By Chef Knecht on August 30, 2010
Here are a few ‘concept recipes’ as I call them. Sometimes I add goat cheese, whole roasted garlic cloves, olives or even some fresh minced garlic or diced chili to give some kick. On the crostini I melt a little butter and olive mixed with fine mince of fresh herbs or pesto. I use the garlic oil to compliment a pasta dish or in a salad dressing with roasted garlic. Add some citrus juice or peel to the oil. These recipes are mearly the colors for you to paint a masterpiece. Use them as you will more of this less of that, round the canvas with olive oil and splash with balsamic.
After all we are all artists, full of ideas. Be inspired. Be confident. I look forward to hearing what you discover.
Brushetta
1/8C Basil chopped fine or rough
4C Ripe Tomatoes seeded and diced small
3 finely diced sun dried tomatoes
1/8C fine or rough chopped roasted red pepper
1/2C Mozzarella finely chopped or bocconcini
1/2C Feta crumbled
1/4C Reggiano Parmesean shredded thick
1/4C Cloves Finely Minced or Pressed Garlic fried on medium high heat in 2C Olive Oil until Crispy and Brown, Stir constantly and remove from pan immediately when done. Strain and reserve oil for recipe below.
4T Balsamic Vinegar
1/8C Olive Oil
2T Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Fruity Flavor 1st press)
Adjust flavors more EVO or Balsamic finish and Kosher Salt
Great in a salad, or on a pizza, great in a cream sauce over noodles. Have fun go a little wild with it!
Crostini
Slice any Bread evenly and lay out on sheet pan, Drizzle with Olive oil, season with Salt and bake in oven until desired texture. I like mine slightly crisp with a soft center, you don’t want it crumbling to pieces all over your guests. You can broil or bake, try different temperatures 325-425, just keep watch and pull when done, take off sheet pan immediately and store in covered container when cool. Best used within 3 days.
Garlic Oil
To reserved Olive Oil
Add:
1T rough chopped herbs, your choice
1T rough chopped onion, your choice
Kosher Salt to taste
Let sit for a few hours and then strain. It becomes infused with flavor.
Posted in Recipes | Tagged Brushetta, Creativity, Crostini, garlic oil
By Chef Knecht on August 26, 2010
Summer is winding down and the buzz of busy bees in our lives is fading to a calm hum in the background. As we find the time to smell the flowers they are wilted and as the sunset catches our eye it fades to darkness. This summer has been a whirlwind of clients, weddings, parties, vacations, fisherman, families, and friends. I came up for air and realized this is it. Inspiration, wonder, and amazement at all that is me and my dream. ‘Cook in the Moment’ is waiting for me with a relentless passion to be complete and published. New menus and recipes need to be analyzed and reworked to perfection. Ahh…The new flavors and images are still coming like the tide up and up only to calm and rise again.
Come and drink my ‘Fabu Tea’ enjoy my King Crab Shooters. Prosciutto wrapped Chicken with Lemon Gorgonzola and cranberries is awaiting you. Then savor some Peppermint Chocolate Cake and Buffalo Strawberry Shortcake. Tell me what to make and I will be inspired. Share with me your favorite dishes and traditions, it will instill a place in my mind. Bowls of hand made pasta and salads bursting with veggies. My grandmas chicken and noodles of golden mashed potatoes and don’t forget to request my cowboy boot biscuits.
I have learned so much from you this summer. Kindness has no limits. For the Texan’s I will make chicken fried steak. The Wisconsin’s inspired a walleye sauce to dream of. ‘Montana BBQ’ was created for wildlife activists and the ‘Yellowstone Dinner’ for the fisherman from Pennsylvania. I made homemade hot fudge sundaes for the kids from Los Angeles and a six course tasting menu for the ladies of Big Sky. South Carolinians shared their passion for fine food and a photo shoot crew shared their passion for eating.
The weddings…Smoked black cod, elk sausage stuffed mushrooms, raspberry hollandaise, carrot cake with caramel filling and cream cheese frosting. Beautiful brides, grooms, mothers, fathers and friends. Amazing people, breathtaking views and custom designed one of kind menus. 
Thank you. It was truly a pleasure. Every moment, every person, every day.
Posted in Slices of Life | Tagged audrey hall, Family, Fly Fishing, Friends, Montana, Nashan Photography, Vacation, Weddings
By Chef Knecht on July 12, 2010
Amazing. Beautiful. Breathtaking. My family and I went to Alaska this spring.
My son Kelton and daughter Dawn loved Alaska.
We feasted on crab, salmon, halibut, shrimp, and cod. 
Then we had some more crab!
I used to walk the docks daily when I lived in Alaska. Boats coming and going. Deckhands painting and cleaning. Families and friends living and working.
I love the rain and the lush green grass. The hypnotic gray and smell… I miss Alaska already.
Posted in Slices of Life | Tagged Southeast Alaska
By Chef Knecht on June 14, 2010
Roasted Tomatoes
25–30 Tomatoes, Romas work well
10-12 Crushed garlic cloves
10-12 Strands of Thyme
6 Crushed Peppercorns
2 Cups Olive Oil
2 1/2 Sheet Pans
Pour 2 cups olive oil into large bowl. Add garlic, thyme, and peppercorns. Cut tomatoes in half and add to bowl. Toss lightly with hands. Divide tomatoes and lay out cut side up on two sheet pans spreading garlic, thyme and peppercorns on top. Drizzle olive oil from bowl over tomatoes. Bake 325 degrees uncovered 30-45 minutes until slightly crisping on edges. Peel skin, discard thyme, save garlic and store in 1qt containers. Store in the fridge. Great for a pasta or pizza, I love to put on salads with mozzarella and basil. Add to soups and sauces. Mix with some cream and chicken stock you’ve got tomato soup. Chop up and add to salsa or mix in cold pasta salad.
Roasted Peppers
15-30 peppers rinsed
2 Sheet Pans covered in parchment paper
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
Rub olive oil on peppers and lay out peppers on sheet pans and roast uncovered in 425 degree oven until crisp on the outside. 15-20 minutes. Once out of the oven cover sheet pans with another sheet pan inverted to sweat peppers, let cool. Peel outsides off and discard along with the seeds. Store in quart containers with all natural juices.
Roasted Garlic
10-12 Large Garlic Cloves
1/4 Olive Oil
Roasting Rack inside in pan
1 Cup Water
Toss garlic lightly in olive oil and lay out tops up on roasting rack. Pour water into to bottom of pan and cover pan with foil. Bake in oven 325 until soft. 45-60 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Slice the top off the garlic bulb with a sharp serrated knife. Squeeze the pulp out and discard the bulb. Continue with all the garlic bulbs. Put prepared pulp into food processor and add the following.
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 Tablespoon Heavy Cream
Kosher Salt
If puree it still too thick, add 1-2 Tablespoons of water to get desired consistency. Chill in covered container. Heat up in oven at 350-375 until warm. I love to serve as an appetizer with crostini, or add to mashed potatoes. Excellent mixed with butter, dolloped onto a sheet pan and chilled. Served as a maitre d butter on a perfectly grilled steak. Roast potatoes in the oven until crisp and toss with whole roasted garlic cloves, honey and a little butter. Amazing!
Posted in Recipes | Tagged Roasted Garlic, Roasted Peppers, Roasted Tomatoes
By Chef Knecht on June 12, 2010
Montana’s capitol paper was kind to feature me in an article. Below is a excerpt and a link to the article, hope you enjoy!
“I remember sitting on a chair and watching her cook,” Knecht said from her home in Livingston. “She was very involved with her church, so it wasn’t unusual for her to bake 100 cookies and cinnamon rolls and lasagna. She was always making dinner ahead of time. I just remember her being in the kitchen, planning.”
Article Link
Posted in Press and Media | Tagged Cooking Classes, Grandma, Helena
By Chef Knecht on June 1, 2010
Best job in the world! Me and the love of my life on the ocean, working together from 3:45am to 11:00pm. Northern lights and sounds of humpback whales as we fell asleep with one eye on the depth sounder and one ear on the wind. Coffee, lots of coffee in the morning. Sharpening our hooks as the engine fired and the anchor was hauled. Then off, to troll the waters of southeast. Dropping our gear and watching the lines pull away to fish the kings of the ocean. Feeling the boat shiver with the first hard strike! Then cranking up the line and gaffing the salmon. It all pretty much blew my mind. Killing it and cleaning, icing it and “putting it to bed” as my husband would say.
It was the greatest adventure of my life. All day everyday over and over, it never got old to me. Sometimes we would fight over who had the job of sitting and steering the boat. I usually lost that argument, being the one with no experience on a fishing boat. At least I got to pick the music and where we went. Very slowly we would troll, so slow you could keep with our boat on foot. That was fine with me. Carving the coast, watching all the birds. They would dive down deep and come up like a rocket. Eagles swimming to shore with a salmon in their claws and Golden eyes fumbling around watching us, watch them. Every now and then we would take an afternoon off to sleep and dream of big waves rolling and crashing while we napped in a calm bay. Then the sun would shine, a raven would call and we were off to our next adventure!
I left that life unfinished and I will return someday to live the rest of it.
Posted in Romance, Slices of Life | Tagged Hand-trolling King Salmon, Southeast Alaska, writings
By Chef Knecht on May 24, 2010
Audrey, and I head up to Pine Creek Falls about once a week. Great exercise and beautiful views. We check out new flowers popping up, animal tracks, and when your with a photographer you stop and have a fun photo shoot.
Enjoy and hit the trail!
Pine Creek Trail Bars
1 1/2 Cup flour
1 1/2 Cup quick oatmeal(not instant)
1/2 Cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 Teaspoon cinnamon Continue reading “Pine Creek Trail Bars”
Posted in Recipes | Tagged Bars, Montana, Pine Creek Trail
By Chef Knecht on May 11, 2010
When I am cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for a family and their guests I love to get creative. Something about being in the kitchen 15+ hours a day gets me inspired and ready to take on the world. Most of my best recipes and dishes have come from being under the gun and cooking all day long. It is a fine line to walk between creative movements and careless ones. In my cooking classes I teach how learning your ingredients, cooking methods and flavors is as important as the flavors and cooking methods of the dish your making. I encourage you to do the same. Whether it be treats at your kids school or dinner for you in-laws. Take the time to love and understand your ingredients. Following a recipe isn’t just about following directions. If it was then everyone would be good at it, right? We are all good at following directions at work!?! MMmm. Then what are recipes if they’re not directions? I think recipes are ideas. New ways to create with our beloved ingredients. We never imagined sweet orange sections tossed with Thia curry paste would be amazing. Or that green beans could be so full of flavor if they were left a little al dente. Recipes are colors on our palette to paint our own recipes! Let recipes inspire you and let your mind wander to a place of long drawn out flavors. Let your mind burst with ideas, and don’t care how different they may seem. It is an exercise in creativity. Yes, you can be creative in the kitchen even if you haven’t a clue what your doing!Continue reading “Recipe For Success”
Posted in Classroom, Recipes | Tagged confidence, Cook In The Moment, Cooking Classes, Creativity, Recipe
By Chef Knecht on May 3, 2010
30ft by 9ft by 4ft deep. That was my home for years. Our Dickinson Bristol diesel oven barely fit an 8×8 cake pan and the stove top could hold a 1 quart pot and a small coffee pot. No microwave, no freezer or refrigerator. Just a cooler full of ice. Shopping with that knowledge and the fact that we weren’t coming back to Wrangell for the summer was a challenge. Dry goods were king, ocean catch was queen and perishables were savored for the first week of summer. I would literally cram 6 boxes of food into every nook and cranny of that boat. 
We had 3 shelves; one for dry goods, one for pots/plates/silverware/spices/whisks etc… and one for boat maintenance. We put all of our clothes in a sea bag and our toiletries in a back pack. We each had a pair of extra tuf boots and a pair of tennis shoes. That was it! I had my watercolor supplies and my husband had his books. No boxes in storage, we defined living light. Continue reading “Small World, Big Dreams!”
Posted in Kitchen Tips, Slices of Life | Tagged Dickinson Oven, Maximize your kitchen space, Organize, Storage
By Chef Knecht on April 26, 2010
Everywhere we go, everywhere we look there are choices. Every choice we feel the impact. When we eat greasy and fatty, it leaves us sluggish and heavy. When we choose fresh, green and juicy we feel light and ambitious. So as we live and choose be reminded of the Good, Bad and the Ugly Continue reading “Organics and Preservatives”
Posted in Classroom | Tagged Organics, Preservatives, Wild Salmon
Twitter
RSS Feed
