Mom/Chef…the holiday food post.

So here is the promised post detailing our holiday food. For Christmas dinner our menu was: Roasted Venison back strap with mushroom gravy; rice with cranberries and walnuts, roasted butternut squash, and sautéed green beans with caramelized onions.

The venison was a gift and we were really excited about cooking it, as Tim loves venison and I hadn’t had it before. Turns out the venison shot in our area is amazing. It is grain fed because we are surrounded by wheat fields, and if I hadn’t known it was venison I would have thought we were having beef tenderloin, it was that mild and tender. We got the recipe from a website that I am now regularly referring to: Hunter Angler GardenerCook. He has a lot of amazing recipes and information for using wild game and foraged foods.

For the rice I checked out a few recipes and then combined them into what I wanted. I sautéed the white part of 3 green onions, thinly sliced, in some oil and butter. I added a little carrots and celery, also finely sliced. Once the vegetables started to soften I threw in a cup of basmati rice and let that start to toast. Once the rice was toasty I added 1 ½ cups of chicken stock, two sprigs of fresh thyme, and ½ cup of fresh cranberries. I brought that to a simmer, lowered the heat and covered the pan. 15 minutes later the liquid was absorbed so I took out the thyme sprigs and stirred in ¼ cup of dried cranberries, ¼ cup of walnuts and the green tops from the green onions. The rice had a faintly purple hue, it was sweet, tart, nutty and very delicious. I will definitely be making rice like this again.

For the green beans, I wanted the flavors of green bean casserole without a big, gloopy casserole so I caramelized half a yellow onion, thinly sliced, threw in some thinly sliced mushrooms and some fresh green beans and sautéed it all together until the vegetables were cooked through. Finish it with a little butter and it was perfect. Honestly, the squash was mostly to use up some extra butternut squash I had. I peeled it, cubed it, tossed it with olive oil and salt and roasted it at 350 degrees until golden brown and delicious.

For Christmas day we went a little more traditional. We had spiral ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, sausage stuffing (or dressing, if you like, since it wasn’t actually stuffed inside anything), Brussels sprouts with bacon and cranberry sauce.

 

The ham was store bought, but for a glaze we did a riff on Alton Brown’s ham crust. We used honey, molasses, brandy, whole grain mustard, and some crumbled molasses cookies. (Alton’s original crust uses bourbon and ginger snaps, but I didn’t have either of those.) Cooked down a bit and brushed on the ham it created a glaze that was sweet and spicy and complemented the ham really well.

Even though we were doing a ham, both Tim and I wanted stuffing, so I cubed up half of a Tuscan style loaf of bread then sautéed some sausage with mirepoix (onion, carrots, celery) and fresh sage, then tossed it together with some chicken stock. We packed it into a casserole dish and baked it alongside the ham. It turned out very good, but next time I will remember to butter the inside of the casserole dish, the bread stuck pretty badly.

Brussel sprouts with bacon is easy and so delicious. Just trim the bottoms off of some sprouts, halve them, then dunk them in some boiling water for 2 minutes to blanch them. Drain them, then slice up several slices of good bacon. In a good sized skillet or cast iron pan cook the bacon. When the bacon pieces start to crisp, remove them with a slotted spoon so most of the fat remains. Toss in the blanched brussel sprouts and cook over high heat until the sprouts soften and start to char in spots. Remove, season with salt and pepper, and top with the bacon pieces. So yummy.

Finally my cranberry sauces wasn’t too inventive this year since I’m still missing most of my pantry. Whole fresh cranberries, zest and juice of an orange, brown sugar, a little cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.

Well, hopefully that gave you a feel for our holiday feasts. Not too shaby for our first Christmas alone, huh?

Mom/reveler…a little slice of our holiday

Well, we have survived our first Montana Christmas. We had a nice time, though at first we were all a little sad about being apart from family. Despite being two states away from family, we felt very loved. Several Skype sessions and presents in the mail really helped connect us and made everything just a little bit more festive.

Our holiday season started on December 15^th when we went up into the mountains to cut our tree. Getting up into thick trees and deep snow made me very happy, I will always be a forest and mountain girl at heart. We went up to the family cabin of one of Tim’s co-workers, he invited us up to visit and cut our tree on his property. So we made a big batch of chili to bring for lunch and drove an hour up into the mountains. We had a good time visiting and picking our tree, though trudging through 3 ft deep snow carrying two kids wasn’t easy. Connor tried his hardest to walk by himself but the snow was just too deep. I got a great work out though, carrying the kids through all that snow. We got our tree, then it was home again to decorate.

 

The week before Christmas I started baking cookies, though this year I had to get a little creative since the list of kitchen things that are still in storage include a stand mixer, rolling pin and cookie cutters. They turned out pretty well despite the more hands on approach I had to take, we ended up with frosted sugar cookies, molasses cookies, and peppermint bark. The peppermint bark recipe was a new one for me, it came from Food Network Magazines December issue. It was easy and came out really delicious, I just made it a little too thick. Next year I need to use a bigger pan to spread it out more. Still, a little goes a long way and a week later we still have some left over for snacking.

Now those of you who know Tim well, will know that he can’t go long without a project, so it will come as no surprise when I say that Saturday before Christmas he started remodeling the bathroom. The bathroom really needed it: the tub surround was cracked so the wall behind it was water damaged; the fixtures were old; and the whole room was an unfortunate neon yellow. Still, it was maybe a little much to take on to remodel the bathroom two days before Christmas.

Christmas eve arrived and we had a lovely meal of some venison supplied by a friend of ours  (more on the food of Christmas next post). We opened a present each and attempted to read “A visit from ST. Nick” though the kids are a little young yet.

On Christmas morning we had a nice time opening presents, then our landlord called and told Tim that the gas lines were frozen and could he come help unfreeze them? Since helping out around the property is in the lease, and since the gas lines supply our heat as well, out Tim went into -10 degree temps to help Vernon out. Poor Tim spent most of Christmas day working outside. The kids played with their new toys and I worked on Christmas dinner. Tim and our landlord were thankfully finished in time for dinner. We had another lovely meal and some mellow family time.

Overall the Gunderson’s had a very nice, quiet Christmas here in Montana. This post is getting pretty long so I will post about our food next time.

Happy Holidays!

Mom/adventuress...a lutefisk interlude

A lutefisk interlude…

I had meant to write about this in the archeologist post, but that post decided to spiral off in a direction that didn’t include gelatinous fish, so here it is in another post. Last Sunday our landlord invited us to attend his church’s Lutefisk Feast with him. He’s been alone out here for awhile and I think he loves having someone to drop in on and to show off the town to. Since we’d spent the weekend cleaning, we decided a break sounded great and so off we went to the Cut Bank Lutheran Church’s Lutefisk Feast. Held every year during the holidays, with proceeds benefiting the churches’ charitable endeavors, the Lutefisk Feast is a true community event. There are a sizable number of Scandinavian families that helped to settle this area so the Lutheran Church and their events are well attended. After we made the rounds and got introduced to half the people there we sat down to eat. Now, in case you have no idea what we were in store for, lutefisk is a traditional Scandinavian method of preserving cod or other whitefish. The fish is soaked in Lye, which preserves it for a long time. It is then soaked for days to get the lye out and then cooked. The resulting fish has a distinct gelatinous texture and appearance. I really wish I had taken a picture of the table, set out family style, but since I’m not fully back into blogger mode and because I was trying to wrangle two fussy, overwhelmed kids I give you this picture of a lutefisk feast plate instead, courtesy of madisondining.com.

The lutefisk is the pale, gelatinous blob in the front left hand side of the plate. Also included on our plates were mashed rutabagas (orange shown above) a delicious cabbage slaw (above), lefse: a potato flatbread that deserves its own blog post because it is so yummy (also shown above), boiled potatoes, Swedish meatballs, and pickled herring. Everything was delicious, yes, even the lutefisk. You pour melted butter over the top and add plenty of salt and pepper. If you can get past the texture, which is very soft and mildly jello-ish then the flavor is pure cod and very good. The thing about lutefisk is, though, that you are eating it and thinking to yourself, “this isn’t bad, in fact it’s pretty good.” Then all of a sudden the texture hits you and you are done. Tim and I ate everything; Harper loved the rutabagas and the potatoes. Connor ate a roll and a bunch of cookies, but he’s 2 ½ so what are you going to do? At least he wasn’t having a complete tantrum melt down in front of everyone. You’ve got to pick your battles.

I should mention that the other fish featured, the pickled herring, was firm, not fishy, just lightly vinegary and Tim and I both ate a bunch. I kick myself for not getting the recipe because it was totally homemade. Just a nod also to the delicious cookies, anyone who has been lucky enough to experience Scandinavian cookies, specifically the rosettes (made by dipping a hot flower shaped iron in thin batter and frying it in oil so they come out as these light, crispy shells that are covered in powdered sugar) and the krumkake (like a tuille cookie cooked on a special waffle iron and then bent around a cone, often filled with something else, like a Swedish cannoli) knows what I am talking about, so good!

So far we are really enjoying it here in Montana; we have met lovely people and enjoyed some unique events. I look forward to what else this community has to offer. And next year I’m totally getting the recipe for that pickled herring.

Mom/Archeologist…sifting through other peoples’ lives…

 

So we spent last weekend deep cleaning and clearing out the house. As I said before, this house is chock full of other people’s lives. Our landlord’s parents and then brother lived in this house and most of their belongings remain. Drawers, cabinets and shelves are full of remainders of those other lives and must be sorted through and cleaned out if we are going to start this next phase of our life here. Among the dust, cobwebs and detritus we are clearing out are hidden gems that give us a picture of what life was like as mostly self-sufficient grain farmers on the prairies of Montana. From the bathroom cabinets: a large metal first aid kit full of tinctures and swabs I don’t recognize, a poison control pamphlet taped to the cabinet door that gives remedies for ingesting anything from fertilizers to cleaners to medicines. For instance, if Lye is ingested give the victim 2 Tablespoons of vinegar in a glass of water or 2 raw egg whites in olive oil and do not induce vomiting. I’m not sure how this jives with today’s poison control guidelines, but it is fascinating.

In the kitchen are more hidden gems: an old and well loved cast iron skillet; colorful Pyrex casserole bowls from the 40’s; and a drawer full of cookbooks, most of them hand bound, self published fund raiser recipe collections from local churches and women’s groups in the area. These I am keeping in the house, to enjoy leafing through recipes for salads, baked goods, local game, and drinks such as the local version of the hot toddy: the Tom & Jerry.

While I treasure some of these things for their uniqueness or as a link to the rich past of an area I now call home, what they really are, are memories of lives that I won’t ever be able to know. I can admire the colorful threads and half finished cross stitch in an old sewing box, but I’ll never know the woman who sat in this living room sewing. Did she smile as children roamed noisily around her or sit quietly chatting with her husband about the events of the day?  Did she love living so far away from town, seeing only her family day in and day out?  Or did she feel isolated and cut off from the world?

Maybe I ask these questions because they now concern me as well. Will I like living a 15 minute drive from stores and people? Will being alone out here gel us as a family or cause tension and friction? Can we be more self-sufficient, can I learn to rely on myself and my instincts and creativity rather than drive into town every time I get bored or I realize I’m missing just one little ingredient for that dish I want to make? All questions that I don’t yet know the answer to. As they say, time will tell. Meanwhile I will sit here, sifting through drawers, imagining what memories we will build here, in our new lives, here in this house.

Mom/adventuress...a new post from our new outpost

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. For years Tim and I talked about moving somewhere out of the way, I imagined a little farmhouse away from everything where the kids and the dogs could run and play and we weren’t bothered by neighbors who were too loud, sold drugs, partied, hated our dogs, etc. (We’ve had a string of bad neighbors, and only one or two really good ones) For some reason we had settled on Montana, and we had even tried to get a job in Montana before, when we were still in the culinary field. Fast forward several years, a career change and one excruciatingly long drive and here we are, Montana.

When I look out my windows, all I see is blue sky and rolling hills, sunlight glinting off the frosted grass. Windmills dot the horizon. The thermometer outside said 15 degrees this morning and it is only November. The air is so dry I am constantly putting on lotion and always feel thirsty. It is a far cry from the dense forests and mild dampness I grew up in.

The house is exactly like visiting your grandparent’s farmhouse, complete with 70’s décor and shag carpet. When they said it was fully furnished they weren’t kidding, the house is full of books, knick knacks, linens, and it is overwhelming. I have to pack up someone else’s belongings just to move mine in. Still, the kitchen is huge, with a beautiful old linoleum floor. Our landlord said we can use what we want and he’ll store the rest, we can paint if we want, he is just happy to have the company, I think. He is our only neighbor, an elderly farmer whose family worked this land for several generations. The road is named after his family. We like him and so does our dog Toby. Wherever we have lived, Toby has found an old man to befriend. Good thing Toby likes our neighbor; he is the only one for five miles.

There is so much to do. The amount of cleaning and packing and unpacking feels overwhelming. As I unloaded the car that first day I had a panicked litany running through my head, “what did we do, what did we do, oh gods all our friends and family are so far away, what did we do????” A few nights of sleep have helped erased the litany but doubt still remains. We are alone in another state, another world, really. Did we do the right thing? Suddenly there’s no back up, no safety net for those days when I just can’t take one more tantrum. Still, Montana is beautiful. The moon last night was almost otherworldly as it sailed, full and shining, over the plains, turning everything silver and lovely. If I look west I can see the Rockies, snow covered and brushing the sky. This is not just a move for a new job, it is a trial. A test to see if we can walk the walk, after years of nothing but talk. It is a trial we are undertaking with open eyes and open arms but only time will tell if getting what we wanted is a good thing.

a view of the full moon from our front door.

Mom/Gardener: Rhubarb extravaganza

So, since I haven't posted in a few weeks, here is a rundown of my spring/early summer project: using up the several tons of rhubarb that grows in my yard each spring.

rhubarb plants

First off, luckily for me, rhubarb stalks will keep a week or two in the crisper drawer. That said, once I got a few strawberry rhubarb pies out of the way here's what else I did.

Orange-Rhubarb Compote
I decided to try out a sweet-tart-savory compote since I've read several recipes/articles about them. I just made up my own recipe though.
Start with a bunch of cut up rhubarb

Here is 8 cups of it.
Chuck it into a pan, add the juice and zest of two oranges, about 1/2 cup sugar, a tsp of salt and two or three star anise pods. Cook it until it is golden and jamy.

Then cool slightly and ladel into jars. The chutney is sweet/tart/spicy and very very yummy.

Stop for a minute and admire the beautiful rhubarb. Isn't it pretty? I love the red-green speckled stalks, so crisp and colorful.

Okay. So, still tons of rhubarb.  Good news, rhubarb freezes and thaws really well. So chop a bunch of it up and freeze in single layers on baking sheets, then place in freezer bags. Yay, rhubarb desserts for the rest of the year! (I have 3 gallon ziplock bags of it in my freezer as we speak)
Finally, try out a new recipe.
Sunken Rhubarb Cake
This is the recipe I used right here.You roast the rhubarb, then place the rhubarb pieces on top of the cake batter and bake.
The rhubarb, orange and almond all compliment each other really well, the cake is crumbly, moist and not too sweet. Definitely a winner.

sunken rhubarb cake

sunken rhubarb cake slice, tempting, no?

So there, that should keep me in rhubarb for awhile. Also, of course, I should mention the large amount of strawberry rhubarb jam I have made and will still make.

Mom/Gardener: Think Spring

So it's official, according to the news April 2011 was the coldest April on record for our state. When you live at roughly 2200 ft elevation, that translates to a lot of 20 degree nights and barely 40 degree days. Needless to say I have been feeling like Spring is some far off, unreachable thing that will never, ever happen. Just like when you're a kid waiting for Christmas, only I've had enough of snow, thank you very much. Last week we had the miracle of a beautiful, sunny 52 degree day and I said "enough is enough" and I went to the garden store. One bag of potting soil later and I have officially started my herbs and lettuces in pots on the porch.

porch garden

It doesn't look like much now, but give it a couple of weeks, it will soon be beautiful and edible. Which is pretty much my criteria for growing anything. If I have to choose between edible and ornimental, I choose edible, which totally explains why the only flowers growing around my house are day lillies that some previous owner planted, they keep coming back no matter how much I ignore them.
Anyway, it felt so good to be out in the sunshine, the dogs sunning themselves on the porch, the baby playing in the grass, me filling pots with rich dark soil and sprinkling on seeds. It gave me the spring fix I needed.
There are other signs of spring around here too. For instance, in our back yard, six big green leafy mounds of rhubarb are getting bigger day by day.

rhubarb!

I did not plant these, these giant rhubarbs were a very happy surprise the first spring we lived in this house. Some previous owner planted them and they come back strong, year after year. Last year I canned some awesome strawberry-rhubarb jam, not nearly enough of it though. I am looking forward to getting a big batch or three of it going in a couple of weeks. Not only is it delicious, but no one I have met gets sad if presented with homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam as a present.
One of my husband's favorite signs of Spring poked their little heads up this week too. While walking along a trail near our house my son and I came upon a big patch of morels. We live in good mushroom country up here, and even though I tend to be a little unadventurous of a mushroom hunter, there are a few obvious ones I enjoy hunting for, morels and chanterells mostly, both of which grow really well in the forests up here and more importantly are really hard to mistake for anything else.

mushroomy goodness

This particular patch, this early in the season, was of small mushrooms, but I think they are better the smaller they are. They are less likely to be buggy or too wet, and they are easy to cook, nice little two bite morsels. When cooking morels you need to forget the conventional wisdom of grocery store mushrooms that says "don't get them wet." you want to soak morels in several inches of water to get all the dirt and things out of all those little crags and furrows. After a nice long soak, drain them in a colander then place them on a towel to soak up the last of the water. Then you can dredge them in seasoned flour and give them a quick fry, or saute them with asparagus and peas for an all-things-spring vegetable medly.
The final, for now, important Spring development is that the chickens finally have their new home. My industrious husband spent two days converting an old outbuilding into a chicken coop.They love it in there, there is space to move around, some of the Rhode Island Reds are already checking out the nesting boxes, now all they need is their outdoor run. We have to transplant a few of the aforementioned rhubarb plants in order to build their run, but hopefully the rhubarb will survive the move, I have lots of family members who will be dissapointed come the holidays if I run out of strawberry-rhubarb jam.

Hey Mom, its sunny outside!