The Sandhill Crane Bed & Breakfast

Why We Love Corrales 28 May 2012, 3:03 pm

Happy Memorial Day!  The official start of the summer season is here.  Today we will salute the holiday by flying our flag, taking a moment to remember all of the brave men and women who have given their lives for this country, and finally, cooking out on the grill. 

Back in Chicago we waited with bated breath for the grilling season to start  – not so much after we got a gas grill  – lighting charcoal in 20 degree weather is brutal.  Here in New Mexico we grill just about year around.  Granted, we still have a gas grill which makes it much easier, but the winters, while cold, are not as brutal as those in Chicago. 

Friday we grilled salmon on a cedar plank.  I brined it first to eliminate that nasty grey protein that builds up next to the skin when you cook salmon.  Tonight we are having a traditional Memorial Day menu – bbqued boneless country ribs, American potato salad, deviled eggs, a green salad and brownies for dessert.  A great way to kick off the official BBQ season!

I know my blog has been spotty lately.  And, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, a lot has to do with the volunteer work I do.  Well here’s one of those volunteer assignments that came up unexpectedly.   I was asked to take the videographer from a local TV station around Corrales and provide him with opportunities to shoot parts of Corrales as a lead in to Our Mayor’s appearance on the show.  I did not realize until he showed up that I would actually have to talk about living in Corrales.  Take a look at the finished result which aired on May 25, 2012 in a segment called Chasing the Fox.    Come visit us and I’ll tell you about the gems of Corrales that got left on the cutting room floor!

Breakfast Tortillas 20 May 2012, 1:54 pm

We’ve been pretty busy this month with lots of guests.  I strive to meet all the dietary restrictions but sometimes it is hard to do while still providing some variety to the mix.   This weekend I had two guests who were low carb and one gluten-free.  My low carb people have been with me for 5 days but they were ok foregoing pancakes and french toast – except for tomorrow, more about that later.  My gluten-free was also ok with egg based breakfasts.  So far so good.  But coming up with egg dishes that are different enough to keep the interest in breakfast isn’t always easy.  Last night I had a brainstorm.  An egg dish that everyone could eat without any modifications and not something my guests were likely to get at home – Breakfast Tortillas.

I used corn tortillas ( covered the low carb and gluten-free issue), black beans, Spanish Chorizo (Spanish Chorizo is dried and smoked, like a salami.  I wouldn’t recommend Mexican chorizo for this recipe), eggs (of course)  shredded cheddar cheese and fresh tomatoes.  Everyone must have loved it because the plates coming back into the kitchen where mighty clean.  So here’s what I did.

Breakfast Tortillas       serves 6

• 6 corn tortillas
• 1 can black beans ( I used Bush’s Black Beans)
• 1 tsp Southwest Seasoning ( from Penzey’s Spices)
• 1 Spanish Chorizo Sausage
• 9 eggs
• 1 tbl butter
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese
• 1 tomato, diced
• prepared salsa to pass
• Place the black beans in a sauce pan with the Southwest Seasoning.  Stir to combine and cook over a low flame until the sauce thickens and the beans are warmed.  Hold over a very low flame.  Chop the Spanish chorizo into 1/4 inch pieces and cook in a frying pan until warmed. Remove from pan and set aside.   Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and whisk, add about 4 tablespoons of water and whisk eggs again.  Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the beaten eggs to the pan when the butter stops sizzling.  Stir the eggs until they reach a soft scramble (we like our eggs soft scrambled but most people don’t.  If you like your eggs soft, remove from heat at this time).  Reduce heat and let the eggs cook until firm .  While the eggs are finishing, heat the tortillas, one at a time,  over an open flame until warmed.  Place one tortilla on each plate.  Top the tortilla with the black beans and then the eggs.  Sprinkle the chorizo, cheese and diced tomato over the eggs and serve.

I decorated the plates with alternating dots of chipotle and jalapeno chile powders that the guests could mix into their food if desired.  Chipotle salsa was set out on the table for those who wanted more of a kick to their eggs.  Note: If you are making this for gluten-free people be sure to use a cheese that has no flour additive.  Some cheeses have a wheat based binder.  In this case I used Sargento which uses a potato starch (acceptable for gluten-free people)  to keep the cheese from clumping.

My gluten-free people have checked out and my low carb people have decided to throw caution to the winds tomorrow.  They heard about my Orange French Toast and decided that it was too good to pass up!

Shrimp and Lobster Ravioli 19 May 2012, 1:47 pm

Last week our local supermarket had Lobster Tails on sale $3.99 for a 4 oz tail.  I love lobster but wasn’t about to spend $16 for 4 tails with very little meat.  So I decided I would buy one tail and use it to make shrimp and lobster ravioli.  The dish satisfied my craving for lobster and with the homemade pasta, was a winner at dinner!  Here’s the recipe – and, as usual, I wing it on quantities so these may not be exact but they’re darn close.

Shrimp and Lobster Filling

• 1 4 oz lobster tail
• 1 cup shrimp
• pinch of Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 oz cream cheese thinned with a little milk.
• Cook the lobster tail and shrimp in boiling water with the Old Bay Seasoning until just cooked through.  Remove from water to cool.  SAVE THE WATER you cooked the lobster and shrimp in as this will be used in the sauce.  Remove the shells from the lobster and shrimp and cut into small pieces.  Reserve one half the shrimp pieces to be added to the dish when plating.

Pasta

• 1 cup flour – extra for rolling
• 1 egg
• 3 tbl olive oil
• 3 tbl water
• Put all the ingredients into a food processor and process until a ball forms.  Add more water – a few drops at a time – if the dough is too dry and doesn’t form a ball.  Remove from the processor and refrigerate for a minimum of 15 minutes – 30 minutes is better. 

Assembling the Ravioli

• I roll out one sheet of pasta at a time, I have a pasta machine with a motor that makes the job easy .  Using a two-inch biscuit cutter,  I cut out an even number of circles, one for the top and one for the bottom.  Using the back of a teaspoon, I dab a bit of the cream cheese onto the bottom ravioli circle then top it with a bit of the shrimp/lobster mixture.  I run a finger dipped in water around the edge of the top ravioli and seal it to the bottom; pressing out any air as I seal.  I crimp the edges using a fork and place the finished ravioli on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour.  (quick cleanup note – line the sheet pan with waxed paper before sprinkling with flour)  The ravioli get covered with a BARELY damp cloth dish towel – I prefer cotton or flour sack – to keep them moist until ready to cook.   They can be refrigerated if you will be cooking them much later. Repeat the rolling of dough and stuffing until all the filling is used up.  If you have too much ravioli for one meal you can  frozen the extra in a single layer for later use.

Sauce

• 1 tbl flour
• 1 tbl butter
• 1/8 cup creme fraiche
• reserved shrimp and lobster cooking water
• Chopped tomato for plating
• Make a roux with the butter and flour.  Cook the roux, stirring frequently to prevent the roux from over browning, for 5 minutes to eliminate the raw flour taste.  Stir in the creme fraiche.  Add enough water to achieve a sauce with your desired consistency.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Keep the sauce on a simmer while you cook the ravioli.

Finishing the Dish

• Gently ease th ravioli into a pot of boiling salted water.  Cook until the pasta is al dente.  Can’t tell you how long; At over 5300 ft above sea level my cooking times may be very different from yours.  Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the cooked ravioli from the boiling water and place in the pot with the simmering sauce.  Gently turn the ravioli in the sauce until coated.  Using the same slotted spoon. remove sauce coated ravioli to individual serving bowls.  Top with the reserved shrimp and chopped tomatoes.  Place any remaining sauce in a gravy boat and pass at the table. 

Obviously this dish takes some time to prepare; it not a home at 6,  dinner on the table at 6:30 kind of thing – unless someone else is doing the cooking!  But it is so worth the effort.  And there are  a couple of shortcuts you can take.  You can use store-bought Lobster ravioli and boil up some shrimp for the sauce and garnish.  Or, if you want to make your own ravioli, you can use won ton wrappers as a substitute for the fresh pasta.  Personally, I don’t care for the consistency of the finished ravioli made with won ton wrappers but that’s just me. 

The only thing missing from this dish was my mom.  The last time I made homemade ravioli it was with my Mom.  It goes much faster with two extra hands!  Missed you Mom.

Cool Wraps 17 May 2012, 1:11 pm

The weather is starting to heat up here in Corrales.  We had a very short spring and seem to have catapulted into summer. Temperatures have been in the mid 80′s every day this week.  Fortunately, we live in an adobe home and the swamp coolers get turned on next week so we aren’t too worried about heat.  However, the warmer weather leads George and I to think about our traditional summer dishes.  Yesterday the temperature reached a balmy 88 degrees so I decided lettuce wraps were in order.  Cooks Illustrated had  a recipe for wraps in their current issue that I decided to try - with a few modifications.  George loved it  – it’s a keeper for the long summer ahead.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps serves 2

• Chicken Marinade
  • 2 chicken boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into one inch pieces
  • 1 tsp dry sherry
  • 1 tsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • Mix the sherry, soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch in a bowl.  Add cut up chicken and stir well.  Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
• The Sauce
  • 3 tbl Oyster Sauce
  • 1 tbl dry sherry
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
  • Whisk all the sauce ingredients and set aside.
• Stir Fry ingredients
  • 1 tbl vegetable oil
  • 1 rib celery – sliced crosswise into thin slices
  • 1 cup of dried shitake mushrooms – reconstituted in hot water and sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup water chestnuts – sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup julienned carrots
  • 1 scallion – white part minced for stir fry, green part sliced and set aside as topping
  • 1 large clove garlic – minced
  • 1 head bibb or boston leaf lettuce – leaves separated, washed and set to dry on paper towels.
• To Assemble – Heat 1/2 tbl oil in skillet or small wok until smoking.  Add the chicken and stir fry until just cooked through - 3 to 4 minutes.  Remove chicken from pan and set aside.  Add 1/2 tbl of oil to pan and heat until smoking.  Add the celery, mushrooms and carrots to the hot oil.  Cook until the carrots and celery are crisp tender.   Add the water chestnuts, scallion white parts, and garlic and cook until fragrant, about one minute. If necessary, whisk the sauce to reconstitute.  Add the sauce, chicken and peanuts to the pan and stir well to combine.  Transfer to a bowl and serve with the lettuce leaves and green parts of scallions.

This dish is pretty easy but the prep takes some time,  Still the meal was light, had a great mix of flavors and really hit the spot on a warm spring evening.

Learning To Say No 16 May 2012, 4:25 pm

Yes, I know, another long stretch with no Word From The Bird.  It’s not because I don’t want to write; I miss my blog.  But I have been a bit overwhelmed for the last month or so with spring cleaning, planting and my volunteer duties.  Something has to give! 

I have never been very good at saying “No” to people. I’m the kind of person that likes to please people so it is hard for me to not fulfill requests.  But lately I find that philosophy is not always the best policy.  My current obligations include Chair of the Lodgers Tax Board in Corrales, Publicity person and Board member for Compadres de Corrales, a local philanthropic/social organization, and Promotions chair for Corrales MainStreet, a  local branch of a national economic development organization.  And this is only the volunteer work.  Running an inn with just two people keeps me plenty busy.  So you can see why I have fallen behind on my blogging.

This month I shed one of my responsibilities.  I have issued my last press release for Compadres de Corrales.  This past March I made the decision not to stand for election to the 2012/2013 board.  I feel as if a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders – or at least one of the weights is gone.  That’s not to say I won’t be busy with my other volunteer jobs.  In the past three weeks, as the promotion chair for Corrales MainStreet, I have written a grant to obtain state tourism dollars for the Village, worked on a benefit for two local charitable organizations and did a video shoot of the village for the mayor’s upcoming appearance on a local TV show. 

Oh, and I worked on my garden.   This is the garden I planted last year so the plants have really taken hold.  This year I added a few additional plants and added a paver border.  I have to admit I am happy with the way it is turning out.  This garden was started last year when we removed all the spotty grass and replaced it with stone.  The garden can be seen from the portal and guests have commented on how lovely it looks.  Certainly worth the time and effort.

So I hope you will forgive my absence.  I promise to do better!  And for those of you who are into the moon; here’s a picture of the moon rising over the mountain taken from our yard.   It doesn’t get any better for a flatlander like me!

Easter Traditions 7 Apr 2012, 4:03 pm

Easter in our house is a holiday filled with traditions.  When I was little it meant my grandmother would make a lamb cake with coconut fur and jelly bean eyes.  My sisters and I would get new dresses, patent leather Mary Janes and anklets.  of course we also had gloves and Easter Bonnets.  And then, on Easter morning after church and locating the Easter baskets, we would have the traditional family egg fight.  Somehow it seemed like my Dad always won; I think it was because he made us hit the pointy end of his egg with the round end of ours! 

Raising my own family I kept those traditions alive.  My daughter Sam always had a new dress, Mary Janes  and a hat; we omitted the gloves.  Sean always had a new sport coat and tie.  We died eggs and hid baskets for the kids; they delighted in hiding their father’s where he would hardly ever find it.  We had egg fights on Easter morning.  My children were very little when my grandmother passed away so I took over the lamb cake tradition and 35 years later I’m still doing it.  Along with the egg fights and easter baskets.

Today I made the Lamb Cake.  Until recently I used one of those rather thin aluminum two piece cake molds.  Several years ago I found a bakery quality mold at an estate sale.  It is also a two piece mold but is of a much heavier construction.  The result is a cake that bakes evenly and releases much more readily. And, most importantly, since I have switched to the heavier mold the ears stay attached to the head  when I remove the cake from the mold.  When I used the thinner mold the ears would separate from the head as the cake released and I would have to hold them on to the head with toothpicks and frosting. 

The cake itself is a simple pound cake batter - and yes, I use a mix.  I frost it with a buttercream frosting and then swirl the frosting to give it the appearance of lambs wool.  Neither George nor I like coconut so the swirling of the frosting is an appropriate substitute for the coconut my grandmother used. I use black jelly beans for the eyes and the nose.  In the past I’ve used purple jelly beans for the eyes but the lamb looked a bit psycho so it was back to black.  I tie a spring-colored ribbon around the neck and the lamb is finished.  My gran used to put green dyed coconut around the lamb to simulate grass.  I pipe green frosting around the base of the lamb for the same effect.

There is always too much batter for the mold.  One year I tried to put all of the batter into the mold and had a real mess when the baking cake overflowed the mold and baked unto the floor of the oven.  Not being a total idiot, I learned from my mistake and have used less batter ever since.  But I don’t like to waste things so I looked for ways to use up the extra batter.  For awhile I made cupcakes that I gave away to neighbors and friends.  Now that I run the B&B I make egg cakes for guests.

I simply pour the extra batter into small cake tins – the ones you use for individual cakes or meatloafs.  they take about 30 minutes to bake.  After they cool I cut the oblong cakes into egg shapes.  I have to admit I do this freehand and am not the best at it.  But it ‘s the thought – right? 

I frost the cake with same buttercream and pipe a design around the outline of the cake.  then the top gets decorated with jelly beans.  I will present the cake tomorrow morning at breakfast and then will wrap it up for them to take home.  Looking at the picture I realize I should have used a colored plate.  All that white!  Live and learn.  Our guests also get a small easter basket at their place on the table with a personalized hard-boiled egg, jelly beans and a chocolate egg.  They can eat candy for breakfast – I’m not their mother!

I’ve always loved the holiday traditions – now I get to share them with my guests!

A Family That Cooks Together…… 2 Apr 2012, 3:36 pm

March 19th was my mom’s 82 birthday.  This was her first birthday since my dad passed away and we were honored she choose to spend it with us.  She arrived on Thursday and stayed until Tuesday.  I have always been close to my mom.  Now we are more like friends than mother and daughter.  We had the best time.  We did a few sightseeing things, we did a little shopping.  But mostly we caught up, and cooked. 

It’s still Lent so Friday night we had to go meatless.  My mom is a big smoked salmon lover so I decided on Smoked Salmon Ravioli with Asparagus in a lemon cream sauce.  I make the pasta from scratch.  I have an electric motor on my pasta machine so it goes a little faster than hand cranking but it is still a big job to do alone.  But put a mother and daughter together and boy did we fly! 

Mom cut the smoked salmon into one inch pieces while I made the dill pasta dough.  While the dough was resting I mixed the cream cheese with a little milk to make it easier to spread, located my trusty ravioli cutter – a two-inch biscuit cutter and assembled my pasta machine. Fifteen minutes later we were ready to roll – literally!  I rolled out the first sheet of pasta and cut out the circles.  Mom stuffed them with cream cheese, then salmon then a bit more cream cheese.  She was a real pro at pushing all of the air out of the ravioli and crimping the edges tight – not one opened during cooking.  We finished all of the ravioli - about 24 in one hour; a speed record for this dish.   We held them on a floured cookie sheet covered with a barely damp cloth.   As dinner time neared my mom set the table and I started the water boiling for the pasta.  The asparagus was cut into 1 inch pieces and blanched.  I melted butter in a sauce pan and added the flour.  After the roux had cooked for 3 or 4 minutes I added the cream.  As the sauce came together I put the ravioli in the boiling water.  Fresh pasta takes no time to cook so as they came to a boil I added the asparagus to the sauce and finished it with a some freshly grated lemon zest.  The pasta was drained, added to the sauce and dinner was served.  I had forgotten how much fun it was to cook with my mom.  I am so glad I had a chance to remember!

I’M BAAAACK 30 Mar 2012, 3:51 pm

To all my readers; I’m sorry for the lapse in the blog.  Life has been one big roller coaster this month.  We’re in the process of painting rooms, cleaning up the yard from our annual spring winds and oh yes, replacing appliances.  In my last blog I wrote how my refrigerator gave out.  The new one is in place and the kitchen was once again humming along when the broiler on my range ceased functioning.  Now we don’t really use the broiler to broil anything – we’re more grill kind of people.  But the broiler servers to preheat the oven.  Without the broiler, the oven takes forever to preheat, really throwing a monkey wrench on muffin baking in the morning.  This is not the first time the broiler has gone out on this Dacor dual fuel range; it’s the fourth time, in 12 years.  And it isn’t he only repair we have had to make.  Last year the heating element went out and had to be replaced.  We just decided no more money on our old Dacor. 

This is the first itme I have gone range shopping in 12 years and the choices were pretty astounding.  Much as I would like to get a counter top range and wall ovens; remodeling the kitchen is out of the question.  I wasn’t even going to try that one on George!  So I was limited to a 30 inch range oven combo.  But I still had plenty to choose from.  I am a gas girl so that narrowed the choice of ranges down considerably.  I also wanted continuous grates, at least 15,000 BTU’s on one burner, and no less than three oven racks.  Then I had to decide if I wanted four or five burners, a griddle burner, simmer burner, warming drawer, one or two ovens.  Since we were stove shopping on a Saturday, George was able to help with the decision by saying “What ever you want”  Some help. 

The new stove arrived on Wednesday.  It has one oven, five burners with several BTU configurations – one burner puts out over 17,000 BTU’s, there is a simmer burner and  a griddle burner.  The bottom oven rack extends along the oven door when you open the door.  Great for me when I have cookie sheets on the bottom rack and routinely burn my hand when trying to turn the sheet.  I’m happy.  George is happy and so are my guests who are enjoying the cookies! 

I think I’m done with appliance replacement.  At least I hope so!

Life without Modern Appliances 1 Mar 2012, 12:50 pm

For the last couple of posts I’ve talked about dining in the 1919 – 1921 period.  The Lessons in Cooking book I wrote about comes with pictures on the proper bread kneading technique as well as examples of well-organized kitchens.  The stoves and ice boxes pictured look like cooking was a lot of work.  We are so lucky to live with modern appliances that free us from the drudgery of stoking the oven with coal or wood or hauling ice to keep food cold.  We really don’t appreciate the strides made until one of our appliances goes out – like my refrigerator did Tuesday night. 

I went to get a bowl of ice cream after dinner Tuesday night and noticed the ice cream was more like soft serve.  I figured I hadn’t shut the freezer door completely after playing around with the ice maker earlier in the afternoon.  I checked the ice cream a little later in the evening and it didn’t seem to be getting any harder but the other food was frozen so I wasn’t too concerned.  The next morning I got up and immediately checked the freezer.  The food was still frozen but the thermometer showed a rise in temperature overnight.  And, the refrigerator was not making its usual noise.  George was already at work by the time I deduced that the condenser had failed.  I thought about calling our appliance repair guy (yes, he’s a real repair man – not a guy from Sears) but figured the refrigerator was pretty old – 12 years and two days to be exact – so a condenser would probably cost as much as a new fridge.  George confirmed my thoughts so, after moving everything out of the old fridge into ice chests and our other freezer, I went out to hunt down a new fridge.  WOW, what a selection.  Side by side, freezer top fridge below, fridge on top freezer below, the new units described as a french configuration.  Ice and water in the door, shopping list holders, digital temperature readouts and adjustments.  All I want is a refrigerator; something that keeps frozen food frozen and everything else cold.  The only other feature, besides an ice maker with ice and water in the door,  was a drawer for cold meat and cheese, in addition to the vegetable and fruit drawers.  To go with the other appliance the unit had to be black or stainless. 

 Do you know how hard it is to find an appliance that works for you and can be delivered on a timely basis?  Not easy my friends.  One store had the perfect refrigerator but couldn’t deliver it until March 13!  I can’t live out of ice chests for two weeks and we can’t have guests here without a functioning refrigerator so that unit was a non starter.   Another store had nothing I liked in stock.  I was beginning to despair.  After about 4 hours of shopping at home improvement stores and Sears I found the perfect unit at a local appliance store.  One that could be delivered today!  So now I am waiting for my new refrigerator.  The old one is empty ( obviously) and cleaned.  I have relocated any furniture that could hinder the transport of the machine to its final resting place.  It’s due to be delivered between 3pm and 6pm.  With my luck it will be closer to six and I’ll need to get dinner and restock a fridge at the same time.  Or, maybe we’ll go out.  I’m sure a burger and beer will sound pretty good about then!

A Formal Dinner 28 Feb 2012, 2:26 pm

Yesterday I shared the Lowney’s cookbook description of the 12 courses in a formal dinner party.  Lowney’s actually has a sample menu for a formal dinner and here it is;

First Course – Oysters or Clams in Shells, Brown Bread Sandwiches

Second Course – Consomme with Croutons

Third Course – Broiled trout with Maitre d’hotel butter, Cucumbers

Fourth Course  – Croquettes or Sweetbreads

Fifth Course – Saddle of Mutton, Currant Jelly, Potatoes, Peas in Fontage Cups

Sixth Course – Punch

Seventh Course – Broiled Quail with Chestnut Puree, Tomato Salad

Eighth Course – Bombe Glace and Sponge Cake

Ninth Course – Fruits and BonBons

Tenth Course – Coffee

This formal menu has only ten courses instead of the previously described twelve courses as it omitted the appetizer course and combined the ninth and eleventh course.  Still a lot of food.  I wonder how long it took to eat this meal.   I know my New Years Eve meal takes at least 4 hours but part of that can be attributed to last-minute cooking; a necessary evil when you don’t have kitchen staff! 

I have to admit I am intrigued by this menu.  I may try to recreate it for New Years Eve – substituting something for the mutton – who wants to eat mutton, and the quail – almost impossible to get, I know, I’ve tried.  It may seem to be a bit ambitious but I have 9 months to plan!

And for those of you who would like to see what this book looks like; here a link to a website featuring the book http://chestofbooks.com/food/recipes/Lowney/index.html  Mine isn’t in as good a shape as the one pictured but it’s still usable.