A whole wheat soft shell tortilla which can be used as a taco or burrito. Basmati rice w/ lime and cilantro, cajun seasoned julienned chicken breast, avocado, salsa and grated jack cheese.Add sour cream and some heat to taste.

You can do this with pheasant or grouse, too.

.Do yourself a favor tomorrow and watch various Whitney Houston tributes on the day of her funeral. Enjoy and appreciate her gift of song as you do the gift of food.

She was so good and I am so sad.

Bluegills All Over Again

You don't just have to have it panfried. You can poach it in a broth involving onions, garlic, sweet peppers, tomatoes, white wine, olive oil, and herbs de Provence. Plus a little v-8 juice.Toasted french bread in or on the side.

Mn Bouillabaisse

Three successive days of bluegill, this the French soup version.

Valentine's Day

A hug and a quiche for you on this Valentine's Day, cupcake!

The girls - 3 14 yr olds - made cupcakes for the Grammys the other night.

Chocolate cupcakes annointed with whipped cream, tiny dark chocolate chips and creamy caramel.

Need I say more?

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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