Almond Bar Cookies

My mom made these cookies for Christmas many years, and they remind me of Scandinavian festivals from school.

Stir together in mixing bowl:
1.75 C all purpose flour
2 tea baking powder
1/4 tea salt

In standing mixing bowl, beat 1/2 C butter until soft. Add 1 C sugar and beat sugar and butter together until fluffy.

Add 1 egg and 1/2 tea almond extract and stir.

Add flour mixture from above, stir.

Divide dough into 4 rolls on 2 cookie sheets, flatten each to 3-4" wide.

Press sliced almonds into top of bar cookies. Bake for 12-14 minutes at 325F.

Cut on the diagonal into 1.5-2" slices.

Vickie's Caramel Corn

Pop 8 C popcorn (preferably in old-school oil popper). Put popcorn in large grocery size brown paper bag.

Heat in a medium saucepan, mix, and boil for 2 minutes:
1/2 C butter or margarine
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C corn syrup (Karo Syrup)

Then add 1/4 tea baking soda and stir. Take pan off heat.

Pour caramel sauce over popcorn in brown bag, fold down bag and shake until popcorn is coated.

Put bag in microwave for 1 minute. Now shake.

Microwave for 45 seconds, then shake. Microwave another 45 seconds and shake.

Spread caramel corn on a baking sheet and let cool.

Chex Mix

Melt 1 stick butter (1/2 C) in large roasting pan in a preheating 250F oven.

Pull pan out of oven and stir in:
4.5 tea worcestershire sauce
1.25 tea seasoning salt
3/4 tea garlic powder
1/2 tea onion powder

Gradually add and stir:
6 Cups Chex cereal
1 C pretzyl sticks
1 C cheerios

Bake for 1 hr in 250 oven, stirring every 15 minutes.

Vegetable, Barley and Chickpea soup

Prepare veggie stock and cooked barley ahead of time.

Combine in pressure cooker or regular pot with lid:
2 carrots, sliced on diagonal into 1/4 inch slices 3 stalks celery, sliced on diagonal into 1/2 inch slices 1 potato, cut into cubes/dice about 1/2 inch 1 can chickpeas/garbanzos, drained and rinsed 1/4 C onion, sliced
Optional: add other vegetables like mushrooms, garlic

Bring up to pressure and cook for 5 minutes under pressure. If not using a pressure, cook until carrots and celery are soft.

Add to soup and stir to heat through:
1/2 - 1 C cooked barley 1/2 tea salt, or to taste
cracked black pepper

Serve with slices of cheddar cheese, and garnish with parlsey.

Portland Restaurants on my must-try list

Le Pigeon
Gruner
Kenny's Noodle House
Pok Pok
Paley's place
Bravo Toro
The Farm
Rocket
Pho Van
Mingo West
Hiroshi
Tom's 1st Ave Bento
Biwa
Fats
Yakuza Lounge

BBQ Steak Marinade

This is a quick marinade using Asian ingredients for beef steaks (like tri tip cut).

Combine following for marinade (will coat around 1 LB of meat):
1 TB Sake
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1 TB brown sugar
1 tea sesame oil
1 tea white miso
1 tea dark "hatcho" miso
1 TB white vinegar or Japanese komezu (rice wine vinegar)
optional: grated ginger

Toss with meat, tenderize with a fork, and let sit in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Grill on hot BBQ and serve with 15 minute rustic mashed potatoes.

Rustic Rosemary Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Rustic mashed potatoes for 2 people, in about 15 minutes (using the pressure cooker).

Wash and cut 2 large yellow potatoes into chunks (1-2").

In pressure cooker, toss:
potato chunks (see above)
2 sprigs rosemary
1/4 C water
1 TB olive oil

Cover and bring up to pressure, and cook for 7 minutes under pressure. Release pressure. Remove rosemary twigs.

Mash up potatoes, skin and all, with forks. Now add:
1 garlic clove, finely crushed, or grated on a microplane
1/3- 1/2 C chicken or veggie stock
1 TB butter
2 TB half and half
1/4 tea salt

Mix and serve.

Fruited Tea

This is a lovely way to serve and enjoy an afternoon tea. I had never seen this stateside, but instead was introduced in Japan in a cozy little Russian-inspired cafe somewhere in Yokohama.

Prepare a teapot by adding items to the pot while dry:
frozen or fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries)
your choice of tea (preferably in a bag, or in a filter), best choices are plain black tea, or red teas
Optional: bourbon or rum soaked grapes, pear slices, or other fruits.

Pour boiling water into your teapot over the tea and berries and let steep for 5 minutes. Serve.

Maple Glazed Salmon (stove top style)

I am a total fan of Japanese cooking methods. I grew up cooking salmon (and most other fish for that matter) in the oven, whole fillets with something drizzled over the top. While this can be tasty, it takes forever (20-30 min) and usually overcooks since you don't want to keep opening the oven door.

My Japanese host family (like most Japanese) didn't own an oven, and cooked everything with a broiler, stovetop or microwave. Also, the Japanese cooking style keeps meat in small pieces, so you can eat it with chopsticks. Combine these two influences, and you get small slices of marinated salmon, cooked quickly in a hot skillet.

Cut 10-14 oz salmon fillets (at refrigerator temperature) into long strips, about 3/4 inch thick. Marinate for at least 10 minutes (or up to 30 minutes) in a dish or bowl with:

1.5 tea soy sauce
1 - 2 tea maple syrup
2-3 sprigs rosemary
2 cloves garlic, crushed and slightly chopped
2-3 TB olive oil
1/8 - 1/4 tea black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 tea salt

Preheat a large skillet pan over high heat. Cook all salmon slices in one layer in the dry hot pan (no oil) for 2-3 minutes, until first side is pink. Rotate to skinny sides and let cook another minute. Now flip back onto the other flat side and let cook for 1 minute.

Add the remaining marinade liquid (minus the rosemary sticks) to the hot pan and cover. Let cook, covered, for a few more minutes until just barely red/pink in the middle. The salmon will continue to cook after you take it off the heat so you don't need to cook it all the way before you take it out of the pan.
Dish out and serve with hot rice (or pilaf or risotto), or baked potatoes, along with a salad.

Kale & Shitake saute

In hot skillet, melt:
1 TB bacon fat (or use a vegetarian oil like olive oil)
1 TB chopped garlic
1/4 - 1/2 tea salt

Add 4 C chopped, cleaned lacinato kale ("dinosaur kale"). You may want to remove the woody stems of the kale. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

Add 1/4 C water, 1 TB lemon juice, lemon zest and stir. Steam kale for 10 minutes.

Add 2-4 thinly sliced shitake mushrooms, 1 tea soy sauce, 1 tea sesame oil. Cook covered for 7-10 minutes until kale is tender. Serve with soft polenta.