I've been out of touch...

This past couple weeks has been a bit of a struggle. We are in the midst of trying to buy a home and still looking for that combination of affordability, close to our current life and lifestyle (schools, friends, commuter transit etc.) and a place we actually want to live. Not the easiest thing in the Puget Sound region for a single Dad and his 11 year old son & 100 lb dog. Anyway that took some precedent over the cooking and blogging and while I have managed to make it to a taco truck or two, cooking has been usually basic burgers on the grill or a quick salad. Nothing much to write about...

Then on the way to visit my Step-father in the hospital my Mum lost her footing and broke her leg in 2 places. He's 85 and she's 70 so as you can expect they needed help so the day Mum was booted out of the hospital I was in Oregon instead of the Seattle area.

As part of the help though I have been cooking up a storm and the folks live in the Willamette Valley which at this time of year is a tremendous cornucopia of fresh local produce, great locally made cheeses and meats as well as the wine for which the valley is famous. Although I have been cooing up batches of "freezer food" for the microwave after we leave, we have had a few other good experiences with our chow.

Strawberries from Unger Farms in Cornelius, OR over freshly whipped not too sweet cream - OMG these berries are so sweet. We also had them on some of my freshly made farmer cheese. I made a full 2 lb batch and used the majority on a couple of lasagnas but saved some out for toast with farmer cheese and fresh strawberries; truly a sensational dish.

Broken Halo IPA from Widmer Bros in Portland, OR - great hops and extra tasty with the Willamette Valley weather (a bit warm and humid) as well as with the "Backdraft" pizza from 3rd Street Pizza in McMinnville - a fine thin crust with Italian sausage, jalapenos and fresh garlic.

McKibben Ranch beef - we only had the ground beef but the lovely beefy minerally flavor of the all grass fed fresh ground (the ranch and processing is less than 30 miles from where we are) were delicious with Tillamook medium cheddar.

Red Fox Bakery - finally they are making baguettes and although their other breads are very fine I still hold that a bakery cannot be a truly artisan bakery w/o baking a good baguette

Gooseberries, red currants, sylvan berries, boysenberries, strawberries, green and yellow zucchini, 3 or 4 varieties of radishes and baby turnips spicy and sweet along with the numerous salad greens at the local farmer's market have kept us in fine stead and here the growing season begins early enough we can get this kind of thing by early June; most from less than 20 miles away. At home we need to get the early produce from Eastern WA so more than 100 miles away. I like the true locavorian nature of eating here.

Yesterday I whipped up 2 lasagnas, and a large batch of homemade mac & cheese. Today is it arroz con pollo and chili verde both for boil in bag type preparation.

Anyway, I'll try and get back in the swing of things when we get back next week although I may need to come back to Oregon in another week. I wonder what will be on the fresh sheet then...

Hasta

Asparagus Pie Again

I made a lovely asparagus pizza the other night; this time with button mushrooms, fresh garlic and Mama Lil's Kickbutt Goathorn peppers.


This time I put down some crumbled goat cheese, drizzled some of the spicy oil from the Mama il's peppers over (just a wee bit) then topped with the thin sliced button shrooms, slightly blanches asparagus, fresh garlic and a few of the Mama Lil's peppers. Spicy tastes of spring and tasted like a huge indulgence but was rather good for me except for the fact it was so good I ended up eating the entire thing along with some icy cold American lager as the weather was quite warm and this was after a few hours in the yard. A tasty refreshing treat all round for a Friday evening...

Take a look -

Hasta

Red Mill Burgers

Hi everyone! I know I've been absent lately and I guess it is the weather and the end of the school year as well as everything else creeping up and smacking us in the virtual forehead lately that has kept me away from the keyboard. I guess it's more about making the time to get in here and write than anything else but many of you know the scheduling challenges of a league soccer playing 5th grader and his end of the year field trips, projects and ahem catchup homework assignments as well as a full time job, unusually good weather in the Puget Sound and all the attendant yard work that goes with. That's right, summer hit us about 6 weeks early this year and it has been glorious! The best late May and June I can remember since I moved here in 1992. Anyway, back to the food...

I decided to write about a restaurant that gets high praise around the Seattle area. Recently Seattle Metropolitan Magazine ran a feature of the 13 best burgers in the area and we decided to try one of them (this was my 3rd time; 1st time for 10 year old Henry), Red Mill Burgers.

http://www.seattlemet.com/eat-and-drink/articles/restaurants-burgers-0609/

I know this isn't really about frugality but we were on our way to the Sounders v Earthquakes game Saturday and we have been talking about trying the 13 different burgers featured in the article so we stopped. I was not all that hungry and certainly not enough for the burger the blurb was written about (double bacon cheese deluxe) so I went with the onion rings and Henry had the bacon cheese deluxe (the single) and fries. Henry decided against the veg on the burger as he has not gotten there yet so the tomatoes, lettuce and red onions were all left behind and the "Mill Sauce" (a chipotle mayo as I understand it) was on the side. Henry declared the burger "soooo good, you'll have to try one of these Dad" and the onion rings were once again a highlight. The rings have a thick (not too thick) batter with just a hint of cayenne that is crunchy, tasty and stays with the onion rather than dropping off onto the table. Really, REALLY good with the "Mill Sauce".

OK, so I know this is gonna sound like I have chip on my shoulder about this place but that was the all the good part so here comes the rest...

The floor was filthy, not a clean table and the place while only a couple years old by my understanding looked as if it has been open 50+ years and not just the nostalgic accoutrements on the walls either. The staff while clearly having fun with one another did not bring any of that camaraderie or happiness to serving the customers. The person that took our order clearly would have rather been eating cow patties fresh from the field rather than being there; he seemed very unhappy with his lot that day. There was little if any attention paid to the customers; I stood in line for a refill for my soda for which I was charged an extra $.25 unceremoniously along these lines...

Me: I'd like a refill on my soda please (after having waited 7 minutes in line)
Counter person: OK. OTHER PERSON!!!!! (no names)
Other person: That's $.25
Me: Fine
Other person: hands me the refill w/o a word
Me: Thank you
Other person: " "

While the food is good, the single line of service, the battered and filthy interior (unclean restrooms as well).

Overall, I'm still underwhelmed. The two times I have eaten there previously were similar, the burgers slightly better than average but still nothing to write home about and the atmosphere would be OK if it were only somewhat clean. So here goes...

Red Mill Burgers

Food - 6.5 of 10 (5.5 w/o the rings)
Service - 1 of 10
Cleanliness - 0 0f 10
Total - 7.5 of a possible 30

More soon, I'll continue to write about these spots in the article and let you know our thoughts on the burgers of the area.

Tonight, we made burgers again at home. Country Natural beef from Oregon with Tillamook medium cheddar. Way better than Red Mill...

Hasta

Pizza from last night

Asparagus pie w/ farmer cheese and shaved red onions

Last night's pie was a pretty spectacular spring treat if I do say so myself. I didn't grill it as I wanted to stick to tried and true method but it was certainly warm enough yesterday in the great PNW to have not fired up the oven inside but we got a late start so not too much heating up of the house. Anyway, as the above photo and caption tell the asparagus pie story visually, her is the recipe for this delight...

Asparagus pie

• 1/2 Recipe pizza dough
• 4oz Farmer cheese
• 4oz Fresh asparagus
• 1oz Thinly sliced red onion
• 1 Tablespoon good olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh cracked black pepper
• Pinch gray salt

1. Preheat oven & stone to 500F
2. Snap the asparagus at the natural break
   Slice asparagus in half lengthwise
   Nuke asparagus for 45 seconds turning 1/2 way through
   Chill under cold running water to stop the cooking
3. Roll the dough out very thin
4. Top the dough with crumbled farmer cheese
5. Arrange asparagus on top of the cheese
6. Spread out the onion slices
7. Drizzle with olive oil
8. Grind the pepper over the pie and sprinkle lightly with the gray salt
9. Bake for 6-8 minutes depending on the GBD* desired
10. Let rest 2 minutes (if you can) then slice & eat

*Golden Brown Deliciousness


As expected, Henry went for the more traditional 1/2 cheese & 1/2 Salumi pepperoni then decided it too needed photographing so arranged the slices 1 cheese, 1 pepperoni, etc... Here is the outcome...


All in all a fine Friday meal with the lad and a fine start to another fabulous PNW weekend. Off to the farmer's market, the morels are in so maybe an asparagus & morel pie? Hmmm...

Hasta

Friday Evening

I've just put the pizza dough to rise, ground my Rwanda Nyamyumba for the morning and opened a beer so here I sit in front of the keyboard musing away.

First, the PNW weather holds and is supposed to continue on through the weekend and if the longer range forecast is to be believed, even into next week. The garden is going strong as I wrote last night, and the only thing it continues to want at this point is water; I need to water every day when it gets to these high temperatures of mid-seventies as my garden is in pots on my deck or next to the South facing wall of my house both of which tend to just radiate the heat and intensify the sun.

Pizza - Tonight will be fresh asparagus with my own farmer cheese and drizzled with olive oil plus a sprinkling of finely sliced red onions. I'm sure Henry will be a at least a bit more traditional in his choice when he gets home from assisting with the local Waterfront Festival going on this evening.

Coffee - The nyamyumba region is represented by Rwandan farmers with farms overlooking Lake Kivu. I've found this coffee to be lovely and round, rich and bold in flavor while lacking some of the distinctive "fruitiness" or "wine-like" flavors most often associated with African coffees. While there is some fruit deep down the overall velvety, full mouthfeel along with cocoa overtones with enough acidity to balance the cup; why this is some darn tasty brew. I'll need to try and find a bit more of this one but it's a rare find.

Beer - I've been buying quite a bit of Session lager from Full Sail Brewing in Oregon lately. It goes down smooth, has a lot more flavor than the typical American lagers but keeps the same refreshing crispness of NW hops and the lightness showing not too much malt. Also, it comes in "stubby" bottles and they just feel good in my hand. For those of you who still want to try and tell me after all these years that the shape of the bottle doesn't affect the taste, I cry a loud and hearty PSHAW! as in food, presentation is sometimes as much as 50% of the flavor, so goes it with beer and if the package feels good in my hand and the product pouring out of said bottle tastes good then it is just that much better. This beer has been going down nicely with the warm Spring weather of late and accompanied the ribs last night as well as I'm sure it will the asparagus pizza tonight.

Hasta

Well I guess it's summer

A thing of beauty - a rack and some grilled homemade baguette

I hope that doesn't jinx us here in the beautiful PNW as we all know summer doesn't actually begin here until July 5th as it is traditionally rainy and cold through June but lately it feels like summer and we're taking it...

A man on a mission

Anyway, tonight I grilled up some lovely baby back ribs, seasoned with a 50/50 mix of my all purpose grill spice and brown sugar; I made a 1/2 cup of it and used nearly all of it. After letting the ribs sit in the rub and bleed a wee bit of moisture into the spices the rack went onto a low grill for 4 turns of 10 minutes each and it turned out great. This was the first time Henry experienced Dad's ribs as he just discovered how good bone suckin' can be late last year and he proclaimed this one of the best dinners in a while. I love that he's getting enthusiastic about new foods...

Not sure but I think he liked the ribs

Gardening update

The spuds are coming along nicely, in fact possibly too nicely as I have not kept up on keeping them buried and the 1 box has 14" plants already so here is a photo pre-burial. We're heading out for more box material and will build some more of my manufactured soil. the plants sure seem to like it. I'll post a post-burial photo after I get this built up a bit but we did get them buried with the soil I had available this afternoon as well as getting yellow zucchini (I dug a hill in the middle of the lawn), yellow pear tomatoes, sweet millions tomatoes, bunching onions and haricot vert in today as well as a new (well new to me anyway) variety of thyme and finally got the basil in as I believe we actually are past the last killing frost finally.

Pre-burial spuds

Strawberry patch

One of the first 3 strawberries of the year (we ate the other 2 before I could get the camera)

I wish I could remember this variety of strawberries, this is about as large as they get but they are tart and sweet and they bear fruit all summer from late May all the way until the first frost and they aren't big but they are packed with flavor.

That's about it for this evening, cookies and ice cream while we wind down for a nighty night...

Hasta

Monday, Monday

As Memorial Day weekend comes to a close, I sit and muse while suffering through yet another Oregon pinot noir; this time a 2006 Robinson Reserve. Lovely fruit, very "alive" on the palate with a hint of acidity and an almost effervescent brightness stirring it all together. Like a party in my mouth! however sad that party is to be ending now that Memorial Day is done, boo hoo!



Last night I grilled a nice top sirloin from Country Natural farms and it was by far the most tender of that cut I have ever had and the flavor was outta this world! I topped it with the Lime Riesling chimichurri from Sound Bites and accompanied this with salad of baby greens from my garden dressed in Bariani olive oil and Rosy Raspberry vinegar (recipe to follow) along with grilled croutons from my own homemade baguette and my farmer cheese. LOCAVORACIOUS!


Raspberry Vinaigrette

• 1 Tablespoon GREAT olive oil of your choice - Mine is Bariani out of Sacramento
• 1 Tablespoon Rosy Raspberry vinegar
• 1 Scallion - White and light green part only sliced very thin
• 1/4 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 or 4 grinds of fresh cracked black pepper to taste
• 1 Pinch Sea salt of your choice

1. Whisk together and toss in 2 handfuls of baby greens - mine were about 2/3 sweet and 1/2 bitter.
2. Toss gently with your hands

Tonight I did the same dressing with my greens but topped it with my farmer cheese and went again for the Lime Riesling chimichurri marinated halibut I did a few nights ago. The first time I thought the strong flavors of the chimi might overpower the delicate halibut but the fish is fatty enough to shone through. Fresh line caught Alaska halibut is currently $7.98 a lb so I plan on eating far too much of it. In fact I'm eating pieces over 1/2 lb in size each time but what the hell eh? I believe this month won't be very frugal but I'm gonna blame Memorial Day weekend, the great weather and the fact that we have been very active. Big weather and big activity mean big appetites plus it's been a great grilling weekend; 67F each of the last 3 days with nary a cloud in the sky. Anyway, after laundry, long walks with the pooch, getting the lawns mowed, the kitchen through it's Spring cleaning and some plant shopping, I believe I do deserve it...

Hasta