Trip to Bend

A few years ago Verne and I attended the Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon, organized years ago by one of my favorite quilt artists, Jean Wells. We couldn’t get a room in Sisters, which books a year in advance, so we stayed in Bend. It was our first time visiting central Oregon and we fell in love with the area. In particular, Verne liked the fact it’s the home of Deschutes Brewery, his latest, favorite beer. In fact, Bend is a craft beer mecca with more microbreweries than any other city in Oregon. Since that first visit, whenever we talk of downsizing and are asked where we’d relocate, the answer has been Bend. I decided it was time to either rule it in or rule it out as a possibility and we again visited Bend on a trip to Portland the first week of April. I’m sad to say, we’ve officially ruled it out. It’s a great town, but we’ve decided it’s not quite right for us. For the near future you’ll still find us in Volcano living on the most beautiful 40 acres in Amador County!

Although we've decided against Bend, we had a great time. We arrived early evening and had a memorable dinner at the Pine Tavern, a restaurant in the heart of old downtown situated on the Deschutes River and highly recommended by Verne’s brother, Keith. We shared a delicious Cajun shrimp dish served on grits that was very similar to a recipe we’d found in Fine Cooking and prepared (and loved) in early March. Of course, we couldn’t eat grits without laughing about the restaurant scene in My Cousin Vinny. Our home version was served with dirty rice, but after eating the grits I think we’re both open to the idea of substituting grits for the rice.

Our hotel was next door to a Black Bear Diner.  For the most part, Verne and I avoid large chain restaurants. However, about five years ago he attended Hot August Nights in Reno with his three brothers. They started the day, as the brothers do every trip together, with breakfast at the Black Bear Diner. From Verne’s sarcastic comments about the place, I got the impression it was mediocre at best. However, every time we pass a Black Bear Diner, he points it out to me. Annoying, huh?!  Well, I wasn’t about to miss this opportunity and I insisted on breakfast the following morning at the Black Bear Diner. I played it safe and had oatmeal (really, how can you mess up oatmeal?), but Verne’s biscuits and gravy weren’t half bad. Even at that, I’d still agree that it’s a step above Denny’s, but mediocre at best!

We spent the balance of the morning with a realtor driving all over Bend and the nearby communities and then drove on to Portland to arrive in time to pick up Lauren from work and begin an intense two days together. We always plan meals at favorite restaurants (for example, Manzana’s on the lake in downtown Lake Oswego or Deschutes Brewery in downtown Portland) and shopping (NO Sales Tax!) at Best Buy, Macy’s, Fabric Depot, and the like, a trip to Penzey’s, and a movie at Cinetopia. We did all of this and more.  (The “more” being a to-do list of fix-its Lauren left us when she went to work on Friday.) Our good time was made even better by a visit from Maria. She'd just returned from a two-month fishing stint and drove down from Seattle Friday morning to join us for the weekend. I snapped this picture at Cinetopia...the tree behind the girls is made from wine bottles. It looks a little like a Christmas tree, but it can't be. It's March. Whatever the occasion for the tree, it was amazing...begin saving your wine bottles!

Best-Ever Birthday

We just returned from a long weekend to So Cal and I’m still feeling a "high" from three days of Good Eats and Good Times.  The original purpose of the trip was to celebrate my birthday at Mozza Osteria, an elite Michelin-starred restaurant in LA started by well-known chefs Mario Batalia and Nancy Silverton in 2010.  Jana told me of her plan to take us there last December. We originally had no other reason to make the trip mid-March other than to have dinner with her.  But, over the past couple of weeks several “reasons” developed resulting in a very busy three days. Jana will be moving from her Santa Monica apartment at the end of the month, so there was packing to be done, and one of her kittens needed to visit the vet…both things we could do to help our daughter. Also, Verne ordered new computers from his tech guru in Brea and they were made ready this weekend, so we were able to pick them up and save shipping costs. We then planned to complete our trip by driving up the coast to visit our friend Sally and make bagels, as well as deliver quilts for a mutual friend and a pet portrait I’d been commissioned to paint for a Santa Barbara woman I’d met last summer. It was a full weekend!

We drove Thursday arriving early evening and met Jana and Bashir at one of our favorite restaurants, Musha’s. We were able to have seating in the “closet”, a small, private room in the back separated by curtains from another private, but much larger, room to one side and a hallway leading to the kitchen on the other. It was  quiet and it was perfect! The noise level in the main dining/bar area is not hearing-impaired friendly. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single restaurant in LA with acoustics designed for the hearing-impaired. Jana is beginning to also suffer hearing loss, so she is especially sensitive to my needs for a “quiet” table. We have a favorite corner table at Musha’s, but the closet turned out to be even better. Food was amazing as always. We tried several favorites and a few new items from the menu. If I had to name a single favorite LA restaurant, it would be Musha’s! We had a fabulous time and would have been very content to get up the next morning and drive home feeling like we had very successfully celebrated my big day.

Friday was busy with the vet in the morning, a drive to Brea to pick up computers mid-day, and packing the balance of the afternoon. Jana and Bashir picked us up around 7 p.m. and we drove to Mozza Osteria in Hollywood. Have I mentioned that traffic in So Cal is CRAZY?! A weekend dealing with it gives a person a better understanding of the cause and effects of Road Rage! The mileage between Jana’s Santa Monica apartment and Hollywood is probably less than 10 miles. Of course, in So Cal, people never talk in terms of “miles”, but instead minutes. It’s a minimum of  45 minutes to an hour, depending on the time of day, and can be as much as two hours with bad traffic. We managed to arrive fashionably late, but, thankfully, before losing our reservation. The noise level when we entered Mozza Osteria was like having a dozen radios and televisions on at the same time tuned to different channels and set at the highest volume. Even at my prime I don’t think I would have been able to hear. It was deafening. Literally! Thank goodness, Jana’s assistant had made the reservation and arranged for a room in the back used for hearing-impaired patrons. It was beautifully quiet…probably not considered “hip” as the average age was above 50, unlike the bar area and middle dining room, but it was perfect for my birthday dinner. I cannot begin to describe the food and do it any kind of justice. A few of our favorites included burrata with horseradished beets, walnuts and beet greens vinaigrette; steamed mussels in a sauce of chilies and herbs; grilled octopus; braised beef short rib with porcini mushrooms. We drank three bottles of wine, ate until we could eat no more, talked and laughed until we cried, and had one of the best dining experiences we’ll ever have.

The next morning began with a Flake breakfast with Jana and Bashir. We cannot go to Santa Monica and not have at least one breakfast or lunch at Flake. It’s become another of our favorites. 

We said our good-byes and headed for Santa Barbara to spend the day with Sally. We’d asked that she teach us to make her wonderful bagels. When we arrived, she was already mixing the dough. On went the aprons and the three of us made everything-bagels. Sadly, the mystique is gone and we now know how easy they are to make! Forming the bagels is probably the most challenging part. After the dough has risen and is ready to shape, it may either be formed in a small ball and the center hole punched with a finger or thumb; or, rolled into a rope, cut into small pieces, and formed into a circle. After the second rise, they are boiled in water with a non-diastatic malt powder, which adds the shine to the bagel’s surface; brushed with egg and dipped in a topping (we used a combination of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway, and onion flakes) then baked for about 30 minutes until nicely browned. Couldn’t be easier!

About a year ago, I started painting animal portraits on fabric and then making them into pillows. It turns out my idea is not exactly “original” as pet pillows can be found on Etsy. However, most of them are reproductions from photographs. Mine are original paintings. My first pet portrait was of a Boston Terrier named Molly. I painted it as a gift for Sally a short-time after Molly died. My second painting was Maria’s beagle, named Betty, which I made into a large tote bag. This was actually only my third pet portrait (a Silky Yorkie)! My anxiety level peaked on Saturday when I got the call to arrange our meeting. My client arrived about an hour later, took one look at the pillow and exclaimed OMG! OMG! OMG!  There were more OMG’s, but that gives you the idea. She loved it! Thank goodness! 

All I can say is OMG! This was a turning point for me, as she was a real, live, paying customer! There’s no better confirmation that your work is Worthy than to have someone pay to own it. It was a wonderful way to conclude a wonderful weekend spent with people I love and enjoying one of my favorite pastimes…eating! Another Moser Good Eats and Good Time!

Perfect Pasta

Until recently, our only experience making pasta from scratch ended on a bad note and, I am embarrassed to say, we put away our pasta machine for a decade. We were members of a gourmet dinner group and it was our turn to host a meal. The entree was to be raviolis filled with a crab mixture and topped with a delicate creamy tomato sauce. As usual, we practiced by making the meal a few weeks before the dinner date. All went well. The day of the event, I decided to use Martha Stewart’s butter pasta recipe rather than the one we’d tried. Big mistake! It was a warm day and I didn’t allow the pasta to chill long enough and ended up with a mess.

After that experience, the only raviolis we’ve made are from a John Ash recipe, which specifically calls for prepared wonton skins, and is filled with a chunky asparagus mixture. Delicious! Last month when we had an abundance of butternut squash, one of the recipes we tried was squash raviolis made with a homemade pasta. Because we’d had good results with the wonton skins, we decided to use them rather than making fresh pasta. It had been over ten years, but my failure making fresh pasta was still clear in my mind. Well, our raviolis last month were a disappointment. They were edible, but certainly not something we’d make again. This time, I decided we would not be beat by a little failure in the kitchen.

Out came the pasta machine (after we found it buried behind other gadgets in the pantry we rarely use) along with a new recipe for butternut squash raviolis and two additional recipes, one filled with an Italian sausage mixture and another filled with a spinach mixture. A few hours in the kitchen and we’d perfected the process of making the dough and had made over 150 raviolis. That evening we sat down to a progressive meal of the three different kinds of raviolis, each topped with it’s own unique sauce. Today we made more raviolis to take as a gift to our daughter. They are a perfect make-ahead appetizer or meal as they may be cooked from the frozen state by adding just a couple of minutes to the cooking time.

We had another failure last month when we made butternut squash gnocchi. It was our first time making gnocchi. In hindsight, it would have been better if we’d started with traditional potato gnocchi to have a better feel for the desired consistency of the dough. Butternut squash adds much more moisture to the dough than a dried, baked potato, and our dough was much too soft to roll and shape. However, we managed to make and eat sixty (not in one sitting) almond-shaped nuggets embellished with the tine marks of a fork. Like the raviolis, they were also edible, but we knew we could do better.

If you want to make gnocchi, my suggestion is to take a lesson from the expert…Chef Fabio Viviani of the Yahoo show Chow Caio. We watched his show on making gnocchi twice, went into the kitchen excited and confident, and made a 100+ potato gnocchi. No special tools required and we even skipped the tedious markings we made on our earlier attempt.

Just a day in the kitchen and we’d filled the freezer with our tasty efforts. We’re already talking about our next pasta experience and our pasta machine is now in an easy-to-get-to, prominent place in the pantry.

Note: The backside of our pasta machine has two cutters – one for spaghetti and the other for linguine. Rather than discard the trimmings of dough (in our case, we gave them to the chickens) run them through one of these cutters, boil them in salted water for a few minutes until el dente, toss in olive oil and garlic, top with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil, and enjoy! After making raviolis this morning we did just that and enjoyed a tasty lunch of fresh pasta. 

Butternut Squash Challenge

This story begins with eggs. The 35+ chickens we bought as hatchlings this time last year are mature and laying on average 18 eggs a day. Not bad for this time of year, but not near what we’ll be getting once the weather warms. Thanks to Vera, we’ve picked up three new egg customers in the last month. One of them is a farmer who provides produce to local restaurants and sells at our farmers’ markets. We’ve agreed to exchange eggs for his fresh produce. For now, that consists of butternut squash. Thus, the challenge…what does one do with ten butternut squash?

I’ve always read that the most effective way to experiment and create art is to work in a series by taking one subject or a single technique and exploring it to the point of exhaustion. Over the past month we’ve done just that with butternut squash… eating it two or three times a week. Sound excessive? Not really. It turns out that this health-packed veggie (considered a “power food” rich in antioxidants) is very versatile. It may be used in its purest form, as a mash or as the basis for a soup, or in any number of casseroles, soups, or salads. We browsed our cookbooks and magazines and searched the internet for butternut squash recipes and found several we felt were worth making. A few examples of some of the better recipes we tried…

  o Penne with cubed squash, fresh sage, toasted walnuts, and Parmesan cheese

  o Risotto with diced squash that has been sautéed in butter until golden brown

  o Mac and Cheese with pureed squash

  o Raviolis filled with squash, ricotta, and Parmesan cheese

  o Butternut squash gnocchi

  o Mixed greens topped with roasted squash
  o Squash pie 

A few things we've learned about butternut squash - (1) it's harvested in the fall and may be stored in a cool, dark pantry for several months; (2) from its raw state, it’s best peeled with a potato peeler; (3) its flavor is enhanced by roasting it in the oven, which only takes 20-25 minutes; (4) a companion ingredient found in almost every (savory) recipe is fresh sage; and (5) it may be substituted for pumpkin...I ate all but one slice of the squash pie and found it to be almost identical to pumpkin in taste, texture and color. After eating almost an entire pie, I'm beginning to resemble a butternut squash!

Although a bit obsessive, this has been a good experience and brought us closer to our new friend, butternut squash. No longer will it be limited to a side at Thanksgiving. We've had fun scouting and trying new recipes. Not all are keepers, but even those less-than-perfect recipes have led to more experimenting and fun in the kitchen.

A Lesson in Breadmaking

I’ve always liked potato bread. For some reason it’s a “guilty pleasure” for me. Probably because it’s not a coarse whole wheat or multi grain, which even sounds healthy, but more like eating Wonder bread…white, soft, and made from beached flour with very little nutritional value. When our friend Otti offered to teach us her recipe for potato bread, we wasted no time setting a date. 

We started the process yesterday morning with her story behind the recipe.  Years ago, shortly after the end of World War II, Otti (16-years old at the time) met an American soldier in Germany and came to the United States to be his wife.  They initially lived in his home state of Washington where he hoped to make a career of farming. One of his neighbors, known as “the Best Cook in the Grange,” made potato bread each week from an old family recipe. Whenever he was lucky enough to be at her home on baking day, he’d enjoy the bread and ask her to teach his new bride how to make it.  She was not known for sharing her recipes. However, one early morning around 6 a.m. Otti and her husband woke to the old woman’s knocking on their door. She said “Get up. We’re going to make potato bread.” Cute story, even more so to hear it from Otti with her thick German accent.

We didn’t begin making the bread until 8 a.m. and thanks to Otti, she’d already boiled and mashed the potatoes and prepared all of her bread-making paraphernalia. Step by step she took us through the process, showing us several of her home gadgets that she’d been using for the past 50+ years…a two-pan scale used to weigh her flour in metrics; an old Tupperware lid from a cake carrier that she uses to mix the ingredients; a bread slicer made in Germany; an old offset spatula for cake decorating that she uses to scrape her counter; and baking sheets she ordered from Chef’s Catalog. She loves Chef’s Catalog almost as much as she loves German-made products.

Otti proofed the yeast and then added it to a few cups of the flour, the warm potato mixture, and a small amount of shortening (original recipe called for lard). She let it rest just a bit until large bubbles began to form and then gradually added the balance of the 5 pound bag of unbleached flour.  Once it was mostly mixed together and too difficult to stir, she turned it out onto her floured countertop and began to knead. 

About ten minutes of kneading and it was ready to be oiled and placed back in the Tupperware lid and placed in her Electrolux oven, which has a warming temperature of 100 degrees. About 1-1/2 hours later the bread dough was ready to shape and bake. 

She took about half of it and made two bread loaves. The balance was made into hamburger buns and dinner rolls. In each case, about five minutes before the baking time was complete (which she didn’t actually “time”, but relied on her experienced eye), Otti removed the baking trays, brushed the bread and buns with an egg wash, and returned them to the oven for the final few minutes.

We’d come prepared with a pound of our grass-fed beef, which Verne grilled while the buns cooled a bit, and we sat down to the best hamburgers I’ve ever eaten.  From now on it’s homemade hamburger buns for us!

A Day with the Grandkids

The Rausch family came for their quarterly visit this past weekend. As typical, Verne and I spent an inordinate amount of time talking and planning their visit. Food always tops our list followed by entertainment. In this case, I left the entertainment to Verne as he’s masterful at planning a fun day for grandkids. Possibly, that's because he's never lost his inner child and he can still think like a five year old. It's a good quality and one that I love about him.

We started our day with scones and fresh fruit. The scones were the perfect delivery system for the berry jam we made last fall and the fruit was topped with Verne’s lemon curd. Logan and Matthew could hardly contain themselves, as they wanted to take a walk to “the Farm” and see the chickens. After breakfast, we all put on our hiking boots and did just that. The boys fed the chickens and collected the eggs, fed the barn cats, and threw alfalfa to the donkeys. Grandpa then enlisted the boys’ help in walking the creek to make sure it was flowing through the right culverts when it crosses our neighbor’s road. This involved crossing the creek a couple of times...lots of fun for little boys! From there, we continued our walk to one of the girls’ favorite spots on the property, Big Foot. Sadly, the big foot impressions have disappeared over the years. Where have they gone? Between the garden area and Big Foot we found an oak tree that is hollow on one side and took pictures of the boys inside the tree.  

From there we walked to the fence by the old homestead and pet our neighbors horses and back through the pasture, which was full of Canadian geese. What little boy can resist chasing geese and making them fly? We circled back to the barn. Grandpa backed out his 52 Chevy truck, the boys piled in next to him, and they took a little drive up to the road and back. 

A little more time was spent lecturing the chickens about the consequences of low egg production... No Eggs, No Food!...and back to the house. That’s what we call entertainment at the Farm. 

While the boys (and parents) napped, we began preparations for dinner. Lara requested one of our favorites, Memphis Meatloaf, which requires about three hours in the kitchen. We’ve been making Memphis Meatloaf about 15 years now. Verne found the recipe in the Southwest Magazine on one of his weekly flights to Southern California. According to the article on Dick Clark and his famous restaurant, the American Bandstand Diner, it was their all-time most requested recipe.

I took a lot of pictures this past weekend, but failed to photograph the Memphis Meatloaf. However, you know the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Guess I’ll just have to use the next thousand words to describe our dinner. Memphis Meatloaf is a stacked meal. It begins with a large scoop of mashed potatoes. I love potatoes with special effects (bits of carrots, caramelized onions, chives), but for this dish I keep it simple and add only butter and heavy cream and/or sour cream to the potatoes. The next layer is the true star of this recipe, meatloaf. The basic recipe is not significantly different from other meatloaf recipes except for the addition of barbeque sauce. Once the meatloaf is formed it’s topped with a few slices of bacon and baked. About five minutes before baking is complete the meatloaf is topped with a Southern glaze and returned to the oven for the glaze to set. The third layer is a generous ladle of brown gravy flavored with fresh rosemary and garlic. Next comes a medley of finely diced carrots, celery, and onions sautéed until fork-tender and slightly browned. The final layer is a nest of onion shavings, which have been battered and fried to a deep golden perfection. This colorful dish is a sight to behold. It’s rustic, yet elegant. It’s comfort food, while at the same time sufficiently complex to serve to your most sophisticated eaters. We finished the meal with Verne's rustic apple tarts topped with caramel sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was a perfect day and a perfect meal! 

Thanksgiving Part II - Dinner, Black Friday, and Sherlock

What better opportunity to blog about good eats and good times than Thanksgiving?! We’re driving home from Portland where we spent the last week celebrating the holiday with family. If I were ranking our visit I’d give it a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Each and every day was perfect…filled with the kind of good times that make lasting memories. By Wednesday afternoon we’d already had a great visit with Maria and our pies were ready for the big day. Thursday morning Jana arrived from L.A. and Scott drove down from Seattle with the bird…an organic, free-range turkey raised in Sonora (about an hour from Volcano). Funny…we drove 650 miles to have a California turkey. Preparations were stress-free (if you’ve ever watched Verne and me in the kitchen, you’ll understand the significance of that statement) and our traditional Thanksgiving dinner was the best we’ve had in a long time.

Part of our Thanksgiving tradition is a visit to the mall on Black Friday. The tradition started several years ago when Amazon would offer Black Friday deals at midnight Thanksgiving day. Each of the girls would be ready at their computer taking advantage of the low, low prices for CD’s and DVD’s. Two years ago we decided to join the crowds at the mall on Black Friday. Our strategy was to arrive very early Friday morning as the all night shoppers left and crowds thinned. It worked. This year we threw caution to the wind and arrived at the mall at 8 p.m. Thursday evening when the stores opened. Very bad idea! You would not believe the number of people who bring the entire family and do all of their Christmas shopping that night. It. Was. Crazy! And, are the prices really that exceptional??? Let me share my experience…

I went to Macy’s to buy one item: an Artisan Kitchenaid Mixer. It was $350, 10% off for Black Friday with a $50 manufacturer’s rebate and I will get 10% back in January from Macy’s Thanks for Sharing Program, bringing the price to $233.50. I stood in line for about an hour to make my purchase all the while getting more and more irritated by the bungling sales staff (many of them ill-trained temps) and little kids running around unattended as their parents shopped. Friday morning Lauren suggested we check the price at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Good idea, as it was $230 after discounts and rebates. I thought long and hard about the $3.50 difference, but finally decided I’d keep the mixer I bought. However, Lauren had bought an attachment for the mixer the previous evening and the difference in price between Macy’s and BBB was $15…worth a trip to return her original purchase to Macy’s. One of our last errands Sunday afternoon was to do just that. Lauren made the return in record time. However, she returned to the car where we waited with some bad/good news…the Kitchenaid mixer was now on sale at a price $15 less than what I’d paid Black Friday! I was out of the car and into the store for my price adjustment! Thank goodness I didn’t return the mixer earlier, re-purchase it at BBB, only to find Macy’s had the best deal! There are a few lessons to be learned here: (1) Black Friday deals are not what they’re cracked up to be and (2) if you’re going to shop Black Friday, do it on-line and avoid the crowds and all the Crazies!

The highlight Saturday was the afternoon at Cinetopia watching Catching Fire, the second of the Hunger Games Trilogy. Doesn’t sound too exciting? Then you haven’t experienced Cinetopia or its equivalent (and you are obviously not a Hunger Games fan). Imagine a theater with over-sized screens, exceptional sound, and various levels of comfort and amenities: the Movie Parlor (one for families and one for adults only); the the Living Room theater with cushy chairs, loveseats, and ottomans; and, the Grand Auditorium. All of them have in-theater food and alcohol service and, surprisingly, the food is good. It’s like watching a movie on a huge screen in your own living room...possibly more comfortable than your own living room! Quite the experience for special movies, such as Catching Fire, or The Hobbit, which we saw last year at Cinetopia.

Our final day included a trip to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) for the International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. Lauren attended the exhibit last month and was anxious to have Verne (another Sherlock fan) experience the fun. It was well worth attending and made all the more fun by Lauren's enthusiastic approach to it. We started with the history of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his path to creating the character, Sherlock Holmes. Next we had a crash course in the scientific approach to crime solving. Finally, we were presented with the details of a murder along with Inspector Lestrade's police report and enlisted by the one and only Sherlock Holmes to assist in analyzing the facts using forensic science (blood splatter, footprints, trajectory lines, and more). I'm happy to say we were successful and identified the true perp! 

After the exhibit we took Verne to one of his favorite restaurants, Deschutes Brewery, for lunch and a beer tasting. I think it just might have been the highlight of the weekend!