster in their lives orchestrated the whole thing after deciding she wanted to go to school in Europe!

Last week we stepped from winter’s chill  past the fledgling blooms of a sunrise pink rhododendron into the heart of a Hal Molstad designed home.  Soaring ceilings and glass walls, stone entry and lots of wood; plank walls and ceiling; creating a lovely northwest contemporary home with a hint of Asian inspiration. 

In the center of it all, two glittering tables set for 16.

Wine Society Menu

With

Eagle Harbor Wine Company

February 6, 2010

Appetizer

Assorted Cheeses

Founders Cabernet Sauvignon

Starters

Russian Beet Soup with Sour Cream and Dill

Goose Ridge Syrah

Warm Mushroom Salad with Prosciutto

Condor (Syrah/Cab blend)

Interlude

Citrus Sorbet

Forgeron Late Harvest Semillon

Main

Beef Bourguignon and Crostini

Raptor

Dessert

Molten Mousse Soufflés

Flourless Chocolate Torte

Chocolate Spice Cake

Founders Cabernet Sauvignon

Here’s how it works:  The menu is designed around the wine, with help from the winemaker.  The recipes are dispersed to members who prepare, present and serve at dinner.  Each member introduces their dish to much applause and the winemaker presents his wine and explains the pairings.   We eat then do it again for the next course.

At the end of the evening we count up the wine bottles and settle up with our winemaker.  A convivial way to celebrate food, wine and friends.  If you’re thinking of starting your own wine society, I urge you to do so.  If you need any help, feel free to send me an email carla@bainbridgestyle.com.

If you’d like our recipes, just ask.  I’ll be posting the molten chocolate mousse recipe later this week.

Cheers!

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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Yesterday Daniela and I ignored all that training from childhood and played with our food.  It all started with a bland looking potato and leek soup.  Unable to let it just sit there and be plain we had to give it a complete makeover. 

We started with clothes because everyone know from watching MTV in the 1980’s that all you need is the right outfit.  I refer of course to the ZZ Top “Legs” video where the poor downtrodden shoe store girl just needed to lose her glasses, tease her hair and put on a sexy dress to rule the world (or at least get a ride in the ZZ Top Cruiser, which in 1983 was ruling the world).  Hope springs eternal to all the frizzy haired, slightly dowdy teens from that era we all learned the same lesson:

It’s all about the presentation.

For our plain little soup with the fancy name we picked tall skinny shot glasses with designs etched into the crystal.  From there we teased her hair a bit with a dollop of crème fraiche, added a couple beauty marks with cracked fresh pepper and topped it all off with an herb garnish.

And because it seemed redundant to have three glasses all the same we tweaked the flavor in each.  Vichyssoise’s delicate flavor lends itself to tweaking.  We swirled white truffle oil into one, chopped chives into another and left the last unadorned.  I wish I would have added sliced leeks with the rings askew to one of the dishes because that would have looked great and echoed the flavors of the dish.  Fried chopped shallots or fried shallot rings would have been another great addition.

So, when you’re lunching with one of the top wedding designers in Seattle (Daniela from Bella Signature Design) and want to make a splash remember this:

• Clothing counts!  Dress it up in a pretty vessel
• Remember the garnish
• Go for contrast (cracked pepper against the white crème fraiche)
• If all else fails, throw in some French colloquialisms ‘C’est le vie ‘and   ‘je na se quoi’ and cognac come to mind.

à la vôtre (Cheers!)

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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I’m falling in love with my slow cooker.  We’ve known each other a long time but we’ve never really connected.  We keep giving each other a chance, meeting up every now and then.  All our friends think we’d be great together but until now, we just haven’t clicked.

Lots of relationships require a catalyst and for us it’s this cookbook.

I picked it up at Costco the other day; if you look closely you can see  sticky notes marking recipes.  The first one that caught my eye was creamy onion soup.  Not for the soup so much as the hands-off way of caramelizing onions.

I love a good caramelized onion but I don’t have the patience to stir a pot for 30-40 minutes.  Mine usually  lack that satisfying deep brown hue that promises sweet and savory taste or worse, they burn.

My slow cooker, the book told me, could change all that.  It whispered sweet nothings about caramelizing onions to perfection while I spent the day playing.  Promises of tempting aromas and a pot of slow cooked onions beckoned  and before I knew it I’d sliced up 6 Vidalia onions. 

I tossed them with dried thyme and olive oil and added a bay leaf.  This flurry of activity happened early in the morning and when we came home from an afternoon of beachcombing they looked like this:

I really love it when I can use up leftovers and make a fabulous meal at the same time.  I had broth from beef braised in red wine which I heated in a separate pan, I toasted cubes of French bread in olive oil, kosher salt and herbs de Provence then put them all together with a fistful of grated gruyere for a hearty and quick French Onion Soup.

The best part is that I have onions leftover for my next fabulous meal…blue cheese and caramelized onion tart?  Gourmet burgers? Veggie sandwich with caramelized onions or maybe goat cheese crostini with …you guessed it: caramelized onions.

My slow cooker and I are on again; we have plans to get together to make crème brulee next week.

While perfect for French Onion Soup these onions were quite wet.  A quick sauté in a hot pan will remove the excess liquid and make them perfect for just about anything.  Store in the fridge for a week or freeze them for up to three months.

Following is the recipe for Slow Cooked French Onion soup.  My soup was delicious but would be impossible to duplicate without making beef braised in red wine first and using that fabulous broth.  (The strength of any French onion soup is in the beef broth.  Amp up store bought with a bit of cognac or brandy for this recipe).

Creamy Onion Soup

From: Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever by Diane Phillips

½ cup unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 large sweet onions, such as Vidalia

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

½ cup white wine

5 cups beef stock

1 ½ cup shredded gruyere cheese

Turn a 5-7 quart slow cooker on high, add the butter and oil to the insert, cover until the butter is melted.

Remove the cover and add the onions, sugar, thyme, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Stir the onions until they are covered with seasonings and butter.

Cover and cook on high for 7-8 hours, until they are caramelized and a deep golden brown. (I followed the recipe to here).

Remove the cover and add the wine and beef stock. Cover and cook the soup on high for an additional 30 minutes or on low for an additional hour.

Remove bay leaf before serving garnish each serving with a sprinkling of gruyere cheese.

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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But worth the effort, oh so worth the effort.  Falling apart tender, juicy and packed with flavor.  Redolent of home and hearth.  Smack your lips yummy.  My house smells like childhood and hugs and that special place where food is love.

It’s taken me two years and many attempts to get it right  but this is it…the worlds most perfect pot roast.

It all started with Julia…The main recipe comes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I’ve added a few bits like a teaspoon of cocoa, white truffle oil and some extra garlic.  I flame the broth to burn off the alcohol which can taste bitter and use a slow cooker for super tender meat. 

When it’s all done I reduce the broth and puree the vegetables then recombine the the two for a savory, intensely flavored gravy. 

There is always leftover broth and I used it to flavor everything from Udon noodles to Beef Bourguignon to French onion soup.  The leftover vegetable puree gets frozen in cubes and added to anything that needs  a flavor boost or body.

Beef Braised in Red Wine

Adapted From: Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Start With:

3 pound pot roast

To Season the Meat:

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon white truffle oil (optional but so delicious)

For the Marinade:

1 cup each celery, onion and carrot, chopped.

2 halved cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

¼ cup minced parsley

¼ teaspoon dried cloves (Julia uses 2 whole cloves)

1 bottle red wine (Pinot Noir or Cabernet)

1/3 cup good brandy

¼ cup olive oil (Julia uses ½ cup)

Later:

1 teaspoon baking cocoa

Beef stock to cover

1 tablespoon butter; one tablespoon flour for beurre manie

Spread salt and pepper on roast then drizzle with truffle oil pressing the salt/pepper/oil mixture into the meat. Combine chopped veggies , thyme, bay leaf, ground cloves and garlic then place half this mixture in the bottom of a bowl, layer in the roast, cover with remaining veggies. Pour brandy, oil and wine to cover. Wrap and place in fridge overnight to marinate.

Next day remove roast from marinade (save marinade) and place on wire rack to drain.  Pour two tablespoons olive oil or bacon grease in large pan (I use my Le Creuset), get it smoking hot then drop in the roast that you’ve patted dry with paper towel. Sear all six sides and remove. Drain veggies (save wine marinade) and place in hot pan. Add more oil if needed. Add three cloves chopped garlic. Sauté 3-4 minutes, or until tender.

Remove veggies from pan and pour in marinade. Bring to a boil and deglaze pan. Add cocoa. Burn off any remaining alcohol.

Place all in crock pot add beef stock to cover. Cook until tender when pierced with a fork (6 hour low setting on my crock pot).

Remove and cover with foil. Puree veggies and reduce marinade by half. Thicken with beurre manie (equal parts soft butter and flour combined) if needed. Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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She immediately set forth to put it right.  She shopped Bainbridge to no avail.  She checked a few stores in her own neighborhood.  Proving very elusive these items were finally found last week on a family trip to Mexico.

Eager for a bit of shopping I persuaded the fam. to join me in a stroll into San Jose del Cabo, a charming little town still decorated for Christmas and the New Year.  Strings of lights criss-crossed narrow streets and giant gossamer angels stood at the corners of the town square.  San José is filled with artistry; beautiful hand wrought silver jewelry, hand blown glassware, textiles, leather. 

I love vacation shopping because I can imagine I’m someone else, someone elegant and coiffed; a woman on the cutting edge of fashion.  While I flirted with the idea of red python cowboy boots, shiny and wickedly pointy,  MIL disappeared into an artisanal tableware shopped and emerged triumphant with a set of six hand-painted egg cups.

You know how sometimes you get something and use it so much that you don’t know how you lived without it?  Egg cups aren’t as handy as say, a cable modem, but I’ve used them four times in three days so what do you know? 

The funny thing is,  I’ve always been intimidated by egg cups.  Just look at them and you can see they’re an accident waiting to happen; The laws of physics state that rolling items will roll away when you put pressure on them (or maybe that’s the law of probability, it will probably roll away when you try to eat it).

Anyway, it seems impossible that the egg will politely stay put while being plundered with a spoon.  A sensible egg would make a break for freedom and end up splatting on the kitchen floor.  All well and good when you have a  Hoover-beagle standing guard at the breakfast table, but when confronted with an egg cup containing a soft boiled egg at a B&B as a newlywed, I broke out in a sweat and claimed I wasn’t really a breakfast eater.

(Clearly this was early in our marriage as R did not laugh his head off at such a blatant lie.)

But, look at me now.  I love my new egg cups.  They’re so pretty and useful.  So far I’ve used them as a salt cellar,  spice holder, and teensy vase, and of course to hold soft boiled eggs…without a single splat.

6 Minute Eggs

If you’re really organized you’ll take your eggs out of the fridge about a half an hour before you intend to cook them.  This allows them to warm up a bit so they’re less likely to crack when you set them in boiling water.

Fill a pan with water and bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down so the water is at a simmer.  Place an egg in a tablespoon, gently set into the hot water.  Cook for six minutes then remove from heat, drain  and cover with cold water.  This stops the eggs from cooking without cooling them too much.

While your eggs are cooking put a couple pieces of bread in the toaster.

Butter your toast, slice into fingers and arrange on a plate.  Place your egg cup in the middle and serve by cutting the top off the egg with a table knife.  (This decapitated portion is called the “little potty” much to my children’s delight.  Ah the British.).  Dip toast in egg, enjoy.

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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Did you know that owls mate for life?  That baby owls spend about a week learning how to fly and during that time are unprotected and vulnerable on the ground?  Athena, on what is thought to be her inaugural flight flew into the path of a car.  Her wing is badly damaged and she’ll never fly again.  She now serves as one of the shelter’s ambassadors.

West Sound Wildlife Shelter cared for nearly 800 wild animals last year.  The focus is on rehabilitation and their goal is that every single animal be returned to their natural habitat. 

The shelter’s website is wonderful with lots of baby animal pics and info.   I spent a happy interlude there last night reading patient stories with Little E.  WSWS is currently caring for three young bald eagles and a mature female that was shot.

By the way; you no longer need a reservation to visit the Bloedel Reserve and the paths and vistas hold a special magic on rainy days so don’t wait for summer.

The ponds are especially mesmerizing.  (Tried to insert a rainy day video here but it didn’t work. You’ll just have to imagine the tinkly sound rain makes on the ponds.) 

The camellias are blooming, can spring be far behind?

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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We had quite a lot to discuss so we called it a planning meeting and set to work.  First, we’ve agreed that no one watches Julie and Julia until we can pick a date for a big screen viewing at Veni’s house.  We shall make bouillabaisse and I get to be Julia with the meat cleaver a la her 1971 The French Chef bouillabaisse episode.

Next we had to re-commit to our surfing/cooking weekend with EVOO Cooking school and women’s surf camp in Cannon Beach.  Some husbands have suggested that we’re too wimpy to willingly submerge ourselves in water so cold but they’re wrong.  Just to prove it, we’ve agreed to celebrate Chinese New Year which coincides with Valentine’s day and a full moon by jumping into Port Madison.  Take THAT ye of little faith.

We set the menu for our next wine society meeting with Eagle Harbor Wine Company.  We refuse to be intimidated by winemaker Hugh Remash who is a sommelier in two countries and his wife a professional chef, both of whom will be joining us on Feb 6th (um, okay we’re a bit intimidated).  Elaine is making beef bourguignon; she speaks fluent French thus I am confident she’ll do us proud. 

Jeff from Harbor Square Wine Shop made a great recommendation when he paired a 2008 Poet’s Leap Riesling (Walla Walla, WA) with spicy butternut squash soup with cilantro.  Veni whipped up a heart of palm salad with hibiscus flowers and balsamic syrup and Hollind wowed us with peppermint bark.

May your New Year be filled with three hour lunches.

Cheers.

Note: Cross posted from Bainbridge Style.

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Meyer lemons are in season right now.  I’m a huge fan of these sweet lemons and bought a mesh bag of them last week.  We ate them with powdered sugar on French toast (with homemade brioche) and they add extra depth to this lovely curd.  

In the grocery store, you’ll smell them before you see them,their lemon blossom scent is unmistakable.

I loved the Tom Douglas Cherry Almond Scones so much I made them for E’s class as a morning snack and then came home for English tea Bainbridge Style.  That’s homemade Devonshire cream on top; lemon curd inside.  Absolutely delicious.

Cheers!

Lemon Curd

By: Pasta and Company By Request

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon arrowroot

1 ½ teaspoon lemon zest

4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

In a food processor bowl equipped with a steel blade, place whole eggs, yolks and lemon juice. Process until eggs are well beaten. Then, with machine running gradually add sugar, arrowroot and lemon zest. When well mixed, add cream cheese a chunk at a time and puree until specks of cream cheese are no longer visible.

Pour lemon mixture into a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook until curd is steaming and coats the spoon, but is still think enough to pour. Remove from heat and stir, curd will thicken as it cools.

My parent’s 50th anniversary celebration: Dad’s favorite German Chocolate cupcakes on the bottom, Mom’s favorite white cake with lemon curd filling on the top and my favorite Devil’s food with white butter cream frosting in the middle.  The cake tower is satin wrapped plywood circles held aloft by candlesticks (glued in place).  The cake flowers were piped then frozen for easy handling then glued in place with frosting.  The cake topper was from my Grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary and my Grandma has passed it on to me…34 years to go.

Cheers.

I spent the weekend steps from the epicenter of the Tom Douglas Empire; Ettas, Lolas, Palace Kitchen and Serious Pie called to us each time we passed.  We promised ourselves Sunday brunch at Lolas (I’ve heard wonderful things about their homemade donuts and Eggs Benedict) but when Sunday rolled around we were content to have Le Panier take out and a cup of tea.   Yesterday I was thumbing through cookbooks at the library and came across a Tom Douglas tome.   I came straight home and made these Cherry Almond Scones.

These mixed up quickly with a couple pulses in the food processor.  I used frozen butter and handled the dough briefly and the result was a tender, flaky and rich scone that went beautifully with homemade strawberry jam.

The footnote:  The dried cherries exposed to direct heat burned.  The next time I make these I’ll press any exposed cherry bits into the dough where they will be more protected.

Recipe from Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen

For the Scones:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small dice
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1/2 cup toasted blanched sliced almonds, cooled
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

For Brushing the Scones:
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 425. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, powder, soda, salt, zest. Cut in butter until it resembles crumbly cornmeal.  (I used the food processor). Mix in cherries and almonds. In a separate bowl combine buttermilk, vanilla and almond extract.

Gradually pour in buttermilk and mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until just combined. Do not overmix. Turn out onto a floured surface and pat into a 9-inch round about 1 inch thick. Cut the dough into wedges. Place the scones on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush them with cream and sprinkle them with sugar. Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 and finish baking until golden and cooked through. This takes another 12-15 minutes. Serve warm.

The Virginia Inn is my new Seattle meet up place (sorry Zig Zag!).  Freshly expanded and sporting their own kitchen they make the best pate I have ever tasted (you will not be satisfied with just one order)…the duck sausage is also worth the trip.  Lovely staff and old Seattle ambiance.  A must visit next time you’re in town.  Happy hour 4-6pm.

A few steps down the street from the Virginia Inn is Le Pichet.  I’ve just about perfected my eggs Le Pichet.  While you’re waiting for me to fine tune the recipe, stop in yourself for a glass of champagne and  oeufs plats, jambon et fromage (Two eggs broiled with ham and gruyère).  Still one of my favorite lunches.

Happy hour at Cutters now lasts all day!! Fresh sushi prepared by our friend Tom Toyama at Cutter’s Sea Bar.  Sweet and juicy pan fried oysters, crisp on the outside and succulently briny inside.  Hot crab and artichoke dip, delicious as usual…all mojitos 6 bucks!

The Zig Zag Cafe, nestled on the Hillclimb steps is known for its innovative cocktails.  This was my fav meet up place for many years and BFF Lisa and I logged a lot of happy hours and French 75’s here.  Hard to find but worth the effort. 

The next time you visit The Brooklyn pause a second in the breezeway between the inner and outer doors…if you feel an overwhelming desire to kiss the one you’re with, it’s because that’s where my TDH (Tall dark and Handsome) proposed and that space is forever infused with romance.  After that order a dozen kumamotos and a basil gimlet.

If you love beautiful clothes, get to Nordstrom’s today.  Lured by racks and racks of sale items, I ventured into Designers (second floor; top of escalator).  Every girl needs a Missoni…Get yours on a 75% mark down with an additional 15% on Wednesday (tomorrow!)… Go!  Also, they’ve done something magical to skinny jeans and if you want to look taller and thinner than you actually are (who doesn’t) try some on. 

So many great restaurants, so many wonderful shops…there’s no way to see them all.  If you have a fav shop or restaurant downtown I’d love to know about it. 

My New Year’s predictions:

1. The rise of the Gimlet.  The Brooklyn makes a basil infused gimlet with chipotle that will rock your world.  The moment BFF Lisa and I tasted it we high fived and announced our new favorite drink.  (This supplants the Zig Zag Cafe’s French 75 discovered by us in 2003.)  I have the recipe and will make it for anyone who wants to come to my house and drink it with me.
2. Return of the roast:  Put  a roast in the oven and let it do all the work while you paint your toenails.  It exudes fantastic cooking smells while you primp for company and you both emerge for dinner looking like a million bucks. Roast chicken on croutons with lemon is my now fav. :  I’ve served it twice to company and both asked for the recipe.  On a practical level, roasts tend to be less expensive than single cuts and go further as leftovers (think French dip, chicken pot pie, warm pork sandwiches).
3. More stuff with these ingredients:  Grainy French mustard, cocoa nibs, fennel.  These ingredients interest me and thus I suspect will interest others.  I base this on all those other times I thought I was the onto something really cool only to  learn that everyone else is way ahead of me.
4. Quilting.  Yep.  The Quilting Borg have sucked me in.  I figure if I’ve succumbed there must be some cosmic force making us need a rotary cutter and learn about stripping.  (That and my inability to throw anything away; what better way to recycle my daughters’ crib bedding, their first flannel nighties and the frilly little dresses they’ve outgrown? ) I vow to finish it before they’ve moved out.

Mercifully, that’s all. 

Included are recipes that represented my 2009; our month in Spain; weekends at the beach cottage near the cranberry bogs, crabbing from our dock, smoking salmon for the first time.  The theme is locally grown/caught with a cranberry spin:

New Year’s Day Brunch

Welcome Drink: 

Cranberry Bellini

Appetizers:

Blini with home-smoked salmon and lemon crème fraiche

Buffet:

Winter Citrus salad

Fresh Dungeness Crab Benedict on brioche with basil infused olive oil

steamed asparagus

Spanish Tortilla; thinly sliced locally grown potatoes tossed with organic eggs and Spanish seasonings

Cranberry  Orange muffins

Dessert:

Profiteroles with cranberry compote and chocolate sauce.

Cava (Spanish Champagne)

Recipes for blini, tortilla, cranberry orange muffins are in previous posts.

Most of these foods can be made in advance and assembled just before guests arrive.

To make a cranberry Bellini simply add pureed sweetened cranberries (cranberry compote) or a teaspoon of cranberry sauce to a glass of champagne. 

The winter citrus is grapefruit nearly frozen and served with sea salt and home grown mint:  Slice a pink grapefruit in half; using a sharp knife cut each segment from the rind but leave whole; then place in the freezer for 45 minutes.  Removed and sprinkle with flaky sea salt and garnish with mint leaves.  Serve immediately or place on ice bed in buffet.

Recipes abound for eggs Benedict.  Make your favorite hollandaise and make or buy brioche (I prefer them to English muffins) and substitute crab for ham.  Drizzle olive oil infused with basil around the plate.  Serve hot or place crab topped brioche in heated dish on buffet with hollandaise and olive oil in pitchers nearby. Remember to toast the brioche first and heat the hollandaise pitcher with warm water before pouring in the hollandaise, this will keep it warm longer.

Profiteroles…Cream puffs (pate choux) filled with vanilla ice cream then drizzled with chocolate sauce.  Scoop ice cream in advance; form them into nice round balls and return to freezer.  When it’s time for dessert let your guests assemble their own and pass warmed chocolate sauce (can be as simple as Hershey’s or as exotic as ganache).

There…an elegant winter buffet suitable for an anniversary party, holiday brunch or just for you.

Special thanks for Daniela of Bella Signature Design for including Bainbridge Style in her New Year’s Day Photo Shoot.  Click on her link for more New Year’s Brunch photos and samples of Paloma’s Nest and Momental Design’s work (gorgeous stuff, all).  Photo credit to the fabulously talented UK photographer Philip Meadows.

Our traditional NYE dinner is cassoulet and this year we’re recreating the cassoulet dinner we had in Castelnaudry, one of the most enjoyable meals we had during our month in Europe. 

The Menu

Fois Gras with toast and balsamic reduction.  Mixed greens tossed in a light vinaigrette. 

Interlude: 

Peeled fresh grapefruit segments frozen just until the outside is crunchy and the inside is ice cold; a riff on grapefruit sorbet.

Followed by:

Cassoulet de Castelnaudary with Duck Confit and artisanal sausages.

Dessert: 

Mini-three cheese course and profiteroles

I’ll update later with pictures and tasting notes.  Happy New Year and all the best to you and yours.

The update:  There was so much meat in the cassoulet we skipped the fois gras and went straight to the main event.  Tender white beans and meat ragout studded with Uli’s garlic sausage; smoked kielbasa and duck confit (purchased in France this summer and stored until this special night).  Stunned by the food and champagne we retired to the hot tub and watched fireworks, then finished our meal:   frozen grapefruit; crunchy with ice crystals exploding with juice in each bite.

The finished product.

 Built by layers.  First a layer of beans, then a layer of meat.

Then another layer of beans…

Topped by fresh bread crumbs drizzled with duck fat.  This is a rich and hearty meal…I have no idea how I managed to eat this entire menu  fois gras to profiteroles last summer in France.

For this recipe; click here:

Cassoulet in Castelnaudary.

Our traditional NYE dinner is cassoulet and this year we’re recreating the cassoulet dinner we had in Castelnaudry, one of the most enjoyable meals we had during our month in Europe. 

The Menu

Fois Gras with toast and balsamic reduction.  Mixed greens tossed in a light vinaigrette. 

Interlude: 

Peeled fresh grapefruit segments frozen just until the outside is crunchy and the inside is ice cold; a riff on grapefruit sorbet.

Followed by:

Cassoulet de Castelnaudary with Duck Confit and artisanal sausages.

Dessert: 

Mini-three cheese course and profiteroles

I’ll update later with pictures and tasting notes.  Happy New Year and all the best to you and yours.

Mom says it doesn’t seem like they’ve been married fifty years but then reflects on the world events and global changes they’ve seen together:  five children grown,  Man walking on the moon,  computers in every home (to list just a few). 

My mom’s family is long lived and loyal.  Her grandparents were separated by her grandmother’s passing just months short of their 60th wedding anniversary. Her parents celebrated their fiftieth and would have seen their 60th had not cancer intervened. 

My father’s parents were married until the day his father died.  Dad is witty and kind and has a certain nobility about him and he cherishes my mother; just the way I remember Grandpa Herb and Grandma Frances.  Sometimes while I’m stirring a pot at the stove Ross comes up and hugs me from behind just the way my dad does with my mom.  It makes me happy to think that maybe, just maybe with luck and health we’ll be them someday.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.  I love you.

Peanut Butter Fudge

2 cups sugar

½ cup milk

1 1/3 cups peanut butter

1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme

In saucepan bring sugar and milk to a boil; boil for three minutes. Add peanut butter and marshmallow creme; mix well. Quickly pour into a buttered 8 inch square pan; chill until set. Cut into squares. Yield 3-4 dozen bite sized pieces.

Chocolate Fudge

4 ½ cups sugar

1 can Carnation evaporated milk (12 ounces)

2 sticks butter

3 teaspoon vanilla

2 large bags chocolate chips (mom uses milk chocolate chips)

Walnuts

Mix sugar and milk in a saucepan. Bring to hard boil and boil for 6 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter, vanilla and chocolate chips. Pour in 9X13 pan and refrigerate until cool.

White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge

From: A Taste of Home

1-1/2 teaspoons plus 1/4 cup butter, softened, divided

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

12 ounces white baking chocolate, chopped

1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme

1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Line a 9-in. square pan with foil. Grease the foil with 1-1/2 teaspoons butter; set aside.

In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, sour cream and remaining butter. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a rapid boil; cook and stir until a candy thermometer reads 234° (soft-ball stage), about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat; stir in white chocolate and marshmallow creme until melted. Fold in peppermint candy and extract. Pour into prepared pan. Chill until firm.

Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Gently peel off foil; cut fudge into 1-in. squares. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 2 pounds.

I think I ruined a perfectly nice All Clad Stainless steel pan this afternoon.  My mom’s “foolproof” fudge recipe turned to carbon before my eyes and super-glued itself to my pan.  The house smells like burned marshmallows and I wince each time I approach the kitchen sink and the charred remains.

Guess I’ll finish the dishes tomorrow.

Does anyone have a foolproof fudge recipe?

Then made fettuccine with the leftovers.

Making pasta is not for the faint of heart.  If you posses a pasta roller perhaps you disagree, but from where I was sitting (drinking wine and sneaking bits of fresh apple cake), it looked pretty hard. 

The results were worthy.  Tender noodles (drizzled with sage infused cream sauce) filled with sweet squash abundant with parmesan, cream and a hint of nutmeg. 

Thanks to Daniela of Bella Signature Design for the action photos above.

Winter Squash Ravioli

From:  Le Cordon Bleu Cookbook

12 oz butternut squash, baked.

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 oz prosciutto, finely chopped

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup chopped fresh sage

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons whipping cream

Pinch of nutmeg

Combine all ingredients using the back of a fork to mash the squash.  Taste, adjust seasonings.  We didn’t use the prosciutto so added extra salt.

Fresh Pasta

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 eggs, lightly beaten

Mix flour and salt then add the oil and egg, mixing well to a firm ball.  Let rest to relax the dough and roll into thin sheets.

Sage Infused Cream Sauce

This was a challenge so I couldn’t run to the store to buy fresh sage and made do with dried instead.  So good that I may have to “make-do” with dried herbs more often.

1/2 cup cream (heavy or light)

Sprinkle of dried sage

Combine in heavy pot and bring to a boil; let simmer for as long as it takes to heat your pasta water and cook your pasta.  Will reduce to a few tasty tablespoons.  Drizzle over hot pasta.

Creamy with parmesan zing in every bite.  So delicious, conversation momentarily ceased as we reveled in flavor.

Before last Monday I’m not sure I could pick a butternut squash out of a squash line up.  Today, however, I have four new recipes that I CAN’T WAIT to make again; all of them featuring butternut squash.

Part of Friday’s challenge was to make dishes from the ingredients in our pantry so we made this without pancetta. 

It took almost an hour to get the rice al dente and we used 2-3 more cups of chicken stock than Ina calls for; just letting you know in case you’re a) in a hurry to eat or b) low on chicken stock.

Cheers and enjoy.

Butternut Squash Risotto

From Ina Garten

1 butternut squash (2 pounds)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

2 ounces pancetta, diced

1/2 cup minced shallots (2 large)

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces)

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon saffron threads

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into 3/4-inch cubes. You should have about 6 cups. Place the squash on a sheet pan and toss it with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing once, until very tender. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock in a small covered saucepan. Leave it on low heat to simmer.

In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and sauté the pancetta and shallots on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until the shallots are translucent but not browned. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains with butter. Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. Add 2 full ladles of stock to the rice plus the saffron, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Stir, and simmer until the stock is absorbed, 5 to 10 minutes. Continue to add the stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring every few minutes. Each time, cook until the mixture seems a little dry, then add more stock. Continue until the rice is cooked through, but still al dente, about 30 minutes total. Off the heat, add the roasted squash cubes and Parmesan. Mix well and serve.

He had me at “sour cream glaze”.  At first I thought he’d made a typo; surely he meant cream cheese?  Lemon zest, orange zest, powdered sugar and sour cream?   But after I tasted the butternut squash muffins destined to be glazed, I decided to trust him. 

These muffins were astonishingly moist , bursting with flavor and endearingly yummy.  Endearing because they’re healthy (veggie, organic eggs and olive oil) and  simple to make with no fussy ingredients.

We ate them for two days  before I got around to making the glaze.  Delicious without any topping I almost didn’t go the extra step.  Glad I did because this zesty, sweet and sour frosting took the muffins from really, really good (though a bit frumpy) to fabulous and so pretty all dressed up in frilly bonnets.  We shared them with neighbors to their great delight.

Cheers!

Butternut Squash Muffins with Sour Cream Glaze

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

14 ounces butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and whirled in food processor until finely chopped

2 ¼ cups light brown sugar

4 eggs

Pinch of salt

2 ½ cup flour

2 heaping teaspoons baking powder

Handful of walnuts, chopped

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine eggs, oil and brown sugar, fold in squash. In separate bowl combine dry ingredients (including walnuts). Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. Bake in 350 degree oven for twenty minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Sour Cream Glaze

½ cup sour cream

zest of one Satsuma (or whatever orange you have on hand); plus more for garnish

zest of one lemon

Juice of half a lemon

¼ cup powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix well and spoon over cooled muffins. Grate orange peel over frosting as garnish.

Yesterday we made butternut squash soup.  Spicy, hot and smooth, thanks to the garnish of cayenne pepper, sour cream and cilantro.  Joining those three big flavors with the creamy soup broke all kinds of taste records and had me (no fan of squash soup) going back for seconds.

Today is Food Friday and we’ve challenged ourselves to use up the rest of the squash and a whole bunch of apples without going to the store for additional supplies.  On the menu:

Butternut squash ravioli with sage cream sauce or browned butter

Butternut Squash Risotto

Butternut Squash muffins with sour cream glaze

French Apple Croustade

Fresh apple cupcakes

…and whatever else strikes our fancy.  I’ll report in on Monday with recipes and tasting notes.  I’d blog it over the weekend but my dance card is already full with Christmas in the Country and the Bainbridge Island Studio Tour two of my favorite holiday events. 

Cheers,

Squash Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 stalks celery ,chopped

1 carrot, chopped

2 Cloves garlic, finely minced

½ Habanero (or other hot chili), finely minced

5 cups vegetable or chicken broth, no salt

3 cups (1.5 Pounds) squash (Butternut) light flesh seeded, peeled cut into 1 inch cubes

¼ cup fresh parsley, minced

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/3 cup sour cream

Sour Cream for Garnish

Cilantro for garnish

¼ Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Heat oil in large stockpot over medium heat. Add onions, celery and carrot. Sauté until soft, but no t brown, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and chili and cook for 1 minute more. Stir in broth, squash, parsley, bay leaves, thyme and sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer till vegetables are very soft, 25-30 minutes. Discard bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Puree soup in batches in food processor or blender until very smooth. Add water if too thick. Return soup to pan and stir in ½ cup sour cream. Simmer soup for 3 minutes more. Adjust seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with cayenne, cilantro and sour cream.

This is good stuff.  No one admits to liking fruitcake.  No one.  (Except my friend Heather, who just now confessed).  But even those people who say they don’t like fruitcake like this:  my dad and my uncle can’t get enough, my grandma loves it, my aunt loves it and dare I say…I …uh…like it a lot.  I figure it has to be good to survive five generations. (the recipe not the actual fruitcake.)

Aunt Sharron is the keeper of family traditions.  If you recall, she’s the maker of the Irish Enchiladas a recipe passed down from my Great Grandma.  And, now the family fruitcake recipe:

(A word about family fruitcake recipes:  You have one too.  I guarantee there’s a great aunt out there somewhere making your family’s fruitcake recipe right now.  But I digress.)

This cake is rich and dense, rife with nutmeg, potent with whiskey.  We pulled eight gloriously bronzed loaves out of the oven a bit ago and my house smells like the inside of a gingerbread cottage abundant with spice and roasted nuts.  We’ve yet to wrap them in whiskey soaked cheesecloth but I have plans to liberate a crumb or three.  This recipe makes A LOT of fruitcake:  eight small loaves and one big one…feel free to halve the recipe.

I’m a little concerned the fruitcake baton is being passed to me and soon I will be known as the keeper of the family fruitcake tradition.  The family fruitcake-er.  If this came with some sort of magical ability like levitation or lighting candles without a match I’d consider it a fair trade but for now I’ll watch and learn and try to keep away from the Black Velvet.

By the way I just have to comment on this glorious day.  This morning:  glittery frost, snuggled in one of my mom’s quilts on the deck, cradling a cup of hot green tea watching dawn steal across the bay.  A family of geese glide by; silent  black silhouettes.  Followed closely by a raft of widgeons and buffleheads whistling and chirping. 

Life is good.

Cheers.

Whiskey Pecan Fruit Cake

½ cup candied orange peel

1 pound mixed candied fruit;

2 pounds dates or raisins or mixed dates/raisins

1½ cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

1 cup molasses

6 eggs

1 heaping tablespoon baking powder

4 cups flour

2 tablespoons nutmeg

2 1/4 pounds pecans, divided

1cup whiskey

Do not cut up the pecans or dates; leave whole. Reserve some fruit pieces and 1/4 pound pecans for decorating the finished loaves.

Combine remaining nuts and fruit in colander and rinse with boiling water to remove the sticky sugar coating from the candied fruit.  Drain well then place in the largest bowl you have.

Cream together butter and sugar and add eggs one at a time until incorporated.  Add molasses and mix well.  Add whiskey and mix well.

Combine flour, baking powder and nutmeg in bowl and whisk well.  Add to butter/sugar mixture.  Mix well.

Pour batter over the fruits and nuts.  Mix well.

Line bread pans with with greased waxed paper. Press batter into pans level with the top of pan.  Decorate with reserved fruits and nuts.  Bake at 250⁰ for 4 hours or until done.  It’s done when the batter hardens across the top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. When cooled, wrap in whiskey soaked cheese cloth and wrap in wax paper then foil. Store in cool, dark place for a month or two; from time to time adding a little whiskey.

Before leaving Portland Aunt S. cashed in on a buck-a-bag close out of seasonal, locally grown produce and this week’s challenge is to eat it all.  So far, we’re thinking of apple pie filling and butternut squash soup. The kiwi fruit are from my grandma’s backyard and the basket in the last picture is filled with a vast selection of teas from Firefox teas in Portland, including my favorite Wuyi blend (especially fine with a piece of Cost Plus Dark Chocolate with sea salt).  They’re a neat young couple making their business work and they’re always great, according to Aunt Sharron.  We’ll be making our way to Churchmouse yarn and tea room here on the island so I can return her generosity and send her home with Bainbridge’s best.

Veni has suggested Food Friday Challenge where we cook only with supplies on hand.  I love this idea with Aunt Sharon our guest cook and am looking forward to emptying out the freezer and pantry. 

How about I post a list of my ingredients and you all can tell me what to make?

Must go, have lots of sewing, cooking, chatting and tea drinking to attend to. Cheers!

Hope all had a happy Thanksgiving.  My favorite part is when we go around the table and say what we’re thankful for.  This year (again!) I am thankful for my family; my loving husband and children, and good health enjoyed by all.

The holidays have a way of distorting time.  It seems ages ago that we had wine society but really, it was just last weekend and I continue the recipes for the fabulous meal we enjoyed at Victor Alexander’s tasting room.

That memorable meal started with crab cakes.  Moist and delicious, bursting with crab and sautéed veggies with just a hint of Old Bay seasoning.  The big taste twist came with the lime cilantro ginger sauce.  Sweet, then hot , then a cool burst of ginger;  layers of flavor, easy to make and versatile.  I used the leftovers for a sparkling cocktail I’ve yet to name.

This course was served with VA Semillon a light and fruity wine and parmesan herb shortbread.  Buttery, flecked with fresh herbs with a satisfying squeak against your teeth crunch.  These would go well with just about anything and a great replacement for cheese straws which often make their way to holiday tables (and cost a lot).

This weekend kicks off the holidays.  We’ll hang our wreaths and set up the snowy village with the live ice skaters that E can’t keep her hands off.  We’ll take advantage of this lovely weather to wrap our outdoor trees in white lights.  Tomorrow we’ll bundle up for the tree lighting ceremony at city hall and sip hot chocolate at the newly remodeled Pegasus coffee house.  Before we head home for bed, we’ll stroll the boardwalk looking for boats adorned in holiday lights.  Bring on the canned holiday jingles!

But hey!  Before I forget… shop the Indie Banditas Bazaar today and tomorrow at Woodward Middle School.  I’ve vowed to make or buy local as many gifts as possible and the indie bazaar is a great place to start. 

Cheers!

Crab cakes

From:  Barefoot Contessa

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

¾ cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)

1 ½ cup small-diced celery (4 stalks)

½ cup small-diced red bell pepper (1 small pepper)

½ cup small-diced yellow bell pepper (1 small pepper)

½ cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon capers, drained

¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 ½ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ pound lump crabmeat

½ cup plain dry bread crumbs

½ cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten

Place the 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons olive oil, onion, celery, red and yellow bell peppers, parsley, capers, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Old Bay Seasoning, salt, and pepper in a large sauté pan over med-low heat and cook until the veggies are soft, approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, break the lump crabmeat into small pieces and toss with the bread crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, and eggs. Add the cooked mixture and mix well. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Shape into bite-sized crab cakes.

Heat the butter and olive oil for frying over medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add the crab cakes and fry for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until browned. Drain on paper towels; keep them warm in a 250-degree oven and serve hot.

Parmesan & Thyme Crackers

From: Barefoot Contessa by Ina Garten

¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 ounces freshly grated parmesan cheese (about 1 cup)

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter for 1 minute. With the mixer on low speed, add the Parmesan, thyme, salt, and pepper and combine. With the mixer still on low, add the flour and combine until the mixture is in large crumbles, about 1 minute. If the dough is too dry, add 1 teaspoon water.

Dump the dough onto a floured board, press it into a ball, and roll into a 9-inch log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or for up to 4 days.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the log into 3/8-inch-thick rounds with a small, sharp knife and place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 22 minutes, until very lightly browned. Rotate the pan once during baking. Cool and serve at room temperature.

Now, until I made this polenta I thought you vegetarians were way healthier than us meat eaters.  I also thought you were missing out on some really good stuff (fat, for one)…however, once you sauté shallots in butter, add three different cheese and fry the whole thing in peanut oil you’ve stepped way off the calorie high road and boarded the express bus to trans fat heaven with the rest of us, happy to be onboard I say because these crispy cakes are worth the sit-ups and power walks to come.  So good in fact, that I narrowly talked myself out of making more of them today. 

Fresh from the hot oil these have a cracker thin exterior that once breached yields a gooey cheese-fortified interior that literally melts in your mouth.  If you’ve never liked polenta give this recipe a try and you’ll change your mind.  For the meat eaters we placed it beneath the pistachio crusted pork tenderloin where it could soak up the pomegranate port reduction.  Tasty and pretty darn impressive looking.

Polenta Cakes with Cream Cheese and Parmesan

Adapted from: Master Chef José Gutierrez

1 cup stone ground polenta

¾ cup shallots, diced

2-1/2 cups vegetable stock

½ cup Mozzarella cheese. grated

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated

1/3 cup cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup flour

2 teaspoons peanut oil

Preheat oven to 350º F. In a medium pan, sauté shallots in butter until translucent. Add polenta, mix well. Add stock and bring to a boil. Mix with spatula, cover, and bake in oven for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and add cheeses and salt. Pour into a small sheet pan about 3/4 of an inch thick. Place in refrigerator and chill until firm. Cut into small squares. Roll in flour. Heat peanut oil in frying pan, place cakes in hot oil until golden brown.

There’s so much that I like about this dish.  First off, I love how we got sweet and savory, salty and crunchy, fresh and fried all on one plate.  And, I swoon over Daniela’s port sauce swirl; that girl has a way with a squirt bottle.  

The polenta cake, which is coming in tomorrow’s blog ,was the perfect foil for the tenderloin and the Pomegranate Port reduction is just too divine.

I was in charge of sauces for this event.  By the time I got to this one, I’d destroyed three different dips for the crab cakes and was doing some deep breathing on the kitchen floor.  I’d cursed my way through Ina, Mr Napa Style and an aioli that blinded my taste buds with so much lime I couldn’t taste anything else for an hour.  Thoroughly fed up with recipes not working, I vowed to create my own port reduction that would be good and tasty and just right. I’ve credited chef Gutierrez but the genius is in the brown sugar and the pomegranate flavor, both my additions.  I’ll never make another port reduction recipe again.  This one is a keeper.

A word about the wine.  If you haven’t been to the Victor Alexander tasting room then you’re missing out on some very nice wines and an even nicer wine maker.  This is Charlie Merrill’s first vintage and he’s on the right track.  The wine society attended the Islandwood wine dinner back in August and when the VA Sangiovese came along all sat up a bit straighter and paid some attention.  Much more sophisticated than any freshman has a right to be, the Sangiovese paired beautifully with this dish, not one bit intimidated by the sweet and savory, salty and crunchy, fresh and fried all on one plate. 

Stop in to 120 Madrone Lane, Suite 100 and enjoy the art, say hello to Charlie and taste some wine.  You’ll be glad you did.

Cheers.

Pistachio Crusted Pork Tenderloin

Pork Tenderloin, marinated.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1 cup pistachios, finely chopped

About an hour before cooking, remove tenderloin from the fridge and let come to room temperature.   Before cooking rinse the meat under running water to remove any excess marinade.  (Most marinades contain some sugar and if you try to sear the meat without rinsing you’ll end up with black soot in your pan.)  Heat olive oil in a frying pan then sear the meat on all sides.  Save the pan for the Pomegranate Port Reduction.

Place meat on a broiler pan in a 450 degree oven and cook for five minutes then reduce to 280 degrees and cook until meat thermometer registers 170 degrees.  Remove from oven and tent with foil.  When the meat has rested for five minutes; coat with mustard then roll in chopped pistachios.  Slice and serve immediately.

Here’s a tutorial on coating the meat with pistachios:

Pomegranate Port Reduction Sauce

Adapted from Master Chef José Gutierrez.

2 tablespoons butter, divided

½ cup onions or shallots

1 teaspoon flour

1 cup red wine

1 cup tawny port

1 teaspoon fresh thyme sprigs

¼ cup pomegranate seeds or 1 tsp pomegranate molasses

1 teaspoon brown sugar

In the sauté pan pork was cooked in, add 1 tbsp. butter, melt and cook onions until translucent. Add flour and cook over low heat for 4-5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the wines and bring to a boil. Flambé! The reason to flambé is to remove bitterness from wine. Add thyme and pomegranate seeds and simmer. When the sauce is the desired consistency (8-10 minutes) remove from heat and whisk in remaining tbsp. butter. Strain, making sure to press the onion-seed mixture to get every last drop.

The Menu:

Starters

Paired with Victor Alexander Semillon

Fresh Dungeness crab cakes with lime cilantro dipping sauce and parmesan herb shortbread

Crisp local greens with pomegranate shallot dressing

Cheese Interlude: 

Paired with Victor Alexander Pinot Noir

Triple cream Brie, herbed goat cheese, Camembert and Comte cheeses with a variety of breads and crackers served with smoked salmon pâté

Main Course

Paired with Victor Alexander Sangiovese

Pistachio crusted pork tenderloin on a crisp parmesan and cream cheese polenta cake with a pomegranate port reduction. 

Dessert

Paired with Victor Alexander Sangiovese

Pomegranate truffles

I’ll be posting recipes all week…stay tuned.

Last weekend while being master of the clam universe, I stopped in at the Grays  Harbor Public Market and bought some fresh from the bogs cranberries.   Littered with stems and imperfectly shaped these glossy orbs were as fresh and wild as they come and I knew I’d be making muffins soon.

Food Friday starts early today so Hollind can get a front row seat at A’s poetry recital this afternoon.  I can’t find a way to justify drinking wine at 9am so I trolled through the stack of pages torn from magazines over the years and came up with a scrumptious sounding drink that combines rosemary infused simple syrup, cranberry and orange juices and club soda.  The perfect fizzy, refreshing start to Food Friday. 

I’m a morning gal and I love to bake so you’d think I’d have muffins down pat.  I took a cooking class at Greystone the imposingly..uh …grey stone Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley where I learned to never over mix muffins.  It makes them dense and dry; you want to stop stirring  (do not even think about using a mixer!) while tiny streaks of flour are still visible. 

I made these in mini and large sizes.  I sprinkled the minis with large crystal of sugar and glazed the others. 

Cranberry Orange Muffins

1 cup fresh cranberries

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 egg

1/2 cup oil

2/3 cup orange juice

zest from one orange (about one tablespoon)

sugar for sprinkling

Glaze:

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

Chop washed berries in the food processor. (don’t get carried away and puree them).  Set aside.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk well, add the chopped cranberries and whisk again.

In a separate, larger bowl whisk remaining ingredients.  Pour dry ingredients on top of wet ones and stir until ingredients are barely incorporated. 

Grease muffin tins well or use paper liners.  Fill 2/3 full.  You can sprinkle with sugar now or glaze them after baking.  Bake at 400 until toothpick inserted in center comes clean.  about 8 minutes for mini muffins and about 17 for the larger ones.

To make the glaze combine sugar and orange juice in saucepan and heat, stirring constantly until boiling.  Reduce heat and simmer for a few until you get the desired consistency.  Peirce hot muffins with a toothpick in and drizzle with warm glaze.

Holiday Brunch Spritzer

Adapted from:  Cooking Light

1/2  cup sugar

1/2  cup water

4 rosemary sprigs

4 cups cranberry juice cocktail

2 cups fresh orange juice

3 cups club soda chilled

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 4 minutes or until sugar dissolves.  Add rosemary; simmer five minutes.  Remove from heat. Pour sugar syrup into a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Uncover sugar syrup, remove and discard rosemary sprigs.  Combine the sugar syrup, juices and soda in a large pitcher.  Serve immediately over ice.  Yield 12 servings of 3/4 cup.

To make ahead:  Fill pitcher leaving out the soda.  When it comes time to serve; pour juice/sugar mixture into a glass and top with desired amount of soda.

Razor clam digging can take a lot out of you so we started carbo loading first thing Saturday morning with my dad’s legendary cabin breakfast.

Dad’s pancakes are silky and rich and mouth melting thanks to the hefty swirl of bacon grease he adds to Krusteaz.  Served alongside steaming, grease slicked eggs  and crisp bacon … I need no other reason to get up in the morning.  My cousin Tim who felt a teensy bit left out of the Fred Meyer vs Safeway conversation swirling around the breakfast table offered his best money saving grocery tip:  buy beer at the store and drink it at home to save oodles in bar fees.  Love that guy.

Breakfast over and daddy daughter day commenced.  Ross took J and E kite shopping and dad took me to the hardware store where we got gutters and downspouts and this green accordion pipe thing to solve the soppy wet spot at the front of the cabin.  I love handing my dad tools as he does dad stuff high atop a ladder.

Soppy spot subdued and off for a walk on the beach where I froze but was nonetheless entranced by the thousands of tiny sandpipers racing the tide and the stark beachscape.

Once home, fortified with creamy cocoa and ample refills of whip cream we baptized the new fondue pot I scored at the local thrift store for three bucks.

Hard to improve on bread swirled in kirsch spiked cheese washed down with fresh pressed cider.

Thus fortified, we hit the beach.

Clam tides happen only once a month, only in the winter.  You’d think the combination of cold, dark, rain and the occasional snowstorm would keep all but hearty he-man types off the beach.

But no, clam tides attract thousands of clam lovers from kids to grandparents:

But it’s no cakewalk.  First you must obtain highly specialized equipment and attire.  There seem to be two sartorial schools of thought.  One group goes stealth with camo hip waders and matching neoprene jackets; (I especially like the his and hers matching sets).  The opposite end is the barefoot tank topped gal with wild hair, flat on her belly probing a clam hole with her bare hands.  This is not me, I lie somewhere in between with blue daisy rain boots from Bay Hay;  and my dad’s fleece lined raincoat. 

Next, you’ve got to have the right equipment. We dig with clam guns; stainless steel tubes you press into the sand with a rocking motion.  They slice through the beach layers and if you’re lucky and skilled you come up with a clam on the first pull.

The thing you need to know is that razor clams don’t just lie there.  The second your clam gun hits the sand they start digging.  Take your time, worry about your manicure or get girly about sticking your hand into an eighteen inch hole filled with frigid sea water and your quarry high tails it.

The last one to limit gets a cheer squad and lots of help spotting the show; the dimple in the sand that indicates a clam.

It’s then, when the whole group has limited and we prepare to leave the beach that we realize the true reward;  the grandeur all around.  The Pacific ocean froths and swirls; windswept trees arch along the ridge; the sand shimmers with twilight.  Against the roar of the ocean; migrating birds soar, calling their locations to each other much the way families up and down the beach keep track of their youngsters, bantering about who has the largest clam, who limited first and how many bowls of dad’s clam chowder we’re going to eat.

A great big thank you to my cousin Teresa Harpster, a very talented artist and photographer, for loaning me these wonderful photos.

Razor Clam Chowder

This is my dad’s recipe; one we all love.  You can make it with any clams you like.

3 strips bacon chopped into 1 inch pieces

½ cup onions, diced

1 cup potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 cup water

1 cup chopped clams with juice

1 quart half and half

4 tablespoons butter (1/2 cube)

Potato flakes or left over mashed potatoes

Cook bacon pieces add onions until they are slightly browned. Add water, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add potatoes and cook until slightly done. Add chopped clams and juice. Cook 20 minutes. Add half and half and butter. DO NOT LET MIXTURE BOIL. Season to taste. Add potato flakes or mashed potatoes for desired consistency. Test to see if it is edible…enjoy!

A wild desire to be avant garde and uber creative seized me and the mango curry truffles were the result.  Veni and Hollind tried to talk me out of it but I was deaf to their pleas.  My punishment:  a dozen perfectly gorgeous but oddly flavored..okay I’ll be frank…inedible chocolate blobs.

And I would have posted the Earl Grey recipe last night if Hollind and Steph and Elaine hadn’t kept me out so late.  We went to Eleven Winery’s tasting room to support Island artist Isobel Coney in a showing of her exquisitely rendered Lino prints.  (Please go!  You’ll be glad you did!)

It was supposed to be an early night due to Steph’s stated intention to tuck in her kids at 7:30…being the supporting friends that we are, we helped Steph find a way to have her wine and drink it too by weaseling through a tuck-in loophole:  we accompanied her home so she could tuck in the kiddies then we retired to her hot tub for two hours. 

Today is an exciting day because T&C is sampling cheeses again.  I went yesterday and spent a happy interlude sampling such wonderful things as Cibo Natural’s smoked Jalapeno cheese, Bucherondin French goat milk cheese and I have it on good authority that today they’ll have gorgonzola dolce, a cheese so luscious and meltingly gorgeous you can (and will want to) eat it with a spoon.  I swoon as I write this.  This happens from 10-12 so don’t be lazy, get up and get there and say hello—I’ll be the one hovering over the gorgonzola.  BTW—every single fabulous cheese on aisle 1 is 25% off.  woohoo.

Okay, so I think I owe you some eye candy.   As tasty as the Earl Grey truffles were, they didn’t photograph well (unless rocks on a plate excite you) so I give you instead pics from a recent apple cider pressing at my folks house in Joyce, WA.

Remind me later to tell you about the crab feed we had on Wednesday night.  Matthew, the same lovely neighbor who gave me salmon to smoke, dropped by with four! freshly caught and cooked Dungeness crab. 

Off to Copalis to slay some clams.  Cheers.

Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles

From: Cuvee 928 in Flagstaff, Arizona

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon sugar

3 Earl Grey tea bags

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter cut in ½ inch cubes

2 tablespoons brandy

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Bring cream and sugar just to a boil in heavy small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat. Empty tea from bags into cream. Cover and steep for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir chocolate and butter in small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Transfer to medium bowl.

Strain cream mixture through fine meshed strainer (or through several layers of cheesecloth) into chocolate mixture; stir to blend. Stir in brandy and salt. Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Cover and chill until firm, about four hours.

Lime rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or waked paper. Roll rounded teaspoons of chocolate mixture between palms to form a ball. Place on prepared sheet. Chill until firm, about one hour. Roll truffles between palms again. Place cocoa in small bowl. Roll truffles in cocoa powder; return to same sheet. Cover and chill.

Get that?

Anyway, we’re meeting soon and the menu committee is having a bit of a tussle with a brash young Pinot Noir.  We want this haughty newbie to pair with a soup and so far it’s not cooperating.  If this wine got a report card it would read “does not play well with others,”  It’s probably just that it’s misunderstood, we are, after all newbie’s ourselves at pairings. 

My foodie pals Hollind and Veni and I got together with a bottle and three soups: Tuscan white bean, broccoli mascarpone and curry cauliflower.

Admittedly it’s no hardship to have to drink wine and taste soup on a rainy Wednesday afternoon and I for one think we ought to make a habit of it. 

The  white bean soup came the closest, mostly because it laid down and let the pinot walk all over it.  The other two showed a feisty side with the broccoli sucker punching the pinot up front then playing nice later.  translation:  (the broccoli overwhelmed the wine but got better as we tasted).   The cauliflower soup just turned up her nose and refused to play and neither the soup nor the wine benefitted.

Can you help us?  If you’ve got a great soup that would work let me know and I’ll hastily arrange another wine-Wednesday and give it a go.  (Even if you don’t have a recipe; make one up so I can have another wine Wednesday.)

I was really rooting for the broccoli mascarpone.  I love its velvety texture and soft green color.  And I used shallots from my very own garden.  This soup is easy to make.  You can substitute cream cheese if you want because mascarpone can get a bit pricey.  Great as a starter or a light dinner with salad and a baguette. 

Broccoli Mascarpone Soup

From Bon Appétit

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups sliced shallots

1 1/2 pounds broccoli florets, cut into one inch pieces.

6 cups low salt chicken broth

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) mascarpone cheese, divided.

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons chopped, fresh chives.

Heat oil in large pot over medium heat.  Add shallots; sauté 3 minutes.  Add broccoli; sauté 1 minute.  Add broth, bring to boil.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Cover and simmer until veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.  Cool slightly.

Working in batches, transfer soup to blender,  puree until smooth.  Return to pot.  Reserve 1/4 cup mascarpone in small bowl.; cover and chill.  Whisk 1 1/4 cup mascarpone and cayenne pepper into soup.  Season with salt.  DO AHEAD:  Can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover, chill. Heat soup over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Do not boil.

Garnish with remaining mascarpone and chives.

Years later I was standing outside the main entrance to the Nordstrom Flagship store in downtown Seattle.  Through the open doors the scent of leather and perfume and elegance beckoned and I knew that I’d need some shoring up before I was ready for total Nordstrom immersion.

This is best done with chocolate and caffeine so I ducked into the Nordstrom coffee bar.  At first I dismissed the chocolate dipped biscotti, but there was something about that glossy chocolate exterior that beguiled me.  Also, it was the only thing that had any chocolate on it.

Either biscotti had been tamed in the intervening years or I’d judged too harshly in my tempestuous youth because this cookie yielded without so much as a bone jarring.   The was no wrestling for dominance.  This cookie knew its place and yielded with an elegant and satisfying crunch then infused my mouth with lush chocolate flavor.  It might have been a day or a week but it wasn’t long before I started testing biscotti recipes and came up with with one:

Chocolate Biscotti

To make an elegant statement, melt semisweet chocolate chips and drizzle across, do the same with melted white chocolate.

2 cups flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped*

¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a baking sheet. In bowl whisk together flour, cocoa baking soda and salt. In another bowl beat together butter and sugar until fluffy, add eggs.

Stir in flour mixture to form stiff dough. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.

With floured hands form two logs 12” long and 2” wide. Bake 35 minutes, cool five minutes then cut diagonally. Place on baking sheet and bake until crisp about ten minutes.

I like to freeze these and pull them out when I want a quick tea treat.  They make a wonderful hostess gift; I slip them into an oblong bag and tie with a pretty ribbon or pack into a small bakery box, wrap with food grade tissue then tie with a ribbon.

This dish has been a family favorite for years.  I can remember our annual fourth of July Potluck at the Sol Duc hot springs when I was a kid and my  6 year old cousin crying while eating them.  I can still smell the sulfur and chlorine, still see the green mountains before a blue sky, still hear the teen girl screeches and shouts from the pools and my cousins sniffles as he ate.

Alarmed my Aunt Sharron sat down on the cabin steps beside him and told him that he didn’t have to eat them if he didn’t want to.  “I love them but I’m crying because they’re spicy but so good that I can’t stop eating,” he’d sobbed.

I think she toned down the spice after that because I don’t remember them ever being cry-your-eyes-out spicy.  What I do remember is the tender crunch of onions, the piquant bite of olives, the creaminess of loads of melted cheese.  My Great-grandma, the daughter of Irish immigrants, grew up speaking Spanish in a small  California town just north of the Mexican border and this recipe reflects that upbringing.

They’re on my mind right now because I know that’s what Aunt Sharron is making for dinner on Saturday night.  Grandma’s making her salsa fresca and my cousin Kelli’s bringing her Texas caviar.  Lisa’s on deck with her well loved bruschetta and we’re all bringing dessert. 

To say I’m excited doesn’t really describe my feelings.  Perhaps I’m aiming too high but I hope we’re making memories and connections we’ll treasure for the rest of our lives.  We’re spread out; my family resides mostly in Western Washington, my mom’s sisters, my cousin and my grandma in Oregon.  But all of us value these connections enough to make the trip for each other…or maybe it’s just the promise of good food.

My Irish Grandma’s Enchiladas

Sharron Farrell: This came from Grandmother Pursley. The family really loves it.

black olives, sliced

onions, chopped

sharp Cheddar Cheese (small cubes)

Flour tortillas

Red Chile sauce, medium

Depending on how much you want to make use equal amounts of olives, onions and cheese.

Soak one tortilla at a time in heated red chile sauce. Mix together olives, onions and cheese. Place a very large spoon full of the mixture in soaked tortilla, fold in half. When the bottom of the pan is full layer a mixture and some of the red chile sauce before starting the next layer, until the pan is full. Use a fork to poke holes through the layers of tortillas and pour more red chile sauce over it. Cook in a 350 degree oven until the onions are done and the cheese is melted.

Tomorrow night Skogen Lane comes alive with ghost and ghoulies.  Our neighbors host a soup and bread dinner and off we go as witches (2) and a skeleton and Ariel.  I suspect folks will wonder if we’ve kidnapped the little mermaid.  We’ll pillage and trick, prowl and treat and end the night at a bonfire with champagne for the grown ups and a candy free-for-all for the kiddies.

Happy Halloween!

Pork Chops with Mustard Caper Sauce

From: Food and Wine magazine. This is a fast and easy weeknight dinner that is impressive enough for company.

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

4 -9 ounce pork loin chops

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 ½ cups chicken stock

1/3 cup drained capers

½ teaspoon finely chopped rosemary

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper, add them to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat until well browned, 5 minutes per each side. Transfer the pork chops to a large late and cover loosely with foil.

Add the stock, capers and chopped rosemary to the skillet and boil until reduced to 3/4 cup, about five minutes. Return the pork chops to the pan and simmer until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer the chops to 4 plates. Whisk the mustard and butter into the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Pour the mustard-caper sauce over the chops and serve.

It was one of those perfect spring days with fresh new buds on all the trees, blue skies and a ticklish wind from Elliot Bay.  Had there been a musical soundtrack an accordion would be playing.  I wore a skirt and boots and a sweater, walking along Western Avenue to Pike Place Market.  This was long before the Harbor Steps, before the high rise apartments. 

A scent, spicy and sweet flooded the street. Helpless to resist, I followed.   I’d never tasted molasses cookies before and that day was a revelation.  Layers of flavor; the initial heat from the ginger, followed by plush sweetness of brown sugar and then the dark richness of molasses.   It seemed exotic as Morocco as comforting as home.  A heady combination.

It took me a long time to find this recipe because I thought I was looking for a molasses cookie when what I really wanted was a ginger cookie.  I present to you the Most Amazing Ginger Molasses cookies.

The Most Amazing Ginger Cookie

2 ¼ cups All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup dark brown sugar

¼ cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup molasses

1 egg

3 ounces crystallized ginger, chopped.

granulated sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients (flour-salt) in a large bowl. Whisk until well mixed.

In the bowl of an electric mixer combine brown sugar and butter, mix well then add the oil and molasses. Mix well then add the egg and mix until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Fold in the crystallized ginger.

Scoop mixture and shape into a ball then roll in the granulated sugar. Place on the baking sheet and flatten slightly with your finger. Bake for 10-12 minutes depending on how soft you like the interior. Let cool. These keep well in a sealed jar and taste even better the second day. Enjoy.

It rained so hard yesterday that I, a Pacific Northwest Native, had to actually USE an umbrella.  No swinging it along beside as I stroll jauntily along…this was unrelenting, pounding, bounce off the pavement rain.  And I loved it. 

I love the sound of rain, especially in the woods where it changes from pavement’s strident ping to a soft, gentle patter.  The woods come alive with sound and I can almost feel the trees rejoicing and whispering thanks. 

Another thing I love about rain is that it’s an excuse…can’t garden; too rainy.  Was going to make a Costco run…too rainy.  Better just sit here in front of the fire with a good book until the rain stops.

So I grabbed Peter Reinhardt’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice and got comfy.  One can only sit so long in front of the fire when thumbing through a gloriously photographed baking book before they leap from the couch, toss off the blanket and head for the kitchen to make bread.

Casateillo, BBA Challenge #6 is an Italian version of brioche.  Traditionally it’s made in panettone wrappers and studded with meat and cheese.  It’s often seen at Easter in Italy and on rainy days here in the Pacific Northwest.  I filled mine with salami and provolone—Mr. Reinhardt says to let it cool for an hour before slicing  (like that’s going to happen?!) but I risked his displeasure and cut it open after about 6 minutes and was rewarded with a steamy cloud of fresh bread goodness and shiny bits of provolone melting on the knife.

If rain brings you down the smell of baking bread will cheer you up.   I tell you this because I just checked the weather and it’s going to rain for the next ten days and we all might want to make some plans.  Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.

These are organic Concord grapes grown in Eastern Washington.  My hostess, Rhonda made grape pressing look easy.  When I arrived the pressing pot was already steaming away as she dropped in the washed grapes.

Then she made lunch and tea for us, all the while looking like a million bucks in a kitchen apron.  It’s hard to like a gal like Rhonda but she’s so very nice that we have to overlook her stunning looks and kitchen cool and be friends.  I decided this before she gave me three bars of freshly made soap—yes; the woman makes her own soap and it looks and smells like something you’d be happy to pay a fortune for at a pricey boutique. 

The grapes have steamed for about 15 minutes and are beginning to sweat and split.  Juice has appeared in the spigot at the base of the pressing pot. 

The final product is midnight purple, so dark it’s almost black.  Rhonda poured the hot juice into hot jars, fitted with hot lids.  She inverted the jar for 15 seconds to seal.

We tasted the juice fresh from the steamer.  Rich and deeply concentrated it tasted just like a grape warmed by the sun.  I have three jars of this precious stuff and I’m making grand plans for grape jelly, grape popsicles and grape sorbet.  Thank you Rhonda and Carlyn for including me in your afternoon.  Cheers!

Is there anything more stressful in baking than pie crust?  After years of making truly awful pie crust I decided to take the bull by the horns and learn from an expert. 

I realized, after being barked at by the drill sergeant of an instructor who, by the way, hadn’t ever heard of a food processor and made us cut the fat and flour together with table knives!,(which may be useful if I become a contestant on some sort of reality show set in a 1950’s kitchen), where my problem(s) lay (or lie…or lies?):

1.  Your ingredients must be stone cold.

2.  You must work fast! (lest your cold ingredients get too cozy and melt together like two starlets in a bad film).

Doesn’t that seem a teensy bit stressful?

Now, I’m not one to embrace stress and pressure while I bake and you shouldn’t either so take my advice and try this:

Measure all of your dry ingredients, including the fat into the bowl of a food processor.  Then put the whole thing, bowl and all into the fridge.  Make yourself a cup of tea, browse the internet…update your Facebook…relax.  Baking pie should not be stressful.  When a good half hour has passed pour yourself a shot of vodka and a glass of ice water and get your chilled ingredients out of the fridge and back onto the food processor. 

Now, I know you think I’m taking the relaxing too far with the booze and you’d be wrong; I heartily believe in cooking with booze but sometimes, like now,  it’s not for me…It’s for the crust.  Vodka adds liquid without adding water, making your crust supple and then it bakes up flaky as a redhead at the beach, when all that alcohol evaporates.  I learned this from Cooks Illustrated magazine and if you want all the scientific hoo-ha that explains this miracle of baking then read this.

Anyhow…

Put the lid on and pulse 9 times.  Toss in the water and the vodka and pulse four times or until a ball forms,  Do not overwork!  We want to see fat pearls in the dough; if it is all one uniform color it’s been processed too long.

Lay some plastic wrap on the counter, plop the dough onto the wrap, form into a ball, wrap and return to the fridge.  I like to split the dough into two balls, press each into a 5 inch circle and then wrap and chill.  This will give you a head start on rolling nice circles later.  Total time out of the fridge…about thirty seconds. 

Take that Sergeant Major.

The dough can rest thirty minutes to a week depending on your schedule.  Now, does it get any more relaxing than that?

Foolproof Pie Dough

Adapted from:  Cooks Illustrated Magazine

2 1/2 cup flour

1 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices

1 cup  shortening, cut into 6 pieces

1/4 cup vodka, chilled. Extra for you if needed.

1/4 cup ice water

Measure flour, salt and sugar into food processor bowl and whirl once or twice to blend.  Add butter and shortening but do not process.  Place in fridge for minimum 30 minutes.  You can leave it as long as you want or until you can’t stand working around the humongous food processor bowl in your fridge.  Then follow the instructions above.(feel free to pour a shot for yourself if you’re having a bad day.)

 I’ve been experimenting with pie crust, my latest effort tightly wrapped in the cooler along with some leftover crème fraiche and a chunk of blue cheese.  I’d planned for a caramelized pear tart when I packed, but the mushrooms inspired a savory custard topped with blue cheese sprinkles.  It turned out better than I could have imagined and sliced pears were the perfect palate primer.

Try these with your favorite Merlot or a great big Cabernet.

Wild Mushroom Tart

makes four mini tarts

Pastry dough

1/2 pound fresh Chanterelle mushrooms, sliced

1 small shallot, chopped

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup crème fraiche

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 egg

1 tablespoon Parmesan Cheese

2 tablespoons Blue cheese sprinkles

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350.  Press your favorite pie crust into four mini tartlet pans.  Chill for fifteen minutes then remove from fridge, pierce bottom crust with a fork, line with foil and fill with pie weights (I use rice) and bake for fifteen minutes.  Remove foil and bake ten more minutes or until golden brown.  This is called blind baking.

While your crusts are baking prepare the tart filling.  Sauté mushrooms, shallot and thyme over medium high heat.  Add a bit of salt and the mushrooms will release their liquid.  Cook until liquid has evaporated, reducing heat as needed (five to seven minutes).  Set aside and make custard.

In a separate bowl whisk crème fraiche, cream and egg until blended.  Add parmesan cheese. 

Layer 1/4 of the mushroom mixture in each crust and cover with 1/4 of the custard mix.  Sprinkle each tart with 1/2 tablespoon of blue cheese and bake for 12-15 minutes until custard is set and puffy.

Yes, you can smoke salmon even if you don’t have a smoker.  This summer I was at EVOO Cooking School in Cannon Beach Oregon enjoying a wonderful smoked salmon chowder.  The smoked salmon was so perfectly cooked and seasoned, I knew it had to be smoked in house so I asked to see his smoker set up.  Chef Bob swept his hands across his cook top and there it was…the method by which all of us can smoke our own salmon.

Here’s how he does it:

Chef Bob suggesting using a roasting pan with a lid but any high sided pan will do. 

Line the bottom of the pan with smoker chips.  Place your brined, glazed-over salmon on a wire cooling rack on top of the chips.  Cover. 

if you don’t have a pan lid, you can use foil as long as it does not touch the fish; the smoke needs to be able to circulate. If using foil, press tightly around the edges of the pan leaving a small opening in one corner so you can tell when the chips begin to smoke.

Set heat to high and watch carefully.  When you see smoke, reduce heat to low and count to ten.  Turn heat off and count to ten again.  Take pan outdoors and remove lid to release smoke.  Yep, that’s it…twenty seconds.

Place salmon; still on wire rack, on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator for two hours.  Do not cover.  This allows the flavor to develop and any bitterness from the smoke to dissipate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook salmon for 10-15 minutes until the inside registers 145 degrees.  (Don’t take it out at 140 intending for the temp to rise on the counter as you would with meat).

By the way, Chef Bob does all the catering for Northwest Women’s Surf Camps.  A little extra planning and you can learn to surf and have a cooking lesson too.   My Food Friday mates and I are planning a road trip to Cannon Beach to do exactly that in the spring (right, H?).  Want to come along?

Here’s Bob’s recipe for Smoked Salmon Chowder.  I had this last summer and just writing about it makes my mouth water.  Really, how could he go wrong?  He’s put all of my favorite things; butter, cream and smoked salmon together for a luscious chowder that was as perfect on a sunny day in July as it will be on a stormy afternoon in October.   The coriander delivers a pleasant but surprising tap on the taste buds and sets this soup apart from all others.

Smoked Salmon Chowder

4 ounces butter (one stick)

6 ounces onions, fine mince

3 ounces celery, fine mince

3 ounces carrot, fine mince

6 ounces potatoes, small dice

1 ounce ver jus*

1 ½ cups half and half cream

1 cup heavy cream

8 ounces smoked salmon, flaked

to taste: sea salt, ground pepper and coriander

3 tablespoons chives, minced

Place butter in a large sauté pan and cook until melted and frothy; add onions, celery, carrots; cook until translucent; add potatoes and ver jus; cook for 5 minutes, stirring well, being careful not to break up vegetables; add both creams and bring to a simmer; cook for 15 minutes on moderate heat, being careful not to boil; adjust seasonings; fold in salmon and cook for 5 minutes; finish with chives and serve.

*For substitution ideas check out Chowhound

About a month ago a reader requested I post a blog about smoking salmon.  I’ve been wanting to smoke salmon for a while but I got into my head that I had to catch the salmon first.  It just seemed more authentic that way.

I’ve caught salmon before but always with my dad and once by accident on Ellos.  To brush up my skills I attended a fishing clinic at Cabellas where I purchased the right hooks, lines and sinkers (er… downrigger balls) to assure my success.  I learned how to brine herring (something I hope to never have to do in real life), I won (by being the highest bidder but don’t tell my husband he thinks I actually won it) a tackle box filled with gear at my kid’s school auction.  My dad bought me a book and taught me how to tie hooks and set up leaders.  I bought a boat (okay that part’s not really true, we already owned the boat.)

My dad, the guy who can coax fish into the boat like the pied piper, and proof that I caught a fish, once.

And then I went fishing.  It was a beautiful sunny morning when we left Port Madison but the further we moved out of the bay the foggier it became.  We fished for about twenty minutes before fog obscured the shore, our signal that we needed to turn back.  In that twenty minutes I lost the downrigger ball ($30!) and the Ferry Wenatchee rammed the dock at Bainbridge (just so you know…it was REALLY foggy).

Next trip; the weather looked dicey but we headed out anyway.  Within minutes the rain was sleeting sideways and we’d zipped ourselves into the cockpit.  I got one bite and by the time I lost the fish I was soaked to the skin.  We turned back…

Next trip; E and J bickered the whole time we navigated Port Madison.  By the time we got to Fay Bainbridge, the bickering had turned to blows and tears…we turned back.

On Sunday my neighbor gave me some salmon, bless his heart.  I still intend to catch the big one, but for now, I’ll just figure out how to smoke them.

This is my dad’s recipe, one he’s used for thirty years.  He coached me through the whole process from brining to preparing the chips to smoking and I’m pretty impressed with the result.  Moist, silky, vibrant orange flesh with a solid flake and great balance of smoke, salt and seasoning.  Delicious.

I used a smoker but Chef Bob at EVOO cooking school in Cannon Beach, Oregon smokes his right on his cook top and in tomorrow’s blog I’ll tell you how.

Smoked Salmon

1 quart water, distilled or bottled without chlorine or let sit overnight so the chlorine dissipates

½ cup non-iodized salt

½ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon garlic flakes

2-3 pounds of salmon, filleted with pin bones removed.

Wood chips for smoking

Prepare brine by mixing all ingredients together until salt and sugar are dissolved. Brine overnight (8-10 hours) for thicker pieces like those at the head of the fish and four hours for smaller pieces like the tail section.

Remove from brine and run under cold water to wash. Let sit, skin side down until the fish glazes over (30 minutes to 2 hours). Prepare smoker racks with Pam spray or brush with oil. Place pieces, skin side down with the larger pieces closer to heat.

Smoke for four hours at low heat (120-150 degrees). You’ll use a pan of chips an hour so prepare four pans of chips.

Rotate after 2 hours. Fish may not be cooked through but can be finished in the oven at 200 degrees for about an hour. Check smaller pieces early.

Let cool in pan to prevent sticking and retain moisture.

The sticky matte finish is glazing; this fillet is ready for the smoker

Slow cooked at low temperature 

The bridge is part of the Olympic Discovery Trail that will one day span the Olympic Peninsula from the Pacific Ocean at Lapush to historic Port Townsend.  For pictures of the bridge’s construction and a scenic bonus, click here.

Now this may be a little known fact…but who knew that Port Angeles hosted some really great wineries? 

If you make the trip to see the bridge you may want to stop for some refreshment along the way. I’ve visited Olympic Cellars many times and can guarantee a warm welcome and friendly tasting room.  On my last visit I bought a rhinestone studded t-shirt from their great, girly boutique.  (Perhaps one should not drink and shop at the same time?)   You’ll find the century old barn that houses the winery on your left just east of Port Angeles.   We missed Camaraderie Cellars on this visit but enjoyed basking by the outdoor fire with a big hearty Malbec on our last visit.  I’ve heard great things about Harbinger Winery and its on the top of our list for the upcoming Passport Wine Tour November 14th and 15th and you’ll pass right by it on your way to the bridge.

If you go:  It takes about an hour and a half to get to Port Angeles and the leaf peeping is lovely. This is an easy day trip but if you want to stay over both Port Angeles and Sequim have a wide variety of B&B’s and hotels.   Olympic Cellars is open daily from 11-5; Harbinger Winery is open daily from 11-6 pm and Sunday from 11-5 pm.  You’ll need to make a reservation to visit Camaraderie.

To get to the bridge travel from Port Angeles on highway 101 west.  Take a right on Laird Road go about 1/2 mile and take a left on Elwha River Road.  Turn left onto Crown Z Water Road for parking.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips. Fill greased mini-muffin pans with one tablespoon of mix.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until done.

Makes 48 mini-muffins. 

I lasted the three minutes until the timer went off but then all bets were off.  I thought the half pound of butter that went into this dough was sinfully decadent but somehow I got seduced but the thought of butter melting into a piping hot brioche and popped open a fresh jar of strawberry balsamic jam:

Better than any brioche I have ever eaten… in a bakery… in France…anywhere.  Really.  Truly .  Rich, buttery, flaky and light.  The recipe made 16 brioches a tête (that’s French for mini-brioches) and I’m just not sure that’s going to be enough.  I’ve already given away half of them ‘cause I’m so darn proud and such a show off.

It’s night and the kids are in bed.  I’m tempted to make another batch so I can have warm brioche in the morning.  Hold on there… Reality check.  I’ll have to get up at 4:30 to give them time to rise before breakfast…but still…

All right.  This is the fifth bread in the BBA Challenge.  We’re using Peter Reinhardt’s wonderful book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread as a text.  If you want the recipe you’ve got to buy the book.  If you’ve got the book and want some cliffs notes, read on:

First I made a sponge and let it sit for 45 minutes.  When it was ready, it looked like this:

I added five lightly beaten eggs and whirled them round in my Kitchen Aid until they blended:

Then I added the flour.  Usually my mixer starts to whine about now but this is a sticky and light dough and my KA handled it easily.

After adding butter the dough takes on a silky texture. 

The dough is so full of eggs and butter it has to be quite cold to form.  Refrigerate for four hours before shaping your brioche.

These brioche pans are so pretty I just had to add a gratuitous picture.  Mostly I was glad to find them after storing them for two years in anticipation of making brioche someday. The small print says MADE IN FRANCE which helps me pretend I’m Julia Child.

I recommend shaping the dough into balls then refrigerate again before the final forming.  Peter Reinhardt has a great picture tutorial in his book on shaping.  I used method number two to get this signature form.

Let rise for an hour and a half then brush with egg wash.  My dough had trouble keeping a perky ball on top.  I tried three different methods but the result was the same each time.  Still, it’s so pretty.