Showing posts with label dark days challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark days challenge. Show all posts
Dark Days week 8
Grilled Cheese and tomato soup. An example of very regular (non-elitist) food, that just happens to be local. In fact, so boring I forgot to take a picture, but here's some snow (another foot of this coming down this week!) |
| On the lake: herding dogs make perfect sine-wave tracks |
Roasted tomato soup, frozen in the fall: homemade chicken stock, roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers (homegrown). A little organic half and half (WI) added upon reheating.
Sandwich: Homemade WW sourdough (cress springs flour), Local smoked Gouda, Wisconsin butter.
Homegrown canned pears on the side
Dark Days week 7
Served with homemade wheat sandwich bread and apple sauce.
I should add that this the first time I cooked a first stewing hen, and I was impressed by the flavor, even though there wasn't a ton of meat. And for being so small, she went a long way--I also made a separate stock from the bonier pieces (wings and back, plus neck and liver etc) and that went into two more dishes: chilaquiles, and potato squash soup.
Dark Days week 6
The obligatory Breakfast-for-dinner post.Eggs are coming fast and furious, and make for a quick dinner. I was also using up some market potatoes that weren't going to store much longer, and some leftover toppings from pizza night. Ah January, the month of frugal meals.
Omelets: backyard eggs, a little sassy cow milk, stuffed with hooks cheddar cheese, homegrown pepper slices (frozen), market onions and some leftover mushroom slices from 'za night. Topped with homegrown/home canned salsa.
Toast: WW sourdough bread, WI butter, homemade strawberry balsamic jam (u-pick berries).
Pecatonica Valley Bacon
Cottage fried potatoes: market red potatoes, cubed and fried with red onions and homegrown garlic in a mix of butter and bacon grease. Ran out of garlic and too lazy to go back in the basement for more, so added a chunk of garlic scape pesto from the upstairs freezer. Mmm.
Dark Days Week 5 - beans and greens
It's not a traditional new year's meal, but to me this felt somewhat appropriate for the midwest.
Baked Beans with Tomatoes, adapted from Meta Givens : Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, 1959
1+ cup dried beans, soaked (I used Brokton beans, homegrown)
1 medium onion, sliced (market)
several strips bacon (Pecatonica Valley Farms)
1 pint jar of crushed tomatoes (homegrown)
1 tsp salt
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1 dried cayenne pepper (homegrown)
1/4 cup molasses*
Cook pre-soaked beans at a simmer in water to cover for about an hour, checking for done-ness periodically and adding salt about halfway through. Brown bacon in a small dutch oven, then pull the meat, drain off extra fat, and sautee onions in what remains. Then add the cooked beans, tomatoes, mustard, and a chopped/ground cayenne pepper, seeds and all. Once this nears a boil, add the molasses and bacon, and put it covered into a 250-300 degree oven for an hour or so. (I started higher, then found it boiling a bit much, so I turned it down.) The last 45 minutes or so take the lid off and it will form a gooey crust on top.
As for greens, I had a little kale left from my last hoop harvest, and though it was holding up well in the fridge I didn't want it to go to waste. Also, a welcome addition at the turn of the month was a huge uptick in my egg production (hooray for the solstice and longer days!). That, and some aging WW sourdough bread put me in the mood for a strata. I based it loosely on this recipe, but switched kale for chard, changed up the cheeses and herbs, added sundried tomatoes, and cooked all the filling in one skillet to simplify things. I also made the filling ahead and presoaked it with the custard for a few hours in the fridge, which is fairly common in strata recipes.
Happy New Year!
*my molasses was labeled as MI, product of USA, which is possibly the source as Michigan does have a beet sugar industry, but it's also likely they imported the main ingredients from Hawaii.... The original recipe listed brown sugar as an option, I bet honey would also work. But oh, the molasses really makes it taste wonderful.
Dark Days Week 4
I took a picture of this dinner last week but put off posting as it was a good DD meal, just not super interesting. I thought I might have a better meal to write about over the holidays, but that didn't happen!
We made this dinner on the 21st. We usually try to cook a nice meal for the Solstice, a one-night reprieve from a hectic time of year. We kept it fairly simple this year, pretty basic comfort food. Hopefully I'll be a little more inventive after the New Year.
The menu:
Steaks: A ribeye and a t-bone from a beef pack we purchased this fall from a local producer. Seared on a cast-iron grill pan with just a little salt and cracked pepper.
Oven fries: Farmer's Market red potatoes tossed in olive oil and S&P, baked until crispy.
Dill pickles: Homegrown cukes, dill, hot peppers, and garlic.
Green Salad: A very simple affair with just about the last of our winter lettuce harvested earlier in the month, homegrown sundried tomatoes, and market carrots. Vinaigrette with some homegrown garlic and herbs, oil and vinegar.
Baguettes: freshly baked with 25% local organic wheat, served with WI butter.
Dark Days Week 3
It's been a week. Nothing major, just a bunch of unexpected mishaps.
Good thing last weekend was prime for some come cooking. We were somewhat snowed-in, though we just got the edge of the midwest blizzard that buried places like Minneapolis. But we stayed home and made a few things that lasted through the week, or that we could just pull out on a night when we didn't have much energy for cooking.
These were pretty good: I pulled a pack of frozen thanksgiving turkey, and threw it in the food processor after blitzing some garlic and a little red onion. I added some parsley, and rosemary snipped from a potted plant brought in for the winter, and then some grated parmesan and provonella from my usual sources. To make it a little moister, I just added milk, some recipes call for an egg (which we're a little short of this time of year) or ricotta cheese. Either would be fine, but this worked well too. Pasta was made from backyard eggs, but I did use white AP flour...(not especially SOLE).
We served these with homegrown tomato sauce (from the freezer), a little more parm on top, and more of the whole wheat Miche, which is quickly becoming a household staple. A simple weeknight meal. And, we have more in the freezer!
