A Vegetarian Meal

So, umm....my last post was about Carnitas so I think you all know that I'm not a vegetarian. Far from it! So when we had my dear friend Kahroline over recently, I had to really think.

ok, so a salad is pretty obvious!

this ended up being a lentil, carrot potato stewy thing that was pretty tasty. I had veggie broth.

My sprouted wheat bread (it has yeast, which I found out later she can't have - so my new challenge is a yeast free sprouted grain bread for her!)

And, of course, sauteed green beans with a little garlic & EVOO tossed with toasted pine nuts.

Voila! A well rounded yet completely vegetarian meal.

The next time she came over, I saved my CSA box & had her help me unpack it. It was like watching a kid at Christmas! (Well, actually I am like that every week too!) But she was SO impressed with the contents of my box that she joined up a few weeks later & I now get to see her every Saturday at the meeting place! So cool...

Carnitas

Who has ever eaten Mexican food, I mean REALLY good authentic Mexican food & doesn't LOVE Carnitas? I don't really know anyone who could say "me!". So our new friend, Leslie who we met at a Slow Food LA event last month, came up from Santa Monica this weekend to hang out! As she was leaving, she said, I'm going home to eat Carnitas with my husband. And I thought, YUM! I should make those! So I said to her, I have a pastured pork Butt Roast from AHO in my freezer. And she said, that is exactly what you use! And so I did! Well, first I actually researched recipes, and found this one by the oh-so-talented David Lebovitz formerly of Chez Panisse! (I actually got to TA a chocolate class he did at WCI ages ago. Lovely man.) So this is my take on his method.

Sorry I didn't take before snaps! It was frozen solid. I rubbed it all over with Safflower Oil, poured a tons of Kosher Salt on top & rubbed that in, placed in a Stainless saute pan (don't ask me about my roasting pan, ok!) And stuck the whole thing under a hot broiler to brown...about 15 minutes each of the 4 sides. Then I cut it all up into large chucks, placed in a glass pyrex, added some beer, half a cinnamon stick, about 2 cloves of garlic, just smashed to release flavor, chili powder, paprika, cumin all over (best guess: 4-5 Tsp) pepper & bay leaves (you need enough liquid to cover about 2/3rd of the meat). Tossed it all around together & placed back under the broiler about 10 min, flipped, another 10-15 min. Reduce oven heat to 300 & let bake uncovered for about 3 hours. Flipping every now & then to keep moist. I think I had to add more beer after awhile so it didn't dry out completely.

Take it out, & chop into smaller bite sized shreds & chunks.

Put back in the oven & flip every now & then until most of the liquid is gone (about another 30 minutes...). Serve however you want: with rice, beans tortillas, salsa, make it into burritos, tacos, OM! The possibilities are endless & it by far THE yummiest meat you will ever taste!

You know how when it's thanksgiving & you want to eat that one little piece of crispy skin? And some meat is stuck to it & sort of caramelized...that's how this is, except the whole outside is pumped with flavor & crisp! And the soft insides are soft & white, but not dry & flavorless, they taste amazing too!

I got 2 words for you: bon appetite!

Back Door Screen Project

So, ever since we began the remodel, Joe has always talked about turning the back door into something special. When we were door shopping we kept seeing this really great beefy castle door with wrought iron & a speak-easy. It was awesome, but super expensive, so we ended up with a really nice Mahogany door that was in our budget & 2.5 years later, Joe finally had his way with it.

So he cut out the center section of the door:

We found the Wrought Iron grate at Tuesday Morning for $99, it didn't quite fit the door the way it was, so he took some bits off & re-arranged them to make it work, he had some help from the guys at work...

We still have to put screen up, but it was special order & has not come yet.

Isn't it gorgeous? See the cool latch to keep it shut?

This is what it now looks like from outside.

Awww! So proud!

Healthy Family Farm Visit

EUREKA! I have found it! My Aunt Dorothy (the one who taught me to Jam) & her daughter Kristina turned me on to this place out in Santa Paula where you can go spend the day....so I started researching to find out more about it.... no website (yet!) no blog (yet) no nothing, except an email addy: healthyfamilyfarms (@) gmail (dot) com. So email I did! And guess what? All that stuff is coming, along with cheese making classes, pick your own produce & all kinds of other fun stuff! She's just gettin' started! Watch out, Ventura County! We got FARM.

Sharon raises milk goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, quail, ducks, pigs, Scottish Highland Beef that look a bit prehistoric & an 'accidental' litter of puppies that will be groomed into guard dogs roaming the acreage protecting the cattle from predators like mountain lions.

You can email the farm for a price list & a membership form. She has a pretty extensive list of products, including Goat Yogurt & Ice Cream. Because it's tricky to sell raw milk & some of the other items, they way it works is you basically pay an annual fee to be a member (a sort-of partial share holder) and this enables you to get a share of her products. But enough about the legal stuff! You can get farm fresh, pastured chicken & duck eggs! Fresh chicken's for roasting, necks & feet for Stock! Fresh Milk-only-Fed Pork! We bought a Ham, and did a giant family feast last night - the Ham was WONDERFUL! We did a Leg of Lamb too! We all bought fresh whole chickens & have loved a chicken dinner, leftovers & making stock - and with this crazy June-Gloom we've been having, it's perfect timing for all that!

Joe & I in front of Barn My folks

Sharon (Adult on right)

Sharon has the farm open on Sundays from 10-4 so members can come pick up what they need, fresh on a weekly basis - she doesn't sell any of the meat frozen! On Sundays, her kids & a few other Staffers are there to give you tours & talk about the farm & how they do things...

Sea J comes up from Malibu to spend weekends on the farm. She came on our tour with us photographing & video documenting all our antics (with 4 little kids, we had plenty!) She's working on the website & also documenting the progress of a passle of 'rescue chickens' Sharon got from a local 'organic' farm. When they arrived at HHF, they couldn't even walk because they'd been raised in such confined spaces! (If this doesn't convince you that just 'organic' isn't good enough, I dunno what will!) Now most can walk around the 3000 Sq. Foot Chicken Run & are looking much better, although their feathers are still pretty mangey! Poor creatures! She has all the feed made especially to her specifications, meaning not only organic, but NO SOY! Wonderful!

You are looking at one Happy Camper, er farmer, er wanna-be Farmer, er Farm enjoyer!

Jammin'

Look at the funny way Azure shipped my Rhubarb!  It was SO long! Longer than my huge sink is deep!  Crazy, huh?! :)


Ok, so I'm sure by now you all know that I buy a LOT of my goods from Azure (whatever I can't get thru my CSA & our new Organic Pastures Co-Op!), on my very first 'shopping' adventure with them, I stumbled upon Pomona's Universal Pectin.  Never heard of it!  So I read up on it & you can make jams & jelly's with honey!  And low sugar!  It's AWESOME stuff!  Each purchase (you can buy a small packet or a pound - thru Azure is the best price) comes with a recipe sheet, but if you lose it (like I always manage to do!) it's also on their site as a PDF.  It's so easy to do all kinds of concoctions with this stuff!  Here are some of the combo's I've done:

Peach, Ranier Cherry, Blueberry w/Lemon Zest, Blueberry Rhubarb, Peach Rhubarb, Peach BBQ Sauce (recipe from Ball's Jam Book).  Today I'm going to try Orange Plum & Orange Peach.  After I get some more Rhubarb from Azure I want to try Strawberry Rhubarb!

Look at all the gorgeous blueberries, we are getting 2.5 pounds for 10!  I got 2!  The catch?  They come in a baggie & many still had stems on, so I carefully sorted them, I literally put a very small handful into the compost, the rest we gorgeous!  I sorted into 'soft for jam' & firm for freezing.

I have made a LOT of Jam in the past few years.  I started out with my Aunt Dor making microwave Jam, her thing is that every year, the day after Thanksgiving she'll make about 4 batches of her famous Pear Raspberry Jam for Christmas gifts for all her co-corkers.  If we were lucky she'd have  a few leftover for our Family's White Elephant game & 2-3 lucky lucky family members would get a small jar to last the year....She also made a microwave Jalapeno Jelly.  Although I will no longer use the microwave, I am really glad to have learned from her,it was so easy & that is still one of my most popular flavors & I add Jalapeno's to it now, for a spicy twist!

What kind of canning do you do?