3G project: week #7

oh me, oh my, how gardening takes up one's time.

but, you know i love it.

here's a quick 3G project update.

market csa share: $30

2 oatmeal cookies

4 pk. of brat burgers

1 lb. rhubarb

cuban frozen black beans

fresh tatsoi

1 head of fresh lettuce

a few baby bok choy

tower grove farmer's market

1 small bunch purple asparagus $3

1 large bunch of green asparagus $5

1/2 sized sourdough loaf $3

yummy pastry treat $2

pint of strawberries $3

gallon of raw milk $10

schunck's: about $13

org. toasted Os cereal

4 medium bananas

org. greek yogurt

1 pk. og. sugar

total: $69

wow, a whole dollar under. but, i'll take it.  

and now my new favorite thing is rhubarb and strawberry compote over homemade yellow cake.

delicious!!!!

i also plan on freezing some of both for future use over pancakes, or swirled into homemade ice cream, as soon as i allow myself that many carbs again. yes, once again, i am trying to cut down on the carbs. which, for me, really means cutting out all the delicious yummy desert treats. 'cus i refuse, refuse i say, to give up  raw milk in morning lattes and my nightly beer. so, ta ta for now lovely sweets. we'll meet again soon.

p.s. someday, i will get some recipes and food pixs posted..... someday.

back to the kitchen/csa week #4

like i said before, there has been a cooking fire of inspiration lit under my butt, and it's back to the kitchen folks. part of it came from cooking a leg of lamb for easter dinner, part of it came from knowing i have a stack of recipes to go through, part of it came from two new books i got,

and part of it came from the fact that, as i looked around the kitchen then other day, i realized that we have a crap load of food in there that needs to be eaten. i feel like i've been stock piling the non perishable items from the csa loot. i would list out what i have in the pantry and freezer, but that would just be obscene and leave you, and me, wondering, "just what have they been eating all these weeks?"

so today i'm changing it all around and making homemade lamb stock. i saved the left over bone from the roasted leg of lamb and tossed it in a stock pot with 2 onions, left over herbs, peppercorns, and some old looking garlic. making stock is such a great way to use up items from the frig that are about to go funky.

then you cover all that goodness with some water, bring to a boil, simmer for 2-3 hours, let it cool, and then strain the liquid into containers. it couldn't be any easier. i don't have any plans right now for the stock, so i'll probably divide it into jars and pop it in the freezer for a later date. perhaps some mushroom risotto cooked in the lamb stock is in the near future.

also in the spirit of eating up what's in the frig, i made potato soup for lunch out of the easter supers leftover mashed potatoes. i sauteed some spring onions in butter till soft, plopped in the mashed potatoes, and then added enough milk to thin it down to a nice silky consistency. seasoned with more slat and pepper to taste, i finished the soup off with the last of the lamb drippings gravy. see the nice little gravy design i tried to make for you. what really makes me laugh is the crass looking fred flintstone presentation of the lamb slices, (let's face it, i totally mangled the last pieces of meat that were really close to the bone) which are more like meat chunks really. but it was still tasty!!!

i also need to update you with last weeks csa loot and 3g project totals.

check it out, tomatoes!!!!!!!

spring csa week #4: $30

tomatoes

spring onions

herb bunch of sage and thyme

fresh kale 

1 pk. bratwurst

1/2 gallon chocolate milk

1 baguette

extra loot purchased at maude's market: $15.44

cashew butter

red cherry jelly

1 lb. package pig jowl bacon

from manzo's italian market: $9.11

house made yogurt x2

loaf of bread

vom fass: $4.00

basil infused olive oil

1 gallon raw milk: $10

total: $69.00

i am so looking forward to tonight's dinner of bacon and tomato sandwiches with homemade lemon thyme ailoi on manzo's italian loaf bread. 

week #11 CSA and sunflower/pea shoot love

this week's csa from maude's market is pretty darn exciting, cause we got us some ribs baby!!! not to mention the local mustard that i have been eyeballing for weeks now. let me see, ribs, mustard, and left over honey from week #2, that's a recipe for some delicious yummy goodness. now i have never, repeat, never, cooked ribs. but, i'm hoping as long as i go slow and low, i should be fine. truly, the really big decision here is whether or not to go ahead and cook them now in the oven, or wait for warmer weather and a grill. what to do, what to do?? we also got a much needed taste of the sun with some organic oranges and tree ripened grapefruit, along with missouri grown dried black beans, fresh kale, and a choice of lettuce or more pea/sunflower shoots. since i have still yet to replenish my stock of olive oil, for cooking and salad dressing, within the budget of the project, i forwent my share of lettuce for some more pea shoots. cause i love me some shoots!!!

week #11 breakdown

maude's market csa $30.00

1 lb. MO grown dried black beans

nice looking thing of baby back ribs

(from happy pigs that had one bad day)

locally made jar of mustard

pea shoots

3 organic oranges

1 tree ripened grapefruit

fresh kale (which i purchased extra of)

extra kale $1.73

1 dz. happy chicken eggs $4.05

2 extra grapefruit and 4 extra oranges $6.00

wholefoods 

(for the very last time, i hope)

1/2 gallon org. milk $4.00

parking lot

(i'll explain later)

1 gallon raw milk $10.00

total: $56.00

($4.00 going into the project bank)

here are some meals i made recently with the ever lasting sunflower shoots. 

 dried mushroom soup with rice noodles and sunflower shoots.

you know you want some.

sauteed oyster mushrooms and shoots lightly dressed with mustard and honey with scrambled eggs.

p.s. don't worry, i will be posting about "a newbie's attempt at ribs" in the future. so stayed tuned.

csa/3G weekly totals week #9 & #10

holy cow, what a blogging slacker i've been. i'm two weeks behind posting up the weekly totals and  most everything has already gone into me belly. there wasn't that much to photograph today for this post, so what you'll see here is a mixture of some csa products and some extra items that i also purchased at the market. please, bare with me, and i'll try to get us through this den of slack....

week #9 breakdown 

(items in italics pictured above) 

maude's market csa items $30.00

butternut squash

big jar of pickled beets

1 lb. ground beef

1 bag Amish made egg noodles

organic blackberry tea with sage

also from the market

1 lb. bag of pecan pieces $8.35

shitake mushrooms $7.35

wholefoods $18.50

org. yogurt

org. 1/2 gallon milk

org. raisins

org. pumpkin seeds

org. sunflower seed

schnucks $7.00

(this was hubby's fault!!!)

pretzels

org. beef jerky

total $71

OUCH!!

($11.00 over. it's gonna take some work to recover from that.)

project bank -$8

yet again, while i try to recover from breaking the project bank, take a look at my favorite meal from last week's csa loot. scrambled happy chicken eggs, sauteed oyster mushrooms and fresh spinach, and locally made bread with amish red cherry jam and raw milk butter. breakfast for dinner is always a delicious treat.

week #10 breakdown 

(again, items in italics pictured in top picture)

maude's market csa $30.00

sunflower shoots

spinach

oyster mushrooms

(pictured is what is left after dinner the other night)

1 lb. ground lamb

amish made red cherry jam

loaf of locally made bread

also from the market

1 dozen happy chicken eggs $4.05

cashew butter $5.09

elderberry juice $10.76

(for the sick hubby)

wholefoods

1/2 gallon org. milk $4.00

(stay tuned cause there's a milk change a coming!!!!)

total $54

thanks goodness, finally under budget again.

project bank -$2.00

my first little microgreen harvest

last saturday night was radish shoot harvest night.  if my calculations are correct, it took just over two weeks to get a nice little group of edible greens right here in the midst of winter. the only complaint i have at the moment is that there wasn't enough of them. so, for the next go round, i'm gonna find me a bigger container and experiment with different seeds. and for some clarification, i think i might have called these guys sprouts in an earlier post, which is not correct. sprouts come from seeds grown in water. oops. i also read today that these little gems only need 4 hours of sunlight a day. while they went to town in the south window light, i'm gonna try them in the east facing living room window that is shaded just a bit by a currently leafless tree. soon the south facing window space is gonna be taken over by the tomatoes, who are starting to get their true leaves and are in need of their first transplanting. it would be really nice if i could find some rectangular second hand containers that were at least 2 inches deep and fit nicely on the windowsill. then, once i experiment some more with different seeds, i'll start interplanting different varieties of microgreens together that will make for not only tastey, but also, pretty little displays. exciting!!!

just before the harvest.

time to trim the roots and get a wash.

sauteed in a little bit of butter with some left over radishes, topped over spaghetti squash with pasta sauced cooked with a bit of grounded bison, and all covered with a bit of kansas city cheese.

hello little local dinner.

winner, winner, the hubby gets a csa dinner.

after the gorgeous weather we had yesterday, today was nothing but a big ole let down. chilly, slightly rainy, and quite overcast. yuck. there won't be any bike riding today. so, while hanging out for the day at home, i decided to get to cooking with my csa loot. excluding the onions, olive oil, salt, and pepper, all the ingredients came from maude's market. look what i made for the hubby and me......  

butternut squash, shiitake mushroom, and onion galette.

yep, can you believe it, i got a nice big 5 lb. bag of missouri grown flour in last week's csa, which made for a very tasty crust. i served it up with a simple ground bison patty and the last of the csa sunflower sprouts. i used the very, very, tiny last bit of olive oil i had for roasting the butternut squash and onions, but i so wanted something green on the plate. instead of dressing the shouts with a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette like i usually do, i just sauteed them in a small amount of butter and they were super yummy.

not the prettiest presentation, but delicious just the same.

csa and 3G totals week #8

oh man i am tired from the bike riding, so here is a quick breakdown of this week's csa and totals. 

maude's market csa (plus 1 dz. eggs): $36

kale

shiitake mushrooms

1 package of pig jowl

1 spaghetti squash

5 lb. bag of wheat berry flour

1 giant jar of green beans

a small potted thyme plant

1 dz. happy chicken eggs

dierbergs: $9.79

yogurt pretzels

org. raw sunflower seeds

org. raw pumpkin seeds

org. rolled oats

org. raisins

the evil wholefoods: $11.02

1/2 gallon org. milk

org. plain yogurt

org. sour cream

that brings us to $57.00 total

(project bank: $3.00)

dinners

well, i haven't been that great at showing you folks what i've been doing with my csa loot. i had planned on writing about everything we we're eating, but there is only so many ways to make muslix or honey toast for breakfast and left overs for lunch that interesting. so perhaps if i switch the concentration to just the dinners, i'll be more productive. hopefully when the days get longer i can get better pictures in the daylight instead of relying on the icky camera flash. so, to catch up a bit, let's take a look at a few dinners i made for me and hubby. and let me tell you, 1 1/2 pounds of beef stew meat can really go a long way for two people...... (items from the csa in bold).

superbowl sunday stew meat chilli

served over cheese grits 

and topped with butter and garlic sauteed tasoi

roasted hubbard squash and onions 

over brown rice 

one night i topped it with a little stew meat sliced thin and sauteed in butter

ok, this next dinner, i'll totally admit, looks a little bit like cesar dog food served over rice, but it sure tasted pretty good.

"it's sorta" beef stroganoff, stroganoff

 beef stew meat with onions and dried mushrooms

in a creamy mushroom/beer stock sauce with sour cream

served over brown rice with 

a side salad of dressed radish shoots

last night's dinner wasn't terribly exciting. we had leftover cheese grits with roasted sweet potatoes and onions and scrambled eggs. hopefully, i'll keep up with posting about the dinners and possibly take a few more pictures as i'm cooking.

CSA week #4, 3G project week #6

gosh darn it, i'm over budget again!!! this is getting hard. but, i am one determined lady. i think i know where the problem lies. not enough meal planning, and purchasing items that i thought i needed, only to get home and realise that i had more than i needed to get me through the week. case in point...butter. i was running fairly low, and since we where at the soulard farmer's market getting coffee, i decided i needed more. my regular butter supplier was not there so i opted for the only other butter i could find. unfortunately, it was from unknown cows in unknown conditions and it wasn't until i got home that i read the ingredients: cream and natural flavorings. natural flavorings?? what the heck is that?? not to mention, i doubled checked on my butter status and saw that, if planned properly, i had enough butter to last at least another week. fart!!! see what happens when you panic people. so the new butter is going in the freezer for true emergencies, or i'll use it for cookies and pastries and save the good stuff for cooking and toast. also, i just might have a raw butter supplier here shortly and won't that be amazing!!!! till then, let's look at how i busted the budget this week.

week #4 csa along with some store bought items.

3G weekly breakdown

maude's market weekly csa: $30

2 sweet potatoes

1 tatsoi plant

a little bunch of radishes

radish shoots

2 giant pork chops

1 container of cuban black beans

1/2 gallon apple cider

1 dozen large happy chicken eggs ($4 extra)

soulard farmer's market

1 lb. butter $3.75

1/2 lb. org. coffee $4.50

loaf of black bear organic honey wheat bread $1.00

(that's right folks, they have a few days old bread for a dollar!!!!!!)

wholefoods/target: $30

1/2 gallon org. milk (x2)

jar of salsa

grass fed cheddar cheese

org. plain yogurt

1.5 lbs. org. rolled oats

org. blue corn chips

that comes to about $74.00 total

yikes!!!! the project bank is now negative $9.

hopefully in the coming weeks i can hunker down, keep an eagle eye on the spending, and start paying off the project bank debit and start saving up again for a super duper treat. and by that, i mean some of this.

i've got to stop the galettes!!!!!

why, oh why, did i decide, after all these years, to try to make rustic tarts??? savory, sweet, it doesn't matter. i am now obsessed and running out of butter. for heavens sake spring, get your butt here!!! i gotta get out of this house. i gotta get on a bike and explore. i gotta get in the soil and garden. i gotta stop making the galettes!!!!!!

chris knight was wrong when he said "ice is nice."

so remember the big hubbard squash from week #2's csa? it's been hiding out in the back of the frig patiently waiting for it's turn to shine and it got it's chance the other night. after the success of the apple galette, i went looking for some other rustic tarts to try and i stumbled on this recipe over at smitten kitchen. i followed the pastry recipe as written and it was the most wonderful crust i have ever made. so delicious, so flaky, it is now my go to crust for savory tarts. yippee!!! i did need to changed up the filling a bit to work with what i had in my kitchen. i used a different kind of squash, omitted the cheese (simply because i didn't have any), used ground sage since i didn't have any fresh, just used regular pepper instead of cayenne, tossed in a bit of honey in lieu of sugar, and to make things a bit easier, i roasted the onions in with the squash. i then proceed to assemble and bake the tart in a cast iron skillet pretty much as the recipe states. and now, i will most definitely state, here and now, squash i don't think i love you, i KNOW i love you!!!

and the leftovers tasted even better the following night.

well while we're having this squash love fest, let's give spaghetti squash it's due. cooking the spaghetti squash couldn't be more simple. all you have to do is wash the squash off, place the whole entire squash on a cookie sheet, and bake it in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour. once done, cut the squash in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and stringy stuff, and then scrape out the flesh with a fork. and then do this........

make some quick, and i mean quick, meatballs in a pan.

remove the casing from your favorite sausage and roll the meat into tiny little balls and saute in olive oil and/or butter till just about cooked through.

throw in some cooked spaghetti squash. 

pour in your favorite sauce and heat till everything is good and hot.

there you go, you're done!!!

as we speak, i still have two acorn squash in the frig that i need to prepare, so if anyone has any suggestions or recipes please let me know. happy squash everyone.

an almost completely csa dinner

something strange is going on here. hubby keeps reminding me that i haven't posted this week's csa. i didn't realize that he was checking in on the blog. sweet boy!! here's something else sorta strange. being winter i fully expected a lot of repeat items in each week's csa loot, and i was cool with that. but, happily, each week has been quite different. yes we're getting a meat, bread, and squash each time, but the variety of each is really awesome. and this weeks loot is proving to be exceptionally tasty. take a look....

week #3 csa

isn't that gorgeous!!!! just gorgeous. so inspiring and yet so delicious and fresh that overworking such ingredients is not necessary. i just kept telling myself, like with anything, "keep it simple stupid." so for two nights we had an almost completely csa dinner.... lamb brats and sauteed onions on rolls with sunflower shoots. easy, easy, easy. first saute half an onion in some butter for a few minutes (the second night i was enjoying a beer while cooking and splashed the onions a couple of times with the beer and oh boy that was really good) then add two lamb brats to the pan and heat till fully cooked. when i cut the brats in half to make them fit on the roll, and to check to see if they were done, some juices ran out into the pan. can't just leave the juices in there. so cut the rolls in half and toasted them in the pan juices, yummy. finally, top the sandwich off with some lightly dressed sunflower shoots (ground mustard, a pinch of S&P, bit of honey, rice vinegar, and olive oil mixed together and you got a serious little dressing). and there you have it, dinner.

heavens, i love my cast iron skillet.

a new obsession: MICROGREENS!!!!!

on night two, i decided to fix us a dessert with apples from the week #2 csa loot. where apple pie can be a bit of a pain to deal with, an apple galette is easy as 1, 2, 3.

apple tart 1, 2, 3. 

(made in a 6 inch cast iron skillet)

1. make the apple filling

peel, core, and slice thin 2 apples (arkansas black)

toss with a small palm full of sugar, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, and a pinch nutmeg. 

2. make the dough

cut 3 tbsp. butter into 1/2 cup flour and a pinch of salt. mix in 2 tbsp. chilled water till you can press the dough and it holds together in a ball. roll the dough out on floured surface until the dough circle is a good bit larger than the cast iron skillet.

3. bake the tart

set the dough in the skillet, plop in the apples (i tried to make a nice pretty circular pattern, but, in the end, i just kinda threw them in), fold over the extra dough, brush the dough with some melted butter, dot the apples with a bit more butter, and bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

if only we'd had some ice cream!!!

3G week #5 totals breakdown

maude's market csa: $35.97

(including tax and the dozen eggs)

2 acorn squash

sunflower shoots

6 lamb brats

5 rolls

pint of frozen cherries

bean soup mix

1 dozen large eggs

wholefoods/target: $22.45

org. milk x2

org. sour cream

org. yogurt

jar of org. strained tomatoes

raw pumpkin seeds

raw sunflower seeds

saluda farmers market: $4.50

1 lb. local homemade unsalted butter

total: about $63.00

($3.00 over, project bank now down to $5.00)

Mmmbap, ba du ba bap!!

the other night i decided to make hamburgers from the ground bison meat that we got in our csa from week #2. and what goes better with homemade hamburgers than homemade burger buns?? so confident was i (cause why wouldn't i, i have "tod," my super fantastic bread starter) that it was gonna work on the first try, i used my very very last egg in the dough. unfortunately, that dough completely and utterly failed to rise. i mean not even a smidgen. boo whoo me. i could have given up and walked to the store for the buns, but i was determined to make something, anything, tasty in that dang kitchen. with all my kitchen failures lately, i really needed a success story. hail the floury bap. i took the recipe from linda collister's bread book and adapted it a bit to accommodate my starter. thanks goodness the dough decided to rise up for me, the hamburgers turned out tasty, and the sweet potato "fries" we're not to bad (they just needed a bit more time in the oven, but, to bad, i was hungry.) now if i could just get the auto focus on my camera to be my friend, things might start to look up a bit.

yeah, it has risen!!

before....

after.

bison burger with homemade flour bap and my canned pepper ketchup. oops, out of focus.

floury baps

(makes 6 baps)

1/2 cup starter mixed with 1/2 flour, 1/2 water, and 1/4 teaspoon yeast.

let starter hang out on counter till nice a bubbly.

mix 1/2 teaspoon yeast into 2/3 cup warm milk and 1 teaspoon salt.

cut 2 tablespoons butter into 2 cups flour till looks like crumbs. 

make a well in the center and add the warm milk mixture and the starter.

mix till dough looks feels a bit sticky and starts to pull away from the bowl. 

turn out and knead on lightly floured surface for ten minutes. (i did it for 5 minutes)

rise for 1-2 hours in oil bowl covered with damp towel.

once doubled, turn out and divided into 6 pieces. 

shape into slightly thick circle, brush with milk, sprinkle with flour.

let rise for about 1/2 - 1 hour.

press down center of each bap with your thumb 

bake in pre-heated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.

oops, over budget

week #2 csa loot

oopsy daisy, i'm over budget this week. i blame the hubby, a serious craving of nachos, and a need to stock up on our muslix supply. however, we now have a serious stash of some important staples, so hopefully in the next few weeks we can get back on track and save cash for the project bank. btw, i added a "3G weekly totals" page for a quick view of the weekly totals and how much money is in the project bank. this week i decided to subtract the ten dollars (rounding up a bit for tax) i'm over budget from the project bank. as much as it hurts me, it's the fair thing to do. so here is this week's breakdown......

maude's market csa week #2: $30

(pictured above)

4 heads of garlic

apples

sweet potatoes

loaf of sourdough bread

honey

1 lb. beef stew meat

1 nice size squash (a hubbard squash, i think)

1 dozen eggs ($3.15 extra) 

wholefoods: $21

(for the morning muslix)

org. milk

2 lbs. org. rolled oats

1/4 lb. org. raw pumpkin seeds

1 15 oz. box org. raisins

1/4 lb. org. raw sunflower seed

1 3lb. bag organic onions

org. yogurt

Schnucks and Target: $14

(the nacho cravings were strong folks)

2 jars of org. salsa

2 cans of org. refried black beans

sharp cheddar cheese

sour cream

1 bag org. blue corn tortilla chips

muslix, muslix, muslix

the morning muslix recipe

about 1 lb. thick rolled organic oats

1/4 lb. raw org. pumpkin seeds

1/4 lb. raw org. sunflower seeds

7.5 oz org. raisins

1/3 lb. pecan pieces 

combine all ingredients in a big jar and shake it, shake it, show me what your working with!
hubby has his with yogurt, i take mine with milk. yummy!!

i joined a CSA

CSA week #1

check it out folks i joined a CSA (community-supported agriculture). i've always wanted to try one to help me branch out from the habit of buying the same produce week after week. so when maude's market advertised that they were doing a weekly buyers club i suggested to hubby that we give it a try. we signed up for a two person share at $30 a week, and as the hubby was quick to point out, that only leaves me $30 for everything else i might need. this is gonna be interesting. so let's do this week's totals breakdown.

maude's market CSA week #1: $30

loaf of bread

two locally made cookies

oyster mushrooms

1 lb. ground bison meat

dozen large eggs

spaghetti squash

tatsoi (that's the green stuff in the bottom right corner)

wholefoods

(still gotta go there for a few things)

organic milk (got milk twice this week) $7.50

3 organic pink lady apples $2.76

5 lb bag organic white flour $4.99

miscellaneous items not pictured

organic carrots $2.00

pretzels $2.29

flour $1.99

organic yogurt $4.19

rice vinegar $1.69

that all equals about $58 (+/- tax). this morning i sauteed the tatsoi in a bit of butter and we ate that with scrambled egg and my homemade toast with butter and jam. lunch was a pb&j sandwich using the bread shown above, organic strawberry jam, and locally made peanut butter. for dinner this evening i had homemade pasta with the last of the jarred spaghetti sauce topped with capers, the last of the cheddar cheese, and 1/2 of this weeks CSA oyster mushrooms that were sauteed in butter, all served over some salad greens we still have left over from last week.

well i think that gets me caught up on everything as of now. so i am off to watch the first disc of the third season of dexter. also on the agenda for the next couple of days is researching soil mixtures for seed starting. the last couple of years i have been using vermiculite and peat moss, but now that i have learn they're bad for the environment, i need to figure out something new to use. it certainly is weird to think about starting seeds already with snow hanging out in the backyard. but, it must be done.

getting all mixed up

my dinners are starting to run together in my head and i'm having a hard time remembering when and what we are eating for dinner. you'd think it would be easy to write it down and keep track, but that would require me to actually remember to write it down. i can tell you that within the last week we had homemade "irish" stew two times, buttercup ravioli and salad twice, and scrambled eggs with homemade bread topped with goat cheese and honey. i just can't remember which night we had which. we also went out for ribs on friday night and had bbq pizza at schlafly's yesterday. anywho, let's back track and talk about the irish stew. i had some local lamb stew meat in the freezer (which is officially the last of the meat in the house, well it was till i went to pick up this week's CSA on friday) and some schlafly's irish stout beer, so deciding to make some stew was kinda a no brainer, especially since the weather has been darn right colder than cold here lately. now a lot of irish stew recipes call for a base of beef broth, which i didn't have any of, so i decided to improvise with the turkey stock from the freezer and the dark beer. and wouldn't you know it, after all was said and done, to me the result was really similar to the taste of beef broth. so next time i decide to make a stroganoff, i'll try the chicken/turkey stock stout beer combo and see how that works there as well.

somewhat irish stew

(here's a rough recipe)

1 lb lamb stew meat

3 carrots

5 small potatoes

1 onion

1 - 1 1/2 cup frozen peas

salt and pepper to taste

bay leaves

10 oz. irish stout beer

1 jar turkey stock 

couple of tablespoons butter and flour

rinse, pat dry, season, and brown stew meat in a dutch oven, remove and set aside. saute onions and carrots till onions are a bit soft. pour in some beer and scrape up all the brown bits in the bottom of pan. add turkey stock, potatoes, stew meat, and a couple of bay leaves and simmer till veggies are soft. toss in some frozen peas and salt and pepper to taste. make a quick roux out of butter and flour and add to stew and simmer till the stew thickens a bit. serve with yummy cheese biscuits.

squash, i think i love you.

buttercup squash i love you.

ah, first week of the 3G project is done and i'm starting to have a really good time in the kitchen. i don't think i've eaten this many fall veggies in awhile. let me tell you, i'm becoming a little obsessed with squash, which is really weird cause i never classified myself as a squash person. i don't like zucchini or that icky yellow crookneck squash (well unless you make it into a casserole with a ton of butter, cheese, and breadcrumbs or of course deep fry it) so i just thought, "i don't like squash." but these winter squash varieties are a whole nother ball game. after the successful dinner i made with some spaghetti squash the other night (see that post here), when maude over at maude's market suggested some buttercup squash she had, i though, well why not. holy crap is that squash good. i cut that sucker in half and immediately caught a whiff of a delicate sweet smell and saw a supper bright orange flesh that i was not at all expecting. hubby and i agreed that it smelled like a honey due melon. i decided that i would use one half for some soup and save the other half for later. i cut the first half up into slices and then used a vegetable peeler to remove the skin which was lot easier than i though it was going to be. then i cut the flesh into cubes and coated them with a little olive oil and salt, plopped it in a cast iron skillet, and roasted it in the oven at 375 degrees till soft. after the squash cooled, i ran the flesh through a food mill along with a jar of my home canned tomatoes from the garden in greenville. i added that mixture to some sauteed onions, a bit of chopped rosemary and sage, along with a jar of turkey stock from the freezer, and let it all simmer for just a bit and done. soup!!

before.

after.

so other than hubby and i agreeing that my onions were a bit too cruchy for soup, i think dinner was a success. (especially since i made some oh so yummy cheese biscuits.) the soup was not quite tomatoy, and not quite squashy, but a nice balance of both. with that said, next time to try something a bit different, i think i will make just a squash soup since the roasted squash had such a wonderful flavor by itself, and i think i will grate the onions to give them a smoother texture.

so let the squash obsession begin!!!! not only did i walk 2.5 miles to the library and 2.5 miles back just to check out a book on squashes, this new obsession also solidifies my desire to to a three sisters garden this year just so i can have a reason to plant some squash.


p.s. i really started this post to finish up "what we ate" for the first week of the 3G project, but i got off track with the squash obsession. so if your tired of reading this post please feel free to go do something else, if not, continue........

"what we ate." the end of the first week of the 3G project.

saturday: hubby had cereal for breakfast, i had an oatmeal scone from farmer's market. for lunch i made some veggie hash out of potatoes, a carrot, an onion, rosemary, sage, and the last of the cabbage. i topped it off with fried eggs and garnished it with some homemade pepper ketchup. we also successfully polished off the last of the irish soda bread. for dinner we had a bit of leftover veggie hash and then snacked on some homemade banana, nut, and chocolate chip bread. i'll post the recipe for the bread in a separate post. the recipe is from a yogurt cookery book that i got at an estate sale. it's not the greatest banana bread in the world since it's made with white/wheat flour, honey instead of sugar, and of course yogurt. but since we had some left over chocolate in the frig that needed to be use up, i added that in and it's not so bad. i like it, but i won't lie to you, it does taste "healthy."

sunday: cereal for breakfast. for lunch a snack of apple, cheese, and crackers. for dinner buttercup and tomato soup with cheese biscuits, nuff said.

gonna make some veggie hash.

purple potatoes are pretty.

my homemade pepper ketchup.

can't say i didn't warn you, hubby!

oh my! the hubby makes a full on face at the camera appearance on the blog today. he thought he was being funny when i was trying to take pictures of the farmer's market loot, calling me a dork and acting like he was vanna white displaying the items. (of course i was to slow in getting the shot where he was mooning me. dang!!!!) i told him i was gonna post the pictures if he didn't leave me alone, and post away i will!!!

yep, i actually choose to live with this guy.

but you know, hubby is a good guy. he braved the cold (16 degrees) with me this morning to make the market rounds and gather some loot. later he even called it loot when i was unpacking the bags. sweet boy!!! well let's take a closer look.....

week #2 of the 3G project.

here's the breakdown:

from the st. louis community farmer's market

1 lb. organic red beans $4

1 big ass bag of local lettuce $6

Baetje Farms goat cheese (local and happy goats) $8

oatmeal scone from local bakery (ate it for breakfast so not pictured) $2.25 

from the soluard farmers market

1/4 lb. organic fair trade locally roasted coffee $2.50

1/4 lb. organic tea $5.00 

1 lb. block of locally made butter $4.50

from maude's market

big brown buttercup squash $2.35

1 dozen really happy chicken eggs $3.50

daikon radish $2

1 lb. pecan pieces $8.80

also pictured is about 2 lbs. of organic oatmeal $1.88

not pictured is 32 oz jug of milk i bought on monday from the wholefoods $4

(still having a butter and milk dilemma, but we'll save that for another day)

so rounding up, that's about $55 total (+/- tax), and with the left over money from last week, that gives me about $16 bucks in the project bank. yeah!! doing good so far.

i guess i'll also give you a "what we're eating" update as well. the last post left off with dinner on thursday. friday morning we got up somewhat early and hubby had the day off. i made us a quick breakfast of the last of the andouille sausage, scrambled eggs, and more irish the soda bread with strawberry jam. then we headed out for what turned out to be a busy and fun day. first we went to the art museum to check out some FSA photographs and ended up being totally creeped out by this painting. by then we were hungry and stopped in over at farmhaus for lunch and had fried fish, hushpuppies, and red beans and rice. there we used a gift certificate i got as a going away present from my old job in greenville, so no money from my pocket spent on that meal. and i still have some moneys left over for two more lunches there for both me and the hubby. yeah!!!!! then we went to another photo show of f64 photographers, saw some cool folk art, stopped at an art gallery and saw some really BAD art, went to check out the crazy tile work on the ceiling of the basilica, and then met some friends and had ribs for dinner and topped the day off with some gooey butter cake. yum!!! here are a few shots of the day i took with my phone.

f64

farmhaus

basilica

more basilica

cute dinner date

well this post is getting longer than i expected so i'll continue with the veggie hash and bananna bread that i cooked in the kitchen today in tomorrow's post.

upcoming posts: last day of week 1 meals, i joined a CSA, time to get the garden going.