A Great Learning Experience!

This week we received our lovely side of beef for the year! The co-op this year was much more planned than last year and it was more than twice as large which meant that it was a good learning experience. We went from 7 families and 2 cows last year to 13 families and 5 cows this year!

I sent out an e-mail to everyone who had expressed interest in the co-op at the beginning of January. I told them to be thinking about whether they wanted to be part of the co-op this year and if so how much meat they wanted. I set a deadline for the last Friday of February for people to place their final orders and then I waited.

I heard back from most people pretty quickly wanting to save their spots and several even knew rather early on how much they wanted. I started a list to keep track of people’s names and how much they wanted to order. I sent out a reminder in the middle of February and answered people’s questions as they arose. If several people had the same question, I sent out an e-mail to the whole group in case others had the same question.

On February 27th, two days after the deadline, I had someone downgrade to 1/4 from 1/2. This caused some extreme stress for me because I had set a clear deadline and already had everyone paired up for 5 cows even. I had to find someone to take an extra 1/4 ASAP because I was planning on making the order on March 1st.

Then, on Monday February 28th, my husband was in a car accident. He was riding his bicycle to work when a car hit him and he somersaulted over the front of his bike. We’re still not sure exactly what happened, but thankfully he mostly just got bruised and banged up. Nothing was broken. He’s still rehabilitating and still having some back issues, but at the beginning of March, things were very crazy for our family.

So… I put out the word on Facebook that I had an extra 1/4 cow and a friend of mine replied very quickly to say that she was definitely interested! I was able to take a HUGE sigh of relief at that point (that stress coupled with being woken up that morning by a police call about the accident was really not a good combination…) and made the order a couple of days later than planned, but it still went through pretty much without a hitch.

Then, I made a mistake. Every year there is a multinational event in my town during the first week of April. This event coincides with spring break every year. So… I went and scheduled the delivery day for the Wednesday of the first week of April!

I sent out the e-mail on March 4th to tell everyone what day the delivery would be and was blissfully unaware that the delivery week was both the multinational event and spring break. Then, one week before the delivery, two of the co-op members told me that they were planning vacations during this week. Oh. Okay.

My first thought was “Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner???” I absolutely would’ve pushed the delivery date back a week if anyone had said anything to me within a week or so of my placing the order and sending out the e-mail with the delivery date. But… really… I should’ve remembered myself and this is definitely a lesson that will carry over into next year. NO delivery during the first week of April. Ever again.

Another co-op member had a family emergency and was unexpectedly over on the other side of the country during delivery week and the week beforehand. Other co-op members and my parents came together and we were able to get together enough coolers for another 1/2 cow and enough freezer space to hold 1/2 a cow until they return (which should be sometime today)!

There was one more hitch, but it also worked out fine in the end. We didn’t know the total cost of the cows until the day before delivery. I think our order just completely overwhelmed the processor, but Keri Jo at Grassfed Foods was more than happy to work with me and held my check for several days to make sure we had enough money to cover the big check.

Things I’ve learned this year:

1. Make it clear that if people change their order to a smaller order at the last minute after the deadline, THEY are responsible for finding a person to buy the extra meat. It worked out fine this year, but that was a horribly stressful time for me.

2. Be a bit more clear about what cuts of meat people will be getting. I sent out an e-mail asking if anyone wanted any extra organ meat or if they had any other special requests – also to make sure I’d gotten their special requests written down correctly, and I had a couple of people who thought they would *only* be getting liver (which was definitely not the case!) because that was the only organ meat/special request they had.

3. Make it clear that people who are part of the co-op need to read all the e-mails I send. I don’t send e-mails out for fun and I know that there were several folks who didn’t read them all (they told me they didn’t) and it’s really not productive for anyone if I have to tell the same thing to a dozen people separately instead of being able to know that they read the information that I already sent.

4. NOT schedule the pick up day during Master’s week. Never again!

5. Send out more e-mails during the month before pick-up. I dropped the ball on that partly because of the car accident and because I didn’t have the total cost when I thought I would, but still… there really wasn’t any excuse for not communicating more with everyone as the day drew nearer.

We want to do something special to mark the new side of beef and we are planning to take out ALL of our side (one type of meat at a time) and photograph it for you all so you can see how much of each thing you would typically get with a side of grass-fed beef. It’ll be a few days because our meat is currently covered up with someone else’s side of beef (out of town co-op member), but as soon as they are able to come out here and pick up their meat, we’ll get some pictures and share them with you!

This was a co-op full of learning experiences! It went very well considering that neither I nor Grassfed Foods have done a co-op this large before and I want to thank everyone who participated! A big thank-you also to Keri Jo Rinke and Bob Yoder for facilitating the sale/delivery and for raising the lovely cow that we will be enjoying throughout this year! Also to the processor who had a very busy last couple of weeks to prepare our cuts of meat for us!

~B.

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves and Roast

Hello!

It’s been a crazy year so far. Everyone keeps getting sick and the weather was extremely weird for around here. It snowed which is very unusual for this area… our CSA wasn’t able to deliver any fresh vegetables to us for two months. We really missed our fresh veggies and are thrilled to have them back again!

Anyhow, the very first vegetable delivery we got in months was filled with delectable greens of all kinds! However, the green that I have the most trouble figuring out what to do with was represented a little too well. We had two huge heads of cabbage and I did not know what to do with it all! I made one batch of Milledgeville Cabbage and decided to try my hand at pickling the other cabbage. I’ve tried making kraut before, but it never quite turns out right so I searched through my copy of Keeping Food Fresh and found a lovely, simple recipe for pickling a head of cabbage. Whole! No chopping necessary… this appealed to my lazy side and I decided to give it a try.

First I rinsed and de-cored the cabbage. For this I used a steak knife for the bulk of the core and then a tomato corer to get the last little bits out.

Then I put the cabbage into our pickle crock with the stem-crater on top. I filled the crater partly full of salt and poured boiling water over the whole thing until it was just covered with water. I used a round ceramic hot plate topped with two quart jars full of water to smoosh the cabbage down. Then I waited 15 days.

On the 14th day, I happened to make a roast in the crock pot. We were eating out of our pantry/freezer because money was a little tight so the roast was cooked with only carrots and onions. I put the onions on the bottom, then the roast, then the sauteed onions, and some salt and pepper for good measure.

On the 15th day I pulled the pickled cabbage out of the crock and my husband suggested that we stuff the leftover roast in the cabbage leaves for fun. Just to see how it worked!

Oh. My. It was simply amazing! The cold, sour flavor on the outside and the hot, sweet, meaty flavor on the inside balanced each other out just perfectly. We tried the cabbage leaves stuffed with tuna salad the next day and it was also a hit.

Our children loved this dish and it was a very fun way to eat leftovers. We each got these little cabbage-leaf wraps that were not only tasty, but very cute looking as well!

We just got another cabbage in our CSA bag this past Friday and I’m looking forward to pickling this cabbage as well! I plan to start it tonight and perhaps, in 15 days, I’ll have another suggestion for how to use these flavorful cabbage leaves. I’m thinking about trying burritos with cabbage leaves instead of tortillas, but that might be just a little too odd. Even for us 🙂

I have another post in the works – not planning on disappearing for an extended period of time again! So you should check back soon for my Cube Steak Gravy Stew recipe.

~B.

Beef, pepper, and cabbage stew!

Hello!

We didn’t fall of the face of the earth, but we did get very busy and ended up mostly grilling steaks during the summer which wasn’t terribly thrilling to write about. By the time the fall came, we were out of the habit of writing down our recipes, but we’re back and will try to be better about keeping updated!

We’ll also be adding some pork recipes from time to time because we just purchased a lovely 1/4 of a pastured pig from Grassfed Foods and plan to purchase half a pig in the spring if we eat this one quickly enough!

Anyhow, on to today’s (well… last week’s…. still getting in the swing of things) recipe!

I used:

3 spring onions
6 cloves of garlic
olive oil
one rump roast
salt
pepper
4 cups of beef stock
3 cups of chopped turnips
2 chopped beets
2 jalapeños
2 banana peppers
1 medium head of cabbage
2 heads of broccoli

I’m going to try writing this as a timeline just as a change of pace. I’m still trying to figure out what the best way to write out recipes is. This is an all-day recipe which is perfect for cold weather on a day that you will be home doing other things all day long.

1pm – I sauteed the green onions and half the garlic in olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pot) then added the beef and browned on all sides. I added three dashes of salt and a dash of black pepper.

1:20pm – I added 2 cups of frozen beef stock and the chopped turnips. Then I brought it to a nice simmer on medium-low heat.

2pm – I added 2 more cups of beef stock (frozen). Still simmering.

3pm – I added two chopped beets.

3:15pm – I sauteed two jalepenos and two banana peppers along with the rest of the garlic in some olive oil for a few minutes and added it to the big pot.

4:10pm – I chopped up my medium head of cabbage into small pieces.

4:15pm – I added cabbage to the pot and replaced the lid to steam. Still simmering.

5:15pm – I realized I had 2 heads of broccoli so I chopped those into small pieces and added them to the pot.

5:35pm – I chopped up the meat – which was nearly falling apart – because my children eat it better if it’s in smaller pieces.

5:45pm – The stew was done!

This stew received rave reviews from my whole family! It wasn’t too spicy for my children and Phred thought it was one of the best soups I’d ever made 🙂 For a little while I was worried that I’d cooked some of the veggies too long, but it ended up being just right! I’ll probably still start the turnips a little later next time, but it was fine the way it was too!

This should be nice and versatile too, depending on what veggies we have on hand and I’ll definitely be making this again sometime!

~B.

Cornish Pasties aka “Hand Pies”

Meat and vegetables in a portable, yet tasty crust.

While perusing Great British Cooking, a curious book that we found at a book sale, I came across an intriguing recipe for something called a “Cornish pasty.”  Being somewhat obsessed with Cornwall thanks to a certain British show, and enticed by the delectable description of something called “high tea” in which the pasty makes a regular showing, thus began my quest to make this oddly-shaped little treat.

Software (Dough)

Oh, my, the folks over at the Good Eats Fan page are fabulous, with full episode transcripts and recipes! Since Great British Cooking didn’t include a recipe for pastry (something everyone’s supposed to know how to make, I assume?), I used good old Alton Brown’s hand pie recipe as found on this page.  Copied here for your ease of use:

Two teaspoons of baking powder and three-quarter teaspoon of kosher salt go into nine and one-half ounces of all-purpose flour—that’s about two cups—and that we will sift. Only, I really hate sifting. So I’m going to do this in my handy dandy food processor. Besides mixing, the food processor will also aerate the powdered goods making it easier for the milk to mix in later on. There. That should just about do it.	2 tsp. Baking Powder 3/4 tsp. Kosher Salt 9.5 Ounces All Purpose Flour*
Now this mixture goes into a nice big work bowl. But first, two and a half ounces of shortening which I have chilled in water—makes it a little easier to work with. Don’t worry about whatever liquid sticks to that. And the dry goods go on top of that. Don’t worry about getting a homogeneous mixture here. Just distribute the fat evenly. The rolling pin will even things out later.	2.5 Ounces Shortening
Kind of mush the flour into the fat, using the tips of your fingers. They don’t get as hot as your palms, so it won’t melt the shortening. Now make a little well in the middle, and then pour in three quarters of a cup of milk, and stir it in good.	3/4 Cup Whole Milk

Now this is different from regular biscuits, where we don’t want to overwork them. Here, we want gluten. So stir your heart out. And then turn it out onto a counter, give it a little bit of flour, and knead it, good and hard, 10 to 20 times. The more the merrier.

There. Now is the time to summon your favorite rolling pin. I like this French model: no ball bearings, no handles, no funny business. Just a nice taper on both ends, and a narrow diameter for better control. Roll your dough out until it’s about half an inch thick all the way around, give or take a few millimeters, of course. Then, take yourself a two and a quarter inch cutting ring or a cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, what have you, and cut out your rounds. Remember to push down to the board, and then twist to extract your round. Roll your remnant and get as many more rounds out of it as you possibly can. Then, re-flour your board and roll each one of the rounds until it’s five to six inches in diameter. About like that.

— from the Good Eats Fan Page transcript of, “A Pie in Every Pocket,” last revised 1/18/2010, and presently at: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season9/pocketpie/pocket_pie_tran.htm

*I don’t have a kitchen scale, so I found a weight-to-volume converter, and found that 9.5oz of flour is approximately 2 ¹/3 cups.  In practice, that didn’t turn out to be enough, and I had a very sloppy mix on my hands, requiring more flour to get something knead-able and rollable.  Mysterious (note to self: get a kitchen scale).

Software (Filling)

1 small onion, diced
6 small summer squash, sliced thinly
3-4 Round steaks, fat trimmed and cut into small (1/2″) cubes. A good pair of kitchen scissors are invaluable for trimming the fat and cubing the meat.  (Round Steak probably wasn’t the best cut for this, due to the attached bone and extra fat, but then again, fat+bones make for a mighty tasty bone broth.  Waste not, want not, etc.)
1/4 cup olive oil, for frying
2 cups chopped collard greens
2 tbsp soy sauce
black pepper
2 eggs + 1 tsp. water

Hardware

– Large mixing bowl
– Heavy metal baking sheet
– Medium bowl
– Small bowl
– Large bowl or measuring cup
– Wooden spoon
– Medium frying pan

Procedure (the crust)

You may want to read the full recipe for the dough again.  When you’re all done, you’ll have about a dozen 6″ rounds stacked and ready to stick in the fridge.  Trust me, I want to eat these pasties as much as you do, but you really want to cool these puppies before filling them or else you’ll end up leaky pasties.  It’s not the end of the world if that happens, but it kind of defeats the wonderful “one-ness” of a well made pasty.

Procedure (filling)

While the crust is cooling in the fridge, go ahead and fry together the onions, squash, and collards.

Now, mix the cooked squash in the large measuring cup with the raw meat. Mix well.

Whip the eggs and water together in the medium bowl with a fork or whisk. Continue whisking until the mixture begins to lighten.

It's filling time.

Now, take one of the rounds and put it on a floured countertop. Take about one large spoonful of filling and place in the middle of the pasty. Dip a finger in the egg and rub all the way around the edge of the crust, then fold up the sides (like a taco) and pinch over the top edge. Next, push in the ends, making sure to leave a space for steam to escape.  Mine ended up looking like deformed potstickers, which according to Google Image Search is an acceptable shape for a pasty.

Carefully lift the pasty and place onto the well oiled baking sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees, until the pasties begin to brown. Serve and enjoy!

Apple-tastic!

I had some extra rounds left, in fact, and scooped some leftover apple filling into them to make some lovely apple hand pies as well.  If you saw the Good Eats episode, you’ll know that you can put pretty much anything into a hand pie, feel free to experiment and go wild.

Reactions:

The children mostly liked the crust.  I was able to eat about two pasties; they were quite filling, so perhaps I could have rolled them more thinly.

Leftovers:

– Were quite tasty.

Pictures of the whole process are, as always, available on Flickr:

Cooking With Jazz

The cool jazz is playing on Jazz 24 and the smells from the kitchen are amazing! What could be better?

It’s been a busy summer, but a good one. I apologize for being away for so long. Right now I’m heating up some left-over Ratatouille and ground beef in the oven while the rice cooks and the lovely peach and blueberry cobbler bakes in the convection/toaster oven.

We haven’t been doing much in the way of exciting new things in the kitchen. A lot of grilling out and making basic food has gotten us through the busy last couple of weeks.

One exciting thing I’ve been meaning to write about though is how wonderful it is to be able to make Ratatouille in my own kitchen! If you’ve never tasted fresh eggplant, you truly are missing out. It has an odd texture, but the flavor is… indescribably delicious!

Eggplant is one of those odd foods that hardly anyone eats on a regular basis. After all, when was the last time you saw an eggplant in your friendly neighborhood grocery store? Eggplants are delicate and don’t last very long – nor do they travel well – so, depending on your location, local sources are probably your best bet for finding some good eggplants.

Anyhow, one of the benefits to being in a CSA for us is actually getting to experiment, cook with, and eat things like eggplants which we would otherwise either not buy or maybe not even have access to.

The food is just about done and I’m going to go enjoy it now. I just want to encourage everyone to try something new this week. Try eggplant if you can. It’s a truly amazing food – but remember not to eat the skin raw.

~B.

How to Grill a Steak

A friend pointed me to this excellent post over at Life Hacker and it was of great interest to me. I hope you all find it interesting as well!

Seven Myths About Grilling a Steak

They cover such topics as whether or not to set your steak on the counter before cooking it, how to tell when a steak is done without poking it with a knife (which lets all the tasty juiciness come out), and when to salt your steaks. Be sure to read the comments at the bottom as well for more opinions about the best way to grill a steak.

Happy grilling to you!
~B.

Shepherd’s Pie – take 2

I decided to give shepherd’s pie another try after my first successful attempt. This was was a little different and I only made enough for our family this time. We received some lovely ears of corn from our CSA last week as well as quite a few potatoes and some Vidalia onions. Add those to the ground beef in our freezer and you have nearly everything you need for local shepherd’s pie!

7 medium ears of corn
1 medium onion
4 cloves of garlic
5 medium potatoes
1 Tbl. bacon grease
1 pound ground beef
1 large green tomato
1/2 cup beef bone broth/stock
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbl. butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Granulated kelp
1/3 pound of extra sharp cheddar cheese (sliced – would have been better grated)

The first thing I did was to cook the corn. I put the shucked ears into a large stock pot full of cold water and bring the water to a boil. I then turn the heat down and leave the corn in the water for about 10 more minutes after that. After 10 minutes, during which I coarsely chopped the onion and minced the garlic, I ran cold water over the corn and then used a small knife to cut the kernels from the cobs.

While cutting the corn kernels I cooked the potatoes in the stock pot I had used for the corn. They cooked for about half an hour. I started them in cold water then turned the heat to high until it started boiling. Then I turned it down to medium until the potatoes were nice and soft when I poked them with a fork.

After finishing with the corn, while waiting for the potatoes to cook, I put the dollop of bacon grease in our cast iron skillet and sautéed the onions and garlic for a few minutes before removing them from the skillet and browning the ground beef. Once the ground beef was brown all the way through, I added the onions and garlic back into the skillet along with about 1/4 cup of beef stock, the chopped green tomato, salt, pepper, and a handful or so of whole wheat flour to thicken up the liquid. I let the ground beef mixture simmer for about 8 minutes before putting it in the bottom of a large casserole dish.

While the meat simmered, I mashed the potatoes and put in 1/2 a cup of milk and half a stick of salted butter along with 1/4 cup of beef stock. To season I put in some black pepper and a generous pinch of granulated kelp.

I had planned to put in a layer of collard greens between the beef and corn layers, but forgot. So after spreading the meat/tomato/onion mixture in the bottom of the casserole dish, I put the corn on top, and then spread the potatoes over the whole thing. I added some extra sharp cheddar cheese to the top and baked it for 35 minutes and then two extra minutes on low broil to brown the cheese on top.

It turned out quite well! The green tomato added a bit of sour to this extremely savory dish and I only regretted that I had forgotten to add the collard greens which would have been a wonderful addition, in my opinion.

Both Phred and I consider this to be a success and our children cleaned their plates after the first time they ate it.

~B.

Anything Goes (CSA) Chili

Here it is! The delicious concoction I made last Thursday! And one of these days, I will get pictures up! I took many of them, but my computer is just slightly ancient so I have to borrow Phred’s to do pictures which hasn’t been possible lately.

This is a variation on my last post about Sandy’s Vegetarian Chili:

*6 cups dried beans (soaked overnight in 10+ cups of water)
*1 piece of kombu seaweed
*1/2 cup of olive oil
*2 large onions (chopped coarsely)
*3 medium jalapenos (chopped, with seeds)
*1 large bell pepper (chopped coarsely, sans seeds)
*5 small squashes (chopped coarsely, sans seeds)
*1 large eggplant (chopped coarsely)
*1 large sprig of fresh rosemary
*3 cups fresh green beans (in bite-sized pieces)
*1 cup frozen chopped collard greens
*1 small can tomato paste
*1 large can diced (petit) tomatoes
*2 heaping Tablespoons cumin
*1 Tablespoon rubbed sage
*Chili powder to taste
*Black pepper to taste
*Salt to taste (more than you think it needs – several Tbls.)

First, I soaked the beans (2 cups each of black beans, pinto beans, and kidney beans) overnight on Wednesday evening. I probably should’ve used filtered water, but I was lazy and didn’t feel like waiting for our Brita so I didn’t. The water here isn’t that bad except when they’ve recently re-chlorinated it and then you can smell the chlorine. Ick!

Anyhow, Thursday morning I rinsed the beans and gave them some fresh water. At around noon I rinsed them again, put them in more fresh water in my giant stock pot and then brought them to a boil. Once they reached a boil, I turned down the heat to medium and skimmed off all the foam that had risen to the top. If you leave the foam on the top, you’ll probably have bad gas for a few days so it’s a good idea to skim that off. It doesn’t take long at all to do and it’s definitely worth the time!

After skimming the foam I turn it down to simmer and then it’s the perfect time to take yet another gas-minimizing step and add a piece of kombu seaweed. I promise that it does not affect the flavor at all and I add some kombu every time I make a giant pot of beans. Nobody will even be able to tell, but it’ll cut back on the gas and add some natural flavor enhancers as well as essential minerals like iodine (important since we generally do not use iodized salt).

After the beans had simmered for a few hours, I began to prepare the vegetables. I didn’t prep them all in one block of time because I get interrupted frequently by my offspring so I can’t really tell you how long it took, but it didn’t seem to take too much time. I started with the onions and peppers since I like to saute them in a frying pan with olive oil before adding them to the beans.

Making this chili is not an exact science by any stretch of the imagination. I usually add the vegetables (and saute the onions and peppers) when the beans are no longer crunchy – just maybe a tiny bit al dente, but soft. I usually cook the chili for about one hour after adding the veggies and that gives the beans enough time to really get nice and soft.

I added the fresh veggies in this order: onions and peppers, green beans, squashes, eggplant, and collards. Mainly because that was approximately the order of tenderness although there wasn’t any significant amount of time between adding any of them and adding the next. I also added the sprig of rosemary at this time. I just put the whole thing in and removed the stem after the chili was done cooking. I also added the salt when I put the rosemary in.

After the hour is (approximately) up, I check on the beans and veggies which are typically done by then. If not, I let it simmer on for a bit longer. It’s around this time that I add the tomatoes and other spices.

I added the tomatoes so late in the game because I used canned tomatoes. I am looking forward to trying this recipe with fresh tomatoes (for the very first time!) this summer. We weren’t able to try it last summer because our house would warm up too much when I cooked for very long and when we lived in WA we got so few tomatoes that we didn’t use them for cooking – we just ate them straight up!

We browned some ground beef, basically in the way Phred describes except lighter on the spice, and added it in our bowls to taste. There are several good reasons for doing it this way.

1. Vegetarian chili keeps in the fridge for longer.
2. You can make more chili in the same sized pot if the meat is added afterwards.
3. You can share your chili with vegetarian (and even vegan) friends.
4. Some people prefer more or less meat in their chili than you might.
5. Meat chili tends to not have a variety of vegetables, but vegetable chili goes very nicely either with or without meat.

I hope you decide to try a crazy CSA chili this summer! Really, you can put just about anything in it – this chili can easily be made to use up vegetables you aren’t sure what to do with.

In fact, I’d love to hear what unusual things you try in this chili and how it turns out. I’d never had eggplant chili before, but it turned out extremely well! I’ve used squash before and now squash is one of my favorite veggies to put in chili.

We served it with sour cream and it’s also delicious with cheese if you like dairy. It’d probably be even better with local sour cream and cheese, but sadly that’s one of the areas we compromise in to be able to buy other foods locally. We don’t eat sour cream and cheese all the time so it works as a compromise for us.

Enjoy the recipe! Tweak it to suit your pantry and please report back if you find a particularly wonderful combination because I’m always looking for unusually tasty food combinations 🙂

~B.

Sandy’s Vegetarian Chili – basic recipe

Tonight I’m making a brand new, never before tried version of this recipe:

*2 large sliced Onions
*1/2 cup of Olive or Vegetable Oil
*6 stalks of Celery (optional)
*2-3 Bell Peppers (chopped coarsely)
*4-5 Carrots (sliced)
*6-10 Garlic Cloves (chopped coarsely)
*2 medium Jalapenos w/seeds (chopped)
*2 (generous) Tbl. Cumin
*1 Tbl. Salt & 1 tsp. Black Pepper
*Fresh or dried Rosemary, Thyme, and Sage to taste.
*2 Cans of Stewed Tomatoes
*2 Cans each of Kidney, Black, White, and Pinto Beans (drained and rinsed)
* 7-8 quart stock pot

Sauté onions in oil until onions get soft – can also sauté jalapenos at this time if a milder spice is desired – then add celery, bell peppers, carrots, garlic, and jalapenos. Let cook for about 45 minutes until vegetables begin to get soft. Then add cans of beans. When hot, add cans of tomatoes after which you need to stir frequently lest the tomatoes taste burnt. After adding tomatoes cook for another quarter hour and during that time, add spices and herbs to taste.

This recipe was given to me by a very dear friend and it’s an old hippie recipe. This is the most amazing chili I’ve ever had and over the years I’ve tweaked it here and there and have gotten extremely comfortable with using just about any ingredients I have on hand. I figure that as long as I have the beans (and I use dried now, not canned), the peppers, the onions, the tomatoes, and the spices – well, it tastes like chili!

So, please stay tuned for the recipe I’m making right now with my CSA veggies this week. It should be truly wonderful and very different than the regular meat, beans, and tomatoes chili most Americans are used to. I can hardly wait for it to be finished (and it should be very soon!). This isn’t the sort of thing we make frequently so it’s always a treat whenever we do 🙂

~B.

The Best Burgers in the World

Saturday was the most amazing day I’ve had in a long time! Everything went just right and you’ll just have to bear with me for a bit before I get to the part about the beef.

First thing in the morning I went with my my mom, my youngest brother and sister, and my children to a community yard sale put on by the local Rotary Club. It was great! We found some neat things and had some freshly squeezed lemonade (squeezed right in front of us!). I’m a huge fan of buying things used from yard sales, rummage sales, and thrift stores. Not only does it cost less, but there’s less waste, it’s recycling, AND it’s so much fun to find cool things in unexpected places.

On the way to my parents’ house from the amazing community yard sale, I decided to stop by the local roadside honey stand where I bought some raw, unfiltered honey with the comb still in it. I hadn’t had honey like that since I was around 10 years old!

Raw honey is a treat. Very much like when I first drank raw milk, I had to take a few bites before I got used to the flavor, but it was so deep and smoky and RICH! The honey in the store is so… vapidly sweet. This honey is still very sweet, but it’s full of layers and secrets and wisdom. I’m so glad we can still get it locally!

Anyhow, that evening we had the best burgers on the face of the planet. My mom made the patties and Phred grilled the burgers with the help of my 15 year old brother. Sauteed onions, grass-fed beef, mayo, brown mustard, ketchup, pickles, lettuce, and tomato. All mushed together in a double handful of heaven. It doesn’t get much better than that 🙂

Then, last night, we decided to be bold and invite my parents over for fondue and vegetable tempura. We had eggplant from Earthwize that made absolutely amazing tempura! So did the squash and the green peppers… wow! My mom loved it and so did our daughters! Of course, we did too. My dad was happier to eat his fresh corn on the cob and regularly prepared green beans.

For the fondue, we used hot oil in the fondue pots and cut some stew meat into smaller pieces to make it easier to cook them at the table. Phred marinated them all day in a marinade that he’ll write about later and it was just perfect.

So, we’ve been eating our beef and having a good time. We’ve just been a little behind in writing about it and in getting pictures up, but we will do so very soon! We’ve found our camera and we have a lot of tasty meat pictures to share with you all!

Till next time then!

~B.