Birthday Dinner

It has been forever and a day since I posted to this blog but tonight's dinner is worth a shout. Just a couple weeks ago my son an I landed bleary-eyed in Paris on my birthday. First things first we went to a little place "Chez Paul" near our apartment on Place Dauphine. We had the best meal ever and I successfully replicated it this evening for dinner.

1 lb fresh salmon
1/4 c onion chopped fine
1/2 c sliced mushrooms
4 sliced carrots
Olive oil
Fresh lavender or rosemary
3/4 c veg or fish broth
3/4 c dry white wine
1/2 cream
Fresh ground pepper and course salt

Sauté the onions and mushrooms in olive oil and set aside.

Coat carrots lightly in olive oil and lavender and roast on a cookie sheet in 450 degree oven until just soft but still firm, about 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile poach the salmon in the broth/wine mixture until the center is not quite cooked, about 7-10 minutes depending on the thickness. Remove the salmon and place on the serving plate.

Boil the broth/wine on high heat until it is reduced about 80% and then add the mushrooms, onions and carrots which will absorb most of the remaining the liquid. Turn the heat down a little and add the cream, stirring until warm. Pour on top of salmon and serve with basmati rice and a salad.

You won't believe how good this is! Bon appetite!

Pickle Power

You don't have to be a canning expert to have good pickles.  I canned some longer lasting kosher dills last week but also made these easy bread and butter and dill refrigerator pickles.  The bread and butter recipe originates from my Grandpa Mathias Thommes.   I remember the gallon jar (along with limburger cheese - yuk!) always in his fridge.  This is the first year I tried the dill recipe and the pepper flakes add a nice kick.


I purchased two of the large square jars from Target.  It is also worth purchasing a small madoline to slice the cukes - they even tast better with the thin even slices you can get with the "slice device."  XOX makes a $15 madoline that works just fine with cukes and onions.


Maths Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles


7 c sliced cukes
1 c sliced onions
2 c sugar
1 c white vinegar
1 tsp pickling or kosher salt
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed


Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar heating slightly if necessary, cool and add spices.  Pout over sliced cukes and onions and store in refrigerator.  Tip the jar over every couple days to mix the brine.  These tast good right a way but best after a week or so.


Refrigerator Dill Pickles


1 lb cukes sliced however you like but thin slices absorb the flavor best
1 c white vinegar
2 c cold water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp kosher slat
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 c fresh dill tops
5 cloves of garlic, peeled


Mix all ingredients until salt and sugar are dissolved.  Add sliced cukes to large jar and pour liquid and spice mixture on top.  Rotate jar to mix spices every few days.   These are good to sample early but best after a week or more. 


Now that you have pickles...my brother Greg just told me about trying peanut butter pickle hamburgers...hmmmm, think I will stick to tuna salad and pickles.

Onions, Onions, La La La

I never knew there was such a thing as onion season.  Now I do.  Red, yellow sweet and white onions graced a triple row in my community garden plot this year.  Grilled, sautéed  in olive oil or added in any sauce they have been heavenly.

Channeling my inner Grandpa I also tried my hand a braiding onions this year.  Why should that make me feel so proud?  I remember admiring my grandpas braided onions about the time I wore braids myself at 5 years old.  Don't ask me why it took fifty years to try it myself.  

I cleaned and dried the onions for about a week and then attached a long piece or twine to three starter onion.  From there add an onion every other twist and make a braided tail at the end that you wrap with twine.

It all makes me think how the impressions we gain as a child stay with us.  

When I was four I told my mom when I grew up I wanted to be a Grandma.  She informed me that first I had to be a mother.   To this I replied: "No, I just want to be a Grandma because they get to garden, fish, bake cookies and play, but moms have to do too much work."

The Perfect Palette: Edible Flowers

Last nights salad included greens, cucumbers and dill, nasturtium, rose, violet, calendula and borage flowers.  It was a culinary delight, a painting and a bouquet all in one!

I have long enjoyed colorful nasturtiums in containers and to dress with their peppery taste.   Last spring I thought “why stop here” and was delighted to find a great online resource on the University of Minnesota’s Extension Master Gardener website.

Beyond salads, cakes and other desserts can be decorated with colorful blooms and cold drinks can be enhanced with a floral garnish.   The small test tube-like containers used at florists can be inserted in a cake to hold small blooms and provide water.

To assure your flowers come from pesticide-free plants it is best to grow them yourself.  Several of the plants listed below grow well in containers.  Harvest  blossoms the same day you will use them and gently wash them and allow them air dry. Remove the tart internal stamens and styles of larger flowers such as tulip or squash blossoms.  If need be, store the flowers in covered containers in the refrigerator.  Add the pretty posies just before serving.

The University of Minnesota Extension website suggests the following edible posies:

• alpine strawberry anise hyssop
• apple or plum
• bee balm
• begonia
• borage
• calendula
• chamomile
• chives
• daylilies
• dill
• English daisy
• galdiolus
• Hollyhocks
• lavender
• lemon balm
• lilac
• majoram
• mint
• mustard
• nasturtium
• pansy
• petunia
• pinks
• rose
• scarlet runner beans (not sweet pea flowers are NOT edible)
• sage
• squash
• tulip petals

Bon appetite!

Since I mentioned Olga....

Photo courtesy UMD website http://www.d.umn.edu/biology/herbarium/

Yesterday I sent admiration for Frances and mentioned Olga.   Like Frances, I met Olga through a book, hers:  The Flora of Northeastern Minnesota.  This was the quintessential local key to identifying plants  while I worked on the Superior National Forest.

One of the first things I did as I Biologist on the Superior National Forest in the late 1970's - early 1980's was to verify past locations of rare plants on the Aurora and Kawishiwi Districts.  I hired another young botanist, Kate and together we got lost in the woods in search of Olga's collections. Many a time, it seemed we were in the exact spot notated on the herbarium specimens.  We would have an Olga seance of sorts, chanting her name and asking for her assistance.  (Almost like my mother would pray "St Francis Dear St Francis come around, somethings lost and cannot be found.")    A fair number of times it worked.

The  University of Minnesota, Duluth website pays tribute to another heroine of mine:


"The herbarium at the University of Minnesota Duluth was founded by Dr. Olga Lakela (1890-1980), a native of Finland who emigrated to northeastern Minnesota as a child. She earned a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Minnesota and was the first Biology Department Head on the Duluth campus. Approximately half of our specimens were collected by Dr. Lakela, and her extensive work in St. Louis and Lake counties, Minnesota is summarized in her book, A Flora of Northeastern Minnesota (1965, University of Minnesota Press). Olga Lakela founded this herbarium in 1935, and the University named it after her in 1960. A bequest from Dr. Lakela supports the maintenance and growth of the collection, as well as botanical research at UMD."

So here is to another great woman of the woods.  Thanks Olga.

Heroine on the Hill

We took a hike up East Avenue to one of my favorite spots in Red Wing:  Oakwood Cemetery.  I have posted photos here before (http://nancyberlin.blogspot.com/2010/10/not-so-spooky.html) and remarked on the beauty of the oaks there.  Today, I discovered the grave of Frances Densmore.

I can remember the very day my interest in botany was planted.  I was walking in the woods with my  Grandmother Agnes, she would poke her cane at plants and tell me their names and how they were used by her German ancestors or local Indian people.   To learn more I read Frances Densmore's book "How Indians Used Wild Plants for Food, Medicine and Crafts."  There weren't many female field biologists in Minnesota even when I was in college, so women like Frances and Olga Lakela were my heros.

The Minnesota Historical Society has the following to say about Frances Densmore: (http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/124frances_densmore.html)

"Frances Densmore was born in 1867 in Red Wing, Minnesota. She studied piano, organ, and harmony at Oberlin Conservatory. Densmore became interested in the music of the Omaha tribe after reading a book about the ethnomusicology of the tribe, and soon pursued the study of Native music herself. In 1905 she visited the Ojibwe bands in Grand Marais and Grand Portage where she started to transcribe the music. Although Densmore began her work in Minnesota, observing and recording the cultures of the Dakota and Ojibwe, she traveled across North America preserving the customs and traditions of many Native American tribes. She was a prolific author, writing over twenty books and 100 articles, and recorded over 2,000 wax cylinders of Native music. Her records preserved a vast amount of Native American music and culture during a period when white settlers were moving into Native lands and encouraging the tribes to adopt Western customs."


Back to Oakwood.  A simple stone marks a great woman.

No Excuses

It is that peony time of year

I am coming up on one year in the new house.  It's time to get back to blogging.  No excuses.  I really did enjoy sharing stories and images, even to a limited audience.  There is alot to share with a new town, becoming a master gardener, house projects, new recipes, a community garden plot.  So here goes, I'll gear up and start again in the coming week.

Vegan Thanksgiving

I have overheard a few in the Vegan world say that Thanksgiving was not for them.  Think about it though, there is alot more to the feast then the turkey!  It seems most college-aged kids pass through being Vegan and for some it sticks. So most all of us should have a few tricks up our sleeve to be the perfect Vegan host.   To be honest it tastes 95% as good and is 200% healthier.   Here is what I do:

Head to Trader Joes, Whole Foods or your nearest natural food store and stock up on Earth Balance (best ever butter substitute, even for baking your pie crust), vegetable or mushroom bullion and soy or almond milk.

Turkey/main course - Well, the turkey is out for the Vegan crew but if you make the stuffing as I describe below, save some and stuff some mushrooms and serve with the gravy below.    Just pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes dish up everything else.  I'  admit, I had more stuffed mushrooms then turkey this year.  They were that good.

Dressing - Use Earth Balance to saute the onion, add spices, craisens and wild rice (I used half rice half bread) with dairy free bread and vegetable bullion, you have a delicious  stuffing that everyone will like in the bird or out.

Mashed potatoes - Again use earth Balance and Soy Milk.  These aren't as rich as traditional potatoes but you can make up for the flavor by adding a crushed garlic and sauted shallots or leeks.

Gravy - I love gravy and this mushroom gravy is a mighty fine substitute for the gravy grandma used to make, and alot healthier.  I am sold:

Mushroom gravy

•                3/4 cup white or button mushrooms, chopped

•                1 small yellow or white onion, minced

•                1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine

•                2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

•                2 tbsp soy sauce

•                1/4 cup flour

•                1 tbsp poultry seasoning (or 1/2 tsp each of sage, thyme and marjoram)

•                salt and pepper to taste

Melt the margarine and then saute the onion and mushrooms.  Add broth and soy sauce.  Slowly add the flour, stirring, bring to a simmer or a low boil, then reduce heat.  Add spices and cook for 10 minutes or unitl thickened.

Sweet Potatoes - Forget that old marshmallow recipe and slice and roast  them in the oven with olive oil.

Vegetable - Easy

Cranberries - In my book, nothing is better then 2 cups of fresh cranberries boiled until they pop with 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water.  Add cinnamon or peppers for something different.  I can't believe anyone buys them in a can!

Bread and Herb Butter - Check the bread you purchase, it is surprising how often milk, whey or eggs are in the ingredients.  Baguette is usually a safe choice.  The day before I soften a half pound of Earth Balance (and I confess butter too for us heathens) then crush a clove of garlic and snip a teaspoon or two of thyme into it and spread it in a small pretty glass bowl.  The flavor is enhanced overnight.

Pumpkin Pie - There are several recipes on the internet but last year I just substituted 1 1/2 tsp each  of water/oil/baking powder for each egg and replaced about 3/4 of the amount of evaporated milk called for with soy milk and the pie tasted fine.   Any other pie (apple, pecan) would be festive too.

There you go.  No whining just thanksgiving!

Just Wait...

Sketch of our future backyard edible garden.

Where do ideas come from?  Not the easy ones - I am talking abut the answers for problems that get you stuck.  I know we have the answer to everything, but sometimes those answers are buried too deep or we are too distracted to pull them out.  I believe our greatness is buried in our subconscious.  If you get stuck, wait and the answer will come.  I guess that's what some call faith.

I have been stuck the last two months trying to figure out a design for my postage stamp-sized backyard.  My aim is to convert  lawn and traditional plantings into an edible landscape.  I have scoured dozens of books, looked online, talked to other gardeners, even hired a designer but non of the solutions felt right.  Yesterday I looked out my window and saw the answer.  It all hinged on the positioning of the walkway from the house to the garage.  The design just fell on the paper.

I love that.  Listen to your gut and if it doesn't feel right or you don't know the answer - just wait.

Russian Stew with Cherries

I found a great selection of dried beans at Seed Savers in Decorah Iowa.  Worth the trip.

My dad asked me once "why do you just eat white?" because I only made chicken and fish dishes.  Well, he would be happy that some read meat is sneaking back into my diet.  This one of my favorites, modified from the RealFood magazine by using beef instead of veal and using a higher proportion of beans and onions:

1 1/2 c dry navy or more interesting beans
1 1/2 lbs stew meat (original recipe called for veal, I used beef)
Olive oil
3 tbsp flour
1 large onion
1 can Morello or other sour cherries and juice
3/4 c Madeira or Port
Salt and pepper
1 nutmeg freshly ground or about 1/2 tsp dry
Fresh parsley

Soak the beans overnight and save to  boil the next morning for 1 hour, then drain and add to the meat cooked the night before.
Meanwhile, dredge the meat in flour and brown in olive oil.  Saute the onion and then add to meat with sherry, cherries with juice and spices.  Cook at least an hour and a half and then refrigerate overnight. The next day, add the cooked beans and warm slowly for an hour or so before serving .  Like most stews, the flavor is enhanced by preparing it a day ahead of serving.  We like it over pappardelle pasta noodles with crusty bread and a salad.

Thai Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is unique because you can taste every flavor.  It is delicious!

1 butternut squash peeled and cubed
2 c vegetable broth
1 can cocoanut milk
1/4 c finely chopped onion
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 c chopped cashews
1/2 finely chopped fresh basil
zest or 1 lime

Combine all but the last three ingredients>  Cover and simmer on low on the stove top for about 1 1/2 - 3 hours, stirring occasionally.   Mash the squash with a potato masher or immersion blender.  I strained out some of the "strings" of the squash pulp.  Mix the nuts, basil and lime zest and sprinkle on top before serving.  Tastes great with naan and a crispy salad.

Not So Spooky

It seems fitting to share this so close to Halloween.  This has been one of my favorite walks since I was about twelve.  I would visit my Grandma in Red Wing and sneak away with my camera to explore.  I'd walk up East Avenue...

...and into Oakwood Cemetery.

I took the same walk today... up the path...

...and into the woods, blanketed in leaves....

...aglow with color....

....beautiful color....

.....big landscapes like Barns Bluff surround...

....and delicate beauty of Maiden Hair Ferns below my feet...

....thoughts of angels....

....lovely day.  Not so spooky.

Mission Accomplished

Why does this feel like a masterpiece?  Over the past two-and-a-half weeks we have stripped 104 years of paint, sanded, patched, stained, re-sanded, re-stained, varnished, patched and painted.  It seemed like it would never end.  All this for a sixteen square-foot back entry to our house.  The previous owners did a skillful job refinishing the entire house - it is humbling to feel victorious over this tiny corner.  The  door, walls and trim were painted white - they now glow in their original wood finish and walls to match the kitchen.  If you visit, I doubt you will even know the difference.   To me however it is piece of art.

Dahlias Gone Wild

Thanks to the previous owners of our house, we are rich with Dahlias!

With this warm weather, the flowers are really giving it a last hurrah.

There were so many last night, I made four arrangements for my house and gave six bouquets to my neighbors.  Wild!

The tough question now is which to save?  Dahlias hail from Mexico so in Minnesota we dig them up and overwinter them in sphagnum in a cool dark place.  I need to make room for vegetables next year so need to reduce the number of Dahlias from the twenty eight plants in my yard.  Which to choose - they are so beautiful!

Oh My Madeleines!

I did it!  My madeleines are better then any other I have tasted.

It irked me that I liked Starbucks Madeleine's better then those I attempted to make earlier - and theirs was better then others I had purchased at French bakeries in the U.S.   Leave it to Julia though, today I tried the recipe from Baking with Julia and hit the jackpot in the world of Madeline's.

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 c cake flour, sifted
3/4 c sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 large eggs at room temperature
4 large egg yolks at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

Sift the flour, add 1 tbsp of sugar and the salt and set aside on a sheet of waxed paper.   Put eggs and yolks along with 1 tbsp sugar in a ceramic bowl and mix by hand with beater from mixer.  Add the remaining sugar and wisk by hand.  Then whip the egg/sugar mixture on high speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture "makes a ribbon" that sits on top for 10 seconds before sinking.  Add the vanilla.  Next mix in about 1/3 of the flour mixture gently with a spatula.  Do not over fold!  Then gently add the next thirds the same way.  Carefully fold in the melted butter.  Immediately and carefully spoon the batter into the madeleine pans.  Bake about 10 minutes at 400.  I like the edges brown and crispy - the madeleines should bounce back to the touch.   Cool a bit before removing from pan.  The recipe says thy taste best the first day - and can be frozen for up to ten days.  I can tell you they taste great on day one!

You can get a used copy of Baking With Julia for $10-15.  This cookbook is so so so worth it.  Everything I have made from pie crust to croissants with these recipes have been the best ever.