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Clayton’s CAR CARE Tips

HOW ARE THINGS UNDER THE HOOD OF YOUR CAR?

Have you had a look under your hood, how are your fl uid levels, what about your belts and hoses. Most owners manuals show you where to check fl uids at, if you have to add any fl uids make sure they are the ones for your car. The belts and hoses are sometimes a little harder to check, if you are unable to check them or have any questions, take your car to your mechanic so they can have a look at it for you.

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Michele Genest is a Whitehorse-based chef and writer. She is also somewhat of a gardener. Michele has also written two books “The Boreal Feast - A Culinary Journey Through The North” and “The Boreal Gourmet - Adventures In Northern Cooking.”

DANDELION SEASON

PHOTO: Upper lower case

Mixing flower with flour

Don’t hate them! Not only are dandelions beautiful, the bees love them and we should too! They are delicious. Instead of pulling dandelions out of the lawn and heaving them into the compost, try cooking them. The fl owers can be turned into fritters, cakes, wine, or jelly. The greens are great in salads when they’re young and tender, or briefl y cooked after the plant has fl owered.

Once the seed heads have developed, the greens are still edible, but they need a bit more cooking to tone down the bitterness. For they are bitter, that’s one of the attractions of dandelion greens; like radicchio, escarole and mustard, they add bite and interest to salads or cooked dishes (for salads, if you’re unused to dandelion greens, try combining them with sweeter lettuces).

As with any wild food, it’s important to be sure you’ve correctly identifi ed dandelions—the familiar yellow fl owers help, but pick with a knowledgeable friend or bring a good fi eld guide with you. It’s also important to eat dandelions sparingly until you know you won’t have an allergic reaction. And, as always, avoid picking by busy roadsides, or where you think herbicides or pesticides might have been used.

When picking, gather the leaves of the dandelions together with one hand. With the other, slip your knife underneath the crown and slice so that each plant comes out of the earth in an attached bundle. This makes them much easier to clean—simply hold them by the crown and plunge up and down into the water.

Old-fashioned recipes for garden greens tell us to “wash in several waters.” This is good advice, particularly for dandelions—typically it takes fi ve or six changes of water before they’re really clean. Before chopping, cut off the crown and remove any wilted leaves. If you get a fl ower or two into the mix, that’s great, but avoid the stems. As you may remember from childhood, they take bitterness to a mouth-puckering extreme.

Not only are dandelions beautiful, the bees love them and we should too! They are delicious. Instead of pulling dandelions out of the lawn and heaving them into the compost, try cooking them

CHEESY DANDELION QUESADILLAS

The bitterness of young dandelion leaves mostly disappears in the cooking, but just enough remains to give these quesadillas some bite.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, fi nely chopped • 4 cloves garlic, minced • 2 tbsp butter • 4 packed cups chopped dandelion leaves, well washed • 6 oz mozzarella, grated • 4 oz old cheddar, grated • Salt and pepper to taste • 8 homemade fl our tortillas

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