End of Summer Vegetable Stew with Polenta

What do you do when you have a bunch of veggies, say, right about now?

You make a delicious vegetable stew!

End of Summer Vegetable Stew

2 medium onions, coarsely chopped

5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

3 stalks celery, diced

6 cups coarsely chopped tomato

2 large patty pan squash or 2 large zucchini, cut in 1″ cubes

2 medium eggplant, cut in 1″ cubes

1 cup sweet white wine

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp thyme

Olive oil

chevre or feta cheese and kalamata olives for garnish

Salt and pepper to taste

Toss eggplant with a few tablespoons of olive oil and roast in a 400˚ F oven for 10 minutes. While the eggplant is roasting, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over low heat in a soup pot. Sauté the onion, garlic and celerfor at least 5 mn, longer if you have the time – this will allow a richer flavor to develop.

Add the white wine, herbs, and the rest of the vegetables. Bring to a simmer, and stirring occasionally, cook for 40 minutes. Season with to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over a polenta cake or brown rice. Garnish with crumbled feta or chevre, and sliced kalamata olives.

End of Summer Vegetable Stew over Polenta cake, shown here with our very first lamb roast!

What goes well with homemade cream cheese?

Homemade applesauce and potato latkes!

 

Latkes, or potato fritters, are very easy to make, especially if you have a food processor with a grater attachment. We used a recipe from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, one of my favorite cookbooks. Paired with applesauce and cream cheese or sour cream, they are delicious!

Cream cheese!

I have been so excited to start making my own cheese! This week I made my first batch of cream cheese and boy is it delicious! It is similar to the mild chevre I made last week, but it takes a little longer…

The basic steps for making cream cheese are

• allow milk to come to room temperature
• stir in culture (friendly cheese making bacteria)
• stir in rennet (separates the curds and whey)
• allow to sit for 24 hours
• pour into a cheesecloth
• allow to drain for 12 hours
• refrigerate and enjoy!

I am responsible for the death of a lamb.

At the end of last week, I bought an 80 lb lamb and watched as it was killed.

Although I have cut up part of an animal for my dinner table before, this was the first time in my adult life I experienced the whole process of taking a live animal and making it into food. My feelings are mixed. It was hard to watch it die, and I felt some sadness for its suffering, but I was also thankful that I was present to acknowledge it. Too often, we are cavalier about eating meat because we never need to experience the sacrifice.

I found I was able to continue on with the butchering in a businesslike manner – the steps of which are below.

• kill – this was done halal style, with the throat slit from ear to ear
• skin – peel back the skin, starting with the belly and legs
• remove the feet
• hang by hamstrings
• finish removing the skin
• remove internal organs and guts
• cut carcass in half with a special bone saw
• cut halves into halves to make four quarters
• store in a refrigerator for a variable length of time to tenderize the meat
• cut the quarters into useable cuts

I wish I had pictures of every step – but I didn’t have a camera with for the initial butchering. Dad came over and helped me finish the job, and Chris wrapped it all up in freezer paper:

 

 

 

Thank you Andy Hayner for your butchering expertise, and thank you lamb, for being dinner.

Chickens!

I realized when I first tried to buy eggs at the store here that we would need to get chickens ASAP. I wanted fresh eggs from a good source, and the best way to have that is to have your own chickens.

The chickens are wonderful – three barred rock and three production reds – in a cute little coop/chicken tractor that would not have gotten built except that my dad is awesome and did the majority of the construction – and my mom who helped too!  We have already collected about a dozen eggs in the first week, including a double-yolker. The yolks are a deep golden yellow – not pale like store eggs! They are so fun to watch, as they contentedly scratch around the yard and eat leafy greens. I think they like Chris better than they like me, which is funny. They think the grass around his feet tastes better than the grass around my feet!

The Coop!

Happy chickens.