Lake Superior - Postcard #7 & Nancy Drew - Postcard #8; Welcome Home Shirt - Crafty Crap #2

 

This beautiful image of ice shards on Lake Superior's North Shore went out to my grams as a little hello. I've only been up to the northern parts once in the spring, and never truly to the "North Shore," certainly not in the winter. It'd be an awesome trip someday. Awesome and cold.

Lake Superior has a cool phenomenon called Ice Volcanoes.

Ice fishing. Brrr.

Info on the big lake, from a Minnesotan perspective.

Nancy Drew and her mysterious letter (and man) went out to my Minneapplesauce friend AC. AC is an excellent Scrabble night host and always provides new and exciting beverages to quench my thirst while playing. She rocks.

This is the 8th book in the Nancy Drew series. Exciting.

You can buy it!

An excellent review?/synopsis? of the book. So you know what you are getting into when you buy it.

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 SM is home and we had a friendly competition to make welcome home t-shirts. Mine is a 360 degree event. I became a super-iron-on-champion making this. This t-shirt can never be washed. Not only is it awesome, it is also stinky!

I haven't received any official word yet, but I'm pretty sure I won the contest.

Cream of Onion and Potato Soup- Recipe #7

This sounded like such a great idea - it's cold and dreary out, winter has been going on for too long, and I wanted something warm, thick and yummy for dinner. Found this recipe online with lots of rave reviews. Not sure what the hype was about, and I didn't do a very good job documenting this one.

6 potatoes
6 onions
3 tbs flour
3 tbs butter
4 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

- peel and chop the potatoes and onions

- In a large pot over high heat, combine the potatoes, onions and water to cover and boil for 30-45 minutes or until tender.

- Drain the mixture, retaining 1 1/2 cups of the water.
- Transfer the potato and onion mixture to a blender in small batches and puree until smooth.

- In the same pot, over medium heat, combine the flour and the butter, stirring together well to form a roux.
- Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, until well blended.
- Reduce heat to low and add the pureed potato mixture.

- Let simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the parsley, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish with croutons and cheese.


Review:

This was bland and I could taste the milk. I don't like the taste of milk, so it was probably unwise to make a soup that called for 4.5 cups of the stuff. Because it was fairly bland, I added some more seasonings to it at the end, trying to rescue dinner. I added a bunch of grated parmesan cheese, more garlic powder, and some rosemary. It sort of helped, but there really needed to be more going on here.

The texture of the soup was nice, it pureed up super smoothly and easily.

There is a bunch of this soup leftover in my fridge, so I may doctor it up and see how it goes. Rooster E, who has previous experience eating potato soups, recommended that I try doctoring it in a baked potato way: sour cream, cheddar cheese, and scallions. I think she may be right, it needs some stronger flavors in there.

Netflix rating:

Me: 2.0
PM: 2.0

Welcome Home SM! Postcards #5 & #6

It's important that the Minnesotan Hay Bale people are happy. Aren't you glad they are happy?

If you need to buy or sell some Minnesotan hay, here's where you can do it. No guarantee that you will get grinning bales of hay.
Evil hay bales?
Everything you've ever wanted to know about selecting and storing your hay.

La Liberté éclairant le monde
Planning to bring your picnic lunch up to the crown? Think again.
She was wounded in WWI by some Germans.

Welcome home SM! Glad you made it back out of the Afghan mountains safe and sound!

Yummy Mushroom Caps - Recipe #6

I'm playing catch-up (ketchup) with some of my New Year's Resolutions. Things got a little weird these past two weeks with some apartment battles.

This recipe was really called "Appetizer Stuffed Mushrooms," but that is a lame name for how yummy these things were. Behold:

12 large fresh mushrooms
2 tbs finely chopped green onion
2 tbs finely chopped green pepper
1 tbs butter or margarine
1 slice bread, toasted and cut into cubes
1/3 cup of fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes
1/4 tsp dried onion
1/4 tsp garlic powder
pinch of salt
some pepper
some paprika
olive oil
a sprig or two of fresh thyme
grated parmesan cheese

- Remove stems from mushrooms. Set caps on a greased baking sheet.
- Finely chop 1/2 cup of the stems and the onions and green pepper.

- In a skillet, sauté the chopped mushroom stems, onion, and green pepper in butter over medium heat until the vegetables are tender and the mushroom liquid has evaporated.

- Stir in the dried onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and paprika. Reduce heat to low.
- Cut up the toasted bread and the mozzarella into rough cubes.

- Stir in the toast cubes and mozzarella cheese, cook on low only long enough to soften up parts of the toast and to start melting the cheese. Add a little drizzle of olive oil at this point if the mixture seems too dry.

- Carefully spoon the mixture into the mushroom caps.
- Sprinkle a bit of fresh thyme on each cap.

- Bake uncovered at 425 degrees or until heated through.
- Sprinkle with parmesan cheese before serving, serve hot.

Review:

Dang these are good. I ended up sprinkling the thyme on top of the caps because I forgot them when I put in the rest of the spices. I like it, so it stays that way.These were pretty easy to make. I had halved the recipe I found and thought I got the numbers wrong when I saw how little there was of the mushroom stem/onion/green pepper mixture, but the bread really filled it out. The bread was awesome in these things. I didn't use a slice of regular sandwich bread, I had some fresh baguette from the co-op, so I broke of the end of that to toast and chop up. The toasty bits stayed crunchy and the rest of the bread soaked up some of the mushroom liquid while they baked. It was a great combination. I think the spices were perfect. Perfect.

Netflix Rating:
Me:  5.0
PM: 5.0

Niddle's Sweet Potato Fries - Recipe #5

This week's recipe is a little late. I was busy with concerts and didn't have time to devote to many of my resolutions.

Niddle sent me a recipe last month for his version of sweet potato fries. The PM and I discovered the joy of sweet potatoes several months ago, but until now we've only been getting them as frozen fries. Time to branch out.

One large sweet potato
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Paprika
Cumin
Salt

- Skin the sweet potato and cut into 1 inch cubes or fries

- Toss potato pieces with olive oil, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, and salt.

- Place potato pieces on a greased baking sheet.

- Bake at 400 degrees, stirring/flipping occasionally for about 15 minutes.

Review:

I have two more sweet potatoes sitting in my kitchen, so I'm going to try this recipe again, turning the potato into cubes instead of fries. Because I used olive oil and because I HATE the sound of my smoke detector going off, I didn't bake them at Niddle's recommended 415 degrees since extra virgin olive oil can smoke around 405 degrees (or so the interwebs told me). That might have made a difference. My fries were limp, as can be expected from sweet potato fries that are baked, but some of the smaller ones burned. I'll update the review when I see how the cubed version turns out.

The seasoning was great, the cumin smelled awesome and the fries had a really nice flavor. Niddle recommended eating them with ranch dressing, his wife The Tech likes ketchup. I used ketchup this time around.

Netflix rating:

Me: 3.5

Accounting for January

How did January turn out for the Resolute Rooster?

1- Attend at least two cultural events per month.

            - Done, though I really should make an effort to branch out from only going to classical concerts: 
             SPCO: Schreker's Chamber Symphony and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde on January 9th (Sasha Cooke has an amazing voice) at Ted Mann.

             SPCO: Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires arranged for Violin and Strings, Berio's Folk Songs, and Bartók's Five Hungarian Folk Songs on January 22nd at Saint Paul's UCC. I'd never heard the Piazzolla before and I have completely fallen in love with it.

2- Practice at least four times per week 

             -I did so-so with this, allergies and a cold put a damper on the singing. I should work out an agreement with myself about the other singing-related things I can do instead of practicing during those weeks that I have some sort of cord issue. Translating? Research? Planning?

3- Exercise at least four times per week.

            - Ugh. It is HARD to do this one when it's January in Minnesota, and some weeks I did better than others. I need to come up with some sort of structure or a schedule to keep me on track. I do better with schedules.

4- Master Swedish verbs.

            - Ongoing, though I could have put more time into this one. February will be my Irregular Swedish Verbs Month!

5- Super clean one room each month.

            - I did some great work in the living room, but didn't finish it. I might roll-over the living room into February and add in a smaller, easier room like the bathroom.

6- Try out one new recipe each week.

            - Done! I think I came up with a pretty good variety, too! Spinach Artichoke Dip, Portobello Mushroom Puffs, Overnight Asparagus Mushroom Strata, and Soft Molasses Cookies.

7- Send one postcard each week.

            - Done!

8- Crafty crap!

            - Done! A mosaic Swedish flag went out to Rooster C, and she likes it!

9- Learn to play the theremin.

            - Slacker. I played around with it, but I haven't started to seriously work on learning this instrument. As part of super cleaning my living room, I did open up a space for the theremin that is much better for practicing as far as height and stability.

10- Go hiking and see waterfalls.

            - Winter. Minnesota. Fail.

11- Beat the PM at Scrabble.

            - We played three times this month. I lost every time, but I was VERY close to winning the second match we had.

12- Eat five fruits/veggies a day.

            - I did pretty well with this. As long as I buy groceries and make my lunches and dinners most days, I easily get my five in the day. It's another story when I'm busy and eating out a lot. 


For February I really need to step up the exercising and Swedish verbs and make some headway with those resolutions.

Soft Molasses Cookies - Recipe #4

This week I needed to find a recipe that was not a key part of a meal (most of my meals were out and about because of a busy rehearsal/performance schedule) and was fairly quick and easy: cookies!

Soft Molasses Cookies to be exact. I don't have strong feelings about molasses cookies either way, but the PM likes them quite a bit, so I made them for him because he let me use his car for 9 hours of driving to and from a rehearsal this weekend.

1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fat sugar, if desired

- Beat the sugar, sour cream, butter, shortening, molasses and egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with a spoon.

- Stir in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt.

- Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.

- Bake in an oven at 375 for 9-11 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched in center.
- Cool 1-2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
- Sprinkle with fat sugar while cookies are still warm.

Review:

I didn't realize there were three kinds of molasses, and I don't know what the differences are in terms of baking. I picked up the "full flavor" version, figuring that was "regular." As it turns out, molasses is stinky. STINKY.  I had no idea.

I'm not a molasses cookie expert, so my judgment of this recipe is probably not the best. They were easy to make and taste like cookies, but I don't think they are anything to write home about. For my oven, 9-11 minutes were too long to bake them. The first cookie sheet that went in the oven produced overdone cookies. I've suspected that my oven may be calibrated wrong, it often seems to cook too hot. I also had trouble finding a good time to sprinkle them with the fat sugar (fat sugar is my term, the recipe just called for sugar). If I waited until after the 1-2 minutes of chilling on the baking sheet, most of the sugar rolled off of the cookie. If I sprinkled them while still on the baking sheet, the sugar melted onto the pan. There was sugar EVERYWHERE.

I would eat these with some tea in the afternoon as a snack if there was nothing else around and I really wanted something sweet, but I'm not sure I'd make them again for my own consumption. I think I'm just not a fan of molasses cookies.

Netflix Rating:
Me: 2.0
PM: Cookies. (The PM refused to play along with my Netflix Rating guide on this one and repeatedly responded with "cookies" when I asked him to rate them. Either the cookies paralyzed his brain with awesomeness or he was channeling Cookie Monster.)

Jan 31, Edited to add: I solicited another reviewer for these. My lunch buddy UB is a big fan of molasses cookies and she rated them a solid 3. She says the taste is a little off from what she's used to.

Feb 3, Edited to add: By special request, I sent a few of these cookies to my nephew, Rooster E 2.0. They were received today, and so I asked Rooster E 2.0 for a review/rating. Rooster E (the original) relayed back to me:
                    "Ok, well I think the reviewer has some confusion. He said he loved them and would eat them ALL!!! Munch munch munch and when I explained it, he said 1. I tried to show him again on my fingers and he said 'here let me show ya' and closed all my fingers one by one until there was only one left. 'One' he again replied and turned back to his playdough."

Old Timey Photo - Postcard #4 & Swedish Flag Mosaic - Crafty Crap #1

This postcard is from a big collection of fun postcards I picked up many years ago - I found the first of five packs of these in a bookstore and tracked down the rest of the set online. The back says "A happy family, c. 1900."

Postcard #4 for the New Year Resolution went out to my old friend from college, JD. She lives far away and I haven' seen her in several years, so she'll probably think that's me on the postcard. She's special like that.

An article on old photography and the solemn faces epidemic.
Russian color photographs from the early 1900s. Amazing.

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The January Crafty Crap has been completed! A year or so ago I decided to try my hand at doing mosaics and I make a punch of Swedish Flag window hangings (or trivets) for most of my family. (The glass looks really pretty with the sun shining behind it.)

It took a lot longer to make each one that I thought it would, so I wasn't able to finish the one for Rooster C in time. Probably cheating, but it seemed appropriate to make her Swedish Flag the crafty crap for this month. Nothing like getting a gift more than a year late!

Overnight Asparagus Mushroom Strata - Recipe #3

It's cold, cold, cold this week in Minneapolis; staying in for a big, lovely breakfast/brunch on Saturday is the best way to start the weekend. Clearly.

I found a recipe for a breakfast casserole of sorts. I tweaked it, as usual.

2 teaspoons butter, or as needed
1 3/4 cups of sliced mushrooms
3-4 English muffins, split and toasted
2 cups shredded cheese of your choice
1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped broccoli
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir the mushrooms until their liquid has mostly evaporated and the mushrooms are beginning to brown. (It amazes me how much mushrooms shrink when cooked.)

- Grease a pan, I used an 9x9 baking dish, and arrange the muffin halves, cut side up, in the bottom of the dish. Stuff remaining muffins into the spaces between the halves.

- Spread 1 cup of the cheese over the muffins in a layer.

- Distribute the vegetables over the cheese.

- Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, dry mustard, and black pepper in a bowl.

- Pour egg mixture over the muffins and vegetables.

- Cover the dish and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, when you are sleepy and lazy in your PJs: preheat the oven to 375.
- Remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let stand for 30 minutes. Spread 1 cup of the cheese in a layer on top of the vegetables.

- Bake 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the edge comes out clean. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Review:

This was tasty and really awesome to just throw in the oven in the morning. Doing the prep-work the night before is brilliant for lazy-Saturday people like me. The english muffins were very smooshy and yummy at the bottom of the thing and helped keep it together when serving up the pieces. The veggies came out perfectly cooked, hot all the way through, but not overdone and limp.

It took more than the given 45 minutes to cook, closer to an hour - probably because I used a smaller, square pan instead of a 9x13 as the original recipe suggested.

I would change this recipe a bit the next time I make it. There was too much liquid left in the pan, I think because I added many more veggies than the original recipe called for but didn't cut down on the milk to balance it out. I'd probably try it with only 1 cup of milk next time to see how it goes. I think the tomatoes really add a lot of liquid to the dish, more than I figured on.

The PM suggested that the top layer of cheese be added later on in the baking so that it is more cheesy and gooey and less crunchy.


Netflix Rating:
Me: 3.5
PM: 3.5