Tag Archives: cooking

So Worth It

Posted on October 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

One of the things I like most about being part of the hocoblogs community is the encouragement (and the inspiration) to try new things.

Like canning. Between HowChowBlog, LisaBMrsS, and The Soffrito, I am working my way up and now have conquered tomato sauce.

Before processing in the hot water bath, two quarts of sauce. This took about 20 of the heavy beefy tomatoes from our Larriland visit. I roasted them, after halving them and scooping out the seeds. Pulled off the skins once they cooled a bit. Put them in a pot with gently “sweated” onions, shallots, garlic and olive oil. Added some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Cooked for about 30 minutes. Ladled into the jars, with lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Processed for 45 minutes.

Until I was encouraged by my fellow bloggers, to take that step from freezing to canning, I wouldn’t have done this. HowChow got us interested in picking at Larriland. Lisa encouraged me once I did my first jars of jelly. Victoria at The Soffrito back in our food challenge days showed me meals made from her canned items.

All told, I have made three pints of oven roasted tomatoes, four bags of whole peeled blanched tomatoes and two quarts of tomato sauce. I have enough tomatoes left to make two more quarts of sauce once the last 20 tomatoes get ripe enough.

I figure that if I bought organic sauce, canned tomatoes and roasted tomatoes, it would have cost us at least $40. We got these 24 pounds of tomatoes at Larriland for $16.

I think that’s worth the price. Don’t you?

Didn’t get to pick apples today, but we are heading out there tomorrow. Canned applesauce coming soon to the kitchen near me!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Of Beets and Tomatoes

Posted on October 20, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yep, nothing really sexy being cooked. Just processing what we picked at Larriland.

This is what the beets looked like going into the oven.

I am following a technique recommended in a Preserving Food book I picked up at Tractor Supply a while back.

Dry roasting.

Out of the oven, and cooling, before being peeled. While they were cooling, I cooked a mix of cider and white vinegars, with a tablespoon of pickling spices, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of sugar, and a handful of onions and other veggies (some from the Harris Teeter olive bar).

All put into a clean hot Ball jar, right out of the dishwasher.

This jar is in the fridge. Not processed in a hot water bath, and sealed. I want to try the recipe before I process and create a number of small jars with the remainder of the little beets we picked out of the ground.

I figure the rest of the beets will be cooked and canned Tuesday.

As for the tomatoes, I took a large amount of ripe ones and oven roasted them.

Olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar. Roasted at 250 degrees for about an hour and a half.

Packed in a jar, and a small container, they are in the freezer. Once the bulk of the tomatoes get a little riper, there will be roasting, peeling, cooking and hot water processing for a tomato sauce. I think we will be ready for the winter with what we got last week.

It looks like Tuesday and Wednesday there will be lots of cooking and canning going on around here.

hocofood@@@

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One Busy Week Ahead

Posted on October 19, 2013 by AnnieRie

As we wind down on Saturday night, after friends just left, I realized two things.

1. We had a totally locavore dinner.
2. Next week is going to be crazy busy.

Yes, these things aren’t related, or even close. But, as I recover from excessive eating, and look to the week ahead, I know I need to pace myself.

As for tonight, no pictures. Our friends would think we were crazy to take pictures of dinner. The food. England Acres lamb, on the grill. CSA potatoes, broccoli, lettuce and Breezy Willow cauliflower.

Appetizer. My habanero jelly and my ajvar. Jelly over some goat cheese. Ajvar over some Harris Teeter pita chips.

As for next week, tomorrow there will be mowing and leaf blowing.

Monday I have the social media class for bloggers.

Tuesday another visit to Larriland to do apples, without the crowds. Thursday, a field trip at the Conservancy.

Friday, a trip maybe to Black Ankle.

I’ve said before, that going back to work would be less active than all we do now that we are retired.

Oh yeah, somewhere in here I need to process the tomatoes and the beets from Larriland. And watch the Ravens tomorrow afternoon.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, howard county conservancy, Locavore, real food, retirement. Bookmark the permalink.

One Dozen …

Posted on October 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

… vegetable specialties I would not have discovered without a CSA or garden.

I decided to feature a periodic post about a dozen of something. Every few weeks, I will choose a new category. Next time, it may be cookbooks, or blogs, or wineries, or who knows.

Today, as we are just a few weeks away from the deadline to sign up for a fall extension of our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), I picked veggie items that never crossed my plate, and that I now use over and over.

Like the radish greens in last week’s CSA.

Here is the list:

Radish, turnip, beet, kohlrabi greens – Never see many of the veggies in the stores with all the greens attached, nor did we use them for cooking. Now, they are used in stir frying, or in pesto.

Carrot tops Used these in pesto more than once, and in making veggie broth.

Garlic scapes – Every spring, I love the weeks we get scapes. Jars of scape pesto are in the freezer. Makes it feel like spring, even in the middle of winter, when I open one. I get them from Love Dove Farm, or Breezy Willow, to supplement the CSA and what I grow. You can never have too much.

Squash Blossoms – have been in the swap box a few times. Also, when I grew zucchini, I learned to grab a few blossoms and put them in omelets.

Pumpkin and squash seeds – saved for planting, like my Thelma Sanders, or dried and roasted. I learned to harvest the seeds and use them.

Celery leaves — in the picture below. Huge amounts of leaves on the stalks, perfect for making veggie broth, or starting soups.

Popcorn — see picture above, where we first discovered the joy of popping corn right on the cob. I seek it out when we go to farmstands.

Chard stems — I have done all sorts of things with chopped off stems, including pickling them. Mostly, they get put in stir fries, or used in frittata recipes.

Cilantro stems – I now know I should be using all the cilantro in the cooking. Maybe not in the guacamole, but in chili, YES!

Pea tendrils – these were a surprise, but you really have to eat them quickly. We got them our first year in the CSA. Haven’t seen them since, though. Microgreens since then, like sunflower sprouts and microradish greens.

Chive blossoms – Now I grow chives and use the blossoms, but once we got chives in our box from the CSA with a few blossoms there. Back before I started blogging, I recall.

Scallion tops – The red and the white scallions we get, sometimes are huge, with tops as long as 18 inches. I have made pesto (the one above that also used carrot tops), using only the darker green tops of scallions. I can’t believe I used to toss that part.

We are heading into the fall CSA season. Can’t wait to see what new items we get, and if our old favorites, like popcorn, will be in the box some weeks.

Have any new found favorites from farmer’s markets? Things you can’t find in the stores?

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

The Last Harvest

Posted on October 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

Of the garden. And of the computer. I mentioned last week that my PC seized up and told me my Operating System was corrupted.

My husband did manage to retrieve all the 59 Gbytes of pictures, finally. And, another 50 Gbytes of scans, downloads, pdfs, tax files, and pst files from Outlook.

Now I am putting together a new PC. But, currently, using his laptop for my blogging.

Today I also went out there and made the last garden harvest. Made a three basil pesto with the Thai, African blue and Genovese basils in the garden.

Almost two cups of basil. I was really surprised to see that much still growing in the yard, and in the pots by the back door.

Each basil is unique. The Thai, very spicy, the African, very peppery, and the Genovese, lemony.

I got an 8 ounce jar to put in the freezer, and about 3 ounces to use on Naan with dinner later this week.

I also harvested the Thelma Sanders squash. The lone squash.

I think this squash will be decorative. It never really got big enough. I will harvest the seeds and try again next year. Much reading to do this winter to see what I did wrong.

I will be planting garlic this week. And harvesting the last rosemary to dry, and the sage. Oh, there is still some ruby chard out there. Maybe another frittata, with chard and herbs.

Last summer was really challenging. I have to re-think where I plant next spring.

As for dinner, I did roast some cauliflower, and also made another spaghetti omelet.

Cauliflower with Indian spice. Omelet with feta. Not bad for a Monday night.

hocofood@@@

Weekly Meal Planning

Posted on October 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Like so many others who belong to Community Supported Agriculture, I try and do a weekly meal planning on Fridays, the day after I receive my CSA box of veggies.

If I have to defrost items, or hit a market or make a store run, I do most of that on Saturdays. It is the best way to ensure I use up everything that comes in the weekly drop off.

Yesterday, I was going to go to Glenwood after my volunteering at the Conservancy, but the program and clean up didn’t finish until noon.

Thankfully, I knew I could get to Breezy Willow since they keep the farm store open from 10-2.

My meal planning required eggs, which I had completely used, and a loaf of bread, as I planned to have chili after the football game, and a spaghetti omelet using what I made in the crockpot Friday.

I didn’t plan on buying any veggies there, just eggs, bread, apples, cheese and butter. Oh, and some sausage so I can make meat loaf later this week.

I got sidetracked by this.

One amazing looking purple cauliflower. I will be adjusting the cooking schedule in order to roast this huge fresh vegetable. I love to dry roast them, with just a covering of melted butter and some garam masala. Looks like my meatless Monday will feature it.

As for what was planned and already executed, Friday did include a crock pot lamb “stew”. I saved the broth and some of the veggies, as this stew turned out to be a little thin. Using some noodles in the broth after removing the lamb, carrots, potatoes and some onions, I kept the crock pot on for just enough time to get a bowl of “spaghetti”.

Half of that mixture, stirred with four eggs, pecorino, salt, pepper and poured into a pan.

My husband told me his mom made spaghetti omelets often. I never had one, and this was one very nice simple dinner. After cooking the bottom, I put it in the oven, on broil, and browned the top. On the plate, it looked like this.

Served up with a side salad, using the rest of the beets from an earlier CSA delivery.

Dinners and lunches both highlight the CSA veggies. I now use a small notebook to determine the combinations I can make, to vary our meals and not waste any of the food.

I just need to keep from being tempted by those impulse purchases, like that cauliflower, but it is so good. That beauty will not go to waste.

Tonight we finished the venison chili. Tomorrow, the cauliflower, with baked potatoes and the pesto I made Thursday with the CSA basil.

Tuesday, I will be making those mini meat loaves and putting a few away for the future.

I still need to work the collards into the rotation, but they may be the side dish with the meat loaf.

By doing this planning, and remembering to defrost things in advance, I have really been good at using up my CSA.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, CSA, farms, Food, Locavore, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Making the Most of the CSA

Posted on October 10, 2013 by AnnieRie

It is week 21. Things are morphing into those fall veggies. There are really wonderful items in this box.

What did we get?

Salad Mix
Red butterhead lettuce
Radishes
Sunflower sprouts
Red Bok Choy
Potatoes
Collard Greens
Basil
Green Beans
Broccoli
Green Cabbage
Baby Eggplant

I already made pesto with the basil and used some of the sprouts in tonight’s salad.

We made venison chili today, using freezer and CSA items from the past few weeks.

As for making pesto, it was standard.

At the moment, I am having computer problems on my “piece of garbage” Microsoft system, and my husband’s won’t cooperate and let me open my files correctly (another Microsoft product). I really need to trash all of them and get an iBook.

Oh well. at least I got a post up.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Locavore and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Game Day Food

Posted on October 7, 2013 by AnnieRie

Like many of our friends and neighbors, we are dedicated football fans, watching games on Sunday afternoons.

Only, as a locavore, our snacks may be a bit different than others out there.

Crackers with chevre and pineapple habanero jelly. Don’t you always serve these at your football tailgate parties? If not, you should.

The chevre is just so, so good. I get it from Breezy Willow. They buy it from an Amish farm and sell it at their farm, and at the Glenwood farmers’ market.

Believe me, I could sit there and eat the entire log of this cheese. We put it on rosemary crackers, from Roots. Added a dollop of my homemade jelly.

We figured something out about the jelly. The bottom of the jar is hotter than the top. It seems those bits of pepper settle and the more you dig into the jar, the hotter the jelly gets.

Still, with a cold Yuengling, from my husband’s home county in Pennsylvania, this is locavore Nirvana, in terms of game day food.

Anything else you can think of, that compliments football and fall?

hocofood@@@

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Great New Recipes

Posted on October 6, 2013 by AnnieRie

Last night when we returned home, I decided to pull out some new recipes and try them. First, a tribute to Marcella Hazan, her leek and scallion frittata.

A thin frittata. Just the right size for a light dinner. I do not have a 12 inch nonstick skillet specified in the recipe, so I used my 14 inch skillet. It meant I had to slightly adjust the recipe. This recipe came from MARCELLA SAYS.

You don’t want to mess with Marcella’s recipes very much. They are perfectly balanced. It all comes down to the layering of flavors. That being said, here is what I did.

Heated the tablespoon of butter and tablespoon of olive oil in the pan. Added one cup of scallion tops. Two cups of thinly sliced leeks (white parts only). Let it all slowly soften under a low heat. Add the 1/4 cup of water to steam them to doneness. After water evaporated, took it all out and set aside.

Meanwhile, added four eggs to a bowl. I used four regular sized free range eggs from Love Dove Farms. If you use large or extra large eggs, use three instead of four. Added 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan to the eggs. Gently mixed it together. Added the scallion/leek mixture. Folded it all together. Put it all in the skillet, after I had melted another tablespoon of butter in it.

Let it cook until starting to firm up. Put it in a 400 degree preheated oven to finish.

Along with the frittata, I served a new salad. Inspired by Dinner: A Love Story. The link will take you directly to the recipe.

I really love this salad. You do not have to measure anything. I used about a half dozen large pieces of Tuscan kale. Cut very thinly, avoiding the stems. Place in a bowl and add one avocado, sliced in thin pieces. A handful of thinly sliced scallions into the bowl. Squirt the juice of one large or two small lemons over it. Shave pecorino romano over everything. Drizzle olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. We were heavy on the avocado compared to kale. Next time, more kale as it is so good this way.

More on the great recipes I have found over at DALS. Even if it is a “family” blog, the recipes are simply wonderful. I stumbled upon them by accident, looking for something a while back. If I can ever find the book at the library (it is always out or on hold), I would love to check out their cookbook.

I do have their blog to thank for knowing that you shouldn’t mess around with the instructions on Marcella Hazan’s recipes. Do what she says. The layering of flavors makes her food incredibly flavorful.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in cookbooks, CSA, Food, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Friday Night Un “chained”

Posted on October 4, 2013 by AnnieRie

Breaking free of chain restaurants. Something we did when Iron Bridge opened, years after JK’s closed. For quite a while, we were in that chain restaurant limbo, meeting friends or just going out on Fridays after a long tiring work week. Nothing but the circuit of places like Macaroni Grill, TGIF, Outback, Carrabas, Bertucci’s, whatever.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone in Columbia or Ellicott City ever cooks on Friday nights. There were nights with beepers for 60-90 minutes.

When we moved out here, we tried to break that cycle. We still headed to Iron Bridge early, or El Azteca.

These days, though, grilling at home has replaced eating out. This year, I have been working at making grilled flatbreads. Trying techniques. Experimenting with dough.

I think I found a winner in Harris Teeter’s pizza dough.

Ready to go on the grill. As for toppings, all sorts of CSA and home made goodies, and a few special items.

Top right. Tomato paste, mushrooms, olives and Italian seasonings. Below it, my homemade pesto and some goat cheese from Roots. The left pizza. All of the toppings including some roasted sweet peppers and my roasted garlic.

Seriously, this is one awesome flatbread.