Why I Would Die and Return as Bacon

Boil your fresh garden green beans till al dente and then saute' them w/ bacon and onions and garlic and red pepper flakes. Add some butter. Good enough to die for. Bacon is so great and so are green beans and onions. Lots of garlic, lots of red pepper.

You will know that you are eating.

Keeping it Simple, Fish, Sweet Corn, Zucchini

You would not think that after 40 yrs of cooking personally and professionally, that I would screw up a meal at home.

Fish, corn on the cobb, zucchini. The corn was the best but not all that good either - boiled it instead of roasting it in its jackets. Over a fire or in the oven. Diminished/diluted when boiled in water.

Zucchini, like summer squash should be fast sauteed w/salt, pepper, garlic and finished w/ parmesan cheese. It should have body. I simmered it slow and it was soft and mushy. I am generally w/ Julia and believe that vegetables like broccoli should be cooked beyond crunch ( carrots, too). Not summer squash or zucchini.

When doing fish - floured and pan fried - and if you are doing a beurre blanc type sauce( reduced wine, herbs and butter), use plain flour, not a highly seasoned variation w/ paprika and cayenne and garlic that you would do as a shore lunch on a camping/fishing trip. Overkill and a muddied flavor. Keep it simple. Do one or the other. Roll the filets in plain white flour, saute in butter, and or olive oil, remove from pan, add wine, reduce, add herbs and cold butter pats. With highly seasoned flour leave it at that, fry it and eat it.

I hate it when I screw up a simple meal.

The Best of Summer

A warm soft evening. Perfect. Finally.

Sunnies dredged in seasoned flour( salt, black pepper, cayenne optional but recommended, granulated garlic, paprika) sauteed in olive oil and/or butter and finished off w/ a pan sauce made by adding white wine( any) to the pan drippings along w/ garlic, parsley, and tarragon. Reduce, add butter pats, swirl, pour over fish.

Serve it with fresh garden broccoli, and summer squash. The perfect end to a perfect summer day.

Garden Days, Finally

Keeping it simple and not screwing up what you've already got is easy when you are dealing w/ fresh garden harvestibles.

Summer squash, for example. They are like a little yellow zucchini and you can treat them the same way.. Slice in 3/8 inch rounds, season w/ salt, pepper and garlic and saute' in olive oil( or any, or butter) a few minutes on med heat, strew w/ parmesan cheese and serve. A great late night snack. Go light on all the seasonings so you can actually taste the delicate flavor of the squash.

Mn Early Garden Gumbo

Sometimes, often, you have to work w/ what you've got, which in this case was great: jalapeno peppers and yellow summer squash from the garden. No tomatoes yet. Sausage, chicken and crappies it was, along w/ onions.

If you have bacon, brown it w/ the onions nice and slow in veg or olive oil, you can add butter too, add peppers, then summer squash, sliced sausage, chicken ( boneless, bitesize) then paprika, lots( 3, 4 tablespoons) - make sure you have enough oil and cook it slow so nothing burns, hum a song, blues, something rythmic, slow, or think of your first girlfriend and how her mouth tasted like sweet corn, add garlic, lots , add enough flour to absorb the oil( a tablespoon or two, cook for two minutes) and a cup and a half of chicken broth or water w/ bouillon cubes or base, add 2 bayleaves, black and red pepper to taste, add crappie filets and simmer a few minutes till chicken and crappies( or any fish) is done.

Serve w/ any kind of rice, your favorite, and rustic or french bread for dunking. Kids can pick out the parts they like. We, of course, like it all. You can use cajun seasoning or Herbs d' Provence if you like.

Minnesota Gumbo

So I get home from work today at the antique shop and I'm thinking of old food. Not really.

I'm asking the kids ( 12 yr old daughter, 8 yr old grandson) what they want for dinner. I look in the freezer. Kielbassa, crappies and a tomato basil marinated chicken from the best little meat market in the world( Thielen's in Pierz), and I say kids what would you like, kielbassa, crappies, or tomato basil marinated chicken and as they are thinking I decide on all three in a gumbo. How about gumbo I say and Nati says yes. It is great when you get to choose all of the possibilities. If multiple choice was like that in school we would all be A students. Which is just one of the reasons I like food.

Gumbo it is, a Mn Gumbo. I'll tell you more about after I cook it and we eat it.