My new calling

It's alive!

We had to sacrifice my lens, but all told, my little buddy is a-okay!  The camera man sold me on the importance of a good lens, lenses are your investment, he reinforced.  I knew camera equipment is pricey. I sold my CAR to buy my camera!  However, I had no clue you could drop this kind of coin on lenses.  As much as I wanted to spend $1700 on a 70-200 mm lens, I settled for my go to 50 mm.  I did upgrade to glass, which as you'll see below, I had some fun experimenting with it this weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, it was gorgeous here!  The river traffic has slowed down so I had the odd Saturday to play.  We took a drive over the river and through the woods where the hillsides have been sprinkled with windmills.  I felt like I had been transported to an alien planet.  I love these things, but they sure look strange.

Where's the bird, Tuli?

View from the office.

Monday started off a little wonky.  I drove nearly 45 minutes and realized I had forgotten a whole stack of readings for a paper I have to write today.  Oops.  I am certain my ballet comrades cried because I wasn't in class to dazzle them with my skills.

The day, however, gradually improved: my thesis adviser gave me a big thumbs up on my introduction (hooray!), turkey legs were in stock at Freddie's, and I was in bed by 10:30.  Best part of the day!

The following recipe is loosely adapted from one by Jamie Oliver.  I swapped out Jaime's duck for turkey legs. Can you imagine a turkey leg version of hot wings (legs)?  

Regardless, these turkey legs are great.  Next time you are at Fred Meyer (or Smith's since they are related), look for them.  They add a nice twist to dinner.  This gorgeous stew can easily be made in the crock pot, served with pasta or mashed potatoes, and you could certainly leave the meat on the bone.  Whatever you do, try this dish.  It is an excellent fall meal.

In addition to turkey legs, I also pulled out my mandolin, which I have never used before.  Holy hell this thing is amazing!  I could do an infomercial for it because it truly slices like a dream.  Fingers beware, it does not discriminate!  I made a potato tart to go with the turkey stew and had loads of leftover slices. BEST POTATO CHIPS EVER!  The first batch I sprinkled salt, pepper and dill, the second batch only garlic salt and pepper.  Yes, I think I have found my calling.  Potato chip queen.

Season with salt and pepper.

Brown in a large pot or dutch oven.

Diced shallot, carrot, celery and garlic. 

The stars of the dish: orange juice and zest.

One cinnamon stick.

A handful of rosemary.

Throw in some olives and bake until the meat falls off the bone.

It's harvest time in Idaho.

The instrument of torture.

Layer on a nonstick sheet pan.

Salt, pepper, chopped rosemary and feta cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until crispy and delicious (about 30 mins).

Turkey legs A LA Jaime Oliver

4-6 turkey legs

3 carrots, chopped

3 celery sticks, chopped

2 shallots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 orange, zest and juice

4 large tomatoes, chopped (or one can)

3 sprigs fresh rosemary

3 tbs flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 cup olives

1/2 bottle of crisp white wine

1/2 cup broth

1 cinnamon stick

salt and pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat about 3 tbs olive oil over medium heat in a large dutch oven or oven-safe pan with a lid.  Brown the turkey legs on all sides -- you may have to do this in batches.  Remove the legs and add the celery, carrots, shallots and garlic.  Cook, scrapping up the bits on the bottom of the pan, for about 2 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil.  Add the wine, broth, olives, orange zest and juice and the parsley. Stir well to combine.  Return the legs to the pan -- I had to get creative so they all could fit.  Add the cinnamon stick and rosemary.  Place the pan, with the lid on, in the oven and bake for about 1.5 hours or until the turkey meat falls easily off the bone.  Shred the meat off the bone -- watching for bones -- and return to the sauce.  Enjoy!

Crying over spilled milk, sort of

I have bad news today.  What I am about to report is something I have feared for months, nay years.

My camera is dead.

Let's rewind to 2008.  This was a huge year for yours truly.  Called off a wedding, moved out of my house, left my dogs, started a new job, had heart surgery, sold my car and BOUGHT MY CAMERA.

Hail's Kitchen (or something like it) was on my wish list of things to do.  "Someday I'll have a camera, then I can start the blog."  I must have repeated that statement twelve thousand times.

I sold my little Hyundai to a couple who spoke no English -- we completed the entire transaction in the parking lot of Walmart in Spanish.  They bought the car sans driving it, because the wife said it was pretty.

Long story short, bought my beloved canon and started the blog.  If you bravely look back on the first few photos, we had a rough start.  I didn't grasp the concept of lighting.  I still don't really grasp this concept, but I at least appreciate it now three years later.

I guess the point of my pathetic diatribe is I have nothing to tantalize your taste-buds with this morning.  That's the thing with food blogs, a photo is truly worth a thousand words and right now all effort in word production should be dedicated to my thesis.

So if you are of the praying type, please say a prayer that the good folks at Canon will work their magic and restore my camera to all its previous glory.

Until then, here is a video that has nothing at all to do with food.  For a girl who is trying to learn to dance at thirty years old, I watched this video in complete awe.

Come on science!

If you could have one wish right this very moment what would it be?  Win the lottery?  Have the ability to fly or read minds?  Even better, the ability to teleport?  Guess what mine is this very second -- a CLONE!  I want a clone who would studiously read my homework, attend class and write my thesis.  My clone would free up my time so I could play outside in this glorious 72 degree weather. Because I have no clone, I am stuck inside attempting to write a chapter of my paper. 

I can hear you crying, too, because you're stuck at your desk.  Clones.  I am telling you, the world would be a happier, more productive planet if we had mirror images of ourselves to do all of our unwanted work.  Come on science!

Since you are stuck at your desk, here's something delightful to distract you.  FHE last night was less of an affair than last week.  My roommates had some gorgeous, wild Alaskan salmon that we grilled on cedar planks.  Thanks to my lovely neighbor and friend Ashley, we had the tastiest of tasty glazes for the fish: chipotle huckleberry. I will get the recipe for you straight away, as it was really something special.

We had a number of sad looking root vegetables in the fridge so I once again tricked the roommates into eating rutabagas and turnips.  We also sauteed some red cabbage and kale.  Without planning, we created quite the antioxidant-rich, purple meal.  

Try these mashed veggies.  You'll like them, and I'm certain if you had a clone, s/he would like them too.

I peeled the rutabagas and turnips and left the potato skins on.

Boil in salted water until tender. 

(The rutabagas take longer so you could put them in a few minutes 

before everything else).

Mash up and blend with 1/2 cup broth (vegetable, chicken or beef), 

2 tbs butter, 1 heaping tbs grainy mustard.  Season to taste with ground pepper.

Cedar planks soaking.

Deboning the salmon. Fish bones are about as pleasant as gun shot.

Wild and delicious.

Matt glazing.

Product placement was entirely accidental.  

You're welcome Deschutes. 

Family home evening

A tradition has been established: Monday night family home evening.  This borrowed term describes the gathering of friends, the drinking of wine, and the only night I have to cook.  These shared meals are an antidote to the dreaded case of the Mondays.  

This week's meal was particularly fun because I employed the assistance of my roommate and my neighbor.  We also employed the assistance of Indian food queen Madhur Jaffrey for inspiration.  We perused the cookbook and the fridge choosing dishes that helped us clean out the bounty of vegetables from the past week's CSA shares.  

We chose seven dishes and two condiments.  Seven main course meals that required an enormous amount of slicing, dicing and blending.  The three of us, armed with numerous instruments of vegetable mutilation, managed to produce this feast in just two hours.  I kept asking the girls, "I am not sure if we have enough food."  I was sincerely concerned.  

Friends, we cooked the equivalent of an Indian Thanksgiving dinner.  We will be eating Indian food until I come home next Monday.  We had plenty of food.  

Here's the menu: carrots with dates and raisins, peas with tomatoes, creamed spinach, mung bean sprout salad, cauliflower and zucchini, corn and coconut milk, lentils with tomatoes, yogurt raita and cilantro chutney.  

After this meal, I am confident I can orchestrate just about any family eating event -- Thanksgiving, Christmas or Monday night family home evening.  

Excuse me while I heat up a plate of leftovers.  Until next week!

The bounty.  

I chopped three HEADS of garlic and six inches of ginger.

Thank you Pampered Chef.

Cilantro chutney lovingly assembled by my kitchen partners in crime. 

No dish, pan, plate or fork was left unscathed.

As a result, dessert required some creativity: 

butter knife, baby spoon, melon baller, serving spoon.

These two dishes seemed to be the favorites.  This corn is out of this world.  Please try it.  The peas, well, the peas will make your toes curl.  Just saying.

Corn with coconut milk

adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Vegetarian Cooking

4 cups corn

1 large onion, sliced in rings

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp ground tumeric

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 tbs vegetable oil

2 cans coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large oven-safe pan with a lid, combine corn and coconut milk.  Bring to a boil and then set aside.  In a separate pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until caramelized, stirring frequently -- about 10 minutes.  Remove and set aside.  Meanwhile, combine the garlic, cumin, tumeric, cayenne and 1/4 cup water in a small bowl.  Add this mixture to the same pan as the onions.  Fry for about a minute.  Add the onions, sugar and spice paste to the coconut and corn. Bring to a boil.  Cover and place in the oven.  Bake for 45 minutes.

Peas

also adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Vegetarian Cooking

1 gigantic bag of frozen peas

1 large onion, roughly chopped

1 inch chunk of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

3 large tomatoes, diced

1 tbs red chili flakes (or more if you like it spicier)

1 tbs ground coriander (I had coriander seeds and it was delicious)

1/4 tsp ground tumeric

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 tbs vegetable oil

Put the chopped onion and ginger along with 1/4 cup water in a food processor.  Blend until you have a smooth paste.  Heat the oil in a large pan.  Add the spices and stir until fragrant, then add the onion/ginger paste.  Cook until the paste begins to caramelize -- about 5 minutes.  Add the chopped tomatoes.  Fry for another 5 minutes.  Add the peas, salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes or until the peas are cooked through. 

Craving fall

Hello all!  Guess what?  It is WEDNESDAY!  I think all weeks should start on Tuesday.  Just saying.

I hope you and yours enjoyed the weekend.  The weather here couldn't have been better; however, fall is in the air.  In fact, the leaves on the river have a yellow twinge to them.  As soon as the temperature drops below fifty degrees my stomach starts to growl for cold weather food. While I should be enjoying the bounty of summer, all I wanted yesterday was roast beef.  

The grocery store had all sorts of fun root vegetables: turnips, parsnips, rhutabagas.  This is a fun dish to trick finicky eaters into eating foodstuffs they would normally shy away from.  Since I don't have kids I get to trick my roommates.  

This recipe will look familiar.

Roast beast.

Just another manic Monday

I have a strange confession: I enjoy Mondays.  Usually I return to the city on Monday mornings, always late and rushing like my hair's on fire.  This has been the routine all summer.  Now instead of heading to my job, I head straight to BALLET.

I still am one of the worst in the class.  Not THE worst but damn close.  If a good ballet dancer was one who stomped around awkwardly and waved her arms like she was shooing flies, then I would be the best ballet dancer on the planet.

My hour and thirty minute drive gives me time to listen to NPR, drink coffee and mentally prepare myself for being a bull in a china shop.  It also gives me time to dream about what I'll cook with my one night in the kitchen.

Yesterday I wanted something unfussy.  I wanted something we could enjoy on the patio.  I wanted something that did not require utensils.  I wanted grilled flank steak and veggies.

A brief diatribe: when I was in England in March we ate one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants called Fifteen.  This meal was without a doubt the most memorable dinner I have ever had.  In fact, I don't think I have posted pictures from that meal -- I will!  Nonetheless, they served the most wonderful green olives.  They were bright green, tender, not brined.  I felt bad because I devoured the entire bowl leaving my dinner mates to nibble on the seeds.  My mom let me know that they carry a close second at Fred Meyer and lucky for me, we have these divine little olives at my store, as well.  If you like olives you must try these. I think I enjoyed the appetizer last night more than the meal.

As summer wanes, make a meal like this one that requires very little prep time and clean up.  Call some friends, open a bottle of wine, and eat with your fingers.  Do it on a Monday, too.

Toasted bread with olive oil and sea salt, feta cheese and

green goodness.

Not the best shot, but you get the drift.  

I marinated the steak in something close to this.

Serve on a big plater and enjoy!

 

Dessert did require a spoon.