The Godfather Event, Part 1 and 2

Tammy had an idea for a family event. We would find a movie that we were all interested in watching and then create an evening around it. I tossed around the usual things that the boys and I enjoy (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, super heroes) and she gave me the response that I expected (I made those suggestions as a joke.)
So we started thinking about classic movies that we might all enjoy and we discovered that only Bennett has seen the Godfather, and none of us have seen Godfather II. So that was the theme. We thought we would be able to watch both in a single evening, but that was not going to work. Combined, those movies are almost six hours long, and Ethan has summer classes in the morning and marching band practice in the afternoon. That means we could not start until at least. No worries. That means we get two family nights!
Wednesday evening was the first movie. As a starter, I made another antipasto platter.

I sliced a loaf of French bread, spread a bit of olive oil on each piece and sprinkled garlic powder on each. I baked them at 375F for about 12 minutes (or until golden brown as shown.) The bowl in the lower right is a quickie bruschetta (1 large tomato, diced, with about 1/4 cup finely minced onion, and a tablespoon each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.) The platter holds stuff that was in the fridge. Some cheeses, pickles, two types of olives, some salami cut into wedges, some pepperoni slices. The red and orange cherry peppers are from my garden.

We all made a plate of that and retired to the TV room to watch Marlon Brando mumble through his role as Don Vito Corleone. It was a great movie and fun to see actors as they looked 40 years ago. The boys and Tammy enjoyed it as much as I did.

At the halfway point, we enjoyed pasta. I filled the pasta pot with salted water before we started the movie. About 45 minutes into the movie, I turned the heat on the water. When it came to a boil, I threw in the fettuccini. At the same time, in a large (12 inch) non-stick skillet I combined 1/2 cup olive oil and 12 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced. I didn’t turn that heat on yet. In a small sauce pan, I put the Alfredo sauce. Again, I didn’t turn the heat on yet. (To be honest, I cut one corner in this meal. I bought a jar of Ragu, low calorie Alfredo sauce. While I am able to make my own, I also wanted to be able to enjoy the evening and movie. That means I needed to minimize my kitchen time. It still tasted very good.)

When the pasta was cooked al dente, I turned the heat on for the olive oil and the Alfredo sauce. I drained the fettuccini and added it to the olive oil-garlic pan, and tossed to coat. I also chopped some chicken breast from Monday’s meal (Beer Can Chicken) and warmed it in a small skillet.

When everything was hot, we paused the movie and everyone made a plate for themselves and went back to the TV room. Normally, when we eat as a family, we sit at the dinner table, but last night was special. (It drive Ozzy nuts that we were eating in the TV room!)

When the movie was done, we enjoyed the Tiramisu that Tammy made.

Note for any people of Italian descent that may be reading this. This is not your mother’s Tiramisu! It is simple, easy and relatively healthy. I will give the recipe in a separate blog post.

Thursday evening was Godfather II, and in my opinion, the better of the two movies. Bennett and I disagree–he feels Brando was better then DeNiro. That’s okay. Everyone can have their opinion!

The evening started with a simple–but large–Ceasar-ish Salad, with basil and Parmesan crusted chicken. (That sounds fancier than it really is. I used the chicken from the Beer Can Chicken, and rolled it in some basil pesto mixed with fresh-grated Parmesan. Then I quickly warmed it in some olive oil in a non-stick skillet.) A pile of romaine lettuce, some Kalamata olives, left leftover crostini from last night cut into croutons, and shaved Parmesan (with a commercially prepared Ceasar salad dressing.) I know, I know. It is not a traditional Ceasar salad. But that is the way it is on our home. We make things the way we like them, and only loosely follow the rules. Hey, the Pasta Police know where we live if there is a problem! 

After dinner, we turned on the movie, and as I said, I enjoyed this one a little more than the first. I made some popcorn (2 tablespoons coconut oil and 1/3 cup yellow popcorn) topped with some unsalted butter for the boys. We did nothing else special in terms of food. The “specialness” was just from sharing time with my entire family.

I hope everyone is able to find special time with family and friends, and if it revolves around food, I hope you are able to make food that everyone enjoys. And if you want to use any of my recipes, I hope you have as much success as I.

Warm Quinoa Vegetable Salad and Grilled Stuffed Cabbage

Quinoa Salad and Grilled Stuffed Cabbage
Salad Serves 8
Cabbage Serves 4-8 (depending on the size of the cabbage)

Quinoa Salad

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (white or red)

2 cucumbers, peeled and seeded, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (about 2 cups)
1 cup bell pepper, seeded and chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup pea pods, sliced into thin pieces
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (diced if not already diced)

4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of your preferred herb blend (I used Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset blend.)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

  1. Prepare quinoa according to instructions on the label.
  2. While quinoa is cooking, prepare all veggies. Place veggies in a large bowl.
  3. Mix vinegar, oil, mustard seasonings and pepper in a small bowl.  Whisk until mixed.
  4. Add quinoa to veggies. Pour dressing, toss to mix and coat.

Nutritional Data (each serving is 3/4 cup):
Calories:          99
Fat:                  4.4g
Sat fat:            0.5g
Chol:                  0mg
Sodium:        75.9mg
Carbs:           12.6g
Fiber:              2.4g
Protein:          2.7g

Grilled Stuffed Cabbage

1 head of cabbage (red or green)
1-3 strips of bacon
1/2 medium onion, diced
2-4 teaspoons brown sugar

The amount of bacon you will use depends on the size of the cabbage.  Mine was small, about 4 inches (10 cm) across. I used 1.5 slices.

  1. Preheat grill on high while prepping the ingredients.
  2. In a non-stick skillet, fry the bacon until it is partially cooked. It will still be limp, but some of the fat will have melted off.
  3. Remove bacon from the skillet and dice. Set aside.
  4. Pour off most of the bacon fat (unless you want to use it all.) I used about 1 teaspoon.  Saute the onions over med-high heat until just translucent (3-4 minutes.) Remove from heat.
  5. Core the cabbage and remove the largest (and inedible) outer leaves, leaving a tight head. With a sharp knife, create a well 2-3 inches deep and 1-2 inches across. Do not cut through the cabbage.
  6. Fill the well with water (I used beer). You can also use wine or fruit juice.) Tightly wrap entire head with plastic wrap. Microwave for 5 minutes. Carefully remove from the microwave. It will be hot. CAREFULLY remove plastic wrap (it will be steamy) and pour off the liquid.
  7. Fill the well with half of the bacon, some onion, the remaining bacon and onion to fill. Top with the 2 teaspoons brown sugar in a mound. (You might not use all the onion.)
  8. Tear off a piece of aluminum foil (12″ inches long.) Shape it into a long roll and fashion the roll into a ring just big enough to hold the cabbage off the surface of the counter. (The idea is to hold the well upright, keeping the cabbage off the grill grates, preventing it from burning.)
  9. Place ring on grill. Over direct medium (300-400F) heat, grill cabbage. My 4″ head cooked in 30 minutes. A larger head will take longer.
  10. Cut into portions. Again, my cabbage made four servings. A large head will make more serving.

Nutritional Data:
Calories:          58
Fat:                  1.4g
Sat fat:             0.4g
Chol:               3.3mg
Sodium:        93.7mg
Carbs:              9.5g
Fiber:                  2g
Protein:           2.4g

My Garden Is Beginning to Produce

Some of my garden.
A bowl of Sweet 100 and Lemon Drop tomatoes.
Large red sweet Hungarian peppers, medium-sized red jalapenos, and Thai (“Bird’s Eye”) chili.
In case you are wondering about the heat of each pepper, the Hungarian peppers have a
Scoville rating of 100-200. The jalapenos have a Scoville rating of 4,000-8,000 (but in my opinion, it is closer to the 4,000 because they are pretty mild.)
The Thai Chili peppers are rated 50-100,000.
At 50,000 units, I am not sure how I will use them, but they will be spicy.

An Awesome Motto for Life

Some of the new decorations.

My wife is redecorating our home and one placque now hanging on the dining room wall says:

A good motto.

And I have to agree with that sentiment. Oh, I don’t actually suggest that you eat that blueberry tort before everything else at dinner. But really, why not? Why must we always clean our plate before we can have our sweet treat? Your body doesn’t care if the salad arrives in your stomach before the mushroom-topped chicken breast, or if the nice mocha mousse is the first food eaten.

And maybe, if you time it correctly, eating your dessert first may allow you to not eat as much in total. Maybe you could have a piece of angel food cake, topped with a few fresh strawberries and whipped topping. But the key here is that you eat the dessert 20-30 minutes before the rest of the meal. Then, after finishing the dessert, you finish cooking the main course. That will force you to slow down, fully enjoy the food, and give your stomach a chance to send the “I’m full” signal to your brain.

But the motto on the placque really is just telling you to make sure you do the things that you really enjoy. Take time for yourself. Go on vacation–even if you do nothing more than stay home, turn off your phone and ignore your pile of school work. Drive the slow route to work and enjoy the different scenery. Read a book for pleasure.

And make room in your budget for dessert. The easiest way–and what I do every day–is to decide what you want for dessert, and log it as soon as you make that decision. That way, you have already deducted those calories from your budget, which gives you your remaining daily budget. In essence, you are eating your dessert first. And when you do this, you will be able to have that dessert and stay within your budget.

I like desserts. I generally eat them after dinner, as my evening snack. We generally eat dinner at 5:30ish. My dessert is usually about four hours later. That spreads out the food, preventing me from feeling over-full, and gives me a nice snack a few hours before going to bed for the night. My preferred evening dessert/snack is either an ounce of almonds and an ounce of dark chocolate, or a carton of yogurt mixed with some whipped cream and topped with some nuts, chopped dark chocolate, and coconuts. Both are about 300-350 calories and have more fat and protein than carbs which takes me through the night very well.

So, eat your desserts! Enjoy the sweet side of life. (Just make sure you log it.)

A Wonderful Meal (aLONG post, but with Four Recipes)

We enjoyed a fantastic evening yesterday with several friends. Tammy and I decided to throw a “wine and dine party”, with four courses and a different wine paired with each, hopefully paired to enhance the flavors of both the food and wine. (I say hopefully, because I will admit to only amateur-status with food-wine pairings.)

The first course was a modification of an appetizer that we first tasted while on the Bites of Boston Food Tours. At Orinoco, we were served an almond-stuffed, bacon-wrapped date. It was delicious and when we came home, I attempted to copy–and then modify–the recipe.

Stuffed and Wrapped Fruits

The bottom bite is the same recipe as we ate in  Boston, but the top is the same creation but using a prune instead of a date. Both were good, and are served here on a small wedge (0.5 ounce each) of creamy and mild Gouda cheese. We decided to pair this sweet and savory bite with a sweet, almond-flavored sparkling wine. The wine helped bring out the almond from the bite and the bubbles help mellow the sweetness. The idea to serve the bites on cheese came to me while on the Bites of Boston Tour, when Alyssa took us to a cheese shop a few stops after Orinoco.

The second course was the salad course and I made a variation of the salad pictured below (I omitted the olives.) This salad is simple to make. I just layer thin slices (less than 1/4 inch thick) of tomato, top with 1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) crumbled feta cheese, and a chiffonade of fresh basil. For dressing I use nothing more than a touch of fresh cracked pepper, some kosher salt, and a teaspoon extra virgin olive oil.

 

Because the tomatoes were fresh, sweet and aromatic, the cheese a touch salty, and the basil brightly flavored, I wanted a semi-sweet fruity white wine. When we were on vacation, we stayed at Buccia Vineyard B&B, and spent an evening learning about the wines from owner Fred Bucci. We fell in love with his Agawam white table wine. It is light and fruity with a sweetness to offset the acid in the tomatoes.

The main course is something that I first ate when Tammy surprised me with reservations for the chef’s  table at Chives, in Suamico, Wisconsin. It was duck confit with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and potato gnocchi. I attempted to replicate it for this dinner, subbing oyster mushrooms for the hen-of-the-woods (just because of personal preference.) This turned out really nice, and Tammy told me that it tasted like what she tasted at Chives. (I am not trying to compare my skills to chef/owner JR Schoenfeld–that guy is awesome!)

Duck confit, with oyster and crimini mushrooms on potato gnocchi

If you have never eaten duck, it has a taste similar to turkey dark meat, but meatier and richer. It is also much fattier. That makes the food taste incredible but not something that I could eat every day. I served this with another Buccia offering, their Cabernet Franc. This grape is usually blended with other varieties, but Buccia makes this wine with just this one grape. It is lighter than a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a hint sweeter. Tammy generally does not like dry wines, but she liked how the dryness of the wine help attenuate the fattiness of the dish. Also, the wine had spicy (black pepper) characteristics that just fit perfect. (We are going to need to drive back to Ohio and go to Buccia again. I wish they could ship out of state, but they are forbidden by law.)

Of course, no meal is complete without a dessert. Tammy and I had an idea (I’ll be honest, we stole the idea when we learned of it at a wine-and-food class at Peller Estates, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Another place that cannot ship to us, which means another trip to Canada!) At the class we sampled a delicious eiswine, and the facilitator of the class told us that a nice dessert can be made by freezing a scoop of ice cream and making a hole (a well) in the middle and then filling the well with eiswein.

Simplicity itself! Except it isn’t. If you don’t get the ice cream frozen enough it slides all over. Then making the well is not as easy as it sounds. Eventually, we just decided that we were not going to serve that for dessert. So, the night before the meal, we started digging through cookbooks. In Rocco DiSpirito’s Now Eat This! we found this homemade mocha mousse.

Yeah. A REAL mocha mousse.
This isn’t pudding with whipped cream blended in!
The dessert was almost ridiculously easy to make and impressive as heck to serve. We paired that with a locally-produce sweet dessert wine, Parallel 44’s Frost Bite. While not truly an eiswein, it has many of the characteristics of one. The rich sweetness is balanced by a nice acidity, which helped bring out the chocolate and espresso flavors of the mousse. The mousse itself was not very sweet which resulted in a nice pairing.
Okay. Here are the recipes.

Date/Prune Bites:
Serves as many as you make.

Using pitted fruits, stuff a roasted almond inside. Pan-fry a strip of bacon, just a little to partially cook it. You don’t want it to get brown. Wrap the fruit in the bacon and secure with a toothpick. One strip of bacon will wrap three fruits.

With the rack NOT on the top setting, preheat your oven’s broiler to high. (If you put the rack as high as it will go, the bites will quickly burn. I set my rack one level lower.) Two minutes under the broiler and they will be done.

I used low sodium bacon.

Nutritional data for 1 bite (excluding the cheese):
Calories:         44
Fat:                 2.1g
Sat fat:           0.6g
Chol:             3.3mg
Sodium:      73.3mg
Carbs:           5.4g
Fiber:            0.6g
Protein:        1.4g

Tomato Salad
Serves 2
2 tomatoes, ideally one yellow, one red
Crumbled feta cheese
Salt, Pepper
Olive oil

Slice tomatoes. Layer them on your plate as you prefer. Top with cheese and drizzle 1 teaspoon olive oil. Sprinkle pepper and salt.

Nutritional data:
Calories:        86
Fat:                6.9g
Sat fat:           2.1g
Chol:             8.3mg
Sodium:    110.4mg
Carbs:           4.9g
Fiber:            1.4g
Protein:        2.4g

Duck Confit, with Oyster and Crimini Mushrooms, on Potato Gnocchi
Serves 6

(I used store-bought gnocchi, since I had never made the recipe before. I wanted to control for variables and concentrate on the duck. Next time, I will make the gnocchi from scratch.)

1 ounce dried oyster (or other) mushroom
8 ounces fresh crimini mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 duck, approximately 5 pounds, whole or in pieces
1 bottle dry wine, a blush or a white
1 pound gnocchi (approximately 60)
1 cup flour

1.   Bring 1.5 cups water to a boil. Remove from heat. Place dried mushrooms in water and allow to rehydrate. This will take 10-15 minutes. when rehydrated, strain mushrooms, and set aside. RESERVE the mushroom water.
2.   Place flour in a Ziploc bag. Add your preferred seasoning.
3.   Cut duck into pieces, leaving skin on.
4.   One piece at a time, place duck in Ziploc, and shake to coat. Remove duck and set aside.
5.   Heat a non-stick skillet (or your pressure cooker). Add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Working in batches, brown the duck on all side.
6.   If you have one, prepare your pressure cooker. Add 1 cup mushroom water and 1 cup wine to cooker. Place all duck pieces in. Seal according to your unit’s directions. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes. Allow pressure to drop naturally.
7.   Remove duck, let cool a little and then shred. Return the shredded duck to the broth and keep warm.
8.   Prepare the gnocchi as per instructions. I dropped my into boiling water/wine (2 cups each) and let them cook until they floated.
9.   While the gnocchi is cooking, preheat skillet with 1/2 tablespoon oil. Saute crimini mushrooms over med-high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add rehydrated mushroom.
10. Drain gnocchi and add to mushrooms. Saute until they are beginning to brown (3-4 minutes)
11. When every hot and cooked, add the duck to the mushrooms. I kept the broth in a separate saucepan to keep it warm and to help me portion more accurately.
12. Divide into 6 portions. Top with 2-3 ounces broth.

Nutritional data:
Calories:      371  
Fat:                 8.7g
Sat fat:            3.0g
Chol:             67.3mg
Sodium:         469mg (Almost entirely from gnocchi)
Carbs:           45.9g
Fiber:              2.2g
Protein:        22.8g

If you do not have a pressure cooker, use a large kettle and bring mushroom-wine to a boil. Add duck and cook until finished. (I’m not sure how long that will take. You will need to test from time to time. My guess will be 30-45 minutes.)

Mocha Mousse
Serve 8

1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoon water
2 teaspoon gelatin (one packet is a little more than that amount)
3 whole eggs egg yolk (or 2/3 cup egg substitute–I used real eggs.)
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped fine
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder (if you can’t find that, use 3 tablespoons instant coffee)
8 egg white, at room temperature
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup Splenda

1.   Place a perfectly clean large glass or metal bowl in freeze 2-3 hours before you plan to make the mousse.
2.   Combine water (room temperature), vanilla and gelatin in a large bowl. Set aside to allow the gelatin to “bloom”. (2-3 minutes) It will look like solid Jello when ready. That is okay.
3.   Set a 2/3 full saucepan on stove and bring to a boil. Set a small metal pan on it (or use a double boiler.)Add whole eggs, honey, salt and whisk together.
4.   Add espresso powder and chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate melts. This will take about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over gelatin, whisking together until the gelatin is melted into the chocolate-espresso mixture.
5.   Remove bowl from freezer. Place egg whites in and begin beating with an electric beater.
6.   When the whites begin to froth, add cream of tartar and continue beating.
7.   When the whites are getting thicker, but still soft, add Splenda while continuing to beat the egg whites.
8.   When the egg whites form soft-medium peaks, fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mix. FOLD CAREFULLY so the whites are able to retain the air.
9.   Continue to add the whites in two more additions.
10. Carefully spoon into serving dishes and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, and up to 6 hours. Top with whipped cream and fruit or chocolate chips and another light dusting of espresso powder.

Nutritional data:
Calories:        135
Fat:                8.2g
Sat fat:            5 g
Chol:             79mg
Sodium:        81mg
Carbs:           11.6g
Fiber:                 2g
Protein:        7  .6g

NOTE: This recipe uses raw eggs throughout. When using the double boiler, they are not held at a temperature high enough to pasteurize the eggs. The egg whites are never exposed to any heat. Raw eggs can cause illness, especially the elderly and those prone to infections. Make and eat this recipe at your own risk. (That being said, we all ate them, as did my children.)

Souffles Wait For No One (and other lessons learned)

I made souffles for the family Friday night. Two different souffles. One was a savory souffle (Spinach-Asiago) for the entree and the other was sweet (Kahlua-Chocolate) for dessert. I have made souffles before and I know that while they are not actually as difficult as they might appear, they are rather finicky kitchen creations.

They also take time. Time to make, and time to bake. And with only one oven, that presents some challenges. It would be easiest to bake both at the same time but that won’t work for a couple reasons. One is the simple fact that I want the savory souffle to be served as the meal and the sweet souffle for dessert, and a finished souffle will not wait even five minutes after removing it from the oven. The second is that I can only make one souffle at a time. It takes about 10-12 minutes production time to get a souffle in the oven. I can’t let the first souffle wait 12 minutes before I begin baking it, nor can I open the oven to quickly start baking the second souffle (the cold air rushing in could collapse the souffle and once collapsed, it is done.)

So I decided the best method will be to bake one, serve and eat it, and then make and bake the second. That will leave about 45 minutes between courses, but it can’t be helped.

Spinach-Asiago Souffle, as it came out of the oven.

Four perfect portions.
I served this with a  mixed tomato and mozzarella pearl salad, dressed with a bit of olive oil.
(All the tomatoes were from my garden, as were the basil shreds.)
Everyone in the family enjoyed the souffles. With souffles, timing is everything and it went perfect. Everyone was at the table, enjoying the salad as I pulled the souffle from the oven. I briefly showed the uncut souffle to everyone (I am a proud chef sometimes) and then portioned and served it.
That’s when the lessons began. When the timer on the oven began to sound, I canceled it but left the oven on to bake the dessert. Then I ate and after eating, I assembled the Kahlua-Chocolate souffle. I was hurrying a bit but everything went together well, and about 12 minutes after starting I was able to get the ramekins in the water bath. But I had extra souffle batter, so I needed to quickly prepare another 1 quart casserole and I baked the remaining souffle in it. I didn’t have room in the water bath, so I decided to risk baking it naked. I set my timer for 28 minutes and went back to the table.
At about 20 minutes, I went to look in the oven, and the souffles were not rising as expected. I dared to open the door to take a closer inspection, and immediately found the problem. When I canceled the timer, I also turned the oven off. It still had residual heat when I put the second souffle in, enough heat that I didn’t notice that the oven was in fact off.
I stood up, chuckled and told my family that dessert would be delayed. I turned the oven back on, and hoped for the best. After laughing at me a bit, and reminding me that I have done that in the past, we sat down as continued to just talk.
Actually, the family time was the sweetest dessert I could have asked for. We all sat at the table for an hour waiting for the second souffle to be baked. The boys were in a great mood. We spent the time reminiscing about their childhood, the previous homes we’ve lived in, childhood friends, and generally just had a wonderful time laughing at our remembrances and anecdotes. I think that my mistake was the luckiest thing I have done in a long time.
Eventually, the timer sounded again. All conversation stopped as I went to the oven, and pulled out the ramekins.
Four individual Kahlua-Chocolate souffles.
Nice! They survived 20 minutes in a cold oven, and then a slow warm-up to baking temperature and were nicely baked. Not a tough exterior but with a slightly moist interior.
Then I pulled out the casserole. I did not take a picture of it in the casserole, because … well, it had a rough life.  Here is what it looked like on the plate:
Kahlua-Chocolate Souffle, DOA (Dead on Arrival)
That is my thumb on the plate, right next to the “souffle” for a scale comparison. (And I have small thumbs.) The souffle is maybe 1/4 inch thick (6mm). I essentially made a Kahlua-Chocolate flourless pancake. Don’t get me wrong. It still tasted good, especially with a little whipped cream. But countless generations of chef are rolling in their graves at what happened.
Why did this large souffle die while the small ramekins survived? The water bath. That water was still HOT when I put the ramekins in, and that kept the dishes warm enough to maintain the air in the egg whites. The casserole was baked naked and the 20 minutes without heat was enough to let the millions of air bubbles deflate. I also rushed this batch a bit. I only whipped the egg whites to soft peaks, and didn’t cook the butter-flour mixture as long as I should have.
Moral of the story? I don’t know; I’m not Aesop. But I know that in the future, I will not rush my souffles (or other foods). At the same time, I will plan future meals so that I bake a dessert while eating the main course. I will pick a dessert that everyone loves, because last night’s dessert helped hold my family together for an extra hour. If you have growing/grown children, you know how brief those times can be. I will find ways to make us take more time together. Meals are quickly forgotten, but time spent with those important in a life is eternal.

Bites of Heaven While Camping

Camping.  It brings to mind food like hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken. Baked beans, cole slaw and potato chips. Soda and beer. Sounds nice. But average. And I don’t do average very well, as you can see by the other meals on this blog.

Never believe that you cannot eat like a king while camping. It only takes planning and preparation. Here is what we ate while camping.

We arrived at the campgrounds Tuesday afternoon. We set up camp and relaxed a bit. When it was time for dinner, I made pan-fried tilapia, a fresh tomato and feta salad, and a piece of home made whole wheat bread. And a beer (of course!)

I always keep an electric skillet in the camper and it was perfect for the fish. I brought along some tomatoes from the farmer’s market and had baked a loaf of bread Tuesday morning before we left home. I just pan-fried four tilapia fillets in a teaspoon of garlic-infused olive oil. The beer was a new one for me. Velvet Chicken is a Belgian Trippel-style ale. Crisp and hoppy, slightly sweet and highly carbonated, it balanced the fish and tomatoes very well.

Velvet Rooster. Unusual name. Good ale.
Later in the evening, I make popcorn over the fire. I used one tablespoon coconut oil and six tablespoons popcorn in a campfire popper. Tasty! No need for butter when you use coconut oil. I seasoned it with a non-sodium salt.
Fresh and hot popcorn.
This is a nice fire but not good for cooking. It is mostly pine, and that eruption is the pine sap bursting out of the wood. Looks good, tastes terrible.
In the morning, I made pancakes and eggs. The recipe for the pancakes are here. They are protein pancakes and only have 1/2 cup oatmeal as grain in the cakes. I fried some eggs to go along with them and as usual I topped the cakes with Greek yogurt. Again, I used the same electric skillet from the evening before. Before leaving home, I made a package with all dry ingredients pre-measured. Then I only needed to add the egg whites and applesauce.
Breakfast prep.
My breakfast.
Tammy’s breakfast.
After breakfast, we hit a few antiques shops in Door County, Wisconsin and found some milk glass and bar glasses for my collection. That was a lot of fun, but when we got back to camp, I needed to get a fire going for dinner. The plan was nice, thick rib steaks, sauteed broccoli, homemade bread with garlic-infused olive oil and grilled apples.
 Rib steaks, about one pound each, one inch thick. We don’t normally eat steaks like this.
I wanted to splurge and make something big and marbled and juicy.
Remember how my plans usually work? Well, this time the plan got derailed when I forgot to pack the campfire tripod. And this camp only has a fire ring but no other cook equipment. No grates, grills, and anything else. So, in the spirit of multi-purposing, I seared and pan fried Tammy’s steak in the electric skillet. I seasoned it simply with a salt-free blend that I made (black pepper, celery seed, mustard seed, coriander and a hint of crushed red pepper–sorry, no link to this so you can buy it.)
Mmmm, on its way to a medium finish.
Five-six minute per side.
Tammy’s steak was going to work perfectly, but I wanted to try something different. And, with a nod to grillmaster Steven Raichlen, I wanted something a lot more primal. I seasoned mine with a lot of fresh cracked pepper and some coarse salt. And I made it caveman-style. What do I mean by caveman-style?
Cooking right on the hot embers! This is a good cooking fire.
I used all birch logs to build this mound of embers. 
That is an unpeeled onion at the top of the picture and two foil-wrapped apples on the right.

This is after flipping my steak.
I cooked it about four minutes on the first side, three minutes on the flip side. My goal is medium rare. (Warm but red in the middle, but with a crusty, charred surface on the outside.)
Tammy’s on the left, mine on the right.
On my plate, with the grilled onion and some broccoli.
When I cut in, I found medium-rare!
So, what was it like eating a steak that cooked right in the embers? Abso-freakin-lutely delicious, juicy, tender and with flavor to die for. I brushed off the bigger chunks of ash when I took it off the embers, but not much was really sticking to it. The outside was crusty, and the inside was perfectly warm and red. I will cook steaks like this again!
The grilled apple, filled with crushed Fiber One cereal
and a bit of butter and Splenda brown sugar, and finished with whipped cream
Do we always eat like that? Actually, yes, we do. You should know that from reading this. But it still fits into our calorie budget. And we enjoy it. We like to eat good food.  
Remember, if you want to do this you need to plan ahead. Tammy and I sat down about a week before we left and planned out each meal. Then I shopped for everything as needed. We made this easy by packing each meal in its own plastic bag, so all I needed to do for each meal is pull the bag out of the cooler. Anything that needed to be measured was pre-measured and packaged.
And all the food fit into our budget. That huge steak was 14 ounces (after removing the bone) still fit into my calorie budget. (It helped that we only ate two BIG meals that day, but that was just because we spent a lot more time shopping than I expected.)
Don’t be afraid to eat good food, at home, while camping and on vacation. Life is short. Enjoy it! I have a lot of good recipes here. Make them. Change them to meet your tastes (tell me about your adaptations–I like to read about different ideas.) And have fun.

Music and Beer (Not At the Same Time)

Saturday was a great day! An noon, I watched my son’s band perform their last gig together. It was an outdoor show at a local music store. They play heavy metal and most of the music is original pieces that they wrote.

From left to right: Charlie on bass, Ethan R on guitar, Don on drums and my son, Ethan L on guitar.
Yeah. I’m a proud dad. He’s a great guitar player!

After the performance I went to downtown Green Bay to a foodie-fest, Savour Green Bay. It features local restaurants, breweries and wineries, with an emphasis on the local food cuisine. I went there, not for the food–of which there was plenty–but because a local homebrewer is living his dream because he opened his own brewery. Stillmank Brewing Company makes one beer, Wisco Disco, a hoppy and smooth Americal Amber Ale. A great beer! Currently only available in the Green Bay area on tap, soon he will be canning in 16 ounce cans and distributing to local grocery stores.

Brad Stillmank, founder and brewer of Stillmank Brewing Company.
 

After enjoying his wonderful amber ale, I felt incomplete. One beer is always a lonely beer, so I stopped at another vender, Titletown Brewing Company. One of their brewers (another homebrewer from the area’s homebrew club) Dave Malcom was present and pouring several selections, including a German Schwartzbier (black beer), Dark Helmet. It is a black lager, smooth with flavors and aromas of coffee, chocolate, caramel and toast–and yet NONE of those ingredients are used. The brewers make those flavors and aroma from the different malts. This beer took a bronze award at the World Beer Cup. A seriously good beer, and one that I could have drank all day. But since I needed to drive, I stopped at one. But that’s okay. I know where I can get more.

Dave Malcom, standing proudly in front of his beers.

All that before 2pm! It was a great day!

That’s all. Nothing profound to talk about, nor any new recipes. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes.

Taco Salad–a Great Summer Meal

Taco Salad
Serves 1

This isn’t a recipe post, because I’m not going to tell you how to make a salad. I am posting this as a reminder that meals can be very easy and delicious.

Whenever I buy ground beef, I always buy an extra pound and brown it off. Then I freeze it for use at a later time. Today was a later time. So all I needed to do was thaw and heat the meat.

The pinto beans are made from scratch in my pressure cooker. They went from dried beans to ready-to-eat beans in 40 minutes. (I cooked them in beer instead of water for added flavor. Even Tammy, who does not like beer, said that the beans tasted of beer, and that they were good.) You can certainly use beans from a can, but I prefer mine fresh because I can control the sodium content. While they were cooking, I prepped all the toppings and warmed the meat.

The red tomatoes are from the farmer’s market, but the yellow are from my upside down tomato baskets. The red jalapeno is also from my container garden.

I used only 2 tablespoons each of cheese and plain Greek yogurt, and 1/4 of a mashed avocado, and I built the salad on an ounce of tortilla chips and three cups of mixed greens.

And of course, I served this with a cold beer. This was Totally Naked, a seasonal offering from New Glarus Brewing in New Glarus, Wisconsin. It is a simple pilsner-style beer, clean and crisp. Perfect to cut through the spices of a taco salad. I’m sorry if you line somewhere beyond the Wisconsin borders. New Glarus does not distribute out of state. (Yup. We keep it all for us! And for any tourists that visit.)

I hope you decide to make a similar meal.

Are you Satisfied? Or Just Full?

Seriously. I want you to think about this question after your next meal. “Am I satisfied with this meal, or am I full but still want to eat more?”

Satiety is more than filling a stomach. If it were that simple to trigger satiety, drinking a liter of water should satisfy your your appetite, because most stomachs hold about a liter. To feel satiated, you need to do more than distend your stomach, you need to fill it with the right foods.

I’m not talking about endocrine signals that your body produces. (Well, indirectly I guess I am, but that is not my area of expertise and I don’t pretend to have such aspirations.) I am talking about foods that make us feel good.

Let’s think of it this way.  If you had 200 calories of salad (spinach, carrots, cucumber, and low-fat dressing) or 200 calories of Edy’s Slow-Churn Ice Cream, which would make you feel fuller 1 hour after eating? Which would make you happier in a visceral, deep down way? I can’t answer for you, but I know that the ice cream would make me fuller, and happier, longer than that salad.

I’m not advocating giving up on veggies and eat only ice cream, Oreos, and potato chips. But I am saying that if those are food items that you really enjoy, include them in your food budget. Maybe not everyday–but if you can fit it, everyday is okay, too.

Life is short. And without being morbid, no one knows how many more days we will be walking around. Life is meant to be lived. Enjoyed. Relished. Cherished. Tammy and I recently were shopping and before we headed to the car, we saw a frozen yogurt vendor. Frozen yogurt (nutritionally) is not much better than ice cream. But we both saw the treat and immediately realized that we needed a cone.  Not want, but need. So we each bought a cone.

It was delicious. Rich and sweet and creamy. And it still fit into our budget. After eating that, I felt full, even though the cone itself was not large, maybe four ounces. But it filled that psychological and physical gap that our lunch ignored.  I am not suggesting that you go out and buy a big bucket of ice cream and a Costco size tub o’ fudge sauce and get your feed on, but if your budget allows it, go out and buy a single scoop of an indulgent ice cream or frozen custard. Sit down and really enjoy it. Then log it and move forward.