November Blues

Well, it's November 2 and we finally had to dismantle our garden last week. We had our first freeze, and I had gotten the tomatoes off a few days before. They are sitting in two bowls: one red, one green. I don't eat them anymore the way I did in August, sliced with salt, savoring every bite. This year, we had such a good yield that for the first time I decided to cook some of them (I found that to be a sacrilege before this year).

So, we will have the last of our red tomatoes this week in a pasta recipe with sausage, tomatoes, spinich and cream. I'll only simmer the tomatoes in the cream long enough to make the sauce pink.

And maybe I'll put aside one last tomato to slice and eat raw with salt. It's going to be a long wait til next August.

Slow cooked lentil stew with ham

This year we joined a meat CSA (locally raised meat) and occasionally find ourselves with cuts of meat we're not quite sure how to cook. (Each month we get 10 lbs. of different cuts of pork, beef, lamb and chicken.) This past month, we received a very thick ham steak with big wads of fat at the edges, which didn't quite excite me. I'm not a huge ham fan and didn't like the idea of grilling it and eating it hot off the press. Instead, we cut it up leaving the fat intact and threw it into our slow cooker with a bunch of vegetables and lentils. The result was a delicious lentil ham stew -- perfect for a cool fall evening or for a work lunch. It reminded me of the lentil soup Mom used to make us.

Here's what I threw into our 5 qt. slow cooker for 10 hours:

1 thick ham steak cut up (Bacon is also a good substitute.)
3-4 red potatoes
2 medium onions
3 stalks of celery
1 green pepper
2 cups of rinsed green lentils
6 cups of water
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
thyme

Put everything together in the SC and cook for 10 hours on low.

The slow cooker is my new favorite kitchen appliance. It's a great way for a busy family to make a healthy, delicious dinner during the week.

Vietnamese Style Fajitas

I make this for Rachel and Mike when they come over because they flatter me with rave reviews for it, and I usually forget about it otherwise. We will be seeing them tonight, so Orion and Maia helped me mix up a batch of the dressing. This is from Cooking Under Wraps, and it's a great recipe as is, but here it is w/my changes:

Chile Dressing:

grated zest and juice of one lime
3 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 jalepeno
fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp. garlic

Make dressing ahead if possible and let it sit.

Chicken, pork or steak
2 bell peppers
1 large onion

Grill these. Blacken peppers, steam in paper bag and peel. Slice meat, onion and peppers fajita style and toss with the sauce. Serve on warmed tortillas with any or all of the following:

lettuce
mint
cilantro
tomatoes
avocado
sour cream
shredded cheese

I usually keep these separate since I have a couple people at my house with very particular tastes, but pre-kids I used to throw the lettuce, tomatoes and herbs in there with everything else.

Early Girl

Our first early girl tomato! I picked this after it got pretty red on the vine on July 30th, which was 66 days after transplanting (on May 25th). Also featured are some red cherry tomatoes and some sungolds, both of which we've been getting since July 19th or 20th. Our second early girl will be ready today or tomorrow.

Here's how all our garden plants are faring (this is more an inventory for me than anything else):

Early Girl (from local nursery): healthy
Mountain Fresh: (nursery): healthy and prolific

Sungold: (heirloom from farmer's market): a little scrawny and sparse, but tall with a fair amount of fruit

Green Zebra: (farmer's market heirloom): beautifully healthy and bushy, lots of flowers but no fruit....I'll be very bummed if this one doesn't pan out.

Better Boy (nursery) and Striped German (farmer's market): These are both in a location that turned out to be too shady. They are small (but healthy), with only a few fruits.

Cherry Tomato (in pot): Initially the best plant (got HOT in the full sun on our patio), it got attacked by aphids and it is now a sad, spindly plant.

And the 2 surprises: a plant that got crushed by a lattice that I threw in the flower garden, and is overcrowded but healthy and producing some fruit, and an insanely healthy volunteer cherry tomato plant that is growing like wild out of our compost bin.

Potato Leek Soup

I just got back from Chicago and we had no food in the house. I was hoping to go to a farmer's market but the ones near me were not happening for four more days so I went to the grocery store and bought any vegetable that I thought looked good and figured when I got home I could figure out what to make with them. I am hoping to do the same thing next week but with farmer's market veggies.

This week I made couscous salad with onion, tomatoes from the garden, green pepper, chick peas, and lime. It was missing something so next time I will look up a recipe and see what I could add...any suggestions? We did add curry but it was still a little dry.

Then I used the same veggies and added black beans and corn the next night making a salsa salad with some quesadillas.

I had leeks, onions and potatoes so I am currently making soup. Here is the recipe I found. I will let you know if it is good. http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/03/19/a-hearty-potato-leek-soup-recipe-for-the-last-days-of-winter/ Yes, out of season but at least I am headed in the right direction.

I am currently reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" that Mia and Jill both liked. It is eye opening and inspiring. I hope to apply much of what I am learning to our family table.

JC

Janet's More or Less Chicken

Here is my favorite thing to make when we have friends over. It is really easy and everyone loves it. You serve it in a big pot on the table and give each person a big piece of crunchy bread. I usually use some sort of French bread. Not the really skinny kind, more the type you could put some of the chicken into and make a sandwich.


More or Less Chicken


½ Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Oregano
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
3 crushed garlic cloves

8 Chicken Breasts (you can use fewer without altering the rest of recipe)

1 Large Can Whole Tomatoes w/ juice
1 ½ Cups White Wine
1 cup Kalamata Olives (buy ones with no pits)
¾ cup Raisins
½ cup Pine Nuts

One Bunch of Scallions cut into 2 inch long pieces


1. Sizzle the first 4 ingredients together in a large pan for one minute.
2. Add whole chicken breasts and brown on each side. (You can use the chicken strips if you want to)
3. Add the next 5 ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes.
4. Add the scallions and cook 5 more minutes
5. Enjoy!

Shortcut to Heaven

This is an abbreviated approach to an authentic pizza crust from Adam's awesome mother starter, with yeast he alchemically captured from the air. By abbreviated, I mean it still takes 3 days, but without as much fussing on day 3. It's so freakin' worth it.

Making Starter

1. Measure out ¼ cup of mother starter into big bowl.
2. Fill ¼ measuring cup 2/3 full of water. Dissolve starter into it.
3. Add ¼ cup flour. Stir until combined.
4. Leave on counter all day or overnight. (Now feed the mother: add 1/8 cup flour and a tad less water. Leave on counter for 1-2 hours.
5. Stir down new starter and repeat steps 2-4.

Making Pizza

1.5 cups flour

1 tsp. Sugar

¾ tsp. Salt

3 T. olive oil

Scant ½ cup water

1. Pulse dry ingredients in food processor.
2. Add oil and scant ½ cup water. Process until dough forms sticky ball.
3. Knead dough until smooth, adding more flour if necessary.
4. Put in oiled bowl; turn dough in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Use or refrigerate. Punch down dough when ready, and prepare pizza.