Tennessee Locavore

Snickerdoodle Blondies and wrap-up of the Eat On $30 challenge

It's been a crazy last few weeks work wise and I haven't had time before now to post my thoughts on the Eat On $30 challenge.  

First, here's a breakdown of the final numbers:

Breakdown of costs:

Breakfast: Scrambled free-range eggs, bread, fair trade coffee and local organic milk
Lunch: Homemade pizza with homemade sauce, cheese and turkey sausage
Dinner: French onion soup w/ swiss cheese and bread
Dessert: Snickerdoodle Blondies - 2

Breakfast:
3 Eggs: 57¢
6 tbsp milk: 18¢
3 tbsp coffee: 33¢
Bread: n/a
1 organic local apple: 70¢
TOTAL: $1.78

Lunch:
TOTAL:  $0 because these were leftover from the previous nights dinner

Dinner:
1 pounds onions: 80¢
Organic beef broth: $2.50
8 oz wine: $1.44
Bread: n/a
4 oz Swiss cheese: 56¢
TOTAL:  $5.30 (with leftovers for the next day's lunch)

Dessert:
Snickerdoodle Blondies: 76¢
TOTAL: 76¢

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE DAY: $7.84
TOTAL SPENT FOR ENTIRE CHALLENGE: $54

What are my thoughts on this challenge?  First of all - a reminder.  This is in no way an attempt to mimic the life of anyone on food stamps or on such a limited budget.  There's no way to do that and this challenge was less about stepping into the shoes of someone in that situation and more about bringing attention to the issue of hunger.  I think the challenge was pretty successful in that right.  A lot of bloggers participated and lots of people have expressed interest in doing this challenge the next time it comes around.

With that being said, I guess what it comes down to is that I DID feel like a bit of a fraud doing this challenge.  There's just no way that what I do can mimic what's it's like to have to live with this on a daily basis.  I have way too many resources - too many stores within walking distance, too much cooking equipment, too much knowledge of how to cook and eat healthy - all of these are issues I covered in previous posts.  I'm so relieved to not have to do the endless calculations to see if something was in our budget.  I'm not talking about making sure to stay within a rough amount - I'm talking about the sheets of paper I filled out with the cost per ounce of lots of the foods we eat on a regular basis.  I'm grateful that I can pour a glass of cheap wine and not have to worry about how it will affect our budget.  Like I said, my husband and I are already very frugal out of necessity but I didn't expect how wearing it could be to constantly think about food, down to each and every penny.  I take my dollars seriously but I take those pennies for granted.

What did I learn from this challenge?  I'm already a pretty thrifty person.  We have to be to stay afloat in this economy.  Vegetable odds and ends go into my freezer so I can make vegetable stock.  I do the same with chicken bones and scraps.  I was surprised by the way one ingredient can make the price per serving skyrocket. I love my Penzey's double strength vanilla but I'll be saving it for recipes where the vanilla flavor really stands out.  We do a pretty good job with not letting food go to waste in our house but I'm being even more vigilant about using everything up.  I'm also watching my grocery spending.  I'm not going to break everything down into a price per serving but I am going to keep better track of how much we're spending.  I think a lot of people underestimate how much they spend on groceries - I know I did and I'm going to keep better track of my spending in that area.  I was also amazed by how $60 seemed like such a huge amount in the beginning but when I started adding up the costs, that money flew out of my hands.

What am I going to do differently next time?  I'm going to plan ahead of time so that my fridge doesn't have any leftovers that need to be dealt with.  I want to go into a store with the money I have for the week and buy what I'll need - no borrowing from my pantry and figuring out the cost per ounce.  I've thought about buying a box of food from Angel Food ministries and figuring out how to use that with the addition of a few staples - that would be a challenge because I'd have to come up with a menu based on what I got from there.

I'd also love to get a group of people in East Tennessee to do this challenge with me the next time. I'll post about the next challenge ahead of time and I'd be glad to have a party afterwords at my house.  We could collect food or money for a local food bank in our area.  This time, I'm going to be making a donation of $27.69 to Second Harvest Food Bank - that's the price of one of those Penzey's bottles of Double-Strength vanilla that I've been taking for granted.

I strongly urge you to donate either your money or your time to one of these organizations.  They do a great job helping the working poor in our community :
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee 
Fish Pantries

I also want to thank Tami of Running with Tweezers for organizing this great challenge.  She was a wonderful cheerleader and I'm grateful for her kind words and encouragement and for all the support I got from fellow participants, other food bloggers and my readers!  You all are awesome!

I'm going to end my posts about this challenge on a sweet note.  I'm a sugar junkie and for the sake of my husband's sanity, I knew I'd have to have some kind of sweet treat while doing this challenge.  Chocolate desserts were out - too pricey and I thought about making an apple crisp.  But then I saw this recipe on my friend Maris's blog and I knew we had a winner.  Snickerdoodles are my husband's favorite cookie of all time.  He's been known to inhale a dozen cookies in less than half an hour and he actually tested several recipes a few years ago to find his "perfect" cookie.  Because these are a bar cookie, they're much easier and while they'll never replace the actual cookie in my husband's heart, we both thought these were fantastic.

Snickerdoodle Blondies (Adapted from In Good Taste and Dozen Flours)

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoons baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt 
1 cup packed brown sugar 
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature 
1 egg, at room temperature 
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract 
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar 
1 1/2 teaspoons & 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, divided

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease an 8x8 inch pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Beat until smooth

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until blended.  Don't over mix!  Spread evenly in 8x8 pan.

Combine the 1 1/2 tablespoon of white sugar with the 1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake 25-30 minutes(this is what the original direction called for but ours were done at 23 minutes) or until surface springs back when lightly touched. Cool slightly but cut into bars while it's still warm.

Here is a list of the other wonderful bloggers who participated in this project! If you decide to follow along on Twitter the hashtag is #EatOn30:

• Tami of Running with Tweezers - Twitter @runwithtweezers
• Betty Joan of Trouble With Toast - Twitter @bettyjoan
• Carrie Neal of carrienealland - Twitter @carrienealland
• Paula of Bell'alimento - Twitter @bellalimento
• The Broke Socialite - Twitter @brokesocialite
• Jimmy of Eat It Atlanta - Twitter @EatItAtlanta
• Robert of WhizKid Sound - Twitter @rdyson
• Jen of Use Real Butter - Twitter @userealbutter
• Mike's $30 Project Blog - Twitter @boutte
• Zach of Mise en Face - Twitter @drzachary
• Hailey of Hail’s Kitchen - Twitter @hailskitchen
• Susan of Doughmesstic - Twitter @doughmesstic
• Frugal Hostess - Twitter @frugalhostess
• Diana of Spain in Iowa Twitter @dianabauman

How the hell do you cook barley?!!

I've been lucky enough to grow up in a family where a lot of emphasis was put on eating healthy food.  My mom is a retired nurse and we were drinking 2% milk before most people had heard of it.  Granted, some of the nutritional advice of the 80s and 90s has turned out to be wrong (margarine anyone?) but fresh fruits and vegetables were always emphasized.  We had a garden and I grew up thinking vegetables were pretty tasty and could never understand why some of my friends thought they were disgusting.

I'm also very lucky that I know how to cook.  My parents strongly encouraged that by praising me for making some of the most disgusting dreck I can think of.  Remind me some day to tell you about the weevil pudding.  They bought me cookbooks and helped me clean up the disaster of a kitchen I always seemed to create.  I grew up watching my mom cook.  Baking cookies for us, making us a batch of homemade playdo to squeeze through the garlic press, stirring the huge pot of spaghetti sauce that she made every summer to freeze - cooking was an act of love and this attitude transferred over to me.  Sure - my mom got busy between working the night shift and taking care of us but she had a repertoire of quick, easy meals that she pulled out when the need arose.

Because I loved to cook and was strongly encouraged to experiment in the kitchen, I learned how to cook a lot of stuff - quite a bit of it by messing it up a few times.  My parents either paid the cost for those messed up meals or I was able to absorb the cost of those meals when I was living on my own.  A lot of people don't have that luxury. When you have a limited amount of money to cook with, you can't take chances that it won't turn out.

I also have access to blogs, TV shows, magazines and cookbooks where I can learn how to cook things.  I took several nutrition courses in college and have subscribed to several magazines that discuss health issues like this.  What seems like perfectly common knowledge to me is not to a lot of people.  I think assuming that our knowledge is known by everyone else is an issue that's at the root of so many of our problems in this country.

I think the food blogging world is a fantastic place and full of some of the most wonderful, helpful people in the world.  But I also think it's easy to get caught up in the belief that what we know is known by everyone.  There are so many people who don't have any idea how to cook or any idea what kind of food is healthy.  I was at the Fellini Krogers one day and I saw a woman buying breaded fried okra.  I overheard her telling her daughters that vegetables are healthy.  Far too many people would rather mock her for being stupid, rather than try to understand that with the knowledge she had, she really was trying to do the best she could to put healthy food on the table.

Another example - lamb shanks.  One of the cheapest cuts of lamb and one lamb shank will flavor a whole pot of beans.  But I know how to soak dried beans.  I know that lamb is tasty because I've had it before.  I know what to do with that strange knobby piece of meat to make it taste good.  I know these things because someone taught me how.  That's so easy to take for granted!

My husband grew up in a very country family.  I'll admit that I was shocked the first time I went to a family dinner.  I remember asking him where the vegetables were and he laughed and laughed at me.  "Honey - there were tons of vegetables there!" And when he explained them all to me, I got it.  There WERE tons of vegetables there.  They were just all fried, drowned in bacon fat and covered in processed cheese.  But they were healthy because they were vegetables!  He had never eaten a green green bean.  When I mentioned that I loved peas, he readily agreed.  His favorite dish was canned green peas, mixed with velveeta, cream of mushroom soup and covered with buttered Ritz cracker crumbs.  Now he plants peas with me every spring and when we harvest them, we eat the first crop straight from the vine.  But he had to learn that snap peas from a vine were completely different than peas from a can.  

There are several groups out there that are doing their best to teach low income families how to cook with whole foods and how to eat nutritiously.  In a perfect world, every state would have these programs.  But until then, a lot of people are just getting by the best they can.

Thoughts on the food I ate yesterday:
I love No Knead bread.  So cheap and makes better bread than I can buy most places.

Barley is a wunderfood! $1.19 a pound for organic barley.  It's cheap - bulks up readily, tastes great. 

Turkey feet look pretty gross bobbing up and down in a stockpot but I love what bird feet do to a pot of stock.

Thoughts on the Eat on $30 Challenge so far:
It's amazing how much I can crave something that I can't have.  I usually keep a small bag of jelly beans from Earthfare in my office.  They have no artificial colors in them so they're ridiculously pricey, so they're out for this week.  Naturally, they're all I can think about.  I want a damn jelly bean and I want it now!!!

I almost killed my husband when he changed the end cost of the turkey stock THREE TIMES!  Eat on $30 - you were almost responsible for the death of man!

Breakdown of costs:

I made a huge pot of turkey stock on Saturday.  I'm going to count it as I use it in recipes.

I also cut off a tablespoon of butter to use as spread for bread or other minimal uses.  I'm going to just count the cost of the whole tablespoon here and when it's gone, I'll count another one.

Breakfast: Chorizo scrambled free-range eggs, bread, fair trade coffee and local organic milk
Lunch: Hamburger patty and leftover veggies from yesterday + 2 oz cabbage
Dinner: Mushroom Barley Soup with bread
Dessert: Snickerdoodle Blondie

Turkey Stock:
8.5 lbs of turkey carcass: $4.72
1 lb turkey feet: $2.50
8 oz onion: 40¢
1 lb organic carrots - $1.04
TOTAL: $8.66

Mushroom Barley Soup(see below!)
2 tbsp butter: 24¢
10 cups turkey stock: $3.60
2 containers Bella mushrooms: $3.34
10.5 oz organic carrots: 68¢
5 oz organic celery: 95¢
12 oz onions: 60¢
6 oz organic barley: 45¢
TOTAL: $9.86 or 76¢ a cup

Breakfast:
3 Eggs: 57¢
1/2 oz Chorizo: 44¢
6 tbsp milk: 18¢
3 tbsp coffee: 33¢
Bread: n/a
1 organic local apple: 70¢
TOTAL: $2.22

Lunch:
1/2 lb hamburger: $1.73
2 oz sautéed cabbage: 11¢
TOTAL: $1.84

Dinner:
4 cups Barley Mushroom Soup: $3.04
1 tbsp butter: 12¢
bread: n/a
TOTAL: $3.16

Dessert:
Snickerdoodle Blondie: 19¢
Sweet precious wine: 72¢
TOTAL: 91¢

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE DAY: $8.13
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $17.92

Mushroom Barley Soup

This freezes well and tastes even better the next day.

2 tbsp butter, divided
2 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced carrot
2 8-oz packages mushrooms, sliced
1 cup pearl barley
10 cups chicken stock
3/4 tsp salt (this depends on how salty your stock is)
1/2 tsp dried thyme

Heat 1 1/2 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it bubbles.  Add the carrots, celery and onion to the pan and saute 5-6 minutes until they start to lightly brown on the edges.  Add mushrooms and saute until they soften, about 5-6 minutes.  Set aside.  In a large saucepan, melt the remaining 1/2 tbsp butter over medium-high heat until bubbly.  Add barley and stir constantly until it brown a little, between 6-8 minutes.  Add stock to barley and add vegetables to pan.  Add salt and thyme.  Simmer 20 minutes and taste.  Add more salt if necessary.  

Makes about 13 cups

Please click here for a printable recipe!

Here are a list of the other wonderful bloggers participating in this project! If you decide to follow along on Twitter the hashtag is #EatOn30:

• Tami of Running with Tweezers - Twitter @runwithtweezers
• Betty Joan of Trouble With Toast - Twitter @bettyjoan
• Carrie Neal of carrienealland - Twitter @carrienealland
• Paula of Bell'alimento - Twitter @bellalimento
• The Broke Socialite - Twitter @brokesocialite
• Jimmy of Eat It Atlanta - Twitter @EatItAtlanta
• Robert of WhizKid Sound - Twitter @rdyson
• Jen of Use Real Butter - Twitter @userealbutter
• Mike's $30 Project Blog - Twitter @boutte
• Zach of Mise en Face - Twitter @drzachary
• Hailey of Hail’s Kitchen - Twitter @hailskitchen
• Susan of Doughmesstic - Twitter @doughmesstic
• Frugal Hostess - Twitter @frugalhostess
• Diana of Spain in Iowa Twitter @dianabauman

Your Mother Was a Hamster!

My husband and I share a love built on mutual understanding, respect and a deep and abiding love for Monty Python. 

He came late to this love.  On October 19, 1991, Marcus was on a University of Tennessee band bus headed home from Birmingham, Alabama.  A cloud of gloom had settled over everyone - if there's one thing that native Knoxvillians loathed in the 1990s more than anything else, it was being a Volunteer fan who's team has just lost to the Crimson Tide.  Into the depths of despair came a bright light emanating from the TVs on the bus.  Marcus was lying there, half asleep in his chair and he looks up to a movie where a one armed Black Knight is yelling "I've been hurt worse". It was so bizarre, yet so giddily funny that he couldn't turn away.

My love for Monty Python came from my father.  My Dad is a dork but I mean that in the best, most lovable kind of way.  At the age of 16 though, he was just annoying - mainly because he existed and he was my dad.  A sixteen year old's scorn has no bounds.  He watched the weirdest movies and thought the most inane things were funny.  But one day I came into the room when he was watching a movie and heard this "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." I mean, how could you not love a movie like that?

Since then, I've had a strange fascination with Monty Python and elderberries in particular.  I've been thinking about planting them in my yard just so I could taste them.  If we traveled to any out of town farmers markets, I looked for them.  I bought a blouse once because the catalog color was elderberry.  If my husband and I are fighting, all one of us to say to diffuse it is to insult the other by telling them that their mother was a hamster and that their father smelt of elderberries.

We were at the Market Square farmers' market a few weeks ago and one of my favorite farmers had a basket full of the most vivid, yet delicate looking berries I had very seen.  If lace was turned into berries, those berries were what it would look like.  I'm a sucker for anything novel at the market so I asked him what they were.  When he told me "Elderberries" I swooned.  And promptly bought four pounds.

I got home, spread a sheet on the couch, popped in Monty Python's Holy Grail and proceeded to strip berries off the stems.  FOR THREE HOURS!!! 

They're such gorgeous berries though and I wish I could make a lipstick out of them.

Four pounds of berries gave me roughly 2 cups of juice.  Be careful with this stuff.  When I got done, it looked like I had massacred an alien with deep fuchsia blood in parts of my kitchen.  To extract the juice, I put the berries in medium saucepan with a quarter cup of sugar and a half cup of water.  I turned the heat on medium and brought everything to a boil and let it simmer for five minutes.  Then I used a sieve to drain the juice.  If you want perfectly clear jelly, don't do what I did which was to push the berries to extract every last bit of juice.  I was more concerned with having enough juice to make the jelly.

I tasted the juice after it was extracted and immediately got very nervous because there was a strong, bitter component to it.  I almost cried at the thought of all that work being for naught.  My husband suggested that I had nothing left to lose but a bit of sugar so why not see if it that made it taste alright.  I've never had this happen before but as soon as I added enough sugar, the bitterness went almost completely away and I can't taste it in the finished product at all. 

I love this jelly.  It's the most vibrant, glistening shade of purple I think I've ever seen.  It's delicious on scones and right at home in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I'm going to be on the lookout for an easier way to extract the juice but as long as I can find elderberries, I'll be making this jelly every year.

In fact, I think it's time to finally order those bushes and plant them in the yard!

Monty Python Jelly
Adapted from the Pomona Pectin blackberry jelly instructions

Note - I made this jelly using Pomona Pectin.  It's become my go-to pectin to use in most of my canning and I love the fact that low sugar jams are cinch with it!

2 cups elderberry juice
2.5 tablespoons lemon juice
2.5 cups sugar (use more or less depending on how sweet you like your jelly-this includes the 1/4 cup of sugar used earlier)
2 teaspoons pectin powder
2 teaspoons calcium water

Measure the juice into a pan with lemon juice. Add calcium water into mixture and stir well.  Measure sugar into a bowl and mix pectin powder into it.  Bring juice to a boil, add the pectin sugar mixture and stir vigorously one to two minutes to dissolve the pectin.  Taste for sweetness and add more sugar if needed.  Return to boil.  Once it comes to a boil, remove from heat.  Fill jars.  If canning, please follow rules for canning jellies & jams from Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

For printable recipe, click here!

It's Fall, isn't it?

This is the time of year when a food lovers thoughts turn to apples, potatoes, roast pork and gorgeous winter squashes.  After all, Fall starts tomorrow and all the food magazines are publishing gorgeous spreads of food featuring hearty autumn fair.  It's time to make rich stews and bake apple pies and snuggle up with your significant other in thick cable knit sweaters in front of a roaring fire.  

If I tried snuggling in front of an roaring fire right now, I'd pass out from heatstroke.  I live in Tennessee and while the temperatures have cooled down some, days in the low to mid 80s and evenings in the low to mid 60s don't exactly cry out for chili. In fact, right now is when our gardens tend to be producing the most.  If our plants have survived the dog days of summer, the cooler temperatures are encouraging our tomatoes to actually set fruit.  And the lack of high 90 degree heat actually encourages me to get back outside and reclaim the garden I gave up a few weeks ago.  The peppers are full of blossoms and the second crop of cucumbers and squash I planted are starting to set fruit.

Even when the leaves have turned, it doesn't mean our gardens stop producing.  I get tomatoes well into October and I've even heard tales of some crazy people (present company excluded of course) who have draped their tomatoes with plastic clamped together with large binder clamps and managed to keep their tomatoes going well into November.

The farmers markets are still full of summer produce.  You can find everything from okra to watermelon.  Peppers are still in abundance and the only thing that seems to be in scarce supply are cucumbers and summer tree fruits.  Apples are available and sweet potatoes and winter squash are starting to appear.  Jerry's got new cornmeal and sweet Fall broccoli will appear in a few weeks.

September is the month I really focus on getting a lot of foods preserved and put up for the coming winter.  I don't have air conditioning in my kitchen and although I do have to attempt some canning in August, standing over a steaming kettle is not my favorite thing to do when it's blazing out.  I end up freezing a lot of tomatoes whole and dealing with them when it's a little cooler.

My favorite way to use those tomatoes that are piling up in the freezer is in Roasted Tomato Sauce.  It's a great way to take a mountain of produce and reduce it into a concentrated sauce that's my favorite pasta sauce in the whole world.  I pressure can mine but it also freezes well.  The long cooking concentrates the flavors and caramelizes all the wonderful sugars in this sauce.  My husband has been known to can it himself because he says if I do it, I end up eating half of it before it's even canned.  

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to run Office Depot for some (cough, cough) office supplies. I hear the binder clips are on sale and everyone can always use more binder clips, right?

Roasted Tomato Sauce

First off - you need to understand that this recipe is very flexible.  None of these quantities are set in stone.  If you have tons of red peppers, use them!  If you want a sauce with a lot of garlic flavor, add lots of extra garlic.  You're also going to need to be flexible with time.  If you start out with frozen tomatoes, it will obviously take longer.  If I have a lot of tomatoes, as the sauce cooks down, I add in more frozen tomatoes to make more sauce.  This slows down the cooking process as well.

Heat your oven to 425 degrees.  I take a large baking or roasting pan and fill it full of tomatoes. Some of these are fresh and some of them are tomatoes that I threw in the freezer to deal with later.  I added three onions that were peeled and quartered, a few sweet red peppers that I seeded and cut in half, four Big Bomb hot peppers that were seeded and approximately 25 cloves of garlic - separate the cloves but you don't need to peel these.  Then drizzle on 1/4 cup of olive oil.  Put it in the oven.

This batch contained 10 pounds of tomatoes:
 

I couldn't fit all the tomatoes in at the start so I added them as the sauce cooked down.  I usually stir this sauce about every 30 minutes.  After a couple of hours, the sauce looks like this:

As you can see, the skins are getting very brown.  Keep stirring every 30 minutes.  This sauce is going to reduce quite a bit.  Those ten pounds of tomatoes and other vegetables ended up reducing to about five cups once it's been pureed.  When it's done, it will look like this:

As you can see, there's very little juice in the bottom of the pan.  I cooked the above pan of sauce for 4 1/2 hours.  Let the pan cool for about 30 minutes or until you can handle it without burning yourself.  You want to put it all through a food mill on the finest setting.  This will take all the seeds and skins out of your sauce and puree all the vegetables together.  Once you've put it through the food mill, make sure to stir the sauce thoroughly.  If you don't have a food mill, you could use a fine sieve and press it through. 

The sauce you've just made is very concentrated.  For two servings of pasta, we usually use around a 1/4 cup of sauce, diluted with pasta water.  

Now that you have this stuff, what do you do with it?

• Toss with pasta and some of the pasta water to thin it out a bit and serve.
• Saute some eggplant, red peppers and zucchini until done.  Add sauce and thin with pasta water.
• Thin it out with a little bit of milk or cream.
• Thin it out with red wine and add some more herbs to it.
• Soak some diced, sun-dried tomatoes (I use ones I've marinated before drying) in a half cup of hot whole milk.  Puree in the blender and add to roasted tomato sauce.
• Puree it with a little bit of canned tomato and use it as a pizza sauce.  Or just thin with a little bit of water and use as a pizza sauce.

I pressure can my sauce in quarter pint jars.  This is not a tested recipe so I don't recommend following my example but I follow the recipe for pressure canning meat sauce in the Ball Blue Book.  This sauce cooks down so much that freezing is much simpler to do.  I just tend to have stuffed freezers this time of year so I can it to save room.

For printable recipe, click here!

Facing the cruelty behind my cooking

The Clinch River is one of my favorite places in Tennessee. Sure - It's a creation of TVA and that in itself is a strike against it. But it's such a beautiful place that I find even that can't diminish my love for it.

TVA or the Tennessee Valley Authority has a very mixed heritage in our area. During the 1930s, the Tennessee Valley was a very poor area, even by Depression Era standards. TVA projects displaced over 15,000 people, covering over towns, native burial grounds and land that had been in families for years. On the other hand, TVA provided jobs to an area that was surrounded by poverty. Marcus's grandfather was an electrician at Norris Dam and a few other TVA projects. TVA reduced the devastating floods in this area but they also destroyed pristine areas when they built projects like the Tellico Dam. The creation of the Tellico Dam ruined one on of the best trout fisheries in the area when they dammed the Little Tennessee, and land that TVA acquired through eminent domain at a very low cost is now being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars per acre to developers.

No matter what my feelings towards TVA are, Norris Lake is here to stay. The Clinch River starts in Southwest Virgina, near Tazwell. The Clinch and Powell River meet up at Norris Lake, formed when Norris Dam was built in 1936. Norris Dam is the first dam built by TVA and at the time was constructed in a modernist style - considered quite advanced and controversial at the time. It really is an impressive sight, especially at dusk.

Because the dam is 285 feet high, it impounds a large quantity of very cold water. This cold water is the perfect temperature for trout. In the 80s, TVA constructed a weir dam that speeds the river back up about two miles from the dam - this adds oxygen to the water and makes it even more habitable for trout.

On a hot summer's night, not many things are more refreshing then walking alongside the tailwaters. Not only is it beautiful but the rushing, cold water kicks up a cool breeze, even on a hot night. During the summer, there's usually fog that begins to form as sunset approaches.

Norris State Park, Cove Creek Wildlife Management Area and Chuck Swan State Forest all preserve areas around the lake. We've seen groundhogs, hawks, osprey, deer, skunks and foxes around here. 

On Friday, Marcus and I went blueberry picking at a farm nearby and stopped by the river so Marcus could fish for a bit. It was one of those days when the fishing alchemy was perfect and in the hour we were there, Marcus quickly caught several brown trout. Two were too small to keep and one was too big so they were quickly let go. Marcus asked me if we should keep the other ones to eat and I told him he could make that decision. It was a cop-out. If he decided to keep them, I wasn't responsible for their death. But even doing that made me feel bad - I could have asked him to let them go and he would have.

I'm a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to facing the cruelty of my cooking head on. Sure, we buy the majority of our meat from local, humane producers and we eat a lot less meat than the average consumer. But I don't feel guilty when I eat that meat. I don't feel like I personally caused that animal to die and it's because I'm so insulated from the process.

I think there's a lot of truth to the saying that if slaughterhouses all had glass walls, we'd be vegetarians. Most of us have insulated ourselves from the cruelty of our choices. We buy pork or beef at our grocery store, sanitized and packed in a neat little package. We don't have to see the horrific conditions those animals were raised under. We don't even have the courage to call it by it's animal name - cow meat or pig meat.

I've had people throw a fit when Marcus has mentioned that he sometimes hunts and fishes quite a bit. These people stand there in their leather shoes, holding a burger from McDonalds and tell us that hunting is cruel and have no idea of the irony of their statements. We've created a world where we don't have to see the consequences of our actions, at least when it comes to the meal on the kitchen table.

There's no getting away from the fact that creatures on this planet will die to produce the food that keeps you alive. You can be a vegan and animals will still have died to produce your food. Even humans will be harmed and possibly die to produce the food you eat. All kinds of animals die during the harvesting process. Merely using the land for the growing of food, rather than animal habitat, causes death. If you don't eat organic produce, farm workers will contract cancer because of the chemicals that are used in the farming of your food. Even if you eat organic foods, farm workers in foreign country will go hungry when the organic peaches they grow to provide for their families are turned down for not being up to standard. Even if you buy local, organic produce, you're still not blameless. An organic farmer I know lost 600 tomato plants in one night to deer. His losses were so great that he had to get a depredation permit in order to get any kind of harvest at all and to control his losses for next year.

I grow a lot of our produce in my suburban garden. Every year we fight off the birds and possums so we can harvest our tomatoes. They don't usually take enough to cause severe losses but I know the frustration of going out to the garden and finding nibbles and pecks in almost all of the not-quite-ripe tomatoes. A few weeks ago, we had a difficult choice to make. The biggest groundhog I had ever seen was in our back yard. They may be cute animals but anyone who's gardened knows that devastation they can cause in a garden in a single night. It disappeared, never to be seen again but what would we have done if it had decided to make its home nearby?

We need to strip off the marketing gloss of our dining choices and come face to face with the cruelty that comes as a result of our choices. That doesn't mean we need to go out and shoot a deer or kill a chicken ourselves, although I greatly admire people who are willing to do that. It does mean that we need to be aware that our food comes with a cost. We need to treat our food with the reverence that it deserves - we need to use it wisely. We need to appreciate the farmers that grew it and the lives that were lost in the production of it.

This life can be an amazing gift - full of beauty and wonder. But none of us can escape the fact that it can be cruel as well. In the gorgeous surroundings of the Clinch River valley, I was responsible for the death of three living creatures. The best thing I could do is to be grateful for the loss of those lives so that I could live.

Trout with Brown Butter-Caper Sauce

1/4 teaspoon olive oil
2 trout fillets - about 4 oz each
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons shallots (We used Egyptian Walking Onions from our garden)
1 heaping tablespoon of drained capers
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter

First off, if you caught your own fish, you need to clean them and fillet them. 

Chop your shallots and get your capers and lemon ready. Add oil to a non-stick skillet and put over medium heat. Heat for 2 minutes. Salt and pepper both sides of fillets and add to pan. 

When the edges of the fillet start to turn white, flip. This will take 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. After flipping, cook for another 1 1/2 or until fish flakes easily with a fork. 

Remove fillets from pan, put on a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.

Add butter to skillet. Watch carefully because in a non-stick skillet it's hard to see when it begins to brown. It usually takes about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes for us. 

When it's beginning to turn brown, add shallots and sautee for two minutes until they begin to soften.

Then add lemon juice and capers, cook for another minute.  

Pour sauce over fish and serve.

For a printable recipe, click here!

This meal is part of my One Local Summer meal for this week.  Admittedly, capers aren't local but I'm hoping that next year, I'll have pickled nasturtium buds to use as a substitute.  The butter was made from Cruze Farm milk and we used some of the caper juice to sub in for the lemon.  Instead of shallots, we used Egyptian Walking Onions from our garden.  We served this fish with roasted Dragon Langerie, Masai and Purple Trionfo Violetto beans from our garden.  Dessert was a blueberry cornmeal cake made with local blueberries and local cornmeal.

The Best Cornbread I will Never Serve My Mother-In-Law

In the family I married into, cooking is done only by the matriarchs.  They are the best cooks and they are the only cooks.  The kitchen is their domain and woe to anyone who thinks they can keep up on that battleground.  I very rarely cook for my in laws - I usually let my husband do that.  Better for them to think that I've whipped the man into submission into the kitchen than to give the appearance that I think I can compete in the cooking Olympics.  Sure I can compete - I think I'm a damn good cook and I know many that agree.  But I'm perfectly willing to yield that reputation at my in laws door.  Anything I would make would be too weird, too spicy, too healthy, not what they're used to.  Too different is what it boils down to and to be honest, I'm really at peace with that.  Every once in a while, I'll make something non-confrontational - tomato salad, bread, cookies.  But I never make fried chicken.  I never make biscuits.  And the last thing I would ever do is make cornbread.

Cornbread is the heart, soul and community bread for breaking in the South.  We're as passionate about it as we are about religion and football.  Family recipes are guarded carefully and the cornbread you make is never as good as the cornbread their mommas make.  It's as simple as that.  You're either using the wrong type of cornmeal, desecrating it with sugar, adding too many eggs or not using the right kind of fat in your skillet.  It's a tradition here and many feel like you should never mess with a tradition.

Although I grew up in the South, my parents weren't Southerners so I don't have any tried and true rules when it comes to cornbread.  I have no pre-conceived notions about what cornbread should taste like.  I just know what tastes good to me.  To me, a lot of the cornbreads served up north aren't the cornbreads that make up a daily part of life.  While I don't share the disdain for them that many in the South have, they do seem more like cake than bread.  Tasty, but with their copious amounts of sugar, not cornbread.  I've had cornbreads that have more flour than cornmeal but, in my opinion, that's getting rid of the essence of the cornbread.  It might be very tasty but it's a bread with cornmeal, not cornbread.  Stone ground cornmeal is heads and shoulders above any other kind of cornmeal - it hasn't had the corniness milled out.  Buttermilk does magical things in cornbread and should never be omitted.  And while my Mom always baked cornbread in a baking pan, I am a complete and utter convert to the use of a cast iron skillet in the making of a proper cornbread.  The buttery crust that shatters in your mouth, right before your teeth sink into the creamy corniness of the inside is, to me, the soul of the cornbread.

My husband on the other hand has been indoctrinated from a young age about what a proper cornbread should consist of.  Getting him to branch out and try something different was about as easy as herding cats.  But my husband is nothing but competitive - this is the man that decided to master making a pie crust because his Mom could never quite get one right.  By instilling the mere thought that there might be better cornbreads out there, I was able to lead him down the path of the underground cornbread resistance.

So we went on a quest for the "perfect" cornbread.  I can't tell you how many recipes we tried - they blurred together in a cornmealed frenzy.  I checked out book after book from the library on Southern cooking and cooking in East Tennessee.  During the course of this marathon, I made some of the densest, driest cornbreads imaginable.  It was very frustrating.  And then I thought of something that I was quite ashamed hadn't occurred to me before - why hadn't I looked in my tried and true cookbooks - the one with splatters and rips in the pages.  No - they weren't "Southern" cookbooks but if they had served me well in other areas, why not check them for this?  And that's when I found our cornbread "Holy Grail".

One my favorite cookbooks is Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. And it's definitely the cookbook I use most judging by the sorry shape it's in.  In it, she has a recipe for Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread.  It had all the basic requirements and nothing I've ever made from her cookbook has been less than very tasty - most recipes become repeats here in our house.  And no one can say that this woman doesn't have passion for cornbread - she's written an entire book about it.

This cornbread has become the very definition of cornbread to me.  It's light as can be but still packs real substance.  I can eat a slice of it by itself and be a very happy girl but it's the perfect accompaniment to chili, soup beans and greens.

Some of you from the South are already fussin' up a storm because you saw sugar in this recipe and good, true, REAL cornbread doesn't have sugar in it.  I say, hooey.  I'll take any tried and true Southerner and give him/her two cornbreads made exactly the same, one with a little bit of sugar, one without.  Sure as spit, they'll always choose the one with a touch of sugar.  I've brought this cornbread to plenty of functions (as long as the in laws weren't there) and every single time, this cornbread gets eaten up while the other "authentic" cornbreads look lonely.  Adding just a touch of sugar makes this taste like you're biting into a piece of bread made with buttered sweet corn.  It does not taste like cake in any way.

Another complaint I'm sure I'll hear is that this has flour in it.  Well, so does the basic cornbread recipe at the holy shrine of all things cornbread, Lodge Cast Iron Cookware Company.  So do many of the cornbread mixes sold to Southerners here in East Tennessee.  I know that using flour in cornbread is an anathema to many here in East Tennessee and some of you may not even try this because of it.  You're really missing out.  When you use really good cornmeal (stone ground and preferably local), the flour merely accentuates the corniness of the cornbread.  It lightens the texture, giving it lift and keeping it from being as heavy as many cornbreads I've tried.  It also creates a cornbread that keeps well and reheats beautifully - important in this household of two.  We've even frozen wedges and let me tell you, on a cold, hectic winter night, there's nothing quite so life affirming to pull out of the freezer for a quick meal than a slice of this cornbread.

We still love to experiment with cornbread but this is the one we always come back to.  When my husband and I talk about cornbread, this is the cornbread we picture in our minds.  It's the cornbread we make for our friends and my family.  It's the cornbread we bring to potlucks and parties.  It's a cornbread I would never serve to my mother in law.  It's too good.  Serving her this cornbread would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Edited to add - My friend Laura just did a post about this cornbread as well.  Check it out - it's a great post.

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread
(Adapted from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon)

Note: There are all kinds of variations that you can make with this cornbread.  Over the next few months, I'll show you some of them.

1 cup stone ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1- 3 tablespoons sugar (the fresher the cornmeal, the less sugar you'll need. I use 1 tbsp)
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (please use good buttermilk if you can get it, like Cruze Farm)
1 large egg

1/4 cup mild vegetable oil, such as corn, canola, or peanut

Preheat your oven to 375.  You need to make sure your oven is good and hot if you want to get that crunchy crust that turns cornbread into a little slice of heaven.  This page has a good description on how to calibrate your oven temperature - at the very least, make sure you know how much your oven is off so you know how to adjust the heat or timing of your baked dishes.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (cornmeal through sugar) and stir well to combine them.  If your baking soda or baking powder have any lumps, sift them (or break them up well with a spoon) before you measure them into the bowl. 

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg and vegetable oil.  

Put your 10 1/4 inch cast iron skillet on the stove over medium heat and let it heat up for 2-3 minutes (or as long as it takes to get nice and hot).  Add butter to the skillet and once it's melted and bubbly, tilt it around to make sure the butter has spread all over the bottom of the pan and up onto the sides a bit.  

Mix the bowl of wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients.  Please make sure not to over-stir this - you only need to mix it until everything is wet.  There will still be small lumps in it - you just want to mix it until there are no big pockets of dry ingredients. 

Pour mixture into the skillet.  You should hear it sizzle a little.  Put this into the oven right away and bake 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Cut cornbread into wedges and serve warm.

For a printable recipe, click here!

Cherry Pies for April

I'm going to be blunt- I really wasn't sure if I should even write this post.  I feel like my writing skills can't even begin to convey what a heartbreaking week this has been.  Part of me doesn't even want to write this because I know I'll cry the entire time.  But I feel like not writing about it would be cowardly - April's been such a strong, courageous person throughout this entire ordeal that it would be wrong not to share it.  It would be wrong not to try to describe how much love and care could be found, even in the worst of times.  I apologize for how inadequate my words are but I had to try.

Our friend April has been fighting breast cancer for the last two and half years.  She was diagnosed at the young age of 33.  When her cancer was discovered, she already had multiple tumors and several were inoperable in their current state.  The hope was that they could use chemotherapy to shrink the tumors small enough so that they could remove them.

She's been through several rounds of chemo.  Some have seemed to help for a while but the tumors always kept coming back.  Some rounds of chemo had to be discontinued because they were killing her.  But we all hoped that the fix for her was right around the corner.  

When Marcus and I got married in November, we asked her to do a reading. She was obviously very tired, but she came and made a day that was already special, even more special to us.  We were all worried but we still hadn't given up hope. 

Even when we found out last week that April's liver was starting to fail, we all still held out hope.  Surely the stopgap chemo would work so that she could participate in a new trial she had gotten into for a drug that showed a lot of promise and hope.

Saturday, April went back to the doctor to see if her liver levels had improved.  The doctor was compassionate, but blunt with her and told her that he needed to let her know that she probably wouldn't be leaving the hospital again.  April turned to her family and said "I'd like to have a house party blow-out, with all the people I love." So plans were put in motion Saturday afternoon for a party on Sunday.  A Hawaiian Luau was planned and we were all told to wear our brightest, most gaudy outfits.

In this country, we love our David and Goliath stories.  We love to hear about people overcoming all odds, fighting through every obstacle in their path.  But sometimes we need to be reminded that no matter how hard we try or how hard we fight,  we can't win. We don't always get our fairy tale endings - no matter how much we want them. We want to hear the Chicken Soup for the Soul version of cancer and we tend to forget that life is rarely that black or white.  No one fought harder than April and her family and no one deserved a happy ending more than them. This is a real story with an ending that no one wanted, but it's the ending that we got.

I can't even begin to convey how wonderful it was to see the tender care that April's husband has been giving her.  Watching him feed her, gently wipe her mouth and try to get her to drink - I still have a mark on my hand from where I rammed my thumbnail into it so I wouldn't completely break down in sobbing tears.  I couldn't even look at my husband because I know in my heart how much we love one another and I know we've both been putting ourselves in April's husband's shoes. When Mac and April said their wedding vows, they had every reason to hope that any sickness they were promising to support one another through would be brief or after they had spent a lifetime together.  Yet the love they've shown one another throughout this whole ordeal has been a gift to all of us who love them. 

I can't even begin to describe the grief of a best friend who put a party together in less than 24 hours - knowing it would be the last gift she could give her.  We watched her hold her infant son in one arm while the other hand held her best friend's hand.

We laughed as one of our friends showed up in a coconut shell bra and grass skirt that was very becoming to him and we were all grateful to see one another and tell stories about April. One of April's best friends, Val, remarked about how heartbreaking it was to know that we were all probably going to be seeing one another again soon.

I can't even begin to describe the grief etched on her parents faces - watching a daughter they loved begin to weaken and knowing that in this unfair, cruel world, she was going to die before them. We listened to her dad break down as he described how they had to have this party because it was April's last request and hugged him, wishing we could do more.  We watched her sister play with her little boy, and wished that he was able to grow up with his Aunt April looking out for him.

I can't begin to describe how helpless I felt, asking if there was anything, ANYTHING I could do to help and knowing that the one thing everyone wanted most was beyond my ability to help.

I can't begin to describe the bittersweet mingling of grief and love that everyone at the party felt.  I heard people that used to work with April talk about how lost they've been without her.  How she was always so organized and knew where everything was.  Friends shared stories about her.  Marcus reminisced about the week they were co-counselors and got stuck with the boys that would not shower.

I can't begin to describe what a beautiful party it was.  We had lots of babies around us, good food to share.  There were fireworks and lots of laughter - tears too - but the party really was a celebration of April's life and what she had meant to all of us.

We made food to bring - how could we not?  But the entire time I was trying to figure out what we could bring, I kept thinking how screwed up it was that I was bringing something to a party to say goodbye forever to a friend.  I mean - what the hell do you bring to that?

April has always told us that she loved the way we experimented with food.  Marcus visited her Friday, bringing homemade sourdough bread and elderberry jelly we had canned that week.  Marcus explained why the jelly was named 'Monty Python' jelly and she laughed and told Marcus that she loved it when we got inventive in the kitchen.  So we made a grilled corn salsa and peach brown butter bars - both are foods that celebrate the bounty of summer and are a little different, without being strange.

Sitting there in that bedroom with her was such a painful experience - seeing how yellow she'd become in two days.  Looking over at the pictures of her on her parent's desk - pictures of her when she graduated from high school, pictures of her looking radiant on her wedding day - times when everyone, including her, thought she had a lifetime in front of her.

There were moments of laughter as well.  When we came back later that evening, she whispered that if we didn't mind, she was keeping the bread we had brought and we both laughed and told her the bread was all hers.  We spent some more time with her and then we both kissed her goodbye and Marcus told her that we loved her.  She had been struggling that day to stay awake with limited success but a brief moment of lucidity came over her and she looked at us and told us she loved us too.  We left and cried all the way home.

The last update we heard was that April was mostly unconscious but seemed to be resting comfortably.  So we wait - waiting for the news that we know is going to come.  News that you'd think would be a relief but no one wants to hear. 

We love you April.  The world is a much better place because we had you as long as we did and it will be a much poorer place without you.

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Marcus and I were talking with April's mom Sunday afternoon before the party and she mentioned that April had always loved cherry pie so when she was at Kroger's getting food, she tried to get her something that might get her to eat.  She picked up a cherry coffeecake but like most grocery store baked goods, they're always a lot prettier than they taste.  I knew at that moment, exactly what we were going to do.

As soon as the party was over and we had helped clean up, we let her parents know that we'd be back in a little bit and we drove as fast as we could to the closest grocery store.  We ran in, got our supplies and headed home.  Our kitchen was a mess - full of dirty dishes from cooking food for the party and we had boxes of fruit and tomatoes everywhere that we had been planning to can that day.

Normally, we'd make our own pie crust but in a 90 degree kitchen with no counter space to find, that was not going to happen in a speedy manner.  So we bought pie crust at the store, along with puff pastry.  We did have several bags of frozen cherries we'd been hoarding away since last summer so we combined them with a jar of homemade pie filling we had.

Were these pies pretty?  No - we didn't have time to let them cool before drizzling icing on them.  We raced back to her house and when we got there, I realized that we both looked like deranged bakers - I had flour prints all over my black top and Marcus had managed to splash cherry filling on his ear.

We came in and Mac was feeding her but it was obvious that she was struggling to eat.  After she had rested for a bit, she whispered to him that she wanted to try the pie.  I held the plate while Mac fed her.  Did April eat them because she was really hungry or did she eat them because she knew it would make us feel better?  I have no idea - April's the type of person who would have eaten them even if they had tasted awful.  All I know is that we have never felt more privileged in our lives to cook for someone. 

My Mom later told me what a sweet thing it was that we did.  I explained to her that it was the very least thing we could do - how blessed we were to be able to do it.  Those aren't just pretty words I said - words to show off and prove how humble and giving I am.  I have never in my life cooked something for someone and had it mean so much to me.  I know Marcus feels the same way.  I never want to have to repeat that experience and if there was some way to have warded off the circumstances, we would have done just about anything to do so.  But circumstances were beyond our control.  I'm grateful we could do this one thing.

I know that for the rest of my life, whenever Marcus or I eat a cherry pie, we're going to think of April.  And while we may cry, we'll both be smiling through our tears.

Quick Cherry Turnovers and Quick Cherry Pie

1 can cherry pie filling - try to get a good one so it isn't sickly sweet.
3/4 cup frozen sweet cherries
3/4 cup frozen sour cherries
Sugar - I can't give you a precise amount.  Just add it until the sauce is a little sweeter than you'd like it to be because you want it to soak into and sweeten the cherries a bit.
1/4 cup flour, sifted into mixture and stirred.

Combine all of the above in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until sugar and flour are completely incorporated into the mixture and the filling is heated all the way through.

To make turnovers:
Take one package of puff pastry and thaw one piece.  Cut into four squares.  Spoon a few cherries onto each piece(don't overfill) and fold the pastry over until it's a triangle.  Brush a little beaten egg on the edges and crimp together.  Spread a piece of parchment paper over a baking sheet or pan and place the turnovers on it so they're not touching.  Brush the turnovers with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until turnovers are puffed and turning golden.

To make pies:
Take the circle of pie crust and cut it in half.  Cut each half in half again.  Spoon pie filling onto each piece and dab a little beaten egg on the edges.  Fold the dough over to form a triangle and crimp the edges shut.  Brush with beaten egg and cut a couple of slits in the top of each pie.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until pies are beginning to turn a golden brown color.  Mix 1/4 powdered sugar with as little milk as possible to turn it into a thick liquid.  When pies are done, wait until they cool and drizzle icing over with a spoon. 

Just a note - I wrote this post last night.  We found out earlier today that April passed away in her sleep this morning.  Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.  

My name is Kristina and I am a tomato addict!

I am enamored with Solanum lycopersicum. Those of you who know me in real life already know about my sickness but I figure that I should follow a policy of open disclosure on this blog and let the rest of you know how obsessed I really am.  And if I'm going to be obsessed with a vegetable, what better vegetable to be obsessed with than one that is regularly referred to as a love apple?

My cruel, heartless husband mocks me on a regular basis come seed ordering time.  All I have to do is tell him about how I'm going to cut down on the different varieties I grow that year and barely suppressed laughter can be heard for the next couple of hours.  It's not my fault that when I say I'm cutting down on the number of varieties that he doesn't understand that means I'm not going to add as many varieties as I usually do.  How could I not want to grow them when I see names like Aunt Ruby's German Green, Moonglow, Cherokee Chocolate, Hillbilly, White Queen, Furry Yellow Hog, Depp's Pink Firefly, Bloody Butcher and Thai Red Turtle Egg?

I live in the city but that's never stopped me from gardening.  When I lived in an apartment, people were always amazed by the vegetables I grew on my porch.  Corn, watermelon, sweet potatoes - I don't care what people told me, I was sure that any vegetable could be grown in a container and the only thing that failed to grow was corn but that survived until a fat, unruly raccoon claimed it for his own a few days before harvest.  Except for a barely navigable front porch, I managed to keep my sickness in check until we bought our house.

I was a source of great frustration to our real estate agent.  I knew I wanted an old house and I wanted to stay in the streetcar suburb area where I had always rented.  But it didn't matter how nice the house was or how great a deal it was - if the yard wasn't suitable for gardening, I didn't want any part of it.  The house we ended up with is a beautiful, ramshackle NeoClassic Queen Anne that we lovingly refer to as our money pit  Sure - it's missing walls, is flaking paint all over and has no kitchen to speak of.  But it's sturdy, will be gorgeous when it gets finished (in 50 years) and has a sun-filled yard with gorgeous stone retaining walls on two sides.  And I've wasted very little time filling up my back yard with plants.

I started small with two 4x4 foot beds and only six tomato plants but that restraint quickly flew out the window.  We now have 24 beds in our back yard and more than half of them are filled with tomatoes.  When I realized how expensive buying plants were and how limited I was in my choice of varieties, I decided to learn how to start my own seedlings.  I got a little exuberant in my seed starting my second year and Marcus put his foot down and told me there was no way I was going to have room for 450 tomato plants in my back yard.  So I started selling my extra plants down at the Market Square Farmer's Market.  This past spring we sold over 1000 tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings.  It's been so much fun sharing my love of heirloom tomatoes with people and I LOVE hearing from people how well their plants are doing. I always laugh when people ask me where our farm is and I explain that my "farm" is our sleeping porch in our house.  In fact, we've been asked so many times that we made up a name for our "farm".  That's how Knox Vegas Farms was created and it become official this past Spring when I saw my picture in the paper with the caption referring to me as an owner of Knox Vegas Farms.

There are cold nights during the spring when carrying over 60 flats of plants in from outside gets a bit tedious but I can't imagine not growing them to sell.  I can't imagine not growing heirlooms - even this summer when we've had problems with blight and get eaten alive my mosquitoes every time we spray with an organic fungicide.  I can't imagine ever being reduced to eating the pink styrofoam balls they try to pass off as tomatoes at the grocery store.  I can't imagine not eagerly awaiting the moment in late June when we eat a fresh tomato for the first time since the previous fall.  And I can't ever imagine not being infected with a passion for tomatoes - My name is Kristina and I'm a tomato addict.  And that's a problem, how?

It's been pretty hot in Knox Vegas this week so I thought I would celebrate Summerfest by posting my favorite no-cook recipes for tomatoes.  This time of year, a dead-ripe summer tomato needs very little embellishing.  I am going to suggest that you don't head to your local supermarket and buy their heirloom tomatoes.  Part of what makes an heirloom tomato so good is the fact that a local farmer will have grown the tastiest varieties for our area and picked those tomatoes when they're dead ripe.  Knoxville now has a farmers market open every day except for Sunday, so find your way to one of those and stock up.  Don't buy the pretty hybrids like 'Celebrity'.  You want to find the weirdest, ugliest looking tomatoes that are being sold - that's when you know you've got a good one.  

Here are my top three favorite way of using raw tomatoes:

Tomato Toast

This is an easy one but I make a meal out of this several times each summer.  Take a loaf of good quality bread.  Do NOT use sandwich bread, make sure it's a peasant style bread.  I use no knead bread that I bake but VGs Bakery in our area sells a really nice ciabatta. Cut thick slices, brush with a good olive oil and either grill or toast:

Cut a few juicy tomatoes in half and peel a couple of garlic cloves.  Have kosher salt (or even better, sea salt) at the ready.

Take that garlic clove and rub it into the bread.  If you're like me and addicted to garlic, I usually flip the bread over and do the other side just so it's really good and garlicky.  Plus it keeps vampires away.

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Now put your tomato cut-side down on the bread.

Start rubbing that tomato into the bread.

Really mash it in there:

Pop that leftover piece of tomato in your mouth and sprinkle your bread with some salt.  Eat.  That's it.  It sounds so simple and it is but the sum is far greater than it's parts.

Panzanella

This is one of my favorite way to use up leftover, stale bread.  It's a very simple concept and I'm not going to give you an exact recipe, mainly because it's a recipe that I use to use up whatever odds and ends I have lying around.

Take leftover bread, cut into cubes and toast.  You want to use a sturdy bread in this recipe.

Meanwhile, mix olive oil, red wine vinegar, and garlic.  I use equal parts olive oil and vinegar in this recipe and I mince up one or two garlic cloves, depending on size.  Add salt and pepper - make sure to add a little extra salt to this.  You can add any dried or fresh herbs you think would taste good.  I usually use an Italian mix from Penzeys but I've left it out and it's just as good.  Basil, rosemary, oregano and marjoram would be my choices of herbs to add.

Dice a cucumber, a red pepper, and onion.  Cut up tomatoes.  Mix together.  You can add some cubed cheese to this - mozzarella is what I usually add but ricotta salata is nice as well.  Toss the vegetables with the dressing and add the bread cubes.  Serve right away.

PS - make it more a Greek-style vinaigrette(I cheat with a great Greek seasoning mix from Penzeys) and sub in pita chips and you've got a great cheater's fattoush.

Basil, Feta & Tomato Sandwiches

This is one of my favorite summer sandwiches and it's such an easy combination but so good together.

Toast some sandwich bread.

Measure out the following ingredients:
2 Tablespoons crumbled feta
2 tablespoons mayo
1 tablespoon lightly packed chopped basil

Mix together and spread on toasted bread while toast is still hot so that the cheese will melt.  

Slice a tomato and add to sandwich.  

Eat with plenty of paper towels close by. 

This is my entry for week four of Summerfest.  Join in the fun!

Brown Butter, Bacon & Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am in love with chocolate chip cookies.  Some people say they're boring but give me a plate of still warm chocolate chip cookies and a glass of Cruze Farm milk, a good book and a comfy chair and I'm in my own personal Shangri-La.  Don't get me wrong - I'd never turn down a homemade cookie of any kind (although no walnuts please!) but chocolate chip cookies are the best of both my cravings.  You get the buttery, rich cookie bits, the melty, transcendent chocolate bits and both tastes in one bite if you so choose.  

As a kid, my Mom quickly learned that if any cookies were going to make it to whatever function she was bringing them to, she better make a triple batch and hide them well.  I could sniff out a chocolate chip cookie better than a bloodhound can find his man.  I'm still pretty good at it but I've found that extra minutes on my rowing machine are a far more effective deterrent than any hiding place my mom could ever come up with.

I've tried a lot of chocolate cookies in my day and I've eaten a lot of lousy ones.  One thing I hate is when a chocolate chip cookie has too much chocolate in it, so much so that it really ceases to be a chocolate chip cookie anymore. You want the contrast between the cookie and the chocolate part.  I also hate super crisp or chewy cookies.  The edges need to be crispy enough to spray crumbs everywhere when they shatter.  The inside needs to be soft - just on the done side.

A few months ago, Marcus and I discovered an amazing recipe in Cooks Illustrated.  I realize that brown butter is very trendy but I could care less.  If something tastes as good as brown butter, it's earned its trendiness fair and square and it's certainly a trend I'll keep following long after it's cool, just like my trusty Birks have made it past their heyday in my college years.  Combine that with just the texture I've been looking for and this is our go-to recipe for plain chocolate chip goodness.  I've made a couple of changes to it as far as the chocolate goes - I like to add a little grated milk chocolate to the batter.  I also add chunks of semisweet chocolate to the bittersweet chocolate chips in my cookie.  I like the flavor even better this way.

Bacon has also been getting a lot of attention lately, especially when used as an ingredient in something unusual, like a sweet or dessert.  I had heard about Mo's Bacon Bar long before I ran into it last week at our local Earthfare.  They had small sizes so I bought one and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't all that I had heard it was.  I could see the potential though.  I also have been swooning over this Bacon Caramels recipe at Not Without Salt. Since my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe has such strong caramel overtones and I knew the chocolate would compliment the bacon as well, I thought I'd tinker around with bacon in my chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The first thing I did was do some research and see what food bloggers were saying about their favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes.  I found a couple that looked promising so we made a batch of both recipes and then a batch of our favorite cookie dough.  We added minced bacon, chopped bacon, and a combination of minced and chopped bacon to some of each dough and baked a control cookie that had no bacon.  In each case, we thought our standard recipe was the best.  We also quickly decided that the chunks of bacon worked best and no noticeable additional flavor was added by including minced bacon.

Marcus and I brought three plates of chocolate chip cookies with bacon (and one plate with no bacon) to a party Friday night.  It was hilarious listening to people talk about them.  I think the most common refrain was "Holy %^$#!  There's bacon in those chocolate chip cookies!" After getting over the weirdness, they were quickly gobbled down.  At the end of the night, there weren't any of the bacon cookies left and only a few of the plain chocolate chip cookies were left.  The ones that got the most praise were the cookies that were made from the browned butter.  If the idea of bacon in your cookies freaks you out, just fry up a piece or two and add the bits to a few cookies and see if you like it.  I'm willing to bet you do.  And then you can run around like our friends on Friday night doing an imitation of this commercial:

Brown Butter Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

(adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
4 oz semisweet chocolate bar, diced into 1/4" pieces
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli 60% cacao)
3 tablespoons milk chocolate, grated
1 cup bacon that's been fried until crispy and diced into roughly 1/4" pieces

Put your oven rack in the middle and heat your oven to 375 degrees.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk 1 3/4 cups flour with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.  Set this aside.  Try to do this like me and get as many floury fingerprints as you can all over your clothes.

Fry up a few pieces of bacon.  You'll get about a cup from roughly eight pieces of bacon but if you're like me, you'll cook a few pieces extra just in case some disappear like it always seems to happen to me.  You want the bacon to be as crisp as possible without being burnt.  If you can find good, real hickory smoked bacon, use this.

Burn a few pieces so that you HAVE to eat them so they don't go to waste.  Cut the bacon into roughly (and this is very roughly) 1/4" pieces.

Heat 10 tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat until melted.  Continue cooking until it turns a dark, golden brown and smells divine.  Swirl this pan constantly and stir the bottom frequently for good measure.  Watch this carefully! I'm not going to say how I know this but this goes from ready to burnt quicker than anything.  As soon as it's done, take off the heat and pour immediately into a heatproof bowl.  Stir in remaining 4 tablespoons of butter so that they melt.

Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup sugar, 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoon vanilla. Lament the fact that you are now officially out of Penzey's Double Strength Vanilla.

Dip a piece (or eight) of bacon into the mixture and eat.  Because I said so.

Add egg and egg yolk and mix until mixture is fully incorporated.  If you don't have a mixer, use your whisk - it works just as well. 

Let sugar/egg/butter mixture stand for a few minutes.  Then whisk again for 30 seconds.  Do this several times - you want to make sure that the sugar has "melted" into the liquid.  When ready, mixture will be smooth, thick and shiny.

Chop your chocolate.  Dust the cat hair off the few pieces that fall on the floor and eat.

Grate your milk chocolate

Using wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.  Stir in grated chocolate, chocolate chunks and bacon pieces.  Don't over mix but make sure no flour pockets remain.

Using a teaspoon, place a heaping teaspoon of cookie dough on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I get about 14 cookies per baking sheet.

Bake for 10-14 minutes (my oven takes 11 minutes) until cookies are golden-brown and set along the edges but the middle is still soft.  Remove from oven and set baking sheet on a wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes, keeping the cookies on the baking sheet.  You see the two cookies fused together in the center.  Those should be considered ruined and eaten so as not to expose anyone else to imperfect cookies. 

TIP: I usually make a whole batch of cookie dough and freeze half of it.  Just put it on a baking sheet like you're going to bake it, stick it in the freezer for a few hours and put the frozen clumps in a freezer bag.  I haven't frozen the ones with bacon but I might leave that out and just stick a few pieces to the top when ready to bake.  Take from the freezer, put on a baking sheet and add a few minutes to your normal baking time.

Click here for a printable recipe!

Muhammara - A Treat for a Birthday Girl!

A couples of years ago on the Fourth of July, I made tons of Middle Eastern food for our celebration - hummus, tandoori chicken, pita bread, baba ghanoush and muhammara.  July 4th always consists of some kind of grilling, some kind of boozy beverage and watching the fireworks in downtown Knox Vegas from our upper porch, usually with a group of friends.  Whenever I know that my best friend, Dani is going to be eating with us, I make a conscious effort to tone down the hotness.  I love the girl but when it comes to spicy foods, she's a wimp.  Everything we ate that night had been toned down, except for the Muhammara.  And wouldn't you know - that was her favorite thing! 

She's asked me several times for the recipe but not only did I not copy the recipe down, I forgot what cookbook it came from.  I did a search for the recipe online but all of the muhammara recipes I could find icluded roasted red peppers as an ingredient.  I love them but when they're out of season, they're expensive.  I looked and looked and could never find the right recipe so I gave it up for lost.

I need to explain how important Dani is to me.  This is my fellow crazy cat lady.  This is the wonderful lady that kept me sane last year in the months counting down to our wedding.  She went wedding dress shopping with me.  She planned a bridal shower.  She planned a crazy night out at a drag queen show for my bachelorette party.  She kept me from killing my mom.  And seriously, how could you not love a girl that gives you a bottle of Big Black Dick rum and doesn't make you wear penises out in public to celebrate your upcoming nuptials?

Dani had a birthday last week.  So...needless to say, I wanted to make muhammara for her.  And I wanted to make the recipe that I made that July Fourth that she loved.  So I headed down to the library, praying that they'd have the book in stock and that I'd still recognize the cover.  I knew it was blue and written by a woman. That's it. I headed back into the stacks, found the section where most of the books on Middle Eastern food were shelved and started looking.  About twenty minutes into my search, I hit the jackpot.  It's in a wonderful book called The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden.  I'm really excited to have found it again.

Muhammara is wonderful with pita chips - especially if you're serving hummus.  It contrasts nicely with the smooth, sedate creaminess of the hummus.  It's quick to make and leftovers are great on sandwiches.

 

Love this girl!

Muhammara

Adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

Here are the ingredients you'll need to make this dish
1 1/4 cups shelled walnuts
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 slices whole wheat bread, lightly toasted (the recipe calls for one slice but my bread is smaller than usual)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (I like to use Aleppo pepper from Penzeys)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons sugar (I like to use brown sugar, lightly packed)
Salt to taste

Toast the walnuts in a pan over medium heat for around five minutes.  Make sure to stir them.  Taste them and take them off the stove and place in a bowl to cool when they taste good to you.  I usually put extra in the pan for "tasting purposes".  Watch them carefully so they don't burn. 

While the walnuts are toasting, cut the crusts off your bread, cut into large pieces and add to food processor.  You can use a blender but just make sure not to get it blended too well.  You want a rough paste.

Add two tablespoons of tomato paste to your food processor/blender:

Add a half cup of olive oil to the food processor:

Add 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses to the food processor:

Keep your cat who thinks she's being sneaky away from the bread crusts.  Because that's their natural food in the wild or something like that.

Add the red pepper flakes (if you're less wimpy than Dani!), the cumin and brown sugar.  Then add your walnuts (I usually let them cool down for a minute or two).

Blend to a rough paste:

If the mixture seems a little oily, add in another piece of bread and re-blend. Now eat!  This goes especially well with copious amounts of Rhubarbaritas (recipe coming soon).  Just be sure to drink lots of water and take some advil before going to bed!

Click here to see a printable copy of the recipe

Barbecued Raspberry-Hoisin Chicken - Finger licking good!

Raspberries are my favorite fruit in the whole world.  As a girl growing up in Wisconsin, we had a patch of wild ones in the back yard and come raspberry season, I stuffed myself with abandon.  My love affair with the fruit has not abated.  I was almost reduced to tears this year when my fall bearing raspberry order got cancelled.  There are no places close by where you can pick them and raspberries have such a short shelf life that it's best to buy them locally and use them up in the next day or two.  I was able to pick up some raspberries from a farmer's market but I can't wait until we have our own to pick.  I'll be able to go out to the backyard and graze for breakfast.  If you have a lot of berries, they do freeze well.  In fact, if you want to get the most juice out of them, freezing them helps you out.

There are thousands of delectable sounding recipes out there for raspberries, but the majority of them seem to be focused on baking.  Baking is an admirable end for a raspberry but there's only so many miles I can face on my rowing machine in an effort to fit into my clothes so I wanted to find another way to use them. 

It's been gorgeous here - in the low 80s which is unheard of in July.  It should be at least 90 with the humidity high enough to make my hair resemble a bad junior high perm.  We're taking advantage of the cool temps while we can and grilling seems so right when the evening are as lovely as they are.  I've always loved Eating Well magazine.  It seems to really place an emphasis on using seasonal produce and the recipes usually don't contain too many processed ingredients.  I glanced through some old issues and found a recipe for an asian-style marinade.

The recipe suggests that you use boneless chicken thighs and after making it, I'd have to agree.  The level of sugar in the sauce (from the raspberries and hoisin sauce) is too high to allow for long periods of grilling.  We're trying to eat down the contents of our freezer so I used a whole chicken instead and cut up one of the breasts to make chicken tenders.  It was still very tasty but very finicky on the grill because of the length of time it took.  It was prone to getting too brown.  The chicken tenders were done quickly but I think using the thighs would be a better option because the chicken would cook quickly enough not to burn but stay juicy.

If berry seeds drive you to distraction, make sure to use frozen berries and put them through a sieve to strain the seeds out.  I'd probably use a little more than a cup as well.  

Make sure to check the ingredients in your hoisin sauce.  I'm trying to cut out all artificial colors and what do you know, there it was lurking in our hoisin sauce.  Next time I buy it, I'll be on the lookout for a different brand.

Barbecued Raspberry-Hoisin Chicken
Adapted from Eating Well

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
3/4 cup hoisin sauce3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed, each cut into 3 crosswise strips

Place the raspberries in the blender.

If they're frozen, let them defrost a bit in there.  Add your hoisin sauce.  If you like, you can call it hoser sauce like we do.  Because we're twelve.

Get your choppables ready.

Chop your garlic, orange zest and ginger.  Try to ignore your husband offering you tips on how to improve your chopping techniques.  It's all going to end up in the blender anyway.

Add the rice vinegar, garlic, orange zest, ginger, pepper and red pepper to the raspberries and hoisin sauce in a blender or food processor. 

 

Blend until smooth.  Set 1/4 cup aside to use as a dipping sauce. Transfer the rest of the sauce to a ziploc bag and add chicken.  Make sure the chicken is coated.  Lick the spatula.

 

Let that marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.  We marinated ours for six hours.

Heat your grill up to a medium heat.  Remove the chicken from marinade and thread onto four skewers(if you're using boneless thighs), distributing as evenly as possible.  Put the skewers on the grill.  You need to keep a close eye on these on the grill to make sure they don't burn.  

If you notice them getting too brown, pull them over to a cooler part of the grill.  They should take about 4-5 minutes a side.  You can always cut into one to see if it's done.  We use a thermometer, especially when we grill chicken that isn't boneless but you can also grill until you notice the chicken is firm to the touch.  This is something that takes a little practice.

Serve chicken with dipping sauce on the side.  Try not to gross out your loved ones by licking your fingers too enthusiastically.

We really enjoyed this chicken.  The ginger gives it a nice kick and the fruitiness is perfect for a summer evening.  I served it with some leftover rice I tried to jazz up (and I failed miserably at this) and sauteed some grated summer squash and onion with tamari.  The leftovers re-heated beautifully for lunch today. 

I think this is a great way to use raspberries, although there was also a delectable raspberry tart in the same issue that's calling my name.  I think my rowing machine is going to get a work out this summer.

For a printable recipe, click here

Really Inauthentic Okonomiyaki

When you've spent several hours in the garden in ninety degree weather, the last thing you're going to worry about is whether or not the recipe you're making is "true" to a particular cuisine.  You want something quick to make, something that uses up a decent amount of produce, something reasonably healthy and something that tastes great.

Heidi Swanson's Japanese Pizza recipe fits the bill perfectly.  No - it's not a traditional recipe for okonomiyaki but it's quick and really tasty.  It's also perfect for using up odds and ends of vegetables from the garden.  I've subbed in kohlrabi, turnip, beets and zucchini and it's all been tasty.  We've gotten in the habit of eating this at least once a week and we've yet to get tired of it.

Japanese Pizza (Inspired by 101Cookbooks recipe)

Serves 1-2

2 cups shredded vegetables, (I used 1 3/4 cup cabbage and 1/4 cup grated carrot)

1 cup leeks, chopped (wash these suckers well)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2/3 cup white whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon tamari

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon olive oil

Dipping Sauce - mix together:

1 tablespoon siracha (this makes a very spice sauce so add to taste)

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

 

Combine the vegetables in a bowl. Toss the vegetables with the flour until they're all covered with a dusting of flour.  Add salt and tamari to the egg and stir the egg mixture into the vegetables.  Mix until everything is evenly coated.  

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and add olive oil.  Spoon the cabbage mixture into the pan and using a spatula, press it into a round pancake shape, making it as flat as you can.  Cook 5 to 7 minutes - you want it to turn a nice brown color.  To flip, slide out onto a plate.  Put another plate on top of that plate and flip over.  Add a little more oil to pan, let heat for 20-30 seconds and slide the pancake back into the skillet.  Let cook another 5-7 minutes.  Cut into wedges and serve hot with dipping sauce.

The only non-local ingredients in the above meal is the tamari, the siracha, the flour and olive oil.  The mayo was actually made with olive oil and local eggs.  This week has once again been full of local eating.  Last night, we had a group of friends over and we all shared pizza made with local tomatoes and vegetables, heirloom tomato salad and brown sugar peach ice cream made with local milk and eggs and local peaches.  Breakfasts are usually local eggs made some way and a bowl of local fruit, usually peaches.  Lunches are either leftovers or salads made from leftover bread, tomatoes and whatever local produce needs to be used.  To be honest, I can't imagine not using local ingredients this time of year.  Not only do you get to support your neighbors, but it's just good food. 

Two sticks of butter in one 8X8 pan = heaven!

When I read the recipe for Cherry Brown Butter Bars by Deb at Smitten Kitchen, I fell in love with her blog all over again.  Deb posts some of the most delicious recipes, especially when it comes to baked goods. Last month, a new Earthfare opened near us and they had a fantastic special on organic cherries.  Since our local cherry harvest was so poor, Marcus and I treated ourselves and bought a few pounds to snack on. Brown butter is very trendy right now but it's a trend that I love. The combination of brown butter and cherries?  There was no way I could not make this recipe.

It certainly lived up to its billing. The shortbread crust combines winningly with the egg-y custard brown butter layer.  Deb compares it to a clafouti and the comparison is spot on.  I've made it three four times now and the after the third batch,  I was running low on cherries.  As much as it pains me to say it, the recipe is almost too rich (or at least it is when you're making four pans of it) and the fruit helps to cut through and lighten it a little.  So I wondered how I would taste with sliced peaches instead.  Peaches are in season here and I thought I could add more fruit if I used peaches instead - the cherries are a bit difficult to split between bars.  So I added a thin layer of peaches for the second batch of bars and I liked these even better than the cherries.  I tried thick slices of peaches and several thin layers of peaches.  I think it's really a matter of personal preference because both taste great to me and to my tasters.

Just a warning - watch the butter carefully. It will start to brown in a matter of seconds and you don't want it to burn.

Peach Brown Butter Bars

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Crust:

7 tablespoons butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

Pinch of salt

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

pinch of salt

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter (equal to one stick)

4 Peaches, peeled and sliced

To make Crust:

 Preheat over to 375°F. Deb has instructions at her site for faking a tart pan.  I used a nonstick cake pan and although I made the first batch using parchment, the other three I didn't bother using it.  Make sure to grease your pan using a little butter.  Using a rubber spatula or fork, mix the melted butter,vanilla and sugar in a bowl.  Then add the flour and salt.  Stir until all of the flour is mixed into the butter and transfer the dough to your 8X8 pan.  Using your fingertips, press the dough so that it's distributed evenly across the bottom of the pan. 

Bake the crust until golden. This takes me about 15 minutes but Deb's instructions say 18 minutes.  Just keep an eye on it.You don't want it too done because you're going to bake it again.  Put pan on a rack and cool slightly.  Keep the oven at 375°F.

Make the filling: 

Melt the butter in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat.  You want to cook it until it's a deep brown.  One thing I noticed is that the milk solids will cook faster than the butter.  I cooked it until those were a dark brown and then poured it into a ramekin to cool.  This took about five minutes.

Whisk eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla in a bowl to blend.  Add flour and whisk until smooth.  Add a small amount of brown butter and whisk.  Gradually add the rest of the butter and whisk until smooth and well blended. 

Arrange peach slices on crust.  If using thick slices, arrange like I have in picture.

  

 

If using thin slices, arrange a layer and then alternate another layer in a criss-cross fashion. Pour brown butter mixture carefully over the fruit.

 Bake bars until filling is golden and puffed.  This took around 40 minutes for me.  Cool bars completely on rack.  Cut into squares and serve.  If made more than a day ahead, store in fridge.

The next time I make these, I think I'm going to cut the peaches into thin slices and do about three layers, all criss-crossed over the previous layer of peaches.  I would have tried this again so I could have gotten pictures of it but there's only so many sticks of butter I can eat in a single week.  My friends all love them but have made me promise not to bring them any more of these because they can't say no to them.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a rowing machine!

Summer in a bowl

 You know it's summer when you've done both of the following things.  The first is picking a tomato off the vine and biting into it while the juice runs down your arm and drips off your elbow.  The second is having to go get the floss after dinner because you've got bits of corn from corn on the cob stuck between your teeth.  Only then are you in the full flow of summer!

Sweet corn is an ephemeral thing.  Of course you can get it only in summer, but good sweet corn is still somewhat difficult to find.  If you grow it yourself, you can quickly find out how fast raccoons and groundhogs can find it.  If you buy it from a farmer, it often isn't the best it can be.  Good old fashioned sweet corn is best cooked this way.  One - start a pot of water boiling.  Two - pick the corn and eat.  When you're dealing with sweet corn brought to market, you can't do that so you need to go by taste.  A lot of times the corn will either be super sweet but rather insipid without a lot of good corn taste.  This is the result of newer varieties of corn that have been developed to appeal to our country's infatuation with sugar.  I like my corn sweet but I also want it to taste like corn.  Or if the farmer's grown a really old fashioned variety, it sometimes isn't sweet enough.  Whenever I hit the farmer's market, I buy an ear and walk around the corner from the farmer, open that husk up and try it out.  If it's got a good corn taste and it's sweet, I go back and buy a couple of dozen of ears.  As soon as I get home, I start a pot of water boiling or fire up the grill.  Cooked corn will hold beautifully in the fridge for several days and you can actually freeze cooked corn on the cob and you'd be surprised at how fresh it tastes a few months later.  

Tonight, I wanted to make a corn chowder that focused on the corn but also had a little smokiness and body to it.  I love Sungold cherry tomatoes in this soup because they are so sweet and tropical tasting.  This is an easy soup to mess around with.  I think it would be great with basil added and grilled corn would be fantastic in it, especially if you served it with toast topped with smoked mozzarella. 

Summer in a Bowl Sweet Corn Chowder:

6 ears steamed corn on the cob

3 strips bacon (cook another strip or two if you're like me and sneak bits out while cooking)

1 large onion, diced into 1/4 inch pieces

2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch cubes

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

10-12 SunGold or SunSugar cherry tomatoes, quartered (you can use other tomatoes, stick with the sweeter, golden kinds)

1 cup whole milk

Cut each corncob in half cross-ways and stand each half on the flat end and using a knife, cut the corn away from the cob.  I usually run the blunt end of the knife down the cob to get as much of the juices and corn out as possible.  Save all of this in a bowl and put the corncobs in a 1.5 quart pot and fill with cold water.  Bring to a boil and let boil for 2-3 minutes.  Reduce the heat and simmer while you prepare the rest of the soup.  

Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook over medium heat in a non-stick skillet.  After the bacon begins to brown a bit and some of the fat is rendered, add the potato and onion.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook for about seven minutes, until the onion begins to soften a bit.

Strain the water the corncobs have been cooking in into a larger saucepan.  Add the onions, bacon and potatoes to this liquid.  Bring to a boil and the reduce the heat so the soup is simmering.  Cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Add tomatoes to soup and cook for two minutes.  Add milk and corn to soup and heat through.  Taste and add salt to your liking.  Serve.

This was my official One Local Summer meal for this week.  Everything except for the salt and pepper was local.  We've had a lot of local meals this week.  The blackberries and the peaches are in full swing around here and the first, really good heirloom tomatoes are getting ripe.  We've been grilling out a lot and whenever we do that, we grill extra summer squash for meals later in the week.  We made another pizza with homemade sourdough and topped it with leftover grilled zucchini, homemade mozzarella and basil from the garden.  We made an americanized version of Okonomiyaki which quickly used up a head of local cabbage and local leeks that were getting a little old. And we've made several local meals of homemade bread, tomatoes and basil from the backyard and homemade mozzarella made from local milk.  Local eating is anything but a hardship this time of year.

There is nothing...I repeat, nothing more awesome than Neil Diamond.

My love for Neil Diamond knows no bounds.  In my younger, much cooler days, I used to be horrified by the musical selections of my father.  He had a deep and abiding love for Irish folk music and James Taylor.  And Dad - seriously, could you turn down the Carly Simon?!!  Now that I fully embrace my dorkdom, I'm free to love whatever music entertains me.  Which is why Neil Diamond's "America" will always have a place on my July 4th playlist, along with The Bruce's "Born in the USA" and 2 Live Crew's "Banned in the USA".

Unlike the merry band of corporate shills at The Center For "Consumer Freedom", I celebrated my freedom by eating my way through a day where as many foods as possible were produced by local food producers.  We kicked off the day by heading to our local farmer's market where we stuffed ourselves with locally produced baked goods.  I even convinced myself that the carrot cake I had for breakfast had to be healthy because it lacked cream cheese icing.  

For lunch, we had leftovers from the day before - grilled local lamb and onions, flatbread made with my sourdough and tomato salad made from tomatoes and herbs in our back yard.

For a snack, we had grilled local corn.  It was the first corn of the season.  I think the splotches on the porch floor made by butter dripping off our elbows might wear off by summer's end.

We managed to make it to about 3pm before imbibing any booze and when I got a taste of the Basil Peach White Wine Sangria made with local peaches, I wish we had started drinking earlier.  The basil we picked from our garden made this drink - it kept it from being too sweet and cloying.

For a late dinner, we made our traditional 4th meal - smoked turkey legs.  For some medieval reason, I really love turkey legs.  They really bring out the T-Rex in me.  We served it with homemade baked beans made with local honey, local tomato sauce, frozen local shelley beans and local bacon.  We served it with one of the best potato salads I've ever had(made with local potatoes and herbs from our garden of course!).  

I don't hate potato salad but the majority of them are too heavy for me and I always feel like the potatoes in those salads are just the excuse for mainlining as much mayonnaise as possible.  Smitten Kitchen's Horseradish Potato Salad is just what I've been looking for.   The focus is on the potatoes but the sour cream dressing makes this dish sing.  I've always been a fan of the sinus tingling properties of horseradish and when you combine it with the chives, dill and onion in this dish, well - I'm just glad no one but my husband saw me scraping the plate with my finger.

Horseradish Potato Salad (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

3 pounds small (2-inch) potatoes
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh dill, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Boil potatoes until they're fork tender.  Cool them room temperature and quarter. Mix remaining ingredients and fold the potatoes into this mixture.

After we finished eating, we waddled upstairs onto our upper porch where we had one of the best views in Knoxville of the downtown fireworks.  There are times where I wonder why we bought this ramshackle old house but every time we get to relax, away from crowds and get such a great view of the fireworks, my faith in our decision is restored.

I hope you all had a great 4th and you all got down with your bad old selves!  Let Freedom (and 2 Live Crew) Reign!

One Local Summer - Week Four

This week has been full of OLS meals!  On Monday, I made a delicious frittata with local eggs, ham, zucchini, potatoes and onions.  In fact, even the mozzarella we subbed in for the cheddar was local because we made it from Cruze Farm milk!  Tuesday, we made tortillas using local lard and filled them with local chicken and onions.  Only the cheese wasn't local.  We served them with homemade salsa made from local ingredients.  Wednesday was tomato toast made with homemade bread, local garlic and tomatoes from our back yard.  On Thursday, we made one of my favorite grilled meals, Vietnamese Chicken, made with local chicken and grilled local zucchini and onions.  We finished the night off with a cherry crisp made from frozen local cherries. We made a simple pasta sauce out of local zucchini, tomatoes and garlic on Friday and served that with a grated beet salad made from beets from our friends' yard.  On Saturday, we started the day off with local raspberries, blueberries and blackberries and had that with a scone from VG's Bakery.  We had a wonderful sandwich for dinner made with our homemade local milk mozzarella, leftover grilled zucchini and onions, homemade basil mayo and ciabatta rolls from VG's bakery.

However, today was our "official" OLS meal and everything we ate today was local, except for some feta cheese and flour.  We started the morning out with local eggs scrambled with feta and local garlic scapes.  For lunch we had local beet greens and swiss chard sauteed with local bacon and served that with steamed local new potatoes with local butter and dill.  Tonight for dinner, we had a pizza with local potatoes and leeks and local goat cheese.  I even made a sourdough crust so we didn't have to use yeast in our pizza crust!  For dessert, we had homemade peach granita we made from local peaches.  I had wanted to make sorbet but all the recipes I found contained lemon juice.  Instead, we made peach granita from David Lebovitz's book, Perfect Scoop. I do have an ice cream maker but the beauty of this dish is that you don't need one to make this.  I had never had granita and I had visions of it being an icy mess.  I'm an idiot because this is good stuff.  I love that it doesn't have a lot of sugar and it was perfect for the 93 degree day we had today.

Peach Granita:

6 ripe peaches, peeled
1 1/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Slice peaches and cut into small chunks.  Cook with 1 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Cook until cooked through which is about ten minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar and let cool.  When cool, place in blender with remaining 1/3 cup water and blend until smooth.  

Pour the mixture into a shallow non-reactive pan in the freezer. Check after 30 minutes. As the mixture begins to freeze, use a fork to scrape the frozen puree that froze around the edges into the center. Return to freezer.

Check every 30 minutes, scraping each time.  David says it usually takes 2 hours but when we went to bed last night, it still wasn't frozen enough and it had been 3.5 hours.  So we some for breakfast!  If it gets too hard, just leave it out for a bit.

Zucchini-Potato Frittata

I am in love with this dish!  I've had frittatas before and I haven't been too fond of them.  The eggs have always seemed tough and it just wasn't something that I found myself craving.  Yet, frittatas are one of the easiest ways to use up vegetable odds and ends.  And I have had a tortilla that was really good when I was up in Milwaukee a couple of summers ago.  So it's turned into a bit of a quest - I was going to find a frittata recipe I liked if it killed me.  Luckily, I haven't been killed by untasty egg-based dishes - instead, I found this recipe and on a whim, I tried it.  It's everything I hoped a frittata could be.  It's fairly easy.  It retains the creaminess of the eggs and relies heavily on the vegetables in it to bulk up the recipe.  Plus cold leftovers of this are amazing!  

Zucchini-Potato Frittata
serves 4-6
Recipe reprinted from Andrea Chesman's Serving Up the Harvest with permission from Storey Publishing

1 medium zucchini or yellow summer squash, sliced
Salt
4-5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, or more as needed
1 1/2 pounds waxy potatoes, thinly sliced
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 pound smoked Canadian bacon or ham, diced
6 eggs
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup grated Cheddar

1. Combine the zucchini and 1 teaspoon salt in a colander and toss well. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat in a large, well-seasoned cast-iron skillet or ovenproof nonstick skillet. Add the potatoes and onion, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, flipping and stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high and continue cooking, tossing occasionally, until the potatoes are are brown, about 5 minutes. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon but keep the skillet on the burner.

3. Transfer the zucchini to a clean kitchen towel and pat dry. Add the zucchini and Canadian bacon to the skillet and sauté over medium-high heat, until the zucchini is just tender, about 4 minutes. Remove the zucchini and Canadian bacon with a slotted spoon. Keep the skillet over the heat.

4. Beat the eggs and pepper to taste in a medium bowl until well blended. Fold in the potatoes, zucchini and Canadian bacon, and cheese.

5. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the remaining oil to the skillet as needed to lightly coat the bottom. Pour in the egg mixture, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook without stirring until the bottom is set, about 10 minutes.

6. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the top is set, 5 to 15 minutes, checking every 5 minutes.

7. Place a serving plate on top of the skillet and carefully invert. The frittata should fall out of the pan. Cut into wedges and serve.

Sorry about the bad pictures - they should be improving soon.  Marcus has started taking most of them with the macro feature on my camera and we're shooting them outside on our porch so we can get at much natural light as possible.  This picture should be the last awful one!

Roasting every vegetable in sight!

I have become a convert to roasted vegetables.  I always knew they were good but I mainly stuck with root vegetables.  I had no idea what I was missing out on.  I tried roasted carrots and broccoli last year and they were so good, I've been tempted to try more.  Roasted asparagus was delicious this spring.  I had a whole mess of fresh snap beans from the farmer's market and while I wanted to enjoy them without a lot of adornments, I didn't want to just steam them.  So I tried roasting them.  These are fantastic.  

Roasted Green Beans

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound green beans

Cook at 450 for 15 minutes until they're as brown on the undersides as you'd like them to be.

I served these with salt boiled new potatoes.  I'd post a picture but all my pictures came out with the potatoes looking like olives!

One Local Summer - Week Three

We have been roasting here in East Tennessee.  It's been over 90 degrees the past few days with high humidity.  Combine that with a kitchen that has no air conditioning (or walls, cabinets and ceiling but that's a story for another day!) and cooking is the last thing you want to do.  We've been grilling out a lot and doubling up recipes so we have lots of leftovers.  Later this week I'll post recipes for roasted green beans and an amazing recipe for a potato, squash and ham frittata.  I thought I didn't like frittatas but luckily, I was wrong.  My favorite recipe this week comes from one of my fail safe cookbooks,A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop.  It was very easy to make and it was delicious hot and cold.  It's also deceptively filling.  The only non-local ingredient was the lime juice and the ginger, which although it wasn't local, was still reasonably close - it's from Alabama.  This soup served with grilled chicken thighs from Laurel Creek Farms was my "official" One Local Summer meal.  We finished it off with a peach cobbler that was completely local except for the flour. We sweetened it with local honey and homemade butter from local cream.  The ice cream was made with local honey and local milk and cream.

Chilled Curried Yellow Squash Soup with Cilantro-Lime Puree

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds yellow summer squash, chopped (about 5 small squash)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced ginger root
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder
6 cups vegetable broth
1 medium russet potato (about 8 ounces), peeled and diced
Salt
1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Heat 2 T oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering.  Add the squash and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Stir in the ginger, garlic, and curry powder and cook just until fragrant, about one minute.  Add the broth, potato, and salt to taste and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the potato is very tender, about 25 minutes.  Cool slightly, purée the soup in batches until very smooth.  Adjust the seasonings.  Transfer to an airtight container and chill thoroughly.  When ready to serve, purée the cilantro, lime juice, and remaining 3 T oil in a blender until smooth.  Salt to taste.  Taste the chilled soup and adjust seasonings as necessary.  Ladle soup into small bowls.  Drizzle some cilantro purée over each bowl and serve.  Serves six to eight.

One Local Summer - week two

I don't usually comment too much on political issues or current events (unless it's food or farming policy).  It just seems so surreal to me to be sitting here on my couch composing my One Local Summer post while in Iran, people are risking and/or losing their lives to gain a modicum of the freedoms that many Americans take for granted every day.  If you're interested in following the events there, here are the best three sites I've found besides Twitter.

Andrew Sullivan
Huffington Post's Live Blog
National Iranian American Council

This week has been a week of easy local eating.  Lots of salads still and the first summer squash of the season have arrived at the farmer's market.  I still have tons of swiss chard left that my parent's gave me and it was starting to look a little bedraggled.  I cut the leaves off the roots and washed them in my OXO Salad Spinner.  I'm not big on kitchen gadgets but this is one of the best purchases we've made.  It makes cleaning greens so much easier.  That perked them up enough to keep through the weekend.  I've made this quiche recipe before so I just subbed in chard for the spinach.  I also made a wonderful swiss chard and artichoke dip for a party last night.  I'll be posting that later this week.  Another winner was the Potato LeeK Soup we made earlier this week. 

Tonight I made a recipe from Italian Vegetarian Cookbook by Jack Bishop.  I have several of his cookbooks and they really can't be beat for simple, wonderful meals.  I made Polenta with Garlicky Greens but I had to make a few substitutions.  I'm out of spinach from the garden and it seemed silly to buy some at the market when I had so much chard and other vegetables to use up.  I had some broccoli left over from last week so I used that in place of the spinach.  I diced it pretty finely.  I also used the chard stems.  I added both of these to the pan after the garlic and cooked them a bit before I added the chard leaves.  Everything (even the cornmeal) was local except for the olive oil and salt.  Now dessert was not even remotely local but when you have leftover chocolate birthday cake, that's really not the time to be zealot. 

Polenta with Garlicky Greens
Servings: 4 to 6

Ingredients:
2 cups cornmeal
Salt and pepper
1 ½ lb. chard
1 ½ lb. spinach
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, slivered
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Directions:
To prepare Polenta: Pour 8 cups of water into a saucepan and bring to boil. Add 2 tsp of salt and lower the heat to medium. Whisk in the cornmeal in a slow, steady stream. This should take almost 1 min. Make sure to whisk the cornmeal continuously to prevent lumps from forming. Continue whisking as the cornmeal comes back to a boil. Simmer, whisking constantly, until the polenta starts to thicken, 1 to 2 mins. Reduce the heat until the polenta is at the barest simmer. Cover the pot and cook very slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon every 10 mins or so, until the cornmeal loses its raw flavor, 35-40 mins.

To prepare the Greens: While the polenta is cooking, remove and discard the stems from the chard and spinach. Tear leaves into small pieces. Wash the leaves in a large bowl of cold water to get rid of any dirt. Shake the leaves to remove excess water, but do not dry them. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 mins. Stir in the garlic and cook until golden, about 2 mins. Add the greens to the pain. Stir to coat the leaves with oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook, stirring 2 or 3 times, until the greens are tender, 5-7 mins. Remove the cover and simmer until some of the liquid evaporates, 2-3 mins. The greens should be moist, but not swimming in liquid. When the polenta has finished cooking, stir in the butter and add more salt if needed.

Potato Leek Soup

We were tired and out of leftovers for dinner.  After searching the fridge and checking out the recipe folder on my computer, we came up with this recipe.  It was really easy to make and very tasty. 

Potato Leek Soup

3-4 medium potatoes 
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
4 small leeks
1 tablespoon butter (You really can use whatever amount of butter you want to use here - especially if you use a nonstick pan)
Milk - I ended up using just a half cup
Salt and pepper

Dice potatoes.  I left the skin on since the soup is pureed.  Simmer in broth for 25 minutes - you want them to be tender.  Meanwhile, clean leeks.  Chop leeks using only white and pale green parts of the stalk.  Make sure to save the tops for stock!  Saute leeks in butter until translucent.  Combine the leeks, potatoes and broth in a blender and blend until smooth.  Remember not to fill the blender more than half full.  Return to pan and thin with milk - use as much or as little as you would like.  You can also add a little cream to make this richer.  I use Cruze Farms whole milk here.  Heat until it's warm and season with salt and pepper and serve.

Garbage bag full of spinach!

I visited my parents this past Thursday and took home a giant bag of spinach from their garden.  My dad always manages to grow the most gorgeous looking spinach and as much as they love it, there's a point where it gets ahead of them.  We've eaten quite a few spinach salads with hot bacon dressing but the best way to reduce a mountain of spinach is to cook it.  The following recipe stretches three eggs into four servings - another bonus.

Crustless Spinach, Onion and Feta Quiche (adapted)
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic scapes, diced
1 tsp olive oil
6-oz fresh spinach
3 large eggs
1/2 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of Foxpoint Seasoning
1 1/3 cups milk (I buy Cruze Farm milk and strain the cream)
1/4 to 1/2 cup feta cheese

Preheat oven to 400F.  Lightly grease a 10-inch quiche/tart pan (I used a cake pan).  In a medium frying pan, cook diced onion and scapes with olive oil over medium-high heat until onion is translucent and tender. Add in fresh spinach and cook until just wilted. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, then stir in spinach-onion mixture.  Pour quiche base into prepared pan. Top with feta cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until center is set and the outside edge is golden brown.  Let set for 5 minutes, then slice and serve.

I love how the addition of a little bit of flour gives this a very thin crust without all the calories of a quiche crust.  You could use any kind of greens for the spinach - I think swiss chard would be fantastic.  I plan to try this several times this summer, using whatever leftover produce I have on hand.  I used the lower amount of feta cheese and I thought that was enough but I also used a very full flavored Bulgarian feta from our local middle eastern market.  I really want to try this later this summer with roasted red peppers, swiss chard and smoked mozzarella.  It was great right out of the oven but I also liked it straight out of the fridge.  I think it would also be great with roasted ancho peppers, grilled corn, queso fresco and a fresh tomato salsa on top.

Spaghetti With Broccoli Rabe, Toasted Garlic and Bread Crumbs

As much as I love east Tennessee, it's not a hot spot for new food trends.  It's only been in the past few years that we've gotten some great sushi places.  I've never seen mache sold in a store around here and while I probably could have found broccoli rabe if I had actively searched for it, our local Krogers(the Fellini Krogers as many of us call it) never carried it.  So I grew it.  It's a quick growing crop and the recipe below is very tasty. 

Spaghetti With Broccoli Rabe, Toasted Garlic and Bread Crumbs

Salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, more as needed (I used 1/4 cup)
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and slivered
1 cup bread crumbs, preferably homemade
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste (I used Aleppo pepper)
About 1 pound broccoli rabe, trimmed and washed
1 pound spaghetti, linguine or other long pasta
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put 1/4 cup olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. When oil is warm, cook garlic just until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add bread crumbs and red pepper flakes and cook until bread crumbs are golden, 5 minutes or so. Remove and set aside.

2. Cook broccoli rabe in boiling water until it is soft, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain well and chop. Cook pasta in same pot.

3. Meanwhile, add remaining oil to skillet over medium-low heat. Add broccoli rabe and toss well; sprinkle with salt and pepper. When it is warm add garlic and bread crumbs and mix well.

4. When pasta is done, drain it, reserving a little cooking water. Toss pasta in skillet with broccoli rabe mixture, moistening with a little reserved water if necessary. Adjust seasonings and serve with freshly grated Parmesan.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Make your own Girl Scout Cookies

The other day, I realized we hadn't gotten any girl scouts knocking on our door this year.  I have very fond memories of Girl Scouts and I still think they're a great organization.  They're much more inclusive than their male counterpart organization and I love how they teach young girls to stand on their own two feet.  My mom was a Girl Scout leader and I had the greatest time selling cookies each year.  I sold the shit out of those cookies.  I could sell dead people Girl Scout cookie I was so good.  My poor parents were forced to drive miles because I insisted on venturing into distant neighborhoods to peddle my product. Boxes upon boxes of cookies would have to be delivered and I thought it was awesome.  My poor parents. 

One thing I don't like about Girl Scout cookies is that they still contain trans fats in them, even though according to the package, they don't "measurable" trans fats.  However, if you look at the list of ingredients, partially hydrogenated fats are listed which means they've used the trick of making the serving sizes small enough that the trans fats are just under 0.5 grams - that way they can market them as having 0 grams of trans fats per serving, even when they contain trans fats.  And seriously, when was the last time you ate two cookies?!!  For an organization that promotes good health, it's really time the Girl Scouts required their bakeries to leave out ALL trans fats.

So this year, I'm going to make a donation to the Girl Scouts - that way my local troop will get to keep 100% of that money, rather than the 16% of cookies sales.  It will be tax deductible as well.  And because I don't want to deny myself the quintessential summer treat of Thin Mints straight from the freezer, I'm going to try some of the recipes below.  These all are healthier, cheaper and probably tastier than traditional Girl Scout cookies.

Thin Mints(From what I've read, the secret to these is to use peppermint oil, not peppermint extract):
Homemade and All Natural Thin Mints at 101 Cookbooks - I have two of Heidi's cookbooks and the recipes are amazing.  These would be my bet to make first.
Chocolate Mint Cookies at Epicurious
Homemade Thin Mint at Baking Bites

Somoas:
Samoas at Baking Bites 
Samoas Bar at Baking Bites
Homemade Samoas at Chicken in the Road

Tagalongs:
Tagalongs at Baking Bites 
Homemade Tagalongs at The Recipe Box

Do-Si-Dos:
Do-Si-Dos by Baking Bites  

Slow, Low, Wet and Long

One of the ways we're trying to save money is by using cuts of meat that are a little off the beaten path.  Everyone can cook steaks, chicken breasts, pork chops and lamb chops.  But try to find information on lesser known cuts of meat, like lamb ribs and you'll find a lot less information out there.  Lamb is one of the few types of meat that I feel comfortable buying in the grocery store.  Americans eat less than a pound a year of lamb so there's very little incentive for commercial producers to up production using things like CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation).  Granted, I still like to buy as much as I can locally so I stay on the lookout for inexpensive cuts like lamb ribs from places like Laurel Creek Farms but if I see a good buy on lamb at the supermarket, I'll pick it up.  A lot of these cuts of meat benefit from cooking a long time over very low heat with some liquid in the pan.  This takes a normally very tough cut of meat and makes it so tender it almost falls off the bone.

One of my favorite blogs is Farmgirl Fare.  Susan lives on a 240 acre farm in Missouri.  She's a baker so you can find all kinds of amazing bread recipes on her site. She and her husband also raise sheep so out of necessity, she's got several yummy sounding lamb recipes.  The one I tried today was Susan's Slow Cooked Dutch Oven Lamb Shanks.  I made a few adjustments but stayed fairly close to the recipe.

Susan's Slow Cooked Dutch Oven Lamb

1/4 cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
3 yellow onions, peeled and thickly sliced
1.5 pounds lamb shanks
1 cup red wine (I used Shiraz)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf Italian parsley
6 medium frozen tomatoes - chopped up 
salt & pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Sprinkle lamb shanks with salt and and pepper and then brown on all sides (in batches if necessary), using tongs to turn the pieces.  Remove lamb and set aside.

Add onions to Dutch oven and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and starting to brown, about 5 to 7 minutes.  Make a well in the center of the onions and add the garlic. Cook, stirring so that all the garlic touches the bottom of the pot, 1 to 2 minutes. Mix garlic with onions.  Stir in 1/2 cup of the wine, bring to a boil and stir up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot.  Stir in the rosemary and parsley.  Move onions to the side and set the lamb roasts on the bottom of the pot. Cover the meat with some of the onions.  Scatter the frozen tomatoes over the meat and pour on the remaining 1/2 cup of red wine.  Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Put on the lid and set the pot in the oven. Cook for 2-1/2 to 3 hours (or longer), stirring everything around after the first and second hours. If the meat hasn't already fallen off the bone, it should easily come away with a fork. Mix everything together and serve with mashed potatoe, egg noodles or fresh bread.

I served mine with egg noodles.  This was fabulous.  Lamb has to be one of the best smelling meats you can cook and when you add the onions, garlic and wine.... well, just get ready to be driven out of your mind with hunger.  I would make a few changes to it though.  I would add more rosemary and parsley - in fact, I might rub the shanks down with extra rosemary, sea salt and pepper the day before I cooked them, just to give them more flavor.  I would also add even more tomatoes and onions.  Lamb fat is a beautiful thing and it flavors food in an amazing way.  Adding more vegetables would stretch the number of servings as well, making it even less expensive per serving.  I also would make this the day before I wanted to serve it.  I would cook it longer in order to render out as much fat as possible.  I would try cooking it longer too.  Make sure you strain out the juices and let them sit in a fat strainer for a brief period of time.  This reduces the greasiness of the dish quite a bit.

This was so good it's going into regular rotation on our dinner menu.  It's easy, I can already tell you that leftovers will hold well and it tastes great.

The best bread ever!

I'm a but late jumping on the bandwagon but we recently tried the No-Knead bread that's making it's way around the internet.  All I can say is WOW!  If you live someplace with great bakeries like NYC or California, you probably won't be as impressed but I live in a city where a lot of people think Panera is the cream of the crop.  We do have two local bakeries that we patronize but one of them is known more for their sweets and the other, while pretty tasty, sells their peasant bread for $4 a small loaf.  The bread we made was better and a lot cheaper, even with organic flour and King Authur White Whole Wheat flour.  We tried two recipes - they were both delicious so we're going to have to do a taste test with both of them to decide which one we like the best.

Here's the first recipe. I'll try to get the other one typed up and posted this week.

No-Knead Bread (New York Times)
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

NOTES: I used one cup of King Arthur White Whole flour instead of all white flour and I'm going to keep increasing that amount in future tries.  My dough hung out in the cellar for 18 hours during it's first rise.

Tomato Toast

This morning, we went to our local farmer's market and were thrilled to see some ripe tomatoes there!  Yes - they looked kind of puny and No - there was no way they'd be as good as late season heirlooms but they would still taste better than anything we could find at the grocery store.  Even our famed Grainger County tomatoes aren't anything like they used to be.  They're the standard Celebrity variety that is hard as heck but ships well.  And they're never picked ripe so they're tasteless.  So our puny looking tomatoes were a treat indeed.

Bruschetta is the meal we always make when the first heirloom tomatoes are ripe - it wasn't time for that yet.  But we could make another one of our favorite summer foods - Tomato Toast.  This is easy as can be.  Take a nice, artisanal bread - we either use peasant bread or Ciabatta.  Rub slices with olive oil and grill.  When they're nice and grill-marked, take a clove of garlic and rub it into each slice, right before you eat it.  Then take a tomato half, hold it with the cut side toward the bread and rub the tomato until most of it has dissolved onto the bread.  Sprinkle with kosher salt or sea salt and eat.  Summer's here!

Cherries up the wazoo!

This past week, we've picked over 20 pounds of cherries.  Picking them in the easy part.  I never remember in my zeal for picking them that we will have to process all of them which is not quite as much fun.  I try very hard not to buy too many specialized gadgets but I will be buying a cherry pitter for next year.  If you don't have a cherry pitter, you can make due with a paper clip that's been bent into a 'S' shape.  Bend the botton curve up a tiny bit and insert it into a cherry at the stem end.  Pie cherries are much easier to pit but do this outside in old clothes.  Once pit, you can freeze the cherries, can them or dry them.  It was so hot this past week that the thought of spending a couple of hours over a hot, steamy stove made me feel faint.  So we froze most of the cherries.  We did dry some of the pie cherries and I really liked how they turned out.  I think they'll be amazing in muffins and recipes this fall.  We use a dehydrator - it gets rather humid here so this is the easiest way to dry stuff for us.  We dried several pie cherries plain and they're tasty.  Very tart but still good.  The other recipe was more like the Craisins you buy in the store.  We're going to pick a few more pounds next week to dry this way.

Cherry 'Craisins'
2 cups pitted pie cherries
1/2 cup sugar

Combine in saucepan and let sit for ten minutes.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for one minute.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Strain and dry cherries.

Do NOT throw the leftover cherry juice out.  It makes the most amazing cherry limeades ever - we froze it ice cube trays to use later this summer.  I also plan to experiment with the amounts of sugar.  I think we could use a little bit more in the recipe.

I am now so in love with pie cherries that I'm going to figure out a way to put one in on my city lot.  Cherry juice is so amazingly wonderful but it gets a little pricey when it's made from cherries that are $2 a pound!

We froze the rest for canning later.  I plan on making several different kinds of jams and there's a chutney recipe that looks yummy.

Garlic Scape Pesto

This is wonderful tossed with pasta.  You can also use it in place of garlic butter to make some yummy garlic bread.  Thin it out with sour cream and it makes a great salad dressing or dip.  Use it as a base for pizza.  I freeze pesto to use all year for my version of "fast food".  Boil some pasta, add pesto and sundried tomatoes.  Mix in any leftover vegetables.

Garlic Scape Pesto:

½ lb. scapes (chopped into 1" pieces)

1½ cups olive oil

2 cups grated parmesan cheese

In a blender, combine the scapes and olive oil. Pour mixture into bowl and blend the cheese in by hand. I freeze this in ice cube trays - the cubes get put in a freezer bag.

Local Cherry Sorbet

We made this a couple of days ago from local sweet cherries from the Fruit & Berry Patch.  It's been miserably hot here this week so this has tasted especially good.  I got this recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  It's one of my favorite books.

Cherry Sorbet

2 heaping cups pitted sweet cherries
3/4 cup sugar (or honey to taste)
2/3 cup water

Combine sugar and water over low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved completely.  Let cool.  Combine with cherries in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into ice cream maker and freeze as directed.

Peas + cream + pasta = heaven!

I made this recipe tonight.  It's from Ed's lovely blog, The Slow Cook.  It's a wonderful blog and I highly recommend it.  Ed's blog keeps me up to date on a lot of current events in the food world.

Peas with pasta and cream

Sweat 1/4 onion, diced small, in a heavy saute pan or skillet with olive oil. Season the onion with salt to draw out the liquid. When the onions are soft, after about 8 minutes, pour in 1 cup heavy cream, in this case the deliciously thick cream we get delivered from South Mountain Creamery. When the cream starts to bubble, lower the heat so that the cream continues to simmer.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add 1/2-pound pasta. While the pasta is cooking, the cream should thicken to a sauce-like consistency. Add 2/3-cup shelled peas to the sauce and cook just a minute or so, until the peas are softened to your taste. Season with a pinch of salt.

When the pasta is al dente, remove it from the pot, drain it well and toss it into the skillet with the cream sauce and peas. Stir in a liberal grating of pecorino cheese. Serve immediately in warm, shallow bowls.

This was absolutely wonderful.  I used Waverex petite pois and Wando shelling peas in my dish.  The Waverex are a pain in the butt to shell but they are incredibly tasty.  I actually got my peas started very late this year and I'm shocked they've done as well as they have.  I don't think they're long for this world with the very hot, dry weather we're having.  The cream I used was from Cruze Farms.  Their milk is lightly pasteurized and not homogenized.  It is some of the most fabulous milk I've ever had.  We let the cream rise and skim it off.  We usually end of making butter out of it but it went into this dish tonight.  I used penne pasta because that's what we had.  Obviously, that wasn't local - the pecorino wasn't local either.  I did use some small baby onions from our garden.

For dinner, we're having homemade cherry sorbet from local cherries we picked yesterday.  I'll post the recipe if it's good!

Homemade Laundry Soap

Has anyone ever made their own laundry soap?  And more importantly, does it do well in a high efficiency washer?

Homemade Laundry Soap - @ disdressed

I have found that you can use about 1/8 the amount of detergent that the package says and stuff will get just as clean.  And just for the record, if my former 15 year old self had ever known that I'd be blogging about the wonders of laundry detergent, she would have died!

Collards don't suck!

Before Saturday, I'd had collard greens twice in my life.  Once was at a PoFolks restaurant.  Another time was at a potluck I went to with a friend.  Each time I saw people (usually older people) enthusiastically eating collard greens so I decided to try them.  And both times I wondered what the hell these people were thinking eating something so nasty. 

However, I've always wanted to like eating collards.  They're a very southern thing, they're good for you and they're one of the only local vegetables you can get your hands on right now.  So I bought some the other day and hoped for the best.  I knew I need to give them their best shot at stardom so I opened up Deborah Madison's book, Local Flavors and looked for a recipe.  I found one that not only used collards bit also had potatoes and bacon in it.  I've already used up all our local potatoes but I did have some organic ones from the co-op.  I also had local bacon on hand and chile buzz (vinegar, hot peppers and salt) made from our Lemon Drop peppers.

I actually tried the collards before Mark cooked them up and they were fairly tasty - cabbagy but not bitter at all.  Local and treated to plenty of cold weather definitely makes a difference with this vegetable.  I'm actually thinking of putting in a couple of plants for next year - do they still taste as decent in hot weather?

This recipe is incredible.  I never thought that I would actually crave collards!

Collards with Potatoes [and Bacon]
adapted from "Local Flavors" by Deborah Madison
serves 2 to 4

"Bacon, made without nitrates and from wholesomely raised pigs is superb, especially with these greens, but just leave the bacon out if you're not a bacon eater."

2 bunches collard greens or a mixture of collards and kale
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 medium yellow-fleshed potatoes, scrubbed and coarsely diced
3 or 4 strips bacon, cut into small pieces, optional
2 tbsp. peanut or olive oil
1/2 onion, finely diced
2 plump garlic cloves, finely chopped
good pinch of red pepper flakes
hot pepper sauce or vinegar for the table – we used Chili Buzz

1. Strip the collard leaves from the stems and wash the greens. Bring a few quarts of water to a boil. Add salt and the greens, then simmer for 10 minutes. Scoop them into a bowl. Add the potatoes to the cooking water and simmer until tender, 7 to 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned. Set it on paper towels to drain, discard the fat, and wipe out the pan.

3. Return the pan to the heat, add the oil, and when it's hot, add the onion. Cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

4. Coarsely chop the cooked greens, then add them to the pan along with the garlic and pepper flakes. Scoop some of the potato water into the pan as well so that everything cooks in a little moisture, adding more water as needed.

5. When the potatoes are tender, scoop them out and add them to the greens. Add the bacon, then toss everything together. Taste for salt and season with pepper. Keep everything distinct or mash the potatoes into the greens. It's messy-looking this way but especially good. Season with pepper sauce or vinegar to taste.

Swiss Chard - what's not to love?

I've never been a big fan of typical southern greens.  The ones I had were always bitter and the texture and color were about as appealing as warm spit.  Over the past few years, I've become a much bigger fan of greens in general.   My all time fave has to be Bright Lights swiss chard.  It's a gorgeous plant - technicolor shades of red, yellow and orange.  It's so pretty I grow it in my flower borders and it looks good the majority of the year.  It's been a little cold here so it's not a perky as it normally is but it still adds color to my very brown and dead garden.  With a rowcover and some plastic, it stays in great shape in my raised beds.  If you pick the leaves small enough, it adds color and flavor to winter salads.  The larger leaves are great to cook with.  One of my favorite ways to serve them are lightly sauteed in olive oil with a little bit of garlic.  If the stems are fairly large, cut them up separately and saute them first before adding the leaves.  When that's done, sprinkle with some pecorino Romano cheese.  I know this won't sound like a ringing endorsement but to me, this tastes like absolutely delicious dirt.  It's got a rich earthiness that is very satisfying but still tastes green to me.  Here's another recipe that's amazing for breakfast.  Come spring, it's actually part of our morning strawberry picking ritual.  Mark makes it while I go pick a few handfuls of strawberries that are then sliced and lightly sprinkled with Penzey's Vanilla Sugar.  Absolute heaven.

Scrambled Eggs with Swiss Chard and Goat Cheese

Saute a couple handfuls of swiss chard leaves (chopped up if big) in 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat.  If you like, add a little garlic, green garlic, garlic scapes or shallots as well.  Saute for 5-10 minutes until greens are very wilted and greatly reduced.  Take four eggs and add to pan, breaking up yolks with a fork.  Then add 1-2 ounces (or more if you feel like splurging) of fresh goat cheese and scramble eggs until they resemble fluffy curds.  Serve!

You can also add cream cheese or boursin cheese instead of the goat cheese.  Fresh herbs are also lovely in this - tarragon is particularly nice.  This is also yummy piled into an enlish muffin.

Thrifty stew

I don't like New Years resolutions that much - it seems like so many people are completely unrealistic about what can be achieved.  It's not enough to eat better.  They have to lose 50 pounds and exercise every day on top of that.  I guess my expectations are more realistic - I've made broad declarations before and failed so it seemed kind of silly to keep doing it.  I've been very happy with the steps Mark and I have made in eating locally and reducing our dependence on the corporate food model.  But the only reason we've been so successful is that we did it on small steps.  First we tried to spend more of our grocery money at farmers markets.  Then we tried to eat a meal with local meat once a month (our choices were a lot smaller back then and MUCH more expensive).  Then we tried to eat more seasonally.  We just kept building from there.  I've already made a post about our goals for 2008 but one thing I didn't include is my desire to be more thrifty.  I know that sounds silly when we're paying out extra money for grass fed meat but I've always been ashamed by how much food Mark and I waste.  We buy cilantro from the store and half of it rots.  I just threw out over half a container of ricotta cheese.  That's just wasteful and I want to try harder to make use of everything we buy - if we have to buy it at the grocery store, I at least want to squeeze every little bit out of our purchase.  So we're going to take little steps towards that goal.  I bought some cilantro from our local food co-op.  Rather than let it rot in the fridge, I chopped the whole bunch up and filled up an ice tray with it and poured a little water over it.  Not as good as fresh but it will work well in soups and cooked dishes.  I made refried beans the other night.  Instead of pouring out the bean liquor, we saved it and I made a yummy soup with it the next day by combining it with a can of roasted tomatoes and some cheese and frozen cilantro.  I'm making a list of all of the condiments we have so we can use them up as well.  Little steps but they're steps in the right direction.

A few months ago I found this recipe for Clamizo stew online and saved it.  Krogers has canned clams on sale - 10 cans for $10.  We had Spanish chorizo that we needed to use up - it was starting to get white spots on the casing because of salt deposits.  So this recipe sounded ideal - quick, fairly cheap and fairly seasonal.   I made a few changes to it - and I rewrote the ingredients so the yield is reduced by roughly half.  I want leftovers but when dealing with seafood, I only want enough for an extra meal.   This recipe is really great - it's very easy and the sum is far better than the parts.  I'll be honest, I had a few thoughts of "Crap - all these clams wasted" while it was simmering but it turned out to be delicious.  I upped the amount of chorizo slightly and chose to saute it first.  It's very fatty and I wanted to drain that out.  Instead of olive oil, I used a tablespoon of the chorizo fat to saute the leeks.  I also reduced the amount of clams - I like clams but I wanted this stew to be an equal partnership between the chorizo and the clams.  Finally, I added in some smoked Spanish paprika and parsley from the garden.  I think they made a good addition.  First, they got rid of any lingering "canny" taste from the clams and the smokiness of the paprika reinforced the smokiness of the chorizo and the roasted tomatoes.

Clamizo Stew
Adapted from Welcome to my Pantry

1-2 leeks, chopped (white parts only)
1/2 cup Spanish Chorizo, chopped in small dice
3 medium potatoes, diced
2-3 6.5 oz. cans chopped clams
14 oz. can Muir Glen Fire-Roasted tomatoes (diced)
1-2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
¼ cup chopped parsley

Saute chorizo over medium heat until lightly brown and crispy.  Drain off most of oil and saute leeks in oil. Add the potatoes, clams, tomatoes and smoked paprika and cook on medium until the potatoes are tender.   Add most of parsley (save a little to garnish right before serving) and serve with warm, crusty bread.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Sausage, Leeks, and Fontina

This is a really tasty way to eat local right now.  Everything except for the pasta, olive oil and cheese can be found in locally right now.  Even if you don't like cabbage, give this a try.  I've served it to avowed cabbage haters and they really liked it.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Sausage, Leeks, and Fontina

6 quarts water
2 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 pound uncooked whole wheat penne or rigatoni
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (4-ounce) link sweet Italian sausage
2 cups chopped leek
4 cups shredded Savoy cabbage (about 9 1/2 ounces)
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded fontina cheese

Bring 6 quarts water and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil in a large stockpot. Stir in pasta; partially cover, and return to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook 8 minutes or until pasta is almost al dente, stirring occasionally. Drain.

While pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Remove casing from the sausage. Add sausage to Dutch oven; cook 2 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring to crumble. Add leek; cook 2 minutes or until leek is soft, stirring frequently. Add cabbage; cook 2 minutes or until cabbage wilts, stirring frequently. Add remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, broth, and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until vegetables are very tender.

Add pasta to Dutch oven, tossing well to coat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly, or until pasta is al dente. Remove from heat; stir in cheese. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 2/3 cups)

CALORIES 385(21% from fat); FAT 8.9g (sat 3.2g,mono 3.8g,poly 1.2g); PROTEIN 17.3g; CHOLESTEROL 18mg; CALCIUM 119mg; SODIUM 658mg; FIBER 8.3g; IRON 3.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 64.3g
Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2004

Another leftover turkey recipe

As much as I love turkey on Thanksgiving, I don't think it's the tastiest leftover.  My family always smokes a turkey and I like smoked turkey leftovers the best but I still like to do something different with them, rather than just eat plain turkey.  One way to eat is on a sandwich with mayo and cranberry sauce.  This recipe is another favorite.  It's fairly easy to do with mostly local ingredients.   The cranberry sauce was not local, nor was the lime and cumin.  This year the pear wasn't local because of the freeze and the sour cream wasn't local but I'm getting more and more creative with my home cheesemaking and I think I'm going to try homemade sour cream soon.  The tortillas weren't local but we did make them ourselves.  The cilantro is local(frozen) and the green onions and pepper are from our garden.  The jack cheese is local and our turkey was a local bird.  I'm seriously thinking about making the salsa to serve next year with Thanksgiving dinner.  It's that good.

Jack Quesadillas with Cranberry Salsa

SALSA:
1 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 Anjou pear, cored and finely diced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced

QUESADILLAS:
Cooking spray
1/4 cup (2-inch-thick) slices green onions
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
2 cups chopped cooked turkey
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream

To prepare salsa, combine first 7 ingredients. Cover and chill.
To prepare quesadillas, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1/4 cup sliced onions to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Remove onions from pan; reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons cheese over each of 4 tortillas. Top each cheese-covered tortilla with one-fourth of onions, 1/2 cup turkey, 2 tablespoons cheese, and 1 tortilla.
Recoat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 quesadilla to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned and cheese melts. Repeat with remaining quesadillas. Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges. Serve with cranberry salsa and sour cream.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 3 wedges, about 1/4 cup salsa, and 1 tablespoon sour cream)

CALORIES 356 (25% from fat); FAT 9.7g (sat 4.2g,mono 3.5g,poly 1.2g); PROTEIN 19.4g; CHOLESTEROL 42mg; CALCIUM 218mg; SODIUM 372mg; FIBER 3g; IRON 2.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 47.8g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2004

Leftover turkey? Make Spicy Turkey and Sweet Potato Gumbo

I’m not big on packaged mixes but this freezes like a dream and can be made with fairly local ingredients.  Next year I plan to make some homemade “Rotel” and can it and I’m sure there’s a way to make your own rice mix but that’s never going to be local for me.  We still have peppers (under row covers and plastic – I’m sure frozen chopped peppers could be used) and we can use celery leaf instead of celery.  The Italian sausage is local as is the turkey and the chicken broth.    We’ve got garlic, oregano and thyme.  The sweet potatoes are from the farmers market and we have homemade hot sauce.  So right now the only non-local ingredients are the rice mix, the onion, the flour, the Rotel and the bay leaf!  We usually quadruple the recipe and freeze it.  It makes a wonderful quick meal during the busy holiday season. 

Spicy Turkey and Sweet Potato Gumbo

1 (6-ounce) box long-grain and wild rice mix (such as Uncle Ben's)
2 (4-ounce) links hot turkey Italian sausage
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups (1/4-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
4 cups chicken broth
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes with green pepper and onion, undrained
1 bay leaf
2 cups chopped cooked dark-meat turkey
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

Cook the rice according to package directions, omitting seasoning packet.

Remove casings from sausage. Cook sausage in a Dutch oven over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper; cook 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic; cook 1 minute. Stir in flour; cook for 6 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring constantly. Add sweet potato and next 5 ingredients (sweet potato through bay leaf); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Add turkey and hot sauce; cook, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Serve over rice.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 1/3 cups gumbo and 1/2 cup rice)

CALORIES 379 (18% from fat); FAT 7.5g (sat 2.3g,mono 2.2g,poly 2.3g); PROTEIN 27.3g; CHOLESTEROL 72mg; CALCIUM 68mg; SODIUM 804mg; FIBER 4.8g; IRON 3.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 48.9g

Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2001

Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms - SBD friendly

Kind of a crazy day but I'm bound and determined to rise to the NaBloPoMo challenge!  So here's a quick recipe that's really yummy.  Plus it's ok for phase 1 of South Beach Diet as long as you don't load on the goat cheese!

Saute mushroom caps in a nonstick skillet on medium heat in a tiny bit of butter, garlic and salt for about two minutes.  Then add about a 1/4 cup of water, cover and steam until tender.  Uncover and let the juices cook down a bit.  Turn down to low and put a little bit of goat cheese in each one and cover again.  Cook just until goat cheese is good and warm and serve!

Caramelized Pumpkin Bread Pudding

This dessert is fantastic - sweet but not too sweet.  If you can, please use fresh pumpkin or winter squash - it makes the recipe.  When you make it, take a big bite and think of me because it's going to be at least two weeks before I can make this again since we're doing South Beach Diet!  :-D

Bread pudding
2 cups half and half
2 1/2 cups pumpkin or winter squash puree
1 cup (packed) plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (we used Penzey's)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 cups 1/2-inch cubes egg bread  - if you use drier bread, use less
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Caramel sauce
3/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup whipping cream

For bread pudding: Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk half and half, pumpkin, dark brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract to blend. Fold in bread cubes. Stir in cranberries. Transfer mixture to 11x7-inch glass baking dish. Let stand 15 minutes. Bake pumpkin bread pudding until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare caramel sauce: Whisk brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Adapted from Epicurious

Slow Roasted Pork Roast

This is one of my favorite recipes ever.  We make this dish at least once a month.  It's super easy to make and wonderful for parties because it's so not fussy. 

Slow Roasted Pork Roast
3-7 pound Boston Butt/shoulder pork roast or picnic roast
Roughly 1/2 to 3/4 tablespoon kosher salt per pound of roast

Set oven to 300 degrees.  Trim outside fat off of roast.  Rub salt into roast - put into a dutch oven or another heavy pot with a cover.  Roast until tender.  A 3 lb roast will take about 3 hours - obviously a bigger roast will take longer.  If you need to eat and the roast isn't completely done, you can cut some of the outside pieces off and leave the rest of the roast in the oven to roast longer.  It's very hard to overcook this.

We usually make the roast and serve it for dinner with Cuban black beans and rice.  You make a tasty sauce for the roast by combining equal parts lime and orange juice - add thinly sliced onion, and equal parts flat leaf parsley and cilantro.  This is such an amazing meal. 

Ways to use leftovers

1. Serve this at a party and let your friends sneak into the kitchen and eat it all that night!  :-D  This always happens if we serve this at a party.
2. Serve on corn tortillas(make homemade ones if you can - they're really that much better) with a sprinkle of cilantro and lime or with all the typical soft taco fixings.
3. Make sandwiches with slightly sweet bread, mustard, dill pickles, ham and swiss cheese - heat in the oven or press in a pan or a sandwich maker.  These are amazing!

Try to find someone in your community to buy your pork from.  That pig will have led a good, piggy life before he becomes your meal and the taste of free-range pork is so unbelievably good.  The pork is fattier than the kind you buy at the supermarket but it's easy to trim off the outside fat and when you cook it at a low temperature for such a lengthy period, a lot of the fat cooks out.

Roasted Carrots with Cumin and Lime

This is another recipe from Peter Berley's new book - The Flexitarian Table.  The actual name is "Roasted Spring Carrots with Cumin and Lime" but we have such glorious fall carrots that I wanted to try this.  I changed the recipe a tiny bit.

1 pound fresh baby carrots, scrubbed and trimmed, or fresh longer carrots, scrubbed and trimmed and quartered lengthwise.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes or 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Sea salt or kosher salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large ovenproof skillet and add 2 tablespoons water.  Bring to a boil.

Transfer the pan to oven and roast, tossing halfway through, until the carrots are tender and glazed, about 15 minutes.  Serve.

NOTE - we used the Aleppo pepper - Penzey's Spices is a great place to get this and I think it's worth it.  It's warm but also has a great tartness to it as well.  We also added 1-2 tablespoons of honey at the very end of the recipe. 

Mmmmm.....Delicious Turnips!

And I'm not even being sarcastic!  We went to the farmer's market this afternoon and got some of the yummiest turnips - gorgeous white huge turnips with dark greens attached.  When we brought them home, we cut one up and I was shocked by how yummy it was.  I like raw turnips but they're not something I ever really crave.  These were juicy and almost had the texture of a peach in the middle - I never thought I'd think of a turnip as luscious but these were.  Sweet with the faint cabbage-like taste that let you know it was a turnip.  I wanted to eat some of them tonight so I looked for a recipe that used both the root and the greens.  I found the recipe I was looking for in A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen - this book has become one of my standards I always use.  I think you could add some ground pork to make this even richer if you wanted to.

Stir-fried Turnips with Greens

• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 3 medium scallions, white and light green parts, minced (chives, leeks, and/or onion are also good)
• 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs minced ginger root
• 1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbs plus 1 tsp roasted peanut oil
• 1 1/2 lbs small turnips, cut into 3/4-inch wedges or chunks
• 5 cups packed stemmed small tender turnip greens

Combine the orange juice and soy sauce in a small bowl or measuring cup. Place the scallions, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes in a another small bowl. Heat 1 Tbs of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the turnips and stir-fry until lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

Clear the center of the pan and spread the garlic mixture over the empty spot in the pan. Drizzle the remaining 1 tsp of oil over the aromatics and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir the aromatics into the turnips to combine.

Add the orange juice mixture to the pan, cover , and cook, stirring once or twice, until the turnips are creamy and tender and the liquid has reduced to a few tablespoons, 2 to3 minutes. Add the greens, cover and cook just until wilted, about 1 minute. (If the contents of the pan are too soupy, simmer with the cover off to reduce the liquid to a sauce consistency.) Serve immediately.

We served this with Basmati Rice.  The OJ, soy sauce, ginger, oil and rice weren't local.  Everything else was!

Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan

This is from The Flexitarian Table by Peter Berley.  I own Fresh Food Fast, another of his books and what I love about both of them is the way they're set up by seasons.  I find it very helpful for me - granted some of the spring recipes can be used in autumn and vice versa but for inspiration, the seasonal layout is something I look for in a cookbook.  Plus I have a theory that the best cookbook authors are people who have been vegetarian at some point.  So many of my standards are done by former or current vegetarians!  Peter Berley used to be the chef at Angelica's Kitchen which is a famous vegan cafe.  We made this recipe tonight and served it as a side to leftover French Onion soup.

Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan
3 pounds broccoli (cut bottom 1/2 inch off each stalk, then peel the stalks(we didn't do this) and cut down the whole length of each one for divide the broccoli into medium size florets attached to long, thin stems)
6 T extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
3/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup white wine vinegar

Place a 10-12 inch cast-iron pan, a heavy rimmed baking sheet or a roasting pan on the middle rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss the broccoli with 5 T of oil, the pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste.

Carefully transfer the hot pan to the stovetop and add the broccoli.  Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the broccoli and drizzle with the remaining 1 T of oil.

Return the pan to the oven and roast until the broccoli is crispy and browning on the edges and the stems have begun to soften, about 25 minutes.

Transfer broccoli to a serving platter.  Add vinegar to the hot pan and stir, scraping up the caramelized bits cooked onto the bottom.  Pour the pan juices over the broccoli and serve.

Pasta with Spicy Broccoli

We had this for supper last night and for such a simple and easy recipe, it was delicious.  Try to get the freshest broccoli you can lay your hands on.  We bought ours from the Farmers's Mkt and it was so fresh that it was slightly sweet.  This is an adaptation from the book, A Year in a Vegetarian's Kitchen by Jack Bishop.

Orecchiette with Spicy Broccoli
1.5 pounds broccoli
1/4 c EV olive oil
6 minced galic cloves
3/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1/2 cup water
Salt
1 pound orecchiette

1)Bring 4 qts water to boil.  Chop broccoli.

2)Heat oil, garlic and pepper flakes in a skillet over medium heat.  Cook until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes.  Add broccoli and stir to coat well with oil.  Cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add water and cover pan.  Reduce heat and steam broccoli until tender - about 4 minutes.  Adjust seasonings - add salt and more pepper flakes to taste.

3)Cook pasta.  Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain pasta.  Toss the pasta with the broccoli and 1/4 cooking water.  Add more water as needed to moisten pasta and serve immediately.

NOTES:  We had elbow macaroni here so that's what we used.  We also added some capers at the end and dusted it with romano cheese.  It would also be fantastic with lemon zest or fresh bread crumbs.

Homemade Falafel

This is a VERY "loose" recipe.  Measurements aren't exact in about all cases.

Take one cup plain yogurt (don't use no-fat) and mix with chopped cucumber and minced garlic.  Add salt and chill.

Toast some wholegrain pita bread and chop up some tomatoes and red peppers.

Chop finely:
1 onion
2-3 tiny carrots(we got these from the farmers market and they were little)
Some red pepper (we used half of a small pepper)

Saute in olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes.  Add a couple of minced cloves of garlic and about a teaspoon of ground cumin (add half of this and keep adding to taste).  We made a huge pot of chickpeas a few weeks back and froze the extras.  Add 2 cups (I think the flavor is a lot better than canned) and cook as much liquid out of it without burning.  Take off heat and add a couple of tablespoons of tahini and some minced parsley.  Let cool and add one beaten egg.  Mix well and add one teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 to 1 cup flour.  I used all-purpose because I was out of whole wheat.  Mix well.

Saute large spoonfuls of batter in olive oil over medium heat and drain on paper towels.  Serve rolled up in a pita with tomatoes and peppers and drizzled with cucumber yogurt sauce.  This was an awesome meal. 

I've got a decent amount of batter left so I'm going to lightly fry the rest of the patties and try freezing them to see how they do.

Habanero Gold

Hot 'N Sweet Confetti Jelly

1 cup minced dried apricots (1/8" dice)
1 1/4 total cups minced red sweet pepper & minced red onion (1/8" dice), approximately half-and-half.
1/4 cup Habanero peppers
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
6 cups sugar
1 3-oz. pouch liquid pectin

Prep apricots, peppers and onion. Place in a large, stainless or other non-reactive pot. Add sugar and vinegar. Bring to the boil and cook 5 minutes. Pull off the burner; allow to cool, cover and let sit overnight(or at least 4-6 hours). Stir occasionally if convenient.

Next day, bring the mixture back to the boil. Stir in liquid pectin. Boil hard 1 minute. Pull off the heat. If necessary, skim foam. Let cool 2 minutes, stirring to distribute solids. Pour into jars. Stir to distribute and remove air bubbles. Do the usual with the jars and lids, BWB 10 minutes.  When jars are sealed, "agitate" to distribute solids throughout the jelly.
Yield: 6 8-oz. jars.

ReadingLady from GardenWeb came up with the recipe which is the same recipe as Habanero Gold in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  It just makes a larger batch and uses the liquid pectin more efficiently because it's kind of pricey.  It's been soaking for a bit and I'll finish it up tonight or tomorrow.  It tastes fantastic though!  Habaneros really have an amazing flavor.  Of course that's followed by intense pain but they do taste wonderfully fruity before you die!  I tasted it and it's hot but not any hotter than other hot pepper jellies I've tried.  I think this is a lot more complex tasting too.  It's gorgeous!  Most of my jars are quilted so the effect won't be as pretty as completely clear jar but this is something you could give as a gift and be very proud of.  From what I've read, liquid pectin can be a bit finicky so I'll let you know how it sets up.

I got some sweet potatoes from Jerry along with another 10 pound winter squash.  We also bought two dozen eggs from him.  When it comes to eggs, I am spoiled rotten.  Farm fresh eggs have such an amazing flavor.  It's not overpowering - it just tastes more like an egg.  I had some regular eggs up at me parents a few weeks ago and they tasted so watery in comparison, with an almost metallic-like after taste.  I forgot what he said it was but I'll ask him later because I want to know in case it's crazy delicious.  Gary had yellow zucchini and he said it would probably be his last.  We also picked up a free range chicken and some Italian sausage from Dave of River Ridge Farms.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

I've been drooling over this recipe ever since I saw it:
Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Doesn't it look amazing?  So I tried it.....and messed it up!  I cooked mine on 250 and I think my oven temperature is off because they got too brown too quickly.  I'm going to try another batch this weekend after I pick up some more tomatoes at the Farmer's Mkt!

Sunday Food - Cheater's Fattoush

For lunch we had Cheater's Fattoush which is very easy and tasty.

Cheater's Fattoush:
Penzey's Greek Seasoning Mix - make the salad dressing on package
Ripe Tomatoes
Red Pepper
Cucumber
Pita Chips (Homemade or bought - we always keep a bag handy for last minute meals)

Chop up vegies and pour salad dressing over them. Crumble up some chips and add right before you serve it.

Not all local but the tomatoes and pepper were from our garden and the cucumber was from the Farmer's Market.

We also made banana oatmeal bars (nothing in them was local) and for dinner we had crap. Specifically, fried okra and stuffed jalapenos. The okra and cornmeal was local. The peppers were local but the cream cheese, cilantro & bacon were not. After eating this meal, I had a small heart attack and went to bed.

Spaghetti Sauce Recipe for canning

Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce
Source: Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.
This makes 8 cups.

Ingredients
8 cups coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes -- (about 9-12 tomatoes or 4 lb/2 kg)
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
⅔ cup red wine
⅓ cup red wine vinegar (5 % strength)
½ cup chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon pickling salt
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
1 6-oz can tomato paste

Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, wine, vinegar, basil, parsley, salt, sugar and tomato paste in a very large non-reactive pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until mixture reaches desired consistency, stirring frequently.

If canning, remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars to within ½ inch of rim (head space). Process 35 minutes for pint jars and 40 minutes for quart jars in a BWB.

This tasted pretty good before canning so I'm curious to see how it tastes after a few weeks of mellowing.