Crunchy on top, cheesy inside

Behold! A recipe :) Happy Friday.

Cooking has always been a respite for me -- chopping veggies is as meditative as yoga. At least it was in a previously life. Cooking has evolved into a one-handed balancing act while I attempt chop, stir and assemble all with a baby on my hip. Some of Malia's favorite toys happen to be kitchen utensils, and I love that she's already "play cooking" with mixing bowls and spoons.

Needless to say, the meals that I manage to create these days are super easy and fast. Unless I have an extra pair of eyes and hands to help me with the babe, I'm no longer whipping up detailed recipes requiring multiple steps and ingredients. Thankfully, my baby is an eater. I don't normally cook anything especially for her. She eats what we eat, and to this point we've had great success. Tuli is also benefiting from this new routine of family dinners, as he inevitably eats as much off the floor as Malia gets into her mouth.

I've always tried to eat healthy, but now that I'm responsible for another human's health and well being, I have felt the need to step it up a bit. Not that the following recipe is super healthy -- cheese and pasta -- it does have the hidden ingredient of cauliflower for those picky eaters out there. The great thing about this mac an cheese is it can be eaten straight away or baked, plus you boil the pasta and cauliflower together so you can literally have it thrown together in the time it takes you to boil the noodles.

I used our family's favorite cheese EVER: cougar gold from the WSU Creamery in Pullman. I'm sure I've gushed about this cheese before, but in all honesty, it is one of the best cheeses on the planet. It's a sharp cheddar that gets better with age, makes fantastic cheesy eggs, and is impossible to stop eating. My kid sees the can come out of the fridge and starts drooling. Pavlov's dog theory is real.

You could use any sharp cheddar -- Tillamook makes a fantastic sharp cheddar that would be a close second. As with most of my recipes, you can use whatever you have on hand. I had some cream cheese and parmesan so I threw those in too. Sour cream would be great too. Milk or half and half. You get the idea, this recipe is versatile, fast and yummy.

This unassuming can tricks unknowing consumers into believing this is just canned cheese.

The name is accurate, it really is gold.

It took all of my willpower not to nibble my way through this pile of goodness.

I used whole wheat pasta so the cauliflower doesn't blend in quite as well had I used regular pasta. The cauliflower adds an additional layer of creaminess. I don't know if I'll ever make plain ol' mac and cheese again.

I had extras so I took a dish over to my neighbor who I've adopted as my own. She's ninety four and nearly done with her second round of chemo. She's fantastically brave and sassy, so much like my grandmothers. I love her and so does Malia. I feed her every chance I get.

Crunchy salad with apples, candied walnuts and manchego. 

Crunchy on top, cheesy inside. Kind of like me.

See those eyes? Those are eyes begging for more cougar gold.

Baked Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

1 head cauliflower, core removed

1 box elbow noodles, or any fun shape

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbs dijon mustard

2 cups cream, half and half or milk (whatever you have on hand or combination)

2 - 3 cups sharp cheese (again, whatever you have)

breadcrumbs

thyme

salt and pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil pasta and cauliflower in the same pot following the directions on the box. Meanwhile shred cheese and grease a baking dish. Before draining pasta/cauliflower, reserve some of the cooking liquid. In the same pot you boiled the pasta/cauliflower, add the milk/cream, mustard and garlic. Simmer over low heat. Gradually add the cheese, stirring to melt. Add the cauliflower and pasta to the pot, breaking up the cauliflower into bite size chunks. Stir well to combine. Add a little pasta water if it needs a little more liquid. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Carefully pour into the prepared dish, sprinkle with the breadcrumbs, a little thyme and a bit more cheese. Dribble a little olive oil top, as well. Bake for about 40 minutes or until bubbly.

What's a girl to do?

This morning I completed a chore that I've been putting off for a few weeks.  I shovelled the deck.  More accurately stated, I chipped ice off of the deck.  It was kind of like washing dirty dishes days after they should have been washed.  Procrastination has a nasty sense of humor.

That said, I am still procrastinating the editing of my paper.  I keep telling myself, tomorrow you will finish it.  Then I get a phone call to go fishing.  What's a girl to do? 

That's me on the left.

 

The Great Samoan Hunter needed photos for the Lodge's fishing blog.

 Who knew flying fish lived on the South Fork?

Growing up in Idaho, my dad instilled a healthy fear of wild animals in the hearts and minds of me and my two little sisters.  However, the wild animals we were most afraid of were not the typical lions and tigers and bears one might associate with the wilds of Idaho.  No, we were afraid of beavers and turkeys.  Beavers carried beaver fever, a deadly disease no eight year old with buck teeth wished upon herself, and turkeys grew spikes -- enormous, thorny, angry spikes on the back of their legs that scratch little girls' eyes out.  Not sure those were my dad's exact words, but to this day I am still leery of beavers and turkeys. 

Yesterday I was just about to jump in the shower, and I noticed some movement outside of my bedroom window.   

   

15 man-eating, eyeball-scratching turkeys in my driveway.

Casting fear aside, I snuck outside to catch their photo.

They ran away from me!  That's right, bitches.

My eyes lived to see another day.

So did the turkeys, as Tuli slept through the entire encounter.

Last night with the full moon, we decided to drive over the hill to Victor for a nighttime skate ski. Fortunately for me, we didn't see any turkeys or beavers. 

Before we left, we threw together the fastest, easiest, yummiest meal. This is a great one for anyone who is busy and/or lazy.  These days I fall into the latter category.  You can piece this meal together with any veggies you have on hand.  After our moonlit ski, it was a wonderful treat to come home to a warm meal.

Chicken thighs, potoatoes, asparagus, and tomatoes drizzed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper and thyme.  Baked at 300 for 2 hours (less time would have been fine, but that was our roundtrip).

Tender, flavorful chicken and veggies.

I have one more super easy, translation lazy, meal for you today.  Somehow all this talk of procrasting has enduced some bizarre blogging efficiency.  Here's a fast, simple, delicious pasta that I made for lunch today. The sauce comes together in the time it takes to cook the noodles. In order to use the Great Samoan Hunter's internet, I bribed him with lunch.

Any shape pasta you like cooked according to the directions, one diced onion, one can green chiles, one small can whole tomatoes, and not pictured oregano, cumin, a handful of cilantro and some feta cheese.

While you bring your salted pasta water to boil, saute the diced onion in a tbs of olive oil. Saute until translucent -- about 3-4 minutes.  Add the chiles and tomatoes.  As the tomatoes simmer, smoosh them with the back of a spoon.  Season with 1/2 tsp each of oregano and cumin.  Simmer the sauce while the noodles cook.

Chop a handful of cilantro.

Throw in the cilantro with a good amount of feta.  Add the cooked pasta (and a little of the cooking water if your sauce is too thick).

Toss it all together and enjoy! 

Even the meat-eating Samoan Hunter enjoyed this lunch.

Getting my wiggles out

You know the saying, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. Well, the decision to postpone my defense, and thus the culmination of my MA, felt, at the time, like an enormous mouth full of lemons.  I puckered, I shed some tears, my jaw clenched.  It was sour.  However, now that I've had time to process my choice, I am so glad I made the level-headed, adult decision (this was inspired largely from the encouragement of my wonderful advisor) to give myself some wiggle room.

So . . . I am wiggling. 

You've noticed I have been cooking and writing again.  I have been exercising.  I have been reading books -- books for fun!  I have been spending lots of time in the out of doors.  I have not, however, been exerting enough effort or time towards my paper.  Whenever I walk Tuli, I always tell him "get your wiggles out!"  I figure that's what I am doing right now, getting my wiggles out. 

As my advisor reminded me, I want to present a paper that I am proud of.  This time and space has allowed me to get excited about my project again, as well as lots of other areas of my life that I neglected as a grouchy, stressed, do it all but not all that well graduate student.  How do you like that lemonade?

The following recipe is the fruits of my labor.  Literally.  The Great Samoan Hunter and I hiked up and down and up and down four or five ridges in search of chukar.  On our way back to the truck, we flushed an enormous covey of birds.  The Great Samoan Hunter shot left, I shot right.  I didn't see anything drop from my side.  After missing several birds throughout the day, I was quite disappointed in myself.  I didn't walk all that way to come home empty handed!  Much to my delight, Tuli recovered my downed bird that had landed around the ledge upon which I was standing.  Not only is he an upland game dog, but he is also a retriever! 

I acted like someone who had just won the publisher's clearinghouse -- squealing, waving my arms, jumping up and down.  I may have peed in my pants a little. 

If I tell you where we are, I might have to kill you.

My face hurt from smiling so much.

My retriever.

I can only take credit for one of these birds --

that's why I call him the GREAT Samoan Hunter.

I did find that deer shed in the background, though.

Chukar is very similar to pheasant, which tastes and looks much like chicken.  I am nuts about both of these birds.  Duck and geese, I am still working on.  I decided to make chukar piccata -- lots of lemon, wine and capers.  Had I served this dish to you blindly, you would have thought it was chicken. This dish blew me away.  I had never made it before because I am not such a fan of capers, but I will be recirculating the dish for certain.  Since chukar isn't an ingredient you can easily pick up at the grocery store, try the classic chicken piccata.  Delicious!

Chukar breasts before I pounded them thin.

Familiar breading of flour, egg and panko with the addition of parmesan cheese.

Since I am trying to "eliminate muffin top," I baked instead of fried.

Sauce fixins.

Capers.

Who would have thought wild game classed up so nicely?

Couldn't ask for a more perfect meal.

Chukar (or chicken) piccata

4 breasts, pounded thin

2 tbs flour

1 egg, scrambled

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (more for garnish)

1 or 2 lemons

1 handful Italian parsley, chopped

1/4 cup capers

1 shallot, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

salt and pepper

olive oil

2 tbs butter

pasta to serve

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, and set aside. Place breasts in a ziplock bag and pound thin.  Dredge first in the seasoned flour (about 1 tsp each of salt and pepper) shaking off any excess, then the egg wash, and then panko cheese mixture.  Once all of the breasts are breaded, allow them to rest for about ten minutes on the baking sheet to ensure an extra crispy crust.  Bake the breasts for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.  Cook according to the directions.

In a saucepan, heat about 1 tbs olive oil over medium-high heat.  Saute the shallots and garlic until translucent.  Add the wine, juice of one whole lemon (if it's not super juice add the second for good measure), as well as the squeezed lemons and capers.  Reduce by half.  Add the chopped parsley.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the 2 tbs butter.  Remove the lemon halves and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce over the breasts. Serve with pasta and extra parmesan.  Enjoy!

Mandolins and Christmas music

Guess what I heard on the radio yesterday?  The song: "Let It Snow."  Am I mistaken?  Isn't it October?  Halloween is still a few weeks away.  

Perhaps this is what encouraged the ridiculous melody to pierce my ears:

That's the view out of the front door yesterday afternoon.  We've been socked in with temperatures hovering around forty the last couple of days.  This weather makes me want to curl up around a fire.  Take a bath.  Drink hot beverages.  Apparently, this weather also causes out of their mind radio producers to play Christmas songs.  Go figure.

I had an extra night in the city this week so rather than listening to Christmas songs on Clazy 97 I decided to bust out the mandolin.  Inclement weather really brings out the slicer in me.

The last few weeks I have been dabbling with a wheat-free diet.  I know, you think I have truly lost my marbles.  I have a sensitive tummy that is easily upset over most things normal humans eat . . . like yogurt and ice cream. Hi, my name is Hailey, and I am lactard.  

Lately, though, I have been experiencing the same uncomfortable symptoms when I eat wheat. Not that you care about my GI issues, but I have a serious love affair with wheat products.  Pasta, bread, BEEEERRRRR.  

I have been pretty good at choosing my battles, because let's be honest, I am already a bit neurotic and certainly do not need anything else to stress out about. So yesterday when I started dreaming about lasagna during my linguistics study group I gave in to the craving.  

The following lasagna is not your run of the mill lasagna.  This lasagna is company-worthy, sit at the dining room table-worthy, bottle of wine worth more than $5.75-worthy.

This lasagna oozes goodness (literally) for three reasons:  the béchamel sauce, the sautéed chard and the yams (or sweet potatoes whatever camp you live in).

A note of warning, this dish takes some time and a few dishes.  Don't attempt to make this lasagna after a long day of work while listening to Christmas music on Clazy 97 in October -- you might turn the mandolin on yourself.

This is both a photo of a garnet yam and my double-jointed thumb.

To make the béchamel sauce: simmer 3.5 cups milk with

1 chopped onion, 3 gloves garlic and 1 tsp thyme for 2-3 mins.  

Remove from heat and allow to steep for 10 minutes.

Drain the solids from the milk.

Melt (don't judge me) 6 tablespoons butter and

whisk in 3 tablespoon flour.  Whisk constantly for 2 minutes

then add the drained milk. 

Stir constantly for at least 5 minutes. 

You will doubt that your sauce will ever come together, it will, I promise.

Just keep stirring!

You know it's done when you can draw a line on the back of a spoon

and it doesn't run together.

The assembly line.

Matt and Brook's dog, Kenai, desperately wanted to help.

In a large oven-safe dish, spoon enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan

and drizzle with a little olive oil to ensure non-stickage lasagna removal.

Layer pasta noodles, the chard mixture, yams and sliced cheese.

Then add another layer of noodles, more sauce,

more chard, yams, cheese, noodles, sauce, cheese.

Holy cheese, Batman.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Allow the lasagna to sit for at least ten minutes before cutting.

Can't for lunch leftovers!

Swiss chard and yam lasagna

for the lasagna:

2 bunches swiss chard, chopped

2 yams, peeled and sliced thin

2 shallots, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 package sausage (I found a fabulous sweet Italian chicken sausage at Freddies)

1 box no boil lasagna noodles

3 packages sliced sharp white cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

olive oil

béchamel sauce:

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3.5 cups milk

1 tsp thyme (dried or fresh)

6 tbs unsalted butter

3 tbs flour

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Start the béchamel first by bringing the onions, garlic, thyme and milk to simmer over medium heat -- be careful with high heat, as you will scald your milk. Gently simmer for 2-3 minutes and remove from the heat.  Allow to steep for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, heat a glug of oil over medium high heat.  Add the shallots and garlic and saute until fragrant.  Add the sausage, breaking up into bite-sized pieced.  Add the chard and saute until wilted.  Season with salt and pepper.

Drain the solids from the milk.  Melt the butter and gradually add the flour, whisking constantly.  After about 2 minutes, slowly incorporate the milk, again whisking constantly.  After you have whisked for what feels like hours (5-10 minutes), the sauce will begin to thicken. Check its thickens with the spoon test.  Remove from the heat and add the parmesan cheese.  

Now you are read to assemble!  In a large oven-safe dish, spoon enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan and drizzle with a little olive oil to ensure non-stickage lasagna removal. Layer pasta noodles, the chard mixture, yams and sliced cheese. Then add another layer of noodles, more sauce, more chard, yams, cheese, noodles, sauce cheese until you are at the top of the pan and out of ingredients.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Allow the lasagna to sit for at least ten minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Buckteeth, pigtails and Bountiful Baskets

This morning as I completed my normal routine -- brewing coffee while listening to NPR -- I heard a story that I had to share.  This weekend a semi-truck hauling HONEYBEES drove off the rode releasing a swarm of millions of bees in the area of Island Park spilling the entire load of honey all over highway 20.  Emergency professionals were stung repeatedly as they attempted to clean up the sticky substance.  Can you imagine?  Not a typical day for a state patrolman!  

I think what made my ears perk up just so was that I had driven that stretch a few days earlier on my way to Yellowstone.  Days off are few and far between this summer so I have a "summer bucket list," if you will, that included our nation's most famous national park.  Other items on the list include: an overnight backpacking trip, grilled pizza, sleeping in past 6:45 a.m.

If you've never visited Yellowstone, the people watching is almost as entertaining as the animal watching.  I think in the brief time we were there we heard at least six languages.  We also saw a number of folks who were candidates for a Darwin Award.  But buffalo look so fuzzy!

No regard!

Tuli was relegated to the car: eyes only.

In an attempt to inject more fruits and vegetables into my meager diet this summer, I shared a Bountiful Basket with my sweet friend Sarah.  She also splits her time between city livin' and river livin' so we thought we could capitalize on our wonky schedules and share a basket.  

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Bountiful Baskets, check them out!  My mom first informed me about this great food co-op when she kept calling with odd food questions. What would you do with a persimmon?  What is a chayote squash?  Each week she picks up an enormous basket of wonderfully fun fruit and vegetables, bread, salsa making kits, Asian packs.  

The one caveat, you have no clue what your basket will include.  This week Sarah and I split broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, plums, apricots, bananas, wheat bread, figs and spinach.  Sadly, my figs were moldy and my spinach had also expired.  

Being that I only have a few nights in my kitchen, I needed to get after my bounty.  I intended to salvage the spinach for this pasta to no avail, so I picked up some arugula.  If you never tried this peppery green, you must!  It is fabulous raw in a salad, on sandwiches, scrambled into eggs, or folded into pasta which is what I did.  The following pasta is super fast and wonderfully satisfying.  

Sliced mushrooms.

Familiar items: onions and garlic.

Fresh thyme.

Try it. You'll like. 

Creamy goodness.

Toss the pasta and the raw arugula together with the sauce.  

Be sure to save about a cup of the pasta water to aid in a creamy, smooth sauce.

I had a difficult time resisting the entire pan.

I also used up my tomatoes.  My grandmother made these when I was kid.  

Slice the tomatoes in half, season liberally with garlic salt and pepper, 

cover with sharp cheddar and bake until bubbly.

When I took a bite I was transported back to the days of pigtails and buckteeth.

Whole wheat pasta with mushrooms and arugula

1 box whole wheat pasta, any shape you like

1 large onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 package mushrooms, any you like or have, sliced

1 clamshell arugula

2 tbs fresh thyme, chopped

1 pint half and half

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs butter

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Cook pasta according to package.  Be sure to reserve one cup of the pasta water.  Meanwhile, heat oil and butter over medium high heat in a large saute pan.  Cook the onions and garlic until translucent and beginning to caramelize. Add the mushrooms and cook until golden.  Season to taste with salt and pepper  Add the wine and cook until reduced.  Add the half and half and handful of grated parmesan and reduce until thickened.  Season liberally with pepper.  

Toss in the cooked pasta and fresh arugula directly into the sauce pan.  Add pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed.  Serve with more cheese and enjoy!