Holm Family Cookbook

Our friends Ernie and Diane were heading to Costa Rica for 4 months to help out a congregation in the small town of Sarchi; so of course, any excuse for a party! We decided to try out some Costa Rican recipes to prepare their bellies for the adventure ahead. There aren’t many cookbooks featuring Costa Rican cuisine available, so I found a few recipes online and sent them to the guests for a potluck. After our ravioli-making day, we planned to have a tamale-making day, so on this occasion we made the standard pork tamales and Costa Rican tamales. What sets the Costa Rican tamale apart is the addition of potatoes and rice to the filling, they are wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks, and are boiled instead of steamed.

Arroz con leche, Costa Rican tamales and pork tamales fill the stovetop!

We searched high and low for banana leaves, an ingredient not often used by us Californian’s, and Diane finally found them in the freezer section at Ranch 99 Market.

A staple on the Costa Rican’s menu is Gallo Pinto (beans and rice). A couple who spent a number of years in Central America and the Caribbean brought a pot of these herbed black beans and rice, something they had eaten plenty of during their stay in the tropics. Another friend brought a delicious Ensalada Palmito, a light fresh salad of hearts of palm with a homemade mayonnaise dressing.

Ensalada Palmito with homemade mayonnaise

Also on the menu was Ensalada Rusa, a hearty salad of potato, beet and carrot (turned bright pink from the freshly roasted beets!), along with Tico Rice and for dessert Arroz con Leche, a sweet rice pudding. I made a batch of Picadillo, a vegetable chorizo mélange.

Picadillo with chorizo and chayote

This was the first time I had ever purchased a chayote, and couldn’t figure out why each chayote came in a little plastic bag. Good thing I looked it up on google, as you can have an allergic reaction to the skin, it’s best to wear gloves to peel.

We all shared in making the tamales, an all-afternoon affair, plus some preparation in advance. A number of us cooked huge pork butts (actually shoulders) the day before, low and slow, along with the Tico Rice and potatoes for Costa Rican tamales. Chef Bruce (you met Bruce previously in Nonni’s Ravioli blog!) taught us all how to make the masa using lard, homemade broth and cumin.

Spreading the masa in traditional tamales

We used the same masa for both varieties of tamales, making batch after batch after batch throughout the afternoon, as dozens of tamales were assembled and rolled!

Tanner and Bruce on the tamale line

Costa Rican Tamale Recipe

3 lbs pork shoulder roast

2 tbsp olive oil

coriander leaves (cilantro), salt, black pepper, cumin, oregano, achiote (I didn’t have this ingredient on the hill!)

8 cloves of garlic, peeled

½ lb sweet or hot peppers to taste

1 large onion

32 ounces chicken broth

2 ¼ lbs potatoes

2 lbs instant corn masa mix

2/3 lb lard

5 cups cooked Tico style rice

2 ¼ lbs banana leaves (corn husks can be substituted, or if desperate aluminum foil)

Rub the pork roast with olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon black pepper. In a deep roasting pan add the peppers, onion, garlic and chicken broth. Roast at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes until the skin browns, then lower the temperature to 300 degrees and roast until very tender, 3-4 hours. Reserve the broth. When the meat is cool shred or chop finely.

Chopping the roasted pork

While the meat is simmering prepare the potatoes and rice.

Peel the potatoes chop into ½ inch cubes. Boil with salt, cilantro, and oregano to taste until soft, about 10 – 15 minutes.

Rice Tico style

3-5 sprigs cilantro

1 small or half a medium onion

½ small red or yellow sweet pepper

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

2 cups white rice

3 cups chicken broth or water

½ teaspoon salt

Chop cilantro, onion, and sweet pepper very fine. Add 1 tablespoon oil to a large pan and sauté the dry rice for 2 minutes over medium high flame then add the chopped onion, sweet pepper and cilantro and sauté another 2 minutes. Add water or chicken broth and salt, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer until rice is tender, 20-25 minutes.

Tamale fillings ready to roll: roasted pork, potatoes and tico rice

To prepare the masa, allow the meat broth to cool until it is just warm. To the dry masa add 1 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, and and mix dry. Then add the lard, mixing with hands or machine, while adding the warm broth. It should take about 2 1/2 cups to make a paste the consistency of mashed potatoes. Mix and add slowly, and if you over shoot on the broth and get it too thin, add a little more masa.

Wash the banana leaves then cut them into 15 inch squares. Spread 2 tablespoons of masa paste in the center, add 1 tablespoon each of potatoes, rice and meat.

Costa Rican tamale ingredients ready to wrap

Fold as shown and tie with cotton string, or strips of corn husks.

Little wrapped packages ready for the pot!

Cook the tamales in gently boiling water for about one hour. If you substitute corn husks, you will need to make slightly smaller tamales, pack the pot full and steam them rather than boiling them, because the husks won't hold together.

A plate packed with our Costa Rican cuisine!

They made it! Diane & Ernie in Grecia's central park, Diane and Linda shopping at the market in Sarchi Costa Rica!

Pura Vida!   Nancita the hungry gringita

Yesterday my friend Kim Bonde and I attended the 11th Annual Cowgirl luncheon in Oakdale, which was a fundraiser for the Oakdale Cowboy Museum and one of the events kicking off rodeo week in Oakdale. Tickets for this event went on sale February 15th and the 460+ seat event sold out in less than four hours. Kim drove the hour drive to Oakdale the day the tickets went on sale to get our tickets. The luncheon was held at the Oakdale Community Center.

Oakdale is also known as the "Cowboy Capital of the World," which is a title the town claimed long before its rodeo cowboys won 24 world championships. The small Texas town of Stephenville also claims to be the cowboy capital and says it has more cowboys per square foot than any place in the world. Hmmm. Wouldn't want to be the referee in that battle.

The Cowgirl Luncheon was held at the Oakdale Community Center

This was the first time Kim and I attended the luncheon--or even heard of it for that matter--and we wondered if we would know many people. When we got in the line in front of the community center, we stood behind Bobbie Telles, who we have known for many years. Bobbie told us she stood in line for two hours to buy her tickets for the luncheon. Throughout the day we saw at least 25 people we that we knew and hadn't seen in a long time, so we had a great time chatting with everyone. We even saw my cousin Stacie Holm Brown.

We saw my cousin Stacie Holm Brown at the luncheon

As we walked into the event, we were served champagne by some of the local cowboys and they continued to pour champagne for us throughout the luncheon. When it was time for lunch to be served, the cowboys lined up and began serving lunch to the female guests. The lunch was catered by Steve Medlen's House of Beef in Oakdale. This was one of the best catered lunches I have ever had.  If the lunch the House of Beef catered for nearly 500 people was so good, I'll bet the restaurant is great.

The cowboys lining up to serve lunch

Lunch consisted of grilled steak with peppercorn sauce, garlic red potatoes, and salad

Bottles of Cowgirl Sisterhood wine were on each table

A few of the cowboys serving lunch were world champion cowboys while I was in high school. I have to admit it was a bit of a thrill to see these folks that we looked up to when we were kids.  One of the servers sat at our table to eat his lunch when he was done serving. He was Daniel Green, who was a world champion roper around 2008-2010 (many years after I graduated high school). Daniel told us his daughters' year-round softball games and his son's sporting activities currently keep him from competing nationally. Good man, that Daniel--making his children a high priority!

World Champion Roper Jerold Camarillo filling my glass with champagne

Ace Berry, champion roper and bronc rider

Champion roper Daniel Green

For the last few years a woman involved in rodeo has been honored by the Cowboy Museum at the luncheon. This year the honoree was Emma "Pee Wee" Burge Ott.  Emma was born in 1919 in Giswil, Switzerland and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was 9 years old. After passing through Ellis Island, her parents found work on a dairy farm in the Imperial Valley of California. Emma became proficient in riding dairy calves and at the age of 17 was hired to ride steers in an exhibition.  Three years later she was roping competitively.  She was taught to ride saddle broncs and it was the thrill of her life. She was only 5 feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds, which earned her the nick name of  “Pee Wee”.  She took up trick riding, bronc riding, and relay and flat races for six years--riding at some major rodeos, which included the Pendleton Round Up.  She retired from her career in rodeo at the age of 27.  Pee Wee married a dairyman, Joe Ott, and they had four daughters. At the age of 50, she went to college and became a licensed vocational nurse. Pee Wee died last year at the age of 92. Her daughters and granddaughters were at the Cowgirl Luncheon to accept her award. What a story and what a gal that Pee Wee must have been!

Saddle bronc riding Emma "Pee Wee" Burge Ott. Photo borrowed from Oakdale Cowboy Museum's Farewell Facebook Page.

Kim and I sure had a great time at the Cowgirl Luncheon and have plans to attend again next year. On our way home we encountered some bad weather, including passing through extreme rain, hail, and winds that had accompanied a tornado in the area! 

Funnel cloud seen in the area we were driving through on the way home

Besides the Cowgirl luncheon and the Oakdale Rodeo, which by the way is this weekend, Oakdale is also the home of the Testicle Festival. The American Cowboy Magazine lists the festival as one of the top 101 events to attend in the west.

~merry~

Dungeness crab

During the fall and winter months in the San Francisco Bay Area and other communities along the west coast, many organizations hold crab feeds as their major yearly fundraiser. The crab feeds are typically held at an event center that can hold 200 - 300 people. The crab being served at the crab feeds are Dungeness crabs. Good, fresh Dungeness crab meat is sweet, tender and tastes great. The Dungeness crabs have hard shells and the crabs have usually been cleaned and cracked, but are still in the shell. Occasionally I hear about crabs feeds where the crabs are served already shelled, but it is really a lot of fun sitting around shelling and eating crab with your friends while wearing bibs. 

The Shrine Event Center in Livermore is a venue for several crab feeds every year

The menu at nearly all of the crab feeds that I have attended included all you can eat crab, salad, pasta, and garlic bread. Several crab feeds in the Bay Area also include all you can eat shrimp.  I would imagine that if someone were to attend several crab feeds during the crab feed season, they could easily pack on 25 pounds.

There is a group of friends and family members that I usually attend at least one crab feed with every year. Last Saturday night we attended the Livermore Rotary's crab feed. When we attend a crab feed, we don't just show up and eat. There are things to bring and some planning involved. Our friend Kim brings butter warmers, butter, and hand wipes. Although there is seafood sauce on the tables, my aunt Patsy brings her crab dressing, which I prefer over the seafood sauce. I bring light appetizers, such as crudités. Everyone brings tools to help make extracting the crab from the shell a bit easier.

One of Kim's butter warmers

Aunt Patsy's crab dressing

The tools we use to extract the crab from the shell

The salad

The pasta

A bowl of the all you can eat crab at the Livermore Rotary's crab feed

This was the first time we attended the Livermore Rotary's crab feed and fortunately, the Rotarians and their guests were well behaved. The event was much more low key than crab feed we attended a couple of years ago where there were "chick fights," dirty dancing, and wardrobe malfunctions (all performed by mom's that had way too many cocktails at this church affiliated crab feed).  The emcee for the Rotary's crab feed was Juliette Goodrich from CBS 5 news. It was a lot of fun seeing many old friends and coworkers at the event--even more so seeing them wearing bibs.

Emmy award winning reporter Juliette Goodrich emceed the event

It was a lot of fun seeing many old friends, like Jacob, at the Rotary Crab Feed

Aunt Patsy's Crab Dressing

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

Directions

In a mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, and blend well.

~merry~

So, the West Coast has crab feeds, what kind of feeds do you have in your part of the country?

A sample of the wide variety of cookies and candies from this year's exchange: chocolate crinkles, double orange, snickerdoodle biscotti, shortbread, English toffee, lemon drops, chocolate balls

Three years ago I blogged about a Christmas cookie exchange 11 of my coworkers and I started that year at work. At the first exchange we were wowed by the French chocolate bark our coworker Louella brought for the exchange. She neatly packed the bark into twelve small green glass bread pans. The wife of another coworker brought chocolate Christmas mice, which were also a hit.  Click here to read about the first exchange

That year I brought the spritz cookies that my family and I make at a yearly spritz cookie making party. To read about the cookie making party and see the recipe, click here. 

Last year, I was not into making cookies for the exchange, so I made homemade peanut brittle. Believe it or not, peanut brittle is quicker and easier to make than cookies. Click here to learn how to make it and get the recipe.

I spent some time this past weekend prepping for the third annual cookie exchange. I made muddy buddies, a snack mix, instead of cookies. And, as I am writing this blog, it is 6:30 a.m. and I have potatoes baking in the oven for the luncheon we have in conjunction with the cookie exchange. The first year we had a taco and taco salad bar at the luncheon.  I made easy picante chicken in a crockpot for the tacos and salad. Click here for the recipe.  Last year we had a baked potato bar. When the call went out this year for ideas for the luncheon some people wanted tacos again, others wanted baked potatoes. There were no suggestions for anything new, so we are having a taco and baked potato bar.

It's now 9:30 p.m. and I'm feeling a bit queasy from all of the decadent sweets that I ate today. The variety of cookies and candy that my coworkers made for today's cookie exchange was incredible. There were snickerdoodle biscotti, lemon drop cookies, shortbread, English toffee, oatmeal raisin cookies, double orange cookies, chocolate mint chip cookies, and chocolate crinkles. Louella wowed us again this year with some chocolate balls made from an Ina Garten recipe. Besides the wide assortment of cookies and candies, there was also a variety of packages that the cookies were packed in.

A sample of the cookie packagings

Muddy buddies

Muddy Buddies

Ingredients

9 cups Corn Chex, Rice Chex, Wheat Chex, or Chocolate Chex cereal (or combination)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Measure the cereal into a large bowl and set aside. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on high for 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 20 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Pour the mixture over the cereal, stirring until evenly coated, and taking care to not break the cereal. Pour into a 2-gallon resealable food-storage (Ziploc) plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal the bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

NOTE: If you don't have a 2-gallon resealable Ziploc bag, use two 1-gallon bags. Put 1/2 of the cereal mixture and powdered sugar into each bag. Rotate shaking the bags.

~merry~

Christmas cookies and happy hearts, this is how the holiday starts.

Over Labor Day weekend we headed out for the annual Mueller family camping trip on the Tuolumne River and Turlock Lake in Stanislaus County. This was a banner year with over 30 campers and boaters, ages 2 to 79.

The Tuolumne River in Stanislaus County

A fleet of boats are towed along, one of which is a bass boat, so there’s usually some fishin' going on. In the past, we haven’t cooked fish that often, the river is catch and release for trout, and nobody has ever been too excited about cleaning and cooking those critters at the end of the day. This year we took things a little more seriously, and I came prepared with my “tool box” for camp cooking.

I visited Green Leaf BBQ, our local specialty BBQ shop ahead of time to look into buying a 16-18” cast iron frying pan, after seeing the behemoth in use on our last camping trip. I left the store without the frying pan (it’s a specialty order) but came out with “The Brothers” Tangy Original BBQ Sauce and “John Henry’s” Wild Cherry Chipotle dry rub, upon recommendation from the owner. I was also packing a salt, pepper and garlic house spice mix that I had picked up at the Lockeford Sausage Company.

The river was flowing fast and furious into the lake and along the campsite, and fishing was good. The Mueller and Miller boys brought in a full stringer of rainbow trout, the assembly line of fish cleaning got rollin’ and the BBQ was sparked. I brought along an arsenal of ideas…

Nephew Matt and the Sangervasi cousins with the "catch of the day"!

I started by sprinkling every fish, inside and out, with the salt and pepper mix, and we tried the trout four ways:

1) I soaked two of the fish in buttermilk that I had brought up for pancakes, then dipped the fish in some flour and spice mix and fried it up on the camp stove the good old fashioned way. It came out crispy and delicious - heads began to turn.

2) We threw one trout directly on the grill, about 5 minutes on one side, flipped it, poured on “The Brothers” sauce inside and out, flipped it again after 5 minutes, brushed the other side with the sauce, cooked a few more minutes and served. At this point we won over another 3 nay-saying fish haters!

3) I laid a pair of fish individually on heavy duty tin foil, rubbed olive oil inside and out and sprinkled with a little more spice mix, stuffed the fish with sliced red bell pepper, garlic and shallots, laid a bit of the veg mix alongside the fish, wrapped them loosely and threw them on the grill, about 10 - 12 minutes each side. Now we were cooking! Another success, and another couple of skeptics were brought to the other side.

4) We rubbed the last fish with olive oil and heavily sprinkled it with John Henry’s Wild Cherry Chipotle dry rub inside and out, threw it on the grill, 5 minutes each side, and boy oh boy, this was the winner in my eyes, it was absolutely delicious! One of the 11 year-olds came over from the darkside at this point, we had the whole team eatin’ fish, and actually enjoying it.

At this point we were wondering if “fish” had another name, maybe kids would be more tolerant, and move beyond the average fish stick! Mission accomplished, my fly-fishin’ dad would be proud!

~ Nancy Calhoun Mueller

Wente Vineyards in Livermore has the most picturesque property of any of the wineries in Livermore. During the summer months Wente takes advantage of the their beautiful grounds to hold large concerts, small concerts, and movie nights. At about 6:30 last Thursday night I was cleaning out my email box and came across an email from Wente advertising their movie nights. The Wizard of Oz just happened to be playing that night and the gates opened at 6:30. On the spur of the moment, my daughter Laina and I decided to go. We threw some chairs, jackets, and blankets in the car and headed out.

The entrance to Wente Vineyards

The movie nights are free. Wente has food and beverages available for purchase in their Reel Cafe. On this evening the Reel Cafe menu included pulled pork, grilled vegetable, and mesquite grilled sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs. They also had nuts, popcorn, caramel corn, cookies, and wicked witch cupcakes. Wine, beer, and ruby slippers (cosmopolitans) were available as well. Laina and I decided on the mesquite chicken sandwich and caramel corn. Oh yeah, I had a ruby slipper too.

The Reel Cafe

The Reel Cafe menu

The mesquite grilled chicken sandwich

The ruby slipper cosmo

The Wicked Witch cupcake

The weather was beautiful that night. Lots of families showed up to socialize with their friends. There were games and face painting for the kids and shortly before the movie started a costume contest was held for the kids that showed up in costume. The Wente staff handed out witch hats and tin man funnel hats to some of the kids that didn't wear costumes. After the movie started, three little girls that were wearing the tin man funnel hats entertained us by running and hiding behind planters, walls, and garbage cans and  we would see the three little funnels pop up randomly throughout the night. They sure looked like they were having a great time.

The screen before the movie started

The moviegoers socializing before the movie

The costume contest

Young Frankenstein and Dirty Dancing are the other movies that will be shown this summer at Wente. Check the Wente Vineyards website for the July and August dates: http://www.wentevineyards.com/news/events/the_cinema_at_wente_vineyards/. If you don't like outdoor dining or prefer fine dining, you might want to try eating at their award winning restaurant before coming outside for the movie. One important thing to remember when going to any of Wente's outdoor evening events is to bring jackets or sweatshirts and a blanket. It can get very cold out there at night--even during the summer.

And now I am off to see the Wizard . . . .

~merry~