From my kitchen

Cherries and Meditation

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The early morning was spent preparing a big batch of Hood River organic cherries for the dehydrator.   We ate oodles fresh, and what is left will go in a batch of  sweet cherry brandy (makes the best fruitcake for Christmas).

If you don’t have a cherry pitter, check out this tip, and these, for how to remove cherry pits.   I like the way the cherries dry better when they’re sliced fully in half, but I do pit them when making brandy, pies, feeding them to the children.

Later this afternoon, we’re going picking for sour cherries (more on that tomorrow).  I’m excited to get some locally – I’ve actually never cooked with them before, and hear they make excellent pie and jam.

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I really like preparing stone fruit for jam, drying, etc.  It’s such a rhythmic, meditative process.   Gives me time to think, pray, while slicing the fruit, removing the pits to a separate pile.  It reminds me a bit of traditions that use prayer beads.   It’s a very peaceful thing, really.

Watermelon Salad

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A while back, Sunset Magazine called for summer recipe submissions with 5 ingredients or less.  I sent in a recipe, and they published it in the July 2010 issue!

It’s a super easy fruit salad recipe based on a dish I make all the time in the summer.  (It’s a great dish to take to a potluck, btw.)  I basically use my homemade lime marmalade warmed up to make a dressing, and tossed with any cubed melon.  (Although, it’s also good with some fresh mint added, or using strawberries and oranges if melon isn’t available).

So, check out the current issue of Sunset for the recipe!

Stone Fruit Cake

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Larksong’s Simple Stone Fruit Cake

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup white flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

approx 3 -4 apricots, plums, pluots, etc, washed and sliced, or a large handful of pitted, halved sour cherries

sanding sugar to sprinkle on top (about 1 Tbsp)

Directions

1)Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 9-inch springform pan (or, line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment if you don’t have a springform pan) and set aside.

2)In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat on med-high for a few minutes until  quite fluffy. Meanwhile, sift flours, salt, b. powder and nutmeg into a separate bowl.

3)Add vanilla and slowly add flour mixture until just combined.

4)Pour into pan and arrange sliced fruit over the top.  Sprinkle with sanding sugar.

5)Bake 40-50 min or until edges are browning and center is set.  Let rest 5 minutes before removing from pan.  Enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream.

ENJOY!!

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New Pizza Recipe

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The other night we tried out a new pizza recipe from Good Eat’s guru, Alton Brown.

I really liked that the dough is made the night before and allowed to set-up in the fridge – this way, when I’m in a hurry to make dinner the next night, I can quickly take out the dough, stick the pizza stone in the oven, and quickly whip up some homemade pizza.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how the pizzas turned out (one recipe makes two medium pizzas) –

2 chief issues – my husband didn’t love the texture of the dough, and Alton called for flour on the pizza peel – I went against my instinct and trusted him on this.  Big mistake.   Using flour made the dough stick to the peel horribly, and, as you can see from the wonky shape of the pizzas, it was a real pain to slide the pizza off onto the 500F stone without destroying the pizza and losing all the toppings.  Always ALWAYS use cornmeal on the pizza peel, and you won’t have dough stick to it.

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The kids had simply mozarella, parmesan and ham on their pizza, and we added red peppers on ours.  I’m looking forward to having enough basil from the garden soon to add that, and in retrospect, I should have added some kale as well, which crisps up nicely on a pizza.  But, I used what I had on hand and was in a hurry.

We are hoping to build an outdoor wood-fired bread and pizza oven this summer (not sure yet if it’ll be cob or brick), so that we can continue to bake in the heat (if it ever arrives), and would like to start our own version of Barbara Kingsolver’s tradition of homemade pizza on Fridays – using whatever fresh ingredients the garden or market provide.

Eventually, we hope that the bread/pizza oven would be a place to foster community in Parkrose – folks in our neighborhood could gather and bake bread once a week (just like an article I read in Sunset magazine about the Cully neighborhood’s bread oven).  I’d let people know that I’m going to fire up the oven every Friday at a certain time, and anyone who wants to bake can come with their dough and we can have tea and chit-chat while it bakes.

In the meantime, we’re still in search of the perfect pizza dough recipe – if you have a favorite, please share it with me!  Thanks!

Anyway,  best get out to the yard for a bit while the sun shines!

Chocolate-Malt Cookies

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Well, one upside of all the cool rainy weather is that it’s prolonged the “baking season.”  It has yet to be so hot that I can’t justify running the oven.  🙂

Firecracker and I tried out a new recipe and whipped up some cookies for the neighbors – Martha’s Chocolate Malt cookies.   We’re working our way through Martha’s Cookies book (we’ve made 9 of them, and have loved every recipe so far!).  We decided to leave out the filling (no cream cheese or chocolate on hand – oops!), and just make the cookies.

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The dough was a little sticky, and the cookies baked up thinner than the pictures in the book, so I’m glad I didn’t make any filling – they were just too delicate.

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(Please excuse the scorched Silpat – the result of trying a Martha recipe for tofu-fries, which required putting the Silpat under the broiler – I found out later that a Silpat should not be heated above 450F – a lesson not to trust every Martha recipe, I guess…

Anyway, the cookies were still really tasty – I love the addition of the malt flavoring – reminds me of the chocolate malts my mom would make me on hot summer days in Tucson.  If we ever get any hot weather here, I’ll have to make some for the girls.  🙂

What have you been doing to make the best of the perpetual March weather?

Is anyone as excited as I am about tomorrow’s forecast of 80 and sunny??  YAY!!

Snack of choice

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HUMMUS!  It’s my favorite, thrifty, last-minute dish when the kids need a savory snack, or we need to bring a side-dish to a get-together.  It’s always a hit and goes great with crudite, chips, falafel, bagels, you name it!

Homemade hummus is so easy and frugal and delicious, I can’t understand buying a teensy little tub of it at the store for $4 or whatever they charge.   I like a tahini-heavy hummus, and the addition of some smoked Spanish paprika, as well.   Here’s my recipe:

Larksong’s Easy Tahini-Lover’s Hummus

2 cans organic garbanzo beans drained (reserve liquid) and rinsed (Tip: for extra-creamy hummus,  remove the papery skins from all of the beans.  It does make a difference.)

1 cup roasted-sesame tahini (I much prefer roasted to raw, which can have a bitter or sharp taste to it)

juice of  one large lime

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive-oil, plus more for garnish

4-6 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika, plus more for garnish

chopped fresh parsley (or dried crushed) for garnish

Directions:

1.  In a food processor (which I actually don’t own – so I use a bowl and an immersion blender), combine chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lime juice, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp paprika.  Drizzle in bean-liquid until desired consistency is reached (I like mine quite creamy (hence removing the chickpea skins if I have the time) and I will often add all of the bean-liquid and then a little water as well, so it’s thin enough to dip into easily).

2.  Transfer into a clean serving bowl, and sprinkle with more paprika and the parsley.  Drizzle with a bit more olive oil.  Enjoy!

Buttermilk-Spelt Bread

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We all love the nutty, complex flavor of spelt.  Spelt is very low in gluten, and can form a hockey-puck loaf if you’re not careful.  This recipe produces a light and tasty loaf, although it doesn’t rise as high as a white-bread loaf.   (But who cares?  The flavor is amazing!)

Also, the recipe makes two loaves, one for you and another to share with a neighbor.

Since a few folks have requested it, here’s my all-time favorite Spelt bread recipe, from my friend Naomi –

Buttermilk-Spelt Bread

4 Cups spelt, kamut or hard winter wheat flour
1–1.5 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup melted butter or olive oil (for greasing bowls and pans – do so liberally)
1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 extra cup flour–can be the same used above, or unbleached white flour

2)Directions:
1)Combine 4 cups flour with 1cup buttermilk in a Kitchenaid mixer with paddle attachment until a ball forms.  If dough is too thick, add more buttermilk slowly, but it should be thick enough to form a ball.  Place ball of dough in a bowl, cover with a towl and leave in a warm place for 12-24 hrs.

2)After 12-24 hrs, combine water, yeast and honey in a small bowl and leave for 5 minutes or until it bubbles.  Add salt and baking soda and mix well. Place half the flour mixture, half the yeast mixture and 1/2 cup of extra flour in the Kitchenaid.  Process until a smooth ball forms.  Repeat with other half of dough, yeast & flour.

3)Knead the two balls together briefly and place in a buttered bowl.  Cover with a towel and let it rise for 2 hours, until doubled in bulk.  Then punch down, cut the dough in half and process each half in a processor for 30 seconds each.  Then form the balls into loaves with your hands and place in liberally buttered loaf pans.  Cover with a towel and let rise another 1-2 hours.  Finally, bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, remove from oven and cover tops of loaves with more butter.   Cool on racks before enjoying.

Real Food

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Today we finished Michael Pollan‘s In Defense of Food.   The girls and I listened to it on unabridged book CD over the course of several afternoons of making dinner.  I had really enjoyed The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, but somehow missed this one until now.

Much of what he writes really melds with our family’s thoughts on what we eat, how we eat, and where our food comes from, and we found the book affirming and encouraging.

In honor of Pollan’s call to simply “eat food”, instead of “food-like substances”, here’s the food we made for tonight’s dinner while listening to the final chapters of the book:

sliced mangoes and oranges

roasted carrots, golden beets and potatoes tossed with toasted walnuts and bleu cheese (above)

Cabernet-braised beef with dried apricots

brown rice

mint tea

whole-wheat oatmeal-marionberry bars

Pollan quotes Wendell Berry throughout the book, greatly esteeming Berry’s writings on humanity’s relationship to food, agriculture and nature.  (By the way, thanks to Pollan – and even more so to Kortney at One Deep Drawer – I’ve got a whole stack of Berry’s writings on order from the library). Particularly moving for me was Pollan adoption of Berry’s words as a sort of grace at the beginning of the dinner meal: 

Eating with the fullest pleasure – pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance – is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living in a mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.

Spiced Cocoa Beef Stew

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The girls and I made a special beef stew for  my birthday yesterday.  They especially enjoyed blending the spices at the beginning…and later standing by the stove, inhaling the amazing aroma of spice-dredged beef browning in butter (oh, and eating three big bowls of hot stew at dinner, too!).

We don’t eat much meat, but this is a nourishing, comforting meal that is worth the effort.  A little bit after lunch, we put on some bluegrass music, started a pot of hot tea and got cooking.  Once the dish gets going, this stew can simmer through the afternoon with no need of my assistance, so it’s a great choice for a day when we’re going to be home and want to work in the garden or read all afternoon right up to dinner time.   (I just remember to put the rice cooker on and add the greens to the stew about half an hour before we want to eat.)

This recipe is inspired by a beef-cooked-in-chocolate-and-mild-chilis dish that I had at a friend’s house years ago – I liked the flavor combination of the beef with the cocoa, oregano, and smokiness of the ancho chili powder.   It took me a few tries to come up with this version – just a basic beef stew with the typical tomatoes and wine to tenderize the meat, and spices we like in a typical combination – I end up changing it a little every time I make it – continuing to improve it, I hope.

Larksong’s Cocoa Braised Beef

Ingredients:

In a large bowl, combine

2 Tbsp dutch process cocoa

1 Tbsp ground coriander (I prefer Penzey’s Moroccan)

2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika

2  tsp ancho chili powder

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon (again, I use Penzey’s Cassia, for a stronger cinnamon flavor)

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 1/2 tsp dried leaf oregano, crushed between your fingers

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup unbleached flour

You will also need:

2 Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp olive oil

about 2 1/2 lbs stew beef, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes (don’t trim off all of the fat – it adds flavor!)

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large red or yellow bell pepper, finely chopped (optional.  And when we have fresh pimentos from the garden, I use 3 or 4 of those)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup good quality red wine

1 can crushed tomatoes (with basil, if you like), or part of a quart of home-canned tomatoes, crushed between your fingers, juice included

1 -2 chipotle peppers (from a can of chipotles in adobo), crushed in a mortar and pestle or minced (with gloves on!) (optional – 1 for some heat, 2 for a lot – these can have quite a kick.   I leave it out when making this for the kids)

1 3/4 cups beef broth (if I don’t have any in the freezer, I will use Penzey’s ham base, according to the directions and mix with 1 3/4 cups water – adds a sweetness and smokiness to the broth)

3 big handfuls spinach, kale, or chard, chopped (whatever is growing fresh in the garden, or half a pack of frozen spinach, if necessary).  If using kale, remove the ribs.  If using chard, remove and chop ribs, and add these to the stew 10 minutes before adding the chopped leaves.

fresh oregano, for garnish (I actually have some in the garden already, thanks to Teacher Linda!)

A pot of  white or brown rice, and a loaf of crusty bread

Directions –

1.  In a large pot/ Dutch oven, heat 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp olive oil on med heat.  While oils are heating, toss the cubed beef in the bowl of spices, coating thoroughly.

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2. Brown spice-dredged meat in batches, being careful to avoid crowding meat, so that it can caramelize (instead of steaming, which is all it will do in a crowded pan). (There will be excess spice/flour mix in the bottom of the bowl – save this!).    This will take about 4 batches – halfway through, add additional 1 Tbsp olive oil.  Remove all browned beef to a separate plate.

3.  Add remaining Tbsp of butter, reserved flour/spice mix to the pot, stirring until fragrant and browning a bit.  Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup of red wine, and pour this back into the bowl and reserve.

4.  Add remaining Tbsp olive oil to the pan, and cook onions and bell pepper until softened, about 5 min, then add garlic and cook, stirring, for another 2-3 minutes.

5.  Add beef (and any drippings that accumulate on the plate) , wine/flour/spice mix, tomatoes, beef broth and crushed chipotles (optional) to the pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Cover and cook about 2 hours, or until meat is falling-apart tender (the flour will thicken the broth as it cooks, but if it looks like it’s getting too thick, you can add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup broth or water).

6) Add greens, and cook for another 20-30 min.  Garnish with chopped fresh oregano and serve over rice.  Enjoy!

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Baking Day

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Monday is baking day.

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We’re enjoying the Monday tradition of baking homemade bread.  Our favorite “fancy” recipe is Challah – the dough is so kid-friendly, the results wow everybody, and nothing goes better with homemade jam.

It looks like the sun is starting to come out, so I think we’ll go plant some potatoes (along with the usual Yukon Gold and generic redskinned, we’re trying three heirlooms this year – German Butterball, All Blue, and a lovely pink-fleshed Red Thumb).

After some busy gardening, I think we’ll deserve some challah and strawberry-banana jam for afternoon snack.  🙂

Ridiculously good dinner

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Little Hen and I made this recipe for spiced pulled-pork (from Sunset Magazine) for dinner two nights ago.  I have yet to find a Sunset recipe that is a dud – there are always keepers in ever issue -but this one was a cut above.  Oh my goodness, the allspice and thyme combined with the apple-cider vinegar, and tender (yet economical) slow-cooked pork – it was beyond delicious!!

Here is Sunset’s original recipe (I’ll post my slight alterations at the end) :

Sunset Magazine’s Spiced Pulled-Pork

Yield: Makes 8 to 10 sandwiches

  • 1 1/2  pounds  boned pork shoulder or butt, fat trimmed
  • 4  ounces  green onions, rinsed, ends trimmed, and coarsely chopped
  • 2  cloves garlic, peeled
  • 2  fresh Fresno or other hot green chilies (about 1 oz. total), rinsed, stemmed, and seeded
  • 2  tablespoons  tomato paste
  • 2  tablespoons  brown sugar
  • 2  teaspoons  ground allspice
  • 1  teaspoon  ground dried thyme
  • About 1 teaspoon salt
  • About 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4  cup  cider vinegar
  • 8  to 10 soft dinner rolls (about 1 oz. each), sliced in half horizontally

Preparation

1. Rinse pork and pat dry.

2. In a blender or food processor, whirl green onions, garlic, chilies, tomato paste, brown sugar, allspice, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until finely chopped. Add vinegar and whirl until smooth. Scrape mixture into a heavy 5- to 6-quart pan. Add pork and turn to coat completely. Cover and chill at least 2 hours or up to 1 day.

3. Add 1 cup water to pan, cover, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat; reduce heat to very low and simmer pork, turning once, until meat is very tender when pierced and shreds easily with a fork, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

4. Remove from heat and let cool about 15 minutes. Transfer meat to a bowl. Skim and discard fat from surface of cooking liquid. Measure liquid; if there’s more than 1 1/2 cups, boil over high heat until reduced to 1 1/2 cups. With a fork or your fingers, pull meat into thin shreds; remove and discard fat. Mix meat with cooking liquid. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

5. Spoon about 1/4 cup pulled pork onto each roll bottom; set tops in place.

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We made a quadruple recipe (since I happened to have a 5-ish lb. pork shoulder in the fridge).  This way, I could serve pulled-pork with spinach rice and a side of roasted sweet potatoes (in cumin, paprika, coriander, garlic, and a titch of cayenne) the first night, and pulled-pork sandwiches (on homemade buns) with a side salad and some homemade pear sauce later in the week.  There were also two dinner-sized bags to pop into the freezer.

If you’re going to make a quadruple batch, and also planning on feeding this dish to children (who, by the way, love shredding the pork, it’s great, messy fun!), here are some changes I recommend:

1)Quadruple everything in the recipe, except the hot chilis – keep this the same, so it’s not too spicy for little ones (our pork had a teensy kick to it, but even Tum Tum ate three helpings with no complaints.) and also do not quadruple the water – instead use 2 1/2 – 3 cups.

2)Definitely let the larger cut of meat sit in the rub overnight or even 2 days in the fridge.

3)Increase cooking time to about 4 hours, using a meat thermometer to check that the middle of the roast has reached a safe temperature – that’s 160F.

If you’re looking for a hearty, easy, delicious late-winter meal, I highly recommend this recipe.

Up next for comfort food (if I can get my hands one some local lamb that doesn’t bust the budget) (thanks for tipping me off to this yummy looking recipe, Chris!) – Honey-Rosemary Lamb Sandwich.

PS- Have you seen Sunset’s blog, One Block Diet?  I have been reading it lately, and getting some inspiration for our own garden project.

Cranberry-Pear Pie

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It’s no secret that pie is our dessert of choice here at the Baker house.  At the holidays I try to bake a pie at least a 3 or 4 times a week, rotating between nut and custard and fruit pies.  And, in my opinion, at the holidays, no fruit pie is complete without the fruit of the season – cranberries.

I love the layer of complexity (and nutrition) that cranberries add to a fruit pie – especially how their tartness marries with the sweet flavor of barlett pears.  I made this pie for Thanksgiving and twice since (we’ve even had it for breakfast, and I’m sneaking a late-night slice at this very moment).  The girls love it served warm, with whipped cream on top.

When adding cranberries straight to a pie, the result is uneven (who likes a large, sour, unexpected bite of whole cranberry?) and often runny (due to the moisture cranberries release while cooking).    This recipe remedies those issues and makes a really special holiday pie.

Larksong’s Cranberry-Pear Pie

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Ingredients for a 10 inch-deep dish pie:

For the cranberry layer:

12 ounces fresh cranberries (one bag), picked through and washed

zest of one orange

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 -3 tbsp unsalted butter

For the rest of the pie:

2 pints home-canned sliced pears, syrup drained off, and tossed with 2 Tbsp tapioca starch and 4 Tbsp granulated sugar

one pie crust (I prefer a lard crust), well chilled (I usually make a half dozen at once, freeze them, and just take them down to the fridge the night before I want to make a pie)

approx 2 cups butter streusel (also freezes well) or second pie crust

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 425 F.  In a medium skillet on medium heat, combine 2 Tbsp butter and brown sugar, stirring until sugar dissolves.  Add the cranberries and orange zest, and cook, stirring occasionally until cranberries have popped and cooked down (if it begins to stick, add additional Tbsp butter).  Remove from heat and let mixture cool slightly.

2.  While cranberries are cooking, roll out pastry.  When cranberries have cooled slightly, spread them evenly across the bottom of the pie crust (see below.)

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3.  Layer the pear/tapioca/sugar mixture over the cranberry layer.  Add streusel over the pears, pressing down slightly to prevent streusel from rolling off the top (the pie should be mounded up quite a bit, but will sink down some as it cooks.).  If you choose to use  a second crust, roll out the pastry, and add it to the top, decorating as you desire.

4.  Cover with foil and place in preheated oven (I use a pie moat underneath, since it may bubble over some).  Bake for 30 minutes, then remove foil and bake an additional 15-25 minutes, or until pie is bubbly and golden brown (being careful not to overbrown the streusel).

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5.  Let cool for a bit, and enjoy with whipped cream or ice cream (and a glass of mulled wine).

If you have a favorite rustic holiday dessert you’ve written about, I would love to share the link here.  Thanks!

Pieces of our Saturday

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A morning spent baking a pecan pie thank-you.

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An early afternoon spent planting hyacinths and digging earthworms with the girls.

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A late afternoon of immense blessing – We have been given an enormous maple loom, made right here in Oregon.   We spent about two hours getting it dissassembled, carried up our narrow stairway, and reassembled.

It will need a good bath, a shuttle, some new pegs, but it is a beautiful, beautiful thing – an amazingly generous and precious gift.  The girls and I can’t wait to get her in working order and teach ourselves how to weave shawls and rugs and coverlets – our minds are full of anticipation and possibilities!  (Firecracker would like a superhero cape!)

And now we are off to our homeschool co-op’s end of the semester Open House.   We have been looking forward to it for weeks (Little Hen is in the theatre class, and Firecracker will be singing in the choir).   We’re so glad Grandma and Aunties and Cousin can come down and join us.

Altogether, a truly blessed Saturday – every piece.

Sick Days

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This autumn has been the hardest on our health of an season I can remember.  It seems at least part of the family has been sick almost every day since September.  We can’t seem to get a break of more than 3 days without someone being sick.  Right now, we’ve all got a bad chest cold, and Tum Tum is by far the worst off, running a fever 4 days going and struggling with a crackling deep cough.

Life right now consists of tackling mountains of laundry, comforting sick children back to sleep many times in the night, making Lidia’s stracciatella,  and soothing the short tempers that often come with feeling ill.  We have neither the time nor the energy for much in the way of baking, crafting and enjoying the autumn outdoors.  Instead,  we’ve been snuggling up on the sofa with lots of blankets, reading books/listening to books on tape while we drink hot tea, hot cider, hot cocoa – anything warm and soothing.  And back rubs.  Lots and lots of backrubs.

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And for Mama – some sock knitting, Survivor (we have no TV, but I just found out I can watch it on the computer, so I’ve been catching up!) and marionberry brandy late in the evenings goes a long way in helping maintain my sanity in this season of seemingly-endless illness and injury.

I know that this, too, shall pass, and we are by no means alone in having a difficult fall when it comes to sickness.   I hope and pray for full restoration to health for everyone – that we can enter into a time of Thanksgiving with joyful hearts and healthy bodies.

Cannelini and Butternut Stew

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I’m feeling so much better – and very grateful that none of the rest of the family became ill.   In an effort to get back into the kitchen and make something nourishing and comforting, Firecracker and I started with something easy but wholesome and cooked up a big pot of  bean stew.  Here’s my recipe –

Larksong’s Cannelini Bean and Butternut Squash Stew

2 cups (approx 1 lb) dried cannelini or lima beans

6 cups of water

1 large onion, finely diced

2 ribs of celery, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

large handful of kale or spinach, chopped

6 cups veggie or chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

Directions -  1.  Approx. 1 – 2 hours before you want to begin the stew, quick soak the beans in the 6 cups of water.

2.  In a large pot on med heat, sautee the onions and celery in olive oil or butter until translucent and caramelizing slightly.  Add the garlic and cook 5 more min.   Add the squash, increase the heat to med-high, and cook, stirring every few minutes, until the onion  and squash are nice and caramelized on the outside.

3). Drain and rinse the beans, and add them to the pot, cover with the stock, cover the pot and allow to simmer until beans are nearly fully cooked, being careful not to stir too often (so as not to break up the squash too much) (approx 1 hr).  Add the kale, salt and pepper, and let simmer 10 min more.  Serve with a loaf of rustic bread – I like rye.

Enjoy!

Perry, Sauce, and Butter

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Final count from the Barlett harvest:

20 – 1/2 pints of Caramel-Spice Pear Butter (sorry, secret recipe!)

18 quarts of pears in light syrup (some spiced, some with lavender, some vanilla)

12 quarts of pear sauce (which we all discovered we prefer to applesauce – it has a wonderful buttery quality)

oodles of pear crisp and pear upsidedown-gingerbread cake

about 40 lbs eaten fresh

and 4 1/2 gallons of pear cider, for our first ever attempt at perry.  (Although, there’s quite a bit of sediment, so I’m sure it will yield much less after racking once or twice…or three times, we’ll see how it goes.)

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After far too many hours on my feet, late at night and very early in the morning, processing all of the pears, it feels wonderful to be done.  We all look forward to enjoying the fruits of our labors throughout the fall and winter.

Thanks for being patient while I took a few days off – the whole family was down for about 5 days with a fever/chest cold and that plus putting up the pears (after all, they don’t care if we’re sick and the timing is inconvenient for us, they ripen when they are ready!) and some other obligations left me feeling spread pretty thin.

Today is rainy and gray and the girls are still feeling under the weather.  I’m hoping to get the house cleaned, since it’s been terribly neglected for a week.  After that, I promised Little Hen we’d work on spinning with a drop spindle, and maybe read a little together.

I hope you have a restful and recuperative weekend, too.

Hot Cocoa Mix

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Today Firecracker and I are attending our church’s fall kickoff of our monthly Ladies’ Breakfast.  The pastor’s wife is hosting at her house, so we thought we’d take her (and her daughter – Firecracker’s friend) a little hostess gift when we go.

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Earlier this week, we went to to the thrift store and picked up a little basket, lined it with an embroidered linen hand towel (from my stash).  We also found two little silver spoons, and paired them with two vintage Japanese tea cups and saucers.  The tea cups had a glossy opalescence that Firecracker really liked  (“the inside of the cup looks like a soap bubble!”).  To round out the Mom and Daughter Afternoon Cocoa basket, we made a batch of Not-Too-Sweet Hot Cocoa Mix.

If you’d like to make some cocoa mix of your own (which I prefer to store-bought, because it isn’t overwhelmingly sugary), prepare to get messy!  You’ll need –

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Sift together 2 cups powdered sugar and 1 cup dutch-process cocoa and 2 tsp cornstarch (no lumps!).

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Then stir in 1 tsp salt and 2 1/2 cups powdered milk,

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and finally, add a large pinch Ancho Chili Powder.  (The original recipe is from Alton Brown’s website (love Good Eats!), although, the first time I made it, the girls didn’t like the cayenne, so now I use the Ancho chili powder, which is very mild, but provides a hint of smoky pepper flavor.)

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Stir all ingredients together, and store in a large jar, sealed tight.  To make up a cup, fill your cup 1/3-1/2 full with the mix.  Add hot water, milk or coffee to fill.  Enjoy!

Hope your weekend is filled with peace and good fellowship.

Bartlett Harvest

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Saturday,  I was blessed with the opportunity to ride with another family of volunteers out to Mosier, OR (in the beautiful Columbia Gorge) to glean pears for Birch Community Services.   The weather was very rainy, windy, and chilly, so I was grateful that the children could all stay home, snuggled up reading their latest chapter book with Daddy.

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The five of us wore large canvas pear-picking bags, and picked 40-50 lbs of Bartletts off of the trees at a time and then unloaded them into large crates.  Due to the windy, rainy conditions, I didn’t get any pictures of the actual picking, but here you can see a fraction of what we picked.  The owner’s of the orchard estimated that we picked close to 2200 lbs of pears!!

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You may ask, why were thousands of pounds of beautiful pears sitting unpicked, unwanted on the trees?   Well, the owners explained to me that there isn’t any profit in Bartletts – they cost $120/crate to grow,  but can only get $180/crate on the market – so by the time they pay workers to pick them, and absorb the cost of transporting them, they actually lose money on the Barletts.

The farmer makes his living growing Bosc pears for market.  So, why grow Barletts at all, then??  Bosc pears command a much higher price than Barletts, but the trees are not self-fertile, and require another pear variety for pollination.  So, for every 4 rows of Bosc pear trees planted in the orchard, the farmer must plant a whole row of Barletts in order to reap a crop.  The Barletts are generously left available for the gleaners.

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After picking over 8000 pears to donate to BCS, we were allowed to harvest for ourselves as many pears as we could put up  – so I have over 150 lbs of pears sitting on my kitchen floor to ripen over the next week!  I’ll be dehydrating and canning pears and pear butter non-stop late in the week and over the next weekend.   Bring some jars and you’re welcome to join me and take home canned pears for your family, too!   I’d love to have your company!

For more on the culture and history of gleaning, check out my favorite (and oh-so-French!) documentary – Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (The Gleaners and I).

Peaches, Preserved

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Peach-Brandy Jam = 18 -  1/2 pints

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Peaches in Light Syrup = 12 Quarts

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Peach Honey (a delicious, thrifty, vegan honey substitute) = 6 1/2 pints

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Peach Honey Butter on Applesauce cake (with peach jam between the layers.) – 1 stick unsalted butter, 6 tbsp peach honey (or regular honey) , beaten together in the Kitchenaid Mixer with a whisk attachment until combined and fluffy.

The best thing about home-preserved peaches, in my opinion, is opening a jar in the middle of winter and tasting a sunny summer day.

These ladies are taking preserving the harvest to a whole new level – Dana, Beth, Rural Mamma, and Amanda.

Marionberry Liqueur

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We like to make an assortment of flavored liqueurs to enjoy on cold winter evenings (and to give as gifts).  The list includes apricot or peach brandy, lemoncello, elderflower cordial, raspberry cordial (alcoholic, and non-), and cherry brandy (which makes a very special soaked-fruitcake at Christmas).

I started making apricot vodka about 15 years ago (back in high school!) for my grandfather, but my current method was inspired by an article I saw 4 or 5 years ago in Backwoods Home Magazine (our library used to carry it – it’s a very…interesting magazine full of back-to-the-land and survivalist- type articles).

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This year, I added Marionberry Liqueur to the list, since the farmer’s market had some really beautiful looking marionberries.  The process would work for most any fruit – I make cherry and peach brandy in a similar manner.

Here’s my recipe  – which takes 5 weeks, but involves little effort-

Larksong’s Marionberry Liqueur

5 quart mason jars, lids and rims, washed with very hot soapy water, and sterilized (in dishwasher or boiled for 15 min.)

2 cups well-crushed berries (3-4 cups whole, measurement doesn’t have to be exact – if using stone fruit, wash and pit, but do not skin)

1 bottle inexpensive brandy or vodka (I personally like brandy for cherries, peaches, marionberries, and vodka for raspberries, citrus, apricots, pears)

white or brown sugar (I prefer brown sugar for peach brandy)

Directions –

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Week 1 – To one mason jar, add crushed fruit and 3 cups of alcohol.  Put lid and screw band on and invert several times.  Then, leave in a dark place (like a kitchen cupboard).  After a week, the alcohol will take on the beautiful color and much of the flavor of the fruit.

Week 2- Decant the alcohol carefully into the 2nd jar, close it, label this jar #1 and  set aside.   Sprinkle the berries that remain in the first jar with about 1/2 cup sugar.  Put the lid and screw band on, and invert several times.  Put both containers back in the dark for 1 week.  (The sugar will draw excess alcohol out of the fruit, along with LOTS of fruit flavor.)

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Week 3 – Decant the alcohol from the berries again (you will have between 1/2 and 3/4 cup – see middle jar above), this time, label the jar #2, and set aside.  Once again, sprinkle the berries that remain with sugar (just enough to coat the fruit this time).  Put the jars up for another week.

Week 4 – Repeat the process of week 3.

Week 5 – Carefully decant the last bit of liquid (don’t pitch the fruit! – the remaining fruit is wonderful over ice cream, or can be used in a loaf of quick bread.  If you used peach slices or apricot halves, they can be packed in jars with half a vanilla bean or a cinnamon stick, covered with simple syrup, and kept in the fridge until later – serve with a slice of poundcake).

Now, take a little spoonful of each container and taste them.  Notice that Jar #1 is all alcohol, not very sweet, and as you progress through the jars, they will be more sugary, less alcoholic.  How sweet do you want the liqueur to be?  This is purely up to you – I always add all of jars 1 and 2 together, I add some of jar 3 and 4 little by little until I get the desired sweetness.  Any leftover alcoholic-fruit-syrup is enjoyed over ice cream (sometimes there’s as much as 1/2 cup left, and it’s very sugary).

Strain the liqueur through several layers of cheesecloth or a very clean flour-sack towel, put into small bottles, cork, label, and store in a dark place (so as not to fade the rich color).  Enjoy as a digestif or a bit drizzled into hot tea.  Use within 6 months.

Have you blogged about a favorite traditional homemade preserved food?  If so, please share the link with me, and I’ll add it to this post – I’d love to learn what other folks enjoy making.  Thanks!

Onion Biscuit Recipe

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Here’s my mother’s super simple recipe for onion biscuits.  They go perfectly with roast chicken, or a bean soup, and the girls love to help make (and eat) them -  a great way to occupy the children with something purposeful while I’m trying to get dinner ready.

You’ll need:

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2 tubes of biscuits, 1 stick of butter, and 2 packets onion soup mix.

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Cut the biscuits into quarters (yes, an almost 5 year-old can use a knife safely – we practice “fingers BACK”  and I supervise closely.)

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Add the onion soup mix to a large bowl.

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Melt the butter and add it to the soup mix.  Stir to combine into salty, buttery goodness.

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Add the bicuits, a handful at a time, and roll them around until thoroughly coated.

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Place on a Silpat or parchment paper, and bake at 450 F for about 5-7 min.  Watch carefully to avoid burning.

What do your kids enjoy creating in the kitchen?

Roast Chicken Dinner

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Cooler weather this weekend means  a chance to make a family favorite – roast chicken.  Here’s my recipe –

Larksong’s Roast Chicken with Shallots

1 chicken, washed and patted dry with paper towels left to stand at room temp for 20 min.

2 – 3 Tbsp (approx) Penzeys Bicentennial Rub (or spice rub of your choice that contains salt)

2 Tbsp Tillamook Butter, cut into small pieces.

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 pinch dried rosemary (from my friend, Jerilee.  Thanks!)

about 6 large shallots

4 large potatoes, washed and quartered

2 handfuls chopped carrots (I used baby carrots for convenience)

Olive oil

Directions –

1) Preheat oven to 425 F.  Slice the shallots thickly and place them in the bottom center of a lightly oiled roasting dish.

2)Rub chicken (instead and outside and under the skin) with the butter.  Then rub entire chicken with the spice rub (especially under the skin for maximum flavor).  Place garlic, rosemary and a few carrot slices inside the cavity.  Truss the chicken.

3)Place chicken breast side down on top of the shallots in the roasting pan.  Arrange the carrots and potato slices around the bird and drizzle them with olive oil.  Bake at 425 F for approximately 1 1/2 hrs, or until juices run clear.  Let rest on the counter 15 min before carving.

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Orange Julius Recipe

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To make this  refreshing, healthy summertime snack , you will first need 4 medium oranges.   Give them to the kids and let them roll the oranges around on the counter and between their hands to prep them for juicing.

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Juice the oranges (you should get about 1 cup of orange juice).  If little hands are helping, I always put down a kitchen towel – juicing oranges is a messy task for a 4 year-old (or a 30 year-old, for that matter!)

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If you like, throw in a chopped peach or a handful of strawberries or a mango for another layer of flavor and nutrition.  Put these in the blender.

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To the blender, also add 1 cup of whole milk (or a nut milk would be yummy if you don’t do dairy, but you might want to decrease it to 3/4 cup),

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one tsp pure vanilla extract,

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and a scant 1/2 cup organic, unbleached sugar (or  4 Tbsp honey)  (and our oranges were very sweet, I could have cut this back even more).

Puree for 20 sec, then add

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ice! Just have the kids drop them in a cube at a time until it’s a thickness that you all like.

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Enjoy! (I know my kids did – Tum Tum kept signing to his sisters for sips! )

Don’t forget to check out my giveaway post! Thanks!

Larksong’s Orange Julius

4 medium oranges, washed and juiced to yield about 1 cup orange juice

1 peach or mango, chopped, or one handful of strawberries (optional)

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

scant 1/2 cup sugar or 4 tbsp honey, to taste

ice cubes

Directions – Place all ingredients in the blender for 20-30 seconds, then add ice cubes one a time until desired consistency.   (Extra good with a bit of whipped cream on top.)

Peaches

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The peaches are ripe on Sauvie Island!!!!  We took advantage of the cool weather this morning (65!!) and went to pick some with my sister.

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The farm was lovely, as usual, and the picking easy (I love how so many of the branches are very low, so the children can pick easily).  Little Hen tripped and hurt her leg right at the end, which put a damper on things, but Auntie Jen took us all to Hot Lips Pizza (everyone’s favorite!) for lunch afterward, so the trip ended with lots of smiles.  🙂

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And 57 lbs of beautiful ripe peaches later… I am camped out in the kitchen making batches of jam and canning sliced peaches.   Some will be peeled, sliced and frozen, as well.  And of course, some little children around here will polish off quite a few, too.    The aroma of cooking peaches filled the downstairs, and Firecracker kept running into the kitchen just to inhale deeply and then run back to playing with her sister.

Tomorrow, more pictures from our morning on Sauvie Island.  And a giveaway in two days!

Watermelon Granita

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For the past few weeks on and off, we’ve been experiencing some uncharacteristically hot weather here in Portland (hovering around 100 degrees).  The forecast for the next few days is 103!!  Ack!

So, in an effort to simultaneously keep cool and fulfill my need to cook (without running the oven!), I made a batch of Watermelon Granita.   Here’s my recipe –

Larksong’s Watermelon Granita

4 cups seeded, chunked watermelon

1/2 cup Dainty Lime Marmalade (or 1/2 cup sugar and juice of one lemon or lime, but the final result will be grainier)

1/4 cup vodka (optional – I make two batches, one with for the grown-ups, one without for the kiddos. )

Directions – Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a casserole dish and freeze 1 hour.  Rake with a fork.  Return to the freezer for another hour.  Rake again with a fork.   Return to the freezer for 1 more hour, then rake yet again.  (Sometimes, with the vodka added, it may take some additional time to freeze thoroughly , so leave 4 hours in your time schedule just in case.)

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If you haven’t got any watermelon on hand – try my mother’s Peach Granita recipe (you can tell where I got the inspiration!) –

Larksong’s Mother’s Peach Granita

3 cups peeled, chopped peaches (blanch for 30 seconds to loosen skin, and then peel and chop)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup Peach Schnapps

1/2 cup water or orange juice

Directions – Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a casserole dish and freeze 1 hour.  Rake with a fork.  Return to the freezer for another hour.  Rake again with a fork.   Return to the freezer for one more hour.  Rake with a fork for the third time.  Serve in chilled cups.  Enjoy!

What are you doing to stay cool in the summer heat?