Delicious Delicata & Leek Soup

It is definitely winter squash season and my favorite this year is Delicata. The flavor is a bit like butternut, but even better. It's hard to describe, but i'm in love. Gathering Together Farm in Philomath, OR touts some of the yummiest Delicata around, and i've stocked my cupboards full!  I'll can a batch in the next week or so, but in the meantime i've been sauteeing, baking and souping up a storm.


This soup is uber easy: just boil a cleaned and chopped leek, a halved and seeded delicata cut into chunks, some herbs and spices to your preference (i used sage, turmeric, cayenne, salt/pepper and garlic) and cook until soft. Once soft, just pulse with an immersion blender until the soup is smooth. You could add milk or cream just before serving for an extra decadent soup, or leave it as is.

This soup is also lovely cold or re-heated as leftovers. Try leaving any!

Fiber Friday: Knitting in Progress

I am an absolute beginner knitter. At first i found it INCREDIBLY frustrating, but i persevered. I find casting on delightful, and the stockinette stitch makes me squeal with delight. I never thought i could possibly learn this two-needles-at-a-time skill, but i have and i'm loving it!

My very first hat project, without a pattern, destined for either the hubs or the step-daddy. That's my handspun, by the way :)

I can't really express how rewarding it is to spin yarn and then turn it into a cozy garment for someone I love, or myself. It's pretty darned rewarding, that's all i can say. I still mess up and drive myself crazy, but i feel it's only a matter of time before i'm busting out sweaters and mittens and socks and scarves and leg warmers and......

Wild Salmon/ Wild Mushrooms: Wild Feast!

Back in Action! I found a spare power cord in the barn and i'm hankering to post this delicious salmon recipe.

I know, i know: butter on salmon? Is that really necessary? NO! But it's DELICIOUS!
My fish cooking skills generally rely on a grill. As we are without a grill in our apartment, i had to be creative. Luckily, my husband's friend who took him shrooming and fishing is also a chef and had some great advice: Really Hot. Really Fast. I can do that! Unlike some fish, salmon is great rare or medium rare. I cooked this batch a little longer than i needed to, but honestly: i like salmon either seared and rare, or grilled and cooked through. So, i went for the cooked through. Not OVER cooked, mind you. I think i cooked this sucker on 475 for about 10 minutes. That's pretty quick. I didn't overly season it either: just some basil, cayenne, rosemary and garlic, plus that touch of butter for extra wow-factor. The edges got crispy, the middle was flakey and soft and the whole thing was moist as all get out. This was definitely the absolutely, most delicious salmon I have ever eaten in my entire life. I am not exaggerating. At all.

I served our fillets with a half of steamed Romanesco cauliflower and of course some more delicious mushroom gravy.

Wild Mushroom & Onion Gravy:

• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 1 cup or so chopped mushrooms, preferably fresh picked wild shrooms!
• Pinch flour
• Salt, Pepper, herbs to taste
• White wine, or chicken/fish/veggie stock/milk
• Olive oil

Saute the onions in the olive oil with fresh or dried herbs until onions begin to turn clear. Add the pinch of flour and stir well, covering with about 1 cup of liquid. I used white wine and a splash of water and lemon juice: be creative with what you have on hand! Bring gravy to a simmer while stirring until it begins to thicken a bit. Add mushrooms and cook until they're soft. This gravy would be great over any meat or veggie dish.

Sigh, i wish i was eating this again right now. The hubs got the leftovers, lucky sot.

What's your favorite method for cooking salmon? Have you ever had super fresh salmon, and could you tell the flavor difference?

Bummer & See You Next Week

Ugh, bad news. I am on a visit to my parents' house in southern Oregon, which normally would be great, but en route my car blew its clutch and to top it off, i forgot my computer's charger at home. No more posts this week, as all my photos reside therin. Wah.

i will elaborate on the tale of the blown clutch for just a moment though, as it's a bit ironic. My husband tends to be rather anal about my travelling with my cell phone safely in tow. I'm more laxidasical, being late to the realm of cell phones in the first place. So, when i noticed i was missing my phone and already on the road, i kept on going as gosh: i've driven this pass a thousand times long before i ever owned a cell phone! And of course, halfway over the pass, i shift down to get some more acceloration up the mountain only to feel that not so satisfying 'squish' of a blown clutch. Sigh. Not that having my phone with me would have helped, but it could have helped me call for advice. Instead i had to rely on my own gumption, which is also a good thing. I got it back into 5th and cruised along until i just couldn't stand it and pulled into a rest stop. i hoped that perhaps i was mistaken, and the clutch had just been teasing me.

Nope. No dice. I didn't panic, though. Didn't cry. I knew there was a way to drive a manual with a blown clutch, just didn't know HOW. I flagged down a couple driving by, who thank goodness happened to be a little older. Has anyone else noticed that hardly anyone under 50 knows how to drive a standard these days? I thank the Lord for the kind gentleman who did in fact know how to shift a standard, sans clutch and who graciously drove me around the reststop parking lot with complete instructions. Instructions complete with grinding gears.

And so, i limped my way another 100 or so miles to Merrill, OR where i pulled over at R&J automotive, owned by a good high school friend's father who will hopefully get my little nubbin car fixed up in time to get back to work. He probably won't, though - so i'm ready to get back behind the wheel of my old truck. I just might bring a boat with me ;) So, apologies for my absence. I'll see you in a few days! (A little poorer and) Proud to have had the gumption to stick it to my car and persavere over the mountain!

Baked Chicken with Mushrooms

I adapted this meal from those "minute steaks" i cooked back in September. Instead of battering and frying tenderized beef steaks, i skinned and de-fatted a whole chicken, cut apart its thighs and breasts and prepared them for some delicious pan and oven action.

As an aside: i very, very rarely buy chicken already split up into breasts or thighs, etc unless they're majorly 'reduced for quick sale' and the chicken is 'all natural.' I'd really prefer to get all my chicken from local farmers, but our budget isn't quite that robust i'm very sad to say. SO i get foster farms natural chicken from California at a local market that sells it for $1 a pound, in a whole chicken. I feel that buying a whole chicken is at least one step i can take: less packaging, less processing, more nutrition included and you can make stock from the bones when you're done. 

My husband had called ahead with news of his mushroom find, but he didn't arrive home until almost 8 pm! That's pretty darned late to just be getting something in the oven. But i relaxed, rolled with the punches, and we both enjoyed a super delicious meal.

De-fatted and boned chicken breasts and thighs, slathered in Celtic salt, rosemary, basil, dried cayenne and pepper.

Washed and split leeks ready to be the bed of a delicious chicken bake. I've decided all roasted and baked chickens need to lay on a bed of leeks.

First i slathered the chicken in herbs and spices and pan fried them in a tiny bit of coconut oil until browned on each side and cooked through about halfway. I moved the chicken over to the leek bed and started sauteing onions and garlic. Once soft, i sifted in a bit of flour, stirred and covered in some turkey stock, bringing to a simmer. Normally, i would have put the shrooms in right away until they were soft, poured them over the chicken and popped it all into a 400 degree oven stat. BUT the mushrooms didn't arrive for quite some time, so i paced around the house wondering how the heck i'd get to sleep after eating dinner around 8:30 or so. Major Grrrrr fest.

The mushrooms finally came! I added them to the gravy and cooked until soft, topped the chicken and in the oven it went. After about 15-30 minutes (i cut it short due to starvation and bed time) the chicken was done to my liking and we ate a scrumpteoous meal, with a side of sauteed collards (with smoked paprika and a smidge of bacon).

At some point i'll have a well lit kitchen so that i can take actually QUALITY photographs. Sigh.

I served only the breasts and returned the thighs to the turned off oven to keep cooking a bit before i put them away as leftovers, just to be sure they got cooked through.

Super delicious, even if it was a little later than i'd like to eat. This mushroomy gravey would be awesome on ANY kind of meat, even just more veggies. I highly recommend this technique and encourage you to try it with different meats to see how it tastes.

The Dude Provides

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you already know that my husband and I had a great weekend at the dinner table. Others of you who are out of the loop may remember that my husband has had a few attempted fishing trips that didn't pan out so well lately: well he finally came through for me. And with more than just fish!

Isn't the fur-baby cute, being all interested? No mushrooms for her, but plenty for us! Porcini and Chanterelle mushrooms straight out of the Oregon coastal forest. I've always liked mushrooms, but i've also always thought them rather bland, nice to add to chicken dishes but not overly full of their own flavor. Man was i ever wrong! These babies were sweet, firmly textured, magical bites of yum both when raw and cooked! I'll be treating you with the dinners i whipped together from this bounty for the next few days. I'm pretty sure (if you like mushrooms or salmon at all) that you'll be salivating with jealousy. ;)

The hubs didn't go without his fish fix, though. He was fishing with a buddy, so only brought home half his catch, but it was definitely more than enough! He was fishing in the tidewater, and a local seal eyed his catch as he pulled it in, but he was victorious and finally provided fresh salmon flesh to this family, woo hoo!   Did i mention how fresh mushrooms tasted way more delicious than 'other' mushrooms? Well, I can tell you that freshly caught salmon, right out of the briney sea is just about the most delicious thing a person can ever eat. I'm not even overly in love with salmon, generally - and only like it when it's been prepared by myself or my step dad (as a general rule). This fish was amazing. A. MAZE. ING. And it's still feeding us 3 days later.

Let's hear it for the fisherman! Finally!

Fiber Friday: A Hat!

I had plans for this hat, and they didn't pan out. Instead of making ribbed stripes vertically, i ran out of yarn and employed an older technique of making little ribs all the way along the hat. I like it, and i love how the colors make the hat striped on their own (as i intended).

So much fun to spin and crochet this hat totally from scratch. Next skill I need to learn: dying! Only then will i have total control over the yarn and finished product....  though i may take it even further and only use natural color wool, from animals i raise myself and breed in part for color. Mwa ha ha ha.

Hard Cider: Part 1

On Tuesday, i whipped up a small batch of 'starter' that i used the next day to start some hard cider and get my vinegar going a little more quickly. I'm worried that our apartment is going to be just too cold for fermentation, but i'm not paying a higher electricity bill just to get some hooch and vinegar. ;)

I started three vessels - the left is a gallon jar half filled with cider, with a tiny splash of yeast starter added and covered with a cheesecloth. This is destined for vineger.  The middle is simmered cider and honey with starter added, covered with cheesecloth to see what happens when attempting hard cider with the presence of air and wild yeast. The right is a gallon carboy filled with simmered cider and honey plus yeast starter (too much!) and topped with an airlock.

Last Night - already fizzing

I certainly didn't have to worry about fermentation getting going, granted I am still at the farm where it's a bit warmer inside than our apartment. Now i'm worried that i most likely added too much yeast, and i don't know how that will affect the cider. More alcohol? Less? Nasty taste? Better taste? It's bubbling away like crazy, and I hope i wasn't foolish to start it one place with a bumpy drive back to our apartment. Yeah, that was foolish. Cross your fingers it makes it back home in tact.

This morning - really bubbling, now!

Have you ever attempted hard cider before? How did it work out? I got my instructions from Mother Earth News and a few other online resources. I'm about to research what may happen to my overly yeasted cider - and i'll keep y'all posted with my progress. We'll check back to see how the cider and vinegar are panning out next week. Fermentation will supposedly be done in about 3 weeks - we'll see!    Please comment with any tips/suggestions if you have them!

This post is part of the Simple Lives Thursday blog hop.

Planting Garlic in Oregon

Last year I planted garlic during a waning moon phase on the first of October, in Austin TX. This year i have no garden, but i still get to plant some garlic with a group of teenagers in their garden in Corvallis OR. I have no idea if the moon was waxing or waning, but i think we did a pretty fine job of it.

We first prepared the beds by tilling them well, then working in some fish meal and raking the beds smooth. I purchased about 6 varieties of garlic from local vendors at the Corvallis Farmer's Market including Chinese Pink, Music, Medechi, and California Late White: a mix of softnecks and hardnecks that should be good for their Spring farmer's market sales next year. The planting went well (while i was there at least). Here's how we did it.

Break the bulbs and lay out the cloves 6-8 inches apart. I like to lay out the cloves first, THEN plant - helps to prevent the ole' did i plant one here yet or not? quandary. Label the bed well!

Once we laid them out, we used skinny trowels to poke down about 6 inches, sprinkle in a mixture of bone and blood meal, drop the cloves in sideways or sprout side up then loosely cover with dirt.

Once they're all planted and covered we put down a nice layer of compost. Once they get their hands on some hay or leaves the beds will be mulched until Spring when the mulch should be moved back. Voila! Thanks to Kayla for being such a great hand model - though i'm still not sure why y'all insist on wearing those surgical gloves for gardening. I prefer dirty fingernails, myself ;)

Planting this batch of garlic is bittersweet for me, since I won't get to see it grow in the Spring or taste it or braid it - I guess i'll just have to pay it a visit in the Spring, along with the multiplying onions i gifted them. Those things are like my children.

Do you enjoy teaching others how to plant things?

Rough Country Living

Livin' in the country isn't all fun and games, even if you're a corgi. Sometimes there are sticks that should not be grabbed from dogs who do not want you to grab them....  and sometimes you get some nasty puncture wounds from said dog's teeth.

A quick antibiotic shot and some iodine later.... we hope our little Pocket will heal up fast. For now, just look at those pathetic 'ow, mommy: it hurts' eyes. It just makes ya wanna cry, doesn't it?

The discoloration is mostly the iodine, but the wound does look pretty nasty. Keep her in your prayers.

Pressing Cider!

We had the best weekend! My parents came up from Eugene and joined us in a grand adventure of apple picking and cider pressing. My friend's (whose house we're staying in) daughter also came down from Portland with a bunch of her friends and we made it a real party! It was great fun to meet new people, make new friends, and of course: drink a bunch of cider! It's really amazing how many apples you need in order to make a small amount of cider.... It's also amazing how much cider some apples can make! We picked the orchard fairly clean last weekend, but there were plenty more this weekend and plenty left for weekends later in the month. I think next time we pick apples, we'll just cook them down to make some apple butter for canning. I do so loooove apple butter.

Just a few of the bushels upon bushels of apples that were picked.

My family....   I asked them to smile and this is what i got. At least Pocket is a cutey pie as always.

After the picking comes the cider pressing. This press is motorized, so you have to be sure not to clog it or get your fingers chopped up, shudder. It was great fun setting up the 'assembly line' with apple cleaners, apple tossers, and apple pressers. Can you say 'good, clean family fun?' Sometimes that's the best kind!

Toss, twist, smoosh, press! The apple muck goes to the chickens and sheep and the cider goes to happy people. We had so much cider, in fact that we had to go on some reconnaissance missions for more jars and jugs.

A friend of one of my mamas lent me some corks and his airlock (he's an expert brewer) that we'll use to make 1 gallon of hard cider. Another 1/2 gallon jar will become apple cider vinegar in several months, and another gallon we saved for sipping and spicing up our morning tea. So good!

Yum!

Have you ever pressed your own cider? How did it taste? Ours is sweet and appley with a bite of tartness. It doesn't need spicing up, but i'm sure it would be delicious mulled as well.

Fiber Friday: Projects

A while back i attempted to create some evenly striped yarn which turned out not even at all.

I loved it. This pattern is now my new thing: sometimes the colors are plied together, sometimes they're 'barber poled' and sometimes they're transitioning. It looks awesome. I'm going with it.  I spun another skein of some grey/lavender fiber and am working on more combinations in different types of wool. It looks beautiful in a skein, but i've just started my first hat to see if it looks as cool crocheted into something as it does curled up by itself.

Skein before washing

I learned 2 new crochet stitches last weekend: front post double crochet (fpdc) and back post double crochet (bpdc) which i'll be adding to my normal basic hat "pattern" to create (i hope) some textured stripes around the bottom like an old school ski hat.

Same skein after washing: see how bouncy and smooth it got?

Check back next friday to see the finished hat. I hope it looks nice, and i hope i have enough yarn! I have a hard time telling exactly how much yardage i have (my count is mostly an estimate), but mostly i don't really know how many yards my average hats require. All part of the learning process!

What's your favorite hat pattern like? Do you follow a written pattern, or just crochet in the round until it resembles a head covering?