Creative Cooking

What to do with a crock pot of over-cooked cannellini beans? That was my question Thursday night as I looked into the crock pot of beans that was intended to be mixed into stir fry while still firm. The beans, however, had been cooked too long and fell apart at the slightest disturbance. So, I drained the beans in a colander, then put them back into the now-empty crock pot bowl. I tossed in some salt and pepper, a mixture of herbs from my potted plants (which have decided to double in size with all this warm weather we've been having), the last of a purple onion from Ann Arbor farmers market, and a few cups of corn meal and whole wheat graham flour from West Wind. Mixed it all up, first with a spoon, then with my hands, and then formed the doughy stuff into very thin (1/4 inch) patties about the size of my hand. I scraped out the remnants of my kale and parsnip stir fry that I had cooked up in the cast iron skillet, and set about pan-frying the bean patties until they were golden brown on both sides. I ended up with a massive stack of the things, but they sure are good! I froze some for later, though it might end up being sooner that I break into them, as I'm going through the ones in the fridge rather quickly. I've been eating them warm with a bit of butter alongside my parsnip-kale stir fry and a squash-beef-sundried tomato mixture.

It's a bit blurry, as I had started to eat before I thought to take a picture.
I was so excited to get back to eating, I couldn't bother to see if the picture had turned out well.

-Shannon

What happened to winter?

It seems like a switch has been flipped the past week, with temperatures rising consistently to reach record highs. Some people are rejoicing. I just hope it's not a sign of things to come for this summer. Already many of our winter crops in the hoop house are bolting, so we're getting creative about how to sell bolted salad mix greens. Bolted or not, at least they're still delicious!

Another good week of yummy food with (of course) leftover soup, home-made bread, and some delicious stir-fried winter squash frozen from the fall with ground beef, sundried tomatoes, and spinach.

I had a lot of spinach from the farm to use up.

St Patty's day at the DeBruhl's was a success, with only a couple of pre-determined exceptions to the rules. I had some beer from Bell's Brewery, a Lager of the Lakes. After not having any beer since sometime in January, it tasted excellent. While Bell's is a Michigan company, I do not believe all the ingredients for their beer is sourced from Michigan. The other exception was in a cherry and peach cobbler that Joannee made. While just about everything in the cobbler was from 100 miles away, the cherries were not. They were Traverse City cherries. Everything else I had that night, the corned beef and the boiled veggies, were both delicious and from local farmers. I had two servings and certainly did not regret it.  Mmm!  

-Shannon

Soup to the Rescue

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I got my puppy, Colter, on Tuesday, and things have been a whirlwind of activity and lack of sleep ever since. He is an Aussie/English shepherd mix and is the cutest little guy. He's also a lot of work! But totally worth it.

Thankfully I froze a lot of soup before getting Colter, or else I may have been subsisting on bread and fried eggs all of this past week. My crock pot has also been put to good use this week. I made some very tasty bean and veggie curry soup yesterday and added ground beef to it today when I remembered I still had five pounds of the meat in the freezer from farmers market last week. The veggies I've been using are mostly root crops from the farmers market or stored in my fridge from last fall: potatoes, kohlrabi, rutabaga, carrots, onions, and garlic. With the recent harvest we did on the farm, I've had some amazing winter kale to add to the mix, too.

Tonight I made an apple crisp with mostly local ingredients. Unfortunately I don't believe there is Michigan-sourced cinnamon or nutmeg, at least not that I've heard of yet. I chopped up several apples (somewhere between five and ten medium-sized fruits) and put them in an 8x8 baking pan. Added a few bits of butter to the apples, and sprinkled some cinnamon and nutmeg on top. For the topping I mixed whole wheat flour, oatmeal, butter, honey, and milk into a doughy consistency. I flattened the dough topping on the apples and baked it at 350F until the apples were soft and the top was golden brown. I won't be eating it till morning, but it sure does smell good!

-Shannon

Rabbit

I have been met with a lot of resistance when I tell people that I eat rabbit. Generally people ask me how I could kill and eat something so cute and fluffy. People keep them as pets after all. So, why eat rabbit? First of all, rabbits are a quick, easy source of meat. They have large litters and grow quickly. Unlike chickens, which must be plucked after slaughter (and then you still have to deal with the skin), skinning a rabbit is easy. Once you get over the weirdness factor of a skinless rabbit carcass, butchering is easy and cooking is simple. Rabbit meat tastes similar to chicken, though will have a tougher texture if not cooked correctly. The best way to cook rabbit is in soups, roasted, or slow-grilled. If pan-fried it will generally toughen up unless marinated and tenderized.

This is called the tuck and roll position.

 Last night on a whim I made a cream of rabbit soup. I took a basic cream of potato soup recipe and added fresh rabbit meat. I took the meat from the forelegs, hind legs, and sides, cutting if off the bones. I very briefly pan fried it with the mostly-cooked veggies in water and butter before adding venison broth and then whole milk. After simmering for around 30 minutes, the soup was ready. I had to very quickly put away the rest of it after I had a bowl, or else I may have eaten the whole pot! Looking forward to leftovers for dinner tonight.

Cream of rabbit soup with onions, garlic, carrots, and whole fingerling potatoes.

-Shannon

Venison Stock

Sometimes one has to get a little creative when cooking. I finished off my venison roast, but thought it would be a waste to throw away the leftover bones and meat that I couldn't pull off. So, I stuck the roast in a stock pot on the stove and boiled it until it fell apart. Aside from looking like some strange monster in the pot every time I took the lid off (see photo above), the venison stock that I made turned out very tasty. I strained out all the bone and cartilage bits with a metal strainer after it had cooled off a bit. I made a soup with half of the stock last night, tossing in some onion, garlic, carrots, rutabaga, potatoes, kale, and beans. The other half I froze for later use. 

Aside from the usual  every-other-day loaf of bread, the kitchen was surprisingly quiet over the weekend and beginning of the week. Leftovers have been the name of the game mostly, that and eggs scrambled with onion and swiss chard. I'll need to be making another trip up to West Wind this weekend to restock on flours and get some rolled oats. I've been craving an apple crisp, and with plenty of apples from the A2 farmers market I'm hoping to make some this weekend.

-Shannon

Bread and Butter

There is nothing like melted butter on a slice of bread fresh from the oven. After the success of my first loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread (and giving most of it away), I was eager to try again. The second loaf turned out even better than the first. And with butter from Calder Dairy bought at Simply Fresh Market, I was able to partake in the ultimate comfort food. Mmm mmm good! I've been eating leftovers of the venison stir fry as well as the venison roast, both of which seem to get better every day.

Whole wheat sourdough bread, fresh from the oven

Today we took a trip down to the farmers market in Ann Arbor. I can't believe I haven't been down there before this. The market is fantastic! Unlike the Brighton Farmers Market where the vast majority of the vendors are what we like to call "One Day Farmers" (i.e. they buy their produce at Eastern Market in Detroit, most of which is shipped in from California, then peel off the stickers before they sell it as "farm fresh" to the unwitting customer), the folks at the Ann Arbor market are honest-to-goodness farmers. Today I chatted it up with many of the farmers about the varieties of crops they grow, which ones worked the best for them, what breeds of hogs, cows, and chickens they raise, and got into a conversation with a couple of fellows from Tantré Farm about a grumpy male goat they have on the farm. In addition to meeting some pretty awesome people, I was able to purchase some equally awesome produce and meat: kale, chard, fingerling potatoes, popcorn, onions, garlic cloves, apples, and pork chops. I'm positive I won't be going hungry after this little jaunt! Even this time of year it is very possible to be well fed while eating locally.

At my church, the Alma College choir was doing a performance, and before their concert several of us from my church's choir signed up to provide dinner for the students. My Mom wanted to make a spinach salad and was going to buy spinach at the store. I had to remind her that we had plenty of spinach in the hoop house at the farm for the taking! After a quick ten minutes of harvesting, I had enough spinach for the salad she wanted to make. At church, I got a kick out of telling the folks eating the food that the spinach had been harvested only ninety minutes prior to them eating it. They were astounded, then curious as to how one grows and harvests spinach in the middle of winter. Eager to boast about the farm and about how possible it is to eat locally, I went into a full explanation about our growing process and all that can be grown and harvested through the winter. Needless to say, the salad was one of the first things to be finished at the buffet table, with the college students scraping the bowl clean.

Already we have plans to cook the pork chops sometime this week, and I'll be making applesauce with the apples I bought (if I don't eat them all beforehand; I've already eaten three in one day) to go with the pork. Tomorrow I'll be making kale chips and sauteing up some chard to go with beans from Carlson-Arbogast. The beans are a new exception to my 100-mile rule, as I have yet to find a source of dry beans nearby. As it is, Carlson-Arbogast Farm is in Howard City, 145 miles away from Brighton.

What I ate today
Breakfast
Plain yogurt - Thomas Organic Creamery - with maple syrup - Michigan Maple Syrup Association
Home-made whole wheat sourdough bread, toasted with butter

Lunch
Leftover venison stir fry with winter squash
Bread
Apple - Wasem Fruit Farm

Dinner
I was still so full from my lunch that I just had an apple!

Finding local food: Day 1-3

Day one

Saw my dear friend Maria Ponti today.  She asked us to come over for dinner on Saturday and of course I said yes.  We haven't seen them in ages and it will be great to get together.  Told Shannon and her first response was – "What are you going to eat?"  Oh, no.  How will I go for dinner at Maria's  and not eat any of her food?  I called Maria and explained the local food challenge and offered to bring my own food.  She asked for more details and decided she liked the idea.  She was going to try to make it happen for our meal on Saturday.  What a good sport!  I'm sure it will be an awesome meal as Maria is super resourceful and a great cook!  I am looking forward to what food resources she finds.

Breakfast – coffee with local milk and honey, fresh made bread with butter and honey, see no-knead bread recipe.  Made it last night and cooked one loaf this morning and will cook the other tonight.  Used Westwind Milling unbleached bread flour.

Lunch – apple, 2 hard boiled eggs – from my chickens, slice of bread and butter

Dinner – lamb tender stir-fry

Lamb-Turtlee's

Veggies – from Stone Coop Farm – purple cabbage, carrots, rutabaga, kale, brassica salad mix, onions, frozen hot peppers. Stir fried all in some olive oil and salt & pepper.  Yummy!

Served with fresh made warm bread and butter. 

Day Two

Breakfast – oatmeal with butter and honey.  Oatmeal from Westwind, butter from Calder's (bought at Simply Fresh) and honey from Turtlebee's and coffee – Bigbee coffee.

Lunch – leftover lamb stir-fry

Dinner – Stopped by VG's hoping to find some meat that was from Michigan in the butcher case. No luck, none of the meat was from Michigan.  Very hungry and disheartened and didn't feel like cooking. Everyone in my family had already eaten when I got home.  Decided to have raspberry smoothie, hard-boiled egg, and slice of bread.  Raspberry smoothie made with plain yogurt from Thomas Organic Creamery (bought at Simply Fresh), frozen raspberries from my back yard, and a teaspoon of honey.

Day 3

Decided to try variation on bread recipe.  Added ½ cup of organic corn meal from Westwind, mixed ¼ cup of honey with water to make 1 5/8 cups of liquid.  Made it this morning and will bake tonight.

Can't wait to go to Ann Arbor Farmers' Market tomorrow morning have high expectations that I will find more options for local food.  No idea what is for lunch or dinner tonight.  Need a plan.

Breakfast- a hard boiled egg and a mission to find some food.  Decided to get a few jobs on the farm completed and then search for food.  Sounds so dramatic, just a tougher challenge than I thought.

Went to Meijer's – asked at meat department for Michigan meat – none.  Asked in produce – apples and some potatoes (none organic).  Bought some apples, but just can't buy non-organic potatoes, they put too many chemicals on conventionally grown potatoes.  Looked for cheese, dried beans and frozen fruit and found a couple items:  Montmorency Cherries-frozen from Friske Orchards in Charlevoix and three kinds of dried beans (red, black & navy) from The Cooperative Elevator Co..  Then went to Marv's Meats – no Michigan meat, but had sun dried Michigan cherries.  Ended up at Simply Fresh and purchased butter from Calder Dairy, organic whole milk from Thomas Organic Creamery, Cannellini beans from Carlson-Arbogast Farm and some cheese (Monterey Jack and Veggie) from Farm Country Cheese House.

To celebrate my hunt I fixed lunch.  I still had some cottage bacon from Turtlebee's.  It is lean, salty and wonderful.  I fried it – almost no fat on it so more of a dry fry. After it was done I put a large handful of spinach from Stone Coop Farm and a few Montmorency cherries in the same hot pan and cooked them for about 1 minute.  Had it with a couple slices of the Monterey Jack cheese and was supremely happy! It was also beautiful to look at. 

Harvested spinach and brassica salad mix for Maria for dinner tomorrow.  Also took her some eggs - she said her amazing flan is for dessert - YEAH!  She is also not sure what she will be cooking as it has been harder than she thought to find local food.

Dinner - Fresh bread (the cornmeal and honey added are amazing!), applesauce I made with Erwin's apples, cinnamon and a tiny bit of water, and a vegetable curry soup.  I had a quart of vegetable soup I had canned when I was at the MSU's Student Organic Farm and I added some local parsnips from Colasanti's Market, and some turnips from Stone Coop Farm.  I sauteed them, added the soup, about one teaspoon of curry powder and 2 cups of whole milk from Thomas Creamery.  It actually tasted great.  Troy made brownies from scratch using dark cocoa powder, Calder Butter, eggs, and Pioneer Sugar.  It was wonderful to have dessert tonight and the brownies were some of the best I have had.