The Life Changing Magic of Squash Soup

Tags

diet, fall, heirloom, homemade, local foods, recipes, tomato, vegetables, whole food, winter

There are a few things that were introduced during my lifetime that can be considered truly life-changing…the internet, smart phones, fourth generation antihstamines, and some others. These are really great and all, but today I am reminded of a two other “discoveries” that have significantly changed my life, specifically in regards to the autumn season: no-peel winter squash and the immersion blender.

The pureed squash soup is like the elixir of fall. There is something about that warm, slightly sweet orange silky squash liquor served in a big bowl or just a mug. Its something I look forward to every year when I see the piles of butternut squash and pumpkins at every store in town. Every season, I make up batch to kick off the shorter days and cooler temps. I have tried many a recipe, and have come up with an adaptation that works for whatever I have on hand. The only real requirement is that you have squash, and a preheated oven at 425°F.

See that pretty dumpling above? This is the ultimate of winter squash (in my opinion). This little nugget is the French heirloom potimarron squash. The name is a combination of two words: potiron (pumpkin) and chestnut (marron), and the flavor is a delightful marriage of the two as well. It is by far not only my favorite winter squash but also my favorite pumpkin, hands down. This squash is also called red kuri or hokaiddo or onion squash, depending on where it is grown. Beyond the flavor, the best part is that this is a thin-skinned squash which means…NO PEELING (enter sounds of crowds cheering! alarms blaring! fireworks exploding!)

If you have never experienced the wonder of not peeling a winter squash, I implore you to get on this. My first no-peel squash was a delicata I received in a CSA box many moons ago, and it was an eye-opening culinary experience to be sure. I looked for that squash for years in two different cities, and nary a grocery stocked it. I knew the solution: grow my own. While I intended to grow delicata squash my first year of the garden, the seed company I was using only had it available in their membership program, which I was not a part of. Instead, I found their potimarron in the seed catalogue which said no peeling was required so I took a chance. I have never looked back since. Granted, these do not store well because of the peel (two weeks at best; probably why there is no commercial presence), but two weeks is about all I can hold out for anyways.

So let’s get started on this special soup journey. To start, take the little squash and just cut of the top and bottom, scoop out the seeds and strings (save for the broth later), cut into chunks and mix with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Easy like Sunday Morning.

To flavor our soup, I like to use this combination of pear, tomato, garlic, and leek. But you can also use apples, onions, ginger, peppers, anything. I happen to not have any leeks on hand, but I do have sweet onion. The combination of sweet and savory really enhances the sweetness of the squash but not in an over the top way.

Cut the vegetables in half so they are all roughly the same size, removing seeds and stems. You can peel anything that requires peeling, but I tend to be a no-peel advocate if I can get away with it.

 

Just like with the squash, toss in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Lay everything out onto a large roasting pan, and stick in the oven for a good 30 minutes at 425°F, or until the squash is nice and tender.

While that is roasting, heat up 6 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable or whatever you have) to boil. I am woefully out of my homemade broth, I have some bullion cubes that will do fine in a pinch. To enhance the flavor, you can add the squash seeds and guts to the broth, reduce to a simmer, and let it mellow until its time to add the vegetables and then remove.

The thing about a squash soup is that it needs to be pureed. Chunks of squash and other vegetables in a bowl of loose broth would just not translate the same way, nor be as beautiful or delicious. The flavors have to marry to make it truly enticing. Typically, this is done by using a blender in batches and you see directions that suggest at any time the hot soup and chunks will explode in a furry of chunky orange projectile blender vomit if not done properly. I have no intentions to clean squash off my ceilings, thank you very much.

Enter the greatest kitchen utensil since the slow cooker: the immersion blender. This bad boy is not just a God-send, it’s a life-changing soup instrument. It also reduces post-soup making cleanup by 5 dishes, which in and of itself, is a gadget worthy of an extra trip to Bed Bath and Beyond.

Once your veggies are roasted up, just pop them into the simmering broth (after removing seeds/guts). Hook up that immersion blender, and BLEND BABY BLEND.

Look at that…

Golden colored…

Lovely silky and smooth…

At this point, you could just add a big straw and be done with it. Or you could add a few enhancements. I like to top each bowl with a handful of crumbled gorgonzola and some chopped hazelnuts. You could also do a dollop of whole milk Greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup. You could also do a sprinkle of fried sage and prosciutto. You could also do sharp cheddar and apple chips. Whatever floats your boat.

How every you top it off, you won’t regret it. Simple, sweet and savory, no-peel immersion blended winter squash soup. If only every day could be like today.

…and Repeat.

Life-Changing Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 1 potimarron squash, about 3-4 lb., stemmed and seeds and strings removed and set aside (can also substitute butternut, pumpkin or acorn but peel these first!)
• 2 medium pears (or 4 small), stemmed and cored
• 2 medium tomatoes, halved
• 1 medium onion (or half large), chopped into wedges
• 3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 oz. Gorgonzola or blue stilton cheese, crumbled
• 2 oz. chopped hazelnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Cut squash into small wedges, toss with half the olive oil, and half the salt and pepper. Arrange squash, skin-side down, on a baking sheet.
3. Toss prepped pears, tomatos and onion in remaining olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange on a second baking sheet skin-side down.
4. Put both sheets into the oven for 30 min. to roast.
5. Heat broth in a large pot to boil. Add reserved pulp and seeds to broth, and reduce to simmer. Let simmer until vegetables are done, then remove pulp and seeds and discard.
6. Add roasted vegetables to broth. Use immersion blender to puree entire batch to a consistent texture so that there are no lumps or large pieces. If you want a thinner soup, add water as needed.
7. Serve immediately, and top with scant crumbled cheese and scant chopped hazelnuts to taste.

The Mystery of the Green Cucumber

Tags

cost savings, heirloom, homemade, recipes, vegetables

Poona Kheera cucumbers start out white, turn yellow, and finally brown when mature. They are edible at every stage.

For the last few years I have been growing a variety of cucumber called Poona Kheera, which is an Indian variety that looks more like an elongated potato than a cucumber. They don’t look so delicious, but they have a really crisp, refreshing flavor that is great for slicing and eating. I have been using the same seed packet since 2014, so you can imagine my surprise when this summer, some of my cucumbers popped up green.

I have no idea how this happened. I tried to do a little research on the well-regarded internet, thinking cross-pollination may be at fault, but from what I gather cucumbers will only present mutt-like fruit during the second generation of breeding, not the first. Weird. I guess it is possible a stray seed fell into my seed packet during the packing stage. Or, this plant is a natural cross that happened on the farm and made it all the way to Wisconsin just to be discovered by me! These are heirloom, open pollinated varieties after all. Truthfully, I will never know, but none the less I am taking credit as the Discoverer-on-Record. I present to you….

Green Mystery Cucumber

The fun bonus part in all of this is I now have two varieties of cucumbers to experiment with, and since my Indian variety are for fresh eating, my mystery cucumber is for…PICKLES! Which are my absolute favorite way to strip the cucumber of nutrients, pack them full of delicious salt, and top every sandwich-like food.

I tasted these very traditional-looking cucumbers, and their flavor was bland, to be nice about it. They were crispy, yes, but nothing special. This quality makes them a great candidate for a boiling water bath canner. Cucumbers did well this year, so I have a quite a few pounds of these green mysteries. I experimented with two recipes I found a recipe in the Ball Preservation Book that requires, a dill fermented pickle and one that is described as making phenomenal grilled cheese sandwiches. Umm….SOLD.

I don’t have reprinting rights, but you can look it up: Cucumber Sandwich Pickles. These are a sweet pickles, and I made 5 pints from 3 pounds of cukes. Because I have little patience for holding out on tasty things, I popped a jar the same day, and we enjoyed a delicious, if not unique, gouda and pickle grilled cheese dinner.

My fermented dills are a true experiment, in that I have never done this before. It didn’t seem too complicated. It called for something called “pickling spice,” which was $4.23 at the grocery store, but the ingredients were all spices I have in my pantry so I whipped together my own mix.

• 2 Tbsp whole mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
• 2 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 1 tsp whole dill seed
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 bay leaves, crumbled
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken
• 6 whole cloves

I combined this with fresh dill and 2 garlic cloves, and packed a jar with pickles and topped with a salt solution: 4 quarts water, 1 cup 5% vinegar, 0.75 cups iodine-free pickling salt. To keep the good stuff below the liquid level, I topped it with a brine-filled freezer bag and its now hanging out in my basement.

To be continued…

How to Manage 25 Pints of Raspberries, In Photos

Tags

fruit, garden, homemade, local foods, rabbit, recipes

I used to think April was my busiest month in gardening. Then I experienced May. Then June. And now, July. Let’s face it, this “hobby” of mine has really taken precedence over a lot of things in my life, like, umm, clean floors and bed sheets. My goal in all of this is to demonstrate by action the benefits of urban vegetable gardening, and fortunately one of those goals is not a magazine-cover-worthy kept house. One of my goals is, however, manageability of the work involved. July, and my little 10 ft x 5 ft patch of summer-bearing raspberries, threatened to bring down my noble charge. This month, I harvested 25 pints of raspberries, or 50 cups, or 12.5 quarts, or just over 3 gallons, which adds up to somewhere in the realm of 10 billion berries. Growing perennial cane berries is a great investment, especially if you want to be so overwhelmed in one short period of time, that within two weeks you can’t even look at anything berry-flavored without screaming obscenities and punching through drywall, and then you swear off that fruit for the next 11 months. Which is great, because that’s when the next crop is ready.

Fortunately, fresh-picked raspberries at the peak of ripeness are beyond amazing, and purchasing off-season raspberries after you taste these beauties will leave you disappointed and let down, so you will never do it again (in my experience). Even my rabbit won’t eat store bought raspberries anymore, but to be fair she is highly spoiled and very snooty for a prey animal. If this is something that interests you, and I do suggest it, I’ve added a new feature on this blog, Produce Primer, which will include features of various fruits and vegetables that I have grown, and the first one up is the luscious red raspberry.

If you are concerned about how to manage all those raspberries, take it from me, there are ways. Check out the photos below for some sweet red rasp-iration.

Raspberry Chip Ice Cream

Raspberry White Wine Popsicle

Raspberry Jam

Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

Fresh Raspberries and Yogurt Dip

Raspberry French Macarons

Raspberries and Cream

Raspbery Creme Brûlée

Raspberry Pecan Coffee Cake

Enjoy!

Fancy Food for the Rest of Us / Chive Blossom Vinegar

Tags

cost savings, garden, homemade, local foods, recipes, spring, vegetables

“Shitake ragout,” “huckleberry gastrique,”freso chili coulis,” “fennel-tomato confit”… these are fancy ways to describe trumped up stews and sauces. I know this, I know this a million ways, yet shitake ragout sounds delightful, whereas mushroom stew sounds like I forgot to make it to the grocery store again. I find the marketing of food astounding, and absolutely fascinating. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I understand why this is done, and if I ran a fancy locally-harvested restaurant I would make my menu descriptions sound as if you were consuming liquid diamonds. And I would charge $3,575 per ruby-crusted plate. But, I do not have a fancy restaurant and probably never will but I do know how to make some fancy-sounding sh*t.

A few weeks ago I was swimming in chives. I read somewhere once that chives repelled certain fungus that attached fruit trees, and in my nascent garden wisdom I planted twelve (12!) chive transplants. Ha! What a garden rube I was. Anyways, three years later I am a little over my head with chives come May. In the fall I may dig them up and set up a $1/plant sale with a manila envelope and an “honor system” placard. I am always googling things like “how to use a million pounds of [insert todays vegetable here]”, because as we all know a backyard garden is bank or bust. A few weeks ago, not surprisingly, it was for chives. Chive biscuits, chive egg soufflés, frozen chives, chive pesto, etc. etc. etc. all the usual suspects…and then…chive blossom vinegar. Now that is something that piqued my interest and used a part of the chive I had been using as table flowers or compost color. Chive blossom vinegar sounds like something I could pay $6.99 for at the pricey grocery store, but never would on principle. So, if you have a veritable chive forest as I do, you may want to give this a try and bring your lettuce to the next level. I have used already it to make lots of dressings for salads, otherwise known as “mesclun greens with spring pea tendril, yellow radish and chive blossom vinaigrette, $7.”

Chive Blossom Vinegar

Materials:

• Fresh cut chive blossoms, 2-4 cups
• Vinegar (5% acetic acid), about 1/2 gal or less
• Large glass jar (I used a 32 oz mason jar); cleaned, sanitized, dry

Directions:

1. Wash and rinse chive blossoms, drain. Make sure the blossoms are fresh and still fragrant. If they are sad looking, mushy or otherwise not absolutely delightful looking, throw into the compost bin. 
2. Put chive blossoms in jar. This is pretty self explanatory.
3. Fill jar with vinegar. You can go even fancier by using rice vinegar, white wine or champagne vinegar, but I get get 1 gal. of the basic stuff for $0.99, and really who will know the difference? 
4. Close jar and set in the fridge for the first 24 hours, and then you can leave on the counter (out of direct light) or in the pantry for 1-2 weeks. 
5. Open jar, drain over a colander to remove the spent blossoms, and smell the amazing shalloty goodness and take in the lavender hue. 
6. You just made something that nobody sells, but they probably should.

 

 

The Delicate and Complex Intricacies of the Dinner Salad

Tags

diet, garden, local foods, recipes, vegetables

As of today, June 17, 2015 7:10 PM CST, there is enough lettuce in the garden to feed me and CFO dinner salad for 37 meals. I have lettuce growing out of lettuce. Lettuce birthing more lettuce. Lettuce is mating with other lettuce, creating new genetic strains of lettuce, and the baby lettuce is reproducing by binary fission. As fast as I can harvest, the remaining lettuce expands and fills the empty space. Its like the vegetable garden version of the Big Bang. Or the Book of Genesis. On the 6th day: LETTUCE. 

And, it’s not just lettuce, but all of my leafy greens are really making something of themselves. We had a bit of a cold, rainy spell for the past 2 weeks. It dipped down into the 50’s and low 60’s for so long I was worried I made a rookie mistake planting out in April. Well the rains stopped and the clouds parted, and now I have Swiss chard, spinach, and beet greens taking over like they own the place. (But they don’t; that would be the lettuce.) In truth, I tripled my Swiss chard planting because it is one of my top 5 plant foods, along with eggplant, tomatoes, basil, fennel, sweet corn, summer squash, winter squash, fresh peas, pole beans, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, beets, kale, peppers, and…wait, is that more than 5? Well, maybe I have never met a vegetable I didn’t like (except for iceberg lettuce. not even on tacos.), but I do really like chard. Not only because it is beautiful and delicious, but its a cut-and-come-again kind of vegetable and will keep giving you food every. single. day. But, I digress.

Chard leaves the size of my head.

Now back to lettuce. What to do with so much lettuce? I think of myself as a vegetable maverick, a wild card, I like it all and will try anything if its edible and won’t kill me. I once make an entire stir fry with just lovage. Seriously. It was disgusting and I learned something. But my brain just can’t go beyond the simple SALAD with lettuce. Yes, you can wilt it, yes you can roll things into it, but really it all comes down to salad. In the end its all salad. Because, cooked lettuces are just not appetizing. Nor should they be. Fresh lettuce is something to savor and dream about, because it will never get better than it is in June. So, how do we make the dinner salad exciting?

There are a quadrillion salad recipes out there. Maybe even 10 times that. I know, because I have tried every single one. They all have the same formula. They all have the same formula to the point that now cook books just give you these formulas.

BAM! Makes you feel like you have solved the mystery of the sphinx! But we know the salad formula, don’t we? Its not quantum physics, its food. All you need are these five things:

1. Lettuce.

2. Other stuff.

3. Dressing.

4. Open-mindedness

5. Alcohol (in case you are too open minded).

I have found over the years that the more I try to follow any set recipe, the less successful I am. The best dinner salads are those where I collect my lettuce, look around the kitchen/pantry/garden to see what I can add, and top with the most basic dressing possible.

Take tonight for example. Start with a healthy mix of greens (which happens to be a combination of at least 6 varieties tonight). I had radishes (tail end of my month in radishes), corn, grape tomatoes, Italian farro, and garbanzo beans.

I whipped up some dressing using this recipe:

The Only Dressing You’ll Every Need To Make:

• 1 part Vegetable oil (I like the extra virgin olive variety)
• 1 part Vinegar (red wine, white wine, rice wine, balsamic, whatever)
• Squeeze of emulsifier (dijon mustard is good, you could use mayonnaise)
• Salt and pepper and any other seasonings you like (spices, herbs, tabasco, go crazy)

Mix well and done. I shake up in reused jam jars. Add or adjust any flavor components as needed and taste before you serve.

Top the salad with the dressing, and add anything else you may want. I cooked up some shrimp, and voila! Dinner is served.

I only talk about dinner salad because not only is it what we have eaten every day for dinner in June, but there is usually a point when CFO asks me “What’s for Dinner?” and the “salad” response results in a downtrodden, disappointed “oh,” to which I correctly, and justifiably respond with “Oh I am sorry, did the KING want his WOMAN SERVANT to make something ELSE FOR DINNER!?!?!?” Again, I digress.

There is a point when salad is just not exciting, so we gotta try to make it exciting. Keep it simple, keep it tasty, and order wine in bulk.

My Month in Radishes

Tags

diet, garden, heirloom, homemade, nutrition, radish, recipes, spring, vegetables, whole food

Radishes. Ahhh, the spring radishes. What a delight! One of the first vegetables in the garden, seed-to-harvest in 30 days, this makes them great to interplant with any longer-season vegetables like squash. I did that, and by the end May had radishes,

 And radishes….

I have so many radishes, that even Jessica is all radished out.

This, from an animal that literally did a backflip when I first gave her a bowl of the greens. So…time to get creative.

What does one do with so many radishes? First, don’t toss away those greens! If you are, you are missing out on a really SUPER food. Radish greens, like beet greens and turnip greens, are not only edible, but packed with vitamins and minerals. Actually, the greens have more Vitamin C than the roots. They have some kick to them and are more in the flavor category of arugula than beet greens. If you like that, use wherever you would use arugula, but if you don’t like that, use like cooked spinach or chard. Or try these:

Radish Top Soup 

Sautee one cup chopped onion in 2 Tbsp butter, add 3-4 medium peeled, diced potatoes, cook for 5 minutes, add 3-4 cups chopped radish greens, cook 1 minute, add 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes (until potato is cooked). You can add seasonings that you want, I used minced garlic, red pepper, black pepper, and salt. I also added a can of white beans for more protein. Once cooked, puree with an immersion blender. If you want a thinner soup or don’t like the consistency of a bean soup, you can leave out the white beans, and add cream to taste after blending. Great when served with bread to dip.

This soup is surprisingly tasty. CFO balked at it when I made it, but then mistakenly put the left over cold soup on his salad the next day instead of the avocado dressing I made, and said it was a fantastic salad dressing before realizing his mistake. It was both my proudest moment as a home cook, and my weirdest.

Radish Top Pesto 

Now we are talking! I love pesto. I mean, reeeaallllyy loove pesto. Its on the same level as Italian cured meats, olives and wine. The greatest hits. Pesto literally means ground or crushed, and, while traditionally refers to Genovese basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmagiano-Reggiano and olive oil, can really be made with anything. I like to swap up the vegetable (try parsley, cilantro, artichokes, anything green, anything purple!), nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios), and cheese (umm…just kidding don’t do this). I always have some form of pesto on hand in the freezer for those quick dinner nights. Pasta, pesto, boom. Its also a great way to preserve too much of a good thing.

For this pesto, I used 4 cups radish tops, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup mixed almonds and pistachio kernels, and grind in a food processor. While processing, slowly stream in extra virgin olive oil until the mixture becomes smooth. It should be thick, but still have some movement to it. Add salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, and briefly blend to mix. If the flavor is too bitter, you can add a splash of white wine vinegar or a pinch of sugar to mellow it out. Or more cheese. Can’t go wrong with more cheese. Top pasta, vegetables, pizza, spread on sandwiches, eat with a spoon. So good.

Now for those radishes. Raw radishes are divine, but you can also cook them. However, the absolute best way to eat radish roots, and this is proven by the French, is with butter and salt. I swear, you will no go back. But you might have to, because this way significantly increases your butter consumption. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Petit Radis au Beurre Sale (Breakfast Radishes with Salted Butter) 

Soften some butter, dip radishes into butter, sprinkle with sea salt. Enjoy! You will feel 85% more French after this experience.

For something more challenging:

Pickled Radishes 

I made these after a friend recommended them after I complained to her of not knowing what else to do with radishes. This recipe was simple enough: thinly slice about 2 cups of radishes and place in glass jar. I used a mandolin and nearly lost a finger, but I got very thin radishes. I recommend this method but strongly discourage texting and slicing. Mix 3/4 c white wine vinegar, 3/4 c water, 2 Tbsp salt, and 3 Tbsp honey, bring to a boil on the stove to dissolve the salt and sugar. Pour over radishes. Loosely top, let cool about 1 hour, then place in fridge. Full pickling will take about 1 day, and these babies should always be stored in the fridge, and eaten within a week. No one wants botulism.

Keep in mind when you open the jar, it will be pungent. I think these taste phenomenal, but unfortunately, CFO does not. I did learn through this radish ordeal that he hates anything pickled that is not a cucumber. So, not only do I have a bucketful of fresh radishes to eat, I also have a pint of pickled radishes.

Tonight, I will be trying out some roasted radishes, which will go along with salad as we enter the Month of Lettuces.

Happy fresh eating!

There are Healthy Eating Habits, and then there is Me, When No One is Watching

Tags

fruit, homemade, local foods, nutrition, recipes

This time of year is tough on the diet. I like to eat seasonally, but there is not much seasonality between February and April. Don’t get me wrong, winter is tough but I made a lot of great meals with inexpensive root vegetables and grains this year. I swear there are more ways to use a rutabaga than you think. But come February, it is slim pickings. For the last few months I have been doing a bang up job clearing out the freezer and pantry making breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, but this past month has required more pricey grocery shopping trips. This week, CFO is away on business, leaving me alone to make my own coffee in the morning (which is the WORST), and also making dinner for one (not as terrible as the coffee thing). I had this really grand idea of eating takeout every night because I never eat out by myself or get takeout because I am sodamnthrifty, but the idea sounded fascinating. I had it all planned out with specific restaurants and everything. Then of course, I realized that to do such plan would require me to drive to said restaurants to pick up food, and, well, a greater thrill took over. The thrill of the yard, followed by the thrill of the Netflix. I decided to scour the freezer for any remaining foods, so I could stay cozy at home.

As luck would have it, I found this freezer bag full of red gems.

 This is the last of the summer raspberries, frozen at their peak. And let me tell you, they are like some kind of ambrosia. I think they could impart immortality. The smell alone evokes that summery, happy, warm feeling and brings you right back to July. Ooooooo so good. This is divine. This is my dinner.

The nice part about being an adult is I can make really, really good eating decisions. Here is my favorite recipe for all the fruits, and it is enjoyable for breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, desserts, and fourth meals: Perfect Fruit Crisp.

Step 1: Gather your ingredients

Flour, brown sugar, lemon, spices, butter, oats, nuts, fruit, corn starch, a little salt) and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Step 2: Mix topping

For a two-person one-person serving, I usually do ¼ c flour, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 3 tbsp chopped nuts (I had slivered almonds on hand, no chopping needed!), a hearty dose of cinnamon (for fall fruits, nutmeg as well), a pinch of salt and mix well.

Melt about 3 Tbsp butter (not margarine, please!), and mix into the flour mix. A lot of crisps require you to “cut in” cold butter, but that is so much more work than I am willing to do.

 Once the butter is mixed, at it looks like soggy batter, stir in about ¼ to ½ cup of rolled oats. This is the key, to mix after the butter. The oats will clump up the whole mixture and you will get that crumbly, expected crisp topping. When I make this for CFO, I like to double the topping for him. For me, I like to double the fruit.

Step 3: Prep the fruit

You can use any fruit that bakes well. I have done this with apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, blackberries, and any combination, but tonight, it’s all about the raspberries. I recommend about 1 cup of fruit per serving. For large fruits that require cutting, I recommend just chop and mix. I don’t bother with peeling if I don’t have to (extra fiber anyone?), but DO core and seed pomme fruits (apples and pears) and pit fruits (plums and peaches). 

You will need the juice of half of one lemon per serving, add about ½ tsp corn starch if using fresh fruit, 1 tsp corn starch if frozen, and if you want a little more sweetness, you can add 1 tsp sugar. That is optional and I won’t need it with these little ladies. Dissolve the cornstarch, and mix the berries with the lemon mixture.

Step 4: Assemble

Pour the berries into ramekins and top with oat crisp. You can also use a larger 8×8 baking dish, if you double or triple the recipe.

Step 5: Bake

Put into 425°F oven, and bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on if fresh fruit (less time) or frozen (more time).

Step 6: Enjoy

Ahhhh heavenly! One for dinner, and one for dessert. Topped with a scoop of ice cream or a hearty dollop of fresh whipped cream, this becomes a complete meal, nutritionally, and also vegetarian-friendly: fruit, nuts, oats, dairy, grain. All it is missing is the wine. Luckily, I have that in spades. Bon santé!

This is the look I get when I eat raspberries in front of her.

PERFECT FRUIT CRISP

Serves 2 (or 1, if you can get it alone)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fruit, fresh or frozen
• juice of 1 lemon
• ½ tsp cornstarch (1 tsp if using frozen fruit)
• 1 tsp sugar, optional
• ¼ c flour
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp chopped nuts
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• ¼ c rolled oats

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F
2. Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, salt and nuts in a small bowl. Add melted butter and mix until mixture is wet. Add oats until clumps form and it is incorporated. If needed, add more oats. Set aside.
3. Dissolve corn starch into lemon juice, add sugar if desired. Mix lemon juice into fruit to coat.
4. Divide fruit into 2 ramekins or individual baking dishes.
5. Set remekins on tray if desired, bake for 25 minutes (fresh fruit) to 35 minutes (frozen fruit).
6. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut, Sometimes You Feel Like Nut Butter

Tags

cost savings, homemade, nutrition

Last spring I was in the fortuitous position of having a completely available ready-to-plant 4 x 4 foot raised garden box in the front yard. CFO removed a rotted tree stump that had been cut down year’s prior. The box was supposed to be decorative. We had it, along with two other tree boxes and a retaining wall, rebuilt with stamped concrete retaining wall blocks the previous fall. But let’s just stop pretending: the most “decorative” I get with landscaping is buying daffodil bulbs. Those bulbs are still in the garage in a paper sack two years later (but I swear this spring is the season!).

So, of course I knew that I would be planting something edible and hopefully delicious. For the longest time I planned on planting an American hazelnut tree. I was so on-board with this, I imagined hazelnut tortes and hazelnut-cherry crisps and hazelnut butter and the most amazing hazelnut cake that was served to CFO and I for breakfast in Italy on our honeymoon. Breakfast cake is the most underappreciated and underutilized kind of breakfast. It should be a Sunday requirement.

Well, long story short, my hazelnut tree never transpired after a very terse but eye-opening comment from CFO: “what about the squirrel?” Crushing, deflating, devastating realization…what ABOUT the squirrel? The squirrel, our only squirrel, would find my hazelnut tree and devour every hazelnut he can stuff into his cheeks, invite friends over for a summer barbeque, meet a lady squirrel from across the street, fall in love, get married, move in across from the hazelnut tree, start a family, the kids grow up and head to squirrel college to learn to be hazelnut collectors, and the cycle would continue. The life of my hazelnut tree was already over before it began. I planted 16 asparagus crowns instead and now my hazelnuts are exclusively purchased.

On the subject of nuts, CFO is somewhat of a nut enthusiast. In fact, he eats almonds daily. He claims it’s for health benefits, in the same way I make the claim for drinking wine. I think we both have a point. I started making almond butter on a whim because CFO loves it on toast and it looked easy. As it turns out, it is. I have not gone back to buying conventional almond butter since, and CFO is one happy breakfaster in the mornings. One of the benefits of making your own is that you don’t have to break two wooden spoons trying to stir the oil back into the solids, because you put it straight away into the fridge to keep it from separating.

Thinking back to my hazelnut obsession, I thought, what about hazelnut butter? I mean, if Nutella has taught us anything, it’s that hazelnuts SHOULD be in butter form. Am I right?, or am I right? The funny thing is, you can’t exactly buy a jar of hazelnut butter off the grocery store shelf. At least, not the kind of hazelnut butter that I choose to bring home to the family. Nutella is the kind of nut butter spread that you can have a wild night out on the town and make exciting mistakes with, but its full of hydrogenated oil and added sugar and there just isn’t a future there. I need a nut butter that is pure: no added oils or sugars or salt, as much as possible. That’s the kind of nut butter you can introduce to the parents, and form a lasting stable relationship. The best price for unadulterated hazelnut butter I could find on amazon.com was $13.99 for a 16 oz. jar, plus shipping. At that price, I think I will stick to danger and questionable decision-making of processed spreads. Fortunately, my local food Paradise (aka massive employee-owned grocery store), has hazelnuts for $3.79 for 8 oz, or $7.58 per 16 oz. At that price, I think we have a winner.

For this recipe, you must must must have a large food processor. A blender will not work, and even with your food processor the motor will be working hard.

Dump the 16 oz of nuts into the bowl, fitted with a blade attachment. I happen to like the taste of raw nuts, but feel free to toast the nuts first in dry frying pan on the stovetop on low-medium heat or in the oven at 350°F for 10 minutes until browed. I recommend this step if you want to peel the nuts first (completely optional).

Begin by running the motor to grind the nuts into a fine powder.

Nope, don’t stop there.

Continue to grind until the nuts begin to clump. At this point we are almost 20 minutes in. But we are not done.

When the motor starts to whine (literally, mine whines), stop and break up the clumps. Keep going!

Now the bowl is really heating up. I mean it. It will start to feel hot to touch. Remove the vent and let some heat escape, but we aren’t done yet.

Now we are 40 minutes into the process. As you can see, the paste is showing some oil. Nut butter is a kind of colloidal suspension, and what we are going for is for the solid nut meat to be suspended in the nut oil. So with that in mind, keep that motor moving!

Hey look at that! Are we done? Nooo! Keep going, pay attention to the anger and heat from your food processor and give it a break when it needs it.

Finally, after about an hour, you will see a glossy, light concoction. Give it a taste, you should detect almost no gritty texture, but a smooth, buttery, distinctively hazelnutty flavor.

A-maz-ing and no hazelnut tree required! Just pour into a 16 oz glass jar, cap, and place into the fridge. Hazelnuts are mostly monounsaturated fats and so the butter will not solidify in the fridge like peanut butter and cashew butter, and will be immensely spreadable and it will not separate as long as you keep it in the cold.

For those of you with less exotic taste buds, almond butter (or peanut or any nut butter) is made in the same manner with significant cost savings. Non-oil or sugar-added almond butter can be purchased from the local Paradise for $10.29 for 16 oz. and the same amount of raw almonds can be purchased for $5.89. I think you get my point.

There is nothing about nut butter that interests me.

NUT BUTTER

Ingredients:

• 16 oz nuts of choice

Directions:

1. Put nuts into blade-fitted food processor
2. Process to fine grind
3. Keep processing, stopping to scrape bowl when nut paste clumps, continuing for 45- 60 minutes until oil surfaces and mixture resembles peanut butter consistency
4. Pour or scrape into glass jar, keep in refrigerator

You Stock Questions? I Stock Answers.

Tags

cost savings, nutrition, recipes, vegetables, winter

It is mid-January, and this is a garden blog. Lately I have been asking myself, who starts a garden blog in January!? When the earth surrounding you looks like the dark days of Narnia, there is not a whole lot to sow and grow. What is even in season in January, you ask? If you’re lucky enough to have a root cellar, maybe you have storage potatoes, turnips and rutabagas ready for cooking, or if you left a few carrots in the garden and you’re happy digging up the frozen tundra, I guess that’s seasonal. Up north, our much more tropical distant states graciously send oranges, pineapple and pomegranates to the arctic markets, but really, the only produce that is “in season” in southeast Wisconsin are what was frozen at the end of last summer. And at this point, all that’s left in my freezer is raspberries, blackberries, peas and a vast assortment of herbs. So what is a seasonal-minded home cook to do come January? First off, she is to calm down and buy some damn groceries. Second, she is to take advantage of the cold and make some rich, warm, silky chicken/turkey/beef/any-tasty-meat soup stock to fill with beans, grains, and root vegetables from the pantry. January is, after all, soup season. Now, I am not at food-hoarder level, but I am pretty much a certifiable food extreme cheapskate. While I do not (yet) collect scarps left on diner’s plates at restaurants, the more food I am not throwing away, the less I am paying at the grocery store to replace it. Of course, part of this is that I despise food waste. Food waste is kind of like a slap in the face of everyone that has ever gone a day without food. Additionally, most of our processed foods have chemical preservatives so they don’t readily break down in our landfills. Financially, food waste is a bummer. Ecologically, food waste is a super bummer. Vegetable gardening has not only improved the quality of my dinner table deliverables, but has expanded my view on food and food use. What does any of this have to do with soup? I give you The Ultimate Cheapskate (and delicious!) Chicken Stock. This is so simple and can cost almost no moolah if you make a few adjustments to your routine food preparation STEP 1: Gather your Equipment That’s it. Right there. A large pot. If you have a stockpot, even better. But I don’t and I make it work, albeit with some manhandling. STEP 2: Collect your Ingredients What is that bag of green stuff? That is two weeks worth of vegetable scraps that would otherwise be destined for the trash bin. This is KEY #1 to The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock. During the summer, most of my vegetable scraps go into Jessica’s dinner bowl or the compost bin, but by the winter, the compost is full and very slowly breaking down so I can’t dump the scraps as often as I need, so I simply keep a bag in the freezer and throw in anything that I think would flavor a stock. I usually stick to aromatics in the onion family, fresh herbs, dark greens, and roots like carrots, parsnips, turnips, etc. I avoid potatoes, which will add too much starch, and anything too flavorful like tomatoes, which can overpower the flavor. But, its really chef’s choice and every stock batch I make has a different profile. Its part of the fun! Let’s see, in the mystery freezer bag I have some leeks, ginger peel, green onion, fennel stalk, Swiss chard stems, and spinach. These are the parts that I didn’t use for fresh cooking, or got a little old or wilted in the fridge. Just pop them into the freezer bag. Nothing to waste. This might add 30 seconds on to each meal you prepare. Assuming you prepare on average 1 meal a day with fresh produce, over the course of a year that is 3 hours additional work. The pot I use is a 6-quart capacity. For that size, I will throw in about 3-4 handfuls, give or take, of veggies from the bag. Now, pay attention! These measurements are crucial and precision is key to successful stock. I could only use my mystery bag to flavor the stock, but there are some staples that I always have on hand and I like to throw into the pot. Carrot, celery and garlic make great stock and add some goodness as well. I chop one carrot, one rib of celery, and as much garlic as I want. You will see I don’t bother peeling the carrot. It’s all good stuff, just wash or scrub any scary dirt you see. When you peel carrots for food preparation, in fact, you can save the peels and throw them into the mystery freezer bag. No waste! For the garlic, peel and smash the cloves. I don’t bother chopping. The flavor will release in the pot. Add it all to the pot. Already I am getting hungry. If I were making vegetable stock, I would add way more vegetables. But I am making The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock. Now I will tell you about KEY #2: the chicken. If that looks like a frozen chicken carcass, you would be correct! Just like my waste vegetables, I save the shells of the animals I consume. My freezer looks like it belongs at a Hannibal Lector dinner party. I don’t compost meat because 1) it attracts raccoons and coyotes, and 2) its illegal in my city. So what we don’t eat, I freeze. This primarily consists of bones and organ meats. For example, Thanksgiving turkeys, rotisserie chickens, ham bones, beef bones, and bones of any non-human food animal (my freezer would not actually be useful at a Hannibal Lector dinner party). This also may add an additional 30 seconds to your meal cleanup. On average I collect the bones of my enemies…er…dinner once a month. That is 6 minutes over a year. Wow. The time commitment is really adding up. STEP #4: Fill the Pot with Water STEP #5: Bring to Boil, Cover, Simmer Now just fill that bad boy up with water, feel free to grind in some pepper, or other dried herbs you wish, bring to boiling, pop on a lid and set to low and simmer simmer simmer as long as you want. I recommend at least 6 hours for the flavoring components to thaw and for the good stuff to be pulled into the water. If you are fortunate enough to be at home during the day, or work at home, like me, you can start this in the morning, forget about it entirely, and emerge from work 10 hours later and the entire house smells like chicken noodle soup. My mouth is watering. For the majority of you who may have to leave your house everyday, this might be a weekend project, or you can do everything in a slow cooker on low. The total prep to get the pot going takes about 10 minutes. 10 minutes!!! I make stock about once a month in the winter, which where I live is 6 months, so that’s a total of 1 hour over a year’s time. Okay so I have a pot full of stock, chicken and vegetables, now what? Now, I must be honest. This next part is the most labor intensive of the entire process. You have a few options here to strain the solids from the liquid. My preferred method is to use a large measuring bowl and cheesecloth. STEP #6: Strain Stock I use a 12-cup measuring bowl with a pour spout, and cheesecloth that is approximately $1.50 for two yards at the grocery store and it lasts me the entire year. Just spread a cut piece of cheesecloth over the bowl, and verrrrryyy sllloowwwly pour the finished stock over the cheesecloth. If you pour too fast, the cheesecloth will collapse and won’t strain well. Next, just gather the edges of the cheesecloth to bundle the solids and remove. You can use a strainer to remove any large pieces that were missed. I mean look at that color! You will notice that the Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock is deeper in color and more opaque than it’s commercially prepared fancy cousins. That is due to the inconsistency and variety of flavoring components. Also, did I mention that this version is completely fat-free? No? That’s because it is not. It is not even close to being fat-free, which is why you will see it is so. damn. tasty. The chicken fat, proteins collagen and gelatin, and bone minerals all melt into the liquid with the leached vitamins and minerals from the vegetables. Smooth. Silky. Flavorful. Full of goodness. You will see. STEP #7: Cool Stock Once the liquid is separated, it will be hot. You can let it rest at room temperature for an hour (at most two), and then just cover with plastic wrap, make a few slits to vent, and pop into your fridge. Your best bet is to cool it in a place with lots of air circulation. My fridge is perpetually empty because we eat everything that’s in there, so I always have room. You want to bring the temperature down to at least 100°F, or warm to touch, but not hot. The bowl should be cool. While it’s chilling out, take some time to prepare your freezer bags. This is KEY #3: Freeze the Stock. I do this with a bottle of wine. That’s not a requirement, per se, but…isn’t it? I use 1-quart freezer bags because they can easily hold 2 cups of liquid. For 12 cups of stock, that would be 6 bags. I label the bags with the name of the innards “chix stock,” the amount “2 c.,” and date it was made. This allows me to keep a first-in, first-out inventory in the freezer. But why can’t I just keep it all in the fridge? Because this is pure stuff and even with all that boiling, bacteria, yeast and mold that live in your kitchen (yes, they do) have instantly taken up residence in the stock. See, there are many benefits that preservatives provide. Increased shelf life is assuredly one of them. I have found that the stock stored in the fridge will stay fresh tasting for about 4-5 days at best. It could go longer, but you want to ensure you are re-cooking it (boiling) with all subsequent use. If you are planning to use it in the next few days, by all means don’t bother freezing. In fact, I usually keep 2 cups in the fridge to get me through the next few days. STEP #8: Freeze Stock Take your cooled stock out of the fridge. You may see a layer of oil collected at the top. If you cooled it long enough, you may see a hard layer solidify. You can scrape that of (if hardened) to remove some of the fat, or use a fat separating measuring cup. This style of measuring cup works because it is plugged at the spout and the spout feeds from the bottom of the cup. Pour 2 cups of stock into the measuring cup with the spout plugged, and then pour it off slowly into the bag (with the spout unplugged of course), stopping when the oil layer reaches the base of the spout. Carefully seal up the bags, pushing out as much air as you can without spilling. You will notice that if you lay the bags flat, they self-level as all liquids do. I like to lay the bags flat on a large tray, and pop the tray right into the freezer and let freeze overnight. This makes flat, easy to store, 2-cup chicken stock blocks. Now, you don’t have to use the freezer-bag method. Any freezer container would work. I highly recommend adapting to what best suits you and your stock usage requirements. So the last step takes the most time commitment. I would say, it’s a good 30-minute active process to prep the bags, pour and freeze. That amounts to an additional 3 hours annually, keeping with my 6-month stock-making schedule. So, how much time are we talking? Well let’s do the math:

• 3 hours to collect vegetable scraps
• 6 minutes to save meat and poultry bones
• 1 hour to prepare the stock
• 3 hours to freeze the stock

This brings us to a grand total time commitment of 7 hours and 6 minutes. That’s quite a lot, if it were in one day. But this is over the course of ONE YEAR. One year, friends. That sounds all well and good, but how much is this going to cost me? Oh I am sooo glad you asked! CFO talks about time-equity a lot and it usually goes something like, “blah blah blah, time, blah, blah, blah, money, blah blah blah, equity” and ends with him telling me that we cannot get a chicken coop. I think the point he is trying to make is that before I decide to take on a major project, I should assess the real value of the work involved. So here is my financial assessment of home stock making, per 12 cups (96 oz):

• Scrap Vegetable cost: $0      Saved from the trash bin
• Chicken bones: $0      Saved from the trash bin
• 1 Carrot, 1 celery, 5 garlic: $0.12      Estimate based on full purchase price
• Freezer bags: $0.67      Six bags at $0.11
• Water and electricity: $1.00      I completely made this up
• Gadgets and utensils: $0      Assumed these are owned (pot, tray, bowl, etc)
• Labor: $0      I determined that labor is negligible, because it actually takes me longer to grocery shop for said chicken stock.

TOTAL COST:   $1.79 Now compare this to commercially prepared chicken stock. I used Target.com to estimate the purchase price of two popular brands:

• Kitchen Basics Unsalted            $2.54 for 32 oz.
• Swanson Stock Unsalted            $2.69 for 26 oz.

To purchase 96 oz, it would take 3 containers of Kitchen Basics ($7.62) and 4 containers of Swanson’s ($10.76). My homemade version is 20-25% of the cost!! Additionally, using the estimate of 6 lots of homemade stock a year, that is an overall savings of $35.00-$54.00 annually. I like that, and at least now I can provide numbers to CFO when he asks why I have to fill our freezer with bagged bird carcasses. I don’t use that much chicken stock so this all seems pointless. Hey, to each his own. I actually use stock all the time. The possibilities are endless:

• Base for soups, stews, chilis as expected, either full strength or diluted to make broth
• Mix with cornstarch to thicken sauces with more flavor
• Deglaze a pan
• Replaces water when cooking grains (rice, bulghur, faro, quinoa, etc.)
• Dilute with water and use to steam vegetables
• Reheat until hot, drink during a cold/flu for vitamin-packed punch
• Poach fish and shellfish
• Use to make gravy and sauces for meat
• The best damn risotto you ever had

I use stock to replace water in most savory applications. Try it out, and you too will be hooked.

No Jessica! I need the carrot for the chicken stock!

RECIPE: The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious) Chicken Stock Makes 12 cups Total active time: 40 minutes Total time: 7-10 hours Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups mixed vegetable scraps, roughly chopped (onions, leeks, dark leafy greens, etc)
• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 1 celery rib, roughly chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, smashed
• Bones and cartilage from 1 whole chicken
• 13 cups water
• 1 tsp ground pepper (optional)

Directions Add all ingredients to pot, cook on med-high to bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 6 hours. Remove from heat and strain to remove solids. Cool to below 100°F in refrigerator. Pour stock into freezer containers of choice and freeze until solid. Storage Frozen stock will taste best if used within 6 months, but can be stored frozen indefinitely. For stock stored in the refrigerator, use within 5 days.