Category Archives: Cooking

Cooking, Garden, Great Work, permaculture

Healthy, Huh?

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Spring               Mostly Full Awakening Moon

Drove out to Hopkins, through it on Excelsior, then made a left on Shady Oak Road and apparently crossed the line just into Minnetonka.  Rothburg Distributing, who are the manufacturer’s rep for Sub-Zero, Asko and Wolf kitchen appliances, open their kitchen classroom up to the UofM once a year and Brenda Langston teaches a three evening course on healthy eating.  This is fancy digs for quinoa, tofu and various other healthy dishes, but there they were, boiling and getting chopped and sauteed by none other than the proprietor of  (formerly) Brenda’s and now Spoonriver.  (pic:  Brenda cooking at Spoonriver)

40 + of us sat in tiered seating watching Brenda work, assisted by the chef who has worked with her for 23 years.  She says, Oh my gosh a lot, usually when referring to some food horror, like the genetically modified grapeseed used to make canola oil or the quality of non-grass fed, non-free range beef.  Her cooking approach is pretty pragmatic, though it leans toward ingredients that most Americans don’t use often.  Tonight’s examples:  quinoa, tofu, sesame oil, parsnips, a huge radish (tender heart?), burdock and Arrowhead pancake mix.

She suggests making a particular dish, like a pot of grains, early in the week, then using them as an entree by themselves, the next night with pasta and the third night in a soup.  A good idea.  She also makes up items ahead like croquettes of tofu, walnut, garlic, green onion.  Surprisingly good.

This course costs $285 for three nights.  It includes a cookbook, the presence of Brenda, a breakfast, lunch and dinner with menus prepared in front of your very eyes and the inspiration that comes from being with other upper middle class people who can afford the course, probably know how to eat healthy but have a tough time doing like you do.

Definitely worthwhile.  Will there be a sea change at Chez Ellis-Olson because of it?  Stay tuned.

Here’s a few items from the dinner menu at Spoonriver:

entree
Fresh Seafood • Vegetarian Specials
Sunshine Harvest Grass-Fed Beef • Daily Special, Vegetable Open
Broiled Salmon Okisuki • Savory Japanese Ginger Broth, Fresh Udon Noodles, Vegetarian Option with Tofu 22 / 15
Slow Roasted Minnesota Lamb & Vegetable Stew • Cous Cous Pilaf, Minted Yogurt 22
House Made Ravioli • Indian Spiced Potato & Sweet Pea Ravioli, Thai Green Curry, Vegetables. Vegan Option 16.5
Warm Duck Confit • Salad Greens • Fruit, Stewed White Beans • Fennel 15.5
salads and light entrees
Udon Chicken Salad • Sliced Free Range Chicken, Udon Noodles, Greens, Vegetables, 15
Peanut • Lemongrass Dressing. Vegetarian Option with Mock Duck
Greek Salad • Greens, Cucumber, Olives, Tomato’s, Pepperoncini, French Sheep Feta, Red Onion 9 / 12
Greek or Caesar available with Free Range Chicken Breast + 5
Caesar Salad 9 / 12
Local Charcuterie Plate • Bison Sausage, Fischer Farms Ham, Wild Acres Duck & Chicken Liver Paté, 15
Prairie Breeze Cheddar, Pickled Vegetables
Spoon Burger • Minnesota Farm Lamb, House Ketchup, Corn Chips / or substitute salad + 2 13
Mahi Mahi Sandwich • House Tartar, Lettuce, Tomato on Bun. Corn Chips / or substitute salad + 2 13
Bread

Cooking, Humanities, Sport

Food and Philosophy

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Imbolc                                    Waxing Wild Moon

There and back.  To the grocery store.  Where, as I wandered the aisles, I got a feeling of wanting to eat a better diet.  Again.  This is not new.  It comes and goes.  Sometimes I eat great, other times I just eat.  Today I picked up some Cara Cara Navel Oranges.  I discovered them last week by accident. Boy are they good.  They look sort of like grapefruit (big chunks in the pieces), but taste almost like sweet tangerines.

On the way and back I listened to a lecture on Aristotle.  I know, I said I was fed up with this stuff, but, apparently not. Aristotle was hard for me when I studied him back in 1965.  He seems clearer to me now, more reachable.  His stuff makes more sense, but it isn’t as beautiful as Plato, nor as thought provoking.  At least to me.

The US lost to Canada in the gold medal hockey game.  Good.  When we rack up too many medals in either the summer or winter olympics, I don’t think it does our international reputation any favors.  Losing a few big ones, while devastating to the individual athletes, or team in hockey’s case, perhaps, the resulting good will is better for us.  Still, I’m proud we did well.

Art and Culture, Cooking, Humanities, Letters, Sport

An Andover Olypmics?

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Imbolc                                      Waxing Wild Moon

The winter olympics could have been held in Andover this year.  If we had any mountains.  We’ve had snow and cold, the key ingredients.  Also, Lindsey Vonn and her husband could have stayed in Burnsville instead of Olympic Village, maybe gotten a few runs in at her home hill, Buck Hill.

Well, it’s the olympic world’s loss.

(Yayoi Kusama
Untitled, 1967
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York)

Kate made my/our favorite cookies today.  She also made chicken schnitzel and a warm potato salad with sweet onions last night.  Boy was that good.  All that and she cooks, too.

Chapter 6 of Wheelock is under my belt and Kate’s working on it right now.  We’re skipping this week so she can catch up.

I don’t have a tour this Friday, but I do have a Legcom meeting on Wednesday and the docent discussion group tomorrow, focusing on how to discuss contemporary art.  This conversation will be led by an educator from the Walker, a connection made by Allison.  Should be a big help for the contemporary art exhibition:  Up Until Now, coming later this spring.

Cooking, Writing

Time Enough

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Winter                                     Waning Moon of Long Nights

I’ve had a long stretch of no tours at the museum, little direct work for the Sierra Club and, of course, no gardening.  That means I’ve had plenty of time to focus on writing and I’m well into a new novel and have the research underway for Liberal II:  The Present.  It’s nice to have extensive time at home, especially when the weather has been as brutal as it has been.

The act of writing has a therapeutic edge, no matter what form the writing takes, but when the writing is fiction, something else comes into the act.  I don’t know what it is, other generations have called it the muse, inspiration, an angel, a devil but it does feel like there’s a second party in on the action.

We got our mutual present to each other today, a Kitchen Aid Artisan stand-mixer.  Bread and pasta are on  my mind.  As Kate has been home since mid-October, I’ve noticed a tendency to put more time and love in to the act of cooking and to put more of a focus on the kitchen.  I enjoy it.

Cooking

Food, Tea, More Food, Nap, Food

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Winter                                      Waning Moon of Long Nights

Kate and I had our business meeting, checking this box and that, doing those things couples need to do to keep life solid and sane.

Afterward, we saddled up the old Tundra and drove her over to the Maple Grove shopping area where we made investments in food:  12 qt. stock pot, melamine mixing bowls, a scraper or two, some coffee and dish towels.  I also purchased bulk tea at Tea Vana, but was disappointed to learn that they no longer carried my long time favorite:  lapsang souchong.  The kind guy behind the counter found a bit extra for me from his private stash.

After lunch at Biaggia’s we drove home for our nap, from which I just got up.  Next on the day’s agenda, drive into the Red Stag and eat dinner.  Do you see a pattern here?

Cooking

Soupy

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Winter                             Waxing Moon of Long Nights

A soupy day with chicken noodle soup finished, a leek broth made and a leek and potato soup within 10 minutes of being done.  It requires some finish work, in this case using an immersion blender.  I used 5 pounds of leeks and 5 pounds of potatoes, so we’ll have this soup for some time.  It freezes well, or so the internet material suggests.

Sad news about our potatoes and carrots.  We had our potatoes, a large crop, in the garage stairwell.  Since our garage has insulation, the stairwell usually stays above freezing in the winter, just right for potatoes.  When we had the cold snap though, the snowblower bay garage door stuck open unbeknown to either of us.  They froze.  After freezing, it turns out, potatoes just don’t seem all that edible.  So, no potatoes.  A lesson for next year.

Lesson number 2.  You can leave carrots in the ground until it freezes.  After that you can’t get to them.  Seems obvious enough, but it slipped past my attention.  Carrot compost in the carrot bed now.

Some learning curves are steeper than others.  I would sure hate to have learned these lessons on my homestead on the prairie.  Lessons like these could have been fatal.

Aging, Cooking, Health

Aspects of Our Lives

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Samhain                           New (Wolf) Moon

Kate and I had our business meeting.  It involved the always fun annual chore of signing up for benefits with Allina.  This is probably the last time we’ll need to do it.  Even though it’s an overly complex task, it does have significant repercussions throughout the year, so it pays to do it thoughtfully.

After the meeting we began our first (of what we intend to be continuing) weekly menu planning.  This week I chose a red beet soup and a white bean and winter squash soup.  Kate picked a vegetarian slow cooker recipe and the brisket.  Tomorrow we’ll make a grocery list and I’ll go buy the ingredients, then we’ll cook together for a day or half a day.  The grocery list will include fruits, one serving a meal, and ingredients for tabouli, which we both enjoy.  I’ll make the soups and Kate will cook the meat and slow cooker meals.  We’ll add in salad and fruit along the way.

Kate’s recovery seems to have stalled and I don’t know what to make of it.  I’m glad we have an appointment with Dr. Schwender on Thursday morning.  I’m feeling a need–and so is she–for some reassurance about the healing process and the eventual outcome.

Now, I have to make up for the lost hour of sleep last night while I completed my trip through hell.

Cooking, Family, Garden, Great Wheel

Kate the Earth Mother

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Fall                                         Waxing Blood Moon

Kate made pasta sauce(s) from our tomatoes.  She also made an eggplant (ours) parmesan that we had with one of her sauces along with a toss salad of our tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.  Pretty tasty.  Kate has preserved, conserved, cooked and sewed on her two days off.  In this environment where her movement does not have to (literally) bend to her work her back and neck don’t flare as much.

After the 40 mph wind gusts I went out and walked the perimeter again, checking for downed limbs.  Just a few stray branches, none big.  I did find an insulator where the rope had pulled away.   I used the insulator itself and plastic case to nudge the  hot wire back into place.  The fence does its job, but it requires constant surveillance.  Fortunately, the energizer has an led that flashes while the fence is hot.  That makes checking on the juice much easier.

Friend and Woolly Bill Schmidt said he enjoyed the fence saga from his apartment.  He said he spent many nights, often at 2 am, shooing cows back in the field.  Electric fences are part of farming and he had many helpful hints.  He didn’t seem nostalgic for installing or maintaining a fence.

Both grandkids are sick.  Jon and Jen face the dilemma of all working parents, how to handle sick kids and work.  This is never easy and can create unpleasant situations.

I’m grateful for the rain and the cool down.  Cooler weather means plants ratchet down their metabolism so they need less water and food.  It’s time for that.  The rain helps our new shrubs and trees.   They’ve got the rest of the fall to settle in and get their roots spread out in their new homes.

Cooking

Soup

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Fall                                          Waxing Blood Moon

Various financial matters kept me inside till lunch when I took my best gal over to Osaka.  We ate a quiet lunch, both tired from the week.

Back home I made a 4x serving of gazpacho which Kate will can tomorrow.  I take the recipe as a suggestion.  This time I added leeks, sweet corn and cilantro to the ingredients.  The garlic amount seemed modest to me so I doubled it.  A long time in one spot, but the pot has gone into the refrigerator to cool down.  A tasty soup.

Tonight I play sheepshead with the Jesuits.  They’re smart guys and take the game seriously though we play for fun.  We’ll see how it goes tonight.

Aging, Cooking, Dogs, Great Wheel, Great Work

Picking Grapes With Hilo

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Fall                                       Waxing Blood Moon

As the sun went down this evening, I picked grapes.  Picking grapes reaches back in time, especially wild grapes, as these are.  It reaches back to our hunter-gatherer past, a past much longer than our post neo-lithic, agricultural and urban  world.  This vine grows here because it can.  Maybe someone planted grapes long ago here, but these small grapes, almost like miniatures, offer themselves in the eons old rhythm of plant reproduction.

To get at the clusters, all smaller than the palm of my hand, I found it easier if I first removed a covering of vines and leaves that obscured the grapes.  Do these leaves shade the grapes, keep them from desiccating too soon?  Is there some part of the grape’s maturation that requires a cooler, shadier environment?  I don’t know, but the layering of leaves, then grapes up near the main vine, where it crawled across the top of the six foot fence we have toward the road, appears intentional, at least intentional in the way that evolution works through its blind selection of more adaptive characteristics.

Hilo, our smallest whippet, accompanies me when I work outside.  She hangs around and watches me, wanders off and finds something smelly to rub on her shoulder, watches other animals go by on the road.  Her companionship also reaches back into the  paleolithic when humans and shy wolves began to keep company, fellow predators brought together by the similarity in the game they hunted and the also similar method of hunting in packs.

This time of year, the early fall, would have been good then too.  The food grows on vines and on trees, on shrubs and certain flowering plants.  Game eats the same food and becomes fat, a rich source of nutrient.  My guess is that there was a certain amount of anxiety, at least in these temperate latitudes, for the older ones in clan would know that winter comes after this time of plenty and that somehow food had to be preserved.

Kate takes the grapes and turns then into jelly and apple-grape butter.  The act of preservation, though now more sophisticated technologically, was essential back in the days prior to horticulture and agriculture.

The resonance among these fall related acts and our distant past adds a poignancy mixed with hope to them.  We have done it, we do it, others will do it in the future.  As the wheel turns.