Blueberries, Ginger, and Lemon

Our friend Sue reported that she had made the blueberry pie recipe from the Fiddlehead Cookbook and really liked it, so another day just cooked up the blueberries according to the recipe. She had noted that there was a suggestion in the sidebar to add a bit of candied ginger to the whipping cream on top of the pie, so, because it was her daughter's birthday and ginger is her favorite flavor, topped ginger ice cream with the blueberry sauce. Apparently it was incredibly delicious. (Wild blueberries make all the difference. Domestic blueberries just don't have the same "flavor profile" as John would say. Get free range blueberries for this.) Sue actually went up to Eaglecrest and picked a little pot full and gave them to me!

So, I had one of Mrs. Rizzo's Almond Cakes (Let me know if you need the recipe for this), all ground almonds, lemon, eggs and sugar, in the freezer. We had the family over for Sunday Dinner (now that Ren has moved out, we decided to try to have a regular family night dinner just like the good old days). I cooked up the blueberries, and we poured them over the cake, topped with vanilla ice cream, shaved a bit of candied ginger on top, and served. Pretty dang good. If I do say so myself.

Go now. I think there are still blueberries out there. Let me know, I'll email the cake recipe.

Remembering Brown Rice Salad

John has this dish he calls "Open Frig, Cover with Cheese, Bake" which is a tasty way to use up leftovers.

The other day, I got home first, so dinner was my task. In the frig: yesterday's Dominican Republic Chicken (an old TimeLife Cookbook recipe that involves rum and is pretty tasty), some rice, some tomatilla sauce (goes well with the DR Chicken), lettuce, and some patty pan squash.

Scott Miller developed this wonderful Brown Rice Salad at the Fiddlehead, and the recipe is in the cookbook. (favorite memory of this is some coworkers at UAS ordering one to go, opening it up and enjoying the better portion of it before realizing they'd forgotten to put in the rice). For some reason, a Brown Rice Salad seemed like the way to go.

In place of the green peppers: Squash.
In place of the tofu: slices of chicken.
Added to the vinaigrette: Tomatillo sauce.

So. Sprinkle the lettuce with a bit of red wine vinegar and olive oil. Sauté the squash and some diced onion untill wilted. Stir in the chicken slices, add the tomatillo sauce, and some salt and pepper. Stir in the rice, and cook until heated through. When John walked in, put the rice and chicken mix on top of the lettuce, top with grated cheddar, and eat.

Fruit salad, and wine.

We hadn't had Brown Rice Salad in a while, and John requested it again on Saturday, using the leftover bottom round. It is a tasty and flexible way to use leftovers.

International Bacon Day

In honor of International Bacon Day, we had Spaghetti Alburezzia tonight. Pretty darn simple:

3 Tblsp olive oil
1/2 cup fatty bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2/3 cup chicken stock
1 Tblsp parsley, chopped
4 leaves Basil, chopped
S & P to taste
2/3 cup Pecorino cheese, grated
fettucini pasta

Heat oil; Add bacon and onion, Fry gently, five minutes; Add stock, parsley, basil, S&P; Cook gentle simmer until slightly reduced.
Cook fettucini in boiling salted water until al dente; Drain well, place in warmed serving bowl. Add sauce and cheese.

Started with homemade avocado/lime juice/garlic/salt/salsa dip on Kavli (ultrathin crispbread). Manhattans.

M-m-m-m-m

Precious Ravioli

Henry invariably orders ravioli when it is available on the menu, and invariably is disappointed. Yes they are exquisitely delicious, delicately formed, artisanally wonderful, but there are three, count them three raviolis on the the plate.

Yesterday, Ren cooked - raviolis, she announced, in a tomato sauce with garlic and basil. There will be a tossed salad, and sauteed pattypan squash. She called us to the table, and presented us with our dinner.

It was delicious.

Salmon Quiche

It's a variation on John's "Open frig, put in casserole, cover with cheese, bake" dish, and one that for some reason it seems I haven't made since 1983.
We've had company lately, been grilling fresh salmon and halibut and the frig was full of really good leftovers, but for some reason leftover salmon is not my favorite. And for some reason, I was hungry for butter. We had lots of eggs and heavy cream: Quiche.

Buzzed up a nice buttery pie crust in the Cuisinart, rolled it out (enough for a spare crust to freeze for later, hooray!) and lined pan.

Flaked the salmon and halibut, and put it in the pie shell. Topped it with lightly sauteed thinly sliced zucchini.
added a little chopped chives. Topped with grated cheddar cheese (not enough according to Ren). Poured in the eggs and cream, and baked. Put together a tossed salad with pretty purple carrots and celery. Made a strawberry cherry blueberry fruit salad.

It was a big, 10 inch pie, that would have, back in 1983, fed at least 8. The three of us (John's away) must have been hungry.

Bye Bye Bubbles

For a while there, we used to invite folks over once a month on a Sunday for Champagne and cookies, and then we'd all make a contribution to a local non-profit organization - an opportunity to learn about the good things going on in town, enjoy each other's company, and have a lovely Sunday afternoon. We called this Bubbles for Bucks.

Haven't been able to do that of late, unfortunately. And worse news, we discovered that one of the couples who regularly participated is moving, after 31 years in Alaska, to Seattle to be around grandchildren, on Tuesday. We thought this called for one last bottle, essential for every major life change.

We invited other Bubblers, just back from Greece and England.


John grilled flank steak marinated in Trader Joe aioli, red wine, scape pesto (our new favorite condiment) and some other stuff. He whipped up a big bowl of buttery mashed potatoes, went whole hog and made both green beans with walnuts, dried tomatoes, and shallots, and steamed asparagus. There was a big tossed green salad with the garlic olive oil and fig vinegar, and homemade applesauce. Ren baked Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. There was J Champagne, a wonderful Ridge, and Zenato Valpolicello. There were dog farts. There was more wine in there someplace. There were stories and laughter about mishaps and trips, iPhone applications, bears, college, streaking and being on the Johnny Carson Show back in the day, dog farts, and we mostly kept the conversation above ground, at least mostly. The dog did fart a lot, and was, as you see, inconveniently located right within sniffing distance under the table.

Well, who doesn't enjoy a good fart joke? And a foot warmer under the table?

All good memories, and all good fun, nice to be able to send off our friends, even though it is just, as they say, to a suburb of Juneau, Seattle, well fed with wine, food, fun and laughter.
Happy trails. Until we meet again.

Too Much Crab? Iron Chef....Crab Cakes!!

Before we went on our current crabbing craze, we had to empty out the freezer of the last few vacuum packs of Dungies. Greg and I wanted to make crab cakes, and we have pretty strong opinions on cooking, so we decided to duke it out, and make competing recipes the same night, ala 'Iron Chef.' I used the New Alaska Cookbook recipe as a guide, and made a roasted red pepper sauce, and served mine over a bed of baby spinach, drizzling the sauce on top with my secret weapon squirty bottle, very fancy! Greg enlisted our 11-year-old, who googled up a great aioli recipe, supplemented by roasted jalapenos, and also put roasted corn in his crab cake recipe.

We invited the next door neighbors to judge, plus, they had fresh caught king salmon as a backup. They did the kitchen stadium countdown and commentary...fueled by our current favorite Oregon Pinot Noir - Benton Lane - and the winner was...everyone!
While my crabcakes looked prettier and were perfectly cooked, they were a bit bland. Greg and Duncan grilled asparagus spears tossed with olive oil and balsamic, and Duncan artfully plated crossed spears, topped by a crabcake, drizzled with the jalapeno aioli to look like a pirate skull and cross bones. They were fiery, but arrrgh, good!
The king was simply grilled, sigh, what more could you ask for from the Gastineau Grocery?