Archive for the 'Food' Category
August 8th, 2008 - Our little carnivore
Despite my desire for her to be a vegetarian, Maggie prefers to be a carnivore. Which is why she doesn’t eat a lot of food perhaps since we rarely serve meat. When she does get meat, it’s all she wants to eat. But, since I will eat only organic meat (preferable grass-fed and free range) and Eric agrees that’s a good idea for her as well, and it’s rather expensive, we simply don’t have meat around much. (Eric is a different story–he will eat cheap meat from the grocery store.) (Relatedly, I just read Granny Miller’s post about why she raises her own meat animals and she nicely explains why I try to eat only organic/pasture raised meat. )
Since she likes to eat meat, we want to be sure she knows where it comes from. Although she is rather doubtful of it, she does know that burgers come from cows. (She’s a bit confused on this point, as she also thinks that our veggie burgers come from cows.)
This weekend, we’re going to the county fair. Part of it is a petting zoo of farm animals. Eric told her about it today. They went through a number of the animals each of us would get to pet such as a pig and a chicken. Then she says, “And I will say thank you to the cows.”
Surprised, Eric queries her, “Why?”
“Because they make hamburgers!”
Wondering if she’s thinking that cows sit around making burgers with their hands, he says, “Maggie, hamburgers are made OUT OF cows.”
“I know. They are made out of little pieces of cows!”
“OK. And yes, you can say thank you to the cows at the fair.”
So she both knows where her meat comes from AND she wants to properly thank the cows for providing us the food. I love her!
We need to take her to Cattleana Ranch again so she can see the cows we actually eat. (And are eating for dinner tonight. Eric picked up burgers at the Red Radish.)
August 4th, 2008 - Storing homemade pasta
It occurred to me today that there might be an easier way to make homemade pasta than doing it the afternoon we want it for dinner: Maybe you can store it! So I looked online, and sure enough, eHow.com provides the answer. I feel pretty silly for not thinking of this before. We love the homemade pasta, but in order to eat it on weekdays, I’d have to start it as soon as I got home. On the weekends…well, Saturday’s my “day off” (meaning I usually run a lot of errands and do home projects, then don’t want to work for dinner) and Sundays often Eric isn’t home (he goes out to dinner and a movie with the guys). So we have only made pasta a couple times since I bought the machine back in the late spring.
But now…I can make it Saturday morning or one night AFTER dinner and store it. Woohoo!
The timings great as I just made my first batch of pesto for the year. I’ve been putting it off, although there’s been plenty of basil and we got the cheese a couple weeks ago. Last year, I did it all at once, taking 3 hours! I just didn’t want to spend 3 hours making pesto just now. Then it occurred to me (aren’t I just brilliant today?) that I didn’t have to do it all, I could just make one double batch. A cinch to complete, and I have about 1.5 cups of pesto in the freezer. (The other 1/2c is in the fridge awaiting pasta.)
July 25th, 2008 - Ruined peaches
We’ve lost nearly a third of our peaches, I believe. To stem the tide of ripening, I put as many as would fit–nearly an entire box–in the fridge. This is something the company even recommends on their website and brochures.
Took the first ones out over the weekend, as we’d gone through the other two boxes (eating, freezing, drying, juicing, and making pie). At first, they weren’t ripe. Then Eric had one and it was mealy (brown and icky inside and inedible). Then Emma and/Jedi (mostly like Emma) ate all but one (about 8). (To our horror as they are considered poisonous to dogs. The vet said don’t worry, but they might get the runs. They spent the rest of the day outside; thank goodness it was beautiful outside.) Then I ate the one I’d taken to work to riped. Well, I didn’t eat it. It, too, was mealy. I tested the others I’d set out. They all have this weird feel to them. So I’m betting they all are mealy.
I wonder if I can still cook with them? I have some pot pie tins which would be perfect for a mini pie (can even bake it in the toaster oven) and will try that tomorrow or tonight.
I’m really frustrated since that’s $30 and a third of the peaches I was looking forward to for the winter. :(
July 8th, 2008 - Strawberries and peaches
On Friday, I went to a U-Pick strawberry farm only 15 miles away (as opposed to the 30+ miles I’d previously gone and just couldn’t do again). And they have raspberries, too! Can’t wait for that. I forgot how much time this takes. Oh, picking them took only 2 hours including the drive. But after getting home, I had to process them all right away. That took another 3 hours. I had about 22 pounds. Had some fresh plus about 20 pints put in the freezer. I’m thankful for my slicer this year; it’s intended for slicing hard boiled eggs, but is fantastic for strawberries. Maggie helped–and for once it really was a help! She picked the berries out of the sink and set them on the counter for me. I was a lot faster when I didn’t have to reach down into the sink.
I didn’t expect to get 22 pounds. The guy said that a full flat would be about 10#. And I didn’t fill mine up, as I wanted to be able to easily carry both of them. I figured I might have 8 pounds in there. Imagine my surprise at over 11 pounds each! [Oh! Now I know where my missing cash went! The berries cost about $30!]
Found out earlier in the week that Eric actually does like strawberries, just not plain. He tried them on top of the chocolate gelato ice cream I made and LOVED it. He didn’t care for the bundies, however. Bundies are a family recipe of a slightly sweeter drop biscuit that we always used for strawberry shortcake. Correction–he likes the bundies, but as a plain biscuit, not with berries on top. On Friday, I made a pound cake for him. Oh my goodness is pound cake rich and heavy! He adored the cake, even plain. I found it a bit rich and prefer the bundies (of which I made more Sunday). I also made more ice cream. The fresh berries are almost gone. We’ll probably start eating the ones from the freezer shortly.
Then Monday we picked up peaches from Tree-Ripe. Eric talked me into 3 boxes this time. That’s 75 pounds of peaches! For $99. The nice thing is that they aren’t actually fully ripe, so I didn’t have to spend the rest of the day processing them. I was going to get 2 and then get one or two more when they come back in 2 weeks. But a lady in front of me commented that last time, they ran our of peaches before they got back to Oshkosh. And I didn’t want that to happen. It’s also unfortunate that they aren’t ripe as we all want to each some peaches NOW, especially Maggie as they are her favorite fruit. Maybe I’ll set some on the porch where it gets quite hot.
This is a very expensive grocery month. But oh such a delicious one. And we’ll be eating berries for months to come. And it will get more expensive: blueberries and raspberries will also ripen in the next couple weeks.
By the way, I found out about the berry farm on Craigs List of all places. I was bored and wandering around all the categories. So surprised…and I wasn’t sure it wasn’t going to be much of a place from the rather short ad. I was surprised to learn it’s been in business over a decade (although new owners recently) and they have the raspberries and other items as well.
June 27th, 2008 - The CSA Advantage
I was right about the CSA: I’ll eat vegetables they give us that I’d normally never buy at the farmer’s market nor plant in my own garden. It’s happened already, with only two weeks of food. They gave us radishes. I’ve never liked radishes and only eat them if they are part of a salad. I’d never put them in a salad I was making just for myself.
If others are around to eat them, that is. But since the radishes are here and no else will eat them and I don’t want them wasted, and one small radish in a salad isn’t noticeable, I’ve been willingly eating radishes for two weeks! Not all of them, mind you. I gave two bunches to Sean and Elissa. I also gave them the “braising greens” from last week. I still don’t have the courage to even try eating cooked greens. But if we get more this week, I’ll do it. I may as well try it when they are free. (I know, I’m paying $21/week averaged over an entire year for this food so it isn’t free. But I feel that way because I wouldn’t have paid for it and they’d be given away otherwise and I wouldn’t miss them if they hadn’t been in the weekly bag. So they are a freebie.)
June 2nd, 2008 - Blueberries
I thought Monkey and AnnMee came last June, and so I looked forward to picking blueberries with my parents when they visit next week. However, I didn’t blog about it last year (why not???) so I had to search a bit to find the blueberry place back. It’s Blueberry Haven in Bear Creek, WI. And they say “see you mid-July!” Shucks! Oh, and it’s about a 1-hour drive, not nearly as far as I thought it was last year. Eric’s said he and Maggie will come along this summer if we couldn’t go with Mom and Dad.
On the other hand, it means we don’t have to eat the remaining 4 pints or so of blueberries in the next 7 days.
May 19th, 2008 - Don’t waste your food
The NY Times Online has an interesting article One Country’s Table Scraps, Another Country’s Meal about how food American’s waste every year. It’s staggering. Less than 2% is composted.
In our house, less than 2% of our food waste is NOT composted. In that number figures the occasional item accidentally thrown away, meat bones (not compostable), and the bits of stuff on plates that goes down the drain.
I doubt we have more food waste than typical families, but I actually throw out more food than I might if we didn’t compost. Old bread? I don’t try to use it up if its really dry and I’ve made a new loaf because I know it will nourish my garden in a year or two.
And I fully understand the one line that families with young children throw away up to 25% of their food. You can never tell from day to day what or how much your child will eat. We usually don’t compost it the first time around, but after a couple days, it’s drying out and really unappetizing. We don’t force her to eat anything (”clean your plate!” is suggested as a reason for obesity levels.) so we often end up giving her more than she will eat. And kids will rarely try something new if they haven’t seen it before, so you go through many rounds of putting it on the plate before it gets eaten.
I know. If we were a third world family and that was all she was going to get to eat she’d learn to eat it or starve. Except we aren’t, and she knows she’ll get different food at the next meal. I prefer to give her a variety of foods so that we don’t have a cranky child due to hunger. But it’s hard to justify at times when you know life could be so different.
March 31st, 2008 - More on making flour
After seeing Maggie’s picture, Mac asked if I’d tell you all more about our flour making. Here you are.
First, some time ago, I purchased The Family Grain Mill from Pleasant Hill Grain. The point to me was to make flour w/o using electricity, so I did not buy the motor base, but you can get it that way. I chose this mill based on reviews from the web. I did a lot of searching and reading about them before choosing this one. I think I found another site that was cheaper, but they had a very Y2K mentality that I didn’t appreciate.
Part of the reason I chose this brand is, as the PHG site says, “The Family Grain Mill is a quality mill. Its precisely machined burrs are made of high carbon steel and last a long time. If you ever do wear the burrs out, they’re replaceable.” The main drawback is the rest of the unit is plastic and the whole thing is made in Germany. The burrs don’t produce heat, so they won’t destroy any nutrients by that method.
I also bought the vegetable slicing attachment. There are no photos of it or how it works. I returned it. The feeder is tiny–no more than 3″ square and I’d bet it was around 2″. Most of my zucchini wouldn’t have fit. Most of my potatoes would have, but only because they don’t grow very large. I would have spent a lot of time cutting the vegetables before putting them through the mill. I’d rather just use a knife or a mandoline.
Especially since I can’t use the grain mill in the kitchen. Our counters have a slight rounded lip plus very little clearance before the drawers. There’s not enough room to attach anything to it. (A pasta maker also didn’t fit.) So I have to grind in the dining room. Not a big deal for flour, but would be very annoying for vegetables. unfortunately, our dining table isn’t the best for this either, and I don’t want to clamp it as tight as possible since I don’t want to damage the tabletop. (I use a jar grip for some protection and grip. We have a great one that’s rectangular and just a little large than the base.) The dining table is also a bit low for grinding, although it does enable Maggie to help. I have to leave over just enough that it’s annoying. And it’s not enough that I can do it sitting on a chair. I meant to try our kitchen stools, but I suspect they will be too high.
Separately, I purchase hard red winter wheat berries from The Red Radish, our natural foods store. I started with just a few cups to try it out. Then I ordered a bag of, I believe, 25#. It’s stored in 2 5-gallon buckets in the guest room (coolest part of the house, without using the basement). They are food grade–and the only place I found that sold them was another natural foods store that carries beer making supplies! None of the home improvement/farm stores I checked had food grade buckets. I was able to get locking (Gamma) lids from there, however. With the increase in wheat prices, I’m kind of glad not to have to buy whole wheat flour each month these days. I’d meant to get organic wheat, but the bag was not marked for this. I will make sure the next batch is–this one might have been, they aren’t sure. Since I already had it home and opened, I wasn’t going to return it.
To grind, I get about 6 cups of wheat berries–which, but the way, is too many as it takes too long–and pour them in the hopper. Then we grind. And grind. And grind. You can grind from fairly fine to quite coarse. My preferred whole wheat flour was graham flour, which is fairly coarse. This time, I went finer, at the lowest possible setting. From stores, I go for graham because I know it has all the good stuff in there. At home, I know nothing’s been taken out! In the end, I cracked the last 2 cups or so because I was sore (sciatica) from the 90 minutes of grinding.
Yeah, it’s not fast! I’m pretty slow and steady, too. There were also some breaks. Maggie went potty. We looked at the garden. We let the dogs out/in. Overall, I spent about 2 hours from start to finish with the breaks. In the end, I got about 6 cups of flour plus about 3 cups of cracked wheat. I measured it all carefully once before, but I didn’t this time.
I believe this model has a flywheel attachment, but PHG doesn’t appear to carry it. If you are interested in the mill, explore the whole page and any links you see. The website isn’t very organized in my opinion and many links open in a new window/tab.
And you can grind all sorts of stuff beyond wheat berries. I just haven’t tried anything else. When the new baby’s ready for food (around 6 months, that is), I will use it on other grains. Last time, I ground them up in the blender, but now I’ll use this. (Following advice in Super Baby Food, we fed Maggie whole grain cereals as her first 5 or so foods–rice, oats, barely, millet, etc.)
February 13th, 2008 - Defrosting the freezer
Two weekends ago, we finally defrosted the freezer (a fairly large chest freezer). I think it’s been two years since I did it last. I’d swear we bought a frost-free freezer, but it sure isn’t the case. In fact, in just 10 days, it’s starting to ice up again on the inside front!
It’s always a good exercise to clear out the freezer. I got rid of really old stuff, like bread saved for breadcrumbs, which we use about once a year. So why bother saving three old breads plus a bag of crumbs? The birds or the garden enjoyed them instead (it snowed the day I put them out so they get covered up). I also wrote down everything I took out so that I’d have a list of what’s left. It feels like we’re not eating much from the freezer, but I don’t have much written down, there’s not much left in the freezer, and yesterday I noticed just how many plastic freezer boxes are stacked up on the baker’s rack! We really have eaten a lot that I put up over the summer and fall.
I like to do this in winter, because I can put all the food out in the cold and not worry about it. This year, we had the good idea of putting it on the front porch. In the past, I hauled it out to the car. Besides having to go outside, it also meant we couldn’t use the car until I got it all back inside. On the porch, we left it for a couple days until I had time to finish up the job. It was, of course, freezing outside the entire time. Many winters I couldn’t have done this except over one night.
Everything’s put back nice and neat. Also gave the opportunity to wash out the freezer after spills of yeast and flour during the past year. I know what’s in there and where to find it since it’s so organized! And I was encouraged to get out the chicken I bought at the market last August and some ham for ham salad. Next up is using up the various soup stocks I have–including one that I think is beef plus a couple of chicken ones.
February 12th, 2008 - Bad soup, bad, bad soup
Yesterday, I made soup. Used my lovely summer/fall-made roasted vegetable stock, the last rutabaga, the last three carrots from the farmer’s market, Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, and a number of purple potatoes. Plus an onion, some garlic (from the garden), salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Eric turned it on at at 8ish and we got home around 5:30. They say 8-10hours on low, so it was within that time frame.
Either Worcestershire is totally wrong for soup–but I got the idea from the cookbook which added it to a bunch of soups!–or it burned. Either way, it smelled weird and tasted absolutely awful.
I was so sad to have to throw it all out. I finally make soup–will last for days since usually Eric doesn’t like the veggie soups–and it was ruined. I don’t have a good track record of remembering to make soup–I forget to get out stock, I forget to soak beans, I don’t think I have time to chop things. And this time, I did it all. I was totally prepared and excited. (The minestrone I made in the crockpot was utterly fantastic. Maybe I can make it again. Next week?)
December 7th, 2007 - Eating organic
I liked my comment on Six In The Country’s post about starting to eat organic fruits and veggies that I wanted to post it here, too. She asked for advice about how to go about doing it frugally. My advice is
A) Buy in season.
B) Buy local.
I’m sure you can buy organic strawberries right now, but if you wait until next June, they’ll be cheaper! I can buy organic bananas, but I don’t since I live in WI. (We do buy regular bananas for Maggie, because they keep her regular. She’s only 3 and it’s the only thing we’ve found that works. But I’ve eaten only one or two bananas in the last year.) Instead, I eat an apple almost every day Sept-April, bought at an orchard near my church. I eat carrots in the summer and fall. I eat lettuce and other greens only in the late spring-summer. I eat tomatoes only in late summer-fall. Etc. [Oh shoot! I’ve totally neglected the ones I put in the basement to ripen. I bet they are all rotten by now. Aack.]
And boy, do tomatoes taste better! And I can eat salad 5 times a week, since it’s only for about 5 weeks. And boy do I treasure my every other week blueberries I froze in pint containers last July after picking them in bulk at a U-Pick farm. Just pulled one out this morning and can’t wait to eat it with breakfast tomorrow!
November 27th, 2007 - Small plates
Because we have a tendency to drop plates (and glasses) around here, we have less than a full set of plates and sometimes run out before the dishwasher is run. The other day Eric went up to the top cupboards to bring down my Christmas plates–we haven’t used them before because they have gold plating, which will rub off in the dishwasher and can’t be put in the microwave. We rarely use the ‘wave and I’d rather use the pretty plates than worry about the gold coming off. While he was up there, he brought down the saucers that were part of the place setting. He didn’t realize what they were until he got them lower. He was about to put them back when I said they’d make nice little plates, to supplement the usual small plates which we also run out of.
It’s true what they say about using smaller plates leading to eating less. Two examples. Thanksgiving dinner: only a small portion of turkey and stuffing (I wasn’t about to touch the cranberry jelly Eric and Maggie adore) fit on the saucer. Supplemented by a large apple, I had plenty to eat. Yesterday, I had the choice of two donuts for breakfast. I could have just taken the box to the living room to eat out of, I decided to use a plate. Taking a little plate meant only one donut fit at a time. By the time I finished the donut and the last of the eggnog, I realized I wasn’t really hungry for a second donut. I’m certain that if I’d put them both on the larger plate, I would have gone ahead and eaten both. But my making sure I had at least a couple minutes of time in between finishing one and starting the other (needing to go to the kitchen, turn on a light, open the box, etc.) gave me space to truly think about whether I needed more food. And I didn’t. Okay, three examples: I have leftover frosting from Maggie’s birthday cupcakes. It’s delicious on graham crackers (great snack from my childhood). Two frosting sandwiches fill up a little plate but would look piddling on the small plate and I would probably make 3 or 4 of them. (I know, because I’ve done so in the past.)
Oh, did I mention I made the frosting for the cupcakes (both sets)? Wow–homemade frosting tastes so much better than store-bought! I need to buy more powdered sugar so I can make more. Not that we have any need for cake, but I do like dessert….
The irony of this is that I’ve only once used the large Christmas plates, now. And only because Eric grabbed me a plate for the omelet last night. (My favorite cottage cheese omelet. One good thing to come out of Jedi being sick is we found a brand of cottage cheese I adore–the cheapest store brand!). Hmmm, I wonder if cups and saucers came with them, too?
Carrie talks about food portions being out of control back in September at The Real Food Revolution and has a list of ideas for keeping portions in control, including the small plate of course.
November 26th, 2007 - Apples, apples, apples!
Saturday, I spent about 10 hours making apple cider and applesauce, and canning the results. Yes, TEN HOURS! Aack. I love the results and it’s definitely worth it, but it’s hard when the outcome is only
- 6 canned quarts of cider, plus 2 quarts drunk last night, plus a few other cups drunk Saturday
- 1/4c apple cider syrup (which might be jelly; I cooked it a wee bit too long I think?)
- 7 pints canned applesauce
- 2 quarts? applesauce in the freezer for apple crisp to be made this coming Saturday
- 1 cup applesauce from the burned area on the bottom of the kettle (did the same thing last year, so this time I wrote myself a note on how avoid doing this)
The funniest part is that I ate all of one piece of an apple while cutting them up, ate maybe 1/4c of the burned applesauce for lunch yesterday, and had only ONE sip of the cider last night.
Oh, and for a couple hours work Sunday morning, I also have 3 3/4-pint jars of apple butter.
I used 97 apples, keeping the last one out so that I didn’t have to cut it by hand. It was too large for the new apple slicer. What a time saver that new gadget it (cuts the core out and makes 6 slices at once)! I tried to make notes about timing. The more I do this–this was only the second time I have–the more able I am to time things better. For instance, I had no idea how long it took to boil the canning kettle, but now I know it takes 40 minutes. And I wrote that down. Maybe next year, it will take only 9.5 hours. (Oh, I should note I took about an hour off for lunch, which meant I had to reheat the juice and sauce longer before canning them. The break was a really good idea, however!)
Total cost for the apples: About $16. Supplies: Had everything on hand already except wide mouth bands/lids (I have some cool 3-cup jars that have handles and I thought it would be fine to put some cider in them; but they are in between wide mouth and regular, as I found out when I tried to put the first lid on) which were about $2 and ground cloves for the apple butter which was $9.99! (The cheapo brand was sold out. I think I should have waited. The recipe took only 3/8ths tsp.)
November 23rd, 2007 - Weather and food
It snowed!!!! It snowed enough Wednesday evening/night that it’s still on the ground this morning (Friday). That’s atypical for first snows. Actually, it snowed on Tuesday, but it didn’t stick.
The only problem is that since it’s still be relatively “nice” for November, I planned to dig out the rutabagas and carrots yesterday. Seemed like a perfect chore for Thanksgiving Day! I’m going to recruit Eric to do it tomorrow instead as I suspect the ground will be too hard for me. I hope the rutabagas are ruined, but I wasn’t going to eat them anyway. I’m going to give them to my neighbor who loves them. It was nice to have a couple for soup stock, but I don’t think I’ll make any more stock. Maybe I will–I’ll have carrots, onions, two squashes and rutabagas I suppose. And tomatoes. Hmmm…might have to do that Sunday!
All last week, I made coffeecakes for breakfasts. Unfortunately, Eric and I really like different ones. LOL I figured out a solution for two of them. He and Maggie can’t have nuts–so I put nuts on 1/3rd of it before the topping and I get nuts! He also didn’t like the nutmeg in one, so I can put that on my side with the topping as well! The only drawback to the coffeecakes is that they use 100% white flour. I’m not sure how they’ll do with whole wheat, but I’ll start trying that next. (Actually, I think I used 1/4 ww in one of them. I hope I noted it!) I guess I finally got bored with the bread machine fruit breads. I’ll still make them, however, as I have lots of dried zucchini to use up. The nice thing is that Eric eats them, and he doesn’t care for the fruit breads, except banana.
I’ve avoided bananas since summer. The 90% reduction made me think about how non-local they are. We still buy them for Maggie–they help keep her regular we think–but I haven’t eaten one on my own in ages. I sometimes eat part of hers when she doesn’t finish it. And I’ll make a banana bread tomorrow as one went too soft to eat. I’ve barely missed them since I have so many other local fruit to eat–peaches, blueberries, apples, pears.
November 7th, 2007 - Sauerkraut update and CSA talk
Almost 2 months ago, I wrote of beginning my first attempt at sauerkraut. After watching it carefully every few days and removing the scum that appeared, it began to smell off and some bugs appeared. (The same bugs that appeared in the worm bins and around the litter box. No clue what they are.) So I thought it was done for and a few days later threw the mess out.
At the compost pile, I stuck something into the kraut to see what it was like, out of curiosity. I was disappointed to discover it looked and smell like what I expect kraut to be! Unfortunately, I hadn’t used a clean hand and there was no way I was going to keep it now. (Plus, those bugs.) But, it gave me hope for trying again next year.
In other vegetable news, I signed for a half share in a CSA* for next summer, Polasky’s Farm Market. (I believe it’s the same farmer from whom I bought the cabbage I used. Maybe not. I know I bought the red cabbage I used for drying from him.) My first choice would be the place we buy our meat, but they only have pickup every other week and up in Neenah. We don’t get up there all that much anymore since we’re reducing our driving, so I hesitated to get a CSA through them. At the last market of the season, Polasky’s had an info sheet out. The price is reasonable–$250 for 10 weeks (half share)–and delivery is right here at the Oshkosh market that I hit almost every Saturday anyway. *CSA = Community Supported Agriculture, pay upfront, get fresh produce during the season.
Now why would I want to get a CSA when I have a lovely garden? Because I still go to the market, as I said, and because I want to be challenged. I don’t usually buy quite a few things that would be good for us that I bet will be in our share. I want to expose Maggie to these. Yes, I could buy them and I’ve done that to some extent, individually. But I find that I rarely do so. But I’ve already paid for these veggies and don’t have to think about it each week. I think I can also rely on it for some staples, like green peppers, and plant the multicolored ones I really like to plant. I miss plain green ones, however! I also won’t be bothered as much, perhaps, when a crop fails in my garden, such as the onions and first two carrot plantings did.
I didn’t sign up for the poultry CSA as I think that would be too much chicken for us. And I’ve never tried theirs before. I plan to buy a couple next summer and see. Maybe we’ll get it the next summer, then.
November 5th, 2007 - First frost!
We had our first frost last Wednesday–that means it wasn’t until NOVEMBER! Wow, that’s pretty late around here. And if only I’d known about it, I would have picked the tiny peppers that had continued to grow. I was able to get one of them on Thursday–it was a pretty light frost and things that were hidden by leaves were saved. I also picked the rest of the beans and started pulling up dead or dying plants. I can’t believe the flowers I still have; bachelor’s buttons are still blooming, after a number of light frosts. The nasturtiums were still pretty lively as well, but I pulled them out, as those two beds were the easiest to take care.
Unfortunately, I pulled something in my back (probably pulling up the sunflowers) and didn’t get back out this weekend. There’s still a lot to do.
Only a few scarlet runner beans dried before the frost. They are a fantastic mottled purple and white, so I hope that some more dry on the vines and are okay post-frost.
I made blueberry buckle (coffeecake), cinnamon rolls, and some breads over the last few days. I feel bad about not making more breakfasts and desserts during the summer, but I hate turning on the oven for one item during the summer. I don’t mind much in the winter time.
Speaking of which, I turned on the heat for the first time on Sunday. It was only down to 62 during the mornings and up to 65 during the day. But I was tired of being cold so gave in. That’s right. Two years in a row, I’ve been the first to turn on the heat. :( But we had neither heat nor AC in Oct, so hopefully that means a really low electric bill!
October 29th, 2007 - Fresh ground wheat flour
A few weeks ago, I bought a hand crank grain mill, The Family Grain Mill. Yesterday, I FINALLY used it. It took me about 25 minutes to grind 1# of organic hard red wheat berries at the finest setting. (This was after grinding .8# and forgetting to time it. So 1# probably takes less time if that’s all I do.) Wheat berries cost less than flour, but since I’m buying organic ones I probably won’t end up saving all that much money–over the cost of unbleached white flour at the store at least. Compared to the stone ground organic wheat flour I like to buy, it’s probably going to come out a bit even. Except that the mill cost over $100 so I won’t come out even until I make an awful lot! (Except that I paid for the mill out of my own spending money. So the house might save grocery money. And storage money–I won’t have to store whole wheat flour in the freezer anymore–you grind as you need it. Or in my case, probably once a week I’ll do about 1.5-2# at a time. Once I buy some in bulk.)
I also got a book about whole wheat bread making. I don’t know how well the recipes work in bread machines–maybe there’s a whole wheat bread machine book out there–but will try. The thing is–they are 100% whole grain breads, no white flour at all. If I could actually bake bread like that that came out nice that would be awesome. For now, I usually sub about 1 cup of ww flour for white flour in any given recipe. (And I make a “super flour” that adds in soy flour, wheat germ, flax seed meal, and nutritional yeast.)
Oh yeah–another advantage is that my arms get a small workout grinding the grain! Much more than carrying the 5# bags of flour every now and then a couple feet. :)
October 19th, 2007 - New (to me) pasta dish
See? It’s working already. 3 posts in one day!
Anyway, the other night, I finally tried a new pasta dish. Usually, when we have pasta, I put either red sauce (homemade or canned), butter + herbs + garlic powder, or pesto on it (all with grated parm cheese, of course). Last week at a conference, I had a lovely pasta dish with sauteed veggies and a light pesto sauce. I knew I could easily make that at home. So on Monday night, I did!
I chopped up veggies in the fridge–pepper, carrot, tomato I think I had–and a clove of garlic and sauteed them in olive oil. I tried to do it like Rachel Ray does and start cooking while continuing to chop. That stressed me out trying to keep up with everything–also had to heat up the pasta (leftovers), get out plates, pour milk. Next time, I’ll chop it all then cook. Will only add a few minutes time and less stress. Maggie can also help more, then, since the stove won’t be on while I’m prepping the veggies. After it seemed pretty well-cooked, I threw in one cube of pesto from the freezer. This is also a nice way to make my pesto stretch through more meals; when eating just it, we use 3 cubes.
It was quite yummy and I had just enough leftover for lunch the next day. Unfortunately, Maggie didn’t eat the veggies, however. She has a tendency to do that. Using sauce is a better way of getting her to eat her veggies.
I didn’t measure anything. I just chopped up what looked good. Veggies were all from the garden, although the pepper may have been from the farmer’s market.
Of course, I won’t be able to make this dish for much longer, but I will have tomatoes for at least another month and perhaps the peppers will hold in the fridge that long as well. I saw that some more were growing in the garden the other night–pretty small but perhaps they will get bigger before we have a frost. I can’t believe it’s mid-October and no frost yet in WI!
August 2nd, 2007 - Peaches update
Last Saturday, on the way back from The Red Radish, we stopped at a farm stand in Neenah for the advertised raspberries. Sadly, the season had ended, but the sign hadn’t been taken down. They did, however, have peaches from Michigan (which could be as little as 100 miles away, and close enough to local for us!). From the looks of them, I’d bet organic or nearly organic. And only $2/pound. Which I didn’t process quite right, so I only bought 10 pounds. At that price, I should have bought them all. Which I almost did, but then thought it was too expensive. But we’re only getting them at $1.89-1.99 at the store anyway.
Eric’s going back this Saturday to see if they have more.
I cut up about 30% for the freezer. I’ll probably dry some this weekend (Mom can help!) and maybe freeze some, too. That’s a lot of peaches for us to eat fresh.
July 26th, 2007 - Presto Pesto!
Presto! is not the right word for my marathon pesto making session last night. From heading out to pick the basil to final cleanup, it took me about 3 hours. ::whew::
I made 4 double batches of pesto (recipe below). Maggie helped with the leaf stripping for a while. She loves being my helper. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold her interest for very long so she kept coming and going. And she got in trouble when she decided to try a basil leaf, then tried to spit it out into the bowl! You can try foods, just don’t spit them out into the clean food! LOL
I don’t think this is enough to last me all winter. If I figured correctly, this batch along with the double batch I made two weeks ago will give us one pesto meal a week until next July. That’s not much! And that’s if Maggie continues to use just one cube and I use 2. I actually prefer 3. (I freeze it in ice cube trays for the most part. And if you are thinking of canning it, as I did, it isn’t recommended since it’s an uncooked food.)
My recipe is adapted from one Dad sent me a few years ago:
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 cups basil
1/2 tsp salt
5 twists of a pepper grinder (1/4 tsp in original recipe)
1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c freshly shredded parmasan cheese
Put the garlic in the blender first. You may wish to chop it up a bit to help. I sometimes put in even more, as I like garlic. Then put in the basil. I pack it down a bit, because I love basil. Then put in the salt and pepper, and cover with the olive oil. Process on lo/grind (my blender has lo/hi plus about 8 speeds; grind is 3/4s up) for 5 seconds, stop, scrape down and around, process again, repeat about 5 times until the leaves get crushed up. You don’t want liquid, but you don’t want whole leaves. This part always drives me nuts because at first, nothing but the bottom inch or so gets ground up. But every single time, it eventually works! Mix in the cheese with spatula.
The original recipe also included parsley and pine nuts. I don’t have any parsley in the garden (maybe next year) so don’t bother. Don’t grow pine nuts either and am not terribly impressed with them nor their price, so don’t bother either.
It will keep for a couple weeks in the fridge. Otherwise, freeze in small amounts. I use ice cube trays. Freeze for at least 24 hours, then pop out and put in freezer bags. Best to get out the day before you want to use them, but I usually don’t know. Will thaw in microwave in about 20 seconds for 3 cubes. Sometimes, they don’t pop out very easily and I end up with chunks. The trays are also VERY oily when done, but clean up nicely in the dishwasher.
Except for the salt and olive oil, I’m not particular about the measurements. Even on the olive oil, you needn’t be. One bottle ran out at 3/4c (double batch remember) so I just used that. Seemed fine. Another batch seemed a bit on the oily side with the full amount. Who knows? And garlic–I usually put in at least 5 regular or large cloves then one or two small ones, too.
Oh, yeah, the garlic came from the garden, too. Now, to make pasta this weekend?