Category: Food

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Moonlight tortillas

I am a morning person.

With the exception of the few times – as in I don’t need all 10 fingers to count – I’ve needed to catch the dark-o-clock flight out of Glacier Park International Airport, I haven’t used an alarm for morning wake up in over 18 years.

I am up with the chickens and neighborhood rooster in the morning and typically in bed and asleep before 9:30 at night.

But tonight, I was making tortillas at 8:00.

The last tortilla went in the skillet at 8:20.

There are a dozen tortillas in those towells. Eleven will make it into the frig and freezer. I always eat one hot tortilla, fresh from the skillet. Tonight it was wrapped around Black Forest Ham and enjoyed as I prepared this post and remembered the making.

I rolled tortillas, watching the one in the skillet, flipping/removing to the warm towells…with the kitchen windows open and the cool night air wafting in. Such an unusual time for me and such an unusual experience of light, of dark, of air and sound.

When that last tortilla was done, I took the rolling cloth outside for a shake-off…

…and saw the moon.

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Life is good

That is a hazelnut mocha latte…kind of :)! I skinned and roasted hazelnuts this morning. Some not needed in the biscotti (see below), I blitzed in the Vita-Mix with espresso, dark cocoa and cream. Some homemade vanilla whipped cream on top and no complaints from me with the result!

Several months ago, I bought hazelnuts to include in my granola. After struggling to skin a few, I decided to just EAT the hazelnuts as a snack and forget about using them in anything. I put pecans, walnuts and almonds in my granola which worked wonderfully.

But last week, I found this post which included the below YouTube video featuring my cooking hero: Julia Child

I should have known…most things that are a pain to peel can be blanched and then immersed in ice water and the skins slide off. Hazelnuts also, although apparently baking soda in the water is key. At any rate, the skins slide off and no swearing is involved. “Bob’s your uncle” and you have skinned hazelnuts. Pop them in a 350 oven for 15 minutes and your house smells wonderful!

I’ve been in a bit of a cooking slump the last week – 10 days…just a lot of distraction: motorhome, trip, software glitch, heavy work schedule and Bear has a sore hip that has been a bit worrying. (Bear’s hip is a much better and we are off to see Dr. Calm next week to be sure)

I kept thinking about that video and the biscotti recipe that is divulged. I haven’t filled my biscotti jar for awhile and those hazelnuts were calling.

I skinned and roasted the hazelnuts per the post and video.

I mixed up the biscotti and got it in the oven.

I also made a batch of ginger syrup for my ginger soda, cooked some “Cajun” sausage for a soup I’ll make later, reduced some new balsamic vinegar to syrup, made my breakfast pizza with the sausage, apples and syrup, mixed up a fresh batch of high moisture dough….AND did an impressive amount of dishes with another load or two to go.

Cooking slump over :) !!

The biscotti jar is full.

Life is good!

Bob agrees. …mostly.

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Cooking and eating from the garden, cont’d.

I think it is week 17 and 18 from my CSA bounty. But I have also been buying some seasonal Western produce: peaches and peppers from Washington State and hopefully soon, some blueberries from Oregon. Washington, Oregon and California are close enough that I am including their seasonal stuff that comes direct to Montana as local :)!

Here we go!

More cucumbers and I dressed them in a creamy dressing of a wee bit of homemade mayo, greek yogurt, buttermilk, dill, salt and a good dose of fresh ground pepper.

In addition to a refreshing salad, the mix made a good topping for a spicy corn chowder. My CSA corn and green pepper went into the chowder.

I blitzed a bit of the cucumber salad to make a riff of tzatziki sauce which also went well with some chowder.

Oh…those little tomatoes!!! They are sweet like candy and I ate most of them just like candy – as a sweet snack!

Kale, sweet onion and green beans roasted in olive oil and basalmic vinegar…

…. they went in another soup.

As the calendar flipped to September, the weather flipped to Fall. Cool/cold nights warming to Fallish afternoons. Soup sounded good and it was.

But…still time for some salad. This last week had beautiful lettuce mix. I added some ham, corn off the cob, pumpkin seeds and a ranchish dressing…along with some Washington State Elberta peaches.

Roast Chiles!! Anaheims, Red, Jalapeno – on the grill…for chile rellenos…

Oh, yeah! And in addition to the above which were part of my CSA distribution, the local grocery had a chile weekend and I bought a number of the best Anaheim peppers I’ve seen in these parts. Those have been roasted and frozen for Winter enjoyment.

Cooking and eating from the garden and local produce. It continues to be wonderful eating and preserving.

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not pretty, but beautiful!

Last evening (Wednesday) was not a pretty night…in front of a cold front, heavy overcast moved in. It was that eery stillness of ‘calm before the storm’. Everything was quiet…no breeze, no birds, no squirrels, no bugs. Not pretty, but beautiful in its own way and we enjoyed.

And even though the yard and woods are a bit dry and crunchy…

…they still inspire a good roll around!

Overnight, the wind blew and I woke to the sound of a good soaking rain.

I also woke with a strong craving for a cinnamon roll. I grabbed a peach sized bit of dough from my dough crock, rolled it into a thin rectangle, brushed it with melted butter, added some chopped apple, cinnamon and brown sugar. Rolled it up, folded it over, let it rise for half an hour and then into the oven. The finishing touch: a caramel glaze of brown sugar, butter and milk. Not pretty, but beautiful and seriously, YUM!!

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A celebratory treat

Homemade peach yogurt (greek yogurt, buttermilk, peaches and vanilla extract), pecans and homemade vanilla bean caramel sauce (sugar, cream, vanilla bean, vanilla extract and sea salt) – to celebrate the last day of birthday month, the second full moon of birthday month, and the last weekend of the Summer … YEE HAW!!

***my first go at caramel sauce…too good!
****yes, the autumnal equinox does not occur until September 22 but September always seems like Fall just like June seems like Summer :)!