Inside Outdoor Food

Periodically I remind readers that tho' I have a special focus on what is usually thought of as "outdoor food" - fish and game - all food is really outdoor food. Or used to be. You rarely see a chicken or a pig outdoors these days - a golden plump chicken barn holds fifty thousand or more indoors. I don't know how many hogs a hog barn holds, but I do know that I smell them and never see them as I drive down farm country roads.

Which is why I write about any food that I want to write about. Also, every food or recipe has a history and/or a story that goes w/ it. Food in the context of life lived, so to speak. Tina Nordstrom, for example, whom I have recently written about, in her New Scandinavian Cooking series on PBS, does all of her cooking outdoors - she has a nifty portable cooking range unit that she sets up outdoors at each unique location in Sweden. And then she goes to work. Even in winter. A Svenska Flicka indeed. Gotta love her.

Tip the cook.

You Get What You Give

Hey - If you ever get to a restaurant after their posted closing time, and if the cook(s) via the waitress says yes we will serve you -( it is the kitchen/cooks decision even if it is a few minutes after closing time), for cooks sake, tip the cook(s). Ask how many are on the "line" and send them at least 5 bucks a piece - a pack of smokes or a beer after work means a lot to a cook. And guess what? - duh - the food will arrive faster and it will be better. Send beers to the kitchen too, if the restaurant allows it. Wouldn't you like that towards the end of a long hot hard shift at work? Generally, also, they don't make a living wage.
In other words, honor the cook's generosity with a generosity of your own. Tip the waitress accordingly, too, at least 15%, probably 20% or 25% if it is after hours.

Ale and Maple Butter Redux

Favorite foods at Midsommarsdag on Upper St Croix Lake in NW Wisconsin included some Tina Nordstrom( of the PBS cooking series) recipes, one for gravlax, which included concentrated elderberry juice as well as the usual salt, pepper, sugar, and plenty of dill with a 2 - 4 hr marinating time which is much shorter than the usual 24 - 48 hr cure. It is like Swedish sushi. Tina's recipes are available online - google her.

Strawberry cake was another if you like your sweets. A layered cake w/ custard and cumulus clouds of whipped cream, and strawberries, of course. Wonnerful, wonnerful as Ed Sullivan( remember?) would say.

Tina's Swedish meatballs were plain Jane w/ nary a spice - we watched a few videos of her series - but hostess and cousin Beth used the Ingebritsons( sp) meatball mixture, which includes allspice. Browned in butter is traditional and that may account for the satisfyingly richness of the famous round ones. I am going to check out Beatrice Ojakangas' recipe. Texture is most important in a meatball of any type. Beth's were dead on.

Maple butter by a Duluth area maple syrup maker friend of Beth's was exceptional on pancakes doubled up w/ pure maple syrup. Maple butter is an in between stage just after maple honey and before maple sugar. If you could ever buy it, it would be very expensive but worth it. I have never seen it in a store. Thank God for friends, huh.

Nils Oscar craft ales from Sweden are everything an ale should be - deep, rich, nutty, balanced, clean (and expensive) at $4.85 a bottle( found in Mpls in Burnsville?), but worth it for once a year. Lake Superior Ale is in the same league and is affordable, but not widely available outside of the Duluth area.Perfect ale, really.

High Noon w/ Loons and an Eagle

Ale and maple butter has been trumped by a wild life drama on the lake today. There was a raucous calling of loons and as I looked up to see what was the matter an eagle hit the water with talons outstretched and rose up and flew off to the island. Mom and dad loon were calling wildly. Neither of the 2 baby loons were visible. It all happened so fast. As we came to the realization of what had occurred, my daughter and I were both saying oh no oh no he got a baby loon and my daughter was beginning to cry. We had been watching and enjoying the loons for a couple of weeks, first w/ one baby, then a week later w/ two. We were heartbroken and expressing outrage at the eagle, when suddenly 2 baby loons popped up like rubber duckies in a tub. Hurray we both shouted, they made it they made it. Mom and dad had had them dive( how?) and had swam away from them in a decoy maneuver. It had worked. We were amazed. The eagle returned, circling on high over the loons. Raucous calling resumed, but after a couple of circles the eagle gave up and left. Wow. A perfectly scripted drama w/ a happy ending. Gotta love it.

I will get back to the food.

Ale and Maple Butter and More

This one wouldn't publish, so I will do it later.

Midsommarsdag Fest

I will be in NW Wisconsin this wk end for a Midsommarsdag Fest. There will be lots of great food of Scandinavian origin. I look forward mostly to breads and crackers and cheeses and gravlax and Swedish meatballs and fresh berries and rice pudding. Allspice, nutmeg, caraway, and dill will be the predominant flavorings.
Various cookies like almond and a delicate little lavender one are favorites.
I hope my black lab pup( 9 mo's) doesn't cause a ruckus. She will eat well, too.
And thank God there will not be lutefisk. This is fresh fish time of the year.
I will report back on favorites and include a couple of recipes.

Nice to See Your Back, Depending on Who You Are

It could appropriately be said that I have been gone fishing for the last two wks. I'll leave it at that.
Being w/o internet service or email for 2 wks is like being up so and so creek w/o a paddle. Or like being lost in the woods w/o a compass or a match. Almost. I ate well. I'll tell you about it over time.

In the downtime you could have read some of my stuff in the Mille Lacs Messenger and Compass magazine and in Outdoor News.

There is nothing like fishing way up North in Canada w/ your lifelong buddies - you knew their Moms and Dads and dead brothers. You know why one washes his feet in an icy Canadian Lake at 7 in the morning( it has to do w/ his mom), why another walks on tiptoes, and another drinks and is sad, while another drinks and is happy and so on. Why some are fat and some are not( it has to do w/ what they eat) and I love them all just as they are. There is plenty of joy and laughter and plenty of good food and so much more.

It is good to be back, too.