Pork Crock Pot Meals

(formatting is not working...sorry!) My son is in kindergarten and is totally uninterested in cooking (although he used to enjoy helping me a lot.) My daughter is now a toddler and into everything so I can't spend tons of time preparing meals and any time spent cooking involves dozens of interruptions. I have been forced to prepare simple things which has been kind of relaxing since I am always trying to figure out how to cook the myriad of vegetables we receive in our CSA box. In the summer I got into the habit of cooking the same basic pattern of a meal every night, substituting different things for the different elements of the meal. The basic meal pattern was meat/pasta/eggs/etc. + vegetable + bread. We never ate the same combo more than once in a week, but I didn't have to think too hard about what we were going to eat every night. We also got into the habit of eating Pizza every Friday night (usually Domino's) which is quite a divergence from my conviction to eat responsibly (eating food that is raised ethically which is more healthy for us and the environment and follows the Christian mandate to live out the kingdom of God on earth), but also a much needed rest from the mayhem. Now that our winter CSA boxes are arriving, dinner takes a bit more planning (we still eat pizza once a week!). I can't come to the kitchen 30 min before we're going to eat and fry sausages and steam romanesco when I have carrots (Micah hates cooked carrots), potatoes, onions, garlic, beets, winter squash, parsnips, etc. The last two Fridays I have taken to making a crockpot meal. As always I am trying to eat responsibly, but many crockpot cookbooks call for canned soup (yuck!) so how to do it? In Quebec, if a person had the time to go to several different stores in a week (which I used to do before Junia became a toddler) that person could buy meat from a butcher or local farm, produce from a little produce store or one of the year-round markets, bread from a little bakery, and visit the local organic mini-mart as well as the organic food co-op. However, I am currently limited to my CSA box and going to IGA once a week. The food in Quebec is VERY expensive. Many people actually drive to the U.S. to go grocery shopping, a habit that I refuse to do on general principal because it violates my conviction to eat locally and reduce green house gas emissions, but I must admit that I am tempted by the lower prices of gas and beer and am convinced that we would save money in the long run, but I still refuse... The cost of food is a serious issue, even in our family context, where we had already decided to spend more money on higher quality food, viewing the extra cost as an offering to God because we believe that factory farms are sinful and do not want to support those farming practices or the unhealthy food produced and sold by them. But, in Quebec, organic is simply out of reach. For the rest of the food, it is very difficult to find out what the actual farming practices are because a lot of the available information is in French. However, many of the traditional brands do not put high fructose corn syrup in their products (Hellman's Mayo, Heinz Ketchup, etc.). In terms of fresh meat, cheese, produce, here is what I know: - I have heard that the cows here are raised without hormones so we buy Quebec milk. And actually it is MUCH higher quality than U.S. milk from cows raised without hormones. If you leave it out by accident, it will curdle...gross, but more natural than remaining homogenous. I buy Quebec cheese and yogurt as well. In fact, the Yoplait Yogurt Tubes here do not have high fructose corn syrup and they are made in Quebec. I never thought I would buy such a thing, but I do. The favorite flavor in this house is persimmon-lemon. Compare that to cotton candy flavored Yoplait Yogurt Tubes in the U.S.. Actually don't, just take my word for it that cotton candy yogurt is disgusting and disgraceful on so many levels it would take another blog post to describe it and since I've already completely diverged on this one, I'm not going to go there. ;-) - I have also heard that the regulations regarding how many chickens can be raised per square foot on a farm are more strict here so I can actually eat the non-organic chicken from IGA without getting sick (regular grocery store chicken in the U.S. makes me physically sick...gross...). - Also, herbicides are banned in Quebec so when I do have to buy produce at the grocery store I try to buy aliments du Quebec (food from Quebec), which Quebecers are quite proud of so the signs indicating these items are large and numerous. In fact, you find the "Aliments du Quebec" signs all over IGA in every section, great for eating locally. - And for bread I always buy Kosher from the bakery section because it has the least number of ingredients and nothing I don't already have in my pantry. So! Pork Crock Pot Meals! I have gotten a pork roast from the butcher these last two Thursdays. The pork is raised in Quebec so I assume the regulations are better than in the U.S. for space, feed, etc., although I haven't asked. It's definitely a step down from the forest-fed pork we ate in Charlottesville and from a local Quebec farm here, but several steps up from the regular grocery story pork in the U.S.. The butcher will marinate for you if you ask (a super bonus since I hate touching raw meat!) so last week I got a maple rub and this week I got honey dijon. I let the roasts sit in the fridge overnight and put them in the crock pot on Friday morning with a bunch of veggies from our organic CSA. This is very simple. Besides chopping veggies there is no other prep. Then Junia and I play tea party in our pajamas until lunch! The recipes are simple and fabulous. Here they are! Maple Rub Pork Crock Pot Meal 1 pork roast with the IGA maple rub on it (the butchers will do it if you ask them) 2 medium onions 2 cloves garlic, minced 3-4 potatoes, chopped 1 winter squash, peeled and chopped 2 sprigs rosemary Put pork in crock pot. Cover with remaining ingredients, putting the rosemary sprigs on top. Cook on low 8 hours. Honey Dijon Rub Pork Crock Pot Meal 1 pork roast with the IGA honey dijon rub on it (the butchers will do it for you) 1.5 pounds of shredded cabbage 2 medium onions, sliced 2 garlic cloves minced 3 potatoes, chopped, 2 tart apples, peeled and chopped in big chunks 2/3 cup dry white wine Put pork in crock pot. Cover with remaining ingredients, pouring the white wine over everything. Cook on low 8 hours.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Muffins

You might be thinking, "Bacon Chocolate Chip Muffins?!?!" Yes, it sounds strange, but this combination is DELICIOUS! We first had this combo at the Blue Grass Grill in Charlottesville, VA
(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bluegrass-Grill-and-Bakery/50979888261).
We had both a bacon chocolate chip muffin and chocolate covered bacon. C'est magnifique! I've been wanting to try to make one of the two and I finally attempted the muffins this morning. I couldn't find a recipe online so I used the Best Ever Muffin with Bacon recipe from this site (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-ever-muffins/) and added chocolate chips. In addition, when I woke up I realized that we used all the eggs for dinner two night before so I substituted a flax seed and water blended mix for the eggs (http://www.thecookinginn.com/eggsub.html). The result? Delicious! Micah (my four-year-old) kept saying, "Yum, yum, yum!" He also said that the muffins could have used more bacon and more chocolate chips, so you can experiment. I thought they were great as is. Here's the recipe!

Bacon Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour (250 grams)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar (187.5 grams)
1 egg (or 1 heaping Tbsp flax seeds blended to a fine powder then blended with 1/4 cup water until consistency of an egg)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup crisp cooked bacon, crumbled
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuring cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture along with the bacon and chocolate chips. Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not beat. The batter will be lumpy. Pour the batter into paper lined muffin pan cups.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.

Micah's Celebration Dessert

Tonight Micah wanted to eat more after dinner, but he had already had dessert. So, we made this special Celebration Dessert!

1) Crush 6 oz of fresh raspberries into a shallow bowl. We used the back of a Gerber Scoopin' Spoon and a regular fork for this.
2) Add organic strawberry yogurt: 1/2 of 113g.
3) Mix.
4) Add honey until desired sweetness is reached. We had to add it twice.
5) Add 1 pinch of salt.
6) Mix.
7) Add the rest of your yogurt (the other 1/2 of 113g) and mix well.
8) Eat it all the way up!

YUM!

Micah would like to add something:
2eeeq3--ww200uyitimicahhutyuuuuu65830506575787577577578587967976iol;l;ijtdklklzzzzoLMll
That's his big, big, big fire code. Actually, it's his fire instructions. ;-)

Eating for 4 weeks in a Residence Inn

I'm back! Since my last post I have given birth to a healthy baby girl who is now 12 weeks old. I have also moved from Charlottesville, VA to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We don't move into our house until July 9th so we are living in a Residence Inn until then. We have a tiny kitchen with no oven that is equipped with a small amount of cooking pots and utensils. One nice perk of this apartment-hotel is that the staff will go grocery shopping for you without charging an extra fee. With a 3.5-year-old, a 2-month-old baby and the adjustments to a French-speaking city (we do not speak French) this is very nice. What to buy? What to cook? It must be simple and easy to clean up as we are staying in a one bedroom. Our 3.5-year-old sleeps in the second double bed in the bedroom while the baby sleeps on the floor in the living room. There is not a door between the living room and the kitchen so all dishes must be cleaned up before the baby goes to bed. The food must also be tasty, healthy, and as ecologically responsible as possible. Here are the bare essentials to buy:
- extra virgin italian olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- sea salt
- ground black pepper
- fresh basil
- garlic
- Vidalia onions (or any type of onion that you like)

With these essentials you have transformed your bare kitchen into a place with cuisine potential. Here are a few things we have done with these items.

Portobello Mushroom and Sweet Pepper OR Asparagus Stir Fry
4 Portobello mushroom caps (stems removed), chopped
1 Sweet pepper OR 1 pound of Asparagus, chopped
1 onion chopped
1-3 cloves of garlic chopped
some olive oil
some balsamic vinegar
some basil, chopped
sea salt
pepper

Pour olive oil into fry pan and fry onions until translucent. Add mushrooms and cook until juices release. Add peppers or asparagus and balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Cook until tender. Serve over pasta, rice, or bread. (We ate this over bread because the hotel forgot to buy pasta for us! It was pretty good.)

Simple Spinach Salad
Rinse organic baby spinach
Put in bowl
Pour equal amounts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar over
Add salt to taste

This is a great easy salad to add to take out that has a paucity of vegetables.

Sausage, Potatoes, and Onions
Put 1.5 inches of water in the bottom of a large soup pot
Add new potatoes to cover the bottom, one chopped onion, and two large sausages on top
Boil/steam until potatoes are tender
Chop sausages, add salt and pepper to taste and serve!

Simple Spinach Salad is a good addition to this. Also, you can add the spinach at the end and mash everything together. Just be sure to remove the water first.

Other things we have been eating are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Try to find peanut butter that is just peanuts and jelly without high fructose corn syrup or glucose/fructose. Bonne Maman is a good brand that we can find in Montreal. We also have been eating scrambled eggs and toast, lots of fruits for snacks and carrots as well. I have to admit that I have been buying baby carrots, a food I normally avoid. Once I have my peeler I will go back to buying whole carrots!

I hope you never find yourself in temporary housing for 4 weeks, but if you do, I hope these ideas are helpful! Bon apetite!

2 Days of Food Life - Why Eat Out?

You may be wondering what I have been doing? I have been cooking Indian food, baking bread, and reading up on local cow shares. The Indian food and bread have been from cookbooks so I haven't posted about them. Today, however, I altered a bread recipe enough to post it here. The inspiration for the bread recipe also inspired a new pasta sauce recipe as well, which in turn inspired a new leftover recipe. What's the inspiration? Homemade Ricotta cheese! The creator of Perfect Flavor, a local creamery, put me up to it. The woman who runs it is on leave because she just had a baby so they are closed, but she has been blogging in the meantime. This post served as my inspiration.

Here's what I did today:
- I made ricotta cheese.
- I used some of the whey to make bread (although, in all fairness, Brett did most of the work because I had to leave in the middle of making the dough).
- I gave the rest of the whey to my neighbor to feed to her dog and chickens.
- I made no-cook pasta sauce with the cheese and the tomatoes, onions, and basil we got in our CSA this week.
YUM!!! I was tired at the end of the day, but I attribute that more to the fact that I also went to the farmer's market, CVS, a local dairy farm, and the Polyface Farm buyer's club Charlottesville pick-up. Maybe when you do this you can just stay home. ;-)

Here is the process for making everything. I hope that you have as much fun as we did!

Ricotta Cheese
Milk for making cheese must be fresh, thus local. At a bare minimum, look for no hormones and simply pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized. If you buy this kind of milk (as opposed to raw, which is best, although I haven't tried it yet) I recommend making cheese the same day you buy it. I made this cheese from Shenandoah's Pride whole milk that comes in plastic jugs. The milk in the cartons is ultra-pasteurized and says nothing about hormones. The plastic jugs, however, have a little yellow area that says there are no hormones and are only pasteurized.
Refer to this post for making the Ricotta cheese.

The Bread
I think I can officially call the bread recipe mine. I altered one of my favorites in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, Sister Virginia's Daily Loaf. I think I'll call this:
Pastor Sarina's Weekly Loaf
[the whole recipe is forthcoming...it's just long and I can't get up the motivation to type it out]
substitute whey for milk
butter for shortening
3 risings instead of two
It was very good. Maybe a little dry. Nothing that storing it in a plastic bag can't help. Next time I will try lard instead of butter since I just picked up 5 pounds of pork fat from Polyface farm for making lard. Woo!

The pasta I didn't make myself, but we bought it fresh from Mona Lisa Pasta.

Sarina's No Cook Pasta Sauce
2 pounds fresh tomatoes diced into 1/4 inch pieces (you could seed the tomatoes, but I didn't)
1 very small red onion finely sliced
1 clove fresh garlic minced
2-3 Tbs fresh basil minced
1 cup of fresh ricotta cheese (don't bother with store bought)
1/4 cup olive oil

Mix together in a large bowl.
Cook your pasta.
Serve hot pasta in individuals bowl and mix in sauce to taste. The heat from the pasta will cook the garlic just enough.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

-----

We ate this for dinner with our bread, as well as for lunch the next day. We ended up with leftover sauce. It was Sunday and we normally don't cook on Sunday. We planned to make hamburgers for dinner and put the leftover sauce on them instead of ketchup (which would have been fabulous), but after lots of church we were almost too tired to move (I taught a class for an hour, then we worshipped until 1:30 at another church). Brett said, "If we cook, lets do something with one step." That made me think of Sloppy Joes. We had the thawed hamburger and the tomato sauce. Shouldn't it cook together into a nice leftover dish in almost one step? We could eat it on our bread. We tried it and it was delicious! Micah kept asking for more beef and once he said, "Can you make more beef, please?" at which point we gave him watermelon and he was fine. Brett kept scraping the last bits out of the pan, something he never does "because it's too much work." If you try this, just keep in mind that it won't look like any Sloppy Joe you've ever had. Ricotta cheese doesn't melt, and even though everything cooked, it didn't gel into a sauce. But who cares what it looked like as long as it tasted great and people kept asking for more? It's more like a gourmet Sloppy Joe; if ever L'Etoile made a Sloppy Joe it would look like this. Let's call it Sloppy Jacques. This recipe served 2 adults and one toddler. We at every last bite. We ate watermelon slices as our side dish.

Sloppy Jacques
Fry 1/2 pound of ground, grass-fed beef until brown. Drain if necessary (often with grass-fed beef it's not). Add salt and pepper once the meat has browned. Leave it in the pan.
While the beef is browning, scramble one egg and mix it into your leftover no-cook tomato sauce.
Once the beef has browned and you've added salt and pepper to it, pour in the no-cook tomato sauce and egg mixture. Mix well. Allow it to simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, mixing intermittently.
Add salt and pepper just before you take it off the stove and mix well.
Serve over one (or between two) pieces of Pastor Sarina's Weekly Loaf.

Early Summer Coleslaw

Here's a nice coleslaw recipe that doesn't require carrots. For some reason we haven't been getting any carrots from our CSA so it's nice to have an alternative. We are getting green peppers and can still buy last year's apples from a local orchard. I find myself going to the farmer's market for onions and garlic lately because our CSA is also not providing those cooking staples either. My most recent purchase on that score were beautiful bunches of scallions with the most enormous and perfect greens. The greens were so tall that I actually had to use less than 1/4 of a bunch of greens in the recipe, but I think that this variety of scallion is unusual. ;-) Enjoy!

1/2 medium red cabbage, shredded
1 green pepper, chopped finely
1 apple, chopped finely
1 small onion or a bunch of scallion greens chopped finely
combine in a large bowl

1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp dill
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp corriander
Combine in sauce pan and bring to a soft boil
Pour over vegetables
Toss well
let sit 30 minutes before serving

We actually haven't eaten this yet, but I tasted the utensil I used to toss it before I stuck it in the fridge and it was good. It's always a good sign when you don't want to let your coleslaw sit for 30 minutes but would rather eat it right away. :-)

Two nice things about this slaw. 1) Red cabbage is full of anti-oxidants and is very good for you. 2) It's very colorful and unusual: purple, green, and pink (the apple gets stained by the cabbage and turns pinkish). Very appealing to the eye.

Pork and Beans, 2 Ways

I LOVE pork and beans. It's a good thing Jesus said that it's not what goes in that defiles, but what comes out because I don't think I could give up pork. I make Mexican flavored pork and beans and I do it two ways: either as soup or as a main dish. Both recipes are cooked in the crock pot. In order to have a good pork and beans you have to have good pork. It must come from a "happy porker", as Miss Bates would say. ;-) If you live in the Charlottesville area I recommend getting your pork from Babes in the Woods or Polyface Farm.

My first try at this was making Chalupas from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. It was good, but called for Pinto beans. I prefer black beans so that's what I use. You can use either kind, but I wouldn't recommend trying anything other than those two kinds.

Here's the main dish recipe:

~ 1 pound pork (a roast of whatever cut). You can brown it if you want but you don't have to.
1-1.5 cups dry black beans soaked over night in 3 cups of water, or if you forget to soak them you can put them in a pot covered with about an inch of water, boil for 2 minutes, then cover and let sit for 1 hour.
The bean water
1 large onion or 1 bunch of spring onions with greens chopped.
2 garlic cloves or 4 garlic scapes minced or chopped finely
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chile powder or 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
1 small can of green chiles
Optional ingredients:
1 small green pepper chopped - I hardly ever have these anymore because they're only in season in the summer
tomatoes - any amount. I've use one 14 oz can or 1/2 a 14 oz can. You can add fresh, chopped ones. Whatever.
cilantro - you can add this dried while cooking or chop fresh and sprinkle it on top when serving.

Combine in crock pot and cook on low ~8 hours.
Before serving, remove pork and shred. Return to pot and mix.

You can serve this over rice or just on your plate with homemade bread. We recently had this with homemade bread and grilled asparagus and zucchini marinated in Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette. Yum! You might like cheese or sour cream, too.W

~~

Here's how you do the soup.

You combine the necessary ingredients for the main dish as stated above. Then add the vegetables and water/broth called for in a minestrone soup recipe. You are not adding minestone soup spices or beans or barley or anything else...just the veggies.

For example, maybe you would add the following:
The bean water plus water or broth totaling 6 cups. I would wait until you add everything else to add the additional water or broth, just so that you don't accidentally overflow your pot.
2 carrots, chopped
1 additional onion, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
fresh greens, chopped (as many as you want: chard, kale, spinach, etc.)
28 oz can of diced tomatoes or ~7 fresh tomatoes chopped.

Combine with other ingredients and cook the same as above. Don't forget to shred the pork. You can serve this soup over rice or with fresh bread.

You can make substitutions depending on what you have in the house. For example, keep celery in the fridge in the winter (because it's a cheap vegetable), but not in the summer (because there's some much else available). You can substitute Swiss Chard stalks for the celery, then chop up the leaves and add them, too. I think sweet peppers would work in this soup, any color. You could leave out the carrots and add the peppers, or use both. I have a feeling that okra would be good in this soup, too. It will make it kind of slimy looking, but that's just what okra does. I also bet that you could add winter squash to this and it would be tasty (I might add some cinnamon with winter squash). Green beans would be fine, too. Hmmm...maybe eggplant, but I'm not sure. If you try that and it's bad, I'm sorry!

I would NOT add broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, peas, asparagus, radishes, cabbage... that's all the veggies I can think of.

Enjoy!

Spinach Quiche

We got a bunch of spinach from our CSA yesterday. I wanted to do something different with it. Spring is a healthy time of year - greens, greens, and more greens - but I get sick of eating greens. I've been trying different recipes this spring that mask the fact that I'm eating greens, while enabling me to actually cook and eat them all. Today I decided to make spinach quiche. I've never made quiche before and really had no idea what I was doing. I made two mistakes: 1) I started too late so we ate an hour later than usual, 2) I used a pizza crust instead of a pie crust (I had an extra unopened Pillsbury pizza crust from my Pampered Chef party and I thought, why not try it?). The pizza crust wasn't bad, it just stuck to the pie pan and only Brett can get any pieces out. But it tasted good, so maybe it wasn't really a mistake. Would I use it again? Probably not. It tasted fine, but pizza crust is not as easy to manipulate at pie crust. Anyway, my recipe is a combination of three recipes. The quiche recipes in Joy of Cooking and the America's Test Kitchen cookbook, as well as this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-quiche/detail.aspx. I had to use all three because I couldn't find one for a simple spinach quiche.

I'm convinced that the cheese you use will make or break this recipe. Be sure NOT to buy wax posing as cheese. Ask the cheese specialist at your store which of the cheddars, etc. is worth buying. For this we used Romano cheese that Brett bought in Germany and 365 sharp cheddar.

Spinach Quiche

Crust:
Brush your pie pan with olive oil.
Insert pie crust.
Prick and make the edges pretty (something you can't do with pizza crust).
Brush with olive oil and minced garlic.
Pre-bake 7 minutes or less at temp for pie crust.
Remove from oven.
Set oven to 350.

Filling, etc.:
Cube 1/2 cup strong cheese (Romano, feta, etc.) and 1/4 cup sharp cheddar.
Saute together olive oil, one bunch of spring onions chopped, ~10 oz fresh spinach (stems removed) chopped until the spinach wilts and the water cooks off. Remove from heat.
Beat together 2 cups milk, 4 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, some nutmeg, a little chopped fresh parsley.
Mix cheese with the spinach and immediately spread the mixture on the bottom of your pie crust.
Open oven and pull out your middle rack. Place pie pan on rack.
Rebeat custard mixture (because all the pepper will have sunk to the bottom) and poor evenly over spinach until 1/2 in from the top of the crust.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown and a knife can come out clean 1 in from edge of quiche.
Allow to cool at least 15 min.
Enjoy!

By the way, when I made this I had a whole bunch of custard mixture left over. I poured it into my mini muffin tin and added a chunk of garlic to each cup. Then I baked them at 350 for 20 min. I haven't tried them yet. I just didn't want to throw away any food. I'm thinking I could put these little cups on a salad or something.

Spring Is Here!

Hello again!

It is spring and spring means ASPARAGUS! We are avid asparagus lovers, but decided a couple of years ago only to eat it when it is in season locally. It appears at the farmer's market for about a month when it's in season. It is so delicious! Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle convinced us to wait until the spring to eat asparagus. It's better for the earth: since it hasn't been shipped from South America or California we are not paying for shipping. In other words, local, in-season asparagus (or any food for that matter) is not gas-guzzling, carbon-monoxide emitting food. Plus, it tastes better fresh. There's nothing like it!

Barbara Kingsolver also taught us to cook asparagus with mushrooms, something we had never thought of before. Wild morel mushrooms are available at the same time as the asparagus. Morels are AMAZING! However, if you don't know where to forage for them yourself, they are very expensive. You can substitute crimini or shitake for them.

Mark Bittman wrote an article called The Flavor of Spring in the Wednesday, May 13, 2009 New York Times (D2). He wrote, "In an ideal world, here's what a spring dish might look like: you take morels from your foraging trip, cream and butter from your cow, and asparagus, shallots and herbs from your garden. You combine them in any way that makes sense to you, and then you thank the forest, the cow and your backyard for providing such amazing bounty." In our case, we thank the farmer's market. We adapted the recipe found in the article. Here's how we combined these spring delights!

Asparagus and Mushroom Stir Fry

2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs butter
1 bunch chopped spring onions or leeks, chopped
1 pound of mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (or more, you could never have too many): crimini, shitake, morel, porcini, etc.
1/3 lb chicken cut into stir fry strips
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 bunch of farmer's market asparagus (~ 1 lb), trimmed and cut into 1.5in pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp flour
~1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro, tarragon, or chervil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat butter and olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions/leeks, mushrooms, and chicken. Cook until mushrooms have released their liquid and it has cooked off, about 10 min. Add the garlic ~half-way through. Be sure to flip the chicken often until it has cooked through. Feel free to break up the chicken as it cooks. The chicken will cook through before the mushroom juice cooks off.

2. Add the asparagus and the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduced heat, and simmer for 2-4 min.

3. Whisk together milk and flour in a cup. Add to the skillet with the herbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking uncovered until the sauce thickens slightly and the asparagus is tender, about 4 min.

4. Serve over angel hair pasta.

Lentil and Kale soup

Modified from Real Simple's Winter Lentil and Kale Soup

Micah ate his whole bowl the first time I made the above soup, although I didn't follow the recipe. You can substitute any kind of greens for the kale (except collards - they take too long to cook). You can also substitute any kind of winter squash for the sweet potato. We used spaghetti squash once, cut into chunks. It was surprisingly good. Leeks work for onions and onions for leeks. Be sure to use brown lentils. Others will fall apart too much. OK, that's it for this one. Maybe one day I'll make this post better!

Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Stir Fry

I just made up this recipe tonight.

Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Stir Fry

some olive oil
1/3 pound chicken sliced into stir fry pieces
2 large portobello mushroom caps, sliced in half, then into strips
2 medium size tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 chopped, fresh basil

Put a liberal amount of olive oil into a large fry pan and heat on medium heat.
Add chicken and mushrooms. Saute until all mushrooms release juices and turn brown (not until they are browned, but until they turn brown). Chicken will cook through first, but wait for the mushroom to finish turning brown (~10-15 minutes)
Add tomatoes, garlic, and basil. Cook until the tomatoes start falling apart (~5-7 minutes).
Serve hot.

We ate this by itself, but it would probably be tasty over pasta.

Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs sounds simple, but we have a few ways of making them that are very tasty. Most of these are a-la-Brett. :-)

The most important thing is to have high quality eggs. It is better for the earth and the chickens and your body, but it is also much better for your taste buds! High quality eggs taste so much better. You know an egg is high quality when the yolk looks dark yellow or even orange. Check your local grocery store for organic, local, cage free, eggs. Whole Foods or your local farmer's market or CSA are great places to get them. If you live in Pgh I recommend the eggs from "Food Glorious Food" on Bryant St. They are open on Saturdays at 10am. Get there as early as possible because the eggs sell out fast.

Scrambled Eggs with Spices

We like to add spices to our scrambled eggs. Brett is the one who started it and most of these ideas are his.
Crack eggs into a bowl and beat. Mix in one of the following spice combination with the eggs.
- Southwest Seasoning from Penzey's
- Spicy Salt from Penzey's
- Brett's concoction: Basil and Ground Coriander
- Salt, Pepper, Grated Cheese (cheddar or colby jack) (Sarina's combo)

Fry in butter, preferably, Pasture butter made by Organic Valley.

Additions to the above:
- Add capers (I did this I think to Southwest Eggs and it was tasty!)
- Saute onions in olive oil or butter until cooked, add eggs and 1 chopped tomato, saute until finished (best with the Basil and Coriander)

Theology

This was posted by Dan Thayer on the ACFI (Ancient Christian Faith Initiative) blog. I thought I'd also post it here because I want to eventually write my theology of food and this seems like a text I might use:

Saturday, January 16, 2010
Augustine on Jesus' Miracles and the Miracle of Creation

As I was preparing a sermon on Jesus' turning water into wine, I came across this great reflection on miracles by Augustine:

"The miracle indeed of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby He made the water into wine, is not marvellous to those who know that it was God’s doing. For He who made wine on that day at the marriage feast, in those six water-pots, which He commanded to be filled with water, the self-same does this every year in vines. For even as that which the servants put into the water-pots was turned into wine by the doing of the Lord, so in like manner also is what the clouds pour forth changed into wine by the doing of the same Lord. But we do not wonder at the latter, because it happens every year: it has lost its marvellousness by its constant recurrence. And yet it suggests a greater consideration than that which was done in the water-pots. For who is there that considers the works of God, whereby this whole world is governed and regulated, who is not amazed and overwhelmed with miracles?

"If he considers the vigorous power of a single grain of any seed whatever, it is a mighty thing, it inspires him with awe. But since men, intent on a different matter, have lost the consideration of the works of God, by which they should daily praise Him as the Creator, God has, as it were, reserved to Himself the doing of certain extraordinary actions, that, by striking them with wonder, He might rouse men as from sleep to worship Him. A dead man has risen again; men marvel: so many are born daily, and none marvels. If we reflect more considerately, it is a matter of greater wonder for one to be who was not before, than for one who was to come to life again. Yet the same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, doeth by His word all these things; and it is He who created that governs also. The former miracles He did by His Word, God with Himself; the latter miracles He did by the same Word incarnate, and for us made man.

"As we wonder at the things which were done by the man Jesus, so let us wonder at the things which where done by Jesus God. By Jesus God were made heaven, and earth, and the sea, all the garniture of heaven, the abounding riches of the earth, and the fruitfulness of the sea;—all these things which lie within the reach of our eyes were made by Jesus God. And we look at these things, and if His own spirit is in us they in such manner please us, that we praise Him that contrived them."

Indeed.
Posted by Dan Thayer at 6:42 AM 1 comments

Cranberry Orange Turkey Breast

This recipe is modified from Easy and Delicious Turkey Breast on page 196 of the Fix It and Forget It crockpot cookbook. I made these changes based on what I had in the house and I think it will always make it like this in the future. Basically, instead of cranberry sauce and onion soup mix, I put in fresh ingredients.

Cranberry Orange Turkey Breast

1.5 lbs of boneless, skinless free range turkey breast
~ 1.5 cups of fresh, whole cranberries, bad ones thrown away
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 cup orange juice
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine in slow cooker. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

The funny thing is that I cooked it on high because I misread the recipe. It turned excellently. That being said, I would cook it on low next time. Also, the original recipe calls for 1 turkey breast. The other turkey breast recipes assume a 4-6 lb turkey breast. I think that free range turkeys might be smaller than industrial-raised turkeys. The free range turkeys will have much more flavor and you know that they can actually walk since they haven't been bred to have over-large breasts, so large that they tip forward and can't move. Anyway, my point is that you may be able to use a larger breast in this recipe. I cooked a turkey breast instead of chicken because I think it's always good to change the kind of meat we're eating. You get different nutrients from different foods. The free-range turkey was on sale this week at Whole Foods. As Micah would say, "Wee-oo hee-oo!"

Split Pea, Ham, and Mushroom Soup

I have to thank both Emily Farrow and my parents, Allan and Eleanor Odden, for this soup. Emily Farrow gave me The Joy of Cooking as a wedding gift. The following recipe is based on the Split Pea or Lentil Soup recipe on pages 177-178. Some of the instructions below are taken word for word and I maintained the formatting. You'll have to compare to get a sense for what I changed.

My parents often made a split pea and ham soup around Christmas. I can't remember if they did it every year, but often enough to make an impression. I remember their soups being yummy and thick. Their soups had plenty of ham and veggies. The Joy of Cooking recipe is simply a split pea soup with the flavors of ham and veggies. I changed it to be a thick and chunky soup. A more descriptive name would be Ham and Mushroom Soup with Green Broth. :-) But that sounds strange.

Split Pea, Ham, and Mushroom Soup

Wash and soak in 8 cups of water
2 cups split peas
Drain the peas, reserving the liquid. Add enough water to the reserved liquid to make 10 cups. Adding peas again, cook, covered, 2.5-3 hours with
a ham bone
~5-6 slices of ham, depending on the size
Add and simmer, covered, 2 hours longer until tender:
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery (with leaves)
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cups crimini mushrooms finely chopped (twice through and egg slicer)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp thyme
Remove bones and bay leaf.
Season to taste

When we made this at Christmas we let it sit for an hour off the heat because we were watching the second Transformers movie and Micah was sleeping. We all added salt and pepper to our bowls. (As a general rule, if you want to add salt and pepper to the soup as you cook it, you can add 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.) The soup was wonderful!

Curried Lentils

This recipe is originally from Hannah Heis. She and her family eat vegetarian and I asked her for some recipes to help us cut down on our meat consumption. We are not vegetarians, but we only buy high quality meat from ecologically, sustainably, and ethically raised animals. It's more expensive so we just don't eat meat everyday. Anyway, here's the lentil recipe as I make it:

Curried Lentils

1/4 cup olive or safflower oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs curry powder (Badia or Penzey's or other high quality brand)
1 cup lentils
2.5 cups water
2 beef bouillon cubes or 2 tsp Better than Bouillon
1 bay leaf
2 Tbs lemon juice or juice from one whole small lemon
~1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 each of two types of dried fruit (currants, raisins, sweetened cranberries, prunes)
1 medium apple peeled and chopped (less is OK)
~ 4 crimini or button mushrooms finely chopped (twice through an egg slicer)

Saute together oil, onion, and garlic until onion is translucent. Add salt and curry powder, saute for another minute.

Combine lentils, water, bouillon, bay leaf, and onion mixture together. Bring to a boil and simmer (covered) 20 minutes.

Add lemon juice, parsley, dried fruit, apple, and mushrooms. Simmer another 15 minutes (covered) or until lentils are tender. Add 1/4 cup water if it's dry. Serve over jasmine rice.

It freezes well.

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A note about the curry powder:
The quality of the curry powder will make or break this dish. If you look at the ingredients on different curry powders, they vary. I'm not sure what the difference is exactly, but I can tell by smelling which ones will work well. You want a curry powder that smells sweet. You will have to compare to know what I mean.

A note about the fruit and mushrooms:
This part of the dish I vary all the time based on what I have in the house. I never do more than 1/2 cup of dried fruit total. My most recent version used currants and diced prunes, 1/3 of a large apple and I didn't have any mushrooms. The mushrooms add a more meaty flavor. You don't want to add too much fruit and mushrooms or it will overpower the lentils, but some variation will work well and it adds nice flavor.

Coleslaw

The original coleslaw was made with green cabbage and pink lady apples. Pink lady apples have a very bold sweet flavor. I can't remember if I put sugar in it or not. This version was the perfect combination of sweet and tangy without being tart.

The second time I made this I used red cabbage and some kind of apple similar to a wine sap (I forgot the name...black something, maybe black twig). When I was making the sauce I thought it needed sugar (it wasn't in my original recipe as I wrote it down originally). I added 1 Tbs of sugar. This version was more tart and didn't have the same sweet and tangy flavor that the original did. It was good but not as good as the first time.

The difference in flavor could be attributed to some combination of the following: the red cabbage, or the type of apple, or the amount of sugar. I would possibly add 1/4 of sugar to a future recipe instead of 1 Tbs because I remember a mound of sugar in the pot the first time I made it.

I think what makes this recipe so good is rice vinegar substituted for white vinegar. Rice vinegar is my favorite vinegar. I think white wine vinegar has a similar flavor.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Sarina's Coleslaw

Chop finely or grate into a large bowl:
1/4 large green or red or combination cabbage
1/4 large white onion
4 medium carrots
1/2 apple

Combine in saucepan and heat until hot:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbs cider vinegar
1 Tbs sugar or honey (or perhaps 1/4 cup)
1 tsp salt
Pour over veggies, mix well, cover and refrigerate.
Serve cold.

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Taken from the following two recipes:

1) www.kretschmannfarm.com
Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage and Apple Salad--Slice cabbage thin, cut 1 apple into 1/2" cubes, slice 1 green pepper into thin strips, chop 1 small onion finely, toss. Cook 1/2c wine vinegar, 1T honey, 1/2t caraway seeds,1/8t black pepper and cloves until mixture just begins to boil. Pour hot mixture over salad and toss well. Let stand for 30 min. before serving.

2) (I don't remember the website.)

Colorful Coleslaw

Ingredients:

* 3 pounds grated cabbage
* 1 diced green bell pepper
* 1 diced red or yellow bell pepper
* 1 small white onion, thinly sliced
* 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
* 3/4 cup white vinegar
* 1 cup Splenda or sugar
* 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
* 1 tablespoon salt

Directions:

Combine all vegetables in a large bowl. Mix the other ingredients together in a saucepan
. Heat over a medium heat until hot. Pour mixture over vegetables. Mix well and refrigerate for at least three hours. Serve cold.

Variation: Use cider vinegar instead of white vinegar

I should be getting my LOTR cards...

But instead, I'm posting my first post on my new recipe blog. A coleslaw recipe coming soon. If I posted it now, Brett and Lauren would be annoyed. ;-)