Leftover S’mores Ingredients? Bake a S’mores Cheesecake!

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

After grilling s’mores for ourselves and our dock neighbors, we were still left with half a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers, and a whole bar of dark chocolate. Such problems… Cheesecake was the answer to this problem!

Our galley kitchen is small. The counter space is measured in inches. Our pantry has just the basics. Our cookware and dishes are on the multifunctional and minimal side. We did outfit our little home with Denby dishes, which can be baked in. So, forget about the springform pan and the food processor in this preparation. What follows is how I made S’mores Cheesecake, galley style.

S’mores Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust-

a little more than 1 cup of ground graham crackers. I ground the graham crackers using our coffee grinder.
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

Cheesecake Filling

8 oz. cream cheese, brought to room temperature
2 eggs, also room temperature
4 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup of coarsely chopped dark chocolate bar

Topping

Marshmallows, quartered
1/4 cup of coarsely chopped dark chocolate bar

Directions

Mix graham cracker crumbs with 3 tbsp brown sugar and butter.
Press into a well-buttered pasta bowl that can be baked (or springform pan if you are in a standard kitchen).
In a medium-sized pot, beat eggs and remaining 4 tbsp. of brown sugar. I used brown sugar to add flavor in lieu of vanilla extract.
Whisk in cream cheese until smooth. A mixer would have come in handy for this step. My arm was a little tired here.
Mix in 1/4 cup of chopped dark chocolate. I did experiment with using a vegetable peeler to curl pieces of chocolate. Using a cutting board and a chopping knife was easier and turned out with equally good results.
Pour cream cheese mixture into graham cracker crust and bake in a 320 degree F oven. My little oven may bake a little warmer than yours, so you may need to increase the temperature a bit.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the center is almost set.
Evenly place marshmallows on top of cheesecake. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate. Bake for another 5 minutes, marshmallows should just be tanning.
Remove from oven and let cool for about an hour. No matter how much Jack begs, tell him he can’t have any cheesecake until tomorrow.
Refrigerate overnight. Fortunately, our camper is parked in the harbor parking lot and is equipped with a nice little fridge.

I was pleasantly surprised that we could pop the cheesecake out of the pasta bowl. I thought we were going to have to enjoy this dessert spoonful by spoonful. Who needs springform pans?!

Sandhill Cranes with Chick: Potter Marsh, Alaska

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Driving to Anchorage from Seward recently, we spotted these sandhill cranes at Potter Marsh and decided to park the truck and walk out onto the boardwalk for a closer look.

Large birds are cool, and in North America, there aren’t many birds larger than Grus canadensis, sandhill cranes. Adults typically weight 8 to 10 pounds. The stand four to five feet tall and have wingspans of five-and-a-half feet to nearly seven feet. Sandhills are fairly common in the west, and in a few places can be viewed by the hundreds or even thousands. More frequently, they are seen here and there in pairs, in small groups, or as individuals.

The sexes are similar. Plumage ranges from drab gray to rusty brown. Aside from size, the most distinguishing characteristic is the red crown. (Click the photos for a larger view.)

We couldn’t quite make out what the adult bird is feeding the chick. Cranes are catholic in diet. Berries and seeds make up a large portion of their diet, but insects and other small animals figure in as well.

This chick will stay with its parents for 10 months or so – until just before next year’s breeding season when the parents will lay one to three eggs. Sandhills have a life expectancy of about seven years in the wild, but may live up to three times that long. Several subspecies occur throughout the U.S. and across the Pacific to Siberia. Accidentals have been reported in Europe.

Strawberry-Port Gallette with Sliced Almonds

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Delicious first baking experience in the galley of our boat, Bandon. Strawberries marinated in brown sugar and port wine stuffed into a simple crust filled our little home with delicious smells and satisfied my need to bake.

Our boat is equipped with a gimbaled stove, which pivots and swings to remain level in spite of waves and wind in the harbor. The stove houses a tiny oven, which is perfect for baking for two. I love to bake and have had an itch to make something with the beautiful strawberries I kept seeing at the store. We hadn’t had strawberries since last summer! After thirty minutes of baking, the first experiment emerged from the oven a success. The only thing that would have improved this dessert was a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream. Next time…

Strawberry Port Gallette

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp port wine

Directions

In a small bowl, stir together strawberries, brown sugar, and port. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, granulated sugar, and salt.
Cut in butter to flour mixture. I mixed this by hand, literally, until the butter was well incorporated.
Add a bit of water to form flour mixture into a dough ball (I used about 2 tbsp).
Roll out dough to an 8″ circle. I didn’t have a rolling pin, so I pressed out the dough into 8″ circle onto a well-buttered cookie sheet.
Place berries in a mound on the circle, leaving a 1-2″ border. I reserved some of the sugar-port juice to sauté the sliced almonds.
Fold the 1-2″ border over fruit, leaving the strawberries exposed in the center.
Bake at 375 degrees F until golden, about 30 minutes.
While gallette is baking, sauté almonds in reserved sugar-port juice.
When baking is complete, remove gallette from oven and sprinkle with sautéed almonds.

Violet-green Swallow

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Violet-green swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) are common throughout the western U.S., Canada and Alaska. In flight, look for the distinctive white on the sides of the rump. When they perch, look for white cheeks with white extending above the eye to distinguish them from tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor).

Depending on the light, violet-greens’ backs can appear to range in color from teal to metallic green to purple. This is the male, above.

Females’ colors, above, tend be a bit more muted than males.

Look for violet-greens in open areas and semi-open areas where they feed on insects. They can be attracted to nesting boxes.

Grilled S’mores? Who Knew? A Better (messier) Campfire Snack

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

This twist on a summertime favorite kicks the s’mores experience up a couple of notches. Graham crackers, thick chunks of dark chocolate, and marshmallows are as good as you remember them when you were a kid. Maybe better.

Guilty as charged: hardly a summer goes by when we don’t have s’mores at least once. They’re a great campfire dessert. But when a friend recently suggested we try grilling our s’mores instead of only toasting the marshmallows, we figured that maybe tried-and-true had been improved.

Hot off the grill, these s’mores don’t look dangerous. But looks, as everyone knows, can be deceiving. What you’re seeing here is molten goo ready to start pouring all over your hands, mouth, face, shirt and jeans at the slightest touch.

The chocolate looks like it’s set. It isn’t. As soon as it’s even slightly disturbed, it turns to liquid. The molecular science behind this is beyond our ken, but one thought came to mind: there’s a market for the s’mores equivalent of lobster bibs! The cracker is toasted crispy and warm, and the marshmallows are perfectly heated through – gooey and never burned.

Don’t Bogart that Collar, My Friend: Yelloweye Rockfish Melts

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

A pan-toasted sourdough bun, a chunky heap of yelloweye rockfish, and Tillamook cheddar cheese along with a couple of grinds each of sea salt and pepper are all you need for a gourmet lunch. The collar meat of yelloweye has a texture and flavor reminiscent of lobster and in similar fashion puffs up when you cook it.

While crab or shrimp are the classic seafoods in a melt, firm, white-meated fish is every bit as good. Enter yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) collar meat. The large, firm chunks of meat are perfect on melts. Lingcod, halibut, grouper, snapper and freshwater walleye are good candidates for this dish as well, and while collar meat is an excellent choice, any boneless portion of fish works fine.

I like to start with pan-toasted sourdough bread. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, place in the bread and move the down side around so it become coated with the oil. Cook over medium-lowor low heat till it’s toasted golden brown. Sometimes I add a little butter or some garlic to the olive oil.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan where you’ve also heated a little olive oil, place the fish and cook it over medium-low heat.

If you’ve timed things right, the first side of the bread is toasted and ready to flip at about the same time the seafood is cooked through.

Flip the bread to toast the other side, place the hot, cooked seafood on the toasted side of the bread, cover with shredded cheddar cheese, add a few grinds of pepper and some sea salt, then cover the pan with a lid and continue cooking over low heat till the cheddar is melted.

A few slices of avocado or fresh fruit on the side, a cold lager, iced tea or freshly-squeezed lemon-ade, and you’ve got a quick and easy lunch that will be relished as much by most kids as by gourmets.

Orange-crowned Warbler, Potter Marsh near Anchorage

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Oranged-crowned warblers (Vermivora celata) are fairly common, but it’s rare to get a good look at these tiny, active birds. Even less common is finding an individual with an identifiably orange crown.

Color is often the first thing we go to when attempting to differentiate among like species. The perplexing thing is that color is often misleading.

The orange-crowned warbler’s orange crown is seldom visible. What birders typically see is a small, greenish-yellow-brown bird flitting through alders and willows. A warbler. But which warbler?

If you don’t see an orange crown, another tell is the complete absences of barring on the wings.

Orange-crowned warblers feed on insects, worms, nectar and berries. They’re ground nesters. What a thrill it would be to find a nest, tucked away beneath low-growing willows. When summer ends in Canada and Alaska and the Western United States, orange-crowns migrate to the southern U.S. and Central America.

We were lucky to catch this guy preening on an open branch at the edge of Potter Marsh, on the southern edge of Anchorage, Alaska. He stayed long enough for several photos. Before flitting off into the underbrush, he gave us one final view of his seldom-seen orange crown.

Rockfish in Sweet & Spicy Beans with Miso

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Yelloweye rockfish poached in miso soup with black beens, sweet corn and summer squash. The broth is sweetened with honey and spiced with a Jamaican-style rub for a little heat to balance out the sweet.

In Japan, I was served a dish featuring carp cooked in sweetened beans. It was good, though a bit sweet to my tastes. Later, I began catching kurosoi, a black rockfish (genus Sebastes) common in northern Japan. After broiling a couple of them, I knew I had a good candidate to try in a spicier bean dish.

Two pound rockfish such as this yelloweye are perfect for a whole-fish-for-two dinner. A small zucchini, cut in half, scored, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with herbs de provence, makes a nice side dish.

A variety of firm, white-meated fish work well in this dish. Any of the rockfishes in genus Sebastes, black seabass, small stripers, snappers and porgy (sea bream) would be good choices. Any leftover broth from this dish can be served the following day as an excellent soup.

Rockfish in Sweet and Spicy Beans with Miso

For two diners…

Ingredients:

One rockfish (or other fish with firm, white meat) weighing about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds with scales, gills and entrails removed.
1 pound of black beans
1 cup of red miso soup broth (make it a little stronger than usual)
1/2 tbsp Jamaican rub or other spicy seasoning featuring hot peppers. Cumin and oregano may be included in the seasoning, or may be added separately.
Several cloves of garlic, chopped coarse
1/2 sweet onion, chopped coarse
sweet corn (one ear’s worth – about 1 cup)
1 yellow squash (summer squash), sliced into circles, circles cut in half (optional)
sea salt to taste (the miso will add quite a bit of salt)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
hot chili pepper, sliced thin or chopped fine – just a little for additional heat (optional)
two tablespoons honey
two tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Thoroughly clean the fish, pat dry with paper towels, and set aside.
Over medium-low heat, prepare the miso broth in a pan large enough to hold the whole fish (an oblong poacher works best for this, but any large, round pan that has a lid will do).
Stir in the honey until dissolved.
Add the beans, onions, corn, spices (including slices of chili pepper), olive oil and freshly ground pepper. Taste. Add salt and more spices, if desired. Cover with a lid and bring to a simmer.
Add the fish, working it down into the broth.
Cover with a lid and maintain a simmer, reducing heat if necessary, and cook for about 7 minutes. Using two spatulas, carefully turn the fish so that both sides are cooked in the broth. Add the summer squash at this time. Continue simmering on low heat for another 10 to 13 minutes. The fish will be all but falling apart when done. (Cooking the first side for a shorter time before turning the fish will mean that the fish is firmer and therefore easier to turn over.)
Carefully remove the fish to a serving platter. Arrange beans and vegetables around the fish and serve piping hot.

We enjoyed this fish with a red table wine from the state of Washington. Syrah, Malbec, or Merlot would pair well with this dish.

And don’t forget a colorful seasonal salad!

Seward Yacht Club – Swimming Pools, Movie Stars

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Seward’s small boat harbor viewed from the second floor balcony of the William H. Seward Yacht Club.

For either one of us, if, back when we were in our teens or twenties and trying to figure out life, someone had told us we’d own a blue water capable sailboat and belong to a yacht club, we’d have thought to ourselves, “Sure. Can I have some of whatever you’re smoking?”

But the Seward Yacht Club fits. Upon becoming members, we were happy to set aside any preconceived notions about “yacht” owners and to simply fall in with a group of really great (generous, hard-working, helpful, welcoming) people who are bound together by a love of boats and water.

Bikes and the live-aboard lifestyle often go together – this one is parked at the Seward yacht club. It’s nice to belong to a club where the dandelions are left to grow.

In addition to camaraderie, the club provides its members and their guests with showers, a nice kitchen in which to cook a meal, and a fairly extensive library on things nautical.

The small boat harbor at Seward mirrors the yacht club. Boats of all sizes are docked here. A lot of them belong to working fisherman – both guides and commercial fishermen. A lot of the boats belong to people who just plain like water and boats and fishing and have worked hard and been careful with their money, anticipating the day when they could own a boat. It doesn’t seem to matter who you are, where you come from, what kind of boat you have, or what you do on it. People pass each other and most offer a friendly greeting. People take care of their own boats and keep an eye on their neighbors’. It’s a community. Reminds me of the best parts of the small town in western Pennsylvania where I grew up.

Wish there were more places like it.

Getting Wasted on Cheap Vodka

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

“Higher! Lift it higher!” Barbra strains to hoist a lingcod of about 30 pounds that fell to a jig in 100 feet of water.

Six-thirty AM and virtually no wind. Gaff – check. Rods rigged and ready – check. Plenty of knife jigs, lead-heads, twister tails – check. A fifth of cheap vodka in a plastic bottle…

Check.

It was our friend Jerry’s last day in Seward, and he had just enough time for a quick out-and-back morning trip. We were looking for his first-ever halibut, along with whatever else might be interested in our jigs.

With Barbra at the helm of our C-Dory, cruising between 15 and 20 knots over calm seas it took us about an hour to get to a place we knew would offer a chance to pick up halibut without running all the way out into the Gulf of Alaska.

Sea birds, vast shoals of herring, porpoises, seals and off in the distance the misty spout of a whale – all against a dramatic Alaskan background of green-sloped, snow-shouldered mountains, glaciers and rugged, rocky – make any trip out onto the bay a good one.

We got a few fish, too. Jerry nailed his first-ever halibut (not to mention a 50-pound-class lingcod – also a first), Barbra got her hands on her first 30-pound lingcod, and I hooked another nice halibut. In three hours of fishing, we caught maybe half-a-dozen lings, the halibut, Pacific cod, greenling, a brilliantly colored sculpin and over a dozen assorted rockfish including blacks, yelloweye, quillbacks, and a beautifully marked tiger.

We kept a yelloweye, the tiger (photo on the left), and a halibut.

Since the lings have to be released (the season doesn’t open till July 1, and it is permanently closed within Resurrection Bay), the only one we pulled out of the water for a quick photo was Barbra’s 30-pounder.

But she brought an even larger fish to the boat that day, and the way she caught it was a first for us – one that gave new meaning to the exclamation “Color!” fishermen often call out when they get the first glimpse of a fish coming up from the depths.

Laid across the mouth of one of the most beautifully marked lings we’ve ever seen – a 40 pounder with striking, amber-brown spots – was a bright orange yelloweye rockfish! The jig hook was planted firmly in the yelloweye’s mouth, but had no purchase on the lingcod. The ling’s jaws were simply clamped down on its meal – and it was giving every bit as good of a fight as if it had been securely hooked.

We released several nice black rockfish, such as this one Jerry caught.

I knew, based on reading about events like this, that as long as we didn’t raise the ling’s head above water, he’d continue to hold onto the rockfish like a dog playing tug-of-war with a rope. So what did I do? I grabbed Barbra’s leader and lifted the ling’s head above water, causing it to instantly drop the yelloweye and sink back into the depths. Oops…

We thus missed a chance for a really great photo – the bright orange of the yelloweye lying lengthwise across the jaws of a massive lingcod. Ahh… next time!

Interestingly enough, the yelloweye didn’t look particularly damaged. When we released it, it scurried straight for the bottom.

And the vodka?

Jerry and I had read about fishermen using cheap booze – not a .22 rifle, not a .410 shotgun, not a billy – cheap booze to subdue fish. Halibut are notorious for going crazy once they’re on the deck of a boat. They’ve been known to bust up tackle, wreck coolers and even injure their captors. But with a shot or two of alcohol on their gills…

When Jerry got his fish up on the surface, I gaffed it right behind the cheek and pulled its head up out of water. As soon as the fish opened its mouth, Jerry poured a couple shots of vodka down its hatch. The affect was amazing. The fish slumped like an overserved patron passing out on a bar, and we slid it over the gunwale without a struggle . Once we had it on the deck of the C-Dory, we splashed its gills with another shot of vodka for good measure and then hung it over the side of the boat to bleed it out.

Easiest time of it I’ve ever had with a halibut.