CC Post: Basic Poultry Gravy

Check out my latest Community Chicken post, Basic Poultry Gravy! Just in time for Thanksgiving.

Witches Brew Chai

I made this chai the other night and it was delicious!
You start with very precise measurements. Ha! In a pot, add six cups of water and a palm full of each of the following, clockwise...

• 2 Bay Leaves
• Allspice Berries
• Cinnamon (or Cinnamon sticks)
• Black Peppercorns
• (Half Palm) Nutmeg
• Ginger (fresh would be great too)
• Cloves
• Star Anise (we were out)
• and a pinch of Cayenne Pepper

 
Simmer all ingredients for 10 minutes. Then add a palm full of loose black tea and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Strain the spices and tea, I use a French Press but you could use a strainer with some cheesecloth. The liquid thickens a bit while simmering. Then add 3 Tablespoons brown sugar and 3 Tablespoons honey, plus one cup milk. Pour into mugs and enjoy!

CC Post: Scotch Eggs

Have you ever had Scotch Eggs? Delicious eggs wrapped in sausage and a crispy outer coating!!! Check out my latest Community Chickens post Scotch Eggs for a traditional recipe and a bit about the trip back in time where I first tried this rustic dish.

Cake Batter Fudge

Over the years, I have morphed my favorite fudge recipe into many different flavors by changing up the "chocolate" chips and mixing in different "add ins" like nuts, dried fruit etc. I made this fudge a couple years ago after an experiment with cake batter ice cream. I had cake batter left over and thought...ah, yes, fudge! This is a crazy sweet fudge. But if you love the idea of oooey gooey cake batter flavor then this is your recipe. For some reason it reminds me a little of Divinity.

Cake Batter Fudge

1 1/2 sticks butter
2 1/2 cup sugar
1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk
12 oz white chocolate chips
1 (13 oz) jar Jet Puffed marshmallow cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white cake batter mix (powder)
sprinkles

Melt butter in a pan. Add sugar and evaporated milk heat to 234 degrees. Remove from heat and add white chocolate chips. Stir until smooth. Add marshmallow cream and vanilla. Beat with hand mixer until well incorporated. Add cake batter and continue to beat until smooth. Pour into a greases 9x9 brownie pan and top with sprinkles. 

Troll Soup

I love Japanese soups. I love miso soup and the onion broth soup with mushrooms that you often get at habachi restaurants. However, sometimes I wish they just had a bit more...you know...flavor? substance? I like the idea of these soups, the combinations of flavors but it's like. "Gee, this would have been a great soup had they not added a gallon of water to the broth." Now don't get me wrong, I understand that there is a richness to subtlety, and I get that. That not everything you put in your mouth has to be banging on your taste buds like an obnoxious wedding band drummer. But when I came up with this recipe, I wanted to eat this soup as a meal not an appetizer. I also love mushrooms and when you get the little cup of soup at the restaurant and eat the one or two floating mushrooms in the broth I'm always a little sad after they're gone. There is no room for mushroom remorse with this soup. It's jam packed with healthy shiitake mushrooms, ginger and lots of onion-y goodness. I named it Troll Soup because anything that stars mushrooms as it's main ingredient reminds me of a mossy bog where trolls would sit around with misshapen clay bowls and eat this soup with wooden spoons. It's quite hearty and soothing and we ate it alone for dinner with a spinach ginger salad.

Shiitake Miso Soup

1 large onion sliced thinly

Butter

Olive oil

3 packs shiitake mushrooms (or a crimini, oyster and shiitake combo would be great.)

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

Bunch green onions (3 to 5, add the majority to the soup but set aside a handful for topping)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp oyster sauce

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp thyme

1 package firm tofu cut into cubes

1 inch ginger sliced

1 large box sodium free beef stock

1 can sliced water chestnuts

½ Tbsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp miso paste

Chopped kale or spinach leaves

Sauté onion, mushrooms and garlic with butter, olive oil and sesame oil until lightly browned. Pour into crockpot. Deglaze the pan with a bit of stock, vinegar, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Add to crock pot. Pour in other ingredients and cook on high for about 2 hours to infuse the tofu with the broth flavor. In your serving bowls, place a handful of spinach or kale, ladle over the hot soup and top with green onions. 

Every Dish in the Kitchen, Old Fashioned Stew

I spent Friday morning digging potatoes, pulling carrots, onions and snapping a few celery stalks for a nice pot of stew. Autumn is well on it's way and many of the sugar maples are starting to turn already. 

Sometimes stew in our house is made from leftover roast where I normally add veggies to the roasting pan with stew in mind for the next day. THAT, is an easy throw together meal. But when I really want to MAKE some stew...for the sake of stew, this is how I do it. This stew recipe is an overkill recipe, but I promise the extra steps (and dishes) are well worth the effort. I try to get the most from each ingredient by cooking it in a flavor enhancing way, then adding each element together to slow cook in the crock pot to marry and meld. The vegetables are roasted on high heat in a single layer to bring out the sugars and caramelize, and the meat is seared to seal in flavor and juiciness

The Veggies:
2-3 carrots
2 ribs celery
2 medium sweet onions
5-6 medium potatoes (I leave the skins on)
4 garlic cloves cut in half
salt
pepper
herbs: 1-2 tsp each rosemary, parsley, thyme

Preheat oven to 400. Chop all veggies into approximately 1 inch cubes. I chop the celery a bit smaller because I don't enjoy eating a large chunk of celery. Toss veggies in olive oil and spread on cookie sheet. Season with salt, pepper, rosemary or a seasoning blend of your choice like Lawrys. Roast 40 minutes or until the veggies caramelize. When done, add to a crock pot on low.

The Meat:
 2-3 well marbled steaks
1 tbsp butter
olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic power
1 cup Merlot
good dose of Worcestershire Sauce

Drizzle olive oil in a pan and add the butter. Heat pan until butter melts and oil starts to sizzle. Carefully add steaks, season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Brown on high 3 minutes each side. Set meat aside to rest. Turn heat off pan and add the Merlot. Turn heat back on and reduce by half, scraping the steak bits from the bottom. Add a few good shakes of the Worcestershire. After the steak have rested, cut up into 1 inch cubes. Add to the crock pot and pour the Merlot reduction over everything.

I've been known to sprinkle a pack of Lipton Onion Soup Mix over the top (If you're into that kind of thing)

Cook for 4-6 hours in crock pot.

The Thickener: (roux)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour

In a sauce pan, melt butter then whisk in flour and cook over medium heat until it smells nutty and turns a golden brown.

When the stew is within an hour of serving, add the rue and stir well.

Best. Stew. Ever.

Homemade Soft Pretzels With Beer Cheese Sauce

Zach and I had a fun Saturday night last weekend. There was nothing fancy about it, just hanging out together, making fun food. The pretzel recipe that I made is from a site I recently found on You-tube called Tastemade. They create food themed videos ranging from specialty artisan ingredients, road trips to cultural specific food, even vegan and raw food recipes. I love the quirky, relaxed atmosphere in the videos and the laid back instructions that makes eating and cooking food fun!

Here is a link to the Pretzel Recipe. I found the lye portion in the video really interesting. Zach and I did the baking soda version because we are "chicken" to eat something dipped in lye...oh and also we didn't have any food grade lye on hand.

But I came up with a beer cheese recipe that was delicious for dipping the pretzels. I found that they were also wonderful dipped in this Vermont Maple Mustard that I found at Kroger by Private Select brand.

We bought a 6=pack of our favorite beer...Ok, so it has a naughty name, but I really like this beer. Ready for it? ....Dirty Bastard....uhhhhh!

Founders is located in Grand Rapids Michigan, so it's a local brew for us. Dirty Bastard is a Scotch Ale that has a rather high alcohol content, and I love that it's a traditional cap so we get to use Zach's hand forged bottle openers! (Maybe a little sales pitch there...maybe.)

Anywhoo, we needed a delicious beer for the pretzel ingredients, and I thought a beer cheese dip would work perfect.

This dip has a bite! The aged ingredients and sharp cheeses give it a hearty edge that is not for the faint of heart.



Beer Cheese Dip

1/2 bottle of your favorite beer.
4 oz of a sharp cheddar -shredded. We used Pinconning Extra Sharp, which is a local cheese.
4 oz of a real stinky blue cheese or Gorgonzola -shredded
1/4 Tbsp butter
1/4 Tbsp cup flour (less or more)
1 green onion minced finely
1 garlic clove minced finely
1 tsp All-Purpose seasoning like Lawrys

In a small pot melt butter. Slowly whisk in flour until smooth. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the flour is lightly golden. Set aside.

In another smallish pot. On medium heat, bring beer to a boil and simmer about 5 minutes. Add the onion and garlic. Add the cheese a little at a time, stirring to incorporate, allowing each addition to melt before adding more. Thicken the mixture by adding the flour and butter a little at a time until the dip has reached desired thickness. Season with salt and pepper or All-Purpose seasoning.

Enjoy with homemade pretzels, or crusty bread and a good beer!

Grit Post: Carrot and Ginger Salad

Try my Carrot and Ginger Salad recipe over the the Grit blog for a light and refreshing warm-weather meal idea!

Goat Cheese and Lavender Pizza

I've been trying to make meals that correlate around what we're bringing in from the barn, the coop and the garden.

Right now that includes, early spring greens, garlic greens, perennial herbs, eggs, and lots of dairy.

Along with eating from the backyard, I've been attempting to switch all of our bread, pasta, etc. over to whole wheat or whole grains and our rice over to brown. I found this whole wheat flour, have you guys heard of it? Prairie Gold by Wheat Montana Farms and Bakery. I don't think it's organic, but it's GMO free, 100% whole grain, certified chemical free, and isn't "enhanced" nutritionally (100% Nutritional Value, nothing added or removed) The farm also believes in sustainable farming. I take all this with a grain of salt...but their claims seemed more promising than some of the other brands, and it was reasonably priced. (There's a more hearty version Bronze Chief.)

The Dough
I found a really nice/easy whole wheat pizza crust recipe here. I used honey instead of sugar, and extra virgin olive oil for my oil. I dumped all the ingredients in a bowl, kneaded it together a few times and left it out on the warm covered porch to rise.When it was done rising, I punched it down and rolled it very thin and placed it on a cornmeal sprinkled cookie sheet (I don't have a pizza pan).

This recipe made two pizza crusts the size shown here. I refrigerated the remaining dough for another time.

The Toppings
Pizza is one of those clean-out-the-fridge meals. Like fritattas, you have a base and then I pile left over veggies, herbs and cheese in eggs, or in this case, on a pizza crust and there's dinner.

For this pizza I used a jar of our spaghetti sauce from last year's heirloom tomatoes, peppers, herbs and onions. But if you have basil growing right now, a homemade pesto would be wonderful with goat cheese! Our basil is still sort of small.

Then I sprinkled a layer of our Double Cream Goat Cheese.

Some spring garlic greens, and some left over spinach and mushrooms that we had for dinner last night, (sauteed in goat butter with garlic greens and salt). For those of who who are finding Morels, that would be delicious! (Side note...for those of you finding Morels I am totally jealous! We are quite Morel free...) I also put our pickled jalapenos on Zach's half.

Then the sort-of weird ingredient...I like rosemary on pizza. But our rosemary plant is still puny and my plant from last year didn't make it through the winter. So I chopped up some lavender leaves and sprinkled those on. The flavor reminds me of an herb-y rosemary taste, but a little more floral.

I baked it in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. The goat cheese because it has that extra cream melted beautifully!

Double Cream Goat Cheese

Whew! It's been a busy week so far! But it's supposed to rain today and tomorrow so maybe I'll get a chance to get caught up on some inside work. Right now dairy and gardening have been consuming my life. (In a good way though) And I've been trying to revolve our meals around the spring abundance.

I'm so excited to share that I've finally perfected our goat cheese recipe. And it falls back to my standard cooking motto...when all else fails...add FAT! Or in this case cream. The goat cheeses I've made in the past were just sort of bleh! I mean...not terrible but nothing to write home about. They lacked that goat-y zing that makes goat cheese taste like goat cheese, and they were dry, especially after they'd been refrigerated...almost to the point of squeaky curds. 

I've been separating 2 or so gallons almost every other day into cream for butter and other products. So I decided to try a goat cheese with half cream, half whole milk. Lemme tell you! Whhooowheee! This is some good goat cheese! It's the first time I've made goat cheese that tastes better than something you'd buy at the store.

It's super creamy and because the milk was initially heated to 90 degrees to be separated, that warmth has brought out a delicious goat tang.

Making this goat cheese is just about as easy as it gets. I heated equal parts of goat cream (For more information about separating the cream from goats milk click here, Goat Butter)and whole milk to 180 degrees in a pot on the stove. Then I drizzled in enough apple cider vinegar to separate the curds. You don't need much. I just glug a little at a time until the curds separate. Then I pour it through a sieve lined with butter muslin to collect the curds. Let it sit until it dries out a bit and salt to taste with cheese salt add herbs, pepper whatever you like!

CC Post: Poached Eggs and Tomatoes

I found this recipe in a desperate attempt to use up the last of our frozen heirloom tomatoes from last year, and the abundance of eggs we're getting everyday. It's become a favorite and I make it weekly. Check it out at Poached Eggs and Tomatoes.

Homemade Granola

Granola is one of those things I've been meaning to make and just never got around to it. Now that I see how easy it was, I'll probably keep a batch in the house all the times. I browsed through a few basic granola recipes and modified it to fit what we had in the house. Mostly left over nuts from the Christmas baking season and our maple syrup that we just boiled down.

Homemade Granola
2 cups oats ( I had a bit of organic Irish oats and some quick cook so I combined them to make 2 cups)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2-3 Tbsp chia seeds
2-3 Tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup raisens
1 tsp vanilla extract (we make out own)
1/4 cup raw organic honey
3-4 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp organic coconut oil melted.

Preheat oven to 300. Mix it all together and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool and eat!

CC Post: Fried Egg For Foodies

Check out my latest Community Chickens Post Fried Egg For Foodies, Avocado, Bacon and Blue Cheese Salad for a light and refreshing dinner idea that highlights what your chickens do best!

Grit Post:Spicy Ginger Ale

Learn how to make this delicious treat using fresh ingredients in my latest post from Grit. Homemade Spicy Ginger Ale.

Home Made Candy Canes

This is a re-post from last year, but I have to say that it was so much fun I wanted to share it again! As you kneed the candy, and the air gets incorporated, it develops a sheen. It goes from clear and kinda drab, to a shiny almost opalescent candy. So pretty. And it's really fun to play with, (think glossy Silly Putty!)

Maple Bourbon and Brown Sugar Ham

I made this ham the other night and I cannot lie, it turned out fabulous! The ham that I started with was bone-in and had more of a salty-smoked flavor rather than the sweet tastes that can sometimes be found. I like a combination of the two. I love the crispy sweet glaze on the outside that is Honeybaked-esque, but I also like a juicy, salty ham.

Here's my take on a salty smoked ham with a sugar glazed crust.  It has a ton of warm spices that work great for fall!

Maple Bourbon and Brown Sugar Ham

1 stick butter (softened almost to melted)
1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
1 Tbsp Bourbon (we make a vanilla infused Bourbon, but regular would probably do fine) 

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp clove
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp fennel
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

Mix wet ingredients separate from dry, then add the two together to form a paste. I use my hands to spread the paste onto the ham. For baking, times will change depending on the size of the ham. This ham I baked at 350 degrees for 2 1/2 hours, (I think it was around 7 pounds). The sugars start to burn after this, so if you have a large ham, maybe start the cooking process and then apply the sugar crust when there is 2 hours left.

Waxing the Cheddar

Last night Zach and I attempted out first wheel of goat's milk Parmesan. It's still pressing in the cheese press, and in two more hours I will make a salt brine and begin to brine the wheel. I'm particularly excited about this cheese. Parmesan is one of my favorite cheeses, and one of the most expensive to purchase. A good Parmesan Reggiano can run $17.00 a pound or more. And while I only use this type of cheese for special occasions, I wouldn't mind a homemade version available more often. The Parmesan has to age for 10 months or more. It will be a test of patience, but an act of love. Parmesan needs to be cared for throughout the aging process. It must be turned daily and then weekly, wiped of any mold buildup, and kept at the precise temperature and humidity in our cheese cave.

Our cheese cave is small refrigerator that our friend gave us to keep our extra eggs in. The eggs have since been replaced by 4 wheels of cheese, three wheels of cheddar and tomorrow, the Parmesan. Each of the wheels of cheddar have been made with different strengths of lipase, an enzyme that makes cheese taste "cheesy". We are experimenting to see which flavor we prefer. It's difficult to predict the flavors we will be tasting because a lot of the recipes we're using are meant for cows milk, so we have to factor in the "goaty" flavor which will come out with age. Zach and I like really strong cheese. Our favorite store bought cheese is an extra sharp, 12 year old cheddar made in Pinconning, Michigan. It is strong enough to curl your hair but oh so delicious! We know that our cheddar won't bite like the 12 year old sharp, but we're going for potency.

Because we have different types and flavors of cheese all aging in the same cave, we thought it would be a good idea to wax the cheese that is able to be waxed to prevent some of the flavors from transitioning to other wheels. Not all cheese can be waxed, Parmesan for example, creates its own rind over time so waxing isn't an option.

For the cheese wax, we had the choice of black, red or a mustard yellow. Zach and I both decided that "red" for some reason looked the most traditional.

We melted out cheese brick in a small crock pot that is now designated for cheese wax. We also purchased a natural hog bristle pastry brush to paint on the melted wax.

We did two light coatings, and let them dry. Then we tied a label on each wheel with the date, type of cheese, and the lipase information.

I love how the cheeses are stacking up in our little cave. Cheese is one of my favorite foods and we eat a lot of it. I am so excited that in a few months time we should have a constant supply coming from our farm. Cheese making is time consuming, but sort of addicting. If we're this enthusiastic and we haven't even tasted our first wheel, I can't imagine how we'll be once we get to enjoy the benefits of our labors. Hopefully, it's delicious and not a moldy, sour debacle! Only time will tell.  

Linking with Homestead Revival   
And The Coop Hop
           

DIY Chicken Sausage, Part 3:Smoked to Deliciousness!

Check out the final post on sausage making DIY Chicken Sausage, Part 3: Smoked to Deliciousness!

Brandy Vanilla and Maple Creme Brulee

Check out my latest Community Chickens post for this delicious recipe!!! Brandy Vanilla and Maple Creme Brulee

Open Faced Egg Salad Sandwich with Dill and Avocado

Check out my latest Community Chicken's post Open Faced Egg Salad Sandwich with Dill and Avocado.