We are getting about a week of rain. And very cool temperatures. It was 87 on Monday and 60 today. 53 right now, around midnight. And staying like this for the rest of the week.
Good thing I like the rain.
However. This weather is not conducive to getting a garden planted. The old "April Showers bring May Flowers" is getting a little messed up here. Like a late uninvited dinner guest, it's causing a ruckus. Bad enough that we are not getting anything done in a timely manner this year. Bad enough that we can't seem to agree on anything this year. Bad enough that I still have no strength in my wrist and can't just get out there and do some of the stuff myself. First the temps were scorching and now they're uber wet and frigid. Ai Yi Yi...
I made a big pot of 5 bean turkey chili this afternoon. I pulled the last quart of tomato sauce off the shelf. ARRGGHHhhhh !!!! IT'S ONLY MAY !!!!!! The green beans are getting low too, but there's a good dozen jars or more of that. The Vitamix will make it even easier to can tomato sauce this year. and I will definitely have to check how much I canned (thank you, Garden Journal!!) and up that number for this year. I'm really happy with the way we have utilized the pantry resources this year.
It looked like this at the beginning of the winter...I love the look of canned foods, don't you ?
The jars below are all my dried goods...some flours and sugar, mostly fruits and vegetables that I have grown and dehydrated. I'm learning to remember to incorporate more and more of my dried foods into meals. It's been wonderful. Especially since I've almost lost my lunch looking at the incredible increase in grocery store prices this year. Bad news: it's not going to get any better, folks. Better learn some ways to feed yourselves.
This is what my garden should be looking like by now.:
Instead, it looks like this:
Ah well...in due time...
I'm getting some spearmint from a pal this year and need to figure out where I want to put it. It will be out somewhere in the back edge of the sunshine...it will grow into a lovely patch, almost a small hedge. I have about 2 weeks to pick a spot and get the thing ready. I love spearmint...
We are eating lettuce, spinach and kale and chives and walking onions out of the garden cold box. At least there's that. lol
Well...I've prattled on long enough here. I do need to go to bed.
Dreaming of gardens and rows upon rows of beautiful preserved foods.
If the rain ever stops... lol
These are some yummy bread sticks that I made to go with the Cowboy Soup. A hearty hot supper on a cold and dismal day. What exactly IS Cowboy Soup, you may be asking. Well, it starts out like most soups...
A big pot, a little olive oil and some celery. And then, of course...
Soups best friends. Do you know this is called a Mirepoix ? A combination of onion, celery and carrot that makes a fine basic soup base. For this big pot of soup, I used 4 stalk of celery, 1 large onion and 4 medium large carrots. Diced. Put them all together into your soup pot and stir well and let them sweat.
Isn't that about the prettiest thing you've ever seen?
Are you like me ? Do you have some favorite cooking utensils that you use almost to the exclusion of everything else ? These are 2 of my most used: and can't you tell how worn and discolored that wooden spoon is ? I have had that baby for over 20 years...
Anyway...lol. I have more kitchen utensils and knives and spoons and gadgets than Carter's got pills. (Whoa--am I dating myself here ?) lol I have things I never use and should really get rid of and clear out some clutter, but I probably never will. Anyway...
Cowboy Soup is the kind of soup that I think would have been made by the really good cooks in a chuckwagon on a cattle drive. The recipe isn't real static, I use what I have on hand, varying things a little. Here's the stuff I used this time:
All stuff from my pantry. I did use a can of tomato paste as well, which I buy and do not can for a lot of reasons obvious to me. lol Tomato paste is labor intensive and takes a LOT of tomatoes to make. I can buy really good tomato paste at Aldi's for about 39 cents can. I couldn't do it myself for that, so I don't. I sauce tomatoes, I can tomatoes whole and I can okra,onion and tomato, as well as salsa, marinara and juice. That's enough. lol
I buy ground beef in 10-20 pound lots from my little family market in town. The brothers grind it fresh for me and it makes me happy. I bring it home, patty a few pounds and all the rest gets frozen in quart freezer bags in increments of 1, 1.5 and 2 pounds each. For this soup, I pull a bag (usually 2 pounds) out of the freezer and while it is still frozen, I use my big trusty French knife to cut it into medium sized cubes. Maybe 1/2 by 1/2 inch. In a separate skillet, I start browning those chunks of ground beef with a little pepper, salt and granulated garlic. They miraculously hold together like a chunk of roast would. Don't ask me why, it's some kind of magic. lol
While this is browning, I start adding things to the soup pot, starting with the jar of tomato sauce. then some water. Then tomato paste, and mix it well. This time I threw in a handful of dried corn, a small handful of dried okra, quite a bit of the dried hen-in-the-woods mushrooms we dried last year and some dried tomatoes. Both the mushrooms and tomatoes, I used my kitchen shears to cut into small chunks. I added some dried basil from my garden stores and a little oregano. I added a little sea salt and pepper. I put the lid on and let it start cooking while the ground beef finished up. When it was pretty much done, I mixed it into the soup pot.
Oh yeah...I found some leftover green beans and potatoes on the fridge and I tossed those in too. lol But here's the finished product. I simmered it maybe an hour and a half after everything was in, to give the dried vegetables a chance to rehydrate and for the flavors to meld. It was heavenly...
Because my wrist and arm are still too weak to knead dough, I use this recipe in my bread machine to make these awesome beauties.
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1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (70° to 80°)
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2 tablespoons olive oil
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3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
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2 tablespoons sugar
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3 teaspoons garlic powder
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1-1/2 teaspoons salt
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3/4 teaspoon minced fresh basil or 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
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3 cups bread flour
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2 teaspoons active dry yeast
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1 tablespoon butter, melted
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Put the ingredients into the bread machine in this order, set it to the dough setting and let 'er rip. Mine takes about and hour and a half. Then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and cut it into 10 pieces.
***Now then, let me tell you something that may (or may not ) be important. This original recipe says that it makes 20 bread sticks. In Dragon Woman's Kitchen, it doesn't make that many. Because I like them to be substantial, the recipe says to divide the dough into 20 pieces and roll them into ropes. I divide it into 10 pieces and roll it. Then I place it on a baking sheet, right close together, and let them rise for about another half hour. ***
My bread sticks are about the size of hot dog buns. They are soft and yeasty and wonderful and my husbands nearly swoons every time I make them. Bake them at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes. When they're nice and golden brown, take them out, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with a little extra chopped basil. Sometimes I sprinkle a little extra granulated garlic on top as well. They are the perfect accompaniment to a hearty bowl of soup or even to a big salad.
So--there it is.
Enjoy !
Bon Apetit !
Winter. Overstaying it's welcome. Well...
I usually try to buy local and seasonal as much as I can. But when my local-ish (when you live out on Honeysuckle Hill, nothing's really too close, lol) Aldi's store had California strawberries on sale for 99 cents a pound, I had to act. I bought 8 pounds, thinking I'd bring them home, take the stems off, wash thoroughly and freeze them whole, to use in smoothies or pie or something. And I did do that...with about 6.5 pounds of them. The other pound and a half, I sliced as well and mashed a bit and decided that nothing would brighten up my winter doldrums like a nice strawberry shortcake for dessert.
I got the strawberries ready and put them in the fridge. I added just a scootch of sugar because A) They were already pretty sweet and B) it helps develop the juiciness you want for shortcake.
Next--the shortcake. I am an old purist sometimes when it comes to recipes for things like this. And by that I mean that when I think shortcake, I am NOT talking about those nasty little Twinkie dough things they sell in the store. I'm talking about the way my dirt-poor granny made desserts, and she usually made them from everyday things that she magically transformed into something else. In this case, it was biscuits. There were only a couple of rules. Biscuits had to be made with butter and they had to be made with buttermilk. Nothing else would do.
To turn biscuits into something magical, all it took was a little extra sugar (for shortcakes) or the addition of sugar and cinnamon (to make cinnamon biscuits). When she made shortcakes, if strawberries weren't in season, there were always peaches or blackberries or even cherries in the pantry that she'd canned from the summer. Any of those fruits make a glorious dessert, with a little whipped cream on top.
So--
This is an easy biscuit recipe . Imagine my surprise when my dear friend Mary from South Africa sent me (upon my begging request) her recipe for scones. I was all pumped up to make what (in America) we call scones, and when I looked at the recipe I realized that this was my granny's biscuit recipe. lol It's perfect. For biscuits I make them according to this recipe, for shortcake, I add extra sugar and then sugar the tops as well.
Heat your oven to 450 degrees.
In a medium bowl, combine :
2.5 cups unbleached flour
3.5 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. sugar (add 3 more for shortcake)
1.5 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter
I always mix up the dry ingredients before putting the butter in. I also cut that stick of butter into small cubes before adding it. The I use my pastry blender to cut in the butter until the mixture is crumble. Then stir in :
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
Stir until just combined. Overworking these kinds of dough will make them tougher and less flaky. Once it's combined, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface (I use a sheet of waxed paper) and knead the dough 5 or 6 times -AND NO MORE.
Then pat it out to about 3/4 inch thick for biscuits or more like an inch thick or a little better for shortcakes. Cut with a biscuit cutter and place on an ungreased baking sheet. You want the edges of the biscuits touching each other.
Bake these at 12-15 minutes for biscuits and a little longer for shortcake (because you made them a little thicker). They'll be a beautiful golden brown when done, top and bottom.
Now. When I'm feeling particularly decadent, I will make these desserts with warm biscuits that I have sliced in half, lightly buttered and then spooned the strawberries on. It goes like this: bottom of the biscuit--butter (or not) -- strawberries--a bit of whipped cream--biscuit top--more strawberries--top with whipped cream. And please please please, y'all...DO NOT SULLY THIS GORGEOUS DESSERT WITH A FAKE WHIPPED TOPPING OR COOL WHIP. Not that I think you would...but just in case. LOL
In case you wondered if all we eat around here is dessert...here's what was on the supper menu that night. Chicken and vegetable kabobs with quinoa.
Because it was a halfway nice day, we grilled the kabobs outside on the grill. It was a very healthy and very tasty meal.
Bon Apetit !
This was the early part of January. Bleech. Even then, we'd had too much snow and cold for way too long.
It was good weather, however, for comfort foods, like this veggie pot pie.
On January 21st, I was rear-ended at an icy intersection. Not a real bad accident, but enough to cause me some whiplash injury and my neck and shoulders giving me a bit of trouble.
Then, on February 1st, this:
On my way out to loose the chickens in the morning, I slipped on a patch of ice (that I had been avoiding for weeks), and fell and broke my right wrist. Of course. My RIGHT wrist. After 5 days of waiting for the swelling to go down, they were finally able to remove the splint and put a cast on it. For 3 weeks, at which time they would remove said cast and x-ray it and go from there. Hopefully putting a soft brace on it to heal the rest of the way. Because it was a non-displaced fracture. A nice straight across the big bone break The distal radius.
The best thing about the cast was that at least my fingers were freed. lol I was having a hard time with that splint going from almost my finger tips to my elbow. Can't do anything. This was a little better. I tried to abstain from using it, and it did hurt, so that helped some. Still...when the time came to get xrays again, the non-displaced bone had displaced. It slipped. Possibly from my overusing it and partly from the swelling going down enough to let the cast slip. Sigh...no brace for me. back into another cast. I tried to be a good sport about it...
...but when nobody was looking, I cried. Scared that because I'm in my 60's it's not going to heal. That I won't be able to do things. That they will have to do surgery and put a pin in it, because that's the next step.
Starting to feel like 2014 hates me. lol
The bottom line here is...
Aglio y Olio
Old Fashioned oatmeal Spice cake
Orange Ginger Chicken
...bottom line is, I still cook, we still eat. And I have to ask for help with so many things, it's either going to kill me or liberate me, I'm not sure which. lol
Today is March 13th. We just had what might be our last winter storm. Not as much snow as they predicted, but cold and howling winds and rainy icy mush. Yesterday temps were in the high 30's. Today is heading for 60. My first batch of heirloom seeds arrived. We are debating about the potato order. Should we just buy the locally available stuff, or pay out the nose for the certified seed potatoes. Sigh...
I smell spring in the air. It's a little chilly out there right now, but I don't care. The windows are open, the furnace is turned off. I am going to do a little cleaning. Within reason (cough).
I go back to the doc on Monday, to look again and see how things are. It doesn't hurt as much as it did (most of the time), so I have high hopes. Can't wait to get this heavy stinky cast off me. LOL The other day it smelled like garlic. :)
Hopefully I will get back to putting some new recipes on here. The oatmeal spice cake maybe for starters ? or have I posted that before...hmmm...maybe I'd better check.
Happy Spring, people !!!! 7 more days.
Bon apetit !
ALTHOUGH...look at the beautiful new hat and scarf my friend Sharon crocheted for me !! I feel like I'm living in a parallel Universe here...front of me, back of me...lol They are just beautiful, and made with love--always the best kind of present. Thanks Sharon--you made my night! Perfect for these cold winter days !
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January's end. Finally. This has been a rough winter and is only about half over. Today brought some cold temps and freezing rain. It was grey and yucky and even the chickens didn't want to lay. I took them out a couple of handfuls of chopped lacinto kale to give them some greens to supplement their layer feed and scratch grains. I think I will make them some nice oatmeal tomorrow morning...they sure love warm oaties on a cold winter's day. It's supposed to warm up to 41 tomorrow (for just one day and then the temps plummet again), but it's also supposed to rain. So...still beats a foot and a half of snow though.
I made a carb loaded spaghetti and marinara for supper tonight, along with some soft garlic bread sticks. It was comfort food at it's finest, perfect for a freezing wet night. I love making marinara with lots of good stuff in it--garlic, onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots and black olives. And my home canned tomato sauce, of course. The colors are gorgeous, the reds so vibrant.
A beautiful vegetarian marinara that is loaded with organic nutrition and flavor. That reminds me, I need to get more garlic tomorrow, because you KNOW I used all the garlic I could get my hands on for the bread sticks and in the marinara. lol
The bread sticks were easy...as I used the bread machine to mix the dough and let it rise in there too. Then I pulled it out, divided the dough into about 16 balls and shaped the balls into ropes and put them to rise again for maybe 25 minutes and they were ready to go into the oven. Halfway through the baking time I brushed them with melted butter mixed with minced garlic. Shut the front door! They were marvelous. And I didn't take any pictures of them, but I'll make them again and post pictures and recipe here.
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I harbor no delusions that February will be a blessed relief from the weather. It may well be worse. But at least it will put us a little closer to spring. Before you know it, seed potatoes will be ready to plant, seeds will be getting their starts, and the garden beds will be anticipating their spring dressings of compost and manure.
And I'm sure we'll all be wiping the winter cobwebs from our brains, ready again for the spring renewal and awakening that saves us at the end of every long cold winter. Especially the ones like this one where we've had record cold and snowfalls.
Alrighty. I'm off for the evening. Watching a Kevin Spacey movie called Shrink. I'll let you know!
Bon Apetit!
And the angels are dancing!! lol
The Actual Anniversary was January 13, 2009. 5 years and exactly 2 weeks ago (on a Tuesday). I can't believe I've been writing this for 5 years. Not a lot. Not enough. But still, suiting up and showing up enough to keep it going. And loving it.
This picture is a pot pie that I made tonight to take to our vegetarian potluck out at the La Vista Ecological Center, where we are part of a discussion group that meets twice a month. We have random potlucks, and the food is always heavenly. This one is a vegetable pot pie with a rosemary biscuit crust. I got this recipe for biscuits from a dear friend. (Thanks Mary!!)
I didn't feel like making pastry, which is how I usually do pot pies: top and bottom crust. I just happened to have buttermilk. Voila. I used a Xmas cookie cutter to make the angel shapes. I patted this dough out a bit thinner than I do when making regular biscuits, so there was a leftover pan of little rosemary angels that I took along as well.
I rummaged around in the fridge and pantries and came up with:
2 stalks of celery
1 nice onion
3 medium carrots.
In my big cast iron skillet, I made a mirepoix of these three vegetables in a small amount of olive oil. This sauteed for about 10-15 minutes on low while I peeled a smallish butternut squash. I scrubbed and cubed 2 medium red potatoes, skins on. I rescued the end of a head of garlic that was about to be on it's way out and minced that.
Put these things all into the skillet together and stirred them up and let them cook a bit. I had some crimini mushrooms in the fridge, so I sliced up about 5 of those too. I had some lacinto kale all cut up in the vegetable drawer that I use for smoothies, and so I threw in a couple of handfuls of that. I pulled an organic gala apple out of the fruit bowl as an afterthought, and washed, cored and chopped that into the mix. A little sweetness, and I love both apples and onions AND apples and squash together, so how could I go wrong? I seasoned this with a little salt and black pepper, some hand crushed dried basil from my garden, then added a little water and put a lid on it. (Right before putting the biscuits on, use a little thickener of your choice and make a bit of a gravy with those vegetables. Add about 2 tablespoons of butter make it a rich gravy)
The biscuit dough is easy peasy...
2.5 cups flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
3.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. finely chopped rosemary (I used dried)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
Stir together the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until it's all fine and crumbly. I slice the stick of chilled butter into 3 pieces lengthwise. Flip it over and cut it 3 times again. Then slice it into tiny cubes and put into the flour. It mixes easier this way. Once that's done, stir in the buttermilk, mix well.
I use a piece of waxed paper on the counter, sprinkle it down with corn starch, and dump the ball of biscuit dough on it. Knead it 5 or 6 times and no more. Pat it into a circle about half an inch thick. Use the cookie cutter (or a biscuit cutter, or a drinking glass) and cut the dough shapes.
Put the vegetable mixture into an oven safe baking dish. Arrange the biscuits on top and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the biscuits start to turn golden brown and the vegetable mixture is all yummy and bubbly. After it's done, bake the rest of the biscuits on a baking tray. I melted some butter and brushed the hot biscuits with it as soon as they came out of the oven.
I wanted to make star biscuits, but couldn't find the cutter. lol So--angels it was (either that or snowmen). lol
And here it is, fresh out of the oven, biscuits brushed with melted butter. It was sooo good--everyone loved it. The apples added just the perfect touch of sweetness. It was rich and satisfying and oh-so-tasty.
And pretty. Did I say pretty ? lol
And healthy. All the vegetables were organic. The squash, potatoes, rosemary and carrots all came from my own organic gardens. This dish is easily made with whatever you happen to have on hand...the possibilities are endless.
Bon Apetit !
I'm going to start off by saying that it's been a bit of a rocky start to the new year. And by "Rocky" I mean ...blizzards, MINUS 35 degree wind chill temperatures, bird murders, 2 guys who forgot it was my birthday who live in my house, days with the real time temps in the negative double digits (like -14) and all around craziness. Today is Wednesday, and the last time I was off the plantation (as it were) was last Saturday. Which isn't really that big a deal, but I like the dramatic sound of it. We went to a city about 2 hours northeast of us for New Years Eve and came back home the next day, just ahead of a serious snowstorm that dumped about 6 inches of snow on us. About 3 days later, the Polar Vortex came through and hit us with another 13 inches. The temps have been unbelievably cold for us, and none of that snow is going anywhere. Today is back up in the mid 20's, and might even hit 28. We'll see...
They finally got my road semi-plowed. The Irishman got out yesterday for work, but not Monday. He got out today too, and the boy is out as well. Both have trucks. I have a little Ford Focus, and it's not going anywhere. lol Even though they have run the plow down the road, it's treacherous, and I am not going to risk running off the road and getting stuck.
Okay, that said...there has been some cold weather cooking going on around here. I made a big pot of Vegetable Beef soup the day the storm was coming and we finished that off. Then I made a big pot of white chili last night and it's about gone, between supper and lunch.
Today I am going to make a crock pot Thai Garlic Chicken dish...and I'm going to start it as soon as my camera battery charges up. lol I have reached that place where I cannot cook without my digital camera at my side.
It starts like this:
The recipe called for 6-7 cloves of fresh garlic, minced. So...I used 13. Right ??
I looked at several recipes for this dish and finally picked one and then reworked it to suit me. Which is what I often do, and probably what everyone doers. Here's the list of ingredients:
5-6 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
Ground black pepper
3/4 cup low sodium tamari (or soy sauce)
3/4-1 cup honey
1/4 cup pure molasses
4-6 cloves fresh garlic minced **
1 tbsp. crushed basil (or you could use fresh leaves, rolled and sliced thin, if you have it)
1/2 - 1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ginger (I used ground ginger because I don't have any fresh)
1/2-3/4 cup catsup--(I used my home made and canned bbq sauce.)
So, we start by peeling and mincing all the garlic your little heart desires. My little heart desired a LOT today, so I minced about 13 cloves. I mixed all this up in a 4 cup measuring cup, to keep it simple. Put all the ingredients EXCEPT the chicken and black pepper in the bowl/measuring cup and mix it well.
Looks pretty yummy, doesn't it ??
Then take your cutting board and cube all the chicken.
I used my big crockpot today for this (because I can't find my little one. lol) I sprayed it with olive oil to help (hopefully) with the cleanup. I put all the cubed chicken in and then peppered it good, stirring and stirring it until I distributed it evenly.
Then, just pour the mixture of goo over it and stir until all the pieces are well coated. Turn the crockpot on high and go do something else for a few hours. Me?? I just got 3 new huge Rubbermaid totes that I'm going to put all the Xmas decos in.
Now, I've put the lid on, will let it cook on high for about an hour (as my chicken was partially frozen) and then turn it to low. It should be done in about 4 hours, maybe 5, depending on how big you cut the chunks of chicken. Mine are probably 1x1 inch cubes. Mostly. :) When the chicken is done, make a thickener with cornstarch and water and pour it into the crockpot. Stir it in well, turn it back on high and let it go until it thickens. Shouldn't take long.
See you later...before it's all done,. I will cook some brown rice and steam some broccoli and that will be supper. I have to make bread today too, and granola. I'll be back with pictures of the finished project and platings. See Ya !!!!
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Okay...here it is. Thai Garlic Chicken served over brown rice with a side of beautiful steamed carrots and broccoli (with a half an onion thrown in). Lordy, lordy--was it ever good. I will definitely make this dish again. Easy, healthy and delicious !!
Bon Apetit !
