Category: CSA

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‘gator dog and pizza on the grill

It is hot.

Well, for a Montanan, it is hot.

And for a Montana Beardog, it is VERY hot.

And a little more humid than is normal. And it makes us yawn…

And then it makes us roll on our back…

A beardog, rolling on his back in the grass…grunting and snorting…

I call him “Alligator Dog”…

“grumph…urg…phhtt”

It’s an alligator daaawwwgg!

And it feels so good.

‘gator dog

Yep!

And bringing up the rear of this post…a pizza on the grill that did not make the cut for the “Eating from the garden post”… lunch….some chard mushroom mix…

A hunk of my refigerator dough.

Lunch pizza. On the grill.

*** P.S. I write this post at 8:30ish p.m. I picked up my CSA share earlier…: week 11. It included a pint of RED RASPBERRIES!!! Hoo rah.

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Eating from the garden: Week 10

Swallow Crest Farm, my CSA source, has fully recovered from the hailstorm damage of several weeks ago as evidenced by this week’s bounty of salad greens, kale, chard, baby carrots, peas, basil, cilantro and cauliflower! I bought only a red pepper and mushrooms from the produce section of the grocery this week!

I found a recipe for a chard and mushroom popover, made with gluten free garbanzo free flour. I downsized the recipe for my 5 inch mini deep pie dish, subbed gruyere for the provolone in the recipe and had a Sunday breakfast treat extraordinare!

Next time, I will add red pepper and kalamata olives as well but no complaints for this first round.

This week’s pasta salad used the garden peas, red pepper, olives, monterey jack and a dressing made with pesto (using the garden basil), a little mayo and some pickle juice.

The chard was beautiful and tender. Several times during the week, I gave a couple of leaves a chiffonade and sauteed them lightly with a few mushrooms.

I used some of the chard, mushroom mix with leftover ribeye, baked potato and some sweet onion to make a breakfast hash – a poached egg, bagel bun with goat cheese and my own citrus marmalade made for a darn hearty breakfast that held me until mid-afternoon one day.

My real experiment of the week was curry-cauliflower pickles. So pretty in the jars and they turned out sweet-HOT and crunchy. Seriously good alongside a hamburger sandich on English muffin bread (yes, MY english muffin bread!) and a slice of havarti.

Eating from the garden: week 10 – delicious!

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After the weekend catch up

Lazy, hazy days of Summer??? – the days have turned hot and hazy and that makes me lazy as I just want to sit still and stay cool.

The garden did produce a small bag of veg this week: a bag of stir fry (small bits of greens, carrots, broccoli and carrots), a bag of mixed greens, a gorgeous and huge head of broccoli!! and a bag of fresh, fragrant basil.

The stir fry did not really appeal so I picked out the carrots and froze the rest to be used to make vegetable broth.

The basil became pesto…my first “traditional” pesto from the garden :)!

That broccoli – it was destined for a broccoli salad. The usual and delicious broccoli salad has raisins, onions, bacon and a light slightly creamy dressing. I made two modifications…

Instead of bacon, I used the “cajun” sausage that my folks bring back from Louisiana. Bill reportedly hunted high and low to find a butcher that made a sausage to his liking. This stuff is good: spicy, a little heat, full of flavor. And it stands up to being fried a bit crispy. I sliced it thin, quartered the slices and fried them crispy.

In place of raisins, dried and slightly sweetened cranberries. A light dressing of a little mayonaisse, Vidalia sweet onion, white wine vinegar, sugar and salt…AND a sprinkling of sunflower seeds.

A perfect salad for a side or a meal.

Continuing with summer salads…I typically make a huge bowl of macaroni salad or cabbage slaw and then kind of fizzle out as I get near the end of it. I decided that this year, I would make small bowls of each and have a variety through the week.

My folks had a picnic with friends and a shared macaroni salad with a new to them combination. I am not at liberty to divulge all, but the secret ingredient is pickle juice :)! – I use Tony Packo’s Sweet Hot Skinnies: pickles and peppers. Spring onions AND their tops – from the garden – are in this salad.

The cabbage is organic from California but the carrots in the slaw are from the garden and a poppy seed vinaigrette for dressing.

It is not rocket science…if I have some good things ready to go for a snack or a meal, I eat good things!

On to more good things.

It was 90 the last 2 days and is forecast to hit 97!!! today. That is about 20 degrees higher than what I consider hot enough. When I saw a recipe for homemade peach frozen yogurt without an ice cream maker, I decided that sounded like a thing to try. No ice cream maker needed! I am not a big ice cream fan, although I have toyed with getting a maker and making my own, but am not thrilled about the idea of a “one trick pony” kitchen gadget. I AM a fan of yogurt and this simple recipe of greek yogurt, some extract and fresh fruit sounded perfect. Instead of peaches, I thought, cherries – I have 4 cans of cherries in my cupboard….good Oregon cherries in only their own syrup with no added anything. My plan was cherries, almonds and almond extract with the yogurt.

On my errand run to Bigfork, Friday afternoon…whaddya’ know??? A local cherry stand was open. A local grower with a Washington orchard as well, had the first cherries from Washington. I bought a bag of Rainier’s. Rainier’s are sweet – not quite as sweet as the black cherry varieties, but they are a bit firmer.

So…greek yogurt, almond extract, a bit of protein powder and fresh cherries…frozen. No ice cream maker. Yes!

Pretty simple and what a treat… a sweet treat with no sugar other than what occurs naturally in the fruit and yogurt. And protein and other good for me stuff. The texture is something along the line of ice milk and the taste has the tang of the yogurt. For this not so great fan of ice cream, it is a perfect substitute.

This year, Bear is acclimated to Montana and so has felt the heat more than last year. He chooses to be in the cool house for the afternoon and early evening.

Bob sprawls on the front porch, often right against the house in the coolest spot, but mostly stays outside.

Occasionally, we have a bit of a stalemate…

Happy Monday!

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Cooking from the garden week 6 & 7

The bounty from the farm continued week 6 with spring greens, spinach, radishes, green onions and rhubarb. I was able to share some greens and the remainder I used as I have been.

Meal salads that started with chef’s salad several weeks ago, continue:

BLT, hold the bread!

A southwestern take with a dressing made of mayo, greek yogurt and salsa…more salsa on top…Ole!!!

Week 7 added broccoli to the haul. I had plans for a fresh broccoli-bacon-cranberry salad but ended up steaming the broccoli to have with some cream of chicken over rice.

Not from the garden but I’ve been wanting to share Karin of Paper Route Design’s Granola. I make 1/4 of her recipe and mix it with a rice cereal I buy in bulk at the natural food store. I have never been a granola fan, but Karin’s recipe sounded so good. As she states on her post, it makes the house smell like the inside of an oatmeal cookie :)!

I scoop the granola – rice cereal mix, add some chopped apple and have a great start to my day or a nice bedtime treat.

…so… week 6 & 7…and there will be no week 8.

A minor weather disaster occured here this last Tuesday morning.

That is hail. And that hail is already partially melted.

We had a strong thunderstorm with 1 – 1 1/2 inch hail and then a torrential downpour.

It did a number on the vegetation, including the gardens at Swallow Crest Farm :(

I received an email this afternoon that this week’s distribution would not happen and it sounds like next week’s is questionable as well… Mother Nature. I am sad for the farm folk as things were going so well and they are now having to re-plant and repair.

Here at my house…the sun has re-appeared. There is a lot of yard and woods cleanup to be done but…

…one must enjoy the sun and fresh air!

Happy Day.

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Cooking and eating from the garden: Week 5…and BAGELS!!

Week 5…I cannot believe it has been 5 weeks since I started getting fresh garden goodness from Swallow Crest Farm.

I cannot believe it is the middle of June!!!

But, life is good…life is beyond good, here in Northwest Montana…at least by my standards. The weather is perfect, the food is wonderful, Bob, Bear and I are healthy and happy.

So…week 5: red leaf lettuce, spring greens, spinach, green onions, bok choy and radishes

Featuring spinach…a calzone with spinach, pepperoni (uncured, no nitrates from Applegate Farm), goat cheese, monterey jack and a bit of my roasted vegetable marinara.

Spurred on by my neighbor’s chef salad mention…a salad of fresh greens, pepperoni and kalamata olives dressed with my pesto-ranch-green goddess dressing. A bit of parmesan and on the side: pickled cucumber, onion, radish, bok choy slaw.

The fresh spinach – it has been my favorite of the green abundance. I’ve used it like lettuce on sandwiches, blitzed it into pesto, processed it with a bit of olive oil and frozen it…AND added it to a breakfast scramble.

Yep!! This scramble: eggs, spinach and mushrooms scrambled on low in a mix of butter and olive oil…then topped with salsa from the garden (cilantro, tomatoes, green onions, jalapeno, cumin, lime juice, salt & pepper) and goat cheese.

AND…a bagel – HOMEMADE!!! – with a schmeer of goat cheese. YessirreeeBob – THAT is a good breakfast!

Have I mentioned that I’ve been making bagels???

After the pretzel roll/pretzel adventure of two weeks ago…I’ve been making bagels. And reading about making bagels. Experimenting. And making bagels.

I have made the following bagels:
sesame
poppy seed
everything (kind of…using a unique mix of seeds form King Arthur)
cinnamon raisin
cranberry
plain

I have not thrown out a single bagel.

I have learned some things and there is more I’d like to learn. But at the moment, I am NOT unhappy with my bagels.

I am using a high moisture, long rise, no knead dough with a mix derived and adapted from multiple sources and my own experimentation:

2 1/2 cups King Arthur Bread flour (I believe KA bread flour has the highest protein content of any flour available in the U.S.)
1/2 cup King Authur white whole wheat flour
3/4 T instant yeast
3/4 T sea salt
3/4 T sugar
1/2 T non diastatic malt powder (source is King Arthur….this is a barley derivative to assist in rising and texture)
1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups of warm water

Stir all above to mix and cover with wrap. Put in warm spot to rise for 2-12 hours. Yes, you read correctly. If I make this on a warm day, I let it rise for several hours and then refrigerate. If I mix it in the evening, I leave it out overnight. My house is cool at typically 62-64F.

This is what it looks like after a bit. When it looks like this, I stir it, transfer it to a ceramic crock and put it in the refrigerator…dough for the week’s (or 2 weeks) bagel needs :) !

On baking day, for each bagel, grab a hardball (baseball) size piece of dough. Flour it a bit to make it easy to handle. Shape it into a circle maybe 3 inches in diameter. Punch a hole in the middle and stretch the ring to 5 or 6 inches in diameter = raw bagel. Let the bagel circle sit while you get water boiling and your oven to 450-470. For me…460-470 works best.

For the boiling water, you want a pan large enough to hold almost 2 inches of water and wide enough to allow all of your bagel rings to swim without touching. I use a large dutch oven if I’m making 3 bagels, but typically, I’m making 1 bagel and I use a medium saucepan.

When the water is boiling vigourously, I add a mix of the malt powder, baking soda a sugar to the water. For 1 bagel, I use 1/2 tsp malt, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp sugar.

Gently slide the bagel ring(s) into the water. Turn over at 2 minutes.

Another 2 minutes and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate.

Brush with an egg wash (slightly beaten egg and a bit of water), top with seeds if desired and put those things into the oven!

I’ve baked them direct on a pizza stone, on parchment on the stone, on parchment on cookie sheet…I can’t tell the difference and since I have a small upper oven that heats very quickly, I’ve mostly been baking on parchment on a cookie sheet in that top oven.

BAGELS!!…homemade bagels. They are a good thing.