Ernest Hemingway wrote to begin
writing, start with one true sentence. I add that to start cooking, or eating,
start with one true ingredient. And the truest ingredient on Barclay Farms?
Beef.
I woke early on Saturday and went
to writing while the STC and Dairy Low-Tolerant Offspring still slept. I work
Saturdays, but don’t go in until eight. It starts getting light out shortly
after five, so when I came out of the Dungeon… err… sorry honey, the laundry
room… err whoops, I mean, my office,
the sky was just turning pink and the mist lay low across the field. The cattle
are on our side of the road now, so we wake up to them in the side yard, or
laying down by the pond.
It’s quite a horrible way to go.
So I look outside and there’s this
impossibly beautiful, almost heartbreaking view of the sky, clouds, water, and
cattle. I couldn’t convince the STC to stop cuddling the Offspring long enough
to come look, but he did like the picture I posted to Facebook. From his phone.
From the bed. Five seconds after I posted it.
Anyone else notice the irony here?
Oh well. It’s a good thing he’s
cute. And makes a mean batch of smothered onions.
Speaking of which, my random
creation of the week involved a 9x13 pan and a bunch of vegetables. Being too
lazy to dirty another bowl in the five or ten minutes I had to prepare dinner after
the Offspring cried himself into a temporary coma, I chopped a sweet potato,
two smallish onions, one russet potato, and three enormous carrots into the
pan, coated them with olive oil, and added eyeballed amounts of salt, pepper,
fresh chopped cilantro, red pepper flakes, rosemary, and garlic powder. This
bakes at 425-450 degrees, stir every fifteen minutes or so, more if it seems to
be sticking. Oh, and I added the half can or so of home canned tomatoes we didn’t
use from a recipe last week. That was a nice flavor as well. Anyway, that
roasts at least an hour, if not an hour and a half. I eyeball it and go until
the vegetables reduce and start to char a little around the edges. The last few
minutes I like to stir it all around under the broiler, which is low broil on
our stove, but might have to adjust for yours. It’s a super easy dish, all you
do is chop, stir, roast, and it’s very healthy and great as leftovers. The only
thing I miss about it is meat, but when the cows are so beautiful, it’s hard to
want to eat them.
Until they run you up over a gate
or slam your hand between the chute and their foot.
As this article explains, grass-fed beef is leaner so it cooks differently than grain fed. Here's some recipes, as well as things to think about when cooking with grass-fed beef. Enjoy!
On my days off, I cook. I get four days off in a two-week period so I cook a lot. J and I made delicious veggie/hamburgers with fries this weekend and spaghetti, followed by a scrumptious strawberry shortcake. All this cooking has got me thinking, especially since J and I both agree we’ve both experienced a change in our cooking since we met each other. J’s presence has made me slow down and appreciate the food experience more than I ever have. He’s sold me on fresh garlic, the smell and texture, and adding little touches that take, say, a regular tuna sandwich with miracle whip and relish, into a taste experience with veggies, capers, a touch of Dijon mustard, quality bread; all things I never paid much attention to before. I crammed veggies and tuna together because I needed to eat more veggies, paying more attention to the food pyramid than to flavor. Such attention makes regular cooking into food porn, normally only seen on the Food channel. On the other hand, J has started cooking more, preparing real meals instead of just quick things like sandwiches, since meeting me.
Tonight I made healthy enchiladas, but didn’t use a recipe. Rather, I used several, and added my own touch besides. I cook like farm women before me. When thinking about dinner, I think, “Well I have this, this, and that. What can I do with what I have?” It’s not the mindset I encounter in many cookbooks or magazines, where they assume you keep chilies in adobe on hand. I try to run to the store as little as possible and use what I have instead of buying more. So here’s a lesson on how I cook.
It began with leftovers.
We put a lot, and I mean a lot, of food up last fall. We have carrots, spinach, peas, asparagus, all kinds of meat and veggies in the freezer that need used up before spring planting. So the goal, whatever I made, was to use up as much food as I could. I started with a gallon bag of tomato sauce. It needed cooked down. I’d processed the sauce once, but quite a bit of water remained. So I got that boiling down and browned a pound of hamburger with fresh garlic and half an onion. I added that to the tomato sauce with a vague idea of enchilada sauce, wondering all the while how much it would cook down and how in the world I’d get enchilada flavor. On that note, I went and did my workout, simmering over dinner and writing even as my pot simmered.
Unhappy with the consistency, I added a pint of frozen roasted eggplant to the mix. Anything would have worked really, carrots, celery, anything sent through the blender to add bulk. Moms with picky kids could probably disguise most or all the veggies by pureeing it and cooking it with the tomato sauce. That’s assuming the kids eat tomato sauce, but I can’t help with that. My parents basically told me “eat what we eat, or be hungry.” I ate. Seasonings for the sauce included, garlic, salt and pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and oregano. You could use chili powder too if that’s a flavor you like. Rather than use precise measure, I added a little at a time until I was happy with the flavor. You can always add spices; they’re much harder to take out.
So while the thickened sauce continued cooking, I rummaged through my fridge and pulled out my veggie arsenal. Frozen peas, asparagus, and spinach from the garden; green onion from the store; canned carrots we put up; and if my pan hadn’t been full by then, I would have added mushrooms. But my pan was so I let that cook.
I’m a lazy cook. Instead of rolling all nice and neat enchiladas, I layered it like lasagna. Putting a little sauce on the bottom of a 9x13x2 glass pan, I layered corn tortillas, then a little sauce, the veggies (I miscalculated on that layer so all the veggies went on one layer), then more tortillas, sauce to cover it all, and cheddar cheese on top. Pop it in the oven set at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and done. I cut the mess like a casserole or lasagna too and served it on top of another tortilla, just for presentation and extra something to chew on. Dad and I like ours with horseradish.
So it's not rocket science, the way I cook. Sometimes it goes good, like really good. And when it goes bad... lets just say I keep a frozen pizza around for that eventuality. J's not the only Mr. Contingency around here. It's all about creativity and having fun. Presentation and doing things by the book get played up too much. How do you think those tv chefs got to be chefs? They had a little fun, used a lot of creativity, and made up their own recipes. With a little practice, anybody can do it. And if you can rope your honey into enjoying the garlic with you, its ever so much fun. :-P Who knows? They're influence on your cooking style might just lead to some real tasty juji.
(Jiji - pronounced JEW-gee; a name for stuff. It can be anything, fluid, vegetable, mineral, but originally it described the discharge from a cow's va-jay-jay prior to calving.)
If you’re still with me after all that, I'd like to wish Dana congratulations. Her story, "Running for Recovery," was accepted for publication by The Ultimate Runner magazine. So watch for it and good luck in the kitchen. Savor the flavor, the texture, the planning. If it’s good enough, you’ll know and cooking becomes food porn. It’s a beautiful thing.
Tuna casserole last night. YUM! It’s a Barnes family recipe, though it could have come off the back of the cereal box, I’m not quite sure.
Bag or half bag of cooked egg noodles
two cans tuna
mayo or miracle whip
½ c. milk or just eyeball it for moisture as this recipe is very forgiving
cream of mushroom soup or celery or hell whatever cream soup you want, though
chicken clashes with the tuna, I have to say
onion
red or green pepper
peas, celery, mushrooms, whatever veggies you want, frozen spinach even works well in this
Salt, pepper, a touch of cayenne and garlic power
Mix all together and make sure is a good consistency
Top with cheese, I use cheddar, but parm works, or motz-cheddar mix, whatever you like. (Maybe this is why I can make the same dish but it never tastes the same twice!)
Put in pan and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
J made fried taters to go with, which were excellent. We’re gonna get fat together I swear. :) Problem with having two good cooks who like to eat in proximity to each other. Valentine’s Day was obscene. Fake-baked eggplant parmesan ziti, anti-pasta and banana-strawberry dessert. We cooked all day. Actually a really fun time. Gotta love culinary adventures with your honey! :)
I'm not here to convince, offend, recruit, or confront anyone. The purpose of this blog is merely to provide information I feel is pertinent, interesting, or amusing as related to grass-feeding, alternative farming, agriculture, books, literature, or book reviews, and leave everyone feeling a little more informed, empowered, and, hopefully, amused.
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