Eclectic Grub

Diana’s Famous Margaritas on the Rocks!!!

I am fortunate to have some amazing co-workers. A group of us have been trying to build more meaningful relationship across the organization by walking together at lunch and having lunch together at our amazing student run campus restaurant, Garrett’s. At one such lunch one of my amazing co-workers,  Diana, offered that she had some iris’s needing a new home. She invited us over for flower swapping and Margaritas. 

Almost six years ago my my family  moved into our current house. It was new construction. The yard vasilated between thick grey muck during wet periods and dried cracked clay in the heat of the sun.  I had visions of a lush cottage garden. There was clearly a vast amount of work separating my vision from the reality of the yard we had to work with. I spent a lot of time that first summer reading gardening books. I carefully measured, mapped and planned. We purchased 10-yards of the best soil we could find and mounded it into organic shapes that looked so hopefull and empty. I wasn’t sure just how to make my dream come true, but I knew that I didn’t want the formulic landscaping package that many in my neighborhood were clearly delighted with. I came accross something that I found fascinating in one garden books. The author was joking about the horror her Grandmother would have if she were alive to experience the modern garden center overflowing with lanky perennials. It seems the tradition of gardening is built on relationships and demonstrate the strength of a community. A traditional perennial garden is built one plant at a time through sharing and trading. I immediately loved the idea. Today my garden is a reflection of the people who love me and some who have touched my life for a just a time.  Each year over the last six years has been punctuated with newness from the generosity of other’s gardens.  Each year we move, shape, add and edit. We have built the landscaping piece by piece, from scratch. I guess it’s only fitting then that a group of co-workers also looking to strengthen and build our community should come together over some perennials in need of new loving homes.

Although I had just gone through a comprehensive thinning out of my perenial beds to make room for flowers from Greg’s Aunt  I had a few to share. On this particular swap I offered up some Evening Primrose, which I call Sun Drops because when they bloom looking at them is like breathing in drops of pure sunlight.

Sun DropsI'm sure some of the purple iris in the background were shared.

I also definately had enough iris to share. My gardening strategy is giving energetic plants a dedicated space to spread their wings and shine. I have a dedicated Lilly bed, a hydrangea area, daffodils surround the five easement trees surrounding our yard and I  have a lovely chunck of land picked out for irises. My goal for the iris garden  is to weave it into  a stunning conglomeration of different iris’s that will supply weeks worth of blooms. Two summers ago someone, maybe even a co-worker, had given me a huge batch of iris’s that I didn’t at the time feel would fit in my iris bed.  I gave them a temporary home until I learned more about them. They’ve turned out to be gorgeous and full of surprises. Here are a few pictures of my iris’s from last year.

I'm sure some of the purple iris in the background were shared.

Some more that were likely shared.

While I have always had a fondness for margarita’s I don’t really remember ever having one this good. Maybe it was the company. Maybe it was the joy of building more meaningful relationships. Maybe it really was the best damn margarita that I’ve had. In any case, thought you might want to try it out next time you’re feeling like you want to connect over a laugh with friends.

Diana’s Famouns Margaritas on the Rocks!!!

2 C sweet and sour mix
1 C triple sec
1 ½ C gold tequila
1/3 C brandy-based orange liqueur (Grand Marnier)
2 Limes
Salt

1. Salt the rims of glasses and fill with ice
2. Combine sweet and sour mix, tequila and Grand Marnier. Blend until smooth.
3. Pour into glasses and squeeze a quarter lime into each glass.

Serves 8, give or take.

The margaritas were served with a what I consider a perfect meal. A collaboration of colors, textures, and flavors in their simplest forms. Strawberries, grapes, hunks of cheese, fresh bread – the kind with a crust you have to cut with a knife, tabouli, humus, carrots, grape tomatoes and sweet peppers. I’m sure there are things I am forgetting, but I will not forget how fun it was watching Diana dig up a spirea after a few of those amazing margaritas!

Peanut Butter Yum…some might call ‘em waffles

So I woke up this morning way before anyone else. After checking all the messages and such on my iPhone / alarm clock I finally got out of bed. Did my daily weigh-in. Things were looking OK. Since I had a 9:00 am bike ride scheduled with my friend Krisha I decided I’d have plenty of calories for a fun breakfast. But what, I needed plenty of carbs and some protein to get me through the hilly route I expected we’d take.  Eggs were out, no bread. No bananas for our usual Banana Oat Pancakes. Nicholas wandered downstairs and offered to help with breakfast. I had an idea…peanut butter pancakes. Checked with Nicholas, the head chef, he was sure waffles would be better. A quick Google got me a few options, one from Cooks.com looked amendable for our allergy concerns.

The Ingredients: substitutions and notes
The recipe calls for all-purpose white flour, not something I use. We substituted some oat flour and some unbleached white flour to add up to the amount called for in the recipe. Oat flour is simply made by putting whole oats in the food processor until it grinds down to a flour. It’s not as fine as a more processed flour, but gives good texture and adds some nutrition.

The original recipe called for butter, not an option for us. My typical substitution for butter is coconut oil. Coconut oil is very responsive to room temperature; in the winter it is solid, in the summer it can become a liquid.  If it’s solid it will be difficult to work with, especially in baked goods. Softening it in the microwave 10-20 seconds will solve the problem. The coconut oil lends a nice depth to the flavor, but doesn’t overtake it. My father-in law hates coconut, but has unsuspectingly gotten through baked goods containing coconut oil none without a fuss. If he did detect coconut he’s never mentioned it. We substituted rice milk for the cows milk with good results. When we have it I’ll more likely use almond milk instead. It adds a little depth and it’s not something we eat unless it’s in baked goods.

I also have to confess that I didn’t measure the peanut butter — I likely used more than the recipe calls for. The peanut butter I used was the fresh ground kind that is available at the Ann Arbor People’s Food Co-op, Arbor Farms, and Whole Foods. The taste is so much better and there are little chunks of peanuts in it — not a true chunky, but not the fake smooth of Jiffy either.

Even my picky eater, who made me promise there really wasn’t peanut butter in the waffles before trying one, really enjoyed the waffles. They’re a great way to get a little protein in with breakfast without meat.

Peanut Butter Waffles
(inspired by this recipe from Cooks.com http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,165,159165-227197,00.html)

Directions from recipe:
Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Cream peanut butter with coconut oil until smooth. Beat eggs and milk until blended. Add to peanut butter mixture. Beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients. Mix just until smooth. Bake in a hot waffle iron. Serve immediately with jelly or syrup.

My Directions:
In stand mixer, cream peanut butter with coconut oil until smooth. Add eggs, milk and dry ingredients. Mix well. Bake in a hot waffle iron. Serve immediately with jelly or syrup. Or, cut up fresh bananas or strawberries, drizzle with syrup, and a dab of whipped topping, if desired. That’s how I hope to eat it in the future!

The final results turn out a pretty light color, sorry, they didn’t last long enough to add pictures. Next time I’ll be doing a double batch, great for freezing and using for a week morning breakfast.

Nutrition: (per waffle)*
113 Calories
6.1 g Fat
12.3 Carbs
2.9 g Protein

* Assuming you get 14 waffles, like I did.

Winning Soup: New Bedford Portuguese Kale Soup

Soup journey’s are regular events at my house. I try to cook a big pot of soup most weekends. Whatever is left on Friday goes in the freezer in single serve containers, often pint canning jars. Over time, I get a nice collection of lunch options that are from scratch and yummy! If I really blow it on calories during the day I can always lean on my soup saviour to keep my me on my weight loss journey. Also, I just LOVE soup. Well, that is except for split pea. When I was young I lived next door to my Mother’s parents. My Mom’s the third oldest of ten kids. Many of my aunts and uncles still lived at home. One day, I was about 5 years old, my Uncle Bub was making the most fantastic smelling soup. Remember, 5-years old, I wasn’t tall enough to see in the pot. But, all day long I could smell it. I kept asking, when will it be done? I was sure it would be the most fantastic thing in the world. I distinctly remember that I was sitting in the seat directly opposite the front window when he sat that bowl down in front of me. Horror! It looked like green baby poop. This would not touch my lips, no matter how amazing it smelled. As I pushed the bowl away I declared that I couldn’t possibly eat this soup, I could see the dust on top (pepper) and I was in fact allergic to dust. I walked away and didn’t again try a creamy legume soup until I joined a CSA a few years ago.

On this particular day, as most soup journey’s start in my house I was looking for a soup that would use ingredients that I had on hand and felt a need to get through. In this case,  potatoes and collards were the ingredients of the day. On the way to church I Googled the ingredients on my iPhone. Up popped a recipe from Cooks.com for New Bedford Portugeuse Kale Soup. http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1848,128185-241194,00.html Looked promising, I was in.

But what the heck is chourico or linguica? A quick search turned up Portuguese sausage. Hmmm…where could I get that before dinner? No matter, I knew I had some bulk Italian sausage made by Nathan at Cresswick Farm in the freezer. It would have to do. If I’ve ever cooked for you it’s likely there are a few things you’ve figured out, 1) I can’t follow directions, recipes are no exception, and 2) I like to try new recipes on guests. Don’t worry, to my knowledge, no guest has ever been harmed while testing new recipes. When I got home from church I Googled a few more recipes for Portuguese Kale soup. I came to the conclusion that Portuguese Kale soup in synonymous with chicken soup in the US — everyone has their own variation. In the words of my husband, this is a winning soup. Hope you like the Polish-Russian-Irish-French Canadian version of this Portuguese classic.

Portugeuse Kale Greens Soup

1 bunch fresh Collards (or any cooking green)
1 large yellow onion
3-4 potatoes sliced very thin – use variety that you can leave skins on
1 lb. Italian sausage
8 cups chicken broth
1-2 TBS bacon fat
6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 can cannelloni (white kidney) beans
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 hot peppers, seeded
fresh tomatoes (equivalent to a 15 oz can)
1/3 teaspoon paprika
Season with salt, & pepper to taste

Saute sausage, onion and garlic in skillet. If using ‘lean’ sausage the mixture may dry before the onions are translucent. If that happens, or if you just like a little extra flavor, add the bacon fat. (The original recipe called for a 1/4 cup olive oil to the saute mixture.)

In soup pot add broth, tomatoes, cannellini beans, bay leaf, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add sausage mixture, potatoes and collards, simmer on low for about 1/2 hour or until potatoes are tender.

Serve with crusty homemade bread, like the kind my blogging friend Trisha’s husband makes.

Notes for next time: Add a few more hot peppers. The peppers gave a nice flavor, but the soup wasn’t spicy. I would have been OK with a little spice. Leave out the garlic powder, it just seems unnecessary.

Preservation Tip: When tomatoes are fresh, local, and cheep freeze them. Just wash and core the tomatoes and pop them in a freezer bag. When you take them out run under warm water and slightly pinch the skins which will glide right off.

Kitchen Tool Note: A mandolin works great to make thin cut potatoes for soup. I love kitchen gadgets, but they have to be useful. I use the mandolin pretty much just for thin cut potatoes in soup. The results are worth the storage space.

I’ll post a picture when I have a chance.

Tags: kale, soup, tip

Broth Success?

The beef bones have been nestled in the bottom right corner of my freezer for oh, at least a year. Just waiting. Many times over that year ( or so) the chicken and turkey carcasses had been eagerly recovered from the frozen nether land to become rich, flavorful, nutritive broth. But the beef bones had yet to be called to duty. I wonder if the beef bones had heard the rumors that the broth that they might one day become was more difficult to achieve than the poultry broth. Maybe that gave them solace as they were passed up time and again. Maybe I should spend less time wondering what the bones in my freezer are chatting it up about and actually see what happens when I try!

The bones emerged from the freezer, with the ground still frozen outside. My broth making prowess has emerged part from reading Nourishing Traditions and part from experimentation. My broth pan is an 18-quart cooker. I first roasted the bones in the oven — although the directions were to roast one kind and not another kind, I guessed.  In the end, some were roasted, some were not. You see, I couldn’t really figure out what the knuckles look like when they were just bones. Roasted or not they ended up in the 18-quart cooker covered with water. I added a few veggies; carrots, celery, garlic and I think I threw in some leek stalks in place of onion. Some spices; salt, whole peppercorns, and bay leaves. Then I waited. About 3 days.  Since I’m not so good at just waiting, I turned the temp up to about 350 degrees when I was around in the mornings and evenings and down to 200 or 250 when I was sleeping or at work. I was attempting to get it up to a good simmer. I read that at that point I would have to skim the scum off the top. Never saw any scum. Maybe that’s because I used bones from grass fed, non-chemicaled animals, don’t know.  It did reduce and when it would get below bone level I’d add a bit more water.

This is the semi-finished product. It has been simmered down, it has been cooled, the fat and such was scooped off the top and the bones have been removed.

Then, as it was still cold outside, I put it in the garage to see if the allusive jell would take form.  This is the part that was rumored to be more difficult than poultry broth. I didn’t plan very well. I started on a Sunday night and well, by Thursday, when it was properly cooled I was beat. It stayed in the garage until the weekend. When I brought it back into the kitchen there appeared to be no jelling. Honestly, I didn’t really care. My son’s food allergies have prevented me from using commercial beef broth for three years and the thing is, I have no recipes on hand waiting for this broth. There aren’t even recipes that I used to make with beef broth that I was excited to dust off.  Back in the kitchen, I strained the broth. I put the broth in canning jars, leaving plenty of head space. I secured a plastic reusable jar lid on each canning jars. Made a post-it note to top each one. Gently placed the lot in the freezer still not quite sure what I was going to do with my monster load of non-jelling but other-than-that-nice-looking beef broth that I now had on hand for whatever might strike my fancy.

To the broth making pro’s out there, did I succeed?

Above: Straining is important to get all the solids out.

Below: Tada! Ready to go in the freezer.

Tags: beef, broth

Hello

So, this is a pretty cheesy first blog post, but the thing is that this is so far overdue. I need something up in order to send the link out and get my gal pals Bloggers to see that I have finally jumped into the online foodshed. Yes, I’m talking about you Michigan Lady Food Bloggers — who everyone else should visit on Facebook.  Ok, so questions ladies…what do you think of the skin I picked? Is that even the right word? Orange is pretty much my “signature” color, but are food pictures going to look OK with it? I’m thinking strawberries and the obnoxious orange that I LOVE? Answered my own question there because they go just fine in a fruit salad! Maybe this weekend I’ll tell you all about the orange chair that I loved so much that now has a new home. I digress. I was at questions. What features do you love on your blog, which would you do without? And does anyone know how to change the font on the title and add a subtitle? While I’m on that one, any ideas for a subtitle? You were all so helpful in getting my creative juices flowing to come up with Eclectic Grub that I was thinking, just maybe you could throw me another bone.

Last question, can you fondue?

That’s it for this first timer.