Sometimes a little chaos is good

I rummaged through my refrigerator and threw together a dinner of no particular provenance or coherence: chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, a bunch of leafy greens, and shredded roast chicken. The veggies were from my Tantre farm share and the chicken was Back Forty Acres. I sauteed the veggies, splashed some broth over the mess to keep it moist, threw in the chicken, and let it simmer. I had originally intended to toss it with pasta but then I thought, "why not just eat the mixture?" So I did. Just the mixture plopped in a bowl. With a hearty glass of my newly received wine shipped from California, it was...an amazing dinner. Just a big sloppy mélange of ingredients and a glass of wine and a cat on my lap. Delicious. Nutritious. Fabulous. No recipe, no direction, no plan, just me and my cutting board and knife and fingers dipping into my jar of salt for a crystalline sprinkle across a fragrant bubbling pan of food, good food, that I made for myself.

I love cooking. I love eating. I love opening my fridge and thinking, "So, what do I feel like tonight?" and pulling something down out of thin air. Yes, I dine alone these days. But I'm never lonely.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Kitchen Sink Pasta

I was going to call it "Instapasta," and then "Garbage Can Pasta," but I think "Kitchen Sink Pasta," as in "Everything But The..." works best. This is what I make when I want a fast, easy meal which uses up ingredients I already have hanging around the fridge and pantry. Whatever is on hand. Tonight's version went like this:

• Whole wheat mini shells (carbs for my long run tomorrow)
• Kale (farm share)
• The onion end of some green onions (farm share)
• Arugula (farm share)
• Garlic
• Shredded chicken (leftover roasted Back Forty Acres chicken)
• S&P
• Parm cheese

A quick sauté in olive oil of the onion and garlic, throw on the chicken to heat it up, add the greens to wilt, all while the pasta is cooking...drain the pasta, add to the mixture, and toss. Presto! I have carbs, protein, and vegetables in one dish. As summer marches on, squash, peppers, and tomatoes will all get their chance as well.

Fabulous Frittatas

Now that the vegetables are flooding in, I have turned once again to one of my staples in order to utilize them: the frittata. I have learned there really is no wrong way to make a frittata, and you can put almost anything into one. For the one in the picture, I used Tantre Farm spinach and scallions from my farm share, added sun-dried tomatoes, and topped it off with grated Parmesan cheese. The eggs came from Back Forty Acres. I cooked up some bacon as well and had myself a little breakfast for dinner. The nice thing about these big-dish frittatas is I can take pieces of it to work for a midmorning snack for several days. Last night I made one with kale, scallions, onion, and cheddar cheese. Ah, the frittata. Making dark leafy greens taste good since...forever!

Salad Days

It's that time of year again. Farm share time.

It was a long dry spell between the closing of the 2008 Tantré Farm season and the beginning of this year's influx of vegetables. I picked up my first share on May 26: spinach, scallions, radishes, potatoes, lettuce...oh, the drive down the familiar road was like coming home. I dived into a sea of green and I don't want to come out. Tuesday evenings are produce prep time: washing, spinning, drying, dividing, wrapping, storing. I prep my salad greens for the week, bag my radish leaves, wrap the spinach, caress the strawberries. And then it's dinner time. Scan the fridge, open the crisper drawers, what part of my bounty will I use today?

Tonight I decided it was time to eat the remainder of my leafy greens from last week. Into the salad spinner went the last bunch of spinach, the tatsoi, the spicy greens mix. I sliced some sirloin from my quarter side of beef, chopped a couple of carrots and an onion, minced ginger and garlic, and threw the whole lot together in my stir-fry pan. The huge pile of greens wilted down to almost nothing. I divided the mass in half (one for now, one for lunch!) and devoured it. So good.

Last week I received strawberries in my share box. I used them to make orange blossom-infused fruit salad on two occasions. My god, the scent of that orange water is intoxicating. And the fresh strawberries mixed with blackberries...I almost had a moment, if you know wht I mean.

My farm share pickup day is Tuesday. Tomorrow is another day full of potential.

Oh yes, and, where are my beets? I want my beets. Chocolate beet cake and oven-roasted beets are calling!

Pâté de Foie de Porc

That's fancy talk for "pork liver pâté," which is what I made for the Michigan Lady Food Bloggers' "April in Paris" gathering on April 26. The theme for this event was French cooking, using Julia Childs' seminal Mastering the Art of French Cooking as inspiration. (Aside: Julia was a fellow Smith College alumna, class of '34. Smithies represent!)

I decided I wanted to use the pork liver from my Back Forty Acres hog for pâté. I honestly didn't know what on earth I was going to do with those pork livers. This presented itself as the perfect opportunity. I awakened the livers from their frozen slumber and got them ready to perform.

When I read the recipe I had chosen more thoroughly, I realized it called for ground pork livers. Oops. Well, break out my trusty food processor!

Uh, gross. I can only describe this as "liver slurry." I was fairly disgusted.

Stirring in the cream. No, this recipe is NOT healthy. What on earth gave you that idea?

After dealing with the red mush of puréed liver and cream, I had to console myself with a hearty adult beverage, in this case, Dark Horse Brewing's "Tres" Blueberry Stout. It calmed my nerves.

Sautéeing onions and herbs: something I've done scores of times. This, I can handle.

All mixed together and ready to go. It doesn't look quite as nasty now.

Pâté on display: the finished product.

La table français.

A few of the MLFB gang.

I confess I did not get my pâté recipe from "MTAOFC" (as we started referring to it). I was too lazy to procure a copy from my library so I just looked up a recipe online.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork liver
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/3 cup brandy
• 3 bay leaves

Put the pork liver in a bowl. Add the cream and let stand for one hour. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Sauté the onions in the butter over medium heat for about five minutes, or until they are very soft. Add the garlic, parsley, thyme and basil and mix well. Remove from the heat. Place the ground pork in a mixing bowl. Add the vegetable mixture, ground liver and cream mixture, eggs, salt, pepper, flour and brandy. Mix well. Spoon the meat mixture into a loaf pan and top with the bay leaves. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Place the loaf pan in a larger pan that has been filled halfway with hot water. Bake for 1-1/2 hours. Carefully drain off excess fat. Cool. Cover again tightly with aluminum foil and weight it down on top with two or three canned goods. Refrigerate for at least eight hours. Remove the bay leaves. Serve with toast points or crackers.

Clearly, I Can't Multitask

This morning before I left for work I put half a pound of Rancho Gordo Runner Cannelini beans into some water to soak all day because I am going to use them for dinner tonight (Chicken with White Beans and Rosemary).

I just remembered that I forgot to pull the chicken thighs (you know, the "chicken" part of this meal) out of the freezer to defrost.

It's Monday; what can I say?

Summer in January

The spread

On January 24 the lovely ladies of the MLFB descended on my house for a late-afternoon get-together that was intended to transport us back to those warm and luxurious days of summer. If it had to be winter outside, then it could also be summer inside, if only for a few hours.

I can't emphasize enough how fortunate I feel to be part of this group of women. You guys (gals?) rule!

This is what happens when you spend the first part of the afternoon listening to opera and get home 45 minutes before the party starts: total biscuit chaos.

Patti, Diana, and Jen (Zora on the couch)

Zora, Cathy, Kim, and Alex (I apologize for the big fingerprint smudge)

Cindy (aka MK) and Alex's fabulous mojitos in the foreground (oh, so divine!)

Maggie's miniature cones and berry sorbet...yum!

Patti's blackberry pudding made with frozen blackberries from Locavorious

The way it should be: an empty glass at the end of the day