Fried Mississippi Catfish

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• ¾ cup cornmeal
• ½ flour mixed with ¼ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• Catfish fillets (allow at least one 7-9 oz fillet/person)
• Vegetable oil—Enough to put 3 inches in a dutch oven type pan.

Directions
Mix the dry ingredients together. The fish should be moist to capture the batter—do not towel dry. Coat the fish evenly in the dry ingredients and drop in the hot oil (360 degrees). Do not overcrowd the pan. The fish will turn golden brown and float to the top when done. Remove and place on absorbent paper—a brown grocery bag topped with paper towels works great. Serve with hush puppies, cornbread and or sweet potato fries!!!

Results
This was my FIRST deep-frying experiment, and turned out pretty well. Chris and I both liked the catfish, but we also bought really fresh catfish from our local coffee shop (this is an AWESOME coffee shop). It wasn't fishy at all. In fact, one might say that the catfish itself didn't have much flavor. It was all in the batter. It was really moist and the texture was excellent.

One challenge I found was that it was really hard to maintain the oil at a constant temperature. It got hot really fast, but then the temperature plummeted when I put the catfish in it. I did them in two batches, and the first batch took about 5-8 minutes to cook, but the second batch took about 2 minutes to cook. It was pretty confusing. Also, my eyes are still burning from the cayenne vaporizing into the air.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

I got this from one of my new favorite blogs-by-people-I-don't know, Love and Olive Oil.

Makes approx. 3-4 dozen.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk or soy milk
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 14 oz dark chocolate candy coating (or 14 oz dark chocolate if you want to try tempering the chocolate)

Directions

1. Beat butter and sugars and in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add soymilk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.
3. When dough is firm enough to handle (it may help to lightly flour your hands), form dough into 1″ balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.
4. Melt chocolate candy coating in a double boiler or in microwave according to package directions. Using forks or a dipping tool, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap fork on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week (though good luck making them last that long).

RESULTS:
At some point in the middle of making these I was struck with the thought of how they were just wrong. We all crave raw cookie dough, but it's the danger of the raw eggs that keeps us from indulging. (and, let's face it, that danger is part of the appeal, no?) And now here's this recipe that says, go ahead, eat all the raw cookie dough you want. It won't kill you, at least, not immediately. But, believe me, they are oh so good. Chris is very mad that I took some to a party and am sending another batch to my old (and now redux) office in Bloomington.

I say make the balls whatever size you want. I yet again used my melon baller. I have yet to use that thing to ball melons, but it gets a lot of use.

If you're wondering, like I am, why the recipe includes baking soda when there's no need for leavening, the author said it adds a little something to lend to the authenticity of the cookie taste. Leave it out if you don't want it.

Kathleen's winter vegetable soup

Kathleen made this for me the last time I visited. K, if you want this to be a secret recipe, I'll take it down. It was just so good! Also, this is one of the few recipes that I actually followed faithfully. :)

1 small festival or acorn squash, skinned, cleaned & diced (this is the hardest part of the soup.. its time consuming to cut a raw squash)
1 large sweet potato skinned & diced
2 parsnips diced
1 large onion diced
(the goal is to have about equal parts of each of the 4 items)

saute the above in a few tablespoons of olive oil

after 8 mins or so of sauteing, add 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp thyme, salt and pepper to taste
saute for 2 more minutes
add 4-8 cups of your favorite veggie or chicken broth. Adjust amount so you feel like its just a little less than the right amount of liquid for the amount of veggies you have above. Simmer for 10-20 mins or until all veggies are tender
finally, add about 1/2 to 1 cup of half and half, wisk in to combine.

Candlelit snowshoe hike... but no.

So Chris was out of town last weekend, but there was a candlelit snowshoe walk at a nearby reserve that I REALLY wanted to go to. My spidey-sense was warning me about the idea of going snowshoeing by myself in the woods, in the dark, but I thought that if there were enough people who go to these things, then I wouldn't have to worry about creepy/dangerous men too much. After all, if it was shoe-to-shoe crowded, what could happen?

So I asked Betty, a woman I work with who loves to snowshoe, if she had been to these things before. She said she hadn't, but I asked her anyway if she thought it would be a problem if I went by myself. She started telling me a story about how she went walking through her property alone one night tracking a deer that her husband had shot, when she suddenly realized how stupid she was being.... because there are so many coyotes around. Now, I hadn't even considered coyotes as being a problem. Betty directed me to Randy, who had been to the reserve for a nighttime snowshoe, to ask him if he thought I should worry about coyotes.

Well, I asked Randy what he thought about a woman going alone, and he initially said he thought it would be fine... but, oh wait, there's that wolf pack in the area!!!

Needless to say, I didn't go. Next thing people would be talking about cougars or bears or something. I'll just wait and go sometime with my nice tall non-bite-sized husband.

Winter After Hours

On Thursday Chris and I went to a snowcial winteraction (a winter social) at one of the parks in town. The city maintains an outdoor ice rink there, and the local magazine conspired to put up lights, arrange a snowshoe track, got a snow sculptor out there, and lots of other stuff. It was very well done. They're going to do it through the end of February, and hopefully we'll make it to a few more.

they posted some pictures on the website. If you flip to pictures 10 and 20, I think, you'll spot us playing kubb, kubb being the ancient game of viking chess that's really only popular two places in the US--Seattle and Eau Claire. Don't ask me to explain the rules. Once Chris builds us a set, you can come visit and we'll teach you.

Any guesses on what the snow sculpture is? It has a tail so it's not a badger. Cat?

Penne With a Mushroom Ragu

This one goes out to Kathleen, who is having mushrooms this weekend (just in case you don't already have a recipe picked out). From the Washington Post,

Summary:

Here, a few easily found ingredients make a dish loaded with flavor: Assorted mushrooms (you can buy them pre-sliced to save time) are sauteed with just enough fat to help them cook, then infused with wine to make a vegetarian ragu. Chopped parsley is needed to add that little bite right at the end. Toss the sauce with pasta, and serve with a salad.

4 servings

Ingredients:

* • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* • 1 tablespoon olive oil
* • 1 small (2 ounces) onion, cut into thin slices
* • 1 pound assorted mushrooms, rinsed, stemmed if desired and cut into thin slices (I used baby portabellas and crimini)
* • 1/4 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
* • 8 ounces dried penne or gemelli pasta
* • 3/4 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
* • Leaves from 2 to 4 stems curly or flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped (1/4 cup)
* • Freshly ground black pepper
* • Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)

Directions:

Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the onion and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has softened. Add the mushrooms and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt; mix to incorporate, then cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms' moisture has been released and evaporated and the mushrooms are just beginning to brown.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain.

Reduce the heat under the mushrooms to medium, then add the wine and mix well. Cook for about 3 minutes or until the liquid in the skillet has reduced by half. Remove from the heat.

Add the parsley and freshly ground pepper to taste. Taste, and add salt as needed.

Add the drained pasta to the ragu; toss to combine. Serve hot; pass the Parmesan cheese at the table, if desired.

Results:
I think an easy place to go wrong is not to cook the mushroom all the way. I like my mushroom with some good browning. It'll take some experimentation with temperature to get them browned without burnt. Otherwise, I really liked this dish. Don't skimp on the salt or pepper! I'm sure the ragu would live just as happily over rice or meat.

Curling!

Chris and I went to a curling open house yesterday at the local club. I thought there'd be 5 people there, but apparently it was over 120. I got to throw the stone three times, only one of them resulted in an injury (I couldn't sit regularly all day today thanks to a bruised tailbone), and I got to try sweeping.

Here's some pictures from the event. If you look carefully at the photos in the slideshow at the bottom, you can see Chris and me standing at the check-in/free beer counter.

If you missed it, here's Stephen Colbert's interview with the US Olympic curling team.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Skate Expectations - Curling Team Tryouts - Colbert vs. Shuster
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy