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06/01/09 - Farmers' Market Update

We may have another two or three weeks before summer starts, but the Port Angeles Farmers' Market is moving ahead. We've been enjoying the spring crops of asparagus, arugula, mixed braising greens and all those new potatoes. The seafood folks have been selling salmon and ling cod, so we've been doing more shopping at the market than ever.



Keywords: farmers' market, shopping, spring, summer, salmon

05/23/09 - Farmers' Market Update

For us, the big news at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market has been all of the folks selling fish and seafood products. Last week we snagged some great Neah Bay salmon, and this week we bought a pound of shelled razor clams. It all started with Tuna Dan, but now there are usually three seafood vendors.

The vegetables are moving into summer with more salads, mixed braising greens and other goodies. We even saw some broccoli rabe, but we are going to wait one more week in hopes of finding some with more flowers. We'll fill you in this coming weekend.

Keywords: farmers' market, salmon

05/09/09 - The Spruce Railroad Trail

There are more flowers coming out on the Spruce Railroad Trail. There is even a bit of salmonberry, which is supposed to bloom in February or March, so we are having a late spring.

We'll also note another tree down, so it may be tricky getting by on horseback. It wasn't too bad on foot. The fallen tree is a bit west of the metal bridge at the Devil's Punchbowl.

Paintbrush

We love the way this just grows out of the rock.

A fallen tree

Keywords: flowers, spring, spruce railroad, salmon

04/27/09 - Russian Easter 2009

We are recovering from our latest Russian Easter party. Yes, we know, Russian Easter was last week, but we are Kaleberg Kalendrists. Like the Old Calendrists and the New Calendrists who have been arguing about the date of the holiday since the new Gregorian calendar came out, we too have our own ideas as to when to celebrate Easter, and this year we chose yesterday.

We served the traditional meal of blini with salmon roe, Enemies of the Czar, Trotsky's Bane, home made sausage, and pan fried pelmeni. (For more on this, see our recipes page.) For dessert, there was a spirited defense of Moscow against the Monster Napoleon. It took a fair bit of flaming cognac and a lot of dessert spoons to get the proper scorched earth look. We also had a special guest dessert, Trotsky's balm, one of his mother's recipe. It looked suspiciously like a flan, but we know enough to keep our suspicions to ourselves.

The domes of Saint Basil's

The Kaleberg Russian Easter awaits the onslaught of our own ravening horde.

Moscow awaits the onslaught of the Monster Napoleon.

Keywords: russian easter, salmon, recipe, kale

03/22/09 - QuilBay Oysters

There's a new stand at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. The folks from the QuilBay Oyster Company have been selling good looking oysters and clams. They're in the shell, so you have to shuck or steam your own, but they are the second seafood sellers at the market, after Tuna Dan who has been selling halibut, steelhead and salmon right across the aisle.

Keywords: farmers' market, port angeles, oysters, salmon

02/09/09 - Along The Morse Creek Trail

We saw a first sign of spring, a salmonberry blossom, along the Morse Creek Trail, which is what we call the Discovery Trail running west from the parking lot on Morse Creek. It isn't much, but this has been a hard winter, and we'll take what we can get.
We aren't sure what this is a sign of. That's a broccoli floret. There were a number of them along the trail. Did someone run out of breadcrumbs? We have no idea.

Keywords: morse creek, spring, winter, salmon

08/15/08 - Deer Lake Adventure

The high country is officially open, at least as far as we Kalebergs are concerned. We have returned to Deer Lake. This is always a hard climb, not because of the nearly 1600' ascent, but because the trail is rough going with rocks large and small and portions of the trail are a bit warm and humid. There are only one or two short smooth sections, but the rest of the trail is "watch your step". Mind you, it is a beautiful hike, and Deer Lake is a silken wonder, but it takes something to get up there.

It took us the better part of two hours to get from the Sol Duc trailhead to the little bridge at the head of the lake. We munched our sandwiches, ventresca tuna with roasted green peppers and sweet onions. Then we made our way back down.

Usually, our adventures end in the parking lot, but this time we had a way to go. Our car wouldn't start, or rather, it would start, but then turn off. Something was off with the anti-theft transponder. So, we got a ride with a Dutch tourist who was nearing the end of his drive from San Diego to Seattle. We called AAA, and we settled down to dinner at the Sol Duc resort. We had a few nice glasses of wine, planked salmon, crab cakes and a marionberry crisp. That put us in a better mood. We knew AAA wasn't going to make their one hour goal. We were at least a full hour's drive from the nearest station. Still, we had faith. There were no rooms at the inn.

Our tow truck driver was great, with a gentle hand and a big truck. We dropped the car off for repairs and tucked into bed late. This time we Kalebergs had a bit more adventure than we had bargained for.

Deer Lake under a cloudy sky

There was still some snow on the mountains. The park reports a foot or two of snow at the High Divide.

The bridge over the marsh

These guys had neat looking flowers

More great summer flowers

The canyon falls at 450 apl (above parking lot)

This may be the 10,000,000th photo of Sol Duc Falls, but we couldn't resist.

Keywords: deer lake, high country, sol duc, salmon, kale

01/16/08 - Signs Of The Season

We were down at Morse Creek, walking west along the Discover Trail towards Port Angeles. It is mid-January, so it is surely still winter, but we also found our first signs of spring. Check out the salmonberry flowers! This was just one bush in a sheltered area by a stream at the base of the bluff, but the flowers were out.

There was a river otter on one of the rocks. This isn't a very good photo. We are still learning what we can and can't do with our new camera. Our picture of a great blue heron came out better. We don't see as many of them as we used to back in the Boston area, but they like the mouth of the Lee's Creek, maybe because of the fresh water.

The first salmonberry flowers of the season

A great blue heron

The river otters were out

Keywords: flowers, morse creek, port angeles, spring, winter, salmon, otters


Grilled Smoked Salmon

10/30/07 - Tuna Dan Is Now Selling Salmon

Tuna Dan, who had been selling tuna at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market, is now selling salmon. We bought a whole fish from his chest, and then stuffed it with herbs, smoked paprika, scallions, coriander and thin slices of lemon. We wrapped it in aluminum foil and hot smoked it on our Weber kettle grill for a bit under an hour. We started with a hot fire, but put the lid on with the little dial wide open. It was delicious. Thanks, Tuna Dan.

Keywords: farmers' market, food, salmon


The view from our table

08/04/07 - Rover's Summer of 2007

Rover's, home of the chef in the hat, is as good as ever which means that it is quite spectacular. Among the high points:
  • smoked duck with a green olive tapenade
  • a ripe red tomato with bucheron goat cheese - It's tomato season people, hint, hint.
  • salmon with fava beans
  • soft shelled crab with mussels
  • lobster with corn kernels - Was this a tribute to the late Jean Louis Palladin?
  • lamb medallions with flageolet and a grilled onion
We aren't usually dessert people, but we have to mention the sublimely tart and creamy lime panna cotta and the crunchy napoleon-like bitter chocolate praline pastry. We've been big fans of Rover's for a while now as you can tell from our review. It is expensive, but Thierry Rautureau is a genius, and Rover's is one of those personal restaurants where a meal is like a performance rather than simple sustenance.

Keywords: restaurants, seattle, salmon

Big Steelhead

04/01/07 - The Steelhead of the Soleduc

That's our friend, Bill Peet, on the left, with a friend of his, a three foot long steelhead he caught out on the Soleduc River. There hasn't been much fishing lately, what with the spring floods and fishing restrictions, so that's a pretty amazing catch for the first day the river was fishable. The Soleduc is pretty amazing, too. It's the only steelhead run in the lower 48, and it is in pretty good shape as you can see.

Being Kalebergs, we must note that steelhead has a milder flavor than salmon, but it has salmon's firm texture.

Keywords: fish, spring, salmon, kale

03/06/07 - First Salamander (and Slug) of Spring

A lot of trails are closed right now. Whiskey Bend Road is more or less wiped out, and the Hoh Rain Forest is inaccessible. This means we are spending a lot of time on the Spruce Railroad Trail at Lake Crescent. We were out there a few days ago, and it sure smelled of spring. Today, it smelled even more spring-like. The currant and salmonberry blossoms are getting ready to bloom. Then we saw it. The first salamander of spring! We knew that slugs could not be far behind. We were right. A bit down the trail, there it was, a slug, slugging its way through the trail debris.

Eventually other trails will reopen, and even the high country will thaw out and open up, but for now, we are going to watch for spring.

We often have trouble believing how clear Lake Crescent water is. The upper rocks in this picture are under water. The water is radioactive pool blue, even without radioactive waste to make it glow.

Keywords: elwha, spruce railroad, spring, animals, salamander, slugs, high country, hoh rain forest, lake crescent, trails, salmon

11/07/06 - Nash Huber's Farm Stand

We recently paid a visit to Nash Huber's farm stand in Sequim, not far from the old Dungeness School House. Farm stands are always at their prettiest in the autumn, which is, for us, the time to round up the usual vegetables. That is, the brussels sprouts are in, as are the lacinato kale, the collard greens, the mustard greens, the beets, the cauliflower and even the cabbages. There are some pictures of some of the goodies and one of all our loot down below.

Also noted was the new sign on the door announcing that Nash's farm is salmon friendly. That's a big thing out here since Clallam County is sort of fish crazy. There are signs with little fish on them along the road side, usually at bridges. They mean that someone is likely to brake hard, leap out of their car and throw in a line to try their luck, so you had better drive carefully. Salmon channels are important out here too, and not just the kind they carry on cable. The county recently rebuilt route 112 where it crosses Salt Creek to give the fish a better shot at spawning.

ncluding some Dungeness Valley Creamery milk and some Mount Townsend Creamery cheeses.

Another sign on the door - we have to check this out. There is nothing quite like FRESH King Crab meat.

Keywords: nash huber, farms, autumn, dungeness, fish, milk, salt creek, mount townsend creamery, salmon, kale

07/06/06 - Amazing Yukon Salmon at Bella Italia

We just had dinner at Bella Italia, and we had some of the best salmon we've ever had, and living out here in Port Angeles, that's saying a lot. According to our usually reliable source, this was salmon from up in the Yukon, a bit expensive, but worth it every bite. It was rich and fatty, and cooked very simply. There were no left overs. According to another of our other usually reliable sources, what made this salmon so special was that it was summer salmon, all fattened up, but not very far up stream yet. That's the kind you almost never get in restaurants, let alone at the supermarket. But, we do get it out here in Port Angeles. The word is that this salmon will be on the menu for the next few weeks. If you are in town for the Lavender Festival, this is your big chance to see what salmon can be.

Keywords: food, fish, restaurants, port angeles, salmon

Ivory King Seafood

06/18/05 - Ivory King Seafood

We were out at Nash Huber's stand in Dungeness and since it was Saturday between 1 PM and 5 PM, we ran into Ivory King Seafood. The lady right ahead of us bought the last halibut, an awfully good looking fish. We went for one of the salmon, which was caught locally, by line.

We'll have to make our way out to Dungeness on Saturday or Sunday afternoons more often.

Keywords: fish, dungeness, nash huber, salmon

03/08/05 - Wildfire Wood Fired Cuisine

There is a new wood fired restaurant out in western Port Angeles, on 8th Street. We had been hearing rumors, and when the urge for pizza struck, we went and checked the place out. We were quite impressed. Wildfire is basically a wood fired, sit down restaurant, and a rather elegant looking place at that. The menu includes wood fire rotisserie prime rib, chicken, salmon and halibut, all simply prepared to make the most of their wood fired oven.

The pizzas were great. We tried two of them and they had the characteristic wood oven crust with that combination of chewiness, smokiness and crispness. The toppings were fresh and well chosen. Check out our review for more info.

Keywords: restaurants, port angeles, salmon

09/06/04 - Seattle Notes

We were in Seattle yesterday, but we weren't going to the Huskies game or Bumbershoot. We sort of avoid stuff like that. Instead, we checked out Uwajimaya on 6th and Weller. This is the anchor store for the International District and includes a good Pacific Rim (and Pacific Middle, since it includes Hawaiian food) food court, a great fish store, a book store and it even has apartments upstairs. We were checking out stuff for our upcoming luau, so we bought some fresh gold label nori for the ahi tuna sushi, poked at the taro leaves wrapped in bundles and waved a few bunches of ti leaves about.

The real find though was in the pig department. If you were ever a Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel the Whatever fan, you may remember that the good guys often needed a reliable supply of blood to feed to friendly or captive vampires. Whenever we pass the blood distribution center on 68th and Amsterdam Avenue in New York City, we always think of this problem of feeding vampires. Only in New York City would they have a vampire friendly blood bank that delivers. How convenient can it get? If that new prima donna or best selling author has unusual culinary needs, all you have to do is call for take out. (Do they stuff menus under your door?)

Since Buffy and Angel were set in California, they couldn't just pick up the phone and order blood. They tended to use pig blood. This just gets us to the problem of getting pig blood, and that gets us to Uwajimaya where they sell it frozen. More importantly, they sell pig skin and sweet little pig's feet. It is surprisingly hard to buy pig skin. Even if you have your own pig slaughtered, the skin and feet are usually wholesaled or trashed since they requires a lot of processing to make them kitchen friendly.

So, if you do want to make a proper cassoulet, you can get pig skin and pig's feet at Savenors in Boston, Faicco's in New York City or at Uwajimaya in Seattle. A French housewife would be right at home.

We also made our pilgrimage to The Spanish Table at the bottom of Pike's Market and bought some really good paella rice. Did you know that paella rice is drier that Arborio rice used in risotto? We didn't, but now we do. In a sort of conservation of pig's blood rule, The Spanish Table was out of morcilla, black pig's blood sausage.

Then we tried out Tom Douglas's new restaurant, Lola. Lola has great Greek food, with kebabs and spreads, lamb and octopus, and all through it a bit of Tom Douglas's trademark Northwestern style. Why not salmon kebabs? Why not a real lamb burger with pickled green peppers? Go for the roasted potatoes alone.

Keywords: seattle, food, restaurants, fish, luau, new york city, salmon

08/03/04 - Salmon Off A Truck

Yesterday, we took a hike along the Elwha River Trail. We didn't get really far, but we did get to our favorite overlook between the two canyons on the route to Lilian Camp. This might not have been much of a hike by some people's standards, but we were tired enough after two and a half hours on the trail and an overall climb of about 950 feet.

Needless to say, by we were hungry on the drive home, so we planned to drop by the Safeway and get ourselves the fixings for a steak hash. We turned down Lincoln and there we saw our answer, right in the Rite Aid / Goodwill parking lot.

The Rite Aid and the Goodwill thrift shop share a huge parking lot, and often there will be someone in a van or pickup truck selling stuff at the far end. Sometimes they are selling firewood. Others sell flowers or fruit, today, there was a group selling salmon.

"SALMON", the sign screamed at us. We slammed on the brakes and turned in.

"What kind of salmon do you  have?", we asked.

 Elwha Impressions

The blue and green light of the Elwha River Trail is something special. It's like an Impressionist painting.

We decided to experiment with our Sebsoft Impressionist special effect for iMovie. Click on the picture above for the Quicktime movie.
"We've got some silvers and also some king."

"King salmon, we'll take some of that."

"We caught them yesterday out near Neah Bay."

The next thing you know we were poking around in the ice chest on the back of the truck and breathing in the salty scent of the sea. Fresh fish doesn't smell like fish. It smells like the sea.

"Wow, that's a big one", we remarked pointing at what seemed the Moby Dick of salmon.

"That's the one everybody is asking what it weighs."

"Let's find out."

It weighed in at 13 1/2 pounds. It was quite a fish. We paid up and raced home. Safeway could wait.

While the grill heated up we took the last three of Nash Huber's nectarines we had on the counter, all eight of our Shiro plums from our dwarf trees, a few of our pie cherries, two medium onions, chopped, a whole bunch of Nash's coriander, some salt, some pepper and a couple of teaspoons a five spice powder, and we stuffed them into the boned fish. (We removed the spine and most of the bones ourself. It's hard to bone a fish on the back of a truck).

We wrapped the fish in aluminum foil and popped it on a hot fire. We were worried that the fire might be too hot, but the fish could take it. The skin and flesh merged to form a sort of crackling layer which was absolutely scrumptious.

We flipped the fish over after 25 minutes. It was quite a struggle. It weighed at least ten pounds without the head and tail, but we did it. The fire was cooler now, so we let the fish cook another 40 minutes. It was perfectly done. Even the onions in the middle were cooked. It was amazingly good. There is nothing quite like fresh salmon and a tart fruit based stuffing.

We had it with New Zealand spinach from the Farmer's Market, but that's another story.

Keywords: elwha, trails, fish, movies, flowers, nash huber, salmon

07/09/04 - Stuffed Salmon, CostCo Style

We were at the CostCo which was having their summer time fish market selling whole wild sockeye salmon among other goodies. We had to have a fish. The garrulous fishman got us a fish, and a recipe to cook it with.

He told us to filet the fish and then stuff it with chunks of peaches, chunks of walla walla sweet onions, fresh coriander and lavender. We had a five pound fish, so we used three nectarines, a whole sweet onion, several big fists full of coriander, two or three lavender flowers from our plantation, a half teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of pepper. We substituted nectarines for peaches since we found better nectarines at the store.

We slammed the fish shut around the stuffing and wrapped the filet in aluminum foil. When the fire was hot and ready on the grill we gave it about 15 to 20 minutes on each side. With a five pound fish, we'll recommend the higher number to get it cooked through for a total cooking time of 40 minutes.

The fish was delicious. The filling was basically a classical Caribean salsa, like one of our favorites made with mango, red onion and coriander, but this one had a true Northwest flavor, so it was perfect for salmon. Next time, we'll go for even more coriander.

Sorry about the lack of photos, but we were so hungry that we dined before getting out our camera.

Keywords: food, fish, flowers, salmon, recipe

05/19/04 - Copper River Salmon Has Arrived

The Copper River salmon is in. We picked up a filet in Seattle and are going to grill it.

Also, we've been thinking about the old computer game of Dazzle Darts. It was one of those rather simple games, like Pong, that came out of the 1970s, except that Dazzle Darts seems to have vanished.

Keywords: food, fish, science, seattle, salmon

05/09/04 - Salmon Rollup

Here is another recipe we really like. This one is for a spicy, hearty salmon rollup made with bread crumbs and coriander seed. The sauce is sweet and sour, with honey and lime juice.

Keywords: food, salmon, recipe

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