Yesterday's Gravy Tonight's Soup

I don't know why I've never thought of it before. Gravy -- especially the cream gravy I make for fried chicken -- is basically a roux. Sometimes I thicken soup with a roux. Today I thickened our soup with gravy.
First I sautéed carrots, onions, celery and after a couple minutes a bit of chopped garlic in olive oil. When those vegetables softened up I added in sliced mushrooms, about 3 quarts of chicken broth, chopped turkey (I had that in the freezer) and some of the leftover chicken (without the skin) and a heavy half cup gravy. The soup came up to a boil and then simmered for about 10 minutes, One disappointment -- no egg noodles in the house. Cooked in the creamy savory broth they would have been delicious. Instead I grabbed the last of a bag of penne and tossed them in (pre-cooked) for a creamy noodle soup dinner.

303 And Counting

The stakes are high. Four dollars in our electoral college pool still unclaimed waiting on Florida.

Yesterday was such a busy day around here. James was out on the tractor digging in a new water tank. I was trying to get the house and dinner ready (not so easy given our muddy yard and 3 cheerful dogs) for friends coming over to watch the election returns all while ordering materials for our current landscape extravaganza and checking in on the early reports form the poles. No time to blog, but we did -- exhausted -- manage to get dinner on the table for our friends.

Oddly enough I don't have any pictures in the middle but here's where it started and how it finished. It's been a good long while since I delved into Jim Lahey's bread recipes. We so love the rosemary meyer lemon bread from nearby Della Fattoria I knew I could never compete. But I had a beautiful bag of stone ground flour I bought from a family farm in Washington state and there's no time like the present. I whipped up (if you can say that about a recipe that takes 2 days) a nice crusty loaf of whole wheat bread and set it out with delicious McClelland butter and homemade tomato bacon jam. There in the distance are our mini-appetizers -- a bowl of cayenne spiced pecans and Southern style cheese straws. I figured those were a good companion for the fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and kale salad that came later -- along with a neighborly pot of homegrown beans.

For dessert, since I still have apples on the tree, a brown sugar sweetened old-fashioned 3 layer apple cake from a recipe on marthastewart.com with a brown sugar buttercream. The frosting used egg white so I took that as a perfect excuse to make a quick batch of vanilla ice cream. James said it might be his favorite cake I'd ever made -- must be the apples right off the tree.

Spanish Tortilla

Eggs for dinner.
Found in every tapas bar in Spain, the Spanish Tortilla is nothing like the more familiar to Americans Mexican breadstuff. It is a thick slow cooked omelette most often chock full of olive oil fried potatoes. I've never made one before but I've eaten plenty of them. Eggs just seemed like the right thing for dinner but with the oven still out of commission no frittatas or soufflés for us.  A stove top treat, a tortilla (equally good warm or at room temperature) seemed right -- and something a little new for James.
First I fried thin potato and onion slices in a prodigious amount of olive oil at medium heat -- a very slow bubble so the potatoes cook (and soak in the oil) but don't brown or crisp. Then you drain the potatoes and add them to 8 eggs beaten with salt and pepper. I should have had a non-stick pan for this adventure but tortillas have been everyday fare in spin long before Tfal so I forged ahead. I heavily slicked the bottom of the skillet with oil and poured in the egg mixture. The tortilla cooked for about 5 minutes -- again at medium heat -- until the bottom and edges were firm. Now the tricky part and the action that has kept me from trying my own tortilla for literally years now. First you slide the egg and potato cake onto a waiting plate (I could have used a bigger plate). Then using a second plate you flip the tortilla over so the less cooked side is down. Add more oil (the reserved olive oil form frying the potatoes) to the pan and slide your potato masterpiece back in to cook on the bottom.
I should have let my tortilla brown a little more to be truly authentic but for a fairly quick weeknight dinner and a first try -- not too bad.

The Cupboard Is Bare

It might be the emptiest our kitchen has ever been. Coming back from my trip I opened the fridge. Echo . . . prosciutto, cheese, left over white wine, and a half bottle of heavy cream lingering from last week's dessert.
Prosciutto cream sauce. I started a pan with a bit of olive oil and a bit of butter and sautéed half an onion, finely chopped and a couple cloves of garlic. When the onions we just translucent I tossed in the prosciutto and gave that a few minutes to start to crisp up. Next I deglazed the pan with some of that white wine and then added the cream and let everything cook down to a sauce while the pasta boiled.
Pretty simple, but pretty delicious.
I've gotta go shopping.

Sha Lin Noodle House

 For years my eating adventurer friends, Eric and Shari,  and I have been searching for a plate like these knife cut cumin sauced noodles closer to home.. The holy grail of noodle houses. I'd heard the legend but never tasted them. Of course I knew the famed noodles of China's Shanxi province, stretched, pulled. cat's ears, and like these knife cut into waiting boiling water. Stir fried or served in soup, Northern Chinese chefs work years to perfect the traditional local specialties' mix of toothsome flavor and chewiness.

 Another noodle another dish. "Dragging noodles" as Sha Lin calls them are hand stretched. Chewy springy super long noodles in a tasty broth topped with BBQ pork. Really nothing to complain about here.

 Not quite my beloved sheng jian bao, these pan fried dumplings have thick, flour, tasty skins crisped into a crunchy, bready, savory cake.

Perhaps man can't live by noodles alone. Maybe. Just in case there are these crispy nuggets of spicy salty ribs.
The search goes on for cumin noodles close to home, but for now we'll always have Vancouver.

Hudson Bay Company

Every visit North of the border I make a pilgrimage to the Hudson Bay Company, the present day descendent of Canada's one time frontier trading company. Famous for their wool "points" blankets, part of the fur trade in Canada since 1780. Points -- following the French system -- designate the size of the 100% wool felted blankets imported from England.
History and tradition aside I first fell in love with the classic multi-colored stripes in the 60's. My father, a traveler and traditionalist (I had to get it somewhere), carried home a collection of these now very expensive trade goods from a family trip to Canada and Alaska that also gathered up a selection of totem pole sweaters and scores of legendary (or maybe forgotten) family stories.
I cuddled dogs, read comic books with a flashlight and slept soundly under those itchy winter weight covers.
Those old blankets are long gone now, lost in the shuffle of living and moving. So I visit. Surrounded by the myriad of items now sporting the signature stripes I gaze back through the years and for just a moment I find that carefree time hoping for snow days and never feeling cold.

La Casa Gelato

A vancouver institution. Rain or shine, sun or snow visitors and locals alike trek to La Casa Gelato for a taste of the more than 200 flavors on offer any given day. Durian, ginger, pear and gorgonzola, maple bacon, purple yam and multiple combinations of fruit and chocolate and nuts and candy. Even late on a cold fall night the crowds were still coming in.