Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
February 1, 2013 – Baked Alaska!
It’s cold and hard to do much outside, so what better than throw some ice cream in the oven at 425 degrees.
Martin and Emma made a Baked Alaska recently. This the finished product, seconds before slicing it open.
First step is to make a cake, throw it in the freezer, then top it with ice cream.
Then as quickly as you can, cover it with a thick coating of meringue.
Finally, throw it into the oven to cook the meringue. Voila! The ice cream in the middle remains frozen and the dish that sounds impossible comes out of the oven!
January 29, 2013 – Winter Comfort Food
Emma had a hankering for lots of fresh vegetables and hot soup so she made up this Vietnamese Vegetarian Pho.
Here’s the completed bowl.
The process to prepare the ingredients was not trivial. What’s invisible in this picture is what it took to make the pot of vegetable broth – all the vegetable that were boiled away and discarded (to the chickens) to make the broth. It was a great mid-winter meal.
October 5th, 2012 – Fall Food
Didn’t get much above 40 today.
Time to throw a roast in the oven.
And use up the late fall veggies – cabbage, tomatoes, onions and garlic.
September 3, 2012 – Hot Peppers
The peppers are doing just fine this year. We thought we’d try roasting some hot peppers just for fun.
Niece Jillian is here for a short visit, trying to keep busy on the farm (not usually much of a problem!) Here she’s cutting the jalapenos.
A tray ready for roasting.
Linda hard at work, peeling the skins off the peppers. They are good!
September 2, 2012 – Smoke ‘em if You Got ‘Em
Time to drag out the smoker again – once more for some trout.
It’s really hard to beat any smoked meat, my favorite is whatever I’ve smoked last.
A tasty mess o’ trout.
August 25, 2012 – A Day for Cooking, Canning, and Freezing
We had a good portion of the day for yummy food.
We canned two batches of tomatoes (7 quarts and 11 pints), one batch of dilly beans (8 pints), aabout a dozen bags of frozen beans, and a couple of apple pies from scratch. After a two-week break from the stifling heat, the beans have decided to live again and are starting to do their thing.
August 11, 2012 – ‘Maters Ready to Can
Today was the first flush of tomatoes in bulk.
I’ve kept them watered and they have rewarded us. This is only the beginning. Let the tomato processing begin!
First step is to drop them in boiling water. I use this propane turkey burner. They are cheap after Thanksgiving and make it possible to keep the mess and heat out of the kitchen. Leave them in there until the skins begin to crack.
Then put them in cold water until you can cut out the core and slip off the peels. Usually we’ll put them in cans and process them, but we didn’t have enough time today, so we just threw them in bags and froze them until we have time to can them.
Here’s the yield from the baskets in the first photo – 10 gallon bags.
July 11, 2012 – What’s a Little Mess Worth?
Rumor has it that Martin and GJ are both known for making a mess in the kitchen when cooking. That’s why we’ll show the end products.
Today was no exception – on the summer menu: potato salad, deviled eggs, fresh cabbage and beans from the garden, along with some grilled pork chops from an heirloom variety.
Oh yeah, and home-made eclairs to top off the meal. Unfortunately, the instructions say that the eclairs are best eaten within two hours of making them!
May 20, 2012 – Linda’s 15 Seconds
HBO came to Iowa to film part of a series on obesity. The following clip was taken from a roundtable discussion at Grinnell Heritage Farm. As a follow-up, Linda was later asked to go to D.C. present to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences.
See the entire series free online at The Weight of the Nation.
December 24, 2011 – New Kind of Christmas Dinner
With Emma heading off with the Bobcat band to play in Orlando and in the Citrus Bowl parade (corporate sponsor intentionally left off), we couldn’t spend as much time as usual in Minnesota. So we were home Christmas Eve and after sugar-high crash, we were craving something green and fresh.
Linda made some spring rolls from scratch for the first time. We’ll work on the rolling, but they were still yummy!
Then it was a wok full of stir-fry for the main course.
November 24, 2011 – Thanksgiving High Hopes Style
This Thanksgiving, most of the items on the table were raised/grown on the farm.
The smoked lamb and turkey were simple, rustic smoked, and to die for!
Most everyone’s favorite side dish.
Some international flavors delivered by the saag.
Finally, some roasted Brussels sprouts.
September 30, 2011 – Raspberry Applesauce
In the never-ending quest to preserve apples, the third product is now on the shelf. First was canned apple pie filling, then dried apples for snacking, now applesauce.
These jars sitting on the storage shelves in the basement have a red color due to the raspberries added to the apples. One canning episode was good for about 44 jelly-sized single serve jars for lunches at work. We’ve had no trouble using our raspberries without going to market this year – we traded raspberries for buffalo meat, and handed off 18 lbs of berries to a vinter who promises us bottles of dry wine 6 months from now.
one year ago…”Thingmajig Thursday #227″
September 3, 2011 – Salsa Time!
It’s that time of year. Although we mange to choke down canned salsa over the course of the year, nothing quite sings like fresh salsa.
Some of the ingredients assembled, fresh from the garden.
The final product -a real late summertime treat.
one year ago…”Claire Settles in at Macalester”
August 30, 2011 – Summer Skillet
Ok, it’s that time of year for “Summer Skillet.”
No real recipe, just pretty much saute some onion and garlic and throw in whatever is in the garden along with some grass-fed beef. Second best summer meal only behind anything off the the grill.
