Category Archives: Omnivore

Nacho Pot Pie with or without Chicken

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Nacho Pot Pie ourwaytoeat

It has been bitterly cold and snowy in Minnesota.  I am at once craving variety and comforting, old-school Midwestern staples.  These individual Nacho “Pot Pies” are comforting, easy to make for meat eaters and vegetarians, and are also a tasty departure from everyday chicken pot pies.  I kept the calorie count under control using fat-free Greek yogurt in the creamy pot pie filling instead of cream or half n’ half, and topped them with a small serving of multigrain chips instead of a buttery crust.  We thought the texture and flavor were perfect.  When served, each person can add nacho toppings as judiciously as they desire.  These mini-casseroles aren’t as “fancy” as Day After Thanksgiving Individual Pot Pies with or without turkey, but they are a guaranteed happy meal for a dreary winter week night or a main course at a Superbowl Party.

Nacho Pot Pies ourwaytoeat

Nacho Pot Pies, yield 4 Individual Pies, easily doubled

Ingredients:

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 a Red Pepper, chopped

1 Jalapeno Pepper, seeds removed and minced—add an extra pepper for more heat.

1/2 an Onion, chopped

1-14 ounce can of Black Beans, rinsed

3/4 cup of frozen Corn, thawed

1.5 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning I use Home-Made Taco Seasoning following the Girl Who Ate Everything’s recipe.

2 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour

1 Cup Vegetable or Chicken Stock

1/2 Cup Fat Free Greek Yogurt

2 Scallions, white parts and just the beginning of the green, diced fine

Tortilla Chips–I used multigrain

Shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese to top each Pot Pie

Olive Oil

Optional:  cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized chunks, 1/3 cup per dish

Method:  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Coat individual 5-inch baking dishes, or a small casserole dish or glass pie plate with cooking spray or oil.

Nacho Pot Pie Fixings 2 ourwaytoeat

Sauté onions in olive oil until translucent, add chopped red pepper and cook 2 minutes.  Add garlic and jalapeno, cook one minute until fragrant.  Sprinkle taco seasoning and flour, blend together and cook 1 minute.  Add stock and bring to a boil, then simmer 2-3 minutes until slightly thickened.  Stir in Greek yogurt, most of the black beans and corn.

Chopped Chicken and Black Beans ourwaytoeat

Add chicken, or a few extra spoonfuls of baked beans into each dish.  Divide filling between individual baking dishes.

Assembling Nacho Pot Pies ourwaytoeatTop with tortilla chips, scallions and shredded cheese.  Bake at 375 degrees, 18-22 minutes until golden.

Nacho Pot Pies topped with cheese ourwaytoeat

Serve with traditional nacho/taco accompaniments:  shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sliced olives, sour cream, sliced avocado, lime wedges and salsa.  These are Nacho Grandma’s Pot Pies.

 

Our Way to Eat at Restaurant Alma in Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Pot Du Creme at Alma

(612) 379-4909 528 University Ave SE Minneapolis, MN 55414 www.restaurantalma.com

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There wasn’t a lot of forethought before our 9 p.m. decision to go to Restaurant Alma for dinner the other night.  We’ve never been there, and it was on the list of places to try.  A quick call while en route from Saint Paul confirmed that there was no wait for a table for two.  This was not surprising at 9 p.m. on the first bone-shocking -12 degree night of the winter.  Restaurant Alma deserves anticipation, but this is how dining out decisions tend to go for us:  it had gotten late, we were hungry, interested in the place and there was a table available, so why not?

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Alma is a nicer restaurant, but I found it immediately comfortable because of its unpretentious atmosphere.  Not being “on the list” was not a problem, and our server was down-to-earth, friendly and attentive.  We came in from the blustery cold night into the warm, open room and were immediately seated. Our server greeted us, and we told her that we had not been there before.  She gave us a helpful overview of the restaurant’s approach.  The menu changes seasonally and ingredients are locally sourced to the extent possible.  The restaurant offers a three course tasting menu, with both meat and vegetarian options.  Alma embraces the tasting menu concept because it allows the small kitchen to operate efficiently, and lets you try a number of dishes and dine at a relaxing pace.   Eating three courses sounds like feast, but the portions are sized correctly to allow you to enjoy the variety without feeling over-fed.

Celery Root Flan at Alma

Even though the restaurant was nearly full, service hummed along at a calm, pleasant pace.  At the server’s recommendation, we both started with the Celery Root Flan – warm julienned celery root salad topped with caviar, served side-by-side with a silver dollar-sized truffle-oil brushed toasted brioche with a small, round flan. The flan and celery root salad were pleasantly bitter as would be expected with celery root, the garnish –itty-bitty chopped chives subtly balanced it.  The challenge of this course was getting the celery root and caviar part of the dish into your mouth, I had some success when I piled the salad on top of the tiny piece of toast.  The flavor and texture combination of smooth flan, salty bursts caviar and crunchy toast was unexpected and tasty.Poblano and Salsify Soup at Alma ourwaytoeat.com

For the second course, I ordered the Salsify & Poblano Cream Soup.  The ingredients arrived in the bottom of my bowl – poblano, salsify and some nutty sautéed mushrooms.  Mushrooms replace the chorizo in the meat-eaters version of the soup which is also on the menu.  Salsify is a root vegetable that looks like a pale, dirty carrot.  When cooked, it has the texture of a carrot as well.  I found it innocuous– its lack of popularity is probably due to the fact that it has little detectable flavor.  The server poured the light, creamy soup base over the vegetables from a small pitcher.  Again, there were minuscule chives which provided a faint, but pleasant oniony-ness, that along with the flavorful mushrooms and poblano, balanced out the creamy base of the luxurious soup.  When the server came to check on us, I told her the soup was “lovely” a word which I used to excess by the end of the meal.  Carolina Grits at Alma ourwaytoeat.comFor Bjorn’s second course, he ordered Carolina Grits served with pork broth, shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and garnished with scallions and fresh grated horseradish.  He loved this dish. Taking the southern classic of shrimp and grits infusing Asian elements of pork broth and shiitake made the dish interesting and new.  The horseradish provided heat that was noticeable without being overpowering.  Bjorn described the dish as “excellent, a mouthful of flavors.”

Duck Two Ways at Alma ourwaytoeat.com

For Bjorn’s main course he ordered the duck which came two ways:  confit and pan roasted.  The duck was served with roasted parsnips, oyster mushrooms and “cumin mojo.”  He reports that it was awesome.  To the untrained, vegetarian eye, the duck looked tender and perfectly cooked.  Squash Migas at Alma ourwaytoeat.comIn a rare moment of boldness I broke with my habit to order the pasta as my main course, and instead tried the Squash “Migas”.  I should do that more often.  The Migas were a heap of bread and tortilla crumbs with small pieces of squash made into a hash piled atopt charred chili puree and garnished with fresh cheese, and topped with a soft poached egg.  I enjoyed the dish– it was spicy, flavorful breakfast food.  I found the chili puree to be a bit on the salty side, but I have a salt-sensitive palate, so it may have been fine for others.  The fresh cheese was mild, with a flavor and texture similar to queso fresco.  I loved the poached egg- it tasted amazingly fresh.  I wish I could find where they buy these wonderful eggs and learn to poach them perfectly– keeping the white tender and intact and finishing the yolk to creamy-perfect doneness as it was on my Migas.

Pot Du Creme and Tea at Alma

Throughout the meal, neighbouring tables ordered desserts that looked intriguing, but I usually don’t have dessert unless it is going to be extremely special, so I ordered a small pot of chamomile mint tea.  Bjorn ordered port and a desert, a Honey Chocolate Pot du Creme with honeycomb candy, grated chocolate, chocolate angel food cake and honey sabayon.  Fortunately, he was willing to share.  The dessert was phenomenal and probably my favorite part of the meal.  All of the textures and flavors were luxurious, but not overly rich, and mildly sweet.  Following a bite of creamy chocolatey honey goodness with a sip of port, the nutty, vanilla flavor of the port came alive and left us warm and sleepy.  A perfect ending to a LOVELY meal.

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I would recommend Restaurant Alma, and will certainly go back.  It it a perfect place for an intimate, relaxing meal for a small group, especially a mixed group of vegetarian-omnivore eaters.  I loved the fact that the vegetarian menu followed the regular menu closely.  Thoughtful substitutions of mushroom for chorizo in the soup, and squash for lamb in the Migas meant that I could sample the most interesting dishes on the menu.  Some nice restaurants make the vegetarian menu feel like a special cause, and many others don’t have vegetarian offerings at all.  I like having intentionally meat-free dishes to choose from, but at the same time I’d rather eat close to what everyone else gets to eat.  The classic elements of the dishes we sampled at Restaurant Alma were adeptly executed, and the dishes as a whole were infused with thoughtful and imaginative international flavor elements, making for a special and memorable dining experience, late on a cold winter’s night.

 

Prosciutto, Asparagus and Swiss on Toast -An Easy Easter Appetizer

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I’ve been missing my blog!  We’ve been busy visiting Mexico, hosting visitors, working and waiting for the snow to melt.  Here’s a tasty and easy appetizer I made this morning that was inspired by Elsa’s Ham and Asparagus Toasts by Rachael Ray with a few tweaks– I used deli slices of prosciutto and Swiss cheese instead of ground ham and fontina, less butter and smaller slices of bread.  These tweaks made the assembly easier, less expensive and more appealing, I think.  It is easy to leave the prosciutto off of as many slices as desired to make this appetizer friendly to vegetarians.

Asparagus Procuitto and Swiss Toasts on ourwaytoeat.comIngredients:

  • 1/2 pound thin asparagus spears
  • 1 baguette, cut into 3/4-inch slices
  • 2 tablespoons of butter, melted
  • 2.5 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
  • 12 slices of Swiss cheese from the deli, halved
  • 1/4-1/2 pound of thinly sliced prosciutto from the deli

Method:

1.  Snap the woody ends off of skinny spring asparagus and steam for 2.5 minutes in salted, boiling water, then run the asparagus under cold water to stop the cooking.

2.  Slice a baguette into 3/4 inch slices.  Arrange the slices on a sheet pan, and toast the slices 6 inches below the broiler in the oven a minute or two.

3.  Mix 2 tablespoons melted butter with 2.5 tablespoons of grainy Dijon mustard and brush over the toasted bread.

4.  Top each slice with a pile of prosciutto, a halved sprig of asparagus and a half slice of Swiss cheese.

5.  Return the sheet pan to the broiler and watch carefully.  Remove when cheese is melted.  Season with ground black pepper and serve on a platter.

I brought the platter to my family’s weekly Saturday morning coffee gathering, and came home with an empty platter.  Success!

 

 

 

 

Chef Shack Food Truck at the Mill City Farmer’s Market in Minneapolis

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We visit the Saint Paul Farmer’s Market every weekend that we’re in town.  We had friends visiting from out of town last weekend, and so we decided to change up the routine and venture out to the Mill City Farmer’s Market to check out a different market and sample a much-buzzed Twin Cities Food Truck that parks there on Saturday mornings.  We weren’t surprised to find that the Mill City Farmer’s Market is a great place for crowd watching, beautiful produce and good eats.

The Mill City Farmer’s Market is tucked between the Guthrie Theater, the Mill City Museum, and the Gold Medal Flour elevator and the condominium building that houses Spoonriver, my favorite restaurant in Minneapolis.  The Mill District and nearby Saint Anthony Main, which is directly across the wonderful pedestrian-only Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi are two of the most fun pockets of Minneapolis to stroll through.  I love their lively atmosphere and unique architecture which reflect the area’s evolution over time from a riverfront industrial district to the cultural center of the city.   Even though I love visiting these places, this was our first trip the Mill City Farmer’s Market.  Although the vegetable stands were overflowing with organic veggies, it is much more than just a place to stock up on heirloom tomatoes.  People gather, music is played, there are artisanal cheeses, chocolate and baked goods, handmade clothing, furniture and other art for sale.  The space was packed to the gills by mid-morning with strollers, camera-wielding bloggers, Iphone-ing instagrammers, gawkers, some shoppers and people like us who are there to eat.   

Once we toured the market, we joined the lengthy line at the Chef Shack food truck.    The line moved quickly.  It gave us just enough time to peruse the chalkboard menu.  Bjorn ordered a Walleye Sandwich and a bag of the Chef Shack’s renowned Indian-Spiced Mini Doughnuts for the group to share for dessert.  As you can see, the sandwich consists of a meaty walleye fillet, fried crispy and served on a fresh baguette with lettuce, tartar sauce and veggie trimmings.  Bjorn confirmed that the sandwich was one of the best he’s had.  The four of us devoured the mini doughnuts so fast that I couldn’t even take a picture.

Our friend Ben was out for adventure.  When he placed his order for Beef Tongue Tacos, the guy handling the cash register told him that he eats a Beef Tongue Taco every week he loves them so much.  The meat eaters who sampled the tongue confirmed that it was a dense, beef flavor and texture, more offal-like than muscle-y.  There!  You can see the tongue poking out from below the corn!  The vegetarian in me says “eek!” and the foodie says “cool!”

I swung by the Spoonriver food stand and purchased a refreshing glass of unsweetened Mango Iced Tea.  Their Cucumber Water and Watermelon-Basil water were also beautiful and looked refreshing.  It was very tempting to try a savory Spoonriver crepe, but I wanted to stick to the Food Truck option for today.

I was the sole vegetarian in the group.  I ordered the Sweet Potato Tacos, one of several vegetarian offerings from the Chef Shack.  They were tasty.  I piled on some of the house-made garnishes available in tubs: pickly cukes and cauliflower, a dill pickle and some slaw.  I am a sucker for garnishes.  The double-layered tortillas were extremely fresh and delicious.  I was glad to have the second tortilla layer, because the bean-corn-sweet potato mixture in the tacos was on the watery side, though wonderfully flavorful.  The tortilla kept it all contained.  I crumbled a little fresh feta from Singing Hills Dairy, purchased in the market on top–I won’t lie, I do prefer veggie tacos with cheese.

Our friend Jenny ordered a grass-fed, all-beef hotdog and also piled on the house-made condiments and garnishes.  One of the Chef Shack chefs greeted us at the condiment table, and asked us cheerfully if we found what we needed.  Yes, we certainly did.  We walked away from the market, plopped down on a flat rock that served as our seating and table and enjoyed a wonderful, unique and tasty lunch.

I’ve visited a handful of food trucks in Minneapolis and Saint Paul and this was by far the best food truck meal I’ve experienced to date.  This is the sort of truck that justifies its existence.  The food simple, inspired and is as good or better and more fresh than many restaurants, served casually, quickly and is perfect for outdoor eating on the go.  If you find yourself in Minneapolis on a Saturday between the hours of 8 and 1, I highly recommend a trip to the Mill City Farmer’s Market followed by a delicious lunch from the Chef Shack.  Delish!

The Summer Sandwich // Simple Dining, Al Fresco

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This post is one part ode to one of my favor summer meals and one part cautionary tale.  I figure that this blog is about my life, including some of the great meals in it, so I will start with a brief account the day when I spent inadvertently spent $17.72 on 0.57 lbs of cheese.  [Oopsie.]  

It was a typical Saturday morning.  We started our day at the Saint Paul Farmer’s Market.  I determined my mission that day was to purchase the components of a summer sandwich for our lunch.  At the time, our garden still had a few weeks to go before it would have much to offer us.  I bought vegetables, bread, and then we left the market and looped our way up Grand Avenue to the Saint Paul Cheese Shop. That place is pretty neat. Sampling is encouraged, so we tasted several paper-thin wisps of cheese the cheesemonger shaved neatly off of several wheels of cheese and dropped into our extended hands from the forked tip of the blade of his cheese knife.  I let my guard down.  It is atypical for me to make a mindless splurge without glancing at the price per half pound.  I was in a cheese-induced stupor when I asked for a small wedge of Marcel Petite Comte raw cow’s milk cheese from France, and a wedge of Terchelling Sheep’s milk cheese from Holland.  I’m sure there are people who routinely spend far more than this on cheese in any given week.  I’m not knocking it and I might do it again at some point. The difference will be that I do it intentionally.  As a consolation, at least the cheese was very, very good.

Whew. Now that I’ve made that confession to my friends and readers, let’s make a sandwich!   A Summer Sandwich is quite simply a sandwich with any combination of meat or vegetarian meat substitute, seasonal vegetables, cheese and sandwich spreads piled on top of nice bread.  

I sliced a grainy loaf of bread and served the bread and cheese with our own cheese knives on wooden cutting boards.  We eat most of our meals al fresco on our patio.  It has been 90+ degrees farenheit there lately, but it is still very pleasant in the shade of a Maple Tree canopy.

I filled a platter with sliced cucumber and tomato, garden lettuces, piles of deli turkey and tofurky, along with bowls of mayonnaise and grainy dijon mustard, and placed salt and pepper shakers on the table.  The secret to the perfect summer sandwich is bringing out whatever looks good and fresh, and let each person assemble the sandwich they desire.  

If Freud were here, he’d say, “a sandwich is never just a sandwich.”  It is the meal I ate on pebble beaches out of a cooler with my parents camping in Door County, Wisconsin in grade four.  It is the BLT’s that beckoned numerous cousins, Uncles and Aunts to my Grandma’s farm house every July when the tomatoes were all ripe at once.  It is the meal of lettuce, ham, turkey, tomato and cheese sandwiches on good sandwich bread that we shared with friends from Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saint Paul and Minneapolis on a lakeshore in Northern Minnesota after a long, hot day on the lake last year over the 4th of July long weekend.  It is the halved baguettes piled with cheese, sliced tomato and a pile of pršut [for the meat eaters] that we ate on a secluded pebble beach a few months ago in Croatia.  

What is one to serve on the side?  Well, nothing—any decent summer sandwich is in itself, a square meal.  Or, if the mood strikes, some salty-crunchy potato chips, leftover potato salad out of the fridge, deviled eggs or summer fruit would all be the perfect compliment.  On this particular day we rounded out our plates with bright, rainbow radishes that were too pretty to slice or even to remove the stem.  Sure, they could have been thinly sliced and piled on the sandwich, but they were refreshing, spicy perfection and a visual treat perched on the side our plates.  

A Summer Sandwich is simple perfection.  No matter what fresh fixings are available, where you are, or what time it is, a sandwich satisfies hunger.  A sandwich feeds a crowd with varied tastes, comes together easily and is a perfect meal to eat outdoors on a hot July day. 

And the cheese?

We’re still working our way through it, and savoring every little morsel–we figure it cost us about 8 cents per crumb.

A Taste of Two Great Twin Cities Patios: El Norteño and Ngon

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In the summer we spend almost all our downtime at home on our patio that Bjorn built the first spring we had our house.  We eat here, entertain here, do our internetting, gaze at the garden, plan our trips, rehash the day, daydream, read and occasionally we even get up to pull some weeds.  I am serious when I say that I could spend 10 hours a day here from the minute spring arrives until the fall chill takes hold.  Some days, I do exactly that.  Still there are days when nothing is better than to have someone else cook for us and to return to our haunts from the days of apartment living when patio-dining was our best excuse to spend time outdoors.

I rank Salut on Grand Avenue, the Happy Gnome, and W.A. Frost best patios in Saint Paul for great food and drink.  Relaxing through a meal while tucked into a private corner of these outdoor rooms is a magical summer escape.  Sweeneys and Billy’s on Grand have solid bar food and are happening and fun.  Anyone who has ever set foot in Saint Paul, Minnesota at dinner time in the summer already knows about these fixtures.  This means they’re always busy.  Today, I’m going to share a taste of two patios that have a certain popularity, but are a little lesser known.  As a regular at Ngon and El Norteño who likes to be able to march in and sit right down at an open table, I had to think twice before tipping my hand.  In the interest of encouraging the success of restaurants I like, I’m going to give their patios a public shout-out.  For an escape and a reliably tasty meal, the patios at Ngon and Norteño are hidden gems.

Ngon Vietnamese Bistro – 799 University Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota Telephone:  (651) 222-3301

I’ve mentioned Ngon on my blog before.  We keep returning to Ngon and enjoy the authentic and inventive Vietnamese cuisine.  Their use of local and sustainable meat and produce, their stellar selection of exclusively local beers and their house-made charcuterie that Bjorn has enjoyed on earlier visits have proven to contribute to consistently tasty meals.  We found that we equally enjoyed these aspects of the restaurant when we dined on the patio behind the restaurant, hidden from the world by high fences and shaded from the early evening sun by grapevine-wound pergola.  We entered Ngon through the front door which was a bit of an experience in inaccessibility due to the construction of the light rail on University Avenue.  We requested a spot outside and were directed out of the restaurant and back to the sidewalk through the side door and then into the private patio through a gate under a mosiac sign showing the restaurant’s name.  The hostess informed us that we could not have soup on the patio–it is too hot for the servers to carry this out.  When I heard this, I was a little disappointed.  I have ordered Hủ Tiếu with egg noodles almost every time I eat at Ngon.  I am in love with this steamy bowl of squiggly egg noodles and thinly sliced carrot and daikon, halved brussel sprouts, grape tomatoes, whole green beans and bok choy, all still-crunchy, swimming in a light, tasty, clear vegetable broth.  With a little encouragement by my wise husband, I got past my Who Moved my Cheese? moment and realized that change is good, and its high time I venture out into the rest of the menu because it was way too nice to eat indoors.  Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe eating a huge bowl of hot soup on a 90 degree evening wouldn’t be be too many people’s idea of a good time!?We arrived hungry so we started our meal with crispy Vietnamese egg rolls, a crunchy, freshly-fried indulgence filled with vegetables and mushroom served with a little pickly shredded carrot and daikon.

I settled on Bún, a rice vermicelli salad with organic greens, cucumbers, bean sprouts with a generous amount of saucy fried tofu, garnished with more pickly shredded daikon and carrot, herbs and peanuts.  It was refreshing, tasty and totally solid, but won’t oust Hủ Tiếu from its position as my Ngon favorite.  Bjorn ordered braised pork shoulder with basil pasta which he thought was very good.  I didn’t manage to get a photo.

El Norteño — 4000 East Lake Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota Telephone: (612) 722-6888

The patio at El Norteño is similar to all the others I’ve mentioned in that it is secluded.  This particular patio wins hands-down for its foliage and flora, which is well-tended– obviously by a green thumb.  There are potted plants bursting with herbs and flowers and thriving perennials layered several feet deep around inside the entire enclosure which creates a wonderfully lush atmosphere for a relaxing meal.  There is plenty of room on the patio.  The food is straight-forward, authentic Mexican fare.  Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, flautas, tostadas and fajitas with chicken, pork, beef or veggies, served with beans, rice, fresh vegetables and traditional sauces.  It is simple.  Norteño isn’t going to win awards for culinary ingenuity, but the food hits the spot.  The servers who also seem to cook, are few in number, so they aren’t going to win praise for attentiveness and speed, but when you are sitting outside on a gorgeous night, sipping a Dos Equis Amber, eating chips and fresh salsa while waiting for your food to arrive, who is in a hurry, exactly?  El Norteño is licensed for beer and wine only, so wine margaritas are on the menu, but none with tequila.  The only other limitation we’ve faced is our ability to gauge whether El Norteño will be open during dinner hours.  With no website to check, we figure it out by taking a quick drive to Longfellow, and end up at the Birchwood, which is nearby when we’ve guessed wrong, which seems to be about half of our attempts.  Though simple, their food tastes fresh and has good flavor.  This is where I go for Mexican comforts- the lightness of lettuce and tomatoes, rich guacamole, warm fresh tortillas, the energy-giving amino acid balance of rice and beans, and seasoned meats for Bjorn.  

If you’re stuck in the Cities for the 4th of July and need a break from air conditioning, a tasty meal on a patio a little ways off the beaten track is the place to find yourself for lunch or dinner.

Anticipating Early July

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The beginning of July is perhaps my favorite time of year.    Sandwiched between Canada Day and Independence Day is my birthday.  We spend this span of celebratory days at the lake.  

There is so much that I look forward to in these precious days away from work and the city.   We will spend hours in the outdoors, boating, swimming and lounging in the lake with family and friends all around.  We will sleep in tents on the lakeshore and roast hot dogs, veggie dogs and marshmallows on a nightly bonfire.  On the fourth of July we will drink gallons of Koolaid and eat an impressive, all-American spread at my family’s annual fourth of July Pot luck.  There will be plenty of joking with cousins, Uncles and Aunts, and there will perhaps be a competitive all-ages game of volleyball with plenty of serious showing of bravado with spikes and high-fives.  In the evening, Bjorn and I will venture into town with my cousins, spread out blankets on the grass, and eat candy and popcorn while we watch the fireworks.  These are our traditions, some life-long, and others, new.  The mood is celebratory, welcoming and lighthearted, and the attitude is “the more the merrier” when it comes to inviting guests, savoring summer pleasures together and finding new ways to have fun.  This year we’re planning to dance up a storm at the Park Rapids street dance and rodeo dance during my cousin’s band Tree Party‘s nightly gig.  This is our way of celebrating our two countries, my birthday, our family and our friends and savoring the simple glories of summer.  These are the days that make our lives rich.

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Above are photos of my Mom’s flower garden and potted plants taken a few weeks ago.  I am looking forward to morning tours of my parents’ garden and yard with a cup of coffee in hand.   I can’t wait to see how things are growing and in bloom.  I am hoping that a green thumb is hereditary.

Celebrating our 3rd Anniversary at Chase on the Lake

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We’re celebrating our 3rd anniversary today.  It is fun to look back on our wedding day which was such a perfect, awesome and fun-filled kick-off to our married life.  We worked hard to fill the day with thought and meaning.  We were surrounded by awesome family and friends who traveled far and wide.  It turned out to be one of the greatest days–special from start to finish.  It was pretty much perfect–except for my bangs in the above picture… not sure what happened there.  What has followed has been wonderful.  Married life is a fun adventure!  Thank you Bjorn for 3 great years!  I am grateful for every day I share with you.

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A few weeks ago, we found ourselves in Walker, Minnesota for a friend’s wedding.  Walker happens to be the town where our wedding reception took place at a historic resort and hotel, Chase on the Lake.  With our anniversary approaching Bjorn suggested that we have dinner at Chase to start the celebration early.  Good call Bjorn! Our meal was fabulous.  We dined on the patio overlooking Walker Bay on beautiful Leech Lake, and had one of the best restaurant meals we’ve had in while.  We started with a 2009 Pinot Noir, which has proven to be a good vintage.  Bjorn had Surf n’ Turf– a New York Strip steak bathed in herbed butter and served with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables and an impressive pile of crab legs.  Bjorn cracked into the crab legs with gusto.  We learned in Croatia, the only way to approach the shelling of shellfish is with gusto.  I had a brightly flavored pesto fettuccine with veggies and a caesar salad.  The meal was tasty!  We enjoyed being in the place where the celebration began and raising a toast to all the fun we have ahead.  Cheers!

Cheeseburger Salad and Deviled Eggs with Dill

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Summertime is a season and a mindset for me.  It is a season to avoid being booked and busy as much as possible, to allow time to be free to savor summer’s simple pleasures.  Over the weekend, this included a trip to the Saint Paul Farmer’s Market, a meal outside on the patio at a favorite restaurant, picking a few weeds in the garden, inviting my cousin over to hang out in our back yard, working up a sweat doing yard cleanup, going to the pool for a swim and sitting in the sun porch listening to rumbling thunder and watching rain pour down, giving our garden a thorough soaking.

The summer mindset is also reflected in the food we eat.  We like to eat outdoors in our back yard on the patio as much as possible.  The availability of a great variety of fresh produce at the market and from our garden shapes our menu.  We make frequent use of the grill.  Grilling has the multiple benefits of allowing us to cook outside on the patio, avoid heating up the house and further influences our food choices toward simple, classic summer fare.

One classic summer food staple that I’m thrilled to see back in vogue are deviled eggs.  Why wouldn’t these re-emerge and get trendy?  They are perfect, tasty bites, extremely simple and they can be made with all kinds of interesting ingredients.  I’ve seen deviled eggs with crab meat, bacon, capers and even caviar-topped deviled eggs on food blogs and restaurant menus.  I like a classic deviled egg the most, and I don’t follow a recipe.  I boil, cool and peel the eggs, mash the yolks and mix in minced onion, a little grainy Dijon mustard and just enough light mayo to make them creamy.  I attempted to pipe the filling back into the egg white halves from a pastry bag, but I chose too small a tip to allow the filling’s grainy mustard to squeeze through, so the piping experience started out with a few pretty, piped deviled eggs, then an explosion, followed by me filling the rest of the eggs with a teaspoon.  Garnish is a must, especially with the teaspoon egg filling-method.  In the off-season, I’m still a fan of a sprinkling of paprika, but in the summer, chopped chives or dill are my go-to garnish.  I call the dill from our garden “Electric Dill” because it is so bright and fragrant, and the dill flavor just pops- electric!

Today was one of those days that I was half-way between two dinner ideas.  Bjorn had thawed some lean ground beef raised by his uncle, and I had a hankering for a veggie burger with all of my favorite burger toppings, but also a salad.  From what I’ve been reading, it is better not to eat bread and high-glycemic, addictive [delicious] carbs at every meal.  The idea of a Cheeseburger Salad was born.  I am sure I’m not the first to think of it.  Mine ended up somewhere in the realm of California Burger meets Mushroom and Swiss, but the topping possibilities are only limited by your imagination–avocado, fried egg, pickles, sauerkraut and crispy bacon all come to mind.  The basic premise is to deconstruct your favorite burger, up the veggie count, leave out the bun, and have yourself a great salad. 

Bjorn grilled up a burger for himself, and a veggie burger patty for me, and topped both with thinly sliced provolone cheese.  We sautéed mushrooms with some onions on the grill’s side burner, and served the burgers and sautéed mushrooms and onions on a bed of lettuce leaves with sliced tomato from the market.  As a dressing, we used a little leftover creamy taco sauce that I mixed up for another meal which consisted of smoky chipotle and garlic salsa mixed with a little light sour cream.

We rounded out the meal with a few bright red radishes from the farmer’s market.  We are both obsessed with farmer’s market radishes at the moment.  They are brighter and spicy, and of no comparison to most radishes I’ve tasted from the grocery store.  I’ve been keeping a bowl in water in the fridge so that they are ready for snacking and ready to be served at any meal, including breakfast!  I cannot wait until radishes from our garden are ready to eat.

I’m sure I’ll make Cheeseburger Salads again, and will certainly make more deviled eggs.  Even with the richness of a deviled egg, and melted provolone, the meal felt just little lighter.  After the deviled egg filling vs. piping bag incident was cleaned up, the meal came together quickly, giving us time to sit back and watch the cardinals hanging out in the grass.

Davanni’s Hot Hoagies to Welcome Home

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We’re back!   We spent time abroad, off the grid –away from email, Facebook and our blog–with some of our best friends, seeing a fascinating new corner of the world.  We came back revived, our eyes opened, and something I am calling our “sea mind” awakened.  We had a superb vacation.

We remain fully inspired by our travels upon arriving home.  At the same time, an 18 hour travel day to get here, Bjorn’s suitcase spending the night in Paris without us and diving back into work jet-lagged has had us in “catch up” mode for a little while.  Our “welcome home” meal was a good old sub sandwich, a Hot Hoagie from Davanni’s, to be exact.  Davanni’s is a low-key pizza and hoagie joint that started in our neighbourhood in 1947.  They deliver, so we are frequent customers.  This particular evening, we dined in.  We both ordered our go-to sandwich, a Turkey Bacon Chipotle for Bjorn and a Veggie on wheat for me.  We enjoyed these tasty, simple sandwiches served on a plastic plate and washed them down with a bottle of 3.2 beer.  Travel and time with friends clears out mental fog, reminds us of who we are and want to be, renews appreciation and gratitude for friends, our house and garden, our lives, our hobbies, traveling, jobs and family time immeasurably.  I plan to share it!  To make that easier, in development are a dedicated Facebook page, a private host for the blog, and a renewed desire to enjoy life to the fullest and keep it simple.  We’re glad to be back.