Warm Soup for a Cold Day

After playing in all that snow, we needed some soup to cup our hands around and to warm our bellies. The snow prevented much of a shopping trip, however so i stuck with what i had on hand. Leeks, being my hubs' favorite of late have been featuring heavy in my recent soups, and 1 leeks goes a long way to creating a delicious soup. The husband says i'm good at making soup. I love that, since i was afraid of soup making for a long time, assuming that some great skill, knack or formula was needed to make a great soup. I was totally wrong. Soup is easy! Everyone should make soup, and no one should buy soup from a can or box. Skip the bpa lined cans, skip the packaging and skip the preservatives and sodium. Just throw together some veggies (you don't even have to chop 'em much), maybe some (preferably homemade) chicken stock and then finish it off with an immersion blender and you've got soup fit for a king and queen! If you don't have an immersion blender GET ONE, they're awesome... or just chop the ingredients finely for a somewhat uniform consistency at the end.



Served with a side of locally baked crusty bread (and a totally non-local BUT in season avocado!) you've got a well balanced meal. Remember the Dark Days Challenge? The soup challenge is ON this week and i'm proud of this contribution, even if it doesn't meet quite all the parameters of SOLE food. To prove that making soup is NOT a challenge, even if sourcing all your ingredients locally can be, here's the recipe:

1/2 quart condensed chicken stock *homemade*
1/2 quart water
1/2 a cauliflower *not local (california), in season*
1 turnip *local and in season*
1 leek *local and in season*
some garlic cloves *homegrown*
fresh rosemary *homegrown  by my mama #2 1 hour away*
1 potato *Oregon*

To cook is too easy: put all the ingredients in a pot, cover it, bring it to a boil and reduce to a simmer until you feel like eating, at least 20 minutes after it boils. Hit with your immersion blender and top with some seasoning for a filling and vitamin packed feast. Makes enough for 4, but 2 of you will end up eating it all if given the chance.

Have you ever become master of a dish or technique you were once afraid of?

This post can be found at Simple Lives Thursdays: a great blog hop of recipes and sustainable living tips

Challenge!

Don't miss the Dark Days Challenge re-cap for us West coasters this weekend over at Not Dabbling in Normal. My choice of 'favorite dish i'd like to be invited over to try' was Nico's Mustard Braised Turnips with Soft Red Wheat and Pinto Beans. Doesn't it look delicious? Read all about it over at her blog.

We've scheduled some 'challenges' for the dark days challenge for the next few months. First up is a soup challenge, and i've got just the chicken carcass for the job hanging out in my freezer. Will you join us?

Dark Days Challenge Week 4

One helpful tip for folks looking to eat locally, seasonally, and healthfully in the Winter: learn to love squash. Squash is one of the latest crops to be harvested in the fall, and generally has long storage times. Some varieties can store all the way until spring if you keep them dry.

For my Dark Days meal this week, i made some scrumptious squash soup. Warm, healthy, tasty and locally sourced: this soup is as easy as it is delicious.

This was a very basic soup: one squash and one leek coarsely chopped and boiled in enough water to cover them. I threw in some herbs and spices and finished the soup by blending with my immersion blender and adding just a touch of yogurt and milk. Served with a side of crusty bread baked just 6 miles away and you've got yourself one satisfying meal! (Especially when you slather the bread with homemade garlic butter, nom nom nom).

Dark Days Week 3

I continue to struggle along with cooking only SOLE ingredients... i keep adding things like pasta or store bought onions. Sheesh. I finally did it, though! My contribution to the Dark Days challenge this week was a Sunday afternoon brunch of one of my favorite recipes: nests!

The eggs came from a good friend about 12 minutes down the road. The bread is again Dave's Killer Bread out of Portland, OR and the butter is by Tillamook on the Oregon coast (the husband picked up pasteurized milk instead of raw milk, so no homemade butter for me, grr!) I added homemade hot sauce i bottled back in Austin and cooked until perfectly yolk-gooey, white firm. I did add salt and pepper, not locally sourced but at least purchased in bulk!



Are you participating in the challenge with us? Check out the other bloggers over at Not Dabbling in Normal and look for the first re-cap of participating bloggers from the Western persuasion this Sunday!

My First Stew!

I have never made beef stew. I'm a seasoned turkey/chicken souper, but i have never stewed. I also do not own a crockpot - my old one got dinged in one of my many moves. So when my mother gifted me with several pounds of local, grass fed beef along with a scribbled recipe for her beef stew, i was hesitant to commit to the project. I promised the hubs that i would, though and it really turned out amazing!  I started cooking at about noon, 2 hours late according to my mama, and the smells of stewing yum filled our little apartment for the rest of the day. I wish i'd baked up a fresh loaf of crusty bread to go with the flavorful stew, but a slice of toasted Dave's Killer Bread with local butter was pretty nice too.

Mom's Beef Stew, a la Miranda

• 1 pound grass fed stew meat
• 2 onions, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• the last of the potatoes ( about four small potatoes, chopped )
• 1 turnip, chopped
• 4 small carrots, chopped
• bunch of cilantro, chopped (okay okay - chop everything in this list)
• several hot peppers, fresh and dried
• tomato sauce, paste, or roasted - i used some frozen tomatoes i had roasted during the summer
• optional celery and/or other soupy veggies like parsnips, radish, etc
• 1/2 cup - 1 cup mushrooms - i used some blanched and frozen chanterelles from an earlier mushroom hunt
• salt/ pepper/ clove/ cumin
• drizzle oil
• 3 cups water/stock/red wine
• splash apple cider vinegar
• splash worchestershire sauce
• handful flour 
• 2 fresh bay leaves

As per usual, the measurements are approximate.  Toss the chopped onions, garlic and meat in a bag with the flour. Coat the bottom of a stockpot with oil and brown the meat. Cover with the liquid and toss in everything else except for the carrots, potatoes, turnips and cilantro. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and keep covered on low for the next foreseeable future. About an hour before serving add the other veggies and splash of vinegar, bring to a boil then cover and simmer on low again until potatoes and carrots are cooked to your liking.
 

What really surprised me about this stew was how much it tasted like my mom's, even though i'd added cumin and hot peppers. My husband said 'well, it definitely tastes like beef.' I guess that's it: i just don't really know what beef tastes like. In this case, it tasted good and was the perfect amount of spicy. The roasted tomatoes added some sweetness and the vinegar at the end brightens the stew up a bit. The cilantro just adds another level to the stew without making it 'chilly' like at all.
I'm really looking forward to seconds tonight, along with some locally baked crusty bread. :)

Do you have a favorite stew recipe? Where did you get it?

Photos from Dark Days

The Dark Days challenge has started! Check out Not Dabbling in Normal on the 18th for re-caps from our western region, but in the meantime here's what the western bloggers have been up to lately:

Kitsap Farm to Fork had some really great reflections this week. Her late Summer chores take over her blogging time, but her family is doing some things my family dreams of doing: growing most of their food. Her post this week reflects on where the ingredients she's cooking with lately come from - and there's nary a mention of a store or even a local purchase - she grew most of it! Kudos! I think Diane really summed up the challenge when she said:

And the best part about this meal?  It was a meal eaten around our family table with my husband and children, we were truly grateful for the bounty of our life, and were able to talk and laugh as we enjoyed the fruits of our labor.  Regardless of whether your food comes from 100 miles or 1000 miles from your home, if you are unable to eat with the people you love, they are dark days indeed!

Cocoa and Coriander with her Toasted Beet and Carrot Panzanella

Reluctantly Blogging's Borscht

I really want to know what borscht tastes like!

Four Four Ten's "All American Meal"

I'm doing my best to think of some SOLE meals i can cook up in the next few weeks... the freezer is pretty scant! But hopefully I'll come up with some gems.

Have you been able to cook any all-local meals lately?

Let the Dark Days Challenge Begin!

I am excited to be a part of the Dark Days Challenge over at Not Dabbling in Normal this year. I'm in charge of reading and re-capping all the luscious, local and scrumptious posts that participants from the west coast will be submitting. I will do my best to post some of my favorites here at An Austin Homestead, and will be posting every other Sunday over at NDIN. Check us out this Sunday for some tantalizing photos, and be sure to visit all the participating blogs to see what they're cooking up this season.

What is the Dark Days Challenge, you ask?

Cook one meal each week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients, write about it on your blog and email your happy recapper a link to your post. It’s really that simple, but at the same time, it can really be that hard. Need more details? See the links in the right side bar at (not so) Urban Hennery to the past Challenges.

It's quite a task for me this year, as i have A. no garden B. no chickens C. no farmer's market until mid January and D. limited food put by in my cupboards. BUT i did put up SOME produce, and i do have a little local meat left in the freezer, so i'll do my best and hope to scrape together some yummy, local dinners. Come January the farmer's market opens back up, indoors and i'll be vending my soap! Hopefully i'll be able to convince some farmers to trade me for veggies.

Here's a sneak peak at what one blogger is finding locally in her area: Kamut!

I just started a new job this week (!) and wasn't able to cook up the apple nut bread I'd planned for this post... so stay tuned for that. I'll be using almost all local ingredients, except the flour and salt... which i think will be a problem for many folks trying to source all ingredients locally. NDIN has a nice bit about 'what's local' too:

What does local mean?
Traditionally, local food challenges call for a 100 mile radius. Winter time is more difficult in many climates, especially if you’re new to eating locally, so my default winter definition is 150 miles. You can choose to make your radius smaller or slightly larger as you need. Typical exceptions to the local requirement are oils, coffee, chocolate and spices. If you’re making fewer or more exceptions, please note that on your first post.
What if I can’t find every ingredient locally?
That’s why this is called a challenge! If you can’t find every ingredient, or heck even most ingredients, please still write about your attempts. This is just as much about what we learn, the obstacles we find, and the decisions we make as it is about cooking with SOLE ingredients.

I hope you'll enjoy our adventure and challenges this Winter. Read along, cook along, and join us during these dark days.