Batter-Splattered

Now that I've settled into summer and everything is all big and green, I've come to the conclusion that my new house ... I still think of it as new -- I've only been here seven months -- that's new, right? I think you have to inhabit a place for a full year and see all four seasons before you can stop calling it new.

My new house is like a little oasis in the trees. My goal in life when I was a kid was to live in a house where, when you looked out the windows, all you would see is trees. A lofty goal, I know -- you guys can go be doctors and lawyers, I just wanna live in a treehouse. No neighbors. No buildings. Just green, green, green.

I've attained my goal. And if everyone would stop all this incessant talk about foreclosures, I might actually be able to sleep through the night without lying awake, worrying about every little penny I spend.

I guess I should be looking around for a new goal. But I don't really feel like pursuing my other childhood goal which was to be a forest ranger. Or a fish and game biologist (I had a thing for fish hatcheries). I didn't pursue those goals. I think there was too much math and mathy-science involved. So in the alternative, I just take lots of hikes and commune with nature in my own way. No math involved there. Unless you need to use a compass. Oh geez, the compass with its true north and magnetic north and adding this and subtracting that. I carry the compass and some instructions on how to use it ... probably wouldn't work for a fish hatchery though, like if suddenly all my fry started to die and I said, Wait! I have the instructions right here in my pack.

My birthday was this week. When I told my husband I wanted a porch swing for our rather sparsely-furnished screened-in back porch, he whined and said, "Oh, don't get a porch swing... I need to replace the heads on my pickup."

He's a peach, isn't he? Not only would he begrudge me a porch swing, but notice how he also expected I would be the one to go get said porch swing. For myself. On my birthday. I told him he'd better come home with a cake or he was a dead man.

Not to worry though -- mom gave me a fat gift certificate to REI and I loaded on frivolous purchases aplenty. Sunglasses. A pair of pants to yoga in. A pair of very frivolously priced pants to live in. I love Patagonia. And ordinarily, I'd be clinging to that gift card, waiting for sales and coupons but I don't know what came over me. I was there in the store and decided to go crazy and buy stuff. FULL PRICE stuff. Unheard of, for a thrifty gal like me. I was livin' large that day.

Recipes, you say? Wait, you come here for food and recipes, not just girl talk?

Well okay then. Let me tell you about camping food.

I spent this past weekend camping at a public use cabin up near Fairbanks. The Glatfelder Cabin on Quartz Lake.

There were raspberry bushes growing from the roof!:

How fabulous is that?

But poor Charlie Glatfelder had a rather dismal story. He was living in California and one day he pulled out a map and drew a circle around a blue dot right in the middle of Alaska. That blue dot was Quartz Lake.

 

He loaded his military surplus jeep and drove up and got a homestead claim on the lake and lived the first winter in a walled tent on stilts (to avoid bears?) The following summer he dug a root cellar and lived in that the next winter. Then the next summer he built himself a cabin. At first, everything went great -- he had a garden and traded fish or worked for other stuff he needed. But then eventually he lived on just the fish he caught in the lake, pike mostly, and became malnourished. In the 50s, some U.S. Marshalls went to Quartz Lake looking for a missing person and found old Charlie crazy as loon, convinced people were trying to poison him, and they shipped him off to an institution in California where he recovered but never returned to the lake.

Grim, huh? Yeah. Luckily it doesn't get dark here at night in the summertime, otherwise I might have been thoroughly spooked by the history of the place. Some of the people who wrote in the cabin log book said they awoke in the middle of the night to find faces pressed up against the windows, staring in at them.

View from one of the windows:

 

I took one look at the inside of that outhouse (only three walls and overlooking a hiking trail, hhmmm) and decided there weren't enough moist towelettes in the world to fight off dirty like that. So I employed the bushes that weekend -- and from the aroma while employing the bushes, I'd say pretty much everyone else did the same. When camping, you just have to yield to the dirty.

Anyway, the window-faces were geocachers apparently. It's a good thing they didn't come around the nights I was there because I'm pretty sure I would have jumped through the glass at them and run into the woods screaming, "Glatfelder's back! Glatfelder's back!"

I felt especially bad for poor malnourished Charlie because, boy, did we ever eat good that weekend. I felt a twinge of guilt every time I sat on a stump and  tucked into yet another wonderful meal, all cooked in foil packets, the king of campfire cooking methods.

The only thing not packeted would be tbone steaks cooked on a grate over that very fire. Otherwise, it was salmon with roasted red bell peppers, red onions, and portobello mushrooms all drizzled with sesame oil. Fresh vegetables and fresh herbs drizzled with olive oil. Scrambled eggs with vegetables and salmon or sausage. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

If you should find yourself planning a camping trip, I promise you can't go wrong with the following recipes. I hope you have as good a time in the great outdoors as I did.

Bundle of Veggies

Serves six

Feel free to use other vegetables and herbs. I added asparagus and sprigs of fresh herbs like thyme and rosemary.

• 8 ounces whole fresh mushrooms
• 8 ounces cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup sliced zucchini
• 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt or salt-free seasoning blend
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 dash pepper

Pile vegetables and herbs on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Combine the remaining ingredients; drizzle over vegetables. Fold the foil around vegetables and seal tightly. Grill, covered, over medium heat for 20-25 minutes or until tender.

Earth, Sea, and Fire Salmon

Serves eight

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 (8 ounce) salmon fillets
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 2 large red onions, sliced into rings
• 1 jarred roasted red pepper, drained and cut into strips (I did this at home before the camping trip because it's kind of messy and oily) 
• 8 ounces portobello mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon or more of sesame oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On doubled-up sheets of foil, arrange potato slices in a layer. Season with a little salt and pepper. Place a layer of onions over the potatoes, then a layer of roasted peppers, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper as desired. Place salmon fillets over the vegetables and season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Place whole mushrooms over the fillets, and drizzle them with sesame oil. Seal foil tightly and roast until fish flakes easily with a fork, and potatoes are tender.

Bok choy slaw

What can I say, we love our leafy greens around here. At least, the dog and I do. I can't speak for the husband. I think you'll agree with me that it's pretty bad when your dog's more civilized than your husband. Sadie loves to dig into the tall green grass that grows on the edge of our -- ahem -- lawn (we like the natural look):

She loves that grass.

No.

Wait a minute.

Love's not a strong enough word.

She LUSTS after that grass would be more accurate:

As for me, I've been lusting after this recipe for bok choy slaw. I found a big and beautiful bunch of bok choy at the store the other day. I wasn't really planning to buy bok choy but when you see a score like that, you've just gotta pounce on it. You can always trust Real Age for a good and healthy recipe, especially when you have some healthy little something or other like salmon and want to dress it up fancy without totally ruining it's healthy-schmealthy-ness.

Most recipes want you to stir-fry bok choy but I was after something much more fresh and crispy -- something to go along with grilled chops so I wouldn't have to light the stove in the kitchen. I found what I was looking for. It's like summer in a bowl.

 

You whisk together some toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, and dijon mustard and toss it with thinly sliced bok choy, carrots and green onions. It was wonderful.

Although.

Did I mention it was a big bunch of bok choy?

Well, it was really big. As in, eating slaw for four days straight. The first three office lunches of slaw were wonderful but I must say, I was suffering from a bit of bok choy burn out by the fourth day.

I'd say that's pretty good though, if you can eat something for three days straight without a whimper.

To keep it nice and crispy, I didn't stir the dressing in with the slaw. I saved it in a separate container and added it to each individual bowl.

Bok Choy Slaw

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 cups very thinly sliced bok choy, (about a 1-pound head, trimmed)
• 2 medium carrots, shredded
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced

Whisk vinegar, oil, sugar, mustard and salt in a large bowl until the sugar dissolves. Add bok choy, carrots and scallions; toss to coat with the dressing.

macaroni with grilled chicken salad

Well. Really, it's penne with chicken salad but I heard through the grapevine that some guy is trying to revive the word 'macaroni' and I thought I'd try it on for size, and humor him all at the same time. He's also trying to revive the 'cents' key. As in:

¢

He dreams big.

My husband and I wolfed down a big bowl of this salad. Probably because it tastes like summer, what with the grilled chicken and all the fresh and crunchy vegetables -- red onion, celery, and a red bell pepper that cost me $3.50. I'm still not convinced it was worth it. Although it was a pretty nice looking and very tasty pepper. Firm skin, for once. Usually the ones we get here in Alaska have the wrinkly skin of an 80-year old, but only on one side. The other side is smooth as a baby's butt, as if someone smeared age renewal cream with alpha-hydroxy acid on one side but not the other as an experiment to see if that hope in a bottle is really working. Why experiment with your face. Grab a pepper.

I thought for sure the husband wouldn't like it because it tasted so fresh and healthy. His tongue and the rest of his body are, as near as I can tell, allergic to nutritious food. Except for the rare dish, nutrition revolts him. Even apples would be better wrapped in bacon, in his opinion. But wait a minute. That would be my opinion too.

But wonders never cease because he had two big bowls of this, probably because it  has lots of noodles -- his word for pasta.

Pasta.

Macaroni.

Noodles.

The choices are endless.

I doubled the dressing on my version because some of the people who reviewed the original said it was a little dressing-less. I don't like dry macaroni so I decided to err on the side of wetness and double up the dressing ingredients. My version:

Penne and Grilled Chicken Salad

Serves 8 to 10

2 whole skinless boneless chicken breasts, halved (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 pound ziti or other tubular pasta
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 1/2 cups thinly sliced celery
1 red onion, chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
1 1/4 cups Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and sliced thin
1/4 cup minced fresh dill
6 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
1 1/3 cup olive oil

In an oiled ridged grill pan heated over moderately high heat or on a rack set 4 to 6 inches over glowing coals grill the chicken breasts for 8 to 10 minutes on each side, or until they are springy to the touch, and transfer them to a dish. Sprinkle the chicken with the lemon juice and let it cool. In a kettle of boiling salted water boil the ziti until it is tender. In a colander refresh the ziti under cold water and drain it well.

In a large bowl toss together the ziti, the bell peppers, the celery, the onion, the olives, and the dill. Remove the chicken from the dish, reserving the juices, slice it thin, and add it to the ziti salad. To the juices in the dish add the vinegar, the mayonnaise, the mustard, and salt and black pepper to taste, whisk the mixture well, and add the oil in a stream, whisking until the dressing is emulsified. Add the dressing to the salad, toss the salad well, and season it with salt and black pepper. 

Cod and Cauliflower and Whale-Watching

Last weekend I went on a day cruise in search of gray whales migrating north on their way from Baja, California up to the Bering Sea. It was a very rare sunny day in Seward, Alaska -- the captain said it had been raining for two weeks straight -- the luck I have, I tell you.

 

That sea lion on the top there? That's how I feel on this long holiday weekend. Just lolling about.

In the end we didn't spot any gray whales. But we did see a humpback whale and we got to float about and watch a pod of killer whales feeding on fish. My friend Annette took that particular opportunity to argue with some of the many small children on board the boat, particularly one talkative little boy trying to share his knowledge of marine mammals.

Little boy: "See that one over there? The one with the tall straight dorsal fin? That's a male."

Annette: "No, it's not."

Little boy: "Yes, it is! The females have shorter curved fins."

Annette: "No. That's not true."

Little boy: "Well, that's what my marine mammal book says."

I was all like, I don't know, Annette. He seems pretty sure of himself. And he has a book.

He slinked off, thoroughly dejected.

He must have been pretty stoked though later when the captain said over the intercom: "And if you'll look at the killer whale at two o'clock, that's a male. You can tell by the long tall dorsal fin."

After watching those whales feed on fresher than fresher fish, I came home with a fierce hunger. Luckily, I had some fresh cod in the fridge just waiting to be cooked up. And along with it, I made an old favorite, this cauliflower salad with white beans, feta cheese, fresh rosemary, and tangy vinaigrette dressing.

The original recipe is here. Their version calls for thinly-sliced Belgian endive but I usually leave that out, partly because it's good without it and partly because the markets here are hit-or-miss when it comes to finding something so exotic. Exotic for Alaska, anyway.

My favorite step in this recipe is the first -- you saute chopped fresh rosemary in olive oil till it's nice and fragrant then set it aside until you're ready to throw all the other ingredients together in a big bowl. By then, the whole house is full of that lovely aroma of olive oil and rosemary.

I usually make a huge bowl of this, even though there's only two of us to eat it (even my meat-loving other half loves it). That way, I can take leftovers to work with me for lunch -- because the cauliflower is uncooked, it stays crispy for days.

The cod recipe is here. It has a tasty shallot-lemon vinaigrette that you're supposed to split between the fish and a salad of fresh herb leaves. This time around, I just made a half recipe of the vinaigrette though and skipped the herb salad.

The flavors of these two recipes go together so nicely and they're both so easy to prepare.

Cauliflower, White Bean and Feta Salad

Serves six

1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 medium head of cauliflower, trimmed, cut into small florets (about 3 cups)
1 (15-ounce) can white beans (such as Great Northern or navy beans), drained
2 large heads of Belgian endive, trimmed, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 3 ounces)

Combine oil and rosemary in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Cool.

Whisk lemon juice, vinegar, lemon peel, salt, and pepper in small bowl.

Combine cauliflower, beans, endive, chives, parsley, and rosemary oil in medium bowl; toss. Mix in cheese. Add lemon juice mixture and toss to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper. 

Sauted Black Cod with Shallot-Lemon Vinaigrette

Serves two

Mix in small bowl to make vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Sherry wine vinegar
1 teaspoons (packed) grated lemon peel
Salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle with salt and pepper:
2 6- to 7-ounce black cod fillets with skin

Heat in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat:
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cook fish until just opaque in center, about 4 minutes per side. Arrange fish on plates and spoon vinaigrette over each.   

Penne Primavera

I had some really good-looking organic green beans, asparagus, tomatoes, broccoli, and fresh basil and parsley loitering in my fridge drawer, just waiting for their moment to shine, waiting patiently but threatening to turn brown if I didn't snap to it.

I needed to use up everything at once and so I struck on the idea of a pasta primavera, one of my favority spring things to eat. And so I found this recipe, which looked absolutely wonderful and so I tailored it to what I had on hand. The recipe instructions were a little more complicated than what I had in mind so I simplified things a bit. The other cooks who rated the recipe agreed, complaining that it dirtied up way too many pots and pans. I hate that, don't you?

Turns out I had to toss the asparagus (oh, the guilt!).

But the results were pretty good anyway. It was just what I was hungering for. Just the list of ingredients makes my mouth water: all those vegetables and fresh herbs, garlic, hot pepper flakes, balsamic vinegar, lemon zest, and fresh parmesan. I didn't have any morels (boo hoo!) but if you do, be sure to add the morel step in the original recipe linked to above.

Here's my version of the recipe.

Penne Primavera

Serves six

Three cups or so of assorted green vegetables -- asparagus and fresh green beans (trimmed and snapped into 1-inch pieces), frozen or fresh peas, broccoli (chopped into small bits), etc.

3 cloves garlic, minced

Rounded 1/2 t dried hot red pepper flakes

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 pints grape tomatoes

1 T balsamic vinegar

3 T water

1 lb. pasta -- your choice

1/2 stick unsalted butter

2/3 c heavy cream

1 t finely grated lemon zest

1 c freshly grated parmesan

1/4 c finely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 c finely chopped fresh basil

Cook green vegetables in a big pot of boiling salted water for about 3 minutes until just tender. Remove with a slotted spoon to a colander (reserving hot water in the pot) and run cold water over the vegetables.

Cook garlic and hot pepper flakes in oil in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat, stirring, just until garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are softened, about 3 minutes. Add vinegar and water and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, 3 to 4 minutes.

While tomatoes are cooking, return water in pot to a boil and cook pasta till al dente. Drain in a colander.

Immediately add butter, cream, and zest to empty pasta pot and simmer gently, about 2 minutes. Stir in cheese and add pasta, tossing to coat. Add green vegetables, parsley, basil, and salt and pepper to taste and toss gently to combine.

Serve topped with tomatoes and parmesan shavings.

Genius that I am... (zucchini with everything bread)

Genius that I am, it just wouldn't sink in that my oven was broken. Kaput. What's a girl with a food blog to do with a rotten piece of luck like that? And to add insult to injury, it broke the day of the Great Alaskan Clean-Out-Your-Freezer Potluck.

It's a gas oven and there was no spark and there was no gas. Everyone at the potluck who knew the slightest thing about ovens gladly got down on their hands and knees to take the oven's bits apart piece by piece, blow on them, shake them around a little, poke here, poke there, there was even some clunk clunk clunking, before saying definitively, "HUH!"

Very disappointing. And because tax time is fast approaching (wait, what's the date today?) as well as a weeklong vacation to Portland, I was very reluctant to call a repairman. I know how much Uncle Same wants, the bastard, but who knows how much money a freaking appliance repairman would take me for.

Luckily, the husband recently bought a camper to take overnight fishing (more on that later) and he was more than happy to fire up its little oven, running back and forth, baking things left and right. It seemed to make him feel downright useful and so smart for buying that camper when he did for such a scream of a deal.

But like I said, it just wouldn't sink in that the oven was broken. I'd be sitting at work dreaming up what we would have for dinner that night... roast vegetables, roasted fish, maybe a cake... oh wait a minute, the oven's broken! Scratch all that.

I'd do the same thing at the market. Hungering for a pizza, I'd remember the oven was broken and the very next moment, I'd be gathering the goods to make a calzone.

Not until I got home and reached to fire up the oven would I remember... DAMN IT.

It's like during a power outage when it just doesn't click that there is no light, anywhere, and no you can't open the refrigerator door and read by that light either.

This went on for a week or so. I even hauled the crockpot out and dusted it off and told it to get ready to work. Then on Sunday I was firing up the stovetop (thank god that still worked) and I decided just for the hell of it to turn the oven on too. I promptly forgot I'd done so. Then a few minutes later the little beep went off, signaling the oven was all preheated for me.

Yeah right, I thought. Oh oven, don't be cruel.

But then I opened the door and what do you think happened? A blast of very hot air came rushing out. It even blew my hair back a little, that gush of heat.

It fixed itself!

It's unprecedented.

You can bet I raised both arms in the air and shook my V for Victory fingers. And spun around a few times. Oh yes, there was spinning. Lots of spinning.

Which brings me to last night's dinner.  Some nights you want an honest-to-god dinner with all four food groups represented. But other nights, all you want is a little something un-dinner-like. Scrambled eggs maybe. Ice cream perhaps.

I rummaged around in the fridge and came out with two zucchinis and a lemon, remnants from a CSA box. I leafed through a few cookbooks until I found a recipe that was just right.

I have this cookbook I bought years ago in the bargain books section at Borders. Mary Englebreit's Queen of the Kitchen Cookbook. I don't turn to it all that often (my cookbooks are sadly neglected because I get most of my recipes from my best friend, the Interweb) but everything I've made from it is really top-notch. The index lists things like Best-Ever Devil's Food Cake, Diner-Style Meatloaf, Filet MIgnon with Wild Mushrooms, Lemon and Chive Salmon Cakes, Farmhouse Walnut Pie, the list goes on and on. Pretty pictures. Good recipes. Mm. Mm. Mm.

Mary calls this zucchini-lemon quick bread. I decided to call it zucchini with everything bread because it really does have a little something for everyone -- lemon zest and juice, craisins, almonds (although I used walnuts), and of course, zucchini. The top of the bread turns out crunchy and candy-like. Inside, it's all soft and moist and bursting with flavor.

For dinner that night, I had a couple of slices of this and a couple of shots of good whiskey. I had the house to myself and could indulge myself with this rather unorthodox but totally delicious dinner.

I'll be making this again real soon.

Zucchini with Everything Bread

Makes one loaf

1 1/2 c flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t allspice

1/4 t nutmeg

1/4 t salt

3/4 c sugar

6 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

2 T grated lemon zest

1/4 c fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)

1 t vanilla

2 c grated zucchini

1 cup chopped nut -- walnuts, blanched almonds, etc.

1/2 c dried cranberries or golden raisins

Melt your 6 T of butter and set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt.

In a large bowl, beat sugar, melted butter, eggs, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla with an electric mixer until well blended. With a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, stir in the zucchini. Add the flour mixture and stir until blended. Fold in the nuts and cranberries. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Cut into 1/2-inch thick slices and serve.