Summer Pleasures: Ad Hoc Cooking

Turkey Tracks: July 25, 2020

Summer Pleasures: Ad Hoc Cooking

Yesterday evolved into a “foodie” day in part.

I took AC to the dog park for a pleasant hour in the morning and then came home HUNGRY.

I love that my little grill is “all ready to go” on my back deck this year and that when I fire it up, it is hot in under 15 minutes. I splashed some olive oil, salt, and herbs on some chicken tenders and they cooked in 6 minutes flat. AND smelled delicious.

I have a bag full of arugula from Hope’s Edge, so used that as a layer under the salad I made. I absolutely LOVE sweet onion and eat it raw. It is sweet and crunchy and, more importantly, is a great source of sulfur which is so important for human health and which is lacking in our commercially produced vegetables today. The herb is raw dill, which I can’t seem to get enough of these days. And we now have those small cucumbers in the local markets that are so tender.

I also had a package of defrosted lamb stew chunks that needed using. And a bag of beets with their greens from Hope’s Edge. While I sauteed the meat in beef tallow in my heavy Creuset cast iron/enamel pot, I peeled the beets with a peeler, and cleaned and chopped the beet greens, including the stalks on the leaves. The bottom parts of the stalk are like celery, and I threw those into the meat pan, alongside chopped garlic scapes, herbs, and salt. I took out some tiny new red potatoes, peeled some white carrots, chopped the green onions that came also from Hope’s Edge, and cut some sweet onion that went into the meat pot.

The pot went into the oven for 45 minutes—with garlic scapes, the beet green stalks, the onion, herbs, salt for 45 minutes.

While I was at it, I prepped the BIG bunch of kale from Hope’s Edge. I love the lavender color of the stems, but I just tear off the leaves from the stem with my hands and put the stems in the compost.

I drop the leaves into a pot of boiling water until they wilt down. No more than 5 minutes of cooking as you don’t want to cook them to death. Drain. Refresh with cold water until you can pick up the mass with your hands and chop it. Half went into the freezer and half is waiting for me to heat it in butter in a pan—which I could just eat as a side veggie or put into an omelet with cheese on top. YOU could add some nutmeg to the butter.

I wanted some rice for some reason, so I measured out a cup, added salt and some butter, and let the pot sit on the top of the oven until I got ready to finish dinner. It never hurts to let rice soak a bit. It will cook faster.

The meat pot came out of the oven and was left to cool on top of the stove, uncovered.

Thirty or so minutes before I wanted dinner, I heated the oven (350), added a little more water and heated my meat pot on the stove, added my prepped veggies (NOT the beet greens), covered it and cooked it in the oven for 30 or so minutes. Cook until the potatoes are soft inside. Then I stirred in the beet greens, recovered the pot, and cooked for another 5-6 minutes.

Yummo!

The “bread” is a corn tortilla toasted in the oven with bits of raw butter and salt on top. The organic fruit is the last of the cantaloup I’ve been eating, fresh red cherries, and a sliced nectarine. And, an after dinner coffee with raw honey and raw milk and cream.

More yummo! And I have food for today so can play.