Skiing Dec 19 (Plus two from 12/28)

Skiing Dec 19 (Plus two from 12/28)

A Few Pictures From October 22 Trip to Spokane and Gonzaga University

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Gonzaga University last week.  First, a confession:  I didn't take any pictures on campus during the campus tour.  Seriously, it was harder than you might expect to take pictures during the tour.  Besides, if you go to the Gonzaga website, you can see many professional photographs of the campus.


Spokane is an interesting city.  There is a river with water falls running through the middle of it.  This is a view of Spokane Falls, taken from Anthony's restaurant, where we ate lunch after the tour.

Here is another view:

The following pictures are from Riverfront Park.  We went on the Spokane Falls Skyride, which takes you right out over the river and the falls.  Being late fall, the river is actually kind of low.  I imagine in the spring and early summer, these look  nicer.   In any case, the picture portrayed on the website is a bit of an optical illusion.   

The Last of the Tomatoes

Late last week, we had a couple of nights dip into the 30's, so Sunday morning it was time to pick the last of the tomatoes.   This is what I brought inside:

By the way, this bowl is bigger than the bowl pictured in the previous tomato post.   And the prize winning tomato of the season:

In some ways the baseball doesn't do it justice - it's shorter than the ball, but much bigger around.

Meanwhile, I've planted carrots, beets, and parsnips again - they are coming up better than they did in the spring.  And I have two winter squash varieties started.  One bed has four healthy artichoke plants, which will winter over one way or another.  The rest of the garden has been put to bed, and is ready for some compost.  

Tomatoes - Better Late Than Never

It's been a cold and wet summer, and even in my sheltered back yard with southern exposure, tomato farming has been slow.  But in the end, I somehow have the largest crop of tomatoes ever.  For a long while, it was the largest crop of green tomatoes ever, but on September 21, I finally picked my first large red tomato from my Super Lakota plants.  

I also planted another heirloom called Jaune Flammee.  These are too small, and too sweet - they don't really taste like a tomato.  Could be a weather thing, but I think I'll go with something else next year.  As you can see, the plants are looking dead, but I've just let them alone and the tomatoes keep ripening.  These plants were huge, and they produced a lot of fruit, but the tomatoes are barely more than a cherry tomato.  They are golf ball size.   This is a Oct 8 photo.

By October 8, more of the Super Lakota had ripened, too, and I picked about one-third of what I have out there.

First, a tomato sandwich - which I love, but can't eat too many.  See, the sad thing is - I love tomatoes, but am very sensitive and/or allergic to raw tomatoes, so I don't dare have any more than once or twice a week.

So what I've been doing is freezing the tomatoes.  Since I have an upright freezer, it's much easier than canning.  I would have to invest in a lot of equipment to start canning, and freezing fresh veggies is very easy.   For tomatoes, you just blanch them, skin them, seed them, and put them in ziploc bags.  It's also easy to do in small batches as I pick the tomatoes.  To use them, I'll just run them through the food processor and use them in recipes where I'd normally use stewed tomatoes.  I can eat cooked tomatoes without any problem.  

Although my plants are looking pretty sorry, I'm leaving them alone for now to see how many tomatoes will continue to ripen.  

Hiking Table Mountain near Mt Baker, WA

Yesterday, we drove up to Artist Point - the end of the Mt Baker highway, where I previously rode my bike.  We went up to hike up Table Mountain.  Here is a picture from the road just below the parking lot (which I actually took a couple of weeks ago on my biking trip.)  (Note:  If you click on the picture, you will get a full size view in your browser window.  Use the back button to go back to the blog.)

It really is a walk up, although you have to be prepared for some mountain-goat trails.  I didn't take the dog, because I really didn't feel like being pulled over the edge of the trail.  It was a good call - just past the trail head is a sign that reads "No dogs allowed."   There are many reasons NOT to bring a dog - this rocky trail would have been hard on her feet.  

In terms of weather, the day was identical to my cycling trip in August.  Here are some shots of Mt Baker from the lower sections of the trail, still near the parking lot.

Here are Sean and Liam after we've just started.

Seriously, it's a bit of a goat trail for a period of time. 

The next picture is looking down on Bagley lakes, the Visitor Center, Heather Meadows, and the Mt Baker highway.  You can also see some of the trails that depart from the Visitor Center. 

The boys clowning around in a small snow cave.  

Kevin and the boys.

Me and the boys.

Sean with Mt Shuksan in the background.  See the glaciers?  (Click on the pic to get a larger view.)

At the top, the trail is more reasonable.

The trail keeps on going to the larger section of Table Mountain.

Liam on the snow field.  Standing on the snow wasn't cold.  It felt great.   We're at 6000 ft or so here.

Me and Kevin - in bad light.  

We hadn't carried any food up, and we'd already hiked about an hour at this point, so we turned around.

Here is a picture of Sean heading down the goat trail, from where I am above him on the trail.

We had a great time.  There are several trail heads from Artist Point and other lower locations on the Mt Baker highway.  Next time, I think we'll pack a lunch (or at least a snack) and walk farther.   We had lunch at Milano's in Glacier, WA.   Great food after a hike, skiing, or biking.    

Re-inventing Squash Casserole

I love squash casserole.  It's a yummy way to eat squash, and it's also a good way to use a surplus of squash.  Actually, it's the main reason I planted yellow crookneck squash this summer - except the seeds didn't produce yellow crookneck's, I got green zucchini.  Still, it's been good sweet zucchini, so I decided to just use it in the squash casserole recipe.


The problem with the squash casserole recipe......it contains a stick of butter. No wonder it's good! And a can of cream of chicken soup - which contains 2175 mg of sodium!  So here are the original two recipes - I'm inclined to use the one on top, but in terms of fat and sodium, they are equally bad.  (From the Grace Chapel U.M.C. Cook Book, 1991 edition.)

So, working from the recipe on top, here is what I changed.  I used 1 Tablespoon butter instead of an entire stick, and 1 cup Fat Free 33% less sodium Swanson's chicken broth, and Tillamook Fat Free Sour Cream.   To give credit where due - I've been reading Cooking Light for years, and that magazine regularly lightens up traditional recipes.  One thing I've learned - you can usually cut out a LOT of butter, especially in savory dishes.  (This wouldn't apply so easily to something like a cake.)  Also, I've learned from my own experimenting that Chicken Broth instead of condensed soup of any kind will work.  If you think the soup is needed for thickening, there are lots of work-around's for that - mainly, use less broth than condensed soup, or add a little corn starch.   

I've noticed that sour cream labeled "Low Fat" isn't very low fat.  But you can get totally Fat Free Sour Cream.  It's one of those products that I consider a blessing.  I love sour cream, and in my opinion the Fat Free version has the same taste and texture as regular sour cream - at least that's true of the Tillamook brand.  

Now let's get on with the cooking!  All of the vegetables came from my garden.   I didn't think to take pictures until after I'd already started cutting, but here are the basics.

The yellow chopped item next to the orange carrot is actually a yellow carrot.  I planted Carnival Mix carrots, and they are many different colors of yellow, orange, and red.  My scallions have gotten too big, but so far they make good cooking onions.   My zucchini's in this case were fairly small.  

I sliced the onion and sautéed it in 1 Tablespoon butter.  (You could easily use olive oil or canola oil and eliminate the butter completely.)  Then I added the chopped zucchini and carrots, and sautéed until they were beginning to brown lightly.   Add a little salt, pepper and other seasoning if desired.

 

Next, I added 1/2 cup water to this pan, covered it and let it simmer.  I ended up adding another 1/2 cup in order to cook the squash and carrots the way I wanted them.  Remove from heat.  You should drain any remaining water.  

While still warm, stir in sour cream and 1 cup broth.   Add grated cheddar cheese and 1 cup croûtons or bread crumbs.   Pour into a casserole dish that has been coated with cooking spray, top with bread crumbs or croûtons.   Bake 20-30 minutes, or until bubbly, at 350 degrees.  

Here it is after I baked it.

And on the plate with some grilled chicken:

As you can see, it's thick enough not to run on the plate.  It got a thumb's up from everybody.  (Well, Liam liked it but somehow managed not to eat any of the vegetables.)  

What I would do different - the original recipe called for bread crumbs, NOT croûtons, and in the future I will take the time to crush the croûtons into crumbs.   Whole grain breadcrumbs would be even better.  

Other options - use low fat or fat free cheese.  Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth to make it totally vegetarian.  

Here is the recipe as I made it:

2 cups sliced squash or zucchini

1 small-medium onion, sliced and chopped as desired

2 large carrots, chopped

1 Tablespoon butter (substitute olive oil or canola oil if desired)

salt, pepper or other seasoning to taste

1/2 cup to 1 cup water

8 oz Fat Free Sour Cream

1 cup grated cheddar cheese 

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup bread crumbs (topping)

Sauté onion in 1 Tablespoon butter.  Add the chopped zucchini and carrots, and sauté until they begin to brown lightly.   Add a little salt, pepper and other seasoning to taste.  Next, add 1/2 cup water to the pan, cover it and let it simmer.  Add more water if necessary in order to cook the squash and carrots as desired.  Remove from heat.  You should drain any remaining water, if necessary. 

While still warm, stir in sour cream and 1 cup broth.   Add grated cheddar cheese and 1 cup croûtons or bread crumbs.   Pour into a casserole dish that has been coated with cooking spray, top with bread crumbs or croûtons.   Bake 20-30 minutes, or until bubbly, at 350 degrees.  

The Mysterious Things My Garden Bears; Or, A Tale of Two Squash

I planted two varieties of squash in the spring - an heirloom zuchinni, and an organic yellow crookneck squash..    I have not been getting what I expected - I've had some small green zuchinni's, some odd monster mutant thing, and nothing that looks like a yellow crookneck squash.  But I had some monster plants (that were bearing odd monster mutant things.)

A couple of days ago, I happened to notice that I had a third thing growing - but the plants were so inter weaved I couldn't tell which plant it was coming from.  So I decided to start cutting things back to figure out what I had.

That's some of the weird stuff.  It looks a bit like acorn squash, but much larger - and I didn't plant acorn squash!    Here's a close-up:

So I started cutting away some of the foliage to get a clear view of what's in that tangle - and what I find is two different things growing from the same plant - even the same stem! 

That is a Costata Romanesco heirloom zuchinni - which is what I planted!  


I cut one of the large acorn squash-like things in half.  It was pretty hard to cut - like an acorn squash would be.  This is what it looks like inside:

I only dug out one of the plants, because the way it had grown, I could not separate what I wanted from what I didn't want.  The really giant plant, which I had expected to dig out - most of it I cut away, but I had a remaining section that seems to be producing the right stuff, so I left it there to see what I keep getting.  For what it's worth, all of the acorn-type things also had a bad case of blossom-end rot.  Some were half rotten.    But here is what I ended up with when I was finished:

We ate one of those zucchinis tonight - VERY good.  Really sweet, not at all bitter.  I hope I keep getting more.  Meanwhile, the yellow crooknecks are completely MIA - those seeds produced very small green zucchini - which are also very good, at least.   But I really like yellow crookneck squash, and so it's disappointing that I don't have any.  

One of the reasons I wanted to get the mutant squash out of my garden is that I didn't want any seeds ending up in my beds.  I didn't even put them in my compost bin, they went into a plastic bag and into the garbage.  I had so many of those big things, I couldn't even lift the bag!  

Dave Matthews Interview from NPR

Ride to Artist Point (Mt Baker Highway)

Here are pictures from today's ride to Artist Point - the end of the Mt Baker Highway.  I rode up to Heather Meadows in late May, but the highway had not opened beyond that point.  WSDOT opened the road up to Artist Point on July 29th.  It's a nice section of road that's only open for just over 2 months.  They don't try to keep it clear in the winter.    I didn't start taking any pictures until I was just below Heather Meadows.






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Here are some pictures taken at Picture Lake, just below Heather Meadows.

In the pictures below, we are above Heather Meadows, but still below Artist Point.  This visitor center is fairly close to one of the ski runs - but I've never seen it before.  They close it and let it get snowed in.  

Bagley Lakes Basin - taken from Visitor's Center.

From a bit higher up the road.

In the picture below, we are looking down on the Heather Meadows base area.  

Table Mountain.

Ok, time to stop taking pictures and round the bend to Artist Point.  According to WSDOT, the elevation here is just over 5000 feet.  

Here is Mt Baker.

Me in front of Mt Baker.

In case you're wondering - riding down was really fast, and really fun.  Also, it wasn't the least bit cold up there - about 70.  I put on my long sleeve shirt because bugs were eating me, and it would be a bit warmer on the way down.  I was certainly not hot with the shirt on.