Farmer John - baby food

I've made a few meals for Sadie with veggies from my farmer @eaglecreekfarms. So I thought I would share these recipes too. I must say, it also feels really good to share this deliciousness with my baby. I mean, part of the reason why I've gotten so into local food and organic farming is because I want to live more sustainably for my kids, not to mention I want to minimize my kid's exposure to harmful chemicals. After all, they have their whole lives ahead of them to bioaccumulate toxins...

My first baby food recipe was a mixture of carrots (3), parsnips (2) and swiss chard (3 leaves, ribs removed).

The next one was a mixture of carrots (3), potato (1 mid sized), and broccoli (1 floret and the stalk, peeled).

For both recipes I peeled, chopped, and boiled on the stove with a little water until the carrots were fork-tender. Then I cooled the mixture, cooking liquid included, and whizzed in a food processor until they were well pureed. I had to add a little water to get it to the right consistency. Too little water and the puree won't be smooth. Sadie's not quite ready for the chunky foods yet.

With all my baby food recipes, I freeze whatever she won't eat in the next day or 2 in ice cube trays. Once frozen, I put the cubes into a freezer bag and thaw as needed.

Getting Outta Town.

So we bought a tent trailer... I was somewhat skeptical, since I fancy myself a "purist camper" but the reality of having kids means that I've gotta take what I can get. So, we bought a tent trailer. I'm okay with it. In fact, I'm beginning to embrace it.

We are leaving for Banff for 2 (or 3, depending) nights. We plan on staying at Two Jack Lake campground. I'm excited because I've never been there before. As a kid, we ALWAYS stayed at Tunnel Mountain. But then, we ALWAYS did a lot of things when we went to Banff... the hot springs,  some interpretive show at the amphitheatre, and a chilli that cooked over the open fire all day, tended by my Father, while he drank beer. Good times.

We are hoping to stay at one of the Lakeside campsites at Two Jack. It is, however, bear season, so we'll see what happens.

My husband is also evidently beginning to embrace "glamping" - that's glamourous camping. He spent $70 at Dollarama on crap for the tent trailer. I KNOW, right!?!

Nevertheless, it should be a great time, and hopefully it means the start of a bunch of camping trips, or at least 2 or 3 before the snow flies again.e

Farmer John - Mixed Green Salad With Saskatoon Berry Vinaigrette

First of all, let me say that I'm not the greatest speller, so I had to look up how to spell "vinaigrette". Thanks google for not making me look stupid!

We are renovating our 1970's basement with the same contractor who did our kitchen and upstairs bathroom, so we had a planning session/dinner party with them on Sunday. I still had mixed greens from Thursday's delivery so I threw together a salad with goat cheese from Sylvan Star Cheese (avaliable at Kingsland Farmer's Market) and a Saskatoon Berry Vinaigrette. I also added some snap peas from my own garden. I can hardly believe I managed to have some on the vine, since Owen asks daily if there are any peas that are ready. Don't dress the salad until you're ready to eat. I once heard that there's no Viagra for salad.

Saskatoon Berry Vinaigrette

3/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup (175 mL) Saskatoon berries
2 Tbsp (30 mL) honey
1 cup (250 mL) canola oil
salt & black pepper to taste

Simmer berries, vinegar and honey in a saucepan for 4 minutes. Mash berries to desired consistency... I really mashed them up. Cool and mix up with the remaining ingredients. Store unused portion in the fridge.

Farmer John - Pulled Pork/Cilantro Quesadillas

I made a pulled pork dinner in the slow cooker setting of my oven, since my slow cooker sucks so bad I think I may have trashed it.  I have a pretty nice oven that has a slow cooker setting... hence why I think I may have thrown out my slow cooker that burned everything I cooked in it - thanks Airmiles.

Anyway...

The Pulled Pork recipe comes from a book called "150 best Slow Cooker Recipes" by Judith Finlayson. I have not tried every recipe in this book but the ones i have have been AWESOME!!!  How could you go wrong?

1tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cracked black peppercorns
1 cup tomato-based chilli sauce (I used Co-op brand, but the book recommends Heinz-57 sauce)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp Worcesterhire sauce
1 3lb boneless pork shoudler

First, cut up the onions and fry in a skillet with the oil until soft, then add garlic, chili powder and pepper for 1 minute. Add chilli sauce, broen sugar, vinegar and worestershire sauce. Stir and bring to the boil.

Put the pork (mine was actually frozen) into a 4 quart dutch oven and pour sauce over. Cook on the slow cooker setting for 10-12 hours (low) or 6 hours (high), until pork is falling apart.

Remove pork and shred with two forks. Return to sauce and keep warm.

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We had this on buns with coleslaw the first night I cooked it. The next day I had some friends coming over for lunch so I made some quesadilas with the pulled pork, Monterey Jack cheese and cilantro from @eaglecreekfarms . They were delicious.

Farmer John - Pork Chops with Mango Arugula salad

The idea for tonight's dinner comes from a realsimple.com recipe for grilled chicken with a peach arugula salad, with a few modifications. I have pork chops instead of chicken, and a mango instead of peach. Owen doesn't really care for arugula, so I'll chop up a cucumber for him instead and mix it with the mango. I might drizzle a little balsamic glaze on top.

3 pork chops
1 mango
1 red onion
white cheddar cheese curds
small bunch of sage leaves
kosher salt
pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar

Turn the grill on to heat up.  Chop the sage leaves. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and rub with the olive oil and sage. Leave them sit until you're ready to use them. Slice the mango into long-ish pieces and the onion into 8 wedges, leaving the bottom (root) end intact so they don't fall apart. You can also use a toothpick to secure the layers together. Toss together in a bowl with about 1tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper.  Get the pork chops on the grill with the onions and grill until cooked. Grill the mango about 2 min per side.

Toss the warm onions and mango with the arugula and about 1tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle the cheese curds over top.

Farmer John - pea shoot pesto

Tonight's menu involves the pea shoots in this week's delivery. A quick search of the net and I found a recipe for a pea shoot walnut pesto. Here it is (from www.peashoots.com). I didn't exactly have the amounts in the original recipe so what I'm posting is what I did.

1 bunch pea shoots

1/2 clove of garlic

90g (ish) walnuts

20g (ish) grated Parmesan

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

I first whizzed the pea shoots and garlic in a food processor. Use the pulse button, be patient and scrape down the sides often. I might pre-chop the shoots next time. Adding a splash of water also helped. Meanwhile, toast the walnuts in a fry pan - watch carefully and don't let them burn. Add them to the food processor and pulse a little - you want to leave them sort of chunky. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and add the Parmesan. Mix and then add olive oil until its kinda pasty. Season with salt & pepper. 

I also made some gnocchi from scratch today. I must have been feeling ambitious. This recipe comes from Lidia Bastianich's book "Lidia's family table". I looked and it doesn't appear to be on her website.

1 1/2 lbs baking potatoes

3/4 tbsp salt

1 large egg

1 1/2 to 2 cups all-purpose flour

Boil the potatoes whole until fork tender. Don't let the skins burst. Take them out of the water and let them cool until you can handle them. While you're waiting, get the gnocchi making station ready with a cutting board, a bowl with some flour in it, a fork, a baking sheet, and a tea towel. Peel the skins off the potatoes and send them through a potato ricer onto the cutting board. Sprinkle salt on them and let dry for about 20 min. Beat the egg and pour onto the potatoes. Also spread 1 cup of the flour on top and work with your hands into a dough. Add more flour, but don't work too much or Lidia says the dough will get tough. I probably ended up using 1 1/2 cups of the flour total. Cut the dough into 3 equal portions and roll each into a long tube about 18" long. Then cut about 2/3" bits. Here's where the gnocchi making station comes in. Take each bit and roll it along the tines of the fork and into the bowl - there should be ridges on one side and your thumbprint on the other. When you have about 15 or so in the bowl, toss in the flour and place on the baking sheet so that they are not touching, then cover with the towel. Repeat with the rest. Freeze what you don't use on the baking sheet. They'll last 6 weeks.

 Lidia says you should end up with about 72 pieces. I did not. I guess I don't estimate length very well... In future, I will roll out my dough to about 2' and do 1/2" pieces.

To cook the gnocchi, boil some water. Drop the floured bits into the water 5 at a time and let the water return to a boil. The more water you use, the less time you'll wait. When the gnocchi floats, it's done. I also had a fry pan with a little olive oil in it heating and used a slotted spoon to transfer cooked gnocchi to the pan to brown and crisp up a bit. I was at a restaurant in Nelson, BC where they had done that and I thought it was a nice touch.

Lastly, when all the gnocchi were cooked I took the pan off the heat, added the sauce and served it up. 

Support your local farmer

There are a few things I've realized I love lately... One is gardening. Another is cooking.

Since moving into our house, I've planted a garden in our back yard each year. There was a sizeable plot in the back yard which I planted a lot of my first summer here. I realized quickly that I couldn't keep up with that much garden so have scaled it back to an area about 10 ft x 13 ft. Even that might be a bit ambitious.  Each year I get a little bit better at growing veggies for my family and each year I learn something new about gardening.  I grow tomatoes from seed starting in early March, and this year also grew some cucumbers and broccoli. Lesson learned: sprouting broccoli does not grow big florets. This is also year two of cucumbers and I'm not sure I'll bother again. I bought 5 seeds from a local seed saver and 4 of them failed, I think due to some slimy bacterial infection in the xylem of the plant. (God bless the internet for the reason, if not a solution.) On the plus side, I'm growing 6 varieties of tomatoes this year and for the first time ever I've already got some green tomatoes growing on the vine. In my last two years, I didn't even have flowers until mid August!!! One of the varieties is even from seeds I saved myself! We'll see how productive the plants are...

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to tell you about a new venture I'm trying this year.  My friend and I have signed up for a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) crop share with John at Eagle Creek Farms, near Bowden, AB.  The way it works is that we pay in advance for the crops that John plants on his land, and we get 14 weeks of food delivered to my local community association parking lot. It's a cool idea and becoming more common with people who want to support local farm economy. Read about it on his website: http://www.eaglecreekfarms.ca/csa.htm

Somehow, knowing exactly where my food is coming from this year has inspired me to blog about what I make with the produce I'll be getting and growing. There are some things I've never really cooked with before so it will mean lots of experimenting, which I love.  So I'll be blogging about meals I make  under "Farmer John" headings. I'll be telling John about this at next week's delivery so that he can (if he wants) let other people in the CSA know. I'll also tweet photos of dishes.

Happy eating!