Getting ready for our Boundary Waters Trip

For some crazy reason my camera stopped being able to connect to my computer. I just ordered a memory card reader device and it should be here by the time we're back from our trip.

We're taking our portage boat up to the Basswood Lake area right on the border of Canada. We live almost there, anyway, but we like to take a trip into the actual Boundary Waters. Our portage boat looks a lot like this. You can see the wheels flipped up at the side of the boat. When you get to shore, you flip the wheels down and drag the boat across the portage.

We'll be taking three portages on this route. There are only certain areas where you can use portage wheels and a motor in the Boundary Waters, otherwise it's a million acres of paddle only - no motors allowed. For this spring trip, though, we like to bring a few luxuries like a screen house! The black flies and mosquitoes are out big time.

This is our camp site from last June - that's Tansy napping after a hard day of chasing chipmunks.

And here are Steve and Tansy out in the boat getting water using the water filter pump:

I've decided to stay low-key with the cooking this year. Today is grocery shopping and tomorrow is some pre-cooking. I'm going to make sesame noodles for lunch snacks, garbanzo bean spread for lunches and snacks, and granola for breakfast.

The first night out we'll have ribeye steaks with caramelized onions and mushrooms. From then on we'll have some version of fish every night - fried bluegills drizzled with lime and salt; tom kha fish soup; fish sauted in olive oil with onions, greens, garlic, and irish potatoes; and then just plain olive oil and garlic accompanied by fresh foccacia. Yum!

You're wondering if we'll catch fish. Well, I hope so or we'll go hungry!

Here's what the foccacia it looked like when Tim and Paul came up from Chicago to go fishing with us a few years ago (that's Tim):

Actually, the other side looks better because it will have sliced garlic, rosemary, and olive oil drizzled on it. Again, YUM! I start with the dry ingredients in a zip lock and then mix in water once we're at the camp site. I'd best be on my way to get this stuff ready.

By the time we're back I should have my new camera card reader and I can show you new photos. We'll be back next Tuesday afternoon, May 31. See you then!

Fishing Opener and Chicken Dumpling Soup

We've been doing a little (okay a lot) of fishing lately. The fishing season opened on Saturday. We didn't make it out on Saturday because Steve was sick. I made him chicken dumpling soup to make him feel better by Sunday. We got out for a few hours Sunday at the north end of our lake.

Yesterday we went to the Kawishiwi Falls to try for walleye at the bottom of the falls. These falls are on our lake, Fall Lake!

I caught three in the morning with my neighbor, Roland. Then after work Steve and I went back out and he caught two (I mostly read my book listening to the falls). Now we have enough for a nice walleye supper!

Speaking of our neighbors, Roland and Judy, they spend the winters down in Texas near where my mom and dad live in the winter. When they got back they gave me some onions from the valley. Look at these!

I used some in the chicken dumpling soup I made for Steve.

Chicken Dumpling Soup

4 lbs chicken pieces - Steve likes dark, so I used only thighs this time (about 10 thighs)
2 T olive oil
2 small onions, diced - or as many as you like, I used two of the huge Texas onions
2 large cloves garlic, minced (use more to keep away mosquitoes)
1 cup dry white wine (do NOT use "cooking wine" only use wine you would drink)
8 cups chicken stock
1 tsp thyme (I used fresh rosemary)
3 bay leaves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 carrots (or more) cut into 1/2-inch rounds
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pot and brown the chicken (about 4 minutes per side) only putting a few in the pan at a time so they don't crowd. Remove the chicken to a plate to rest.

When all the chicken pieces have been removed fro the pot, add the onions and garlic and reduce the heat to medium low Saute until the onions are softened but not browned.

Return the chicken to the pot, along with any accumulated juices, and add the wine. (I remove the skin from the chicken at this point - you can leave it on if you like.) Increase the heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, until the wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock, thyme, bay leaves, and cayenne. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook at barely a simmer, partially covered, until the chicken is almost done, about 1 hour.

Add the carrots and continue simmering until the chicken is very tender and almost falling off the bone and the vegetables are tender (about 15 minutes).

While that simmers, prepare the dumplings:

Dumplings


2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp snipped fresh chives (I used about a cup!)
1 tsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup milk

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, chives and parsley in a bowl. Add the milk and mix to make a thick batter.

Drop the dumpling batter by the tablespoonful directly onto the simmering stew. Cover tightly and simmer over low heat for exactly 15 minutes. Don't be tempted to peek! After 15 minutes, the dumplings will be perfect.

More Plastic and Goat Milk Whey

We had a cold, rainy day so I decided the best thing to do was set up the ironing board and melt some more plastic! Here are the results:

Next step in the process will be to sew them into my cool bike pouches. That should give me enough inventory to debut them at the farmer's market.

My friend, Pamalot, gave me some goat milk whey to experiment with. Check out her Etsy shop! She has a farm in the woods just down the Kawishiwi Trail. She raises goats and makes and sells goat products like goat milk soaps, gritty scrubs, milk, yogurt, and cheese.

I was making Indian Food for dinner and had the "whey" confused with "curd". I really needed the curd to make paneer. Since I had whey, I thought I'd see what could be done with it. The whey is the leftover liquid from the separation of cheese from the milk. Depending on how the cheese was separated, there is another process you can do to extract ricotta cheese or paneer! Pamalot uses rennet to separate the curds from the whey. Perfect! If she had used vinegar or lemon juice, the resulting whey would be too acidic.

I put the quart of whey on the stove and started heating it to 200 degrees. Once it reaches that temperature, you can see the little curds separating. I had trouble reaching 200 degrees; mine was boiling at about 185. Maybe my thermometer was off.

After straining the liquid through cheese cloth (pretty cool to use cheese cloth to actually make cheese!) I got about three tablespoons of ricotta cheese and more leftover whey.

I looked on line and it said you can use this nutrient-rich whey to bake bread or other baked goods instead of milk or water. I haven't tried it yet, but I will!

New Design and Spring Garlic

I fiddled with a new design for a shoulder bag over the weekend here it is! Perfect for spring and summer. It's in my Etsy shop!

It was a beautiful weekend so we did some puttering in the garden. We missed a few cloves of garlic during the fall harvest, so some volunteer garlic sprung up in that bed. This year it's getting peas, so Steve pulled the garlic.

I turned them into a szechuan spring garlic afternoon snack. (Use this method for any green things like beans, asparagus, etc.)

Szechuan Spring Garlic

1 T olive oil
1 T soy sauce
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce (any kind you like)
1T maple syrup
1 tsp chili oil
1 tsp sesame oil

Saute the greens in the oil for a minute or two. Mix all of the other ingredients and pour it over the greens. Saute until the greens are tender. YUM!

Cinco de Mayo and Chili Rellenos

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo so I started the day listening to Juanes.

I made a new necktie purse with a Jerry Garcia necktie. Jerry Garcia isn't Mexican, but his name sounds Spanish, so I thought it was close enough. I put it in my Etsy shop this morning.

Next up - dinner. It was a rainy, cold day (I even had the wood stove burning) so Mexican food didn't seem as if it would be in order. Even so, I decided on chili rellenos and guacomole. I went to Zup's grocery and was able to choose four poblano chilis out of the six they had.

First - the guacamole.

Open an avocado and remove the flesh. Squash it around in a bowl. Add a little finely chopped onion, tomato, cilantro, a pinch of salt, and 1/4 of a lime's juice. Mix it up and eat it with tortilla chips and a beer.

I have Rick Bayless's Mexico One Plate at a Time cookbook. I decided combined two of his recipes for the chili relleno. I liked the stuffing from the traditional fried rellenos, but I wanted to bake them in sauce.

Sharee's Chili Relleno

Sauce:
2 T olive oil
2 medium onions
1 tsp salt
2 24 oz cans good quality whole tomatoes
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pepper

Chop the onion and saute it in the olive oil with salt. While the onions cook, puree the tomatoes in a blender. When the onions are beginning to get a little brown, add the tomatoes, cinnamon and pepper to the pan. Simmer that on the stove while you prepare the peppers. Let it simmer about 25 minutes until it gets thicker.

Chilis and stuffing:
4 poblano chilis
1/4 cup slivered almonds
3/4 lb. ground pork (use any ground meat you like)
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off
1/4 cup cilantro
2 tsp cider vinegar

Toast the almonds in a dry, hot skillet. When they are toasted, remove them from the pan. Put the pork in the pan and saute until browned (if the meat is too lean, add a tablespoon of olive oil). Add the corn kernels, cider vinegar, and two cups of the tomato sauce. Simmer until the sauce thickens. Turn off the heat and add the cilantro and toasted almonds.

Meanwhile, slit the chilis lengthwise about 1/2 inch down from the top and stopping about 1/2 inch from the bottom. Carefully use your finger to dislodge the seeds near the top by the stem. Shake seeds out and rinse to remove the rest of them. Let dry on a paper towel.

Stuff the chilis with your stuffing mixture and place in a deep casserole pot:

Pour the rest of the tomato sauce over the chilis and bake, covered in a 375 degree oven for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, remove the cover and drizzle with 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream. Put back into the oven for 25 minutes or until the cream is looking brown and bubbly.

Eat it!!!

We only ate two so we still have two to eat tonight!

NOTE: Most recipe books have you char the skin off the peppers before you stuff and bake them. I decided to try it with the skin on. No problem! Delicious. If you did char the skin off, your baking time could be cut in half. But I'd rather eat the guacamole and have a cocktail while the dinner is cooking instead of spending a bunch more time charing and peeling the peppers! You decide.

New Necktie Purses and Potstickers

I've been busy lately studying the Social Media Blitz free e-course. There is so much help out there if you really want to learn how to drive Internet traffic to your site or store.

Meanwhile, I've finished some new necktie purses! This one I call "Orange Sherbet". This one also has a shorter strap, but is still long enough to wear over your shoulder.

 I just love the old polyester necktie fabrics. Look at this crazy purple and brown pattern:

I promised to post the potsticker recipe, so here it is!

Potstickers


3/4 cup minced Napa cabbage
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz ground pork (or I use venison, too)
1/2 cup minced chives (or scallions or onions)
1 T Asian sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp Chinese rice wine or sake or mirin
3/4 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
2 cloves minced garlic
45 wonton wrappers
4 T vegetable oil

Stir together cabbage and salt in a colander. Let stand for 20 minutes. Squeeze cabbage to remove excess moisture. Stir together cabbage, pork, chives, sesame oil. soy sauce, rice wine, ginger, and garlic.

Put a teaspoon or so of filling in the center of a wonton wrapper. With a wet finger, moisten border along inner edge of dumpling skin farthest from you. Pinch the wrapper together to form tiny pleats making sure it is well sealed.

Heat oil in a heavy skillet over moderately high heat. Place the potstickers in the pan and cook until golden on bottom (1 or 2 minutes). Add 3/4 cup cold water, cover skillet, and reduce heat to moderate. Cook dumplings until most of liquid has evaporated (7 to 10 minutes). Pour off any excess liquid, drizzle 1 tablespoon oil around edge of skillet and cook dumplings, uncovered, until bottoms are crisp and golden brown (1 to 2 minutes more). Transfer dumplings to a serving plate and serve with chopsticks!

Here they are in the pan right before the water is added:

Dipping sauce:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)

1 tablespoon Asian chili paste

I also like a hot mustard dipping sauce.