I’m not sure I ever thought I’d find a scone recipe that I liked as much as my own Buttermilk Scones with Golden Raisins. I’ve made them for years, and have been so happy with the recipe, I’ve never wanted to change. Then we stayed in Portland, Oregon for a couple of nights, at the Rose Cottage B&B just outside the city. The owner, Sally, served us just the lightest, most flavorful scones. The proportions of things are very similar to my tried-and-true recipe, but these have more flour in them – mine are more like very rich, flaky round biscuits. Sally’s were light, perfectly crumbly, huge and served in wedges. And, incidentally, if you’re ever up Portland way, I highly recommend Sally’s Rose Cottage as an ideal close-by location. She’s not in downtown, but it’s easy driving distance. She’ll serve you a breakfast that is enough to feed a small infantry, but it’s worth every single delicious-laden calorie.

Sally was kind enough to share the recipe for the scones with me. She said it was printed in the Portland Oregonian newspaper in 2004, and she raved about the chef, Anne Hughes, who created them. I believe she said the café that Hughes used to own is no longer in business. But Sally was happy she had THIS recipe from her café. Sally follows the recipe to the letter with the following exceptions: she mixes it by hand with a pastry blender AND she freezes the butter – she cuts the butter up in small chunks and puts that in the freezer so they’re all ready to go when she decides to make a batch (as a B&B owner, obviously she makes the scones quite frequently), then uses the pastry blender to cut it up a bit more (from a frozen state). She said you definitely don’t want to mix it so much that you can’t see the butter flakes. If the chunks are a bit larger (like little flat pieces the size of your little finger) they’ll be perfect for the flakiest results. These have a hint of lemon peel in them, and you briefly knead the dough just to pull it together, roll it out, sprinkle some of the zest on top, fold it over, then slice the pastry into wedges before baking on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sally also adds fruit (like fresh Oregon blueberries) to the dough sometimes. I made my batch in the food processor (per the Oregonian recipe) and they seemed wonderful to me, but perhaps doing them by hand would produce even more flaky and flavorful scones. I also didn’t have frozen butter either, but I do like these enough that I might try those techniques next time I make them. I made them for my hubby’s Bible Study group the other day. They were gobbled up in short order.
printer-friendly PDF

Tweet

Since we ate exceedingly well on this trip, we decided that we should make every effort to eat some lighter meals once we got home. I went to my soup file and tried to find something new and different, lower in calorie, but also full of flavor. I have recipes in that file (and all the other ones as well) that go wa-a-a-y back. This one did. I have no idea where the photocopy came from, but I changed the recipe some anyway, so I guess I’m clear with the recipe police.

I like fairly substantive soups. They need to have lots of texture and layers to make me happy. I don’t make clear soups at all. Never have; probably never will. That’s a “why bother” in my book. So when I read this recipe I figured I could make it more my own by adding vegetables and revising the seasonings. I could tell by looking at it that it would be low in calorie (the bacon is the only no-no in it).

The toughest part of the recipe is cutting up the chicken. I read this recipe all the way through, then went back and read it through again. It was so unusual. So I went on the internet and researched the word “hamburgese.” It appears it’s the word for the people who live in Hamburg. That’s it. I found no mention of any soup. So I really don’t know the origin of this. The chicken pieces (minced finely) are the dumplings. This isn’t any traditional kind of dumpling, trust me. There is a little bit of chopped up fresh bread crumbs, but you hardly know they’re there. I know why I saved the recipe – it has nuts (I used walnuts instead of pistachios called for), green peppercorns, minced ginger, cumin and cinnamon in the seasoning. I mean, gee whiz, where does that combination come from? Not likely from Hamburg, Germany. I’m sure that’s what intrigued me.

So anyway, you have to cut up the chicken. Words of advice here – if you have frozen chicken breasts, partially defrost them and mince them up while they’re still mildly frozen. That will be a whole lot easier than doing it once they’re totally defrosted like I did. The recipe said you can’t use a food processor (wrong texture), but if you have a meat grinder that will do. Otherwise it’s mince it by hand. I’ll just tell you that it took longer than I wanted to spend mincing the slippery strips of chicken.

The soup is a broth (I used some more of the Penzey’s soup base), but I wanted the soup to have more to it than these chicken dumpling things and broth, so I added onion, carrot, celery and mushrooms. It reminds me of albondigas, the Mexican meatball soup that’s similarly made, but has totally different seasonings in it. Anyway, the veggies just simmer in the broth, then you add the little blobs of dumpling (hand formed gently) and they simmer in the broth at just BELOW a boil (otherwise they’ll all break apart).

I must say this soup is different. Good different. My DH didn’t get it when I dished it up – I’ve never served him a soup with chicken dumplings before. But once he tasted it he liked it. I followed the proportions for seasoning, but I think it should be more highly seasoned, so have increased the amounts in the recipe below. Please note that a 2-cup (approx.) serving is only 247 calories. You place the dumplings in a wide bowl, ladle the vegetable soup over the top and garnish with Italian parsley and some of the bacon bits.
printer-friendly PDF

Tweet

Just before we left on this last trip of ours (3500 miles) to Utah, Idaho and Oregon, our local paper had published an article about the pastry chef at Charlie Palmer’s Restaurant, Maren Henderson. I’ve mentioned the restaurant before – we’ve been there several times now and loved it on each occasion. It offers a very sophisticated dessert menu, and this is one of the items on it. I’ve not had the cake at the restaurant – always something else intrigued me more – but our daughter-in-law Karen tried it and raved about it. So in planning this trip, I took along some almond meal in a little plastic bag and was able to create this cake up north for our daughter’s birthday. She actually wanted a carrot cake (I made that too), but I made both so people could have a choice.

So, Maren Henderson created a really interesting (read: rich, yummy) cake that’s not your mainstream cake. It’s not hard to make, even though it has two layers. The bottom layer (which becomes a topping when you invert it) is a caramel that makes itself during the baking process. The cake is not unusual except for the addition of a cup of almond meal (Trader Joe’s carries it). I did make some sautéed apples to serve with this, and it needs something to cut the richness (the caramel is almost like candy) so I’d definitely serve it with vanilla ice cream on the side. I made the cake earlier in the day and reheated the entire cake (on the cake pan pictured). I heated it for exactly 5 minutes, but it wasn’t long enough, as the icing was still very thick and candy-like.

Once you bake the cake you allow it to cool briefly, then you invert the entire thing onto a baking pan. If you used a glass pan, you can watch the cake gently ooze itself out of it and once you take the pan off, the caramel oozes all over the sides of the cake. The recipe indicates it serves 21. Well, I’d say it might serve 30. It’s very rich, so you don’t want large pieces. Since we were offering two cakes, we cut this into about 1 ½ inch squares. Maybe some were 2-inch squares, and it was ample, especially with the apples on the side and ice cream too.

Everyone raved about the cake. And it’s really very, very good. Would I make it again? I might, but have decided that I prefer another cake to this one, the applesauce spice cake that I make in a springform pan. I prefer the caramel brown sugar frosting on that cake to the one here. But this one is very pretty to look at with its caramel dripping all around. The pastry chef apparently serves it in a small round – you can cut it using a round cookie cutter. She also serves it with a ghee foam, and I’d guess she probably drizzles the plate with more caramel sauce too. The caramel that puddled on the pan (see photo) became almost like sticky toffee/caramel cubes. So I’m not sure that maybe I overbaked it. I followed the directions to the letter (50 minutes) but still, maybe it had gone to the candy stage. Perhaps I should try it again with a different pan. I also might make half a recipe in a 9×9 pan and see how that turned it. So, in case you’d like to give this one a try, here’s the recipe:
printer-friendly PDF

Tweet

It’s always been a tradition in our family that on birthdays the celebrator gets to choose what he/she wants to eat. When my daughter Dana was young, before birthday parties became the huge mega-big-deal they are these days, she got to choose her dinner. Often it was my spaghetti and meatballs. Or homemade pizza. And she also got to choose what kind of birthday cake or dessert she wanted. Sometimes we’d go out, and as all of our kids have grown, moved out on their own and married, those traditions have changed somewhat. But for Dana’s big 4-oh, she wanted a Mexican food feast. She’s been a huge Mexican food fan from a very early age. And fortunately for her, her husband and his family have some Mexican blood, so they all crave Hispanic food with great regularity. For special occasions Todd’s mother Ann makes a variety of traditional Mexican dinners for all of her children, and this time she made crispy chicken tacos, Mexican rice and refried beans. Then she also made a huge platter of taco additions (tomatoes, sliced radishes, shredded cheese, lettuce and home made salsa and guacamole). My, oh my, was it ever good. Dana fried up a couple of gallons or more of fresh tortilla chips, and we all nibbled on chips and Ann’s home made tomato salsa while we waited for dinner.

THE CHICKEN TACOS: For the tacos the family all prefers chicken. Ann roasts a chicken (or cooks up a bunch of chicken breasts), and cuts or shreds all the meat. Ann made sure the chicken was very moist – no dried-up chicken allowed here! Standing around watching her she finally let me prep each corn tortilla. And I found out something interesting. Did you know there is a “right” side and a “wrong” side of a tortilla? It was news to me! There’s a rough side and a smooth side. You want the smooth side out, because it crisps-up better in the hot fat than the rough side. Now who woulda known, I ask you? The packages of tortillas were all stacked up one direction, so I didn’t have to check each and every tortilla. The ones I checked had kind of rough stripes, almost, on the so-called rough side. The other side was much smoother and no stripe. So, I laid out each tortilla and gently scooped about a heaping ¼ cup of chicken meat onto the tortilla. I didn’t take any pictures of Ann frying the tacos – I should have. She has a technique . . . you lay the whole flat tortilla (with the chicken kind of in a strip across the middle) in the large sauté pan with about ½ cup of hot corn or canola oil and you let it sizzle just for about 10 seconds, then using tongs you gently fold half of the tortilla over and hold it in place for another few seconds until the taco will maintain the fold. Continue frying for about another minute or two, turning the taco over so it just barely gets golden, then drain on paper towels, and keep hot (oven or chafing dish) while you continue frying.

Meanwhile, you need a large platter with all the trimmings (list in first paragraph) and set them out. There were fourteen of us, and Ann must have made about 60 tacos – we kept making them until the chicken ran out. Everyone likes a different combination of trimmings, so you make your own. Ann has a lovely big chafing dish that keeps the tacos hot, then you build them yourself.

THE MEXICAN RICE: Having never made Mexican rice myself, I was interested to see what Ann did to hers. I’d never had anything except exceedingly bland rice at some Mexican restaurants, and always thought it was pretty awful. So I hoped Ann’s would be different. Oh yes, indeed. I loved it. Knowing her technique, it’s really more like a pilaf than a steamed rice. She described what she did, so I don’t have proportions. She sautés some green onions (including the top part) in some corn oil, then adds some red bell pepper and garlic. Maybe she added a little tomato too. I can’t remember. Then she adds the rice and allows it to almost burn in the oil – in other words she continues to sauté the mixture for awhile until the rice has turned a dark golden brown. She adds LOTS of salt. She thinks salt is the most important ingredient in her rice. Usually she makes the rice to accompany chicken tacos, so she has some good juices and fat from the chicken. That’s an important component of the rice – using all those drippings and a little bit of chicken meat too. She adds broth (and the liquid from poaching the chicken if she’s used breasts only) and water for the proportion of rice (look at the rice cooking instructions for quantity). Cover and steam until the rice is almost done, but not quite. Remove lid and continue to let the rice cook over very low heat, stirring frequently, until all the liquid is gone and the rice has “dried out,” she said. That took about another 10-15 minutes. It might depend on how large a batch you made, however. Taste for seasoning and serve! I could have made a meal of that all by itself.

Tweet

Every time we visit our daughter Dana, and her family, we have some chorizo and eggs. Her husband Todd has some Hispanic heritage in his bloodline, and he’s the breakfast cook in the family. Whenever he visits us here in So. California, he likes to make a trip to Whole Foods to buy their chorizo. Of all the chorizo out there, he really likes theirs better than others. He explained that chorizo is one of those products kind of like hot dogs, where the meat processors use all the leftover pieces of everything, (I don’t know about organ meat – I hope not) and they throw in a bunch of chile powder and other seasonings, I suppose. The chorizo from Spain is somewhat different – can even be more like a dried sausage, and probably isn’t seasoned with heat, but with paprika or other dried mild chiles. Whereas, the Mexican versions (which must be unique to every cook, just like tomato/meat sauce is to an Italian home cook) contain more spicy ground chiles.

I’ve been disappointed with the chorizo from the regular grocery stores. The meat just looks gooey. And it’s drippy with some kind of dark red liquid (partly the chile peppers). I don’t like meat that oozes. So in my mind, cheaper chorizo is more suspicious. Since I’ve read enough stories about how the meat producers use all those “other” meat parts from the cow or pig, and they employ chemicals to distill it to mush, I assume they do the same for chorizo. So, Whole Foods is my only source for chorizo. Theirs is encased in links, fat links, so you can cook them as is, or slip the meat out of the casing.

The CHORIZO & EGGS: Todd didn’t have any Whole Foods chorizo the other morning. Since I didn’t have to cook it and observe the ooze, I had some. And it was ever so good. I’d never cooked with chorizo until Todd came into our family. He cooks up the chorizo in a nonstick skillet until most of the fluid has dried up. He doesn’t stir it much, because he likes the chorizo to have some form (pieces rather than mush). Meanwhile he beats up a bunch of eggs (he may add just a small splash of milk to the eggs – I add water to mine, not milk). He pours off any pools of fat, then pours in the eggs to the pan with the chorizo. The skillet gets stirred until the eggs are nearly set, then he sprinkles a bunch of shredded cheddar cheese on top. He puts a cover on it for a minute until it’s melted and they’re done. You can eat the eggs plain, but the only way to eat it in their household is scooped into piping hot flour tortillas and eaten out of hand.

Tweet

The north side of Mt. Lassen, California.

We’re actually home – got home late last night – but I hadn’t posted photos of some of the places we visited. I’m not back into the cooking routine yet, but hopefully will be by tomorrow or the next day.

If you’ve never driven the I-5 (it goes from the Mexican border clear to Canada) then you may have missed driving through the northern reaches of California with the high peaks. I posted a picture of Mt. Shasta a few days ago. You can see Shasta from the freeway, it’s that close. But we decided, this time, that we would also drive to Mt. Lassen Volcanic National Park, which is further inland (about 80 miles east of the I-5). It’s a much smaller National Park, but the drive through it a few days ago was really spectacular. There are a few steam blow-holes within the park, but with the temperature below freezing and the wind blowing, we opted (well, I opted) not to park and walk to see the small geysers.

Mt. Lassen from the south side where the sun melted much of the snow. It was 29 degrees and blowing like crazy when I snapped this picture.

Some years ago I bought a National Park Senior Pass (a lifetime pass available for seniors at a reasonable cost, and allows the car – and its passengers – I’m in to enter every National Park in our land at no charge). The morning we drove into Lassen it was a weekday, and we encountered just a handful of other cars. There’s something very special about viewing spectacular scenery when you’re the only people looking at it. It always makes me think about the westward-ho pioneers, and what they thought when they came by covered wagon through those parts.

Mt. Lassen has several lakes within its boundaries. This one is very near the north entrance.

Accommodations in and outside of the park are a bit sparse. After looking online I decided we wouldn’t stay there, which is why we spent the night before in Shasta and made Lassen a morning drive instead. Next time you’re up there, don’t miss it.

Tweet

The Jerk Pork Chop at Bistro 33, Eldorado Hills, CA  

We drove to Placerville – the town where one of our daughters lives, with her family. We came specifically because Dana celebrated her 40th birthday on the 11th. I can’t quite believe I have a daughter who is 40. Wow. So we came a couple days early and had some good quality family time with them, and had a big family party – all the food Dana wanted to eat. Her mother-in-law, Ann, is a really good cook, and her claim to fame is Mexican food. I’ll likely write up a post about the dinner we had at some point.

Niman Ranch New York Steak with Four Sauces at Bistro 33, Eldorado Hills

One night we went out to dinner – just the adults – and went to a relatively new restaurant near where they live. Eldorado Hills is a mostly bedroom community, I think, with a very large contingent of custom homes for people who commute into Sacramento. Placerville, named for the placer mines during the Gold Rush, is about halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. It’s woodsy, at a mid-altitude, so they don’t get as much snow as at Tahoe, and not quite the heat they do in Sacramento in the summertime. A happy medium I guess you could say.

The delish lamb and pork meatloaf at Bistro 33, Eldorado Hills

Anyway, we ate at Bistro 33, a hip, upscale Pacific Nothwest-style restaurant in the fancy Town Center (kind of looks like a narrow Paris street) in Eldorado Hills. It was really, really good, and I’d definitely go back! It was crowded, noisy (the bar was jumping the entire time we were there), and the food was very good. You’ll see some pictures here (not very good ones, I’ll admit, because the lighting was so dim I had to use flash), interspersed within this text of some of the things we ate. For appetizers we had a good crab and artichoke dip, and an ahi poke too. Dana had a big Caesar salad, and she and Todd shared a Niman Ranch New York Steak prepared with four sauces. Dave had a pork chop prepared Jerk style on a bed of grilled corn and tomatoes. I ordered a meatloaf (lamb and pork) that came with chunked mashed potatoes and asparagus spears. And for dessert we had some great, GREAT pumpkin gelato. Am going to have to go on a search for a recipe for that. It was exceptional.

Dana knew about this restaurant because she knows the chef there. Lisa Marie Murtadh used to run a sandwich shop (and catering company) in downtown Placerville. At one time Dana’s office was just upstairs from this shop, so she visited there often. She got to know Lisa Marie really well, and was so thrilled for her when she was offered the job as Chef at Bistro 33. Judging by the crowd, I’d say she’s doing a great job with the food!

Eldorado Hills isn’t going to be on the radar for a lot of people who read my blog, but it was worth the trip (it’s about 30 minutes from Placerville toward Sacramento), but if you’re ever up this way, or on your way to Tahoe, make a reservation (a must, I think, on weekends).

Tweet

We’re back in California after a moderate day of driving. Our last night in Oregon was in Coos Bay (the only thing memorable was an exceedingly inexpensive dinner at a great old-style Italian restaurant called Benetti’s). Dave took a walk on the docks across the street from the Best Western we stayed in, and had asked a local where to eat. So the next morning we headed inland (we decided we really didn’t have time to drive down the coast to Eureka and still do the things we wanted to do in the next day or so), so we headed toward Roseburg and then onto the I-5 south.

My cousin Gary spends time every year in Ashland with a group of friends at the Shakespeare Festival, and he’s raved many times about the charming town, the great restaurants, and all about the variety of theaters. Unfortunately I hadn’t planned on us staying there, so we just stopped for lunch, and will have to stay there next time we go through. Had a delightful lunch at a café right on the stream that meanders through town. It was cool, but sunny, so enjoyed sitting outside soaking up some warmth and a delicious hamburger that Dave and I shared, along with the restaurant’s specialty – fries with garlic and feta cheese. Eh. Not memorable except for the location.

I’d scheduled us to stop in Mt. Shasta (the town at the foot of the peak), so had written down one B&B I thought we’d like, and one highly recommended restaurant. Wow, did we luck out. Since we weren’t sure where we would stop, I hadn’t made reservations. Good old Trudi, our GPS, got us right to the door of Shasta MountINN. As luck would have it, there was one room left. The B&B is a few blocks from downtown, has a stunning view of Mt. Shasta (covered in snow above), and has many amenities (like the high-speed internet I’m using to blog), a sauna, even a massage studio. We sat outside in the cool mountain air and read books and relaxed for a couple of hours before leaving to go to dinner. The picture above I snapped from the front porch of the B&B.

I’d also researched restaurants and had read up about a place called the Trinity Café (no website and it’s about to change its name to Salt H2O at Trinity). By looking at several sources, it was a sure thing. And if you’ve ever been to Mt. Shasta, the town, it’s not very big, so it was amazing to find such a great restaurant in this town. We absolutely lucked out on all counts. Our dinner was more reasonable than many we’ve had on this trip, and is worth a stop if you’re ever up this way. The restaurant has a new owner and chef since many online reviews were written.

Dave ordered raw oysters on the half shell, which he said were the best he’s had in years. The bluepoints came from a bay in Canada. I ordered a grilled Caesar salad and a half order of St. Louis ribs. Most of the menu is French inspired, or California French (the chef’s wife is French), but ribs just sounded good to me. Dave ordered cedar-planked salmon. Then we had an order of chocolate crepes for dessert. We had a long conversation with the chef/owner, Norm Henry, about his wines – most of what he carries is Nichelini, one of the oldest wineries in California. Dave was impressed and wants to inquire further about it which we’ll do once we’re home. We’re not going to Napa/Sonoma wine country on this trip.

So, if you’re ever going north or southbound on the I-5, Mt. Shasta is great stopover for a nice B&B and dinner.

Tweet

We stopped in one of the small towns that dot the Oregon coast and sat on the short wall watching the waves. Dave said “it looks like an angry sea.” Sometimes this bay is flat calm, but yesterday the current was coming from a different direction (information we got from a local) so the waves were plowing straight into the cove. There’s a blow-hole down below the “Oregon waves” words that the gentleman said sometimes blow clear up over the wall and onto the street. The weather was perfect yesterday – in the 60’s, bright shiny blue sky, puffy clouds and even a considerable amount of mist in the air (from the ocean, not weather type). It was a beautiful drive. We were grateful for the sunshine!

Tweet

When we visited Oregon wine country ten years ago I had plotted the trip from the get-go. Sometimes we don’t make reservations anywhere, but more often than not I decide where I think we should stay, get ideas for restaurants and have a general idea of our itinerary. So those many years ago I’d booked us into Salishan, a venerable old (big) country inn/resort. It’s just barely inland from Highway 101, at Gleneden Beach, on the meandering coast road that traverses the Western states. Back then, though, I chose a cheaper room with no view. Even then it was pricey. But after talking about it, in prep for this trip, we both agreed we’d like to come back and splurge for a nicer room, with a view. When we travel we usually splurge somewhere along the trip. Budget travel, to me anyway, means we spend less than $100 a night for a room. Generally, though, it’s a bit over that.

So, why Salishan? It reminds me of 1960-era country club life. It has several restaurants, a golf course, exercise room and indoor pool (the indoor a necessity in this part of the world where it rains about 11+ months a year. But oh, is it green. We, from Southern California, get so used to the dry, desert terrain, and welcome for a short time the lush, moist, wet weather of the Pacific Northwest. There were younger people around when we arrived yesterday, even some young children, so at least it isn’t just catering to the old folks, like us. We had a beautiful room, with fireplace and a deck. Dave sat out on the deck, sheltered from the mist, and read a book while I worked here on my computer, giving you the post from yesterday.

Salishan has a reputation for good food, and indeed it was delicious. Dave ordered lamb chops and I had halibut with a delicious candied pineapple rice with it. And some garlic pan-fried spinach. The staff recommended the Dungeness crab bisque. We ordered one serving, divided between us. It was scrumptious. And then, the server highly recommended the Marionberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. Oh my, yes. It was drop-dead fabulous. Marionberries are unique to Oregon, so remember that when you visit here, try them in lots of foods.

We’re off today, heading south toward California. We’re now on our return leg home, but we won’t get there for several more days. We’re hoping the weather will improve a bit today. We’ve had four days of rain, non-stop.

Tweet