Gearless!

Drinking some water off a mint leaf.

The last time I went into the hive I misplaced one of the spacer bars and I've been meaning to put it back in the right spot. However, I haven't really wanted to bother the bees, who are still transitioning through their various roles. Frequent peeks through the window have revealed that the combs are getting larger and they have been working on a new comb, although I don't see any evidence yet of honey or brood in it. Anyway, it was nice out today and I thought it might be a good time to fix that spacer but I didn't want to put on all the protective equipment. I figured, it was a small job, maybe I could go without the gear? Turns out, I could! I don't think I'd pull out a whole comb without gear or harvest honey or anything, but I can make a small tweak without too much fuss. That is nice to know.

Tonight for dinner I made the chicken tortellini with alfredo sauce but I ground up some kale in with the eggs so the sauce was green and full of kale. Even the 10 year old ate it, in small quantities. We also had sautéed zucchini, onion and garlic scapes to mix in, and the last of the carrots and most of the cucumbers from the farm share. I'm left with some turnips, one onion, 2 small cucumbers, cabbage and Napa cabbage, and a small amount of Swiss chard. The rabbit eats the chard and the regular cabbage so he's good for a few days at least!

Oh, and exciting news! We ate a few grapes off my Concord grape vine after dinner - they are ripening and we'll get at least a few more before the squirrels do, I hope.

It's a Party!

Yesterday I had my family over for a BBQ. Well, since it was raining the whole time, it was more of a sit down meal that involved the grill. Regardless, in the spirit of BBQs we had hot dogs and sausages (mostly German, and all from Karl's Sausage Kitchen, truly a hidden gem in our area), pickles, sauerkraut, various salads, fruit and a pie. Of all that, these were the home canned items: pickled carrots, dilly beans, dill pickle spears, sauerkraut, and green tomato ketchup.

I made another batch of that strangolopreti dumpling, with kale and arugula this time. They came out different and I'm not sure why - maybe the bread wasn't soft enough, not sure. Maybe the kale wasn't chopped finely enough. Still, they were popular, and went quickly.

Also, I made the pie. (Of course!) In the morning I got it baked and made a bonus strawberry tart as well, which was breakfast. Despite the cornstarch the pie was very runny - I might have to use tapioca next time - and I think maybe I didn't bake it long enough because some of the rhubarb was a little tough. Still tasted pretty awesome, even if we had to eat it in bowls.

Almost Overwhelmed, but Not Quite

The farm stepped it up a notch or two this week.  In between pockets of rain I got the share and even managed to not get rained on while I was out picking peas, strawberries and cilantro.

In the share: 2 heads of lettuce, 1 head of bok choy, 1 bunch kale, 1 bunch radishes, 15 garlic scapes, 2 pounds of broccoli, 1 small bowl of arugula, 2 large bowls of spinach, 2 quarts strawberries, a pint each of snap, snow and shelling peas, and a bunch of cilantro (I could have gotten dill and other herbs but I still haven't used the ones I have).   Since I've been home I have made a strawberry-rhubarb pie (with the accompanying raspberry jam tart, which has already been consumed by my children and a visiting friend), a salad consisting of both kinds of lettuce, arugula, shelled peas and strawberries, and kale chips.  I am still somewhat surprised at how much I am enjoying kale chips; I think I could have eaten the whole batch as they came out of the oven!

My plan is to make pesto with the garlic scapes and maybe also with the cilantro.  I expect that a lot of the greens will eventually find their way into Mocha's stomach, although I would prefer it if some of them made it into my children's stomachs.

Thus Far

This year I am not splitting the farm share which means that in a few short weeks I will be inundated with food.  However, the first few weeks are always easier to deal with.  Way back when I first joined the CSA, my half of the first week share was enough for one meal.  Not this time!

So far we have finished off the radishes, strawberries, bok choy, and oregano.  My mason stopped by with some lettuce and we've had some terrifically fresh salads.  I even made an Italian salad dressing with the fresh oregano.  I stir fried the bok choy with ginger and a hoisin based sauce.  The hamburgers last night had fresh rosemary mixed in with the meat.  I used the last of the oregano today to marinate some salmon.

Today I made kale chips using the bunch of red Russian kale.  I used this recipe for a spicy nut butter topping (I halved it for the amount of kale I had) and it is really tasty!  Hopefully that will help satisfy my craving when I need something crunchy.

What's left - a few more fresh herbs, two Hakurei turnips and mustard greens.  I plan to use the cilantro in a day or two to make guacamole and will probably dry the sage, rosemary and dill that are left.

The mustard greens will get taken care of by the rabbit.

Minestrone, now with Orca Beans!

Soaked and cooked, before going in the soup

Calypso, aka Orca, beans are just so beautiful.  I can never resist buying them when I see them, but then I end up not using them because I so rarely cook beans.  I must be experiencing a form of spring cleaning because I'm feeling like I need to clean out my pantry and my freezer to make room for new foods.  Last night I set a pound of the beans to soak and today made a double batch of minestrone soup.  I used 3 pints of vegetable stock and 1 of chicken stock, and all of the bean broth, and am canning 7 pints of soup.  There's still plenty in the pot for eating over the next day or so.

Mise en place

I'm now out of chicken stock and down to my last 2 pints of turkey stock; I guess I will need to make more chicken stock very soon.  There is also another pound of Orca beans to play with!

Yum!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Another week, another snowstorm, and another snow day!  It seems, with work and everything else, that I haven't had time to cook much of anything lately.  Certainly I haven't been canning.  Today I'd planned on making a big batch of kale and sausage soup for dinner but, with the kids getting out of school early and already about 6 inches of snow on the ground, it seemed like a better option for lunch.  We'll have pancakes for dinner, always a treat!

This is probably the best batch of this I've made.

Kale and Sausage Soup

1 onion, diced

2 ribs celery, diced

2 carrots, diced

6 sweet Italian sausages, removed from casings

1 quart turkey stock

1 quart chicken stock

2 quarts water

1 large can of cannellini beans (1 pound, 13 oz) - undrained

kale

1/2 cup orzo

salt, pepper, bay and winter savory to taste

Saute the onion, celery and carrots in some olive oil.  Add the sausage and brown.  Add the liquids, beans, and spices and simmer for 30-40 minutes.  Add the kale and the orzo, simmer for 15 minutes.  Serve over slices of Italian bread.

My thoughts are with all of you in the South suffering with all that ice.  Stay safe!

Chocolate Bliss

You can just see a glimpse of the soda bread behind the pudding.

There is no other way to describe it.  The pudding is super rich.  My husband declared it, "Almost beyond the bounds of chocolate-iness."  Each half-cup serving was topped with a dollop of whipped heavy cream.  I need to go curl up and hibernate now as I think I won't be hungry for a month!

But, before we got to all that goodness, for dinner I made a sausage-kale soup and this Irish Soda Bread.  I had buttermilk leftover from making the scones and this is a bit like a really huge scone.  In fact, it was excellent with the leftover clotted cream...




The recipe for the soup is:

8 sweet Italian sausages

2 carrots, diced

1 rib celery, diced

1 onion, diced

2 quarts vegetable stock

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

2 cans white cannellini beans with the liquid

1 bunch kale

1/2 cup ditalini pasta (all I had left)

The onion, celery and carrot were sautéed in oil and then the sausage was added, removed from the casings.  Once the sausage was browned, add the stock, beans, bay and salt and pepper.  After this simmered for a few hours toss the kale and the pasta in and simmer until the pasta is done.  

Tuscan Nettle Soup

The other day, at the stables, I wasn't planning on getting any nettles.  I had a lot to do, I reasoned, and that would just add work.  Why would I add to my stress?

I must be a glutton for punishment.

After bringing home a bag full of nettle tips, I put them in the fridge until today, when I made a Tuscan soup.  I browned onion, leeks, carrots and celery and then added sweet Italian sausage.  To this I added 2 quarts of vegetable stock, 2 leaves of kale and all the nettles.  Then I added a large can of cannellini beans, a bay leaf, some salt and pepper, and thyme.  This simmered for about an hour and a half and was served with fresh French bread.  Very filling and tasty!

Turns out it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be.  Once it was finally simmering.

Feeling Inadequate

Have any of you read An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler?

I haven't finished it yet, but I feel remarkably inadequate in the creative cooking department as I read about how economical she is with her food.  Not financially economical, although that's part of it, but waste-economical.  She saves every little bit trimmed off everything and uses it for something.  Croutons, bread crumbs, parsley stems for stock, other vegetable odds and ends.  It's inspiring and scary and all the more impressive in that she makes it seem so simple, really.

This week, in response to her book, I purchased a bunch of parsley.  And I've been using it - mainly on baked potatoes and broccoli (drizzled with olive oil, not melted butter, another suggestion straight from the book).  The 10 year old has gobbled up everything I have presented.  The 6 year old, not so much.  Although the lasagna I made yesterday was a hit for the first time.  Usually pasta needs to be plain, with butter and parmesan cheese only.  I was shocked to see the empty bowl when I got home!

Today I made a sausage-kale soup.  I browned 5 sweet Italian sausages, removed from the casings, with chopped onion and celery in a little olive oil.  I then added 2 pints of chicken stock, 2 cans of cannelloni beans with their liquid, 2 cans of water, and half a bunch of kale, chopped.  I even added some minced parsley stems.  I did not add any salt or pepper because the sausage was spiced enough.  This simmered for about a half an hour and then I added some ditalini pasta and let that cook.  It was nice and stew-like and we ate it with chunks of fresh bread.  And a bowl of blueberries.  Because I suspected (correctly) that the 6 year old wasn't going to eat a lot of the soup.  We just picked out the pasta bits....

Under Pressure

Not in a bad way, but I do have to go to work in a few hours and wanted to get the leftovers processed into stock and soup.  I started around 8:30 today, it is now almost 1:30 and the soup will be in the canner for another hour.  But I did make 6 pints of turkey stock and 5 quarts of turkey soup.

Since the kale and brussels sprouts salad was not a success, I had a bag full of shredded kale and sprouts.  I decided to add those to the soup.  First I simmered the turkey bones with a lot of the leftover meat (there is still plenty for sandwiches for at least 3 days) and then I got the bones out, added an onion and some celery, some pepper and thyme and, at the last minute, the kale and sprouts.  This is being processed for 90 minutes since it is in quart jars.  I didn't add any salt because of the brining of the turkey, but there may be a need to add salt when we open the soup.  We'll see.

I also used up the mashed potato leftovers by making potato pancakes.  The 6 year old did not like them and had a bagel instead, but the rest of us ate them up.  They are better with cranberry sauce than with syrup.  Here's how I made them:  2 cups of mashed potatoes, 2 eggs, 1/4 c. flour, and some buttermilk, with a teaspoon of sugar.  I mixed this all together and fried them in a pan.  That made 10 pancakes.  It took a little figuring out to know when they were ready to be flipped, the first ones kinda broke apart.  Even though they weren't pretty, they tasted fine - a little bit like potato chips.

Stuffed!

And tired!

I've been up since 6:30 am.  I rinsed and stuffed the turkey and got it in the oven by 8:30 am, and it was ready at 1:30 pm on the dot.  Amazing!  And the brining was a success - my father could not stop saying how wonderful the turkey was, which made me so happy!  I thought I was the last person on earth to get on the brining bandwagon but, if I'm not, and you haven't brined, you have to try it.

The kale and brussels sprouts salad was challenging, even for me.  I think the kale was too chewy for my taste, others found it too bitter.  My husband very politely avoided it.  I have some of the greens left that didn't get tossed in the dressing, I will likely cook them up sometime.  Maybe add them to some soup... which I need to make with all that leftover turkey.  Hopefully tomorrow, before I have to go to work.

The mashed potatoes were made with buttermilk this year, also successful.  Almost everyone chose the cranberry habanero sauce over the plain sauce, the spiced crabapples were a hit, and between the 10 of us we ate one and a half pies.  I totally missed out on the beets and eggs, they never even made it to my end of the table.  The kids were at their own table; there were lots of giggles and not a lot of eating going on.  But they did make a big dent in the pumpkin bread.  I froze the second loaf - we had, as usual, WAY too much food.  My fridges (I have 2) are full of food.  I do not need to cook for a week, I think.

I talk a lot about food, but the best part of the day was just having my family around.  My sister called during the festivities and joined in long-distance.  My brother and his family hung around for a while after dinner and it was fun just to sit around and talk.  That's what I'm thankful for - all the people in my life!

Kale and Chourico Soup

We had a few leftover links of chourico in the fridge waiting for the right recipe. The first 2 links had been steamed with mussels in a tomato sauce (a favorite from my teen years in Rhode Island). But what to do with the other 2 links? Then I happened to buy some kale and sausage soup for lunch one day last week, so those canning gears in my brain started turning again. I followed this recipe I found on line and made a big pot full but added sliced mushrooms and scallions. As I didn't have the "Bayou Blast", I used Old Bay Seasoning, 1 heaping tablespoon. After having some for dinner (wishing I'd thought ahead a little more and put the breadmaker to use again) I put up the rest. Out came the pressure canner and I ended up with 2 quarts and 2 pints.

And, yay! Nothing broke this time!