Sesame salmon with chipotle mushroom sauce ...

Recipe upon request.

Sampling Ma Nagel's boiled chicken delight ...

On our paddling trip to the Root River, I cooked up an old time picnic favorite.

Dishing the dishes ...

So I think I will include posts about dishes I cook. I like cooking. I like messing around with recipes. I never record them. Honestly, why would anybody want to make a dish the same way twice?

I won’t post each day; we eat a lot off leftovers. And I won’t repeat a dish unless it’s improved vastly. Maybe I will add photos.

Here goes.

Asparagus pesto pizza
Look here for the original pesto recipe. My changes are in brackets. Use the extra on pasta at another meal.

Pesto recipe:
1 pound asparagus
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 or 3 medium garlic cloves [2 teaspoons bottled spanish garlic]
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 ounces freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about 2/3 cup) [4 oz. Asiago]

Added ingredients:
Put down a bed of caramelized chopped onions on the pizza crust.
Next lather on the pesto.
Chop 1 tomato and toss it on top of the pesto.
Put a sprinkling of cheese for looks.

Pizza crust:
Use a biscuit recipe using 2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of sesame seeds.

Next time:
I will use diced smoked salmon on the pizza. It’s yummy as is but it can use a bit of bite.

Wow. Here’s a sidebar on the recipe sent by my brother Jim: A condition known as pine mouth caused by pine nuts.

Practicing for Dussy ...

One of the most enjoyable aspects of visiting Chris in Düsseldorf is cooking for the clan in his apartment house. Here’s a gorgonzola pizza using a biscuit crust, the crust idea compliments of Basil’s, a restaurant in Northfield, MN, we supped at when the boys were in college at St. Olaf long ago. And of course it’s on the web today.

Add a touch of hot sesame oil and this is a winner ...

A nice way to use the leftover fish, and rice, from yesterday’s dinner: Asian salmon and rice soup.

Stollen, Barb style ...

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The stollen time of year ...

More than you ever wanted to know about stollen is here (image source); nice article here.

If there were no such thing as calories, wouldn't we eat donuts everyday? ...

As it is, we make them just for Hanukkah. And then just the holes.

Photogenic food 1 ...

A pumpkin soup at a restaurant in Staufen, Germany.

A marzipan cake from a shop in Hilden, Germany.

Featherstone Farm Fest ...

Tomatillo salsa day ...

A short cookbook of dough bait recipes

I like set bait fishing and a bobber makes me very happy, so the dough bait recipes at bottom interest me. First, as a follow up to yesterday’s note on catfish bait, here’s the recipe I used:
* half cup cornmeal
* half cup flour
* tablespoon oil
* teaspoon flavored oil, almond
* sufficient water to mix
Adjust ingredients to get a doughy mix. Separate into one inch balls. Tie into spawn sacks.

Apparently catfish like their dough stinky, while carp like it sweet. And even trout will take a bite.

How to Know What Ingredients to Use for Carp Fishing Bait
How to make carp dough bait
How to Make Cheese Catfish Dough Bait
How to Make Homemade Trout Dough Bait | Rainbow Trout Lures​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Minnesota summer 3

Food

Waffle good

Photo by Bekkah

Pizza contest

I wanted to try out the Brightcove video use. The company is run by Jeremy Allaire, who once collected baseball cards with Chris. Slick!

Pizza history

Maybe I'm simply hungry.

At the height of the Persian Empire, it is said that the soldiers of Darius the Great (521-486 B.C.), accustomed to lengthy marches, baked a kind of bread flat upon their shields and then covered it with cheese and dates.

Text source
Image source

New and improved soup

I revised the squash and leek soup recipe. It was a Channukah chit.

Wild rice soupreme

A family favorite for holidays.

Preparation time 1 hour
Serves 6-8

wild rice, 3/4 cup
butter, 1/2 cup
onions, 2 large
fresh mushrooms, 8 oz.
carrot, grated
celery stalk
flour, 1/2 cup
chicken broth, 8 cups
(dried mushrooms, 2)
half and half, 2 cups
sherry, 1/2 cup
salt, 1 tbs
sprinkling fresh parsley
pepper, red or black

Soak wild rice overnight. Boil 4 times for 2 minutes each time. Pour off the water between boilings. Set aside.

Chop onions and celery. Grate carrot. Slice mushrooms. Melt butter in a soup pot. Add onions, carrot, celery, and a pinch of salt. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in flour.

Add chicken broth. (Grind up dried mushrooms and add powder to pot with broth.) Bring to boil.

Lower the heat to simmer, and add half and half, sherry, and salt.

Add the wild rice and a dash of ground pepper. (Or use red pepper flakes instead.)

Roasted butternut squash and leek soup

We served this last night. Gen wanted the recipe. So I am reconstructing what I did here.

Trim out the flesh from 5 lbs. of squash. Chunk it, oil, and bake in a hot oven for 30-40 minutes till it browns a bit.

Chop up 4 leeks. Saute in a soup pan with butter, slightly browning, and 8 sprigs of thyme. Take out the sprigs when the leeks are softened and browning. Take out the leeks.

Add 1 Tbs. of butter to the pot. Melt. Add 1/4 cup of wine. Stir it up and deglaze the pot. Stir. Add 2 Tbs. of flour. Add 1 tsb. of cumin. Stir.

Add the leeks. Add 6 c. of broth, salt, pepper.

Add the squash.

Blend the whole kabash. Put it back in the soup pot. Check seasonings. Serve very warm. Serves 6.

Add a topping: chives, pumpkin seeds, croutons, parmesan, red pepper flakes.