Dark Days Soup with Sprouts

In February my fancy turns to sprouts.  The seed catalogs are busy teasing us with their endless varieties of tomatoes and basil and I'm itching to grow something---anything!  So I sprout, usually mung beans and alfalfa though I keep meaning to branch out with radish or broccoli seeds.  I do not recommend the mixed bag of sprout seeds, they always turn out yucky.  Last year I made a lot of egg foo young omelets with my mung bean sprouts but yesterday Penny's stomach was bothering her and so I decided to make a small pot of soup instead.

This is my Dark Days meal for the week and includes home grown mung bean sprouts, 9 Bean Rows pac choi and onion, garlic from The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village and beef bone broth made from Gallagher's Centennial Farm.  The process was nothing fancy: melt frozen broth, add sliced onion and garlic along with salt to taste and ginger, bring to a simmer, add chopped pac choi and return to a simmer, remove from heat, pour into bowls and top with mung bean sprouts and if desired a squeeze of lime, a splash of fish sauce and maybe some chili oil.

P.S.  Check out this nice article on Gallagher's Centennial Farm.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals.

Dark Days Roast Duck and Root Slaw

It's hard to put into words what raising your own animals for meat is like.  There is a sense of pride but also a weighty feeling of duty.  The excitement of fuzzy little ducklings and the annoying stink and mess as they take over your garage...the fun of seeing your kids chasing a big flock of ducks in your front yard and realizing this many animals eat a lot more food than the four birds you had before...the repeated discussions with your son and husband about how, "Yes, some of the birds are going to be for meat."  And then finally  butchering day comes.  Could I really do it?  Is it going to to be hard?  Is it going to be scary?

With four ducks and a rooster under my belt I personally have those questions answered and found it to be a rewarding experience.  I plan on getting more meat ducks again this year.  Maybe a little later this year so I can butcher in the fall instead of late summer and definitely a designated meat breed (Pekin or Muscovy) instead of the multi-purpose Buff ducks we got last year.  With our ducks I have made duck stock, duck confit, pan-seared duck breasts and just this weekend I roasted the one bird from the freezer that I left whole.  All of it was more delicious than anything store bought and I hope I did them justice.  Thank you to those ducks and all the animals that we use for food.  Also a huge THANK YOU to Joan and her son from Olds Farm.  They let me practice at their duck butchering and the experience was invaluable.

I used Roast Duck with Citrus Pan Sauce as a base recipe for my roast duck.  I stuffed the cavity with a Rennie Orchards apple and spiced the steaming water with just 1 tablespoon toasted coriander seeds along with 1 inch piece of sliced fresh ginger and 1/2 teaspoon cassia buds.  For the sauce I used the reserved steaming liquid and 1/2 cup verjus to deglaze the roasting pan then strained it to remove the spices.  To the strained reduction I added a diced apple, 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger and a pinch of dry mustard.  I cooked this until the apple was tender and served it on the side.  It was subtly spicy and tart to go with the rich duck. *A note of caution, be very careful when you prick the skin the second time, after steaming.  I was a little too enthusiastic and should have gone shallower with my pricks.

On the side, I made a root slaw similar in to this Super Red Slaw.  In it were julienned beet, carrot and turnip with a half of a red onion, thinly sliced.  To dress it I used Black Star Farms verjus, Eden Foods ume plum vinegar, salt, pepper, fresh grated organic ginger, and dried spearmint from my garden.  It was good but I prefer the version with cabbage.  The vegetables came from 9 Bean Rows and vendors of The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

The pot of gold at the end, duck fat!

Dark Days Lunches (with a little cheating)

It wasn't easy to pick a meal this week to dedicate to the Dark Days Challenge.  For some reason I kept changing my plans at the last minute and adding in an ingredient that made the meal not quite qualify.  So in place of one fully local plate I give you my past two lunches, each with one glaringly not locally sourced ingredient but lots of local flavor.

First we have yesterday's Sunshine Chicken with roasted roots.  I used a whole chicken from Hubbell Farm, which I broke down, the wings are pictured.  I shared this recipe back when I first started blogging and my family and I still love it.  Of course it calls for lemons and my lemon tree croaked right after I got one batch of fruit from it but they are in season and organic.  The root vegetables I roasted this time were turnips, beets, parsnips and onion-- a very good combination.  They came from 9 Bean Rows and vendors of The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village.  I cooked the roots in Hubbell Farm's turkey shmaltz.

And today's lunch was lamb arm chops from Starlight Hill Farms served with a variation on this cherry tomato salad.  I used kale, turnip greens and red onion from my 9 Bean Rows winter CSA share but couldn't resist the totally out of season cherry tomatoes John brought home.  I dressed the salad with verjus from Black Star Farms, lots of dried spearmint from my garden (re-hydrated in the verjus), salt, pepper and Higher Grounds olive oil.  You can see the distinctive oil label glowing in today's fantastic sunshine in the background of the photograph.

*Both of these meals fit the requirements of my January Whole 30

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

Dark Days Roasted Pumpkin Hash with Chorizo and more

More snow today.  From the signs in the coop, I think the weather was bad enough that even the ducks slept inside and it has to be pretty bad out for them to bother going in.  Weirdly one of our barred rocks is molting.  Talk about bad timing, we're in the middle of a cold snap!  She looks awful with all the new feathers sprouting out of her neck, blech.

Unintentionally, I managed to have all of my three meals today SOLE and completely Whole 30 compliant as well.  For breakfast I had a kale and baby lettuce salad.  For the dressing I made a creamy salad dressing with egg yolks from my chickens, organic flax seed and olive oils, a little organic lemon, mustard and Black Star Farms verjus.  I need to get some anchovies for my creamy dressings, they would have put it all over the top!  The kale and lettuce came from my 9 Bean Rows winter share that started last week.  I'm SO looking forward to their vegetables!

For lunch, I had a hash made with roasted cubed pumpkin (leftover from this soup), onions, sage (dried from my garden) and  some of my homemade chorizo sausage.  I took a picture of the hash before I chopped up the sausage and added it to the pumpkin but I attest that it was delicious though less attractive served that way.  Finally, dinner was beef and root vegetable soup.  I used some thin cut short ribs from Gallagher's Centennial Farm with a slew of root vegetables from 9 Bean Rows and vendors of The Village's Saturday Market.  The soup was very similar to the goat borscht I made before but with beef and without cabbage.  I flavored it with dried rosemary and winter savory from my garden, a  picture of the ingredients i used this time follows.

Dark Days Pumpkin Hash with Chorizo
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.  Cube pumpkin or winter squash into ~3/4" cubes and toss with a diced half an onion, olive oil, crumbled dried sage, salt and pepper.  Roast for ~20 minutes stirring occasionally, until golden brown.  While the pumpkin is roasting pan fry some chorizo sausage.  *Now that I'm thinking about it, I could have just added the sausage into the oven and saved myself a pan to wash.  When the pumpkin and sausage are fully cooked, slice the sausage and toss the two together.  Enjoy!

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

The ingredients for my Dark Days Beef and Root Soup, the process was similar to this goat borscht

Dark Days Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables

My entry for this week's Dark Days of Winter Challenge is a basic meal for us: roast chicken with roasted vegetables, in this case roasted root vegetables.  The chicken is from Hubbell Farm.  The vegetables were all bought at this past Saturday's farmer's market at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons.  This batch included turnips, beets, onions, rutabaga and celeriac.  They came from Birch Point Farm, Providence Farm, and Blackbird Gardens.  I seasoned the chicken with dried sage from my garden and rubbed it with molasses (not local but organic) and some more of my saved turkey schmaltz from Thanksgiving.  The vegetables were also roasted with sage, salt and turkey schmaltz.

Posts will be recapped starting this Sunday at Not Dabbling In Normal though it won't include my group (the Midwest) until the 18th. Until then you can visit our Midwest coordinator at Unearthing this Life or check out the blogs of the participants.  Here is a list of the other Midwest Dark Days bloggers:

Small Wonder Farm

20 Something Allergies

Happy Home

The Local Cook

Detroit Cooks

The Frugal Homestead

Mother’s Kitchen

Our Happy Acres

Dee Dee managing via comments and email

Where's the snow?

Can you believe our area of northern Michigan is still waiting for a real start to the snowy season?  Living outside of Detroit I always complained that there was no point in living in the cold without it and now luck seems to have brought SE Michigan's weather here.  But I shouldn't complain too much because even though the days are getting much, much shorter we have been blessed with some beautiful sunny days.

Alex loves that the flocks of starlings haven't gotten all our autumnberries yet.

Penny likes chasing after kitties outside.

Nelson doesn't much care for this game.

We put up the tree early this year and with luck we will still have a white Christmas.  

Until then I'm doing some trial runs of Christmas cookies.  

Dark Days Fast Leftover Turkey Pumpkin Chili

A super quick version of pumpkin chili to use up leftover pumpkin puree from pie making and turkey from Thanksgiving.  This is made with local ingredients, except the spices.  It was a perfect way to make use of the turkey that we feel obliged to have every Thanksgiving but no one in our family really loves.

Fast Leftover Turkey Pumpkin Chili
Makes about 3 servings

3 cups cubed roasted turkey meat
1 1/2 medium onions, diced
~1 green pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 tablespoon turkey schmaltz (or oil)
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 pint jar crushed tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons ancho chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
smoked salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

-Cube your turkey meat into ~3/4 inch cubes.  All dark meat would be my preference but I used both white and dark meat in this and was surprised that the white meat was saved by the chili spices.
-Soften the onion, green pepper and celery in the turkey schmaltz along with salt and pepper.  If you're not like me and don't almost religiously save fat from roasting meat then by all means use a neutral oil.
-Add the spices and cook about a minute until fragrant.  Add the pumpkin and tomatoes. Season to taste with smoked salt and black pepper.  The smoked salt really does add depth and improve this quick dish.
-Add the turkey meat and bring to a simmer.  Do not let it boil!
-Simmer for 10 minutes, check seasonings and serve.

I'm adding this to the Dark Days of Winter Challenge.  Recipes will be recapped on Sundays at Not Dabbling In Normal.  Also visit our Midwest coordinator at Unearthing this Life.

Dark Days Challenge info: We got our turkey from Hubbell Farm.  The onion and green pepper are from my garden (I actually used two tiny peppers left from a bunch that I saved right before the hard frost and were left neglected in the crisper). The pumpkin and the tomatoes were both from the farmers market but I don't remember who grew them, the tomatoes I canned in August.  The celery stalk and the spices are not local but all but the cumin was organic.

Other pumpkin chilis I've bookmarked lately:
Primal Pumpkin Madness
Pumpkin chili with venison

The kids were reading Christmas books together.  I love this time of year!

"Gremolata" Balls for the Freezer

To stash the last of my fresh parsley from my garden I made this. It's only sort of gremolata because I added lemon juice and olive oil in an attempt to have it last better in the freezer.  I tried it out on top of roasted beef marrow bones and it was fantastic!  The verdant and piquant flavor cut through the richness of the marrow.  I plan on using the rest of my stash to garnish stewed meat or soup, similar to the uses for gremolata on osso bucco or like pistou in soup.

"Gremolata" Balls for the Freezer
Take a couple of cups of fresh parsley and pulse in a food processor with a couple cloves of garlic.  Add the zest from one lemon and the juice from 1/2 lemon with enough olive oil to moisten.  Salt and pepper to taste and add more garlic or oil until you like the flavor.  Scoop tablespoons onto a cookie sheet, freeze until solid, then store in an airtight container (zip bag, etc).  Serve on top of stewed meat or as a last minute addition to perk up a bowl of winter soup.  To serve: place a still frozen ball in soup or allow one to defrost slightly and then spread on top of stewed meat.  Also very good in place of parsley salad with roasted marrow bones.

A homesteading milestone

This weekend I pushed myself to get enough done around the house so that I could have nothing in particular to do and was blessed with a sunny day to enjoy doing my "nothing", which meant having a lot of fun.  We started out with a deep cleaning and winter prep of the coop. While we were there our fussy chicken, which I have only recently decided to call Gertrude, was sitting on a big pile of eggs. She didn't mind us taking the eggs but got a bit frantic when I started cleaning out the old bedding. We soon found out that this was because she needed a nest to lay in. Just after I got the new bedding in place Alex was watching her remake her nest and got to see an egg come out of her!! Of course I'm tremendously jealous of missing such a rare opportunity but so thrilled that we've given Alex this chance to experience things most kids would never see outside of YouTube.

We finished the coop cleaning and after some time hand feeding the chickens autumnberries we made our way down to the garden to see what was left there. In the frost aftermath we found two forgotten mini pumpkins, a couple bunches of beets, broccoli, parsley, cauliflower, and a cabbage.   We also found an orange-sized watermelon that had been buried under the foliage until the hard frost hit.  It was pink inside but a little mushy so it went to the poultry.  Alex ran off to try building up a fire and Penny and I followed the dogs around until it was time for her nap.

Later, we went out to our new property. Yes, we've done something really crazy and bought a farm. It's sorta an investment, sorta a hopefully we'll change gears and move there thing, if, if, if... It's complicated but basically it was just too good to pass up. And it has a barn!! And a spring! And ponds! And a log cabin!  Anyway, see the pictures for more.

Alex in the coop with Gertrude

Gertrude

Garden harvest

Alex with the freshest egg we've seen yet

Penny practicing some ninja moves with a bamboo stake

The spring on our new property

The big willow at one of the ponds

The barn *swoon*

An old wagon in the barn which fascinates me

The log cabin

A project from last week, we pressed some apples from our land into cider.

Milkweed Fuzzy Penny

Dreamy Penny

Shelling Beans

At first appearances shelling beans aren't a very rewarding crop to grow. A 3 foot by 10 foot bed will yield only just barely enough beans for a single pot of soup.  And as I am more and more interested in pursuing a more paleo or primal style of eating, beans are generally frowned upon because of their anti-nutrient, high carb, Neolithic status.  But there is fun to be had and Penny and I were busy harvesting and shelling today and when it comes time to eat our beans we'll be sure to soak and cook them well.

We had three methods of bean removal.  The first is the Thumb Slide.

The second I call the Zipper Pull.

And the third Penny came up with and I named the Tear and Fling. 

It's not pictured because it results in beans flying in every direction and me scrambling to gather them back up. But rest assured Penny wore a smirk like this one while doing it.

 

Bonus video with Penny saying "beans"

Garden Shots

It's so good to be back in the garden. I'm not spending nearly enough time weeding but Penny and I have been picking plenty and Alex has been busy hunting for grasshoppers, aka "chicken treats".

Scarlet runner beans are a new favorite.  They are SO good stir fried with garlic!

Alex's sugar baby melons are larger than softballs. Will they ripen in time?

Lots of big grasshoppers this year. On the beans.

On the beets. Detroit dark red beets that is.

Sour puss Penny

Smirks crunching on cucumbers.

*Thanks to Hometown Seeds, who sent me one of their Survival Seed banks to try in exchange for advertising their company on my site.

Fragrant Beef Salad

It's been awhile since I've put forth an entry for the Mother's Kitchen Spice Rack Challenge, but her entertaining post and my love for cumin were inspiration to get me moving.  This past winter I was trying to think up new ideas to use the ground beef from the steer share we purchased.  I remembered the spiced beef from a Middle Eastern bakery near one of our previous homes in Sterling Heights, MI.  This bakery served spicy beef on top of brick-oven fired pizza dough with slices of fresh tomato.  (They have to-die-for cheese breads as well but those are now merely daydreams from my previous life as a dairy eater.)  I used my memory to try and recreate the flavor of the meat and it became a favorite dish this past winter.   The main spice is cumin so this is a perfect dish for this month's challenge.

Fragrant Beef Salad
Inspired by the meat flat breads from Maatouk Bakery.  This is my taco salad use for the spiced meat, of course you could use the beef on top of pizza dough like they do or like taco meat in tortillas.
Makes 2-4 servings depending on your hunger

1 pound ground beef, ground lamb is also wonderful
1 large onion, chopped
~6 cups greens (spinach, arugula and kale all work well)
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin seed
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
good extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper (or a pinch of cayenne)
salt

-Brown the meat, preferably in a cast iron skillet.
-When browned and mostly cooked add the onion, spices, salt and pepper.  Add a little olive oil if needed to lubricate the onions so they will cook well.   Stir and cook over medium high heat until the onion is soft and browned a little.  Taste for seasoning and add more salt, pepper and spice as desired.
-Wash, chop and dry your greens.  Top the greens with the beef mixture and then top with the tomatoes.
-Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper and drizzle over olive oil to dress the greens.  Enjoy!

Even though I miss the ocean there are some pretty great consolation prizes here at home- the tomatoes, kale and onions in this salad are all fresh from my garden.

An older cumin recipe to share, Black Bean "Tacos" with Smoked Paprika Shiitake Mushrooms