12/28/08 - Turkey With Three Sauces

12/03/08 - Cardamom Cookies

Bake a batch of these cookies, with or without cookie molds. You might even want to make them a bit thick. These are wonderful shortbread cookies. Shortbread cookies are what Lorna Doones are supposed to be but aren't. Your whole house will be scented with butter and cardamom, and if you like the baking scent of cinnamon, you will be ecstatic with the scent of cardamom. They are perfect for Christmas baking which is when all these old fashioned spices come out of the back of the cupboard and into the oven where they belong.

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 2 tbsp orange zest (or more)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Divide the dough into four parts and press them into flat rectangles. Let them rest in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes or so. (We actually skip this step which is why our cookies aren't much to look at, but they taste just as good as better rested cookies.) Roll the cookie dough out to about 1/8 inch (or as much as 1/4 inch) on a floured work surface. If you have a speculatius cookie mold, you can use this, otherwise just cut the cookies into 2 inch by 3 inch squares and put them on a baking sheet. Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350F. (We use a convection oven and special baking sheets, so we get quicker results.) Bake until the edges are brown.

11/01/08 - Port Angeles Farmers' Market - Harvest Edition

We make a lacinato kale salad by removing the stems and cutting the kale into thin strips. Then we add about a half lemon worth of lemon juice, a few tablespoons of good parmesan cheese, a tablespoon or two of olive oil and a teaspoon, to taste, of hot red pepper flakes. It's a great salad, and it's finally in season.

10/11/08 - Farmers' Market Update

10/10/08 - Duck Confit

08/27/08 - Hoh Rain Forest

Still, we managed to get a ways up the river and found a spot to enjoy our bacon, lettuce, tomato and cucumber sandwiches. (We Kalebergs, like an army, travel on our stomach.) Some of the leaves are already starting to change color here and there. August is a little early, but this has been a cool, wet year. The trail was wet. The side streams feeding the Hoh were full. The river was misty. All told, it was a wondeful hike.

08/24/08 - Uni Toast

• 320 grams (four flats) sea urchin roe
• 2 tbsp butter
• 6-8 scallions, cut into little slices
• 1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• lemon juice to taste (perhaps half a lemon)

We recommend serving this dish with either good sourdough toast or Jasper White's breadsticks.

08/15/08 - Deer Lake Adventure

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.

07/23/08 - Another OED Failure

07/22/08 - Lake Angeles, At Last

The climb was 2380' from the parking lot to the camp site by the lake. There were a few downed trees in the camp site, but we managed to get to the lake. The lake is in a deep bowl surrounded by mountains, so the views of the high ridges above were spectacular. These photos do not do it justice. We waded into the lake a bit. The water was quite cold which was not surprising for a lake fed by melting snow. Though most of the snow has melted, we could still see patches of it, and waterfalls of icy water making their way lakeward.

07/09/08 - Second Beach: To The Seastack

This July 9th was different. This time no confounding body of water appeared as we approached the seastack. Yes, the sand was wet, but we were able to approach the base of the seastack dryshod. The low tide was 0.8 feet, but we had been to Second Beach with lower tides. It took a combination of low tide and sand flow to create the miraculous sandbar we traversed.

The base of the seastack was a jewel box of mussles and barnicles and lesser shells, here and there decorated with dazzling star fish. There were little caves, some worn into the stone and plain, others decorated like the seastack base. We made our way around the seastack, away from the beach. By carefully timing the waves we made it to the small beach between the large landward seastack and the smaller seastack behind it. We explored a bit, admiring our own adventurousness, our good fortune, and the wonderful scenery.

Not ones to press our luck, we made our way back after a brief sojourn, and explored the beachward face of the seastack. We have seen people climbing seastacks, and we considered climbing this one, but we Kalebergs have more the grace of gazebos than gazelles, so we settled for a sea level tour.

Our return to the beach along the sandbar was straightforward. This is just as well. We always like to be able to retrace our steps. We then explored Second Beach to the south, wandering about the Pirate Cave and gawking at anemones in the various tidepools. When we returned to the sandbar that led to the seastack the tide had risen. A fair bit of the sandbar was already submerged. We had seized our opportunity. Time and tide, we knew, wait for no man.

07/06/08 - Lake Angeles Trail Update

This time was different. The National Park Service has come through armed with chain saws and who knows what else. The trail is clear. We didn't make it all the way up to the lake, but we did get a good start. Other hikers, in better shape than we are, informed us that the lake is clear of snow. Several others were heading up with fishing rods in hand, and one group, heading down, reported swimming. Watch this page for the Kaleberg ascent.

06/07/08 - Elwha Update

UPDATE - 6/15/08 - On the way back from our hike we noticed something unusual: a small patch of rock larkspur growing in a cliff face along the side of the road. Rock larkspur is an alpine plant, and we had never seen it growing so close to sea level. Together with our earlier sighting of glacier lilies on the Whisky Bend Trail, it suggests that this year's prolonged, cool spring may have roused plants that usually lie dormant.

05/20/08 - Lake Angeles Update

On the other hand, the trilliums loved it, and the stream is just full of water. To get a sense of the flow, take a look at our little movie. It may be a while before the park people finish clearing the trail to our exacting Kaleberg standards, but we'll keep climbing up and checking out their progress.

04/20/08 - Russian Easter 2008

In any event, we rounded up the usual suspects, including a particularly deadly version of Trotsky's Bane with a ton of wasabi and serious tequila. If Trotsky had been drinking this, they wouldn't have needed to waste the people's time and money on assassins. We also made some perushki with our own home made sauerkraut and some shitake mushrooms and nettles. For more recipes, check out our Russian Easter page.

The domes of Moscow were particularly lurid this year, with lots of dragee and extra dark red and green food dyes. Those supermarket food dyes are really too pastel for a serious holiday like Russian Easter. In any event, Moscow was once again saved from the monster Napoleon thanks to a liberal dousing of French brandy. As the flames rose, and the Frenchies retreated, we celebrated the irony with, of all things, champagne.

This year, we had even more realism. We had real snow in mid-April, just like they did in Moscow before global warming. It didn't stick, but the white flakes added to the festive mood.

04/18/08 - Sauerkraut

A bit over two weeks ago we took two heads of cabbage and ran them through the slicing blade of our trusty Cuisinart. Then, we tossed in about six garlic cloves for extra flavor. We packed the cabbage into a 3 liter storage jar and made up a pickling mixture of about a quart of water, two tablespoons of kosher salt, a teaspoon of peppercorns, a tablespoon of coriander seeds, and a half cup of apple cider vinegar. We brought this to a boil, let it cool and poured it into the jar with the cabbage. We had to add a bit of tap water to cover all the cabbage, but then, all we did was let it brew out in the garage. It has been mighty cool out in the garage lately.

Now, we have a delicious glowing green mass of preserved cabbage, and it is delicious. The cabbage has gotten that sauerkraut crunch, and the coriander seeds are wonderful in it.

04/06/08 - Smoked Steelhead

We started with a half a fish, filleted. That weighed about five or six pounds before we removed the skin. We marinated it overnight in a pyrex dish with one cup of light brown sugar, a tablespoon of peppercorns, two tablespoons of kosher salt and three tablespoons of whole coriander seeds. We rubbed the fish with the mixture and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, the pyrex dish was full of a thick brown liquid, a mixture of the rub and the water drawn from the fish by the salt. We set up a fire in our trusty Weber grill. We use hardwood charcoal from Hasty Bake. It has a cleaner flavor than briquets. We also throw in a chunk of apple wood from an old stump to give it a little fruit wood flavor.

When the fire is hot with perhaps half the coals turning white, we toss in the apple wood and set up for smoking. That means putting the fish on the grill, but not over the hot coals, and closing the bucket with the vents wide open. In a few minutes, the steelhead is smoking with a white cloud pouring out of the little vent on the grill lid.

We have learned, from a sadly overcooked batch of fish, that we need to keep an eye on the grill. If the fire is too hot, we close the vent a bit more. If the fire has gotten too cool, we have to open the grill for a bit, and sometimes add a bit more charcoal. It isn't like cooking on a stove or in an oven.

Sometimes, the fish is ready in as little as half an hour. That is, if it is thinly cut. Usually, it takes about 45 minutes, or even an hour. Done, of course, is a matter of taste. Once the fish is cooked through, you can smoke it down to leather. We like it a bit more tender, and we find that the flavor ripens after the fish is removed from the grill and let sit.

That's the Kaleberg Labs recipe, and that's some of the fish on the right. We used a real fast shutter to take that snap. You know how long food lasts here Chez Kaleberg.

04/01/08 - The Skunk Cabbage Cometh, Finally

02/07/08 - Marrow Bones

Marrow bones are more or less inedible, unless perhaps you are a dog with very strong jaws. The marrow inside, however, is delicious. The taste is somewhere between beef and butter, or perhaps between butter and beef, or perhaps beefy butter. In any event, it is very rich. This is not diet food.

Marrow bones are easy to make. Just put them in a pyrex pan with some white wine, enough to fill the pan to a quarter inch or so. Bake them at 450F for about 45 minutes. The marrow will be oozing and bubbling. You can check it with a meat thermometer if you like, but we'll go with oozing and bubbling. When in doubt, let it cook a bit longer. You don't want to eat raw marrow.

While the marrow roasts, toast up some good bread in the oven. We had some pain levain which was great. Chop up some garlic and rub it on the toast. Sprinkle lightly with a little fleur de sel, or other good coarse salt. (Yes, this garlic toast is pretty good on its own, but it's even better with marrow). When the marrow is ready, poke it out with a fork, a spoon, a chopstick, a crochet hook, or whatever you have handy. Professionals may use a marrow spoon, but we Kalebergs are strictly amateurs. Cover the toast with a nice layer of molten marrow and take a bite. Smile.