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.

Venison and Sourdough

I mentioned in my last post that I was attempting to make some whole wheat sourdough bread. It was a success! I used the no-knead recipe of Joannee's with a few modifications for the sourdough starter:

- 2 cups of starter to replace the commercial dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups of warm water to replace the 1 5/8 cups
- An extra half cup of flour
- I extended the baking time a bit, about five minutes extra with the lid on and five extra with the lid off, but I didn't keep exact measurement of the baking time, so it's something that could be played around with

As far as the rising time for the bread, I allowed it to rise for approximately 24 hours. The loaf ended up dense, but with a good texture and amazing flavor. I particularly like how this recipe gives the bread a good, crunchy crust. The sourdough flavor was very mild, as my starter is still young and hasn't had time to develop a strong flavor.

In addition to my whole wheat bread, I made a stir-fry with some venison tenderloin (cut from a roast I had in the freezer) and root veggies. I tossed in some winter squash and sun-dried tomatoes from this summer as well. Deciding that I wanted to spend even more time in the kitchen making my lunch, I went ahead and threw together some sourdough flatbread with rosemary and thyme. Then I took the rest of the venison roast and put that in the crock pot with the extra root veggies that hadn't gone into the stir fry. The kitchen didn't know what hit it. After the whirlwind of culinary activity was done, there was flour everywhere and scraps of chopped and peeled veggies scattered about that hadn't made it into the compost container. It was a mess well worth it, though. Even as I type this, the aroma of the venison roast in the crock pot is making my stomach rumble and the kitchen is fragrant with the lingering scents of freshly-baked bread.

-Shannon

Before the challenge started & Joannee's Rules

When: February 22, 2012 to April 8, 2012 – the 46 days of lent.

Why: Well I'm always asking folks to buy local and eat seasonally. Do I always do it? No. The challenge is, can it be done? Of course! Will it be difficult? I expect so, but I am hoping to be surprised. I'll have to rethink where I buy my food, how it is prepared, what ingredients are in it, etc., but what better way to truly know what is going in my mouth.

Who will be participating: Shannon Rau, Joannée & Perry DeBruhl and our kids Troy & Reid (when they eat at home).

The rules: Ingredients must be things grown/raised/processed in Michigan.  Shannon's are more stringent.

Exceptions: Coffee, olive oil, spices, chocolate, and yeast. I admit, I am weak. I will need my coffee and chocolate for comfort on the long journey ahead. The coffee will be roasted in Michigan and must be certified organic, and certified Fair Trade. The chocolate – well I am hoping to find some locally made chocolates, but any extra ingredients will have to be from Michigan – so dark chocolate covered cherries will fit the bill if they are made in Michigan and the cherries were grown in Michigan.

Food Sources: I will be sharing sources for Michigan food as I find them. Here are a few that Shannon hasn't listed yet.

Colasanti's – Milford Rd, Milford, MI

Got an oyster mushroom kit from there 2 weeks ago and should have my own oyster mushrooms in a week or two.

Easygrow Mushrooms, Ann Arbor, MI -http://easygrowmushrooms.com/

All kinds of mushroom kits to grow your own.

Smelter Orchards, Frankfort, MI - http://smeltzerorchards.com/2011/

Chocolate covered dried fruits and dried fruits (cherries, blueberries, etc.)

Paramount Coffee – Has their own label and roasts and makes the coffee blends for some of Bigbee's coffees too.

Eggs – we have a few chickens in our backyard, so luckily we will have fresh eggs available every day.

The weekend before the challenge starts - Went to Costco and VG's today to see what I could find that was from Michigan. Shocked at how far the food travels. I know this, but still shocked. Also found out it is tough on some labels to find out where the ingredients come from, mainly just the distributor and manufacturer listed, not where the ingredients are from. If unknown, then will not be acceptable for the local food challenge. Found some apples at VG's that are from Michigan. Didn't do an extensive search, but looked at foods I would normally purchased and had to leave them all at the store. Hummmm…what will we be eating?

Learned how to make bread last weekend and pasta. Bought organic flour from Westwind Milling which is grown and milled in Michigan, so will bake bread tonight in preparation for the first day – tomorrow.  No-Knead bread recipe below.

Challenge for you – try to eat locally just one day. Read the labels, where did the ingredients come from? Who prepared it? If one day is easy, try another, and let me know what made it easy for you. All ideas will be greatly appreciated!!!

Joannée

No-Knead Bread

INGREDIENTS

½ t yeast

1 ½ t salt

3 c flour

1 5/8 c liquid

Mix yeast, salt and flour together. Slowly add liquid (water, beer, pickle juice- whatever you want!) and stir while adding. Cover bowl with plastic bag and set aside for at least 10 hrs, and as much as 24 hours! When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425. When heated, put dish and lid/cover in oven to fully heat (at least 10 minutes). Remove dish and immediately put dough into dish, and cover. Bake for 20 min. Take lid off, and bake for 15 more minutes. Let cool before trying to remove from pan. (About 15-20 minutes if you want to eat warm bread and melted butter.)

Have fun with this! Experiment with adding all kinds of things from herbs to olives to garlic. Sprinkle coarse salt on top before baking for a soft pretzel sort of thing.

Day 1

Eating local shouldn't be all that hard, right? So far, it's not too bad. Then again, we're only in day 1 of our local food challenge for Lent. I'm rather glad that I froze all that winter squash and that I still have several drawers in my refrigerator with beets and rutabagas, not to mention the hoop house full of kale, salad mix, and spinach out on the farm. With ample supply of flours from West Wind Milling half an hour north and plenty of meat from Turtlebee's, as well as eggs from Joannee's chickens, I think I may just make it.

I'm certainly not hungry now after a lunch of ribs (from Turtlebee's) and winter squash from this past season on the farm. That will be my dinner, too, as I'm busy tonight with activities at church and won't have time to cook anything else. There's bread rising in the plant room (it's the warmest room in the house) that I'm only 50% certain will actually turn out. It's made with my own sourdough starter and graham milled bread flour from West Wind. Tomorrow will tell if I'm going to have a nice loaf of wheat bread or if I'll have to deal with a dense, doughy mess that is edible but not particularly tasty. Next week we'll have to make a trip out to the farmer's market in Ann Arbor and see what sort of produce is available during these lean times of late winter.

The Rules of my Local Food Challenge:
- All main food products (meat, dairy, eggs, produce, grains) must come from a source within one hundred miles. Organic/sustainable sources are preferred but not required.
- Salt and herbs/spices are an exception to the rule, but use as much locally sourced of these products as possible. I am using only what I currently have available in my spice drawer. If I run out, tough luck.
- Though there is a local source of refined sugar, the sugar beets are GMO (as they are in nearly the entire country), so I will refrain from consuming any refined sugar. Honey and maple syrup as sweeteners only.
- At the moment I am drinking only water, but am hoping to find some local teas at the A2 farmer's market.

My food today (and where it came from)
Breakfast
Steel cut oats with dried apples, salt, and honey (oats from West Wind Milling, apples from Erwin Orchards, honey from Turtlebee Farms)

Lunch
Ribs rubbed with sage, garlic, salt, and pepper (ribs from Turtlebee's, sage from my herbs, garlic from Stone Coop Farm)
Mixed winter squash (Stone Coop Farm)


Dinner
Same as lunch

Hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting in terms of what I'm eating! As time goes on, I'll be working on getting this blog looking better and get some pictures up. Thanks for reading!

-Shannon