Hello hello!  It’s been a while hasn’t it?
Where have I been?  Well, that’s a bit of a long story and it has to do with Cancer.
I’ll save you all the gory details to say that after surgery and several weeks of radiation follow-ups… I’m happy to report that it looks like we beat the sucker in to submission.

The whole ordeal sort of took the wind out of my sails and caused me to, once again, shift focus in my life.  One of the things I try to focus on more each day is appreciating the beauty in life.  Because even when the times are tough there is beauty to be found, be it a bittersweet lesson, a smile from a passerby, hearing a child’s laugh bubbling up from the bottom of their tummy, the sweet sound of birdsong, the teeny peeks of neon green buds on the ends of Winter bare branches, the smell of coffee, the purr of a cat nestled in your lap, hugs, the kindness and love from those who love you.
The simple fact that every single day that we are “here” is in and of itself one of the most beautiful and underrated things on Earth.

So today I wanted to share with you a little trick, it’s not a recipe, it’s a technique.  And it will bring beauty to something ordinary.

I’m speaking about Pie Crusts.
I love a pretty pie, in fact my love of pretty pies goes way way way back to when my Mom used to make her Pumpkin or Apple pies and she would hand cut pie dough ornaments in the shapes of an Apple or a Turkey or a Pumpkin or even Fall Leaves.  She would use a little paring knife with a fine tip while we watched her deftly cut the dough, then she would wet the backside of the cut out with a little water and ask us kids where on the pie she should put it.  We always settled on the center – that way everyone who had a piece of pie would get a little piece of the special cut out.

I followed my Mom’s method when I made my Vineyard Pie several years ago, by hand cutting the dough, forming small balls to make clusters and rolling out thin ropes to make vines, like you see here:

Anyone can do this.  It works the best with any pie that requires a Lattice style top crust.
You can even do this with your kids.
You can make the shapes on your pie crust any shapes you want.  Polka Dots, Hexagons, Triangles, Flowers, Hearts, Leaves, Dog Bones… literally whatever tickles your fancy.

What you will need:
– Cookie Cutters, in the desired shapes you want (or a paring knife if you are the artistic type)
-Parchment Paper (this helps keep the dough from sticking to your work surface)
-1 Cup of Water
-1 rolled out Pie Crust, just use your favorite shortcut recipe (flour & butter base or flour & butter/shortening base  OR you can totally use store bought if you want to and no one is going to judge you)
-Patience
-Egg Wash (optional)

What you do:
Get your pie dough rolled out on your parchment paper, then start cutting out your shapes with your knife or cookie cutter.  Once you have enough cut outs to cover your pie top, you will dip them one by one very quickly in to the water.  Just a quick dip and right back out.
Then you will start to place the cut outs on the pie filling, starting with the outside rim first closest to the crust.
Work your way in, overlapping as you go.
Use any extra cut outs to layer on top for more dimension if you want.
Bake it as you normally would.

Please note:  Juices will bubble up through the cracks, which is OK.  The juices will add a fruity lacquer to your cutout shapes, which just adds to the beauty of the pie.

The pie in the header image is the pie that I made last night to take to my Mother’s house.  She is recovering from surgery right now, and she was craving peaches.  So I made a Cinnamon Peach Pie for her adorned with flowers to lift her spirits.  I transported it unbaked and baked it at her house so that she could enjoy the wonderful smells in her house.
Here is a little cellphone snap of how it looked after it was finished baking:

She’s still talking about the pie today :)

Ever since I started doing these pies, they have generated a lot of Oohs & Ahhs!
I even got some love from Food & Wine Magazine on Instagram & Facebook!

So I thought I would show you some of the other Pretty Pies I have done recently.

For Halloween I did a Pumpkin Pie from scratch, I scattered leaf shapes with tinted egg wash on top to create this pretty little Fall bite, kinda makes you want to dive right in to that pile of leaves:

Then we come to my personal favorite – this pretty little Summer Blackberry Pie, festooned with little flowers.  I love how the juices seeped up on the dough because after the bake it really makes them POP!

And here is that Blackberry Pie after the bake!  A field of deliciousness just waiting for you!

Now I know I say this all the time… but I’m saying it again: I feel so fortunate to live in Seattle where we have easy access to fresh seafood.  Fresh, delicious fish like Pacific Sole, which has the benefit of being a sustainable and plentiful fish, unlike the overfished Atlantic Sole – if you are interested in keeping up to date on which fish are better choices for long term sustainability you should check out the up to date list over at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Plus… it tastes great! 

The other lovely bonus about eating Pacific Sole is that it is inexpensive.  I purchased fresh fillets and got 4 in a package for only $3.00, so it goes to show that you can have an exquisite seafood feast on the cheap.

Once I got these beautiful fillets of white flat fish home I was contemplating the myriad of ways in which to prepare them.  I really wanted fresh flavors so I opted to marinate the Sole with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon slices, thinly shaved garlic, salt capers and a teeny hit of white wine, I let this marinate covered in the fridge for about an hour.

After the fillets finished marinating I slid them on to my parchment paper… where they would be cooking away in their own juices being steamed to perfection.

I ended up deciding on making a parchment pouch to bake them “en papillote”.  “En Papillote” is a French term for “in parchment”.  The technique is basically lay down a sheet of parchment, put your food and spices in the parchment, lay another sheet on top and then start rolling up the edges (similar to rolling up the edges of a pie crust) until you have made a pouch and then cooking your meal “en papillote”.

An alternative way is to take one big sheet of parchment paper and make an envelope by bringing the sides together – similar to wrapping a present except you will bring those edges together, start folding to seal and then repeat with the open ends.  You don’t need to use parchment paper for this technique to work – you can use aluminum foil too.  It’s just like camping as a kid and doing a Foil Dinner Pouch around the campfire.  I bet you didn’t realize you were using some fancy French cooking techniques as a youngster ;)  Go young little You!

Once the pouch is all closed up – you pop it in to a pre-heated 350 degree oven.  The amount of time depends on how much fish and how thick that fish is.  For my 4 fillets I kept it cooking for about 20 minutes and the fish came out perfect.

Now I don’t really have a recipe for this – as you see it’s simply a process of throwing some stuff in to a pouch and baking it in it’s own steam until done.  You can get totally creative with this, and you can even get the family in on the fun.  Let the kids pick some healthy veggies to throw in to the pouch – trust me when kids get to help make their food and it feels fun they will eagerly eat what they made.  This was a technique I employed quite a bit with my niece when she was a little tot and a picky eater.  As a teen she now has an expanded and well rounded palate that I like to think I helped contribute to just a little.

So let’s wrap up the details here for you to knock this out for your family:

1. 350 degree Pre-Heated Oven

2. Fish, Meat, Tofu and/or Veggies

3. Salt & Pepper

4. Your favorite flavorings: spices, garlic, peppers, capers, citrus, honey, soy, uzu… go crazy

5. Splash of White Wine or Water or Beer

6. Parchment Paper or Foil

Stuff it all in the Parchment Paper, make it in to a pouch, put it in the oven and there ya go.  Dinner is served.

You can make these “En Papillote” dinners a day ahead, put them in the fridge and when you come home from work you will have a delicious meal ready to go without any fuss (and without a baking pan to clean up!)

You can also make these dinners vegan and gluten free – let your imagination take you on a delectable journey!

This is one of those rare posts where the food was so delicious that I totally forgot to stop and take a picture of the finished dish to share with you all.  It looked beautiful, perfectly steamed fish and aromatics and we served it with a lovely side salad with a simple vinaigrette.

Click here for: Winner Announcement

I have this friend… he’s a bit of a renaissance man when it comes to all things edible.  What I mean by that is… he actually goes out to hunt, to forage and to fish for his own food on a regular basis.  He even grows his own food.  Over the years he has shared his adventures via his well read blog Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook.

His name is Hank Shaw, and with the pictorial help of his lovely lady Holly Heyser,  he has produced an amazing book.  Now folks, this is not just another cookbook.  This book is a wealth of knowledge that will not just feed the mind, but the belly as well.  Hank walks you through the edible offerings of the seasons and the various places throughout the nation where he has travelled over the years and put it all in to this book.  This really is a must-read for any one who fancies themselves a forager, an angler or a hunter… or any one who just fancies the idea of living off the land.

The thing that I love about the recipes in his book is that they are adaptable.  In some instances, such as his chapter on Beach Peas, he talks about the simplest ways to prepare these short seasoned wild delicacies that easily translate as a useful recipe for something more domestic like an English Pea.  This is the kind of book that I challenge anyone to pick up and say “Yeah I already knew all of that” because the shear breadth of knowledge shared provides an educational and mouth wateringly entertaining read for the novice to the expert.

I like this book so much that I want to give one autographed copy to one of my lucky readers!

GIVE AWAY DETAILS: (1) One lucky reader will win an autographed copy of Hank Shaw’s new book: Hunt, Gather, Cook – Finding the Forgotten Feast, brought to you solely by NommyNom.

HOW TO ENTER: Go to the syndicated version of NommyNom and simply leave a comment and tell us about your favorite food that you either hunted for, fished for or foraged for.  One entry per person, duplicate entries will not be counted.  You must provide a valid name and email address with your entry.

WHEN IS THE CONTEST: Entries will be taken starting now July 27, 2011 and will end Midnight PST on August 4, 2011.  Winner will be drawn at random and announced at 9:00am August 5, 2011.

WHO WILL WIN: The winner will be chosen by random drawing on August 5th and announced at 9:00am PST on August 5th, 2011.  You must provide a valid name and email address with your entry. Winners will have 24 hours to claim their prize, if left unclaimed the prize will go to a runner-up determined by random drawing.

Best of luck to everyone, looking forward to hearing your responses!

More Hank Shaw in person for Seattle Folks:
–Tune in to Q13 FOX Morning News at 9:20am on July 28th, 2011 to see Hank Shaw demonstrate a recipe from his book, live in person with yours truly.

–You can also check out Hank in person at Wine World Seattle July 28th, 2011 at 6pm – Bites inspired by some of Hank’s recipes to be prepared and served by my wonderfully talented friend Chef Robin Leventhal

–And there will be a dinner at the restaurant on nearly every foodies bucket list –  The Herbfarm.  They will be hosting a dinner party called “Finding the Forgotten Feast” on Sunday July 31st, 2011. Seating is limited, please call for reservations.

Full Disclosure:  This giveaway is made possible by NommyNom

RESTRICTIONS: Contest is open only to residents of the United States.  Prize is non-transferrable, non-refundable and may not be exchanged for cash.  PugetHound nor Nommynom shall be held responsible for any content, damages, or loss as a result of this contest.

Summer time is Tomato time! Specifically…Heirloom Tomatoes!
I grew up with these kinds of tomatoes as a kid.  Striped tomatoes, odd shaped tomatoes, tomatoes in nearly every color of the rainbow and then somewhere along the way tomatoes became standardized, boring and tasteless.  Thank goodness that Heirloom Produce is making a comeback, because you haven’t tasted a tomato until you’ve tasted a REAL tomato like an Heirloom variety.

I have been making one particular salad with fresh Heirloom Tomatoes now for over a decade.  In fact I feel like stepping back to Summer in the year 2006 just to show you a picture of this salad that has been my Summer signature and how it has remained virtually unchanged after all these years.

There isn’t really a recipe for how I make this salad.  It’s more of a process and a combination of ingredients and you add them all together to make this stunning little tomato stack that explodes with the tastes of Summer all over your tongue.

Now let’s step in to the present day, actually yesterday to be exact.  My guy knows that I am not one for jewelry and that I’d rather have a bottle of Truffle Oil over a bouquet of roses.  So he got me bags of some absolutely beautiful produce to play around with yesterday.  In those bags were gorgeous Heirloom Tomatoes – and this is what I did with them yesterday:

As you can see… not a whole lot has changed over the years, which just goes to show how this recipe has been a favored Summertime staple in our house.

Go check out Pike Place Market or your local Farmer’s Market right now, chances are the first Heirlooms of the season are making an appearance!

It’s Copper River Salmon time of year again!  This is one of my all time favorite fish and I look forward to its return every year.  The folks at the Alaskan Department of Fish & Game have taken great care to manage the runs each year to ensure that this delicious fish remains sustainable for a long time to come, so you can eat and feel good about the fact that you are supporting sustainable seafood.

All that field management comes at a cost for the consumer.  Limited runs means a higher price tag at the register, but when you think of the long term, it is worth it to pay a little more to support sustainable practices.  It’s an investment in not only our culinary future but the future of the wild life itself.  This type of management is something that makes sure that we have this delicious wild caught fish to enjoy for generations to come.

So this year I went out and picked myself up a whole Copper River Salmon and butchered it down to two gorgeous ruby red filets.  This left me with quite a bit of  “trim scrap” and bones.  I do not like wasting food, especially when it is as special as this salmon.  I took the trim scraps and sealed them for freezing for a later use.  Which left me with the bones.

Lately, I have been getting really inspired by a friend of mine who goes by the name of Lovely Lanvin.  She teaches Asian cooking classes and currently has an upcoming class at Williams Sonoma on June 11th.  When I looked at my bones I thought I should make a fish stock.  Then I looked at them again, and in a fleeting moment her wonderful inspirations of late made me shout out DASHI!

Dashi is a beautiful Japanese soup base.  If you’ve had Miso Soup then you have had Dashi.  There are several kinds of Dashi – some of which depend on the ingredients and some of them depend on if those ingredients were already used to prepare a Dashi.  This particular recipe is my own version of this traditional soup.

Having made Kombu and Katsuo Dashi many times in the past, I figured I would start off there.  I really wanted multiple layers of flavor for this broth so I decided to use Kombu, Bonito flakes, Dried Shrimp and toasted Salmon bones.  Something that celebrated using and respecting every part of this beautiful piece of Salmon.

After preparing and straining it I put it in a clear jar.  When I first looked at it, a pale golden broth that was perfectly clear, I got a little worried thinking that perhaps it might be weak in flavor.  Then I took a taste.  It was so rich and flavorful, the Kombu lent it’s salinity for a slight taste of the sea as a solid foundation to the Dashi.  This was followed up by the richness given by the layer of flavor from the Bonito and Dried Shrimp… and finally the bold, savory, toasty finish of the Salmon.  As satisfying a Dashi as I have ever made.

Now I know for some, this sound exotic and daunting, but Dashi really is one of the easiest soups that you can make and it is extremely versatile.  It is a good recipe to have in your culinary repertoire, as it is a base to so many beautiful Japanese soups and sauces.

For serving my Dashi I chose to go with fresh Herbs, little Golden Enoki Mushrooms and some glass noodles to let the broth really shine.  I hope that my little culinary experiment, born of not wanting to waste a beautiful ingredient, is something that you will try for yourself.  And I hope that I made Lovely Lanvin proud with this one!

The first time that I tasted Chimichurri sauce was 6 years ago, almost to the day.  I had taken my guy out to the Buenos Aires Grill for his birthday, where we feasted on delicious steaks slathered in this herby, zesty green sauce.  At first glance I thought it was just another pesto, but then I tasted it.  It tasted fresh and green, like an herb garden is dancing all over your tongue, followed by a little kick of heat to remind you that you are alive and finally a slight tangy kiss of vinegar.  Love at first bite.

Memorial Day is just around the corner – grills are coming out of winter hibernation and getting ready to receive the first choice cuts of meat or the first fresh veggie kebabs of the season.  Instead of regular old Barbecue Sauce like every other year, you should give my tasty friend, Chimichurri a turn at the grill.

Last week my Father-in-Law was up for a visit.  For his last night with us I wanted to make him a special dinner, something where he could taste the love.  I headed up to Bill the Butcher to take a peek at their selection and finally get a chance to meet the voice of their Twitter, Teri.  As some may remember, there was an article about Bill the Butcher quite a while ago. That article did not say the nicest of things.  Admittedly, I had made it a point to stay away based on what I read… until recently.

Teri took me through the shop, introduced me to their butcher, Zach – super nice guy. They put the questions I had to rest with full disclosure about the types of meat they offered and from where they all came from.  They have their customers best interests at heart and are moving forward with lessons learned.  I’m really glad that I gave them a shot because the Painted Hills New York Strips that I picked up ended up being that special dinner I was looking for.

When I got my haul of beef goodness home, I started brainstorming ways to prepare the steaks.  One of my favorite places to mull things over is in my Herb Garden, so I headed out to collect a few snips of this and a few snips of that when inspiration hit me.  Chimichurri!!!  I have everything I need right here!  So I set to work gathering up the rest of the herbs I needed to make that magical green sauce of the Gods.

Now my Chimichurri recipe may not be your Argentinian Grandmother’s traditional recipe, but it is absolutely divine in its own right.  It also doubles as a magnificent marinade for meat and vegetables, and I’ve also used it as a base for a vinaigrette.  It’s versatile, it’s delicious, it’s super easy and I am so pleased with it I want to share it with you.

Spring has sprung!  If I had to chose a favorite season I think I would choose Spring, everything is waking up in vibrant green sheets, invigorated by the spring rain, stretching out on bough and bramble to take advantage of our first peeks of sun.

Delicate baby lettuces and radishes are some early risers in the garden, but there is a world out there beyond the garden.  A delicious world filled with things like Nettles, Ramps, Fiddleheads, Mushrooms and more.  While I sincerely love our local harvest, I also adore the wild flavors of the other regions of our country.  Obviously, as much as I would love to, I can not always go travelling half way across the country for say… a taste of Ramps – but I know a guy who knows a guy and that’s where I turn to get my fix of these gorgeous Wild Leeks.  The season is nearing it’s end for my beloved Ramps, but if you get over to Earthy Delights you can get a taste for yourself before the season is over… otherwise you’ll have to wait until next year.

The cool thing about the folks over at Earthy Delights is that they also carry other wild and exotic foods.  So while I was placing an order for some Ramps I spied that they also carried Fiddleheads and Baby White Asparagus. I would love to be out in the wild RIGHT NOW picking my own fiddles, but our family has gone through a pretty tough and painful ordeal recently with a significant loss.  It is hard to have my heart in the wild when it is needed at home.  This is where the incredible folks over at Earthy have come to my rescue, providing me with the tastes I crave when I can’t get out to get them myself.

Because of everything that has been going on, we have been eating at odd hours and not eating the best food that we can.  There are times when we have gone most of the day without eating, just simply forgetting or the large intake of grab and go food.. and not the healthiest kind either.  I really wanted to slow things down and take a little time to create something that not only satiated our hunger but comforted the soul as well.

I had a plethora of local ingredients on hand: bacon, eggs, herbs from my garden and Beecher’s Cheese Curds.  I had a look at my Earthy delivery and what I had on hand and set to work making this Frittata.  It tastes of Springtime.  Herbaceous, hearty, sustaining and most of all comforting.  It was a beautiful mix of ingredients both local and beyond and I really wanted to share it with you.  So here we go!

Sometimes I like to add a teeny little pinch of nutmeg to my egg dishes, I also topped this one off with some shaved black truffle before baking and finished it with a light drizzle of White Truffle Oil (that I picked up from the folks at Earthy Delights as well) for a little something extra special.
This recipe is so delicious served up for Brunch, but also is hearty enough for a dinner.  It keeps well overnight and makes great leftovers the next day.  It really does taste like Springtime on a plate and celebrates all the deliciousness that the season has to offer.  I hope you enjoy!

Full disclosure: I have received no compensation from any business or organization mentioned for this article. However, an odd sample of some new exciting ingredient sometimes tends to find it’s way in to my order on occasion.

What is that visage of Burger Heaven you see above?  It is the ***Kelly Cline’s Secret Squirrel BBQ Burger. I can die a happy woman now that I have had the honor of having a burger named after me.

There is a long story behind this burger… it starts back in the Summer of 2010 (I know… that’s like eons ago!)
Let me start out by saying that over the past year I have become friends with the folks at Blue Moon Burgers, it’s a fun place with fun people and they make a damn fine burger – and I’m a bit of a burger snob.

In fact, over a few weeks I taunted them with my own recipe for a killer burger and brought in a jar of my Secret BBQ Sauce.  Now this is a formula that I have been working on and tweaking since I was 20.  We aren’t going to say the amount of decades that have passed since then, but let’s just say that I am pretty confident that I have perfected my formula for the perfect Sweet ‘n’ Smoky BBQ Sauce.   Whenever I make my sauce, I make it 2 gallons at a time because I end up with my friends lined up with empty jars in hand ready for a refill.

So back to the day I brought in the sauce… they took a taste of it and the look of doubt was wiped clean and they sat there with just a spoon and the jar and literally ate it right out of the jar.  It was good.  I was pleased.  Now fast forward… every couple of weeks I would get an email asking for the sauce recipe, requests that I would deny over and over again.  My sauce is special, it’s my baby… the recipe is Super Secret Squirrel!  No one knows the recipe but me!  Asking, turned to begging… and I gave in and gave them the recipe and they asked me to help create a burger to showcase the sauce.
For Blue Moon Burgers side of the story of this burger check out it out here: March Burger of the Month

After months of back and forth and consulting and tasting (it’s a tough job, but someone had to do it!) we came up with the Kelly Cline’s Secret Squirrel BBQ Burger.
5 ounces of grass fed organic beef patty dusted with my Secret Dry Rub on a grilled Macrina bun, housemade spicy pickles (I like having an extra one on my burger), crispy shoestring onions, melted Muenster Cheese all topped off with a smothering of my Super Secret BBQ Sauce.

The folks at Blue Moon Burgers came up with a March classic Mint Shake (made with their house made syrup made with REAL mint) and some Old Bay Hush Puppies to saddle up next to that big beautiful burger that bears my name. YUMMY!

So what the heck does all this burger talk this have to do with bloggers?  Well… I’ll tell ya!
Blue Moon Burgers will be hosting a “Meet the Puget Hound Bloggers” event at their Fremont Location where I will be hanging out with fellow Puget Hound bloggers.
Puget Hound is a collection of local area blogs that cover everything from Sports, Crime, Food, Events, Music, Arts, local Travel, Dating and so much more.  Come on down and meet some of the other talented bloggers like the man behind Another Passion and the mixologist behind ThirstQuest.

Meet the Puget Hound Bloggers Event at Blue Moon Burgers
Date: March 10th, 2011
Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Where: Blue Moon burgers in Fremont – 703 N 34th – Seattle, WA 98138
Why: Meet ‘n’ greet the Puget Hound team and have some fun

For more information about Puget Hound and Blue Moon Burgers:
Puget Hound
Blue Moon Burgers

Follow Puget Hound on Twitter: @PugetHound
Follow Blue Moon Burgers on Twitter: @bluemoonburgers
Follow NommyNom on Twitter: @nommynom
Follow me on Twitter: @kcline

***Despite the name, there is NO squirrel in this burger.  The name comes as a reference in homage to an old late 1960’s cartoon.  Everything that has ever been secret in my life since watching this cartoon as a kid has always been referred to as “Secret Squirrel”

Full disclosure: I have received no compensation from any business or organization mentioned for this article, except a free burger or two (which makes my ever expanding hips weep)