Ok no, I'm good

I've had enough snow for this season.

26 December 2010

You bring treats?
This is one seriously crappy day!

Even I'll admit this has a certain charm. This might be a "Winter 2010/2011" candidate. But it doesn't take long for its charm to wear thin..

Here, try Swedish meatballs on a day like this!

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These are really easy.

Mix 1/2 pound ground beef, 1/2 pound ground pork, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon allspice, pinch of salt, 1 egg and a tablespoon of parsley.

Now, the real secrets to Swedish meatballs. Mix 1/2 cup of bread crumbs with a couple tablespoons milk and mix that into the above mixture. Finely chop a half an onion, saute it and mix it into the above mixture.

Now, make 1 oz. balls from that mixture. Use an ice cream scoop. I break up two of the meatballs and saute them in a cast iron skillet to get a fond going, and the rest of the meatballs I put on a baking sheet on some aluminum foil in a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Then I transfer those to the skillet and brown them some more.

I add a tablespoon of butter and make a thin dark gravy with some beef broth and a tablespoon of flour.

I serve that over egg noodles with some parsley.

It sounds like a lot of work but it isn't and it's delicious.

Sometimes I throw in a splash of cabernet when I deglaze the skillet.

Blizzard warning

You'd never know she was Canadian!

You can bring me in now
L's little sister P. P loves rolling as much as L does! Obviously a passion they share. P belongs to my friend J and it was love at first sight. P is about as sweet as can be. They're both everything a Canadian Horse is supposed to be.

It's been snowing here for an hour or so and we're right in the center of a blizzard warning that's up for the next 33 hours. The forecast is for 16 to 24 inches of snow with steady high wind. Ya well...so long as it doesn't get cold!

Going to be a nice day for soup!

Soup with Spinach

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Hey I made this up! Actually, I screwed it up. It was delicious anyway!

Start with equal parts finely chopped carrots, celery and onion (mirepoix), about 1/3 of a cup each. This is an Italian soup so I added a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, a generous pinch of Italian Seasoning and a generous pinch of red pepper flakes.

I sweat that mixture in a tablespoon of olive oil with a little pinch of salt. For about 7 to 10 minutes. Until the mixture is soft and translucent. When it smells great you know you have it right. You can use extra virgin olive oil but you'd just be wasting good olive oil. The heat will drive off the subtle flavors.

Add two cups of chicken broth and bring it to a boil.

Add a 14 1/2 oz. can of chopped tomatoes and I let it boil for maybe 45 minutes. Canned chopped tomatoes have calcium in them to help keep them firm and you really have to let them boil to break them down. If you're using fresh chopped (peeled) tomatoes 15 or 20 minutes is fine.

Then add a half cup of white rice. I forgot to do that! Let it simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Taste your soup to see if it needs some salt. Add salt a little at a time if it tastes flat.

Finally add 2 or 3 big handfuls of whole baby spinach, cover, turn off the heat and let it sit until you're ready to serve.

This is *delicious* soup. So easy to make. I don't do anything hard!

Happy Holidays

December 2008

First snow

First day of Winter.

December 21, 2010, 10:00 am
The solstice was last night at 6:38 pm EST. I just hate the wintertime. I don't mind the snow so much but I really hate the cold. It's hard to believe there was a time I loved the wintertime. I used to ski, backpack and mountain climb all winter long. That was a long time ago.

This year I have a plan. My coping strategy is soup. I intend to fix a lot of soup. And chowder. And stew. I know comfort food will help me through this.

That and hot Peppermint Patties:

By the way, I think this really sucks. If nothing else just read the first two words of the report.

Still celebrating

Chardonnay poached rainbow trout. This was just crazy good!

This is a 10 oz. whole rainbow trout. Well over an inch thick along the spine. So, how do you cook something like that? I would love to have butterflied and broiled it but I don't have the skill to pull that off. Poaching is the best (easy!) way I know to get the thick part along the back and the thin part along the belly both properly cooked. And trout I think takes to poaching really well.

I sweated chopped carrots, celery and onion, about 1/3 of a cup each, in some olive oil to bring a little more flavor to the poaching liquid. When they were soft and translucent I put in a cup of chardonnay and after that boiled off a bit I put in enough water to cover the fish. After boiling that for 5 or 6 minutes I turned down the heat and got out a thermometer. Liquid at 190 degrees looks exactly the same as liquid at 160 degrees. So I use a thermometer. I like to put the fish in around 180 degrees and let it drift down, keeping it between 160 and 170.

I poached the fish for 16 or 17 minutes. I put maybe a teaspoon or so of dried thyme into the liquid and gave the pan a gentle swirl.

That's brown rice and zucchini with it. Underneath the fish is a bed of lettuce and this stuff:

I don't know what that's called. It's Cuban or Puerto Rican. It's equal parts of finely chopped jalapeño and red onion, a pinch of salt, covered in lime juice. It starts like this:

It's *wonderful* stuff and I have it with salmon, tuna, swordfish, and I have it on hot dogs and hamburgers.

Oh and another thing! My sister has this knack for always finding the perfect gift. She sent me a Penzeys herb gift box for my birthday!

I was going to put some fresh thyme in my poaching liquid but the dried thyme from Penzeys is just so good. Definitely two thumbs up!

I love my ball

Come on. Throw it!

Let's get ready to rumble!

You know the William Tell Overture? Part 3? "The Calm"? Think of that idyllic pastoral melody here.

The buckskin in the back there, her name is H and she's been messing with L forever. She's a really adorable little Arab cross. Now, winter turnout is going to be challenging and it will be very much easier if these two can sort out their differences and hang out together.

Edit: Correction. H is an adorable little Morgan/Quarter Horse cross. Not an adorable little Arab cross. But she looks like a lot like an Arab cross!

H just has to understand that L is the alpha mare. Period.

Everything was going just swimmingly. We were shrugging our shoulders and about to walk off when...H decided she needed to take a poke at L.

I don't know what she was thinking. I really don't. So L has to go get all dramatic.

But H is really quick! She has that going for her anyway.

Ok fine. Watch this.

I just love this picture. H is all kinds of ferocious and look at L. This is pure 100% L. I'm not even sure her heart is beating fast here. She's just gonna take care of business is all.

H is getting the "uh-oh" expression here.

Maybe that wasn't such a good idea...L steadies herself and takes aim..

Oh crap

Boom!

Again!Third time is the charm.

Feets don't fail me now!Ok ok break it up you guys!

That lasted all of about maybe 2 or 3 seconds. It appeared to be all kinds of dramatic but that was all more theatrical than anything else. H is a huge drama queen and L didn't intend to hurt her. No nobody got hurt here.