Snowshoeing, not cooking, with gas

I WAS going to do a post about the terrific day I had snowshoeing, and then the terrific meal I would make afterward, but the sauce was so bad (upon which the meal turned) that I wouldn't let Chris try it. So, subpar meal. The broccoli turned out well, I might do a post on that on a later date. But today, I'll just tell you about snowshoeing.

I went to Lowes Creek county park not five minutes from our house. It's such a great woodsy area, and it still blows my mind that it's so close to town. If I were living in DC, I'm not sure how far out I'd have to drive to find something comparable. I'm not sure there IS something comparable, including Rock Creek Park (much as I love that). It's a nice sized woods with a fairly big creek and mountain bike tracks twisting all throughout, great for dog walking. In the winter, it converts to a cross-country ski haven, with miles of tracks. I, however, was going snowshoeing. We've had a couple of disappointing outings, Chris and I, with the restrictions placed on where you can and can't snowshoe in area parks. You cannot snowshoe on cross country ski trails, for example, because it wrecks the grooming. Unfortunately, it seems like EVERYWHERE around here is groomed. Last weekend we drove 45 minutes to go somewhere that claimed to have snowshoe paths, but it turns out it had about a quarter mile of boring snowshoe paths and the rest was skiing.

So anyway, I didn't have high hopes for Lowes Creek Park because I knew it also emphasized skiing. Boy was I wrong. When I pulled up, most of the people getting out of their cars were strapping on shoes, not skiis. I had to cross over some ski trails at a few points, due to a bridge, but for the most part I just followed the other shoe tracks through the mountain bike paths with fun names like "Dazed" and "Sarah's Revenge." One path went through an amazing pine forest, which is pretty in the summer, but even more beautiful after the snow we had Friday. There's a massively high canopy of rows of pine trees that were planted when they made the park, and then underneath a blanket of much shorter trees that grew naturally from the pine cones. Very North Pole. The recent, very fluffy snow also made for better shoeing because my shoes quietly went "Wumph wumph" when I walked instead of crunching loudly on harder snow. I felt like Gretel, especially because by then I was both hungry and rather lost (they were out of maps). No witches, though. Another shoer passed me and I told her I hoped she wasn't following me because I didn't know where I was going. She said she didn't either, she was just winging it.

I eventually figured out where I was and made it back to the car, not before having to slide down a rather steep hill that I realized later was not an authorized path (about halfway down I looked over and saw the rather more gentle authorized path that switchbacked down the ridge. Humph). It was wonderful. It occurred to me how ridiculous it is that I had to come to the coldest place I've ever been before I learned to love winter.

Pat on my back

I made a fantastic dinner yesterday, if I do say so myself, and it only took about an hour. Pan-fried salmon fillets (just salt, pepper, and lemon juice) with sauteed kale and homemade pasta in a thin garlicky tomato sauce.

re: the pasta. This time I made two different types. The first was some leftover dough from the first time I made pasta, and the second was an egg pasta with part whole wheat flour. Both turned out well (once I rolled it to the right thickness). Actually, we liked the whole wheat better, but not because it had the egg in it, which is good because the egg pasta is a little harder (because it involves separating eggs) and less healthy (5 egg yolks for 4 servings of pasta). Next I'll try the wheat eggless pasta.

re: the tomato sauce. This turned out really well, but I'm not totally sure why. I used one of the cans of the tomatoes I canned this summer because I knew it would be thin, and I figured that would go well with the fresh pasta. I may have added a little too much salt, so that could be why Chris liked it so much (the salt fiend), but I also minced the garlic instead of throwing it in there whole, so that might also be why. Also, I'm sure the better quality tomatoes helped. I'm just going to try to recreate it somehow...

Chard and White Bean Stew

• 1 pound Swiss chard (can also swap kale, spinach or another green), ribs and stems removed and cleaned
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup (5 1/4 ounces) chopped carrots
• 1 cup (5 ounces) chopped celery
• 1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) chopped shallots, about 4 medium
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 15-ounce cans (or about 3 3/4 cups) white beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups (or more to taste) vegetable broth
• 1 cup pureed tomatoes (from a can/carton/your jarred summer supply)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• Toasted bread slices, poached eggs, chopped herbs such as tarragon, parsley or chives or grated Parmesan or Romano to serve (optional)

1. Bring medium pot of salted water to boil. Cook chard (or any heavier green; no need to precook baby spinach) for one minute, then drain and squeeze out as much extra water as possible. Coarsely chop chard.
2. Wipe out medium pot to dry it, and heat olive oil over medium. Add carrots, celery, shallots and garlic and saute for 15 minutes. Barber warns not to brown them but I didn’t mind a light golden color on them. Add wine (scraping up any bits that have stuck to the pot) and cook it until it reduced by three-fourths. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, a few pinches of salt, freshly ground black pepper, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add chard and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove thyme and bay leaf. Add more broth if you’d like a thinner stew and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve as is drizzled with sherry vinegar. Or you can ladle the stew over thick piece of toasted country bread or baguette that has been rubbed lightly with half a clove of garlic, top that with a poached egg and a few drops of sherry vinegar and/or some grated cheese.

RESULTS:  This was very satisfying, especially with the poached egg and the toast. I replaced the celery with mushrooms, and I wish I could say it was because I had some culinary insight, but it was because I did not have celery, but I did have mushrooms that had to be used up. Anyway, it was a good substitution, I'd recommend it.

fresh pasta

For Christmas, my mom got me the pasta attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. I was stoked. Completely. We got home last night, and tonight I made my first batch of linguine (or fettuccine, I'm not totally sure). All I can say is, it's a good thing pasta is just flour, salt, water and oil, because I'm going to need to do some trial and error to get it right. Uncooked, it was v. promising, but upon cooking for a mere two minutes, it turned into a mushy mess.

Chris and I think we pinpointed the error: I was following directions for a hand-cranked pasta machine, which doesn't get the pasta as thin as my motorized one. Upon further investigation, we realized that I should have perhaps/most certainly rolled this pasta twice as thick to make the linguine/fettuccine. Until I get it right, I think I'll just be tossing the pasta with butter and cheese, because the biggest disappointment was that I had splurged on shiitake mushrooms for a sauce, which lost most of its charm after being tossed with what turned out to be mush.

However! I am undeterred. The brain learns better from mistakes rather than just getting something right the first time through sheer luck. Stay tuned.