Camacho Watcho

My family humored me while I was home for the weekend, allowing me to make two recipes for my Bon Appetit challenge for Sunday brunch – Pecan-Streusel Coffee Cake and Matzo Brei with Tomatoes and Salsa. My mom and sister rounded out the brunch menu, making a couple more items – brisket and and egg strata. But first, the Bon Appetit recipes.

The Pecan-Streusel Coffee Cake was fantastic! It was sweet and dense – a perfect complement to the salty egg and brisket dishes we served. This recipe will definitely be made again! The Matzo Brei was….interesting. This dish is sort of like the migas or chilaquiles recipes that I’m familiar with in Mexican/Spanish cooking. The basic structure is scrambled eggs with matzo crackers mixed in, but this recipe puts a Latin spin on things with a poblano pepper salsa and tomatoes. The eggs and matzo were good – not my favorite – but good. The salsa was really tasty, but in my mind it was more of a pesto than a salsa. With the lime and cilantro, I think it would have been tastier on a flaky piece of white fish. Overall, I wouldn’t make the matzo brei again, but I have a feeling I’ll whip up some of the “salsa” in the future.

And I can’t leave out comments on the brisket and egg strata. Both recipes were from Relish Magazine – Herbed Spinach and Goat Cheese Strata and Max’s Traditional Brisket. Hands down both these recipes WILL be made my me again. I loved loved loved the strata – of course…it does have goat cheese in it, so I would like it. The brisket was tender and tasty – unfortunately I didn’t have much to do with making it, but it sure was good!

I had the opportunity to do some night photography recently as I rode along with Kare11’s overnight videographer Nate Anderson. He took some excellent shots of the Stone Arch Bridge while we were out (link takes you to his blog post with these photos).

My favorite photos that I shot were of the 35W bridge and the Hennepin Avenue bridge. Interestingly, the lights on the 35W bridge are now green – versus their former blue…although they are actually supposed to be white – go figure. Anyone have the whole story on these lights?

I personally like the blue. If they change back, I’ll have to return for another nighttime shoot.

I am excited to share with you a new project that I am involved with – a daily online magazine called The Heavy Table.

The vision is a dedicated source of food and drink information of the Upper Midwest, with an initial focus on the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. The official launch of the magazine was today. If you haven’t had a chance yet, head on over to check it out: The Heavy Table.

I’m crossing my fingers that this is my last day of being sick, so hopefully I’ll actually write tomorrow. Until then, I’ve included some pictures from our visit to the Walker Sculpture Gardens this past weekend. Enjoy!

To view more photos, click here.

I am recovering from a cold and, therefore, am not much up for writing. Instead, I thought I would share some pictures that I took last week at the St. Paul Farmer’s Market. We picked up some late summer vegetables, which I then took home and made raspberry jam, tomato jam and pickled red peppers. It was my first time to try canning too, which I thought was a lot of fun! Enjoy!

For more pictures, click here.

…and it is lovely! Leaves turning, apple picking…I love this time of year!

Today is a great day for me, as it marks two anniversaries!

Seven years ago Kyle and I were married at the State Capitol in Minnesota. The weather was warm, the flowers were perfect and we were surrounded by friends and family. Since then we have celebrated our anniversary, not with gifts, but by traveling somewhere together either on the date or close to our anniversary date. We love our tradition of spending time together and our intent is to continue it for a long time to come.
Happy 7th Anniversary to Kyle and me!!!!

Today is also an anniversary date in that one year ago I started my blog. As some of you may recall, it was all started to record my trip to Uruguay (October through December 2007) as a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Then when I returned from South America (and after much prodding from Ed and Carly) I continued to write. I never thought that I would get so much enjoyment out of writing and in the photography that I have been doing to accompany my words.

Looking back, it’s amazing to see all that has happened in that one year: several trips throughout the US, three months in Uruguay, traveling to Argentina and Chile, several weddings, two of my closest friends having children, and my nephew teaching our family about inner-strength. Oh yeah, and most recently, I quit my job. What a year! It’s been an experience and I hope to continue having experiences and sharing it all with you. Thank you for reading and for sharing your comments!
Happy 1st Year Anniversary to Camacho Watcho!

One Year Ago: I’m Going to Uruguay…

Last night was truly a new experience. I spent the afternoon and evening working in a professional kitchen to experience the pace, heat and rigor of being a professional chef…and I got to experience it all.

Let me backtrack just a bit. As you may or may not know, I have recently left my corporate job to seek and discover what I want to be when I grow up. You might say, “but you’ve been in that job for eight years and, uh…not sure if you’ve looked in the mirror recently…but you are grown up.” Point taken. But a couple years ago I starting thinking about other things I could do that would allow me to learn new skills and to “do” something or “make” something that I could be proud of. At least, that’s how I’ve come to think of it. If you try to get me to explain further than that, I’m at a loss. I’m still on the road to discovery so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Although this desire has been a topic of many conversations with my husband, about a month ago we agreed that it was time. I put in my notice at work and then my last day came and went. I won’t deny that there was definitely a sadness that came over me when I initially said I was leaving. All I had ever known in the professional sense was how to be a human resources professional, and that piece of me was ending. Obviously I learned so many valuable lessons in that role and I am certain that I will use that knowledge every day going forward, but it was still a feeling that I was losing part of my identity. But I got over it…it’s time to move on.

So these days I am doing some career exploration…writing, photography, culinary arts, a combination of several interests, who knows…those are just some of my ideas. My plan is to talk to as many people as I can in these fields and others and, hopefully, experience the work environments too. I’m not sure what direction this will take me, but I know I’m happy doing it – and that matters.

So this takes me to the present day. As I mentioned, last night I worked in a professional kitchen. Long hours on my feet with the hot oven at my back…and I loved it! Although it was mainly prep work, clean up and some plating of the seafood station, I had a great time. I met a lot of fantastic people (whom I quizzed with question after question) and luckily I still have all my fingers accounted for (those knives are sharp!). I go back today to continue the experience, and I am definitely looking forward to it!

Oh, by the way – if you have any ideas or people you think I should talk to in this journey…I’d love to hear about it!

Yikes! That does sound like an odd name for a post, but look at the picture…it’s a Big Papa Pickle, what can I say? You might be wondering where I acquired such a big pickle and that, my friend, is a fine story indeed.

Kyle went to Chicago awhile back and decided that he needed to bring me a gift. That does sound sweet, doesn’t it? In reality, he and our friend Jeff thought this big pickle was pretty darn funny when they saw it in a gas station in Chicago and then decided that I was destined to have this pickle brought home to me. You might wonder how Kyle got this pickle from Chicago to Minneapolis, given the restrictions on carrying liquids onto an airplane. Let’s just say that putting a bag containing a big pickle through the security checkpoint sounds like it was quite an interesting scenario.

At the airport the woman at the checkpoint took Kyle’s bag aside, rummaged through, and pulled out…you guessed it…the Big Papa Pickle. With a brow raised and a smirk on her face, she told Kyle that he couldn’t bring the pickle through. To which Kyle responded, “but it’s just pickle juice.” Apparently that somehow worked because just hours later Kyle was safely in Minneapolis, with the Big Papa Pickle.

This pickle sat in our refrigerator until this past Friday night. We had some friends over to grill before the Twins game and thought that it was the perfect situation to break out Big Papa. We boiled some brats in beer and finished them on the grill. Our toppings were diced ketchup, mustard, diced onions, pepper rings, and spears of the Big Papa Pickle. Overall I think the pickle really added something to the brat. I love the crunch of a pickle spear alongside a brat or hot dog.

In hindsight, however, I do wish I had done some research before planning my meal. Although Van Holten’s manufactures their ‘pickle-in-a-pouch’ in Wisconsin, this particular pickle grew up in Chicago. Had I considered that before I would have looked into the true Chicago-style hot dog and definitely would have gone with that theme to make Big Papa feel right at home…on a Chicago-style dog.