Archive for ‘October, 2014’

Friday wrap

I write this as it nears 7:00 p.m. Friday evening.

A Yukon gold potato is in a pan…to be mashed shortly.

Some roast beef, pinquito beans, green peas and broth are warming. A bit of flour and a nice thick gravied mix for that masher will be tonight’s supper. Oh and some farmer’s market carrots are roasting in the oven.

Auggie is in for the night after a productive day that included two voles – go Auggie!

We had several walks and Bear and I went to Bigfork on an errand run for vanilla extract and coolant for the Jeep!

It was a good and productive work week ending on a high note of a good and fun work session with my work partners.

Seriously.

I have no… as in zero… as in NADA complaints! Mark your calendars!!!

To add to the good stuff, yesterday was the full moon.

Bear and I had our last walk and our early morning walk in the light of the full moon with beautiful moon shadows in the woods. Heaven!

No photos except on my Instagram and there, there are some fun shots.

Happy Friday.

I dearly hope your week was wonderful as well.

Apple Hand Pies to start Tuesday

I have a couple of days with no meetings, no work sessions…just work on my own tasks. I’m enjoying the flexibility in my schedule!

Yesterday, Bear and I went to Wayfarer’s park before lunch (see my Instagram for photos). We are having another bit of summer-like weather before what NOAA calls “THE BIG CHANGE” happens this weekend – a cold and wet front to take us back to Fall.

My neighbor was to come for coffee this morning but a bug in the family altered plans. The hand pies were already in the oven…

I’m going to have mine!! (AND, you bet I scooped up all of that caramel-y overflow!) …but, I’ll freeze the rest for when all feel better.

Apple Hand Pies to start Tuesday.

*** My method for the Hand Pies:
I had my own Brioche dough in the freezer packaged in large lemon sized rounds each 1 perfect for a hand pie. Last night I got 5 rounds out and put them in the frig. This morning, after the dough warmed up, I lightly rolled each round into a 5 inch circle and covered while I sliced 3 apples. I mixed a bit of lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt with the apples, divided between the 5 pies – stuff them VERY full as apples bake down, little bits of butter, fold over the top, slice some vents, brush with egg wash and into the oven (350 for 30 minutes). That’s it! The apples today were local McIntosh from my farmer’s market. I also like Granny Smith’s. AND…this mix is good with a bit of country pork sausage (pre-cooked) in with the apples.

I guarantee that these taste multitudes better than any toaster fruit pie :) !

Who rescued who and scratch cooking from Jennifer Perillo

I follow just a few food blogs.

One is In Jennie’s Kitchen.

I have Jennie’s cookbook: Homemade with Love

I make Jennie’s Chocolate Snaps, her rif on Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce and her lentil ricotta meatballs regularly. Other recipes are on my “to make” list and I’ve learned much about techniques from reading her posts. My scrambled eggs are 100% better after reading her method! Just in the last weeks, I was inspired by a description of her napa cabbage-apple-sesame salad with honey-mustard vinaigrette to make my own salad.

But it is not just her recipes.

Her writing and her approach to cooking is what drew me to her blog and cookbook.

A little over three years ago her husband died suddenly, leaving her a single mother of two young girls.

BUT, that is NOT the story here. The story is…as the story always is…not so much what happened as what she did with what happened.

She got the book deal and did the cookbook – even in the early days of grief and single parenthood.

In the past year, Jennie, who lived in apartments in Brooklyn her entire life, bought a house in rural New York. As a person who LOVES a simple and quiet rural life, I cheered and hoped that she and her daughters would love rural life also. This summer, they left Brooklyn and made their country house their permanent home. And in the last weeks, they added to their family: a tuxedo cat named Ms. Paula Poundstone and a sweet terrier mix named Miche.

Oh, yes!

Miche!

Ms. Paula Poundstone!

Jennie explains Ms. Paula Poundstone’s name in this post: All in the family

Yesterday, Jennie announced a new project: a quarterly magazine called Simply Scratch Cooking: a homecook’s journal for making easy, everyday meals.

Jennie’s eloquently written post about how all came about: A leap of faith

I am a fan and follower of Jennie’s, not because she is a woman, not because she is a widow with young children and not even because she moved to the country and got a dog and a cat. What draws me is her passion. Passion for something is in fact what draws me to the people for whom I have the most respect and admiration. What I see in Jennie’s work is her passion for creating beautiful and delicious food, simply, from scratch and sharing all of that with the people around her.

I haven’t subscribed to any magazines for years, but I could not resist ordering Jennie’s. Her cabbage salad recipe is in it! Also the peanut butter swirl brownies she showed on her Instagram that had me drooling. The link to order is in her post: A leap of faith. I’m so excited to receive my copy. I look forward to a weekend of browsing, enjoying and cooking or baking from it when it arrives in 2 weeks.

I emailed Jennie to ask if I could use the photos of Miche and Ms. Paula Poundstone in this post. She warmly replied in the affirmative and also said: “Most people think I rescued them, but it’s totally the other way around. These little creatures have made my life so full, they have rescued my heart in a way I can never fully understand myself.”

I know a little bit about how that has worked in my life and I was so happy to hear that it is working in her life.

Cheers, Bon appetite and I hope all who read this visit A leap of faith and get a taste of Jennifer Perillo’s Simply Scratch Cooking.

The local vegetables…and the weather

Vegetables and the weather…not things you’d think go together.

They don’t. Well, except what bad weather does to things in gardens…

So, Veg: tomatoes, beets and cabbage figure prominently in last and this week’s menus.

As noted 2 weeks ago when I bought the last of the Farmer’s market tomatoes…I ate what I could and processed the rest into sauce. I used some of the sauce and then decided I needed to freeze what was left.

I’d seen a blurb on using paper cups – vs ice cube trays (too small) or flat zips (good!) and decided to give the cups a try. I found paper cups with no wax or other “stuff”. Hopefully, I can peel off the cups, dump the 3 oz of tomato sauce in a pan, slowly heat and “Bob’s your Uncle” – the perfect bit of tomato sauce for 1!!

The freezing part went fine. The peeling and thawing and use…to be cont’d at a later date.

Next up is the beets.

When I bought the beets, I also bought some spicy sprouts. I LOVE a sandwich of beets, goat cheese and sprouts on my own rustic seed bread.

But, browsing beet salad recipes…so as to also use the greens…

Anyway, I ended up mashing several recipes to make a roast beet galette: beets, caramelized onions, capers, HORSERADISH! and goat cheese and my own Brioche dough for the “crust”.

Kind of pretty.

Kind of beautiful and VERY delicious. I had 2/3 for supper and the other 1/3 for a breakfast.

Yum.

On to the cabbage.

Still enjoying cabbage salads, but an experiment is ongoing this week.

Sauerkraut in the making…details after fermentation is complete.

So much for the vegetables…now for the weather!

After a September that couldn’t decide whether to be summer, fall or one occasion winter…October starts decidedly and beautifully Fall!