Sorry for the Hiatus!

:(

It's been a while, hasn't it? I came off night shift in late February and things have been, well, a bit exhausting since then. Emmy and I are officially moving back to New England, where we hope to stay for ever and ever.

Although I like rain just as much as the next farmer, the over-extended winter was really getting us down. Cap that off with being sick for most of April and...yeah, we were pretty bushed.

BUT NOW.

There's Portugese Stone Soup simmering on the stove and Corn Cheddar Pancakes on the horizon for Monday. I have three days off this coming week to rest and recoup.

See you soon!

xoxoxo
Kim & Emmy

Chicken Soup & The Great Fruit Kerfufle

Last week.

Last week was hell. Emmy had cramps and tummy-gurglings all week and then, about halfway through, so did I. It got bad for a while. Apparently your body will tell you when it's had enough pizza. Emmy even had to be sick a couple times. Poor dear.

So this week we said, "NO MORE PIZZA!" (cried the peoples of the revolution)

Enter "Ultimate Chicken Soup", stage right.

This is a recipe I acquired sometime in 2010. I was rather new to this whole concept of "cooking" at the time and Dad took pity on me and told me how to put together a good chicken soup. I tried it. It was awesome. The recipe follows below:

--Ultimate Chicken Soup--
~3 carrots Not seasonal (Carol's larder ran out so no more until next year), replaced w/ 2 lbs frozen sweet corn.
~3 celery Also not seasonal, replaced w/ 2 small celeriac, chopped.
~2 small onions
~1 clove garlic, chopped
~enough potatoes to fill a small sauce pan, peeled & chopped
~enough water w/ bullion OR enough stock to cover final amount of veggies&chicken
~salt & pepper to taste
~meat off 1 chicken
~oil/butter for frying veggies
~white cooking wine
~rosemary & other Italian seasonings, added to taste

We got a whole, 3-4lb pasture-raised chicken & roasted it slowly at 375degreesF for 1/2hour per pound of chicken. Cleaned it, patted it dry, & rubbed it all over w/ a rub that contained:
salt
pepper
garlic powder
sumac powder
& some thyme.
Every half hour we took the chicken out of the oven, turned it, & basted across the skin w/ a stick of butter. Then the chicken was de-boned & the meat set aside for the soup.
Boil chopped potatoes until easily pierced w/ a knife, reserve WITHOUT draining. Sautee the rest of the veggies in a large soup pot until cooked down/sweated to personal taste. Just as onions are starting to brown, add a splash of white wine. This brings up anything that has cooked onto the bottom of the pan. Scrape w/ a wooden spoon to bring up the cooked-on bits. Add potatoes & chopped chicken meat. Add enough water w/ bullion OR stock to cover. Season to taste. Remove when done.

~~~

Fruit.

I looked at Emmy sometime very early this week, before the chicken was ready, and spoke thusly, "If I don't have some fruit I'm going to fucking kill someone." She nodded seriously. "Yeah. Let's go to the Co-op."

Being extremely cramped-up and throwing up due to too much wheat in our diet was not fun. We sped down to Willy Street and picked up a bag of Pink Lady apples from Washington, raspberry-strawberry smoothies, and two serving-sized fruit salads. At sometime this summer I will probably be sick of fruit. I will probably have the runs so bad that I'll get in trouble from getting up from my desk so much at work.
I. Don't. Care.
Our mantra this week has been "If only we had some preserves. IF ONLY WE HAD SOME PRESERVES." "I KNOW."
It reached a two-day interval over the weekend where I could barely eat because even thinking about wheat made me want to park myself in front of the toilet and be sick until strawberry season. We know greens are coming, we know it sugaring season is only a few weeks away, but we couldn't go any longer without fruit.
As I took that last of the leftover pasta in hand to work on Monday with a look of terror and dread (it was all we had) Emmy said to me, "This is why canning was invented." I groaned, and somehow made it through the rest of the day on a few ziti, a smoothie, and the Hope Of Fruit.
We are sorry we broke our local promise, but at least we didn't break our organic one. One more month to go in the First Quarter, and then we buckle down for real.

Canning... yes, canning will have to happen.

Happy eating!
xoxoxo
Kim & Emmy

Let Them Eat Pizza

So last week I must admit I had an attack of the Lazy. We did cook but unfortunately I didn't think the results were very stellar.

(Not-So) Vegetarian Chili from "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver:
http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/recipes-winter-vegetarian-chili.htm

We substituted the beans (since they are not in season and nobody has any at the market) for two pounds of local ground beef. I'm sad to say that I wasn't impressed. I need to do more hunting for a better chili recipe because I'm certain I'll be making chili again before the winter is out.

But this week we had pizza!

Now I always wait to post until I've cooked, because otherwise how will I know whether I liked something or not? But WHOA. This sauce recipe (and thank goodness someone has canned tomatoes or I'd be going stir-crazy right about now) is out of this world! I can't, literally, rave about it enough. You might remember my October post when we did Jamie Oliver's "Deep-Pan Pizza"? No? That's okay, I'll re-post the sauce recipe.

~A swig of white wine vinegar
~1 clove garlic, peels & end removed (I chopped mine into large chunks to make it easier on our dinky little food processor)
~A handful fresh basil leaves (make sure you wash them!)
~1 x 14oz can diced tomatoes
~salt & pepper to taste

To point, this time around we used organic raspberry balsamic vinegar from the Willy St Co-op and dried basil bits from my spice cupboard. Local tomatoes, organic vinegar, local garlic, BAM! As soon as tomatoes actually do come around, I'm canning up a bunch of this sauce in bulk and hoarding it all next winter. I may even give some away as gifts.

So that was our sauce, and our pizza dough came from Mom's suggestion:

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/easy_pizza_dough.aspx

So... local WI flour, too? And local mozzarella from Organic Valley? Whoa. Just. Whoa. Plus, it makes 4 little pizzas all told, so Pizzas 3 & 4 are in the freezer, Pizza 1 is almost gone, and Pizza 2 (with Blue Mont Dairy garlic-cheddar filled crust) is about to come out of the oven.

I'm in pizza heaven.

xoxoxo,
Kim & Emmy

Love is in the Air

I have no idea what Emmy got me for V-Day, but I got her three chocolate truffles made by a local chocolatier, Gail Ambrosius, who has a shop in Madison's East Side, nearby where I used to live a couple years ago.

You can find her at: http://gailambrosius.com/

I picked out the chocolates specially at Fromagination, of course. I was aided, as always, by the lovely Priscilla, who always helps me out in a pinch. I got Emmy a raspberry one, a chocolate ganache one, and one with cayenne in it.

That, along with a couple antique children's books (she loves those), made for a wonderful early Valentine's Day.

:)
Love,
Kim & Emmy

February Chills & Confessions

So, it's that time of year again. The time of year that we all stick our noses outside and yell, "Enough already!" I'm getting a bit stir-crazy myself. It must be the limited winter food options at the farmers market, which isn't really anybody's fault but Old Man Winter's. I'd kill for some fruit.

Another confession:
Emmy and I haven't been as pure as we would have liked. We are visiting restaurants much less frequently than we used to, once every two weeks instead of several times in a weekend. Feeding two people on one meal (and its leftovers) all week has taken some adjusting to. Therefore, we are baking more and buying (not always) organic mac&cheese to cover the gap between weekends. I am quite ashamed to say we visited a couple fast food places, too, a rare occurance in and of itself. But we have noticed that we are still steadily losing weight and we understood when we started out that the First Quarter of the year would be the most difficult, mostly because we are still adjusting, using up what's already in the pantry etc, but also because we have to break our old habits slowly. Not to mention the sight of those potatoes, squash, and carrrots aren't as exciting as they were at the beginning of January. I haven't really stretched myself, either, in cooking styles. After the kerfufle with the sweet potatoes I've been rather reluctant to try new vegetables, although I will say that Emmy and I have discovered and LOVE celeriac. We do try to be organic whenever possible and to support local businesses, even when they are not necessarily organic themselves.

Yet more confessions:
I have a caffiene addiction. A big one. I'm not talking about a coffee every morning, I mean Mountain Dew. I grew up drinking the stuff and it just eats at me when I don't have any, although not as bad as it used to. Emmy is trying to steer me towards fair-trade, locally-brewed coffee and fair-trade tea. Habit is really hard to break. Since we have vending machines at my work, whenever I pick up a roll of quarters for laundry about half of those go towards my soda intake for the week. But this time I told Emmy to hide the quarters from me, and not in the change jar. Seriously hidden away. Somewhere I won't even think to look. We'll try that next week and see how it goes. I hate, for lack of a better term, just pissing away my laundry money. Today I got down on my hands and knees and begged Emmy for permission to purchase a soda while I did some errands around town (it was her money). I promised her gold and jewels and chocolates and two scantily-clad servants to follow her around waving palm fronds and feeding her peeled grapes, but she still refused. And rightfully so.

Going forward:
I must conquer this addiction of mine. Somehow. At least get it to the point where coffee and tea will be sufficient. Emmy and I have a month and a half left until the end of the First Quarter of the year. At that time we should begin to see more greens appearing at the market AND! it will be sugar-snow time. Time for maple syrup! As the winter-based menu and all its limited options draws to a close, we will become more strict with our diet, staying local except for the essentials mentioned in the kick-off post.

Happy Valentine's Day!
xoxoxo
Kim & Emmy

Cornbread. Cornbread Everywhere.

"We've got jam at home," Emmy said as we cruised the Dane County Farmer's Market last weekend. I shifted the carrots to my other hand. "All right. I'll bake bread, then." "You sure?" she asked. "Yeah, totally."

So, I didn't bake bread. I didn't even look at the yeast this week. I did, however, procure a library book that seems to have a couple decent and simple bread recipes. As I was reading it I was inspired to try two of their recipes, pop-overs and cornbread. How lucky that I bought eggs! (soy free and full beak, too.) And no rising involved. Bonus.

We began the week with potato soup in mind and gathered our ingredients from the following places:

~Celeriac x2 from Driftless Organics
~Carrots x2 from Carol from Gitto Family Farm
~Flour from Hickory Hill
~Honey from River Forks Honey Co.
~Potatoes from Driftless Organics

also local but not from the DCFM, were 2 onions, milk, buttter, bacon, and sour cream.

The "Werner Potato Soup" recipe was given to Emmy by her mother and is as follows:

Potato Soup

1 med onion, chopped

1 tbsp butter

Chicken broth/bullion cubes

Potatoes, approx. 6

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 peeled carrot, chopped

Salt to taste

Milk/half & half cream

Sautee 1 med onion in 1 tbsp butter until clear, not brown

Chop carrot and celery

Roughly chop potatoes and place in pot with celery and carrot

Add water to cover potatoes, one bullion cube per cup

Boil 20-25 mins or until potatoes are fork-soft

Mash with masher

If necessary, simmer until soup reaches desired consistency

Add salt to taste

Add milk/cream to taste (best with half& half)

 

This recipe, her Mom adds, can be doubled or halved according to need. Just add as many potatoes as you like, enough broth to cover and veggies to preference. Here, we substituted celeriac for celery because celery is not in season yet.

 

I also made Pop-Overs, which I last made when I was about five years old. My middle sister, Kath, is a pop-over wizard. I have always admired her skills. Since I have no beater of whisk, I had to make do with hand power alone, which is probably why mine didn't rise in the middle, but they rose up around the edges.

 

Pop-Overs,

from "Bread" by Williams-Sonoma

 

~1 Tb melted unsalted butter

~3 eggs

~1 Cup whole milk

~1 Cup flour

~1/4 tsp salt

 

DO NOT preheat oven, it needs to be cold when you put the pop-overs in. Take a pop-over tin (deep) or a muffin tin and grease with oil/Pam/cold butter/etc. In a mixing bowl beat together wet ingredients until foamy. I suggest using an electric mixer here, but you don't have to. Beat in the dry ingredients until smooth, DO NOT overmix. Batter should be thin. Fill each tin 2/3rds of the way full with batter. Place pan on middle rack in a cold oven. Turn temperature to 375F or 190C. A deep tin will take about 35-45 minutes, while a muffin tin will take about 25 minutes. DO NOT open the oven door for the firs 30 minuts of cooking, or tops will not rise. When you remove gently pierce the top of each pop-over to allow steam to escape. Let cool. Fill with jam and enjoy!

 

I also attempted to make Cornbread from the same book. The recipe called for a 9-inch pan. I have no 9-inch deep pans so I elected to use my 10-inch pie pan instead. O. M. G. After ten minutes I noticed a sharp burning smell and ran to check the oven. My cornbread (which required 4 eggs, I might add, and almost all of the cornmeal I had left) had overflowed and was busy making a foot-long subway sandwhich-shaped pile of puffy batter all over the bottom heating element of the oven.

 

I'm not ashamed to say that I swore viciously, pulled the pie pan out, spilled batter everywhere in the process, and herded the subway-batter onto the floor by the clever use of two plastic spatulas. I then put a cookie sheet on the middle rack and stuck the cornbread back in the oven. Not five minutes later the burning smell was back, and this time with a vengence. Again, I ran to the kitchen. During my herding process it seemed I had gotten more wet batter directly on the heating element and it had turned to glowing cinders and filled the oven with smoke. Goddammit. I turned the whole thing off and gave up the cornbread as a lost cause.

 

And that's the story of how Kim nearly burned down her apartment complex this week. No idea what we're going to do next week, but I vote chili!

 

xoxoxo,

Kim & Emmy

 

Reader Questions: I know I'm not the only one to have a crazy kitchen disaster, and I also know that misery loves company. Care to share? :)

Sufferin' Sweet Potatoes!

What a mess this weekend was. Although Emmy and I had a great Saturday morning I found myself standing alone in the kitchen later that night, facing 3 hours of peeling and chopping at 3am. I crusaded on while Emmy slept, hoping to have our Sweet Potato Quesadillas ready by the time she had to leave for work at 11am.
*chopchop, boil, mash, stir, saute, etc, stir again, combine and stir*
*taste*
XP! Yuck. I mean, really, yuck. Maybe it was me trying to quadruple the recipe, maybe I needed fresh herbs instead of dried ones in little plastic bottles, or maybe, just maybe, I needed to hunker down and admit that I hate sweet potatoes. Darn.
Turns out we'd spent our whole grocery budget making this:

http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/recipes-winter-sweet-potato-quesadillas.htm

and had nothing to show for it. I gave up and sat down with some hard cider and watched cartoons until it was time to wake Emmy. Big mistake. Without any coffee in my system and a mess of hard cider I battled a losing fight against a migraine for the rest of the day. In the morning Emmy tried the sweet potato concoction and admitted that she hated it, too. Back to the co-op I went, dragging my feet over to the meat counter for some organic, pasture-raised ground beef and two packets of taco seasoning. Head aching and without any energy we snacked away on the last of the bread Sunday night and rolled into bed without making anything.

At last, come Monday morning I threw off the covers and (migraine blessedly gone) ran to the stove to start cooking. Just in time for a 10am shift, I pulled out the locally-made tortilla shells we'd gotten for the quesadillas and packed Emmy's lunch minutes before we had to be out the door. Now, with her off at work, I set myself the task of completing a recipe for fluffy rolls that I'd found a few days ago here:

http://jamiecooksitup.net/2010/10/fluffy-dinner-rolls/

They just came out of the oven a little while ago, and while I was skeptical earlier I'm much reformed now. They're delicious, and oddly sweet. Here only the butter and milk were local, I'm still working down my own salt and sugar stashes until I can get local/organic varieties from decent companies.

So, I learned something this week. If you don't like the ingredients in something, no matter how tasty the cooking method, you will probably not like the end result. Although I do have to say that I have gotten several responses to my personal facebook posts from family, who have recommended that I try frying up or roasting the sweet potatoes in wedges before adding them to the quesadillas so I won't end up with that bland, mashed squashy flavor.

I have no idea what I'll make next week, but it'll probably be either potato soup or vegetarian chili.

xoxoxo,
Kim & Emmy