chicken feathers

fruits of summer

The kids held their first lemonade stand the other day.  They made $3.50.  $3 from parents and $.50 from their one legitimate customer (the newspaper guy walking his route).  

preparing the signage

 

completed.  i can't BELIEVE we didn't have more traffic!  who could resist a sign like this?!?  

 

the entrepeneurs.  grant, anna and their buddy from across the street.  

 

In addition to lemonade standing we made our annual trek to Nelson's Blueberries for our morning pick-a-thon.  This is one of my very favorite traditions.  There is something so wonderful about being in the field with my kids right beside me, all enjoying ourselves and eachother.  The dynamic is so different each year with the changing ages and stages of each kid.  This year was probably the easiest of them all.  Next year we'll have a new picker...or at least observer.  What will that be like?

One of my favorite moments this trip was overhearing a conversation one row over:

Anna:  "Grant!  Watch what Rhett does when I hold my hand like this!"

*giggles from Grant and Anna*

Anna:  "He eats them like a goat!"

she was right!
 

a garden keeper

Chinese Red Noodle Beans.

I almost pulled them out a few weeks ago due to some early trauma by earwigs or something like that.  They just didn't seem to be doing well...

I'm so glad I had a rational thought and left them in!  They're gorgeous!  I can see a big row planted along the house next year...

They are HUGE and delicious.  We've been cooking them just like we do the regular green beans: blanch in boiling water then quickly sauté in butter, s&p, and lemon juice (if we have it).  Of course we have to cut them into manageable sized pieces before we do any of that.  They are a little heartier and have an amazing almost nutty flavor.  The best though, is that they turn a deep purple when cooked.

 

Even their flowers are delightful.  This picture reminds me that I need to pay attention to my camera settings EVERY TIME I take a picture.  Sighhhhh.

the learning curve is steep

Embarrassingly steep.

I am working through various bread issues at the moment.  One of which is how to use the grain mill.  One would think that I would learn to turn the machine on ONLY WHEN THE CATCHMENT CANISTER IS FIRMLY IN PLACE, but no.  Oh no, this is apparently a difficult lesson to learn.

This time, instead of shooting flour across the kitchen, I shot it into myself. 

I am also learning about ingredient functionality.  As it turns out, in a loaf of heidi bread, oil, honey and salt are not necessary for rising but they are essential for proper browning, a chewable crust (I knew something had gone wrong when I tapped the baked bread and it sounded and felt like a freshly baked rock), and elevating the taste above "old cardboard."  Note to self: READ THE RECIPE!
Looks are very deceiving.  Don't trust these loaves.  Actually, don't trust ME!

the joy of cooking

My life has changed forever.  Every week I have a box full of produce and dairy DELIVERED TO MY DOOR!  It's a dream come true.  It's like the heavens open every Thursday evening and manna starts falling .  Nay, the heavens open and the manna falls INTO A BOX ON OUR BACK PORCH!  It's seriously a dream come true.  Since we've started to change the way we approach our food, we have a basement that is stocked with the basics so all we need on a weekly basis is produce and dairy - we've got the rest.  This means...drum roll please...we hardly ever go to the grocery store!  I still buy bread although that will change next week (more on that to come) and sometimes I need to pick up some random ingredient like mustard or ginger or lemon juice or Ben and Jerry's (a given) but we have essentially cut the cord to the grocery store!  It's amazing.  And delicious!  Here's the loot from this week's box...

Can you believe it?  Look at the COLOR! All this PLUS 2 1/2 gallons of fresh milk and a quart of yogurt - $54.60.  Not bad for a week's worth of groceries! 

Here's what we're having:

Breakfasts and lunches are pretty standard - oatmeal, eggs and toast, granola, or pancakes/waffles with fruit for breakfast and some kind of sandwich or leftover dinner with fruit and/or veggies for lunch.

Dinners are a little more fun.

tonight:  chicken curry (courtesy of my AWESOME friend Kristen) with some added chard, served over rice with fresh carrots and pears on the side
Sat: beef pot roast with roasted broccoli and braised cabbage/apples
Sun: lentil chili with cornbread and salad
Mon: beef with homemade cream of mushroom soup served over mashed potatoes with a side of steamed broccoli
Tues: white bean soup with veggie smorgasbord and irish soda bread
Wed: the jury's still out
Thurs: going to a potluck - bringing roasted root veggies and maybe a rustic apple tart

I love this kind of meal planning.  Rooting through a big pile of fruits and veggies and imagining them reincarnated in different ways.  It's a fun challenge that totally takes the monotony out of meal prep. Of course the ultimate will be this summer when I can wander through the garden and plan the meals out there.  But until then, organic2go.net, I repeat, organic2go.net ROCKS MY WORLD!  If you live in the Columbia Gorge, check them out.  If you don't, check them out anyway and then see if your community has something similar.  It will change your life, I promise.   

how we eat - day 7

The last day of the "How We Eat" week!  I was thinking it would be nice to go out with a bang but instead it's barely a pop.  Maybe a little crinkle.

Breakfast:  Russell, Grant and Anna:  toast, cheese and yogurt.  Me: egg sandwich, broiled grapefruit.
Lunch:  tuna pasta and enchiladas
Dinner:  enchiladas and soup

I really dislike leftovers.  Unless it's leftover cookies in which case I take one for the team and clean the plate.  But...it's Sunday and it's nice to take a break from cooking, so leftovers it was.  No creative re-working...just soup and such warmed over.  The bright spot of the day was the broiled grapefruit.  I was weak and bought the golden orb from Florida.  It sat on the counter for a few days while I contemplated its demise.  This morning I had an inspiration and knew it's end had come. 

broiled grapefruit

• slice grapefruit in half

• sprinkle about 1 Tbsp of brown sugar over the top of each half

• broil until top is beginning to brown

• CAREFULLY, with tongs, remove halves from pan.  THE MELTED SUGAR WILL BE VERY HOT AND WILL BURN TENDER FINGERS AS IT DRIPS ITS WAY DOWN THEM.  Not that I can personally attest to that or anything.

The presentation of the grapefruit is just beautiful.  The rind is slightly browned and the pulp is bulging over the top, gleaming with hot, syrupy sugar.  And the taste?  Divine!  The heat mellows out the tartness and the sugar sweetens it just enough...maybe we'll grow an indoor grapefruit tree.

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The thing that I love the most about food is that it's something everyone (hopefully) encounters every day.  It's an integral part of every culture.  It's a part of religious ceremonies the world over.  It's present at every major human event.  It's symbolic.  It carries memories.  It sustains life.  It defines who we are.  We really are what we eat. 

On the eve of the eve of the inauguration, it is fitting to mention that food is very political (Tuesday's presidential luncheon, thoughtfully, will be drawing heavily from President Lincoln's favorite foods).  We vote with our mouths.  The decisions we make to bring food to the table are great indeed.  I can be the change I want to see in the world.  With my mouth I vote for freedom of choice, for families spending time together, for health, for strong communities, for financial freedom, for healthy soil, for learning, for gratitude, for generosity...We ARE the change, one meal at a time. 

Amen, Hallelujah, and LET'S EAT!

how we eat - day 6

Before I publish our day's menu I'd like to share an annotated list of my favorite food related publications.  Some I've had for quite some time and are well-worn, others I haven't had for very long but I can tell that they will be classics.

Gardening
Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  This book is awesome because it makes gardening very accessible - you just have to think about your garden one square foot at a time.  We've never had space for a huge garden but the amount of food we've been able to grow using this method has been remarkable - even with my greenish-black thumb.  The "Guide to Growing Crops" in the back is worth it's weight in gold.

Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman.  This book was a revelation for me!  Growing food year round completely changed how I think about food storage.  His techniques are creative, low-tech, and intuitive.  If he can be harvesting fresh salad greens all winter from his Maine garden, surely I can be doing the same in our comparatively mild climate!

How to Grow More Vegetables* (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) *Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons.  First, I love this title!  He writes just like I do (I love parenthesis and impossibly long sentences)!  This book is similar in concept to Square Foot Gardening but more scientific.  It is really intriguing and strongly argues for the need of closed-loop living. 

Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza.  I will be trying this technique for building soil this year.  We'll see how it works.  You essentially build the soil from the existing ground up.  You just layer different organic ingredients until you've got about a foot of goodness and then plant right into the layers.  Fascinating!  I love that there is no digging involved.

The New Seed Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel.  This is the Holy Grail of seed starting.  Every thing you need to know and more.

Locavore Living
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  A super interesting book in which he researches and explores several meals - conventional, sustainable, and hunting/gathering.  I love his style of writing and he poses some very interesting points and dilemmas (surprise!) that we face as eaters.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  She has long been one of my favorite authors.  Now she is elevated to sainthood in my eyes.  How I would love to have dinner with her!  Read here for a long Kingsolver love-fest.

Cooking
What's For Dinner by Maryana Vollstedt.  This is my go-to book for meal planning.  I've tried almost every recipe in there and save one or two flops, each recipe is a gem.  The meals are simple and delicious. 

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.  I just checked this book out from the library but it has now been added to my wish list.  She breaks recipes down into 17 areas such as sauces, pasta, soups, beans, and roasting.  She outlines a few simple methods in each of those areas that can be infinitely adapted to whatever the fresh food of the season may be.  Alice Waters just may be my Kingsolver of the cookbook world.

Real Simple the magazine.  They have stellar recipes.  I rip out the ones that look good and store them in page protectors in a three ring binder.  I have them organized by season.

cooksillustrated.com.  You have to subscribe to their site but IT IS SO WORTH IT!  Every recipe ever published in the magazine is in a searchable database so when you have a pound of...say...belgian endive (I don't and never have but the name is so delicious!), you just type in "belgian endive" and up pops...well, let me check...holy smokes!  10 recipes!  How about Braised B.E. with Bacon and Cream or Grilled B.E?  You can sign up for a FREE 14 day trial - do it!  You'll love it!

www.everydayfoodstorage.net.  This is a fun site dedicated to helping you incorporate food storage into everyday meals.  I really like it for her recipes using whole wheat.  She's obsessive about food storage.  I like that in a girl.

There you have it.  A peek at my foodie bookshelf.

Here's a peek at our menu.

Breakfast:  Russell, Grant and Anna:  Cheese and Toast and Apples ala Grant.  Toast and butter for me.  I meant to have some applesauce but ran out of time.  I barely managed the toast.

Lunch:  Tuna Pasta.  This is a family staple.  Read here for the recipe.

Dinner:  Split Pea Soup, Cornbread, and Salad.

Auntie Katie's Split Pea Soup

2 carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 parsnip or potato or both, large diced
1 ham hock
1 3/4 c. green split peas (1 lb) washed, stones removed
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. dried thyme
4 c. chicken broth (I use 4 c. water and 4 bullion cubes for this)
4 c. water

Add all ingredients to a large soup pot, bring to a boil and then simmer for at least an hour OR dump all the ingredients into a crock pot and cook on high for 7 hours.

Season with s&p.  And fresh parsley if you have it.

Mom's Cornbread, Jennified

1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour
1/3 c. evap. cane juice sugar
1/2 c. cornmeal
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c.  milk
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp. butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl.  Mix wet ingredients together and then add to dry, stirring just until combined.  Bake in a greased 8 x 8 pan at 350 for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

I feel that I need to add, lest you think we are obnoxious purists over here, we will be scarfing down some brownies from a box in just a couple minutes.  You've gotta do what you've just gotta do.
 

how we eat - day 5

We did much better with our meals today.

Breakfast:  Russell's famous pancakes with maple syrup and homemade apricot syrup
Lunch:  went to a friend's house and were treated to broccoli soup and fresh, homemade bread!
Dinner:  black bean enchiladas and steamed broccoli

If you have a hankering for pancakes that are near perfection, look no further...

Emerald Kettle Pancakes (Russell's famous pancakes)
2 c. while whole wheat flour (maybe a bit more)
1 tsp. baking powder
heaping 1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, separated
2 c. milk
5 Tbsp. melted butter

Whisk egg whites into medium peaks.  In another bowl whisk yolks and butter.  Mix all dry ingredients.  Add milk to egg yolks, then fold into whites and add to dry ingredients, stir only to bring together, it will be lumpy.

Cook over medium heat and pass the butter and syrup - or my personal favorite, yogurt and granola.  Oh, the ecstasy!

And the black bean enchiladas which were a kind of by-the-seat-of-my-pants meal turned out pretty well.  Here's what I did.

First I soaked three cups of black beans overnight.  About two hours before dinner time I drained them, added fresh water and brought them to a boil then reduced the heat and let them slowly simmer for about an hour.  I added a scant palm-full of salt towards the end of their cooking time.  The house smelled really good.  I love the the heavy, earthy smell of cooking beans.  I wish they smelled that good during a certain point of digestion!  But, back to the recipe.

Three cups of dried beans makes A LOT of cooked beans.  I filled up a quart jar with them and stuck it in the fridge to use next week and put 3 cups worth in the freezer to use at a later date.  Beans freeze great, fyi.  That left me with just the right amount for my enchiladas - about 2 cups.

I set the beans aside and sauteed 1/2 a large onion, 1 minced garlic clove, and 1/2 tsp. cumin in about 1 Tbsp. of olive oil.  When the onion was translucent I added the beans (no cooking liquid).  I dumped the bean mixture into a bowl and then wiped out the skillet and put it back on the heat for warming up 10 corn tortillas (if you have a microwave you could just use that).  When the tortillas were warm, I spooned in some bean mixture and sprinked some crumbled casero (a crumbly mexican cheese) over the top.  Then I rolled up the tortilla and placed it in an 8x8 pan that I had filled with about 1/4 of a 14oz. can of enchilada sauce.  When the pan was filled I poured the rest of the sauce over it, crumbled some more casero over the top and baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.  I served it with sour cream and fresh cilantro.  Pretty good, if I may say so!  The kids liked it too, which is always a bonus.

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If you just are dying for more info on storing food, I have a great tip to share regarding the quantity of food to store.  It's hard to guess how much food you go through in any given time.  So you don't have to with this easy method!  All you need is a sharpie and a post-it note.

Whenever you open a new container of whatever, mark the date right on the lid, box, cap, whatever.  Then, when you've used it all up, write down on your post-it note (mine is on the inside of one of my kitchen cabinet doors) what the item was, the size of the container, and how long it took you go through it.  That's it!  If you want to make sure that you have 3 months of peanut butter and jelly, just look at your list and you'll know exactly how much you'll need.  Easy peasy! 

how we eat - day 4

Today was supposed to be my big multi-media tour of our long-term food storage system.  Alas, the technology stars did not align and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the video from our camcorder to our computer.  I've disconnected and reconnected just about every possible cable and setting and whatnot.  I'll just have to make peace with a still life portrayal. 

So, long-term food storage.  My love child.  This is beans and grains...the things that store well for 20+ years and can sustain life even when solely consumed.  Our church encourages members to store a years' worth of these items.  A years worth of wheat and pinto beans, while life sustaining, sounds terribly bleak to me.  I wanted to make our long-term storage fit into what we eat all the time.  So our "years' supply" is exactly that - the beans, grains and legumes that form the basis of our meals and the amount that we can consume in a year's time.

How much wheat DOES one eat over the course of a year?  I have no idea.  I haven't measured our consumption yet.  Lds.org offers a nifty little calculator, though, that gives you a ballpark figure of a base amount. 

I typed in 3 people because I figure Grant and Anna count as 1.  I wanted a 12 month supply and viola!  900 pounds of grain and 180 pound of beans and legumes.  Yipes!  That's alot of wheat and pintos!

I thought a lot about what we eat and decided to break it down as follows...

Grains
white rice - 150 lbs
hard white wheat - 200
soft white wheat - 300
steel cut oats - 35
popcorn - 50 (what?!?  who eats that much popcorn?  we don't.  but you can grind it to make cornmeal.)
regular rolled oats - 150
barley - 25
total = 910 pounds

Beans and legumes
lentils - 50lbs
black beans - 50
split peas - 50
garbanzos - 50
navy beans - 50
kidney beans - 50
total = 300 pounds

We also have some hefty quantities of a couple other things
non-fat dried milk - 25 lbs
evaporated cane juice sugar - 100

And how, might you ask, does one store all that in a very small house?  Well, lucky for us, we have a large unfinished basement that we basically treat like a big giant junk drawer.  We have food tucked here and there.  If you promise not to judge me, I'll go downstairs and take a couple of pictures.  You promise?  Okay, hang on.

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I'm back.  With pictures.

the beans

wheat

wheat and other stuff...like christmas decorations and a scale and a night stand and a dutch oven box sans dutch oven.  welcome to my reality, folks.  the the dirty underbelly of our city.

We have our long term storage in 5 gallon buckets.  We don't have any rodent problems, or flooding issues but if we did, I figure the buckets are a pretty safe way to store the food.

One more thing before you nod off.  My most excellent organizing system that I am SO PROUD OF! 

First, I label and date each bucket when it is filled.  Then, with my buckets stashed in random nooks and crannies...how's a girl to know what she has?  Masking tape, baby!  Each "active" bucket (that's the one with the colored gamma seal lid [a screw on air tight lid that makes getting into the bucket 10 times easier than wrestling with the regular lid] and is the bucket we are scooping from) has a little numbered label on the top right.  That 6+ you see tells you that there are 6 more buckets (plus the contents of the "active" bucket).  When the bucket is empty and I refill it with a new bucket I'll cross out the 6 and write 5.  "It's a totally brilliant plan!"   If you are interested in food storage for your family - fire me an e-mail.  I LOVE talking about this stuff!

Menu time.  And then I'm done.  I promise.

breakfast: russell: cereal, anna and grant: cheese and toast, me: soda bread toast - no tea :(
lunch: i have no idea.  I went out with a friend and I didn't ask the kids what they ate.  Probably pb&j and apples.
dinner:  we were SUPPOSED  to have black bean and spinach enchiladas but I forgot to soak the beans and then I ran out of time before my yoga class to make anything so russell and the kids were on their own.  nachos were on the menu.  i had leftover bean soup when i got home.  it was even better the second day, fyi!

Whew.  A peek at our basement AND a leftover confidential!  This is a big day!

Until tomorrow!

how we eat - day 3

Wheat, wonderful wheat!  left to right: soft white, hard white, hard red 

One of the biggest changes for us recently has been a shift from buying flour to instead buying wheat berries and then grinding them into flour ourselves.  We have a great wheat grinder (a Grain Master Whisper Mill) that makes quick work of the job.  It's a lot cheaper to buy the berries (fresh ground organic flour for less than 50 cents a pound?  fhuggedaboutit!) PLUS the berries last for something like 20 years so we don't have to worry about our flour going rancid.  Our wheat was grown in the fields that surround our hometown so I love knowing that we've supported a local farmer and that there has been very little shipping to get the grain to our table.

When I was trying to figure out what kind of wheat to buy I spent all kinds of time researching it online.  There isn't a whole lot of information on the different types and how to use them - hard red? soft red? hard white? soft white?  what the heck?  wheat is wheat, isn't it?

So after my own rigorous trials, my two favorites are hard white and soft white.  Here's what I use them for...

Soft white grinds into a flour that can almost replace all-purpose white flour.  It is perfect for pancakes, muffins, cookies, quick breads, that kind of thing.  For some reason you often need to use a bit more soft white flour than all-purpose.  I just keep adding until the dough or batter looks right.  Soft white is pretty lame in yeasty breads and pie crusts.

Hard white, on the other hand, is better in yeasty breads and it has more of a whole wheat flavor.  It also cooks up in its berry form pretty tastily (soft white doesn't).  I cook it like brown rice and actually prefer it to brown rice.  With a big pat of butter and some s&p it's pretty darn good.

I tried some hard red but it just seems a little too dense in breads. 

I haven't tried soft red but I'm pleased as punch with my soft and hard whites that I don't feel the need to look for greener pastures.

I feel that I should add a disclaimer here.  We are not purists.  We have a couple of bags of white flour on our shelves.  Some things require white flour and I'm all about things tasting good so if a recipe really needs white flour, I'll totally use it.  But if it doesn't?  I'll grind my own.

So, with that long introduction, here's today's food rundown.

Breakfast:  Russell and Anna: cereal, Grant: toast and cheese, Me: toast and Peanut butter

Lunch:  nachos with sour cream and homemade canned salsa

Dinner:  Navy bean soup, salad with oranges, candied hazelnuts and balsamic dressing, and Irish soda bread

Navy Bean Soup (adapted from What's For Dinner by Maryana Vollstedt)

2c. dried navy beans, precooked (or you can cook them when you're making the soup)

Put beans in soup pot with 4 cups chicken broth and 4 cups water.  Add a bay leaf, ham hock, 2 cloves crushed garlic, one chopped onion and 3 ribs chopped celery.

Simmer for an hour or two.  Slightly mash some of the beans before serving.

After trying this soup for the first time tonight, I think it would be great if you added 2 chopped carrots with everything in the beginning and then a few handfuls of spinach or chard or kale or all three at the very end.

Balsamic Dressing - this stuff ROCKS! (thank you karen nerdin for this recipe!)

it's all about ratios.

1 part olive oil:1 part balsamic (or a touch more): 1/2 part sugar

(i.e. 1 c. oil, 1+c. vinegar, 1/2 c. sugar)

Mix well and add s&p to taste.

This is divine on greens with fruit and nuts and cheese - pretty much any combo you can dream of.  I love berries and feta and walnuts.  Oh me, oh my.

Irish Soda Bread (adapted from What's For Dinner by Maryana Vollstedt)

2c. all purp. flour (or 2 1/2 - 3c. soft white flour)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 c. buttermilk (I use reconstituted powder)

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.  Stir buttermilk into flour mixture until cohesive ball forms.  Knead in bowl a few times.  It will be REALLY sticky.  Form dough into ball and place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes.

We make this a lot to have with soups because it's really fast and easy.  My favorite, though is the next morning when I toast it, spread it with a bit of butter and eat it with a cup of hot herbal tea. 

eating her curds and whey

This was a red letter day.  A RED LETTER DAY, I tell you!  After pining away for a cheesemaking kit for over a year now, I finally just bought the dang thing and...I MADE CHEESE!  Beautiful, ropey, creamy white MOZZERELLA!    It was unbelievably easy - we used a gallon of milk from the store and it took about an hour (it will take less time next time I do it, I'm sure) and it was DIVINE! 

My interest in making cheese began when I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  In it the author attends a cheesemaking workshop - CHEESEMAKING?  Seriously?  You can do that?  At home?  I immediately thought about my dream of owning a little herd of pygmy ("pick me!") goats.  What if they were MILK goats?  Anyway, goat fetish aside, I was very curious about the cheesemaking.  So, after a year or so, I finally did it!  Here's the proof.

Straining out the curds.  Grant has been totally enchanted by all this.  As soon as the package of supplies arrived he started begging to watch the how-to video.  He was mesmerized.  Everytime the new type of cheese would start to take shape Grant would look at me with wide, excited eyes.  I don't know which I enjoyed more - the video or watching Grant's reaction to it.  He couldn't wait to go to the store today to buy the milk for our cheese experience.

The pile of curds.  Can you believe that's from a gallon of milk?  You just add citric acid and some rennet, heat it up, stir it for a bit and then let it sit and it separates into...curds and whey!  Just like Miss Muffet!

Just a wee bit excited by all this.

LOOK AT THAT!  After squishing out the whey and then dunking it back in some hot whey, it gets taffy-ish and that's it!  It's done!  And it's so creamy and wonderful and fresh and...sighhhhh.  Lactating pygmy goats will surely be prancing through my dreams tonight.