Scalloped Potatoes

"And don't forget the flour." That's what my mother said to me when I asked her how she makes her scalloped potatoes. "Layers of potato, onion powder, pepper, butter and flour and topped off with whole milk. And don't forget the flour." 3 guesses what I did.

It all started when I got a hankering for scalloped potatoes on our third consecutive day of below freezing weather. It just sounded warm and comforting. Having never made them, I briefly confirmed with mother goose the basics and then set to work. I used my food processor to uniformly (and quickly) slice the potatoes wafer thin. I had my roommates pick up three thick slices of ham from the store which I then cut up into chunks. And then I went to work. Potatoes, salt, pepper, onion powder, ham, butter. Potatoes, salt, pepper, onion powder, ham, butter. Potatoes, salt, pepper, onion powder, ham, butter until my baking dish wash full. As I poured the milk over the top, and all my roommates admired the pretty dish, it hit me. !@#$%. I forgot the flour.

It turned out tasty, but very liquidy. It definitely needs the flour.

Inspiration: It's Frickin' Freezing Out Side
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor with slicing tool, deep baking dish
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients
4-5 Yukon Gold potatoes, washed and dried
2 slices 1/4" thick cut ham, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 stick of butter, cubed small
onion powder
black pepper
FLOUR
1 pint whole milk

1. Using a food processor, slice the potatoes as thin as possible. If you don't have a slice mechanism (or a food processor for that matter), you will have to hand cut the potatoes, as thinly and uniformly as possible.
2. Grease the bottom and sides of a deep baking dish. (I used olive oil)
3. Create a layer of potatoes on the bottom, over lapping the edges so that the bottom of the pan is covered. Sprinkle with 1/8th tsp onion powder, 1/8th tsp. black pepper and 1/2-1 tsp flour. Spread a small portion of the ham across the bottom and butter. Repeat this until you have either exhausted space in your baking dish or have run out of potatoes.
4. Pour milk over the top of the potatoes until it reaches the 2nd before the top layer.
5. Bake in an oven preheated to 375 for 40-45 minutes. It should be golden brown on the top, and a knife should easily pierce the potatoes.

Winter Stew

On Saturday, my roommates, our friends Shiv and Ra, their dogs and I piled into the hippie van and drove out to Beaver Creek to find a couple of Christmas Trees. The forecast called for snow at about 1000 feet and boy did it ever. For the better part of an hour we ran around the tree farm, throwing snowballs at each other, chasing the dogs, and eventually cutting down a couple of trees, all the while it flurried around us. It wasn't until we got back into the van that we realized how cold we were. We figured the best thing to do was to make a big pot of buffalo stew to warm us back up.

Inspiration: Tree Hunting
Time: 3 hours
Difficulty: Super easy
Special equipment: Cast Iron top dutch oven (enamel coated a plus)
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients
2 lbs stew meat (beef, buffalo, or venison)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3 tbs flour
3 tbs olive oil
4 cups beef broth
1 pint dark beer (such as porter or stout)
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh oregano
2-3 bay leaves
3 medium carrots, peeled and chunked up - bite sized
3 celery stalks, chunked up - bite sized
3 Yukon gold potatoes, chunked up - bite sized

1. Toss the stew meat with the flour and salt and pepper until coated. Over medium high heat, cook the stew meat in the dutch oven with oil in batches until browned on all sides.

2. Once browned, add all stew meat back into the dutch oven. Add in broth and beer and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Using butchers string, tie the herb sprigs together and add to the simmering pot (this makes it way easier to remove the sprigs later). Add in the bay leaves. Cover and let simmer for 2 hours. (check on this occasionally to make sure that it's simmering and not a rolling boil.)

3. About 20 minutes before you're ready to eat, add the potatoes, carrots and celery into the pot and continue to simmer. As soon as the carrots and potatoes are soft, remove the bay leaves and the sprigs from the stew. Serve hot.

Buttermilk Biscuits

A few years ago, while visiting my Mom's Aunt Jan and Uncle Red at their property on Snag Lake in the Warner Mountains, Jan taught me the art of making biscuits while camping. I thought she was nuts. It actually turned out to be a super simple technique involving a cast iron dutch oven, some charcoal and Bisquick biscuit dough. While making the biscuit dough, I was telling Jan about my failed attempt to make a sourdough for bread and biscuits and the like when Red said to me, "Now Joe, Do you believe there is a better recipe for biscuits that is as easy to make as Bisquick?" It was not a question. You have to understand that, even in his 70's, Red was an imposing man. He stood over six feed, was still muscular from his days as a forest ranger, spoke very loudly and he had a complete disregard for personal space. So I took his question as a challenge to find him a recipe for biscuits from scratch that are as good as Bisquick and just as easy. Red, wherever you may be, I am happy to say, I've done it.

Inspiration: Red's Biscuit Challenge
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Super easy
Special equipment: Cheese grater
Servings: 8-10

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, grated using a cheese grater
3/4 cup buttermilk
Milk, for brushing the biscuits

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and blend in the butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

3. Add the buttermilk, stir the mixture until it just forms a dough, and gather it into a ball. On a lightly floured surface knead the dough gently 6 times and pat it out into a rectangle, roughly 1/2-inch thick.

4. Using a knife, divide the dough into 12 even-sized squares. Separate the squares and invert the squares onto a lightly greased baking sheet.

5. Brush the tops of the squares with the milk, bake the biscuits in the middle of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are pale golden, and transfer them on to a rack. Serve the biscuits at room temperature.

Simple Vinaigrette

Last night I had a potluck board meeting and was fortunately assigned salad duty. I say "fortunately" because salad is easy and my free time has been scarce this past week due to catching-up-at-work-post-vacation (I know, big sob story). The holidays are also in full swing, which hit me over the head when I went shopping for the fixings. Runny-nose kids were jumping on toy displays, ladies clad with coupons were racing through the aisles (and taking out elbows with their carts), men with perplexed faces were picking apart the bric-a-brac on 2-day-sale tables, and I was fighting for my life (and the last fennel bulb) in the produce department. I survived the checkout lines and fled the store, only to realize that I had forgotten salad dressing. I refused to go back into the hell mouth that was Fred Meyers and wait in line again, so I raided the cupboards at home and whipped up this simple vinaigrette. It's not half bad...

Inspiration: Jingle-bell meltdown
Time: Under 5 minutes
Difficulty: What difficulty?

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup quality vinegar (I mixed apple cider with balsamic)
  
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon finely-chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
  
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  
• 3/4 cup olive oil

Add first six ingredients and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Or, you can just pour all ingredients into a bottle with tight-fitting lid and shake it (and I mean shake it. Shake, shake, shake, shake it. Like a Polaroid picture.)

What to dress? For the salad, I caramelized red onion and fennel root and tossed it with 1/2 spinach, 1/2 field greens, fresh tomato, cucumber, carrots, pears and pecans. Yum. Goat cheese is also a great addition... but alas, another ingredient that I forgot to get at the store!

Pineapple Salsa over Grilled White Fish

One of my favorite things to do is cook using local ingredients. Rarely is that more exciting than when you're visiting someplace exotic, like Maui for example. Known for many things (from beaches to Bikinis) Maui is probably best known for Maui gold. That is, its island grown Pineapple which are so incredibly flavorful and so incredibly sweet that you'll be hard pressed to eat a mainland pineapple ever again. They are that good.

Now, Maui pineapples can be found all over the island (although oddly not at the Safeway...go figure). Jenny and I were fortunately to have a local surf bum give us the low down on where to find the freshest fruit and the freshest fish, which just happened to be a 10 minute drive from our condo. We win!

Inspiration: When in Rome...err...Maui...
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Super easy
Special equipment: Grill or grill pan
Servings: 8 Adults and 2 munchkins

Ingredients:
6 fillets of fresh white fish (we had Mahi Mahi and Mon Clava caught earlier that morning)
1 large pineapple, chunked into bitesized pieces
1/2 papaya, seeded and chunked into bite sized pieces
1 medium Maui sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and diced
1 tsp salt
1 lime, juiced
Fresh ground pepper to taste
(optional, 1 avocado, diced)

1. Season fresh fish with salt and pepper to taste on both sides. Let sit for 10 minutes
2. Meanwhile, toss together pineapple, papaya, onion, ginger in a medium sized bowl. Mash garlic to a paste with the salt, and stir in lime juice. Toss mixed fruit in garlic lime juice paste. Season with ground pepper to taste and set aside. (Let sit at least 20 minutes...the longer it sits the better. Like over night)
3. On a hot grill, cook fish briefly until done. Fresh fish fillets don't take long to cook. Maybe 4-5 minutes on either side)
4. Serve fish with salsa over the top of the fish.