It's Been a While...

because we live on a damn-fine lake in the high desert of Washington.

And people come to visit. And I cook and I clean and I cook and I entertain and I cook. So that's why I haven't posted. But good news- I'm baaaack!

Last week we had the September book club at Reed's Last Resort here in Chelan. This is the first time the folks back home in CA were able to experience summertime. I think they thought it rains 361 days a year here. Uh, no, that would be Seattle.

So this first post is  about a little sandwich I prepared for our afternoon of boating. I wanted it to be easy and fun.

These tomatoes are from my friend Patty's garden-  so lucky!

Like you-know-who.

We grew the lettuce- even luckier!

So I tried to remember what went into one of those yummy sandwiches we used to buy at Nicalosi's in San Diego before the Aztec games back in the day when I pretended to like football. (Before marriage)

Good and messy.

Our lunch spot- a few miles down the lake.

Carolee- who looks like she needs to eat the whole sandwich.

I think he likes it.

The three Stooges after lunch

So this is what I came up with- Chelan Chub Chanwich. (OK, that sucks, but I'm kind of busy here.)

“How can one make friends without exquisite dishes!  It is mainly through the table that one governs!”
Jean-Jacques Regis de Cambaceres French politician (1713-1824)
Chelan Chub Chanwich

		1 loaf of Italian or French bread (18 inches)
		1/2 cup mayonnaise
		1/4 cup Italian dressing
		6 large lettuce leaves
		sliced ham
		hard salami
		pastrami
		1/4 pound provolone cheese
		1/4 pound mild cheddar cheese
		1 small red onion, sliced thin

***************************

• Split bread lengthwise.
• Mix mayonnaise and salad dressing together until well blended and spread mixture onto both cut surfaces of the bread.
• Place the lettuce on the bottom half of the bread; top with ham, hard salami, and pastrami, sliced cheeses and red onions. Top with second half of the bread. Cut into six servings and enjoy. Serves 6 or so

Camp Food...

It's not just beans and wieners anymore.

Balsamic Bruschetta Mix

We're leaving for Yellowstone in the morning...and other places. (The TestyFest-- www.testyfesty.com is on the itinerary!) The van is packed with my down comforter and 300 thread count sheets and my sleep mask.

Oven-Baked Extra Thick Bacon

The cooler is filled with chardonnay and camping gourmet delights. I prepared some of the food ahead of time so I don't have to slave over a hot campfire all day.

Hopefully Enough Wine-If It Doesn't Rain.

If I am going to sleep in the Great Outdoors at my age I want my espresso and Baileys, thank you very much.

Blueberry Pecan Waffles

If a bear doesn't eat me there will be more posts.

"I'm smarter than the average bear!" Yogi Bear

Blueberry Pecan Waffles for Campers

Before you leave:

• 1 1/3 cups flour 
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• Blueberries-handful or so
• Chopped pecans- as many as you want.

1.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.
2.  Separate the eggs, adding the yolks to the dry ingredient mixture, and placing the whites in a small mixing bowl.
3.  Beat whites until moderately stiff; set aside.
4.  Add milk and melted butter to dry ingredient mixture and blend.
5.  Fold stiff egg whites into mixture.
6. Add blueberries and pecans
7.  Ladle mixture into hot waffle iron and bake.

When done and cool, place in a Ziploc and freeze. When you are camping take them out of the cooler and place them in a fry pan on the camp stove to warm or if you're really screwed, wrap in foil and place on the fire. Add butter and syrup and pretend you're at the Hyatt.

My Friend Julie Makes Better Cookies....

BUT these turned out pretty damn good!

It was a long day of writing and I had a sudden urge to make cookies- ADD can be fun- so I wandered away from the computer and started searching for ingredients.

I had a serious hankering for peanut butter and chocolate but the peanut butter was almost gone so I came up with orange chocolate chip cookies.

The batter tasted sooooo good that I'm lucky to have kept some for the actual cookies.

But I did.

I ate a few before remembering I haven't worked out very much this month so I sent some to my daughter, froze some for my son who visits next month and had The Husband hide some for me later.
And I'm mailing some off to my friend Julie.

"Sometimes me think what is love, and then me think love is what last cookie is for. Me give up the last cookie for you." Cookie Monster

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange zest or OJ or dried orange peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into and set aside. Cream butter, sugars, orange zest and vanilla extract together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time beating well after adding each one. Add dry ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips and mix until well blended. Try not to eat all the cookie dough.
4. Drop dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten slightly. Bake cookies for 15 or 16 minutes or until golden. Cool on the cookie sheets. 
5. Hide most of the cookies so you don't eat them all at once.

On The Road Again....

And I feel fat.

Which I should since I think I went out to lunch or dinner every day that I was in California/Arizona. That's 14 days of eating burgers and chicken sandwiches and Cobb salads. Not to mention the family dinners I cooked at my friend Valerie's house. Or the wonderful food at our book club at Pete and Pam's. Or Father's Day at Frank and Ruth's. And don't get be started on the smorgasboard of booze and food at Craig and Carolee's. Oh God I am stuffed!

Where's a vomitorium when you need one?

My daughter Aja and I cooking in my friend Val's very tiny, but well-stocked kitchen. Mommy needs a big knife!

My niece-in-law  Hilda "cooking" a salad. We give her a pass in the kitchen because she chases bad guys.

My son-in-law Chad who saved more than one night of drunken BBQ. This here is pork and mac & cheese.

Stuffed potato's that Pam made for book club. She serves THE best wine in East County.

Oh so good short ribs at book club dinner. Yes, I know, I went crazy on the veggies.

 

The Husband is kinda old. He likes to drink so we now take precautions.

Carolee's famous Bloody Marys. I hear they are THE BEST. I have never had one because I do not care for Bloody Marys. Which proves I am not an alcoholic. Well, to me anyway.

Speaking of alcoholics. Not sure this is what Starbucks had in mind when they created these wonderful cups.

Six hours spent on the Colorado River in 107 degree heat and Carolee still manages to feed us proper. Barbie CAN COOK!

The best Pina Colada's you will ever taste! Recipe included. Because this is a cooking blog, not just a "show off my vacation photos," blog.

                                                                  4th Of July Pina Colada Recipe


1/2 a can of CoCo Lopez. Or half a can of some other "Cream of Coconut." DO NOT use some lame-ass bottle of "Pina Colada" mix. If you do then you deserve the nasty after-taste that comes with it. (Buy it at BevMo or Wal-Mart also has it for CHEAP!)
Toss the mix into a blender full of ice. Add 1 small can of pineapple juice. A splash of half and half or cream and as much rum as you want. (cheap rum is fine- you are allowed to scrimp. But remember what I said about the bottled mix.)
Turn the blender on and keep it going until all of the ice has been turned into a thick, wonderful Hawaiian concoction. Pour into a glass or jelly jars and top with a floater of 151 or Meyer's rum. Or the cheap stuff if that's all you have.  You will now be spoiled and won't ever be able to order a Pina Colada at Applebee's again!

* I learned to make these back in the early 80's at our friend's 4th of July BBQ. We would make hamburgers and hot dogs and home made ice cream and oh Jeezuz...I need an ice cream maker!!)

It's the End of the World as We Know It...

And I feel fine!

 I mean, look around at the beauty of this place. What kind of God would destroy a world such as this? None, that's who.

But, just to jump on the old Rapture bandwagon, The Husband and I took a two-hour hike through the forest. Surrounded by trees and flowers and deer and I'm pretty sure there were a few bears lurking around- which would have been the end of me if I saw one.

After the hike we drove down to a spot above Lake Chelan and had a picnic. A few raindrops fell from the sky on our dinner, but it just added to the wonder of it all.

So here is the dinner that could very well be our last- but I doubt it.

Turkey breast, apple provolone, and olives

Home-made apricot jam, cream cheese, crackers, cashews and chocolate chips.

Cheese, crackers and a blood orange cosmo...it's the little things, right?

“I feel the end approaching. Quick, bring me my dessert, coffee and liqueur.”
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's great aunt Pierette

This is What 5 Pounds Looks Like-

Last week The Husband and I left the Lake and took off for Canada to visit the Boy-Child (B.C.) But as usual, we couldn't just drive the five hours across the border and be done with it...oh no!

Our first stop was Bellingham, Wa- a town that I write about for work and have only driven past- what have we been missing?

A very cool/hip college town, thank you very much. Upon a recommendation, we stopped in at the Copper Hog (their motto:The Copper Hog. Where the beer flows like wine and the women flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I don't get it either.) for a late lunch and to watch the Kentucky Derby. (Yelp reviews be damned!)

http://thecopperhog.com/

Awesome staff, old drunk guy at the bar, great food and  perfect ambiance! I had a fancy Big Mac-like-burger and a few glasses of vino and The Husband scarfed down his fish & chips with Skookum beer. (Skookum..that word makes us laugh.)

My horse didn't win, but this place sure did! (yes, lame-ass sentence, but I'm tired, it's Saturday and this is just a blog, OK?)

Our next stop was some B&B in the middle of nowhere- a different nowhere- since that's also where we live! But this was more...in-the-woods-where-the-hell-are-you-taking-me kind of nowhere. Near Mt Baker. Heard of it? Well normally you can see it from everywhere in Washington, since it's a huge-ass mountain, but this time of year is was covered in clouds. But no matter- there was a hot tub!

So we drive up to this beautiful three-story place, we are greeted by the gal who runs the joint, shown our room and she leaves. As is, takes off. Goes home. Leaving us all alone. The only people in the whole damn place! Sure we could have rummaged through the house, peeked in medicine cabinets and looked in underwear drawers but...there was a hot tub! (And that whole video camera thing at the Spokane Best Western is still freaking me out.)
http://www.theinnatmtbaker.com/breakfast.html

 We soaked our bones and cranked the old-people tunes, drank wine and noshed on some goodies I had packed in the travel wine backpack- simple food-crackers, mustard, turkey and cheese. We watched the clouds and the birds and tried our best not to drown. Later we made popcorn and  fell asleep to the movie Chocolat..how apropos.

In the morning our innkeeper returned to make us blueberry waffles, bacon and granola- and I stashed the size 2 jeans in the suitcase and put on the 4's.

So off we went to the great country of Canada- bringing across the border lots of cheese, steaks, home made jam and alcohol (shh) for the B.C. and his housemates. It was Mother's Day after all.

That night we went for a Mom Day dinner at a trendy spot called, "Cafeteria," in Vancouver. It was good. It was expensive. It was Vancouver.
http://cafeteriavancouver.ca/

For breakfast the B.C took us to a rather dodgy looking cafe called The Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe. It was at first glance- tacky. At second glance it was tacky as well, but the menu was huge. Being part Dutch, The Husband was pleased.

The food was great and we spent quality time with the B.C.  Dank je wel!

http://dinehere.ca/vancouver/dutch-wooden-shoe-cafe

Dinner that night was at the B.C.'s Victorian home that he shares with roommates and a bird. More wine, steaks from the U.S., potatoes, salad, appetizers, oh man, did I bring a pair of size 6 jeans?

By now the Pepto and Beano are being consumed, but there's one more stop.

In Seattle, before putting the B.C. and Gal-Pal on the plane (bound for Portugal and Spain- they're young and thin, so they can eat all they want.) we went to dinner at Peso's in the Queen Anne area of Seattle.

The food was great. Tacos!Carnitas! Margaritas! (No, not as good as San Diego Mexican food- just deal with it Washington.) The service was a little slow and when I mentioned that one of our party had not received their food, the manager hustled off to get it  ASAP. Better yet, it was missing from the tab.

Three stars for Pesos! 
http://www.pesoskitchen.com/
So now that we are home it's cabbage soup, rice cakes, water, and (almost) no alcohol. Added to this regime are 5-mile walks and every exercise video we own playing 24/7 to at least fit the size 4 jeans again... and maybe squeeze into the 2's before our next trip. Let's not even talk about bathing suits.

Suffice to say, I am safansified.*

*(not a real word, but it is a Reed word.)

"Oh spare me, Clark, I know your brand of family fun. Tomorrow you'll probably kill the desk clerk, hold up a McDonalds, and drive us 1000 miles out of the way to see the world's largest pile of mud!"Ellen Griswold