Morels, asparagus and roasted red peppers

A spring treat: morels from the forest and fresh-from-the-garden asparagus.

Asparagus season has arrived and with it, somewhere in the mystic Southern Oregon forest, morel mushrooms have pushed through the duff. I know because a kindly ex-neighbor delivered to us morels that he'd collected in a forest we can see from home, and we had them for dinner. Unfortunately, I have yet to observe firsthand morels in the forest.

Our garden served up the asparagus. The asparagus is easy. All you have to do is dig trenches one or two feet deep, plant the asparagus crowns, wait three years, and hello! If the slugs or asparagus beetles don't get them, you can go out there with your little cutter thing and harvest during the month of April.
We planted  crowns 20 years ago and others about 10 years ago. Despite the bugs and slugs, we enjoy a steady spring harvest. Did I envision 20 years ago that I'd be cutting spears in 2013? No. But when in your life can you foresee what will come of your actions so far in advance? Gardening provides a window on the future, and a hold on it. Too bad you have to BE in the future to believe it.

Morels? Different story. We've been skunked on a our recent morel hunts. But the day that our guy delivered the goods, we had a feast comprising fresh morels, just-picked asparagus, and roasted red peppers. Wow! A couple days later, with another asparagus harvest and no morels, I repeated this recipe but used portobello mushrooms, which weren't quite as delicious. But what can you do when the morels shrink and hide? Just run down to Costco and hunt for portobellos.
Recipe and photos follow.

Morel & Asparagus Stir Fry

Morel or other mushrooms, about a pound, rinsed and sliced
Fresh asparagus, about a pound, rinsed, woody stems removed, and sliced
Juice of half a fresh lemon
Roasted red peppers in a jar, about three whole, drained and cut into strips
2 Tbsp butter or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Rinse the morels, drain and slice into rounds. Saute in oil or butter until all the moisture has been released. Remove to a glass bowl.
Saute the asparagus for a few minutes over medium-high heat. You want it crisp/tender. Squeeze the half lemon over it. Add the cooked mushrooms and the red peppers. Season with salt and pepper and stir. Serves two or three generously.

Fresh raw just-harvested  morels. These are large and in perfect condition. 

Rinse the mushrooms, slice, and saute in olive oil and/or butter. 

Cook until the liquid has evaporated.  

Morels, Zip. Flowers, Zenith.

We failed to find any morels, but spring wildflowers were in abundance.
These are shooting stars, prolific in Southern Oregon forests. 

A friend stopped by the house a couple days ago with—and I am not kidding—a five-gallon bucket overflowing with freshly harvested wild morel mushrooms that he found on the hillside visible from our home and just a few-minutes walk down the road and up the hill. 

I've been staring at and admiring that hillside for three decades and have tromped around up there many times. I just failed to see the terrain as a mushroom super mercado. The friend, who used to be our next-door neighbor, gave us a few morels for dinner** before heading home to process his windfall and add it to the 40 pounds of morels already in his freezer! (Yes, the exclamation point is warranted.) Mushroom envy clutched my throat, and also mushroom chagrin. How could we have lived here so long without taking advantage of this free-for-the-picking bonanza? We were about to find out.

PK and I headed for the forest armed with small knives to cut the mushrooms and mesh bags to carry them—big bags, as the vision of that five-gallon bucket still danced in our heads. Rather than our familiar hillside, we tackled an area, also visible from our garden, where we often hike for exercise and a "forest fix." It's a steep hillside on BLM land, and also an historic gold mining area. We poked around in the typical Southern Oregon mixed madrone, oak, pine, fir and manzanita forest for two hours. We did not see even one morel. Not one! 

Kicking around near a madrone tree, a favorite mushroom habitat supposedly, I called a sharp-eyed veteran morel hunter who I have witnessed spotting roadside mushrooms from a moving vehicle. What were we doing wrong? She confessed to many fruitless morel hunts, and reminded me that "hunting" is an operative word. You don't just go out there and expect easy pickings. Huh? Oh well. There was plenty to enjoy, and I can think of worse ways to spend two hours. Today, we are going to try the  hunting grounds of our former neighbor and hope that bastard didn't pick every last one.

The road has been closed to vehicles for years. It ends at an old mine.

Scarlet fritillaria growing and glowing trailside. 

PK looking for mushroom bulges beneath the madrones. Yes, the trees slant downhill. 

 

Manzanita bush in blossom.

A colorful stand of Indian Warrior, one of many wildflower displays we enjoyed on our fruitless mushroom hunt.

**Post about a yummy morel and asparagus stir fry is in the works. 

Kale Chips? EEEK! Potato Chips? YEAAA!

Kale chips and potato chips
attended a party together and made some friends.

It's hard to believe that some people are contemptuous of vegetables. They shove steamed broccoli or cooked peas around as if maggots were on their plates, and relatively unknown greens such as arugula or bok choy send them into vigorous uploading of meat and mashed potatoes.

But there's one vegetable that tops them all in the vile-to-veggie-haters category and that is kale. The evil kale, that we all should know by now is about the best thing we can eat to stave off inflammation and to boost immune systems. But even PK, who is a veggie lover and ardent gardener, can turn squeamish about kale. Any hint of "strong taste" and he's outta there. But he has another reason for being kale-adverse.

"Do you remember what it did to your BREATH?!" he asked. Rudely, very rudely, when I announced my intention to make kale chips again.

The last time I made kale chips was a few weeks back when we needed a party appetizer. I'd avoided making them before because I thought they'd be too much trouble and kale was not yet growing in the cold frame. But I kept running across recipes exclaiming the ease and deliciousness of kale chips, not to mention their superior nutritional value, so I purchased organic curly kale and started with what seemed a huge amount of torn leaves arranged on two cookie sheets.

Raw kale tossed with olive oil and seasoned salt on a parchment-paper
 lined baking sheet.

About 12  minutes later after baking in a 375 degree oven.

But after baking, I ended up with only a small bowl of green crispy things. They tasted great, even PK agreed, but I wasn't comfortable contributing such a paltry amount at a party for 20 people. What to do? Add potato chips!

Not ANY chip, of course, but Tim's Jalapeno Potato Chips. God, I love them. They are my junk food of choice. Just because I'm big into healthy eating and vegetables and low carbness doesn't mean I'm perfect and can't treat myself to a potato chip now and then. (Like maybe a few every day.) So combining them with the ultra virtuous kale chips is a perfect exercise in yin and yang, good and evil, and party pooper and party savor. (get it?)

When making the first batch, I did a fair amount of of kale-chip tasting, just to make sure they were edible, which made my tongue green and, apparently, my breath fetid, although that could have been because I seasoned the kale with garlic salt. PK did not appreciate my breath, but despite his crinkled up nose, the combo was a hit at the party.

Those who endeavor to eat "healthy" loved the kale chips, and even the people who say screw it when it comes to vegetables, took the plunge by trying a kale chip chased by a jalapeno chip, declared it all good, and came back for more.

So if you'd like to be a hit with a potluck appetizer, even with the kale-adverse group, try this. It's easy! Especially ripping open the potato chip package and dumping it in with the kale chips. I tried to go half and half. By the way, the kale chips disappeared first.

Kale Chips—with a little optional help from Tim 

1. Purchase, or harvest from your garden, one large bunch of kale. Rinse and dry, then remove and discard stems and inner ribs. 
2. Dump the kale into a large bowl and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Most recipes call for one tablespoon.
3. Season the kale carefully with salt* and, if you like, pepper. I included a squirt of Sriracha sauce to befriend Tim's chips. I also sprinkled in a little garlic powder.
4. Mix kale, oil, and seasonings with your hands until evenly coated. 
5. Spread in one layer on two cookie sheets. Parchment paper eases clean-up.
6. Bake in a 250* degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the chips are dry/crisp. Check after 15 minutes and rearrange chips and/or turn the cookies on oven racks. 
7. Remove chips from the pans and cool on racks.

Mixing with Tim's Jalapeno Potato Chips is optional, of course. But if you're headed to a party,.......Aim to please!
* Kale chip recipes abound, and flavored gourmet salts are popular seasonings, as are curry and pepper flakes. Season sparingly, remembering how that big pile of kale shrinks into a small pile. 
* I've seen recipes calling for higher temps and shorter baking times. I like the cooler oven as the danger of burning the chips is less. 

Spring's A Great Time for Quinoa Veggie Salad

I'm not much on grains in my low-carb life, but am fond of a bit of quinoa mixed 

with veggies  and fresh herbs in a lemony dressing.

I've pretty much given up most grains, but sometimes I crave the "tooth/mouth feel" of little bits of neutral crunch pepped up with citrus and garlic and lots of veggies and herbs. Quinoa is more virtuous than many grains as it's high protein and also loaded with fiber, iron and other nutrients. An ulterior motive for cooking up some quinoa is that we're headed soon to visit our son and daughter-in-law, who is about to pop our second grandchild. She's a vegetarian and I will be cooking. I need to practice! 

Spring is also a good time for a good mood. What with all the color and fragrance and soft, sweet air, and streams rushing with snow melt, and forsythia, cherry and plum trees blooming, and spinach and kale in the cold frame, it reminds us that life begins anew, without fail, every spring. We can count on it, and face it, there's not that much delight promised by the universe. Spring is a given and a gift.

When I die, I hope it will be in spring and my ashes can be troweled into a garden, which may result in tastier tomatoes and greener kale. When you reach a certain age, you are encouraged to fill out forms that inform your loved ones how you would like to be treated as you deteriorate and how you would like to be disposed of when the time comes. Garden, please, however ghoulish you may find that to be. And don't spend any money if you can help it.

Here's a quick, easy, delicious quinoa/veggie salad recipe followed by some recent garden pix.

Quinoa Spring Salad

• 1 cup quinoa, uncooked (makes 2 cups cooked. directions below)
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds or roasted pine nuts
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels (I used the last of the 2012 frozen corn.)
• 3 tbsp fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (flat-leafed Italian preferred)
• 2 radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
• thin slivers of spinach and/or kale, a generous handful
• 3 tbsp chopped onion, or 3 scallions, sliced
• 3 tbsp chopped sweet red or yellow sweet pepper
• two or three large whole spinach or kale leaves as a bed for the quinoa mixture
• juice of half a lemon
• balsamic vinegar to taste
• 4-5 tbsp olive oil
• 2 small cloves of mashed garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Note: As with nearly every recipe I post, consider the ingredients as suggestions and use what you have. Don't run to the store for radishes! If you don't have fresh mint or parsley, try something else. Cilantro? Basil? Chives? Arugula? Or even dried herbs.Tinker with the dressing. I usually end up adding more lemon. We're going for tangy and tasty, not bland or sour. 

Directions

Cook the quinoa. Most recipes say to rinse it first to remove a bitter coating. I always do this, but my favorite daughter-in-law does not. She works full time at a high-powered job, reads incessantly, rises at 5 a.m. daily for exercise, has an adorable toddler who wants her attention, and does not suffer fools or fussy recipes. She says she's never tasted bitterness in her cooked quinoa and does not intend to rinse. So be it.

I have the extra 15 minutes. If rinsing, place the quinoa in a fine sieve and place it over a bowl or cooking pot so that you can cover the grain with warm water and swish it around. Let it soak for 15 minutes or up to a half hour. Drain the soaking water and pour fresh water over the quinoa before dumping the rinsed quinoa into a 2-quart cooking pot with a lid.

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1/2 tsp salt

Bring quinoa, water and salt to a boil, cover with a tight-fitting lid and turn the heat down to simmer. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let it sit for five minutes with the lid on. Uncover and fluff with a fork. Cool.

Add all the veggies and the dressing and taste, taste, taste. Refrigerate to let flavors blend, or serve immediately. Spoon quinoa salad atop large spinach or kale leaves. We ate this with grilled salmon and served it with sliced lemon. Yum! 

Spinach and kale are going bonkers in the cold frame. 

Cold-frame spinach and kale got together with a 2012 storage onion and
discussed the dinner menu. They came up with quinoa salad. 

A parsley "bush" is mined regularly for salads. Sadly, it is a biennial
plant and will go to seed this summer

Spearmint is a blessing and a curse. It is invasive and I must rip it out
of the garden periodically, but it is available most of the year for
seasoning and, now through October, it provides abundant leaves
 for  making sun tea by the gallon. 

Savory Kale, Eggs, Prosciutto—Breakfast!

Eggs, proscuitto, kale, and serrano sauce on a corn tortilla. Yummm.

For  breakfast, most of my life, I ate oatmeal with skim milk, jam on so-called whole wheat toast, an occasional egg, or more likely, Cheerios, Wheaties, Bran Flakes, Corn Flakes and other extruded industrial  processed grain crap. I was on auto pilot.
In those long-ago days, Sunday mornings and special occasions demanded blueberry pancakes, French toast, bread-infested breakfast casseroles and the like. I slowly gained weight, of course, and at one unlovely point, contemplated size 16 jeans. That was shortly before launching into yet another low-fat diet in my yo-yo weight gain/loss life.

Then, about 10 years ago, low-carb became my mantra and breakfast became more problematic. I haven't eaten industrial cereal since 2003, and also gave up bread, for the most part. Without bread, or cereals, including oatmeal, one must be resourceful and forward-thinking, which I often don't feel like being at the crack of 9 a.m. (Retirement! Yeah!)

Now I have another little breakfast problem. I have been advised by a healthcare practitioner to banish dairy. The reason why "no dairy" and how a person is to deal with such deprivation, is fodder (ha ha) for another post, but the short answer is bone spurs.

On a recent morning, unable to enjoy my typical delicious yogurt-based breakfast with berries and low-carb granola,  I went on a hunting expedition in the Amana. Shoving around mouldering bits of this and that, I uncovered prosciutto with an expired pull date, a bunch of kale, and a little feta.

Note: Feta, a brined cheese made from sheep or goat milk, is allowed in seasoning-type amounts by some who promote a dairyless diet. I have grabbed on to this small pleasure until further notice. 

I also unearthed some corn tortillas, which are my major carb splurge, as well a jar of homemade serrano sauce and wonderful organic eggs produced by my wonderful yoga teacher's winsome hens.  She sells the eggs cheep cheep because she says the hens have a high entertainment value. It is good to have an entertained-by-hens yoga teacher.

The breakfast that transpired was beyond satisfactory and has been repeated numerous times. You don't need to be a carb avoider or a dairy swearer-off-er or a nutcase to relish this breakfast entree, which could also pass for lunch or dinner. It is delish and nutrish no matter your condish. 

Ingredients
one serving
2 eggs
2 slices of prosciutto, fat removed
Big handful of tender kale or spinach, torn
Feta or other cheese to taste
Serrano sauce. Sriracha chili sauce is a good substitute.
Corn or flour tortilla, small or medium sized
Olive oil for frying
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions - 10 minutes, start to finish

1. Fry the eggs in a little olive oil. Break the yolks. The eggs pictured are from the yoga teacher's hens, those happy and entertaining little bug and grass eaters who produce incredibly orange yolks. Turn the eggs, unless you prefer runny. Remove from the frying pan and set aside. 

2. Saute the kale or spinach and set aside with the eggs. 

3. Place the tortilla in the hot pan, and melt whatever cheese you prefer in whatever quantity makes your socks roll up and down. I currently avoid most cheese, but at the time  I was uninformed about the hazards of  dairy, and I used a little grated Swiss and some crumbled feta. If you don't want cheese, warm the tortilla in the pan anyway.

4. Place prosciutto on the tortilla to heat, then add the cooked kale or spinach.

5. Arrange the fried eggs on top of everything and spread with serrano chili sauce, if you're lucky enough to have it, or use sriracha chili sauce. I like the tart, hot, tangy taste of both serrano and sriracha, but you could use a milder sauce to give it a little zip.

6. Fold that sucker in half and eat it with your hands. You will be glad you did!