Category: Recipes

Recipes I use

Turkey Tracks: Winter Comfort Food: Leek and Potato Soup

Turkey Tracks:  December 18, 2016

Winter Comfort Food:  Leek and Potato Soup

The classic combo of leeks and potatoes is…classic.

I alter Julia Child’s recipe a bit by using a chicken bone broth as a base instead of plain water.  AND, I do wilt the leeks with about 1/4 cup of raw butter before throwing in the potatoes and the broth.

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While the above very simple mixture cooks–about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are really soft, I go hunting for what Emeril Lagasse used to call “the boat motor.”  It’s so much easier than trying to hand smash the soup, or putting a really hot liquid into a blender or through a food mill.

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The result is a velvety smooth soup.

You can make this kind of soup with any kind of veggie combo actually.  Squashes work like the potatoes to give the velvet texture.

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Add a drizzle of raw cream or more butter and a sprinkle of something green, like dried herbs, chopped fresh parsley, etc.

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And, enjoy!

 

Turkey Tracks: November 6, 2016

Ground Lamb Stew

I think I left garlic out of the list of ingredients in the video.

I like to cook this way.

I look at what I have in my kitchen, and then devise a recipe.

With this one, you sauté the meat until it starts to brown, remove it from the pan while LEAVING THE FAT INTACT AS IT IS GOOD FOR YOU, and then start sautéing your veggies, starting with the onions and garlic.  Cook the onions and garlic somewhat slowly as what you want is some nice color to happen–then start throwing in the chunkier veggies–in this case the carrots, celery zukes, and eggplant.  I added a drained large can of black beans and the defrosted jar of roasted tomatoes (with basil and garlic) from my freezer stores, a little water if needed and let everything simmer until the carrots are done.  Corn kernals (perhaps frozen from the summer) would have been a good addition as well.

I put the stew over a bed of the last of the lettuce greens from Hope’s Edge–and they include some baby hearty greens–topped the hot stew with some slices of cheddar cheese, and added a dollop of my newly made sauerkraut.  Drizzling yogurt or cream over the stew instead of the cheese would also have been nice.  A goat cheese or feta cheese crumble would also have been nice.  I had a bowl of organic tortilla chips on the side–so I was only missing, perhaps, some avocado slices.

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In days to come I may cook up some rice as a base and for a change.  I like this brand a lot:  it’s SPROUTED (which removes phytates and makes nutrients more available) and organic and a nice mixture of rice types:

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This rice cooks normally.  I use a rice cooker, which I love.

Turkey Tracks: The Last Tomato of 2016

Turkey Tracks:  November 3, 2016

The Last Tomato of 2016

And, it was delicious!

Of course it had to go into a BLT sandwich–made with real mayo.

(I used avocado oil this time and I’m not a fan.  Back to a mild olive oil I think.)

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OK, here’s the real truth:

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I love potato chips, and Lays has come out recently with this colorful mixture.

And the grapes this year…well these are organic at least!  And they are delicious!

Turkey Tracks: Jane’s Gazpacho

Turkey Tracks:  August 25, 2016

Jane’s Gazpacho

Yesterday Jane Liebler made a beautiful day for those Coastal Quilters who could break away for the day to visit her out in Liberty, Maine–which is about 25 minutes from Camden and a beautiful ride that traces the headwaters of the St. George river.

Jane’s farmhouse sits in the midst of blueberry barron-covered hills that rise above the gorgeous, blue St. George’s Lake.  And, John’s Ice Cream (all homemade) is just two miles away.

Jane greeted us with warm doughnuts, hot coffee with REAL cream and good honey, and anything else we wanted to drink.  The farm kitchen was warmed with wonderful wood walls.  A collection of baskets hung from the rafters.  This house is loved!  Jane also had a cantaloupe all cut up for us, which we devoured on the spot.  She made a scrumptious summer lunch for us, which included deviled eggs (yeah!!) and GAZPACHO I COULD EAT.  Most people add some form of red pepper to gazpacho, which would send me straight to the kitchen floor and on to the hospital.  We sat and did handwork, ate, laughed, visited, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Thanks Jane!!  Don’t ask us back unless you really want us because WE WILL COME.

I broke away after lunch to drive about 20 minutes further west to Freedom, Maine, and Villageside Farm, where I picked up six frozen, hefty, free-range, non-Cornish chickens.  And after I returned and gathered up my passengers, we went to John’s Ice Cream for…John’s homemade ice cream.  It’s famous!  I had vanilla custard and rocky road, and it was so, so good.

I asked Jane how she made her delicious gazpacho, and she said scald the fresh tomatoes and skin them, then work the flesh with your hands to break it up, rather than putting everything into a blender.  Use lots of spring onions and some balsamic vinegar.  She added cucumber and green pepper.  Simple and as delicious as the summer-ripe ingredients.

So…I have a lot of tomatoes from the Hope’s Edge CSA pick-up this week.  I prepped the tomatoes as Jane directed, reserving some of the flesh to give the soup a chunky texture.  I also reserved some of the diced cukes and green pepper–as Jane did.  The rest I put into the Vitamix with spring onions (4 large spring onions to 1 large tomato, 1 medium tomato, 1 large cuke and 1 smaller one, and 1 green pepper).  I added about 1/4 cup of good olive oil and 2 or 3 dollaps of white balsamic vinegar, rather a lot of salt (2 teaspoons plus–tomatoes love salt), and some fresh ground black pepper.  I didn’t puree the mixture, just got it cut up into small pieces and poured it back into the bowl with the reserved tomato flesh.

When I tasted it, the white balsamic and the sweet ripe tomatoes made the mixture really sweet.  I added more black pepper and some red wine vinegar.  Yummy.

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Gazpacho needs to age a bit I think.  It’s upstairs cooling its heels in the refrigerator.  I’m planning on having some of it–a lot of it–for supper since I fixed a big BLT sandwich about 2 p.m. and am not hungry.  I’ll have some goat cheese and avocado on corn chips (sprouted organic, GMO-free corn) to go with and call it a night.

Maybe I am getting hungry a bit…

It has been a lovely day–even though No No Penny threw up on the bedspread and afghan this morning.  She was left alone for some hours yesterday, and I do not think she is used to being alone for multiple hours yet.  I gave myself some time to sit on my porch and read this morning–accompanied by a bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries with some yogurt and a piece of gluten-free toast with peanut butter.  It was so peaceful and lovely out there.

A storm is moving in, but humidity is really good.  All day the wind has been up, so when I went by the coast on an errand, I could see that sailing on the bay today would have been amazing. I can’t wait to go back on the Riggin again Sept. 20th.  AND, two passenger additions include Rose Lowell and Megan Bruns.  Mary Bishop will room with me.  We are going to have such a good, good time.  Rhea Butler of Alewives Quilt Shop will be on board to teach English Paper Piecing to whomever wants to learn.

When I walked by my garden at some point, I could see bits of orange in the Sun Gold cherry tomatoes.  Time to pick again.  For some reason I checked the beans, and my goodness, I have to pick those too.  I had a terrible time getting the beans to germinate and outgrow the slugs–who seem to be gone now???–so I have one Romano bean plant, one bush provider, and about a half-dozen haricot verte bush “filet” beans.

Here’s what came in the house today:

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I am drying a flat of cherry tomatoes in the kitchen, so I’ll let these guys ripen in the kitchen and eat the ripe ones.  Rain causes these cherry tomatoes to split open–from the extra water the plant takes up I guess.

Now I’m going to sew for a bit.

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Sunday Puttering

Turkey Tracks:  August 21, 2016

Sunday Puttering

I love a day like today.

No schedule.  Nothing to do but what I want to do.  Within reason, anyway.  It always involves comfy clothes:  freedom of the body with no bra or anything tight.

I read a bit over breakfast:  email, the news (I have the NYTimes articles every day online and it’s so easy and convenient and has no ads), Facebook, the weekly local papers.  One of my fellow passengers on the Riggin in July posted his OUTSTANDING pictures to the rest of us.  I’ll do a blog entry of some of them in a bit.

We are getting a storm, which we need, but the sun comes out a bit, and I find myself watering, weeding a little, gathering, feeding birds (I made sugar syrup for the hummers) and just puttering about.

I roast some beets:

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These will get into a green salad with blue cheese, some spring onions, and my mustardy/garlicky vinaigrette.

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I pick chard from the garden and bring it inside to dry.  It will go into Mason jars and be thrown into soups and stews this winter.  Green flakes, after the food processor chops up the dried leaves.

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The bottom flat is full of drying cherry tomatoes picked yesterday:  Sun Golds.  I pick another whole batch while in the garden.  Rain makes the ripe tomatoes burst open.  I have no container with me, so I make one from the bottom of my shirt tail.

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After dripping some whey out of yogurt, I make mayonnaise–using some minimally processed avocado oil.  It’s delicious, so that’s a winner.  I find even the light olive oils to be too strong for a lemony mayo.  The addition of the whey “cultures” the mayo so that it lasts a long time.

What’s behind the mayo making is a yen for a BLT–it’s that time of year.  AND, I have a beautiful little head of cabbage that wants to be turned into coleslaw.

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I clean out the produce drawers in the refrigerator.  The Hope’s Edge weekly CSA pickup is Tuesday.  (More tomatoes!)  And I determine that I will pan sauté the remaining zukes, yellow squash, a new onion, new potatoes, some cherry tomatoes, and an eggplant with some herbs, especially mint.  I’ll use the bacon grease as a flavoring agent.  It’s a “good fat,” and my bacon is nitrate/nitrite free.  I have a baked chicken breast I’ll warm to go along with this supper.

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I read some of the LAST Ogilvie book on the fictional people of the fictional Bennet’s Island–located somewhere near Matinicus–while eating and put it down only to make a maple syruplatte with my little Moka pot and milk frother.

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Raw whole milk and freshly grated nutmeg.  Sometimes I add cinnamon too.  I only warm the milk before frothing it to prevent killing all its goodness.

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This one is a little light on milk…  But it was delicious!

Penny has been waiting patiently for her walk.  We take a run up to a neighbors trails where she can fun free.  The fog and lower clouds are skimming the tree tops and covering the mountains.  It’s glorious.

When we come home, red squirrel is sitting on top of the bench downstairs.  She traps him/her on the upper porch, and s/he leaps off to the hydrangeas below and makes a run for a nearby oak.  Penny is only a half-length behind him/her.  Everyone is excited about the drama.

I’m easily amused on puttering days.

 

Turkey Tracks: Summer Chicken and Corn Soup

Turkey Tracks:  August 18, 2016

Summer Chicken and Corn Soup

 

Summer corn is “in.”  Tender and sweet.  I had an ear every day last week.

Then, I made a soup with it, using 6 ears.

I started with a great bone broth–recipe is elsewhere on the blog.  I had so many bones saved the kitchen refrigerator freezer was getting too full.  I got two batches of bone broth from the bones.  I cook each batch in the crock pot for 24 hours.  It’s good to have bone broths frozen so you can make a quick soup if the right ingredients appear in your kitchen, so making two batches is a great idea.  One for now; one for the freezer.

I defrosted a sack of about six frozen tomatoes.  I drain off the water that emerges twice, then take off the skins and what is left is this lovely tomato puree–bright and sunny as last summer.  (I’m making room for THIS year’s extra tomatoes.)  I usually start the defrosting a day or so early and just store the puree.

I sliced the corn kernels from the cobs and put the cobs into the bone broth for 30 minutes or so of slow cooking.  The cobs infused the broth with a lot of added corn sweetness.  When I’m ready to pour liquid into my soup, I remove the cobs.

I sautéed fresh onions from Hope’s Edge, my CSA.  I added sea salt and carrots.  I added some raw chicken cut into bite-sized pieces.  When this mixture has begun to “color,” I threw in herbs from the garden:  thyme, tarragon, parsley, garlic scape puree I made and froze, etc.  Then poured in the broth and added the corn, some beet greens, and some chard.  I use what I have in the kitchen–which is a lot this time of year.

Once started, this soup is quick and easy to make.

The final thing:  into each served bowl I swirl some fresh, raw cream.  Pepper on the top is nice, too.

This soup has a lovely sweet and bright taste from the corn and the tomatoes.

Turkey Tracks: Windjamming Days on the J&E Riggin

Turkey Tracks:  July 24, 2016

Windjamming Days on the J&E Riggin

The house is organized.

The garden has been weeded…mostly…and watered.

My bags are packed.

AND I AM OFF TO THE J&E RIGGIN windjammer later this afternoon for six days of doing nothing but what I absolutely want to do.  Hot weather, Jon Finger’s quiet friendship, Annie’s fun conversations and fabulous food, being with their daughters Chloe and Ella, sights to see, a clean wind to feel, the swish of the boat flying through the water, books to read, a book downloaded from the Maine State Library system, sewing to enjoy, naps to take, former travelers to see again, and an abundance of laughter and fun.

Last night, this…

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…turned into this…

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…as I tried to use up my veggies from Hope’s Edge CSA last Tuesday.

I froze half for the night I come home.

I also processed some kale and washed some sweet peas in the shell to eat with my picnic supper aboard tonight.  I weeded heavily this morning–HEAVILY–and treated myself to lunch out and a coffee from Zoots. So I want a lighter supper tonight.

I finished two more quilt-lets in the past week at night:

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I made up a few more to do on the boat, but mostly I’ll work on the lavender sachets.  I’m now thinking of green ones (balsam), rose ones (rose geranium or roses), and yellow ones (lemon verbena???).

Did you know that if you squeeze a lavender ball when it no longer smells that you will release renewed smell?

Hugs to all of YOU!

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Saturday Breakfast

Turkey Tracks:  June 4, 2016

Saturday Breakfast

We are (again) being promised rain for later tonight and tomorrow.

So far, my rain dances have not worked.  Maybe this time.

Anyway, I mowed last Friday, so I knew I had to mow before we got soaking rain that might take several days.  Often, that means a third day for my grass to dry out enough to mow.

So…

Yep.  I needed to mow TODAY.

At first we had overcast cool, then, suddenly, in the way weather happens in Maine, the skies cleared and the sun came out and it started getting warm enough to dry up the morning dew.

First though, I fixed myself a “Saturday Breakfast.”  Normally I don’t get hungry until nearly noon.  But today I needed to be mowing around noon, AND I am having dinner early evening with friends at Chez Michel’s in Lincolnville, Maine–just up the road from Camden and across from Lincolnville beach.  Somehow, I’ve never been to this restaurant, so when friends discovered I had not, an outing was organized.  (I have great friends.)  

Over a cup of tea, I pondered what to eat for breakfast.

My tea:  I get the most extraordinary Irish tea from our local coops.  It’s from a Vermont company and comes in little grains.  It makes a “bold” cup of tea.

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I heat the water in my copper kettle, and say what you will, water heated in that kettle tastes gorgeous–very unlike water heated in another pot.  I’ve had it for 25 or so years now and love it to pieces.

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I pour hot water over the loose tea through a basket thingy

that fits over my cup.

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This tea can take a second pour over too, which I usually do sometime during the day.

Of course I add LOCAL raw WHOLE milk from Jersey cows (Milkhouse milk) and about a tablespoon of raw, UNHEATED local honey–which I get in big jars once a year from my local beekeeper, Sparky’s Honey.  I take him the jars, and he fills them.

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On the refill, I don’t add the honey.

OK, chives are in full bloom, so I snipped some and brought in one of the lavender chive blooms to crumble into my eggs.

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Over the years, the chives have spread in my garden.  And look at the stand of tarragon to the right of the big clump of chives.  Along this path I have several types of sage, several types of thyme, my grandmother’s mint (which I’ve had for over 40 years), some garlic chive (blooms in August), lavender, and some rosemary.  I LOVE it when I have herbs in the garden.

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I recently learned that one can trim the chives back to to or three inches in mid-summer, and they will grow back up and, often, bloom again.

I put a big pat of local raw butter in the pan and heated it until it sizzled.  Threw in the chives and dropped in two eggs.  While they set a bit, I hit them with local sea salt and some black pepper.

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I just take a fork and run it through eggs to scramble them.  If I were to add cheese, it would be just as they are broken but still runny.

I had some gluten-free bread from HootinTootin bakery out of, I think, Belfast.  I get it at the Belfast Coop.   AND some homemade blackberry jam.  (This year will be a blackberry year.  Last year the patch had to be cut down to allow it to regenerate without so many weeds.)

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Delicious!  And the mowing seemed really easy after this good start.

Turkey Tracks: Cold Frame Lettuce

Turkey Tracks:  May 31, 2016

Cold Frame Lettuce

Do you happen to remember the recent blog post where lettuce that had reseeded itself in the cold frame–“Spring Joys,” I think?

That lettuce is full grown now and looks so pretty.

It looks even better in a salad, which I had last night:

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That’s herbed goat cheese, French breakfast radishes, avocado half, cherry tomatoes, snipped chives and chive flowers from the garden, watery cukes from far away, spring onion, red onion, THE LETTUCE, a drizzle of good olive oil, a squeezed lemon half, sea salt, and pepper.

It’s all a gift of nature.