Poached Eggs and a BLT Never Tasted So Good

Insipired by the sucessful whole wheat sandwich bread recipe here are a couple of classics:

BLT on homemade whole wheat, with local bacon,
 tomatoes, and lettuce.

 

Poached eggs on toast with orange and red
 tomatoes and avocado.
(Adding a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to
the poaching water keeps the white together.)

Tip for slicing cherry tomatoes or grapes: put them between
 two lids.  Place your hand flat on top of the upper lid. 
Slice between the lids with a serrated knife.
 (I'm a lefty so the picture looks strange!) 

Voila!  Halved tomatoes in no time.

An Insanely Good Deal on PYO Organic Blueberries

We discovered Inkwell Farm in Epping NH a couple years ago in Epping, NH.  They have roughly 300 organic berry bushes in the back yard of their 1700’s era farmhouse.   Pull into the driveway and self serve supplies await you in the screen house:  empty milk gallons with bags, a scale, money and change box.

And the price?   $1.95 per pound!  For a price comparison, I bought local (non organic) blueberries at the grocery store on Sunday for $3.99 for 11 oz (roughly $5.80 per lb).  So, 13 lbs of blueberries in our bags (and an untold amount in our belly’s) we headed out after putting $26 in the money box.  Heaven!

On the way back to the highway we stopped at Goody Cole's in Brentwood for some amazing BBQ!  We got a combo plate “to go” with brisket, pork, kielbasa, potato salad and cornbread.  Our open windows wafted the smell all the way home.  If you like BBQ give them a try but for now it’s back to blueberries.

Many of the berries I froze the day we picked them (wash and air dry, freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet and then store in a zip top freezer bag with air removed) but just as many were eaten by the handful and made into wonderful concoctions. 

Here is what 13 lbs of blueberries look like and what I made with them:

• Blueberry Crumble Bars
• Pork loin with blueberry salsa, blueberry bread pudding and blueberry mojitos
• Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls

Hopefully they'll still be picking in two weeks so we can get some more for jam.  We'll meet you there on Saturday morning and then swing through Goody Cole's for lunch on the way home.

Corned Beef Dinner with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

My family loves a good corned beef dinner.  Here is my tried and true recipe served with homemade horseradish sauce, roasted Brussel sprouts and red potatoes, and mini Irish soda bread loaves.

I know many of you are gagging at the mere thought of Brussel sprouts, but roasting works miracles on these little gems.  Trust me when I tell you to give these a try.  Toss in some red potatoes for a hearty side dish to enjoy on St. Patrick's Day or any other day of the year.

Corned Beef

• One 3lb corned beef brisket (uncooked), in brine
• 4 quarts cold water
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 4 whole allspice berries
• 4 whole cloves

1. Rinse the corned beef brisket under cold running water.  (Be sure to give the sink a good scrub after!)
2. Place the beef in a large heavy bottomed pot with lid.  Add the remaining ingredients to the pot.
3. Cover and bring the pot to a slow boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat and skim off/discard any foamy scum that rises to the surface. 
4. Simmer for 3 hours and 45 minutes. 
5. Remove the beef from the pot and allow to sit for 20 minutes to reabsorb the juices. 
6. Slice the beef against the grain and serve with horseradish sauce or mustard.

Horseradish Sauce

• 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 3 tablespoons jarred grated horseradish
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix together all ingredients.
2. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

• 2lbs Brussel sprouts
• 2lbs red potatoes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste
• Garlic powder to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Trim the stem ends off the Brussel sprouts and remove a couple of the outer leaves.  Cut the sprouts in half and place in a large mixing bowl.  Don't worry if a few more leaves fall off when you cut the sprouts in half.  They will crisp up nicely.
3. Wash and dry the red potatoes and add to the mixing bowl.
4. Drizzle the olive oil over the Brussel sprouts and potatoes.  Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.  Toss gently to coat.
5. Spread on a large cookie sheet (or two smaller sheets) and roast until the potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes.  Shake the vegetables to mix about halfway through.

St. Patrick's Day Corned Beef

One of the most profound things about eating locally is shaking the hand of the person raising your food.  At Miles Smith Farm one of those folks is Carol Soule.  She welcomed us to the farm, showed us to the cows and got hay for us to feed them.  That was when we learned just how long a cows tongue really is!  The boys were so scared of getting licked they refused to feed them! 

Miles Smith cows are pasture raised and well cared for as they enjoy the fresh air and blue skies of New Hampshire.  The care that Carol and her husband provide the cows translates into beef that I trust is safe for my family.  To find local meat in your area visit your local farmers market, health food store, www.localharvest.org or www.eatwild.com. 

Brine dry ingredients

Who needs grocery store corned beef for St. Patrick's Day when you can do it yourself?  Alton Brown's recipe indicates the brisket should brine for 10 days so I'm cheating a little with only seven to spare.  Our point cut brisket is fairly thin and will do fine with a few days less in the brine.  Because of the large size of the brisket I cut it into two pieces - each in their own ziptop bag.

I chose to omit the saltpeter that Alton's recipe includes.  Saltpeter is a nitrate that retains the meat's pink color.  I also wasn't able to find the juniper berries so those were also omitted from my version.  I did hear that Whole Foods carried them but we don't yet have a Whole Foods in NH!

In the coming days I'll post my favorite recipes for corned beef, horseradish sauce, Brussel sprouts and Irish soda bread.  Stay tuned!

Brisket in the brine

Corned Beef Brine

• 2 quarts water
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken into a few pieces
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 12 whole juniper berries
• 8 whole cloves
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 2 bay leaves, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 lbs of ice
• 1 3lb brisket 

1. Place the water into a large 6 to 8 quart stockpot along with salt, sugar, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, bay leaves and ginger.
2. Cook over high heat until the salt and sugar have dissolved.
3. Remove from the heat and add the ice. Stir until the ice has melted. If necessary, place the brine into the refrigerator until it reaches a temperature of 45 degrees F.
4. Once it has cooled, place the brisket in a 2-gallon zip top bag and add the brine. Squeeze out any air and seal the bag.  Lay it flat inside a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for 10 days. Check daily to make sure the beef is completely submerged and stir the brine.
5. Serves 4-6.

What do you mean it's going to snow? - The 2011 turkey story

The plan this year involved a day off for me on 11/23.  That way I could pick up the turkey, get some food prepped see a good friend and hopefully have a few hours to do whatever I felt like.  It was probably a very ambitious list but a girl can dream!  Mother Nature decided to throw a snow storm at us resulting in an evening trip to New Boston on 11/22.

With the boys in tow we headed out after work and daycare.  Where we typically eat around 5:30 I knew we'd have to stop along the way for dinner.  Where did we eat? McDonald's!  Ugh, I know!  Sometimes we've got to do what we've got to do, right?  After dinner our journey continued with happy meal boxes and toys in hand.  Patrick asked to bring his box inside when we picked up the turkey.  I chuckled and suggested that he leave it in the car so as not to lose it.  (Could you imagine arriving at an organic farm with a McDonald's box in hand?  HA!  In hindsight the farmer was wonderful and it surely wouldn't have been a problem.)

I hadn't anticipated the dark but only made one wrong turn prior to reaching the farm road.  After turning into three long driveways that were NOT the farm we found it.  Let me tell you, K turns on dirt driveways are not fun!  At least I only heard the boys each say, "I'm scared" once!  We finally found the right driveway but then couldn't find the right door.  The 1700's farm house has many doors including an attached barn with even more doors.  After several attempts up dark paths the boys and I went back to the car and called Roger from the driveway and he met us outside.  We discussed his CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program as we're going to switch farms for next year.  The boys kept themselves busy by weighing each other and potatoes on a huge antique scale and off we went.

Now with the snow coming and the turkey in the fridge I still have a day off tomorrow.  Fingers crossed for light work shoveling and an open daycare and school.  Looking forward to brining this bad boy for a great meal on Thursday.

Bobbing for Turkey - the Thanksgiving that started it all...

A little more than four years ago I joined an online book club through meetup.com.  The book that month happened to be Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in the Life of Food by Barbara Kingsolver (the novelist).  I never would have read this book on my own but for me this began an education that truly rocked my world.

The book follows the Kingsolver family as they move from the Southwest back to their summer homestead in Virginia.  Their goal is to eat entirely from from their farm or locate their food sources from within 100 miles of their home.  They raise livestock, grow fields of vegetables, forage for mushrooms, can, freeze, etc.  The author peppered in stories of heirloom seeds, homemade mozzarella (which I've made!), selling chicken eggs, etc.  Her stories of the turkey that we all think of gracing our dinner table on Thanksgiving were shocking.  She spoke of the big breasted birds that have been modified so much that they can't even have sex to procreate their species.  We have bred the most natural instinct out of the animals while stuffing them full of corn feed to ensure we have big breasted $0.49 birds. 

The author raised all heritage breeds and encouraged the reader to seek out a heritage breed turkey for their own Thanksgiving table.  This fell at the right time of year for me as we were reading the book in October... perfect time to start my search.

My first search via the almighty Google didn't help much.  The last 4 years has shown increased demand for local food making a current Google search much more productive!

Several searches and phone calls led to a farm north of Concord.  They didn't have a web site but they did have turkey's!  Our Thanksgiving bird was on order and it would be ready for pick up the Sunday before Thanksgiving. 

The morning of pick up we packed the kids in the car and headed out to the farm.  The boys both fell asleep on the not too far ride so Matt stayed in the car with them while I got the turkey.  I followed the spray painted signs that led to what amounted to a huge tarp tent heated by a pot belly stove.  There wasn't a door, just another tarp that could be moved aside to enter. 

I didn't know what I was doing...  I was wearing nice jeans, Mary Jane's with a heel and my sassy purse slung over my shoulder.  Feeling a little foolish and way overdressed for a tarp tent, I pulled back the door and said in a big (trying to overcome my shyness) voice, "Hi there!!!"  Heads of several people turned immediately to the crazy woman who just walked in.  Their teeth, if counted together, likely equaled my own.   What caught my eye next were two large pools full of turkey's bobbing in water.  Yes, they were dead, featherless, gutless, etc. but that many turkey's in a pool was a bit surprising to this city girl! 

I told the woman behind the folding table my name and she said, "Ahh, yes!"  as she remembered me from her conversation with said City Girl.  Her husband bobbed a turkey of the weight I ordered from the pool, double checked the weight on an old fashioned hook scale and then wrapped it in a garbage bag.  While I wrote my check (don't you people take debit?) her husband asked if I was a Williamson from the Chichester Williamson's.  I smiled and politely said no believing that to get out of their quickly it was better not to tell him that I grew up in a suburb of NYC!  I handed off my check, picked up my garbage bag, wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and got the hell out of there! 

It was a decent walk back to the car and I giggled the whole way.  By the time I got into the car I couldn't stifle my laughter any more! Tears rolled down my face while I laughed through the story to Matt.  He looked at me in disbelief and was glad I went and not him.  What a gentleman!  When we got home the bird found a home in the fridge until Thanksgiving morning - and boy was he tasty.

The turkey adventures have continued since then.  Three years ago I met the farmer halfway at the library in Candia.  We had a turkey exchange in the parking lot.  Last year had a more traditional pick up with the bird waiting for us already wrapped in a cold garage.  This year is yet another different farm - this one happens to offer a CSA for both veggies and meat.  This will be a trial run for perhaps signing up in late winter. 

The current year's bird story is often a topic at the Thanksgiving table which I do enjoy.  I'll never buy another frozen bird again as the antics and the people are just too memorable to skip.  Besides, the turkey is just awesome and cannot be missed.