Hi everyone:) 

I've started my new project and have moved my blog and new weekly cooking webisodes over to a new site:
enjoyableeating.com
I hope you enjoy it!  And thanks soooo much for all of your support~

Cheers and Happy New Year,
Monica

Hi everyone!  It's been quite some time since my last update, life could not be busier around here (as well as for most folks out there).  It's the holidays so there are people to see and places to go, it's also been a busy time at work and I've been doing a lot of planning for the growing season next year already.  I'm really looking forward to putting all of my energy into managing the SEEDS Farm come January 1st, at this point I will unfortunately be resigning my position at the co-op but live only a block away so am sure to be there a lot still!  I'll also still be serving on the Board so I'm excited about that, oh and teaching classes.  I'm very happy to report that starting next year I will be teaching the "Introduction to Natural Foods" class for new employees at the co-op which I'm looking forward to, I've put a lot of time into planning for this already, it's going to be a 5 hour class taught over two sessions so there's a lot of planning (but, oh so much fun:).  
The sad sad news to bring up is that Dan and I had to put poor Daisy down.  She was almost 12 years old and we discovered that she had a tumor in her abdomen and had cancer.  She reached a point where she wasn't eating anymore, drinking like a horse, and could barely walk:(  We knew it was time, she gave us the doggie sign that her time had come.  On a nice note, her veterinarian is in town and he was willing to come over to our house, so she was comfy on lots of blankets and pillows and we were with her.  She is missed dearly but we're doing alright around here.  I love this picture of her, she was happiest on the farm hanging out with our chickens:

We're still doing a lot of cooking around the house, last week I took home a HUGE butternut squash from the co-op that no one was going to buy (it was just to darn big!).  I'm guessing it was at least 20 pounds.  So, I made some butternut squash soup, of course.  Most of it went into the freezer for later eating and some has been consumed daily for the last several days.  I made a very basic soup so after I defrost it I can add more flavorings later on, so here's the recipe in it's approximate most-basic form:

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
-Pat of butter
-Carrots, sliced
-Celery, sliced
-Onion, chopped
-Butternut squash, skin and seeds removed and cut into 1" cubes
-Stock
-Salt and Pepper

1)  Melt butter in pot over medium heat and then add chopped carrots, celery and onion.  Cook approx 10 minutes until everything is fragrant and onions are carmelized.
2)  Put cubed butternut squash on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
3)  After veggies are fragrant add about a pint of chicken stock and salt and pepper.  Brink to a boil and then down to a simmer.  Allow to simmer for 20 minutes while squash cooks (this will soften the carrots).
4)  Once squash is cooks it will be nice and tender.  Add this to the soup mixture and stir.
5)  If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup and you're done!  If not then remove pot from heat and ladel soup into a blender, blend until combined, and  pour finished soup in a seperate pot (you will have to do this several times). 
**You can more to the soup to jazz it up such as cream, dried herbs, cumin, curry, etc.

It's been pretty busy around here!  In the past week we had the asphalt of our parking lot ripped out (it was really beat up and pot-holey) and new gravel put down.  We hired a couple of our friends, Lee & Roger, to do the job and they did a fantastic job.  It's all nice and level, but now we have other projects to complete before the snowfall!  Mainly to put a low fence around the parking lot, have our friend Art put in a patio (there's a big hole that's been dug for this), rake rake rake, and clean up the garden.  Jeesh!  
I've been working on a webisode project that will hopefully go into effect soon.  I'll be demonstrating a recipe from "Buckeye Cookery" every week.  This is a cookbook that's been passed down in the generations on Dan's side of the family, it was originally published in 1876.  It's absolutely fascinating and beautiful, every recipe in it is completely from scratch and seasonal.  There are recipes on how to use every part of the animal down to their stomach, hoof, heart, etc.  Instructions on how to capture yeast and bake bread to perfection.  And, well, you'll just have to wait and see!  Today I traveled all the way out to Waconia to meet with the Executive Director of the Carver County Historical Society, Wendy.  She also happens to be a historic cookbook expert and has extensive knowledge about "Buckeye Cookery" specifically.  We determined that my copy dates from sometime between 1877 and 1879.  Oh, and she had soooo much information to share, I'm very very excited to continue to explore this cookbook and it's terminology and have Wendy as my guide.  Let me just tell you, I'm excited one day to make the Pig's Head Cheese!  (it's not technically cheese, more like lunch meat, made by boiling a pig's head in water...mmmmm...?!)
Anyways, somehow I found time to make some delicious ice cream over the weekend, I borrowed this recipe directly from Serious Eats (thank you, Jen!!!).  If you have an ice cream maker please make it, it requires no sugar and tastes divine.  I chose this recipe because I still have rosemary in the garden and was able to use some homemade maple syrup.  Let me tell you, I have this silly looking ice cream maker that my grandma's had since the '50's and it works juuuust fine:)

Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/11/maple-syrup-rosemary-ice-cream-recipe.html

And here's how I made it complete with pictures....

Now is the time to plant your garlic in Minnesota!  It's recommended to plant garlic in the fall a week or two after the first killing frost according to the University of Minnesota Extension.  This usually translates to mid October in my neck of the woods.  If you're interested in growing your own food I always find it's best to consult experienced gardeners or your state's Extension website for information on each individual crop.  For example, here is an incredibly comprehensive guide to Growing Garlic in Minnesota from the U of M.
Dan and I planted ours about a week ago, and planting and growing garlic is really very easy, it's not a very fussy crop.  First you pick the plot where you want to plant your garlic.  It should be an area that gets plenty of sun and does not get water-logged.  Next you will need to loosen up the soil, we did this by using a large tiller.  Now if you have any soil amendments to add you will need to work these into the soil, we added some manure, peat, and compost in equal amounts.  Finally, you plant your garlic cloves, you do this by spacing them approximately 6 inches apart and planting them tip side up.  It's also best to spread some mulch over your plot, it is common to use weed-free straw for this.  This straw helps retain moisture, it keeps the garlic bulbs a bit warmer, and suppresses weeds.Buying garlic seed is always a bit expensive, but the great thing about garlic is that you can save some of the bulbs that you grow each year and eventually build up a large stock of garlic seed.... so it's a free cycle.  Pretty neat stuff.  I have three varieties that I've been planting and saving about 10-20% of the crop from for a few years now.  This allows me to have enough garlic to plant for next year with plenty left over for sharing and to get us through the winter.

So there you have it!  Now I'm looking forward to sometime in March when the garlic shoots begin to emerge from the soil, it's such a great sight.  

Spaghetti Squash is so good, when cooked you can eat it just like you would regular spaghetti pasta.  It's delicious and very healthy, here's a comparison of 1 cup cooked spaghetti squash to 1 cup of cooked whole wheat spaghetti:

I had a blast hanging out with Dan's super cute 3 year old niece, Ashah, on Saturday night.  We colored and danced and watched some princess movies and, of course, cooked!  We made some chicken soup and a giant peanut butter cookie all from scratch and she had a ball getting messy with the ingredients and taking ownership of the preparation. 
For the chicken soup, she peeled the onions while I chopped the carrots, celery, and then onions.  I put these in a bowl and she dumped them into a pot, she then put some oil in the pot, and then I put it on a burner on the stove top to simmer the vegetables.  When the vegetables were cooked she dumped in some chicken stock, and while this heated up we had so much fun ripping apart a cooked chicken carcass I had in the fridge.  At first I thought she'd think it was icky but boy was I wrong!  When we were finished with this we put the ripped up chicken bits in the soup (& Ashah fed Daisy some of the grosser bits:).  Ashah then poured salt, pepper, a bay leaf, and torn fresh tarragon in a small bowl, I dumped these seasonings into the soup.  After about 20 minutes of cook time we had yummy soup!  Ashah claims she doesn't like soup but she did eat some chicken and carrots with no broth, with a cup of milk that made a healthy meal.  Oh yea, but we also had some peanut butter cookie for dessert (well, Ashah had so much cookie dough before we baked the cookie that she coudn't eat any of the final product:)

I took the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe straight from Better Homes & Garden Cookbook.  I don't have an electric mixer but it was more fun because Ashah got to use a crank mixer and spoon so she did all of the mixing.  We also decided to make one giant cookie so I cut the quantities of the recipe in half and we put all of the batter in a 9" pie pan, it turned out great this way.  There's nothing seasonal about these cookies, but hey, they were good!

PEANUT BUTTER-OATMEAL ROUNDS
(Preheat oven to 375F)
-3/4 cup butter, softened
-1/2 cup peanut butter
-1 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-2 cups rolled oats
-1 cup chopped cocktail peanuts

1.  In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds or until combined.  Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.  Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.  Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer.  Stir in any remaining flour.  Stir in rolled oats and peanuts.
2.  Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 375F oven about 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool.


Here's a video of some of our cooking shenanigans!....

Last night Just Food Coop had their Annual Meeting and it was a blast and a big success!  Me and another JFC board member, Diane, were in charge of coordinating the event, and this year we chose to have it out at Red Barn pizza farm.  We put up tables and hundreds of chairs inside their beautiful red barn that was adorned with twinkle lights everywhere.  Tammy and Pat, the farmers, cooked us up over 60 pizzas in their brick pizza oven and the JFC deli made delicious salads and desserts.  We had water and apple cider for beverages.  There was a great bluegrass band playing inside the barn and over 300 people showed up to celebrate!  It was a great turn out and sooo much fun, there were kids running around the yard everywhere and chasing the chickens, me and a couple other volunteers manned a kid's art table for awhile.  It was a perfect fall evening for this event!  
Right now I'm over at Simple Harvest Farm, they are bringing their rabbits to be butchered tomorrow and I'm going to buy a couple but I have one dilemma.  I could save some money and buy a couple alive and butcher them myself OR pay more and get buy them butchered and cleaned up.  Hmmm... I think I'll end up springing for the butchered rabbits BUT I'm stiiiilll thinking about it.  
On another note, last week I attended a family birthday party and made a pie for the celebration.  I had some fresh apples and some ground cherries that I had frozen a month ago.  These two sounded like they would taste incredible together and they sure did!  I couldn't find any recipes specifically for an apple-ground cherry pie but I did find a great pie crust recipe online and an apple blueberry recipe from Pillsbury, here it is, my alterations are in the parentheses:

PIE CRUST
I followed this recipe exactly and it came out great! (Just click on the link and it will open up the recipe on another page):
Buttery Flaky Pie Crust Recipe

APPLE BLUEBERRY PIE (APPLE GROUND CHERRY PIE!)
Filling:
4 cups sliced peeled baking apples 
2 cups fresh blueberries (2 cups frozen or fresh ground cherries)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (1/2 cup raw sugar & 1/4 cup sucanat)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I omitted this)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
(I did half the amount of topping and used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour and butter instead of margarine)

1) Heat oven to 425 F.  Place pie crust in a 9 inch pie pan.
2) In large bowl, mix filling ingredients; set aside.
3) In medium bowl, mix topping ingredients with fork until crumbly.  Spoon fruit into crust-line pan.  Spoon topping evenly over fruit.
4) Place pie on middle oven rack; bake 50 to 70 minutes or until apples are tender and edge is bubbly.  After 20 minutes of baking, cover entire pie loosely with foil to prevent excessive browning.  Cool 2 hours.  Serve warm or cold. 

When I was out harvesting at Vasa Gardens, Terri the farm-hand described to me a simple tasty recipe that I just could not wait to make.  It’s Jalepeno Poppers, he freezes them for later use and I was sold immediately, I picked over a ¼ bushel of jalepeno peppers immediately and made these the first night they were picked.  I’ve made them a few times by now because they’re the perfect appetizer to make when watching a football game or going to a party.


Here's a picture of the bounty that I harvested a couple of weeks ago: tomatoes, jalepeno peppers, habanero peppers, green peppers, and banana peppers:

These Jalepeno Poppers are SO GOOD.  And SO EASY to make.  The other great thing is that they freeze GREAT.  Enough said??

JALENPENO POPPERS WITH BACON
-Jalepenos
-Cream Cheese
-Bacon (not thick cut)
***Please wear gloves when chopping up jalapenos!
1)      Cut off top of jalepeno, slice in half and remove seeds.
2)      Fill the cavity with cream cheese.
3)      Wrap a half slice of bacon around each filled pepper
4)      Place all poppers on a baking dish and bake at 400 F for about 30 minutes

To preserve the poppers, simply fill them with cream cheese and place these on a baking sheet.  Put in freezer, when they have frozen put them in gallon freezer bags.  When you’re ready to cook them just wrap each frozen popper with a half slice of bacon and bake at 400 F for 30-45 minutes.  Easy!

Here's how to freeze the poppers:

Freezing green peppers is a very simple way to preserve them for the off-season.  I froze mine in two different ways: chopped and whole with the top and seeds removed.  The chopped ones will be great for toppings on pizza and fillings for burritos, pastas, etc.  The whole ones I will use for stuffed green peppers, one of my favorite meals.  I froze enough to make stuffed green peppers for 2 once a month until they're in season again.

FREEZING GREEN PEPPERS
-Peppers
Simply chop the peppers into your desired shape for freezing (squares, strips, rings, halves, whole...).
Boil water in a large pot.
Add peppers and boil for 3 minutes.
Immediately place boiled peppers in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.
Let peppers cool to room temp and dab off any excess moisture.
Place in freezer bags and into your freezer until ready to use.

Here are the pictures from freezing the peppers whole with tops and seeds removed, it was the same exact process, just a different shape of pepper:

I picked a bunch of Banana Peppers from Vasa Gardens and made some quick refrigerator pickles with them.  These pickled peppers are sooo good, I was only able to make 2 1/2 pints and they're almost gone already.  They're great on sandwiches, in salads and with sausage... yum!

SIMPLE PICKLED BANANA PEPPERS
Makes 1 pint
-Banana Peppers, seeded and sliced (I'm not sure how many per pint, maybe 8-12???!)
-1 cup white vinegar
-1 cup water
-1 garlic clove, peeled whole
-1/2 tsp salt
Place garlic clove and sliced banana peppers in a clean pint jar, top with the salt
Mix water and vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil
Pour mixture over banana peppers, seal, and refrigerate at least 24 hours before enjoying