Merrily We Broil Along...

Ah, roasting. I've found there are very few vegetables that don't benefit from this treatment; a moisturizing toss with oil and spices, a gentle spreadout on a cookie sheet, half an hour toasting in the oven. Everything emerges with crispy, carmelized edges, a fluffy center, and a delicious, deeper flavor. Gotta love how sugar/starches react with heat.

There are few things that don't really work (lettuce? what else?), and some are a true revelation (broccoli, cauliflower, sunchokes). You can make all sorts of interesting combinations (onion, potatoes, parsnips, squash; cauliflower, broccoli, carrots; zucchini, eggplant; tomatoes and garlic) to use as sides or, in the case of the tom.s, puree for sauce. The oil and spices create a theme, too: basil, oregano for Italian; cumin and cinnamon for Middle Eastern; chili powder for Mexican; straight-up chili for a bit of heat. Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt is a good, all-purpose shake. You can even throw in some non-veg for interest: nuts, bread cubes, raisins.

I've even slipped some potatoes and onions into a roasting pan with a chicken for the last 45 min.s. Mmm, schmaltz (not so healthy, but delish).

Here's the basic gist:
1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut up items to roast to about the same size. Err on the thinner side, because big chunks don't always cook through.
3. Gently toss with a generous drizzle (3 T.?) of oil--olive has a nice flavor, peanut is great with spuds--and whatever spices you are using.
4. Spread this out on a cookie sheet big enough to hold everything out in a single layer.
5. Put in the oven for about 30 mins., turning everything over after about 15 mins. (softer veg cook faster, potatoes and squash the longest, so you may want to add quicker-cookers after 5 or 10 mins.).
6. Let sit for 5 mins. or so and serve alone or with an appropriate dipping sauce (ketchup? aioli? chutney? mustard? pesto?).

Back in the Saddle

...so to speak. We had our first class for the fall, this afternoon--Saving Summer in Jars. Jenny Hoople of Angelic Organics did a workshop on canning a variety of veggies and demo'ed tomatoes and salsa. We did a batch of salsa last week as party favors for the workshop. It is divine and I have been eating the un-canned leftovers as a sort of gazpacho, Vitamin C load. I haven't even been bothering with chips. (I'll post the recipe as soon as I get it from Jenny--it's closer to the Mexican salsa her in-laws prefer, she sez).

It wasn't as labor-intensive as last year's class, but we covered more ground. I was among unfortunate who lost all tomatoes to Late Blight, so I won't be canning any tom.s, but the process is so easy and so cool, that I'm fishing around for another possibility for my veg stash from the farm.

Home Canned Salsa Found on the internet, this salsa is closest I've found to the Salsa they put out in Mexican restaurants!
8 cups chopped fresh Tomatoes
1 cup Jalapeño Peppers, seeded and minced (I substituted mainly bell peppers for the jalapeños)
1 large White Onion, diced
6 cloves Garlic, minced
½ cup chopped fresh Cilantro
1 TBS Salt
¾ cup Cider Vinegar
¼ cup fresh Lime Juice (I used bottled lime juice)

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes. Pour hot salsa into hot, sterilized canning jars, leaving ¼ inch head-space. Seal jars with two piece caps. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

This makes enough for 3 pint jars, doubled makes enough for 7 pints.

In Praise of the Sugar Snap

Consider the sugar snap...nay, consider a handful. It's a sexy little pea pod, plumped full of water; when you bite into it there is a satisfying SNAP as the skin bursts and the juices pour forth. I can think of no other vegetable that is so satisfying to chomp, so refreshing and summery. I've haven't had them any other way than right out of the clear plastic bag, fresh from the farmer's market. They never last long enough, except maybe to be tossed on a salad--if they make it through the pre-dinner Ingredient Graze that often fills me up before meals.

Eat them quickly--after about 5 or 6 days the skin starts to toughen and the SNAP is no longer very snappy. Keep them in the fridge for extra cool refreshment. They're sweet like candy and crisp like chips, except juicier and guilt-free, since they're nothing more than a little green pocket for water and peas.

Act now, for this seasonal delight will only be with us for a few more weeks. Ah, the rewards of summer...

Mother-in-Law Potato Salad

My husband's mother was a wonderful cook. Her recipes were the background to most of his favorite childhood memories and, once I met the family, mine as well. When she died in 1994, many of these dishes were lost, as the unmarked recipe had come from one of the many cookbooks that lined the kitchen walls, or was scribbled on a piece of scratch paper and pulled from these books when needed. The file system was all in Barb's head.

My sister-in-law has had an ongoing project to assemble many of these favorites into a cookbook for each of her siblings. If fresh strawberry daquiris are required, Chicken a la Pappa is craved, or Porcupine Meatballs are needed there is a place to find the ingredients. I am working from a 2005 dog-eared edition, with blank spots for new family favorites or the possible discovery of a long lost treat (Orange Rolls are still m.i.a., I think).

This potato salad is the best...either as a side dish, or on greens as a light meal. Summer perfection!

Mom's Potato Salad
(makes a big bowlful, 4-6 servings)
1 c. mayo
2 t. prepared yellow mustard
1/2 t. celery seed
1/2 c. chopped sweet pickle relish (bro in-law uses sweet pepper relish, which is nice too, and adds some color)
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
4 c. cubed cooked potatoes (use waxy taters, red or yukon gold and undercook them a bit so they don't fall apart in the salad...I don't peel mine, tho peeled is probably more authentic)
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chopped onions

Put potatoes, eggs, celery, and onions in large serving bowl. Combine mayo, mustard, celery seed, relish, salt and pepper and stir to mix. Gently stir dressing into chopped salad until evenly distributed. Refrigerate overnite (if you don't start the day before, mix the dressing in the morning and let it sit so that the flavors mingle. Try to dress the salad a few hours ahead of time, so the potatoes soak up the juices).

A Favorite Summer Salad

It is oh so hot here in the Midwest (for us), and I've been eating a lot of of one of my fave main dish salads. It's a Four-Bean Salad, dressed with a Tarragon Vinaigrette that is refreshing, filling, but not heavy. Plenty of protein to keep you going, but it won't bog you down. I had a bowlful for lunch, on fresh butter lettuce from the farm and a slice of toasted Sourdough Rye (more on that adventure, later) with butter.

Four-Bean Salad
1 14 oz. can each northern beans, black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans (if you are soaking and cooking beans enough to make 1 1/2 c. each type)
1/3c. chopped red onion
1/2c. chopped ham (if you're a meat eater, if not try hard boiled egg or other veggies--green pepper, celery, cucumber)

1. Rinse and drain all beans, if canned.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, carefully, so as not to smash up beans.
3. Drizzle with vinaigrette (recipe follows) and allow to sit for about a half an hour.
4. Serve over greens (my favorite is arugula) at room temperature. Store in the fridge.

Tarragon Vinaigrette (adapted from the New York Times Cookbook)
5 T. Olive oil
3 T. White wine vinegar (I've used a tarragon-infused vinegar, which was fine, but I noticed "tarragon flavor" in the ingredients, which grossed me out--what is that?, so I recommend just a straight up white wine vin.)
1 T. fresh tarragon, or 1/2 t. dried
1 large clove garlic
1 T. salt
1/8 t. freshly ground pepper

1. Cut garlic into fourths lengthwise and lightly "bruise" tarragon, if fresh.
2. Combine with rest of ingredients and let sit at room temperature for a couple of hours to develop flavors.
3. Remove garlic before serving (or don't, but keep and eye out for the chunks in the salad...a firey surprise for the unsuspecting!)

Green Building and Breakfast!

Saturday was my last full weekend at the store for a bit; May is going to be crazy-busy, so we decided to scale back classes so as not to overlap with all the graduation parties, welcome spring events and the start of the pre-farmers' market. So, I get a bit of a rest (to start planning the summer).

Charles Haynes talked about Green Building--whether as a new structure or, perhaps more importantly, for renovation projects. His thinking is that you are probably doing the environment a bigger solid by working with an standing structure, rather than starting from scratch...less trash, using existing resources, etc. He also said the most important elements to consider when trying to be more sustainable in your home improvement is to focus on the envelope; how do you keep heat in the house during the winter (fix air leaks), how do you keep it cool in the summer (insulation keeps air conditioned air in), and preventing high moisture situations--my problem right now--by making sure water runs away from the structure, whether on the ground level or off the roof. He also suggested making sure your appliances are as energy-efficient as possible, especially when replacing big ticket items, such as furnaces, hot water heaters, dish washers, etc.

Charles is also working on an interesting idea. He'd like to organize some sort of a builder's group, by using the LEED standards for green building to help identify reputable contractors who take these issues in consideration when working. It would also help homeowners find builders who can assure quality work and are well-versed in this kind of construction.

With all that food for thought, I needed some food for the tummy...Paul Dionne was ready to provide that with a delicious, egg-centric breakfast cooking class. He created a menu that could be executed easily and in a timely manner so everything was done at the same time. Oatmeal pancakes were delicious, with rolled oats soaked in the batter for 20 min.s before cooking so these crepe-like cakes have a little texture to them. Bacon cooked in the oven to get it (and its splatters) out of the way. Scrambled eggs in butter. Omelets with just parsley and parmesan (nothing more needed).

To top it all off, we drank full-sized Bloody Marys and Mimosas to celebrate b&p's new liquor license (now we can serve). Bottom's up!

How the Bunny Does It...

Well, I can say this for E. Bunny: if he uses natural dyes, I sure hope he gives himself a head start before Easter. These suckers take forever! Still, there are some really pretty and intense colors (also unusual) that you can get using various fruits, veg, and spices. I've been practicing for a couple of weeks now, because I had a class in natural egg dyes at the store on Saturday.

Here's the basic recipe for the dye:
1. Collect enough of your dye source, so you have at least 2 cups worth (this will probably be enough dye for 3-4 eggs).
2. Put it in a pan that has a bit of room, but not so much that the source is floating around loosely.
3. Cover with water so that all the material is submerged, but, again, not so much that stuff is floating.
4. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 30 mins.
5. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
6. Let dye sit overnite and then strain out the bits and pieces (you could leave them in, but they might make marks on your eggs).

To color eggs:
1. Have hard-boiled eggs ready. Any color eggs are fine, but brown and green eggs will change the color a bit (altho you can use the starting color for various resist effects).
2. Place eggs into dye gently, so as not to crack them.
3. Let sit 30 mins. to 24 hrs., depending on how dark you want the eggs. If leaving overnite, put them in the fridge.
4. Let them dry completely before handling, or you will get fingerprints and lift off spots of dye. An effect, I suppose, but sort of messy-looking.
5. If you want a bit of shine, wipe the egg with a little bit of vegetable oil (a Latvian website suggested bacon rind--you may find your basket full of bugs, if you choose that greasing option).

I had the best luck with red cabbage (turquoise in basket), red and yellow onion skins (deep orange in basket), grape juice (dark purple-grey), and tumeric (bright orange-yellow). I had less luck with beets and carrot tops (the basically white egg in the basket). I didn't try blueberries, spinach, cherry juice, coffee, tea, or raspberries.

So, that was my experience. You can do some cool things with these dyes and don't have to worry if they get into the egg itself. This is Slow Dye, for sure, but not entirely unsatisfying...

A Girlhood Dream Realized...

There was a totally cool TV show on PBS in the 1970s called Zoom. These groovy kids ran around in striped shirts and bare feet and did all kinds of outasite activities made you want to go out and create. There were lots of artsy crafts like making a giant trashbag balloon-person and filling it with air to float over your backyard, writing plays, cooking and drawing elaborate Aquarian murals on the sidewalk with chalk. I used to pretend I was a cast member and would spend lots of time at the sink re-creating recipes using water as a main ingredient for my audience, sometimes some salt and pepper, old eggshells, and cinnamon, if my mother wasn't looking.

So, when a hole came up in the Bushel&Peck cooking class schedule, I decided it was time for my close-up. I've had lots of teaching experience with other subjects, surely I could lead a class on some of my favorite food topics. So, last week, I did a class on sandwiches, which was really an excuse to demo my favorite no-knead bread recipe and zip up a bunch of spreads in the food processor (who can't use a good recipe for Hummus?). We passed chopped veggies and a plate of cheese and coldcuts and made Dagwood-esque creations (altho not so tall). It was a lot of fun, I wasn't too nervous, and everyone got excited about chickpeas and tahini.

Now, I'm researching an egg-dying class for Easter. There are a lot of tantalizing recipes for natural dyes out there, but they are very slow to work. I'm trying to figure out the timing for everything, but we may have to resort to sending eggs home in jars of dye. I'm back at the sink, again, messing around with water; at least this time I can sprinkle ingredients with abandon. Tumeric makes an awesome yellow-orange, btw.

Zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom!

Benefit for the Band

Having been an artsy-bandy-drama-y kid myself, I always like to see the high school artists get some attention. The Beloit Memorial High School Jazz Band has been invited to NYC to compete in the Essentially Ellington HS Jazz Band Competition. The winners get to play at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis, after a week of competition and workshops. BMHS is one of 15 bands that have been invited. How very cool is that?!?

It's not cheap, tho. So, to help raise money for the trip, Bushel&Peck's is sponsoring a Jazz Brunch on Sunday, March 29 from 11-2pm. The kids will play, you will eat and a portion of the proceeds will pay off tickets, housing, etc (bring a coupon from the Stateline News or the Janesville Gazette). Here's a preview of the musical offerings...they're so good!

Living Lightly and Gyros!

We were back up to speed, event-wise this weekend, at the store. It was a gorgeous weekend, but we had a nice group for both our discussion on Living Lightly and the cooking class on Gyros and Kebabs.

Maribeth Miller,the organizer behind Green Phoenix (a group dedicated to sustainable living) led the talk. She had a clever way to inspire the discussion: she brought a basket filled with physical reminders of topics--a drainpipe to represent a rain barrel, empty spray bottles to suggest "green" cleaning methods, newspaper as a weed barrier replacement. It got people talking, and sharing, and was a nice solution to the "how to not read off an outline" problem. I am bound and determined to get a rain barrel--or two--this year.

(I hear the Rock County Extension is selling reconditioned barrels sometime in April. Extension agent, Mike Maddox, is talking about compost at the store Monday nite--5:00pm, free--and I will get the details.)

An hour later, we cleared the lunch counter and set up for "Street Food Comes Inside: Gyros!." This was supposed to be our resident sheep-farmer Rich's class, but Jackie (the other resident sheep farmer) and Chad (the resident cook) took over while Rich nursed a back injury. Jackie shared her recent attempted to recreate Gas Station Nachos--but local/organically...the end-result was a delicious mess of Frito Pie (in a bag). We sample Samuel Smith's Organic Cider (alcoholic), which was a lovely pairing, albeit a bit classy for eating out of a foil bag.

Then we drained yogurt, peeled cucumbers, mixed tzatziki sauce, and threaded skewers. The theme was quick-n-easy Meditteranean, and it was. The leg of lamb roast has been started earlier, so we were ready to eat as soon as the demo model had been slipped in the oven. Lots of napkins were used, as this too was bit messy (street food equals portable, but sloppy, I guess). But it was really good, and we barely had room for the kebabs once we polished off the gyros--and I mean polished, I only barely scraped up enough meat from the pan for my pita after everyone else got theirs. Guests first!

Proud Mother...

Well, there you have it, I am now the proud producer of chard (the tall guys) and two kinds of basil. I started these babies in the b&p seed starting class about 10 days ago and am now observing the fruit (sprouts?) of my labors. I was too lazy/cheap to rig up a florescent shop light over my little soil pots, but the beside table lamp with a compact florescent bulb seems to be doing just fine.

I've been casting around for the best spot to transplant these greenies, come spring (oh please, come spring). With my goofy sunlight I think I will have to have a progressive garden with stations all over the place. No one big spot gets sun for 6-8 hr.s a day. Plus there's the heirloom tomatoes, blue hubbard squash and green heirloom pumpkin seeds to think about as well.

Now I have to get up the nerve to thin my lovelies...

Tea, Stir-fry, Knitting and Gardens...

Oof, playing catch-up, again. Still, we've had a couple of good weekends' worth of classes and talks, and here are the pictures to prove it:

Two weekends ago,Liz Fiorenza of Wind Ridge Herb Farm shared tips for treating colds and the flu with herbs. Secret weapon: tea. She suggested a variety of tea ingredients: sage, rosemary, rose hips, lemon balm, mint. In combination with hot water and steam, they all offer varying degrees of comfort. Start with warm, moistened muscus membranes in the nose and throat and go from there. Surprising tip: the sole of the foot is also a good receptor for herbal remedies, so essential oils combined with a lotion (olive oil, shea butter) is a good delivery system. We mixed our own tea.

On Sunday, Paul Dionne taught a Kitchen Basics class on making stir fry. Much of the class time was spent on prep, to get all the various vegetables chopped. Secret to peeling ginger? scrape the skin off with a spoon, so you don't waste any of the fresh root itself. As with the pasta, the final dish was more than the sum of its parts and we had a delicious mound of Asian veggies and tofu, with leftovers for everyone to take home.

This weekend, Rose Hoffa (of Madame Purl fame), gave a talk on the source of wool: From Sheep to Skein. She demo'ed how to card and spin wool to get a ply appropriate for knitting or weaving. She had a pile of delicious wools and yarns for us to paw thru. It made me want to get out my knitting needles, immediately.

We also had several meetings of Bushel and Peck's Garden Club. Jackie is spilling the beans and trying to save us all from disappointment by teaching us how to plan a garden (remember how tall things are going to get when you space them) and how to start seeds (don't jump the gun, unless you want a lot of rotted, leggy seedlings). We dug in the dirt, discussed bats and rain barrels, and started basil, chard, and kale. My babies are upstairs right now, under a florescent light, awaiting late April. Hello extreme amounts of pesto!

No class this weekend, because of the Beloit International Film Festival, but stop on by. We're a venue and we're open all night (well, not quite, but it's going to feel like it...)!

The Cheeses of Wisconsin

To me, there are few things more appealing than a cheese tray. Gooey, crumbly, veined, stinky, waxed, mold-crusted; I'll take them all. I guess it's a good thing I live where I do, because--after California--Wisconsin is the biggest producer of cheese in the United States. AND, if you measure by the amounts of award-winning, artisan cheese, we're the biggest producer--take that Golden State!

Saturday afternoon we were pleased to host Jeanette Hurt, the author of The Cheeses of Wisconsin. She signed the book and taught a class on cheese pairings--with wine, with fruits and nuts, with various spreads. Very interesting and, man, did we fill up.

We tasted: Crave Brothers' Petit Freres (my fave, a soft cow's milk cheese); Carr Valley's Cocoa Cardona; Hook's Basic Blue; Hook's Sweet Constantine; Country Castle's Limburger. The Sweet Constantine was delicious on bread with a little smear of fig jam; the blue was perfect with Double D's Honey; and we spread mustard on the Limburger and it was very nice, and not too smelly.

We hope to have Jeanette back later in the spring to do a class on Tapas, so stay tuned!

Have I Created a Vegetarian?

They say you shouldn't lie to your kids; that you should just give them enough information to answer the question without too much detail. Eamonn (the four-year-old) has been very interested in the source of food (how do they make oranges? what's in cookies?), and I've been happy to tell him where things came from. Smug locavore-mommy gets to say, "Oh, the eggs are from Jackie's farm" or "The cheese is from that town we drive past on the way home from Gram's(Monroe)."

We had roast beef for Xmas dinner at my parents'. Eamonn took one look at his slice (not even medium rare) and asked where does this meat come from. So I told him it came from a cow. "How do you get it from a cow," he asked suspiciously.

Pause. Everyone looked at me--"Uh, they cut it off the cow," I tried to answer nonchalantly.

"When he's alive?!?" Eamonn asked with horror--how the kid knows it was a steer, I don't know. He's not great with pronouns, though, so maybe it was a lucky guess.

"No, no," I assured him. "When it's dead."

The piece of roast beast in questions remained on the side of the plate, chilling and becoming more disgusting-looking, in light of the aforementioned conversation. Eamonn wouldn't touch it.

What have I done?

Chunky Italian Night

Kitchen Basics...who couldn't use a little tune up on their chopping and frying skills? Saturday afternoon was spent learning easy ways to dice, tricks for removing the garlic smell from your hands (hold a steel knife under running water, really!), tossing veggies in a fry pan, and assembling a gorgeous plate of pasta. But enough from me...you can see/hear for yourself (Paul Dionne is doing the teaching). Check out the Asian Stir Fry class on Sunday, Feb. 8!

Happy New Year!

Oh, this poor little blog is languishing. Juggling two of these babies is hard work, esp. when juggling everything else. Still, I resolve to be a bit more attentive. I think about topics all the time, so maybe the thing is to just post these musings and see what y'all think. Food, who doesn't think about it most of the time?

I'm teaching a Make Your Own Baby Food class this month (Jan. 18) and have been thinking about the introduction of food and how the lads reacted. I thought it was going to be some major epiphany, but, for both of them, it was a bit of a snooze (rice cereal with a splash of apple juice--who could blame them). Eamonn was much more interested in the purees; Alec did a lot of spitting and didn't really engage until he could pick stuff up. He's still a lot more fickle when it comes to eating than Eamonn ever is. E finished a beet salad two days ago!

I'll use a lot of information from this site, and my personal experience. As with all things concerning babies, it's useful to remember that they are just little people and can be picky and quirky just like everyone else (I sneer at Bat Man "fruit" roll ups, but can't stop eating Twizzlers, for instance--I guess it's the fake strawberry flavor that makes one slab of corn syrup more appealing). I hope I will inspire some new moms to go beyond Gerber's and create their own mash-ups. Sweet potatoes and apples, anyone?