Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

We dug into the freezer for roasted red peppers for the first time this year today. We have plenty of fresh vegetables (carrots, radishes, broccoli, baby turnips, and cauliflower) that need to be eaten ASAP. The perfect fix? A yummy bowl of roasted red pepper hummus!
     I got the basis for this recipe from a cookbook that I bought in Ireland a few years back entitled The Irish Farmers’ Market Cookbook. Ireland and hummus? Yes! The book is written by Clodagh McKenna, who lives by and cooks with a locavore philosophy. I’m smitten with the book’s colorful photos, with its recipes’ usage of local Irish ingredients (most of which are plentiful here in WISCO as well), and with its occasional difference in food vocabulary (croquettes for cucumbers, for example).

My version of this recipe:
2 roasted red peppers
25 oz. of garbanzo beans (I used canned this time.)
4 fl. oz. of olive oil
1 Tbs of tahini (optional)
4 garlic cloves
4 Tbs. of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the garlic cloves and the roasted red peppers in your food processor. Process until finely chopped.
2. Add the chickpeas. Process until well-blended.
3. Add the lemon juice and tahini.
4. Add the olive oil, a little at a time, until desired consistency.
5. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serve with fresh veggies, pita chips, crackers, or bread.

Therapy in the Kitchen: Squash and Pear Soup, plus Plout-Apple Crisp

Life has been a roller coaster lately, and so dining out has been plentiful as have homemade goodies baked for us by our friends. Today we realized our refrigerator was busting with food, ready to vomit out bags of veggies and fruit at its first opening. Our little feather-footed Bantam, Ani, died this morning, and so, we decided to go to therapy ~ cooking together, side-by-side, in perfect matrimonial harmony in the kitchen, whipping up soup for the freezer, applesauce for later this winter, and freezing veggies we realized we wouldn’t get to eating fresh this week. Oh – and we added to our dessert collection ~ a fresh pluot and apple crisp.

Below, I have included the recipes for a Squash Pear Soup and our Pluot and Apple Crisp. 

Squash Pear Soup
 (we have adapted this from Deborah Madison’s recipe in Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen.)

Ingredients:
5 cups of squash
5 pears
3 Tbs. of butter
10 cups of vegetable stock
1 medium onion
1/2 cup of good, white wine
2 inches of ginger, grated
a generous pinch of cinnamon

1. Cut the squash in half. Remove and save the seeds and guts.  Roast the halved squash and peeled pears at 425 degrees on a baking dish or roasting pan. If squash are dry, add a bit of water to the pan. Brush with oil and season with salt. Bake for about 1 hour. You may have to turn the pieces over once or twice.
2. Once the squash is roasted, scrape off the skin and add it to saved seeds and guts.Also, reserve the liquid in the roasting pan.


Making stock

3. To make a stock, bring the 10 cups of water to a boil. Add the seeds, guts, and skin. Add the ginger and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cover for 20 to 25 minutes. Strain and save liquid.
4. Then, melt the butter in your soup pot. Add the onion and saute over medium-low for about 10 minutes. Add the pears, squash, stock, and the reserved liquid from the roasting pan. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Puree all when finished.

We froze ours, but it’s delicious right off the stove as well!
Nutrition Facts
cup servings
Squash and pear soup
Serving Size: 1 serving
Amount Per Serving
Calories 111
Total Fat 2.9g
      Saturated Fat 1.4g
      Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 7mg
Sodium 136mg
Carbohydrate 20.4g
      Dietary Fiber 4.2g
      Sugars 9.8g
Protein 0.9g
Alcohol 0.9g
Vitamin A 121% Vitamin C 27%
Calcium    6% Iron 5%

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Plout and Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
4 apples, sliced
8 pluots, diced
6 Tbs. brown sugar
3/4 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
4 Tbs. oats
4 Tbs. coconut (optional)
6 Tbs. butter
1/3 cup brown sugar

Directions:
1.  Put the apples and 1/2 of the sugar in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until apples are soft.
2. Put the pluots in the baking dish. Then, add the apples.

3. Combine the flour, cinnamon, oats, butter, and the rest of the sugar. Blend until the mixture is crumbly.

4. Put the mixture over the apples. Then, sprinkle the brown sugar and coconut on top.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. To be safe, put the baking dish on top of foil or a cookie sheet in case the fruit spills over.

 
Oh~ and no fall-cooking day would be complete without applesauce! We froze a few bags of that too!
Ready to cook down.

Glorious Garlic: Planting 2010

On the 20th, Andy tilled up our “dump garden“. Our future plans for this plot of yard involve lots and lots of garlic. For the past two years, we planted these vampire-repelling bulbs in our large garden, so it’s time to rotate crops. Plus, the dump garden is always open for whatever we feel needs to be there. This is an experiment in some ways because the soil in the dump garden is not garlic-friendly. It is a bit rocky, and typically, garlic grows best in rockless soil. Year by year, we’re trying to get the soil in the dump garden to be more fertile and more garden-friendly.

Garlic is a pretty amazing herb (yes, it’s an herb! Who knew!?). Most know it is an antioxidant, but it also boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, stabilizes blood sugar levels, and helps prevent ulcers. It is rich in, “Calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, vitamin B-1, vitamin B-2, vitamin B-3, vitamin C, and zinc” (source). 

This year, we planted 45 cloves, which we had collected from Farmers’ Markets and from our own garden. We chose large cloves because those will produce the biggest heads and the biggest cloves next year. We use garlic in nearly every dish, and peeling tiny ones can be so tedious. I love me some big cloves. This is our fourth year planting garlic, so we’re feeling pretty good about the process: till up the soil, plant them 1-2 inches deep and 4-6 inches apart, cover with 3-5 inches of mulch (leaves, hay, grass clippings), and wait for the spring to see tiny little green shoots.

The hope is that the leaves we used as mulch will help to condition the soil for future years. We meant to add compost to the soil, but Andy was too far into his element to remember. Oops! I guess this will be our variable year to see if the compost ever made a difference…although, I suppose we switched garden locations, so there are quite a few variables this year! An added excitement to our new planting is that garlic can keep away various insects, such as Japanese beetles, snails, root maggots, carrot root flies, and codling moths (source). Last year, we had an infestation of insects up at the dump garden, so we’ll see if the garlic can meet expectations.

Here are some pics from Garlic Planting 2010:


Graze Resturant: A Pub Serving Local Food, Oh My!

This is my “official” review of Graze Restaurant in Madison: We ate there last night after seeing WICKED at the Overture Center.
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Madison jumped on the local food movement long ago, but to my knowledge Graze is the first pub that serves all locally grown food (except for the oysters which are from Maine and various fish, including a “Sustainable Catch”). According to their website,

          “The idea for Graze came from Chef Tory’s love of comfort foods. Inspired by the New York  gastropub scene, the menus feature a range of classics executed on a higher level than traditional pub food. We chose the name Graze because grass-fed animals and rotational grazing are important to us. Also, we want the menu to inspire our guests to do just that: graze. There’ll always be a variety of dishes and small plates to choose from – the kind of stuff chefs and foodies love to eat.”

The atmosphere is hip, very minimalist and roomy. Andy and I got there around 5, when it opens to serve dinner, on a Saturday evening. We had no problem getting a seat, though by the time we left, the place was pretty full.

On the menu, there is an array of elegantly simple starters and sharers including such comfort foods as a plate of various local pickles, a homemade dish of mac ‘n’ cheese to share, roasted bone marrow, and a plate of meat and cheese with soft bread. The back of the menu lists the local farms from which each food comes. We opted for the Sassy Cow Cheese Curds, which were the best cheese curds either of us has ever consumed!

Dinner entrees are again, simple in nature, but exquisitely prepared. My husband had a burger made with locally-sourced meat. His side of french fries tasted like a delicacy. Not greasy, just yummy. I had a beet salad, which was delicate and delicious.

The drinks were also, for the most part, local. The beer list was comprised of Wisconsin Brews; they even had a locally-made cider. Plus, they have a unique and fun house cocktail list, including a personal favorite made of gin, orange juice, and a splash of Cabernet.

My only criticism of the restaurant was the lack of vegetarian items. There were a few; it was not difficult for me to find something to eat, but there are so many local CSAs producing great produce – I was hoping to see more of them featured in dishes, rather than as sidekicks to meat.

With that said, we’ll be back. I’ll have my salad and eat it too. 🙂

Farm Aid: A Musical Celebration of Farm-Fresh Food

On Saturday, October 1st, we spent the day at Miller Park for the 25th  Anniversary Farm Aid Concert. According to Farm Aid’s official website, over the years, “Farm Aid has raised more than $37 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture.” The non-profit works to keep family farms on their land and to raise an awareness of the loss of family farms as corporations get larger and larger.
A few super cool aspects of Farm Aid in comparison to other concerts:
1. Throughout the day, there is a Homegrown Village which hosts a number of local farmers, organizations involved in the local food movement, and CSAs. Will Allen was there in the Growing Power stand, but we missed seeing him by minutes.

2. The concessions serve local and organic food instead of the usual chemical-laden, mysterious-origin, regular junk. There were veggie hot dogs, local brats, local burgers, and so on. Even the french fries were local and organic. They were serving popped sorghum too!
3. All day long, musicians talk about food issues! Music and like-minded musicians and fans: what could be better?

We were very close, so yes, these are our actual pictures of the day. Here are some of our highlights:

Willie Nelson and Amos Lee
Band of Horses
Jason Mraz ~ Andy took this one for his co-worker, who is a HUGE fan (wink).
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco
Tim Reynolds and Dave Matthews
Neil Young
Norah Jones
A screen shot of John Mellencamp and Dave singing “Homegrown” – Willie Nelson and Neil Young were also a party of the song. 

Farm Aid was better than we anticipated! It was a celebration of farmers and local eating, but also a call to action for change. Farmers are losing their land every day (as many of the musicians noted). It’s important, as Neil Young said a number of times to “Read the Label!” Know where your food comes from. Be sure you’re eating foods that come directly from nature and from the United States. Large corporations are exploiting the land, the workers, animals, and us, the consumers. Eating locally is more compassionate and kind. This event reinforced all of these principles. We’re so glad we went, and we’re hoping it’s close next year.

Happy Fall!

At Harmony Valley’s Harvest Party, members are allowed to pick pumpkins to take home. This year, there were enough for two per family (or more in some cases), so Andy and I each grabbed one. His larger one is going to be carved into a jack-o-lantern. We’ll toast the seeds for ourselves.

My smaller pumpkin became a tasty chicken treat tonight. We ground up the seeds and gave the resulting mash to our remaining SUPER SURVIVOR (knock on wood) CHICKENS. We also gifted them the empty shell. They loved it! Plus, I read the seeds are super nutritious for the chickens. They need all the help they can get!

Check out their fun:

Ani, our limper, getting some needed (and yummy!) nutrients.

Janis enjoying Harmony Valley’s gift.
“We don’t know what it is, but we like it.”

Happy Harvest Weekend!

Andy and I took a break from our own Backyard Market to venture to Viroqua. The inspiration for our weekend-get-away was Harmony Valley Farm’s annual CSA member Harvest Party on Sunday.  With  a quaint Farmer’s Market, a bountiful food co-op, an eclectic coffee shop, and a Mexican restaurant serving amazing food, Viroqua has become a favorite spot for us to take a little break from life.

Saturday morning, we spent time at the Farmer’s Market, which had a wide variety of vendors. We bought a bird feeder made by a local artisan, two jars of fruit preserves for my parents (they were our chicken-sitters this weekend), and a bag of garlic to be planted in our garden this fall. There were several furniture vendors which tempted my checkbook and loads of Amish baked goods that tempted my stomach, too!
We ventured to the Vernon Winery that afternoon. I’ve discovered that eating fresh Concord grapes from the vine is one of my new favorite activities! I can’t wait to grow some in our yard next year!
Saturday evening we ate at a new restaurant called Optimo, serving only local food. Andy had a wonderful squash ravioli with collard greens. 
Sunday morning, we had our second breakfast at the Viroqua Co-op. Something about the atmosphere of that place invites dreaming, planning, and high hopes. Andy and I planned out the next twenty years of our yard over a few cups of coffee and some delicious food. With the pictures below, there’s no need for me to give a further explanation.

The next day, we made our way out to the Harmony Valley Harvest Party, our favorite CSA event of the year. The colors are so beautiful, the hayride is so educational, the pickings are always good, and the potluck is always more than amazing.

This year, we visited the pepper and raspberry fields. We grabbed an insane amount of mini-sweet peppers for eating and for harvesting seed, guajillo and poblano peppers for drying, and UW roaster peppers for roasting and freezing.

Next stop, turnip, radish, and cauliflower fields.

The collard greens and kale field was beautiful. Notice how high the tops of the purple kale are. A sign of a good harvest!

Then, the kids’ favorite part of the day: the pumpkin harvest.

After that highlight, the wagons all made their way back to the farm for the pig roast and potluck. This year, the crew prepared pork barbacoa with guajillo salsa and cabbage, mango, and jalapeno pico de gallo. The farm’s hard-working Mexican crew put together a permanent underground oven for events such as this. The corn tortillas were moist and wonderful. Of course, all of the members brought delicious dishes, and we all ate too much. Being around such like-minded people for a day is so refreshing.

Ella, our lovely lady

Friday evening, we had to put Ella, our sultry, lovely lady down. She began showing symptoms of Marek’s on Thursday night. According to various websites we’ve visited and according to our vet, some chickens that are exposed to Marek’s will often exhibit a limp, which is not necessarily fatal. Other chickens will get internal tumors; that’s where the fatality comes in. Salt and Pepa both died due to internal tumors, and Ella was on her way there.

We’ve decided to let the last four chickens live out their lives. We’ve read that Marek’s usually wipes out around 60% of a flock. We can’t get any more chickens while those remaining are still alive, but we’re going to do the compassionate thing and let these chickies live until their times come. However, the second we notice Salt-and-Pepa like symptoms, we’re putting them down.

That’s why Ella is gone. She was standing around in a daze, clearly not herself. Her crop was empty, and her dander was flaking off in large bits. She must have been suffering from internal tumors. Unlike Salt and Pepa, she wasn’t totally incoherent or clearly in pain. It was a bit harder to end her life, seeing her seemingly normal.

Ella had been one of my favorites. First of all, she was so beautiful. Secondly, she had quite the boisterous personality. When Janis wasn’t around, the sounds that came from petite little Ella were shocking. She could really yelp! I always thought Janis and Ella acted like two little old ladies. They’d holler at each other – one would step on the other or they’d argue over a worm or piece of cheese. But each night, they’d cuddle on my shoulder together or snuggle on the coop ladder, and they’d always sleep cozied into each other. They were a team. Twice, Andy and I came home in the rain to find Janis and Ella nestled high up, getting soaked. All of the other chickens had the sense to go in, but not these two stubborn gals.

Janis, Andy, and I will miss Ella. I’m glad she didn’t suffer too much before she died and that I had the opportunity to say good-bye to her on the ride to the vet. I hope her 19-week little life was enjoyable.

Such a little gal
Our two little “old” ladies
Happy and healthy
The comfort of Dad’s shoulder

Salt -n- Pepa Together Again: Marek’s Disease Sucks

Salt passed away, and we found out that the reason is Marek’s, meaning that . . . most likely, the whole flock is or will be infected. I am feeling pretty sorry for myself, so this blog entry will pretty much be a pity party. If you’re not in the mood for that, feel free to skip this entry.

Salt began exhibiting Pepa’s symptoms the day Pepa died. When Salt got to the point of not being able to breathe well, we took her to the Emergency Clinic for Animals in Madison. Dr. Mark Koeppl (who also took care of our late beloved cat, Riley) handled Salt with care. He kept her overnight, and in the morning, recommended that we put her down. He sent her little chicken body off to the State Lab, and today the results came back: we’ve been dealing with Marek’s this whole time.

This is devastating news. Since Marley was put down, we’ve been waiting for results from the state lab to no avail. We’re not really sure why that has taken so long, but the turnaround time on Salt was only three days. Shouldas, wouldas, and couldas are running rampant through my mind: we shouldn’t have put all the chicks together, we should have waited until we got the State Lab results for Marley, we could have gotten another coop so the chicks could be separated until we knew, etc., etc. Ani is currently limping around the run, and I’m sick with worry about her. She is the chicken version of the love of my life.

We’re waiting for answers as to how to proceed. I want our chickens to live. I don’t even care about eggs. I love those little birds. Luckily, I have a super compassionate and empathetic husband who consoles me with back rubs, tears up with me, and has a deep fondness for our feathery friends. Thank goodness for soul mates.

Back to Salt, the main reason for this post . . . she started off as little “Blackie.” All of a sudden, in a matter of days, she turned white, and we started calling her “Whitie.” When we realized how terrible referring to this little chick as Little Blackie and/or Little Whitie sounded, we came up with the names Salt and Pepa, because Salt had, in effect, been sort of both at one point or another. The names fit in brilliantly with our musical theme.

Salt was the most affectionate of the babies. Ever since she was one-day old, she’d snuggle her little head between my arm pit and chest. She did that to Andy too. It was like she couldn’t get close enough to her human parents. She imprinted on us early on. It was very hard to watch our “little” chick go from our little pet to a sick birdie with no chance of survival.




Salt as a baby, with our only Easter Egger left, Spinderella



Andy with his favorite baby chick
P.S. We don’t normally add face photos, but this one really shows Salt’s personality.

 Salt, Pepa, and Spinderella were the first chickens to fly onto the weeping pea shrub we planted for the chickens. They’d all share the space and perch on that for hours. Poor Spinderella misses her chicken friends and hasn’t been up there since they’ve both mysteriously disappeared from her life. She’s really lonely. Janis and Ella are friends. Ani and Zappa are friends. Poor Spinderella is all alone and often bullied. What can we do? Not purchase any more chicks with Marek’s here.

We’ve learned quite a bit from this ordeal, including:
1. Get all of our chickens from one source. Purchasing from multiple places was our mistake in this situation.
2. Marek’s is rare, the second rarest chicken disease after Newcastle Disease. (We’re unlucky!?!)
3. Marek’s shows up through so many symptoms. The “respiratory symptoms” were Marek’s. The limp was Marek’s. The empty crop= Marek’s.
4. If chickens are pets, culling them seems impossible. To us, it would be like hitting our cats over the head to put them to sleep. We’ll be taking all of our chickens to the vet to say good-bye when the time arises just like we would our cats. We seem crazy. We know it, and we’re okay with it.

Please send our chicks: Ani, Zappa, Janis, Ella, and Spinderella your most optimistic vibes …




Happy Trails Pepa: Salt and Spinderella are not the same without you . . .

Last week was a sad one. On Tuesday evening, we noticed that Pepa was standing all alone under the grape vine, seemingly sleeping standing up. By Wednesday morning, she couldn’t open her eyes and her breathing was belabored. 

So, we made a little hospital for her in one of the cat carriers. Eyes closed, mouth open, she stood there struggling for breath all day. Dr. Karin came over  and took an educated guess that Pepa had a very-developed respiratory infection. She prescribed medicine, but without too much optimism. Pepa had lost a lot of weight, and her crop was empty.

That night, we spent time with Pepa on the sofa. We administered the  meds and tried to get her to eat a liquefied version of food, water, and Pedialyte through a syringe and tube. Because her breathing was so belabored and she was struggling so for breath, she wasn’t able to stop breathing long enough to consume much.

Thursday morning, she was still living…but barely. And she couldn’t stand up anymore. Andy and I told her good-bye and went off to work. She passed away while we were gone. Watching any animal suffer is terrible, but watching one with a name struggle to breath was really depressing. At least she was loved while living, I guess.

Now, Salt is exhibiting the exact same symptoms. As crazy as many readers will think this is, she and Ani (hurt foot) have vet appointments on Monday morning. I know to many, it’s hard to imagine that  someone would ever spend money on an animal that’s potentially food and has such a bad rap (dirty, dumb, etc.), but our goals in getting the chickens were not meat-related. Really, since I was 20 and became a vegetarian, I’ve always had a soft spot for chickens. They live such horrible lives in confinement, and I wanted to give a few a great life. It turns out that they return the favor. They are so affectionate, they all have such distinct personalities, and I (we) honestly adore each of them almost as much as we do our cats…anyway, we hope we’ve caught Salt’s illness in time. 

Dr. Karin assured us that we just have bad luck. She looked over our coop, we talked about snacks we feed the chickens, and she checked out their feed. It was nice to be reassured that we’re not somehow killing these poor little creatures.


But, back to poor Pepa. She was part of our little Salt-Pepa-Spinderella baby trio that we got in early July. Compared to the other two, she was always a bit of a loner, and as she grew, she was impossible to photograph. I remember recently, Andy and I took the little trio out because I wanted to get a nice, cute picture for my “Introducing the Flock” post. Spinderella almost seemed like she was posing  for me, Salt was sort of “whatever” about the photo-shoot, but Pepa …she seemed to know I was coming with the camera and moved her head just in time for me to miss my shot – every time! 

I hope she had a good little life and that, from birth to death, she was in peace. We hope Salt doesn’t get a post like this anytime soon! Send us positive chicken vibes!