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The other day I cleaned off my desk and came across a stack of Isabel’s Kitchen columns I had cut out from the paper. I wasn’t in a hurry so I took the time to read a few. My hair stood straight up when I read “The Art of Chicken Soup” and realized I forgot to mention the most important ingredient. Oh no! I felt a gamut of emotions, from annoyance to worry. How could I possibly have forgotten this and misled my readers? I mentioned my conundrum to Randal and he suggested I write a column with the correction.

Many versions of the same recipe flood the internet and each has a subtle variation. Occasionally one recipe will stand out because it calls for the addition of an unusual ingredient that kicks up the flavors a notch. Often this magic ingredient is a potent and highly concentrated flavoring that can transform ordinary staples into wildly flavorful meals. Then those humble ingredients can then become spectacular dishes dressed to the nines. I call these special ingredients “flavor bursts” because they deliver explosive taste. I always feel so smug and accomplished when I take an ordinary recipe and level it up and then the recipe goes from good to great.

Flavor bursts include things like gourmet vinegars, sharp cheeses, chutneys, jellies and jams, mushroom, tomato and blue cheese powders, syrups, crunchy salts, infused oils, crystallized ginger and mustards and so on. For example, I was thrilled when I discovered the addition of malted milk powder to waffles adds a lovely layer of richness.

The fact that I left out the magic ingredient in the chicken soup haunted me. Are you curious to know what I forgot? The answer is – drum roll – a packet of Knorr Vegetable Recipe mix. To refresh your memory: the column was about how to make chicken soup from a whole chicken. I poach the chicken in my crockpot, remove the meat, put the bones and skin back in and concentrate the broth, then proceed to make a soup with vegetables and dumplings. The addition of the soup mix adds an intense and savory flavor I simply can’t get otherwise. Though I have not tried it, I would imagine a packet of Lipton’s onion soup mix could work well or any other dried vegetable soup mix. Don’t add too much salt to your broth or your soup will be way too salty after you add the vegetable soup mix.

Thank you, Randal, for your suggestion to get this off my chest. I feel better now! If you would like a copy of the chicken soup recipe, please email me.

I came down with Covid last week. I woke up one morning with lungs that felt like I had been out partying the night before and smoked two packs of cigarettes (though I’ve never actually done this so I’m only guessing).The discomfort quickly spread to the rest of my body and I ended up in bed for a week. Along with Covid, the snow came in on little cat feet and blanketed the landscape with quiet. What a good time of year to be sick, if a person is going to be sick, that is!

Although my body felt great discomfort, I thoroughly relished having an excuse to slide to a screeching halt. I pulled the plug on all my to-do lists and the busy outside world. Although my body ached, the pain was offset by the lovely sensation of being entirely relaxed, at ease and comfortable in my bed. Since I had a lot of chills, I dug out my down sleeping bag; the tag said it’s supposed to keep me warm down to 20⁰. That is enormously humorous. If it was that cold I sure as heck would not be outside! I piled my electric blanket on top of the puffy down and the lovely warmth penetrated to my core. The snow produced a serene atmosphere that beautifully matched my mood. Every afternoon, sleep would lure me to into my warm and cozy bed and it was beyond delightful.

I always keep a big bowl of fresh lemons in the kitchen because a splash of lemon often accentuates flavors and they look pretty. Jerry reminded me to stay hydrated so I filled a pitcher with water and added vitamin C powder, honey and the juice from several lemons. I had a couple of jugs of Crystal Geyser spring water which is bottled near Mt. Shasta. Mt. Shasta has quite the reputation for being supernatural and some believe it has a sacred spring with magical powers. The drink not only tasted good, it felt like a wonderful healing elixir.

I didn’t have much appetite but knew I needed to eat so I cooked a big pot of red potatoes and mashed them up with lots of butter, green onions and parsley. I ate many Scarlett ruby red grapefruits; their intense flavor and extra juiciness makes regular grapefruits seem boring. Randal dropped off homemade chicken pot pie – the best I’ve ever eaten – and that will be the subject of a column soon if he can remember to write down the recipe!

In a certain sense being sick with Covid was a pleasurable experience. I’m looking forward to being restored, refreshed and reset when spring soon arrives.

Last week Jim was sick so I made him some chicken soup. The soup definitely made him feel better so he suggested I write about it. I assumed everyone knew how to make soup from a whole chicken so it wouldn’t have occurred to me to write about that. But over the years I’ve learned lots of little tricks to make a wickedly good, healing and savory chicken soup so here is my version for you.

First, you have to find a good chicken. Maybe you are fortunate enough to know someone who raises meat chickens, if so, lucky you! But most of us don’t know that person so the best you can do is to buy a high quality chicken at the grocery store. Not all chickens are created equal because some are raised in better conditions than others. The chicken I bought was locally raised by Draper Valley Farms in Washington. Their website says they raise chickens the way nature intended. The chicken cooked up quite nicely.

I got out my Crockpot and coarsely chopped an onion, carrots, celery and six cloves of garlic. Next, I added a heaping tablespoon of vegetable bouillon powder, some soy sauce, a few bay leaves, some peppercorns and enough filtered water to cover the chicken. At 8pm I turned the pot on low and cooked the chicken all night. Soon after waking up, I set the chicken on a platter, let it cool and shredded the meat. I put all the remaining bones, skin and vegetables back into the pot, switched it on to high and cooked the liquid for several more hours until the broth turned a deep golden color. After that, I strained the broth into a Dutch oven and set the pot in the fridge for a couple of hours so the fat could be skimmed off. If you are in a hurry, you can also use a fat separator which is a handy gadget to have.

To the pot I added a diced onion, carrots, celery, a package of frozen peas and the shredded chicken. Jim made some dumplings from Bisquick and covered the top with those (I just read that canned biscuits work well too).You could also add rice, noodles or potatoes but cook them separately first otherwise they will soak up all your broth and you will end up with a casserole, not soup. Near the end, I added a few splashes of lemon juice.

I don’t know whether it is truth or fiction that chicken soup has magical healing powers. Regardless, this is the ultimate comfort food. It’s fun to make, if you are not in a hurry, that is.

It’s been awhile since I’ve created my own recipe and I’ve already written about most of them here. But now I have a new recipe to share with you – an original that I made up all by myself. Google said that no one else has thought of this same recipe so I call that “out-Googling myself”. That happened only once before. That was when I blended an Asian ingredient into an Italian recipe; that’s called fusion cooking. I added some tamarind paste to an Italian white bean soup and it was tangy and oh so wonderful. I might make that tonight!

A friend gave me a fancy Belgian waffle iron and until now, I’ve made mostly sourdough waffles. I recently bought a bag of malted milk powder after reading about how malt enhances the flavor of baked goods. I also discovered that it is handy to keep a container of buttermilk powder on hand. Sometimes you just need ½ or one cup and don’t want to buy a whole quart that might go to waste. To a basic waffle recipe I added some malted milk powder and switched out the milk for buttermilk made from powder. The new waffles definitely tasted richer than regular waffles. The addition of bacon crumbles and pecans added a salty taste and a crunchy texture. When the waffles are topped with maple syrup – well, just writing about this makes me want to go straight into the kitchen to make some, right now!

Bacon Pecan Waffles

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
¼ cup malted milk powder
½ tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup vegetable oil or melted butter
2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup bacon crumbles
Maple syrup

Mix the dry ingredients together, then the wet ingredients and combine the two. Stir in the pecans and the bacon crumbles. Pour onto a greased pre-heated waffle iron. When the waffle iron stops steaming, the waffles are almost done.

Buttermilk powder stored in the fridge in a swing top bale jar (a jar with a metal clamp and a rubber gasket) will probably last a couple of years. Buttermilk has a way of making baked goods very moist. Tina Adams once told me that she uses buttermilk instead of water in a cake mix. Good to know. Malted milk powder is different than malt powder; make sure you get the right one. I use half whole wheat flour in this recipe.

My next experiment will be to add malted milk powder to sourdough waffles along with a tablespoon or two of buttermilk powder. Maybe I will out-Google myself then too. Stay tuned!

Suddenly the weather has shifted and now we start to think about food that sustains and soothes. What better comfort food is there than warm macaroni and cheese? A restaurant in Southeast Portland named Noble Rot is famous for their macaroni and cheese. My friend Sunny once lived near there and we would often take a stroll to get Noble Rot’s famous macaroni and cheese. They served it piping hot along with a delightful twist on this classic dish – a sweet condiment made out of apricot jam and butter. The secret to this recipe is to use the best cheese you can get and of course you can’t go wrong with Tillamook’s extra sharp cheddar. I’ve written before about the joys of the “real deal” Parmigiano-Reggiano parmesan cheese made in Parma, Italy; hopefully you can find some                                                                                                                         

Noble Rot’s Macaroni and Cheese

8 ounces macaroni 
4 cups whole milk
1 bay leaf
3 whole allspice berries
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp coarse salt or ¾ teaspoon table salt
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1½ cups extra sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated 
¼  cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus more for topping
Tabasco sauce to taste
½ cup bread crumbs for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta, drain and return to pan to keep warm but leave enough water to prevent the noodles from drying out.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, bay leaf, allspice, red pepper flakes and salt. Bring milk to a boil; remove from heat and set aside.  

In another saucepan, melt the butter over low heat; whisk in the flour and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat. Strain the milk mixture then add 1 cup at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. When all the milk has been added, return to medium-low heat and cook until slightly thickened, whisking frequently and scraping the bottom and sides of the pot so the sauce does not stick. Remove from heat. Stir in the Dijon, Tabasco, cheeses and salt and pepper if needed.

Combine macaroni with the cheese sauce. The macaroni should be soupy because it will absorb a large amount of the sauce. If the macaroni is not soupy, ladle more sauce over the macaroni. Put into a baking dish and top with buttered breadcrumbs. Bake approximately 25 minutes until the top is golden and the cheese bubbles around the sides. Add more parmesan cheese and place the dish under the broiler approximately 3 minutes. You can add some bacon crumbles to kick up the flavor a notch.

There you have it. The best macaroni and cheese comfort food ever!

My favorite seasoning is Maldon sea salt flakes. An English family has made the salt for over 140 years and it’s used in the royal kitchens; it says so on the box. The salt seems more like magic dust than salt because it has a “feel” in addition to taste. This is difficult to describe and the closest I can say is that the salt adds “completeness”. Somehow the salt magnifies and unifies all the flavors and whoosh —the food goes into full bloom without tasting overly salty. However, the salt comes in crunchy flakes and lately I’ve thought that I need a salt grinder.

Thrift stores can provide enormous entertainment and I call them “Cosmic Gift Shops” because often the “just right” thing surfaces at a fraction of the retail price. Oh the surprise of scoring a treasure! Last Friday I was at Goodwill in Redmond in the cooking stuff aisle when a woman’s voice rumbled behind me. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me so to be polite, I turned around and acknowledged her. Turns out she was talking to her little spotted dog that peeked through a hole in her purse. The dog looked like a fancy sort, so I asked “Was it a champion or did it have a pedigree”? We conversed and exchanged a fleeting but warm connection.

She ambled down the aisle, went around the corner, then disappeared. But then she suddenly came back, bowed slightly and with both hands presented me with a pepper grinder in the shape of a wine bottle. She said “I have one of these and I think that you would like it”. Her kind gesture jolted me, but I managed to thank her anyway and said “I have wanted something to grind salt; I am in awe that you knew this”. When I got home I loaded it with my chunky sea salt and the mill ground it into perfection.

I could have just bought a grinder in a store or clicked on a blue button on the internet, so very boring. But the way the grinder came about thrilled me deep into my bones and the mysteriousness left me in awe. From now on when I use that grinder, I will reminisce about the lady who somehow knew that I wanted a salt grinder. Decades later, I will probably still wonder who this stranger was that materialized my request. Was she some kind of an angel who poof, just appeared? Yes, indeed the salt must be magic! Two Boys in Condon sells just in case you would like to try it too.

Happy New Year to all! May good great fortune come your way in 2025.

I often experiment with recipes and rarely make one exactly as it reads. I am definitely a kitchen witch . . . a little bit of this, a little bit of that (no, I don’t use eye of newt). My one-of-a-kind cast iron cauldron makes whatever I cook turn out wickedly good. And recently, Condon resident Rick Knoernschild carved me a lovely soup ladle out of juniper so now the cauldron is complete. Thank you, Rick, for such a thoughtful gift.

When I met with Rick to pick up the ladle, we talked favorite recipes over a beer at the Wild Sage. He told me about his red currant glaze for poultry. The recipe is equal parts melted butter and red currant jelly.

I ordered Wilken & Sons red currant jelly from Amazon (which, by the way, was the best jelly I have ever eaten) and bought two Cornish hens. I brushed the glaze on one of the hens, covered the other with Dijon mustard and put a chunk of butter in its cavity. I stuffed the jelly/butter one with Stovetop dressing. I cut up some russet potatoes into big cubes, tossed them with olive oil and salt and arranged them around the hens.

I popped the hens in the oven at 375⁰ for just under an hour until a meat thermometer read 165⁰. The glazed hen had a beautifully shiny skin that looked like it belonged on the cover of a gourmet magazine, the result of frequent basting. However, the glaze didn’t impart much flavor to the meat. The mustard bird had a tangy depth and the butter kept the meat moist. But as compared to the glazed hen, it looked boring and ho-hum.

But real magic happened when I tasted the drippings from both hens. The sweetness of the red currant jelly, the richness of the butter, and the tanginess of the mustard melded together to create a sauce that was extraordinary. What a happy accident! Now I am going to try this recipe:

Holiday Hens

2 Cornish hens
4 tablespoons red currant jelly
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt

Preheat oven to 375⁰. Mix the jelly and the butter. Rub salt and mustard all over the hens, inside and out. Place a chunk of butter in each hen, put them in a roasting pan and baste with the jelly/butter. Roast for about an hour or until a meat thermometer reaches 165⁰. You can use the fat drippings to make gravy.

This recipe combines the best of both worlds ‒ the beautiful shiny skin from the jelly and butter and the rich, tangy flavor from the mustard and butter. I’m going to make them for Christmas. Festive, fun and fast!

I recently wrote about the Fill Your Pantry event in Redmond and how I burst with joy to see such bounty, especially the 25 pound bags of colorful produce.

That event reminded me of the time that my friend Rachel and I took a class from the OSU extension service on agriculture in the Willamette valley. We toured many commercial farms, orchards and processors. One of the farms we visited was the Montecucco family farm in Canby, Oregon. The farm has grown rhubarb, beans, beets, parsnips, rutabagas and turnips for four generations. They grow a red and yellow striped specialty beet which they sell to fancy restaurants in southern California. The massive cold storage facility was dark and clammy like a modern day cave. Thousands of 25 pound bags of beets and other root vegetables were stacked from floor to ceiling.

On our way out, we were each handed a 25 pound bag of beets that wholesaled for $6.50. Rachel and I were delighted to have something unusual – striped beets – but oh my, what to do with 50 pounds of beets? We put them in the garage and like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, said to ourselves “Tomorrow is another day”.

That weekend, I attended the Oregon Thoroughbred Breeders Association annual dinner in the clubhouse at the Portland Meadows racetrack. I won three bales of rice hulls which are the Cadillac of bedding in horse stalls. That night when I got home, I opened the garage door and plopped the bags next to the beets then went to bed.

I must have thought beets storage in my sleep because the next day it occurred to me that I might be able to store the beets in the rice hulls. Sure enough, root vegetables were often stored in sawdust. Rachel and I rounded up some wooden crates and layered the beets with the hulls. They lasted several months.

We thoroughly enjoyed having a generous supply of beets on hand. We roasted, steamed, pickled and fermented them, made soups and salads and shared some. At the grocery store they were three or four dollars a bunch which made us feel smug. After that, a 25 or 50 pound bag of something or other did not intimidate us at all.

That was the beginning of my work with the “Plenty Method”, a way to find, buy, share, store and use food bought in bulk at wholesale or farm-direct prices. It’s fun to Fill Your Pantry then share or exchange the extra with friends, family and neighbors; doing that definitely increases your well-being in life. And since your food dollars go so much further, you can eat like you are a king or a queen.

Last week, my neighbor Geoff Brownell told me about the 9th annual “Central Oregon Fill Your Pantry” event at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds. The event was a bulk buying farmer’s market and food was being sold in 25 and 50 pound bags and boxes. Jerry and I were already planning to go shopping in Redmond on Saturday so we decided that I would attend the event while he shopped at Walmart. This was an opportunity to stock up for the winter, just like folks did back in the “olden days” before grocery stores and supermarkets. The market was a joint effort between the Bend Farmer’s Market and the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance. Food was available to all including people who are on EBT and they even offered double up food bucks. Customers could also pre-order.

Oh my, what a sight! The parking lot was jam packed with vendors, 35 in all – farmers, ranchers, fishermen, bee keepers, orchardists and artisan producers who had set up artistic displays to sell vegetables, fruits, baked goods, bee products, meat, seafood, cheese, dry goods and pantry staples, flowers and ferments. This was clearly the grand finale farmer’s market and it was definitely over the top.

Hundreds, if not thousands of “locavores”, people who buy locally grown food, milled around with carts, wheelbarrows and baby strollers overflowing with food. I didn’t expect to see so many people so I paused at the entrance to survey the situation and plan my strategy. I decided to wander around to see what was there then buy later. The displays were truly visual feasts. Clearly the vendors had put much tender loving care into creating each one. Tables were overflowing with colorful potatoes, onions, cabbages, leeks, beets, winter squash, garlic, honey, apples, pears, dried beans, krauts and pickles, baked goods and meat. What vibrant aliveness! An earthy scent wafted through the air.

I walked around in awe and didn’t know where to start. My first purchase was a bunch of carrots that I couldn’t stop eating because they were so incredibly good. They were sweet, almost like candy and felt like complete nourishment. I bought some spinach and that night made a wilted salad of pecans, bacon, blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette that was out-of-this-world delicious. I was frustrated that I wasn’t able to carry as much as I wanted to buy, so I ended up with a sampling of things and made a plan to go back next year and bring something with wheels.

Next year we could go with our friends and neighbors on a food-pooling trip and share the travel expense. Thank you, Geoff, for telling me about this fun and amazing event. www.centraloregonfillyourpantry.com

On Monday, I chatted with Theresa Byars and Betty McNeil of Fossil, Oregon. I thanked them for their kind invitation to attend the Sunday service and picnic lunch at the United Methodist Church. The event was a special occasion to honor the presence of guest pastor Dave McCue who drove six hours from Colville, Washington to deliver a well-prepared and engaging sermon. I commented on how good the cooks are in Fossil and what a lovely addition the lunch was to the event. Betty made me laugh when she said point blank “Feed them and they will come”. Oh that’s sooooo true, Betty!! Together the three of us conversed about the amazing power of food to provide not only physical sustenance but spiritual and emotional nourishment as well. Food has the remarkable ability to bring people together. Whether it’s a pot of tea and cookies shared with a close friend or two, a wedding feast or a community potluck, food provides the true wealth of connection, joy and comfort.

Food is a physical manifestation of love. The sun’s light must be filled with love because just look at how the earth responds with her generous cornucopia of bounty. The next time you are in the produce isle, stop for a moment, quiet yourself, open your eyes and take in the gift nature of it all.

The recent fires in Fossil are a good example of the power of food to create community and nourish us on so many levels. During the apex of the fires, residents came together to offer dinners at the Isobel Edwards hall. The town invited everyone, including the firefighters. Volunteers donated and lovingly prepared the food. This gathering together gave folks the opportunity to comfort one another and empathetic ears provided much needed security. Imagine what that same event would have felt like if the only thing served were glasses of room temperature water. The words that come to my mind are empty and incomplete.

I am absolutely certain that food has the ability to absorb and transfer heart energy. In my opinion, one of the best ways to show a person how much you love them is to prepare a meal. The food doesn’t need to be elaborate or fancy because sometimes simple is best. My son, William, used to say “Mom, you are not a very warm and fuzzy type but you sure know how to show your love through food”. To this day that still makes me chuckle.

Thank you, Betty and Theresa, for your lovely invitation to experience the fellowship of food and contemplate its profound ability to uplift and restore.