Shirred Eggs

This is my new favorite way of eating eggs. It's rich and salty and flavorful. Can you ask for anything more?

1/4 tsp butter
2 Tbs Cream (I skim the fresh cream off of our goats' milk)
2 eggs
Salt and Pepper
Chives

1. Preheat oven to 375 deg F
2. With the butter, grease a ramekin
3. Put the cream in the ramekin and then break the eggs into the cream. Gently move the yolks toward the center.
4. Top with salt, pepper and chives. You can also add cheese if you'd like as well.
5. Bake for 12 minutes. You want the center still a bit jiggly while the edges can be pulled away from the side of the ramekin.

Viola! You've got shirred eggs.

And So It Begins

This is our fridge on the day we start not buying any food for three months. To be honest, it freaks me out a little. As you can probably tell, we didn't really stock up on fresh food beforehand. What's the point? It doesn't usually keep much longer than a week or two so we're just going to have to wing it.

For those that are new to the blog, we've been going without buying food from grocery stores, convenience stores, box stores and restaurants since October 1st, 2010. We've only been buying food from farmers' markets, direct from the farmer, through real butchers that only sell local, sustainably and humanely raised meat, real fish mongers, spice merchants, produce stands, a CSA that delivers locally produced, organic dairy, and a buying club/co-op for our dry goods. Besides that, we've been subsisting off of our quarter acre urban farm.

When we reached our 6 month mark we were cruisin'. It was pretty easy so we decided two things. The first thing was that we were going to continue with our project indefinitely with one caveat - we get one restaurant visit per month. I just don't want to give up sushi for the rest of my life and homemade sushi just isn't the same.

The second thing we decided was that we were going to attempt to go without buying food for the final three months - July 1st through October 1st. We wanted to force ourselves to try and live off of what we produce and raise. We also wanted to see how successfully prepared we are in terms of emergencies. How much food do we really need in case of an emergency? We live in earthquake territory, and while it's unlikely we'll ever need to go 3 months without any services if there is an earthquake, we do face uncertain economic times. If one of us loses our jobs, can we reduce our spending on food?

Our garden isn't as far along as we'd like, but it's starting to ramp up. We'll have to limit our fresh produce for a bit. However, I expect to get zucchini, cucumbers and beans this coming week or two.

Fruit is going to be the hardest thing for us. The weather really didn't cooperate this year. While our stone fruit trees were blooming it rained and rained and rained. The bees couldn't get to them. We got a very small amount of fruit only to be ruined by very late rains (completely abnormal here) causing all of it to split before it ripened. We'll have to salvage what we can, but I fear it won't be much.

We will be bartering - trading eggs, bread, labor and knowledge - for food we need. Unfortunately, most of our friends in the area have the same problem with their fruit trees. We'll have to figure something out, but for now we'll just have to go with the flow.

Week 38 - Heat!

Sunday
Homemade fish and chips

Monday
Salad with chicken

Tuesday
BBQ chicken with salad and roasted zucchini and eggplant from the farmers' market

Wednesday
Stir fry with leftover chicken and zucchini, mushrooms, onions from the farmers' market and carrots and kale from our garden. Served with rice.

Thursday
Not-so-green chili stew with tomatillos, potatoes, and hominy from our garden, onions from the farmers market, foraged mushrooms, and Hatch green chilies direct from the farm in New Mexico.

Friday
Whole wheat pizza with homemade/homegrown sauce, onions, mushrooms, zucchini and bacon

Saturday
Pork chops with baked potato and Brussels sprouts.

Reflections
It was a HOT HOT HOT week! Well, at least the beginning of it was. Unfortunately it made it too uncomfortable to cook inside. On the bright side, the heat really kicked the garden into gear. The corn is now 7' tall - no tassels yet though. We have squash blossoms, tomatoes on the vines, flowers on the cucumbers, tomatillos eggplants and beans. I'm not so worried now about this coming Friday when we GIVE UP BUYING ALL FOOD. We've also struck a couple of bartering deals with a couple of farmers at the farmers' market. Fruit is going to be a problem for us. We just don't have any yet though we're trying to connect with people who would be willing to barter. Anyone out there in our area want to barter eggs or bread for fruit? :D

We Heart Movies

We are particularly fond of documentaries - our favorites being documentaries about food, fuel, and living green. There are some important documentaries that I feel everyone should see, especially in regards to food. Here are some we recommend:

Farmageddon - Movie Trailer from Kristin Canty on Vimeo.

Week 37 - It's Warming Up.

Sunday
Tomato braised rabbit with a salad.

Monday
Salad.

Tuesday
Salad.

Wednesday
Kale, onion and bacon frititta. 

Thursday
Roasted root vegetables - turnips, parsnips, and beets from our garden along with sweet potatoes, onions, carrots and potatoes from the farmers market.

Friday
Pizza with a whole wheat crust, Parmesan cheese, homemade/grown sauce, mushrooms, onions and bacon.

Saturday
Pork butt roast with potatoes, carrots and onions.

Reflections:
The days are starting to warm up and I'm not looking forward to canning, let along cooking, in this heat. Our house is small so the oven and stove can really do a number on the indoor temperatures. We do have an outdoor kitchen in our plans so hopefully sooner, rather than later, it won't be an issue anymore.

10 Tips on Giving up the Grocery Store

I get questions all the time about our year without groceries and people are always saying how inspired they are. I want to share some tips with everyone on how you can also be groceries free. 

 

So if you're feeling adventurous I've got a few tips on how you can give up the Big G too.

 

• Make sure you have a game plan but if you don't you can still wing it. Now is the perfect time to start because farmers' markets and CSAs are in full swing. Planning is easy when the resources are out there. We visit our farmers' market every weekend to stock up on produce our garden isn't producing. Check out Local Harvest to find farmers' markets, independent farmers and CSAs near you. Once you're started and in the groove of things it will give you time to find food sources and stock up for the winter.
• For those conscientious carnivores out there, you can now find meat, egg and dairy CSAs. Check out Eat Wild for farmers near you. If you've got room for a chest freezer buy a whole, half or quarter animal. If you don't have that much room, find some friends or family to go in on a large order and then take what you can fit in your freezer. The more of the animal you buy the cheaper it is. We got a whole organically raised hog for $2/lb.
• Start small. Nothing says you have to eliminate everything all at once. Maybe focus on buying all of your produce at the farmers' market right now. Or sign up for a CSA. Or eliminate processed food. Try finding something each month that you can eliminate buying from the grocery store and learn how to make it yourself or find from an alternative source.
• Even your cheesemonger needs some love. Don't be afraid of specialty shops. Real butchers are making a comeback. You don't have to give up buying food from all retailers - the main point of giving up the Big G is to get closer to the source of your food. If there's a fantastic cheesemonger that makes their own cheese, or a butcher that breaks down whole animals that have been raised sustainably and they are willing to talk to you about where they source from then there's no reason you shouldn't buy from them. Plus you're helping to support your local economy and a larger portion of the money you pay is going to to the farmer.
• Learn how to can. Again, right now is the perfect time to stock up on produce at the farmers' market and preserve it at home for the winter months. A pressure canner is a worthy investment if you don't want to pickle everything.
• You don't have to be a chef or even that good of a cook, all you need are some good cookbooks and a willingness to experiment. You will fail sometimes, but don't let it bother you. We all had to start somewhere and as long as you keep at it you'll get better until it's second nature. I was terrible at making bread at first - always ending up as a brick - but over time I've been able to perfect it.
• Find a buying club or local cooperative or start one. I found an organic, local buying club that a woman runs out of her garage. We place a monthly order for bulk staples like flour, rice and sugar and pick it up from her house the following week. I found mine by Googling "food co-op in __________."
• It does take time, but not as much as you think it does. We no longer have to go to the grocery store. We go to the farmers' market once a week and pick up our order once a month. Running an urban farm is a total time suck, but preparing our own food independently of that is a drop in the bucket. My husband and I work together which helps save a ton of time. He'll make the spaghetti sauce while I make the pasta. Leftovers are eaten the following day for lunch. 
• Have the right tools. It can sometimes require an initial investment but in the long run it will save you time and money. I picked up a brand new bread machine for $5 at the flea market. When I don't have time to make bread by hand, I can add ingredients to the machine before bed, set the timer and wake up to the smell of fresh baked bread for less than $0.50 a loaf. My stand mixer is indispensible. I don't know what I ever did without a mandoline for slicing soon-to-be pickles or a food mill for removing tomato skins and seeds while making sauce.
• Be prepared to eat seasonally and locally. When we gave up the grocery store it also means giving up tomatoes in the winter, citrus in the summer and pretty much all tropical fruits like bananas. In exchange for giving up out of season produce you get fresher foods with more flavor.

Be prepared to fall in love with being free from the grocery store. When we hit our 6 month mark we realized that we really enjoyed eating this way and decided to keep doing it when our year was up. 

Adventures in Sausage - My Husband Doesn't like Stinky Cheese

Mmmmm, rabbit

 We've got so much rabbit and so very little freezer space right now, with more rabbits on the way. We needed to do something with all this rabbit and let's face it, I'm getting a little tired of just braising it.

Rabbit's a very lean meat and can be quite tough if it's not cooked right, which usually means either cooked very quickly or cooked for a very long time at a low heat. Since Tom is rather squeamish about rare or even medium rare meat, we have to go with the long cook time.

Grinding is a great way to deal with tough meats

However, there is another way you can prepare tough meat. Tough cuts from any animal whether it's beef, pork or rabbit lend themselves very well to grinding.

Not really wanting to make rabbit burgers and being that the current Charcutepalooza challenge is stuffed sausages I decided that rabbit would be the meat of choice for this challenge.

Pork fatback

But of course it wouldn't just be rabbit. Because sausage needs 25-30% fat I needed to add pork fatback. But I didn't stop there. My goal was a very flavorful sausage so it had to have asiago cheese and porcini mushrooms. But wait! It needed something more! Garlic! Yes garlic.

Unfortunately, Tom proclaimed that it smelled like a foot. He said the cheese smelled like a foot. The mushrooms smelled like a foot and now the fridge smells like a foot. Tom does NOT like stinky cheese, which, in my opinion, is quite a shame. I'm hoping this recipe works for him.

Unfortunately we're out of fresh garlic, but we have some really good dried garlic. So here's my recipe:

Rabbit Sausage with Porcinis, Asiago and Garlic

2 Whole Rabbits (3-3 1/2 lbs each), deboned and cut into 1/2" chunks
1 1/4 lb pork fatback, cut into chunks
1/2 lb Asiago cheese, cut into chunks
1.5 oz dried porcini mushrooms
3 Tbs dried minced garlic
3 Tbs Kosher salt
10+ feet of pork casings (optional)

1. Rehydrate mushrooms in 2 cups hot (not boiling) water. Put mushrooms in water into fridge overnight to chill.

2. Drain mushrooms reserving 1 cup of liquid. Return liquid to fridge.

3. Combine everything but the liquid in a large bowl and put in freezer until very cold, just short of freezing solid. Also freeze the detachable parts of meat grinder that will be coming into contact with the meat.

4. Reassemble meat grinder and run meat mixture through and into a bowl set in ice (I use the bowl to our stand mixer). I use the smallest die that came with the grinder.

5. Using my stand mixer (mine is the smaller Kitchen Aid mixer so I have to do this in batches), I quickly mix half of the ground meat adding 1/2 fo the reserved mushroom liquid to evenly distribute the spices. I repeat with the second half and then combine it all in one large bowl. Don't overmix or you'll end up with an emulsified sausage - mix just enough to distribute everything evenly.

6. Cook a small patty to check and adjust seasonings as needed. Return to the freezer to chill again.

7. You can choose to stop here and use it to make breakfast sausage or you can stuff it into casings.

I have to admit, or more like my husband has to admit, smelling like a foot can sometimes be a very good thing. The porcinis I feel are a bit overpowered by the garlic and asiago though, so I think next time I'll save my money and omit them.

So what did we do with the sausages? We've added them to spaghetti sauce and lasagna. We've eaten them on homemade rolls with homemade sauerkraut and eaten them as snacks when out and about. I even add them to soup. Sometimes you don't need a special recipe to use them because they are the special recipe.