Pumpkin Spice Cream of Wheat

My kids were starting to get a little jealous of my homemade pumpkin spice latte habit. They kept asking if they could have one too, and while I try to be a pretty nice mom, I'm not nice enough to give them coffee first thing in the morning. (Or ever. Just to be clear on that.)

As they were staring longingly beside me as I whisked up the pumpkin and the spice and the cream, I had a little idea. And it was a good idea. One good enough that I think it's worth sharing.

Pumpkin Spice Cream of Wheat.

It's a super-fast, super-simple hot breakfast for a chilly fall day. And it helps with the guilt of those delicious lattes every morning. This recipe makes two servings, and takes about five minutes to prepare.

In a sauce pan, make your cream of wheat as directed. I actually use Bob's Red Mill wheat farina. It's 2 cups of water to 1/2 cup wheat, boiled for a minute or two. I usually add 1/4 tsp of salt to the cereal as it cooks.

When it's done, remove it from the heat and add:
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. pumpkin puree
2-3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice


Mix it all together well. Spoon into bowls, then top with a bit of half & half and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Okay, so I'm not a food photographer, and this doesn't look very pretty. But it's really, really good. I promise.

Growing and Using Fresh Beets

I didn't have the pleasure of tasting fresh beets until I grew them in my own garden. Apparently not a lot of people buy and cook fresh beets... probably because (if they're anything like me) they don't know what to do with them. The only way I had beets as a kid was pickled, from a can. They weren't my favorite... though admittedly, no vegetable was my favorite as a kid. I'm not sure what was wrong with me. I'm glad I outgrew it.

Since then, beets have turned into one of my favorites. Who knew such sweetness could come from an ugly ol' root that you pull out of the ground?

And they're easy to grow. I don't think I've ever not had success growing beets. They're relatively insect-proof, they survive if you forget to water, and they can handle both hot and cold temps. Here's what I've learned about growing beets:

*The seed is actually a small pod. When it sprouts, it will likely produce five or six little sprouts. Pull out all but one.
*Plant early. March is good in most areas - about the same time you plant brassicas (broccoli, etc.) If you plant a row every two weeks, you'll have fresh beets all summer (though sprouting seeds is usually hard in the hot, dry months.) If you want to can beets for later use, plant a big patch all at the same time.
*You can eat beets at any size. Golf-ball sized beets are the most tender, but even as much as three inches across, you can roast them and they will still taste great.
*Beet greens are essentially the same thing as Swiss chard. Cut the leaves at any time - the beet root will still keep growing, so long as you leave a few leaves on each plant. Toss the greens with some olive oil and garlic and saute them a bit for a great side veggie. Or, if you're drowning in beet greens, freeze them as you would spinach. They're great in soups and casseroles.

Variety matters. Depending on what you're going to do with your beets, choose a variety that suits your plans. Here are my favorites (I believe all of these are available through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and many other places):

*Bull's Blood - a dark purple-red root, this one is easiest for peeling if you're going to be putting them up for winter. It also stains the worst though.
*Golden - these ones are great for serving raw or roasting. They are perfect for messy kids, since they don't stain like the red beets do. They are a bit hard to sprout, so plant a few extra. I think goldens are my favorite, in general.
*Chioggia (candy cane) - If you want to impress your kids, the novelty of having a red and white striped beet is fun. The colors do run together a bit when they're cooked, but that doesn't take away from how pretty they are.
*Detroit Dark Red - if you want a dark red roasting beet, this is a good one. Doesn't peel as easy as Bull's Blood though. It has an "earthy" flavor that some of the others lack, if you like that sort of thing. I love mixing the Detroits, Goldens, and Chioggias when I cook, so I grow plenty of each of them.
*Crosby Egyptian - these ones are neat because they grow very much on top of the soil. You can tell how big your beets are getting just by looking, instead of having to dig around them every so often.

Beets will store For. Ever. Well, not forever. But for a really long time.

*When storing, leave about an inch of the tops and leave the long tap root.
*You can put them in a plastic bag in the fridge for months. Don't seal the bag, they need to breathe or they will mold.
*Try storing them in a root cellar or basement, in a container filled with damp sand. Don't forget to let them breathe. When I tried this, I had fresh beets into February the next year.
*If your beets feel a little soft after storage, put them in the fridge in a bowl of water for a day or two. They will firm back up.
*Beets can be frozen or pickled and canned, too.
*To freeze or can beets, you want to peel them first. Do this by putting them in boiling water for about half an hour. The skins will slip of fairly easily (or very easily with Bull's Blood) and the beet will be fork tender. Then slice, chop, or whatever, and put them by however you choose.
*When canning, a pound of beets is about a pint preserved. A 5 sq. ft. beet bed will easily produce 30 pounds of beets or more, and more greens than you could ever eat. 

Also worth noting:

*Beets will dye things red. This is useful if you have a skein of handspun yarn that you want to be pink or red. This is not as useful if you have a four year old, who will also be dyed pink or red.
*If you're going to can and/or freeze beets, go buy a stack of black kitchen towels. Unless you want your favorite rooster-printed kitchen towels to have a permanent pink tinge to them. 

My favorite beet recipe:

Roasted Beets

Cut the tops and taproots off of enough beets to feed your family. Expect them to eat a lot, so plan accordingly. (Usually 2 medium sized beets per person is good. Or more. They'll probably keep eating them as long as they are on the table.)

Use a vegetable peeler to peel the raw beets. Then slice them into 1/4-1/2" wedges.

In a glass baking dish, toss the beet wedges with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, enough to coat them liberally. Sprinkle with dehydrated, granulated garlic (or garlic powder), dried oregano, and salt and pepper.
 
Roast uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Check them every so often and give them a stir to make sure they cook evenly. They are done when they can be stabbed easily with a fork.

The tangy taste of the vinegar mixed with the sweetness of the beets is really impressive. My kids devour these sort of like candy.

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While it's harder to sprout beet seeds in the summer, August is the perfect time to plant if you want a fall beet harvest. Just so ya know. ;-)

Garden to Table Challenge: Venison Fiorentinis

"Girls, I'll be right back, gonna run out to the garden to get some food for dinner."

Oh man, I was starting to feel like I might never have the pleasure of uttering those words again. But alas, the time has finally come - we are starting to harvest little bits here and there, and the satisfaction of providing fresh vegetables for ourselves has returned. :::contented sigh::: Granted it's mostly spinach, and spinach isn't my favorite food, but right now, it tastes lovely!

And this means.... I finally have another post for the Garden to Table Challenge!

I have a deep, heartfelt love for hors d'ouevres and appetizers. I will happily read appetizer recipes in cook books, mark them and add them to my to-make list... and then realize we have no social life and I really have no reason to make fancy hors d'ouevres in real life. And then I decided there was no good reason not to be making them every so often for my family, just because they're good and we like them. Every so often, I'll make a plate of some kind of appetizer and serve it alongside baked potatoes or rice or salad. No one has complained yet, so I'm gonna keep doing it.

Tonight's dinner was just that - Venison Fiorentinis. The original recipe, which I changed quite a bit, came from The Colorado Farmer's Market Cookbook, one I suggest for anyone wanting to cook with fresh fruits and vegetables (and you don't have to be from Colorado to enjoy it.)

Venison Fiorentinis
1 lb venison steaks
4 cups fresh spinach
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not the powdery stuff.)
15 sheets phyllo dough
olive oil

Step one: fry the steaks in a bit of olive oil until medium rare. This takes about 8 minutes, turning once. Remove from pan and let cool a bit.

Step two: Chop the spinach into 1/2 inch bits. Toss it into a bowl with the parmesan cheese. Chop the steaks into tiny bits and mix those in as well. Season it with salt, pepper and garlic powder. This is your filling.

Step three: Fold a phyllo sheet in thirds, then cut this rectangle in half. You'll have two squares. Brush them with olive oil, then put a spoonful of filling on each square, fold it in half to make a triangle. Fill a baking sheet with these, then bake them at 400 degrees for 8 minutes or so, til the dough is golden.


No joke, these little things are pretty incredible. They even convince little girls to eat spinach without the slightest complaint. And as far as sinful appetizers go... well, there are more sinful things. If course, they're so little and cute that you don't feel guilty having "just one more"... several times.

If you don't have any venison steaks in your freezer, you could use regular beef steaks and they'd be just as amazing, I'm pretty certain.

I've never purchased or used phyllo dough before (I've lived a sheltered life.) It thrilled me more than it should have. As I was devouring these amazing bits of goodness, I was fantasizing about all the different things a girl could wrap in phyllo dough. The possibilities are endless. Go forth, my friends, and start wrapping things in phyllo. You will not be disappointed. Especially if it involves venison and cheese.

Garden to Table Challenge: Asparagus

It's Garden to Table Challenge day again! Wow, where did that week go? I wish I could tell you that I've got some great harvest to write about, but all I've got to show for my gardening efforts so far are some spinach seedlings and inch-high peas and onions. With the warm days we've been having, I am holding out hope that some day... perhaps in the distant future... I will produce some food from this new ground I'm working.

In the meantime, I'm still doing my best to make good use of what Mother Nature has to offer. This week: wild asparagus. Picking wild asparagus is an annual tradition around here, and with the warmer days a bit earlier this season, asparagus is already popping up along fence lines.

I've got a fridge full of asparagus spears standing in jars of water, waiting for canning tomorrow. Tonight's dinner was what I'm writing about today though - fish fillets poached in a wine/garlic/butter sauce with roasted parmesan wild asparagus spears alongside.

If I was cooler - and had planned ahead better, I'd have taken a picture. You'll have to use your imagination, but I promise, it was a beautiful meal.

For the asparagus:

Trim 1 lb (ish) asparagus spears. Place them in a shallow baking dish. Toss with a bit of olive oil to coat, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on about 1/4c. parmesan*. Or a third of a cup... or a half of a cup. I love parmesan. Cover the dish with foil, bake at 400 degrees for about half an hour. Seriously, it's that easy, and it's so good.

*Don't use that grated powdery stuff that comes in the spaghetti aisle. Buy real, grated parmesan. (Or grate some yourself.) It's worth it. I promise.

And in case you're dying for a new, super fast and easy fish recipe:

Tilapia with Wine/Garlic sauce:

Place 6 partially thawed tilapia filets in a shallow baking dish. Put a thin pat of butter on each filet. Drizzle white wine over it all, then squeeze half a lemon over that. Sprinkle with sea salt, dehydrated garlic and dried parsley. Cover with foil, bake about 25 minutes, til it flakes.

So it takes a total of about ten minutes to have this all in the oven. Then you can walk away and feed the baby chickens and turkeys, hoe a row in the garden, and come in just in time to put it on the table with a loaf of bread. Easy peasy.

So there's my Garden to Table Challenge submission for the week. Again, sorry for the lack of pictures. A hungry family sitting down to the dinner table doesn't look kindly upon Mom insisting they all stop eating so she can photograph their plates. I decided to let them eat in peace.

(Almost) Instant Homegrown Pizza Sauce

Pizza is a standard at our house - Saturday night dinners alternate between spaghetti and pizza. Everyone likes them both, and it seems to be a good lead-in to our "family night."

I make pizza sauce by the quart all summer long as the tomatoes are coming in, then freeze them in 1 cup portions. This works great, until I forget to take sauce out to thaw and dinner needs to be on the table in half an hour. So tonight, I improvised, and the result was so yummy I thought I'd share it.

Here's how to have "fresh" from the garden pizza sauce in less than five minutes.

Use half a quart of canned roma tomatoes. (Yes, half a quart is a pint. However, I can my tomatoes in quart jars, so I call it half a quart.) Squeeze most of the juice out. Put them in a bowl, cup, something that you can use your stick blender in.

To the tomatoes, add a couple cloves (or more) of garlic, a tablespoon or so of dehydrated onions, and a good bit of whatever Italian-ish spices grew successfully for you this year. I used dried basil, oregano, and rosemary.

Now mix away with your stick blender until it's pretty much smooth. If it's too thin (mine was) add a small handful of dried tomatoes to the mixture, and blend them in really well. It'll thicken right up, and add really rich flavor.



And that's that. Super simple, and super fast. I think I might actually like this more than the sauce I've been using for the past three years, it was that good.

An actual "recipe":
1 pint canned roma tomatoes, drained
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp dehydrated onions
2 Tbsp. mixed dried Italian herbs
1/4 c. dehydrated tomato slices

Blend all ingredients with an immersion blender until smooth.

Homemade Chicken Soup - for Marcie

My sweet friend Marcie is "afraid of soup." Her words. I keep trying to imagine this chilly fall weather without the warmth of soups, but I just can't.

So Marcie, here's a good, standard chicken soup recipe. From scratch.

Start with a whole chicken. (Don't panic. You can so do this. Nothin' to it.) Open the packaging, remove the giblets (if it comes with them, they'll be in a plastic bag stuffed inside the chicken. If it doesn't come with them, don't worry about it.) Rinse the chicken with water inside and out, just to get the excess juice off.

Stick the chicken in the crock pot (I use a 5 qt crock pot, which leaves room for lots of broth.) Fill the crock pot with water. Put the lid on, turn the crock on high, and walk away. Thoroughly ignore your chicken for six hours.

An hour before dinner time, chop your veggies. Start with some kind of onion (or scallions. Or leeks.) Dice up the onion, and dice some kind of root vegetable. Carrots are good. Or parsnips. Or both. In a big soup pot on the stove, heat a drizzle of olive oil. When it's hot, add the root veggie and the onion. Stir and cook until it's soft. Expect about 10 minutes.

Now add some other yummy stuff: a cup of frozen corn, a chopped green bell pepper, some diced zucchini, handfuls of shredded greens, a couple of chopped tomatoes, some diced celery stalks. Whatever you have is great. You want about four cups of this stuff, but don't measure, and don't sweat it. Use up leftover bits of fresh veggies in the fridge or freezer. It'll be fine. Stir it all together and let it cook for another couple of minutes.

While that's cooking, go to your crock pot. Measure out six cups of the broth. Pour that into the pot with the veggies. Simmer it on medium high.

Using a slotted spoon, take out the chicken legs and thighs. Your chicken should be falling apart by now, so this shouldn't be hard. It's not an exact science. Put the legs and thighs on a plate and use two forks to sort out the meat from the bones. Put the meat in the pot with the veggies and broth. Toss the bones in the trash. Oh, and turn off your crock pot. You're done with it for now.

Let the soup simmer for the better part of an hour. Season it with salt and pepper, and whatever sounds good. I like thyme and basil and garlic powder. Taste and season, taste and season. You'll know when it's right.

When the veggies are just about soft, if you want to, add in some kind of grain. I love brown rice (already cooked, usually leftover from some other meal) or you can use a package of egg noodles if you want chicken noodle soup. Continue simmering until the noodles are soft, or until the rice is heated, about 15 minutes.

So it takes about an hour and a half, not including the time spent sticking the chicken in the crock pot. But you don't just have to stand there for an hour and a half. Check it every so often, stir a bit, and leave it again. It's really pretty simple, and you'll have plenty leftover to reheat.

This makes 6-8 hearty servings.

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After dinner, go back to your crock pot. Use your slotted spoon to remove the rest of the chicken carcass. You can pull the breasts off to use in another meal, and whatever other bits of meat you find. Put the rest of the carcass in the trash. You've gotten good use from it.

If you have a strainer, put it over a glass jar. Ladle the broth that's still in the crock pot into the glass jar. You should get about another quart of broth. Let it cool for a couple of hours, then stick it in the fridge. The next morning, skim off the solid fat. Now you have a quart of chicken broth to either use, or freeze for another time.

Experimenting in the Kitchen: Kefir

A fellow foodie friend recently gave me a wonderful gift: a small handful of kefir grains.

By now, most folks know at least that kefir is good for you. It resembles yogurt in taste, though it tends to be much runnier in consistency (unless you make it with cream.) It's filled with all the good probiotics that our bodies are void of, but desperately need to really be healthy.

You can buy kefir at the health food stores, and it does taste quite yummy, but if you look at the ingredients list you'll realize how much has been added to it. And what most people aren't yet aware of is that kefir is really, really easy to make.

I'm an occasional yogurt maker. If I have half a gallon of raw milk left at the end of the week, I'll turn it into yogurt before it spoils. Yogurt isn't inherently difficult, but it takes effort and time. Kefir doesn't. There's no heating to just the right temperature, no keeping it warm for 8 hours. It's really simple: pour milk over the the kefir grains in a glass mason jar. Cover the jar loosely (I use a tea towel) and set it on your counter overnight (or longer.) We seem to like about 18 hours of culturing time, but it's not an exact science. I usually start it in the afternoon and it's ready the next morning. (Try setting your phone alarm to remind you when it's finished. As much as I hate to admit it, technology does have it's upside.)

After 12-18 hours, you'll have a jar of mild-tasting kefir. I should admit to you right now that I can't stand the taste of it plain. But I also can't stand the taste of yogurt, nor can I even manage to stomach a glass of milk. Dairy products gross me out, with only a few exceptions. So the trick for me is to find ways to use the kefir, to gain benefit from it, without having to actually taste it.

I've been doing that in the form of kefir smoothies. To serve a mommy and two little girls use approximately:
2 bananas
1.5 cups of any other frozen fruit or berries
1/4 tsp stevia
1.5 cups kefir

There's also strawberry milk. My children, living in a world primarily devoid of red dye 40 and processed foods, have survived until now without strawberry milk. A sad thing, really, as I remember what a treat strawberry milk was when I was growing up. With kefir, I can still offer them the yummy treat:

1 cup kefir
1 Tbsp homemade strawberry jam
Blend with a hand blender and serve. Way better than Nestle Quick.

Kefir can be used as a substitute for buttermilk in just about any baking recipe. I've altered my grandma's buttermilk pancake recipe to use whole wheat pastry flour and kefir. Admittedly they're still not as light and fluffy as the ones made with white flour, but I was happy with the result. And kefir also makes a great base for creamy salad dressings. We had kefir mixed with salsa on top of a taco salad, and it was really fantastic.

So the learning curve isn't necessarily in learning to make kefir, which is easy as can be, but in learning to use it. We're managing though. Both of my girls will drink a glass plain if I offer it to them, though they'll also eat a bowl of plain yogurt quite happily. But finding tastier ways to offer it is a fun challenge, too.

Is anyone else out there using kefir? What are some of your favorite ways to add it to your family's meals?

Garden to Table Challenge - Tomatoes

Tomatoes are finally here! Well, not mine... my darn heirlooms are so slow this year it's almost painful. Lots of green ones, but none ripe yet except for a small handful of cherry tomatoes that never even made it into the house. So I bought a couple at farmer's market, and they were delicious.

Sometimes the most simple food is the best tasting. After a long, busy day, there wasn't time for a big, complicated dinner, but that was just fine: fresh summer tomatoes really don't need big and complicated. They just need a little basil.

The Summer Sandwich:

1 loaf of asiago and sundried tomato sourdough bread
garlic cloves
fresh basil leaves
slicing tomatoes
grated mozzarella
butter

Split open the garlic cloves, crush them slightly to release their juice, and rub them on one side of each slice of bread, then spread butter on one side of the bread.

Put the bread butter-side down in a large skillet and top with mozzarella cheese. Cover the skillet, then cook on medium until the cheese is melted and the bread is starting to toast.

Layer a couple of basil leaves (I used one green leaf and one purple leaf for each small sandwich) and a tomato slice on each piece of bread, top with more buttered bread, flip, and cook just until the bread is toasted on that side too. This method gets the cheese melted and the bread toasted, but keeps the tomato and basil from cooking too much.

And there you have it. The easiest summer sandwich in the world. So simple, so satisfying.

Garden to Table Challenge- Rhubarb Pie

It's no secret that I am a Pie Making Failure. There are a lot of domestic, housewife-y things I do a good job of, but making pies has never made it on that list.

But lo! What's this?



I've made a pie! A pretty one. And even better than being pretty... it tastes good, too.

I bought some rhubarb at the Farmer's Market, since it was about the only thing I could find that I hadn't already grown myself. I've only ever purchased rhubarb one other time, and the resulting cobbler wasn't all that good. But I gave it another go, and I'm glad I did.

I also (gasp) turned my back on the pie crust recipe my mother gave me, the same recipe every woman in my family uses to make incredible pies. It felt a bit like sacrilege, but I had to do it - mine just never turn out like hers do. This time I followed the recipe from my red and white checkered cookbook. The only change I made was using whole wheat flour. Which was probably pointless, considering the other main ingredient is Crisco. Pretty sure Crisco negates any health benefits of whole wheat flour. But whatever. It was really good.

The recipe:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Filling:
2 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup raw cane sugar

Mix it all together until the fruit is well coated. Set aside.

Crumb topping:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp. butter

Cut together with a pastry blender until crumbly.

I'll let you find your own pie crust recipe... mostly because I can't remember exactly how much of everything I used, and also because pie crust recipes are easy to come by.

Press the crust into a pie plate. Dump in the fruit. Sprinkle with the topping. Cover the edges of the pie with foil, bake for 30 minutes. Take off the foil, bake for another 30 minutes. And there's your pie.

Garden to Table Challenge - Week 3

This week's recipe comes (again) from the Food Matters Cookbook. I'm starting to feel a little Julie & Julia-esque, except that I'm serving Mark Bittman recipes every night instead of Julia Child. I suppose I could rename these posts "Julie & Mark"... except that reminds me too much of my ex-husband, and that creeps me out.

So we'll stick with The Garden to Table Challenge.

In keeping with the Bacon Makes Everything Taste Better theme, I present to you:



Asparagus Gratin.

It's wild asparagus season again. We're lucky in that we can spend twenty minutes driving down a country road and come home with enough asparagus for two meals. Tonight's original meal plan was grilled snow-goose breast with wild rice and steamed asparagus, but after an afternoon spent thinning carrots and weeding in the hot sun, and Daddy not being home for dinner, I decided to go for something lighter and simpler.

Asparagus Gratin (I'm not copying this word for word because the book is in the other room and I'm lazy.)

1 1/2 lbs asparagus (I did about half a pound for the girls and I.)
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt & pepper
2 slices bacon, chopped
1 Tbsp. minced garlic (I used fresh. Well, garlic from last year's garden, which isn't actually fresh, I suppose, but seems to be holding on pretty well after being stored for nearly a year.)
3/4 c homemade breadcrumbs

Roast the asparagus in a couple tablespoons of the olive oil and some salt and pepper. The book says 400 degrees, but I had potatoes in the oven at 350, so that's what I did and it worked. While the asparagus is roasting, cook the bacon in the last tablespoon of olive oil til crisp. Then add in the garlic and breadcrumbs and cook and stir until golden.
When the asparagus is tender, sprinkle the topping on it, then broil it for a couple of minutes until the topping is nice and toasted.

I served this with Parmesan Potato Rostis.



I'm not going to give you that recipe because it has absolutely nothing to do with local, seasonal food, and honestly I'm feeling a little bit funny sharing so many of Bittman's amazing recipes here on my blog. Once again, check out his book. I realize that rostis and asparagus gratin probably don't go together. But I promised The Oldest that I'd make rostis again sometime this week because they are her New Favorite Food.

And for dessert:



Homemade vanilla pudding with fresh fruit. In addition to it being strawberry season, raw milk is also in abundance at our house. Pudding uses it up nicely, and is a little more of a treat than plain yogurt. I had no idea how easy it really is to make pudding from scratch until I gave it a go. Try it. You'll give up Snak-Paks for good, I promise.

I used this recipe I found on allrecipes.com and was really happy with it. It doesn't involve egg yolks, which was a plus.

What are you cooking this week? If it's from your garden, or is local and seasonal, Wendy wants to hear about it at the Garden to Table challenge. Come join in the fun!

Garden to Table Challenge - week 2

Totally missed week 1 of the Garden to Table Challenge - just so much going on this spring that I never found the time.

In the garden:



Greens. Lots of greens. Turnip greens, spinach, kale, lettuce and mesclun. The story of spring, I suppose.

We all know greens are really great for us. And if we're all being honest, we'll admit that steamed greens are... well.... not really all that good.

So instead of sharing healthy recipes for greens this week, I'll just share some tasty ones.

There are two things that compliment greens beautifully: pork and hominy.

Unless you don't like hominy. But we do. And taking a page from Southern cooking - bacon makes just about everything taste better.

Recipe #1: Lewis and Clark's bacon and hominy (altered from Cooking on the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Mary Gunderson. Because we're homeschoolers, and we love books like that.)

1/2 package of bacon
2 cans of hominy
A big ol' handful of chopped greens. (Whatever's the most prolific in the garden is fine.)
Pepper

Chop the bacon into bite sized pieces. Fry it up in a pot on the stove. When it's mostly crisp, add the hominy and greens and pepper to taste. Simmer until the greens are wilted and the hominy is warm.

This makes a nice side dish. The kids also love it for breakfast topped with a scrambled egg and some cheese.

Recipe #2 comes from Mark Bittman's The Food Matters Cookbook, my current obsession. You should all go buy it. Seriously, it's that good. Nearly everything we've made so far has been fantastic, and it uses natural, Real Food ingredients, and not too many 'weird' ingredients you have to go out of your way to find.

I changed up just a few little things. I'll give you my version. If you want Mark's, check out his book.

Posole (Mexican pork and hominy stew)
2 pork chops
1/2 onion, chopped
A few cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. chili powder
A big pile of any sturdy greens - I used a mix of kohlrabi, turnip and spinach - chopped
2 cans hominy, with liquid
1 can black beans (or 1 1/2 cups cooked blackbeans, if you aren't into using canned.)

Brown the pork chops in some olive oil at the bottom of a soup pot. Remove them, and cook the onions and garlic until soft. Add the chili powder, cook, and stir for another minute or so. Put the pork chops back in the pot along with the hominy, beans, and greens. Add water to cover the ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Stir it occasionally, add more water if needed, until the pork chops are tender - about 10 minutes. Pull the pork chops out, chop them up, and return them to the pot. I served this with warmed corn tortillas, and it was really good.

What are you harvesting this spring? Be sure to share your seasonal recipes at Greenish Thumb and join in the fun (and the contest!)

No more cardboard!

My family has been eating muffins that resemble the consistency of cardboard for three years now, since I first started realizing whole wheat really is better for us. They haven't complained. In fact, I think they may have forgotten that muffins can actually taste better than that. I find myself saying, "They're pretty good, in a healthy sort of way." You know what I mean, don't you? You can taste the "healthy" in whole wheat baked goods. Where you might be able to eat two or three light, fluffy muffins, one whole wheat muffins sits something akin to a brick in your stomach.

I have exciting news to share with you, oh healthy-muffin-makers! There is a way to have lighter, fluffier muffins and still use whole grains. In fact, I actually used half stone ground spelt flour, and these are the lightest muffins I've had in years.

The secret? Soaking the flour. I've been reading back through Nourishing Traditions and tried the muffin recipe in there. It starts with soaking your flour in plain yogurt overnight (or longer.) Then you add the rest of the ingredients to the mushy sort of dough that it becomes, and then you bake them at a lower temperature, for longer. They look funny, these soaked-flour muffins. They are sort of marble-y in color, though that may come from the cinnamon I mixed in. (Our muffins were apple-cinnamon, but the options are endless.)

Here's the recipe I used:

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. spelt flour
2 c. plain yogurt (I used homemade, but I assume store bought would be fine. But homemade is cheaper!)
Mix together the above ingredients, cover the bowl, and sit it in a warm place overnight.

In the morning, add

2 eggs
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
3 Tbsp. melted butter (or other fat of your choice.)
And anything else you might want to add - we did a good sprinkling of cinnamon and some chopped green apples.

Don't expect it to resemble muffin dough. It's almost sort of like a really gooey yeast dough after soaking in the yogurt all night. Mix it well - it takes a bit more work that your average muffin dough.

Be sure to butter your muffin pan really well. Fill the cups almost full, but not quite. Bake for about 40 minutes at 325 degrees (or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, yadda yadda, you know the drill.)

To me, these tasted only barely healthy. The texture was to die for. If you've got a sweet tooth, you'll want to add more sweetener.

Soaking flour is a great habit to get into. It requires more preparation and planning than whipping up a batch of muffins or pancakes the morning you want them, but it's worth it for the health benefits - and apparently for the quality benefits, too!

Some meal ideas and a couple of recipes

Three months ago, I never wanted to look at my canning pot again.

Okay actually, I still don't ever want to look at my canning pot again. That last hundred and twenty pounds of apples did me in for quite awhile, I'm afraid. But for as much slaving over the hot stove that I did, I'm thankful for it now!

Here's a short list of some of the fabulous meals we've eaten this week, all local and organic and healthy-ish, thanks to the God-forsaken canning pot:
Pancakes for breakfast, topped with canned apples, spiced up with cinnamon and nutmeg, with a side of elk sausage.
Sloppy Joes with ground venison, made with homemade canned barbecue sauce, peppers and diced tomatoes from the freezer, and a side of bread-and-butter pickles.
Homemade polenta topped with a thick meat sauce (ground elk, home canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, peppers, garlic, and basil from the garden.)
Last night's chicken tortilla soup, in a base of homemade duck broth with all kinds of garden veggies.
A roasted wild duck (provided by The Hunter) served with (sob) the last of the kale from the now frozen cold frame.
Steamed kohlrabi and carrots served as a side dish to a ham dinner on New Year's.
Canned peaches on top of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The challenge at this time of year is figuring out how to use everything I managed to put by, without serving spaghetti five nights a week. It's a fun challenge though, and so satisfying.

Here's a couple of recipes from the list above that really ought to be a part of everyone's repertoire.

Southwestern Sloppy Joes (this is my altered version; the original is from the Cowboy Cookbook by Golden West Publishers.) This recipe only takes about 20 minutes from start to finish (score one for the busy mama!)

1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. diced bell pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. ground elk (or beef, or venison, or even turkey)
1 cup pureed canned tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup uncooked oats
1 Tbsp. sea salt
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 lb cheddar cheese, cubed
6 sandwich buns

Saute the onion and pepper in oil in a heavy skillet until soft. Add beef and brown. Stir in tomato puree, water, barbecue sauce, oats, salt, chili powder and worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook over low heat until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cheese and stir til melted. Serve on toasted sandwich buns.

Chicken Tortilla Soup (my own creation based on what I had on hand. Measurements are estimated.) This one also takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.

2 Tbsp olive or grapeseed oil
1 1/2 lbs chicken breast
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped sweet pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 pints duck broth (or, if you don't happen to have wild duck broth on hand, use chicken broth.)
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. sea salt
8 corn tortillas

In a large pot, saute chicken breast in hot oil over medium heat until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove chicken, chop into small pieces, and set aside. Add onions and peppers to the pot, saute til soft. Add garlic and cook one minute more. Add all remaining ingredients except tortillas. Return chicken to pot. Simmer about 15 minutes. Chop the tortillas into 1-inch pieces. Place a handful of tortilla pieces in each bowl, then ladle the hot soup on top of them. Top with grated cheese.

What kind of tasty meals have you been making this winter? I'm always on the look out for more cozy-warm meals to serve my family (especially if they involve using up canned tomatoes!)

The Second Annual Cookie Exchange

I hosted the Second Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange on Sunday. I love it - it's totally dorky and housewifey but that's okay, because I'm totally dorky and housewifey.

Everyone bakes cookies. Lots of cookies. Then they bring the cookies, along with the recipes, to exchange with all the other guests. Then you leave with a bunch of different varieties. It's a neat way to sample new cookie recipes, and it gives you variety without so much baking.

We also have contests and play games...

and give out fun little Christmas-themed prizes.



And of course, the Golden Spatula Award is given out to the baker of the best cookies (she did give a good Academy-Awards type speech.)

Here's Lisa's winning recipe - Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
30 miniature peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together peanut butter, butter, and both sugars. Add egg, milk and vanilla and blend together. Combine flour and baking soda and gradually add to creamed mixture. Shape into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Immediately remove them from the oven a press a peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie.

And I'm going to share this one with you too, for Oreo Truffles, because Chloe loves them so much (and they were a very close runner up in the contest!)

Chloe was laying in bed yesterday at 8:30 in the morning. I asked what she was doing and she said, "Trying to go back to sleep." When I asked why on earth she was doing that, she said, "Because I was dreaming about Oreo Truffles and I wasn't ready to wake up yet."

So here's the recipe. Because they're good enough to induce chocolate-filled dreams. (Thanks Jamie, for the cookies and the recipe!)

Oreo Truffles

1 16-ounce package of Oreos
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 8-ounce packages Semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted

1. Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor. Reserve for later us. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) (My note: I love smashing things with rolling pins. This part of the directions just makes these cookies that much better!) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs. Place in a medium bowl. Add cream cheese. Mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls about 1-inch in diameter.

2. Dip balls in chocolate, place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. Any leftover chocolate can e stored at room temperature for another use. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

3. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles covered in refrigerator.

Did you read all that? Then you'll notice the only ingredients are Oreos, cream cheese, and chocolate. I can't decide if that's fantastic or disgusting, but they really are very good!

Thanks to all the wonderful ladies that came and shared their cookies! I look forward to doing it again next year!

Homemade Hot Cocoa

Two facts about me:

1) I really haven't ever liked hot cocoa. I've tried to get better about it over the years, but it just hasn't ever done anything for me.

2)I've always had hot cocoa made from a powder that you add to boiling water.

The other night I made hot cocoa from scratch. It was the best hot cocoa I have ever tasted. (Which isn't saying much. Refer back to #2.) In talking to others my age, I realize I'm not alone in this horrible example of childhood deprivation: many other folks my age were subjected to the same level of depravity, our mothers adopting the Swiss Miss version of cocoa in place of something actually made of milk.

I usually make cheese or yogurt when I have extra milk at the end of the week, but to heck with useful, healthy dairy. I'm just gonna start making a half-gallon of cocoa every week. To be fair, while I wouldn't call it "healthy", it's probably about the closest to healthy any real hot cocoa could be.

Here's my version of the recipe, which originally came from allrecipes.com. I added the "normal" ingredients in parentheses, because I realize not everyone cares about silly things like raw milk and evaporated cane juice.

2/3 cup unsweetened cacao powder
1 cup evaporated cane juice (sugar)
1/4 tsp sea salt
2/3 cup boiling water
7 cups raw milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of cream skimmed off the top of the milk before pouring (think half and half or even heavy cream)

Dissolve the sugar and cocoa in the boiling water on the stove in a large pot. Whisk until smooth, and cook a bit til fully dissolved. Then add the milk and vanilla, stir constantly until too hot to drink. Swirl in the cream and serve. This makes 8-1 cup servings. Half it if you aren't planning to share.

This whole process takes about 15 minutes. It's absolutely worth the effort. If you've never had cocoa made from scratch before (or if you have, but not lately) you should definitely try it.

Germs: In the Eyes of a Three Year Old

Thoughts from a three year old while baking "snowball" cookies:

When she dropped some dough on the floor while she was rolling it, I told her she needed to put it in the trash now because it had germs on it. After inspecting it closely she said, "I don't see any germs, it's okay."

When she dropped another one that only fell to her step stool and I said it should go in the trash too, she said, "It's okay Mama. It only falled on my toes. My toes don't have any germs."

"Why do we need to give some to Mr. Sherman (our elderly neighbor)? We already gived him cookies last Christmas."

"Mama? Can't we please keep some cookies for my belly, too? Our friends don't need lots and lots of cookies."

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Snowball cookies are an important part of Christmas from my childhood, one of my fondest cookie memories. I even go so far as to buy white flour and sugar when I make them (because if they were made of whole wheat flour, they would look more like dirt balls instead of snow balls.) Here's the recipe my mom gave me the year I moved out of my parents' house:



Russian Teacakes (or Snowball Cookies)
1 cup butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 1/2 cup white flour
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar for decoration

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Once baked, while still hot, roll in confectioner's sugar until coated. Let cool, then dust with more confectioner's sugar.

Makes 24 cookies.

(If you want to freeze them for later, freeze them after rolling in confectioner's sugar the first time, then dust them with more sugar after they're thawed.)

Pumpkin Pie Play-dough

We have 28 different shades of store-bought Play Doh. But that fact wasn't enough to stop me when I ran across this article with directions for Pumpkin Pie Play Dough on familyfun.com.

Play dough that smells like pumpkin pie? Ingenious! Because really, anything that smells like pumpkin pie is ingenious. (Except pumpkin pie itself, which I find disgusting.)

I let the girls help mix it. They both saw how much salt went in. I explained to them that this play dough would smell really yummy, but would taste terrible. They both nodded their understanding. And then I gave them each a ball to play with. And they both sniffed it. And the first thing they each did was tear off a little piece and eat it. They listen well.



Anyway, we made the green pasta 'stems' to use for pumpkins. When that got boring (which it quickly did) I gave them each a little pile of black beans, popcorn kernels, and rose hips, and some bamboo skewers and popsicle sticks. That made it a lot more fun - we had sculpted faces, aliens, and even Buddha. (I'm sad the Buddha got destroyed before I got a photo, because he was pretty fantastic.)



If you're looking for a great way to entertain kids when it's spitting snow outside and you've still got three hours til dinnertime, or if you want your house to smell like pumpkin pie without nearly as much effort as an actual pie, homemade play dough sculptures just might be the answer. No need to seek the fancy, expensive activities - the simple ones still seem to thrill them plenty.

I roasted a goose!

Two goose posts in two days...

There have been two whole snow geese in my freezer since March. For eight months, I've feared preparing a Roast Goose. Have you ever read up on how to roast a goose? Virtually every article and recipe start out the same: "Roast goose has a bad reputation. It can be greasy, fatty, and livery, unless you know how to do it right."

That's not encouraging. I've never roasted a goose - I sure as heck don't know how to do it 'right'.

I checked in the Little House Cookbook. It involved seventeen hours of cooking on a wood stove with the draught open. I have a good supply of kitchen appliances, but a woodstove with a draught is one thing that's missing.

My Better Homes and Garden cookbook - the standby for everything I could ever want to cook - doesn't actually have even one goose recipe.

After scouring the internet, and finding several different articles and suggestions, I settled on this one from Hank Shaw of the blog Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook. Based on what I had on hand, and what I read in a few other blogs, I made a few changes: I stuffed the inside of the bird with apples and onions, and I let it roast til the breast was about 142 degrees.

One thing 'they' talk about with geese is the huge amount of fat in them. Apparently this isn't so much an issue with wild snow geese... at least, it wasn't with this one. Hardly a bit of fat on the silly bird, just barely enough to baste it with every 20 minutes or so. Because of this, I covered the whole roasting pan with foil, hoping to get some actual drippings. Not so much a success, but at least it wasn't dry.

So anyway, the verdict: roast goose is really good. It's tender, juicy, and has a mild but definitely distinct flavor. And it really wasn't that hard. Other than pricking the skin to allow the fat to drain (which was probably unnecessary with this particularly fat-less bird) it wasn't any different than roasting a chicken. I served it with basmati rice and home grown roasted beets. The carcass is in the crock pot now, hopefully turning into goose broth for soup this week.

I'm glad I finally sucked it up and tried it - it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. I'm pretty sure it won't take me another 8 months to roast the next one.

Garden to Table Challenge - Week Eleven

Hey, look at that - I'm actually posting when I'm supposed to be!

This is the last week to enter the Garden to Table Challenge. Prizes will be drawn this week, so if you'd like to enter, this is the week to do it! Just share what you've been cooking, from your garden or locally purchased fruits and veggies, and link up with Wendy at Greenish Thumb.

This week's 'recipe' is a simple, high-energy, tasty, and mostly homemade snack. It's not really a recipe, and it's completely alterable, but here's what we had on hand this morning.

Spiced pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dried apples, and dried apricots.



To make spiced pumpkin seeds (you have GOT to try these):

Wash and dry your pumpkin seeds. I scrub them over a colander, then spread them on a stoneware cookie sheet overnight to dry.

Mix up your tasty goodness: about four tablespoons of melted butter, a dash of salt, then cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to your taste. (Or you could use allspice. Or you could use apple pie spice. Or you could use anything else that sounds good.) I added a pinch of stevia. If you're not on a no-sugar diet, you could add some sugar instead. Mix all that in a bowl to make a "sauce".

Put your dry pumpkin seeds in a plastic bag. (Or a bowl.) Pour the "sauce" over them, seal the bag, and let your small ones squish the bag to their heart's content. (Or stir in the sauce, if you're using a bowl.) Make sure the seeds are well covered, then spread onto a baking sheet.

Bake at 275* til golden, stirring about every five minutes. Mine took almost half an hour.

Then, unless you had no plans for them, hide them from your children, who will happily burn their tongues on the hot seeds in order to eat them as quickly as you'll allow.

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To the spiced pumpkin seeds, I added some dried apples (from a local farm), dried apricots (from a neighbor's tree) and sunflower seeds (some from our yard, some from the store.) Then I raided the cupboards to see what else would be good with them, and found some raisins, almonds, cashews, walnuts and dates.

I make up little baggies of mixes like this anytime we're going to be out and about during the day. Inevitably, children end up starving dramatically as soon as we walk into a store. This seems to fend that off, and I can snack along with them and not feel too guilty about it.

And now, we'll take our snack mix along as we go parade on Main Street with the other kids in costumes, in hopes that my children will fill up on this wholesomeness before they have sacks full of candy to devour.

Garden to Table Challenge - Week Eight

The broccoli in my garden is doing a funny thing. It's making broccoli again.

Broccoli loves cool weather. Here in the High Desert, we have a shortage of cool weather for most of our growing season. I figured my broccoli was done as soon as our highs reached 100 degrees, but apparently it was just taking a break. It produced it's big heads early on in the spring, took a nap in the heat of the summer, and is now sprouting little teeny heads. I'm getting enough to add broccoli to our dinners once or twice a week - nothing exceptional, but still, it's fresh broccoli! This is the first year that I've actually grown broccoli plants that produce heads. I'm not sure why, but it's been a difficult plant for me in years past, so I'm happy with anything I can get at this point.

I made this dish the other night - baked tilapia with vegetables. There's nothing exciting about it except for the fact that this is the first time I ever made fish. I've never been a fish eater. I didn't like it once, assumed I'd never like it, and never bothered with trying to cook it. But it was really good! So good, in fact, that I've made it again since these photos were taken last week.

The recipe was simple: lay tilapia filets in a buttered baking dish. Dot with butter, sprinkle with seasoning. (I used citrus herb Mrs. Dash.) The original recipe I found (on allrecipes.com) called for a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, but I substituted what I had on hand from the garden - some broccoli, carrots, and zucchini. The veggies are spread in the baking dish around the fish, covered with foil, and baked for about 20 minutes at 350. I served the fish and veggies alongside some steamed chard, and it was a pretty fantastic dinner.

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The garden is definitely slowing down. We should have our first frost in the next couple of weeks. To walk through the garden is sort of depressing, seeing as it looks like a very used garden now. Gone are the pretty, neat little rows of root crops, the lush bean vines and enormous sunflowers. All that's left are the tomatoes and peppers, broccoli and kale, a few other miscellaneous bits, and lots of weeds. Soon I'll be pulling everything out, tilling, and planting the fall garlic and nurturing the greens in the cold frame. How did this summer fly by so fast?