Successful homemade burritos!

Paul and Mae love the frozen bean and cheese burritos. At $4 for 12, they are a good deal. But I decided to try and make them at home, and they are yummy! Less salty for sure, but just as yummy. I used this recipe. The black beans are the Hopi black beans from our CSA. While preparing them, I was struck by how purple they were - beautiful! The onions are also from the CSA and the rice leftover from Xmas' Chinese take out. The salsa is from a jar - another tomato thing to try to can next summer! Shredded cheddar cheese from Colorado and some cumin are also in there. I used to make our own corn tortillas but in my decluttering excitement I gave away the tortilla press. *sigh* The tortillas are from a local vendor, and they are so good I could eat them alone! All in all, a successful creation. Hooray!

Back to basics

Before Ted was diagnosed with his gluten intolerance, I baked homemade sandwich bread. My friend Wendy had a decent bread machine recipe and it made 2 loaves, which lasted us a week or so. And I did that for quite a while, at least a year if not more. Then the gluten issue arose and I bought, baked, ordered and fiddled with dozens of GF bread recipes, all of which he rejected (and I don't really blame him.) About 6 months ago his doctor put him on a digestive enzyme to take with a meal that includes gluten or dairy (which he is also sensitive to, though we've known that since he was 4). While I don't fill his plate with wheat products, it's been a lifesaver, especially for sandwiches. Mr. Picky loves his nut butter sandwiches, and I love that he loads up on the peanut, almond or hazelnut butter, for the good fat and protein that his skinny 48 pound body needs. Just recently I began baking our own bread again. It's more of a white bread and as the days pass, each new batch is more like sourdough, which is interesting. It's from a 5 minutes a day recipe that I had written down a while ago. I mix up enough for 8 loaves and then put the dough in the fridge, covered. Every other day I bake a loaf in a loaf pan. It's surprisingly good. I'm going to try rolls and hamburger buns tomorrow and see how they are. I love discovering an easier way to do something I truly want to do. Fresh bread is up there on the list, right after the GF pancakes that I've finally mastered and churn out constantly. Now, about that raw milk share...

Week #4 Wrap Up (through 12/27)

I'm not sure why my weeks are different from everyone else's. Our first week was Thanksgiving week, right? So this is Week 4. I'm confused. Anyway! This was a good week. The days were relaxed and mellow, and I did plenty of cooking and resting. Ahhh...

The Rustic Cabbage Soup I made up on Sunday lasted us all week as a quick lunch or dinner. I had rehearsal on Monday night and a late TKD class with Ted on Tuesday night, so it came in handy. We also finished up the leftover Chinese take-out from Paul's work's holiday party on Saturday. When all the entrees were gone, I transformed the leftover rice into the delicious rice pudding I made for Nancy when I visited. Mae and I were the only ones who ate it, and the entire 13x9 pan was gone in less than 2 days. Mmm.

On Thursday I fixed Annette's delicious Savory Squash Gratin to go with our traditional Xmas Oyster Stew that Paul grew up loving every year. The gratin was very rich but tasty. I used Gruyere cheese because that's what I had on hand, ready to make Saturday's crock pot French Onion Soup, using CSA onions, homemade veggie broth and locally made bread from Great Harvest Bread Company. While I was roasting the acorn squash for the gratin, I popped in my oldest sugar pie pumpkin too and froze the puree for soups later on. The resulting plethora of roasted seeds were perfect this time; I think the trick is roasting them at low heat for a longer time. I had them at 250 for a total of 45 minutes, stirring every 15.

I hope that those of you who celebrate Xmas had a lovely one!

Week #3 Wrap Up

Wow this was a busy week! Ted was home sick, Ole the dog was recovering from TPLO surgery, all three kiddos' schools were busy with parties and everyone was celebrating Hanukkah! It was crazy! I was so grateful for the homemade goodness of our evening meals, reminding us to slow down, enjoy each other and be grateful for what we have.

On Monday, I fixed French Market soup, (CSA onion, Indian Woman beans, garlic & homemade stock) which fed us the next two nights as well. On Thursday I defrosted the Squash Pot Pie I had doubled and frozen on Thanksgiving. We feasted on the scrumptious pie the rest of the week. Of course, latkes with CSA potatoes and onions joined in on the side a few nights last week too - oh so yummy.

This weekend I cooked up a storm, prepping double batches of Rustic Cabbage Soup,(CSA cabbage, potatoes, onion, garlic, Hopi beans & homemade stock) Abbos's own Celery Curry Soup (CSA celery, onions, potatoes & stock) and lots of homemade veggie stock from the peelings and clippings. Paul also helped shred a ton of cabbage, and we made up 2 huge batches of our CSA's recipe for Freezer Coleslaw. A good week!

We had our last CSA Keeper share pickup last Wednesday and the larder is full! The basement houses copious and various squash; plump beets and pale turnips are in the crisper in dark plastic bags, and huge fat carrots live in the other drawer - we love the carrots so much we tend to eat them up before I can fix our favorite Carrot Bisque recipe. My job this week is to roast and plan the squash. I foresee soups, stews and simple roasted squash appearing on our Dark Days menu next week.

Stay warm, everyone, and Happy Winter!

French Market Soup in the crockpot

Last week we ate locally but didn't cook. How? Leftovers! It was lovely.

This Monday morning I tossed some ingredients into the slow cooker. A hearty simple soup will be ready tonight at 6pm, using almost all local ingredients. The recipe is here. It includes (all from the CSA) beans, onions, garlic and broth. Non-local ingredients are a can of tomatoes (grrr - hey! is anyone willing to barter? My peach jam for your canned tomatoes?), s&p, lemon juice and liquid smoke. Homemade rolls will round out the meal. Is it dinner time yet? mmm.....

Celery Curry Soup

This recipe and directions are from "my farmer" at Abbo. We'll be having this soup this week! Sounds delicious, and a great way to use up all that celery!

Yummy Celery Curry
Ingredients:
1 super large Abbo onion (I prefer the yellow ones for this recipe) diced
4-6 Abbo potatoes peeled and sectioned
10-12 stalks of Abbo celery with leaves, chopped
2 Tbs Curry Powder
4 cups broth (I like Rapunzel bouillon when I do not have home made)

In sesame oil saute the onions. Once softened, add the broth, celery and potatoes. When a fork easily passes through the potatoes add 2 tablespoons curry powder, stir and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
Get out your blender! Blend to desired consistency (if you like chunky soup for example, only blend for a short time or only blend half, or blend all but your potatoes) and stir back together.

Wala! You're done. Add plain yogurt or sour cream to the top with a couple celery leaves for a beautiful presentation.

I've added carrot to this recipe, and I think squash would also be good. I have not tried freezing, but suspect it would work out just fine. If you find your soup a bit thick, you could certainly add coconut milk as a thinner instead of additional broth. This is a terrific variation! Enjoy!

Dark Days Update

This week's update is in our new space! This was a local week, to be sure. Here are the meals we enjoyed this week with links to the recipes.

Monday is our crock pot day. We had a rich, nourishing stew of red beans, cabbage and roots. It needed a little more punch, but it was very warming. All ingredients but the rice, celery seed and enchilada sauce were from our CSA, Abbondanza. Tuesday we had the leftovers and they were delicious with a dash of tabasco!

On Wednesday I roasted some veggies for a Veggie Pie and made up a HUGE amount of homemade veggie broth in the process. The house smelled wonderful all day! The pie was a little too dry for my taste, so next time I'll make it a bit more liquidy. We nibbled on the extra roasted veggies all week. All ingredients but the pie crust were from our CSA. Leftovers on Thursday were yummy!

On Friday, I fixed one of our absolute favorite soups, Lentil Buttercup. Buttercup is such a delicious squash - so sweet and yummy. I added our very sad looking old bok choi to it and it was a good addition. CSA ingredients were the broth made from the veggie pie veggies, buttercup squash, onions, garlic and bok choi. The red lentils were from the pantry and I think bought a few years ago! They seemed to be ok. Mmm...

Saturday we had a party at night, so I brought Pumpkin Black Bean Soup, a favorite! It used all CSA ingredients (pumpkin, Hopi black beans, onion, garlic, veggie broth). Tomatoes were from a can:-( Next summer I vow to preserve tomatoes!! Tonight we are going to enjoy the fridge of leftovers! This was Week 2 of the Dark Days Challenge. So far, so good!