I'm not sure if I have anyone following along - but thought I'd ask...
...What is on the menu for your 'feast' this year?
We have
Burbon Red Heritage Turkey (thank you Weathertop Farm!)
Gravy
Mashed potatoes (from Idlywood Farms)
Maple cornbread and sausage stuffing (sausage from Weathertop and apples from local orchard)
Broccoli gratin (from 5 Penny)
Homemade bread/rolls
Root vegetable dish (friends are bringing)
Salad (friends are bringing)
Maple cranberry sauce
Cranberry relish with ginger (I insist upon a sauce, my mother prefers a relish - we compromise with both!)
Honey pumpkin pie (our pumpkin)
Blueberry galette (frozen from Crows Nest farm)
Apple blackberry pie (friends are bringing)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Pork Potpie
This week we made our big Sunday dinner with a recipe from the December 2008 Martha Stewart Living (from the 'Caroling at Martha's - how posh!)
The recipe turned out very nicely! I didn't manage to get a picture. I saved half the recipe and used it for dinner on Wednesday when we had guests over. It worked really well as a 'make ahead' dish for a week night. Stop at the puff pastry and throw it in a tupperware. Reheat on the stove with a bit of water, add the parsley and finish the recipe. We used a boned shoulder roast from our Weathertop Farms half a hog. Jake was responsible for the slicing.
Here is the link to the recipe:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/individual-pork-potpies?autonomy_kw=pork%20pie
INDIVIDUAL PORK PIES
Ingredients
Makes 12 as part of a buffet.
* FOR THE STEW
* 4 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
* 1 medium carrot, finely chopped (1 cup)
* 2 stalks celery, finely chopped (1 cup)
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped (1 1/4 cups)
* 2 1/2 cups dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
* 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
* 2 tablespoons grainy mustard
* 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 4 cups homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock
* 4 sprigs fresh thyme
* 1 dried bay leaf
* TO FINISH THE PIES
* All-purpose flour, for surface
* 2 packages (14 ounces each) puff pastry
* 1 large egg, lightly beaten
* 6 ounces rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 1 1/4 cups)
* 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 cup)
* 1 medium potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 cup)
* 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (3/4 cup)
* 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
Directions
1. Make the stew: Season pork with 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Heat a large, heavy pot over high heat for 1 minute. Add 2 tablespoons oil. Working in batches, brown pork on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes total per batch. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pork to a large bowl. (Reduce heat slightly if bottom of pot is getting too darkyou want browned, not burned, bits for flavoring the stew. Either wipe out pot or deglaze with water, bringing it to a boil and scraping up burned bits. Pour off liquid, add more oil, and proceed.)
2. Add carrot, celery, and onion to drippings in pot. Add cup wine, and stir, scraping up any browned bits from bottom, until wine is evaporated. Cook for 3 minutes more, then add remaining 2 cups wine. Cook, stirring often, until reduced by half, 6 to 8 minutes. Whisk caraway seeds, mustard, flour, and 1/2 cup stock in a small bowl, then whisk into pot. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring often, for 30 seconds.
3. Stir in remaining 3 1/2 cups stock. Add pork, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, until pork is fork-tender, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
4. Finish the pies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, working with 1 sheet of puff pastry at a time, roll out each to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 3 1/2-inch fluted round cutter, cut out 12 circles, and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cut out shapes from center of each round using a 1-inch snowflake cutter if desired. (Alternatively, make a wreath: Using a 1 1/2-inch leaf cutter, cut leaves from dough. Brush with egg, and form into wreath shapes about 3 1/2 inches in diameter, using 10 leaves per wreath. Save 1 leaf to place in center.) Brush with egg, then freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Bake puff pastry rounds until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, add remaining vegetables to pork mixture, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until vegetables are just tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in parsley and thyme. Divide among twelve 7-ounce ramekins. Place on a rimmed baking sheet.
6. Place 1 puff pastry round on each ramekin. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until pastry is golden brown and juices are bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes more. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Martha didn't magically appear, but the pork pot pies disappeared!
The recipe turned out very nicely! I didn't manage to get a picture. I saved half the recipe and used it for dinner on Wednesday when we had guests over. It worked really well as a 'make ahead' dish for a week night. Stop at the puff pastry and throw it in a tupperware. Reheat on the stove with a bit of water, add the parsley and finish the recipe. We used a boned shoulder roast from our Weathertop Farms half a hog. Jake was responsible for the slicing.
Here is the link to the recipe:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/individual-pork-potpies?autonomy_kw=pork%20pie
INDIVIDUAL PORK PIES
Ingredients
Makes 12 as part of a buffet.
* FOR THE STEW
* 4 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
* 1 medium carrot, finely chopped (1 cup)
* 2 stalks celery, finely chopped (1 cup)
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped (1 1/4 cups)
* 2 1/2 cups dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
* 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
* 2 tablespoons grainy mustard
* 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 4 cups homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock
* 4 sprigs fresh thyme
* 1 dried bay leaf
* TO FINISH THE PIES
* All-purpose flour, for surface
* 2 packages (14 ounces each) puff pastry
* 1 large egg, lightly beaten
* 6 ounces rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 1 1/4 cups)
* 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 cup)
* 1 medium potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 cup)
* 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (3/4 cup)
* 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
Directions
1. Make the stew: Season pork with 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Heat a large, heavy pot over high heat for 1 minute. Add 2 tablespoons oil. Working in batches, brown pork on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes total per batch. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pork to a large bowl. (Reduce heat slightly if bottom of pot is getting too darkyou want browned, not burned, bits for flavoring the stew. Either wipe out pot or deglaze with water, bringing it to a boil and scraping up burned bits. Pour off liquid, add more oil, and proceed.)
2. Add carrot, celery, and onion to drippings in pot. Add cup wine, and stir, scraping up any browned bits from bottom, until wine is evaporated. Cook for 3 minutes more, then add remaining 2 cups wine. Cook, stirring often, until reduced by half, 6 to 8 minutes. Whisk caraway seeds, mustard, flour, and 1/2 cup stock in a small bowl, then whisk into pot. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring often, for 30 seconds.
3. Stir in remaining 3 1/2 cups stock. Add pork, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, until pork is fork-tender, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
4. Finish the pies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, working with 1 sheet of puff pastry at a time, roll out each to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 3 1/2-inch fluted round cutter, cut out 12 circles, and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cut out shapes from center of each round using a 1-inch snowflake cutter if desired. (Alternatively, make a wreath: Using a 1 1/2-inch leaf cutter, cut leaves from dough. Brush with egg, and form into wreath shapes about 3 1/2 inches in diameter, using 10 leaves per wreath. Save 1 leaf to place in center.) Brush with egg, then freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Bake puff pastry rounds until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, add remaining vegetables to pork mixture, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until vegetables are just tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in parsley and thyme. Divide among twelve 7-ounce ramekins. Place on a rimmed baking sheet.
6. Place 1 puff pastry round on each ramekin. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until pastry is golden brown and juices are bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes more. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Martha didn't magically appear, but the pork pot pies disappeared!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Pumpkin Pie with Graham Cracker Crust
I didn't want to risk my first pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (I didn't really like pumpkin pie growing up, but I'm giving it another shot since I now like pumpkin bread, etc) I wanted to make a test pie...hey, it's a dirty job. I didn't have time to make and pre-bake a pie crust so I found a recipe for one using a graham cracker crust on the Eagle Brand website.
Ingredients
1 (6-ounce) packaged graham cracker pie crust
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin (2 cups)
1 (14-ounce) can EAGLE BRAND Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425F. Whisk pumpkin, EAGLE BRAND, eggs and pumpkin pie spice. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F; bake 35 to 40 minutes longer or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool.
Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.
Easy enough to whip up - I will say, grab a couple of those mini crusts because it makes about a pie and a half for a store bought, 6 oz pie crust.
Turns out I do like pumpkin pie!
Ingredients
1 (6-ounce) packaged graham cracker pie crust
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin (2 cups)
1 (14-ounce) can EAGLE BRAND Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425F. Whisk pumpkin, EAGLE BRAND, eggs and pumpkin pie spice. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F; bake 35 to 40 minutes longer or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool.
Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.
Easy enough to whip up - I will say, grab a couple of those mini crusts because it makes about a pie and a half for a store bought, 6 oz pie crust.
Turns out I do like pumpkin pie!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Amish Cheese Pumpkin
Last year, we bought a wonderful pumpkin from Brett and Johanna at 5 Penny Farm. It kept in our basement until March! When we roasted it, the flavor was amazing. We'd never had a pumpkin like. When I learned the name was an Amish 'cheese' pumpkin, I wondered if the Amish made pumpkin cheese? Turns out they are named for their shape, not their potential combination with dairy products. So we saved some of the seeds and tried planting them. We under estimated the space that a pumpkin vine needs, but it found a way and became a hanging pumpkin.
Turns out that it worked pretty well as it ripened perfectly with no rot. We got some bizarre stinky bugs all over the vine later in the season, but Jake's diligent hand removal kept the vine alive.
We harvested it several weeks ago in anticipation of Thanksgiving and the weekend we roasted it up to help lighten the kitchen load in coming weeks (pumpkin puree freezes beautifully).
The finally result was about 10 lbs. So we cut it.
Cleaned it out (saving the seeds for next year of course!)
And roasted it up.
The flesh of a 'cheese pumpkin' is much less watery. We found that after 45 minutes it was just falling away from the skin in many places (which makes for easy scooping). The roasted pumpkin flesh needs to be processed through a food mill to remove the 'stringy' bits. We tried our Foley foodmill (again).
Before giving up (that thing never seems to work very well for us!) and resorting to our new favorite purchase, a food mill attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer.
The end result was 6 cups of beautiful, bright orange pumpkin puree.
We measured it into 2 cup freezer containers (most recipes call for 1 can of pumpkin, which equals about 2 cups of puree, so this makes for easy baking). Two went into the freezer, where their shocking orange color stands out! While the other went into the fridge for a test pumpkin pie. That's a pretty incredible yield - 10 lbs = 6 cps puree (and for reference, 2 cup waste from the food mill).
We only grew one pumpkin this year. Luckily we could buy three more from 5 Penny. We are saving seeds again from this pumpkin but through these links:
http://www.cherrygal.com/pumpkinamishpieheirloomseeds2008-p-5089.html
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Squash-Winter/Amish-Pie-Pumpkin
you can get some heirloom Amish Pie Pumpkin seeds of your own. (or we'd be happy to share ours with you when we crack open the next one! - leave us a comment.)
Turns out that it worked pretty well as it ripened perfectly with no rot. We got some bizarre stinky bugs all over the vine later in the season, but Jake's diligent hand removal kept the vine alive.
We harvested it several weeks ago in anticipation of Thanksgiving and the weekend we roasted it up to help lighten the kitchen load in coming weeks (pumpkin puree freezes beautifully).
The finally result was about 10 lbs. So we cut it.
Cleaned it out (saving the seeds for next year of course!)
And roasted it up.
The flesh of a 'cheese pumpkin' is much less watery. We found that after 45 minutes it was just falling away from the skin in many places (which makes for easy scooping). The roasted pumpkin flesh needs to be processed through a food mill to remove the 'stringy' bits. We tried our Foley foodmill (again).
Before giving up (that thing never seems to work very well for us!) and resorting to our new favorite purchase, a food mill attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer.
The end result was 6 cups of beautiful, bright orange pumpkin puree.
We measured it into 2 cup freezer containers (most recipes call for 1 can of pumpkin, which equals about 2 cups of puree, so this makes for easy baking). Two went into the freezer, where their shocking orange color stands out! While the other went into the fridge for a test pumpkin pie. That's a pretty incredible yield - 10 lbs = 6 cps puree (and for reference, 2 cup waste from the food mill).
We only grew one pumpkin this year. Luckily we could buy three more from 5 Penny. We are saving seeds again from this pumpkin but through these links:
http://www.cherrygal.com/pumpkinamishpieheirloomseeds2008-p-5089.html
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Squash-Winter/Amish-Pie-Pumpkin
you can get some heirloom Amish Pie Pumpkin seeds of your own. (or we'd be happy to share ours with you when we crack open the next one! - leave us a comment.)
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Welcome
Hello and welcome to Blue Ridge Bounty - a blog about sustainable local eating in my neck of the woods, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwestern Virginia. This blog was born out of the idea of pooling recipes, preserving, gardening tips for the place were I live. I've enjoyed reading sustainable eating and recipe blogs, but they are usually nationally or internationally based. I thought it would be fun and useful (I hope!) to focus on the area where I like, local farmers, local peak harvest times, local eating opportunities (from restaurants to farmers markets to upick farms).
Our family (my husband Jake, my 4 year old daughter Elena, and our new son Egan) moved to Blacksburg about a year ago from the Netherlands (and before that California where we were initiated in the local food movement.) We keep a family blog and that started to be infiltrated with 'localvore' posts and thought it was time to make a separate place to collect our recipes and thoughts. Plus we wanted to reach out to others in the area with similar interests.
Our country is certainly facing it's fair number of challenges, climate change, pollution, poor health and rising obesity. Now we can add to that list rising food costs, failing businesses, and often a poor, local economy. Michal Pollan in his New York Times open letter to the next President (this was before the election) make a compelling argument that changing to our national food policy can make significant progress on many of these issues. As an aside, my personal favorite idea of his is the Presidential organic garden. Maybe the Obama's will be seen weeding and eating their veggies, we can hope so!
This expands on an idea that my husband Jake (since he is the resident global climate change modeler!), that one of the reasons we are struggling as a country and a world is that the 'answer' to our consumption is a local one, rather than a nation. We often talk about this in terms of alternative energy, solar panels in Arizona are wonderful but perhaps not the answer for Seattle. Our country is so vast that it seems to have a hard time approaching the local approach rather than the a national 'answer.' This is true with the way we eat. I grew up in Texas where strawberries and grapefruit are plentiful, but blueberries not so much. Jake grew up in Maine where mango and kiwi are not local, but you can fill your freezer with blueberries each summer. Then we get married and move all over the country and world accumulating ideas, recipes, favorite foods from all over before landing here in Blacksburg. Where again we must recalibrate our idea of 'local.' For some people this might be exhausting or annoying, but we happen to like cooking, gardening, and eating, so for us it is fun!
So what is sustainable agriculture? I like this definition from the Sustainable Table.
Sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, does not harm the environment, is humane for workers, respects animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities.
Eating local is one big part of eating sustainably because it is simply not sustainable for our country to continue trucking iceberg lettuce from the California desert to Maine all year round. Plus, by eating locally, you not only reduce the 'miles' traveled by your food, you can get to know the farmer who is producing your food, ask questions, learn about new things.
One of the quotes that inspired this blog is by E. B. White and listed at the top of the blog:
"Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day."
Here we will try do both, save and savor the world. What a fabulous idea!
So, what can you expect? Lots of recipes using local ingredients, discussions about how to preserve the 'bounty' of food that is available here in the Blue Ridge, and resources for becoming more sustainable eaters.
Our family (my husband Jake, my 4 year old daughter Elena, and our new son Egan) moved to Blacksburg about a year ago from the Netherlands (and before that California where we were initiated in the local food movement.) We keep a family blog and that started to be infiltrated with 'localvore' posts and thought it was time to make a separate place to collect our recipes and thoughts. Plus we wanted to reach out to others in the area with similar interests.
Our country is certainly facing it's fair number of challenges, climate change, pollution, poor health and rising obesity. Now we can add to that list rising food costs, failing businesses, and often a poor, local economy. Michal Pollan in his New York Times open letter to the next President (this was before the election) make a compelling argument that changing to our national food policy can make significant progress on many of these issues. As an aside, my personal favorite idea of his is the Presidential organic garden. Maybe the Obama's will be seen weeding and eating their veggies, we can hope so!
This expands on an idea that my husband Jake (since he is the resident global climate change modeler!), that one of the reasons we are struggling as a country and a world is that the 'answer' to our consumption is a local one, rather than a nation. We often talk about this in terms of alternative energy, solar panels in Arizona are wonderful but perhaps not the answer for Seattle. Our country is so vast that it seems to have a hard time approaching the local approach rather than the a national 'answer.' This is true with the way we eat. I grew up in Texas where strawberries and grapefruit are plentiful, but blueberries not so much. Jake grew up in Maine where mango and kiwi are not local, but you can fill your freezer with blueberries each summer. Then we get married and move all over the country and world accumulating ideas, recipes, favorite foods from all over before landing here in Blacksburg. Where again we must recalibrate our idea of 'local.' For some people this might be exhausting or annoying, but we happen to like cooking, gardening, and eating, so for us it is fun!
So what is sustainable agriculture? I like this definition from the Sustainable Table.
Sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, does not harm the environment, is humane for workers, respects animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities.
Eating local is one big part of eating sustainably because it is simply not sustainable for our country to continue trucking iceberg lettuce from the California desert to Maine all year round. Plus, by eating locally, you not only reduce the 'miles' traveled by your food, you can get to know the farmer who is producing your food, ask questions, learn about new things.
One of the quotes that inspired this blog is by E. B. White and listed at the top of the blog:
"Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day."
Here we will try do both, save and savor the world. What a fabulous idea!
So, what can you expect? Lots of recipes using local ingredients, discussions about how to preserve the 'bounty' of food that is available here in the Blue Ridge, and resources for becoming more sustainable eaters.
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