With the glorious rebirth of Spring, your lovely hens’ egg production will likely increase.  As the eggs stack up in your fridge, you will likely become quite creative with how you can incorporate them into all your meals.  Fresh eggs are one of the most simple, delicate pleasures on this earth.  However, after the fifteenth meal in a row where the main course involves eggs, your pleasure may begin to dwindle.  Instead of culling all the hens and replacing those egg meals with chicken, I have another solution…

1.  Use crushed eggs in your compost

2.  Use as paper mache for crafts-mix with water, flour and sugar

3.  Make your own spa hair treatment-mix egg yolk with water and olive oil

4.  Use the egg whites as leather cleaner

5.  Crush up a few egg shells and place in your coffee grounds prior to brewing-improves the taste of the coffee

6.  Use as decorating paint on cookies and cakes-mix 1 egg yolk with 2 mL of water, add food coloring and decorate your baked goods

7.  Use as glue substitute-the egg whites are quite sticky as they dry

8.  Use as spa facial-helps improve the look of fine lines and puffy eyes.  Can use either yolk or egg whites

9.  Make your own musical instrument-poke small hole (big enough for rice to barely fit through) drain insides, rinse, let dry thoroughly.  Add rice, shake your way to a musical masterpiece!

10.  Place around plants as a protectant from unwanted critters, particularly slugs

11.  Use crushed shells to scrub pots and pans in place of steel wool (just make sure your pots and pans won’t be damaged by abrasive cleaning material)

12.  Good old fashioned game of egg toss (or toss them at your spouse in a comical way to end a fight…or start one)

13.  Poke small hole in bottom of egg, crack shells in two parts (like 1/3 to 2/3 ratio), rinse insides, add soil and use as seed starter container

14.  Use shell as candle mold-poke small hole in top, drain contents, rinse, alow to dry thoroughly.  Carefully pour hot, melted wax in hole, add wick allow to cool and harden.  Crack egg shell and voila-egg shaped candle!

15.  Use in first aid-if you have a particularly deep laceration, apply wet egg whites over laceration, helps create membrane over open area.  Can also use the white membrane in between shell and hard boiled egg.

16.  Poke small hole in bottom of egg, drain, rinse and decorate for some unique trinkets around the house

17.  Go egging…on your own property of course.  This redhead will not be coming to bail you out of jail!

 

Don't miss any Homestead Redhead adventures, be sure to check out the full blog at www.homesteadredhead.com 

When I first heard the lyrics, I thought it was an old folk song, maybe written by Woody Guthrie...

He put gold in the ground; 
He turned the water into wine... 

But no, it was the voice of Mary Kay Place, best known as appearing as Meg in the movie The Big Chill and for her lively role as Loretta Haggers on the old TV show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman  

To our American ancestors, root vegetables surely did seem like "gold from the ground" in winter. When the weather was fiercely cold, animals too scarce to kill for food, and purchasable supplies running low, a family always could rely on their winter store of root vegetables.

  

Rutabagas: ugly now, pretty later

Rutabaga is one of them. I’m surprised at the number of people who have never tasted a rutabaga, think it’s a "large turnip" or think it’s bitter. The yellow flesh has a delicate lightness, reminiscent of artichoke, perhaps a faint hint of turnip. It is a firmer vegetable than many, and requires longer cooking if you want your vegetables spoon-soft. But it can still be fully cooked and have a bit of nice crunch. 

This dish contrasts the texture of rutabaga with the softness of sweet potato, and also has a crisp/sweet contrast. I don’t like to heavily flavor good organic vegetables, since they have a natural harmonious taste that need not compete with seasoning.

 

I recommend you buy peeled and roasted chestnuts. Save your fingertips and a half-day of valuable time.

Here I added chestnuts as an enhancer. I like chestnuts and enjoy serving them because many people have never even eaten them. They mistakenly think they’re hard like other tree nuts; they’re soft. People also think they will have the same nutty taste as peanuts or cashews. They don’t. It’s a subtle nut-like flavor. Everyone knows the lyric "chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." but don’t realize that the American chestnut tree was almost extinct by 1950, with only 50-100 trees left. If you can’t find chestnuts at your local store (check the kosher section if you have one), you can order them online at Allen Creek Farm, a family-owned farm in Washington started by city-escapers like so many of the readers here. I don’t recommend you peel chestnuts yourself, unless you have lots of time and patience. I did it once and that’s it.

Rutabaga-Sweet Potato Hash

2 rutabagas, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
½ teaspoon salt (with boiling water)
½ cup peeled and roasted chestnuts
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tablespoon dried)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large saucepan with approximately 3 quarts of water, add ½ teaspoon salt, and bring to a boil. Add rutabagas and return to a boil. Cook 10 minutes. Add sweet potatoes and cook 5 minutes more. Drain rutabagas and sweet potatoes in a colander, rinse with cold water, and let rest for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine rutabagas, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir until all is coated. Spread in one layer on a large baking sheet and place in center rack of oven for 20 minutes. Remove and serve.

  

  

The next time you are in the mood for pizza, instead of ordering out, how about making your own! I want to share a recipe I use that is easy to make, and very good for you to boot.

My Homemade Pizza Crust

Mix together;

2 cups whole wheat flour (I use organic sprouted whole wheat)

1 cup unbleached flour

1 cup rolled oats (I use organic)

2 Tablespoons dried milk (I use regular, raw milk)

2 teaspoons salt (I use Himalayan pink salt)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons oil (I use olive oil)

Herb seasonings of your choice, 1 teaspoon each. I like to use dill, oregano, thyme, minced onion, and minced garlic.

I also add 1 Tablespoon of Organic chia seeds. 

In another bowl, stir 1 1/2 cups luke warm water, 3 Tablespoons sugar, (I use sucanat), and 1 Tablespoon yeast together.

Let this mixture set for a few minutes till a foam forms on top.

Mix the yeast and water into other ingredients until all is moist.     

   

Now throw the spoon to the side and dig in with your hands. knead the dough till it becomes an elastic consistency, about 5 to 10 minutes usually. When you've reached this stage, pat into a nice round and cover with a light coating of oil. I let it in the bowl I've mixed it in, and cover with a damp cloth. Put it in a warm place to rise. In the oven with JUST the light on will work fine if you have no other place. 

  

   Let this rise till about double in size, about a half hour or more.

  

After the dough has risen, punch it down and knead a few times. Now it's ready to spread on pizza stone or pan. This recipe is enough to make 2 pizzas. I used my pizza stone for one, and my cast iron skillet for my second, to make a pan pizza. Separate the dough into two pieces and press into stone or pan of your choice.

  

  

Set the pans of dough back into your warm spot to rise slightly. Now your ready to add toppings. I use my own homemade pizza sauce. Get as inventive as you want with the toppings. For my pan pizza, I went with a meat lovers theme. I used cheese, bacon, sausage, venison burger, and black olives.

For my pizza stone pizza, I used cheese, bacon, pepper rings, mushrooms, onions, and olives. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, or till crust is golden brown. Time may vary slightly for your oven. My oven usually takes a bit longer than a recipe calls for. Now don't burn your tongue from eating to quickly when your pizza is done!!! YUM!

  

   

This pumpkin pie is probably unlike any that you have had before, but it is delicious!   You won't find any of that thick muddy pumpkin pie texture here!   Once it cools it forms a thick custard layer on the bottom with a fluffy pumpkin layer on the top.    I hope you love it as much as we do! 

 Ingredients: 

  

I am a HUGE soup fanatic!  The thing is, I'm not a huge fan of chicken soups.  I guess they remind me of being sick.  Anyway, when it comes to chicken soup, this is how I roll.  Thai-style Chicken Coconut Mushroom Soup or "Tom Ka."  I always order this when I go to a Thai restaurant, so this is my make at home version.  It is very soothing on a cold day!

A heavy frost did-in my pepper patch, so I harvested all the peppers that remained and were not ruined by the frost.  That yielded a full basket of sweet bell, banana and lipstick peppers: more than we could possibly use before they go bad.  I have a shelf full of canned, sliced peppers; bags and bags of frozen peppers, several jars of dried peppers… what can I do with these final sweet peppers for a bit of variety?

Marie turned to the internet and came up with a recipe for sweet pepper relish. This one is tagged with the word Heinz, so I assume that company is somehow the original source, so I’ll mention that, although the recipe was found on www.food.com.

 

Ingredients for Sweet Pepper Relish

• 6 medium green bell peppers
• 6 medium ripe bell peppers (red, yellow, orange, mix & match)
• 3 medium onions
• 2 – 4 hot peppers (optional)
• 1 ½ cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon pickling salt
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon celery seeds
• 2 cloves garlic

Tools & Supplies

• At least 4 pint canning jars with lids and bands
• Hot water bath canner
• Canning tool set (wide mouth funnel, jar lifter, head space tool, etc)
• 6 – 8 Qt. enamelware or stainless steel sauce pan or stock pot
• Paring knife
• Ladle
• Wood, plastic or stainless stirring spoon
• Measuring cup and spoons
• Rubber gloves (optional)
   

Directions

 

Set up your canner and use it to sanitize 4 to 6 pint jars and lids by boiling them for 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat but keep them hot while you prepare the relish.

Stick your onions in the freezer for a few minutes to reduce the eye irritation that occurs while chopping them.

Wash, core and seed the peppers.  If you are including hot peppers (jalapenos, habaneros, Serrano – I’m using Cajun belles) you may want to wear gloves to prevent spreading the capsasin to delicate parts of your face. Washing your hands, even with soap and water does not remove this element from your skin.

  

Skin and cut the onions to manageable pieces.

Mince the garlic.

In a food processor chop the peppers and onion.

Combine all your ingredients in the saucepan or stock pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.

 

Boil for 25 – 30 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Turn off heat.

Ladle the relish into hot canning jars, leaving ½” of head space. Use a skewer or other non-metallic item to poke the relish to release any trapped air bubbles.

Clean the jar rim and threads and the lid seal with a clean paper towel.  Install the lid and band, tightening the band just to finger tight (careful, they’re HOT: use your jar wrench to hold the jar while you snug the band).

Use your jar lifter to place the filled jars into the canner (still containing hot water) as you fill them.

When all jars are filled, in the canner, and well covered with water, turn up the heat under the canner and bring it back to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat as necessary to maintain a rolling boil, but not so vigorous as to splatter excessively or to knock the jars into one another.  Check it occasionally to be sure the jars remain covered with water.

Process in boiling water for a minimum of 15 minutes, adjust this for your altitude.

When processing is complete, turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit before removing the jars.  Mine took only a few minutes to cool to the point that the lids sealed down and went “plink” even though still in the water.  If you MUST remove them from the canner immediately, handle them gently, do not tilt them and snug up the bands as quickly as you can to insure that the lids are held tightly to the jar rim until they seal.

Let the jars cool completely.

Refrigerate any jars that don’t seal and use those first.

If you choose to leave the bands on the jars, remove them first, wipe out any moisture that remains and put them back on.  Once sealed the bands are not needed but, if you prefer the appearance or feel better about having the bands on them, get the moisture out so the band and lid don’t corrode. 

Uses for Sweet Pepper Relish

You can use this relish in place of sweet pickle relish in most dishes such as deviled eggs or potato salad and as a condiment on hot dogs, hamburgers and sandwiches.  Traditionally (here in the South), vegetable relish or chow-chow is used as a topping for white beans as a low cost main dish.  Pepper relish is also a favored garnish for pork.  It is unique and flavorful enough to be used alone as a side dish if you wish.  Spice up your family’s dining table and try some sweet pepper relish.

Stevia for the Sugar Sensitive

In this batch I substituted ground raw stevia from our garden for the sugar. I harvested the stevia plant just a while ago (it builds the most sweetness in the late fall) bundled the sprigs and hung them to air dry.  Use just the leaves, the stems and flowers don’t  contain the stevioside that make this plant sweet.

 

You may drop a leaf or two into beverages like tea or coffee to sweeten it and retain easy retrieval.  Raw stevia does not dissolve even if ground to a powder and will form “dregs” in the bottom of your cup if used as a beverage sweetener.  However, stevia has a very sugar-like taste that holds up well to most cooking and it has no appreciable effect on your glucose levels, so it makes an excellent sweetener for diabetics or the diet conscious.  It also lacks the nasty side effects of aspartame.

 

Your only limitations on the use of stevia are that it will not caramelize; so making fudge or caramel is not possible and it does not activate yeast; so many baked goods will not rise like you expect.  In most other cooking ground, raw stevia will not make a difference in appearance or taste from sugar.  You can buy a white, powdered stevia extract that will dissolve in liquids; but the other limitations remain.

 

Using stevia is simple: for each cup of sugar called for in the recipe, use 1 tablespoon of raw powdered stevia or 1 teaspoon of the dry processed stevia extract.

I have found that stevia grows well here in Tennessee even though it is a tropical plant.  It will not survive winter, and starting from seed is almost impossible; so I take cuttings in the fall, root them, pot them and keep them indoors until late spring when warm weather returns.  Then I transfer them back to my herb bed in the garden.

I hope you have enjoyed this recipe and will give Sweet Pepper Relish a whirl.

Flavoring. Nothing conjures up more fear for me as a parent than this word. The FDA says "Natural Flavoring" is the "essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant mate-" blahdy blah blah blah. Just more technical jargin for crap they allow that will kill you.

No thanks. Reading a friend's Facebook status she said, "The essence of fall; watching my kids play in leaves, grey dreary days and pumpkin everything!" I couldn't agree more. So how does one infuse this ubiquitous flavor without using some sort of enxymolysis of edible yeast? I decided to put on my thinking cap.

  

Pumpkin pie, the comfort food of autumn: roasty, nutty, spicy, caramelly, make your knees knock together and faint when you smell it-y. So, lame admission, I didn't have any pie pumpkins or squash on hand so I had to use canned for this. I will detail both ways (as the former is by far superior).

As I dropped the pale orange blob into a mixing bowl it became quickly apparent that this is NOT was I was looking for. Raw pumpkin is tart and not incredibly palatable. It is in the roasting that draws out it's home-in-every-bite flavor. I turned on a pan and added the spices and such. Once it had all incorporated I added the pumpkin and stirred it until bubbling. Soon the color began to darken and that classic aroma began to fill our kitchen. Bingo. Just out of curiosity I passed it through a couple of strainers to make sure it was fine enough. I wanted something that would add an intense flavor to drinks or stews without the stringy texture that some pumpkins and squash have. Upon cooling it was ready to use for a number of dishes.

We'll start with the master recipes:

Natural Pumpkin Flavoring** 

1 can pumpkin

1/2 cup packed brown sugar* (light or dark, honestly who really cares?)

2 cinnamon sticks

1 whole vanilla bean (slit) or 1 tsp vanilla extract

3 whole cloves

1 cup water

1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional) this will give the final product a more Christmassy feel (just no Christmas music till after Thanksgiving!) 

*If using for primarily savory dishes, reduce the sugar by half 

**If you want a more roasted flavor, add the pumpkin to the spice mixture and transfer to oven safe pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a slightly golden crust appears. Remove the crust before using.

Add water, sugar and spices (add vanilla bean if using, omit extract if not). Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer until all of the sugar is dissolved and mixture is reduced to half and quite dark.

   

Add the pumpkin (and extract if using) and bring back to a boil (do not allow to burn on bottom or sides). Mixture will begin to darken.

   

Continue to stir until mixture is quite thick.

   

Take off heat and strain to remove the steeped spices. Allow to cool and use.

  

Granny's Homemade Pumpkin Flavoring Variation 

1 pie pumpkin or non-spaghetti type squash (Mother Hubbard squash is a family fave but they are large and will require more butter and salt, or just halve the squash quantity) 

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Halve pumpkin or squash and remove seeds. Drop in 1 tbsp butter and 1/2 tsp salt into each half. [Salt draws out moisture and the butter will help caramelize the liquid which will impart a much deeper flavor]. Roast on a pan for about an hour. Remove and using a fork, gently slide it into the flesh. A properly cooked pumpkin will be smooth and soft. Pumpkins and squash vary greatly so you may need to put it back in for up to a half hour longer.

Once soft, remove from oven and let cool. Pull off any dark or crusty parts and remove the soft flesh with an ice cream scoop. Process in a food processor until smooth. Pass through a fine strainer to ensure a creamy consistency.

Follow Natural Pumpkin Flavoring recipe above using about 2 cups of puree.

 

Now that you have the master recipe, you can add it to a number of different dishes!

Pumpkin-Spiced Coffee 

Our favorite recipe was also the reason I tried this at home. We were tired of the overly syrupy Starbucks pumpkin lattes of the season. Here you get a nice hint of pumpkin with all the homemade goodness.

Add 1 tsp Pumpkin Flavoring to each cup of coffee. Serve with cream and sugar to ensure no bitterness from the pumpkin. 

Pumpkin-Spiced Whipped Cream 

Whip 1 cup of cream until stiff peaks form. Briefly whip in 1 tbsp sugar. Fold in 1/4 cup Pumpkin Flavoring (make sure it's cold).

Place large dollop of Pumpkin-Spiced Whipped Cream at the bottom of a clear glass and top with hot coffee.

   

   

Sprinkle with light dusting of cinnamon sugar (find a cozy place to read and listen to the rain). 

Spiced Pumpkin Butter 

Allow 1 stick of butter to come to room temp and whip until light and airy. Whip in 2 tbsp packed brown sugar. Whip in 1/4 cup Natural Pumpkin Flavoring. Chill and serve on English muffins, pancakes or scones.

Autumn Oats 

Add 1/2 cup to every 4 servings of oatmeal (at the end of cooking). Top with Spiced-Whip Cream or Cinnamon Sugar.

Pumpkin Egg Nog 

Add 1/2 cup Natural Pumpkin Flavoring to 1/2 gallon of (preferable home made) egg nog.

Pumpkin-Apple Bisque 

Add 2 cups apple juice to puree and bring to a boil. Add 1/4 heavy cream and 1 tsp salt. Bring back up to boil and allow to thicken slightly. Dust with cinnamon and serve with hot buttered bread and something salty (like some home made sausages on the side). 

Pumpkin Stew 

Add 1 cup puree to broth or braising liquid just before serving.

There you go! Pumpkin Everything!

As the weather cools down, we love to have chili for dinner.  We love all varieties but this one, though simple and easy, always seems to taste the best.

 

Ingredients: 

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion- diced

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp chili powder

3 cloves garlic-minced

2 16 oz. cans white kidney beans

1 16 oz. can red kidney beans

1 16 oz. can tomato sauce

1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup beef stock

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

shredded cheddar cheese for topping

Preparation: 

Brown the beef, onions and garlic together in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper, cumin and the chili powder.

If necessary pour off the fat, then add the remainder of the ingredients and simmer on low heat for approximately 30 minutes.

Serve topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

While much of the summer garden is wilting off and ready to be pulled out, the pepper plants are still producing prolifically. I’ve canned, frozen and dehydrated a good stash for use this winter and we’ve used diced peppers in cooking a variety of dishes, but I wanted to do something different while we still have a good flow of peppers.  I wanted to stuff some.

Normally, stuffed peppers involve bell peppers and a rice/meat/tomato stuffing.  But getting enough bell peppers that are properly shaped, the right size and ready to pick all at the same time to make a double batch of stuffed peppers can be tricky from a home garden. This is enough work that I like to do a double batch so I can freeze half of it for a quick, easy meal another time. This recipe is a little different from your “usual” stuffed pepper recipe.

What You Will Need

 

• Two or three ripe banana peppers per serving.  (This recipe will stuff 25 -30 avg. banana peppers)
• 1 pound of ground turkey (you can use ground beef if you prefer, we like the turkey because it has almost no fat content)
• 1 pound of lean pork breakfast sausage. Hot or Medium, depending on your taste.
• ½  Tbsp fresh Oregano, minced
• 1 Tbsp fresh Thyme, minced
• 2 Tbsp fresh Basil, finely chopped
• 1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes
• 3/4 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• ½ cup shredded cheese
• 2 11”x13” baking pans 

Prep the Peppers

 

Figure out how each pepper will lay best in a pan. Remove a slip along the “top” side of the pepper then cutting down just under the cap of the pepper.  Do NOT cut the cap off.  Poke your knife down carefully to separate the core from the stem, then cut the webbing to remove the core.

If you want your completed peppers soft, par-boil them now for 3 minutes. Stuff them raw for crisper peppers after baking.

Bag and refrigerate the slips you cut off; they’ll be great for dicing up in a salad or scrambled eggs. Compost the cores.

Note, I used primarily banana peppers, but also included a few Lipstick peppers, a couple of Cajun Belles (spicy) and a long skinny sweet bell pepper. All worked equally well.

The Stuffing

 

In a large bowl, combine the turkey, sausage, onion, egg and bread crumbs. Mix until blended.

Reserve ¼ of each herb for the sauce, add the balance to the meat mix and mix through.

Stuff the peppers with the meat mix, packing the peppers full so no air pockets remain inside. Place the peppers in the baking dishes.

The Sauce

 

Coarsely chop the tomato and place in a small sauce pan.  I used the oven roasted Roma tomatoes I’d made a few days earlier.  Finely chop the reserved herbs and add to the sauce pan.  Sweeten to taste with a little sugar or fresh Stevia from the garden. Cook the sauce until the tomatoes break down and the liquid thickens.

Spoon the sauce onto the peppers.

Bake

 

Bake uncovered in a 350° oven for 30 to 35 minutes, test to see that the meat has cooked through in the largest pepper.  Top with shredded cheese and put back in the oven until cheese melts.

Serve and Save

Serve with a fruit and bread of choice. Two peppers constitutes a normal serving.  Super-size if you must.

Place the unserved peppers in the freezer and freeze hard.  Transfer into a vacuum seal bag, vacuum, seal and quickly return to the freezer.  These will keep for months and be the basis for a quick dinner another time. Warm in the oven or microwave.

Enjoy!

We very much enjoyed this different version of stuffed peppers, we hope you do too.

 

I love the flavors of Mexican cooking.  I fell in love with so many flavors of this country when I lived in Los Angeles and learned to cook.  I especially loved going into the supermarkets there and trying out all the chilies, tomatillos, and other ethnic spices for cooking.  Sometimes, my taste buds yearn for those flavors.  Unfortunately, living on Cape Cod, those truly authentic flavors and ingredients are just unavailable.

I love tortilla soup.  Authentic Mexican tortilla soup is simply a flavorful tomato soup poured over wonderful crispy tortilla strips, avocado and cheese.  The soup is very easy to prepare and a real crowd pleaser.  The best part is that I created this soup with ingredients that are readily available in all areas of the country, but still bring the authentic flavors of Mexico home.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 (14oz) can of diced tomatoes

3 cups of chicken broth

1/2 large yellow onion diced

2 tsp cumin

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro (optional but truly enhances the flavor)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 tsp of salt

black pepper to taste

3 cloves minced garlic

jalapeno rings (Spice Guide: 1-2 rings-mild, 3-4 rings-medium, 5-7rings spicy)

Manchego cheese or Queso Fresco- 1/2 cup cut into small cubes

1 avocado- cut into cubes

crispy tortilla strips (look in the salad topping area)

Preparation:

In a medium stock pot, combine all ingredients except cheese, avocado and tortilla strips, Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for 25 minutes.

Turn the heat off.  Carefully with the very hot soup blend it into a creamy puree using either a hand held blender, food processor or a blender.  Return the soup to the pot and reheat to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Cube up the cheese and avocado.

In the bottom of the bowl, place some tortilla strips, cheese and avocado.  Remove the soup from the heat and ladle it into the prepared bowls.

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Sometimes it is just too hot to cook.  No one feels like eating anything too heavy and we certainly do not feel like cooking in the house.  This is when we take our cooking to the grill.  It is very easy to make a wonderful light meal for warm summer nights that is both easy delicious and keeps the kitchen clean!  Who doesn't love that part!?  One thing that we find incredibly delicious and simple is rustic crusty bread with fresh from the garden tomatoes and basil, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Some days, this serves as our main course paired with an assortment of summer salads.  Other days it's a side.  Either way, it is fast, delicious and easy!

Makes 4 toasts 

Ingredients: 

4 slices of fresh rustic bread~ I used a Fresh Batard loaf

1 medium sized tomato-8 slices

4 leaves of Fresh basil into chiffonade

Cheese of your preference-I used goat but fresh mozzarella works nicely too

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preparation: 

Heat grill to medium heat.

On a slice of the bread arrange two tomato slices.  On top of the tomatoes, place 1/4 of the fresh basil and some cheese on top.  Salt and Pepper to taste and drizzle with olive oil.

Place on the upper rack of the grill keeping the cover closed for approximately 5 minutes,  Be sure to keep checking on the bread often to be sure it does not burn. Remove when the bread is toasted and the cheese is slightly browned.

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On Saturdays I fix breakfast and let Marie sleep in a bit.  Sometimes I serve the meal in bed on our breakfast in bed trays other times the scents of cooking drag her down the hallway to the kitchen. Breakfast this morning was a potato-tomato omelet topped with green pepper and cheese.  Here’s how I make these.

 

Cut 1 small Yukon Gold potato into ¼” cubes and place in a pan of cold salted water.  Heat on high to boil until the potato is tender.  Drain, bathe in cold water, drain again.

While the potatoes boil, do the following:

• Preheat your oven to 300 degrees then turn it off.
• Cut 6 cherry tomatoes into ¼ wedges.
• Chop ¼ cup carrot tops
• Chop ¼ cup fresh green pepper
• Chop 1 Tbsp of fresh Rosemary
• Finely chop 1 Tsp of fresh Oregano
• Find your pepper grinder
• Grate ¼ cup cheese of your choice (I like a mix of cheddar & mozzarella)
• Crack two large eggs into a bowl & add 2 Tbsp of water .  Whisk briskly until frothy.

Put a dab of cooking oil into a 10” French skillet (or whatever pan you use for omelets) and heat the pan over medium until a smidge of the egg dropped into the pan just starts to sizzle in the oil.  You don’t want the pan too hot or the egg will bubble and inflate, creating weak spots that will break when you flip it over.

Pour the eggs into the skillet.  Sprinkle with ½ of the carrot tops, ½ of the oregano and add fresh ground pepper to taste.  While the eggs are firming up a bit, toss the potatoes in the Rosemary.

Place ½ of the potatoes and ½ of the tomatoes on one side of the omelet.  When the egg is still just a little runny on top, use a wide spatula to flip the vacant side of the omelet over the filled side.  Let cook for 30 seconds  or so, flip the omelet over and let cook for another 30-40 seconds, then remove from the skillet and place omelet on a plate.

Sprinkle ½ of the chopped green pepper over the top of the omelet.  Sprinkle with ½ of the grated cheese.

Place this plate in the oven to melt the cheese and keep warm while you make the other omelet.

When both omelets are made and on plates, add a serving of fresh fruit and enjoy.

I have decided that there is nothing like a dish of fresh peas to make a spring day perfect! Yesterday afternoon around lunchtime, I went to the garden hoping to rescue a few final pods before I pulled up the vines to plant the jalapeños. This spring has been unseasonably warm in the Shenandoah Valley, and the peas have not been happy at all with temperatures hovering around 90 degrees. To my surprise, there were still quite a few chubby shells hanging bravely on the wilted pea plants. Enough pods to fill a little bowl with springtime goodness!

I found a perfect recipe for fresh peas: Bring a small amount of water to boil, add shelled peas, return to a boil and heat for about 10 seconds. This creates a sweet, firm texture and the peas literally pop in your mouth!

In other gardening news, I think I harvested the elephant garlic too soon. At least that’s what Edna tells me. But there were flowers forming on top of the plants, so I thought it was time to dig up the bulbs. The garlic seems to be fine, although I will admit the bulbs  would probably have gotten bigger had I heeded my neighbor’s advice (not that I’d ever tell her that!).  Nevertheless, I now have a garage full of fragrant garlic braids, drying in the steaming heat of this too-early summer. 

The rabbits are eyeing my newly planted broccoli plants. I reminded them that I didn’t mind sharing as long as I didn’t know I was sharing! I hope they understood the gravity in my voice. We negotiated quite well with the spinach, I can only assume we will divide the broccoli crop equally well.

Seven more days in the Schoolhouse, and then I will be a full time Theoretical Farmer. I am certainly looking forward to changing hats.

 

I've always been the type of person to read books with rural settings and watch old-fashioned television shows. You know the ones I mean...They were always set way back in the days and would feature Paw hitching up the wagon to go fetch Doc when someone was injured. Though the shows rarely featured anyone that looked like me, I always imagined myself living back in those times. Of course back then, the gender roles were pretty well defined and there wasn't much leeway in them. Rather than being the one going into town to fetch the Doc, I'd have likely been the one sweating over an open fire to make dinner out of whatever varmint Paw had managed to snare.

As an adult I embarked on a more self-sufficient lifestyle, trying my best to recreate some of those moments for my family. Making bread was one of those key elements that I desperately wanted to bring into our home. I mean how hard could it really be? Breadmaking has been going on since the beginning of recorded time, right? On tv, the woman of the house would start the breadmaking at the crack of dawn. It had to be easy because she likely hadn't had any coffee and was probably dozing as her hands found a familiar rhythmic kneading pattern in the dough. The family would gather around the dinner table at the end of a long, hard day of eking out a living and they'd break bread, often sharing the meal with a neighbor or a passerby.

I've found that even after more than 10 years of making bread, both by hand and with a bread machine, things still go awry. Most of my bread failures fall into two sports categories: bread that resembles a football in both size and texture & yeasty dinner rolls that resemble hockey pucks. There was that one unfortunate incident where the bread... Oh never mind...That story is just too embarrassing to share! Needless to say, I have become quite proficient at both making and breaking bread.

Over the years, I've determined that the secret to making good bread is to find one recipe and tweak it until you get it right. If you use a different recipe each time, you'll never learn what it takes to correct bad bread. There are only a few ingredients in a basic bread recipe: flour, water, yeast, oil, salt and a bit of sugar or honey.

The first bread that you'll want to experiment with is a basic white bread. Don't get caught up in the old white bread is inferior to wheat bread debate just yet. Instead, entertain the notion that any home baked white bread loaf will be infinitely superior to the plastic bagged version in your local supermarket. As a bonus it won't contain any of the ingredients that only a top chemist can pronounce. Bread making skills are honed on white bread and are perfected on wheat bread because it can be a bit tricky to make a finely grained loaf of wheat bread that doesn't damage your teeth when you bite it.

Here is my favorite white bread recipe to make two loaves:

2 packages of active dry yeast
2 1/4 cups of lukewarm water
1/2 cup of slightly warmed milk
2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of salt
1/3 cup of cooking oil
7 1/4 cups of sifted flour 

Dissolve yeast in the water. Add sugar, milk, oil and salt. Stir mixture
gently. Add about half of the flour to make a batter. Continue to stir to
ensure that the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout. Gradually
add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Dough should not be so
sticky that it sticks to the sides of the bowl. If after adding the
remaining flour, you find that the dough is still sticky, you may add up to
an additional 1/4 cup of flour. Extra flour should only be added in small
increments and not all at once.

While still in the bowl, cover the dough with a towel or lid and allow it
to rest for 20 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Start
kneading,  after about 5 minutes it will become smooth. (Do not over
knead...This will make for a tougher bread texture.)Divide dough into two
equal portions and form each into a loaf. Place into two greased 9x5 inch
loaf pans. Let dough rise again until it has doubled in size. This can take
anywhere from an hour to an hour & a half. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and
bake for 30-35 minutes. When properly baked, bread will sound hollow when
you tap on it. Remove the loaves from the pans and allow them to cool.

To keep the crust soft, you can massage the entire loaf with a little butter. Some people may balk at this, citing the additional calories that are added. However, kneading bread is really good exercise for the arms, so those calories were likely burned and you'll have well-toned arms to show for your efforts! In this society where things are often done at the touch of a button, we sometimes forget that those pioneer women of the past got their exercise through a hardscrabble lifestyle and not a treadmill. If only we owned a butter churn, I could give up the gym membership and still have arms to rival those of First Lady Michelle Obama ...

Here at Chiot's Run fall means an abundance of local unpasteurized cider. We have a local mill that makes fantastic cider and sells it out of a little cooler out back. We've thought about trying to make our own, but with someone doing it so well, it's not worth trying to top it.

 

Having cider in the house means we'll be enjoying mulled cider every evening. There's something so comforting about a nice cup of hot cider warmed with delicious spices like: ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cardamom. I usually just add a few bits of each spice to a pot each evening then fill it with cider and allow it to steep for a half hour to an hour. Sometimes however I like to mix up a big batch of mulling spices to keep on hand and to fill small decorative jars to have on hand for the perfect fall hostess gift. This mix can be used for cider or wine. This year I decided it would be my gift of choice for friends & holiday parties. This is super quick and simple to make, as long as you have all the spices on hand, which I always do. You can even customize it to the person you're giving it to or to your own tastes. I use the same recipe for these jars as I use for my own cider. I keep all of the organic spices on hand since I buy in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs. The vanilla beans I get very inexpensively from Saffron.com.

 

These are also fairly inexpensive. I spent more on the jar itself than the spices inside. I could have used regular canning jars, but I really wanted to make look a little different. I also thought these beautiful little jars would be ones that people would save and reuse as well.

CHIOT'S RUN MULLING SPICE MIX  

I don't like the flavor of citrus in my cider, if you do feel free to add orange peel. You can also add dried ginger chunks or nutmeg if you like, use what you've got on hand and what you like in your cider.

4 Tablespoon cinnamon chips (I prefer sweet cinnamon over the regular cinnamon)
4 Tablespoon allspice berries
1 Tablespoon cloves
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
8 cardamom pods slightly crushed
1 vanilla bean cut into small pieces

Mix spices in small half pint jar, label and give away with directions: Mix 1 Tablespoon of mulling spice for every 2 cups of cider or wine, heat till almost boiling, reduce heat and steep for 30 minutes, enjoy.

 

When it comes to cider are you a mulled cider kind of person or do you like it cold?  

I can also be found at Chiot's Run where I blog daily about gardening, cooking, local eating, beekeeping, and all kinds of stuff. You can also find me at Not Dabbling in Normal, Simple, Green, Frugal, Co-op, and you can follow me on Twitter. 

 One of my major flaws is a fanatical fondness for anything containing sugar (sweet tooth courtesy of my Gramps). While I am pretty good at avoiding processed sweet things (except frosted animal crackers), quality desserts are a staple dietary contribution at my house, right up there with water and cheese.

An over abundant recipe collection roams my counter tops, getting wet, crinkled and covered in food splatters. Lately I have been trying different seasonal desserts from various recipe sources and have yet to hit a dud. So here is my latest sweet concoction, from Martha Stewart's cute little food publication: 

  

Peaches with cornmeal shortcakes

Cornmeal shortcakes
1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing

Homemade whipped cream - I had no idea how simple making my own whipped cream is, knowledge can be dangerous!
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

Fruity filling
1 1/2 pounds peaches, halved, pitted and cut into 1/4 inch slices (5 cups)
5 ounces blueberries (3/4 cups)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and granulated sugar. Using the large holes in a cheese grater, grate butter into flour mixture, mixing and breaking it into even smaller pieces with your fingers. With a fork, stir in buttermilk until dough just comes together. Lightly flour a rolling pin and work surface (I usually roll dough out between 2 sheets of wax paper, less of a mess) and roll out dough into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. Cut into 6 squares (or rectangles).

Place dough squares 3 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake until shortcakes are golden and puffed, 17 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. (Store shortcakes tightly wrapped in plastic, up to 2 days).

In a medium mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream and confectioners' sugar on high until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Cut shortcakes in half horizontally. Divide peaches among bottom halves, top with whipped cream and blueberries and sandwich with top half.

Then put on a pretty plate, take a picture for your blog and chow down!

 This time around I’ve elected to poke into the history of something that is near and dear to my heart on a couple of fronts.  The soda pop marketed as Mountain Dew is one of my favorite ”treat” beverages (I prefer the diet version), and the term “mountain dew” has been slang for moonshine for hundreds of years.  The Tennessee county where I live has a well-deserved reputation for having been the moonshine capital of the world during the heyday of that illegally produced corn whiskey. There is even a moonshine museum in Cosby!  Sorry, they do not give out samples.

 Mountain Dew was born here in the hills of Tennessee in the 1940s. Barney and Ally Hartman, who ran a bottling plant in Knoxville, coined the name of their product from the colloquial term for moonshine whiskey. The Hartman's Mountain Dew, however, was a lemon-lime flavored mixer for whiskey, not originally intended to be drunk alone. But that changed quickly enough.

  

The first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels were devised in 1948 by John Brichetto and depicted a character known as Willy the Hillbilly shooting at a revenuer fleeing an outhouse with a pig sitting in the corner.  In 1951 Ally ordered the first ACL Mountain Dew bottle. The bottle was green glass with white paint (no red) with Willy shooting at a revenuer. The bottle read "by BARNEY and ALLY."  This was supposed to give the feeling that the person using the product was drinking illegal moonshine.  Interestingly; when the bottles arrived they were put in a warehouse and not used until 1955!

 Pepsi Cola bought out the Mountain Dew franchise in 1964 and in 1973 the logo was changed to reflect the audience Pepsi was aiming for, a younger outdoorsy generation. This tradition is continued today with many commercials for the drink featuring BMX and skating superstars. 1988 brought a new Dew to the scene with a diet Mountain Dew, offering a low sugar compliment to the original beverage.

 Over the years the product carried several slogans. In 1965 Pepsi launched its first Mountain Dew campaign, "Ya-Hoo Mountain Dew! It'll tickle your innards." That was followed by several rather unremarkable slogans, but in 1993 the slogan "Do the Dew" was created by the Dew Dudes in the award winning commercial "Been there, Done That".

 When 1995 rolled around it brought the first X-games, sponsored by none other then Mountain Dew.

 Since 2001 several other flavors have been developed under the Dew banner.  These include Code Red, Livewire; an orange flavored spin-off, and Pitch Black; a grape flavored variation with a sour bite, but the original Mountain Dew remains the best seller.

 Mountain Dew has become a world wide success; from the hills and backwoods of Tennessee to the far corners of the Earth. Many have tried to imitate its unique flavor, including Mellow Yellow, Mountain Mist and Surge, but none have even come close. Mountain Dew is unique and is here to stay. 

In our house Mountain Dew is the required beverage on Sunday evenings while we curl up together and watch the weekly NASCAR cup race. Racing and Dew just go together!  And what caps off the evening is a serving of Marie’s Do the Dew Apple Dumplings, hot and bubbling from the oven.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at Mountain Dew.  What is your favorite refreshment?  Here's a little Mountain Dew song for you to listen to while you check out the recipe below.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER:  This post has not been sponsored by or paid for and is not in any way connected to the Pepsi Company or Mountain Dew.  They haven’t given me so much as a coupon for writing this (but… maybe they will!).  The logo and label are the exclusive property of the Pepsi Bottling Company.

Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings  
2 large Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls
1 1/2 sticks of butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar (or equivalent sweetener)
8 oz. Mountain Dew (the soda, not moonshine)
2 tsp cinnamon

Cut each apple into 8 pieces, remove the core and roll each slice in a triangle of crescent roll.  Place in a 9” x 13” baking dish.  Melt the butter.  Add sugar and cinnamon and mix.  Add Mountain Dew to the mixture and pour over the dumplings.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes until brown and bubbly.  These are best served fresh from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (we use low fat, no sugar added Blue Bunny vanilla)

Thanks for reading, and “May the Dew be with you!” 

Combining honeycomb and cheese is not a novel idea and a quick perusal of the internet shows this to be the case, although I’m surprised there aren’t a lot more recipes for it.  A delightful combination of flavors and textures makes this dish well worth trying. Really  it is what you call a serving suggestion as opposed to a recipe.

Unless you’re raising bees honeycomb is somewhat of a luxury item costing $16-18 a pound. Usually it comes in squares cut from the frames or in preformed rounds that are filled by the bees in the hives and the resultant circular comb placed in round plastic containers for sale.

This recipe will astonish your palate, and whether that is a good or bad thing is your choice.  I insist you try it at least once in your life.  Buying local honey comb and cheese is a nice way to support your nearby farmers.

 I selected a sharp regional cheddar, in this case from Grafton Vermont and made less than quarter inch thick slices.   I cut out individual small wedges of the honeycomb and plated them. Alternatively if serving at a party you would plate the entire round or square. Cover the comb with a single layer of cheese. Then drizzle a small amount of rose water over the entire assemblage.  I think you need a cheese combination that creates contrast with the honeycomb—a hard cheese with sharp and/or salty flavors, although other combinations could work well.

 Eat.

 Observe the reaction.

This dish literally floored my 13-year-old (he fell on the floor). After recovering from the initial shock he wanted more, as did the 9-year-old. Rose flavor is not something most of us are used to, unless you come from eastern Europe and points east. The rose water I purchased originated in Lebanon, and seems fairly potent, listing concentrated rose water and “natural” rose flavors.

The second ingredient could be suspicious because rose flavor can be derived from a number of plants containing geraniol particularly grasses including citronella (Cymbopogon nardus and Cymbopogon winterianus) and palmarosa(Cymbopogon martinii) and still be considered natural. While Lebanon is a minor producer of rose oil and related products when compared to Bulgaria and Turkey, who command 80-90% of the world market, nevertheless Lebanon is still a producer and this rose water could be pure rose. Attempts to email the company were blocked. Go figure. While many species of rose yield rose oil, as is evident from inhaling any heirloom rose and a few modern varieties, most rose oil is produced from Rosa damascena, the Damask Rose, sometimes called the oil rose. 

I suggest serving this as a dessert or a precursor to dessert at the end of the meal.  Or depending on your meal it could be served in between courses.

---

Lawrence Davis-Hollander is an ethnobotanist, former director and founder of the Eastern Native Seed Conservancy, author of Tomato: A Fresh from the Vine Cookbook president of botanicalposters.com, the artwork of his wife Margo. Additional blogs can be found on http://botanicalposters.com/blog and http://simpledailyrecipes.com. 

Marie and I eat healthy – really we do!  We’re not fanatics about it, but we watch the carbs, sugar, and salt.  We avoid the boxed meals and fix fresh foods.  The usual rote.  But once in a while we reward ourselves with something yummy.  One of my favorite yummy treats is a Turtle Pie.  This is what I ask for in place of a birthday cake.

In essence the Turtle Pie is a pecan pie with enhancements.

First, what you will need:

½ cup butter or good margarine
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup dark corn syrup
2/3 cup regular rolled oats
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup cashews
¼ cup chocolate chunks (dark, milk or mixture as you prefer)

Ready made pie crust OR
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
A rolling pin
Pastry blender

A 9” pie plate
A wire cooling rack
Aluminum foil

Second, What To Do:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Prepare the Crust

Home made crust
In a mixing bowl stir together the flour and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut in the shortening until pieces are pea size.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cold water over part of the mixture and gently toss with a fork.  Push moistened dough to the side of the bowl and repeat moistening the dough using 1 teaspoon of cold water at a time, until all the dough is moistened (4 to 5 teaspoons of water should do it).  Form dough into a ball. 

On a lightly floured surface, use your hands to slightly flatten dough.  Roll from center to the edge into a circle about 12 inches in diameter.

To transfer the pastry, roll it around the rolling pin and unroll the pastry into the pie plate.

Home made or prepared crust
Ease the crust into the pie plate, being careful not to stretch the pastry.  Trim the pastry to ½ inch beyond the edge of the pie plate. Fold under this extra pastry. Crimp edge as desired.  Do not prick the pastry.

Prepare the Filling

In a medium saucepan melt the butter or margarine. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, corn syrup and oats.

Stir in the eggs and vanilla.

Pour mixture into the pastry.  Top with nuts and chocolate.  Cover the edge of the pie with foil to prevent over burning.

Bake in 325 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until filling is set.  Cool on a wire rack.

For some time now, I’ve been saying that if I’m going to eat meat, I ought to be able to look an animal in the eye and be OK with its death for my dinner, or I should become a vegetarian.

I hadn’t had the opportunity to test this premise, though, until my friend Karen, owner of Three Fates Farm, called to say she was sending some of her lambs to slaughter and asked if we wanted one. I jumped at the opportunity.

I didn’t meet the exact lamb I’d be eating, but I had visited all the lambs when they were just days and weeks old, adorably following their mothers around the pasture, and I felt that the criteria of looking my dinner in the eye was satisfied.

 

The lamb would be ready in a week or so, available at a local slaughterhouse, where it would all be neatly packaged and labeled and ready for our pickup. We bought a small freezer in anticipation of our homegrown meat. Finally one Saturday it was ready.

I was ushered around the counter of the shop, which was doing a brisk business with a mostly Mexican clientele. I wondered why I hadn’t been here before and vowed to come back and explore. I followed a butcher to a back room, where I made small talk with the owner, a smiling gray-haired man with a Greek accent, while the butcher searched for my box of lamb.

“I’ve seen better lamb than yours,” the owner said. What makes it better? I asked. “The feed,” he replied. I explained that the lamb I was buying was raised for its wool, not its meat, but given its rare breed standing, certain criteria concerning their markings and fleece quality have to be met. For various reasons some don’t make the cut, and those are the lambs that get butchered.

But I know the grass they’ve grazed on, been in the barn where they feed, sleep, and were born. I know they were well-cared for and healthy, and that is enough for me. But not, apparently, for the slaughterhouse owner. He motioned me to follow him into a room-size cooler.

“Now this is good lamb,” he said, heartily patting one of the numerous carcasses hanging in rows. The room was full of slaughtered pigs and lambs. My first thought? Those are some nice-looking pigs.

I have no idea why I thought that. I don’t know a good pig from a bad pig, but something about the way them was appealing. My next thought was maybe I could be a farmer after all. I was intrigued by the experience, not freaked out by the amount of animal flesh surrounding me. I was fascinated by it all and asked the owner questions about his livelihood and operations. Next, I thought, I really should witness a slaughter, to make sure I really am OK with this death-for-life business.

I don’t expect to like it; I would hope on some level it would be disturbing. But I want to be OK with it, or not eat meat.

When my box of lamb was finally located (“It was under a bunch of goats heads,” the butcher said), I drove home and unpacked it, transferring the wrapped parcels to the new freezer.

Karen had warned me that though she didn’t ask for it, the head was included. Indeed, there was a package with “Lamb HEAD” written in black Sharpie on butcher paper. Well, now’s my chance to truly look my dinner in the eye, I thought. So I did. 

Unwrapping the skinned head, it took me a moment to get oriented. Ah yes, there’s the mouth, the tongue slightly protruding and some teeth visible. I studied it for awhile, took a photo, wrapped it back up and took it to the garbage can in the garage, where it would stay frozen until pickup day.

It felt wasteful, but I didn’t know what else to do with it, except perhaps throw it out in the woods the coyotes, but given the cats and dogs that live with us and our neighbors, it didn’t seem wise to lure hungry coyotes closer to our homes.

Last week I defrosted two shoulders and made a delicious lamb dish seasoned with cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, and cumin and served with perfumed rice—sautéed onions, raisins, and dates layered with lentils and basmati rice and seasoned with the same spices (sans the cumin).

The slaughterhouse owner may have seen better lamb, but this was as tender and delicious as any I’ve ever had, made all the sweeter by knowing that its brief life was a good and humane one, provided by caring, animal-loving friends, on a farm just 10 miles from my home.

I had looked my dinner in the eye—sort of—and I was OK with it. More than OK with it. I didn't exactly feel good about it, but I didn't feel bad about it either. I felt grateful, gratified, humbled, and, at that moment, rather full.

 

The Recipes 

Lamb 

Two lamb shoulders, meat cut off bones and into 1-inch pieces (I had 3 lbs of lamb after trimming)
3 cups sliced onions
2-3 tbs olive oil
3 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp cardamom
¾ tsp turmeric
¾ tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Water

Sauté onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the lamb; season with salt, pepper, and spices and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add enough water to barely cover the meat—I used 4 cups. Cover and simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours, until meat is very tender. I removed the lid after one hour to reduce the liquid to a thickened sauce. Serve with perfumed rice recipe.

Perfumed Rice

3 cups white basmati rice
1 ½ cups lentils
1 cup sliced onion
1 cup raisins
1 cup pitted and chopped dates
1 stick butter
2 tbs yogurt
2 tbs olive oil
Salt
Spices (mixed together): ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp cardamom, ¼ tsp turmeric

Wash rice vigorously in several changes of water and soak for 2 hours in 8 cups of water with 2 tbs salt.

In a saucepan, mix the lentils with 3 cups of water and ½ tsp salt. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes, and drain.

In a frying pan, sauté onions in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat until soft and golden. Stir in the raisins and dates, cook for 2 more minutes, and set aside.

Parboil the rice by bringing 2 quarts of water and 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in a 4-quart pot (nonstick is recommended), adding the presoaked rice and boiling for 3-5 minutes, stirring every so often, until the grains lose their brittle core but are still quite firm. Drain the rice and rinse it in several cups of warm water.

In the same pot, melt the stick of butter. Pour half into a small bowl and set aside. Take 2 cups of the cooked rice, mix it in a bowl with the yogurt, and spread it on the bottom of the pot over the butter. Sprinkle a layer of the lentils on the rice, then a layer of raisins, dates, and onions, then another layer of rice. Sprinkle spice mixture in between layers.

Continue until all ingredients are used up, reducing the diameter of each layer so that the ingredients taper to a pyramid in the pot.

Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes to form a crust on the bottom of the rice.

Uncover, pour reserved melted butter over the rice, put a dishtowel over the pot, cover it again, and cook over low heat for 50 minutes. (To prevent the dishtowel from catching fire, I gathered the ends and used a clothespin to secure them to the lid handle.)

Remove from heat and leave covered; place on cold wet dishtowel (to help loosen crust) for 5 minutes.

Uncover and transfer the contents to a serving platter or large bowl, mounding the rice and lentils in the center and spooning the lamb around it.

Remove the rice crust with a spatula and serve on a separate plate. (Mine pretty much crumbled, so I just added it to the rest of the rice.)

 

NOTES:

This recipe is from The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten, with some slight modifications (I tripled the amount of lamb, for example.) His purpose with this recipe was to cook a delicious meal for not a lot of money, which is why he put the emphasis on the rice and lentils, with the lamb as more of an accent (he uses just 1 lb of lamb shoulder). I wanted more lamb and, really, could do with less rice and lentils.

If I were to make this again—and the flavors are so yummy, I’m sure I will—I would perhaps eliminate the lentils altogether (the two together are very filling) and I would double the amount of onions, raisins, and dates, because they are so very delicious. I’m also not sure of the purpose of the rice soaking and repeated rinsing; I might eliminate all of that and see what happens.

Enjoy!

In another sharing of the e-mails that find their way into my inbox comes this gem.

One of the recent press releases to find its way to me had this subject line: Raisin Pie Wins Top Pro Award at Recent APC/Crisco National Pie Championships. We talked about the contest in GRIT eNEWS in our March 19 issue and I can’t resist more pie news.

It seems this year was the first time professionals (chefs, restaurant owners and the like) were allowed to enter a raisin pie. The new category was sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board.

 

Andrea Springs, who owns the Sign of the Mermaid Restaurant in Bradenton, Florida, took up the challenge, producing a Chocolate Walnut Raisin Pie that not only won the raisin category but also took Best of Show in the 16th Annual American Pie Council/Crisco 2010 National Pie Championship.

The contest was part of the APC’s Great American Pie Festival, sponsored by Crisco, which was held in April in Orlando. The annual event draws professional, amateur and commercial bakers of all skill levels, ages and degrees of training to compete in an annual bake-off. The festival also offers a contest for budding junior chefs.

The professional part of the competition drew 170 pies in nine categories: Apple, Crisco Classic Cherry, Crisco Classic Chocolate, Citrus, Cream, Fruit & Berry, Nut, Raisin and Open. Nine first-place winners then competed for the Best of Show title.

“When I saw that raisin was a new category in the professional division, I really wanted to tackle that because I like the challenge of the new and unusual. I love raisins, but I considered that a ‘straight-out’ raisin pie may not appeal to the masses. The first time I made the pie, I knew the flavors were perfect for the contest. Pairing it with favorites like milk chocolate and walnuts enhances the raisins and creates a very appealing pie,” said winner Spring.

I don’t know about you, but this recipe, found here, sounds simply delish.

Although …. Andrea, have you considered using dark chocolate?

Now I’m off to dream about Chocolate Walnut Raisin Pie!

Hunting is a very big part of our lives in this family, so wild game recipes are always welcome. I thought I would share a recipe for a dish I made with a rabbit my husband brought me from a successful hunt.

Hubby cleans and skins the rabbit, and then I take over. I put the rabbit in my slow cooker, and almost cover with water. I season with various spices including salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and oregano. You can add whatever you like. I cook at a medium temperature for a few hours, or till the meat starts to fall off of the bones. At this point I remove the rabbit from the broth. I strain the broth, and set it back. I pick all the meat off of the bones. This is usually very easy to do at this point. It pretty much just falls off in your hand. Be careful of small bones. I cut up any larger pieces into bite size chunks. Now I take a small portion of the meat and add it back into the broth. This gets put into the fridge to make another meal with. That’s right, two meals from one rabbit! It usually gets made into some sort of soup or stew. That will be a recipe for another blog.

Now you have cooked and de-boned rabbit cut into bite sized pieces. I used this to make a casserole that my family has repeatedly asked for again. I took one of those boxed pasta salad mixes, I think it was the bacon ranch kind, and prepared it per instructions on the box. I know that’s kinda cheating, but very easy! When it was done, I added my rabbit pieces, some butter, and some cheese cut into chunks. Use your favorite kind of cheese, or combine a few kinds. I poured this mixture into a baking dish and topped with a little more cheese, (more is better) and sprinkled the whole thing with seasoned bread crumbs. Just heat this in a 350 degree oven till heated through. Absolutely yummy!

To go with this meal, I also made some easy corn muffins. The recipe is:

1¼ cups flour
¾ cup corn meal
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg beaten

Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil, and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into greased or paper lined muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

These went great with the rabbit casserole, and they are also a very good breakfast addition. I made some peach butter to put on them. Very easy to make, I simply set out a stick of butter and let it get to room temperature. Then I add some of my homemade peach jam, and whip it together. This goes great on muffins. You could use whatever flavor you like. Strawberry, blueberry, apple, any of these would be yummy.

Anyone with a good wild game recipe out there? I would love to hear it!

Here at GRIT, we have a department called Comfort Foods. I’ve always kind of distrusted the label of a comfort food, since to me food is more about sustenance than comfort. But after heading home for the weekend, a fried chicken dinner prepared by my mom reminded me of how comfort foods feel and what they’re all about. And with any luck, someone out there will have a venison chili recipe that will add one more recipe to my arsenal of comfort foods.

But what is a comfort food to me? It has little to do with the actual filling of my stomach. Rather, I think of comfort foods as those dishes we eat that take us back to a time and place, much like my favorite songs that always remind me of the same things.

From a young age, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, homegrown corn, dinner rolls and milk – out of a Mason jar most times – have been a staple to our family’s diet. It brings a vivid picture to mind of sitting at our old dinner table in the old farmhouse, no television or radio on, just a family of five gathered around the largest meal of the day; us boys eager to empty our plates and start wrestling or whatever was the plan for entertainment that particular night, antagonizing something for sure. The smell reminds me of sitting hungrily with the gravy steaming and smell of the chicken drifting, us unable to fill our plates until the prayer was said.

That is comfort; more from the memories and ease that those memories put us at rather than how stuffed we get – although we had that meal on Saturday, and I was still feeling full Monday. To this day, fried chicken, steak (grilled or chicken fried), meatloaf, my mom’s taco recipe and even tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches (we still call them toasted cheese, for some reason) all conjure up images of that little room with five place settings. Those things take me back to my childhood in the same way that spaghetti and Yellow Tail Shiraz take me back to the living room of a house I shared with my brother Josh while in college. It was a coffee table with two settings, rather than a dinner table with five.

What about you? What foods take your memories back to certain places and times?

Also, I’m in search of new deer chili recipes. I have a rather large supply of ground venison that needs cooked up, and I’m bound and determined to find a recipe I can stick with. First of all, I’m going to try Southern Venison Chili, a recipe I got from BuckCommander.com that seems more spicy than other deer chili recipes I've tried. I’ll let you know how it works out, and if anyone has a favorite, I’d love to give it a try.

Many of us grew up in the largest generation: the Clorox generation. Our earliest memories of cleaning usually involved using bleach and water. The use of bleach defined cleanliness for us – the stinging nostrils, burning cuticles, and noxious fumes – and yet, no one ever seemed alarmed at its use. Of course, bleach isn't all bad. A bottle of bleach means clean drinking water in many parts of the world, good times in swimming pools, and very white clothing. So, why all the fuss?

Bleach is kryptonite for allergy and asthma suffers. Bleach also mixes with common household cleaning products to create some dangerous situations. Examples? Oh, I got plenty of those!

Mixed with ammonia ... bleach releases a gas that can cause your lungs to stop functioning. Where is ammonia lurking that bleach often mixes with it? Toilets. Urine contains ammonia, right?

Mixed with dish soap ... bleach produces mustard gas. That's right, the stuff from World War I that caused severe chemical burns, conjunctivitis, temporary blindness, bleeding and blistering within the respiratory system, and (in some cases) cancer. Not cool, folks.

Mixed with organic matter ... bleach produces chloroform. Chloroform? Yep. Inhaling chloroform vapors depresses the central nervous system of a patient, causing dizziness, fatigue and unconsciousness. Prolonged exposure can harm necessary (and kind of super-important) organs like your liver, kidneys, and skin. Chloroform is also a cancer-causing toxin.

So, what can we use instead of bleach?? Easy-peasy, y'all!

Here's the recipe:

12 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup hydrogen peroxide

Mix. Add 2 cups per wash load or put in spray bottle and use as a household cleaner.

 

You can use grapefruit juice instead of lemon juice. Whatever floats your boat.

 

I got this bottle of hydrogen peroxide for less than $1. One bottle like the one above contains about 2 cups of hydrogen peroxide. So, we're keeping it appealing to the budget.

 

There we have it. Fresh as an Irish water fall. No noxious fumes. No burns. No fear.

 

Load this stuff into an old vinegar jug and/or a household sprayer and start your cleaning engines!

Kate and I enjoy a relatively calm existence at home, but when it comes to potato salad, there’s nothing calm about it. Kate really loves traditional German-style potato salad – I like the stuff well enough, but in my book, it just isn’t salad. It is potato casserole, no doubt about it. And I can say that because I am pretty close to half German. Whoever heard of a salad that was served hot? It will wilt all the fresh greenery if you give it half a chance. Oh, wait, that sauerkraut is already pretty well wilted, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, I love so-called German Potato Salad; it just isn’t salad.

The way I see it, when it comes to potato salad, there is only one approach. The recipe calls for potatoes, preferably new, red, thin-skinned potatoes; hardboiled eggs, preferably sliced or diced whole; garden fresh yellow- or white-skinned onion; fresh dill weed; celery; and any other interesting looking green garden herbs. Finally, you need some sort of dressing. I prefer Newman’s Own Italian (Caesar will do if your wife has thrown the Italian out). Oh, did I mention that Kate doesn’t like Italian dressing? What?

OK, so you boil the spuds whole (with the skins on) until they are firm … not soft and not crunchy. You can tell when they are done by periodically testing pieces with a little butter and pepper on them. Once the potatoes are just right, run cold water into the boiling pot and let them sit until cool. This is a good time to go pull an onion or two and some fresh celery.

Once the potatoes are cool, cut them into the right-sized pieces. I leave the skin on. I usually shoot for cubes roughly ½ inch across. Place them in a bowl and gently toss them with Italian dressing. Newman’s Own is a little too red for my ideal potato salad vision, but I like the stuff and what it stands for. When you have enough dressing … you will know (trust me) … cover the bowl and let it sit while you consume a frosty beverage under the hackberry tree.

On the way back into the house, cut some chive if you want a little more onion flavor. Chop the onion, celery and any other greenery into appropriately sized pieces and toss them into the bowl of marinating potatoes. Add as much mayonnaise as you like and mix the whole works gently. I like freshly ground black pepper, so that’s what I top this salad off with.

I can’t give you exact quantities for my favorite potato salad, because I never know exactly how many potatoes I will have the energy to dig. And if I am short a tablespoonful of mayo or Italian dressing, there’s no harm – you can’t tell Kate though, because if you don’t follow the recipe exactly, it just isn’t right.  

One thing about me that I know Kate and I both agree on is that wherever we wind up eating, if there is potato salad on the menu, I have to try it. I tried some the other day at a friend’s house, and it was yummy. Yummy enough that I asked for the recipe – it wasn’t German or French potato salad – it was lovely and delicious, the way potato salad is meant to be.  

What do you think? Is German potato salad really salad? Does mustard belong in potato salad? How about sour cream? What’s your favorite recipe for this ultimate summertime comfort food?