Last Saturday I took my daughter out to the woods. Not only would I get a chance to spend some time with my 3 year old as we stomped through the woods, but it also gave my wife a little quite time without the 2 of us. Besides, though a little early, conditions seemed pretty good for hunting down some morels. The trip was both a success and a failure. No morels were found, but the land around the creek was bursting with ramps (wild leeks) of which I grabbed a few handfuls. I’m planning on heading back sometime this weekend to dig some more.

I also got to spend some time in woods with my daughter, which was a delight. She bounced along the paths, stopping at every other flower to point it out to me and to tell me how beautiful it was. Squirrels and birds of various sizes and colors captured her attention at every bend, though it’s surprising that anything ventured within 1/2 a mile of us as she babbled constantly and squealed and laughed with delight at every step. We spent 10 minutes following a toad I had scared up while hunting for morels and another 5 inspecting a dead fish that had washed up on the banks of the creek, though not too closely. She threw rocks at the water and chased after the occasional lone duck, finding fun and delight at every step. I found myself thinking about what a huge difference just a year makes in the life of one so young. Last year at this time, the woods, though wondrous to her, definitely did not hold the same allure that they do now. She explored, but never strayed to far. This time I had to race to keep up and constantly warn her about getting too far ahead. Oh, to be 3 again and once again view the world with awe and wonder, instead of the eyes of a jaded, relatively cynical 40 year old.

Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Linguine and Ramps
serves 4

6oz crabmeat
2 Tbsp. onion, minced
1 Tbsp. celery,minced
1 Tbsp. red bell pepper, minced
8 Club crackers, crushed (or 12 Ritz crackers)
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
salt
pepper
12 shrimp, large (U-10′s are best)
2 Tbsp. butter melted
12oz linguine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1-2 Tbsp. tarragon, minced
1 cup ramps, cleaned and chopped
1 1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Combine, crabmeat, onion, celery, pepper, crackers and mayo together in a bowl and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta, per the directions on the package making sure to cook it al dente. Peel and devein the shrimp, making sure you cut only deep enough to remove the vein. Flip the shrimp over and cut open the shrimp from the underside, being careful not to cut all the way through.

Divide the crabmeat mixture into 12 portions and form into a loose ball. Place crabmeat on butterflied shrimp and curl tail over to hold the crab in place.

Once pasta is done drain in a colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. Place the shrimp on a cookie tray, drizzle with the butter and place in the oven cooking for 7-9 minutes or until the shrimp is done. Meanwhile, in a large, nonreactive skillet place the wine and the garlic. Reduce over high heat until the wine is reduced by 2/3′s. Add the cream and reduce by 1/2. Add the tarragon and ramps, cook for 1 minute then add the pasta. Heat through, add the parmesan cheese and adjust seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Divide the pasta among 4 plates mounding it in the center. Place three stuffed shrimp around the pasta and serve.

Maybe you have been following “Once a Chef” from the beginning, or maybe you have just stumbled upon this blog for the first time, either way, there are a number of ways that you can follow the goings on here. Of course, you can always sign up for the RSS feed, or you can choose to subscribe via email but there are also a couple of other ways to check out the newest posts or interact with me.

You can find the “Once a Chef” fan page here, on Facebook.

If Twitter is more you style then you can find my page here. “Once a Chef” was already taken, as a name, so you can find it under “Always a Chef.”

Finally, you can also find my personal page at Foodbuzz, under my real name, Pete Martin.

Each one of these sites links back here so that you won’t miss any posts. In addition, I try to add other touches and comments to each. Also, if you are one who doesn’t like to leave comments, each of these pages is a good way to interact with me. I encourage everyone to link up with “Once a Chef” on one or all of these other sites to let me know you are out there. And don’t forget to tell your friends!!!!!

Mint

Despite the near blizzard conditions I experienced in the early morning hours of April 8th, as I drove to work, Spring is starting to really make its presence known here in Wisconsin. And it’s about time!!!! Today, I took the first good look at my herb garden to see what was starting to sprout. Most of my perennial herbs have broken soil. The tarragon, always an early starter, is already a good 3-4″inches high, while the sage has just started to sprout out from the woody remains of last season. The mint, once a joy, and now a beast that needs constant taming less it take over everything, has popped up all over the herb and flower garden. While my lemon balm, my favorite herb for herbal iced tea has just barely peaked out of its winter rest below the soil, the rhubarb is already looking robust and I look forward to my first pie of the season. Rounding out the rest of the lineup is my thyme plant. It’s hit or miss whether it will come back. Some years it makes it through the winter while in others I need to replant, unlike it’s cousin, the creeping thyme. This herb is more of a ground cover and while it can be used culinarily, its flavor is not nearly as refined as that of other thymes. It is also much hardier than other thyme varieties and comes back year after year.

I haven’t decided what to add to the garden this year, but a basil plant or 2 usually make the cut as does cilantro, both of its leaves and for the seeds (coriander). This year I might add some lavender again, another plant that borders on being hardy in this area. It survives mild to normal winters here in Wisconsin, but won’t make it if the winter is harsher than usual. Ultimately though, the decision won’t be made until I get out to the nursery and see what strikes my fancy at that time.

No recipe today, but look for these herbs in the future as I’m sure they will play prominent roles in a number of recipes to come. Until then enjoy a few pictures of my freshly sprouted plants.

Lemon Balm

Tarragon

Sage

Rhubarb

Okay, it’s a little late in the season, but I just recently discovered the Milwaukee Winter Farmers’ Market and I wish I had learned about it earlier! I came across it quite by accident as I was searching to see if there were any producers of hard cider here, in Wisconsin. I found one producer, Aeppel Treow Winery, which produces bothapple wine and hard cider. In their information I also discovered that they were at the Milwaukee Winter Farmers’ Market on the first Saturday of every month. Bonus, not only had I come across a producer of hard cider, but I also “discovered” a new, off season farmers’ market.

The market is held every Saturday, through April 24th, at the Tommy Thompson Youth Center at State Fair Park. You can access it through Gate 5, on 84th St. While not large, I was impressed by the variety of Wisconsin grown and raised products. Besides, the hard cider and apple wine, there was an apple orchard that still had apples for sale. These over wintered apples were starting to just show their age and were a bit on the mealy side, but they were still sweet and quite flavorful. A little mealiness is small price to pay for their taste which beats any store bought apples hands down. Also included in the days list of producers were a couple of honey producers, a couple of bakeries, numerous farmer’s selling pasture fed beef, pork, poultry and elk, and a few stands selling processed foods made from local, Wisconsin produce, from salsas and jams to pasta and granola.

Rolling Meadows Sorghum Mill is there selling their sorghum syrup and locally produced maple syrup. Of the few cheese producers there, we stopped at Saxon Homstead Creamery and picked up a wedge of their “Saxony” cheese, a washed rind cow’s milk cheese, which they describe as nutty and supple, a description that may be rather vague, but one I agree with. I will definitely be checking out some of their other cheeses. We also picked up some mushrooms from River Valley Ranch, Wisconsin’s oldest mushroom producer.

There wasn’t much in the way of produce, but I didn’t expect to find much at this time of year, in Wisconsin. But a few farmers were displaying some fresh spinach and radishes grown, I’m sure in hoop houses or hot houses.

While I didn’t purchase any, it did get me excited for spring to arrive and the farmer’s markets throughout Wisconsin to get started up again.

Probably, the biggest coup for the market though this the inclusion of Bolzano Artisan Meats.  Bolzano is Wiscosin’s first and only company dedicated to the art of dry curing meat.  While still relatively unknown in throughout the rest of the country, Bolzano has, in a very short time made quite a name for themselves among upper Midwest foodies.  They currently offer guanciale, dried and cured pork cheek and panchetta, an Italian slow cured “bacon” that remains unsmoked.  Both of their products are some of the best I have tasted and I expect it won’t be long before they gain a reputation from coast to coast.

With only 7 more weeks left before the market closes for the year, I doubt I will make it back,but not for a lack of wanting. Milwaukee is about a 45-60 minute drive and our weekends are pretty full for the next 2 months. So while I might not make it back this year, I will look forward to it’s opening next October, but just because I can’t make it back doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check it out if you are in the area. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Well, in just a short time 2009 will be but a memory.  It seems appropriate that I should be writing my 100th post this evening as we reflect on the old and usher in the new.  When I started this adventure,back in May, I had no idea what to expect, and I guess I still don’t.  I never expected that writing a blog would be so time consuming.  I can’t imagine how those that post every day can pull it off.  I am amazed and awed.  Between work, family, and friends it gets difficult to find the time to write, let alone come up with recipes, cook and photograph it all.  But while it can be time consuming, I also find it a very rewarding experience.  Sure, I don’t have a huge audience, but that doesn’t matter terribly much, to me.  I’m just happy sharing my love of food and the passion it instills in me.  I have seen my readership grow, slowly, but steadily so hopefully I am doing something right and people are enjoying what they are reading.

Since it is the year end I thought I would look over my past 99 posts and present my Top 9 of 2009.  Yes, I know, everyone is doing it, and it seems rather cliched, but hey, if it works why not go with it.  It was difficult enough to pick out my favorite 9 posts from the past year, there is no way I can put them in order so, in no particular order, I present to you my Top 9 Favorite Posts of 2009:

Pink Grapefruit Sorbet Still one of my all time favorite sorbets. Light, tart, and refreshing.

The Ultimate PB & J A grown up way to enjoy the flavors of childhood. I look forward to this every summer when concord grapes come in season.

Adventures in Cookie Baking Any time I get to spend with my daughter is time well spent even if it doesn’t go the way I expect it to.

Making Sauerkraut This post came as a revelation to me. I’d had never made my own sauerkraut before and now it will be difficult to go back to the store bought stuff ever again.

Creamy Sage Polenta with Sausage Ragu I love comfort foods and it doesn’t get much more comforting than this, even if you aren’t Italian!

Mint Juleps I make no apologies about being a big fan of Bourbon and one of the great ways to enjoy it is in a properly made Julep.

The BLT-A Case for Food Snobbery Even some of the most “pedestrian” of foods can benefit from a little food snobbery, at least sometimes.

Caramel Filled Apple Dumplings I still think about these little bundles of goodness-and I really like the picture I took for this post!

Halibut with Fennel and Grapefruit When I can get my wife to rave about a fish dish, I know I am on the right track!

You will notice a new banner on my sidebar, starting today, linking you to freerice.com. Freerice.com allows you to waste some time on the computer and help feed starving people across the world. You answer vocabulary questions (they have also expanded to a few other subjects too) and for every correct answer they will contribute 10 grains of rice to the United Nations “World Food Program.” We all waste a good amount of time doing nothing on the computer, why not make a little of that time count, help a good cause and expand your vocabulary and knowledge base a little?

Since it’s inception, in October, 2007, Freerice has donated approximately 72 billion grains of rice, to fight world hunger. That’s enough rice to sustain approximately 3.6 million people for one day or approximately 7000 people a day, since it started.

It works because sponsors agree to pay for the rice and to keep the site running in exchange for advertising space on the site. The advertisements all run on banners below the playing screen so you don’t have to worry about dealing with a bunch of pop up ads.

So the next time you have a few minutes, head over to freerice.com, either through the banner here or by typing in the address, and waste a few minutes of your time. It’s for a good cause.

By the way, I don’t receive any payment or added exposure by placing this banner on my blog. I am doing it because I believe in what they do and feel that this cause deserves all the exposure it can get.

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! I had planned on getting in one more post before today, with a great Christmas breakfast, but due to weather we travelled a day early and I wasn’t able to get it in. No problem though as the recipe makes for a great morning after breakfast after a night of drinking on New Year’s Eve, so you can expect my recipe for Eggnog French Toast with Bananas Foster Sauce in the next few days-a perfect way to re-motivate after having done a little too much celebrating.

I hope that if you were travelling, your travels got you to where you wanted to be, safe and sound, and without too much hassle and delay.

May your holidays be filled with love, laughter, and of course great food and drink!!

Happy Holidays!!

When we lived in Vermont my family used to often take Sunday drives. It seems that the art of the Sunday drive has been lost. Who can blame people, seeing what the price of gas is nowadays, but I can’t help but feel saddened. People don’t know what they are missing. I loved those Sunday drives, at least in hindsight. I’m not so sure that I particularly enjoyed them at the time, but now I look back on them with fondness. Sunday drives are about the trip and not the destination. Sometimes my parents had destinations in mind and at other times we’d just drive, look at the scenery, and if we happened upon something cool or a neat little store then it was a bonus. Most times I think my dad just pointed the car in a direction and just drove randomly, though I bet he’d never admit it.

I was always thrilled when our trips wound their way down to Waterbury Center, because I knew a stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill was imminent. It might be a tourist trap, but I loved and still love that place. As a kid, I was fascinated by watching the giant cider press turn out gallons and gallons of cider from the apple pulp they’d load in to it. I could have sat there for hours watching them press that apple pulp into one of life’s greatest treasures-cider.

The other reason I looked forward to the trip was the hot cider donuts. Crisp on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Colored a deep brown, these donuts were packed with the flavors of autumn, from the variety of warm, sweet spices they used to the rich cider reduction used to moisten the dry ingredients. With a bribe of a few hot donuts and a couple glasses of cider my parents were assured of a little piece and quite from my brother’s and my endless verbal barrage, and I believe they took full advantage. (continue reading…)

On October 1^st I gave up soda for a month.  Of course the big question is why.  The simple answer is that I was drinking way too much.  Between Kool Aid and soda I was probably drinking the equivalent of at least 2-3 20oz. bottles a day, on most days.  That is way too much sugar and high fructose corn syrup to be ingesting into my body. I also wanted to see if I could do it or if I was too addicted to soda and sugar to give it up.  Well, so far I’ve made it 21 days without consuming any of these overly sweet beverages.  To be totally up front and honest, I haven’t completely gone sugar free in the beverage department.  I do allow myself a glass or 2 of juice, on some days, and, it being autumn, I was not about to give up cider, but other than that, no sugared drinks.  That included my iced tea, which like many Southerners, I like pretty sweet.  It has taken some time to get used to the unsweetened iced tea, but it’s not bad.  I’ve always drank my coffee black so that was not a problem.

I’ve learned a few things about myself over the last 3 weeks.  1.  I have learned that I was totally addicted to sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  The first 5 days of my “experiment” were tough.  Much tougher than I had expected.  I craved soda all the time and no amount of water seemed to quench my thirst.  I have to admit that by the third day I was about ready to give up and hang my head in failure.  I couldn’t believe how hard it was, it was almost as bad as quitting smoking.  I don’t know if the addiction was physical or psychological but I truly was addicted.  2.  I mostly drank Coke and Mountain Dew and hadn’t realized just how much I relied on the caffeine, those drinks provided, to get me through my day.  Without my sugar and caffeine fix at lunch by mid afternoon I was dragging and ready for a nap.  It became apparent that the 5-6 hours of sleep, a night I was getting, no longer was enough.  It may have been when I was younger but without that caffeine buzz to get me through I needed a good 7-8 hours to get me through the day.

I had expected more of a weight loss with this regime of no soda.  I didn’t drop as much as I would have thought but I have lost weight over the last few weeks.  I guess a little loss is better than none at all.

So what happens on November 1st?  Will I go back to drinking soda, kool aid, and sweetened iced tea?  I imagine I will, but this time it will be in moderation, a word I am becoming more and more familiar with the older I get.  No longer will I feel the need to carry a 20 oz. bottle of soda with me everywhere I go.  Many of my friends have asked me, “Why not just switch over to diet soda?”  The simple answer is because I don’t care for it.  That may change with this month long absence of my favorite sodas, but I doubt it.  I just need to remind myself that the key is moderation.

“What’s next?” I ask myself.  I don’t know.  I have plenty of vices that need to be reigned in and brought under moderation, but I don’t know which one I want to work on next.  I turn 40 in just a few months.  I figure by the time I’m 80 I should have all my vices under control and will be ready to lead a “healthy” lifestyle.

Fall is in full swing and I am thrilled! This is my favorite time of year. The crisp, cool air, the sharp scent of burning leaves and fireplaces, the beautiful autumn colors as the trees change, and of course, the food. As the weather starts to turn cooler I leave behind the thoughts of light, refreshing meals and start thinking about warmer, heartier, more comforting types of foods; soups, chili, stews, pastas with rich, hearty meat sauces, and slowly braised or roasted meats. Fall also means many of my favorite fruits and vegetables are being harvested. Apples immediately come to mind as they are my favorite fruit, but also mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, mushrooms, winter squashes and many root vegetables. Fall also means the opening of one of my favorite places, The Little Farmer. Technically, they open in summer, early August to be exact, selling early season apples and peaches they bring in from a friend of theirs, in Michigan. I admit, I take my first trip out there, soon after they open, to pick up one of their apple muffins, which are to die for, and for which I usually start craving by mid July. Arriving at The Little Farmer in the midst of the summer heat seems wrong, but I need my muffin fix so you’ll find me out there either opening weekend or the week after.

After that first, initial fix, I usually wait until the weather starts to change and they start to harvest the later varieties of apples.

Some of the varieties they grow and sell are Cortlands, Russets, Jonamac, Honeycrisp, Duchess, Paula Red, Ginger Gold, McIntosh, and Empire. They also grow and sell pumpkins, so there is usually a trip out there with the daughter to pick pumpkins for Halloween.

You can choose any of the many hundreds of pumpkins they have already harvested or you can head out to the fields and harvest your own.

But if you think that The Little Farmer is just a roadside stand and U-Pick farm you would be missing out. It has become a one stop shopping adventure. A place to get out, enjoy the weather and a little rural fun. There are hayrides to be taken, a corn maze to navigate, freshly dipped caramel apples to be eaten, goats to be fed, and a fantastic playground with a twenty foot tall mountain of hay bales to be climbed. There is also a craft barn filled with seasonal bricabrac. The main apple house itself is filled with more knickknacks.

But this is where you can buy many of the food stuffs either prepared right on the premise or manufactured for them. All the wonderful baked goods, including the aforementioned apple muffins are produced on site, as is the cider, while many of the pickles and preserves are manufactured for them, according to their specifications.

Once Labor Day arrives, the place gets busy on weekends and they often offer entertainment or events throughout the autumn, including a Dog Walk, when people can bring their dogs for the day. And what would any weekend event in Wisconsin be without brats. Each weekend The Little Farmer allows a group to come in and do a brat fry to raise money for their group or charity.

My wife laughs at me, but I bet from the time they open, in August to the time they close in mid November, I venture out there at least 6-7 times or more. But I love the place! It reminds me of days gone by when we, as a nation, were much closer to our agricultural roots. I also like to help out local farmers and businesses, and it doesn’t hurt that I really like the product they produce!

If you are interested in visiting The Little Farmer, they are located on Hwy. 151 about 10-15 minutes north of Fond du Lac, Wi, on the east shore of Lake Winnebago, in Malone, WI. You can find them on the web here. If you are in the area stop by and, at least, grab an apple muffin.