Tango Mango

We inherited two small plum trees when we bought our house a couple of decades ago. The previous, elderly owner had a very hard time parting with them when he left. In fact, he appeared at our door soon after the sale begging to dig up one of the tiny sucker plants that had grown next to the trees. We obliged, of course, but I don’t know if he achieved success with what he took away. Many years and harvests later, we understood his love affair with the plum trees.

The plums that grow in our backyard are of the spectacular type. The fruit is large, with dark purple skin and yellow flesh. I like to pick them before they’re completely soft – when they’re sweet but still have a bit of tartness. A few others around here like them so sweet and juicy the juice runs down to your elbow after a few bites.

These plums are superb for eating out of hand, as well as baking in cobblers, crumbles, cakes and clafoutis. You can slice them and sauté them in butter and a little brown sugar, add a splash of Grand Marnier or other fruit liqueur and spoon over vanilla ice cream. Plum jam is the queen of jams. It’s a delicate pink color when cooked with the skins still on, and when melted, it becomes a glaze that can be brushed over fruit tarts.

We’re fairly stingy with our plums. One early summer morning years ago, a couple of neighbors we knew only well enough to nod to if they walked by, went into our back yard and picked huge bags of plums before we had harvested a single one They took the best of the crop, even picking some fruit that wasn’t quite ripe. Since then we make our own decisions as to who the lucky recipients will be. On good years we’re generous. This year? Eh… no promises.

Plum Jam

• 4 ½ cups pitted, chopped plums
• ½ cup water
• 6 cups white sugar
• ½ teaspoon butter (optional)
• 1 (1.75 ounce) package powdered fruit pectin
• 8 half-pint canning jars with lids and rings

Sterilize canning jars and lids. I usually run my jars through the dishwasher and pull them out while they’re still hot from the drying cycle. (It’s important to pack the hot jam into hot jars.)

Place the plums and water into a large pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar, and add butter to reduce foaming, if needed. Bring the mixture to a full, rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly, and then mix in the pectin quickly. Return the jam to a full boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and skim off and discard any foam.

Place a rack in the bottom of a canner and fill halfway with water. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Pack the plum jam into the hot, sterilized jars, filling the jars to within 1/8 inch of the top. Run a knife or a thin spatula around the insides of the jars after they have been filled to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rims of the jars with a moist paper towel to remove any food residue. Top with lids, and screw on rings. Carefully lower the jars into the canner using a holder. Add enough hot or boiling water to cover jars by 2 inches. Bring water to boil. Start keeping time after water comes to a rolling boil. Process 10 minutes at a gentle but steady boil. Remove jars and set them upright on a dry towel on countertop. Do not retighten bands. Let jars cool 12 to 24 hours.

After jars have cooled, check lids for a good vacuum seal by pressing on center of each. If center is pulled down and does not flex, remove band and gently try to lift lid off with your fingertips. If lid does not flex and you cannot lift it off, seal is set. Wipe lid and jar surface with a clean, damp cloth to remove food particles and residue. Store jars in a cool, dry, dark place. If lids are not sealed, refrigerate jam and use within three weeks. 

I love limes. I love a squeeze of lime on fresh tacos and Thai food. I love gimlets, margaritas, lime sherbet and key lime pie. While paging through a booklet the other day I spied this recipe and knew I had to try it. A trip to the store for hazelnuts and an hour later I had fallen in love.

This tender, buttery little confection has a melt in your mouth quality that makes it a perfect summertime treat. The finely chopped hazelnuts add a little crunch and the lime flavor will blow you away.

Adapted from a holiday cookie publication by Better Homes and Gardens.

Lime Zingers

Cookie ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lime peel
• 1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lime juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts

 Icing ingredients:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat sheet.

In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Beat in sugar until combined. Beat in lime peel, the ¼ cup lime juice and 1 teaspoon vanilla. 

Stir in flour and nuts. Divide dough in half and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. On a lightly floured surface roll each half of the dough to about 1/4 -inch thick. 

Using 1 or 2-inch cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Place on prepared cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or until light brown around edges. Immediately transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool. 

For icing, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

To store: Place unfrosted cookies in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months; thaw and frost.

I only make this salad in the summertime when I can pick my tomatoes right off the vine. Fresh tomatoes add so much to the flavor; it’s really worth the trip to a farmers’ market or local stand to find them. Even though this salad’s supposed to be served chilled, once I pour on the dressing, game’s on.

Black Bean and Barley Salad

Salad Ingredients: 

• 1½ cups chicken broth
• ½ cup pearl barley
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 medium-sized tomato, chopped
• ½ cup chopped celery

Directions:

Rinse the barley. Cook the barley in the chicken broth until tender, about 35 minutes. Drain any remaining broth from barley and measure out 1 cup for the salad.  

Combine the cooked barley, black beans, tomatoes and celery in a bowl. Pour dressing over salad and mix well. Chill.

Spicy Citrus Dressing

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

 Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl.

This tiny Happy Buddha has enhanced our home since it was given to us as a wedding gift from my Great Aunt Ba (rhymes with “way”). It was far and away the smallest gift we received, and at the time I thought it a little odd. However, it soon became one of our favorite things. It came with its own hand-carved, diminutive shelf that is probably as old as it is. Wherever we’ve moved over the years the Happy Buddha has found a place in our home.

I recently typed “Happy Buddha” into Google and got all sorts of matches. It’s also called a “Laughing Buddha”, and is regarded as one of the gods of wealth. Keeping this symbol at home is said to bring prosperity, happiness and success.

Ba was born in the late 1800s and I think she owned it most of her adult life, so this Buddha’s been laughing for a very long time. Perhaps we can credit some of the happiness we’ve enjoyed in our lives together to the Happy Buddha and to my Great Aunt Ba.

Inspired by the new issue of Bon Appetit magazine, I got the hankering to make my own ricotta cheese. It looked easy peasy, but for reasons I still don’t completely understand, my first batch didn’t separate. No nice, fluffy curds of ricotta floating in the whey. I was down 2 cups of milk, a nice amount of cheesecloth, and worst of all; my All-Clad pan was sitting in the sink needing some serious work.  I sent my daughter Katie off to the store for more milk and I sat down at the computer to do some research. Evidently not all lemons are made the same (surprise, surprise!) and the amount of acidity varies from fruit to fruit. Hmmm, maybe not enough lemon juice in the first batch? The next go around, I elected to use white vinegar for supposedly “no-fail” ricotta, and I used my microwave as the heat source. The All-Clad pan was out and a Pyrex measuring cup was in. Success! In fact, success times two more batches!

We sat down last night to toasted ciabatta with fresh picked tomatoes from the garden, still warm from the summer sun. A few leaves from my basil plant and extra virgin olive oil finished it off. We pretty much stuffed ourselves.

This morning I took the ricotta in a slightly different direction. The same ciabatta and ricotta, but this time with strawberries, and honey and balsamic syrup drizzled over. Crunchy, creamy, sweet and tart, all in one bite.

New diet - celery sticks.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole milk
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Directions:

Line colander with four layers of cheesecloth or 2 layers of food-safe paper towels and set over large bowl. Combine milk, salt, and vinegar in microwave-safe glass bowl. Microwave on high heat until lightly bubbling around edges, 2 to 4 minutes (milk should register about 165°F on an instant-read thermometer). Remove from microwave, and stir gently for 5 seconds. Milk should separate into solid white curds and translucent liquid whey. If not, microwave for 30 seconds longer. Repeat until fully separated.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer curds to prepared colander. Allow it to drain until desired texture is reached. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Balsamic Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Boil the balsamic vinegar and 3 tablespoons of sugar in a heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced to ½ cup, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

Store in covered container.

Really, the hardest thing about taking these pictures was waiting a few minutes to eat this! We enjoy this yummy granola almost every morning with honey-flavored Greek yogurt and fruit. Raspberries are the obvious choice around here, because of this year’s bumper crop. A handy bag of them resides in the freezer. Sliced bananas are great, too.

When I read this recipe for homemade granola in the February edition of Bon Appétit, I made a bee-line for the grocery store and came back with everything I needed to bake up a batch. Believe me, it’s as good as it looks.

Recipe adapted from Bon Appétit, with a few slight changes.

Granola with Mixed Nuts and Coconut

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup raw pecan halves
• 1/2 cup raw pine nuts
• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• 1/2 cup shelled natural pistachios
• 1/2 cup cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Honey flavored Greek yogurt
• Sliced bananas or other fresh fruit

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread coconut on small rimmed baking sheet. Toast until light brown, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Cool. Maintain oven temperature.

Spray large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Mix oats and next 4 ingredients in large bowl and spread on sheet. Bake until oats are golden, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. Note: watch granola carefully during the last 20 minutes or so of baking and stir more frequently to prevent burning. Remove from oven and cool.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-low heat. Add nuts and pumpkin seeds. Cook until nuts are golden, stirring often, about 14 minutes. Sprinkle coarse salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper over; toss. Cool.

Add coconut, nuts, and seeds to the cooled oat mixture and combine. Store in airtight container.

Serve granola with yogurt and bananas.

There was only one hard boiled egg left this morning, enough to make one small sandwich!

Saturday we found another “rails to trails” path, this one in Astoria, Oregon. We’ve been waking up to perfect weather in Portland for weeks, but you can never assume good weather inland means good weather at the beach. However, a quick online weather check promised blue skies and 80 degrees, so we threw the bikes in the car along with some gear and were off.

Astoria sits on the north-western tip of Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark arrived here in 1805, making this town the West’s oldest American settlement and a National Historic District. 

River Walk is a short trail that runs right along the water, 5 miles from end to end (10 miles round trip), and there’s a lot to see. We spent about an hour riding and more than an hour taking pictures and taking in the scenery. Huge ships on the river, vestiges of old piers and canneries, boardwalks, and the magnificent Astoria Bridge were highlights.

All in all I recommend the trip with one caveat: Part of the trail is paved and the rest is planked trestles, which run parallel to the tracks. Many of the cracks between the boards are wide enough that skinny bike tires can actually slip through them, so we found ourselves walking our bikes some of the way.

Admittedly, this isn’t an everyday dinner… probably too many calories and this deep-dish pizza requires 3 hours from start to finish. But it’s all about moderation, right? I’m looking for ways to use our Yukon gold potatoes, and this crust has potatoes in it, which makes it tender but super crunchy on the bottom. I topped this pizza with sausage, minced red bell pepper and mushrooms. Sometime when I’m feeling ambitious I’ll post the recipe.

It was a good night in Stumptown.

Yesterday was Bagel Day. The aroma of dough rising, bagels simmering on the stove and then baking in the oven is pretty hard to beat. The recipe I’ve used for many years makes a very soft, melt in your mouth bagel, not like any kind I’ve ever found in a store. They’re unbelievably good right out of the oven, sliced open with a little cream cheese melting in the middle.  

Everybody around here likes plain bagels, so that’s how I usually make them. But you can easily top them with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or some kosher salt. To make an onion bagel, sauté some minced onion in the butter called for in the recipe and add it to the dough mixture before you knead it. Also, my bagels are smaller than most, so if you decide to make these and prefer a bigger bagel, just cut the dough into bigger pieces.

One more tip – if you have a bread machine, add all the dough ingredients except the egg white to the bread pan and set the machine to the “dough” cycle. After the dough has risen, proceed with the rest of the instructions.

I think I’ll go get a bagel.

Homemade Bagels

Ingredients:

• 1 cup warm milk
• 1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons) dry yeast
• ¼ cup butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 egg white, whisked, for brushing on bagels before they go into the oven.

Directions:

In large bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm milk to soften; stir to dissolve. Add the butter, sugar, salt and egg to the bowl and whisk lightly. Add the flour and mix thoroughly until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out on floured board and knead, adding small amounts of flour as necessary. Knead until smooth and elastic, 10-12 minutes.

Let dough rise, covered, in a greased bowl until doubled in bulk. Punch down and divide into 18 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 7 inches long. Wet one end to help seal and pinch ends together. Fold dough at juncture point and pinch again. Form into doughnut-shaped rings. Let rise, covered on a floured board about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a large baking sheet or line with a Silpat sheet. Set aside.

In a large sauté pan (or you can use a dutch oven or other large pan) bring water and about 1 tablespoon of sugar to simmer. Drop the bagels, one at a time, into the water. Cook on one side for about a minute and then turn them over and continue cooking for another couple of minutes. Remove from water with a slotted spoon and place on prepared baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg white.

Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

We harvested some Yukon golds and a few carrots from the garden the other day. It’s like a treasure hunt to see what you’ll find!  In honor of the harvest, I give you a potato recipe.

Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1½ pounds Yukon gold potatoes
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 4 tablespoons half and half
• 1-3 tablespoons milk (as needed)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ¼ cup sour cream
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Peel potatoes, and if needed, quarter length-wise. Keep in mind potatoes (or potato pieces) should all be approximately the same size, so that they take the same amount of cooking time. Scrub the potatoes if you prefer to leave the skins on. Place the potatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt in a large saucepan with cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the potatoes are completely tender. Drain them and return them to the pan.

In a small saucepan heat the cream and butter. With a potato masher, mash the potatoes with the cream and butter. Stir in the sour cream and remaining salt and pepper. Add salt to taste. Add milk, if needed. Serve immediately.

This recipe serves 4, but it can easily be doubled.

Paralleling Interstate 84 in Oregon is the Historic Columbia Scenic Highway. Built in 1916, The HCRH was the first modern highway constructed in the Pacific Northwest and the first scenic highway in the United States.

You can still drive the historic highway, but we were recently surprised to find that there are parts of this route that are closed to motorists, but still open to hikers and bicyclists. The Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail is made up of the disconnected paved ribbons along abandoned stretches of the old highway.

The 5 mile Twin Tunnels section looks really interesting, but we decided to do the section of the trail between the Bonneville Dam and Cascade Locks. It’s a beautiful, shady trail with lots of wildflowers, a tunnel, moss-covered rocks and a small waterfall. The only challenge we encountered is a fairly steep, twisting set of stairs. I have a broken finger and a heavy bike, so Bill got to carry the bikes down and then up, twice!

We’ve had a great time rediscovering our bicycles! Once summer finally decided to arrive this year, weather in the Pacific Northwest has been spectacular. We’ve found some pretty great trails over the past 5 weekends, allowing us to see Oregon from a different perspective.

Our morning routine has been to throw the two bicycles in the car along with bike gear and a cooler. We typically drive to the trailhead and park, bike as far as we want and then turn around. Once we return we either set up our picnic at the trailhead or drive to a park for lunch.

It dawned on me right away that we could leave the house much more quickly if I had a pre-packed picnic basket organized and ready to go. We brainstormed a list, I did a little shopping, rounded up some stuff from the house, and put together a killer picnic basket. We’ve fine-tuned as it’s been put to the test and I think it’s just about as good as it can get. I keep a copy of the list in the basket and do a quick check before we grab it and head out the door. If you can think of anything I left off, let me know!

I have a bicycle checklist, too, along with some great, packable meal ideas. Stay tuned!

Picnic Basket Checklist

• Tablecloth
• Plates
• Plastic cups
• Plastic wine glasses
• Silverware
• Sharp knife
• Cutting board
• Wine/bottle opener
• Paper towels
• Chip clips
• Zip-lok bags
• Twist ties
• Salt & pepper
• Hand sanitizer
• Soap
• Clean rag or small towel
• Bandaids & pain meds
• Toothpicks/dental floss
• Matches
• Small notebook/log for keeping notes about your trip