Spinach omelet with avocado and jalapeño- smoked salmon spread

If you're in the mood for a hearty and decadent breakfast,  this is possibly the most amazing omelet ever.... and I figure this omelet is a total omega 3 powerhouse...

The key component of the omelet really is the jalapeño- smoked salmon spread.  The smoked salmon that I used is from Bristol Bay and given to me by my friends Kelly and Nathan who smoked it themselves.  They moved out to Dillingham about a year and a half ago since Nathan is teaching at the middle school.

Dillingham is a hub community of ~2,000 people down in Bristol Bay, about 350 miles southwest of Anchorage, accessible by plane or boat.  Next door is Wood-Tikchik State Park, and at 1.6 million acres, it's the biggest state park in all of the United States. 

Bristol Bay is the region of Alaska where the Pebble Partnership is trying to build what would be one of the largest mines in the world in order to mine gold, copper, and molybdenum.  It's a multinational effort to establish the mine, and it is meeting strong local opposition because the very real threat that it poses to environmental damage that would have irreversible damage to one of the world's most productive wild salmon runs.  The Bristol Bay salmon is critical for both subsistence harvest and the commercial fisheries.  Beyond the economics impacts environmental degradation will likely have to the commercial fisheries and the all the jobs in the region provided by the fisheries, damage to the salmon fisheries will have significant cultural impacts in the Bristol Bay region as well.  For more information about this issue, visit http://www.savebristolbay.org/

 Jalapeño- Smoked Salmon Spread

Mix together:
8 oz block of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
a minced jalapeño (I remove the seeds since I'm a total güera)
dollop of mayonnaise
splash of worcester sauce (Lea & Perrins is gluten-free)
4-6 green onions, chopped
6-8 oz smoked salmon
dash of salt & freshly ground pepper

 

Constructing the omelet

Start by heating a bit of olive oil in a small cast iron pan over medium high heat and throwing in a big handful of fresh spinach.

Saute the spinach until it is limp.  

Mix together a scrambled egg, a splash of half and half (or milk), and a few twists of my favorite new spice mix-- Trader Joe's South African SMOKE seasoning blend.

Pour egg mixture over spinach.

Reduce the heat and cover so the omelet cooks throughout.

Flip to ensure that the omelet is cooked thoroughly.

One on a plate, smear half the omelet with jalapeño- smoked salmon spread and add a few slices of avocado.

Hopefully with some proper management that looks at all Alaska's natural resources, we won't just have empty jars of Bristol Bay smoked salmon in the future....

Comfort food at -40˚: Moose pot roast, brussel sprouts, and mashed potatoes

Today was the last day of Christmas vacation-- I'm headed back to work tomorrow after a bit of time off for the holidays and this is what I work up to:

This was actually what my friend Shawn posted this morning on Facebook-- I don't have a smart phone since I'm a bit of a Luddite, but you get the idea.  It was pretty much too cold to do much more than drink tea and stoke the wood stove.

I decided to pull out my slow cooker since the owls on it make me happy.  And I had a moose pot roast to cook; today seemed like the perfect day for it.

Whenever I prepare a roast, it reminds me of my old roommate Brian from the first year I lived in Fairbanks in the Jesuit Volunteer house.  He's from the the South and had some amazing culinary tricks up his sleeve-- especially his red beans and rice.  Since one of the vows we took was to live under the poverty line, this guy who had been use to eating meat at three meals a day spent an entire year eating ramen noodles for lunch, but he was even able to dress those up a bit.  Anyways, he taught me the neat trick of embedding garlic cloves into a roast before cooking it.  I do it every time I cook a roast...
 

After browning the roast in a cast iron skillet with a bit of olive oil, I loaded it up in the slow cooker along with a diced red onion (also a nod to Brian who really got me hooked on them), a diced jalapeños (a cold day like this needed all the heat it could get), some Northwood Fire spice mix (from Penzey's), and some cumin.

And then I turned it on and let it do its magic for about 7 hours... and it smelled amazing for at least 6 of those hours.

 

On to the brussel sprouts.  Growing up, the only vegetables we ever had with dinner was corn and/or broccoli.  Once, when we were living in St. Louis, my mom made brussel sprouts and they were awful.  Frozen and then boiled, I remember them being mushy and bitter.  That's why, in high school I was completely flabbergasted when Cristina Jesurun declared her love for brussel sprouts to me.  We were standing in the hallway outside of Dr. Judd's room and all I could think was "Really? but she has such good taste otherwise! What is wrong with her?"  I could not comprehend this at all until fall potluck at Les and Teri Viereck's.  Teri brought out a pan of roasted vegetables including brussels sprouts.  I must have been feeling adventurous that day and tried one.  Omigod, it was good!  And I've been a brussel sprout lover ever since.  Brussel sprouts are like cilantro where you either love them or hate them-- very few people are ambivalent to brussel sprouts or cilantro.  Either you taste the bitterness or you don't.

To cook up the brussel sprouts, I first trim them and rinse them.  Then I heat up some olive oil in a skillet.  When the oil is hot, I throw them in and sprinkle them with a bit of freshly ground black pepper, Himalayan pink salt crystals, and a mixture of dried herbs (Green Goddess mix from Penzey's, in fact but I've also used Italian seasonings before too).  Cook until the brussel sprouts become a more vivid green and become tender, stir occasionally.  Some of the outer leaves will crisp up which adds a great texture to them!

Adding in some mashed potatoes, the meal is complete... and I hear it's suppose to warm up to -25˚F tomorrow!

 

Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate

This year I welcomed a new sister-in-law into my family-- my brother and Janejai were married in NYC in October!

For Christmas, they sent me a lovely crate of cheeses-- way more than I could eat by myself!

So a wine & cheese night was definitely seemed in order... and chocolate is the perfect accompaniment for that! 

I invited a few friends over one dark, cold winter night to indulge themselves in fancy cheeses and other delectables including pate, olives, fruit, and a flourless chocolate cake.

I set out a smorgasbord of gluten-free crackers to go with the cheeses... 

and we had fun creating our own descriptions of the cheese... which we thought we better than the descriptions that came with them.  Who wouldn't want to eat a cheese that makes you feel like you're rolling around naked in mousse (Delice des Cremiers), mud oozing between your toes (Chabichou), diving into mashed potatoes wearing a yellow polka dot bikini (Basqu d'Argental), or walking into a cow barn with fresh milk running down your body (Blue d'Auvergne)...

To add a little sweetness to the evening, I whipped up my standby flourless chocolate cake to serve with the spread.  I love this recipe since it's only 5 ingredients that are easy to keep on hand, quick to make, and always a crowd-pleaser.  And gluten-free.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

4 ounces fine-quality chocolate (not unsweetened)-- I usually us 2/3 cups of Ghirardelli chocolate chips

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

3/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

In a double boiler on the stove, melt the butter and chocolate.

Remove from the heat and add the sugar, eggs, and cocoa powder.  Pour and spread evenly into a an 8-inch round pan lined with parchment paper (this makes it easy to remove after it comes out of the oven; alternatively, you can grease the pan and dust with cocoa power, but really-- the parchment paper is the way to go...).

 

Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes (I always test to see if a toothpick comes out clean).

 

It's an easy cake to decorate by sprinkling some powdered sugar over it, but I like to use a bit of butter cream frosting to doodle on top... 

But there's also all sorts of fun ways to decorate this cake for any occasion...

White (Christmas) Russians

Sometime around August, I declared this would be the Winter of the White Russians, and I've been indulging in the rich dessert-like drink since.  But now it's Christmas and I'm on an eggnog kick, so I decided to try and combine the two... and hence idea of the White Christmas Russians.

And here we are on Christmas Eve... this morning when I woke up, my first thought was "Geez, my nose is kinda cold."  Climbing out from under my big down comforter, I thought my cabin seemed even colder than usual.  My cabin is not really that well insulated considering its location in Alaska and at the 64 parallel, so I usually keep my Toyo stove set about 58-60 degrees... otherwise I feel like I'm heating my whole property with heat that radiates out from my hot roof and big windows.

Indeed, checking my thermometer I saw that it was 40 degrees in my cabin (and -10 degrees outside), and the Toyo displayed the EE2 warning message.  I had let my fuel oil tank run dry on Christmas Eve-- and a Saturday too!  Knowing I would not be able to get fuel delivered until Monday at the soonest, I built a fire in the wood stove and started Plan B-- going out to get a few gallons of #1 diesel to get me through the weekend.  The last time this happened was a few years ago-- it was also a holiday weekend: my birthday weekend-- and I was able to borrow some fuel jugs from my friends Kelly & Johnny and put some fuel in my tank myself.

Before I could even head out to Kelly and Johnny's (and through the magic of Facebook), I got a phone call from my friends Darce and Shawn offering to bring me some fuel.  When they showed up, they had a Christmas present for me along with the fuel!  Beautiful hand-knit fingerless gloves.  Fairbanks is an amazing place where people take care of each other-- especially in the winter.  I have some of the most generous, helpful friends here who are always willing to go out of their way to help me out with whatever situation I seem to get myself into.

So, once the fuel was in the fuel tank and the Toyo was back up and running, I mixed up a batch of White Christmas Russians.


White Christmas Russians
2 oz vodka
1 oz coffee liqueur (e.g. Kahlua)
eggnog
half and half

Mix the vodka and coffee liqueur in a martini shaker.

Pour over ice in your finest glasses or tumblers...

And a big splash of both the eggnog and half and half...

And serve to friends sitting around the woodstove.

Alternatively, stick the mixture outside in the snow and let it freeze solid.

And it's kinda like ice cream!

A midwinter Midwestern feast (while basking in the warmth of Southern California)

Heading down to California for a conference at the beginning of December, I tacked on a weekend beforehand to swing through to Santa Monica to meet up with my cousin Aaron, his wife Julie, their son Clark (soon to be 3 years old), and their new born twins Laila and Vaughn (3 months). 

Due to the young brood, we weren't very mobile, so we decided to cook up a Saturday night feast.  Cooking a meal together was an ideal way to spend the evening, and the kitchen feels like a natural place to spend time with Aaron and Julie.  Many of our conversations tend to revolve around food, and over the years I've introduced them to some of unique tastes from Alaska-- birch syrup, wild Alaskan blueberry jam, and wine and mead produced in Alaska.  The first time I met Julie in person and was then able to hang out exclusively with her was about 4 years ago when they were living in San Francisco.  It was a Elliott cousins reunion where those cousins that could met up tin SF for a few days.  I stayed a day longer than the others and was crashing on Aaron & Julie's couch.  The moment that really bonded as family was while Julie & I made tin foil liners for the burners on their stove.

Reaching back to our Midwest heritage and keeping in mind my gluten-free dietary requirements, we planned a meal of steaks, mashed potatoes, grilled zucchini, and Aaron's special garlic broccoli.  I also made a batch of fudgie wudies for dessert.

Aaron picked up some lovely NY strip steaks at the local market.   He coated them with coarse rock salt so they sparkled like diamonds plus added a bit of fresh ground pepper... and then onto the grill they went!

Also on the grill were the zucchini-- sliced into medallions and tossed in olive oil.  It had already gotten dark out by the time we were ready to grill, but I always pack a headlamp in my suitcase when traveling because it inevitably becomes useful-- for such occasions as grilling in the dark.

Once the steaks were done and resting, the potatoes needed mashing... just a little bit of milk, butter, and fresh ground pepper.

The last component of the meal to create was:

Aaron's special garlic broccoli


Ingredients:
chopped broccoli
lots of garlic
olive oil
pinch of salt

Mince the garlic.  Aaron demonstrated his garlic peeling technique which involves shaking loose cloves of garlic in two bowls of the same size (with one bowl inverted and place as a lid over the other bowl).

And... Voilà!

Heat the olive oil until it's quite hot and add a bit of salt and the minced garlic.  Let cook for a minute or so and then add chopped broccoli.

Continue cooking until the garlic is crunchy.

Aaron, a sommelier who has served as the Wine Director at a number of top notch restaurants, selected a special bottle of wine from one of the wineries he now represents to pair with the meal.  I don't know a whole lot about wine, but I do know that this was fantastic bottle of wine...

With three small children amongst us needing attention, dinner was eaten in shifts and at the kiddie table...

One of the first questions I was welcomed with when Aaron picked me up from LAX was "Did you bring us fudgie wudgies?"  To his credit, Aaron did not leave me at the airport when I informed him that I had no fudgie wudgies with me, so I did feel compelled to whip up a batch for dessert.


Fudgie Wudgies

Ingredients:
2/3 part wudge
1/3 part fudge
love
Vanilla Hagen Daz (to garnish)

***Always use only top quality wudge and fudge.  When possible, have an external quality control agent.***

Spread half of the wudge in the bottom of a baking pan.  Layer the fudge over it, and then top with the remaining wudge.

Bake in the oven until done.  When cool enough to cut into bars, serve to loved ones with a little Vanilla Hagen Daz.