dinner tonight: chicken pasta salad is fresh for spring

Here's a very simple recipe that you can throw together quickly for dinner or lunch.  It's fresh and savory: a perfect combination for Spring!  I've gotten great compliments on it.

CHICKEN PASTA SALAD

For the salad:
1/2 pound of uncooked rotini
1 cup frozen peas
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 breasts of chicken, cooked and chopped (or use Rotisserie or canned chicken)

For the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain yogurt
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the noodles according to package instructions.  During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the frozen peas to the cooking water.  Meanwhile, mix the dressing in a separate bowl until well-combined.  Drain pasta and peas and run cold water over them for a couple of minutes until they are sufficiently cooled.  Pour into a large bowl.  Add chicken, celery, and onion.  Toss with the dressing and serve!

Note: this salad may be served immediately but it tastes even better if allowed to chill for at least a few hours.

dinner tonight: sweet potato shepherd's pie

As with most of my recipes, this one came about with excess produce in my fridge and the need for inventiveness!

SWEET POTATO SHEPHERD'S PIE

For the topping:
3 medium-large sweet potatoes, cubed
3/4 cup milk
2 TBS butter

For the pie filling:
20 oz. ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
6 stalks celery, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 cup light sour cream
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the cubed sweet potatoes in boiling water 20 minutes or until fork tender.  Mash together with butter and milk until fairly smooth.

Salt and pepper the ground turkey and then brown it in a few teaspoons of olive oil.  Remove meat from frying pan and drain any fat.  Add a few more teaspoons of olive oil and saute the onion, celery and carrots until tender and onion is translucent.  Add ground turkey back in, along with spices and sour cream.  Combine and spread this mixture evenly in a large casserole dish.  Smoothly spread mashed sweet potatoes across the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Enjoy!  This is a savory and delicious winter weeknight meal!

summer vegetable spaghetti

I got a bounty from the farmer's market this week, so I thought I'd adapt my usual spaghetti sauce recipe to incorporate some of my delicious fresh veggies.

Here's the recipe:

SUMMER VEGETABLE SPAGHETTI
For the sauce:
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 cup zucchini, diced
3-15 oz. cans of diced tomatoes
1-15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 TBS dried oregano
2 TBS dried basil
1 tsp. fennel seed
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
Splash of Balsamic Vinegar

1 lb. of spaghetti

Heat 2 TBS olive oil over medium-high heat in a large dutch oven or similar pan.  Add garlic, onion, carrot and zucchini and saute till tender and slightly browned.  Add remaining ingredients, including 2 more TBS of olive oil.  Heat till boiling then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour.  Right before serving, put in a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Serve over whole wheat spaghetti with fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano sprinkled on top.  Serve zucchini sauteed in olive oil with salt and fresh ground pepper on the side.

the farmer's market is my happy place

Check out the colors on this beautiful farmer's market produce!

One of the best parts about living in the Flathead Valley is the Kalispell Farmer's Market, which takes place every Saturday morning at the mall parking lot.  Whereas many farmer's markets have very few vendors and high prices, this market has a wonderful variety of goods and vendors, along with pretty affordable prices.

When I lived overseas as a child, I used to love to go to the outdoor markets carrying our woven re-usable shopping bags to watch Mom bargain for vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat.  The smells, the bright colors, the warm sun, the sounds of many voices haggling together...I have many happy memories.  When I step into any outdoor market, I feel welcomed back into that special time in my childhood. 

Find of the day: zucchini bigger than my head for 50 cents!

On a typical day at the Kalispell Farmer's Market, you will find vendors selling artwork, wooden toys, handmade soap, local honey, local pork, fresh vegetables, fresh plants, fresh cut flowers, local cherries, sewn crafts, locally made organic spice mixes, clothing...you name it.  I love wandering down the aisles of vendors, a Pain au Chocolat in hand (baked that morning by a vendor), holding my daughter's hand, enjoying the warm sunshine, shopping bag over my arm.  It's my happy place.  Too bad summer will be over soon.

P.S. I plan to throw most of the veggies in the first photo (except the tomatoes) into a Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir-fry for supper.  It's one of my favorite ways to prepare lots of fresh veggies, and believe me, there is no comparison between store-bought veggies and fresh-from-the-garden veggies.  None.

"use up what's in my fridge" pizza

I used to have such a limited idea of what constituted a pizza.  Normal was a pepperoni 'za with traditional red sauce and mozzarella cheese.  Extra special was a stuffed crust pizza, with more cheese stuck in the (gasp!) crust edges.  Over the top was a combo pizza, with all the meat and veggie options.

I have seen the light.  I still remember the day I tried my first Neapolitan-style pie, from Punch Pizza in the Twin Cities.  A group of people from seminary was trying out new culinary experiences and a professor led us there to try out the pizza.  I had never before experienced pizza with San Marzano tomatoes and olive oil instead of sauce.  The quality of ingredients!  The wood fired pizza!  The strong and distinctive flavors!  Pizza as I knew it was never going to be the same again.

I still enjoy a good, old-fashioned pepperoni pizza, but the ingredients had better be good and fresh.  We've got great pizza locally here in the Flathead Valley, in particular at When in Rome (Bigfork, MT) where chef, Engjell Vrapi, knows what he's doing.  Actually, he knows what he's doing when it comes to every morsel I have ever eaten of anything at When in Rome.  But in particular, he knows what he's doing with pizza.  The pepperoni pizza here uses the best quality of pepperoni, with a zesty red sauce and wonderful cheese.  The crust is thin and rustic.  The Italian Garden pizza, "Best Pizza Ever" (an award-winning combo), and Pesto pizza are also favorites.

Now that I've found real pizza, with high quality ingredients, I do my best to come up with winning combinations for pizza at home too.  You might recall the recently posted BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza, which incorporates my all-time favorite homemade pizza crust, a whole wheat crust found in Step-By-Step to Natural Food; Cancer Prevention through the Wholistic way of Eating.

I've also found that pizza is one of my favorite ways to use up good morsels in my fridge.  With a little creativity, leftovers can be presented artfully.

Last night, I put together my latest "Use Up What's In My Fridge" Pizza.  Of course, you have to start by having some good stuff in your fridge to use up!  Here's a recipe for last night's pizza.  Use it as inspiration to create your own "Use Up" Pizza!

USE UP WHAT'S IN MY FRIDGE PIZZA
For the crust:
See recipe book above or use a favorite pre-made pizza crust such as Boboli

For the toppings:
3/4 c. sundried tomatoes in olive oil
1/4 c. olive oil
2 colorful bell peppers (I used red and yellow)
1 yellow onion, sliced
1/2 c. Kalamata olives (sliced in half)
3/4 c. goat cheese, crumbled

Heat oven to broiling.  Line a broiler pan with aluminum foil.  Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds.  Flatten the peppers with your fist, on the broiler pan. Broil for 20 minutes, until blackened.  After peppers have broiled, sweat them in a Ziploc bag for 10-15 minutes.  Then peel their skin and slice into strips.

Blend or process the sun dried tomatoes with the 1/4 c. olive oil until smooth.  Meanwhile, heat a couple TBS of olive oil or butter until sizzling in a large skillet.  Cook the onion at a high heat for a few minutes, then reduce the heat and cook low and slow for 20-30 minutes until caramelized. 

Bake your pizza crust (if you are making it from scratch).  Once crust is baked, spread your sun-dried tomato puree over the crust.  Then layer peppers, onion, and olives.  Finally, crumble cheese all over your pizza.  Bake at 425 degrees for 5-7 minutes.  Yum!

red cabbage slaw

A lot of my recipe inspirations come from having lots of extra veggies in my fridge that I don't want to go to waste.  In this case, I had lots of red cabbage and radishes left over from pulled pork tacos.  I pulled out Betty Crocker's Cookbook and adapted her Sweet-and-Sour Coleslaw to my own ingredients.  You can adapt too, according to what you have in your fridge.  This salad would make a great side for a family barbecue or for a church potluck.  In fact, I think I had something similar at a church potluck once (and come to think of it, the lady who made it thought Betty Crocker's cookbook was the best on earth!).  Here's my creation:

For the slaw:
2 cups red cabbage, shredded
2 cups shredded carrots

6-10 radishes, sliced thin (or more, if you like it)
1/2-1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

For the dressing:
1/2 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (or substitute a vinegar you have)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 TBS Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp celery seed (very important ingredient)
1/2 tsp salt

Toss the veggies together in a large bowl.  Wisk the dressing together in a small bowl and toss that in as well.

For a fun variation, you might want to add some dried fruit to the salad, like raisins, yellow raisins, dried cranberries, or dried cherries.  You could also top with toasted sliced almonds for a classy touch.

Enjoy!

bbq pulled pork pizza

When we lived in North Dakota, we visited a local, hole-in-the wall pizza chain called Rhombus Guys.  They specialized in lots of unique combinations for pizzas.  One of our favorites was the Pulled Pork Pizza, which has pork, jerk sauce, onions, pepperocinis, tomato, and red peppers.  My recipe below is in homage to Rhombus Guys and their mouth-watering combination.  Both the original and my version are crave-worthy and great for a summer dinner.

First, to get your pulled pork, you need a boneless pork shoulder.  I cooked mine in the crockpot for about 6 hours on low with nothing more than salt and pepper and a bottle of my favorite BBQ sauce.

We had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner (with homemade oven fries) and then I had leftovers to use for my pizza.

BBQ PULLED PORK PIZZA
2 cups leftover pulled pork
1 red onion, sliced
1 yellow, red, or orange bell pepper, cut into long strips
2 TBS butter
1 c. extra barbecue sauce
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)

Pizza crust (My favorite recipe is for whole wheat pizza crust, found in Step-By-Step to Natural Food; Cancer Prevention through the Wholistic way of Eating, but you could also buy a prepared pizza crust or use your own favorite recipe.)

Heat the butter in a large skillet at medium-high heat till sizzling, then add onion.  Cook until onion begins to soften, then turn down heat to medium.  Cook for 20-30 minutes until onion gets very soft and begins to caramelize.  Add bell pepper to the pan to soften them and bring out their sweetness.  Cook about 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on your veggies to make sure they do not start to burn.

Meanwhile, bake your pizza crust.  Once your crust is baked and your veggies are cooked, spread your crust with half of your barbecue sauce.  Next, layer your veggies, followed by your pulled pork.  Drizzle the rest of your barbecue sauce over the pizza, and top with your cheese.  Bake for 5-10 minutes at 425 degrees, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

how to avoid the 5 o'clock dinner panic

In talking to other moms lately, I've discovered that many of them suffer from the 5 o'clock dinner panic.  As in, "Yikes!  I've been busy all day and it's 5 o'clock and I have no idea what I'm making for dinner!"  I won't mislead you into thinking that I never suffer from this feeling (life happens, right?), but I've been able to limit it quite a bit by coming up with a system of meal-planning that works for me.  I'd like to share a few tips with you.  Without too much time and effort, you really can have a nice, healthy, affordable meal every night, instead just another plate of scrambled eggs.

Tips to help you avoid the 5 o'clock dinner panic:
1) Plan an entire week of meals in advance.  You can use the pad of paper method to do this, but ever since being inspired by The Mrs. over at her blog, I've found it more helpful to scratch out a rough draft on my note pad and then transfer the plan to my erasable board above the sink.  That way, rather than scrambling around the house to find the ever-elusive notepad, I can easily locate my list.  It is also helpful for Christopher.  With just a quick glance at the board, he can know what is for dinner (and theoretically, whether to rush home or make other plans!).

2) When planning your meals for the week, take into account which nights will be busier than others, which nights will involve eating somewhere else (such as church potlucks or dinners out), and so on.  Since my husband is a pastor, I try to touch base with him the day I'm working on the meal plan and find out if he has any evening meetings.  I often plan leftovers or simpler meals such as spaghetti for evenings he will be out, so that everything will be ready on time (I have a habit of taking far longer than expected to cook meat dishes so it's good to be able to control the time with simple meals).

3) It is very helpful to take a half hour or so and go through the grocery ads for your area for the week before making your meal plan.  Get to know what is a good price for each item and circle great sales in the ads.  Building your dinners around as many on sale or already stocked-up items will help tremendously in budget-consciousness.  Building dinners around what's on sale also helps give you variety to your meals, because obviously the same things will not be on sale every week. 

4) Stay stocked up on key grocery items that won't spoil and that you find yourself using in meal after meal.  We have a Costco membership and always stay stocked up items such as low sodium chicken broth, red and black beans, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, pasta, pre-shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and so on.  It becomes much easier to build your meal plan when you have less items to purchase, and your staples already sit on your shelves.

5) Regularly take time to peruse your favorite cookbooks or cooking magazines.  Take note of key ingredients and file interesting recipes away so that when those ingredients go on sale, you can pick out the appropriate recipe.  For example, I subscribe to Cooking Light Magazine and draw many of my recipes from there.  I pay attention to the seasonal nature of many of the recipes.  Often a produce item will go on sale when it is in season.  I also subscribe to favorite food blogs like the Pioneer Woman Cooks and I find that the more I peruse these along with my favorite cookbooks, the more I begin to understand how food works.  I find myself remembering interesting recipes when grocery items go on sale.  And I find myself able to cook up recipes of my own far more easily because I have seen similar recipes side by side and understand how ingredients work together.

6) Plan for leftover food nights.  I have found that when I don't plan to use my leftovers, all too often they go to waste.  So if I'm going to make a big meal with leftovers like chicken pot pie or pot roast, I try to plan it to be made near a day when we can eat the leftovers.  Leftovers aren't very good if they are more than a couple of days old, and they need to be used promptly.  So if I'm going to be away from home a couple of evenings in a row, then I won't make my big meal the day before I'm to be away.  I'll wait until I plan to be home for several days in a row.

7) Use your meals that require lots of fresh produce items first, if you can.  Fresh produce items tend to spoil quickly so if I'm cooking with zucchini or cilantro or fresh tomatoes, I try to plan meals involving these ingredients for earlier in the week.  Otherwise, I find that my produce may go to waste.

8) Read through the recipe for the evening ahead of time.  Sometimes it will happen that you didn't realize the meat would take 2 hours to cook or that there was an extra prep step that you didn't know about.  If you have a clear idea of how long dinner will take to cook, you will be able to start in time to get it on the table by 6 PM (or whenever dinner is in your house).

9) Once your meal-plan is sketched out for the week, put in on your erasable board, make your grocery list and stock your kitchen.  You'll be patting yourself on the back when you realize it's 5 o'clock and dinner is not only planned; it's in the oven!

Questions?  Shoot them my way and I'll see if I can tackle them for you.

Note added July 24: After writing this post, I found a fantastic website with some great ideas for how to go about meal planning.  Check it out here.

turkey and sun-dried tomato lasagna

Here's a savory, garlicky delight, straight from my kitchen.

TURKEY AND SUN-DRIED TOMATO LASAGNA
Pasta:
Half a pound of no-boil lasagna noodles

For the sauce:
20 ounces of lean ground turkey
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
4 TBS sundried tomatoes in olive oil
1 red pepper, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. fennel seed
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

For the cheese layer:
1 15 oz. container of Ricotta cheese (preferably low fat)
2 cups of Italian blend shredded cheese (such as mozzarella and Parmesan)
2 eggs

For the topping:
1-2 cups of Italian blend shredded cheese
Begin by preparing sauce.  Cook ground turkey with the onion, garlic, and red pepper until meat is broken up and fully cooked, and the veggies are tender.  Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and spices.  Stir until simmering.  Meanwhile, stir ingredients for cheese layer together in a bowl.  Layer in a long lasagna pan, starting with sauce.  Then add noodles, cheese, sauce, noodles, cheese, sauce and finally cheese topping.  Bake covered at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes.  Remove aluminum foil and bake for 5-10 more minutes till cheese is well melted.  Allow to stand for 15 minutes before serving.  Serve with steamed broccoli or a nice green salad with fresh vinaigrette.

perfect for a hot summer day: shredded pork tacos

This meal will feed a crowd, so if you're having a neighborhood get-together, pull out the crock pot and this recipe and prepare to impress them with delicious tropical flavors.

I have made these shredded pork tacos several ways.  When I lived in North Dakota, I couldn't find the specialty ingredients that I needed, so I found a jarred chipotle simmering sauce to use instead and added extras like the honey, oregano and garlic to spice things up some more.  Here in Montana, I had trouble finding the ancho chiles, so I made the recipe without them once.  It was still really good.  The pasilla chiles and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce provide enough flavor even without the ancho chiles.  Later I found ancho chiles on the bulk spice rack at my local natural foods store, so I bought three, put them in the microwave with a little water at the bottom and cooked them till they were tender.  I was then able to open them up and remove the seeds.  They were delicious that way too.

The recipe on Food Network's website doesn't say what toppings to add to your tacos, but the original magazine that I found the recipe in did.  They suggest using: chunks of mango, chunks of avocado, lime wedges, cilantro, jicama, red cabbage, and queso fresco.  I suggest using the cheaper and still delicious feta cheese instead of queso fresco. 

Here's one more tip: Chipotles in adobo sauce come in a small can, but you'll have lots of leftovers since you only need a couple peppers for the recipe.  Try using sandwich bags to freeze the remaining peppers in small batches of two or three.  You'll save money next time you make the recipe and you can always throw them into other recipes too.  Less waste!

creative suppers on the cheap (I)

Since going down to one income, our family has had to do some budgetary adjustments.  We are much more conscious of what we are spending on groceries and much less willing to throw out leftovers or produce.  I won't say we perfectly use every last morsel, but we do try a lot harder to waste very little.  Whereas I used to plan my menus around what I wanted to eat, now I plan them around what is on sale.  However, I find that I can always find something delicious to make, even with more budgetary constraints.

Food is important to me.  While I never starved as a kid, there were years when food wasn't the most plentiful.  I tend to stock up enough food so that I never have to worry about being hungry.

But food doesn't just inspire sad memories in me.  Some of my happiest memories are about food too.  I just got a book from the library called What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.  One essay in this book asks the question, "Why do we cook, when it's not necessary for life?"  The answer the authors come up with is that cooking is something that is simply very human.  It adds a powerful dimension of creature comfort to our lives.  It separates us from the animal kingdom.  I would add that it is a powerful burst of creativity.  It even brings some meaning to our lives.  My favorite quote from an interview during my freelance writing days was when a cook told me that she felt cooking was one of the most intimate things you could do for another human being because when you cook something, it becomes a part of them.  Cooking means sharing in community, sharing in creativity, bringing something of beauty to the lives of those around you.  It brings people together.  It brings joy into my heart.

All this to say, I don't know if I could live on a diet of rice and beans.  Cooking and food are too important to me.  If there is a way to seize up life and experience it with gusto for each person, cooking and eating are my way.  So, one of my biggest worries as our budget got tighter was that it would mean very, very boring eating. 

Boy, have I been shocked.  We eat good.  We eat so good. 

And like I said above, one of the biggest helps is wasting less.  This means not only eating leftovers, but also not always having to follow a recipe.  Which is new for me.  I have almost always been a recipe cook, afraid to venture outside the boundaries of the known, the defined.  But when we have a bunch of veggies about to go bad in your fridge, when you have a hankering for something wonderful to eat, you bring these two elements together and you make something that makes sense to you.  That's how I came up with my Roasted Vegetables with Maple-Balsamic Glaze (which I made for friends this Easter and they loved it).  I am finding that if I have a well-stocked refrigerator and pantry (thank you, Costco!), if I understand some basics about technique when I cook (the why, not just the what), I can put together some lovely food.  Of course, I have to be willing to fail a little bit.  Not everything I create or adapt will turn out perfectly.  Sometimes there will be a great big flop.  Am I willing to fail?

One recent meal which decidedly did not fail came about because we had been given some beautiful lake trout caught by a local fisherman.  It was from a smaller fish, so the meat was a gorgeous pink, almost the color of salmon.  I decided not to mess too much with what God had made so beautifully, so I simply salted and peppered the filets, coated them in Dijon mustard, caked them in panko breadcrumbs and fried them in extra virgin olive oil in a cast iron skillet.  They came out crunchy and browned and almost buttery, melting in my mouth.  It was easily some of the best fish I had ever had.  I paired it with an adaptation of a recipe I had found in Cooking Light magazine, Mediterranean Barley with chickpeas and arugula  (I adapted this to Mediterranean Bulgar with chickpeas and spinach; spinach always makes an excellent substitute for arugula and is often easier to get.) Altogether, it was truly a beautiful meal.

I am learning to take what I have been given and make something beautiful out of it.

Hm, maybe that's a lesson to learn from life in general...

turkey...and roasted vegetables with maple-balsamic glaze

When we moved to Montana, the lovely ladies of the church filled our cupboards, freezer and refrigerator with food so we would have something to eat right away.  Due to our personal insanity, we moved right before Christmas, so they included a turkey in our freezer.  I didn't have the energy to tackle a turkey AND a move over Christmas though, so it remained there for a few months.

But my mother-in-law and brother-in-law came to visit this weekend and since we were going to have more people around to eat said turkey and since I needed some space in my freezer (given the existence of Costco), I decided it was time to make the turkey.

I have never prepared a turkey entirely on my own until this weekend.  The intimidation factor was lowered quite a bit the year I prepared a turkey with Christopher's help, using the step-by-step photo-accompanied directions of Ree Drummond.  But to prepare it entirely alone, without the help of Williams Sonoma's turkey brine...ack!  Scary!

But this weekend, I did it!  I found another lovely recipe to use as a guide and I prepared my turkey much as I would a roast chicken.  I filled it with herbs, lemon, celery, garlic, and onion.  I sprinkled and rubbed in coarse salt and pepper.  I slathered it down with butter.  I was mightily nervous.  But I also felt pretty good about the job I had done.  I popped it in the oven and the photo above is the BEAUTY I ended up with!  I was so proud!

I had planned to serve it with mashed sweet potatoes, but the Mrs. has been inspiring me to use up more food that is in my fridge and stop wasting so much, so inspiration hit me and I came up with a new idea.  Roasted sweet potatoes, celery, onions and carrots with a maple-balsamic glaze.  It's amazing how well tired refrigerator vegetables will stand up to roasting.  And I had bought a GONZO bag of celery from Costco a couple weeks ago that was quickly losing its relevancy to the world.  I was very happy with the results of my roasted vegetables.  They were warm and inviting, savory and slightly sweet.  I got seconds.

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH MAPLE-BALSAMIC GLAZE
3 large sweet potatoes, cubed
5-6 celery stalks, sliced
1 yellow onion, cut into chunks
1 cup of baby carrots

For the glaze
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
4 TBS olive oil
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1 tsp. of cumin
1/2 tsp. of ginger
Fresh-ground salt and pepper

Mix the glaze in a separate bowl.  Toss with the cut-up vegetables.  Cover with aluminum foil and roast in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour or until vegetables are tender.  Enjoy!

the angry trout and trout chowder

The first time I ever went to the Angry Trout Cafe in Grand Marais, MN, I was on my honeymoon.  Christopher and I had decided we would go on a tour of bed and breakfasts throughout Iowa and Minnesota.  I knew about the bed and breakfast part, but not the specific location (Christopher planned that part).  Each day when we got in the car, he would hand me an envelope with a print out from the bed and breakfast's website and I would get to read about where we were going while we drove there.  It was a lot of fun, not to mention an economical and romantic way to spend a week's honeymoon.  I think, we spent about $1000 altogether.  And we had a splendid time, enjoying really nice accommodations, which we wouldn't have been able to afford if we had flown far away.

On one of the final nights of our honeymoon, we stayed in Grand Marais, MN.  The bed and breakfast itself that night was unimpressive, but from then on, I fell in love with the artsy, outdoorsy community of Grand Marais.  And this was due in no small part to making the acquaintance of the Angry Trout Cafe.

The owners of the the Angry Trout are incredibly intentional about their goals in their business.  Not only do they want to make money (and they do), but they also want to make a positive impact on their world.  This shows up in numerous little touches that make their restaurant different from any other restaurant I’ve ever been to. 

For example, they are powered by wind energy   They use smaller than average cloth napkins to save on water and electricity when they are washed.  If you want to take leftovers home with you, you are given a washable dish that can be returned when you are done with it.  Their chairs on their patio overlooking the lake (and they have one of the best views in town) are made from recycled tractor seats (and they actually look pretty cool).  Their plates and coffee mugs are pottery made by local artisans.  If you order a salad, your homemade salad dressing will come to you in a bottle.  Your pat of butter will come to you in a small butter dish, instead of a foil wrapper.  The foods that are used are mostly from local farmers and vendors, thus benefiting not only the planet, but also the local community.  Not only that but you can tell the employees at this restaurant on a mission are incredibly happy and well-treated.  Your tip to your server is divided also with kitchen employees, in the interest of fairness.  The servers are always well-mannered, in a great mood, and more than ready to help you with anything you need.

Now, all that is well and great, and if a restaurant treats its staff and the earth well, you can feel good about eating there, but if the food is no good, what’s the use?

A pregnant me craves the Trout.

But the food…oh, the food!  Ever since the first time we visited, Christopher and I have tried to make a pilgrimage almost every year.  The ingredients are fresher than fresh, homemade, and prepared an attention to detail.

Grilled fish and one of those famous salads.

The first thing I ever had at The Angry Trout was their salad and trout chowder.  Salad???  Big deal, right?  You couldn’t be more wrong.  The Angry Trout has the distinction of preparing the single best salad I have ever eaten in my life.

I think the secret must be the locally grown produce and the incredible homemade salad dressings (Buttermilk Blue Cheese!  Maple-Mustard!  Tomato-Basil!).  A typical salad at the Trout is hardy and filling.  It comes amply covering half of your large dinner plate.  A nest of leaf lettuce and baby greens is topped by whatever is in season and available.  This will probably be something along the lines of tomatoes, red onions, beets, carrots, strawberries, cucumbers, radishes.  The salad is topped with beautiful, white shredded Italian cheeses and a pretty edible blossom (such as a pansy) from the garden.

The salads are pretty special, but then so is everything else served at the Trout.  The second half of my first meal at the Angry Trout was the trout chowder!  It is made with freshly caught fish, right out of Lake Superior, fresh vegetables, dill, broth, butter and half and half.  It’s a fantastic, creamy, buttery, savory meal in its own right.

I have had many other dishes at the Trout in my yearly pilgrimages and none of them have ever disappointed. Grilled fish...maple barbecue chicken...garlic-olive oil fettuccine with Parmesan and hazelnuts!  Everything is fresh, the perfect temperature and good down to your bones.

So, trout was on sale this week at the grocery store, and I decided it was time to make the good stuff at our house.  The recipe can be found in Angry Trout Cafe Notebook: Friends, Recipes, and The Culture of Sustainability, a combination philosophy of business book/cookbook. In the book, the owners of the Trout give away a surprising number of their secrets and recipes, so if you can’t make the drive to the Café, it's the next best thing.

So, yesterday, I set my pot of delicious trout chowder to simmering, leaving us all drooling over its savory, buttery goodness.  We sat down to a family meal that evoked some of our happiest memories of the past few years.  I always feel so alive and so happy in Grand Marais.  In fact, one of the reasons I fell in love with the Flathead Valley so much is because it reminds me so much of Grand Marais.  The Flathead Valley has the lake, the pine trees, the theatres, the organic and earth-friendly eateries, the art galleries.  And we have mountains too!  But I digress...The point of this matter is that both the Flathead Valley and Grand Marais are awesome, and so is the Angry Trout, and so is trout chowder.  And so we enjoyed it again Monday night.

Not only was this happy feast husband approved (he even ate all the celery!), it was also kid approved!  Burrito kept asking for more fish and even finished her carrots. Score another one for the Angry Trout!

spaghetti with slow-roasted tomatoes

It's the simple things that are especially beautiful.  Especially when it comes to food.  That's why one of my banner rules in cooking is: Don't mess it up. 

My friends and readers are always asking me to share recipes from my cooking adventures.  Sometimes, it simply isn't possible because it's somebody else's recipe entirely and I don't want to violate a copyright.  Sometimes I could do a better job of linking to recipes that are available online (I'll try to do that when I can).  But today, I can give you a recipe that was inspired by Molly Wizenberg in her book A Homemade Life.  I can give it to you because I adapted it enough to make it my own.

I started with a big Costco-size package of Roma tomatoes.  I sliced them in half and tossed them by hand with some olive oil, fresh ground sea salt, and a couple pinches of coriander.  I laid them out, face-up, in a large casserole dish and baked them for 5 1/2 hours at 200 degrees.  They came out syrupy and juicy.

I sliced them into more manageable slices and tossed them with sliced garlic.  Meanwhile, I cooked a big pot of whole wheat spaghetti.  Then I tossed the spaghetti and sauce together and topped it with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Italian parsley.

So simple, so easy.  Some of the best pasta I've ever had....I could have eaten two plates.  But I didn't...Maybe next time.

the well-composed plate

Or so my husband calls it.  I admit the brown rice is the quick cook kind.  But the lentils!  Oh, the lentils! 

The lentils don't look impressive, I realize, but they are rather outstanding.  The recipe is from the More with Less Cookbook.  Very simple ingredients.  Lentils, honey, onion, bacon, a simple sauce.  You let them simmer a while.  Then you let them bake a while till the savory smell permeates the house.  This is comfort food, friends. 

Then you have your obligatory greens...and your equally obligatory French baguette spread with soft butter. 

I think I agree.  It was a well-composed plate.

dinner tonight

See how messy my counter is?  I'm still adjusting to less counter space in my new kitchen.  To be honest, it's kind of driving me nuts...but back to dinner...Last night we had pot pie with leftover chicken and cornbread topping.  This is my favorite way to use leftover chicken.  By the way, did you know baking a whole chicken is one of the cheapest ways to get meat in your diet?  I think we got our chicken for 79 cents a pound.  I got two meals out of this one and probably could have gotten a third if I had been willing to make broth from scratch.

Beets were on sale this week.  So, I'm servin' up beet salad with oranges, greens, vinaigrette, and goat cheese crumbles.