roasted vegetables with pecans and goat cheese

Koselig.  What does it mean?  Well, there's no direct translation to English. Koselig (pronounced "kush-lee") is a unique Norwegian word that describe a cozy, warm, cheerfulness that comes from enjoying the winter season.

SAY WHAAA???!!  That's right, Alaskans.  Those of us that complain about the cold, the dark, the shoveling, the ice, the endless shelves of holiday items popping up in stores in October (for the love of all that's holy), need to scale back our sniveling and start embracing the cozy days of winter.  Time to light a fire in the fireplace, sip hot cocoa, don festive Norwegian sweaters, and not merely endure winter...but EMBRACE it!

The actual fire we built at Marika's house.  Super koselig!!

I only learned about this word recently, and just saw a friend post this article on Facebook that aptly summarizes the Norwegian culture surrounding the winter season.  So in that spirit, I lit a fire in the fireplace, pulled on my cozy wool socks, and set down to cooking this lovely koselig-esque winter dish.  A medley of winter vegetables - roasted carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, and onions - with a touch of balsamic vinegar, toasted pecans, and creamy goat cheese.  It may not be traditional Norwegian fare, but it's downright delicious!  I made this alongside roast chicken for a weeknight meal, but it's also perfect for an unexpected side dish at your holiday table.  

Happy koselig season, Alaska! xoxo h

(p.s. Here's the link to the story on KTUU Channel 2!)

Roasted Winter Vegetables with Pecans and Goat Cheese

1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed into 3/4 inch pieces
2 medium parsnips, peeled and chopped into roughly 3/4 inch pieces
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into roughly 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped in 3/4 inch pieces
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1-2 tablespoons of good balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup pecans
2 oz. goat cheese

(1) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

(2) Place pecans on a baking sheet and bake for 4-5 minutes. Take out, let cool, and roughly chop.  Set aside.

(3) In a large bowl, toss the vegetables with 2- 3 tablespoons of olive oil, kosher salt, and several grinds of black pepper. 

(4) Scatter the vegetables on two baking sheets and bake for 30-40 minutes, tossing the vegetables with a spatula at least once, and rotating the baking sheets once.

(5) Remove the veggies from the oven and place back in the large bowl.  Toss with 1-2 tablespoons of the balsamic vinegar (to taste).  Place on a serving platter, crumble top with goat cheese, and top with toasted pecans.

Enjoy!

lentils with kale, goat cheese, and walnuts

It's springtime in Alaska.  A wondrous time of year, full of piles of brown snow on the sides of the highways, potholes the size of craters ready to take a bite out of your car's undercarriage, and windshields full of rock chips from the copious amounts of gravel on road ways that have yet to be swept up and re-deposited for storage in anticipation of next year's snowfall.  Ah, a magical time of year indeed.

Springtime in Alaska is my least favorite time of the year.  Which is why I'm getting the hell out of Dodge to a sunny destination.

Until then, I will endure the final stages of winter with the rest of my neighbors who are anxiously awaiting that first flicker of green on the trees.  All the while knowing full well that Mother Nature's wicked sense of humor likely means at least one more dumping of snow before the end of May.

Sigh.

I've been keeping my Alaskan Springtime blues at bay by cooking up a storm in my kitchen!  Short ribs, pasta, spring salads, soups...anything to keep the dreary brown grass on my lawn out of sight and out of mind.  Summer can't come soon enough!

I devoured this lovely little lentil salad soon after I took these pictures.  Perfectly light and healthy, yet hearty enough to fill me up, this dish makes a great weeknight meal after a busy day at work.  Even better, the leftovers hold up well for lunch the next day.  Which is exactly what I did with them.



Lentils with Kale, Goat Cheese, and Walnuts

(Adapted from Laura Calder)

1 cup French green (du Puy) lentils
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of fresh thyme, or a pinch of dried
2 tablespoons (or more) olive oil
2 large shallots, diced (or one medium red onion, diced)
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups kale, roughly chopped
splash of balsamic vinegar
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
scant 1 cup of walnuts
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

(1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place walnuts on a sheet tray and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden and toasted.  Do not burn!  Once they cool, roughly chop into large pieces.

(2) Put the lentils in a saucepan with 1 1/3 cups of water, the bay leaf, and thyme sprig.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 25-30 minutes.  If the liquid is not all absorbed, just drain off any excess.

(3) Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan or dutch oven.  Saute the onion until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and sauté for about a minute, then add the kale and cook until it has wilted a bit, about 2-4 minutes.  Add a little more olive oil if necessary to soften the kale.  Season with kosher salt and several grinds of fresh ground pepper.

(4) Deglaze the pan with a healthy splash of balsamic vinegar, and stir to incorporate.  Add the cooked lentils, taste and reseason with more salt and pepper, if necessary (I found mine needed quite a bit!  Lentils are pretty bland otherwise).  Add more balsamic vinegar if you like that sweet acidic roundness like I do.

(5)  Place the lentil mixture in a large serving dish, and top with the crumbled goat cheese and chopped walnuts.  Drizzle with a little more olive oil if you like (I enjoyed the way it made the final dish glisten a bit).  Serve warm.

Enjoy!
xo h

roasted vegetable & kale salad with honey vinaigrette



Here's what I think. When you make something this healthy that tastes this good, it is your responsibility as a human being to share it with the world. And by world, I really mean with all my girlfriends. Because who needs a tofu popscicle or dairy-free/wheat-free/vegan/bilingual/yoga-enthusiast green smoothie when you can eat something that tastes DELICIOUS and probably cures cancer at the same time?!

 

(*NOTE: this salad has not been proven to cure cancer.)

I made this salad for my friend Ann a few weeks ago, and she raved about how lip-smackingly good it was.  It typically serves 4, but we polished off all the greens and veggies between the two of us.  That alone should tell me it's worthy of a blog mention.

 

But what REALLY told me it was a great dish was when she texted me the next morning: "I dreamed about your salad.  That's how good it was."

 

It made my day.

 

This recipe also outs me as a kale groupie.  Is there such a thing?  I think so.  The interwebs are chock full of recipes for kale smoothies, kale chips, kale pasta, kale quesadillas, kale pesto, and even kale ice cream.  (For the record, I think that sounds totally gross.  But I'd probably try it.)

 

Americans have gone a little kale nutso of late. 

 

But when a vegetable this nutritious tastes as good as it does, it's worthy of jumping on the kale bandwagon.  And one of the best things about it is that it grows particularly well in cooler climates, which is perfect for our Alaska gardens.  I can't wait for summer!

 

 

Kale is a tougher green, so I toss it with a little vinaigrette and let it sit for a bit to tenderize.  This calls for a lot of roasted veggies, and I ended up using two baking sheets to give all of the vegetables enough room to roast instead of steam.

 

I think this salad is the perfect example of how a salad can be a main course.  If you're looking to slim down for swimsuit season, or want to increase your intake of vegetables without dreading it, this is an ideal meal to kickstart your plan.  Delicious and filling, you'll feel totally satisfied after you've cleaned your plate (and I swear you won't miss the absence of meat, although it's equally wonderful served with a fillet of simply grilled wild Alaska salmon).

 

The vegetables I used are merely a guideline.  Use what looks best at the grocery store or farmers market.  Think eggplant, zucchini, sweet potatoes, or cauliflower.  All would work equally well in place of the ones I use. 

 

Cook what you love- a guideline for this salad and a motto to live by.

 

Roasted Vegetable & Kale Salad with Honey Vinaigrette

 

Adapted from Sunset Magazine

 

Serves 4 hearty Alaskan appetites

 

For the salad:

1 bunch kale (about 8 ounces or 4 cups), stems removed and chopped into ribbons

4 small or 2 large beets, peeled and cut roughly into 1 inch pieces

1/2 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1 inch pieces

1 small red onion, sliced into 8 wedges

1 medium fennel bulb, sliced into 8 wedges

1 red pepper, chopped into 1 inch pieces

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

3/4 teaspoons salt

several grinds of fresh ground pepper

2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

 

For the vinaigrette:

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

several grinds of pepper

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Toss vegetables with the oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl, and place on one or two large baking sheets.  (If you use two, put the beets and red onion together so that the beets don't "bleed" purple all over the rest of the veggies.)  Roast for about 40 minutes or so, turning once (and rotating baking sheets from top to bottom if you're using two), until tender with crispy golden edges.  Ten minutes before you pull the veggies out of the oven, sprinkle the walnuts on the baking sheet with the veggies to toast them.

 

2. Whisk vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, honey, and Dijon mustard.  Toss kale with 2-3 tablespoons of the dressing in a large bowl.  Let the kale sit in the dressing for 5-10 minutes before assembling the salad.  Place kale on the salad plates

 

3. After the vegetables have cooled for 5-10 minutes, using the same large bowl used for the kale, toss the veggies and walnuts with 2-3 tablespoons (or more) of the dressing.

 

4. Top the kale with the veggies and walnuts, and top with crumbled goat cheese.  Serve with the dressing on the side.

 

Enjoy!

 

xo H



Soft Scrambled Eggs with Herbed Goat Cheese

Sometimes, I overthink things. 

Scratch that. 

Most of the time, I overthink things.  

Ok, I usually ALWAYS overthink things. What shoes go with a certain outfit.  What to plan for a dinner party.  Analyzing the crap out of emails from men.  What recipes to put on my blog. 

After all, I'm a girl and I'm a lawyer. It's like the worst combination of over-analysis EVER. But it's actually something I'm working hard to loosen up on.  Because if you overwork a problem to death, it turns out you never actually DO anything! 

When I first started my blog almost two years ago, I had a certain idea about what food I wanted to write about. I wanted to talk about the food I love to cook, and the food I love to eat. But there are some things I LOVE to eat, but I just don't think about as "recipes."  The perfect example: these soft-scrambled eggs with herbed goat cheese.  This recipe was the product of an excess of goat cheese (damn you,  Costco) and herbs in my fridge that produced a beautiful, elegant meal to have for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  It's a simple, elevated twist on a classic. 

When the folks at Town Square 49, alaskapublic.org’s community blog, emailed to tell me they were interviewing regular blog contributors for segments on the radio and asked if I'd like to participate, I thought it sounded fun.  So I invited the interviewer, David, over for lunch at my house.

And then I started totally freaking out about what I was going to make.  

Risotto!  No, takes forever.   

Lentil soup!  Might as well start the interview with, “Hi, my name is BORING BORING BORING lentil soup BORING.”   

Wild rice salad!  Dude, Heidi.  Do you even want the guy to like you? 

Then I just thought- oh, the hell with it.  I opened my fridge to see what I needed to use up (some of my best ideas come from this process) and saw two brand new logs of goat cheese (seriously, must stop using Costco as my local grocery store).  Who doesn’t like scrambled eggs?  They are the world’s most perfect food when cooked properly.  Cook them slow and low, as I like to say, for perfectly tender, soft scrambled eggs.  Served on buttered toast, it's an utterly simple, divine meal. 

At least I think so.  David cleaned his plate.  :)

(You can listen to the interview here!)
 

Soft Scrambled Eggs with Herbed Goat Cheese

(Inspired by 101 Cookbooks)

 

Serves 2

 

5 eggs

pat of butter for pan

splash of half & half or milk (optional)

4 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

salt and pepper, to taste

 

buttered toast, for serving

 

Using a fork, mix and mash the chopped parsley and dill with the goat cheese, adding a splash of half & half or milk (a tablespoon or so) to help loosen the cheese for mixing.

 

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat.  Crack eggs in a large bowl, adding a tablespoon or two of half & half if you like your eggs a little richer.  Beat the eggs with a  whisk, attempting to incorporate as much air as possible for maximum fluffiness.  Melt a pat of butter in the pan.  Add the eggs to the pan and slowly scramble using a spatula.  (This will take several minutes, but your patience will be rewarded!)  As the eggs start resembling a custard-like consistency, add a dash of salt to taste and fresh ground pepper and turn up the heat to medium to finish them off.  (Adding the salt too early will make the eggs tough.) 

 

Once the eggs are scrambled to your liking, remove the pan from the heat and top the eggs with several dollops of the goat cheese mixture.  (You will not use all of the goat cheese mixture- maybe a 1/3 or 1/2 of it. Use the rest for next time!)  Let the cheese soften for 30 seconds or so, then fold the eggs over the goat cheese.  Serve immediately on buttered toast.

Enjoy! xo H

Eat Your Beets (trust me, you'll like 'em!)

I spent last week in Las Vegas at my Union convention.  Don't get me wrong- I had a great time.  It's just that a week in Vegas feels like a month anywhere else.  Late nights, long receptions, plenty of cocktails, late nights, delicious rich food, late nights.  It's exhausting.  I woke up Saturday morning in my own bed and committed myself to trying to stave off the lung cancer I'm pretty sure I developed by spending a week in smoky Vegas casinos.  I got 9 hours of sleep, went straight to the gym, ate a fully-vegan lunch, bought a bunch of beautiful veggies at the farmers' market, and breathed in as much fresh Alaskan air as I could.

I almost feel whole again.

Spending time at my local farmers' market instantly makes me feel better.  I'm pretty sure that just by staring at the vegetables, my LDL cholesterol levels drop.  I think I've mentioned this before, but the farmers market is a dangerous place for a girl like me.  I go there for onions and kale, and come home with enough produce to stock my neighborhood grocery store.  I'm not exaggerating.  See Exhibit A:

From a single farmers' market trip last summer.

Go big or go home, right? 

Right before I left on my trip, I started a little beet kick.  Truthfully, I started this kick when I lived in Fairbanks the year after law school.  My mom and I would hit the Tanana Valley Farmers' Market almost every Saturday, and on one of these trips a woman had prepared some pickled beets as a way to entice people to buy some of her crop.  I was instantly skeptical.  I'd had beets before.  They had what hoity-toity, elitest TV chefs (whom I watch obsessively) call that "earthy" flavor (transl:  tastes a little like dirt).  But I tried them, and I was SOLD.  The beets were delicious- soft, but with a little bite to them, tangy and slightly sweet.  After that, I ate beets all summer.



Look how beautiful these beets are!

In Alaska this time of year, the market is full of beautiful beets- purple, golden, and my favorite, chioggia.  Lovely red and white candy cane striped beets that are beautiful for this simple, delicious fall dish:  roasted beet and goat cheese salad.  I've been eating this dish for three weeks straight, so I thought I'd better share it if I can't get enough of it!

To start, scrub four large beets or 8 small ones, chop off their root tails and any greens that are left.  Tear off two large pieces of aluminum foil.  Place half of the beets on one of the pieces of aluminum foil, and repeat with the other. Rub the beets with a little olive oil and sprinkling generously with salt and pepper.  Wrap each package of beets tightly and roast them in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. 

While the beets are roasting, make a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, champagne vinegar (white wine vinegar should work too), dijon mustard, honey, salt and pepper.

Once you remove the beets from the oven, open the foil and let them cool enough to handle.  Next, take each beet in one or two paper towels and rub the skin off the cooked beets.  Works like magic!  (This trick is a dream for those of us who are too lazy to peel anything the old fashioned way.)   

Slice the beets into bite sized pieces and toss with a sprinkling of salt and enough dressing to your liking while they're still warm (they soak up more vinaigrette that way).  Just before serving, toss with the chopped tarragon and top with the crumbled goat cheese.

It's almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  Trust me, grab a fork and dig in!

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese

2 lb. beets (about 4 large, or 8 small)

1 T. olive oil (first amount)

1 t. salt

2 T. chopped tarragon (or parsley, optional)

2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

For the vinaigrette:

1/4 c. olive oil (second amount)

1/4 c. champagne or white wine vinegar

2 t. dijon mustard

1 T. honey

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Scrub the beets, removing any greens and the tail.  Tear two large pieces of aluminum foil and place half of the beets on each of the foil pieces on a large sheet tray.  Rub the beets with 2 teaspoons of olive oil (more or less- just to cover the beets) and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt.  Wrap each into a foil package and place the sheet tray in the oven for 1 hour.

To make the vinaigrette, whisk together the second amount of olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, honey, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.

When the beets are done, remove from the oven and open the foil packages to allow the beets to cool a bit before handling.  While still warm, rub each of the beets with a paper towel to remove the skin.  Slice the beets and place in a large bowl.  While they're still warm, sprinkle the beets with a little salt and toss with enough of the vinaigrette to coat the beets (you probably will not need to use all of it).  Toss in the chopped tarragon and right before serving, sprinkle the crumbled goat cheese on top.  Your heart will thank you!

Enjoy! xo H