Wed 21 Jul 2010

Making the summer eats last

Posted by Chad under Make the Most Of
No Comments

Pickles

Pickles - Photo:Chad

I have never made so many different things in the kitchen at one time, with no intentions of eating them immediately, as I did Saturday after the farmer’s market.  I had two and a half hours from when I got home till I had to be at work.  Needless to say, the race was on.

I started by making pesto using the remaining basil from our patio garden and the bunch I bought from the Wednesday farmer’s market.  The recipe I found was from Cook’s Illustrated (July, 1996) and featured both toasted pine nuts and roasted garlic.  I used the soft fresh garlic from Sutter Ridge farm, and the smell that floated through the house as the garlic caramelized in its skin was amazing.  I also used some of the Romano from Farmer John’s, which added a little more bite than the recommended parmesan usually does. The entire process took about 30 minutes and resulted in a half dozen small containers that were immediately placed into the freezer for future use.

Next I prepped my new jar for my stab at Alton Brown’s pickles, sterilizing it and letting it cool.  Meanwhile, I cleaned the cukes and prepared the seasoning.  When the jar was cooled, I started layering in the cucumbers and, to my dismay, found that the three pounds filled it to the brim!  I should have gone with the two gallon jar, but it was too late and anticipation had gotten too high.  I followed the rest of the recipe, adding the brining solution and covered the surface with a ziplock (filled with more solution) to keep the cucumbers submerged.  Lacking a cool place to store the pickles, I resorted to a small cooler, with a couple ice packs in it to keep the temperature down.  Now the waiting game begins… 3 days before I move on to the next step!

The last thing I wanted to start before heading to work was a batch of dried apricots.  I love the sweet chewy ones that you can get at the store and thought I’d take a stab at my own.  I cut the apricots that I had gotten from Door County Fruit Market in half, removing the tiny pit, dipped them in a lemon water solution to help prevent browning and left for work.

Needless to say I had a few dishes to do when I got home.  I’ll let you know how everything turned out in a future post.

 

Wed 21 Jul 2010

Saturday DCFM – Peppers and pickles plans

Posted by Chad under Farmer's Markets
No Comments

Sweet Peppers

Sweet Peppers - Photo:Chad

I went to the Dane County Farmer’s Market this week, excited to get home and start the pickles I had been planning on doing since Wednesday.  I knew it would be just me this week, and that our garden was starting to produce some good-looking produce, so I kept it rather light.  I was excited to see the peppers and, knowing mine wouldn’t be ready for a few more weeks, decided to give them a try.  It was also cool to see the Door County cherries and apricots in the stands.  I thought I would continue the weeks intentions of “making the most of” summers bounty, by drying them for easy snacking.

Saturday afternoon was to be a whirlwind of prepping and preserving, so I took a quick jaunt down State St. for Maxwell St. days, and called it a day.

Here’s what I ended up with.

In the next post I’ll tell you about the pickling process and how that went.

 

Thu 15 Jul 2010

Countertop pickles and the Wed. Farmer’s Market

Posted by Chad under Farmer's Markets, Make the Most Of
[2] Comments

Pickling Cukes

Pickling Cukes - Photo:Chad

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been watching a lot of Good Eats.  A recent episode on traditional dill pickles really piqued my interest, as I fondly remember my grandma’s pickles, which were always the high heat, jarred with vinegar kind.  Well in his method, Brown uses fermentation and an open air ceramic vessel to make some garlicky, kosher dills.  Looking at the cucumbers starting to take shape in our garden gives me hope, but in that far off way (at least a few months).

That’s why when I saw pickles by the bucket next to oversized bunches of dill at the Nesity Garden stand at the Wednesday Dane Co. Farmer’s Market, I started getting excited.  I picked up the ingredients and a few other goodies to make it through the week including some grillable meats from Pecatonica Valley and rushed home.  In the end my list was short this week:

  • Basil – Deerfield Family Farm
  • Cukes and Dill – Nesity Garden
  • Sweet Corn – Heck’s Market
  • Shallots. Onions. Carrots. – Va Family Garden
  • Beef, Chicken, and Pork – Pecatonica Valley Farm

When I got home, I immediately checked out Amazon.com and after searching extensively for a ceramic crock, settled on a nice glass one.  It’ll be here Friday, and pickling should start Sat., after the Farmer’s Market.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

Thu 15 Jul 2010

A week of simple(ish) meat dishes

Posted by Chad under Local Seasonal Meals
1 Comment

Buffalo Wings

Buffalo Wings - Photo:Lindsay

The busy summer days have, unfortunately, resulted in some very simple dishes this past week.  With all the great seasonal ingredients, you really want to make something unique and different but between boating, baseball games, and making any excuse possible to enjoy the few non-rainy days, simplicity has been high on my list.

We started the week out with some baked hot Buffalo wings ala Good Eats with Alton Brown.  I’ve been catching up with some old episodes of, what is in my opinion, the best food geek show out there.  After watching his tribute to the Buffalo Wing, I thought about the wings I had picked up from Jordandal Farms, at the Westside Community Market, a few weeks back.  Although, like most Good Eats recipes, there were a few more steps then I would have expected, the baked wings came out crispy and flavorful.  With a side salad of fresh greens topped with a light vinaigrette to balance out the high calorie wings, this made for one heck of a meal.

Beef and Broccoli

Beef and Broccoli - Photo:Lindsay

After a Wednesday market teaming with broccoli, I decided to make the most of the sirloin tip chunks that had been in the freezer for a few weeks.  A quick search on Epicurious’ iPhone app (will launch iTunes) revealed a recipe for Quick Beef and Broccoli.  Sounded like a great meal for after our evening workout.  So, with just the most elemental of prep (cleaning the broccoli and trimming it right into a storage container when I got home from the market) we had a meal in as long as it took to boil some rice.  While I thought it was OK, Lindsay was less than impressed, and wished it had some more flavor.  I guess with convenience you sometimes get the occasional bland dish.

BBQ Onion Burger

BBQ Onion Burger - Photo:Lindsay

Deciding I wouldn’t let another beef dish go down this grey path, I decided to go all out with a BBQ burger on Friday.  With advance apologies to the folks at Fountain Prairie farms, who recommend only using a little salt and pepper on their burgers, I went a bit more extreme.

To start off, I mixed the meat with chopped bacon and roasted garlic chips. Some reserved bacon grease and a Tbsp of butter was used to slow caramelize a coarsely sliced onion.  After 30 minutes of cooking on low, when the onions were a translucent light brown, I mixed in what might easily be the quickest and simplest homemade BBQ sauce (recipe @ allrecipes.com).  The burger was topped with a slice of everyday cheddar from Bleu Mont Dairy, a heaping helping of the onion mixture and a few pickles.  To “healthy” this meal up we served with it Green Beans from Xay Lo Garden and seasoned shredded turnips. Needless to say flavor was not an issue here, but an outside table setting made it a lot easier to clean up the inevitable mess.  It was a happy and very satisfying mess.

 

Wed 7 Jul 2010

Out with the Strawberries – In with the Raspberries

Posted by Chad under Farmer's Markets
No Comments

Cartons of Raspberries

Raspberries - Photo:Chad

On Farmer’s Market mornings, the last thing I want is to wake up to a heavy rainstorm and, in such situations, putting it off until a nicer day or maybe just heading over to the grocery store would seem like a more sensible thing to do.  My experience over the last few months, from buying most of my groceries from market vendors, has changed my outlook considerably.

I know that many of the farmers and merchants drive long distances to bring their produce and other goodies to all of us Madison foodies and, if they can be there rain or shine, so can I.

Even though the weather report called for rain all day, I was able to leave my umbrella in the car, and get my shopping at the Wednesday Hilldale Farmer’s Market without even a touch of rain.

The vendors I talked to were upbeat, and said that they were able to sit out most of the storm, and had to move very little of their product out of the rain (which could be considered a pre-wash).  Some enterprising vendors made the best of the slightly lower than average turnout by having sales. The owner of Earthly Edibles was offering a couple bucks off her shitake mushrooms, so I picked up a ¼ lb. of mushrooms and will dry whatever I don’t use this week.  I wasn’t even planning on getting any mushrooms, but who can turn down a sale?

As for what was actually there this week, I saw broccoli and cauliflower, squashes and zucchinis of all sizes, onions, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, some salad greens, lots of beans, and new (for me at least) raspberries.

Green and Wax Beans

Beans - Photo:Chad

Strawberry season is so short, painfully so, that having raspberries follow up right away softens the blow somewhat.  I’m not sure if the berries I picked up will be made into a recipe or just eaten raw.

Here’s what I ended up with:

  • Raspberries from Farmer Bob’s Produce
  • Bacon from Bruman’s Natural Meats
  • Broccoli from Nehmer’s Produce
  • Potatoes and Zucchini from Saomas Garden
  • Shitakes from Earthly Edibles
  • Green Beans from Xay Lo Garden
  • Radishes from Xong Garden

I also picked up a bottle of dressing from Sasha’s.  These locally crafted “sweet” dressings are great for those days you don’t want to whip up a vinaigrette.  Not only are they available at the Hilldale market, but also at Hy-Vee or through their website.  Lindsay and I highly recommend the Sweet & Savory.

 

Sat 12 Jun 2010

The Garden Part 2

Posted by Lindsay under Growing in the Garden
No Comments

Tomato Flowers

Tomato Flowers Photo:Lindsay

After the farmer’s market we went out to the garden to check on it.  Everything is starting to jump up!  Our Cherry tomato has buds on it!  The carrots are sprouting, the leeks are growing; overall, everything looks great.

Eggplant Pests

Eggplant Pests Photo:Lindsay

Something seems to be eating our eggplant leaves, though, and upon some initial google searching, I think our culprit might be flea beetles.  They apparently love eggplant.  It also looks like there’s not many organic methods that will get rid of them right away.  In our case, our plants are so young that we need to take care of these bugs soon otherwise our plants might suffer.   None of the other plants seem to be affected by them yet, but I also don’t want them to spread to any of the other veggies.

First Harvest

First Harvest Photo:Lindsay

We were lucky enough to take home our first bounty from the garden!  We had to thin out a little onion since it was growing too closely to some of the others, so we’re going to add it to the green onions we got at the farmer’s market earlier today.  I’m so proud to be such a great farmer.

Pretty soon the lettuce will be ready to start eating, so we probably won’t be picking up as much at the farmer’s market in the next few weeks.

 

Sat 12 Jun 2010

West Side Community Market – June 12

Posted by Lindsay under Farmer's Markets
1 Comment

Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scapes Photo:Lindsay

Westside Community Market.  Today we went to the west side community market since we were on a bit of a time crunch.  Chad and I got up later (since we got home a little late last night) and were out there around 10:30am.  A lot of the vendors were starting to pack up, but we were able to snag the following:

We plan on making some pizza this week along with a latin dish with the beef.  We’ll also give the chicken wings a try!

 

Fri 11 Jun 2010

A few local seasonal meals – June 11

Posted by Chad under Local Seasonal Meals
No Comments

Asparagus and Beet Panzanella

Asparagus and Beet Panzanella Photo:Chad

As we continue to develop this blog, we’re trying to figure out the best way to communicate our story and our project while also being able to balance the amount of time needed to make all of the updates and posts.  As such, I’m going to try to limit the number of individual meal and recipe posts in favor of more unified ‘what we made this week’ type posts.  Additionally, I’ll be directing you to the blog or site where we got a recipe, unless it’s a family recipe, or something not available elsewhere online.

-

Now onto this weeks post.  I finished off the end of a travel week for Lindsay with a modification of a recipe for panzanella I had seen on In Jennie’s Kitchen the same day I read about the rhubarb and strawberry jam.

Her recommendation for making a “bread salad” intrigued me.  The skeptic in me said, this is just a salad with homemade croutons, and warm asparagus.  This is both somewhat true and completely false.

Yes, if you were to make this same salad in a somewhat different order the croutons would stay mostly crisp, and the addition of the warm asparagus would just be a pleasant, if somewhat different, take.  However, tossing the crisp bread cubes with the dressing and other ingredients, and then letting the bread soak up some of the flavor makes this dish both comfortable and unique.

I added roasted beets and raw beet greens to mine and served it with a baked piece of salmon from the local fishmonger that I had marinated in a garlic and dill paste.

The meal was perfect in its complexity of both texture and taste, with the sweet salmon balanced with the fragrant dill and garlic.  While maybe better suited to a meal of it’s own, the salad was tasty and unique.  The beets and greens adding that unique flavor that I can only assume people who really love them understand.  I can’t say that I disliked my addition of the beets, but next time will try it as Jennie intended.

Cayenne and Garlic Linguini with Spicy Cilantro Pesto

Cayenne and Garlic Linguini with Spicy Cilantro Pesto Photo:Lindsay

On Friday we wanted to see what a “processed” meal from the Farmer’s market might look like.  The convenience items you can get at the farmer’s market have very little in common with those mass-produced, artificial ingredient filled items that the modern grocery store is full of.  Obviously, simplicity is something we need in our lives, and having a few ingredients in your kitchen that can be thrown together to make a full meal is both satisfying and comforting.  Knowing that these ingredients are made locally and from local ingredients, and also contributing to the local economy all make the meal even more enjoyable.

We used a package of RP’s Cayenne and Garlic linguini and after preparing it as directed (4 min.), tossed it with some thawed Spicy Cilantro pesto from Renaissance Farm, a handful of halved cherry tomatoes from Don’s Produce and a small handful each of Butler Farm’s Feta and shredded parmesan.  While boiling the pasta I threw a couple slices of the garlic bread in the toasted oven and whipped up a quick farmer’s market salad.  In less than 15 minutes we had a deliciously spicy pasta dinner made from local ingredients and products.  This is what eating local is all about.

 

Thu 10 Jun 2010

Beets, beans, and a TON of strawberries

Posted by Chad under Farmer's Markets
No Comments

Snap Peas

Snap Peas Photo:Chad

The dramatic changes I saw at Wednesday’s Dane County farmer’s market really demonstrated how rapidly the food season changes around here.  Where only a few weeks ago spinach, greens, and asparagus were covering most of the tables, this week it was all about the strawberries and snap peas.

Of course, you could still find a vendor selling greens, asparagus, and spinach – you just had to really look.  Which was exactly what I did.  You see, I was on a mission to find and preserve some asparagus, since the season is coming to an end.

I found the process for raw pack canning this low-acid vegetable in the Bell Blue Book.  I’ve learned that because of its low acidity, it needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 240 degrees, which a traditional boil cannot accomplish.  This means I get to play with a borrowed pressure cooker.

As for other things market related, I saw my first beets of the season, and seeing as I’ve always disliked them, I forced myself to buy some.  By doing this, I have to make something I’ll enjoy, and hopefully in the process can change my opinion about these bright red roots.

Here’s a list of what I ended up with:

As an interesting side note, Summit Credit Union was doing a community service / marketing effort during the market giving people $10 if they promised to “Pay it Forward”.  A few friends and I took them up on their offer.  Stay tuned to find out what we did.

 

Wed 9 Jun 2010

Sunday starts a canning adventure

Posted by Chad under Canning, Make the Most Of
1 Comment

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Photo:Lindsay

Sunday we picked up a canning kit so that we can start persevering some of the wonderful produce that is currently in season to use later this summer or during the wintertime.

Our first foray into canning was a simple strawberry and rhubarb jam.  This summer spread was inspired by a post I saw over on food blog In Jennies Kitchen, where they are giving away two canning kits.  (What are you waiting for hit the link leave a comment, and you could be canning in no time)

Canned Rhubarb

Canned Rhubarb Photo:Chad

After successfully canning three pints worth (it’s no 21 jars, but it’s a start) we moved on to preserving some of the leftover rhubarb for a mid-summer recipe.  About two pounds fit into one quart jar, after stewing in about 1/2 cup of sugar and simmering for 30 seconds.

The work involved is rather easy, and I’m going to take a stab at asparagus next.  Stay tuned.

 

Next Page »