Northern Pike in a Caper Sauce

I got some northern pike on sale last week and wanted something quick for dinner tonight, so pike it was.

Northern pike is a fairly common mild-flavored predator fish from where I grew up. It has a loose skeletal structure which makes it very difficult to get completely bone-free. But this was professionally filleted, so I was good to go.

I actually took the recipe from the package the fish came in (but of course I made a few changes). It had capers in it and I had bought a jar of capers months ago, but didn't have any recipes to use them in. Mmmm... capers!!!

Mince two cloves of garlic and saute in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Chop up one small tomato and throw in the pan with the garlic. Throw in a tablespoon or two of wine (I actually used sherry), a couple tablespoons of basil, and a tablespoon or two of butter. Cook until the butter is melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

I used my clay pot cooker for the fish. It works great for fish too! I put a little olive oil in the bottom of the pot, But I don't think this was necessary. I put the fish fillets in frozen and poured two tablespoons of lemon juice and the caper sauce over the top. I sprinkled on two tablespoons of an Italian four cheese mix. I baked this for 20 minutes at 500 degrees.

It was DELICIOUS!!!! This is going on my favorites list. And now I have a recipe to use up those capers on. Mmmm... capers!!

If You Don't Like the Weather in Wisconsin...

Whoa boy!! It was a good thing that we got all that gardening done yesterday, because look what came down over night. You might not be able to see it very well from this picture but we got about 15 inches of snow. Power went out around town and it was very tricky traveling today.

I love snow!! And that is a good thing, because we are scheduled to get some more in a couple of days.

Spring Fever

This weekend it got up to 60 degrees (F). My family and I took the opportunity to go for a long walk around town yesterday to check out some trails that I had been hearing about. The walk took us across the campus grounds -- which even though I work there, I haven't had time to check out myself. I saw that the daffodils were beginning to come up. So we decided to dedicate today for garden clean up.

Here's what the garden looked like before. I don't do a lot of clean up in the fall because I am usually busy enjoying the fall weather hiking, biking, camping, BBQing, and generally having fun with my family. Fall is my favorite season. Dry and cool.

Plus, I hate seeing my garden so bare during the winter, and the birds still use the plant material for food all winter long. THAT'S IT! I do it for the birds! Yeah, I'm not unconcerned for my garden, I'm concerned for the birds.

Anyway...

Here's what my garden looked like after about three hours of work. I still have a lot to do, but the ground is still too frozen to weed; we could only do surface cleaning.

"Did it just get brighter, or is it because all the sunflowers are gone?" my husband commented after we were finished. It may not look it in the picture, but we really got rid of a lot of junk.

This is the earliest that I have been able to get out for spring clean up in a very long time. It feels so good to have so much of it taken care of!

Lasagne Bake

I had a bunch of ingredients that needed to be used up: mozzarella, cottage cheese, sweet onion, and unflavored yogurt. Hmmm... what could I make?

Lasagne bake!!!

What's that? What about the yogurt? Trust me.

I just made this recipe up as I went, as usual, so get ready for more creative measurements. First, turn the oven on to 350 degrees and grease a lasagne pan well with olive oil.

In this picture you can see a box of mostly cooked mini lasagne noodles (they'll finish cooking in the oven) mixed with a 1/2 lb of grated mozzarella, four big-spoonfuls (see the big spoon?) of cottage cheese (um, maybe 1/2 a large container), and three big-spoonfuls of unflavored yogurt (really, trust me!).

Then mix in a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce and one pound browned ground turkey sauteed with sweet onions (about 1/2 a large onion). Mix in a tablespoon of garlic salt (Lawry's is the best).

Top with two cups shredded mozzarella and sprinkle on parmesan.

Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees.

How was it?

DEEE-LICIOUS!!

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

I love cream-of soups. They are my favorites. But I have had so much trouble finding a good recipe for them. I have tried many different ones over the years without much luck.

But if at first you don't succeed -- try, try again.

I had some left over cauliflower and half-n-half and some determination, so I decided to make cream of cauliflower soup.

I found recipes for cream of mushroom and cream of celery so I took some ideas from them and then just had to wing it. I've made lots of from-scratch pudding and thought the base for the soup would be very much like that.

Chop up half a head of cauliflower. Throw into a sauce pan half covering with water. Cook on medium heat.

Finely chop one thick slice of sweet onion. I love the Andes sweets, or, if you can get it, my all time favorite is Vidalia! Throw the chopped onion in with the cauliflower along with two tablespoons butter.

When the cauliflower is just about cooked through and the water has boiled down, throw in 3 chicken boullion cubes. Sprinkle about 1/8 cup flour over the cauliflower and mix in.

Turn down the heat and pour in two cups half-n-half, two cups water, and one egg mixed well. When the soup has heated up, add 1/8 cup chopped swiss cheese. Cook until thicken.

Once the cream has been added, DO NOT OVER HEAT!!!

This was the best cream-of soup that I have ever made. I would definitely make this again, and I plan to try other versions, like: mushroom, broccoli, potato... OH! I CAN'T WAIT!!

Cool Kitchen Gadgetry: Funnels

Many people might not think about getting funnels for their kitchen, but I use mine all the time. I especially like mine because the opennings are actually big enough for things to pass through without clogging them up; and they are so colorful.

Here I am using one to refill a smaller container with sea salt. Have I mentioned how great sea salt is?

Cool Kitchen Gadgetry: Marble Cheese Slicer

I know that every house already has a cheese slicer. Probably one like this one. I grew up with a slicer like this in my house and never really cared for it. It is difficult to get straight slices. You usually end up with knocked knuckles and a block of cheese that is scooped on one end.


So when I was out looking for new gadgets for my kitchen and saw this cheese slicer at $8.99 (Fleet Farm of all places), I had to have it. Isn't it beautiful? AND it slices beautifully too. You can get super thin slices or really thick slices, whatever you need. It is really easy to use, you don't have hold onto the block of cheese, and the marble keeps the cheese cool too.


I have used it on all sorts of cheese and haven't had a problem with any of them. THough this one did come with a couple extra slicing wires in case one does break.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that it is so big (I have a small kitchen and like small, collapsable, or multi-use items) and really only has one use. But, it's pretty enough to sit out on the counter if I can't find room in a drawer. So I think it is a keeper.

Traditional Manicotti

I got this recipe from the 1000 Vegetarian Recipe book. I'm telling you, I LOVE that book!!

In this bowl is two heaping cups of cottage cheese (it was supposed to be ricotta, but I had to substitute cottage cheese + romano), 1/4 cup Romano (see, I told you), 3/4 a package of frozen spinach, a cup chopped mixed sweet peppers and 3 chopped scallions.

This is what it looks like all mixed up. I also added some salt and pepper.

This recipe is actually called "Traditional Canelloni" in the book, but I didn't have canelloni, I had manicotti. Hey, it's all just pasta.

Cook the pasta most of the way. Drain and run cold water over it to cool it down enough to handle it, because you have to stuff them.

The book showed someone using a spoon to stuff the pasta, but good luck with that. I used my hands. We evolved them for a reason, you know.

Here is Neo asking if he can have some yet. Doesn't it look like you could just stuff him in one of the manicotti?

Awe! What a cutie!!

But NO!! You can't have any!

Put the stuffed pasta in a grease baking dish. Pour pasta sauce over the top. I made my own with tomatoes I canned from my own garden, but you can use what you want. The sauce should just about cover the pasta.

Sprinkle romano and parmesan on top and cook in for 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees; or until the pasta is completely cooked and the cheese on top is browned.
Mine didn't quite make it to the browned stage since my son kept hounding me about when it would be done.

Like every five minutes!!

It was pretty good. Well, I'll say it has great potential. I would definitely try this again, with a couple of changes...

Changes I would make:
* Cook it longer.
* Use thicker sauce. I did not spend a lot of time making sure the sauce was right before I used it and I added extra water to it because I didn't have enough to cover the pasta sufficiently.
* MORE CHEESE!!! Hey, I'm from Wisconsin! Maybe a little mozzarella grated on top. Yummy!!

Marmarumalade Chicken

I'm finally over my cold and have started cooking again. Today I was inspired by the large quantities of clemetines that were left over from when I had a cold and the marmalade that I made with some of them for my son the other day. I thought the marmalade would go very well with chicken, so I devised a recipe to bring the two together.

I started the recipe very similar to how I made the marmalade: slice the clemetines thinly, add 1/4 cup lemon juice -- or you could also thinly slice a lemon, add 1/4 cup sugar -- I used brown sugar for extra flavor and because I was going to jazz up the marmalade with a little spiced rum, about 2 cups of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum to be exact (or as exact as I ever get in my recipes!).

I also added a couple tablespoons of dried cilantro. I mixed everything together in a large bowl. You need a large enough bowl for the chicken that you are cooking since you will be marinading the chicken in the marmarumalade. By the way, my clever husband came up with that name. I like to name my dishes fun names, and I think that name fit well.

When I put the chicken in the bowl, there wasn't anough marmalade marinade to cover the chicken sufficently, so my husband suggested using fruit juice. I used 2/3 of a can of 100% apple/passion/mango frozen juice concentrate.


I let the chicken marinade about 20 minutes, then flipped it over and let it marinade another 20 minutes.

Then it was into my clay pot cooker. I stuffed the chicken with the sliced clemetines and poured the marinade into the cooker.

I let it cook in a 450 degree oven for about an hour and twenty minutes.

It came out a little crispier than I had intended but the clay pot cooker did its job of keeping the chicken moist, and it was DELICIOUS!!


I would definitely make this again!

Coronation Chicken Salad

Coronation Chicken was invented by Constance Spry who wanted to serve something new and special for the Queen's Coronation lunch in 1953.

I learned about it while in Scotland. I was getting lunch from at the Dalkieth Palace (where I was taking classes). Along with various cold cuts and cheese was a dish of something that I could not classify. I asked the chef and he told me all about Coronation Chicken.

Always up for something new, I took some. I was the only one who did. But that just left more for me. It was DELICIOUS!!

Today, I came home for lunch with not much time to eat. I decided to see if I could recreated Coronation Chicken. I think I did pretty well. Of course, my recipe is a highly simplified version of the real thing; but it tasted fab anyway. And who doesn't like easy?

• canned chicken (drained)
• mayonaise to desired consistancy
• curry powder to taste
• chopped nuts (I used pecans, because I LOVE pecans!)

Mix it all up and pile on bread for a sandwich, or you could just eat it plain.
Yummy!!