simple yet fast

Tonight's dinner was quick - from fridge/pantry to table in under an hour. That's the way a-huh a-huh I like it. We had Honeybaked Lentils with Carmelized Apples & Turnips and GF drop biscuits (1 cup GF flour (we use Pamela's) ... Cut in 4 TBSP butter ... Mix with 1/3 + 1 TBSP milk - (we used homemade almond milk) ... Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.) Simple and fast and warming and yummy. Happy coldest day of the year from Boulder, Colorado! High of 14 and low of -1 were seen by my van today. Oy! The lentil recipe was pure pantry (i.e. free!) and the apples & turnips were all CSA. I wonder if I'll get through all the squash and turnips this winter - ah, the joy and burden of abundance!

Mmm

This is just a yummy week. I took down a large tub of coleslaw we froze last month - it was even sweeter and crunchier than the fresh version. A side of leftover roasted root veggies and local Bahkti chai with homemade soymilk rounded out my most delicious lunch. Mmm.

Dinner was reheated chili from last night, more delicious coleslaw and roasted delicata squash with ghee and brown sugar. I discovered (when I realized I was out of local butter and reached for the jarred ghee) that the ghee is local, from down the road in Sedalia, Colorado. Woot!

I am slowly working through my local jams and jellies on my homemade toast each morning. The apple butter and peach jam are gone and I'm into the peach jelly my friend Denise gifted me as a thanks for sharing the bounty of my CSA share when it overwhelmed me. I have more apple butter in the pantry and need to remember to stock up on applesauce - that goes so quickly in the winter with my kiddos! Stay warm, everyone!

99% local chili

This chili made me very happy. And with my goal of canning tomatoes next summer, this meal will be a frequent one next winter as well! Plus, isn't that the funniest picture? It looks so old fashioned, like it belongs in an old crusty diner that serves really good food. Anyway!

Ellen's CSA Chili in the Crockpot (all ingredients (but spices) from CSA share)

1 large yellow onion (CSA)
2 cups chopped tomatoes (local, frozen last summer)
2 cups Hopi beans (or any dark bean) CSA
2 cups Indian woman beans (or any white bean) CSA
2 cups corn (local, frozen last summer)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup vegetable broth (homemade from CSA veggies)
1 cup shredded cheese, optional (Local)

Put all in crockpot and put on Low for 8 hours or High for 4.

Credit for this recipe goes to Stephanie - without her, my love for my crockpot would never have been realized.

I meant to serve it with skillet cornbread and local honey on the side, but we had a bag of (gluten free - always!) Fritos in the cupboard so we tossed those on top. YUM! I guess that makes this meal more like 95% local rather than 99% - aw, let's just count the chili! It was hearty, warming and delicious. Hooray for chili! (I love dinners that make me look forward to lunch the next day!)

Dark Days Update

This week was another week of leftovers, which was relaxing. New yummies include lots of homemade bread with local Colorado flour (thank you, King's!), crustless pumpkin pie, buckets of homemade GF pancakes and roasted CSA vegetables. The one meal I'm going to report on (since it really felt like all leftovers, all the time) is tonight's dinner.

We had Obama's chili using CSA Hopi beans, CSA onions, local tomatoes I had frozen in the summer (!!! - so glad I cleaned out the deep freeze!) and CSA garlic. On the side, roasted CSA root veggies (beets, turnips, potatoes & garlic) and crustless pumpkin pie for dessert (CSA pumpkin, local eggs and homemade soymilk.) The pumpkin pie is our family recipe and is sooo yummy. Local Boulder Beer would have made the meal complete, but I had leftover wine-in-a-box, so we made due with that. Mmm!

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!