Dining in Historic Firestation Linden Hills, MN

Discovering unique restaurants in new cities is always fun. We visited Mike and Alice Wachter in Minneapolis/St Paul this summer and they took us to historic Fire station #28 in Linden Hills, MN. Complete with historic displays, artifacts, and architecture, it was a mini-museum-restaurant.
The duck confit tacos came with pickled vegetables in a sweet, s-p-i-c-y mole sauce. A little too much spice for my palate but still delicious. We all sampled it and agreed.

Tastes & Treasures has a recipe from historic Four Peaks Brewery for Duck Cakes with Spicy Nopales Salsa on page 90. Great way to sample duck.

Duck Cakes with Spicy Nopales Salsa

Ingredients for Spicy Nopales Salsa:
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh nopales cactus pads
3 serrano chiles, finely chopped, or to taste
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
4 green onions, white part only, chopped
Juice of 2 limes

Ingredients for Duck Cakes:
2 duck breasts, cooked and shredded
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup roasted corn kernels
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 to 4 teaspoons canola oil

For the salsa, combine the cactus, chiles, tomatoes, cilantro, green onions and lime juice in a bowl and mix well.

For the duck cakes, combine the duck , bell pepers, cilantro corn and eggs in a bowl and mix well. Shape into 3 1/2 inch cakes and sprinkle evenly with the bread crumbs. Fry in the canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat for 1 1/2 minutes per side. Serve over the salsa.

Note: The duck can be purchased at Asian markets.

First Course Breakfast in Wine country

Breakfast for Kay and Rex Holcombe in Temecula, California wine country starts with this fabulous teaser.

Chocolate and almond biscotti crumbles. Blueberries with Greek yogurt and Tustin melon with a few grapes (since we're in wine country). Topped off with a molasses pomegranate reduction!

Toasting Almonds

Releasing the aroma and flavor of almonds is easy to do. Using a thick skillet on low to medium heat, stir the almonds continuously to prevent burning. Remove when they are golden brown and smell wonderful.
OR add nuts to an ungreased cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees fro about 15-20 minutes. Careful! Nuts are easy to burn.

This is also true for the pine nuts used in Exotic Greens with Strawberry Vinaigrette from The Cottage Place in Flagstaff, page 21 in Tastes & Treasures. And for the pecans used in Mixed Greens with Pears, Roquefort and Pecans with Celery Seed Vinaigrette from Camelback Inn, page 43 in Tastes & Treasures.

Pickled Beets from Leslie Christiansen

PICKLED BEETS Leslie Christiansen
Here's an easy one:
Goat Cheese Crostini with Pickled Beets. Make the Pickled Beet recipe and dice the beets into tiny cube; drain on a paper towel.
Make the crostini. Spread with fresh goat cheese. Sprinkle with the Pickled Beets. YUM.

Ingredients:
1 lb beets, roasted and sliced
1 cup cider vinegar
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
½ t pickling spice
¼ t mustard seeds
¼ t cassia chunks
¼ t cardamom
¼ t coriander
1 bay leaf
10 pepper corns
2 T dill weed

Directions:
Place all ingredients except beets in a medium sized heavy-bottom sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
Place the beets in a heat-proof bowl. Pour the liquid in with the beets. Allow to cool, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next morning, strain the liquid. Add the liquid back into the beets, cover and refrigerate.

Ingredients for home-made pickling spice:
6 T mustard seed
3 T whole allspice
2 T coriander seed
6 whole cloves
1 T ground ginger
1 T red pepper flakes (optional)
3 bay leaves
3 cinnamon sticks

Directions:
Crush the cinnamon into pieces and crumble the bay leaves.
Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

Breakfast in Temecula Wine Country

Kay and Rex Holcombe enjoyed a leisurely trip to Temecula Wine Country. This was the second course for breakfast. Perhaps the Historical League should plan a tour here in the future.

Kay describes the meal, "Organic fresh zucchini hash browns with ricotta cheese, polenta with truffle oil. The photo shows a sample with homegrown Romaine sautéed in olive oil. Poached egg, cheese and basil pistachio in the homemade apricot marmalade with Pinot Grigio. Topped off with roasted sweet pepper and cherry tomato."

Who reads food blogs?

After taking some computer classes at the apple store (one to one) I am learning a lot about blogs. They have been very helpful at the store so now that I know what some of the "inside" pages can do, you will see a slightly different look to the blog.

Discovering the stats page was interesting. With a map of the world, we can see that over the years followers to www.tastestreasures.blogspot.com mostly come from USA(12,069). But Russia(904) is second followed by Canada (692) and Netherlands(664).

Interesting to find that this week readers are from South Korea, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Wonder how Margarita Pie fits into the cultures of the world?

Healthy twist on Healthy Granola from Carolyn Mendoza

Wearing many hats, Carolyn Mendoza often organizes our events selling Tastes & Treasures cookbook, Arizona Recollections and Reflections Centennial book, Centennial aprons and hats. Pictured here is Kay Holcombe with Carolyn during the History Convention in Phoenix. Carolyn made Granola to sample during the show using low cholesterol Coconut Oil instead of butter. It was delicious. What would we do without her generosity and many talents?

Granola page 196

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups pistachios
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 1/2 cups slivered almonds
1 1/2 cups sunflower seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup honey
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or substitute 1/2 cup coconut oil re Leslie Christiansen. Eliminates the cholesterol
1 cup finely chopped assorted dried fruit (raisins, apricots, cranberries, dates)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the oats, coconut, pistachios, pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds and cinnamon in a bowl. Combine the honey, brown sugar, molasses and butter in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until blended, stirring frequently; do not allow to boil.
Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture and mix until coated. Spread the oats mixture on a greased baking sheet with edges. Bake for 15 minutes or until the oats are golden brown, stirring frequently. Spoon immediately into a heatproof bowl and stir in the dried fruit. Store in airtight containers or sealable plastic bags in a cool environment for up to 2 months. Freeze if storing for longer than 2 months. Makes 16 to 18 cups.
Hint - Do not let the granola sit on the hot cookie sheet.