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