Pan Roasted Halibut

Everyone was eating well tonight. We picked up some smoked knuckle bones from our local butcher on the way back from the grocery store. They were enthusiastically received.

Then for the humans, I made a very simple yet amply tasty Halibut dish. The Halibut was conveniently on sale (otherwise it would have been out of our budget) and the dish only required the purchase of a few cherry tomatoes and some pesto.

I started by making pesto butter. I simply mashed together a few tablespoons of pesto with about 6 tablespoons of butter. I shaped this into a roll using plastic wrap and placed it in the freezer until firm.
Next melt a few tablespoons of butter and spread this on both sides of the fish fillets. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, coat with plain breadcrumbs and then sear in a medium hot skillet with 2 Tbsp Olive oil and turn once. Add a cup of sliced tomatoes and then put the whole pan in the oven at 425F for ten minutes. When done, put a big pat of the pesto butter right on each fillet and you're done! The flavor is fabulous and we both loved this dish. I used to remaining pesto butter on the steamed broccoli and it was scrumptious. I highly recommend this simple and tasty dish. We'll try it again when my cherry tomatoes are in season from my garden. That's the only way I could imagine improving this meal.

Restaurant Review: Norman Quacks

Our new favorite restaurant. It's a bar/ restaurant in on Broadway Ave in Forest Lake MN. Reasons why we like it:
1. It's not a chain restaurant.
2. Everything on the menu is fresh made, not prepackaged or frozen. (The chicken tenders are to die for. They're each half a chicken breast dipped in homemade batter and fried.)
3. The butter is different every day and is often sooo yummy. They serve it with home made bread.
4. The quirky menu item names. I've had the Forest Lakeadelphia cheese steak sub. They throw puns or duck names in wherever they can.
5. The generous portions. I don't know how they stay in business. We've never gone there and not brought home a doggy bag.
6. The decor:
Those are waders suspended from the ceiling over the lights and buoy fixture. That's a moose skull on the wall. The partition between the rows of booths is stacked with books. (Not in view) I guess the reasoning there is, you get something to read as you wait for your homemade meal which takes longer to cook than prepackaged or frozen food.

Overall, our favorite place to eat out on those rare occasions when we eat out.

Got you in my sights

Right above Miranda's left ear you can see the object of her attention. There's a squirrel foraging about in the yard.

I started my seedlings yesterday. I made a few mini greenhouses from old fruit packages from the grocery store and for the larger units, I used leftover disposable lasagna pan lids. I cheated and bought some jiffy peat pots, but they were less than $2.00 for 50 of them, so I feel I am doing okay so far.
All of the seeds were free, coming from my garden, my Gramma's, my Dad's or my Sister-in-law's. I planted some mystery beans of Grandpa's. We don't know what they are, but they've been in the family for years and I hope I didn't destroy them this year. They collected a little mold in storage. I also started butternut squash from an organic squash my Uncle bought in Amish country in Lancaster PA.
The flowers I started are Bells of Ireland, Cleome, Gramma's 4 O'clocks, Gramma's wild orange butterfly bush that she brought in from the woods years and years ago, Purple Angel's Trumpet, Moon Flower (the angel trumpet variety, not the morning glory variety), some Castor Beans and some tall yellow Nasturtiums. We still need to collect the Cannas and Dahlias from my SIL's root cellar. It'll be a while before the ground thaws and the threat of frost has passed. The ground is still frozen at about 6" deep.
Also if you'll notice in the picture, the red begonia is the one I won at a bridal shower in November and it is still going strong. I also love the way the african violet reflects the light from the flash. It really glows.

a little nutty

This guy appeared yesterday foraging for goodies and snacking in the basswood tree in our front yard.
-And then these guys were playing a game of catch in the park which ended up being a game of monkey-in-the-middle with their Great Dane. (At first we thought it was a horse)
Today was gorgeous. It was 60 degrees and bright and sunny. Hopefully this weather lasts.

Polenta

I was in the mood for spaghetti, but hubby wanted something a little different than the same old sauce and noodles. He rummaged through our kitchen cabinets and brought a bag of cornmeal to my attention and asked, "why don't we make some real polenta instead?"
I'd never made polenta before and other than sitting by the stove to stir the pot for a half hour, it's not that hard to make. Just water and cornmeal. It was a nice creamy base to the marinara sauce and it just loved the parmesan cheese.
It's also fantastic with butter and parmesan cheese, as it tastes similar to roasted cuban corn on the cob. Mmm-mmm!

Esterhazyschnitten

Nut meringue slices with buttercream filling and a fondant glaze.
I got the recipe from the book Kaffeehaus. It's also the cover art for the book. Mine doesn't look nearly as nice as the photos they show on the book, but it was very very tasty nonetheless. I made a few changes from the original recipe. Instead of using an apricot glaze, I used a cherry glaze and instead of an Almond and Hazelnut meringue, I used strictly almonds. I wanted to use what I had available without having to go to the store.
The hardest part of making this dessert was the fondant top layer. Try as we may, we couldn't get a smooth glaze, so my chocolate striping looks a bit rough. Regardless, it was still an impressive dessert once you sliced into it. It pairs very well with a medium bodied coffee.

Lattice Crust Apple Pie

A lattice crust turned out to be a bit more difficult than I had originally expected. It wasn't hard to make the crust, it was just tricky to weave it properly. I found that the way to keep the dough pliable enough to work with, is to omit the chilling step.
The pie itself turned out a little drier than usual, but I think that had something to do with the filling. If the lattice does indeed create a drier filling, then it would be the preferred top crust for notoriously runny pies like blueberry and cherry. I'll be experimenting with this in the future.

long time, no type

There's a reason I haven't written anything in weeks. I haven't cooked a single thing in weeks. I have had no desire to lift a finger in the kitchen.
There's not much dog news to report because the dogs and I haven't been leaving the house much and there's been limited antics on their part. It's been too cold to enjoy the outdoors and we've all settled into a lazy little routine.
Today was a bit of a break. It warmed up to 30 degrees and we took the dogs to the dog park. They loved the chance to run around and bark up a storm. The happy news is that our dogs were not the worst behaved dogs there.

Nothing new and exciting

Each morning before I take the dogs out to the woods across the road, I check the temperature outside to see which coat I should wear. I was shocked and a little upset to see that it was all of 4 degrees. Bummer. I bundled up in my big down coat that looks like a comforter with arms and donned my goofy blue hat with braided earflaps and out we went. Patch and Miranda made quick work of their morning outdoor time and came racing back into the house. Spinner took a little longer but that may be because his back foot is still healing and he has to wear a plastic bag over the bandages for outdoor trips. He finally made his way back into the house, but Blayze stayed outside. I don;t know if she was so cold she got disoriented, but she kept wandering further and further away into the woods. I was afraid I'd have to go in after her. Finally she emerged in the driveway of the house next to the trees and was sniffing around their garbage cans. I walked down the road and yelled for her to come back and she darted back to the house so fast it was difficult to keep an eye on her. That's why we call her Crazy Blayzey.

Winter Vacation

I've been slacking off and taking it easy for the last week or so. We've been trying to get everything settled and back in order after Christmas. The whole house transforms for one dinner and it takes a lot of time and energy to get it back to the way it was. -Energy that I just don't have. I've been slacking and enjoying it. Michael has been home for the last four days so I got to sleep in and he has taken the dogs out for their morning run to the woods. Just as I was starting to get used to it, he went back to work. :-(
Now it's back to the daily grind. Speaking of grind, Michael went to the dentist today and had a molar ground down and a crown installed. He said it wasn't too bad except that some of the dentist's tools felt like they were cutting into his gums. I assured him even the toughest guys are allowed to admit that some dentist appointments hurt.