Bread and Mindfulness

As we continue to simplify the holidays, herb and onion bread keeps writing itself back on the list. 

It's mighty tasty. Savory with nice crust... dense enough to slice well and pop in the toaster. Good from the first-out-of-the-oven all the way to the dense crusty heel. It's weirdly egalitarian in that it accepts jam or honey as openly as melted cheese. 

I think I keep it on the to-do list because bread-making is meditative in a way that cookie baking is not. Bread making is leisurely, there are lovely pauses while you wait for things to rise. It requires of me a mindfulness that I don't get to practice often.

These past few years, we've been deliberate about making as much of our own food as we can. And we are lucky enough to live in a community of gardeners, bakers, and good cooks. The bread has become my annual meditation on community.

The recipe is Andrea's. As I read though it reminding myself of each step, I think about how she and I came to know each other. And how her new husband, Ken, has become a part of our lives. 

The garlic I sauteed came from starts from Melanie, a student turned co-worker turned friend... and my garden mentor. 

Marge, a brief neighbor, who came and went in a blink of a year, leaving us a fountain, a hammock, and several delicious mild onions I diced this afternoon. 

Kate and Harriet, the neighbors with whom we share yard tools and house-watching, thinned out their garden a few years ago. The thyme and sage didn't make the cut at their house, but found a new home in our side garden, where they threaten to overrun their pots every year. 

Cat and I planted the oregano a year ago and it still gives up enough leaves even in the winter for the bread to be properly herb-y.

Gingerbread stacked cake

 

Whew, we did it!

Gingerbread box cake. Seriously, it's yummy and easy. Bake according to directions in a 9-inch round pan, but add about a tablespoon of ginger when mixing things together.

Cream Cheese Frosting

 There are quite a few on-line, we tried several and ended up with this one (see below). Turns out, if you don't add any butter, the frosting will maintain longer. It'll still deflate a bit, but it won't go completely flat. 

8-oz cream cheese

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups heavy cream

 Combine all but cream into a bowl. Slowly add whipping cream, and mix on high speed. 

Spread thickly along the edges of each layer, with a dab in the middle to keep things steady. Layer the edges with slice strawberries and blueberries (or your favorite fruit). Frost the top thickly, and add whole fruit. 

Herb and Onion Bread

Yeast Mixture:
2/3 cup warm water
2 TBSP Yeast
1 TBSP coconut sugar  

In a medium-sized bowl, mix water and sugar. Sprinkle yeast. Let sit to rise. 

Flavoring:
2 medium onions, finely diced and sauteed
Clove (or several) garlic, fined diced and sauteed
1/4 cup thyme
1/4 cup dill
2 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp marjoram
1 cup ground flaxseed
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Dough:
5 cups hot water
2 tbsp salt
2/3 cups oil
2/3 cup honey, raw sugar, coconut sugar
12 cups flour (whole wheat works well)

In a mixer, combine hot tap water and 7 cups of flour. Add salt, oil, and honey (or sugar). Mix until well-blended. Mix in herbs, onion, and garlic. Add yeast mixture.

Add 3 to 4 more cups of flour, kneading for 10 minutes. 

For loaves: Oil bread pans. Portion dough to fit pans (usually 4 to 5) and shape into loaves with oiled hands. Cover with a light towel. Dough, unrisen, should fill the pans about half full. The dough should increase by 1/3 at least. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 40 - 45 minutes.

For rolls: Oil cookie sheets. Shape dough into fist sized-balls. Place on pan about 1 inch apart. Cover with a light towel. The dough should increase by 1/3 at least. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 - 25 minutes. 

Cooking time will vary from oven to oven and with size of loaf. 
 
For a soft crust, brush with oil before baking. Place on a rack to cool, brush tops with butter or oil.

Comes the turkey...

Thanksgiving dinner is small this year, just a few dear friends and neighbors.  We're doing the herb rub (sage, rosemary, thyme and butter) using herbs from this year's garden.  When I was doing some end of season clean up in big Ideal bed (the converted stock tank) I found a few stragglers. Cleaned up, they'll be yummy additions to the meal.

mmmm... fall

okay, I'm tired of boring field meals, so I worked up these two recipes.  The first one... Turnips and Mushrooms" is from PBS, recipe here.  The second one "Peas and Rice" is a riff on dormfood.

Basically, leftovers...

1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 cup cooked lentils
1/2 cup fresh peas
1 small carrot grated
1 tsp coconut oil
thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a pan, add salt and pepper and thyme. Toss in rice, lentils, peas, and carrots. 

Eat. Or put it in a jar to eat later.

So yes, everything else works, my favorites are collard chiffonade, turnip greens chiffonade... just barely wilt the greens at the very end. 

Like curry? Add curry powder and some fresh ginger to the oil at the very beginning, mmmm....

Farmshare Week Thirteen - Turnips!

Laura recommended this recipe in the Piece by Piece Farm blog, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.  I'm out in the field for the next kajillion weeks, it's fun to have yummy packed lunches. You know, something different than gas station chicken*.  

I think it turned out pretty yummy. We used gluten-free cornmeal noodles instead of the soba noodles out of pure laziness. 




*I love gas station chicken. One day I'll do a Jack Kerouac and instead of enlightenment, I'll search for the best gas station chicken in America. 

Roasted Corn and Tomato Chowder

Ingredients

7 ears of corn

7 zucchinis, split lengthwise,

4 carrots, split lengthwise

2 onions, coarsely chopped

3 - 4 cloves of garlic, diced

3 stalks of celery

5 - 6 tomatoes coarsely chopped

1 14oz can of coconut milk

1 box broth (veggie or chicken)

Bayleaf, paprika, thyme, marjoram
Salt, pepper to taste

1 tbsp each olive oil, coconut oil


Directions

Prep zucchini, carrots and corn by rubbing with olive oil. Place on cooking sheet, salt and pepper to taste.

Roast veggies until the corn is golden brown. It took about 45 minutes on 350 in my oven.

While that's cooking, chop onions and dice garlic, melt coconut oil in a skillet. Drop in onion and garlic in the skillet, stir around a bit, cover and leave at low heat to sweat while the veggies are cooking. They'll be translucent when they're ready. Add paprika and thyme to the onions, then cover until it's time to add to the mix.

When veggies are ready, take them out and let cool. When they're cool, slice kernels off the corn, then use the back of your knife to scrape the juices off of the corn cob. Coarsely chop carrots and zucchini.  Put all in a saucepan or pot with onion/garlic and chopped celery and tomatoes. Drop in bayleaf. 

Add broth and cover. 

Let simmer about 30 minutes. At this point, your chowder is at the "chunky" end of the soup continuum. I like it a bit smoother (in the potage category), so I drop the immersion blender in and blend about half the pot, leaving the other half chunky. You can do this just as easily in a blender or with a mixer. 

Just before serving add coconut cream and stir well. As always, you can sub 1 to 1 coconut cream to the dairy of your preference and 1 to 1 coconut oil for butter.

This is great topped with chives, chopped red pepper, or those yummy dried tomato flakes!

The Soup Continuum

Soups are either clear or thick. A clear soup is a bouillon or a consommé. Anything with a clear both, unthickened. Thick soups are soups that have something added to thicken the broth. There's a million different types, but commonly:

Purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch.

Bisques are thickened with cream. Alternatives are "cream soup" (thickened with béchamel sauce and veloutés (thickened with eggs, butter, and cream).

Stew - a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Depending on how you treat the gravy, stew can be thick or clear.

Pottage a thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, grains, and, if available, meat or fish.

which should not be confused with ...

Potage, a category of thick soups, in some of which meat and vegetables are boiled together with water until they form into a thick mush.

or

Chowder, which is a seafood or vegetable soup, often thickened with milk, cream, potatoes, or corn.

So, you have stews/pottage on the chunky end and bouillon/consommé on the smooth end, with the purees, chowders and potages somewhere in the middle.

Week Eleven - Farmshare

Lookie lookie! What a great box! 

Carrots
Lettuce
Garlic  
Corn  
Zucchini  
Cucumbers  
Cherry 

Tomatoes  

Napa Cabbage

Laura mentions corn soup... I may give that a go this time around.  There's a good roasted corn soup somewhere, I think it'd be super with some roasted zucchini, diced carrots, and tomato flakes... among other things.

Week Ten Interlude - Homemade Tomato Sauce

Remember all those tomatoes?

Week Ten Interlude - Garden Fun with Tomatoes (Dried)

Dried in the oven at 150 (the dehydrator works too!) Then crumble and store in jars or a baggie. Carolee says they're terrific added to homemade soup. They'll last even longer in the freezer.

Week Ten Interlude - Garden Fun with Cucumbers

The cucumbers and zucchini are racing to put out... we're headed to an end-of-season barbeque tomorrow, so two end-of-season salads!


Pam's Cucumber Salad (almost)

Cucumbers, sliced super thin.
1/3 cup yogurt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
Bunch of dill, chopped
3 tablespoons vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste.

You'll want to make a thin dressing out of the vinegar and yogurt, amounts will vary on the amount of your sliced cucumber. I had two medium and one large cucumber, so I used about 1/3 cup yogurt and a couple tablespoons of vinegar.  I've seen this recipe with mayo, so we tried it that way last time we made it.  I didn't thing the mayo added much to the taste, so we don't use it. I think the mayo is intended to blunt the sharp edges of the yogurt, a bit of honey and lemon juice will do the same thing.

The yogurt mixture will draw a bit of water out of the cucumbers, so make this ahead of time and let it sit a few hours in the fridge.  If it's still a bit "dry" add some more yogurt&vinegar and stir it in.  If it's a bit wet, drain the liquid and add some more yogurt.  But honestly it's going to taste great even if it's super drippy, so don't stress!

Week Nine - Tomato Sauce

Earlier I had big talk about tomato sauce, so this is me following through...

Oregon Early, Amish Sauce,and Yellow Taxi

I spend the evenings looking at various tomato sauces and pastes. There's some similarities, as I'm sure you can imagine.  First is the method by which you deal with the acidity. Tomatoes are hella acid. When I was picking tomato varieties for the garden, I tried to work the balance.  Taxi Yellows are very sweet, the Amish Pastes aren't very seedy or watery and reduce well, Oregon Earlies are sweetish, and very meaty.There's still going to be some playing with the chemistry, but when your making your sauce, think about tomato meat, seed-to-meat ration, and water... then taste, how do they taste? There's a really terrific article by Daniel Gritzer that describes his quest for the perfect sauce.  This year, or this batch anyway, I'm just going for the simple sauce... trying to get the taste and consistency right. 

So here's the recipe I worked with...

Tomato Sauce

1/3 cup olive oil
1 large onion (I used a purple one, because I had it. I think any would do well) 
3 large shallots
5 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
5 lbs of tomatoes
Salt & pepper
1/3 cup fresh basil
4 bay leaves
2 tbsp thyme
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp honey

Prepping the tomatoes.  This is a bit fiddly, but doable.  You're going to blanch them to convince them to take their jackets off for you. In a large sauce pan, heat salted water to a boil.  Prep another big bowl with ice water.  I put this one in the sink.  You're going to work your way through your tomatoes, 

1. Cutting a smallish x at the base of the tomato,
2. Removing the stem,
3. Plopping it in the boiling water for a few minutes. When you see the skin start peeling back, 
4. Scooping out the tomato and dropping it in the ice water bath. 
5. The ice water cools the tomato and encourages the jacket to peel back a little more.
6. Finally you'll fish the tomato out and remove the jacket. My friend Carolee saved these and dries 'em to use in soups.
7. Put the peeled tomato in the sauce pot. 
8. Repeat until your pile of tomatoes has moved from the countertop to the cooking pot.

So, yes, you can skip this step.  And you might want to, but you will be fishing out tomato skins as your sauce cooks down.  If you have a food mill this will be easy!

Start your tomatoes on a simmer.

Oil in a heavy pan or pot. Let it heat up while you remove the onions and garlic from their tunics.  I don't know if the garlic has a tunic officially, but since they're in the onion gang in my veggie basket, I'm saying yes. Chop the onions and garlic finely and put in heated pan. Stir around a bit and then reduce heat and cover. We want these to sweat a bit. 

Chop your carrot and toss in tomato mixture

Chop basil, add this and other spices to the tomatoes mixture. Then add onions and garlic. 

Let simmer til cooked to the consistency you want. the internet says 20 minutes...

Add noodles and yum!

Kat

 

While you're letting the sauce simmer down, listen to Malcom Gladwell talk about spaghetti sauce. 

The next batch of tomatoes will become ketchup! 

Week Nine - Homemade Hummus

The dill is definitely going into jars with my crazy bumper crop of cucumbers... we added the melon into our weekend fruits salad, so good! 

I was thinking about cucumbers and we just had that great chickpea-chicken curry, so I had some chickpeas left over.  A fortuitous meander down another aisle at the grocery store brought me face-to-face with a jar of sesame tahini.  And it all came together, hummus!

Mom had this great homemade hummus recipe, not sure where she picked it up...

Hummus in a Jar

2 cups drained well-cooked or canned chickpeas, without liquid
1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste), optional, with some of its oil
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus oil for drizzling
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Juice of 1 lemon, plus more as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

...so, "in a jar" ... I know you're wondering, whazzup with that?

Mix everything together, reserve the water to add if things get super sticky.  And go get your immersion blender!

Blend til smooth, adding water as necessary. 

You can add garlic to this, super yummy!  If you're going garlicky, avoid the orange juice, they don't mix well. 

You can also use the chickpea "juice". just dump the whole can in, liquid and all. 

Dip away!

Week Nine Farmshare - Chicken Chickpea Curry

 Our little apple trees are on target this year, dropping almost ripe apples on the lawn.  I usually gather them all up and make a batch of crockpot apple butter, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  In the mean time. we're going for no dairy/no gluten for a month to see what happens. Our new Uncle Jimmy's been eating chickpeas and tuna salads,which ALMOST sounds good.  Neither one of us is a real tuna fan, so I played around with some ingredients and came up with ...

Ch-ch-chickpea Chicken Curry 
 
1 large can of chicken (I used Costco Canned Chicken for this one, roasted chicken would be great!)
1 can of chickpeas
2 - 3 stalks of celery
1 cup of golden raisins
1-2 green apples

Olive Oil
Curry (about 2 tablespoons)

Salt and Pepper to taste. 

Make a paste of olive oil and curry and your salt and pepper. 
Drain chicken and add to bowl with curry paste.
Chop celery and apple and add to bowl with raisins.

Stir all really well to mix.

This goes really well with a coleslaw style salad or a spinach salad

Week Nine - Farmshare

Here's what Kelly and Laura have for us!

Carrots
Lettuce
Purple Potatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Slicing Tomatoes
Bell Pepper - green or purple or a mix of both
Korean Melon
Herb Choice - basil, parsley or dill

Have you looked at Laura's webpage lately?  There's some might tasty recipes over there... Away, then my dearies O!  hie thee away!

Week Eight Interlude - Breakfast with Tomatoes

Eggs Benedict

Small baguette
Baby spinach (chiffonade)
Basil flowers (or basil leaf chiffonade)
Fresh ripe tomatoes (Oregon Earlys are pictured)
Balsamic reduction

In a stout sauce pan, balsamic vinegar and honey (1 cup vinegar to 1/4 cup honey). Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, while...

You slice the baguette into thin slices, four per plate. Bunch your spinach and chiffonade, and thinly slice your tomatoes. 

Check up on the balsamic vinegar, reduce heat if it's still foamy.  Stir a little. Dip a slice of bread in it to taste it.

Set up your plates with four slices of baguette, each with a slice of tomato. Then sprinkle out your spinach and basil. 

Poach the eggs, if you can.  I always try one and then move on to a steam baste, when I blob up my poaching. Gently drop egg into center of the four bread pieces and drizzle on the balsamic reduction. 

Glorious!

Week Eight Interlude - Things with Tomatoes

Confession time... 

I love tomatoes.  

I love them warm off the vine

On a buttermilk biscuit for breakfast.  

I love them sliced thin in a BLT.  

I love them under a perfect poached egg, 

drizzed with balsamic vinegar. 

I love them as garden grazing, with a leaf of basil,  

as I water and prune.  

And I especially love tomatoes that have never been inside a refrigerator. 

 

I have failed every year I have tried to grow tomatoes.  

For those doing the math, that's 15 years of carefully cosseted tomato plants reluctantly handing over a few ripe tomatoes and baskets of green ones. 

 Which in in turn means the annual end-of-season Fried Green Tomatoes Party.

To my friends who look forward to that, so sorry to disappoint!  

Look at this DAY'S WORTH of edible berries of the  nightshade Solanum lycopersicum. 

In the words of Chef Spicoli... duuuuuuuude!
 

 

This year's garden is a triumph of tomatoes... and perhaps a sign of the greater trend of global climate change.  So, there's that. 

Or maybe the garden goddesses were smiling on my yard this year?

Here's the line up...

 

I will make tomato sauce this year! 

  

Week Seven - Cheating Veggie Roast

A veggie roast always seems a bit like a cheat... but the fresh veggies with a little olive oil and salt and pepper on the grill is one of my favorite summer (spring, winter, fall) meals.  So easy!

 
Kelly and Laura's collection this week really lent itself to grilling.  Those onions were fabulous!

Week Seven - Beets!

I tried to come up with a word like "Beet-a-palooza" or "Beet-o-ganza" but decided, not unlike a 1950s horror movie, all beets (!) really need is an exclamation point and a great font. 

 

Two batches of beets (!) and some lovely onions always equals Margaret's Beet Salad to me... here's something like her recipe, which I think started off as an Epicurious posting, maybe this one.

Here's my mod...

Margaret's Beet (!) Salad

Many beets (!), roasted skinned and cut into chunks.
Half the volume of beets in oranges, peeled, sections cut into halves or thirds.
Feta cheese (to taste)
Fennel (about half a bulb, diced fine)
Onions (sweet or shallots) diced fine
Orange juice
Balsamic vinegar (or white)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss beets (!), oranges, onions, and fennel in a bowl. Crumble feta over.

Whisk about 1/2 cup of orange juice and 1/4 cup each of vinegar and olive oil. Add to beet (!) mixture. 

Season to taste. Serve over arugula or another bitter green. I have a rocket arugula that is holding on despite the crazy heat and continues to give me a handful or so or wonderfully peppery leaves every week.

This is fabulous when the beets (!) are warm and equally yummy served cold the next day.

Also your cutting board looks like a scene from a low budget horror movie, so be sure and take some photos as you prep the beets. 

Kat

Week Seven Farmshare!

Yummy list from Piece by Piece Farm, loads of food for thought...

Carrots Sweet Onion Tomatoes  Lettuce  Zucchini  Beets Cucumber

I saved the beets from last time, I have big beety plans! 

Week Six Interlude - Cottage Cheeeeese!

My friend Jackie is up from Las Vegas for her annual visit.  She claims to be the Anti-Cook, but I always learn some fun new recipe from her. This year was fun and games with dairy.  We started with cottage cheese. The recipe comes from Alton Brown, our favorite kitchen-explainer. 

Ingredients

1 gallon pasteurized skim milk
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup half-and half-or heavy cream

Directions

Pour the skim milk into a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Heat to 120 degrees F. Remove from the heat and gently pour in the vinegar. Stir slowly for 1 to 2 minutes. The curd will separate from the whey. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Pour the mixture into a colander lined with a tea towel and allow to sit and drain for 5 minutes. Gather up the edges of the cloth and rinse under cold water for 3 to 5 minutes or until the curd is completely cooled, squeezing and moving the mixture the whole time. Once cooled, squeeze as dry as possible and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the salt and stir to combine, breaking up the curd into bite-size pieces as you go. 

If ready to serve immediately, stir in the half-and-half or heavy cream. 

Week Six Interlude - Mozarella Cheeeeese!

Week Six Interlude - Farmers' Cheeeeeese!

Okay, so remember the cottage cheese?  

Farmer's cheese is essentially the same recipe, with a few modifications.  Instead of vinegar, for example, you'll use lemon juice and the temperature is a bit higher.

Ingredients 
Gallon milk (skim, 2%, half-n-half, goat, cow, sheep)
1 large lemon juiced (or 1/4 cup lemon juice)
Pinch of salt

Directions
Pour the milk into a large pot, and stir in a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

When the milk begins to boil, turn off the heat. Gather the kids around, because this next part is awesome! Stir lemon juice into the milk, and the milk will curdle.

It'll take about 5 to 10 minutes to curdle all the way up.

Line a sieve or colander with a cheesecloth, and pour the milk through the cloth to catch the curds. This part is the cheese. The liquid is the whey, you can reserve this for your smoothies.

Gather the cloth around the cheese, and squeeze out as much of the whey as you can. Wrap in plastic, or place in an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator.

This cheese really appreciates almost any herb mixed in. We added fresh oregano flowers and some diced chives and ate it on crunchy bread.

Almost boiling milk.

Curdling milk. So cool!

Curdled milk ... it's curds, get it?

The cheese ball after rinsing. Ready for herbs!

Week Four Interlude - Mo's Experimental Cooking Pit Northwest Fusion Extravaganza (Part Two)

Ahhh, it was quite the actual Extravaganza!  Well done, Mo!

Uncovering the feast.

 Spreading the table. 

Pig, salmon, lomi lomi, clams, taro, sweet potatoes, potatoes from Mo's garden, camas... and blueberry cobbler, homemade flat bread, tomato salad, pasta salad, and chocolate chip brownies! 

Well done all!

See Part One

Week Four Interlude - Mo's Experimental Cooking Pit Northwest Fusion Extravaganza (Part One)

Though it's not the end of the summer, all of the local food and neighborhood-gleaning are coming together at Mo's Experimental Cooking Pit Northwest Fusion Extravaganza.  I was up at 4:30 to document the Opening Ceremonies...

Mo dug the pit and started the fire. Yes, he had a permit.

Wood reduced to coal, the coals shoveled out, and the stones arranged for a flattish surface. The sticks are there to create a vent for adding water. The dog is there to worry about the sticks.

Leaves on... we layered fern, big leaf maple, and cedar.

Mo laid down two grates, we added the food. Pig, taro, sweet potato, camas...

More leaves!

Covered all in soaking wet burlap sack and dirt... 

See Part Two 

Week Three - Summer Squash-a-palooza

Okay, so we got squash in the farmshare, but then the ONE little zucchini plant decided to get in the game... so squash-a-paloosa. Squash doesn't pickle well, to my taste, which has been my go to solution for extra veggies so far this summer.  I was at my wits' end, then I remember some yummy curry I had down in Centralia at McMenamin's Olympic Club. I think they called it Caribbean Curry or something similar.  Served with black beans and rice, with fried plantains on the side.

This is pretty close...

Summer Squash-a-paloosa Curry

Summer squash (zucchini, scotch bonnets, yeller, etc)
Sweet onion
Garlic scapes, if you have any left, or  2-3 cloves of garlic 
2-3 small carrots
1 small red potato
5 baby bell peppers, for color pick red and orange!
2 - 3 cups collard chiffonade
Peas (as many or as few as you want)

1/3 cup creme fraiche + 1/3 cup coconut juice or 2/3 cup coconut cream
2 tablespoons peanut butter (optional)
1/3 cup broth (I used Ginger Miso because it was in the fridge, but chicken, veggie or beer would work)



Coconut oil
Lime juice

1 tablespoon ground curry
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 star anise
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste

Rice in the rice steamer, then...

Chop up squash and potato. Squash should be the thickest slices, potato thinner, so the cooking time will be the same. Garlic can go in whole. Toss with a little coconut oil. Dash of salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper in pop 'em in the over to roast. About 450 (F) until potatoes are a little crispy on the edges.

Meanwhile...Chop up carrots, onions, peppers into moderately thin slices.  Sauté in coconut oil briefly (5 minutes or less). Turn heat down, add in all the spices, stir around a bit, then cover and let sweat for about 10 minutes.

Now pop your chicken or fish in the oven.  If you picked shrimp, you should clean it now, but wait a bit to cook them.

Check on the veggies when you put your meat in the oven.  Empty your two cans of beans into a small pot, put on stove and bring to a boil.  Maintain the boil while...

In the saute pan, push the veggies all to the sides. You've been sweating them, so you'll have some good juice to play with. Add in the coconut cream (or substitute) and the broth and beer/wine to this juice. Stir it all around. This is when you add peanut butter, if you like that. Also add a big squirt of lime at this point.  Toss in beans without liquid. Cover about 5 minutes and continue simmering.

Sip the beer or wine, if you didn't add it to the mix. Open the lid and stir everything up together. Yum!  Let it simmer away on low until the other veggies are roasted, then stir those in with the collards and the shrimp, if that was your meat of choice.  It's ready when the shrimp are red.

...and yum!

Kat

Week Two - Fish Taco Thursday!

Tilapia, cilantro, a dab of smoky chipotle sauce, and some of those yummy tacqueria-style pickles!

Week Two - Fish and Cabbage

I feel like somewhere my Irish and Scottish ancestors are looking down and saying "finally, the kid gets it!"

Kelly and Laura are challenging me with the cabbage. A vegetable, I admit I feared two weeks ago.  Now cabbage is one of my dear friends (another life lesson from the garden).  I whipped up another crispy greens salad for the week (cabbage, collards, chard, carrots, broccoli, and brussel sprouts). We're trying an Asian Salad Dressing this week.  I added some ginger (1 tsp) and sesame seeds (1 TBSP) to the recipe!

Then for the other half of the head...

It's Too Hot to Cook Fish and Cabbage

Tilapia or other white fish
Cabbage
Carrot
Garlic butter
Coconut oil
Italian Spice Mix (my mix has basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary,thyme, marjoram,sage, sea salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and bay leaf)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

To prep fish, pat dry and lay out in pan.  I use a small cookie rack as a grill of sorts, to keep the fish from swimming in oil and sticking in the pan. Tin foil would work as well. Place small dabs of butter or coconut oil on the fish. Small is about as much as would fit on the end of a table knife, less than your pinkie finger nail. On a medium-sized tilapia fillet, I put three dabs.  Generously sprinkle  your spice mix on the fillets.  If you feel experiment-y, grind up some almonds or pecans and sprinkle that on too.

Pop the fish in the oven on about 400 (F) for about 20 - 30 minutes. Cooking time will depend on your oven and the thickness of the fish.  Cooked fish is white and flakes easily with a fork.

While the fish is cooking, cut cabbage into wedges and pop into your steamer.  I like to add some shredded carrot for color. When the cabbage has cooked, add a little butter (or coconut oil) and toss. Plate and sprinkle with nutmeg, cinnamon, and some cayenne pepper... and your salt and pepper. Plate the fish and yum!

You may have to experiment with timing, but my rice steamer will steam the cabbage to our liking in about 20 minutes, which is pretty close to how long it takes the fish to cook.

Happy Tuesday!

Kat 

Here's some more spices (and other things) that reportedly go well with cabbage:

  1. Mustard vinagrette
  2. Caraway seeds, butter, salt, and pepper
  3. Fennel seeds, butter, salt, and pepper
  4. Apple, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and a touch of nutmeg (with red cabbage)
  5. Coriander, paprika, allspice, bay leaf, garlic
  6. Juniper berries
  7. Worchestershire sauce, butter, salt, and pepper
  8. Butter, salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning
  9. Cumin seeds and garlic
10.  Cloves, sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar, onion and bacon

 See me? See eels? Mah hoavercraft's pure hoachin!

Kat 

Week Two - Farmshare Box

Carrots
Cabbage
Scallions
Bok Choy
Zucchini
New Potatoes
Cucumbers
Summer Turnips
Raspberries

Such scope for the imagination!

Week One - When life gives you lemons...

make limoncello!

I had this first at Julie's house. Julie is my muse for all things Italian, and the source of my rapidly dwindling jar of my favorite spice mixture.

I like lemon in my water in the summer, and it's a natural with sun tea.. lovely as a roasting bed for fish... and a super brightener for roasted veggies and sweet potato.  But there's always some left over that just kinda... sits in the fridge. So what to do with those piece and ends of lemon once all the other parts have been used?

Limoncello (of course)

Lemon zest
750mL Everclear
2 quart jar

Simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, heat to mix then cool before addding)

Peel lemon and scrape away white pith or simply zest the lemon. Place the lemon zest in a large, sealable container and add Everclear. Put the jar in a cool dry place. I use the pantry and just upend the jar every time I go in the pantry.Mixture should steep about 4 weeks. I keep adding zest as we use lemons.

After infusion-time has passed, add in simple syrup, mix well and let sit for a few days. Strain and decant into a resealable container (say, a re-purposed glass bottle with an interesting shape).

Store in freezer and serve in chilled shot glasses or as part of some interesting cocktail.

Ciao!

Kat 

Week One - Garlicscapes

This is a garlicscape.

So is this.












Sarah brought me these from the Olympia Farmer's Market. Evidently these are farmshare gold, she's seen a handful of scapes go for as much as 8 zucchini!

So what are these exactly?  Just the early sprout of the hard-neck garlic. They'll get trimmed off early, when the stems are pithy and fresh, so the garlic spends its energy making the garlic bulbs.

And what can you do with 'em?  Loads of things, if you like garlic.

1. After a simple spritz with olive oil, roast your scape in the oven or on the grill... treat them as you would those big fat asparagus spears.

2. Chop into inch or so long pieces and add to stirfry or sauteed green beans.

3. Chop and remove heads, toss in blender with a handful of walnuts, several cups of basil leaves, some olive oil, and parmesan cheese for a quick and yummy pesto. This stores well in the freezer for many months. We just finished off the last jar of last summer's pesto extravaganza.

4. Grandma Kelly option.  Pickle it!  I'm going to try a few of these in my picklefest this weekend.

5. According to the internet, scapes freeze well. Just blanch in salted water and freeze in airtight container.

Week One - More ways to use up cabbage...

Cole slaw is really easy, you can definitely go the traditional creamy route, like Paula Deen, but there are other ways... here are two basics, one sweet and one hot.

Coleslaw with poppy seed dressing

Poppyseed dressing is just Laurie's Dressing with something creamy (yogurt, mayonnaise), sugar, onions, and poppyseeds.  Easy, right? Here's a good recipe to get started.

Pickled Coleslaw

So easy, it's basically just vinegar, salt, and cabbage. Here's one of my favorite versions, curtido, with a nice bite to it.  This is a great way to use up the occasional farmshare pepper.

Both keep well in the fridge, and are equally delicious atop my favorite summer dinner... fish tacos!

Week One - Quick recipe to use up left over cabbage...

If you had leftover cabbage, as we did, it's easy to turn into a crunchy salad with other cruciferous veggies or bitter greens (arugula, chard, spinach, collards, etc).


Salad
Cabbage chopped fine.
Kale, chopped
Medium carrots, shredded
Young broccoli stalks, chopped.
Nuts or seeds (sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds)
Fruit (Dried cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc)
Herbs (thyme, rosemary, mint, oregano flowers)
Flowers (violets, nasturtiums, etc)
Cheese (bleu, gorgonzola, or any softish stinky cheese)

Laurie's Vinegar Dressing (plus)
1 part vinegar (cider, balsamic, or white wine)
3 parts oil (olive, avocado, or cashew are good choices)
2 tablespoons of fruit jam or conserve per 1 part vinegar. Our favorites are Jeanne's Quince Jam and our homemade Apricot Jam.

Salt and pepper to taste.

In a small saucepan, heat vinegar and jam. Let cool and add oil. Put mixture in a jar with closely fitting lid and shake vigorously before serving.

Plate veggies, top with herbs, flowers, fruit, cheese, and seeds. Add dressing to taste.

This is a hearty salad, it lasts several days in the fridge, even with dressing, and is a great work/school lunch or dinner.  I will even take this in the field in my tiffin box!

Lunchtime!

Kat

Sauerkraut - Day Two

Sarah came over and we made sauerkraut!

We used four heads of early green cabbage, pickling salt, caraway seeds.

Sauerkraut

Peel off the outer two leaves from each head.

Chop the remaining cabbage fairly fine. we left out the cores, but you could probably keep 'em. 

Layer a few leaves at the bottom of your crock.

Mix chopped cabbage about 1/2 head at a time with several tablespoons of salt and a generous sprinkle of caraway seeds.

Once mixed add to crock, until the crock is full to within 2-3 of the top. Cover with a few of the reserved whole leaves.

Weight and wait.  We used a plate that fit tightly into the crock and a big river cobble in a plastic bag. They do make weights you can buy.  They're probably at the same store where you buy crocks. I bought mine at Olympia Supply, our favorite old-timey hardware store, and I saw the weights on the shelf, but I was too cheap  frugal to buy 'em.

After a nice long chat, we checked in on the crock, the cabbage had juiced up, but not enough to cover the leaves, so we ended up adding about 3 cups of brine. This seems to be about typical. 

It's key to make sure that your kraut is well-smothered, which means pressed and completely covered with brine. The Science Behind Sauerkraut is a good read and explains all the ins and outs.


Kurt or Karl (I can't remember which name we picked) is now resting in the pantry in a lovely crock.

Here's another kraut quote from a webpage Sarah found to ponder as you wait for your cabbage to ferment it's way to crunchy, sour, bitey goodness...

"Fermentation breeds strange sounds and smells, so try not to worry about those"