Hey! Look at us gettin’ all inspired.
June 24, 2009
I am probably the luckiest girl in the world. I don’t mean to be, I just am. I’m friends with several of the best chefs in Minnesota. Not only are they great cooks, but they have created philosophies and ways of doing thing which makes each them completely unique and wonderful. To top that off they even love to teach, which means that I get to call them up and say, “Hey, what’s on your mind? Anything you want to share with some of my favorite cooks?”
When I asked my friend Scott Graden, owner/chef of the award winning New Scenic Cafe in Duluth that question and he answered, “Inspiration is everywhere and it’s so much more important than recipes and ingredients. I’d like to talk about that.” In my head I shouted, “woo hoo!” Then we chatted and brainstormed on how to go about doing a workshop on inspiration, came up with a plan and that he promptly forgot.
I, however, did not. It turns out that the things that inspire him most are the people and the land around him. Hence, on our weekend in Duluth we got to meet with Stephen Dahl his herring fisherman and David Rogotzke his maple syrup maker and salmon fisherman.
It really was the best adult field trip for cooks ever.
We started off the day at the New Scenic Cafe where Scott was kind enough to talk to us about his experiences as a restaurant owner and chef. He went over where everything came from, how it happened and why he made the decisions he did. He gave us an amazing insight into the tenacity and drive he had to bring the Cafe to what it is today. (This included living in the garage for 5 years.)
Cooking MN: It ain’t all hot dish and lutefisk up here.
March 10, 2009
Hi.
I’m so impressed with my cooks that I have to share. I’m sorry if you don’t care, but we are doing some good cookery up in this tundra, pardon-my-french, please.
First off, in case you don’t know, I have a group now. (Hello group!) They can cook. (I love that they can cook!) So I set them up with Scott Pampuch at Corner Table, who happens to be able to cook as well, in fact he’s a James Beard semi-finalist-for-best-chef-in-the-Midwest-cook. And then he and my cooks went to town making a really nice meal.
We divided them up – color circles on name tags mean something sometimes. They were given leaders and joined; team meat, team starch, team veggie, team dessert and team egg. (Once the people knew what was going on… they couldn’t help but make a team egg to be coached by Chef Pampuch. The man knows his way around an egg.)
And this is what happened (approximately) – recipes (not even close) for apple caramel bread pudding and eggs on toast to follow.
I love a taqueria… and their tacos.
January 26, 2009
It’s one of those quirky things about me; I am just not capable of passing by a flea market that boasts that it’s the largest in Georgia. There is just no way to do it. And when at the end of that flea market you find a taqueria that sells lengua tacos… Oh my. I swoon.
So I present to you, my day at the flea market (with tacos + lengua and salsa recipes at the end!):
Oh, how could you possibly drive by this one a beautiful fall day?
Ah, look at it. Isn’t it just lovely? Granted the lengua one is a bit obscured by the steak taco, but you get the idea. (YUM! That’s the idea.)
Happy Birthday to Blog!
December 28, 2007
The cake is Red Velvet recipe found here. It was really good. (Got a good tip from the spouse – get the cake really cold before frosting. That way the little crumbs don’t bubble up. Who knew?)
In honor of this exceptionally auspicious if not rather silly occasion I’ve decided to pick out the my 15 favorites. (I was going for ten, but I slipped…. upward.) I have recipes that were just fun to make (poutine, chorizo corn dog, chili shepherd’s pie and biscuits & gravy.) Then there were the recipes that were a challenge to create (white chocolate marvs, s’mores, breakfast hotdish, striped cookies, and green chili stew.) There were recipes that just made me all happy (healthy mac & cheese, tasso green bean salad, roasted beet & gorgonzola ravioli, roasted tomato chorizo stew and Minnesota Corn Chowder.) And then there’s the one where the photo just makes me happy (goat cheese salad cliche. Awww.)
And let’s not forget the winners! There were winners to my competition:
For “NeoExpressionist Sky” there was a tie. (I know, kissing your brother and all that. However I just couldn’t decide between earth peeling back behind me or making a heart jump. Could not do it!)
Muffin of the beautiful and fun blog Never Bashful with Butter, said, “I need NeoExpressionist Sky in my life, because to me, looking into it feels like I’m at that point where the world starts to peel back behind me, and the only thing I can see in front of me is calm and crisp and new.”
And Vicky from the informative, A Work in Progress, said “I need NeoExpressionist sky in my life because it made my heart jump when I saw it.”
You both rock so I had to give a photo to each of you.
The winner for “This Looks Like a Good Place to Park” was Hanne, from the ever entertaining Supper in Stereo for saying, “I need this looks like a good place to park in my life because it looks like the first home I had, in the Canadian prairies.”
And the winner for “Ice, Water & Steam” was an email entry which read, “I need Ice, Water & Steam in my life because:
- because I grew up on 12,000 acres but cannot go back
- because I have dedicated my life to a marriage, and after 22 years, my husband just finished an affair with a 25 year old
- because we’re trying to actually REBUILD that marriage
- because I could use a road trip but cannot and will not run anymore
But most of all,
- because I see the three parts of me in that picture…
Ice: The brittle, hard, cold outer shell…this is all anybody sees. I wear it to protect myself from pain
Water: The tears. Too many to count, yet I never want to run out. When I run out of tears, I run out of feeling
Steam: The passionate, loving and yes, even forgiving side of me. The me I need to rediscover… nebulous, ethereal, warm, encompassing.”
And there you go. Congratulations to all! Happy one year to meeeeee!
Thank you and Much love,
- Kris
Photo Giveaway Contest Type Dealie
November 29, 2007
A bit over a year ago I quit my freakishly inappropriate employment and started a year long journey to reboot myself. This process started with a two week long road trip where I drove from Minneapolis to Portland (Oregon) and back – by myself.
I hurt all over and I didn’t even know if the things that I was thinking or feeling were even mine. I didn’t even want to spend two weeks driving across country. I kept coming up with things that needed to be done before I could leave. Marv more or less put me into the car. Of course, he had also been the one to tell me that I was broken and that I needed to go do whatever it was that I needed to do to go fix myself.
As it turns out – that took about 6 months, but the first step was the big one. I got (placed) into the car and started driving west.
The first day, I didn’t really care. The second day, I didn’t really care. The third day I began watching the world go by. It was pretty. It was really pretty. I started to feel myself breathe again. And so it went, with each mile and each photograph I began to get pieced back together.
It was a start. And then I started getting all Becky Homecy. I do that when I’m hurt. I cook. I photograph what I’m cooking. A couple of months later I started this blog because a friend wanted a recipe of mine and I figured I may as well just find a place to park my recipes and photos until I figure out the big project. And that was that.
And wow. Over the past year I’ve been amazed (startled!) at how encouraging and wonderful people have been to me and the work that I’m doing here. Artistically and personally I have never felt so encouraged in my life – so in honor of my 1 year anniversary coming up I’m going to thank the internet at large by giving away 3 prints of photographs that were taken on my trip west. (Thank you internet!)
I would like to give to you one (or two or three) prints of photographs of mine taken on that first semi- monumental turning of my lifish. You just need to come up with the best answer to the following sentence. (Or sentence following.)
“NeoExpressionist Sky” 10/31/06
“This Looks Like a Good Place to Park” 10/27/07
“Ice, Water & Steam” 11/3/06
So, finish this sentence for me:
I need (photo name) in my life because ____________________.
You can either leave it as a comment here or send it to me in an email to she @ mrsmarv.com. I will be choosing the winners of the photographs from these sentences on Friday, December 7, 2007. If you win, I will email you on Saturday, December 8, 2007 for your shipping address to which I will send you a 12 x 16 inch (approximately) print on watercolor paper of the photo you wrote about (provided that I can afford the shipping to get it to you.) Friends and relatives of mine are welcome to participate, but are not guaranteed to get anything out of it.
There is nothing even remotely legally binding about this post. And I will not do anything with your personal information except send you the photo. I am not responsible for lost or damaged items. I do not guarantee Christmas delivery. And I would like you all to have a very good day. (Although, I’m not responsible for that either.)
Photo update: Steak Almighty!
September 6, 2007
I do so love steak prepared this way. I’m not much of a steak eater, never have been. This is something that Marv takes as personal challenge. In this particular case he succeeded admirably. It’s a steak that’s aged in garlic, mustard & salt. Then it’s seared and slow cooked. And it’s yummy as hell, so it was on my list of things to eat for Christmas. Just got to take the picture tho, thus a re-post.
Steak Almighty
2.5 lb rib tip roast
1 c yellow mustard
1 head garlic, separated into cloves with bottom removed
2 T pepper
1 small tin anchovies
1/8 c olive oil
1/8 c red wine vinegar
Pulse all ingredients except meat in a blender until the consistency of a thick milkshake. Transfer meat and pulsed ingredients to a large plastic zip-loc bag and cover meat entirely with marinade. Let meat rest in refrigerator. Massage daily. Keep for a few days.
In a cast iron sauté pan, heat vegetable oil until hot. Remove steak from zip-loc bag and scrape off excess marinade. You still want the marinade to be covering the meat but not the big glops of it. Add the steak to the sauté pan and cook until meat is browned on all sides.
While the meat is browning, heat grill to 200°f. Heat over grill until internal temperature is 120°f. This will take an hour and a half to two hours.
If you don’t have the ability to grill, pre-heat your oven to 250°f – 300°f and cook until the meat has an internal temperature of 120°f.
Since it seems to be a photo day – I’ll share another one I took. Working on a little self portrait action to finish off a couple of projects. For this one I was attempting to make myself look purdy. That’s kinda new for me. Mostly, I don’t care.
This version also shows off another project I finished this winter – whitewashing the 70s textured gold brick fireplace that someone had stained brown at some point. It was U-G-L-Y. But I did a bunch of research online and got a formula to whitewash it with a mixture of lime and salt so that it can still breathe and can be removed. (As horrifying as that notion is.)
Minnesota Cooks Live!
September 4, 2007
As anyone who has hung out with me for more than an hour or two can attest to, I have a bit of an impulse control problem. This can get me into some interesting situations… Interesting is good. Last spring, I wandered up to a table that Green Routes had set up at the Living Green Expo. I’m chatty, so I chatted with the lady for a bit, liked what they were doing, so I said, “I like what you’re doing. I do interactive marketing and design – you need any help in that area?” Needless to say, they did.
One thing led to another and soon I was designing and programming a website for Minnesota Cooks. This seemed like a good project for me to work on as I’m working on starting a business (Yours4Food.com) that specializes in web strategy/design/programming/content development for folks in the food, nutrition and health industries.
Superior fisherman, Steve Dahl. (I did a bit of photography too.)
Minnesota Cooks is a joint project between Renewing the Countryside (the fine folks that bring you Green Routes), Food Alliance Midwest and Minnesota Farmers Union to highlight the relationships of chefs with local farmers/producers who supply them and to share their collaboration foods with the rest of us cooker types to make at home. Their main product for the year is a calendar that is filled with excellent photography, profiles on chefs and their producers as well as a recipe for each month. The calender coincides with an event at the Minnesota State Fair where they have demos given by chefs creating these recipes. So, I was charged with creating a website to support these activities. That’s just what I did.
Ta da! The 2006 chef page featuring Joan Ida, Nathalie Johnson, Scott Pampuch and JD Fratzke.
While we have some lofty goals for what this site can become – for the moment v.1 really is all about the chef – producer – home cook connection. The navigation of these relationships is the main story. Thus, the whole thing becomes a very simple framework to serve that purpose. The design itself is based on the calendar. The calendar’s primary focus is photography placed on a very stable grid system that hangs off of a large squareish image. I decided to use that to create a very simple, but more aggressive grid structure for the layout. I also decided to have more fun with the photos in that space. For the techie stuff – it’s php running on a mysql database with some flashity-flash for the intro.
Chef Graden flashes his pearly whites to the cheering crowd.
The web site was done by the time of the big event at the state fair. (Yea!) The event itself showcases the talents of 14 chefs representing excellent restaurants from around the state. The chefs create their dishes while chatting with hosts Brenda Langton, Scott Pampuch and Andrew Zimmern about their commitment to using the finest local ingredients and sustainability. On the eat local topic, Chef Scott Graden is quoted as saying, “If I can get fish from the guy that smells like fish, that’s pretty cool.” (To me he added, “Seriously, he reeks of fish. I love that.”)
Herring cakes courtesy of the efforts of Graden & Dahl.
One recurring subject at the event was the farms and orchards damaged by the recent floods in southern MN. Scott Pampuch of Corner Table and JD Fratzke of Muffuletta are involved in organizing an September 8 restaurant event where profits will be donated to the Winona County Red Cross and others for relief efforts. JD also spoke very eloquently about need for more help in those areas. Needless to say organizations there are overwhelmed with requests and the federal aid isn’t nearly adequate. He suggested getting together cleanup supplies (buckets, boots and cleansers) and basic living items (batteries, toilet paper and plastic totes) and taking them to the Winona Econo Food Location Donation Coordinator between the hours of 9am and 7pm. For more information there are hotlines, call: 507-457-8858 or 507-457-8859.
So, to sum up:
:: Winona County Red Cross
:: More help information
:: September 8 fund raiser participating restaurants
:: Find out more about the farms affected
:: Get your MN Cooks calendar ($10)
:: Check out some more of my photos of the MN State Fair, Duluth and Graden & Dahl
The fruits of my passive organic garden:
June 5, 2007
Get Ready to CRUMBLE!
Well, the paid work of web design and programming has caught up with me and knocked the unpaid work of cooking and writing about the cooking out for a moment. But that couldn’t keep me from playing with the fruits of my garden, which delightfully grows itself unaided.
We moved into our house in the middle of winter and had heard an unsubstantiated rumor that there was fruit growing wild in the back yard. It turned out to be true. We have blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, rhubarb and horseradish. While we still don’t really know what to do with the horseradish (suggestions are very welcome) to my way of thinking when you have no time but a bunch of wild fruit: crumble and rustic tarts are totally the way to go.
I suspect crumble is one of the first things I ever learned to cook. At the very least, I remember making crumbles before I hit the double-digits. I could pretty much make one blind. It doesn’t take much, toss a bunch of fruit in some sugar and cinnamon cover in a crust that barely has to stick together and cook. Oops. There’s not much reason to read the recipe now, is there? Sorry about that. Here, check out some pretty pictures of the stuff growing in my garden.
These little buds are going to be raspberries.
What to do with the horseradish?
Mixed Fruit Crumble
6 c fruit, peeled and chopped into bite sized bits
1/2 – 3/4 c sugar
1 – 2 T cornstarch
1 t cinnamon
1/2 c butter, melted
3/4 c flour
1 1/4 c quick cooking oats
1/2 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking powder
pinch salt
Preheat oven to 375°f.
Toss together fruit (I used about 4 c of rhubarb, 3 apples, blackberries and some dried blue berries), sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Put into a 9 x 13″ pan.
With your hands or fork toss together the rest of the ingredients until they stick together. If it’s too wet add in more oats and/or flour. Sprinkle crumble over the fruit mixture. Bake in oven until top is browned and fruit mixture is bubbling thickly. Serve warm or cold – with ice cream or without.
Feed me! 
