Tears in Heaven

In memoriam

Noah Wilkerson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO3PJMfYtrM

Would you know my name? 

If I saw you in heaven?

Catch-up

Leaving Seattle.  Obviously on vacation.....

Seems like I've had no time at all since we got home from Alaska...  We've had house guests twice and Dave has traveled a lot.  I've played big catch-up in the yard...and have a new herb garden in on the north side.  I've been busy with physical therapy (regaining some upper-body strength) and added hearing aids to my wardrobe. 

Summer in the hood is hot this year.  It's our second week of mostly 90's and I don't remember that ever.   I've spent a really lot of time watering... and watering.  Some pots have needed watering twice a day.  Who could have figured?

Meantime, I thought I'd use this blogpost for some pics so you can see what's been up around the 2-dog kitchen and other places:

Right:  My French class came to dinner...

I've been trying to get a good loaf of rye bread.  Still working on it.

Another try at a leftover fish salad.  This one was with cold grilled tuna and a mustard vinaigrette. Yum.

Here are a few from the trip:

With the fish at Pike Place Market in Seattle---Veggies, too.

Going to dinner...

Someone else was cookin'

Me and the glacier....

Fishing for crab...

And eating it.

Leftovers..

This spruce pic taken during a macro-photography class in the rain forest.

Edible spruce tips...

I ate some.  Guide said she makes sorbet from them.  Hmmm.

Taken during a photography class in a small boat on the ocean...   ah, whales.

We clean up well.

More later...  2-Dog Kitchen under signature....

Be patient; I've got some great summer recipes. 

Tonight I grilled some wahoo on lemon slices and topped it with homemade "pickles"...

Sing a new song,

Alyce

Cooking with Music

(Chocolate Mousse the easy way!)

Today was the first summer session of Cooking with Music at my house, which is a group of lessons or classes that combine food, culture, and music from specific countries or cultures.  French was first up--

MENU CHEZ MORGAN

Hors-d'oeuvres (appetizers):   Fromage avec pain  -- Cheese with Bread
Entree  (First Course)  Salad Printemps avec vinaigrette dijonnaise-  Spring Salad with mustard vinaigrette or....Everyday Chopped Salad (from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food--we used the on-line video)
Plat principal  (Main Course)  Quiche  -Cooking with Music Quiche (Lesson on Pate Brisee; quiche w/ bacon and pruscuitto)
Dessert (Dessert)  Mousse au Chocolat -Chocolate Mousse with Whipped Cream and Strawberries

Beginning French Lesson was a great online video from Alain Le Lait

We began with

Bonjour!
Comment ca va?
Bien!  Tres Bien!  Et vous?
Pas mal.

And so on.

(Alain:  They loved Josette!)

I passed out notebooks and each student had a different color and their photo on the front.  Inside were maps of the world, Europe, info on the country of France, links to all of the sites we used in the lessons, all of the recipes and notes, and some coloring pages for the younger ones.

We went over the geography of France first.  Where was it?   While we did that, we listened to French folk songs...  But soon, if we wanted to eat before supper time, we needed to begin.  We made the mousse first and got it in the frig.   Next, we learned to make pastry dough ( Pate Brisee) and quiche filling.  That went in the oven while we watched a video on how to make chopped salad and made the salad.  Table set.  A little cheese.  Lunch was served.   It began to look like a piano lesson was going to have to be another day.

Merci! Merci!  to Jacque, Joel and Ellen.  Good cooks all!!!!
What are you cooking for Father's Day?

Here are a few highlights.

Working on liquid measuring technique

Using Le Creuset cookware on a gas stove...

Hot stuff in a Krups blender....

I get the taste test!

I want to see.

We all work together.

How to fill a quiche without spilling the filling.

Maybe.

Ok, How did Jamie chop cress?

Should we watch the video again?   Watch those fingers!

Oh, yeah.  That's a chopped salad.

Hey, I made that quiche!

At the table...finally!

Oh, by the way, you need to put a grace to music.  Here are the words:

Come, Lord.  Teach us to care, share and be grateful.  And most of all, teach us to love you and all you love.

We got a tune we're workin' on.

We did it!

Et voila! Mousse au chocolat:)  Another French food convert.

We'll have the piano lesson with French music another day!  Phew.

A bientot!

Cantelope Salad

It's not quite cantelope time here in Colorado, but we do finally have some good FexEx cantelope available at the store.  I tend to buy a half.  I then wonder why I didn't buy a whole after I cut some up.  So last time, I bought a whole, and then had to figure out what to do with it.  Here's what happened:

Cantelope Salad 
   serves 2

2 pieces cantelope, each about 1/4 of a smallish cantelope, sliced to eat, but left on rind
1 c baby arugula or other spring greens
1/2 lemon
Kosher salt; fresh ground pepper
2 strawberries
2 blackberries (or blueberries)
1/8 c parmesan (or other sharp, shreddable cheese), shredded

Arrange on each of two salad plates 1/2 c fresh arugula.  Top each portion with a piece of cantelope and add a couple each of the strawberries and blackberries.  Squeeze lemon over all and dust with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese.  Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette (below.)

Balsamic Vinaigrette (or use your own recipe or a store-bought bottle)

1/4 c balsamic vinegar
1/2 t kosher salt
1/4 t fresh ground pepper
1 t shallots or garlic, minced
3/4 c extra-virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients in jar and shake well. Store in refrigerator up to one week.

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Two-Dog Kitchen and Life in the 'Hood
.
My two-dog kitchen has been empty for a while as we've been on vacation and the pups spent a week at the vet's kennel.  I've got some good vacation food stories and pics.  Next week, I'll maybe have time to work on it all.  Meantime, here are a few things to tempt you.   Every picture tells a story, don't it?

Sing a new song; make a new salad,

Alyce

Salade Tapenade

 

I've made this salad a few times and, each time, I felt like I was inventing something new.  Well, in the food world (or the whole world), there's seldom anything new.  But one of the most cool things about being a well-seasoned cook (ha ha) is that you begin to have a sense, a feel, a love for whatever's around and what you can do with it.  It's not just, for instance, that strawberries taste better in late spring and so that's when you make strawberry shortcake.  But that's part of it.  I mean, don't make shortcake with fedexxed strawberries in January.  The rest of it is being able to look around the at the weather, your loved ones, the refrigerator,  the general mood of life, and figure out something to eat that uses up what you have and makes you (and others) pretty happy.  Maybe avoids a trip to the store.  Keeps you at home.  Perhaps saves you time by making something that doesn't require cooking from scratch that day.

I often make tapenade, which is generally a mixture of chopped olives and something else.  Spread it on a cracker or toasted baguette.   Of course there's more than one kind.  I have a cracker-licking good one that involves olives, figs, walnuts, and thyme...  Gee!  But I make a regular old kalamata-anchovy-garlic-parsley one that I use to top grilled pork chops or chicken.  I always have some left.  Sometimes I throw it into or on top of an omelette.  But I adore this salad.  The tapenade, some greens, maybe a few sauteed cherry tomatoes..  That's it.   Have a little leftover grilled fish you don't know what to do with?  Throw it in.  Deli chicken?  Shred it and make a meal.  I like it just like it is, though.  A little bread.  A little wine.  A little tapenade salad.  Make some and see.  Even if you bought the tapenade in a plastic bucket at Sam's for a party.

If I don't post again for a little while, I'm on a vacation break.   I've also just begun another Examiner title, so watch for me under the "Food and Drink" section of Colorado Springs for recipes.    More later.

Salade Tapenade
serves 4

8 cups greens of choice
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1 lemon, juiced, divided
3 T olive oil, divided
8T tapenade
1 c cherry tomatoes


Wash and dry salad greens.  Place in a large bowl.  Drizzle a little lemon juice over all and dust with salt and pepper.  Put in frig briefly while you cook the tomatoes and make the dressing.

In a small bowl, whisk together   2T olive oil, 2T lemon juice, and a pinch each of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, and add tomatoes.   Salt and pepper lightly.  Stir and saute for about 5 minutes until tomatoes begin to pop.

Remove greens from frig and divide among four salad plates.  Top with 2T tapenade for each salad.  Spoon the hot tomatoes over the greens.   Drizzle with dressing and serve immediately.

News from the Two-Dog Kitchen and from Around the 'Hood

Well, Tucker survived neutering, but I hardly did.  He's been the weirdest dog and his personality totally changed.  He spent the last week running outside to pee, only to sit down very quickly and look around at the world, as if to say, "What???"   No playing.   Lying around like a dumb bunny.   Jumping up in the middle of my bed.  Crying.  Carrying on.  Finally took him back to the vet today; he's infected himself (a  little)  and given himself a rash.  So I guess you'd act weird, too, with a rash on your tush and a chewed-up incision that hurt.  I guess.  (Eeeck.  Dogs.)

   The weather?  Funny you should ask.
77 and sunny on Mother's Day.  Other days:  rain, snow.... freezing....   I have a couple of pots of flowers already, but am not fool enough to plant anything.  I keep spending my time bringing them in and hauling them out.  In Colorado, you should buy plants on Thursday of Memorial Day Weekend.  Then you'll  have that weekend to plant them, and won't have to go in and out, in and out.   Here, however are a couple of things:

            Flowering crab, left.  Primrose on front path, above.



Sing a new song; don't plant anything,
Alyce

Prune Quick Bread or Something Different for Mother's Day Brunch

Before the quick bread post, click on the link below to send a Mother's Day Card that will work toward ending hunger...  from THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME--BLOGGERS AGAINST HUNGER.  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, FRIENDS...

http://gifts.wfp.org/

                                                NOW ON TO THE BREAD!!

My husband loves this bread.

But, when I mentioned to him (before he tasted it)  that I was working on a recipe for prune bread, he made a face, rolled his eyes and laughed.  Sometimes, we never escape third-grade humor.

I don't cook a lot with prunes, but have remembered a couple of great recipes  lately...one was from THE SILVER PALATE.  I want to say it was Chicken Marabella and it was famous.  The other is a pork roast with prunes that's to exhale repeatedly over. French recipe. OOOOh.  It's lovely. So different.  So smooth.   So company friendly.  Reheats like a champ over the weekend after a Friday night dinner party.

Back to the bread.  I made this bread when I was working on an article called, "Quick Bread 101,"  in which I attempted to work out a basic quick bread recipe that let you add whatever you had on hand ...say bananas, apples, blueberries, etc.  I think I got it right, but this variation is my absolute favorite.  It would be a sweet Mother's Day gift, a great addition to brunch. 

I've been gone a few days to a funeral, so thought it was a good time to bring out the prune bread recipe and share it on the blog.  If you tried it from examiner, sorry.  I have re-written the recipe specifically for prunes.  It makes stuperous muffins!!  (stuperous is my word for something between stupendous and super)

Alyce's mom and nephew Michael.....

Prune Nut Bread        

makes 1 9x5x3  loaf

                                                         

1 c prunes, chopped

1 1/2 c orange juice 

     Simmer chopped prunes in orange juice for about five minutes.   Let cool slightly.

4T melted butter, cooled, or canola oil 

1 egg (you might want to use 2 at altitude)

     Mix cooled butter/oil and egg and add to orange juice and prunes. 

     Set aside.

21/2 c unbleached flour

1 c sugar

3 1/2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 c chopped nuts

     In a large bowl, mix well all dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients and stir just until well-mixed.

Spoon into greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pan.  Bake about 50 minutes until bread is firm to the touch, is pulling away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out with just a few moist crumbs.  Let cool in pan 5 min.   Bang pan on counter or board and turn out onto rack to cool completely before slicing.  Keep well-wrapped on counter for 1-2 days or freeze for up to 2 months.

Can be made into muffins.  Pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 400F 15 min.  Turn out on to rack to cool.

TWO-DOG KITCHEN AND AROUND THE 'HOOD

  As I write, Friar Tuck is over at Dr. Bill's getting a little nip and tuck done to raise his voice.  Yes, Tucker's getting neutered, but, you know, it had to happen.   I apologized ahead of time because he'll be a little groggy afterward.

          ....              .....                .....                         .......

(Below:   Later this afternoon......Poor baby)

.)

Our sour-cherry tree in bloom.  Pie cherries will be ready about the fourth of July.  Come pick before the birds get them all.  If we get up early to bake before the heat comes, we can have pie for the holiday.

Sing a new song; bake a new bread;

Happy Mother's Day!

Alyce

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In Memorium...Carol Curtiss..The Quintessential Lutheran Party Girl..

God, Love Her!