04/24/06 - A Kaleberg Russian Easter

Every year Russian Easter comes to the Kaleberg household, and that means butter, and more butter, and even more butter. That's right, Russian Easter means butter, and fish eggs, and buckwheat pancakes and a sink full of champagne. Every year we make buckwheat pancakes, blini, and we make our own pork sausage with carroway seeds, and we drink quarts of champagne.

This year, we wanted to try something different, so we broke open our Kaleberg Russian Kookbook [sic] and found a few more authentic Russian recipes. To find out more, check out this Kaleberg special report.

04/01/06 - Farmers' Market Nettle Soup

We were pleased to see more farmers and more spring vegetables at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. As one might expect, things were slow this winter, especially with the market moving from downtown back to the Clallam County Courthouse parking lot. As usual, we went to town, buying carrots, salad greens, flowering arugula, blue hubbard squash and farm fresh eggs. As we always say, "Round up the usual vegetables". (You can tell we are big Casablanca fans).

One big surprise was a bunch of plastic bags marked with a big sign saying DO NOT TOUCH. Needless to say, we did not touch. What was in the bags? Nettles!

One of the local farmers has been gathering the nettles that bloom in the spring and are the despair of all too many gardeners. It is a very good idea not to touch nettles, at least not without a pair of good gloves. Of course, cooked nettles are another matter entirely.

We bought a bag and boiled up some heritage breed turkey stock. Using a pair of ultra sturdy, bright blue silicone rubber gloves, we washed the nettles and popped them into the boiling broth. We also cut up and added some potatoes, and some salt and cracked pepper. A half an hour later, we were in heaven.

Nettles taste somewhere between artichokes and snails. They taste little like kale or collards. Their flavor is much deeper and darker, with a little musty, minty twang. Needless to say, we won't get to have a soup like this very often, but it was rich and hearty, and a definite harbinger of spring.

03/12/06 - Our Winter Wonderland

Right now, we don't get all excited about deer in our yard. There isn't all that much for a deer to eat in our garden at the moment. We're still cutting back the old roses and pruning our fruit trees, at least when there isn't quite this much snow on the ground. So, behold the backyard menace, lurking like a lean Assyrian and waiting for the Kaleberg garden bounty.

02/10/06 - Winter Trails in Olympic National Park

We don't stop hiking in the national park just because it is winter. True, we need to snowshoe up in the high country, and a lot of the high country roads are closed, but there is still some beautiful hiking down below. Even the recent winds and rains haven't kept us from the Spruce Railroad Trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent or from the Elwha River trail from Whiskey Bend towards Lilian Camp.

There was a recent wind storm that caused a lot of damage, though it was much worse in Seattle and the Puget Sound area. We could even see this on the weather map, which showed the wind speeds in Port Angeles as about a half to two thirds of the wind speeds in areas not sheltered by the mountains. If you fly in a small plane, you will often feel the strong winds starting as you fly over Discovery Bay, and out of the shelter of the Olympics. Still, our internet service was down for most of a day, and the Whiskey Bend Road was closed while the Park Service cleared the fallen trees and brush. Whiskey Bend Road is an interesting drive under the best of circumstances. About a lane and half wide, hard packed, but unpaved, it twists and turns and climbs along the ridge to the east of Lake Mills.

There was a fair bit of freshly sawn timber by the roadside, but the road was quite passable in our Honda Civic. There were a few trees down along the trail, and a fair bit of water in the little side creeks, but the trail was open and the views of the Elwha River and the surrounding hills as gorgeous as ever.

As for the Spruce Railroad Trail, the much disputed roads in the area seem to be open, though there were a good number of downed trees along the roadside, and a bit of brush on the road. Lake Crescent is high, but the water has been going down lately during this drier spell, so it is just one short step over water to get on the Devil's Punchbowl bridge. Our special surprise waterfall has dried up, but a number of other channels that are usually dry are now full of running water.

In other words, the roads are opena nd the trails are open, so take advantage of the sunny days of February.

01/07/06 - Reviews of Lampreia and Joy's Wine Bistro

Here are two new Kaleberg reviews. Lampreia is an elegant restaurant in Seattle's Belltown, and quite a dining experience. Joy's Wine Bistro is a less formal newcomer in Port Angeles, and shows a lot of promise these early days.

Lampreia is an elegant restaurant in Belltown. It is a foodies paradise. We dined on truffles, white and black, foie gras and langouste. We also checked out the wonders of cooking sous vide, a recently popular slow cooking method for concentrating flavors and optimizing textures. Our Review

Joy's Wine Bistro is an informal newcomer on glamorous Front Street. It is a beautiful place with an excellent wine list, and a number of great dishes. Not everything was perfect, but the spirit is right. We'll be back to try more of the menu, and to see how they develop. Our Review

12/25/05 - The Too Big House

We've been big fans of Sarah Susanka's Not So Big House books, The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live and Inside the Not So Big House : Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life. Of course, we don't agree with Ms. Susanka 100%. We feel that her rival, Sara Sue-Sank-Her, has a number of valuable points as well. We are particularly fond of her contrarian book, The Too Big House, for those of us who feel that too big is just right.

12/23/05 - Fruitcake Is Illuminated - A Special Report

Wow, have we been busy. It is definitely time for an update. What have we been doing? Well, we illuminated our fruitcake. Read our special report for more on this. That's just a close up on the right.

We've also been decorating the cookie tree. We have some pictures of last year's cookie tree here.

12/13/05 - The Port Angeles Christmas Firetruck

Every year the Port Angeles fire department runs their collection for the local food banks, Operation Candy Cane. They deck out one of their trucks with lights and get Santa up on the top of the rig to hand out candy canes to all good boys and girls, and to those who give something for people short on food. You can't miss this food drive, what with the lights and sirens it's quite a spectacle. We always give cash, since we doubt that a bunch of lacinato kale is going to do as much good as a few leaves of lettuce.

The firemen may be back fighting fires now, but you can always find a local food drive or food bank if you want to be good.

12/07/05 - Flat Screen and Pregnant - A Kaleberg journey into computer French

Christmas season often finds us browsing the internet for presents. It's also finals season, so we find ourselves browsing in French to keep our vocabulary up to date. Such is the price of being a homework helper. All this highly focussed browsing often gets us to interesting web pages, for example, those with gift ideas in French. This led us to ponder the tribulations of being écran plat and enceinte, flat screen and pregnant. It turns out that this is quite easy in French, if you speak proper computer French. For more on this, see our latest Kaleberg journey.

11/26/05 - Hurricane Ridge Is Open

Last winter, we didn't get up to Hurricane Ridge very much. Either it was snowing, or it had stopped snowing, but the plow was broken, or all the snow had melted. This year, things we hope for better, and the season is already showing some promise. Today, the road was open, there was a nice coating of snow, and everyone seemed to be heading up to the Ridge to work off some Thanksgiving turkey.

We put on our snowshoes and hiked from the Hurricane Ridge lodge to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. We ran into others on snowshoes, cross country skiers, and a number of people just tromping along in boots. The sky was bright blue, with just a hint of cloud, and the air was wonderfully clear. This latter was an especial relief since we had been enduring a bit of fog and bad air of late.

The ski lift wasn't open yet, but there were lots of people with sleds, snowboards and even skis. Of course, they had to climb Sunrise Peak by foot without the lift. As for us, we came for the exercise.

09/21/05 - Feral Green Monsters

09/20/05 - Extreme New York

08/05/05 - TideCal - Tides for iCal

07/10/05 - Lamb On A Spit: The Motion Picture

05/04/05 - Eleanor's Building

04/16/05 - Lacinato Kale Obsession

• from Too Many Oysters
• from Lacinato Kale at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

12/21/04 - Too Much Poultry

12/18/04 - Our Candle Tree

11/23/04 - Too Many Oysters?

10/08/04 - Non-Alcoholic Cocktails

09/18/04 - Lacinato Kale