Thanksgiving Mini-Event, Post 2: The Up-Rising.

Hey, I have a lot of cooking to do, so no rude comments about my bad puns!

The cornbread is drying nicely. It’ll stay out the rest of the day and tomorrow to finish crisping up, then I’ll add moisture back in with local VA wine, butter, broth, and fruit.

The ciabatta rolls are progressing nicely, as well. The second rise and kneading:

And it’s ready for the final rise, after which it looks like this:

You can see the difference in the dough now. It’s smooth, not shiny or sticky, pliable, and nicely puffy. So, it’s time to make it into dinner rolls. First, the work surface is liberally dusted.

Thadd’s a very thorough kind of guy:

This is why we have to have someone come in to help us clean the house: neither of us are exactly neat cooks. So, once the surface is floured, the dough is cut into 2 oz. measures and formed into rolls.

And, they’re ready to be baked. They’ll wait here, rising a bit, until the oven is up to 500 degrees.

Next up, later today: finished rolls, Thadd’s Famous Cinnamon Rolls, bird brining and The Monster Turkey. Check back!

 

Thanksgiving Day Mini-Event, Post 1. Let the Fun Begin!

The cooking has officially begun.

Last night, I whipped up the cornbread and let it cool. This morning it was torn into pieces for drying in an oven warmed, then turned off.

The recipe I used:

• 3 1/2 cups stone ground cornmeal
• 1/2  cup organic whole wheat flour
• 6 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups fresh whole milk
• 3 tbs. fresh yogurt
• 4 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons fresh butter, melted and cooled

Heat oven to 425°.  Spray 9″x13″ pan with baking spray, or butter and flour. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients, and whisk to mix. In separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour wet mixture in. Stir just until all ingredients are moistened.  Pour into baking dish and allow to set for 5-10 minutes for a nice crown. Bake for  20 minutes, or until browned and firm to a light touch. Cool on rack, then dump into a bowl or large, deep pan and crumble for drying.

In the meantime, Thadd got working on the ciabatta dinner rolls, setting up the poolish last night, and starting the first rise this morning.

Then, the kneading before the second rise.

First, prep the table with sifted flour:

Then, flop the dough onto the table, and scrape the dough bits out of the bowl:

The first knead is more of a stretch-and-fold than a traditional kneading:

Once the dough is kneaded, it goes back in the bowl for it’s second rise:

And, that’s where we are currently. Late will be cinnamon rolls and brining the turkey!

Tuesday Sick Blog & On The Menu

I am sick. Thadd is making dinner, because I have no interest in standing, let alone cooking. So, he’s making a Pumpkin Bisque Soup using a recipe from L’etoile’s Chef Mark. (I’ve had this recipe, and it’s pretty darn spectacular. I highly recommend you try it.) Thadd’s got a thing for soups. It’s something he does well. I want to post a picture of him in his red mohawk, standing in domesticated bliss over the stove stirring a pot of hot soup, but I am too sick and tired to get up and take a photo.

He’s making it with a local wine, Cardinal Point’s Quattro,  which is a bit sweeter than is likely ideal; but, the wine’s got good flavor and body fora white, so it should work nicely anyway. It’s helping my sore throat, at any rate (what, we were going to let the bottle go bad?).  We’re also adding chicken sausage made by a guy we found in PA while visiting some friends. He hand-makes this wonderful, yummy chicken sausage, and Thadd needs protein. I’ll have to pick around it, because honestly I’ll be lucky if I can swallow the soup with my sore throat. Which sucks, because I love this sausage. And, as a final touch, I did get off my but and make whole wheat maple cornbread (which I also can’t eat) to go with it.

It should be an awesome meal. Now, if only I could eat most of it. I hate being sick.

At least I should be well enough to eat the crockpot haggis we’re making on Thursday. Right? Please tell me I’m right?

And, speaking of haggis, I haven’t put up an “On the Menu” in forever. Since I am sick and can’t talk without wanting to stick a fork in my eye, I figured I have the time.

Dinners:

Monday: Chickpea wet curry. I have no idea why I don’t make this more, because it’s spectacular. It’s a riot of Indian spices in your mouth. I recently got a spice mix from Penzy’s balled “balti” that I tossed in, and it worked beautifully. It’s also really frugal, and makes enough to feed an army.

Tuesday. Pumpkin Bisque. You read about this above. We love pumpkin soup.

Wednesday: Barbeque pulled chicken over rice. I work late, and this just gets tossed in the crockpot. All I have to do when I get home is throw on some rice and voila! Dinner. I put some veggies on the side, and the brown rice gives a lot of fiber.

Thursday: Haggis with parsnips and potatoes. Okay, it’s not real haggis. It’s the best we can do here in our quaint little part of the Southern US. Again, it’s a crockpot meal, because we’re both silly busy (and, have I mentioned that this woman is my hero, who has saved my not-eating-out life more times than I can count?). We are siding it with the traditional parsnips and potatoes, though. The lamb gets cut out because I am allergic, and replaced with that fabulous chicken sausage I raved about above.

Friday: Chicken Cacciatore. Yes, this is another slow cooker meal. I realize it looks like I never actually do any stove cooking, but I sweat I do. Just not this week. We’re trying to get some more leftovers into the freezer, so these large crockpot meals are perfect.

Saturday: Leftovers. We’ll clean out the refrigerator. Since we’re attending a local apple festival, we didn’t want to have to be home in time to cook. The preceding days should leave us with plenty.

Sunday: Goulash like Grandma Makes. This is not my healthiest meal. It’s made with white flour elbow noodles!! Why? One, because finding whole-wheat elbows around me is almost impossible, but mostly because this is one dish where the difference is actually huge and not necessarily leaning in favor of the whole-wheat. But, there’s lots of yummy grass-fed beef, and lycopene in the tomatoes.

Lunches:

Leftovers, for the most part.

Breakfasts:

Fermented oats, farm eggs, homemade bread, 9-grain fermented cereal, steel cut crockpotted oats.

What are you eating?

 

Foodie Updates

I said I’d be doing more on preservation, and so I am. Sort of. The truth is, I haven’t had much time to do a lot of preservation this last few weeks. I did do this:

Roasted pumpkin seeds with garlic and chili powder, from a local, organic pumpkin. Unfortunately, these didn’t actually get “preserved,” per se, so much as they were gone by noon the next day. What can I say, they were yummy. This is what happened to the pumpkin (well, one of them–there were several):

It was stuffed with pumpkin-sausage qinoa “risotto,” and topped with a pastry “leaves.” I tried for a stem, but I am just not that great with pastry dough. That’s Thadd’s thing.

And that’s about the end of my preservation since the salted lemons. Business is keeping me…well, busy.  I have, however, done some cooking (obviously, since that’s what “business” typically means in my case). Since you’re here for the food, I thought I’d share:

I love this method of cooking a chicken. I start out roasting it in a “French” style.  Carrots, celery, onion, and a bit of butter (or, in this case) EVOO in the roasting pan gives flavor, while a hot oven and a lot of turning the chicken give a crispy, brown skin. Once it was all brown and yummy looking, and put the bird on top of a pile of my cornbread, chestnut, and apple stuffing (which also contains dried plums, though sometimes I use figs). It turned out beautifully.

Hopefully, I”ll have some time to preserve this week. There’ll definitely be broth making (bone, chicken, and vegetable), and probably some catch-up on staples like granola. I also need to “catch up” on my working out…it’s suffering mightily with all this cooking!

Related Articles

• How to Prepare Fresh Pumpkins for Baking (tjantunen.com)
• Healthy Pumpkin Recipes for Fall (brighthub.com)
• more pumpkin baking (cathweber.blogspot.com)
• Meatless Mondays: Pumpkin Risotto (food.change.org)

Illustrated Astyk

Okay, so I’ve had no communication with Sharon Astyk about illustrating her book or anything, but I really liked the alliteration of the title.  She didn’t have any photos in her book, (which I actually prefer, since it’s not supposed to be a photo book), so I thought I’d take some photos while I worked.  And, I mentioned I’d be doing some more blogs about preservation, which this is.

Ms. Astyk talks about a lot of things in her book, and I highly recommend it. She’s witty, pragmatic,  and straightforward.  One of the things she talks about is salting as a form of preservation, and the various pros and cons of the method. With a background in food history, I’ve seen salting through a different lens, but the pros and cons remain similar through most of history.

There are many forms of salting, from soaking things in brine to just rubbing foods liberally with salt and hoping for the best. What works depends on a lot of things, including climate and the foods itself. In some cases, salting is intended to limit bacterial growth to “good bacteria,” as is the case with lacto-fermenting and the process of making certain types of fish sauce (this is not a process you want to hear about, trust me). In other instances, it’s to dry the food out and make it uninhabitable for any kind of bacteria, as with salt pork and dried fish.

This recipe, which I’m not going to give in detail because I want you to go buy Ms. Astyk’s book so she can keep writing books, is for preserved lemons. It’s closest, I think, to salting to prevent any bacterial growth, and is what I suppose I’d consider a brine (though Lord’s Sauce is supposed to do the same thing with a salt and vinegar combo, and I don’t consider that a brine; so, this is a pretty arbitrary decision on my part).  It’s up for discussion if anyone’s interested, though that’s not the point. The point is, it looked yummy, and I wanted to try it even though lemons aren’t local to us.

It’s pretty simple, really.  Start by cutting some lemons to the appropriate size:

Toss them with sea salt:

Weigh them down to press out the juices:

Layer with salt and alternating layers of bay leaf, peppercorns, and cinnamon:

And fill with appropriate amount of lemon juice:

Put on lid, shake a bit, and then turn every few days. In theory, that’s it. I am still at the turning phase, so I can’t tell you how these have turned out aside from the fact that they are very pretty. I’ll give you an update on them as soon as they’re ready to be tasted, in about 3 or 4 weeks.

Now that I’ve done this, and given that I’ve been thinking a lot more about the possibility of having no electricity at some point (seriously, I have no idea how we kept power last winter given the snow, and we’re kind of prone to hurricane throwoffs here, too), I am considering tossing together a batch of Lord’s Sauce, or at least making sure I’ve got everything on hand and a printed copy, in case I need to preserve meat without canning or refrigeration. I’m hoping to post this here, too, once I get the permission of Chef Channon (my mentor and friend), who came up with the recipe I’ll be using.

Related Articles

• Understanding Food Preservation (gomestic.com)

Macaroni & Cheese..with Wine?

Absolutely. I was shocked, too, but when some friends and I hit Hickory Hill winery on a recent wine tour that is exactly what their Country Red screamed out: “Drink me with some really good mac & cheese!” So, we bought a bottle, and at the very first ripe opportunity I busted out a mac & cheese recipe recommended by both the owner of the winery and the friends who’d accompanied us on the tour.

It all starts out simple enough, with some cheese and noodles.

It ends up all goey and yummy like this:

I had to make some changes from Jaime Olliver’s recipe. I couldn’t find any decent fontina, let alone marscapone, and I needed to add some protein to it for The Boys.

• 1lb 2oz good-quality macaroni
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a knob of butter
• a small bunch of fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked (I used dried oregano, because I had it on hand)

• 3½oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra for grating
• 3½oz grated sharp cheddar

• 3½oz Muenster
• 3½oz cream cheese
• ¼ of a nutmeg

• 1/2 lb. smoked sausage, diced small

•  1/2 med. red pepper, small
An additional bit grated cheddar (or fresh mozzarella) and Parmesan cheeses reserved.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. On stove top, cook the macaroni, and drain, reserving 1/2 c. of cooking water. In pan, heat butter and herbs until herbs are crispy. Add macaroni and all cheeses except the reserved grated cheddar, and several tablespoons of the starch water. Stir until creamy. Stir in sausage and pepper. Pour macaroni into a lightly greased casserole, and sprinkle grated cheddar over top, then Parmesan. Put in oven, uncovered, for 10 minutes until cheese on top is bubbly. Serve warm, with a red wine, and enjoy!

Related Articles

• Who invented macaroni and cheese? (holykaw.alltop.com)

How Do You Know Shawn’s Happy?

Easy: I’m cooking or otherwise puttering in the kitchen!  I’ve been dehydrating cantaloupe, freezing bananas and melon (this is a great way to save seasonal produce for smoothies!), preparing to ferment sour pickles, and I forget what else. Fortunately, I did remember to take pictures of some of the putterings to remind me:

Above: Hummus. If you’ve never made it, you should. It’s easy, inexpensive, tasty, and healthy. It takes few ingredients (chickpeas, garlic, tahini, EVOO, and lemon juice) to start, then you can add anything you want to flavor it, from paprika to sundried tomatoes. It’s the perfect dip for all those summer veggies, or a great spread for sandwiches. Below: I don’t have a glass pitcher that won’t crack if I dump boiling water into it, so I make a strong quart of  tea, then dilute it into a larger pitcher for iced tea. We’re from the North, so we don’t quite get the whole “Sweet tea” thing. We drink it with little or no sugar and some lemon.

Above: Okay, let’s face it. There’s almost no way to make certain things look good on film, no matter how good they taste in real life: pot roast, curry, and this dish–Thai Peanut Sauce with Shrimp–are great examples. Drab photo aside, it was delicious. A bit spicy, a lot depth (umami!) from fish and soy sauces, with a bright bite from sarachi and lime.  I served it over noodles, and sided it with a cucumber-tomato salad. Thadd made himself sick on it, which is always an indicator that it was a great dinner.  Below: summer is a time for salads. We toss all kinds of stuff into our salads, including the mango and pecans you see below. They complimented the fresh, local goat cheese and spinach perfectly. A good salad needs little in the way of dressing, so I just drizzled some EVOO and balsamic over it, and sprinkled it with a bit of sea salt.

Below: Two recipes that have been featured here. First, the Mojo Pork Loin from my last post. Second, the three-potato salad that was my most popular recipe at the Growing Power seminar at Lynchburg Grows in March. These dishes work well together, and make a great barbecue menu!

This week, more puttering! I hope to get up some photos of the pickling process, as well as some of the dehydrating I am currently doing. Are you puttering?

Food Photos!

I’d like to think you come here for my wit and food politics, but we all know you’re here for the food. Since I’ve been a bit light on food porn these last weeks, I’m going to throw a bunch at you today to catch up!

Above: You all know we eat from local sources as much as possible, and I just found a new source for amazing chicken: Davis Creek Farms. Their 100% pastured, free-range, better-than-organic chickens are slaughtered on the farm by the family, and they’re delicious. The bird above came trussed just as you see it–ready for roasting. His prices, which was about $3.40/lb for whole birds, are totally worth it for the flavor and the good farming practices. The carcass will, of course, go into stock later this week.  Below: These freshly-dug potatoes and carrots were roasted with Herbs de Provence for a wonderful side dish. Fresh potatoes have a richness that store-bought just can’t match, because store-bought potatoes are stored in warehouses just above freezing. These temperatures change the starches in the potatoes, rendering them less creamy and muting the flavor. The baby carrots tasted like carrots, not like sugar. Yum! The leftovers will be mixed with beets and beet greens in a homemade chicken stock base for a wonderful soup. The carrot tops will be used in pesto (thanks to the farm for this idea!).

Below: Falafel is hard to come by in this area, and we’ve been craving it. I finally had time to whip up a batch a few days ago:

Below: Summer brings cold fare to the table, in part because I tend to lose my appetite in the heat. For lunches, I’ve really gotten into savory smoothies, which are essentially gazpacho every day! They’re healthy, full of vitamins and fiber, and fill me up while cooling me down. I side them with some protein (usually an egg, cheese, and/or nuts), and it’s a light, filling lunch that is also full of what I need to keep up my active lifestyle.

Now that market season is here and our CSA has started, we’re looking forward to a lot of produce and a lot of new recipes. We’ll also be doing, as usual, a lot of preservation via canning, freezing, and drying. All this means lots of new pics, so if you’re just here for the food porn, you’ve got something to look forward to. If you’re here for the politics, don’t worry, that’s coming, too!

Keeping It Up

I’ve been training a lot lately. There’s a few reasons for this: 1) I am teaching more classes at both gyms, including spin, weights, and P90X, and I have to train up for them, 2) there’s the All-Women’s 4-Days-4-States hike I’ll be doing (and kind of leading) in June, and 3) the warrior dash in September could possibly kick my bum if I’m not ready for it.

This only matters here because it means I have to work harder to keep my energy and nutrition up, including my electrolytes and antioxidants (being sick isn’t really an option right now). So, I’ve added smoothies to my daily diet. I’m trying for 2 a day, and they’re not all your average smoothies. Only rarely will there be any yogurt in them, because I am instead of focusing on variety and “superfoods,” like matcha, pomegranate, acai,  wheat grass, flax meal, etc. This morning’s matcha-melon was awesome, but I didn’t get pictures. I did, however, get last night’s pomegranate smoothie:

Above: the raw ingredients. Melon, mango, lime (which I zested), strawberries, and flax. Not shown are pomegranate juice and ice. To make things faster, I pre-prep fruits like melon and mango in batches, then store until I am ready to use. Below: ready to add the liquid and the ice.

Below: The Magic Bullet Blender. Yep, I laughed at it, too. My roommate has one, so I thought I’d give it a whirl, and as much fun as I made of it, it’s awesome for smoothies. It is fast, compact, blends really well, and cleans up in a flash, making it far preferable to a large blender if you’re doing one smoothie at a time like I am.

And finally, the finished product:

I’m always trying new combos, so you’ll probably see more here. I am hoping to pick up some almond butter soon, to do almond vanilla smoothies for the protein. Any favorite recipes out there?

Umami

I am a bit in love with miso. It adds this incredible depth of flavor, sometimes known as “umami”, and when paired with mushrooms it’s absolutely amazing. Above, I’ve roasted chicken in a miso-based sauce, with lots of shitakes. The roasted brussel sprouts are zested with lemon, a fresh, nutty compliment to the chicken pasta dish.