coq au vin

coq au vin, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

There's really only one way to take care of an extremely unpleasant rooster.

Snow Day Pizza

My aunt sent the Monkey a pizza making kit for Christmas. Today was a snow day (we've got about 6 inches and it's still coming down), so we made pizza for lunch. I know she visits the blog regularly, so I thought we'd share some pizza pictures. Monkey is a regular pizza queen. She did almost all the work. Somehow I ended up doing the washing up. Typical.


Mixing the dough

Starting the yeast

Kneading the dough

A little while later... pizza! Which would you like - Pepperoni or Mushroom?

A little holiday spirit

While a certain english type has been waxing poetic about mulled wine and mince meat, I've been thinking of a different sort of Christmas cheer. It was in Gourmet a few years ago and now happens to be Santa's favorite. He would have enjoyed it with delicious little gingerbread men, but the dogs managed to eat all of those off the kitchen counter yesterday (I'm blaming the beagle, because a border collie would never do something so heinous and Biscuit is still recuperating from surgery).

Aztec Sluggers
makes two drinks
(the name does not denote Christmas at all, I know, but the flavor!)

1 cup fresh strong coffee
1/4 cup bourbon
1/2 oz. Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
2 oz finely chopped bittersweet chocolate
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon sugar

Heat coffee, bourbon, Kahlua, chocolate, and 2 tablespoons cream in a heavy saucepan over low heat, whisking away, untlit the chocolate melts (Do not let boil - as that would be a waste of bourbon!)

Whisk remaining cream with sugar until it holds soft peaks.

Divide coffee mixture between two large mugs, then top with whipped cream.

Repeat as necessary.

Saving the harvest

Food preservation has kicked into high gear around Little Creek Farm. I had thought that selling produce at the local tailgate market would cut down on our saved produce, but it doesn't seem to have affected it all that much. We are still up to our armpits in beans and tomatoes.

The dry beans are done - I experimented again this year with a small row of Jacob's Cattle Beans. Last year Charlie picked them all, thinking they were overgrown green beans... They didn't produce as much as I had hoped (but more than last year!). A third of a row - about 10-12 feet, produced just a pound of beans. The artist in me loves these beans and the flavor is good. I might try them again in a larger row, perhaps under something taller, but I can probably use the space for something else. Drying beans is relatively easy. I just leave them on the plant until the pod (in this case the 'green bean') dries and then I pick and shell. As it can be quite damp here, I like to pick them a little early and finish the drying off the plant. Spreading the beans out in the sun on a big sheet layed on the driveway that I can easily pick up at night, or if it rains (like that ever happens...), is the simplest way to dry them. It's a trick I picked up in the Peace Corps. There's less rotting that way. Shelling can be a little time consuming, but it's a nice way to relax on a shady porch on a hot afternoon. Or, if your child is in a Montessori school, you just take in a big bag of beans and those little preschoolers will spend hours picking them out of pods, all the while developing fine motor skills the good ol' fashioned way. We don't consider it child labor, it's character development. Monkey's teachers loved it.

Canning has been an almost nightly occurence for Charlie. He loves to can. There's tomato sauce (I make it, he cans it), green beans, pickles and salsa. Canning is not so difficult (I just get bored easily, and Charlie likes it so much). I would suggest the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. Your local Cooperative Extension is also a good source for information. Tomatoes and pickles are so easy, it's almost a sin not to do it. Green beans and other low acid foods require a pressure canner that may seem intimidating, but truly isn't.

Tomorrow, I think I'll talk about my new food dehydrator. Now there's a fun garden/kitchen toy!

Tomatoes a-go-go

The tomatoes are coming in here at Little Creek Farm. I have been battling our local murder of crows (I love that collective name, by the way) for the rights to the fruits of my labor. This particular family had been marauding all over the cove. They hit one neighbor's garden everytime he planted corn or beans. Another has been losing tomatoes left and right. They finally hit our garden about 10 days ago. They wait until the tomato is perfect to strike. Then they take a bite or two and move on to the next red nugget. Bastards. Anyway, I've set up a little system to see if I can annoy them enough to keep them at bay (Lord knows the scarecrow's not doing his job...). It, along with a few other experimental things will be going into this week's garden post. Let's just say that I'm experimenting so you don't have to!

In spite of the crows, I'm hauling in quite a few tomatoes. I'm making the sauce up in batches and sticking it in the freezer until I have enough for one big canning operation. I love my new food mill. Tomato paste has never been easier. I can't wait until apple season, as slim as it will be here, to make apple sauce. We've also been getting loads of Principe Borghese tomatoes. I now see while everyone raves about them. I want to make sun-dried tomatoes, but the humidity is just too high here (and after buying the food mill, it will be a while before I can purchase a food dehydrater). So, I thought they just might be perfect for one of our favorite things to do tomatoes - here's the recipe taken from The Italian Country Table, by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (I highly recommend the book, if just for this recipe and her very simple, lovely pizza dough!). I enjoy the stories of the farmers and artisans who raise and create the ingredients as much as the recipes.

OVEN-CANDIED SUMMER TOMATOES

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Take around 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of medium-sized tomatoes. In this case, I used the smaller Principe Borgheses. Core and cut them in half. Larger tomatoes can be cut into smaller sizes. In a half-sheet pan, or shallow metal baking pan (must be metal), arrange the slices cut side up about 1/2 inch apart. Coat with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake 30 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 F. Bake another 30 minutes and lower the temperature to 300 F. Bake another 30 minutes (you see where this is going) or a little longer until the edges of the tomatoes start to darken. If they haven't yet colored you can lower the temperature to 250 F and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and cool 20 minutes. Transfer them to a shallow glass or china dish and pour their oil over them. Let them mellow, uncovered, at room temperature for 4-6 hours.

You can layer them in a covered container with the oil and store in the refrigerator up to 6 days, or freeze (as we do). They are a great taste of summer in the middle of winter.

Cooking them this way intensifies the natural sugars and mimic what Sicilian farm women did with the tomatoes by placing them in the cooling bread ovens after the loaves came out. Just think you can heat up the oven to make a nice crusty loaf or two and make these tomatoes to go along! Enjoy.

It's beginning to look a lot like Easter!

Eggs,

Cupcakes,

Obligatory morning snow storm,

and Agatha Grunker enjoys her new pasture!

42 pounds

That's the weight of our thanksgiving turkey - dressed. We need to invite more people for dinner...
It was a long ordeal to prep that bird. "Meatzilla" lived up to his name. Charlie did the actual butchering this time. We didn't have anything big enough to soak the turkey in after he was butchered. We had to use a big rubbermaid tub filled with water and ice. It's on the back screened porch with a drafting board and a load of wood on top to keep it safe from wild things (or border collies...). Keep your fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I'll fill you in on what will be accompanying that big, bad fowl.