Posted by: Ginger | March 7, 2012

Crepes Sweet or Savory? Gluten free ratio rally

I have fond memories of crepes. Back in college, I studied in Germany while a friend of mine studied in Rennes, France. Rennes might not be the crepe capital of France, but it has to be close. We would walk into a creperie, sit, drink a cider and order ham and cheese crepes or chocolate crepes or mushroom crepes. I need to dig out one of those photos. I probably didn’t take pictures of food then as I do now but I might have some nice shots of sidewalk cafes.

Crepes are this month’s Gluten free ratio rally’s challenge. Crepes are an easy one to tackle since the best crepes are very delicately handles so as to not work up the gluten. This makes them a great gluten free item to make. Our host this month is T.R. Crumbley so stop on by their blog and read about this month’s rally.

I followed Michael Ruhlman’s ratio of 2:2:1 for liquid eggs flour. Since it was just me, I made a half batch following the ratio recommendations. They turned out great!

Ingredients (for 3 largish crepes):

4 oz of whole local milk

4 oz of egg (this equaled one egg from my chickens in the back yard)

2 oz of gluten free flour mix (i used 1.5 oz sorghum flour and .5 oz of potato starch)

1 tbs of melted butter

Technique:

Melt the butter and throw it all in the blender or food processor. Whirl until combined and let it rest 1/2 hour or so. Add a tad of butter to a heated skillet. I used a non stick skillet that was on the larger side. Pour in some of your batter. Swirl it about until it looks like a raw crepe and coats the pan and let it cook. Cooking only takes a minute or two. As soon as mine started to bubble a bit at the edges, I added my crepe ingredients. Let them heat for a moment and then folded my crepe over in half and then in half again.

Crepe fillings I used:

Bavarian ham, swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms and dots of an herb butter that has chives and parsley in it.

Nutella

Which crepes were best? Both. Somehow I took pictures of the nutella crepe only on my phone and not on the camera. So imagine oozing chocolate leaking out the corners.

Here are the links to all the other gluten free ratio rally bloggers this month, stop by and check out their crepes!

Adina ~ Gluten Free Travelette ~ Breakfast Crepes Three Ways
Caitlin ~ {Gluten-Free} Nom Nom Nom ~ Buckwheat Crepes
Caleigh ~ Gluten Free[k] ~ Banana Cinnamon Crepes
Claire ~ My Gluten Free Home ~ Victory Crepe Cake
Ginger ~ Fresh Ginger ~ Sweet ‘n Savory
gretchen ~ kumquat ~ nutella crepe cake
Heather ~ Discovering the Extraordinary ~ “Southwestern” Crepes
Karen ~ Cooking Gluten-Free! ~ Gluten Free Crepes Savory or Sweet
Mary Fran ~ FrannyCakes ~ Gluten-free Peanut Butter Crepe Cake
Morri ~ Meals with Morri ~ Russian Blini for Two
Pete and Kelli ~ No Gluten, No Problem ~ Key Lime Crepes
Shauna ~ gluten-free girl ~ Gluten Free Buckwheat Crepes
T.R. ~ No One Likes Crumbley Cookies ~ Brownie Crepes with Strawberry Wine sauce
T.R. ~ No One Likes Crumbley Cookies ~ Basil Tomato and Feta Crepes
T.R. ~ No One Likes Crumbley Cookies ~ Fresh Fruit Crepe
Jonathan ~ The Canary Files ~ Vegan Crepes for Filipino Spring Rolls
Rachel ~ The Crispy Cook ~ Raspberries and Cream Crepes
Mrs. R ~ Honey From Flinty Rocks ~ Crepes – Spinach & Dessert

i’m out

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Posted in crepes, gluten free, gluten free ratio rally

Posted by: Ginger | February 22, 2012

Sourdough Boule with Parmesan and Fresh Rosemary

I am excited to share this boule with you!  I have been working on gluten free sourdough bread as I still miss that nice crusty hearty tangy loaf.  Thanks to Jeanne Sauvage of Art of Gluten-Free Baking for making my search for great sourdough easier.

slices

I sometimes like to wing it.  Just plain make something totally from scratch no recipe no measurements no rules.  I usually fail but I get really excited during the process, so maybe it’s worth it.  I decided to do that with some sourdough.  I made a starter by throwing together a combo of flours I don’t even remember and then added a dash of yeast.  I let it sit on the counter for days, feeding it occasionally.  Once I thought it was properly sour, I added some more flours and maybe some xanthan gum and probably a dash of olive oil   Then defying all the gluten free rules, I decided to knead the dough. So I did, then I let it rise.  It didn’t rise much but I baked it anyway.  It was a nice sour lump of rock.  I added far too much gf flour in the attempt to make it kneadable.  Gluten free breads almost always start out as a stiff batter, but I was in baking denial.  However, the attempt did get me baking again and it’s been quite a while.

So I searched for recipes.  I felt like I had cheated using yeast to begin with even though it did sour over time.  I found this great starter/poolish recipe also from Jeanne.  So I started another starter to compare.

Of course I didn’t have any cabbage on hand so I just started it on the counter hoping that the yeast gods would be kind to me.  Three days later after showing some sign of bubbling but no sour smell, I did add some cabbage leaves to a small portion of the starter, left it for a day and then added it to the rest of the batch.  It was nice and sour tasting.

sourdough with parmesan and rosemary

Here is what I did for my starter:

Ingredients:

1 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup navy bean flour ( i did try a batch with garbanzo/besan/chickpea flour but for me the bitterness came through in a non appealing way)

1.5 cups of water

a couple of red cabbage leaves torn into large pieces – mine were not organic

You want a mixture of a higher protein flour to better replicate wheat flour, thus the navy bean flour which is full of protein.

Directions:

Mix the flours and water together, this will be pretty liquidy batter like.  Pour into your fermenting container of choice.  I used a 2 quart glass mason jar as then I can see the action.  Stir in your cabbage leaves.  I left mine open and stirred it ever so often.  If this were summer time, I would probably cover it, but no flies are out and about in Michigan right now.  I was hoping for some wild yeast to help the process.

Jeanne recommends adding more flour and water every 12 hours, I forgot and added it each morning.  Then mix it up.  Once you see the bubbling your yeast has arrived, so give it another day or two to fully develop.  Then remove the cabbage leaves.  They do leave a bit of a purple tinge, but that will get diluted once you add more ingredients to your starter.

From there I strictly follow Jeanne’s recipe so I won’t post it since you should go to her page and read all her research on the project.  I did use King Arthur’s Gluten Free flour mix for my flour mixture.  I really like it although it is expensive.  It seems to be a well thought out combination of flours and starches. By strictly I mean I follow her proportions and directions.  Of course I add things to it but we will get to that in a minute. Once the dough is in the parchment paper and rising bowl, I sprinkle a bit of rice flour on top and smooth it over. After the dough has risen and just before plopping it into the heated dutch oven, I slash a pattern into the dough.  Adding the rice flour makes the pattern much more distinctive and easier to slice without pulling the dough.

bread in a dutch oven

Since I don’t eat a lot of bread and my hubby is only here every third weekend, I choose to make a half batch.  One small boule using my 2 quart Staub dutch oven. That is what is pictured above.

Things I have added to my loaves of bread:

Parmesan chunks, rosemary, garlic powder and black pepper, sometimes slices of green olive too

Caraway seed, dehydrated onion and a dash of cocoa powder to make a “rye” style.

Gluten free rye style sourdough

If you are experimenting with sourdough too, please let me know your success and tips!

i’m out

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Posted by: Ginger | February 17, 2012

Moriarty’s Mug

Moriarty's Mug

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner.  Of course I start saying that around August as it’s one of my 2 favorite “sort of” holidays of the year.  I am giving you this recipe so that you have plenty of time to try it and have it ready for the big day.  I am not sure why I associate this soup with Irish celebrations except for that my favorite Irish pub in Lansing served this soup.  It’s so simple yet satisfying.  I slurp up the whole pot when I make it.  I love a good savory salty broth and this is one.

I made this soup for lunch today.  I imagine it would be even better if using homemade stock, but I have none in the freezer right now.  Cans of Swanson low sodium did just fine.  You want the low sodium as you want to add plenty of seasoned salt.  The pub uses Lawry’s but I use Penzeys.

I am still working out the best use of lighting in our new house with our camera.  One thing I do know is that you shouldn’t attempt photos of something while it is hot and steaming.  Our Nikon D90 picks up all of that steam.  It might help if I actually were to read the booklet it came with one day.  While waiting for the soup to cool, my cheese sunk and melted, which is what you want for eating.  So I dredged a spoonful up for you to see:

Ingredients (makes 2 large soup bowl’s worth):

1/4 lb Bacon (6 slices?)

1 large or 2 smaller russet potatoes (prob 8 0z or so)

1/2 medium onion

4 cups chicken broth – low sodium or homemade

4 dashes of hot sauce – I used Crystal, but Franks or any would do as long as you use some.

3 shakes of seasoned salt (Lawry’s or Penzeys are recommended for the flavor profile)

2 green onions – just use the green stalks, finely sliced or use chives

shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese

Step one.  Chop the bacon and saute it in the pot you plan to make the soup in. I typically chop up a half a package of bacon at a time and freeze the bacon bits for things like pizza or other soups.  That said, we have a lot of bacon around our house as we have our pigs raised nearby and butcher the entire pig, giving us about 30 pounds of bacon.

Step two.  While bacon is frying, dice 1/2 an onion and 1 large or 2 small russet potatoes (of course any will do but I like our russets from the farm here).

Step three.  Remove the crisped bacon and drain on a paper towel.  Pour almost all of the bacon grease into your bacon grease jar that you store in the fridge – why would you ever throw one drop of this decadent smokey salty fat away?  It’s great to put a spoonful in your pinto beans.

Step four.  Briefly saute the onion and potato.

Step five.  Add 4 cups of low sodium chicken broth or stock.  Scrape up all those little browned bacon tasties, they make the broth delicious.

Step six.  Shake a healthy amount of hot sauce into the stock and a couple of good dashes of seasoned salt in too.

Step seven.  Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are cooked and broth reduces a bit.

Step eight.  Slice up some green onion green tips for garnish while potatoes are cooking.

Step nine.  The moment you have waited for.  Assemble the soup.  Pour as much soup as you want into a bowl.  Place a good amount of shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese in bowl, top with a couple good sized pinches of the chopped crisped bacon and finally sprinkle those lovely green onion tips on top for a splash of crunch and color.

Nine steps but really it takes only 15 minutes.

Sigh deeply and slurp.

ok, Moriarty's bowl, you want to eat more than a mug's worth...

i’m out

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Posted by: Ginger | January 27, 2012

The Gluten Free Ratio Rally – popovers!

It’s sunny out.  It’s remarkable how different that makes me feels vs a cloudy, snowy day in January.  I needed a day such as this to type up this post.  I had it all typed up on Monday, with the perfect amount of quirkiness to text ratio and whammo! I guess I hadn’t refreshed my open post page before starting, didn’t copy it before hitting save and lost it all.  Sunshine clears the funk away and makes it all better.  It also makes me aware of what a bad housekeeper I am.  Who has time to dust, vacuum and to cook? I certainly like making time for cooking.  I am lucky if I can remember to water the plants before they die.  The only thing bad about sunshine in my house is that it points out the need to vacuum again.

I decided to join the gluten free ratio rally in the hopes of getting more creative in the kitchen and challenging myself, especially with baking.  Baking in winter is so nice and cozy.  It’s like winter’s soulmate.  So is a wood stove, but I don’t have one of those anymore.  This month’s challenge is easily made in a regular oven, no need for a wood stove and it’s popovers on the baking list.  This month’s host is Mrs. R of Honey from Flinty Rocks.  The Gluten Free Ratio Rally is a group of gluten free bloggers using Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio method of weighing ingredients to create a gluten free equivalent from baked goods to sauces and everything in-between. I used his ratio app on my iPhone.

The popover ratio is 2 parts liquid to 1 part egg to 1 part flour.  I decided to go popover crazy and try 2 batches in the same day following his ratio.

Batch 1

3.5 oz oat flour; .5 oz tapioca flour; 4 oz of eggs and 8 oz of milk; chives and black pepper; butter

My eggs are a bit smaller than what was called for as my chickens just recently started laying (eggs get bigger over time) so 2 eggs made for 3.5 oz, so I added an extra yolk to make 4 oz.  This, quite possibly was a mistake to do.  The milk was organic whole milk from Sheltler’s Dairy – a fabulous local dairy.

please ignore my dirty glass door

These tasted pretty good but were a bit heavy.  Probably because of the oat flour and the extra yolk.  They did pop up pretty marvelously in the oven and I wouldn’t say they fell once out,  they were not airy all over, just in a few places, like where the butter was.  I added about 1 tsp of butter per the Michael Ruhlman Ratio directions and next time would opt for 2 tsp.  I loved the chives in these.  Batch 1 was baked at the same time as part of Batch 2.

Which brings us to Batch 2

3.5 oz fine white rice flour; .5 oz corn starch; 4 oz of eggs (2 eggs plus 1 yolk again); 8 oz of whole milk, toasted onion and aleppo chiles; butter

These were fairly inedible.  The inside was like a flavorless egg pancake, heavy and dense.  About 1/3 of this batter was baked with batch 1.

During round one of baking, I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on three of the muffin tins of both batches.  The Parmesan did not work.  See the comments dense and heavy line above, add the words more dense and heavy and that about approximates it,  with a cheesy flavor. Which is good, but not in this case.  I decided to call them popunders.

So, I decided with my remaining batch of rice flour batter to add a tablespoon or so of millet flour to give the popover something to rise against in the tin.  I also filled the tins half full vs the 2/3′s full that I filled round 1.  These worked much better and were more airy as can be seen in the picture at the beginning of the post.

the popunders

So with my popovers fresh out of the oven, I raced around the house in search of our nice Nikon camera.  No where to be found.  I texted my hubby who lives in Ann Arbor (a possible 2 year temporary thing – jobs, you know) and indeed he took it down with him after his last visit.  Alas, that left me with my 3 year old iphone camera for photo taking.  I did the best I could.  I dislike all those blogs with awful off putting photos with bad lighting and color tones, yet must present you with one this week.

A final note about popovers.  They mean it when they say these should be eaten while warm.  Do not under any circumstances attempt to eat a cold one.  I do plan to make these again, but will tweak the recipe first.  However they must wait until I have a crowd to eat them as 2 dozen popovers is about 22 too many!  I probably wouldn’t have tried making popovers for a while if it hadn’t been for the gluten free ratio rally, so it’s working already.

Check out all of the rally popovers:

Brooke | B & the boy! – Chocolate & Sweet Potato Popovers – http://bellwookie.blogspot.com/2012/02/ratio-rally-popovers.html

Charissa | Zest Bakery – Lemon Vanilla Popovers with Minnesota Raspberries – http://www.zestbakery.com/fruit/lemon/lemon-vanilla-popovers-with-minnesota-raspberries

Claire | My Gluten free home – Chai Popovers – http://www.myglutenfreehome.net/2012/01/popovers-3-claire-0.html

Erin Swing | The Sensitive Epicure – Popovers – http://thesensitiveepicure.blogspot.com/2012/01/popovers.html

gretchen  |  kumquat – strawberry cream cheese popovers – www.kumquatblog.com/2012/02/gluten-free-ratio-rally-strawberry.html

Heather | Discovering the Extraordinary – Basic Popovers – http://www.discoveringtheextraordinary.blogspot.com/2012/02/basic-popovers-for-the-gf-ratio-rally.html

Jenn | Jenn Cuisine – Chocolate Popovers – http://jenncuisine.com/2012/02/gluten-free-ratio-rally-popovers

Jonathan  |  The Canary Files – Cinnamon & Star Anise Popovers – http://thecanaryfiles.blogspot.com/2012/02/ratio-rally-gluten-free-dairy-free.html

Mary Fran | FrannyCakes – Gluten-Free Honey Coconut Popovers  – http://wp.me/p1HfLM-l4

Morri  |  Meals With Morri – Little Bitty Popover Bites – http://mealswithmorri.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-bitty-popover-bites.html

Rachel/The Crispy Cook – Corny Popovers – http://wheat-free-meat-free.blogspot.com/2012/02/pop-on-over.html

TR | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies – Sweet Cherry Popovers – http://tcrumbley.blogspot.com/2012/02/gluten-free-popovers.html

i’m out

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Posted in gluten free, gluten free ratio rally

Posted by: Ginger | January 16, 2012

Snow and crab apples

Untitled by celticjig1
Untitled, a photo by celticjig1 on Flickr.

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Posted by: Ginger | January 16, 2012

it’s time for a little change, well perhaps a lot of change

Greetings from NW Michigan!  I finally made it back to the farm and ironically have more time on my hands to cook and blog.  Aside from the move, I also switched jobs, got married and lived in our house while it was being completely remodeled, all in the same two months.  No wonder it seems like I have free time now.

I live on the cherry apple potato farm I grew up on and now have 16 chickens.  I have a small view of Lake Michigan from the North windows of my house and can see the light house between South Manitou Island ( which is a national park) and the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes (which is a national lake shore)when I drive over the hill to go or return from anywhere.  Yep, I’m pretty happy!

Here’s a pic our our new backyard after the first snow :

And a wedding day photo or two:

 

i’m out

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Posted by: Ginger | November 20, 2010

Butter Rum Cake with Butter Rum Glaze, gluten free of course

I want to be upfront.  I am not really a baker, I love to cook.  Therefore, when I can, I take a little help from a mix for things like brownies and cakes.  I really only make one cake a year and it is this one.  It is so rich and decadent that no other cake compares and since I am a pretty picky cake eater, I am happy to stick to this one and make it once a year.  That said, I have been trying to make some decadent cupcakes to add to my repertoire.  Like Bailey’s with Bailey’s cream cheese frosting.  Or lemon curd cupcakes. But those are a different post aren’t they?

Did I mention yet that it has butter and rum? And that is it decadent?  Cause it does and it is.

I happen to have 1/3 of this cake sitting in my fridge right now.  So, I could take a photo of it and post it for you.  But you know what cake in a loaf pan looks like right?  It looks like dense yellow cake in a loaf pan.  Sorta like pound cake.  This one has at least a combined pound of butter and rum.  I think it weighs 3 pounds when finished.  You will regret it if you don’t share this cake, or your hips will anyway.  It is super easy (did I mention a box cake mix) and super fast.  I must also confess, since you probably haven’t read the ingredient list yet, that it also uses a box of non instant vanilla pudding mix.  Yep.  There, I said it.

I did let the cake I just made brown a little bit extra, by mistake since we seem to have no real idea how hot our oven is cooking these days.  The answer is, hotter than I thought.  So therefore, the picture would give you a false sense of brownness.  No picture this time.  But it tastes great.  The extra brownness can be interpreted as caramelization once it combines with more butter and rum.  And that is not a bad thing.  I didn’t burn it, but it is browner than I desired.

The first time I tried this cake was 7 or 8 years ago during a superbowl party,  back when I had nary a thought about gluten.  I asked for the recipe and still have the original recipe written on a small blue stickynote with all of my conversions, adaptations and changes scratched on to it.  It is a two sided 2″ square of sticky note.  If a recipe can fit on a sticky note, then anyone can make it.

I used the Betty Crocker mix this time, any gluten free yellow cake mix seems to do.  I make most everything from scratch but when it comes to baked goods, as I said before, I take a little help now and then.

Butter Rum Cake with Butter Rum Glaze -  gluten free
1 box GF yellow cake mix
1 package non instant vanilla pudding mix (I have never tried making it without it, but it would probably work)
3-4 eggs depending on size.  I used 3 with the Betty Crocker mix and normally use 4 with other mixes, but it seemed pretty loose with just 3
1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted butter – I like salted to counteract the sweetness
1/2 cup rum (I use Mt. Gay but any rum will do, well maybe not Meyers spiced rum)
1/2 cup milk (or water or maybe more rum?)
1 tsp vanilla or a splash
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 cup dried unsweeted coconut (optional)
Mix above ingredients except for nuts and pour into a greased and floured loaf pan or bundt pan (it fills a loaf pan perfectly but would be much prettier in a bundt).  Sprinkle the chopped pecans into the pan before pouring the batter in.  My BF doesn’t like nuts so I typically use 1/2 dried unsweetened coconut and it gives it great flavor and texture.  I think both together would be fab.  This is a pretty loose batter, not stiff at all. 

Bake at 325 F until brown and set.  This will take 50-60 min.  It is a heavy cake so toothpicks don’t always come out super clean.  If it is browning too fast just cover it with aluminum foil loosely to slow it down.

Butter rum glaze (butter rum bath might be a better description)
1 stick of butter (i used salted as the glaze is sweet)
I cup sugar
1 cup rum
splash of vanilla
Melt all 4 ingredients together and simmer a couple of minutes, stirring as you go.

Let cake cool for a few minutes and the poke it full of holes with a knife and slowly pour the glaze over the cake (stress on slowly or the glaze flies everywhere on the counter), move the sides of the cake away from the pan walls with a knife or spatula if needed to let the glaze work in.  Let the cake sit at least 30 min to adsorb the glaze and then either serve from the loaf pan or invert onto a plate.  This cake gets even better after a couple of days of sitting and soaking.
I haven’t tried it with chocolate cake mix, but how could that not be great too?

i’m out

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Posted by: Ginger | November 14, 2010

Ahhh it’s fall

Things are slowing down and speeding up here at Ranch Ebyhagen. The garden is winding down, the chickens are gone but the CSA’s were going strong until 2 weeks ago and now we have CSA withdrawal.  We have been planning our new business and making test batches of cider.  The tomatoes are all canned and the pig is in the freezer.

Cooking with our CSA veggies has been great and we managed to use most everything, which was a challenge since one of us doesn’t eat eggplant or zucchini.

We have had fully grown laying hens since May, but finally had to farm them out up North when Sassy started a new screaming habit, all day long.  Since we have neighbors on three sides of us 40-75 feet away, that wasn’t going to work.  They are happily living in the former goat shed up at the Bardenhagen Berries farm in Lake Leelanau.

As usual we have been working towards sourcing out as much local food as possible, trying to support Michigan growers, producers and businesses.  Now everyone is catching on!  We are all doing our part to help feed the local economy.

It’s nice and chilly outside, our Indian Summer is coming to an end.  But we have a cord of wood and a fire burning in the woodstove.  The winter’s first knitting project is underway and now it’s time to plan this week’s menu.

A hot cup of tea was just handed to me, so, back to the warm fire I go.

i’m out

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Posted by: Ginger | March 19, 2010

And we’re back!

From Mexico that is.  Sometimes you need a recharge and sometimes you just plain need to get out of the country and experience another culture’s food.  We needed and found both.

In the coming weeks we will be posting our version of several different tasty treats (all gluten free) that we enjoyed to the fullest in Mexico.  Empanandas made only with masa, pork in chile verde sauce, tamales and homemade tortillas to sop up the sauce, shrimp tostadas and sopes, little masa saucers filled with pork or beef in a red chile sauce.  But for now, we are catching up on our spinach, broccoli and tomato sauce cravings after two weeks of street food in Mexico, so these photos will have to suffice:

Mexican garnishesCheese emapanada made wtih masa
tortilla making on an open firepork in chile verde, Chacala
finished sopeSalsa

Hungry yet?
i’m out

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Posted by: Ginger | January 4, 2010

January 3, 2010 Dinner and a Movie

I haven’t posted in quite a while and have been wondering how to get back in the swing of things.  I glanced down at my menu plan and decided that I would ease back into blogging by posting our menu for the week.    This week’s host is Manda at Asparagus Thin and the theme is dinner and a movie.  I have attempted to add any fitting movies as I go along.  Mostly they are related to the cuisine we are cooking that eve, at least regionally close or a comedy about a key ingredient.  They are linked from our Netflix account, so hopefully it works so that you can click on the link and see more about the movie.

I switched jobs the first week of November and now have less time to cook in the evenings, so am working on making our weeknight meals less complex and/or prepping items a night ahead.  It is super cold here in Michigan, resulting in a lot of cold weather, hearty foods this week, that and we keep our house at 63F, so it’s cold anyway.

Saturday: Jaeger Schnitzel with parsley buttered noodles, mushroom sauce and broccoli with lemon and red pepper flakes (East/West)

Sunday: Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc fried chicken (brined with lemon, garlic and thyme) and greens from the freezer cooked with one of our smoked hocks.  Using one of my brothers organic free range chickens.  Breaking down chickens is really not my favorite thing to do, but I am relying on this dish to make the effort worthwhile! Greens, pork and chicken all local. (Food, Inc.)

Monday: Chalupas/gorditas (masa boats) topped with chorizo and cheese, sides of chile de arbol tomato salsa and tomatillo salsa from Antojitos (a book on Mexican cooking)  and Rick Bayless’s Every day Mexican; maybe empanada de platanos if I didn’t over roast my plantains, they seem pretty dry.  Pintos too, into the crock pot they go on Sunday night. Pintos are from MI and the chorizo. (The Milagro Beanfield War)

Tuesday: Swiss style fondue and a big green salad with a lemon olive oil dressing.  We will be dipping toasted GF bread and potatoes (so more of a raclette really) and maybe I can sneak some carrots or zucchini in as dippers.  It is fricken cold here in Michigan, time to break out the fondue pot. Potatoes are from the farm, but that’s it for this meal.  Fondue from Trader Joes. (no movie but the winter Olympics will do here, it’s always cold there and this is a great apres ski meal)

Wednesday:  Inside out stuffed poblano peppers. I love stuffed peppers, but Eby doesn’t like peppers unless they are chopped up small, so inside out is the compromise.  Rice, local grass fed ground beef,  our canned tomatoes, garlic from the farm, poblano peppers, Michigan onions, cilantro and cheese.  Comfort food baby! (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes )

Thursday: Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking by Paula Wolfert:  slow cooked pork with sage, mustard and tomatoes.  Will be using our pork, our sage and our tomatoes, mustard, not local.  This will be converted to a crock pot dish, prepped on Wed eve, into the crock on Thursday morning. (Julie & Julia)

Friday: Cabernet braised short ribs with gorgonzola polenta and herb gremolata.  I find I have zero motivation to cook on Friday nights after working all week (I have to use my brain a lot more these days) so this will be ready when I get home thanks again to the crockpot. (Volver , I couldn’t find an Italian movie with the humor I wanted, so you get a Spanish one).

Pretty much the majority of our proteins (chicken, pork, beef, eggs and dry beans) are all local, even our tofu is local on occasion.  I see that fish is missing from the menu this week, we will fix that next week.  Some of the fish we buy is from MI, perch, blue gill, whitefish, salmon in season but other than that we don’t have a choice if we want some variety.  We are lucky enough to have a freshwater shrimp farm about 1/2 hour away and they are reasonably priced.  What this all means is, I am working on redefining and refocusing my blog to capture more of the locavore-ness of our lives.  I am gluten free and everything we cook is gluten free and I even gave up eating spelt a year ago.  I am really bad at posting recipes (but am happy to tell you how I made something, I just never measure), so I won’t say I will post more recipes, but I will give you great food ideas, great photos of food (new camera), garden and nature and the occasional recipe.  Our getaways are typically food oriented, so you will get a bit of that here and there as we try to focus on what is local where ever we are.

it feels good to be back

i’m out

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