Archive for ‘July, 2011’

Flathead Cherries and other Sunday shenanigans

These are the cherries that came home with me yesterday. They have since been cleaned (vinegar & water rinse), pitted (OXO cherry pitter!) and made into Cherry-Basil syrup, Cherry-Basil Jam and Cherry Pistachio Crumble Cake. All Round 2 as I made them last week with the first batch of cherries I bought last weekend.

The cherry-basil syrup is Gluten Free Girl and the Chef’s Cherry Basil Soda – or rather, the syrup for the soda.

It’s rather complicated :)! … pit the cherries, add the sugar and basil, let sit overnight and process into syrup.

Add carbonated water and you have cherry-basil soda!

Previous to making the cherry-basil syrup, I saw “Chia seed Jam” on Lisa’s Healthful Sense blog. So…I held back a bit of the syrup, added a tablespoon of chia seeds and after an hour or so in the refrigerator, had cherry-basil jam.

Although Tartelett’s Cherry Pistachio Crumble Cake did not need anything additional, a little of the jam on a slice of the cake added another dimension of yum!

Just in case you haven’t heard of or used Chia Seeds, Bear demonstrates… Bear gets these in his food as well. They add Omega3, fiber, antioxidants and when combined with a liquid they form a kind of binding gel. Chia and water can often be used as an egg substitute for binding in baked goods…for those who can’t or choose not to eat eggs. Chia seeds are flavor neutral and although they look like seeds in the photo of the jam, they get very soft and you don’t know they are there. It is not like the seeds in raspberry or strawberry preserves.

Also this week, I received my order of “Paper Route Designs’ Labels”. I’m making more and more condiments, syrups, concentrates…the pig fat is being rendered into lard this very day – Karin, at Paper Route Designs, listing for jar labels appeared in the nick of time.

The only downer this weekend…

…yep, I finally gave in and pulled out the behemoth A/C unit. I thought I’d skate this year but it is forecast to be in the upper 80’s ***GASP! **** all week… and I caved :)!

Bear and I go to market

Bear LOVES to go in the Jeep. If I say we are going in the “car” or if the garage door is open, I am hard pressed to get him into the woods for “business” before we go and mostly I don’t try as there are walk venues not too far down the road no matter which direction we head.

Saturday or Sunday mornings we typically head out on a supply gathering mission and depending on where all I go, we walk in one or more of the favored spots. Bear knows where there are usually cows or horses on our various routes and he keeps an eye out. Thankfully, he is no longer barking in my ear at full volume but he does move from side to side in the back of the Jeep to watch as we pass and sniff at the window to get their scent. Going anywhere in the Jeep in the weeks after Karl’s passing and before Bear arrived was too quiet, too lonely, not much fun and often I ended up in tears. Bear watches everything with a look of grand expectation and like Karl, makes sure to give me a kiss now and again!

This morning, we had a new destination: Kalispell Farmer’s Market.

Kalispell Farmer’s Market is in the parking lot of the Mountain Mall on the edge of downtown Kalispell.

Vendors line 6 aisles of parking lot in the back of the mall and include purveyors of doughnuts and kettle corn in case you arrive hungry.

My reason for this trip was to buy specifically from Farm to Market Pork, a local hog farm, that uses the Farmer’s Market as their summer Saturday “store”. And even more specifically, I had phoned ahead to request a package of fat to render for fresh lard.

Before you go running and screaming from your computer…and maybe you already know, but I didn’t….fresh lard as opposed to hydrogenated lard or even worse, shortening… is a healthy fat – in moderation. Healthier than butter! And rendering lard from fat is a simple operation: heat the fat over low heat, strain the result for the first rendering of the white lard used for soap and baking things like pie crust. Keep going and you have cracklins and a darker lard for savory baking. Good bye Crisco!! If all goes well, I will be making fresh tortillas with fresh lard next week.

On my way to the pork booth, I spotted this local honey supplier – oh, YES!

I was a little later than I intended, it was getting warm and although the Jeep was in shade, I didn’t want Bear to be waiting long so will return earlier another day and see what other treasures the Kalispell Farmer’s Market holds.

We continued on with a quick stop at the grocery, the liquor store, and a Bigfork cherry stand….

The loot: The pork fat, a beautiful bone-in ham, lean bacon, sweet cherries, a bottle of balsamic vinegar infused with cherries and other good stuff, 3 pounds of raw honey, and a bottle of Jack Daniels “Honey”…a new offering from Dr. Jack – liqueur infused Jack Daniels whiskey using Tennessee honey.

It was cloudless, breezeless and hazy as it moved into the heat which is forecast to reach 90 today. Everyone I spoke to and dealt with was pleasant, relaxed, enthusiastic about the day and/or what they were selling. It was an idyllic morning of simple errands in the company of Bear and with Joy all around us….AND, we were home by noon :)!

Afternoon walk

A month and a week into Summer and so far, so good. We hit 90 only once and even the upper 80’s have been rare. Weekends have been warm-hot and dry, midweek we get a day or 2 of clouds and a thunderstorm with rain. Things are staying fairly green and there is still snow up high…and a lot of green up top that is normally drying out by now.

My knee and shoulder are slowly feeling better so a bit more walking around home…this afternoon a bit of the loop walk.

Tomato Pie: a Yankee omnivore version

Katie, on one of my “go to” food blogs: “The Well Fed Newlyweds”, last week posted a recipe for Tomato Pie. Per both her post and some research, I discovered it is a somewhat regional southern dish and as a Yankee by birth and a westerner by choice, I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting up with it.

It looked and sounded wonderful. I had a bit of an advantage when I did make it as I sent the link to my mother who tried it first. She and my step-Dad weighed in with a few suggestions… – they thought it needed a little something and were thinking ham, bacon and/or green chiles.

When I made it, I wanted to make it gluten free so instead of pie crust on the bottom, I made a shredded potato crust I make for quiche: shred the potatoes (I like baby reds), squeeze out excess water, press into a pie plate and season. I seasoned mine with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic and cumin. Spritz with olive oil and bake at 375 until the potatoes are crisp.

I had some of Applegate Farms pepperoni (all natural, no nitrates) – that went in with the onions when they were just about ready to go in the pie. I followed the rest of the recipe directions as written.

Yum! I can’t compare to the original since I haven’t made that, but loved my adaptation. It was good hot, cold for the 2 days it took me to finish the pie…

I’ve since made another. This time no meat, but I added a can of green chiles to the onions and left out the basil. Another winner. My version(s) may not be southern but they were tasty and I am so pleased to have been introduced to Tomato Pie!