Summer Bounty

Last of the raspberries

Overripe currents

Bounty!

  

Love my August sunflowers!

OOC beanstalk

First of the hollyhock

We are decidedly more relaxed around here.  While we are not through major transitions, we are through major decisions.  And that brings its own form of peacefulness.  There's still a bit of anxiety in the air, as the summer has seemed too rushed.  For instance, this summer does not seem to be the summer I get out to pick huckleberries.  Or even pick the currents in the back yard.  But I am content in that the huckleberries and currents will be there next year, as will we.  So I can let that go for now, and just enjoy the bounty from my garden that I have been able to capitalize on this summer.  Like lettuce--for the first time ever we have been able to keep up with production.  And garlic scapes.  I discovered garlic scape pasta (recipe here) and have made three batches, to much success and acclaim.  I've also been knitting...a lot.  The most summer knitting ever.  Hopefully I will have pictures to share soon!

Oh, and we broke down and bought a new-to-us washing machine.  Because laundry is somewhat important in the grand scheme of things!

Winter Solstice

 

To keep back the long winter's night, we had a solstice party with the neighbors.  We made sun cookies, and bright colored play dough.  Then, we turned off all the lights, and turned on the sun!

Summer Salads

I have a lettuce problem.  Which is to say, I once again planted too much lettuce all at the same time and thus am overflowing in lettuce bounty.  This year, the lettuce is Mesclun mix and "Flashy-back Trout" romaine from Territorial Seed Co.  I will donate some lettuce to one of my favorite non-profits, Backyard Harvest, which I will write more about in an upcoming blog post.  But for now, we are going to be eating a lot of salads.  Tonight will be a Greek-type salad with Kalamata olives, locally made feta (from Brush Creek Creamery), and dried cranberries.  In addition, I'll top it off with "secret salmon" from the Fish Folks.  Secret salmon are little chunks of salmon cut off from the ends of filets.  It's a deal and it tastes great!

Tomatoes are looking good!

My lettuce runneth over.  Beans are still climbing though.

Potatoes look good.  Basil, not so much.

Lettuce harvest!

Eggs

I will be the first to admit that I have a bit of an obsession with eggs.  Which is funny, because I really don't like to eat them the way most people like to eat them.  I primarily enjoy them as an ingredient in other foods, such as brownies.

That being said, happy chickens make better tasting eggs, and I like my eggs to come from happy chickens.  This means I try to buy only from chicken owners I know personally. 

 Apparently these are good reasons to buy local eggs, as is wanting to support you local economy.  What is not a good reason, interestingly, is to conserve energy.  I heard this story on Northwest Public Radio a couple weeks ago.  Washington State University researcher Dr. Jude Capper did a calculation and determined that conventionally farmed and trucked eggs are more energy efficient, on a per carton basis.  However, they did not consider two other options available to us here in Moscow...having a colleague bring eggs in from home or being able to buy farm/backyard eggs at the grocery store.  Typically, I buy my eggs from one of two colleagues at work who have chickens.  When I forget, as I did recently, I buy local eggs at the Moscow Food Co-op.

And they are good eggs.  I love the variety in farm eggs.  Different sizes, different colors.  Just like chickens.  And people.

If I Only Had Some Henchmen...

I am a closet Martha Stewart fan.  I admit it.  In fact, I even like her better after the whole prison thing.  I think that experience mellowed her out a bit.  Which she needed.  

Earlier this month, I had the unfortunate luck of being in an airport.  Flying in December is less fun than flying any other time of the year, which is saying quite a lot.  In means making decisions such as whether to take your heavy coat even though you know you won't need it at your destination but you could possibly freeze your butt off standing on the tarmac waiting for your gate checked bag while en route.  It also means flying with people who almost never fly, or in fact, even get out in public very often.  Needless to say, flying in December is to be avoided at all cost.  

So buying a Martha Stewart magazine tends to be my guilty airport pleasure.  I bought the December magazine, which turned out to be mostly a tribute album to the 20 previous years of Martha.  But Martha did succeed in taking my thoughts away from crazy airport passengers.  She did this first on page 6, where she presents her December calendar.  Of course I was duly impressed that she had all her packages mailed in time (Dec 10), doesn't forget buy fresh Mistletoe (Dec 22), or make pate a choux puffs (Dec 24).  However, I did have to laugh when I saw her workout schedule:  Dec 2, 4, 8,9,16,18,23, and 30.  Apparently Martha has as much trouble setting up a regular workout schedule as the rest of us mortals.  But I digress.  

As I posted previously, I have given up looking for cookie recipes.  But that did not stop me from falling in love with her barks and brittles.  I decided to make them for my neighbors for Christmas gifts.  The recipe (one version found here) is very easy, although I should have looked it up online first because the magazine version does not tell you to make the bark thin.  Mine ended up a little on the thick side, which probably won't bother any chocolate lovers.  I made bark with peppermint, crushed cashews, sliced almonds, and peanut butter. 

Cashew bark (left), and peppermint bark.

Peanut butter-milk chocolate almond bark

The problem with M.S. recipes is that there is always one step that is a bit tricky.  You know, the step that would be easier if you lived in Manhattan and could shop at international grocery stores, or if you had a personal assistant named Victor, or if you had, as Martha does, a legion of henchmen to actually do the hard work for you.   That step in this recipe is the wrapping.  Not having the fancy boxes Martha used, I tried wrapping the barks in parchment paper.  Note to self:  tape does not stick to parchment paper.  I instead used plain white paper to wrap around the parchment paper and seal the barks.  Of course, touching the bark melted the chocolate just a tiny bit, which got onto my fingers, and then onto the paper.  I do not know how the henchmen handled this issue; I just washed and dried my hands a lot.


In the end, I think they turned out OK.  But I won't know for sure until I see the reactions of the neighbors.  If the new neighbors stop waving to us, I'll know...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wrapped barks.

Cookie Geneology

Every year about this time, I pour over magazines looking for good cookie recipes.  And then I always make the same one:  my great grandmother's sugar cookie.  There is something about the time honored cookie, passed down from the homesteader's kitchen.  The uncooked dough is especially tasty, even though it has an egg in it, which means it technically should not be consumed--but aren't forbidden things always more appealing??

I am now passing this recipe on to the next generation, and I think I will pass it along here as well.  From the plains of central Kansas:

Great Grandma's* Sugar Cookie Recipe:

3 cups flour
1 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp heavy cream


Sift dry ingredients together.  Add soft butter, then egg, cream, and vanilla.  Blend well.  Chill 2 hours.  Roll out and cut into desired shapes.  Bake at 400 degree oven for 5-8 minutes.  Cool before decorating.

Frosting: (From my mother)


1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups sifted baking sugar
2 tbsp milk


Cream the shortening and butter together.  Add vanilla.  Slowly add sugar and then milk.  Can be kept up to two weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

* Also known as "Mother's Cookie Recipe" and "Grandma's Cookie Recipe"

The Joy of Roasting

We received a roasting pan for a wedding gift and I thought, "I am never going to use this."  How wrong I was!  My husband started using the pan a few years ago when he began preparing holiday roasts (on Thanksgiving and Christmas).  He has been perfecting his recipe for several years now.  When he adds his green chili gravy...wonderful.  Unfortunately, I can't share his recipe since he doesn't write it down.  However, this past summer I discovered the joy of roasting chicken and therefore finally got to make use of the pan.  This year, I decided to make a concerted effort to eat more locally produced foods.  As part of this objective, I ordered five chickens (spaced out over several months) from the Zakarison Partnership, a nearby farm.  The Zakarisons are third generation wheat farmers but have recently begun diversifying their farm and now have a certified organic section of their farm, as well as ethically and sustainably raised sheep and pastured poultry.  After my somewhat spontaneous order of chickens, I realized I had to learn to roast them.  Despite the stress and the fevered consulting of my Julia Child cookbook, it's actually so easy I feel guilty when it's my turn to cook.  I simply baste the chicken in olive oil and herbs, place it breast-side down in the roasting pan, add potatoes and carrots to the pan, cover the pan, and put it in the oven at 375 degrees for 1.5-2 hours.  The bird is done when the temperature of the meat in the thickest portion is 180 degrees and the juice runs clear.  Instead of cooking over a hot stove, I just have about 10 minutes of prep and then can relax before dinner (as my husband says, roasting pans are the original crock pot).   Of course you can also make stock from the leftover chicken bits--but that is a post for another day!