Our local farmers have provided me and Andy with some incredible ingredients to cook with this fall. Here are a couple of the most memorable things we prepared from Michigan ingredients!
Mama of Spelt Pasta
Fresh Emmer Wheat Noodles
We purchased these at a farmer’s market in Sutton’s Bay, MI.
(Emmer is an old world grain that is a predecessor of spelt.)
Local Butter
Parmesan
Sea Salt
Fresh Cracked Pepper
That’s IT! The quality ingredients speak for themselves.
Whole Roasted Quail with Huitlacoche Ragout
I was excited to find Quail at the farmer’s market this fall. We roasted it with olive oil, salt and pepper. The Huitlacoche (corn mushroom) we got from a Dewitt, MI based company called Earthy Delights. The ragout also has:
Local Michigan Cranberry Beans
Local Yukon Gold Potatoes
Onion, Thyme, and Epazote from our Garden!
Served with Cabernet Sauvignon from Lemon Creek-Berrien Spring, MI!
Andy’s Squash Pie with Shaved Truffles
Secret Recipe! But Andy does tell me it has local carnival acorn squash, local eggs, local cheddar, and is topped with fresh shaved truffles.
(Truffles also came from Earthy Delights. They are the summer truffles from Alba, Italy, so NO we didn’t have to take out a second mortgage to buy them!)
Luke said that he ate better “roughing it” on the tour than he does at home. Between our own car and camp cooking and home stays we were graced with delicious food for the past two weeks.
We certainly know musicians who include a detailed description of food requirements in their performance agreements, however this tour’s sustenance rode on the generosity of many hosts and hostesses who saw that we are well taken care of; many of them who got up early to make us full breakfasts by 8am.
Jackie in Champaign
veggie egg casserole, fresh homemade bread, whole wheat pancakes, fruit salad, polish sausage, bacon, juice, tea, coffee
Cheryl in Glenwood Springs (afternoon snack)
whole roasted chicken with good bread, homemade corkscrew pasta with kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and Parmesan, cranberry San Pellegrino spritzers on ice
Leslie in Glenwood Springs
homemade biscuits and gravy, fresh strawberries, blackberries and raspberries with honey Greek yogurt, coffee — she also made us 7 sandwiches for the road with provolone smoked turkey, proscuitto, salami, and roast beef!
Renne in Salt Lake (who woke up with us at 5:30am!)
cereal with soy milk, coffee, tea, fruit, juice, toast with good hummus for Andy (to prepare him for the drive to L.A)
Stephen in Ventura
two broccoli, zucchini green onion frittatas with feta (made lovingly in cast iron), homemade granola (!) with yogurt and fresh peaches, killer oolong tea
Gabi and Linda in San Diego
fresh baked croissants with homemade dulce de leche(!) and coffee
Erskine and Hotel Andaluz
Lunch at the Lucia (4 start restaurant in the hotel!)
And for eating meals in the car…
With five of us crammed in the car, the seven hour drive from San Diego to the mountains outside Tucson went surprisingly well. One of the highlights was coordinating and preparing a car lunch buffet of baguette slices, longhorn cheese, guacamole, and kalamata olives. There is nothing quite like thinly slicing a baguette with a buck knife with three in the back seat.
And here is another recipe from the trip made from ingredients we found quickly in a Tucson grocery store.
Zona Cactus Beans
The Beans
1. Roast the following on the fire: 1 red bell pepper, 1 head of garlic, 4 cherry bomb peppers, 4 ears of corn, 2 tomatoes
2. Chop everything and put in a cast iron pan on the fire with 1 tsp cumin, 3 TBS olive oil, and 1 can of nopalitos (rinsed)
The Tortillas
1. 1 cup each masa and whole wheat flour mixed with 1 1/4 cup water. Include 1tsp each of coriander and cumin powder in dough before pressing them on the tortilla press and then roasting them on the fire.
We ate the tortillas and beans with homemade guacamole (made by the guac-master Avik) a wheel of queso fresco, Greek yogurt, radish sprouts, canned salsa verde and chips.
We washed it down with some Kilt Lifter Ale, a scotch style ale from Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe, Arizona.
Andy is a professional driver. He made it from Salt Lake to downtown L.A. in ten hours flat!
Once we arrived we picked up Avik in Santa Monica and made our way to Malibu Creek State Park for the night.
The day of our gig at the Candlelight Bar in Ventura we spent hiking, visiting a swimming hole and eating a great lunch at Mugu Beach State Park.
Avik made the most awesome swordfish for lunch!
Swordfish Marinade
2 TBS minced ginger
1 cherry bomb pepper, minced
1 shallot, mined
½ tsp mustard seeds
3TBS braggs
½ tsp salt
1 TBS honey
We accompanied the meal with escarole and green onions tossed with olive, salt and lemon; herbed zucchini couscous; and a heirloom tomato-avocado-fennel-dill salad.
At the Candlelight that night we gave a pre-milonga talk on tango music that was well received and played for a really nice milonga.
Andy and I spent two days in a cabin we rented in central Colorado preparing for our tango gig in Glenwood Springs. After five years of playing tango together we are finally doing our first milonga entirely from memory–something we should have done sooner! If you ever visit Glenwood, don’t miss the hot springs (especially if you have been camping and need a place to clean up before a gig!)
After Glennwood, we bummed around some Colorado wine regions for two days in the Grand Junction/Palisade and Delta areas. Then, last night we stayed in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, a unique area worth the visit!
Local Colorado produce is still a month out, so here is our dinner recipe with the most local ingredients we could find:
Colorado Quesadillas
Local corn totillas
Raw goat milk ceddar made in Besalt, CO
1 jalepeno
I put the cheese and chili in between the tortillas and melted them on the fire.
We ate them with some homemade pico de gallo!
Andy and I camped at the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area on our way through Utah yesterday. Our campsite was 30 feet away from a 1300 foot drop off overlooking the red rock canyon walls with the Green River below. Although Ed Abbey would probably want to take down the dam that make this reservoir possible, it is still worth the visit. For dinner we made a flaming salad of camp-fire roasted peppers and potatoes in honor of the place.
Flaming Gorge Salad
2 whole shallots, diced
1 medium tomato, diced
1 head of garlic
1 red peeper, de-seeded and cut in half
1 red chili, cut in half
3 jalapenos, cut in half
2 small red potatoes
1 tablespoon raw cider vinegar
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1. Prepare a fire or oven for roasting the garlic, peppers, and potatoes. De-seed the hot peppers if desired. Prick the potatoes with a fork in a few places.
2. Combine the shallots and tomato in a bowl, meanwhile place the garlic, peppers, and potatoes on the fire.
3. Roast the peppers, potatoes and garlic on each side until blackened and soft, then place in a bowl on top of each other and cover with a plate to let them steam for five minutes.
4. Peel the blackened skin off of the peppers and garlic cloves then dice along with the potatoes and place the rest of the ingredients in the bowl with the shallots and tomato. Toss to coat everything.
We drank some fantastic Idaho Snake River Valley Syrah while the vegetables roasted and then ate the salad with sprouted grain tortillas and a can of wild caught Portuguese mackerel.
