eG Foodblog: lovebenton0, Pam R, snowangel - North of the 30th paralle

[lovebenton0]

Judith, thank you for sharing Quinn's history with you with us.  I can totally appreciate the importance of Quinn's job...I have had hearing problems most of my life, while they are very minor in comparison, I had a recent situation that made me thankful that my hearing problems aren't totally severe. 

snip.... So I am glad that you have Quinn to help you out in those situations..give him a doggy treat from me please!

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thanks lucylou.

[oops, i started this hours ago. guess i could say that after ''not breathing'' and not eating for two days green posole was quite soporific. i just sat down for a few minutes after dinner and woke up now. so to continue what i started...]

quinn just alerted me that the buzzer for these is now screaming for attention.

a jump through the prep for sourdough cornbread follows. i often add various optionals to these, but since my nose is a foghorn i couldn't see wasting the ingredients for subtle differences. fav add-ins are green chilies, jalapenoes, bacon, cheese, onions [sauteed or raw], chopped tomatoes and black olives in any combination.

first my jug of barm, which is intentionally looser than i usually maintain it. more about that tomorrow.

now the process...

one cup barm stirred down into the bowl. then a stiff cornmeal dough to which i add 2 tbsps melted butter wisked with 1/3 cup sourcream and an egg. stir thoroughly to mix. if dough is too stiff add a tbsp or two of water. pan goes in the 425f oven while you are mixing batter for at least 10 minutes. fill 2/3 full... the batter begins to rise immediately. [hint for tomorrow, you can see the machine peeking up to the left of the pic.] pop in oven for about 18 to 20 minutes.

for tonight, served with green posole. i topped it off with a good squeeze of lime.

maybe it's my nose, but i loved the posole, couldn't tell i chinched on the chicken broth and the heat was very nice to my head. could tell i needed to eat, i was nearly driving quinn nuts with pacing, waiting for the cornbread to be done.

[Rebecca263]

First of all, I'd like to thank you ladies for the dog, kid and Slurpee photos. I happend to be enamored of all three of those subjects, myself. And, of course, there's the SOUP. I think that hippo birdies thought up this week on eGullet just for me, what with this great emotive and lively blog, and RachelD's pickle prose in the Daily Gullet. Somehow, I think that you are all angels of the ether, sending out bits of your lives and hearts to cheer us online, and that's fine with me.

Pam, when you get back, was there soup?

And, Susan, I'm supposing that you DO appreciate having washable shoes, considering the things that you've had, well, um, "thrown" at you lately!

PS:Judith, how are you feeling? I'm thinking of you and hoping that you breathe easy tonight.

[snowangel]

And, Susan, I'm supposing that you DO appreciate having washable shoes, considering the things that you've had, well, um, "thrown" at you lately!

PS:Judith, how are you feeling? I'm thinking of you and hoping that you breathe easy tonight.

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I have just talked to Judith, and she sounds better!

And, yes, the washable nature of my shoes is most appealing. Crocs do make ultimate gardening shoes. Oh, and the long hair, right as rain this morning. Those youth recup quickly.

My Friday list:

The drywalling is going to keep reappearing on the list until the weather warms. Drywall and really cold exterior walls is a lot of work, and I think I need to get an offset pastry/icing spreader becuse it would mke it easier.

The list was a problem tonight because I couldn't find today's list (this happens about every other week), and it is COLD. The wind is well, breathtaking, and as happens when it is this cold, the show is really crunchy.

[Pam R]

Pam, when you get back, was there soup?

There was. But I just got home and I'm not going to start fighting with my camera tonight! Tomorrow, I will post. Now, I will sleep.

Goodnight!

[snowangel]

Good morning from the Twin Cities, where it is 6 below zero (F), but it doesn't feel that cold since there is no wind.

Change of dinner plans! Stay tuned!

[suzilightning]

Yep.  Ice fishing.  And, on a nice winter day that is freezing or just above freezziong and the day is sunny, and there is no wind, it can be one of the greatest activities. We used to date and ice fish, and come home with food!  Let's just see how hardy we feel this  weekend, there is a trout pound not too far away.

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dang work is interferring with reading this thread!!!

susan - no trout - WALLEYE!!!!!

just put some portugese sweet bread to rise this morning - the first bread i've made in about a year. thanks for the reminder that i was missing something in my life - baking

[jeniac42]

OK, you guys have me dying to make a loaf of bread. I am going to have another go at the no-knead, and I'm going to try to make sure the yeast is alive this time. I just threw out the last attempt this morning. It finally had bubbles all over the surface but had also separated and smelled a bit funny, and had been sitting about all week - I didn't think it was good. Watch, now someone will tell me it would've been perfect.

I do intend to purchase Bread Baker's Apprentice, but probably not until after we move.

Cold in my house today - nowhere near as cold outside as our bloggers, I don't think, but this is an old, uninsulated house. I've had to bread out the knitted headband and fingerless gloves.

[Pam R]

Good morning from the Twin Cities, where it is 6 below zero (F), but it doesn't feel that cold since there is no wind.

If this were a cold weather contest, I'd win again!

-28 C (-18 F) and -40 C/F with the wind. Do you know how cold that is??

My fingers are frozen - I have to get my article edited (it's 100 words too long with no introduction ) and do some work here. As soon as I get a chance I'll get those pictures posted from last night.

Breakfast - same as yesterday plus a tall glass of water and a tall glass of iced green tea.

[snowangel]

susan - no trout - WALLEYE!!!!!

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I have still not had breakfast, but it's not unusual for me to not eat until 10:00 am!

But, to the walleye! Yes, it is good, but can be a lot of work to fish for. Most of all, I love fishing for perch and sunnies, although bass is the most fun to catch (and which I won't eat). Crappies are over-rated; I think they taste muddy, although deep-fried whole with a spicy Thai sauce as a topper; oh, that's good.

But, the talk of fishing makes me think back to two of my fondest memories.

Many years ago, Paul's dad was interiming at a church in St. Peter, MN, and we spent Xmas Eve there at the parsonage. Paul and I decided to make a day of it, and spent the day sitting on buckets on a local lake on a spectacularly sunny, warm (well, relatively warm) calm day. The next day, I discovered I was pregnant with Diana.

Fast forward a few months, and Paul and I had our last child-free (well, he was child-free; I was a bit "big")weekend at The Cabin. It must have been early August, because he and I went blueberry picking on Saturday and Sunday morning, after coffee, waffles and bacon, we decided to fish before packing it up and heading home. So, out came the cane poles. It had been a wet summer, so we pulled up the conveyor belts that formed the paths to the shed and outhouse and found some worms. Then, off into the bin boat, and we went pan fishing in the shallows. Some 90 sunnies later, we returned to the cabin, where we stood on the ground, using the deck as a fish-cleaning space (newspaper down first!). We scaled and cleaned, and left for home much later than we anticipated. When home, we froze most of them, and had fish all winter long.

Come to think of it, I have fishing memories associated with all three pregnancies!

I've found some dinner photos from last night, and have fridge shots which I will sort out in a couple of minutes.

[snowangel]

So, to dinner last night! Please bear with me, because photoiing the actual finished dinners, along with getting everyone to the table, cleaning up the spilled milk, etc. is work!

But, since the troops were showing signs of rebellion over only soup and bread for dinner, I grilled sandwiches last night, and made two kinds of soup, as reported earlier.

Inspired by the Cheap Cheese topic, I formulated dinner as I was out yesterday.

Bongard's is good American cheese. Well, at least it's not plasticy, and each slice is NOT wrapped in individual plastic sleeves (how much packaging waste is that?). Along slide, Cub's finest sliced deli swiss and corned beef. I also had a bottle of Kraft Thousand Island rolling around in my pantry (stay tuned for that horror) and had some kraut (Frank's canned stuff) in the fridge.

So, the rest of dinner preps:

As to the homemade cream of tomato soup. It is another type of "one of each soup" and I will get the recipe into RecipeGullet in the next couple of days. But, as it was cooking, wow, does cooking celery smell nasty. I think I can add celery to the list of foods I really don't like. And, I don't really understand the purpose of celery, or where it fits in the food chain.

The food mill is new, a gift from a friend who realized that she had two of them!

The homemade version, after a trip through the food mill, had 1/2 and 1/2 added. It was not creamy like Campbells, and Campbell's was the clear favorite. And, I'd have to agree with what the family said. It was weird how the soup l looked, the creaam looked more like suspended particles of sand. WHat's up with that? And, no, it didn't come to a boil afterwards.

The sandwiches. I'd forgotten how much I love grilled sandwiches, and how much I love my cast iron two burner griddle. It replaced an electric one which was a nightmare to store. Plus, no cord to keep track of!

[Dana]

I use my 'cordless' griddle a lot for sandwiches, too. And for pancakes, and sometimes bacon/sausage. It's especially handy for a large group.

Susan, your yellow crocks look like they're worn as much as mine. My second pair is light blue, though. I'm going to break down and buy myself a new pair this year....maybe red.

Does your husband wear them as well? I had to mine a new pair for Christmas. He had worn his first pair out.

Great blog folks, Enjoying hearing about the cold temps, but glad I'm not there!!!

[snowangel]

I've had a busy morning. I hate it when the kids put half glasses of stuff in the fridge because it inevitably spills. So, the fridge -- before and after.

But, when I cleaned the fridge out last night, I espied something that I remembered this morning, and it hit my fancy for breakfast today.

Smoked fish. I love all sorts of smoked meat/seafood. I had the opportunity to get up to the North Shore of Lake Superior last week, and had enough time to make a run up to Russ Kendall's. So, any guesses as to what I got?

[snowangel]

Today did not start out as expected. A friend of Diana's spent the night (usually a no-no, but the friend is in the midst of a move, and the girls did spend most of last evening studying together), and this morning, the friend's car didn't start, so I am carless today. And, I was planning to get out and get seafood for cioppino.

But I do have a freezer and pantry full of food. But, not exactly what I was hoping to find. I'd thought I could do posole, but the roasted poblanos that were in the freezer are not to be found. Hmmm. Must have used them...

Which brings me to my cookbooks.

Two shelves of them (we're not going to talk about the plethora of them that are probably laying on the floor by my bed -- or under them).

Plus, I did pull out so you could see the most well-used books in my collection.

I have just about loved these books to death, and the Tropp one is so splattered one... oh, and Maida's cookies. I'm not a sweet eater, but I could devour her books. And, Molly. I love the way that book is organized.

What's missing from the collection is Thai Food by David Thompson, which is resting nicely at the bottom of the lake at the cabin and hasn't been replaced.

But, the cookbook I have the hardest time wrapping my head around:

Which brings me around to dinner. There is a recipe in this one for a corn soup with chiles, lime and cilantro cream. I have tons of frozen corn in the freezer. I don't have serranos or jalapenos, but do have bird chiles. I don't have lean smoky ham, but I do have bacon and bacon ends. Nor do I have buttermilk or sour cream, but I do have creme fraiche (homemade!). Nor do I have fresh chives or scalions, but I do have limes.

Diana will not be home tonight, and I'd like to heat and serve the khao soi when she's here, but, the pot was big, and I would have enough leftovers for that.

Like Scarlett, I think I'll put the dinner decision off a bit longer, unless anyone else has some good suggestions. Any ideas for soup with white anchovies?

(edited to replace a photo)

[srhcb]

Smoked fish.  I love all sorts of smoked meat/seafood.  I had the opportunity to get up to the North Shore of Lake Superior last week, and had enough time to make a run up to Russ Kendall's.  So, any guesses as to what I got?

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I've enjoyed Russ Kendall's smoked fish for over thirty years. Their motto is "We Smoke Our Own", which we used to get a good laugh out of thirty years ago.

I wish they had a web site for ordering, or even an eBay store, but I suppose you could call them (218-834-5995) and see if they'll ship their products.

SB (hasn't been up the Shore for quite a few years)(likes the smoked salmon best)

[CaliPoutine]

Is that smoked trout?

Btw, crocs also come in a model that is holeless( is that even a word). I love my purple crocs and wear them while I'm cooking at work. They're very comfortable. I even wear them out in the snow, but they do get just a bit slippery.

[snowangel]

I've enjoyed Russ Kendall's smoked fish for over thirty years.  Their motto is "We Smoke Our Own", which we used to get a good laugh out of thirty years ago.

I wish they had a web site for ordering, or even an eBay store, but I suppose you could call them (218-834-5995) and see if they'll ship their products.

SB (hasn't been up the Shore for quite a few years)(likes the smoked salmon best)

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Steve, I do know that they ship. Every Thanksgiving weekend, I head to Blule Fin Bay with the Ladies of the Lake. We are four that have known each other since we were freshmen (freshwomen?) in college in 1975 and on our way home on Sunday, we always stop and get fish. Russ's place is an odd place. We stop at the one that's on the west side of the scenic highway, and there's a bar area on the right hand side, which has some booths, and the tables in these booths are piled high with boxes and labels, and there's usually someone sitting and busily packaging up smoked fish. It is really an odd place. But, the smoked fish is good, and they also sell hand parched wild rice. The best thing on the door this past November was the sign listing the hours: "open from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm (or later if we feel like it)." (sic)

[snowangel]

Is that smoked trout?

Btw, crocs also come in a model that is holeless( is that even a word).  I love my purple crocs and wear them while I'm cooking at work.  They're very comfortable.  I even wear them out in the snow, but they do get just a bit slippery.

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I love my crocs. I am also a birkie fan, but the crocs wash up so nicely in the summer when gardening...

I'm thinking that a pair of the holeless ones in black would be a good addition to my wardrobe.

[lovebenton0]

rolling around to the not so morning again. first order was to start this day as the rest of the week, like so...

now, when anyone asks my favorite drink, my answer without hesitation is coffee. so when all i want all day is hot herb tea [late evening cup for me usually], and icy soda [which i seldom drink], alternating with big mugs of ice water, i know i'm sick.

and that brings me to the ultimate cold/flu cure... chicken noodle soup. and more to follow shortly.

[Pam R]

Crocs are ugly as all get out. But I love 'em. At work I wear green ones that have no holes on top, but holes around the sides.

Today has become much more hectic than I anticipated. I got a huge shipment in from one of my suppliers that I'm trying to deal with; as of this morning we're catering a funeral on Sunday, so we're scrambling to get stuff put together to take over to the synagogue before the Sabbath starts (early up here in the North).

Greek salad is being eaten right now for lunch as I work on some pricing issues.

I'll post much more later.

[lovebenton0]

having one of those days... closed the window instead of minimizing and wiped out my own post before sending it.

back from our walk. i needed a goal to want to want anywhere today [wind chill -11f and winds at 28 mph]. poor quinn needed some exercise. we are used to walking more than a mile a day at the very least.

so the deli was our goal. omg, a bit of real produce.

for our walk home the deli lady wrapped produce in the ''cold'' bag you see and then into plastic with the rest, then into my backpack. everything was very cold when we arrived, but nothing froze.

driving would be much easier. fresh produce is most difficult this time of year and greens are the least likely to survive a frigid 1.5 mile walk. not to mention that carrying greens home in a backpack anytime kinda makes it a limited store trip.

my dearly loved dil is doing a store trip for me, with salad greens and spinach, bananas, etc., this evening. i'll show you before and after fridge pics.

so this evening will be putting up groceries; will feel like my birthday. thought it would be a good day for ramen noodle with vegs and some crisped proscuitto [i can let the broth soften it a bit, but i'll still get the flavor]. and a huge salad. i haven't had fresh greens in weeks.

but as a teaser, on to the soup d'jour... for tomorrow.

these came to me from my mom several years ago, who is pennsylvania dutch. she got them from her mother many years ago. both were published in 1936, so she grew up with these.

the ne/yankee cookbook came with a sheaf of handwritten recipes and ''instructions'' on diet, you might say, that were exchanged between her mother and her aunt.

i am quite fond of these. though i seldom cook like this, these are often my go to books for comfort food.

so tomorrow it will be pennsylvania dutch chicken noodle soup... wit der noodles maked by mine own hands.

well, actually considering the current state of my hands i'm hoping this bad boy will help me with that.

the williams sonoma bread machine was a gift from my thoughtful bro, who picked it up for a song, and offered it to me as a kitchen aid. oops, ok, pun claimed. due to not being able to effectively knead anything right now, and nope, don't have a stand mixer either, the machine sure seems worth a shot. [note to self... the next husband that offers to buy me big kitchen equipment before the remodeling is done, let him. ] so, i'm going to see if it can help me do the noodles. if not, i'll figure out something else because i've got a jones going for chicken noodle soup. that's a project for tomorrow.

[srhcb]

Russ's place is an odd place.  We stop at the one that's on the west side of the scenic highway, and there's a bar area on the right hand side, which has some booths, and the tables in these booths are piled high with boxes and labels, and there's usually someone sitting and busily packaging up smoked fish.  It is really an odd place.  But, the smoked fish is good, and they also sell hand parched wild rice.

I heard somewhere that the "original" Russ Kendall's, on the west side of the road, and "Smoky" Kendall's Bar, across the road, are rivals. A sort of family feud; father v son, brother v brother or something.

Then again, that might just be a clever marketing ploy to get people to buy something at both places? Or an excuse to buy twice as much smoked fish!

The best thing on the door this past November was the sign listing the hours:  "open from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm (or later if we feel like it)."  (sic)

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I have a sign that says "Will Be Back" above a clock face with ajustable hands. The trick is, it's really a clock, and I have it permanently set at five minutes from "now".

SB (will be back .....

[snowangel]

I've wondered, Steve, about Russ's west side of the road and the east side of the road. Interesting that the "bar" on the west side of the road seems to serve merely as an avenue to the can (bathroom) and a place to pack the boxes of smoked fish that will be UPS'd. Oh, and if you get there just about the time they decide to close, the place becomes even odder...

But, to today. So, I finished what drywalling I could before I realized that I really should replace the "ceiling hugger dropped ciling" in the bathroom that is getting a makeover, and I just didn't feel like getting the ladder out, which brought me to the next project on my list. That elusive comment about "fabric" that keeps reappearing on my list.

Every bed in my house had a handmade quilt on it. OK. So, I use a rotary cutter and the sewing machine. My grandmother admitted long ago that if they'd had rotary cutters and sewing machines capable of doing the quilts around the turn of the century, that's what they would have done. (I do do some by hand, but they are small!). And, the quilt on our bed needs replacing. So as I dug into the fabric stash, I found this mess and now have a fun quilt to plan. A food quilt! I need to augment the stash with some more food-print fabric.

Then, it was time to ponder lunch.

[lovebenton0]

Which brings me to my cookbooks.

Two shelves of them (we're not going to talk about the plethora of them that are probably laying on the floor by my bed -- or under them).

... And, Molly. I love the way that book is organized.

But, the cookbook I have the hardest time wrapping my head around:

  Any ideas for soup with white anchovies?

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i have never seen white anchovies. will you be showing those. i love fish and seafood, one of my fav books is the big james peterson ,fish and shellfish you'll see below. but for me the tiny little fish in cans, can for the most part, remain at rest. salt has a lot to do with it. however, my ex used to make anchovies/garlic/red pepper/bread crumbs in olive oil, tossed well with linguine and that i had to love him for. be interested to see white anchovies and what you do with them for soup.

backtracking through your post. i love molly's book too.

i give, what is the new approach to food that deserves one large book.

and if this is a ''i showed you mine...''

here are my cookbooks at the end of the counter in my kitchen. i've got a bunch more pamphet type, like the penny dutch and ne/yankee, and worthy mags i've saved or scrounged stuck in a kitchen drawer and an old wire dairy case, plus my own hand written recipes.

oops, cut off his chef's hat. i do occasionally have an undeniable sweet tooth. he's my treat jar, older than me, from my mom once again.

if you notice there in the background, my big steam heat radiator. i love these, have one in every room. the one in the kitchen is especially useful for keeping my cool old uk tea kettle on with warm water all the time. and a perfect place to set my cast iron everything to dry after rinsing or damp wiping clean.

i started this hours ago and i'm going down fast.

in the mean time quinn and i walked in killer cold wind, i took pics, talked to my son, put up groceries, seesawed over soup. made up my mind to give myself a break tonight. and hopefully salad will be for lunch tomorrow.

fridge before gros arrived...

and after...

more produce in baskets, etc. didn't get that far.

so tonight i did the quickie ramen noodle route. no sprouts at the store or they didn't find them, so decided to do not-asian at all.

this is more like what we'd eat from leftover pork roast in the south, except it would be with rice. so expect no continuity here at all except what i felt like throwing into the pot. the noodles are so quick i couldn't resist using them instead of rice. it was after 8pm and this was my first meal of the day. pork and some broth i kept out from the posole before it was well, posole. sauteed onions, garlic, baby carrots, green beans, all with a nice tooth, and no packet stuff from noodles. a touch of my basic cajun mix - basil/thyme/parsley/red and black pepper.

and that's toss it together soup for tonight. tomorrow, the real thing with penny dutch chicken noodle soup.

[snowangel]

Lunch. Oh, before lunch, after the fabric search, I attacked the pineapple:

The cutting board I used is a cool one. It is a Cuiz one, and I have had it for a long time, and use it often. What I love the most is that there is a "lip" around every edge, so it holds juice!

Yep, it's all about the smell when you contemplate a pineapple. This one smelled ripe (at the bottom end), but unlike Pam's advice, did not want to give leaves easily. It was so good Peter and the boys in the 'hood and I pretty much pigged out on it!

But, back to lunch. That Reuben I had last night was realy good, but I didn't have any more kraut, so Gedney's Jalapeno Babies to the rescue.

I used the veg peeler to slice them thin:

So on the bread, with the rest of the swiss and corned beef, buttered bread (not crisco'd) on the cast iron griddle (oh, and some thousand island!):

Now, jalapeno dills make a nice sub for kraut, but I sure could have used more. So, I added a splotch of yellow mustard on the side. I'm a tang person, I've decided.

[snowangel]

Dinner! I struggled with what to fix, but as I perused the fridge, the freeser, the outdoor fridge (a freezer at this point) and the pantry, I hd some ideas, and voila, it all came together when I dug Hot Sour Salty Sweet out from under my bed. It was that basil from the asiam market that was begging.

Question: Why is is that that basil (Thai? Holy?) with the purple stem so "unstorable?" Most of the leafy herbs store well in the fridge, if wrapped in a paper towel and then in a plastic bag. This stuff does NOT store well.

But, I had on hand what I needed, although charring the ginger and shallots (they needed to be used!) on the gas burners was a pain. But, I got the stock which I'd made earlier heating from it's frozen state, and got some essentials out while the ginger and shallots on the burner:

This, my good friend Tiparos, is a constant in the kitchen. Which brings to mind a few questions. Why does this stuff appear in an Asian market in MN? There is no hint of any nutrition lable. And, why does this stuff sell for $.89/bottle? Some of the prices I see in my Asian market are, well, breathtaking. How can this stuff be manufactured, imported and transported to the middle of the country for these prices?

Anyway, I digress. The other preps, and the finished product. I apologize in advance for the photo quality. My role today was to console and serve as confidante to friends, teen friends of my daughter, and to exclaim and give hugs and kisses to tthe three kids who have brought home outstanding report cards.

The long hair and I discovered that we loved the little bamboo (?) wraps around the noodles. Paul and I agreed we really are starting to prefer that chili garlic sauce to shiricha sauce

Pho is good, and if you have stock on hand, pho gai is fast and easy. Definitely a make again.