yet another holiday!

Today is National Margarita Day!

Some folks think that margaritas should only be consumed on hot summer days on a patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Mexico. I say, what better time to celebrate a drink that says SUMMER, than in the bone chilling month of February? (Disregard this mention of bone chilling cold if you happen to live in warmer climes) I for one, am grateful for the opportunity dream about the warm days sometime in the future...
So in honor of this most auspicious day that thankfully, falls on a Saturday, I'd like to share my very favorite Margarita recipe, from a local joint here in Portland called Por que No?.

Cheers, amigos!

wordless wednesday no. 31, because there really are no words to describe this.

what are YOU doing to celebrate?

Today is National Pie Day. What are you doing to celebrate?

Don't tell me you're going to eat 3.14159 pieces of pie, because then you would be confusing it with pi day, which is not until March 14th (3.14)

Personally, I plan to make a pie for dinner, and possibly even one for dessert...and who knows? If I'm up early enough, maybe even one for breakfast!

In honor of this most auspicious day, I'm re-posting my recipe for Veggie Pie, a favorite in my family.

~ Veggie Pie ~

(Recipe adapted a million years ago from the "Eat It" cookbook.

Written by Dana Crumb 
and illustrated by her husband, R. Crumb!)

1/2 onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 carrots, thinly sliced

about 1 and 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced

(I use cremini mushrooms, but you could experiment with any kind you like)

about 4 cups fresh spinach, chopped

1/2 cup each of two other veggies, like:

corn

peas

green beans

lima beans

zucchini

or whatever

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

2 TBS olive oil

2TBS butter

3-4 TBS soy sauce

freshly ground pepper

crust for a 2-crust pie

(I'm a terrible pie crust maker, so I use Pillsbury, but don't let me be a bad influence)

Preheat your oven to 400º

chop your celery, onions, garlic, carrots,

and any other veggies you like

heat olive oil in a large skillet and saute the veggies on medium heat until they're soft and fragrant and the onions are translucent

chop your mushrooms (halve or quarter them first if they're large)

Add the butter and throw in the mushrooms

While the mushrooms get all fragrant and start to soften and soak up all that lovely butter, chop 4 cups of spinach

throw the spinach in, too.

It will be a big pile, but stir and it will cook down to practically nothing in about 30 seconds.

see what I mean?

Add the soy sauce and freshly ground pepper to taste

(the whole 4 TBS of soy sauce might be too salty for some so take it easy and taste as you go)

then mix in the cheese until the whole mess melts into a mass of gooey goodness.

put your bottom crust into your pie pan, and fill with the veggie mixture.

put on the top crust, crimping the edges, and cut a few slits in the top to let steam escape

Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. (But don't do what I did

and take your dogs for a long walk while it's baking)

Let it cool for a few minutes, and Eat It!

Okay, now it's your turn...got a yummy pie recipe? Here are a couple of ways to share:

1. Post a comment with a link to the recipe on your blog, or
2. Post a link to someone else's recipe on their blog, or

If you don't have a blog, email it to me, and I'll post it here as soon as I get it.

Happy Pie Day!

what's for dinner?

I came across this new food item in 

the grocery store this afternoon:

Radiant Farms Unicorn meat.

 Magic in every bite, and an excellent source of sparkles.

I am so glad I'm a vegetarian!

cooking by the seat of my pants again

Last night I was scrounging around in the kitchen trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I'd actually taken the whole day off...no work, no plans, other than to simply goof off and do whatever I wanted. We had a nice breakfast, took a long hike with the pups, and both read the afternoon away. At 7:30 I suddenly realized I was starving and hadn't given a thought to dinner. So I rummaged around in the fridge, and here's what I came up with:

carmelized onion, mushroom and yukon gold potato tart

• 1 frozen sheet of puff pastry, defrosted for about 15 minutes
• 1 medium sized yellow onion, very thinly sliced 
• I medium yukon gold potato, cut in quarters, and sliced paper thin
• 6 or 7 small cremini mushrooms, sliced (about 1 cup)
• salt and pepper
• fresh or dried thyme and rosemary
• 3/4 cup of grated parmesan or other hard cheese (I'm not sure what kind I used...I think it was parmesan, but it could have been manchego or asiago!)
• olive oil (about 1/4 cup)
• butter
• Preheated 400˚ oven

Sautée the onion in about 2 Tbs of olive oil and 1 Tbs of butter, seasoning it with salt and pepper. 

When it's all soft and silky and golden brown, remove it to a bowl.

Add more olive oil to the pan, then sautée the thinly sliced cremini mushrooms and yukon gold potato, seasoning with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme. 

While the mushrooms and potatoes are cooking, place the sheet of puff pastry on a baking sheet, and turn the edges over about 1/2 inch, then sprinkle about half the cheese over it.

Spread the mushrooms and potatoes evenly over the cheese, and then the caramelized onions over that, topping with the rest of the cheese.

Pop the whole thing in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with a beautiful green salad. It should serve 4, but we were very hungry! Cut into small pieces, it would make a great appetizer.

Unfortunately, I never got a picture of it on the plate...

it was sooo good!

weekend wine report

I sure do love a good label, and having designed a few myself, I appreciate good art and snappy copy writing when I see it. Occasionally, I'm even suckered into tempted to buy something just because I like the label. Usually, the actual quality of the product doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the packaging, but every now and then the product almost lives up to the promise of the label.

 

Here are three bottles of wine that caught my eye a while ago at that bastion of good taste, Trader Joe's. I simply had to buy them, even though each of them exceeded my everyday wine budget of $4.99. I thought the artwork alone was worth the expense.

Lazy Bones is a Cabernet Franc from the Paso Robles area of the central California coast. (A region made famous in part by a starring role in the film Sideways). The label is a beautifully drawn and lettered    woodblock by Swiss artist Felix Vallotton circa 1896, so nice in fact, that I'd love to have a framed print of it. 

While I don't claim to be a wine connoisseur by any means, (see my everyday wine budget above) I do know what I like, and I liked this one. It has a lovely rich flavor like ripe (but not sweet) berries, and an earthy quality that reminded me of being in the forest. 

 The back-of-the-label story is almost as good

 as the artwork on the front:

Okay, so maybe the copy is a little over the top, but it's amusing, to say the least. All in all, not bad for $6.99.

Lost Sonnet is a Meritage, which indicates the wine is made from a blend of certain red grapes. This one is 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc.  The label described it as having "warm Christmas spice and earth on the nose," leading "into a verse of plush vanilla and chocolate covered cranberries." Personally, my impression was not quite as lyrical. 

I thought it tasted of burnt coffee beans, cherry pie baked in a smoky, oak-fired oven, and had a finish that scoured my tongue like hot steel wool. 

I got it way back in May, and at $9.99, it totally blew my budget. Critics say it should improve with age, but I don't think they meant only 2 months...I give the label a 10, though.

Cocoban was perhaps my favorite of the three.  It's light bodied, but full of fresh but not sweet cherry flavor. I have no idea what the blend is, but it definitely lived up to the description on the label, and although I didn't have a dark chocolate walnut cake with a cherry coulis to pair it with, it went quite nicely with Trader Joe's dark chocolate covered pretzels. 

I am, however, still waiting for it to take me to Nirvana.
At $6.99, that would be a heckuva bargain.

That's it for the wine report...

Cheers!

the joy of cross referencing

I have lots of cookbooks. Mostly because I'm a total sucker for both beautiful books and food photography, but also because I've styled quite a few kitchen photo shoots over the years, and cookbooks come in very handy as props. I don't use them in the traditional way much, even though I cook all the time.

this is not my kitchen, but I styled it for these folks

I use my cookbooks mostly as reference books. Not really that unusual, considering I'm the offspring of an editor and a teacher (both graduates of NYU's school of journalism). My siblings and I learned the value of research and fact checking from a young age.

And I think because of this background, my favorite cookbook is The Joy of Cooking. I've had my copy (the 1975 edition) since 1976, and I've never failed to learn something every time I open its worn cover and thumb through the grease-stained pages. Like using any reference book, I skim through the index looking for a particular subject or recipe, and in doing so, my finger passes by any number of other recipes and subjects which may or may not cause me to veer off course for a time to investigate something intriguing. I like this old-fashioned analog way of researching for just that reason. You don't often have that kind of experience when using a search engine. 

Joy is an encyclopedia of cooking in condensed form. My father (the editor) was not a fan. He liked his cookbooks simple and to the point. Short, easy recipes were always the preferable path to dinner for him, and referred to Joy as "The Joy of Cross Referencing". And he was right: nary a recipe in the book escapes that necessity to jump to another page for added information. 


Suppose, for instance, you'd like to make something as basic as a bean soup, using dried beans.  First, the recipe directs you to soak the dried beans, but not before you read the  article directly above it, titled "About Legume Soups", which tells you (in the first sentence) to "Please read About Dried Legumes" on page 286. Flipping to page 286, "About Dried Legumes" warns you not to "upstage them, because they have valuable, if incomplete, proteins". The next thing you know, you've moved on to page 519, and the article "About Water", because evidently just any old cooking water will not do. 
By the time you get back to the original bean soup recipe, you're ready to open a can of Campbell's Bean with Bacon soup and call it a day.


Though it may not seem like it, this is a great cookbook to open when you have a particular ingredient you have absolutely no idea how to cook.  

(click to enlarge if you dare)

Let's imagine you've just run over an unfortunate squirrel. You feel terrible that the poor creature lost his life, but even worse, you'd hate the idea that it was in vain. So you flip open Joy, and in moments you have a step-by-step guide showing you how to skin him and prepare a tasty meal. They suggest using the recipe for Brunswick Stew (page 427), seasoning the gravy with Walnut Catsup (page 848), and serving with Polenta (page 201), but not before you've read About Small Game (page 513).

Suddenly that can of Bean with Bacon soup looks very appetizing.

friday potluck: it's zucchini week!

In the spirit of my old potluck group, I thought it would be fun to start a virtual potluck, where bloggers could take turns hosting and choosing a theme.

Here's how it works:

1. The host chooses a theme and posts a recipe on their blog on a Friday evening.
2. Other bloggers will leave links to their recipes in the comments section.
3. The first person to post a recipe link becomes the next host, who then gets to choose a theme. The themes can be as elaborate or a simple as you like, and the recipes don't have to look like these, by any means...you can simply post a recipe, or even a link to another blogger's recipe. (Just make sure to give credit where credit is due!)

I'll post the link to the next week's host here on Thursday.

This week's theme is...

Z U C C H I N I !

Here's a recipe my dad created years ago that he called "Scrambled Eggplant".

Because I didn't plant any eggplant, and the single zucchini plant in my garden seems bent on overpopulating the planet with monster squash, I'm substituting. And I'm changing the name, because "Scrambled Zucchini" just doesn't sound right, somehow.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Zucchini Jambalaya

3 Tbs olive oil

1 cup chopped bell peppers (any color)

1 small jalapeno, chopped (optional)

2 cups zucchini, cut in half-inch cubes

1 small chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

2 cups of cooked, seasoned rice {see recipe below}

note: plain cooked rice works fine

1+ cups of tomato sauce

9 slices of monterey jack cheese

paprika

salt & pepper

2 sliced green onions

Preheat oven to 350º

Chop all your veggies and heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet.

Saute onions, peppers, zucchini and garlic over medium heat until everything gets all soft and juicy and the onions are transparent.

Add the tomato sauce

and then the rice. Season with salt and pepper to taste,

mix thoroughly and cook on low heat for a few minutes while you cut the cheese.

{did I really just say that?}

Slice the cheese!

Arrange the cheese on top and sprinkle with paprika. Then bake in the oven for around 15 or 20 minutes, until the cheese melts and gets a little brown on top and the rice gets a bit crispy around the edges. (Since it was about 95º the day I made this, I put the whole shebang on the barbecue and cooked it on low with the top closed.)

Sprinkle with the green onions, and chow down.

Seasoned Brown Rice

2 Tbs olive oil

1 cup brown basmati rice

1/2 small onion, chopped fine

1 clove minced garlic

1 Tbs tomato paste

1 3/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 tsp oregano

1 Tbs chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a 2-qt (medium) saucepan over medium heat.

Saute the onion until it becomes translucent. Put in the rice, garlic, chili powder and oregano, and stir for a couple more minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic and spices. Add the tomato paste and stir until it's all combined. Add the stock and season with the salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed, about 25-30 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let it rest with the cover on for about 5 more minutes, then fluff it with a fork.

Makes 2 cups

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

So, got any zucchini? What are you waiting for? Link to your recipes already...I'm buried in squash and I need ideas! In the meantime, here's a nice recipe over at Aunt Snow's blog, Doves Today.

another camp cactus tradition

Here at Camp Cactus, all kinds of random events become traditions at the drop of a cowboy hat...like Tostada Tuesdays for instance. Years ago, Matt and Caitie invited a few friends over for a tostada dinner on a Tuesday night, and before I knew it, our Tuesday nights were filled with cauldrons of refried beans, whole heads of shredded lettuce, and enough grated cheese to cause cholesterol levels to rise for blocks around. The smell of frying tortillas permeated the house for days afterwards. Also, I learned to never underestimate the appetites of teenage boys.

So this last Tuesday, when one of Matt's old buddies was in town, we revived the long dormant Tostada Tuesday Tradition...

Caitie fried up a bunch of chips...

Check out the elbow action...frying foods in cute but skimpy outfits requires a special stance.

Mmmm...crunchy goodness!

You gotta love Matt's knife skills.

Fresh guacamole - another tradition.

Greg supervised the preparations, then chipped in by grating a mountain of cheese.

The old gang gathered around the table, and we had ourselves a feast.

Mr. Chubbs is a connoisseur of home made tortilla chips.

Cheers!