Like most folks, we’re struggling a bit financially right now. But we also want to eat well, with some comforting winter food to tide us over the dark months. Stoups – thick, hearty one-dish meals that fall somewhere between a stew and soup – are among my favorite winter concoctions. They’re delicious, comforting, and fill the house with wonderful aromas while they cook. They also play well with improvisation. This time, I improvised a smokey, somewhat spicy, chipotle chicken and wild rice soup.
I’ve had a lot of pizza since I started the Pie of the Week project. While it has been rewarding and I’m nowhere near done with the project, I wanted to do something more creative with the Roccbox pizza oven. I also needed to clear space in the freezer for lambs headed to the butcher this week. There was a whole chicken from Jim and Peggy Metz at the Culver Farmers’ Market in there, taking up space. So, I decided to see how a spatchcock chicken would turn out in the Roccbox.
I’ve had several requests for the Neapolitan pizza crust recipe I use for my farm to fire pizzas, since I began sharing my Pie of the Week journey. Continue reading →
Broa is a rustic Portuguese cornbread. Unlike more common Midwestern American cornbreads, which are leavened with baking powder or soda and fairly sweet, broa is yeast leavened and savory. It’s great with the addition of cranberries and made into small boules you can scatter about the celebratory table, so everyone can cut or tear off a hunk without waiting for it to be passed! No kneading (but a bit of advanced planning) required.
Make and refrigerate (or freeze) a large quantity of brioche dough, and you can make a wide assortment of fresh goodies in little time
Things have been a bit really crazy lately, allowing not so much time to cook, let alone bake. Yet the ducks kept laying eggs, even as the days get shorter and colder. Normally they would have slowed nearly to a stop by now. The result? I’m running out of egg storage space!
So, on a stormy Sunday with no work duties(!) and a lot of studying to do, I decided to do something about it. I made up about a 4 1/2 pound batch of refrigerator brioche dough!
Brioche is a (very) enriched bread dough, with lots of egg and butter, and sweetened with a bit of honey. It’s often baked in a typical loaf shape, but can be substituted for challah, made into cinnamon rolls, or beignets filled with chocolate or jam (though that requires deep frying, a mess I seldom want to deal with). Continue reading →
I awoke from my post-farmers’-market nap Saturday with a start. I had been pondering what to feed some farm volunteers (and us) who were planning to come by Sunday morning, as well as how best to emphasize the produce we’re harvesting now. And it came to me in a flash. Or a dream. I can almost never remember my dreams…
It’s getting into mid-July, and we’re starting to get some good variety in the harvest, but not really high summer. Some exciting stuff is coming in – we’re harvesting lots of blueberries, cucumbers and zucchini are coming in strong buy we’re not sick of them yet, and the basil is really getting going. Wait a minute! Blueberries and basil might go together!
I’m not sure where my blueberry buckle recipe originates from. I think it might have been 7th grade home economics class… Nonetheless, I’ve been making it for years, with a few alterations along the way. It’s a great way to celebrate blueberry season!
