The Mystery Plant

As I may have mentioned, one of the hardest things about moving was giving away all my plants.  There just was not space during the move.  They found wonderful homes with good friends, but I arrived without all the plants I'd taken care of for eight years. 

Well I already have some new plants.  I've had some amazing friends send me some!  I've bought only one so far.  And, the previous owners left me three very cool plants and one of them is super intriguing to me.  Does anyone know what this is?

I have two.  This one has red throughout it's leaves, but the other one is mostly just green.  But, the flowers are what intrigue me!    Notice the bottom right of the picture.

You can practically watch them grow.  First, you notice the pretty fluted holder.

Then all of a sudden something red is growing out of them.

And then surprise, a couple days later they open up!

Now they are both open and they last quite a few days.  How fun!

Floating in the Clouds

A pretty amazing item about our new home is the weather.  We've been getting a lot of snow and rain, and we'll take any moisture sent our way, no complaints!  This means lots of clouds and often the low hanging clouds surround us as they pass through.

On a quiet, dark Sunday morning I was standing at the sink peeling and cutting up the remaining pears and apples. The pears are turning, so it was time.  As the outside slowly gained light, I would glance up in between each pear and apple, or as I grabbed a sip of warm, fresh coffee.

Every time the view was different.

Once I could see the snowy hills on the other side of the valley.

Next I couldn't see anything but a white haze beyond the patio wall.

Then there would be just pieces of whisp left as we waited for the next cloud to envelop us.  It's pretty magical.

Now, the crock put is full.

The apples and pears are drizzled with one tablespoon of lemon juice, plenty of local honey, lots of cinnamon and a pinch of cloves and we wait.  We wait for the smell to float through the house for the day. 

I can't think of a better way to start a Sunday morning or to use up the last of our apple and pear trees for the season.

Smoked Fish

Today's post is on one of my families recipes.  This is my Dad's specialty, when the Graff's get together they pretty much expect to have Smoked Fish from my Dad.  He has been really kind about sharing his recipe and has worked with Joe and Joe has been a diligent student.  Joe has practiced and practiced and I must say he makes some pretty good smoked fish.  It's different than my Dad's because back in Wisconsin, he used large Lake Trout from Lake Michigan, where as, Joe has been using much smaller rainbow and lake trout that he catches in Flaming Gorge.

Joe recently did a large batch of smoked fish for our last Green River party and we decided to document the process for the blog.  So here you go.  This is very picture intensive and not everyone will be interested in Smoked Fish.  But you might just be interested in the process of smoking something.

Graff recipe for Smoked Fish - with additional notes from Joe.

(works well with Lake Trout or Rainbows, even Halibut)

Step one, defrost your fish!

Soak fish fillets or chunks in the following brine solution for 8 hours (or overnight).

• 1 ½ quart of water

• ½ - ¾ cup of salt  (dissolve salt into water until an egg barely begins to float)
   - aiming for 80° salinity if you have a salinometer

• ¾ - 1 cup of brown sugar

• ¼ teaspoon of allspice

• ½ teaspoon of ginger

Rinse fish briefly under cold water.  (If you don’t rinse then fish may be too salty, if you rinse too much then the fish won’t be salty enough.  Is that specific enough?)  At this point, Joe likes to use a tweezers and pull the bones so no one has to deal with the bones when eating the fish. 

Notes from Joe: Bones: Usually it is easiest to remove the pinbones from the filet after smoking, but this works best with larger filets (> 3 lb fish).  The pinbones on the smaller fish are hard to find beneath the crispy pellicle so I try to remove them ahead of time (before brining) using a strong set of tweezers.  The smallest bones usually don’t create any problems, but I still try to get most of the bones out.

Lay on cooling rack to air dry and sprinkle pepper-lemon seasoning on filets.  Air dry for about 45 minutes before smoking.  This forms the desired pellicle (crystallized varnish) on the surface of the fish, helping preserve the finished product. 

To make the smoke, Joe uses a combination of apple wood chips and shredded cherry wood from our trees.

He then soaks the wood in water.

OPTIONAL: Joe likes to sprinkle some brown sugar on the filets just before smoking.

Smoke with apple wood and/or cherry wood chips, below 200^o F for 2.5 – 4 hours (depending on thickness of fish).  Pre-soak the wood chips in water for an hour before smoking.  Usually, the drier the finished fish, the better it tastes.  BUT don’t go too dry.

Notes from Joe: With the smaller fish (< 3 lbs.) I usually get from the Flaming Gorge, I struggle to get enough smoke flavor in the fish before it dries out.  With this said, for smaller fish, keep your brine a little low of salt (1/2 cup instead of ¾) so that it takes longer to smoke the water content out of the fish, allowing it to stay on the smoke longer.  I also place a pan of water between the heat and the fish in order to slow the drying process, again allowing more time in the smoke.  I use an electric smoker so that I have better temperature control.  The challenge of smoking at a low temperature is to ensure that you produce enough heat to create smoke, yet do not create too much heat thus cooking the fish.

The fish was amazing and it went fast.  We only had the below lonely fillets left at the end of the party.  Our favorite thing to do with leftover smoked fish is make dip!

This is one of those annoying instances where I say, "Well, I don't really have a recipe."  It's always slightly different, but these are the basic smoked fish dip additions.

• I make a base out of cream cheese and plain greek yogurt.  You could use sour cream in place of the yogurt, or even mayo.
• I add the shredded fish, a handful of fresh chopped parsley, a couple finely chopped green onions, fresh ground pepper and salt to taste.
• Mix thoroughly and chill to blend the flavors. If you like a creamier dip, feel free to use your food processor to mix. 

Serve with your favorite crackers or carrots and celery and think about how long it might be before you can make more smoked fish dip.  "Hey honey, are you going fishing anytime soon?"

Beginning Foray into Missoula foods

What local foods have I already found here in Montana?

Well my neighbors brought by a box of their homegrown tomatoes, potatoes, and squash.  The most awesome welcome to the neighborhood present ever!

Below is the first real meal I made in my kitchen.   I started with this local Montana grown chicken roasted.  Look how plump.

I paired this with some spaghetti squash topped with my neighbors tomato roasted and some shaved Parmesan.

Oh, don't forget the rolls from the local bakery!

And I have to mention the goods which have already come from my land!  We have an Asian Pear tree,

a Gala apple and a Macintosh apple tree,

a plum tree and raspberries, which are of course not producing right now!

So far Joe and I have been eating the pears and apples on cereal and for snacks.  But I've also made applesauce and these little sweet bread apple kuchens.

And let's not forget the local beer!  We are already enjoying the joy of growlers.  This lovely growler full of Rye Sally Rye from the Tamarack Brewing Company was waiting for me in my fridge at the end of last Friday's work day!

In addition to all of these, we've enjoyed a locally and organically grown Rump Roast and have local Montana honey and flour in the cupboard.

The Move

Is anyone still out there?  Wow, you have been patient and I'm back with some much deserved updates.  But first, it's only right to update everyone on a few changes, so here's a brief pictorial of the move.  We have moved.... to a different state!

It was sad to leave Green River, WY.  We made some great friends there and, at eight (8) years, that was the longest Joe and I had spent anywhere together. 

It's never easy to sell a house and this sale ran us through the paces.  To the point where on the morning we thought we'd be driving out of town we were in stall mode waiting for the buyers paperwork.  So we thought we best take in a local event.  The Union Pacific 844 Steam Locomotive was coming through Green River on a trip to Sacramento.  This steam locomotive was built in 1944 and it was pretty cool to see as it rolled into the Green River train yard.

Then we went down and got to see it up close.

It was all good that the move was put off a couple days since we got to see the train and I got to see and give a hug to a friend!

But despite a few days of stall pattern, we soon moved back into packing high gear and we drove out of town on Tuesday September 25 after a final stressful morning waiting for that sale to be final.  We could not have done this move without the help of some key friends, especially Lorna and Marco who helped us during a very successful moving sale and Phillip who helped Joe pack the truck for a whole day!

It is normally a nine (9) hour drive between Green River and Missoula, this was a two day drive as I followed Joe.  Me driving the Rav4 with my boat on top and Joe driving the moving truck and trailer.   This was so boring at about 60 miles an hour as I followed that trailer.  But the drive was beautiful.

The colors and pretty skies started as we neared the WY/ID border just after Cokeville, Wyoming.

The boat enjoyed the ride, she hasn't been out much and is hoping for more water time in Montana!

The Idaho colors were lovely.

That was my view for two (2) days.  But then exciting things started happening.  First, the Montana border.

Then, woohoo, the final turn and 114 miles to Missoula!

This passenger seat was full and the hat is ready for some Montana music festivals!

Next exit, home!

As of Friday, September 28th we officially became Montana residents and the very excited owners of this beautiful home.

There are so many wonderful things about the house, but here I'll focus on the view.  We have 8 acres!  There's been lots of wildfire smoke, but this was still the view from our bedroom window, the morning after moving in.

The view from the dining room a couple nights ago as we get ready for sunset.

And the daily visitors that I've hired to do my fall pruning.

We are doing some updates, such as new kitchen counters and other fun things, but no worries, I have started cooking and have some other blog posts coming your way.  We'll get started back up with grains in a few weeks, in the meantime I'm just happy to be cooking during this wonderful fall season.