South Dakota Magazine Recap

It is that time of year when things start to get a little cray-cray. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and then there is no stopping Christmas and all of the many holiday events. Throw in a little year-end business and a few bouts of bad weather, and before we know it 2014 will be done.

Before I get caught up in that whirlwind, maybe I should do another South Dakota Magazine Recap. I have shared several recipes (and a few stories) online with South Dakota Magazine since my last update in early April.

For Easter, I considered a new tradition of layering asparagus, ham, and pasta with cheese and a creamy sauce. Ham and Asparagus Lasagna is a perfectly elegant comfort food worthy of a Spring holiday table.

Cinco de Mayo was observed with simple Sausage and Feta Tacos. The day is a celebration of a Mexican military victory and more than just party with "2 for 1" margarita deals.

My husband was fearful that I would give up his prime asparagus hunting ground when I shared some of his wild asparagus secrets. If you are lucky enough to receive a bouquet of freshly cut wild asparagus, I recommend trying Asparagus Ravioli in Parmesan Broth.

I am happy to report that as summer dawned, the snakes in my backyard seemed to move on. Harvest of strawberries and rhubarb for Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Bars was uneventful...and the bars were delicious.

Nilla is still living in town with us, and before the snow, I noticed a new hole in my cleared-for-fall garden. She must still be digging for worms. I should have taken her fishing for some walleye to make Lemon Butter Fish.

Avocado Toast with Radish Salad pulls from produce both local, and not. Sourcing my food from whatever origins are available for the tastiest options is my "diet" plan.

I didn't get a great spinach harvest from the garden this year, but did manage enough for a few Spinach and Garlic Vinaigrette Salads.

Keeping cool was easy this summer with the Asian influenced Peanut and Cucumber Salad.

If I want to kiss my husband, I need keep my toothbrush handy whenever Bleu Cheese and Bacon Potato Salad is on the menu.

Scrambled Eggs with Pesto and White Beans is a powerhouse for breakfast and an excellent place to start while working toward those big dreams for the day.

In September, I guided Laura from the South Dakota Magazine offices through a south-central South Dakota adventure and made time for some Pho-ish Soup.

Homecoming revealed a little background of a long ago spontaneous pancake party in Colome, and I shared the story with the puffed pancake of a Dutch Baby with Caramel Sauce and Bananas.

As the winter allows Hubs more time at home in the evenings, I can't wait for movie night and Pomegranate and Popcorn.

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup is a perfect fall bowl of comfort. Topping this rich, savory soup with crumbled queso and sliced green onions enhance the earthy flavors.

And, finally, I have the tart jewel of your Thanksgiving table: Homemade Cranberry Sauce, even though I kinda miss the nostalgia of those perfect rings on the log of sauce from the can.

Whew. What a list of amazing recipes! I hope you have had the opportunity to enjoy a few, and I can't wait to share more On My Plate and with South Dakota Magazine.

How to Lose 10 Pounds Before Christmas

Want to drop a few pounds? Have I got a tip for you!

Schedule a tonsillectomy for December 5th.

I lost 10 pounds in just one week.

My jeans fit better. I can tighten my belt another notch. It is awesome. And, there was one point where I would have killed for a cheeseburger.

Before the procedure, several people, including one of my nurses the day of the surgery, shared their painful horror stories of recovery. Thankfully, mine wasn't that bad. The surgery was quick and uneventful. In just over an hour, I was back in my hospital room eating jello and chatting. Another hour or so, and I was on my way home. Unfortunately, a little motion sickness set in during the drive, but soon, I was settled on the sofa with Hubs and the pups watchful for my every need.

I actually even ate very well while my poor throat recovered. We had my husband's famous potato soup, Cheesy Grits with poached eggs, jello, baked potatoes mashed with butter and sour cream, baked sweet potatoes creamed with butter and cinnamon, jello, Pumpkin Pudding, a thrown together creamy sweet potato soup, oyster soup, jello, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts boiled in salted water until tender, jello, homemade chicken tamales, Spinach and Potato Gratin, jello, homemade pear sauce (like apple sauce), Poached Salmon (minus the tartar sauce), homemade mango ice cream (from a friend), jello, beef and homemade noodles, Egg Drop Soup, runny Malt-O-Meal, and more jello. I learned that throwing a Capri Sun juice drink in the freezer for a bit made a great impromptu slushie that felt good on my sore throat, and I tried to time my meals around the optimal effectiveness of the pain meds. I couldn't eat a lot at any one time, limited to about one-half cup portions for most of the first week, and therefore my energy level was pretty low. But, I had all of my holiday decorating done, and took advantage of the down time to enjoy the sparkling lights and complete my Christmas shopping online from the comfort of the sofa.

As long as I was careful with my food choices and faithful to my medication, I didn't have a lot of pain; it was uncomfortable, but not horrible. But after a few days of soup and jello (and more jello), I was craving the cheesy crunch of nachos, a crispy thin crust pizza, and most of all a cheeseburger stacked tall with bacon, lettuce, and tomato. I tried making a pot roast, and while Hubs thoroughly enjoyed it with mashed potatoes and the accompanying onion gravy, it was a little rough on my throat. Likewise, most bread was difficult to swallow. Therefore, my usual standby sick meal of toast was off limits.

My biggest surprise was how much my teeth and gums ached (supposedly a side effect of the anesthesia?). For the past couple of weeks, I have been brushing my teeth at least 5 times a day because they feel better when clean. My dentist will be happy.

I also learned how many muscles in the throat are involved in a yawn. All I can say is, "Ouch!" Everything doesn't like to be stretched after a tonsillectomy surgery. I took that as a sign that naps were a requirement of recovery.

But, back to that craving for a cheeseburger. It was the first real food that I attempted after a little healing. I ate it all and enjoyed every tentatively swallowed bite, even if it was a little scratchy. The way my mouth watered, you would have thought it was filet mignon and lobster. Now, I am ready for more. Maybe lamb burgers?

I made these Greek inspired lamb burgers several times this summer and really appreciated the contrast of the cool and creamy tzatziki with the garlicky burgers. Crumbles of feta, thinly sliced red onion and tomatoes, and shredded lettuce take this burger over the top of any plain old cheeseburger. Meal-sized burgers are stuffed into the pocket of a pita, but they are perfect bite-sized appetizers when stacked as little sliders with mini pitas. I am so glad that my troublesome tonsils are gone, my throat is on the mend, and I can enjoy Greek Lamb Burgers On My Plate. (But let's hope I don't gain back those 10 pounds.)

Greek Lamb Burgers

(adapted from Once Upon A Chef)

2 slices whole grain bread, crusts removed and cubed

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 cup shallots, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon mint, finely chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 pound ground lamb

olive oil

Preheat grill.
Moisten bread with milk in a bowl.
Mash to form a paste, and combine with shallots, garlic, min, oregano, salt, and pepper; mix well.
Add the ground lamb and carefully combine. Do not over mix, or burgers will be tough.
Form into 4 to 6 burgers patties
Drizzle patties with olive oil and rub to coat.
Grill patties, about 4 minutes on each side.
Serve in a pita pocket with crumbled feta, thinly sliced red onion and tomato, shredded lettuce, and tzatziki. (serves 4-6)

Tzatziki

2 cups sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

1 seedless cucumber, grated and squeezed dry

2 cloves garlic, grated with Microplane

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients. 
Cover and chill for about an hour for flavors to blend.

Cherry Picked

If zucchini is the most prolific garden vegetable, cherry tomatoes are certainly a copious second. These red and yellow orbs burst from the vine almost faster than we can pick them. Just a few minutes in the garden and I have a bowl overflowing with tiny sun-sweetened goodies. It seems they just go on...and on...and on.

What do I do with them all? As good as they are just to pop into my mouth plain, there are a few favorite salad recipes that I turn to in order to make the best of my summer harvests. Pineapple and Cherry Tomato Salad has a slight Asian influence with fish sauce in the dressing. The saltiness enhances the crisp, fresh cucumbers and the heat of spicy peppers. Sweet pineapple and (of course) tomatoes and earthy cilantro round out the flavor profile.

It is a robust salad that holds up well to almost any summer grill pairing. Steaks, chicken, seafood? No problem. Fire up the grill. I pick Pineapple and Cherry Tomato Salad On My Plate.

Pineapple and Cherry Tomato Salad

(adapted from Gourmet)

1 clove garlic

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons Canola oil

1/2 teaspoon Asian fish sauce

1 medium cucumber, sliced

2 cups fresh pineapple, chunked

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1 jalapeno, chopped

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Grate garlic into a large bowl using a microplane grater.
Add salt, lime juice, sugar, oil, and fish sauce and and whisk to blend.
Add remaining ingredients and toss to coat with dressing.
Flavor best if allowed to rest at least 10 minutes prior to serving. (Serves 6)

How Do You Get Dressed?

During the winter, salads can sometimes be lack luster. Produce isn't always the best quality, and forget about getting a decent tomato. However, last week, I shared a fresh and delicious Healthy Salad over at South Dakota Magazine that is always crisp and mouthwatering.

How Do You Get Dressed? - Healthy Salad 

At the South Dakota Magazine site, you can also read about South Dakota history, travel, politics, humor, and this heart-warming story of A Birthday Surprise.

All-American

'Tis the season that "Baseball, Apple Pie, Hot Dogs, and Chevrolet" will be pushed aside for "Football, Hot Dogs, and Homecoming." Today, high school homecoming is being celebrated in my small town. Alumni are returning in droves, and the streets are overrun with green and white football jerseys and horses. If you aren't from here, you are probably wondering why horses? We are the Cowboys. Horses have to be a part of homecoming. What else would the royalty ride in the parade?

It doesn't get more All-American than small town celebrations. It also doesn't get more All-American than a couple of garden creations I canned up this year, Homemade Ketchup and Dill Pickle Relish. Facing baskets and baskets of tomatoes to use, I added Homemade Ketchup to my tomato repertoire. A friend dropping off a black trash bag full of various sizes of cucumbers led to a day of pickle making and some jars of Dill Pickle Relish. It's been a busy canning year for me, and my pantry shelves will soon be full of lots of All-American staples for winter.

Homemade Ketchup

(adapted from Simply Canning)

12 cups chopped tomatoes (I don't peel or seed, because I run through a food sieve {food mill would work, too}.)

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped sweet pepper (I used green peppers.)
1 1/2 cups of vinegar

1 tablespoon celery salt

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup sugar

1 stick of cinnamon

Combine tomatoes, onion, sweet pepper in a large stock pot.
Simmer until vegetables are soft.
Press tomato mixture through a food mill or sieve to remove seeds and/or skins.
Add vinegar, seasonings and cinnamon stick.
Bring to a boil in a stock pot. Continue to boil rapidly until thickened, stirring often. 
Reduce quantity by half. This may take an hour or so. (I have a ruler that I place in the pot to measure how deep the sauce is...just keep measuring until it is half of starting quantity.)
Reduce heat and cook until thickened to your desired consistency. Again stirring often. This may take another hour or even several hours.
Remove cinnamon stick.
Ladle into jars (I used half-pints.) and seal.
Process for 10 minutes in hot water bath.
(If you are unsure of the canning process, there are many informative sites online. I am not a canning authority.)

Dill Pickle Relish

(adapted from Tasty Kitchen)

3 pounds cucumbers
1 whole large sweet yellow onion

1/4 cup pickling salt
3 cups white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dill seed
2 teaspoons mustard seed
2 teaspoons celery seed

1/2 teaspoon tumeric

Finely chop the cucumbers and onions. (I used my food processor.)
Place the chopped vegetables in a large nonreactive bowl and sprinkle with the pickling salt.
Stir well and allow to stand for 1 hour.
Drain the cucumber mixture in a colander; rinse with cold water and drain well. (You might have to push or "wring" out the extra moisture.)
In a large pan, bring vinegar, sugar, garlic, dill seed, mustard seed, celery seed and turmeric to a boil over medium high heat.
Add the drained cucumber and onion mixture and return to a boil, stirring frequently.
Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes.
Ladle into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space and seal.
Process for 10 minutes in a water bath.(If you are unsure of the canning process, there are many informative sites online. I am not a canning authority.)

In a Pickle

It seems that I left you high and dry for the month of September. Even though I attempted to revive my posting momentum with a supposedly weekly feature (Fridge Fridays), I still found myself in the pickle of life taking precedence over blogging. Maybe it is time that I quit apologizing for my absences and just take them in stride. I blog when I can and not necessarily when I want. Isn't that true of so much of life? Why would this online journal of what is On My Plate be any different?

The month of September was filled with out-of-state visitors, delivery of my new fridge, my first cycling event in 2 or 3 years, a milestone birthday, a wonderful birthday gift, canning and preserving, and daily sighing and repentance because I was neglecting the blog. September has been a pretty good month, but I am going to give up the sighing and repentance. This blog is what it is. I don't need to feel that I am in a pickle if I don't have time to post something. That's life.

It is the same life that brought me a bounty of pickling cucumbers from a friendly neighbor lady. Last year, I had made a ton of refrigerator pickles that we liked, but found impossible to use in the proper time frame. This year, I decided to hot water bath with another recipe and make shelf-stable pickles with most of the cukes. I haven't yet tried them, but they look very pretty. I will have to report back if they are fabulous, as my last attempt at canning pickles didn't produce the flavor or crispness that I wanted. *Fingers crossed for this one.*

Of course, one pickle recipe wasn't enough.  I had to try another small batch of refrigerator pickles. I only stuffed 2 pint jars full of sliced cucumbers, onions, and a few red peppers from my garden to play with Alton Brown's Refrigerator Pickle recipe. They are slightly sweet...like a bread and butter pickle would be...but dill, garlic, and hot peppers kick them up a lot. We have been enjoying them on burgers, sandwiches, and straight from the jar. Nobody is in a pickle with My Version of Alton Brown's Refrigerator Pickles On My Plate.

 My Version of Alton Brown's Refrigerator Pickles

1 onion, thinly sliced

4-5 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced

2-4 cloves garlic, peeled

2-4 small hot peppers

2-4 sprigs of dill

2 cups water

2 cups cider vinegar

3 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 teaspoon pickling spice

Drop a clove or 2 of garlic into each of 2 pint canning jars. (I use wide-mouth for ease of packing.)
Layer onion and cucumber slices in jars, adding a couple small hot peppers and sprigs of dill between the layers.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil. 
Simmer for 4 full minutes to meld the flavor.
Slowly pour the hot pickling liquid over the onion and cucumber slices, completely filling the jar. 
Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.
Use within 2-3 months. (Yield: 2 pints)

Taco John's Is Closed

The area Taco John's is closed. It has been for quite awhile...so long that I don't even remember when it happened. A year ago? More? Who knows. All I know for sure is that Taco Tuesday, 6-pack and a Pound, and Nachos Navidad (in season) are no longer available to clog my arteries. I must now get my Mexican fix at home. 

Not that creating homemade meals is a bad thing. After all, cooking is my passion, and, of course, most things that come out of my kitchen are infinitely tastier and more healthy than the Taco John's menu. In fact recently, a taco recipe from Food & Wine magazine caught my eye. Chipotle-Rubbed Salmon Tacos calls for simple ingredients that I almost always have on hand, and while Hubs is not a fruit salsa fan, even he had to admit that the Apple Cucumber Salsa was a perfect pairing. Both dishes earn bonus points with me for coming together quickly...almost in less time that it would have taken me to travel to the next town, hit the drive-thru of Taco John's, and return with a bag of that greasy dinner. I might even dare to say that Taco John's can stay closed when I have Chipotle-Rubbed Salmon Tacos On My Plate. 

Chipotle-Rubbed Salmon Tacos

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons chipotle chile powder

2 teaspoons grated orange zest

2 teaspoons sugar

1 pound skinless salmon fillet, cut into 4 pieces

1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon olive oil

8 corn tortillas

kosher salt
1 avocado, mashed

Apple Cucumber Salsa (recipe below)

1 cup shredded cabbage

Preheat oven to 350°. 

Whisk the mayonnaise with the lime juice. 

Combine the chipotle powder with the orange zest, sugar, and season with salt to taste. 

Rub each piece of salmon with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil and then with the chipotle-zest mixture. 

Let stand for 5 minutes.

Wrap the tortillas in foil and bake for about 8 minutes, until they are softened and heated through.

Meanwhile, heat a grill pan. 

Season the salmon with salt and grill over high heat until nicely browned and just cooked through, about 3 minutes per side.

Gently break each piece of salmon in half. 

Season mashed avocado with a little salt.

Spread the mashed avocado on the warm tortillas and top with the salmon, Apple Cucumber Salsa and the cabbage. 

Drizzle each taco with the lime mayonnaise and serve right away. (Makes 8 tacos)

Apple Cucumber Salsa

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced

1/2 English cucumber, diced

1/2 small red onion, diced

1/2 small red pepper, diced

1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

kosher salt, to taste

Toss the apple with the cucumber, onion and pepper. 

Stir in the vinegar and sugar, season with salt.

Cool as a Cucumber

As summer heats up around us and temperatures approach 100, we are all looking for ways to stay cool. Farmers in the field are drinking their weight in water; dogs are seeking the shadiest of shade trees; kids take refuge in the pool; and air conditioning is working at full blast. I am very grateful that we finally made the heat pump upgrade for our heating and cooling system. Central air is a wonderful thing...even though Hubby keeps it cranked to frigid temps that leave me looking for a sweater in July.

Most of us don't want to heat up the house with hot meals. A simple cucumber salad is the perfect summer tonic. The usual preparation out here on the prairie has a creamy dressing and onions and/or tomatoes. I like to vary things a bit and add a little Asian flare to my cukes. It is great as a side to grilled chicken or steak with the cool cucumbers being so refreshing On My Plate.

Asian Cucumber Ribbons

¼ cup rice wine vinegar
½ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1 ½ English cucumbers, halved lengthwise

Bring vinegar and sugar to a simmer, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then cool to room temperature.
Stir in soy sauce and sesame oil.
Cut cucumbers lengthwise into 1/8-inch-thick ribbons using a mandolin slicer.
Toss cucumber with dressing and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Note: Do not let dressed cucumber salad stand for more than 20 minutes before serving, or it the texture of the cucumbers will be soggy. (Serves 4.)