Got Eggs?

Have you ever tasted an egg fresh from the hen that laid it? I'm lucky to have some friends who raise chickens, and now and then I get some fresh eggs, usually in trade for something that I have that they want-- like a bottle of homemade wine, or some venison trail bologna. (Don't knock it if you haven't tried it!)

But this fall I'll begin to have my own eggs from my own chickens. I've ordered a chicken coop to be delivered soon. (My DH is good at building, but short on time and patience, so I thought a ready-made coop was the way to go. Obviously, I'm not raising chickens for the money savings, but rather for the healthy eggs and the sense of independence, in some small way, from the grocery store/factory egg farms.)

I'll be raising Buff Orpingtons, a docile breed that is friendly and lays well in the wintertime.

Plans for the Veggie Garden

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future. My blog post before this one bemoaned the fact that December was gone, and now January is gone, and half of February. Eek! (Happy Valentines Day, by the way!)

The huge piles of snow are gone here, finally, and despite the snow flurries we had today, I am cautiously optimistic about the coming of spring. My table is getting covered with piles of garden catalogs, and I've circled waaay more items than I have space or energy to plant. So I need to begin to edit. I love choosing-- editing, not so much.

My DH has promised to build me some more raised beds in the Taj-ma-garden (my fenced garden that is quite big, and only partly filled with beds.) My goal is to grow a lot more of our food this year, for lots of reasons. Food safety, food freshness, food variety (my grocery store carries very little in the way of fresh herbs and non-typical fruits and vegetables) fresh air and exercise, and just the satisfaction of growing it myself. Now if I can only afford a way to keep the deer from eating it all before I have a chance to pick it. (Deer fencing, while effective, can get mighty expensive when the area being fenced is as large as mine is.)

We have espaliered pear trees outside the fence along one long side of the garden, an asparagus patch on one short side, and a pair of hardy kiwi vines growing up the archway that marks the entrance to the second long side. This year I'd like to add blueberry bushes and some grapes to finish the outer border. (The second short side faces up to the garden shed and really doesn't have enough space to grow anything outside the fence.) I'll post some pictures as the season progresses.

Where Did December Go?

Oh, my goodness! I didn't blog at all in December! What is up with that? It's not like I had anything else to do last month! :)

Ah, well... It's resolution time. (Does everyone still make resolutions?) Lose weight, get organized... sounds just like last year's resolutions, doesn't it? Blog more regularly-- there's a new one. Be more creative? Cook more at home? Try new things?

I didn't have time for the Daring Bakers Challenge last month either. They did a delicious-looking yule log with lots of layers, all wrapped in mousse and covered with chocolate ganache. Yum! I think I'm glad I didn't make it-- see resolution number one above.

I put a pail of bread dough in the refrigerator today. Tomorrow I'll make ciabatta bread from some of it. The recipe is a simple one from a book I love called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. It allows me to make bread even when I work every day. I think a loaf of fresh-baked bread transforms the simplest meal into an offering of love. Geez, that sounds sappy! (But that's really how I feel.)

Pantry Project, Week 3

(Scroll down for a recipe for Amish Chicken Casserole.)

The Pantry Project was tabled this week for Thanksgiving. I brought some food to share to my BIL's house, and thought he and the family wouldn't really appreciate the thrown together nature of something from the pantry, so I shopped.

Monday we did eat chicken stir fry on steamed rice. But then Tuesday my hubby was helping to butcher two deer the family killed last weekend, and when they butcher they always fry up pieces of the venison in a skillet as they cut, so that covered him. (I ate ramen noodles from the pantry.) Wednesday we went out to eat as usual. Then Thursday the holiday. Friday I went to the Grand Opening of Black Sheep Vineyards, and Saturday I cooked a turkey here so we'd have leftovers at our own house. Today we'll have those leftovers, of course. And that completes Week 3.

The dish I took to share (in addition to my traditional Dutch Apple pie) was Amish chicken casserole-- a new recipe I tried just for the holiday, but will make again soon!

Amish Chicken Casserole

1/2 cup butter
8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
1/3 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth (I used Organic free range)
1 cup whole milk
8 ounces noodles, cooked (I used Kluski)
2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken
salt, pepper, sage and poultry seasoning to taste (not too much-- the flavor sahould be subtle)
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large skillet or saucepan. Saute the sliced mushrooms in the butter until they begin to brown. Add the flour and stir to combine until the flour and butter form a smooth paste. Add the chicken broth and milk and cook until thick and bubbly (about the consistency of gravy)

Add the chicken and the noodles, and the seasonings. Pour into a large casserole dish and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake uncovered 30 minutes.

Daring Bakers Caramel Cake

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge is a caramel cake from Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater ( http://eggbeater.typepad.com ). You can find the recipe here http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006/12/24/caramel-cake-the-recipe/ . Hosting this month are Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/) Alex (Brownie of Blondie and Brownie) (http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/, and Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/).


As you can see from the recipe, before you can begin to make the cake or the frosting, you need to make the caramel syrup. Making caramel syrup is so simple (though a little nerve-wracking with a lot of splattering going on) that I wonder that I've never tried it before. I will definitely make that part of the recipe again.





I made the caramel syrup and let it cool. Then I used a little bit of the caramel syrup (1/3 cup) to make the cake. If you check out the accompanying picture from Shuna's recipe you'll see that she used the cake as one layer and the frosting just on the top. I sliced the cake in half and used the frosting in the middle and all around-- I had just enough to finish it.




The cake was a little dry at first and stuck a little to the baking pan, but once it was frosted and sat overnight covered, it absorbed a little moisture from the frosting and was great!

The frosting was tasty, very sweet but not really smooth-- a little sugary for me. But definitely delicious.



The remaining caramel syrup (1/3 cup was used for the cake and 4 Tbsp for the frosting, leaving 1 cup of syrup for another use) could be used if we wanted to make caramels or caramel topping. Instead, I used it to flavor a batch of homemade caramel pecan ice cream.


Caramel Pecan Ice Cream

2 cups half and half
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup caramel syrup
a pinch of kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Combine the half and half, cream, sugar, caramel syrup and salt. Add the vanilla extract. Chill the mixture 3 hours or overnight. Freeze according to your ice cream freezer directions, adding the toasted pecans about 2 minutes before the machine is done. Makes about 5 cups.

Pantry Project, Week 2

A quick summary of how the "project" is going:
Monday: Dr Joe's homemade kielbasi, fried cabbage and noodles.
Tuesday: Chicken curry on brown rice.
Wednesday: Out to dinner as usual.
Thursday: Smoked sausage, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.
Friday: Steak, baked potatoes and salad.
Saturday: Chicken chili and bread, with homemade caramel cake for dessert.
Sunday: Out to dinner.
Grocery purchases for the week? A gallon of milk, a box of cereal, a pound of butter, a bunch of romain and a cucumber for salad, and a loaf of bread to go with the soup. (I would have made bread, but making soup and a cake and bread on Saturday would have been a bit too much.)

Meals are still pretty balanced and interesting-- not too much problem yet.

Pantry Project, Day 5

Yesterday we enjoyed some homemade vegetable soup from my crock pot and some crunchy oatmeal bread from my bread machine.

We went out to the home of a friend to play cards and I brought some cheese spread to snack on, and had to buy some snack crackers to go with it. And with that, the first week of the project comes to an end. (We're going out to dinner tonight.)

The sum total of my grocery purchases this week? A jar of green olives, some fresh Brussels sprouts, a head of cabbage, a box of breakfast cereal, a box of crackers and a gallon of milk. The goal of this project was never about saving money, but rather to see how long we could eat just from the pantry and freezer, and to use things up that I've been hoarding there. The money saving is a nice side benefit, though!

Oatmeal Bread

3/4 Cup water

2 Cups white bread flour

1 Tbsp dry milk

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp butter, softened

1 Tbsp honey

1/4 Cup oatmeal (old fashioned or quick, not instant)

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

In the bread machine, put the ingredients in the order your machine recommends. (The only important part is that the yeast and the water don't come in contact right away if you are using the "delay" cycle.) Turn the machine to regular (or delay) cycle and medium crust setting. Remove from machine promptly when done. For extra crunch, hold the oatmeal until the add fruit/nuts beep signal is heard.