After Nap Snack

If you wake up from a nap and crave something sweet yet somewhat substantial have a saltine cracker with natural chunky peanut butter and orange marmalade. Have two or three or more. Good tasting and good for you.

Egg Rolls Gone Wild

Egg rolls can be labor intensive but it is a labor of love and it is worth it. The end result is a perfect testimony to the symphonic harmony of fresh vegetables and fowl all rolled into one simple finger food.You can use duck, pheasant, grouse, chicken, or others. Or you can use ground beef, pork or venison or any combination thereof.

You can shortcut the the hand and knife work by using a food processor.

You can serve them with a half dozen or more asian style sauces that you can buy ready made or you can make your own. I served mine with a sweet and sour sauce using balsamic vinegar, garlic, ginger and orange marmalade, as well as with a Chinese hot mustard involving only Tabasco sauce stirred into cheap yellow mustard.

Ingredients:
3 c shredded cabbage
1 c finely chopped celery
1 c grated carrot
1 c grated mushrooms of your choice
1 c finely julienned red and green sweet peppers
3/4 c julienned green onions
1 1/2 c already cooked julienned fowl, wild or domestic
1 large clove minced garlic
1 tsp powdered ginger or 1 tbls fresh grated ginger
soy sauce to taste
1 egg and 1/4 c water stirred for eggwash
8 egg roll skins
1 1/2 to 3 c veg oil depending on the size of your pan, to deep fry egg rolls
Method:
1) Chop, shred, julienne, mince all ingredients as appropriate. Preheat a large frying pan with enough oil to just cover the bottom to med heat, add vegetables and cook over med heat, stirring occasionally till vegetables are tender - about 10 minutes.

2) Add garlic, ginger and meat to pan and cook and toss until hot - a minute or 2.
3)Empty ingredients from pan into a strainer and let drain a couple of minutes.
4)Place ingredients into a large flat bowl and add soy sauce to taste, stir and let cool till just warm.

5) Place an egg roll skin on counter top like like a diamond shape - as on a compass N would be the top corner, S the bottom corner pointing at your stomach, right and left corners would be E and W. With a brush or your finger put egg wash around the edges of the skin. Add 2 tablespoons of filling mixture on the bottom half of the skin and fold S over the filling, then E and W and roll it up to cover N.Place on a dry dish towel and continue rolling others.
6) Fry 2 or 3 at a time in med(325 degrees - one number less than med on my electric burner) hot oil until golden brown - 2 or 3 min per side. You need only enough oil for the egg rolls to float. The smaller the pan, the less oil you will need. I used a 1 1/2 inch deep by 8 inches diameter pan and 1 1/2 c oil. You only need to turn them over once. When they are golden on both sides remove from pan with tongs and drain on paper towels.

7) Serve with various sauces.

Meatball Soup

Every recipe has a story and every memory a taste. It was back in the day in the late 60's when my twin brother hopped a train in Mpls, Mn and rode it out to Seattle in a cadillac.

My brother Jim had worked briefly for Burlington Northern Railway via our good friend Ira. He did not last.Ira did, and retired from the railroad just last year after 30 plus years of employment.

Jim never lasted any where not even on this earth, but he lasted long enough at BN to learn the ins and outs of hopping trains. Cars were stacked two deep on flatcar after flatcar and Jim chose the upper level. He turned on the tunes in that Cadillac and laid back and listened to Jim Morrison and the Door's "Light My Fire," the long version, and Cream, and Strawberry Fields and more as the big farmland of Mn and eastern ND became the exquisite endless prairie and high plateau of western ND and eastern Montana. And then the mountains. Wow. It was the trip of a lifetime. He ate venison summer sausage and drank cokes.

Pheasant first and whitetail deer and then antelope and mule deer and then all over again depending on the terrain as he rode that Cadillac. He thought of hunting with his brother and his Dad and how he got his first whitetail on ancestral property in N Mn in Gowan and how he had to gut and drag it out by himself because his twin was so inspired and motivated to get one too from the same tree that he never thought to help his brother.

He shot others too after falling asleep in a tree and waking to the snap of a twig or because he was usually in the right place at the right time, magically. His twin was a student of the woods and the whitetail but it took him several years to get his first. He tried too hard. Jim took it as it came; he let the woods and the deer come to him.

If you have leftover meatballs you can make them into meatball soup. Saute' equal amounts of onions,carrots, celery and cabbage in olive or veg oil till half done, add enough flour to absorb the oil,add garlic, Herbs de Provence, bayleaf, red wine, water, and a bouillion cube or two to taste( beef) and a little worcestershire, and red pepper to taste. Add precooked swedish or any meatballs and simmer till vegetebles are tender and meatballs are hot.

Serve as is or over mashed potatoes.

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Eyes Wide Shut

Back in the 30's during the great depression my great uncle Otto from Finland would help his neighbors around Gowan,Mn( near Floodwood) to get food to eat by shooting deer for them because he was a generous man and because he was good at it.

He would do it after dark with a miner's light on his head which would light up the deer's eyes. You had to shoot between the eyes because that's all you could see.

Martti was a neighbor and needed meat for his family. Otto consented. They were in his back forty after dark with the gun and the light when Martti said there one is shoot him. Otto said I think his eyes are too far apart to be a deer but Martti said no the cow is in the barn that's a deer shoot him so Otto did right between the eyes and it turned out to be Martti's only milk cow.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

It is very cold outdoors and a good day to stay indoors and eat pancakes. If you make them with whole wheat flour and plain yoghurt you will not be eating the empty calories of white flour pancakes. Add oatmeal, walnuts, and apple to the batter and it is even better.

If you raise your kids eating pancakes like these it may be the beginning of lifelong healthy eating habits for them. A great way to start a day and a life.

Sometimes I use all whole wheat flour, other times 1/3 white to 2/3 whole wheat. If you are cooking for those who have never eaten all whole wheat, start them off with the blend.

Here's how I did them today.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 c white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon sugar, br sugar, or honey
1 egg
1 cup water
1/2 c yoghurt - unsweetened plain
1 tblsp oil
Method:
1) Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2) Add wet ingredients and whisk together.
3) Ladle batter into preheated med heat lightly oiled frying pan or griddle. You know the rest.

Notes: Add rolled or steel cut oats, chopped walnuts, minced apple to the batter, as well as cinnamon for a special treat. Or any fruit of your choice. If it was July I would be adding wild raspberries.

Serve w/ butter, maple syrup or preserves of your choice or all.Adjust consistency of the batter to preference by adding more liquid( water or milk, apple juice, etc). For example, I like thin pancakes like Swedish style, others I know prefer fluffy ones - add another teaspoon of baking powder if you like fluffy.

Mission Accomplished.

I forgot to get beans, so I made a sweet and hot corn relish w/ onions, red and green sweet peppers,cayenne pepper, garlic, balsamic vinegar and a little brown sugar, cooked and served hot. A serendipitous discovery like that is one of the best things about cooking.

The ND walleye and perch filets were snow white and perfectly cleaned - hats off to Ross's brothers for that.

A Crane Lake Sauvignon Blanc was the perfect cooking and drinking accompaniment. 4 bucks a bottle and it is an excellent table wine.

Walleye and Jumbo Yellow Perch thru the Ice in ND

My good friend Ross and I will get together tomorrow and cook and eat his North Dakota walleye and jumbo yellow perch caught thru the ice last wk about 20 miles south of Bismarck .

We will cook and talk of old times 40 years ago or so when we were boy scout camp counsellors together.

It will be a traditional shore lunch to which we add onions, garlic and jalapenos to the beans and fried potatoes. We will season the fish fillets with salt,pepper and garlic and flour and fry them in olive oil till they are golden about 3 minutes and flip and do 2 minutes,remove from pan, pour off excess oil, add white wine, reduce, add butter and chopped parsley and tarragon and pour over fillets when plated. Add garlic and red pepper as desired to the pan.This is exquisite and memorable.

Swedish Meatballs with Venison, Other Options

Swedish Meatballs have been a lifelong tradition in my family, especially during the holiday season.

As with other generally bland foods that I grew up eating, I tweak the recipe to make it more interesting. I like to know that I am actually eating when I am eating.

Mom's meatballs included salt, pepper and onions, as well as of course the ground beef, bread crumbs, eggs and milk.. Perhaps nutmeg, also, which is traditional.

I add garlic and cayenne pepper and worcestershire as well as allspice.Not so much as to dominate, but just enough to add layers of flavor and complexity to the meatballs. Enough so you can taste it, but maybe not identify the flavor.

You can use different ground meat mixtures, for example half venison and half pork, or one third each of venison, beef and pork. I have done half hamburger and half ground chicken or turkey. I have included finely chopped mushrooms and sage. Variations are myriad.

In the photo , I made a pan gravy with beef and chicken stock and instead of stirring sour cream into the gravy, which is traditional, I served the meatballs w/ the sour cream on top of the meatballs and added cranberries, minced cayenne pepper and dill. It was great.

Venison Chili with Polenta and Refried Beans

This is the photo that should have been w/ the previous chili posting. Good looking with layers of flavor and depth.

Check out Lake Country Magazine Jan/Feb, 2012 issue for this same photo, text and the complete recipe.

Happy New Year.I intend to blog often and regularly with photos and perhaps video - one of several New Years resolutions.