Strawberry rhubarb sorbet

Strawberry rhubarb sorbet

From “The Perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz

Ingredients

12 ounces rhubarb, cut into ½-inch pieces

2/3 cup water

¾ cup sugar

10 ounces fresh washed strawberries, hulled and sliced

½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Method

Combine rhubarb, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until the rhubarb is tender. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Puree strawberries and rhubarb mixture in a food processor until smooth. Chill thoroughly. Freeze according to ice cream maker instructions.

Rating: It turns out a recipe can be both nice and disappointing. If no one had told me there was rhubarb in the recipe, I would have thought it was a nice pleasant, mildly sweet refreshing dessert. And it is, but it's one that sadly gives no clue that it contains rhubarb, which is why I tried it in the first place. To recipe makers everywhere, I say: Embrace the rhubarb! Dave, however, enjoyed it wholeheartedly. It reminded him of when one of his grandmothers would give him a box of frozen strawberries to eat. (The other one would give him frozen raspberries. As he says, "If you work it right, the world can be your grandmother.")

Chicken with olives and sun-dried tomatoes; salade verte aux fines herbes

The announcement that McDonald's was delivering in the metro area struck me as appalling somehow, although I can't quite articulate why. Perhaps it's because at least before people had to make an effort to pick up that generally unhealthful food. I concede that there have long been plenty of unhealthful food options available for home delivery, so it should really make no difference. And it's not as if all food prepared at home qualifies as healthful, either. But still.

Admittedly, most lives do need some short-cut meals. This meal counts as my version of fast food -- something that lets me get passable food on the table after a weeknight stroll on a pleasant evening after FINALLY getting home despite Minneapolis' best efforts to make traversing city streets impossible. That's getting really old.

Chicken with olives and sun-dried tomatoes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Everyday Food, April 2005

Ingredients

3 cups water

¼ cup dry-packed sun-dried tomato halves

2 tablespoons lemon zest

½ cup pitted Kalamata olives, sliced lengthwise

1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

4 boneless chicken breast halves

Method

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add sun-dried tomatoes and lemon zest. Simmer until tomatoes have softened, about 5 minutes. Drain and pat tomatoes dry. Slice into strips. (The remaining water, strained, made a really good basis for risotto the next night.)

Combine tomatoes, zest, 1 teaspoon olive oil plus ¼ teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper.

If your chicken breasts are particularly thick, pound them down to less than an inch thick. Rub chicken breasts with remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place chicken in a 9-by-13 pan. Top with tomato mixture and cover tightly with foil. At this point the chicken can be refrigerated until ready to use, up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake, covered with foil for 20 to 30 minutes or until cooked through. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Rating: Fine, but not a wower, although Dave was rather fond of it. But it was a perfectly fine weeknight meal paired with a salad and red quinoa. Since I'd prepped the tomato mixture the night before, it came together quickly.




Salade verte aux fines herbes 
(which somehow sounds fancier than green salad with fresh herbs)
Adapted from "Paris Bistro Cooking" by Linda Dannenberg

Ingredients
1 small head Boston lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1 small head curly endive, broken into pieces
4 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chervil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
6 celery leaves

Method
Combine lettuce and endive in a large bowl.

Combine peanut oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk to make a vinaigrette. Just before serving, drizzle over greens. Top with herbs and toss together. Divide among 4 serving plates.

Rating: Just a simple fresh salad, which is pretty hard to beat, especially when you just stepped out to the garden to pick the herbs. Life is just a little better when you pick from your own potager. (But traffic still sucks.)

Drink and a nosh: Coconut vodka cosmo and black olive potato chips

It might not come as a surprise to learn that I over-buy baking ingredients at the holidays. I'm always planning to make a few more things that I run out of time to get to, and those ingredients languish. This time it was flaked coconut, which was about to get past its prime. What better way to revive it than soaking it in vodka? And yes, it's probably bad that that sort of question naturally occurs to me.

This recipe made use of two liqueurs I made, the coconut vodka below, and orange liqueur I made for a previous Christmas.

Caribbean cosmo
Adapted from PearlVodka.com, which naturally used Pearl Coconut Vodka

Ingredients
2 ounces coconut vodka
1 ounce Triple Sec or other orange liqueur
2 ounces cranberry juice
Lime slice for garnish

Method
Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lime slice.

Rating: Delicious. A nice balance of coconut, orange and cranberry flavors.

Coconut vodka
From SavvyHousekeeping.com

Ingredients
5 cups vodka
2.5 cups flaked coconut

Combine ingredients in a bowl, cover and let rest for two days. Strain into a bottle and store in the freezer to have it cocktail chill.

Rating: It really does pick up the coconut flavor, and it's way better than tossing the coconut into the compost. And being me, I stored the vodka-soaked coconut in the freezer, pondering coffee cake possibilities ...Especially if combined with the ginger slices used to make the simple syrup recently ...

Black olive potato chips
From "Stir" by Barbara Lynch

Ingredients
1 russet potato, peeled
Black olive tapenade, either purchased or homemade
Oil for frying, a cup or more
Fleur de sel or other coarse salt

Method
Trim the rounded parts off the potato so you're working with a rectangle. Thinly slice, ideally with a mandoline since you're going for very thin slices. 

(Full disclosure: I didn't bother to square up the potato, but it would have made things easier to match up and no doubt make for prettier presentation. I used a monstrously large potato, which made for a life-time achievement award. A more moderate-size potato will make it easier, particularly if you're using a mandoline.)

Heat cooking oil in a small saucepan. You're looking for depth here, not width, with an oil-to-pan ratio that gives you about three inches of oil for frying. Heat until a drop of liquid sizzles feverishly.

Put about ¼ teaspoon of tapenade on a potato slice. Top with another slice and press edges together. Put three to four of the potato chip sandwiches into the hot oil. Cook for a few minutes, flipping to brown evenly. Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat endlessly.

Sprinkle drained chips with fleur de sel or coarse salt. Serve with more tapenade on the side if desired.

Rating: Very tasty, but tedious. No way would I do this for a party appetizer; it's just not practical, although your guests would adore you. A handful as appetizers if you have a few friends over for dinner, maybe. Or a few on the side of a salad would be a smashing alternative to croutons. And as much trouble as they were, I am contemplating what they'd be like filled with a roasted red pepper artichoke tapenade I like to make.

As I said, I used a massive potato and regretted it. So I freely confess that after awhile I bailed and just fried the chips without filling them, sprinkled them with salt and garlic powder and served them with tapenade on the side. They were still hopelessly tasty. And I almost regret finding out how good they were. Because I really don't need another time-consuming addiction.

Play along: "Notes of Blue" by Son Volt, available streaming on Amazon Prime

Provencal style snapper

Red snapper Provencal style

From "Paris Bistro Cooking" by Linda Dannenberg
This recipe comes from La Fontaine De Mars. The restaurant uses daurade, a Mediterranean fish not available here. The recipe suggests red snapper, porgy, group or orange roughy instead. Red snapper was the only option from the nice man at the Kowalski's meat counter, where he always seems thrilled that someone wants to buy something.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced onions
2 tomatoes, sliced
2 8-ounce fillets of red snapper or similar fish
1 sprig parsley
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
Pinch of saffron
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Method
Saute onions in hot oil over low heat until soft, but not brown, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook about 2 minutes more. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350. Place fish in a baking dish and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.

Wrap parsley, thyme and bay leaf in cheesecloth to make a bouquet garni. Tuck in between fillets. (If you don't have cheesecloth, I suspect you could get by with just tucking the herbs in between the fillets; you'll just have to fish them out separately later.)

Spoon onions and tomatoes over top of the fish.

Combine wine with saffron. Stir in tomato paste. Pour mixture over fish in pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle parsley over fish for garnish.

The original recipe calls for it to be served with white rice. I used quinoa instead. In any case, serve it with something to sop up the sauce, since that's the best part.

Rating: The saffron in the sauce is definitely nice. The fish is fine. The dish isn't a wower, for some reason. I'm considering trying it again over chicken breasts, which need more help than does the fish.

Followup note: I've since tried this again over chicken breasts. A very nice treatment.

Drink and a nosh: Campari frappe, and smoked trout spread

Campari frappe

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Taste, Summer 2002

Ingredients

1/8 cup water

1/8 cup sugar

½-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

¼ cup Campari

1 cup fresh ruby red grapefruit juice

½ lime, thinly sliced

Method

Heat water to a simmer. Add sugar and ginger, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Remove ginger.

Combine the resulting simple syrup, Campari, grapefruit juice, lime and crushed ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake well and poor mixture, including ice, into a glass. 

Rating: Very refreshing and tasty on a hot summer day. The ginger note doesn't really make it through against the more assertive grapefruit juice and Campari, but it's a nice blend. I love anythng with Campari, so I'm not complaining. Might try the ginger simple syrup in something else where it gets to show off more.



Our North Shore vacation souvenirs skew toward the food and drink aisles. This appetizer made good use of smoked trout from Dockside Fish Market in Grand Marais.

Smoked trout brandade
From "Great Parties" from Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients
8 ounces smoked trout, skin and bones removed
1 tablespoon chopped shallots
9 tablespoons cream
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
Black pepper to taste
1 baguette, sliced into crostini-size and toasted
Chervil leaves for garnish

Method
Combine trout, shallots, cream, horseradish and pepper in a food processor. Process until smooth. (You could prepare this part ahead if you wanted for party purposes.) Spread mixture generously on toasted bread. Garnish with chervil leaves.

Rating: A perfectly respectable and tasty use of some of the precious smoked trout. Could bear repeating, as could our vacation.

Play along: "Storyteller" by Tine Thing Helseth Who knew the trumpet could sound that wistful?

Tomato beer puttanesca sauce

Pasta with tomato-beer puttanesca sauce

Adapted from Saveur’s “The New Classics Cookbook”

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup capers

8 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

8 cloves garlic, smashed

6 oil-packed anchovy fillets, chopped

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (the original called for 4 Fresno chiles, but this was literally all I had in the house)

8 gherkins, chopped

2 red onions, chopped

1 28-ounce can tomatoes in juice

1 bottle dark malty beer

¾ cup chopped Kalamata olives

1 pound dried pasta, cooked to al dente

8 caper berries for garnish

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Method

Heat oil in four-quarter saucepan. Add capers, garlic, anchovies, red pepper flakes, gherkins and red onions. Cook over medium heat until onions are softened. Add tomatoes, breaking up pieces, and beer. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1½ hours over medium-low heat, or until sauce is thickened.

Remove from heat. Puree sauce in a blender or food processor. Return to pan, add kalamatas and keep warm while you cook pasta.

Add drained cooked pasta to pot. Add some of pasta cooking liquid as needed to make desired sauce consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve topped with caper berries and parsley.

Rating: Fine. A duskier, deeper and less brash flavor than your standard puttanesca sauce. It's the non fast-food version of the usual quick fix designed for, um,post-night shift. It was fine enough, but not sure it really brought enough to the party to justify the extra time. But the Warsteiner Dunkel we bought to use in this was tasty.

Drink and a nosh: North Shore cocktail, and olive sun-dried tomato spread

 

If you google "north shore" and cocktail, you'll get a hit for this recipe from the Vikre Distillery. Since we found ourselves at a liquor store in Duluth, we picked up some of their Lake Superior vodka and gave the recipe a try.

North Shore cocktail

From Vikre Distillery. They list this as one of their for "town" recipes as opposed to for the lake, but we stretched a point and made it lakeside at the cabin.

Ingredients

2 ounces vodka

½ ounce freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

¼ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

¾ ounce simple syrup

Method

Shake ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a cocktail glass. 

Rating: Fine. A tad sweet, so if I make it again I might use less simple syrup. Which is a little less simple if you find yourself at a cabin and have to make a tiny batch with most of the cache of sugar I took up for sprinkling on scones to bake for breakfast. And improvising a cocktail shaker adds to the fun. Perhaps I need one of these.

 

I always bring along some multipurpose spread in our packed 40-quart cooler.

Olive and sun-dried tomato spread

From “Lee Bailey’s Portable Food.” I have sometimes substituted sun-dried tomato paste and anchovy paste when that's all I had on hand.

Ingredients

¼ cup pitted chopped oil-cured olives

½ cup chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives

½ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

½ cup chopped canned pimientos

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 anchovy fillets, mashed

2 teaspoons minced garlic

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon black pepper

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

Method

Combine olives, tomatoes, pimientos, parsley, anchovies, garlic, oregano, lemon juice and pepper. Stir into the cream cheese until well blended.

Rating: This is a very versatile and tasty spread. In addition to using it on grilled bread slices for an appetizers, we used it on sandwiches using some porketta we bought at Northern Waters Smokehaus in Duluth.  A dollop on a grilled steak worked like a flavored butter.  

Everything tastes better at the lake watching hummingbirds doing their swoop-swoop dive bomb at each other. Male hummingbirds are massively aggressive, not passive. Catching a hummingbird in flight? Not so easy a shot through the window as you might think. But a great show with Lake Superior as a back drop. It was 44 degrees when we woke up in Croftville this morning. It was 89 degrees when we pulled off the freeway this afternoon. Ooof.

Play along: Any soundtrack is good with that view, but we were skewing a little classical this time. The soundtrack to "Love Is Strange" filled the bill. It's available streaming for free on Amazon Prime.