What's For Supper - Salad Tamara

I started making this salad years ago during the farmer's market months. Based on a Salad Nicoise, it has evolved into a delicious warm-weather supper using our favorite foods and whatever is fresh and seasonal. Bruce says it's his favorite summer meal. Enjoy!

At least one hour before supper time, pre-heat your oven to 350. You can also cook the potatoes, eggs and beans in the cooler morning hours and refrigerate until supper. They're good cold or at room temperature!

Hard boil your eggs (2-3 per person). I've found the following method works pretty well. Try to use eggs that are at least 3 days old (the air pocket between the egg white and the shell is larger and helps with peeling). Place eggs in a saucepan large enough to hold all of the eggs in a single layer. Fill with just enough water to cover the eggs. Bring the water to a boil, then take the pot off the heat and cover for 12 minutes. Meanwhile, put ice in a large bowl and fill with water. When the eggs are done, use a wire scoop (like a Chinese spider) to transfer the eggs from the hot water to the ice water. Let the eggs sit in the ice water for about 5 minutes. Don't throw out the water! To peel, hold the egg under a gentle stream of tap water as you take the shell off. The water will help release the shell from the egg white. Cut the eggs in half (or slice them), and season with salt and pepper.

Slice red potatoes (one per person) about 1/8" thick. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and dried thyme. Spread in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, until tender and slightly browned on the edges. Let cool to room temp.

Cook the green beans by adding them to boiling water for 3-5 minutes, just until tender. If you need to, add a little more ice to the bowl of water you used to cool the eggs, then plunge the green beans into the water to stop the cooking process. Dry the beans lightly with paper towels, then add salt and pepper. Set aside.

Time to plate the salad. Chop some romaine hearts and place in the middle of the plate. Arrange the veggies, eggs and whatever else you like on the plate. Make it pretty! We like pickled beets, pickled red onion, olives, fresh tomato slices and marinated mozzarella slices. Fresh basil is always welcome, too. I finished this salad off with some fresh dill on top, and served it with Litehouse Dill and Feta dressing. You may find that you don't even need any dressing, though. The salad is delicious by itself!    

A Great Plenty

We decided to harvest our potatoes and onions the other day to make room in the bed for more crops. The dill was also starting to go to seed, so I cut the tallest stalks for drying. And then there were a few stray scallions in the way, so up they came as well. By the time I was done, my basket was full.

Note to self: use bigger basket next time

I love potatoes. That's why I moved to Idaho. OK, it's one of the reasons. There's something magical about reaching down into the soil and pulling out a big red tater. The onions were on the small side, but beautiful nonetheless.

We have enough fresh dill to use for awhile, so this new harvest will be dried. It is so fragrant! Maybe I should make some potpourri out of it. My clothes could smell like pickles.

We also have about six blueberry bushes growing next to our house. Bruce goes out every morning and picks fresh blueberries for breakfast.

What's for breakfast: Greek yogurt with melon and fresh blueberries.

We're looking forward to finishing our garden and having a bountiful harvest next season. As Bruce's Grandma Pete used to say, "a great plenty!"

Salty Dog

We finally got out on the boat again today. We kept meaning to take her out but we just had one thing after another come up lately.  We really wanted to get back out there for Cody - he loves the boat! He must have been an old sea dog in a former life.

Here he is having a heart to heart with Papa 

Bella just looked worried the entire time we were out. Here she is saying "Mom, this is not safe. I cannot begin to tell you the many things that can go wrong. We need to go home. Now."

Despite Bella's pleas, we motored over to an osprey nest we saw the last two times we were out on the lake. I was able to get better photos with my new camera.

Gotta love the stabilizer!

Then I saw this guy shopping for his lunch. Is he giving me a dirty look? I think I'm interrupting his hunting.

As we started to motor away, I spied yet another nest! This place is quite the birding spot.

Bruce took over the wheel and kicked it up a notch, making some tight turns on the water. Cody stood up front, leaning into the turns, wind flapping his ears. This dog has sea legs!

We'd been out for about 90 minutes, so we decided to head back to the dock. As we scooted back across the lake, Bruce noticed a float plane coming in for a landing. Now that would be fun - land your plane on a lake, have some beach time, then fly back up into the clouds.

We saw lots of fish jumping out of the water right around our boat, trying to catch insects on the surface. We weren't quite prepared to fish this time out, but by the next trip, maybe we'll catch a few. Cody is ready to be our guide!

Wild Kingdom

When I was little, our family would watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Now I'm living it. Well, without the lions, tigers and bears. Although I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a bear around here anytime soon.

We have your run-of-the-mill squirrels, although they seem extra cute up here. Maybe because Bruce spoils them with peanuts.

This guy is telling the world a thing or two.

And this little gal must have made fifteen trips, taking one peanut at a time, back to her nest. And having to take them from a cat! That is one hard-workin' squirrel!








I finally saw some wild turkeys in our neighborhood. I was driving to town one day and saw them crossing the road. Two mamas and about five babies. Look closely: you'll see one of the mamas on the left and a baby on the right. They were pretty stealthy. They fled into the woods as soon as I started to drive by.

And, of course, we have our deer. Bucky is now a fourteen pointer. So handsome! I hope he survives hunting season.

We also have a mama deer with triplets. I've only been able to get a picture of two of the fawns with her, but I'm working on getting a family portrait.

And here's three of three!

It's not unusual to see a deer standing out in the road if you happen to be going for a walk after dinner.

Then there's the feral mama cat who showed up about a month ago with four kittens. She hung out off and on for a few weeks. Here she is having a close encounter with Scout.

She disappeared about a week ago, along with two of her kittens. The other two have made a home out of our log deck. They're taking care of the gopher population, but we're also supplying some cat food and water. 

Looks like a live trap and a trip to the vet for fixing are now on our list of things to do. I guess they'll be our "barn" cats. Bruce is already thinking about making a winter shelter for them. 

What's another couple of mouths to feed around here?  

Now FedEx Has No Excuse

When we first moved here back in November, we were ordering a lot of stuff for the house. Most of it was delivered via UPS. Our UPS driver, Ken, found our house with no problem the first time out, even though the only address marking we had was what the previous owners left us: a smallish sign nailed to a tree about thirty feet back from the road.

One day, we ordered something that was to ship via FedEx. We waited and waited. I tracked the package. It said "Delivery failure. Driver could not locate address." Sigh. I called and explained where the address sign was and they sent a driver out to deliver the package. This time they found us. But it did make us think that maybe we should make our address more visible.

Bruce found some really cool iron address numbers online that attach to bolts so they stick out from the surface to which they're attached. We'd seen some others in the neighborhood and really liked them. We ordered them (they came via USPO) and Bruce set to work. Luckily, we had a nice big boulder near the road next to the driveway.

  
First, he lined up the numbers and marked the boulder where the bolts would go. I noticed right away that there were a lot of bugs buzzing around. A lot.












              Let the drilling begin.

One down, four to go. Or, I guess it's nine down, three, four, two and five to go.

The drilling continued. I was the supervisor and caller of whether the numbers looked even as he held them up. I tried my best, despite many stinging insects buzzing around my body and head. Yikes.

     
       OK, this is about when that  
       little bugger of a yellow
       jacket stung me. Time for
       a break.







Bruce continued and did a fabulous job, despite not having any supervision. I did drive the truck down there a few times and yell "looks even to me!" out the window as buzzing insects tried to get in.

This is a little easier to see, no? OK, FedEx, we're ready for ya!

     

What's For Supper - Gluten-Free Veggie Mac'n'Cheese

After experimenting with many macaroni and cheese recipes over the years, I think I found the winning concoction. This is my idea of macaroni and cheese. It takes about an hour of preparation and another 25-30 minutes to bake, so pick a day when you can have fun and relax in the kitchen.

Here is your list of ingredients:

12 oz. gluten-free pasta (I used Tinkyada elbow macaroni)
About 14 small to medium mushrooms
Olive oil
One large head broccoli
About 40 cherry tomatoes
About 3 1/2 c. of cheese (I used 2 c. grated cheddar, 1 c. grated mozzarella, 2 oz. brie and 3 T. crumbled gorgonzola)
3 shallots
Fresh nutmeg
Paprika
2 c. milk
1 c. veggie broth
1 T. cornstarch
Fresh parmesan

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Clean the mushrooms and cut off the tips of the stems. Quarter the mushrooms and lay them in a baking sheet. Pour about 2 T. of olive oil over them, then salt and pepper. With your clean hands, mix them all together with the oil and seasoning.

Roast them at 350 for about 10 minutes, until hot and wrinkly.

While the mushrooms are roasting, cut the broccoli into small florets and place in a microwave-proof dish with cover, along with 2 T. water. Set aside for now.

The mushrooms are done! Leave the oven on at 350.

Cut the tomatoes in half. Saute over medium heat in a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and about 1 t. dried thyme (or some fresh, if you have it)!
Saute for only a minute or two - you just want to warm the tomatoes, not cook them. Set aside.

Now grate and cut your cheeses. You can use any kind of cheese you want, but I'm tellin' ya, the combination I used was stupendous! It was just cheese I happened to have in the refrigerator, though. So go look inside your fridge and see what you have!

Now chop your shallots. I love shallots. They have such a mild, delicious onion flavor.

Now it's time to cook your pasta. Tinkyada is excellent!

Even if you aren't gluten-free, it's a delicious pasta. And you can cook it easily by adding it to boiling water, stirring for just a few minutes, then covering it and turning off the heat. It only take about 14 minutes for perfectly cooked pasta!

While the pasta is cooking, saute the shallots over medium heat in a large pot with about 1 T. of olive oil, until translucent. Remember to add a little salt and pepper!

Now it's time to make the cheese sauce. Add 1 c. milk and 1 c. vegetable broth to the shallots.

Into the remaining 1 c. milk, whisk in 1 T. cornstarch. When the milk and broth are hot, whisk in the milk/cornstarch mixture. Stir frequently until the sauce begins to thicken. This takes about five minutes - patience, Grasshopper! While you're waiting for it to thicken, grate in about 1 t. fresh nutmeg

and sprinkle in some paprika. You can add a little more salt and pepper, too, if you like.

Hey, remember the broccoli? You can stick that into the microwave, covered, and cook it for about 5-6 minutes, until it's just soft but retains a little bit of crunch. Add salt, pepper, and some margarine or butter. Set aside.

When the sauce is finally thick and bubbly...

Add the cheeeeeeeese!!!!!

The pasta should be done by now, so once the cheese is thoroughly incorporated, turn off the heat. Drain and add the pasta.

Mmmmm, I'm getting hungry. The broccoli should be done by now, so it's time to add all of the veggies into the pot.

Pour the mixture into a 13 x 9 baking dish coated with vegetable spray. Grate parmesan cheese alllllll over the top.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, until brown and bubbly.

Isn't it pretty? It is so yummy. It really did exceed my expectations. Each ingredient shines through and the rich cheese sauce pulls everything together. Enjoy!