Dinner the other night and more.

We had friends over on Saturday, Susan B. said she always checks my blog after she comes here for dinner, she hopes to see the recipes.

Here was the menu:

tomato goat cheese galette
carrot ginger soup
mixed greens fall salad
pumpkin cheesecake

The tomato goat cheese galette used puff pastry as the base. I have found that defrosting it in the refrigerator is the best way to handle it. Bring it out of the fridge right before you prepare the topping, don't forget the eggs wash and the 400 F oven temp.

This galette had:
fresh early girl tomatoes, thinly sliced, enough to cover the sheet of pastry
crumbled goat cheese, about a 1/3 cup per sheet of puff pastry
a teaspoon of fresh herbs
1/2 teaspoon of salt.

I baked for 25 minutes and served it about 5 minutes after it came out of the oven. It doesn't reheat very well, best made and served right away.

 The mixed greens fall salad was great, I had a similar one at the De Young Museum restaurant earlier in the week.

Start with a bed of mixed green, including arugula.
2 fuyu persimmons, peeled and thinly sliced
1 Asian pear, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup toasted walnuts

For the dressing I made a simple sweet vinaigrette:
1 /2 cup toasted walnut oil
1/4 cup fruit vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon plum jam ( use whatever jam you have on hand)

Dissolve the jam and honey in the vinegar, whisk in the oil.
If the jam is chunky, strain the mixture.


Earlier last week we had a dinner with visiting family, the food was a big hit. I did most of it ahead of time so I could enjoy the great company.
Here is that menu:

Asian slaw
roasted curried chicken
rice
peanut sauce
pear ginger chutney
yogurt
baked apples

And finally...several weeks ago, I spent a weekend with some of my friends from the American School of Paris. Yes, I lived in Paris for eight years and attended high school there.
Anyway, we had a lovely hike and then potluck dinner.

I brought two dips as appetizers, the recipes were requested.
One was a smoked trout mousse, which I made with trout we had caught and smoked ourselves.

I used the recipe for my smoked salmon mousse.

The other dip was my classic hummus, always a crowd pleaser.

The main course was a lovely salad nicoise salad bar, grilled burgers and sausages.

Tomato Jam

I want to get this posted before tomato season is completely over ! We have been enjoying the boxes of Early Girl tomatoes we have been getting from Yellow Wall Farm. While they don't sell at the farmer's market they do have a farm stand on Saturdays between 9:00 and 1:00 PM. Judy has been very good about setting aside the most beautiful "seconds" for me. I have been making more tomato juice and roasted tomatoes for our freezer. Here's Bob with the new freezer we bought ourselves for our anniversary this year. Our old one was full to the top and I was not done yet !! I love my new freezer.

Back to the title of this post, tomato jam...a while back I was lunching with some friends at Greens at Fort Mason in San Francisco. One of the condiments was a cherry tomato jam. I was intrigued and tried my hand at a version with full sized tomatoes.

Here's what I came up with:

Laurie's Tomato Jam

Ingredients:

4 cups peeled and whizzed tomatoes

3 cup sugar

1 lemon juiced

 one inch cinnamon stick, one cardamon pod, three cloves in cheesecloth or muslin bag.

1) How many tomatoes you need will depend on the size. And they will need to be peeled, so do the "boiling water for one minute" trick to make the skins slide right off. If you use cherry tomatoes, don't bother, of course.

2) Once the tomatoes are peeled, use a blender, food processor or emersion wand to whiz them.

3) Toss them in a pot along with 3 cups of sugar, the juice of one lemon and the spices tied up in cheesecloth or muslin bag.

4) Simmer slowly then bring to a hard boil almost to jell point 220.

5) Remove the spice bag and can as usual or store in the fridge. This recipe makes four cups.

You can use it on sandwiches or burgers, over cream cheese, in salad dressing or on toast :-)

Baked Apples

We are lucky enough to have several apple trees on our small urban lot, they do quite well in our coastal climate. Years ago we attended an apple tasting event at the local grange. There were over 100 varieties to sample, we both agreed that the Cox's Orange Pippin was our favorite. We now have two trees of this apple in our front yard, they are great to eat out of hand but also wonderful for pies, sauce and baked apples.

I was asked recently to make a dessert that included apples and caramel...baked apple came to mind. It's so easy and so very versatile.

This version is very simple, I used no sugar since I knew I would be topping it with ice cream and caramel sauce.

Baked Apples

Ingredients
a dozen baking apples
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 cup brown sugar ( optional)

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F, butter or slightly oil a glass baking dish.
2) If you have a coring tool, it will go fasted but a paring knife or carrot peeler with a sharp tip will work as well. Core the apples.

 In the recipes I looked at they tried to get  me to not come out the other end, who are they kidding. Don't worry about that.
2) Place the apple in the baking dish.

3) In a small bowl toss together the nuts, raisins and cinnamon ( and brown sugar if you are using it.)
I used golden raisins, you can use dried cranberries, cherries or current if you prefer.

4) Stuff each apple with the nut/raisin mixture.

5) Cover with foil and back for 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size and density of your apples.
I checked mine after 30 minutes and they seemed firm still. So I let them go another 10 minutes and some of them exploded.

I am not sure why that happened to s few but not all. it didn't change the taste so I wasn't too concerned.

Now these apples are perfectly delicious as is. They can be eaten with plain yogurt or hot cereal as a great breakfast...or you can make then into a decadent fall dessert by adding vanilla ice cream and warm caramel sauce.

Here's my homemade vanilla ice cream.

 

I dare you not to eat it with a spoon.

Wandering the Warner's.

Here I am doing yoga on a picnic table at Lily Lake in the Warner Mountain of NE California.
We spent two weeks exploring and camping there in September.

I want to share with you the food we ate, the places we camped and people we met.

Camping food doesn't need to be freeze dried or tasteless. You don't need to live on trail mix or canned pork and beans. I spent some time before we left making the food we enjoy and freezing it. This has a double advantage, your food will last longer and it provides "ice" for  your cooler.

Here is a pan of Gina's beans that I made and froze. They were great in tacos one night and for lunch another day. I don't skimp on my cooking utensils either, no flimsy aluminum cookware for me, I bring my cast iron skillet and my stainless steel pot. I love my Coleman stove :-)

We always bring our own water in these easy to use container. Some of the best camping spots are the ones that don't provide water.

Blue Lake at the southern end of the Warner's was such a treat. There was a great hike all the way around it and the swimming was refreshing.

So was the quart of fresh tomato juice I froze. When it was completely defrosted it made a welcome addition to lunch. My quinoa salad also traveled well and made great lunches or a dinner side dish.

I found my Asian slaw made great  camping food too, you can make it in advance. Cabbage, the main ingredient is fairly durable and this salad actually improves with age. It was a nice addition to lunch and I used it with my curried chicken in wraps for dinner on those warm evenings.

Massage kale salad was another great way to get fresh greens later in our trip, when the fresh tomatoes and other veggies were gone. I washed and tore the kale into bite size pieces ahead of time. When it was time to make the salad into the second week of our trip, I just added some lemon juice, olive oil  and salt. It was a great lunch and dinner addition.

On the subject of lunches, Bob favors a can of sardines with crackers and fresh fruit or a salad. It's best to eat sardines straight from a can and in a location with a trash can near by. Not a good choice in bear country.

I love the classic cheese and cracker fare, with fresh tomatoes or apples and my homemade nut butter.

One day while driving to check out another place camp we ran across Stringer's Orchard on highway 395 almost to the Oregon boarder. It was open and the sign said free tasting.

 They use the local wild plum to make wine, brandy and gin !! The owner was so accommodating, knowledgeable and fun to talk to. I usually don't drink but I really enjoyed tasting the dry plum wine and plum gin. They both has great plum favor without being sweet.

Bob enjoyed seeing how it all was made. Here is the owner with the copper still from Germany, it looks so Steam Punk !! Do check out their website and of course, they ship !!

I tried to have both very simple and slightly more complex meals to make. On the days we were arriving at a campsite dinner was simple. Here we are having a carrot ginger soup ( made ahead and frozen) and sausages. I also made green soup to freeze and bring along.

On a day when I had more time, I would make something a little more complex like red sauce on pasta. I brought my own roasted tomatoes, which I added to sauteed onions, garlic and red bell peppers. It made a tasty sauce for the pasta.

I used it another night over polenta. You can buy it in a tube at Trader Joes, it doesn't need to be refrigerated until you open it. This was a big plus and made it the perfect food for later in the trip as my fresh stuff got used up. 

You can see the crusty French bread in the skillet with the polenta rounds. It was a creative way to warm it up, at that point in the trip that bread needed some heat ;-)

We did some rock hunting, too. The Warner's are a very volcanic range and we found lots of beautiful obsidian in several different colors.

I have yet to touch on breakfast, I guess because it is one of the easiest meals to do while out camping.
I use the same premise as I use with dinner, if we have to be off early in the morning, we stick with granola and cold cereal with yogurt or milk and fresh fruit. If we have more time I make hot cereal or to really indulge, bacon and eggs. The smell of bacon cooking drives anyone nearby crazy !!

One evening at Lily Lake we happen to meet Nita and Jim, who lived nearby on the state line at New Pine Creek. They were so friendly and invited us to come see their garden and cabins on our way out  the next day. We had the time and were so glad we stopped by. Nita is an amazing gardener and Jim is an amazing woodworker. These photos don't do their place justice and Bob was too shy to take any photos inside their cabins. Do go to their website to see their place and all the cool things they are up to.

They were at Lily Lake that evening to host a picnic supper for a field study group from Oregon State University. A anthropology professor and her two grad students had spent the summer in their rental cabins while they did their research into the economy and food sources for this very rural community.

Birds were a big part of this trip as well. We saw this great horned owl snoozing in an aspen tree near Cedarville.

 And most of the lakes we stayed at were frequented by bald eagles and lots of fishing osprey.

We fished as well and were quite successful at Lily Lake.

Our last lakeside camp was Juanita Lake, not in the Warner's but rather in the Cascades above Mount Shasta. It was another gem with a lovely paved trail around the lake and spectacular reflections.

As a treat to ourselves after a dozen days without a real shower, we checked into what we call The Caboose Motel in Dunsmuir, CA. We used to stop here on our way home from family vacations in Eastern Washington.

Yes, you really do stay inside the cabooses !!

That's me hanging upside down from the handy bar on the ceiling.

And we treated ourselves to breakfast the next day at Yak's. We loved the name and were even more enthralled when we realized that the road worker was wearing a yak costume to help the new cafe promote it's opening.

They roast their own coffee, use local produce and meats and make most of their own sauces. We were very impressed with their food.

This was my Mount Shasta veggie hash with a side of bacon, yum !!

All in all it was a fabulous trip made even better by the great food and greta company :-)