The next week

Sunday: Pesto with leftover chicken, salad


Monday: Beef stew, Valentine radishes


Tuesday: Hot Italian Sausage and Squash over pasta, cauliflower. I just made this up but it was good.


Italian Sausage and Squash


1 lb hot Italian Sausage
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart winter squash puree (sweet potatoes would probably be good too - I used stuff we'd gotten in the share)
Salt
Pepper


Remove sausage from the casings and break into chunks, then brown the pieces. Add garlic and cook until soft. Add the squash puree (and water if necessary) and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for a bit. Serve over pasta.


Wednesday: Julia Child's Chicken Fricassee (I'd frozen the leftovers) over noodles (although Sam had it over leftover mashed potatoes), salad.


Thursday: Take out pizza. Logging this is a good reminder of how much we eat out. Apparently a lot.


Friday: Red Lentil Dal (modified from this recipe) by doubling the spices and using about a tablespoon of fresh ginger in place of the dried. I also quickly cooked the spices in oil prior to adding the other ingredients. I served it over chickpea pancake with a side salad. As always when I make a vegetarian meal Ben says "Needs meat!" but Sam ate this right up.

Saturday: Spicy pork cubes over brown rice, cauliflower.

Spicy Pork Cubes

2 T oil
3/4 lb lean pork cut into 3/4" cubes
2 T sugar
1/2 c chicken broth or water
2 whole star anise
3 T soy sauce
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 T minced ginger root
1 clove minced garlic

Brown meat in oil, add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer until tender, approximately 40 minutes. Remove heat and stir until most liquid has evaporated.

Oops

Missed last week but that's the way it goes. I just forgot about posting.


Sunday: A lunch for friends - Beef brisket, salad, pie (my mom's cheesecake cherry pie topped with leftover pavlova elderberry/strawberry/blueberry mix I'd frozen)


Monday: Homemade pizza, salad


Tuesday: Ham steak, salad, Kerry's baked beans


Wednesday: Tomato sauce (one 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, one onion sliced and sauteed in olive oil until soft, salt, lots of black pepper, a can of butter beans, about a tablespoon of fresh chopped oregano added at the end) over chickpea pancake, broccoli. Sam and I both loved the tomato sauce/pancake combo. Ben lamented the lack of meat.


Thursday and Friday: Ate out both days - one night Indian food, the other Vietnamese

Saturday: Roast chicken (I cheated and got a "flippin' chicken" at the store, mashed potatoes, spinach salad

Fattening week

The share gets replenished for the last time this session on Wednesday. Prior to Wed. we're eating nice fattening foods with fewer veggies. Opps!

The share:

Green Cabbage, 2 lbs Purple Top Turnips, 2 lbs Orange Carrots, 1 lb Valentine Radishes, Shoot/Claytonia Mix, Pesto (just basil and oil), 3 lbs Frozen Tomatoes, Elmore Mountain Bakery Flax Bread, Pa Pa Doodles Farm or Gopher Broke Farm Eggs, Dreuxmanna Crackers, Lazy Lady Oh My Heart Cheese


We have officially decided not to take this late winter share. We have more jams and jellies and various other oddball things than we can use. Instead, I'll try to attend the winter farmers market for the rest of the winter and I've signed up for a different farmshare for the string that does only vegetables and not the localvore items. Change is good, right? We'll still buy some of the localvore items we discovered though the share but only the ones that fit our lifestyle. It also costs about half as much. A big change but hey, I'm up for something new! The new share will start in the middle of June and run through October and then maybe we'll pick up a fall share with Pete's Greens again.

Superbowl Sunday: Chicken fricassee and salad. Of course we couldn't be snackless though so I also made guacamole and salsa which we ate with chips.

Monday: Sam's request day -- pizza of course.

Tuesday: Refried bean burritos with guacamole and salsa, salad.

Wednesday: Cheese and crackers from the share, Keilbasa and Share soup - not an official name but I made a soup from many of the vegetables we got in the share this week. Simple and tasty.

Kielbasa and Farm Share Soup

1/2 lb kielbasa, cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
2 large turnips, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, cut into small pieces
2-3 cups corn
Chicken stock
Salt
Pepper, lots of pepper to taste

Brown the Kielbasa. Add onions and cook until soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Thursday: Sam's school was doing a lunch for dinner program to show parents the types of fresh and local foods that are used for the school lunches. We were treated to a variety of foods. Shepards pie, soup, salad bar, fresh bread, apple crisp. It was all much better than any school lunch I've had before.


Friday: It was my birthday and I decided that I really wanted to go to the original Flatbreads in Waitsfield. Mmmm. Sam gets his love of pizza honestly. Alas, we got there at 5:00 and there was a 2.5-3 hour wait which we just couldn't do. We ended up going to a different restaurant where I got a mediocre burger and excellent sweet potato fries.

Saturday: More Julia! I made Boef Gourguignon from the Julia Child cookbook for Ben for an early Valentines Day dinner. I served it over egg noodles with a side salad. He made German Chocolate cake for me.

Ben loved the Boef Bourguignon and I thought it was....fine. It's just not the type of thing I love. It was easy but with all the separate steps, it made a ton of dishes. Oh, and I figured out why she has you boil bacon before frying it - it renders the fat without any pieces of other stuff in it so when I browned the meat in it, I could take the temperature way up. What a mess that made, even with a spatter screen! Post cooking cleaning was substantial.

Straying from the share

An off week for the share. I've been looking for someone to share the share with for the upcoming session Feb. 17 - Jun. 7 and haven't found anyone who is interested. One of our friends described the share as "tyranny" and I can totally understand that feeling as it really does dictate what you'll eat for the next week and how much time you'll spend cooking. We may bypass this round of the share and pick it up again in the spring, perhaps from a different farm.

Sunday: Ben cooked. We had pheasant (yes, you read that right - Ben went pheasant hunting on Saturday morning) that had been breaded and pan fried, rice and beans, and claytonia/sprout salad.


Monday: Indian take out! Channa Masala, nan, paneer pakora, lamb saag. YUM! We could easily eat this every week without complaint.


Tuesday: Pesto with leftover pheasant cut up and added. Glazed parsnips. Spinach salad with the rest of the sprouts from the share.


Wednesday: Ham, sweet potatoes, spinach salad.


Thursday: Friends came to dinner. We had beef/moose stew made like the beef stew from last week, salad, bread, with pavlova with elderberry, blueberry, and strawberry sauce for dessert. I ended up manually removing the juice from the berries and then concentrating it to get a bit more flavor from it. The color is dramatic and made it hard to distinguish the blueberries and strawberries. I sweetened and thickened it slightly with a mix of sugar and corn starch and served it over the pavlovas.


Friday: Cheese ravioli with marinara sauce (I'll sometimes buy one of the gallon cans of whole tomatoes and make a bunch of sauce to freeze - this was from the freezer), salad.


Saturday: Leftovers. We often eat the leftovers for breakfast or lunch over the next couple of days although eventually we get to the point where the refrigerator is bursting with leftovers and then we'll have them for dinner. That's where we were today.

Sam told me the other day "I never get to decide what we have for dinner!" and it's true, we rarely ask him. When we do, his answer is predictable -- pizza! We were going to have that on Saturday evening but we really needed to clear up some space in the refrigerator.

Underutilized blog

We've been doing the share for long enough now that I'm not experimenting with new recipes nearly as much so I've decided to change the focus to what's for dinner. I often use leftovers to build new meals both because I'm lazy and because it's efficient. It will also shows how I use the share stuff throughout the week. We're still getting the share every other week rather than every week because, well, there really is such a thing as too many root vegetables and there are times I really really want a meal that includes fresh salsa and guacamole in the middle the winter. I made that last week at some point and it was spectacular. Ben said "It's better for my diet to not have this stuff because I don't eat nearly as much of the root vegetables as this."


I don't plan out our meals in advance although I do generally contemplate what we can do for dinner that night while I'm going about my business during the day. My goal is to cook from what we have at home because going to the store constantly is a bit of a waste of time. Some nights we have leftovers, some nights we go out to dinner or get carry out. Ben sometimes cooks but his philosophy of cooking is different than mine; he decides what he feels like eating, goes shopping, and then prepares the meal.



Our share this week:

2 lbs Banana Fingerling Potatoes; 2 lbs Sugarsnax and Chanteney Carrots; 2 lbs Parsnips; 2 lbs Yellow Onions; Shoot/Claytonia Mix; 1 Bag Frozen Zucchini; Elmore Mountain Country French Bread; 1 Dozen Pa Pa Doodles or Gopher Broke Farm Eggs; Vt Soy Tofu Scramble; 2 lbs Frozen Elderberries

Elderberries? Something new and different. I don't think I've ever had them. I'm not so thrilled about the tofu scramble because I'm just not a tofu fan. But hey, a week with nothing in the cabbage family! Yay!

Sunday: Potato, celeriac*, and greens soup, bread. I added greens I'd blanched, chopped, and frozen this summer to increase the nutritional value. It really doesn't seem to add much flavor.

* I discovered that the easiest way to peel this vegetable with many dirt-laden nooks is to cut it into rings and then cut the peel off each ring individually. Takes a little time but leads to less waste than other methods I've tried.

Monday: Chicken and Biscuits, savoy cabbage and carrot salad.

Tuesday: Sloppy joes on whole wheat buns. Winter squash from the share I'd prepared and frozen earlier. Leftover cabbage and carrot salad.

Wed & Thur (this was a big batch so we had it two days in a row - I often freeze some when I make a lot but I needed something easy for Thursday): Bread, Beef stew with carrots and fingerling potatoes. Ben liked it so much he ate the leftovers for breakfast and asked if it was a "real" recipe or something "in my head." Er, this was another one I just made up but here are the approximate measures.

Beef Stew

2 lbs cheap cut of beef, cubed about 1 1/2"
1 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
Oil
1 lb fingerling potatoes
1 lb carrots, cut into largish pieces
1 quart stock (I had lamb stock in the freezer but anything will do)
Salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, herbs de provence to taste

Sear meat in oil, then remove. Saute onion and celery. Add everything into the pot and simmer for about an hour, maybe more, until everything is tender. Adjust seasoning. It got better on reheating.

Thumbs up from Sam and Ben. Me? I'm not much of a beef stew fan. Thursday before and after dinner I made cupcakes for the Kindergarten bake sale.

Friday: Pizza, claytonia and spouts salad. Claytonia is an interesting green, very small leaves, that our CSA grows in their greenhouse even during cold Vermont winters. It's quite sweet. The sprouts were already mixed with the claytonia and included at least radish and sunflower, I'm not sure what else. Quite a tasty mix.


I make my own pizza dough based on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated. It's a very thin crispy crust, a favorite around here.


Pizza Crust

2 c flour
1/2 tst salt
1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/2 tsp honey
3/4 c 100 degree F water
1/4 c olive oil

Put flour, yeast, salt, and honey in a food processor. At slow speed, add water until just mixed. Then add olive oil slowly. Remove dough (it'll be wet and soft) from the bowl and toss it onto the counter about 10 times. Place dough in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator overnight or at least 10 hours.

Approximately an hour before cooking, place pizza stone on the bottom oven rack and preheat oven to 500 F. Split dough into two parts. Place each on a 15" wide parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap -- you'll probably need two since this is going to make 15" very thin pizzas. Roll between the parchment and plastic wrap until it is a 15" circle.

Note: since this crust is so thin you can't top these heavily or they'll get soggy. Each pizza uses about 5 oz of grated cheese. I prefer the simple combination of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni or else I'll use some of the pesto sauce I made and froze this summer as a topping.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the crust is crisp and the cheese begins to brown. Watch closely because it can go from perfectly done to burned in a very short time.


Saturday: Veggie Barley Soup, bread. Similar to this recipe but I didn't have any meat of any sort so I just added more beans. I used a large can of red kidney beans, a can of butter beans and one of small white beans. I also tossed in the package of frozen zucchini from the share and a package of greens I'd previously frozen. It made a nice big pot of food and I freeze leftovers for lunch at work. These are the types of leftovers I look forward to eating...

Ben's birthday bash

Today was Ben's birthday and he wanted a party and I aim to please. It was a good week of preparation here and there with most of Wednesday and all of Friday spent on party-related stuff.

Beverages were easy: Beer, Soda, Seltzer, Juice, and people brought wine.

Appetizer: Cheeses from the share and crackers

Dinner:
Marinated grilled steak from Epicurious
Peppers and onions for fajitas - I just cut them and cooked them at high heat in a little oil
Tortillas (I bought these, I'm not completely insane)
Refried beans (Just followed the directions on the back of the pinto bean can)
Guacamole
Grated cheese
Fresh salsa
Green chile salsa
Corn chips
Cilantro potato salad from Epicurious
Baked beans
Fresh pineapple (it just looked good)

Dessert:
Carrot Cake from Epicurious
Rice Krispy Treats (recipe from the box)


The recipes: Marinated Steak from Epicurious

Grilled Tri-Tip Roast with Tequila Marinade

1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup tequila
7 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 2-pound beef loin tri-tip roasts, trimmed

I followed the recipe for the marinade pretty much as is. I couldn't find tr-tip roasts so I subbed two flank steak and 4 lbs of some other steak. I marinaded it for about 24 hours even though the recipe calls for only about 2 hours. I outsourced the grilling to a more capable person and this was terrific. Many thumbs up!

I'm not giving the recipe for the potato salad because I won't be making it again. It was ok, but not good enough that I'll make it again. Part of the problem was that the potatoes I used were from the share and they were red all the way though. People thought it was ham or some other type of meat.


Guacamole

This started as a recipe in Mark Bittman's book "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" but I didn't really measure anything and it's different than his recipe. This went over very well and sadly, there are no leftovers.

6 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
1 clove garlic, minced
About 1 c minced red onion
Juice and zest from 2 1/2 limes
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, minced
salt

Mix well.


Fresh Salsa

No real recipe on this but here is it, approximately

8 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeds removed, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 bunch cilantro, cleaned and chopped
1/2 large red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of two limes
Salt

Mix well


Green Chili Salsa

I completely made this one up and it was pretty good. I didn't like it as much as the other salsa though.

2 small cans fire roasted diced green chilies
1 minced jalapeno pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 c minced red onion
1/2 c chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
Juice from 1/2 a lime

Mix well


Kerry's Baked Beans

1 lb dried beans (I used white beans)
1 tsp baking soda
1 c maple syrup
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 lb bacon (I subbed ham since I had it)
2 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp salt

Retain the cooking water from the beans

Clean and pick over the beans. Soak overnight in water with the baking soda. Put chopped onion on the bottom of a pan, add all the other ingredients, top with the bacon/ham, cover with the bean cooking water. Bake at 325F for 8 hours, adding more water if necessary. I actually made this in the crock pot on high and finished it in the oven as directed.


Triple-Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The only changes I made were 1) I added about half a can of drained pineapple to the cake 2) Eliminated the raisins because I don't really like them in baked goods and 3) Added an extra cup of powdered sugar to the icing so there would be a little more icing since I remembered that it doesn't seem like quite enough for the cake when I made it in the past. Procedurally I made the cake layers about a week in advance and froze them wrapped in plastic wrap. I made the frosting a couple of days in advance and kept it refrigerated so all I had to do today was assemble the cake.

Cake
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups finely grated peeled carrots (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (about 1/2 ounce)
1/2 cup raisins

Frosting
4 cups powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

For cake:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Lightly grease waxed paper. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and vegetable oil in bowl until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into sugar and oil mixture. Stir in carrots, chopped pecans and raisins.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans, about 45 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap tightly in plastic and store at room temperature.)

For frosting:

Using electric mixer, beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth and creamy.

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with another cake layer. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Using icing spatula, spread remaining frosting in decorative swirls over sides and top of cake. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate.) Serve cake cold or at room temperature.

Lots of people raved about this cake it's nice and moist with a nice balance of flavor.

Overall verdict on the menu: Very tasty but a whole lot of chopping!

Digging through old recipes

Looking for ideas for Thanksgiving and I found the menu I made for our "TBS" party. See if you can figure out what "TBS" means from the menu. Hint: The invitation included pictures of Bambi, Mother Goose, Donald Duck, and Bullwinkle.


TBS Menu
11/19/2005


Appetizers:

Smoked gouda, bacon and caramelized onion quesadillas
Duck Elles - Ground cooked duck and shitake mushrooms in phyllo dough
Venison sausage

Sides:

Vermont baked yellow eye beans
Butternut squash
Stuffed baked potatoes
Pumpkin bread
Four bean salad
Winter vegetable salad
Corn bread
Baguettes

Main courses:

Moose stew
Goose meatloaf – includes ground chicken and Italian sausage
Grilled moose & venison steaks
Venison & antelope roasts

Desserts:

Orange cream cheese brownies
Lemon Chess Pie
Peanut butter cookies