Lots and Lots of Greens

This week I had the whole farm share to myself, and there were so many greens. Spinach, mustard, collards, kale, arugula, and a braising mix which is a lot of other greens I can't identify. I was reminded recently of boorani, a Persian spinach and yogurt dish my mother used to make when we had company. Specifically, though, I've been seeing posts about boorani using greens other than spinach. Well, why not?

So I cooked up some onion and garlic with turmeric, salt and pepper, and then added all the spinach, mustard greens and braising mix. (The collards and kale are for the rabbit and I'm not sure what to do with all the arugula, it's overwhelming.) Once everything was cooked down, I stirred in plain yogurt and added coriander seed, dried lemon salt, and sumac to taste. It's a good way to get more greens in my diet. Yum!

Did I Mention?

It's been a week and I never got to post about my fabulous birthday cake. My husband made it, with guidance from me. Here it is:

He took the sour cream chocolate cake that we all like so much and baked it in a bundt pan with a cream cheese and condensed milk filling. As the cake baked, the filling sunk in and the cake enveloped it. It was frosted with fudge frosting. And it was awesome.

We had a few friends join us for dinner and we had chicken kebabs, veggie kebabs, and also for dessert, fruit kebabs which the youngerchild made. Many things on skewers. For the chicken, I'd used the yogurt and honey marinade I like so much but added cardi and ground lime to make it even more Persian. It was a good addition.

Wee Little Beasties

It has been a very long day (note the time of this post...it's currently 1:00 am on Wednesday). My day technically started on Monday, when I worked an overnight shift. I did sleep a little, in between pages, and yesterday a little after 7:00 am I headed home. After I had some coffee I started a batch of bread dough using Legion (beastie #1: saccharomyces cerevesiae, aka yeast) and took another short nap. I got up to go riding but my lesson was canceled so instead I took the youngerchild to lunch. While we were out I got a text from a friend saying he had Concord grapes to share. When I got back, after a while I was able to muster up enough energy to make a batch of yogurt (beastie #2: lactobacillus) and a batch of granola while I waited for the grapes.

After dinner, my friend arrived with a half-bushel of grapes (plus beastie #3: drosophila, aka fruit flies). Apparently they are from his mother's backyard and she gave him about three times as much so he was sharing. As they had been picked a few days ago I needed to get them juiced right away But I didn't get started on washing until after 10:00 pm. I've just finished sorting through them, extracting over a gallon of juice from most of them (I still have another small pot full to make into juice tomorrow).

As soon as I got the grapes on the stove I punched down my bread dough and shaped the loaves. It's cooler this week so the bread took longer to ferment. I'm wondering if it'll be proofed by the time I get up tomorrow.

The yogurt is still hanging out on the heating pad. I thought about dealing with it now, but I'm just too tired and I don't think a few more hours of incubating will hurt it. At least, I hope not!

Farmed, Foraged, Homegrown and Homemade (Redux)

This morning I got up early to make scones. The elderchild wanted something to take on an outing with friends and I wanted to do something with the last cup or so of wild blueberries. So I made peach-blueberry scones.

Farmed: nothing really, unless you count the peaches, which were also Homegrown.
Foraged: the blueberries
Homegrown: the peaches
Homemade: the yogurt in the batter, and the scones themselves.

I used a standard scone recipe that used buttermilk or yogurt and was lighter than some other recipes I've tried. For the fruit, I chopped up one small peach and then added about half a cup of blueberries. Instead of nutmeg in the batter I used ginger. I could have used crystallized ginger instead, then you might have actually tasted the ginger. Regardless, because this was a lighter batter, after turning it out on the countertop for a quick knead, I ended up using a scoop to make the scones rather than patting it all into a disk and then slicing. They baked for 15 minutes at 400˚F and smelled heavenly!

Now I've just finished up setting a batch of bread to proof. I'm going to try to pour a little melted butter into the loaves after I score them, just like those old commercials. It'll be interesting to see how that changes the bread.

Getting Back into a Groove

After a slow winter and spring, mainly due to my general overwhelmedness, I'm finally starting up with some projects again. The farm share yesterday came with a large Napa cabbage and, after consulting with my friend, we decided it would be better if I made it into kimchi and then split that up. So this morning I started the brining process for the cabbage and tonight I'll get it set up to ferment.

Also today, I started a batch of yogurt. I was going to do that the other day and then discovered that the milk I'd purchased for it went bad because I'd waited too long. So now that's going until this evening as well, hopefully the yogurt I picked for a starter (Green Mountain Creamery Greek Yogurt) is a good choice.

The mulberry tree in the backyard is covered in berries this year and for the past two nights I've managed to pick enough berries to extract a cup of juice each time. Two more harvests like that and I'll have enough mulberry juice to make a batch of jelly. My strawberries in the front yard are few and far between, I am still competing with the chipmunks to get them first. And I still have to find some sort of netting to put over my peach tree to keep the birds and squirrels out. I'm hoping the chipmunks can't or won't climb that high...

A Snowy Pi Day

This year, for Pi Day, I was prepared. I bought some pears before the snowstorm and today, with the help of the elderchild, made a maple pear pie. After slicing the pears, I let them sit with 1/2 cup sugar while we made the crust. Then I drained the pears and boiled the juice with some maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg and cornstarch to thicken it. This was mixed back with the pears before filling the pie crust. Here's the finished pie.

Note the vents - the elderchild carved at least 11 digits of π into the crust!

We had some of our neighbors over to enjoy it with us, and it was terrific! Also I made a raspberry tart with the rest of the crust; that was an afternoon snack.

In addition to all that, while the storm was dumping eight inches of snow, and then rain, on us, I made a gallon of yogurt, a batch of cornbread, a batch of chili, and also did a whole bunch of laundry. Oh, yeah, and last night I made bread. All sorts of lovely food!

Restocking

This weekend has thus far been spent making the things we've run out of. Yesterday morning I made a batch of yogurt, half a gallon this time rather than a full gallon, and it was ready when I got home from work. Last night I started a batch of bread. This morning I proofed it and baked it. This afternoon I made eggplant caponata and canned it (three pints plus one 4-oz jar). Later today I'll make granola.

For the bread, I thought I'd try to make a Pullman type loaf using my regular loaf pans and a baking sheet to serve as a cover. They worked okay, but could have been proofed longer so they would have been more square. I think if I'm going to do this on a regular basis I would need a Pullman pan with a lid and use a less dense bread dough.

Also, two days ago the youngerchild and I made a batch of cookies. For the first half, it was just regular chocolate chip cookies with both milk and white chocolate chips. For the second half of the batch, the youngerchild requested to add mini-marshmallows. They don't exactly work as desired; the marshmallow melts and leaves holes in the cookies. I suspected that might happen which is why I didn't add them to the whole batch. I did, however, solve the too-flat problem; my oven hasn't been hot enough so they would spread too much and get very flat.

Brunch and Bread

This morning we hosted a little brunch with my friends and fellow canners. I wanted to make a coffee cake that I developed during my pastry classes - the honey lemon almond cake I made on butter cake day. To scale it up to bundt cake size I tripled the recipe, so it used 12 ounces of butter and a whole dozen eggs! In addition, it used 9 ounces of honey, which used up all the honey I had in the house that wasn't from my own hive. (As you might imagine, I don't really want to bake with that honey, not only is it a denser consistency but I don't have all that much of it!)

For the topping, I had some white chocolate lime ganache which I spooned it over the top and then I sprinkled the cake with chopped, toasted black walnuts. These were from last autumn's foraging out on the bike path. It was a nice way to top off this cake. We all loved the cake, and everyone had seconds, so there is less than 1/4 of the cake left.

Also this weekend I made more bread, a whole wheat with molasses instead of honey or maple syrup. I had to do it by hand again. I can't wait for the Kitchenaid mixer to come back! It should be here in about a week. From the sound of it, they are replacing almost all of its insides.

Tonight I'll make yogurt and let it grow overnight. Because I've been working so much lately I haven't had time to do a lot of things in the kitchen and I've fallen behind on the things I try to do regularly. I should be catching up things and having more time soon.

And to my friends, thanks for coming over and all your generous gifts!

Before Coffee

This morning, before work and, yes, before coffee even, I tended to my wee little beasties. First I took out Legion and made a batch of bread dough. It always comes out so thick it threatens to overheat my mixer so I end up kneading it by hand. After about 10 minutes of that, it was ready to set aside to ferment. By tonight, it should be ready to form into loaves and then proof overnight.

Last night I started a batch of yogurt using the little bit of yogurt I set aside from the previous batch. When I make yogurt I set aside about a cup in a container just large enough to hold it without much air space. That way, no one goes in and out of it and contaminates it and it's ready and waiting for me. (Incidentally, remember when I couldn't find my packages of yogurt starter? I found them. Buried in the downstairs freezer. But for today I'm still using the carryover from the last batch.) This morning I doled out the yogurt into containers and now we're good for a while.

Now I can have my coffee as I have a breakfast of homemade yogurt with homemade peach melba jam and homemade granola. Mmmm. I am so lucky.

They Live!

My bees, as of today, are alive!

It is 60 degrees out and sunny so I went to check on them, finally. While there are a lot of dead bees in front of the hive this is not unexpected. They are supposed to have a big die-off over the winter and then repopulate by spring. I pulled back one insulation panel so I could see the window and, very quickly, a bunch of bees started working their way to the window and then out the door. Hopefully that didn't confuse them too much. It's going to be warm for the next 4-5 days and then cold again. There was a lot of the fondant gone but there did seem to be plenty left if they need it.

Also today I assisted in a dumpling making class at school, which was super fun. Some of my home experiences came in handy, such as when the meat grinder attachment for the Kitchen Aid needed to be set up. That, I could do. There were six different kinds of dumplings including: wontons for soup, shrimp ones, pork ones, lamb ones, soup dumplings, and rice flour ones stuffed with black sesame paste. They all tasted amazing.

When I got home I started a batch of yogurt and also worked on some of the stages for my project for school. We each have to come up with a dessert that uses an unusual fruit, herb and spice. More on that later, I'm bringing it in on Tuesday to class and I'll give a full report after. I've already made it once, last weekend, for my family, and I think it'll be well received.

Many Projects, One Day

In the past 24 hours I have made the following:

1. Granola, using this recipe:

Granola, toasting

3 cups (240g) rolled oats

1 cup (50g) shredded coconut

1 cup (100g) pecans

1/4 cup (25g) toasted wheat germ

2 tablespoons (30g) coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup maple syrup)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg white 

Preheat oven to 300. Line baking pan (half sheet) with parchment. Combine all ingredients except for egg white in large bowl, mix until thoroughly combined. Beat egg white until frothy, stir into mixture. Spread onto baking sheet evenly. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan, then break into desired cluster size. [I will point out that I did not get chunks that could be broken up. Also, I added a little dried fruit.]

2. Turkey stock.

3. Duck stock.

Both stocks are in the fridge; tomorrow I will skim off the fat, make turducken soup, and can the rest of the stock as well as the soup.

4. Cheese bread. This is a recipe from school but, I'm sad to say, I think I overproofed the rolls because they ended up too big and flat. I really tried to keep track of that and I even found a way to add steam to the proofing process by putting a pan of water in the oven. It was likely still too hot in there.

5. Yogurt. Well, set it up, anyway. It'll be ready in the morning.

6. Donuts for breakfast, which we drizzled with leftover chocolate ganache and sprinkles.

7. Beef ribs for dinner, with the cheese bread. 

I am worn out, but it's a good kind of tired.

Cinnamony Goodness

Is this not the most amazing looking thing ever? It's a muffin tin doughnut. Essentially it's a muffin, but meant to look a bit and taste a lot like a doughnut hole. It's quite awesome.

I didn't have the buttermilk the recipe calls for, so I used plain yogurt, which worked just fine. For the record, it's ~400 calories per muffin. Yikes!

Where Could I Have Put It?

Last time I made yogurt from starter, I had several packs of bacteria in the freezer specifically for it. As I haven't made yogurt in a while I figured I'd start up a new batch. I got the milk, heated it up, and started to look in the freezer for the starter. It wasn't there. I tore apart both freezers in between stirring the milk. Nothing. I found all my other cheese-making bacteria, and got a pretty good inventory of what I do have in the freezers, but did not find the yogurt starter. I have no clue where it went!

While the milk was sitting on the stove at 170-180 degrees, I ran to the store to get a container of Skyr to start the batch. It's not my favorite but it's reliable and it'll do until I find the packages of starter. Which I'm sure I'll find, now that it's not urgent that I do. Running to the store is a little complicated these days, as they say they're going to do the final paving of our road today and I had to park the car far away. And put it back in its far away spot when I was done.

Now, where could I have possibly put that package?

Pickle Relish

Last year I made this recipe for golden pickle relish and it won first place in the Topsfield Fair. No pressure or anything....

Yesterday I mixed 6 cups of cucumbers, 2 cups of red onions (Red Long of Tropea, to be exact) and 2 cups of chopped green bell peppers with salt and let it all sit. Today I drained the veggies, mixed up the spices, sugar and Clear-Jel with vinegar and brought it all to a boil, then added the veggies, boiled again, and put it into jars. I used 5 8-ounce jars and 7 4-ounce jars, so I could start this year's gift stash.

Also, I started another gallon of yogurt. I've lost count, this is either batch 6 or 7 from that original packet of starter.  It'll be ready tomorrow.

Sometimes It Has Its Advantages

Not splitting the farm share is usually mildly dangerous - I end up with way too much food and a finite amount of time with which to cope with it. Sometimes, though, it's good to not have to split the share. This time of year, as the farm is ramping up, the share is enough for a couple of meals rather than one, and the strawberry distribution is fairly generous.

This week, the strawberry distribution was FOUR QUARTS. No kidding.

That was enough for a batch of jam and a heaping mound of berries to eat. I made a batch of strawberry jam - 9 jars - and will set aside 2 jars for the Fair, 1 jar for the nurse who brings me eggs, and I will send another jar to Brasil with my friend.  [For Fair purposes, 5 cups crushed strawberries, 7 cups sugar, 1 package Sure Jel Pectin.]

Here's the rest of the share this week: 1 bunch Hakurei turnips, 3 stems of broccoli, 1 bunch Komatsuna greens, 0.75 pounds of fresh spinach (more than you might think), 8 radishes, 14 garlic scapes, 1 pint snow peas, and a small bunch each of dill and cilantro. I'm stockpiling the garlic scapes so I can pickle them - last year I made pesto and then froze little bags of it (more on that in a minute) and then just chopped the scapes and froze those, too. This year, since I still have some of all that in the freezer, pickling them seems like a nice idea. I might roast the turnips, if we don't eat them raw in the next few days.

I made my own version of maast-o khiar: I mixed 1 package of the garlic scape pesto into 3 cups of yogurt (I made another gallon the other day, this is one container out of 6) and added chopped, peeled cucumbers. It's a little too garlicky so, when I got home from the farm, I tossed in some fresh dill. Maybe it needs salt and pepper but I'll wait until we eat it to figure that out. We'll have it for dinner with lamb chops from that spring lamb share, pita bread, and some raw snow peas and strawberries. Sounds like a lovely dinner to me!

Looking Like it Should

Today, I got brave enough to pull out a comb and inspect it.

There was honey, and nectar, and capped drone cells and capped worker bee cells. Obviously, the queen is doing well. It's very exciting!

Also on the agenda tonight, after dinner: canning that chicken stock and making a batch of yogurt (so it can grow overnight).

Another Bartering Opportunity

A few months ago, I started a new job.  The really cool thing is that I work with newborn babies and their happy families.  It's a breath of fresh air.  An added bonus is that it is at a hospital closer to home, a place I worked at about 18 years ago as a moonlighter.  Some of the nurses remember me from then.  Others remembered me from when I had my kids there.  And then there are new nurses for me to get to know and we often find out we have things in common.

One nurse raises horses, sheep, and chickens.  She and her family have shown the sheep at the Topsfield Fair for a long time.  I'm quite certain I've seen her at the Fair when we went through the sheep barn.  This year, for sure, I'll be making a point to go find her!  As we were talking recently we ended up discussing my jam-making and arranged a barter.  She brought me a dozen eggs and, when I get strawberries in June, I'll bring her a jar of strawberry jam.  A little delayed gratification for her; I got to enjoy the eggs today!

In our quest to get the perfect soft-boiled egg, today I boiled the water and put the (cold) eggs in.  After 30 seconds I dropped the heat to the lowest setting and let the eggs sit in the hot water for another 5 minutes and 30 seconds.  6 minutes total, and they were, indeed, perfect.  And incredibly tasty.

In other news, I used the yogurt I'd made from the powdered culture to make a second batch and it came out with exactly the right texture.  I left it on the heating pad for about 9 hours, maybe those extra 2 hours helped it firm up a little.  Since I'm keeping a tally of how many batches I can get out of one packet, so far we are at 2.

Yogurt a Different Way

It's always surprising to me what I find in my freezer.

Every time I go in to get something, I discover something else I squirreled away, thinking I'll remember what I stashed and why.  And then, magically, it just *poof* leaves my brain.  This is why I need a better system.

As I was putting all that lamb in the freezer the other day, I found a collection of various bacterial cultures for cheese making and a whole bag of packets of yogurt culture.  So I figured I would make yogurt with one of those packets for a change and see what I get.  Well, after about 6 hours, I certainly have yogurt, which smells a lot like the Greek yogurt one gets at the store.  Tomorrow I'll taste it and report back.

Rose Hip Smoothie

Yesterday, I got a call from Lisa, with whom I was splitting a spring lamb delivery.  She had picked up the lamb and was swinging by to drop off my share.  After she left, it became necessary to make room in the freezer.  As I was cleaning out the freezer, I found 3 cups of rose hip infusion I had frozen to make smoothies.  Because one of the bags ripped, I decided now was as good a time as any.

This morning I tossed yogurt, the rose hip infusion, some mango chunks, a banana and honey in the blender.  It came out absolutely perfect!

Also in the freezer:  nettles, pumpkin puree, some venison, some coffee, and lots and lots of bones and veggie scraps for stock.  Oh, and a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread, which we ate with dinner last night.  This was just the upstairs freezer.  I need a better way to keep my freezers organized, otherwise I will end up in this situation again, rediscovering things that I forgot I had.

New Batch

Since we got back from our ski trip I'd been planning on making yogurt.  The stores near me are now carrying that yogurt I like, from Green Mountain Creamery, except that none of them carry plain.  Instead of driving an hour out of my way to get some, I decided to use Skyr as a starter again, and added the rennet as I did before when I made skyr.  I don't think I'll strain it, as I want to see what the consistency is.  I started it around 8:30 this morning so it'll be done after dinner.  It's probably already done, but I may as well leave it for the full 12 hours, right?