thing one

pearls of wisdom passed to thing one from my husband and i:

God made you.
Jesus is a name for God.
You need your blood.
If you play with sharp dangerous things you can get cut (ouch).
If you get a cut big enough all your blood can go out, and then you die.

What he did with the assembled knowledge:

Mama i can't touch your kitchen knife because i can get a cut and the i'll die and then Jesus will have to make me all over again!

um. yes. sort of. okay, we'll leave it at that for now. i made it all the way until after bed time when i was taking my shower to laugh out loud, although, i'm not sure how. kids are priceless.

salmon pie

okay, stop making that face. think wonderful chicken pot pie, or maybe shepard's pie. good stuff right? okay, so is salmon pie. i was lead to this discovery after reading one of my favorite novels and wondering for the millionth time "what the heck is salmon pie?" turns out it's a fairly traditional brittish dish, and something of a comfort food in canada. while poking around for recipes i found a range from ones as simple as mashed russet potatoes with canned salmon stirred in to delicately flavored layered dishes with long lists of herbs and spices. what i settled on was my favorite oil crust recipe from better homes and gardens, plus a little extra salt and a teaspoon of dried dill. for the filling i've used both canned or fresh salmon, really i could go either way. i prefer the fresh for texture but for price the canned wins out some weeks. i sliced one leek and sauteed it in about two table spoons of butter, and boiled 5 smallish red potatoes, diced in medium sized chunks. this goes in a mixing bowl with the salmon, for fresh about a pound poached in water with salt and a couple of lemon slices then flaked in large chunks, or one 14 oz can. salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle with dried dill. add about 1 cup thawed frozen peas, if desired. beside the fact that i think canned peas are gross, and have almost no nutritional value, they don't have the constitution for this, they'll go to mush when you stir everything together. fold all the ingredients together until you have an even distribution. in a small sauce pan either reduce 1 cup of half and half or make a small amount of white sauce (roux and milk) you'll need about 3/4 of a cup of sauce, not too thick, to keep everything moist. stir the sauce into the filling, assemble your pie and bake at 400 for about an hour. we serve ours with ketchup, because we're not too proud, and it's tasty.

Goosecapades

sooooo, about those geese. they weighed in Christmas morning at about 7 pounds a piece. and, because this is how my life tends to work out, not very full of the golden elixir known as goose fat. apparently it's a big stinking deal. i may never know. due to a small eating disorder episode they didn't get very big. who knows if they could have worked through it if they had time and therapy. or if i had figured out how to force feed the obstinate jerks.... any who i looked into crispy goose skin recipes and found somethings about steaming the geese for 45 minutes the day before roasting them. one got stuffed with ginger root and orange segments and the other one with apples, prunes, port and thyme. they were steamed, patted dry, refrigerated over night and roasted for about 2 hours each at 350. if i sound unenthused, frankly, i am a bit. this turned out to be hard work. if you ever feel moved to carve a goose, just give up now. unless you have help. okay, okay, maybe with practice it wouldn't be so bad. my husband was in love with the meat, and the rest of the guests seemed to enjoy it too. the slice i cornered for myself was pretty good but when weighed against the loss of my garden to feathered terrorists, not worth it. maybe i'm just bitter. they were pretty when all roasty toasty, and the apple stuffing was good. personally i'm going back to duck. alot cheaper by the pound and easier to wrangle. with the added to bonus that i've never had to spend hours pulling nasty ends of pin feathers out of the blow torch scorched flesh. i will do you the favor of not telling you about the smell that filled my house when my husband brought them in to wash them out in the sink, i will do you the further courtesy of not discussing the slaughter itself. not pretty. the roasting smell was better, but by that point i could hardly enjoy it. for a more moving post about roasting foul, i direct you to my blog about duck.

not just another scampi

tired of scampi? me neither. however, there is more than one way to skin a shrimp, so to speak. just because you want shrimp and pasta, in an easy dish, doesn't mean you have to load up the butter. one of my favorite things to make is a dish i originally learned while working at an italian restaurant, from the owner. simply put, saute shrimp in olive oil with some minced onion and garlic, when the shrimp are almost done add a bit of pesto and a splash of dark marsala. jim, the owner, also put in slices of pre-cooked italian sausage and porcinni mushrooms. just cook it all down until the shrimp are done and toss with pasta. wonderful!!

wine braised beef short ribs

every year we buy a side of beef, if not a whole beef. either from the fair or from some friends of ours that still have a small cattle operation. we're down to the very last of last year's meat and i found at the back of the freezer a package labeled "strips for bbq" that turned out to be short ribs. there are few things in life that can compare to correctly cooked osso bocco but, bold though it may be, i think short ribs, braised slowly, can do it. so, we've discussed dutch ovens and this is a job for the old dutch, placed over low heat. pre heat the oven to 300 degrees while you're at it. into said dutch goes 1/2 an apple (core and all) roughly chopped, 4 cloves of garlic smashed and cut in half (don't worry about taking the papers off), 1/2 an onion chopped, 1 table spoon dried rosemary, one teaspoon whole pepper corns, 1 and 1/2 cups pinot noir, one table spoon of Bragg liquid aminos or soy sauce, and the beef. add enough water to cover the beef completely, but not by much. make sure you nestle the beef down into the liquid so that the bits of veggies etc. are mostly over and around the meat. now, pop it into the oven for about 3 hours, turn the meat over and cook for another 2 or 3 hours until the fluid is reduced by about half. pull the ribs out of the pot and cover them with foil. strain the broth, pressing all the juice from the strained bits. personally i ran mine through a stock separator to remove most of the fat from the top, then put it in a sauce pan with another pinch of dried rosemary and simmer until it's again reduced by about half. stir in one table spoon of brown sugar, when it is completely dissolved add your chopped mushrooms. i used a crimini, but since i don't eat mushrooms you may be correct in thinking that some other sort would be best. i leave it to you. cook them until soft. remove from the heat and stir in a little pat of butter at the last minute, pour over the ribs and serve. if you try this out, please let me know what you think!

as an addendum: if you want sweeter meat add the brown sugar to the braising liquid at the beginning of the process, watch that it doesn't burn or scorch though. you may have to give it the occasional stir while it's in the oven.

easy alfredo with clams

alright, i admit the clams are optional. if you leave out the clams, cut down on the flour and you'll be set. there are probably a dozen ways to make alfredo sauce, and not being formally trained or even a little bit italian, i'm no authority. i know what goes over well here at the cottage, and i know some of the traditional elements though so i think i can safely call this 'alfredo' and get away with it. this recipe is like any of my others, largely it's appeal is that with minimal forethought you can slap it on the table at the end of a busy day in short order. providing you have a can of chopped clams handy. if you'd prefer you can use the minced clams, or the whole baby clams, personally i go for what's cheapest. hey, it's canned clams, alright? so, about 1 table spoon of butter goes into a tiny sauce pan over medium heat, one package of fettuccine goes into boiling water. once the butter is melted add two diced cloves of garlic. i'll say the magic word: please. please do not use a garlic press (aka garlic obliterater) just smash the cloves with the flat of your knife and dice them up. agreed? good. when the garlic is light brown add a sprinkle of flour and stir it in. we're not making an honest to goodness roux here, we're just making up for the fact that we're going to use whole milk instead of cream. not that we're on a diet, but the idea is that you can make this if you add one can of clams to your pantry list and we don't all keep cream lying around all the time. so, once the flour is incorporated add your clams, juice included, stirring until you see the juice thicken up. add a couple of grinds of black pepper. now add your milk. probably around 2/3s of a cup, but just look at it and add a bit at a time. don't worry it'll thicken up too. let this come to a simmer, then add oh, 3 table spoons of grated parmesan cheese. stir it in thoroughly so that there are no lumps. if you have dried parsley now is the time to throw it in, if you don't oh well. the pasta is probably done by now, drain it well and put it in a big serving bowl. having a pasta bowl is worth it, it should be wide and fairly shallow. you want to be able to toss pasta in it so make sure it's sizable. when your sauce looks about as thick as gravy pour it over the noodles. if it's a little thin, it's really okay. now if you have fresh parsley sprinkle it on, if you don't, again, oh well. sprinkle on a liberal amount of the grated cheese, some cracked black pepper, and a touch of nutmeg. you may also squeeze some fresh lemon juice on if you wish. it's a nice touch but not worth trying to fake it with concentrate, handy as concentrate may be. toss it all together, if the sauce is still on the thin side do the impossible: wait. just wait. maybe for 3 minutes. perhaps add some more cheese. toss again. the starch from the pasta will thicken it up. if you'll glance up you'll note i said nothing about rinsing your pasta. i'm not sure where this fad came from, but if it's a habit you have, kick it. the residual starch on your pasta helps the sauce stick. and in the case of alfredo or just clam sauce it actually finishes the sauce in the serving bowl. so, after the final toss you can get fancy with yourself and crack a little more pepper on it, or garnish however you wish, and enjoy!

dutch oven bliss

ah, my enameled dutch oven, how do i love thee? let me count the ways... i love thee for keeping my oil temperature stable while i fry things, i love thee for not letting the oil splatter the entire kitchen while i fry things, i love thee for browning meat beautifully then popping right into the oven to finish, i love thee for pot pies and shepard's pie! i could wax eloquent for hours on this subject, i really could. i feel i need to come to the defense of good, old fashioned, sturdy cookware. do i own a non stick skillet? heck yes, i wouldn't live with out it. do i also own, and use, a cast iron skillet? yep. both indispensable for what they are good at. when confronted with the sight of my $50.00 6 quart 15 pound dutch my sister in law, with raised eyebrows, quipped "i hope it's worth it." oh, it is, it is. for one thing there are so many meals that can be made in ONE POT in it, for real. am i the only one that has read those 'one pot' recipes with high hopes only to discover that, well you saute something in a skillet, and you boil something in a pasta pot, and you have to brown meat somehow, but THEN you pile everything in this 'one pot' for long enough to melt some cheese or something, so some how they feel okay about scamming you? ha, i say. pish. get a good dutch oven and your life will be forever changed. on to the finer points, to enamel or not to enamel? well, it depends on how you want to use it. if you intend to take it camping or go all frontier with it and stick it straight into coals to cook with it, i'd say go for un- enameled, and look for a nice long handle. if you intend to use it more in the home, and would like to roast chickens in it get a larger, coated one. it comes down to taste really, but if you go for raw cast iron be prepared to care for it. scrub it with salt, season it with grease and oil, store it correctly, and for pitys sake, don't stick it in the dish washer. be kind to it, and it will pay you back ten fold.