Sunday
The BEST grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had. Homemade French bread with organic cheddar cheese and then instead of butter on the bread I used homemade spicy garlic mayonnaise. So good!
Monday
I taught a raising rabbit class for 18 Reasons which included dinner, so I had rabbit stew for dinner.
Tuesday
Sausage & Rice soup with turkey broth made from the turkey Tom had hunted.
Wednesday
Asian influenced lemon pork with rice. It had broccoli, onions, asparagus, and mushrooms.
Thursday
Pork chops with salad and a parsnip/potato mash. We harvested our first two parsnips of the year. The greens for our salad came from our garden.
Friday
My mom is visiting from out of town so she took us out to have Thai food. Oh Thai food, how I have missed thee.
Saturday
We had Mexican food!
Reflections
Life is finally starting to slow down a bit, which I'm very thankful for. OK, now on to the big news. June is fast approaching. It will be our last month of being able to buy food. I'm completely freaked out! Our garden is so far behind. I'm going to be planting some fast producing things this week like lettuce, kale, chard and spinach just so we have something, SOMETHING, on hand to eat right away. I made the comment this morning to Tom as we're walking to the goat barn for the early morning milking that we can no longer depend on our normal weather patterns. Here it is, almost June and they're calling for more rain, more cold weather. It was very cold this morning - not normal at all. The rains should have been over by mid-April but I don't think that's going to be the case. Last year it rained in July and didn't get over 80 degrees until late September. I wonder if this year will be the same?
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Week 32- The Mistake
Sunday
Bacon and Eggs with potatoes
Monday
Green chili stew with tomatillos and roasted chilis from our garden (frozen from previous summer). Potatoes from the farmers' market.
Tuesday
Leftover green chili stew.
Wednesday
French Toast. We then went to a meeting where I had a slice of pizza: The Mistake.
Thursday
Pork chops with a green salad and artichokes from our garden.
Friday
Homemade fresh sausage with homemade rolls and sauerkraut and sauteed onions with a side of sauteed kale from our garden.
Saturday
Pork roast with roasted potatoes from the farmers' market and turnips from our garden and peas from our garden.
Reflections:
The Mistake. OK, so staying gluten free didn't last all that long. I found that my asthma wasn't improving so I threw in the towel. It's tough avoiding gluten when no one else in the house is. Anyways, Wednesday we went to a meeting and they were serving pizza so I decided to have a slice. It's been so long since I've had commercially made pizza that I decided to splurge. I really wish I hadn't. Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning I woke up with the worst stomach cramping. I got up and took some pepto bismal and tried to unsuccessfully go back to sleep. It didn't get better. By Friday afternoon I decided to call Kaiser's advice nurse. Apparently I just have some serious indigestion. Thanks Pizza.
Bacon and Eggs with potatoes
Monday
Green chili stew with tomatillos and roasted chilis from our garden (frozen from previous summer). Potatoes from the farmers' market.
Tuesday
Leftover green chili stew.
Wednesday
French Toast. We then went to a meeting where I had a slice of pizza: The Mistake.
Thursday
Pork chops with a green salad and artichokes from our garden.
Friday
Homemade fresh sausage with homemade rolls and sauerkraut and sauteed onions with a side of sauteed kale from our garden.
Saturday
Pork roast with roasted potatoes from the farmers' market and turnips from our garden and peas from our garden.
Reflections:
The Mistake. OK, so staying gluten free didn't last all that long. I found that my asthma wasn't improving so I threw in the towel. It's tough avoiding gluten when no one else in the house is. Anyways, Wednesday we went to a meeting and they were serving pizza so I decided to have a slice. It's been so long since I've had commercially made pizza that I decided to splurge. I really wish I hadn't. Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning I woke up with the worst stomach cramping. I got up and took some pepto bismal and tried to unsuccessfully go back to sleep. It didn't get better. By Friday afternoon I decided to call Kaiser's advice nurse. Apparently I just have some serious indigestion. Thanks Pizza.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Going Whole Hog - Fresh Sausage
May's Charcutepalooza challenge was fresh sausage. When we got our pig we specified that we didn't want any of it made into sausage, bacon or ham because we wanted to do it ourselves.
OK, I do have to share something about these challenges. To us they really, truly are a challenge. We can't just go to the grocery store and buy whatever we want to make something truly inspiring and creative. We have to stick to the basics and what we have here or can get from specialty markets - which, quite honestly, isn't very much. Sometimes it's very basic. When July 1st comes we may even be forced to skip challenges depending on what they are since we won't be buying any food at all. We'll be at the mercy of what we have in our pantry.
Our chest freezer is packed with large cuts of meat such as pork shoulder, which is perfect for making sausage as it has the perfect ratio of muscle to fat - 25-30% fat is the target. Unfortunately the piece we pulled out to defrost wasn't a full 5lbs which was called for in the recipe. It also was bone in, which I had to remove. I did have some pork trim that I had pulled out though which could make up the difference in weight.
I diced the pork shoulder and added my spices. I was tempted to go with a hot Italian sausage but decided to go with our favorite spice mix - Cajun Seasoning from Whole Spice Company. I mixed it 40 grams of kosher salt and 2 heaping tablespoons of the Cajun Seasoning.
The most important aspect of making sausage is to keep it extremely cold - almost freezing. After seasoning the meat I stuck it in our chest freezer for a couple of hours, checking on it periodically to make sure it wasn't freezing solid. I also put the metal parts of the grinder in the freezer to get them ice cold.
We luckily had a meat grinder - a really good one that can grind a whole chicken, bones and all - which made this process pretty easy. We ground the spiced meat into our stand mixer's bowl which was placed in ice water to help keep the meat cold.
Once all the ground meat was in the bowl we mixed the sausage with the stand mixer, adding 1 cup of ice cold water. We mixed the ground meat until it became tacky. We made a small patty so we could check the seasonings. They were ok, but we thought we needed something else. We added 2 tablespoons of fennel seed and then stuck it back into the freezer to get cold again.
After soaking hog casings (the inner membrane of a hog's intestine) we stuffed the sausage. Definitely could use some more practice with making the sausage more even. Not bad for the first time though.
So what to do with our first meal of fresh homemade sausage? Put them on a bun of course!
I made some buns which were done rising right before we ground the meat.
We browned up the sausage nicely. Tom added some water to the pan to deglaze it and then cooked up some kale from our garden in it. It came out incredibly tasty.
Our sausage on a bun. Actually the buns were huge so we put two sausages on one bun. We then added some homemade sauerkraut, grilled onions and homemade ketchup. We served it up with the sausage basted kale. A very nice, homey meal. We still have 23 more sausages. We'll see how long they last....
OK, I do have to share something about these challenges. To us they really, truly are a challenge. We can't just go to the grocery store and buy whatever we want to make something truly inspiring and creative. We have to stick to the basics and what we have here or can get from specialty markets - which, quite honestly, isn't very much. Sometimes it's very basic. When July 1st comes we may even be forced to skip challenges depending on what they are since we won't be buying any food at all. We'll be at the mercy of what we have in our pantry.
Our chest freezer is packed with large cuts of meat such as pork shoulder, which is perfect for making sausage as it has the perfect ratio of muscle to fat - 25-30% fat is the target. Unfortunately the piece we pulled out to defrost wasn't a full 5lbs which was called for in the recipe. It also was bone in, which I had to remove. I did have some pork trim that I had pulled out though which could make up the difference in weight.
The most important aspect of making sausage is to keep it extremely cold - almost freezing. After seasoning the meat I stuck it in our chest freezer for a couple of hours, checking on it periodically to make sure it wasn't freezing solid. I also put the metal parts of the grinder in the freezer to get them ice cold.
We luckily had a meat grinder - a really good one that can grind a whole chicken, bones and all - which made this process pretty easy. We ground the spiced meat into our stand mixer's bowl which was placed in ice water to help keep the meat cold.
After soaking hog casings (the inner membrane of a hog's intestine) we stuffed the sausage. Definitely could use some more practice with making the sausage more even. Not bad for the first time though.
So what to do with our first meal of fresh homemade sausage? Put them on a bun of course!
I made some buns which were done rising right before we ground the meat.
Our sausage on a bun. Actually the buns were huge so we put two sausages on one bun. We then added some homemade sauerkraut, grilled onions and homemade ketchup. We served it up with the sausage basted kale. A very nice, homey meal. We still have 23 more sausages. We'll see how long they last....
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Weeks 30 & 31 - When Artichokes Take Over the World
I've been so busy I haven't really kept up with our meals, so I missed a few days of Week 30. But I do know we ate artichokes every day.
Sunday
We went to Tom's grandmother's house for Easter. We brought chard from our garden and a blackberry crumble with an oatmeal topping from blackberries we had foraged and then froze.
Monday
Garlic flavored almonds. Oh and some water. We didn't get a chance to eat because we had to rush our 6 wk old goat to UC Davis.
Tuesday
Frittata with spinach from our garden, bacon, onions and mushrooms. Artichokes with homemade aioli.
Friday
Rabbit tacos, homemade tortillas, spanish rice and artichokes!
Saturday
Potluck! We had a great potluck at our house. Of course I was so busy socialized I didn't get to eat anything, but it was worth it.
Sunday
Snacked on food leftover from the potluck.
Monday
Pork chops with roasted potatoes and artichokes.
Tuesday
Cream of Artichoke Soup
Wednesday
Rabbit braised in tomato sauce and artichokes
Thursday
Pizza with spinach, homemade chevre, mushrooms and onions. And artichokes
Friday
Venison burgers with homemade baked beans....and artichokes.
Saturday
Artichokes. We went to an event earlier that day and didn't really feel like having a full meal.
Reflections
Our artichokes started producing. Heavily. I love artichokes but we have to keep up with them. So far we've harvested over 23lbs of them. I'm sure by the end of the season we'll be thoroughly sick of them, just like last year.
We've also been incredibly busy lately. We had a sick doeling that unfortunately, didn't make it. We had a big potluck to get ready for. We taught some people how to slaughter rabbits. It was stressful and I'm glad it's all over. Now we can get back to our normally scheduled programming.
Sunday
We went to Tom's grandmother's house for Easter. We brought chard from our garden and a blackberry crumble with an oatmeal topping from blackberries we had foraged and then froze.
Monday
Garlic flavored almonds. Oh and some water. We didn't get a chance to eat because we had to rush our 6 wk old goat to UC Davis.
Tuesday
Frittata with spinach from our garden, bacon, onions and mushrooms. Artichokes with homemade aioli.
Friday
Rabbit tacos, homemade tortillas, spanish rice and artichokes!
Saturday
Potluck! We had a great potluck at our house. Of course I was so busy socialized I didn't get to eat anything, but it was worth it.
Sunday
Snacked on food leftover from the potluck.
Monday
Pork chops with roasted potatoes and artichokes.
Tuesday
Cream of Artichoke Soup
Wednesday
Rabbit braised in tomato sauce and artichokes
Thursday
Pizza with spinach, homemade chevre, mushrooms and onions. And artichokes
Friday
Venison burgers with homemade baked beans....and artichokes.
Saturday
Artichokes. We went to an event earlier that day and didn't really feel like having a full meal.
Reflections
Our artichokes started producing. Heavily. I love artichokes but we have to keep up with them. So far we've harvested over 23lbs of them. I'm sure by the end of the season we'll be thoroughly sick of them, just like last year.
We've also been incredibly busy lately. We had a sick doeling that unfortunately, didn't make it. We had a big potluck to get ready for. We taught some people how to slaughter rabbits. It was stressful and I'm glad it's all over. Now we can get back to our normally scheduled programming.