Summer has arrived, in spite of the cool, wet spring – and I have been spending so much time in the kitchen lately. I’ve almost constantly had little projects here and there going, which honestly has kept me from the computer quite a bit (as my email inbox would attest to – sorry everyone, I’ll respond as quickly as I can!) What have I been working on? Well, I’ve been caaaaaaaaaanning. Jumping off from my pickling binge, I have been busily making fruit butters and putting them up for holiday gifts, hostess gifts, etc… What kind you ask? Well, it started off with a handful of less-than-perfect apricots from a FFTY delivery and three pints of Apricot butter, and recently ballooned in to 2 five-gallon buckets of wild plums being turned in to twenty-four pints of Plum Butter, 9 pints of Plum Ketchup, 10 pints of Plum Chutney, and 5 qts Plums in light syrup.

Yeah, I probably have a problem. But anyways, after the plum-dust settled, I started work on a blog post – a lovely Heirloom tomato & Squash soup inspired by the slow cooking & reducing of the fruit butters I’d been making… I’d been cooking it all day, and when it was finally done – it was considerably later than I’d intended it to be. Rather than making the family wait for dinner while I took pictures, I decided to take pictures with the leftovers in the morning, Saturday. However, by the time I got back from the Farmers Market on Saturday afternoon – I discovered that Mr. Man had eaten my soup for breakfast – thus leaving me with no blog post. Fortunately, when I went to the Sunday market, inspiration struck in the form of the cutest little tomatillos.

Tomatillos are a staple of Mexican cuisine. They’re a small green fruit that is covered with a papery husk. Once the husk is removed and discarded, they look remarkably similar to green tomatoes. Of course, when I think of Tomatillos I immediately think of Salsa Verde. Salsa Verde is Mr. Man’s favorite type of Salsa. Whenever we go out for Mexican Take out, he always makes a bee-line for the Salsa Verde, dipping chips in it, pouring it on burritos or tacos, etc… For all that though, this is actually the first time I’ve made Salsa Verde, although it definitely won’t be the last, being one of the simplest and easiest salsas I’ve ever made.

I used a combination of peppers, a pepper called ‘Padron’, that I found at the farmers market on Saturday, and some Jalapeno Peppers. This was my first time coming across Padrons, so you can use only Jalapenos if you prefer, or if you like your salsa a little milder, you can use Poblanos or Anaheims. The onion I used was called a torpedo onion. I had picked it up at the Berkeley Farmers market a while back, and since I only had a few, I’d been saving them for something I thought they would shine in. They’re a little milder and a little sweeter than a yellow onion, which is what I’d call my ‘stand-by’ onion. Unfortunately, they’re not terribly common – if you can’t find them substitute whatever onions you have on hand, I’m sure it will be fine. At some point here soon, I need to make up a batch or two of Onion Jam and Pickled Onions, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. (I did mention that I have a canning problem, didn’t I?)

A quick broil on the tomatillos and peppers, and you’re nearly done. To be honest, the thing that took the most amount of time when prepping this salsa – was husking the Tomatillos. After that was done, it took maybe ten minutes to get it all together. Super fast, and super easy – just throw all the ingredients in to the blender and bzzz-bzzz.

Before you embark on making this salsa though, a couple of quick thoughts… Salsa is a very personal sort of thing. Some people like more cilantro, some people like less. Some people like it spicy, some people don’t. Etc… This is one of those recipes that you can pretty much consider all ingredients to be ‘To Taste’. There really isn’t a wrong way to make salsa.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Tomatillos; husked and washed
• 1 small onion
• 2-4 cloves Garlic
• 1/4 cup Cilantro
• 2-4 Combination of Padron or Jalapeno Peppers (or other peppers of your choice); to taste & desired heat level
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Place washed and husked Tomatillos on a baking sheet, along with your choice of peppers
• Broil for 1-2 minutes, or until skins are beginning to brown & blister (cooking time may depend on size of tomatillos, for larger tomatillos, recommend roasting at a lower temperature)
• Turn Tomatillos and Peppers and return to broiler until beginning to brown
• Take peppers and place in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap to allow steam to soften the skin and make it easier to remove
• Peel the peppers and remove stems. Set aside.
• Place all ingredients except peppers and salt in to the blender, and puree until smooth.
• Pour all of the puree in to a bowl, except for approximately 1/2 a cup
• Add peppers to blender with reserved 1/2 cup of salsa, and puree until smooth
• Add the pepper mixture and kosher salt to the salsa, a little at a time, to taste & desired spiciness level
• Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to allow flavors to meld

I’ve been experimenting lately with different types of pickles – something that has been immensely rewarding and lots of fun. It started when Planet Organics sent me 10 orders of Green Garlic in place of the 10 pounds of Baby Artichokes I ordered. They had ended up running out of stock on the artichokes, and for the CSA-style subscribers, the artichokes were to be replaced with Green Garlic. Which probably would have been fine if I hadn’t been buying so much, lol. So there I was, late one evening – confronting a ginormous amount of green garlic. Since then, I’ve pickled Fennel (probably my favorite), Carrots and Radishes, baby turnips, asparagus, and now – Cherries.

Yes – that is right. Pickled Cherries. One night, when I was poking around online thinking about how nice it would be if Mr. Man would take me out to dinner, I saw Pickled Cherries on the menu for Chez Panisse. A little light went off in my head and said “Wow! That sounds interesting”. When things settled down enough from Miss Thing getting out of school and all that hooplah, I resolved to try it. A very nice lady at Frog Hollow Farm was kind enough to sell me a flat of their amazing Ranier Cherries, and I was rushing home and getting busy popping pits.

Of course, I got about ten cherries in when Miss Thing came over, saw what I was doing and decided it looked like fun and offered to help. Which was awesome on several levels – having Miss Thing actually wanting to help in the kitchen is always a rare pleasure, so I handed over the cherry pitter and stepped out of the way. It made the process go a lot faster, since while she was pitting, I was prepping everything else – all in all, it was one of my faster pickling sessions, which was very cool.

I waited a couple of days before trying them – I had planned to wait a little longer, say a week or two atleast, but I ended up giving in to temptation and trying them today. And I really like them. The first burst of flavor is salty and tangy, balanced with some sweet. I think I added too much clove though, since the flavor of clove was distractingly strong. I’d like to say that next time I would add less clove, but as much as I like these – there probably won’t be a next time, since Mr. Man and Miss Thing, who were dubious about pickled cherries to begin with, didn’t end up liking them. Ah well, dems da breaks, right? They’ve both been less than enthused about my pickling habit anyways.

I should probably include this little disclaimer on canning and pickling: I’m still learning, and also – I take a somewhat-more-lackadaisical approach to pickling in that I seldom sterilize the jars, rarely cook the ingredients beforehand, and have been known to ‘wing it’  from time to time. All of these things could put you at risk, and if you have a compromised immune system and/or healthy fear of botulism, this recipe might not be for you. I haven’t died yet, and I am more or less of the opinion that given the vinegar and salt content of pickles, I’m probably safe, but again – if you’re worried you can check out the USDA guidelines on canning, find an alternative recipe, or refrigerate them and use them up quickly. I am not an expert on canning and if you are not familiar with canning procedures, I recommend you familiarize yourself before attempting this recipe. Also, I’ve seen a lot of other recipes for pickled cherries, most of which called for 2-4 times the amount of sugar that I called for. If you’re hoping for something sweeter, less salty & tart, try one of them instead.

Ingredients:

• 7lbs Cherries; stemmed and pitted
• 4 cups Red Wine Vinegar
• 1 cup Distilled Vinegar
• 1 cup Water
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Pickling Salt
• Cloves (whole)
• All Spice (whole)

Method:

• Prepare clean, pint sized jars and lids (Sterilize if desired)
• Simmer lids to soften the seal
• Pack jars tightly with stemmed and pitted cherries and add 1-3 cloves (to taste) and 1 whole all spice to each jar
• In a saucepan, bring the Red Wine Vinegar, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Sugar and Pickling Salt to a boil, stirring occassionally, until sugar and salt are fully dissolved
• Ladle vinegar mixture in to the packed jars
• Remove Air bubbles
• Place lids and rings on jars and process in Water-Bath Canner for 10 minutes
• Cool overnight and check seals

You ever hear the saying, “when it rains – it pours”? Well, I’m afraid my whole month has been like that. Whenever I felt like I was starting to get a handle on one thing, the rug would be pulled out from underneath me and whoopsy I’m lying flat on my behind. Maybe it had something to do with the Mercury Retrograde we’ve had recently, I don’t know – but whatever it is has kept me from actually making it to the computer to… well, heck, actually it’s kept me from even getting to the CAMERA, to take pictures, to do posts. Some people have expressed concern, and I can honestly say that a lot of what we’ve been dealing with here at home isn’t really public blog material, but I’m hopeful that we’re on an upswing now, so yeah – hopefully things will be better. Apologies again for being such a lame poster lately.

While I’ve been dealing with all my crappiness, the seasons have been marching on by – it was with great pleasure that I spotted the first fresh fava beans at the Farmers Market recently. Shelling Fava beans can be a little time intensive. First you have to remove them from the big outer pods (I didn’t happen to get a picture of them this time), and then they have a second, inner shell that needs to be removed. As a first pass, I like to sit down with several pounds of pods, a big bowl, and the compost bin, in front of the Tee-Vee, and let my hands do the mindless, repetitive task while enjoying some relax-time with Mr. Man and Miss Thing. Sometimes Miss Thing will even help, if she’s feeling generous. For the second round of shelling though, I usually work in the kitchen. First, I take the shelled beans and blanch them for 1-2 minutes (depending on size and age), then drain them to an ice bath. The thin, inner shell, should pop off fairly easily at that point. A pound of Fava Beans in pod can yield a disappointingly small amount of shelled beans though, so I recommend buying atleast 1-2 more pounds than you think you’ll need. I don’t know about you, but fresh favas NEVER go to waste in our house. lol

I’ve really been enjoying the recent sun and warmer weather where we are. Since I’ve been working harder at becoming an early riser, I’ve been able to make more time to head over to the Farmers Market on the weekends, which has led me to order less from Planet Organics or Farm Fresh To You, and has sent me searching in other directions for purchasing eggs, meat and poultry. Recently I became a member of a Poultry products CSA called Soul Food Farms. They offer various chicken products, fresh eggs, and occasionally a small batch, locally produced olive oil (that I used in this salad!). The only downside is the closest pick up location is about twenty to thirty minutes away from me. Boo. It’s been really rewarding – I find myself kind of constantly poking around, looking for the new and interesting, searching for small farms and producers.

Mr. Man and I also went to a lamb butchering demo for Bay Area Bloggers, hosted by Hank Shaw of Honest Food. I found the whole experience very inspiring, and we will soon be attempting the process ourselves, probably with a pig. Not only did we both learn a lot about butchering, Hank’s home-made artichoke hearts were a revelation, and I made some new friends with other bloggers, including Stephanie of Wasabimon!, Luna Raven of Luna’s Kitchen, Jennifer of Foodbat, Biggie of Lunch in a Box, Heather of Heather in SF, Holly of NorCal Cazadora, and Anne of SF Tao of Pao. I also briefly met Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes, who showed up towards the end of the event. It was amazing to be surrounded by so many talented people that I’ve admired for so long. Hopefully, Hank will do more classes in the future.

As I’ve mentioned recently, I’ve been working on incorporating whole grains in to my diet. Whole grains are a great part of any healthy diet, and we were already using them frequently, but as I’ve been trying to lose weight they became especially important. They can be a really great alternative to starchy sides, and pack a great nutritional punch. For me, I have been trying to make everything I put in my body count – ie, no more empty calories, so I’ve been using alternative grains in place of white rice, white flour or potatoes. So when I saw local Wheat Berries from Massa Organics at a recent trip to the farmers market, of course I had to pick some up. Although they look similar to rice, wheat berries are very different in terms of flavor and texture. They are nuttier, with an even chewier texture than is typical in brown rice, and they tend to be much looser and less starchy, making them perfect for grain based salads or as a last minute addition to a soup. Unlike rice though, you want to cook them in extra liquid, similar to beans – I typically use a 4:1 ratio of Liquid to Wheat Berries, and then drain when at desired level of tenderness.

If you’re lucky enough to find it – some Green Garlic is also a great addition to soups and salads. It’s one of my favorite spring harbingers, sweeter and milder than it’s older bulbous brother, I typically use Green Garlic anywhere and everywhere that I would normally use Green Onions. Every time I’ve gone to the farmers market recently, I’ve picked up a bunch or two – sometimes adding to a saute, but usually just sliced and served raw.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole Wheat Berries
• 4 cups Stock or Water (I used 2 cups chicken stock, 2 cups water)
• 2 cups Blanched and Shelled Fava Beans
• 1 Stalk Green Garlic; bulb and tender greens, sliced thinly
• 1/4 cup Feta Cheese; crumbled
• 2 tbs Fresh Italian Parsley; finely chopped
• 2 tbs Fine Quality Olive Oil (or to taste)
• 4 tbs White Wine Vinegar (or to taste)
• Kosher Salt (to taste)

Method:

• Rinse and pick over Wheat Berries to remove any dirt or debris
• Place in a Heavy pot with a tight fitting lid (recommend: Dutch Oven)
• Add the Stock/Water and a generous pinch or two of Kosher Salt.
• Cover and bring to a boil
• Reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally until tender (appx 45-60 minutes), adding more liquid as neccessary
• Drain and allow to cool to room temperature
• Stir together the drained Wheat Berries with remaining ingredients, adjust Salt, Vinegar and Olive Oil to taste
• Serve at room temperature

Other Fava Bean recipes by Delementals:

• Bacon and Fava Beans
• Fava and Baby Potato Gratin
• Fava Bean Pancetta Salad

Other Green Garlic recipes by Delementals:

• Green Garlic Yukon Gold Potato Salad
• Green Garlic Farro and Collards Salad
• Green Garlic and Spring Onion Soup
• Broccoli and Green Garlic Quiche

As part of my healthy eating plan, I’ve cut out most of my favorite breakfast foods. I mean, I’m pretty much a sweets breakfast kind of girl. Waffles, muffins, french toast, etc… And yes, pancakes. Which means most days for breakfast, I now have eggs, some kind of grain (like brown rice), and veggie for breakfast. I’ll admit, I’m starting to warm up to the eggs for breakfast thing. I’ve never been much for eggs usually – so it’s a work in progress. But I can see making pancakes like these every so often.

Because I’ve eliminated white flour and sugar from my diet, I had mostly written off most of my favorite breakfast foods. Atleast, I had until I came back from the farmers market last Saturday to Miss Thing having some kind of meltdown because she wanted Mr. Man to take her out for Pancakes. Apparently there’d been this whole thing where she was really in the mood for pancakes, and had been thinking about it all day. The dietary changes have been hard for her to accept – we all have had to make sacrifices. Most days are fine, but this one wasn’t really one of them. She didn’t end up getting her pancakes, through a combination of poor behavior, lack of available breakfast joints (it was 3PM), and my lack of desire to drive further than -/+ a mile. However, the next day as a sort of peace-making enterprise, I decided to get up the next morning and attempt a whole wheat pancake.

What I ended up with turned out to be pretty good. I looked at a few different recipes online, trying to find a recipe that fit my needs – ultimately, I ended up mashing together a few different recipes to come up with my own version. However, these should be considered a first-pass. Don’t get me wrong, they’re pretty good – but Mr. Man and I were talking, we have a few ideas on how to improve them, so there will probably be a Whole Wheat Pancakes Version 2 before long.

For those who are interested in keeping up with my progress, I’ve lost twenty-four pounds, and I think it’s finally starting to get better. I still have to force myself to get on the treadmill in the morning, but once I’m on and going it’s been good, and meals are getting easier. I even went out to eat a couple of times recently. I’m starting to learn where my limits are.  With my restricted carb intake, these pancakes are definitely not an every day event – but as a once in a while treat, it’s nice. They were more satisfying and filling than conventional pancakes. I had them for a ‘dessert’ after a breakfast of eggs, bacon and veggies, and they even went over well with Miss Thing, who usually turns her nose up at whole wheat things.

Making pancakes also gave me the opportunity to play with Agave syrup again. I’m starting to feel a little more confident of Agave. This is only my second attempt at using it, the first time I didn’t have a chance to take pictures, but I adapted a Banana Cake recipe from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur. It turned out very well – I made it to take to a Diablo Valley Pagans Meet & Greet, and everyone was very surprised that it was ‘healthy’. I have a hankering to try and tackle something chocolate with it next. We’ll see how that turns out.

Back to the pancakes – As you can probably tell from the pictures, the batter for the pancakes came out very thick, making it difficult to pour. Although I liked the convenience of mixing it in the blender, I think next time I might use a ladle or something to get the batter in to the skillet – if only because it was impossible to get nice round-ish pancakes when the batter fell in to the skillet in big globs. lol. The other tip I would share is cook them slower and lower than you would conventional pancakes. I ended up burning a couple because the whole wheat took a little longer to cook than I expected, so the outside was a tad overdone by the time it was done in the middle.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 4 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
• 2 cups Buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbls Butter, Melted plus additional for cooking
• 3 tbs Agave Syrup
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Method:

• In a bowl, stir together the dry ingredients
• Place all wet ingredients in blender and bzzz bzzz until combined
• Add the dry ingredients to the blender and whizz until just mixed, batter will be thick and may be lumpy – and you might need to scrape flour mixture down to get it fully combined
• Set aside for about 10 minutes to allow the whole wheat flour to absorb moisture
• Heat a skillet to medium-low. Melt butter in the skillet.
• Pour batter in to hot pan and cook until surface begins to look bubbly all across and is beginning to dry out a little bit, or bottom is golden
• Flip and cook until golden
• Serve with Maple Syrup, Fresh fruit, or Agave Nectar

Tangy and Fresh, this salad is probably one of my favorite dishes I’ve made lately. It has a great flavor, and is easy to make.

I’ve had a jar of Farro sitting in my pantry for a while now. I kept meaning to make it, but I kept forgetting. Finally on Sunday, I managed to make some time to try it, and now I’m kicking myself for waiting so long, because it is really that good. Farro is an ancient grain, considered to be the grain that most others are descended from. It’s kind of a specialty grain, so if you don’t have it available, you can probably use wheat berries or barley, with similar results, but I have to say – I’ve had both before, and Farro has them beat by a long shot. The Flavor is nutty, with such a great texture. I’ve been trying to incorporate more whole grains in to my meals (see here if you’re interested in the backstory), and farro is one of those grains that makes the process so easy, because it tastes so good.

When were in Boston last year, we went to a restaurant called Hungry Mother a couple of times, and it was delish. On the second night I went, they had a Collard Green Salad, the most that I was able to drag out of the server (whether from his lack of knowledge or a disinclination to reveal the chef’s secrets) was that the leaves were blanched and then chopped and tossed with the dressing – which is what inspired me to include them and the chard in this salad. I think it might actually be my new favorite way to make greens. Although it is a little fussy, (I mean, you are standing over a stove dipping leaf after leaf in hot water), the resulting leaves were tender, and less bitter than other cooking methods. I imagine you could do it with more than one leaf at time in a basket or some such, but I wanted each leaf to have some freedom to move around, and honestly – each leaf only needs to blanch for a couple of seconds, so it goes really quickly.

I do have a confession to make though. A week ago, I was an olive-hater. I know, I know… shhhh! I’m so ashamed. I think I had just accepted as established fact that I didn’t like olives, so I never bothered to try them again. And to be fair, I’m still not keen on black olives – especially on pizza. But I’m opening up to the possibility of reds and greens. I had decided to give them a try when Mr. Man made focaccia last week. They had been buried in the pantry for who knows how long, waiting for me to give them a chance to prove themselves. I opened the jar, and tentatively took a little nibble, and decided that I might be able to get used to them.

Although, now as I’m taking little baby steps in to Olive-World, I do need to remember to get pitted when I need pitted… But just in case you’re someone who is not me, and you accidentally got the wrong kind of olives, and found yourself wanting chopped olives for a Farro Salad… you might be interested to know that a Cherry Pitter does a halfway decent job of pitting olives, too. Not that I would know from personal experience or anything. <cough> Ahem. Moving right along. We served this salad this morning for breakfast with some lightly blanched Asparagus from my recent FFTY Box, and a scrambled farm egg, and it was perfect together.

Ingredients:

• 5 cups Water
• 2 cups Whole Farro
• 1 bunch Collard Greens
• 1 bunch Chard
• 1 stalk Green Garlic; finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Coarsely Chopped Mixed Green & Red Olives
• 1 lemon; juiced
• 1/4 cup Good Quality Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Rinse and pick over Farro
• Place Farro in a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid
• Add Water and several generous pinches of Kosher Salt
• Bring to a Boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer
• Cook for 45 minutes or until tender, checking frequently
• Drain and Set aside to cool
• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil
• Blanch each leaf of collard greens and chard by dipping in to the water for 5-10 seconds, or until bright green and tender
• Remove Stem and finely chop Greens
• When the Farro has cooled to room temperature, stir in the Greens, Garlic, and olives until well combined
• Add the Lemon Juice, Olive Oil, and Kosher Salt to taste, stirring together until well combined
• Serve at Room Temperature

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I’m slowly but surely starting to get back on with the normal routine of things after the craziness of the last month, which is something of a relief, because I think my head might have ‘sploded if things kept up at the pace they were at. As I mentioned, my friend’s mother died, but the full on crazy didn’t stop there, because shortly afterwards (like – the evening after the memorial) I came down with what can only be described as The Worst Flu Of All Time. ALL TIME.

The flu had me laid up for a week solid, at of course – the worst time possible, since it was the week before Pantheacon. As if I wasn’t already stressed out and nervous, I now need to be rushed and frantic trying to get everything done the couple of days before, because I had been sick. Thankfully, after a couple of long days, I was able to get everything I needed to get done, done, go to Pantheacon and have a (mostly) good time. Amusingly, I did end up attending a seminar entitled “Sacred Seasons, Sacred Meals: Seasonal Food & Sustainability”, and the best thing I can say about it is that it’s inspired me to consider applying to do a seminar next year on Sustainable & Seasonal foods. Who knows if it’ll get accepted… But I think I might have to try, because it was just that bad.

One of the things that I try really hard to do as a general rule is have low-maintenance things cooking in the background while I straighten up around the house, make dinner, or whatever. Roasting a whole squash is one of those easy background processes that after you’ve done it a couple of times – you’ll think to yourself, why did I ever buy canned pumpkin? I mean, it requires next to no babysitting, it’s really hard to mess up, and the results are so easy and delicious. Cooking beans or whole grains for later use is also a good use of down time at home. I’m pretty sure I’ve said it before, but – if you have a couple of hours where you’re going to be at home and can breeze through the kitchen every so often – you can make beans.

In my recent fascination with all things Legume, I picked up these beans at a trip to the bulk-bins. They were simply listed as “Baby Garbanzos/Chana Dal” – which tickled my fancy a little bit, because I love trying out new things, and I’d never heard of Baby Garbanzo beans before. Upon closer inspection and a google search or two, I discovered that they’re really more like split Garbanzo beans. I had half of the pound earmarked for a Hummus, that I haven’t made yet, but for the other half I needed a little inspiration – so I looked around for some ideas and came across this site that waxes eloquent about the wonders of Chana Dal, which is where I came across the inspiration for this soup.

All things considered, if you are like me, and try to keep cooked beans and other conveniences like roasted squash in the fridge, this soup will go together so fast it will make your family’s head spin. 0-to-soup in 15 minutes or so. Not quite as quick as Campbells, sure – but not shabby at all, and much healthier and tastier. Plus, if you like it spicier, you can always kick it up a notch by adding in some extra chili powder, or what have you. The measurements on the spices are rough estimates. I strongly recommend adding spices to taste, because a lot of things can affect the flavor – age of your spices, the particular blend of curry, how hot/spicy/whatever you like it, etc…

Ingredients:

• 1 quart Pureed Butternut Squash*
• 1 quart Cooked Chana Dal in Cooking Liquid**
• 1 quart Stock or Leftover Chana Dal Cooking Liquid
• 1 onion; sliced
• 4 cloves Garlic; coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup White Wine
• 1/4 cup Brown Rice Vinegar (or to taste)
• 2 tbs Butter
• 1 tbs Grated Ginger
• 1 tbs Curry Powder (or to taste)
• 2 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Heat the Olive Oil in a large pot over medium heat
• Add the Onions and saute until tender and edges are beginning to turn golden
• Reduce heat and add the coarsely chopped Garlic
• Gently cook for about a minute to heat the garlic thoroughly
• Working in batches, puree the Chana Dal, onions, garlic, and butternut squash together
• Return puree to pot and add the Stock (or leftover Chana Dal Cooking Liquid, if you have it)
• Heat on low, gently, until warmed through
• Stir in the White Wine, Rice Vinegar (to taste), Ginger, Butter and Kosher Salt (to taste)
• In a small bowl, stir together the curry powder, cumin, and chili powder
• Take a spoonful or two of the soup, and stir together with the spice mixture to create a paste, this will help keep the spices from clumping instead of mixing in smoothly
• Add additional soup until paste becomes thinned
• Working to taste, add the thinned paste mixture to the soup until desired spice/heat level is reached
• Remove from Heat and stir in the Sesame Oil
• Serve Immediately

*To make your own Butternut Squash Puree, roast whole butternut squash in a 400° oven until tender. Allow to cool, remove and discard seeds and peel, and puree. One medium Butternut = appx 1 quart puree

**To cook Chana Dal, (or any other bean for that matter) Soak overnight (or atleast a few hours), place in a heavy pot with lid. Add 1 quart or so of stock, a bay leaf, a sprig of rosemary (optional), a sprig of Thyme (optional), and enough water to cover the beans by at least an inch. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer, once beans begin to soften, add a couple of liberal pinches of kosher salt, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally until cooked to desired tenderness.

I’ve found myself having a hard time getting back in to the swing of things, with the craziness of the last few weeks. I’ve spent some time in the kitchen, but we’ve also eaten out more than usual. I think I’ve also gotten in to a rut, although I’ve been cooking some things, I haven’t really done anything particularly new or inspiring recently. That is going to change here soon, because I have a few ideas that I think will be very fun to blog – but in the mean time, I thought I’d do a restaurant review that had been on my To-Do list for several months now, Nibblers Eatery and Wine Bar.

We first visited Nibblers sometime in December, I’m not exactly sure when – but it had been on my radar for a while. As one of the very, very few restaurants in our area that focuses on local and sustainable food, I was keenly interested in checking it out. There was, however, a small stumbling block that kept us from going sooner – and that was, they happen to have the fortune (or mis-fortune, I suppose) of being right next door to our favorite sushi place. So it kept getting put off, because if we went out, we would frequently end up next door at the Sushi place instead. However, when we found out that one of Miss Thing’s friends knew the chef and owner, we decided it was time to make it a priority.

Since that first experience, we’ve gone a few more times – and it has definitely become short-listed to our favorite restaurants. Where we live, there are precious few restaurants that put any kind of emphasis on where their ingredients come from, and refreshingly – Nibblers puts a great deal of emphasis on where they get their food – frequently calling it out on the menu. They focus on Seasonal and Sustainable ingredients, and I believe the majority of them are sourced locally. As someone who is pretty passionate about the food that I make at home, I think it’s awesome to find a restaurant that cares as deeply as I do. When I look at their menu and know that the cheese that I’m eating came from Cowgirl Creamery, that the lettuce came from Capay Valley, that the pork is Berkshire, and so on, it makes me feel good. I mean, I try not to get all preachy on my friends and loved ones, but I do feel very strongly that local and sustainable food is worth the extra effort and cost, atleast most of the time. Like a lot of restaurants that focus on seasonal ingredients, Nibblers Menu will change frequently – typically they will have a monthly regional theme, with some smaller weekly changes depending on produce availability and such. The nice thing about this set up is, every time you go (unless you’re going more frequently than once a week, naturally) there will always be something new for the adventurous to try. Also important to note is that the menu is Tapas (small-plates) style, meaning most of the portions are small-ish, designed to be shared, and you will probably need 2-3 plates per person.

The Nibblers location is small and intimate, charming – with wine crates stacked strategically to create separate spaces and to have wine bottles and other interesting food related objects places to be displayed. There are several strategically placed little nooks containing books, some of them well worn, and all with some sort of relation to food or cooking – in fact, if it wouldn’t have been rude, there were a few that I wanted to lean over a table for to check out the titles. Fortunately, my Momma taught me better than that, so I didn’t. lol The restaurant is family owned, so on busy nights, you will sometimes be greeted by a young teenage girl, helping out the family for a little spending money. Then they give you a little dish of what I think are shrimp flavored chips, that are fairly addictive – in fact, I may need to hunt down a source for them for a movie night snack one of these days.

After we placed our order, we were offered the Nibble of the day, typically a one bite Amuse-bouche. When we went yesterday, the Nibble of the day was a pita chip, topped with a soft cheese, a sprig of chickweed, drizzled with oil. I’ll admit, this was probably one of my favorite offerings of the evening. The flavors combined nicely to tingle the appetite and get me geared up for the remainder of the meal.  It also put me in mind of spring, and how the season is beginning to turn. Every time I go to Nibblers, the Nibble of the Day puts me in mind to make up little one bite snacks for get togethers. The last couple of times we went, we looked over the Prix-Fixe, and didn’t find enough there to interest us – despite the fact that it is undoubtedly the best value on the menu. This time, however – there was enough listed that we found appealing, so we decided to give it a try.

In addition to the Prix-Fixe menu, we decided to get an order of the entirely-too-addictive Flash Fried Spinach, something we tried on our last trip and is considered to be one of the mainstays of Nibblers, and is definitely one of my personal favorites. The picture doesn’t really do it justice, because these spinach leaves are amazing. They are delicate, and crispy, and an almost melting quality when you eat them. I highly recommend trying them – if nothing else for the very cool textural experience. For the record, Mr. Man has specifically banned me from attempting to make these at home. Something about how we’d all die of spinach overdose if I were to successfully replicate them.

We also ordered the Moroccan Seafood B’stilla off the regular menu, mostly because I’m just a huge, huge fan of B’stilla, which is another dish that I’m technically not ever supposed to make at home. Typically B’stilla is made with poultry, eggs, almonds, cinnamon, and powdered sugar in Phyllo, for a sweet/savory crispy pie type thing, and prepared right, it’s to die for. The Seafood B’stilla was very good – although not what I would call a B’stilla really, since it lacked the complex sweet/savory combination, and was more like a seafood Pasty or Hand Pie. Aside from that minor complaint, it was delicious. The Spicy Harissa Emulsion that was served with it was a big hit with Mr. Man – I think he ended up eating all of it except for a couple of small tastes from me, since I’m a big wuss and couldn’t handle the heat… lol.

The first course of the Prix-Fixe was a Crispy Risotto Cake, with chanterelles, topped with a red pepper emulsion and mizuna. It reminded me a little bit of the deep fried macaroni that we used to get sometimes at a restaurant in the city, since it had a similar texture… crispy on the outside, but warm, cheesy, and soft on the inside, but from there the resemblance ended – because this was much more awesome. The risotto was so creamy and cheesy, with little chunks of chanterelle Mushrooms embedded in it, while the outside was deliciously crispy and golden brown. The Red Pepper emulsion was a perfect complement – and even the leaf of butter lettuce was completely devoured.

Next was the savory Chanterelle Flan Tart, made with a Seasonal offering by Cowgirl Creamery called Devil’s Gulch, farm eggs, and rapini. If I’m not mistaken, the Rapini got the same treatment as the flash fried spinach earlier, since the leaves were crispy, although I could be wrong, as the stems were not as crispy. The tart was very quiche like, and enjoyable. However, this dish wasn’t really my favorite dish. It was fairly oily, whether from the rapini or the tart I can’t really recall, but it was definitely a distraction. Aside from that small complaint, it was still very good.

For the “main course” we had a choice of Grilled Meyer Natural Hanger Steak with heirloom chicories and sherry creamed chanterelles, or the Maple Leaf Duck en Croute. Mr. Man and I both didn’t really have to think too hard about that choice though, since both of us are ginormous Hangar Steak fans. And what amazing Hangar Steak it was. Perfectly Medium Rare, with creamy sauce and big chunks of chanterelles, and tender enough to cut with a butter knife. Mr. Man said it was one of the bestest hangar steaks he’d ever had, and was definitely the highlight of the meal.

Dessert was a Passion Fruit Crème Brûlée, served with a shortbread-like cookie, and a couple of fresh raspberries (where did they find fresh raspberries this time of year??). I tend to like my caramel to be a little lighter, so I found the burnt sugar topping to be a little strong for me, but the passion fruit custard was simply amazing – so rich, and creamy. It’s got me itching to make some custard with the mangoes that I received in my FFTY box. I also loved the little shortbread cookie that came with it. It had teeny little chunks of dried fruit in it, with a soft, tender crumb, and was a perfect complement to the custard, and together was a great way to end a great meal.

One thing we forgot to order this time, that I want to specifically call out, because they ROCK, is the flatbreads. If you go, please make sure to order a flatbread. They are amazing.

In the end, I think this place is pretty awesome – and the fact that they are convenient to us makes it just that much better. They are spendy – but the trade off is you can really feel good about supporting a local business, local farms, and sustainable farming. And the food is very good. For those of you who enjoy wine, there is an extensive wine selection, and various wine flights – as well as micro brewery beers both bottled and on tap. I imagine that probably deserved more than a blurb in the summary, but since we aren’t wine people it’s really hard to write about their selection very well. I did try one of their wine flights last time we went, and found a couple of wines I didn’t hate, but I think I still need to work on developing my wine palate. Also, we have never had a problem getting seated – although I think the word might be getting out, because last night they were packed to the gills and we almost didn’t get a seat. Of course it was a spur of the moment decision to go so it was probably our own fault, if you are going out for a special occasion I’d recommend having a reservation, just in case.

As far as service goes, this restaurant isn’t for the quickly eat and then go person. A visit to Nibblers is the main event, not the opener. When you come, expect to spend some time lingering over your food, your wine, etc… The keyword here is ‘savor’. Go ahead and have a little chat with Trace, the Patisserie, Hostess, and All-Around-Wealth-Of-Information, if she’s not busy. If you’re lucky, Chef Daniel might poke his head out of the kitchen to say hello, and if you’re like me you’ll have to bite your tongue to prevent yourself from geeking out on the food because you don’t want to keep him from getting back to the kitchen to make your next course… Basically what I’m saying is – the service is awesome, but don’t expect to be in and out, or if you do want to get in and out, you need to communicate your expectations to your server, who can then guide and pace the meal accordingly. Expect to spend $30-40 on food per person if you order À la carte, roughly, and then whatever drinks you get on top of that.

Before I start with my regular post, I just want to apologize for my less than stellar post rate the last week or two. Sadly, my dear friend’s mother passed away recently, and I have been spending much time and energy with her, trying to help in whatever way I can with this unexpected tragedy. I won’t dwell on sadness for this post, but I did want to offer up some small explanation. My heart goes out to my friend and her family.

This Chicken was three weeks in the making – lol! I had ordered a Gleason Ranch Chicken two weeks in a row before I finally received one on the third week. Frustratingly, Planet Organics ended up being out of stock on them the first two times I ordered – which left us without our weekly Meat-As-Main-Dish meal, since I didn’t order a back-up plan. Of course, on the third week, having learned my lesson about Chickens and being out of stock, I decided to order back-up meat, in the form of some Marin Sun Farms Sirloin, and I end up with both. Just my luck.

My initial plan was to portion up the chicken in to breasts, legs, thighs and wings – poach the breasts for chicken salad or casserole, freeze the wings until I had a couple more sets to make Buffalo Wings, and roast the legs and thighs. Unfortunately, the chicken arrived in a half-frozen state, leading me to believe it was previously frozen, so I decided not to risk the loss of quality by freezing the wings again. Boo. I was really bummed. I also broke my come-apart kitchen shears disassembling the chicken. Which also bummed me out. They weren’t anything special, but now I have to replace them. <sigh>

Roasting Chicken and Potatoes on a cold winter evening makes for a great comfort food – especially when there’s any kind of malaise making it’s way through your household. Miss Thing was home sick with some sort of bug yesterday, and it looks like Mr. Man has the same thing now. Fortunately, this dish is so nice and simple to throw together leaving plenty of spare time to clean up – and even watch some television while it roasted. Add a tossed salad, and you have a hearty meal, and only one dirty pot. When I first planned to make this, I thought I had some carrots to add to the pot as well, but I when I went digging in the fridge I realized I was mistaken. If you have them, I would say add them – they’d make a nice addition. But with or without them, it’s durn tasty. One other note – because I had been mucking about with the chicken for while, and then needed to start dinner, I didn’t have time for a proper brining. I’m going to list what I did and how I did it, but if you have the time, inclination, and Plan-ahead-ed-ness™, I’m sure your results would be much improved by an overnight brine in more flavorful liquid.

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Leg Quarters
• 2 Chicken Wings
• 3 lbs Red Potatoes; cut in to 1″ chunks
• 1 Onion; diced
• 3 cloves Garlic; minced
• 2 small sprigs of Rosemary; minced
• 1 tbs and 1 tsp Olive Oil; divided
• Kosher Salt
• Water

Method:

• Place the chicken parts in to a bowl
• Cover with atleast an inch of cool water
• Add 1 tbs or so of Kosher Salt (a very generous couple of pinches)
• Set aside while chopping and prepping other ingredients
• Preheat Oven to 350°
• Place the potatoes, onions, garlic and rosemary in to a dutch oven
• Toss the potatoes mixture with the tablespoon of Olive Oil and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt
• Press the potatoes in to the bottom of the pan
• Drain and pat dry the Chicken Parts
• Rub remaining Olive Oil and another sprinkle or two of kosher salt on to the chicken parts
• Place the Chicken on top of the potatoes
• Cover and roast for 40 minutes, or until juices run clear and potatoes are cooked through
• Uncover and broil for 1-2 minutes to crisp skin, if desired.

Everyone needs a little wake up reminder every once in a while – I received mine, earlier this week, when I managed to give myself a pretty bad cut on my thumb while cooking, which resulted in a trip to Urgent Care. Fortunately, I didn’t end up needing stitches – but I was given a tetanus shot and told to take it easy on my hand the next few days. Unfortunately, this happened right before the monthly Diablo Valley Pagan‘s Meet & Greet – which means that I was scrambling that day, trying to come up with something easy and simple to bring with me.

Of course the whole week was kinda meh – the thumb was just the crappy icing on a crappy cake. We had a whole week straight of storms – and rainy weather never really brings out my happy-happy side, nevermind the fact that a certain young Miss Thing was having issues with a homework assignment this week. It got finished, but there was some last minute cramming getting in there – I think that was partially a parent-fail, since she was supposed to be writing a court room dramatization – and we never watch court room dramas really, so she was kind of clueless about the whole dealio. Thank goodness for “A Few Good Men” – lol!

We’ve also developed a new obsession – one of my sisters had mentioned that we might like a show called Dexter. Which – er… ah… we ended up liking. A lot. So much that we’ve been up very late in the evenings all week watching it. Causing us to have many short-sleep-ed nights. Okay, the show is CRACK. Can’t-Stop-Watching-Episode-After-Episode-CRACK. <cough> So, erm… yeah, there’s been a lot of Dexter watching going on – which has been kind of at odds with my Be-More-Productive resolve. The next week promises to be pretty durned lame, too – lots of late night evenings for Mr. Man. Some big hubaloo at work this week. It’ll be okay, just not really looking forward to it.

Speaking of things that I’m not sure I’m really looking forward to – I’ll be attending Pantheacon, next month – which I’m pretty nervous about. I’ve never been to a convention, but I’ve heard a lot about them – and can make some educated guesses about what it will be like… Which only makes me nervouser. I don’t like going to the mall on the weekends because it gets crowded – and now I’m going to spend an entire weekend packed in to a hotel with thousands of other people. I’m probably crazy. No, I’m definitely crazy. Anyways. If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll run in to friends from San Diego – there are quite a few people that I’ve lost touch with over the years that it’d be nice to talk to and get proper contact information on. One of the bizarre Pagan Cultural problems is that your real name and the name that you actually go by in the community can often be pretty different – which can make it hard to facebook stalk… er… find them again. Well actually – that can also be a problem for any internet handle -> real life association. I’m rambling, but you probably get the idea.

I’m sure I’ll have an awesome time though – and I’m probably just being my normal worrying too much self about the whole issue. But aside from the people and crowds, I’m actually a little concerned about food for the Con. Supposedly there’s limited (re: Expensive and not very good) dining, no refrigeration – and forget trying to find anything local/sustainable. My sister says that we’ll be taking a cooler – so I’m trying to come up with some ideas that would be good for quick, grab and go snacks and meals that will still be vaguely healthy. I would prefer to have things available that don’t need refrigeration or reheating – which will be a neat trick, I’m sure. I have a couple of ideas – but if anyone wants to suggest some, I’m all ears. I don’t, however, think I’ll be bringing these absolutely decadent Samoas with me – since then I’d probably never want to come out of the hotel room, lol.

Every time Girl Scout Cookie time comes along, I always think to myself that I should try making Samoas – because they are like my Kryptonite. I love them and always order several boxes. Then of course, they’re gone and I don’t get any for the rest of the year. Which, let’s face it – is probably good for my waist line, but still a sad, sad thing. Last weekend, my neighbor stopped by with her daughter who just recently entered in to Daisy Scouts, with a big glossy flier and an order form. Of course I ordered some, but they don’t get here for weeks and weeks. So late in the afternoon on the day of my DVP meeting, with a big ol’ cut on my thumb, an aching arm, and only a couple of hours to spare, I decided it was a perfect time to try and make Samoas to take to the meet & greet. Have I mentioned I’m crazy? I just barely got them dipped, drizzled and set before I had to dash out the door… but even still, they turned out so delish that I knew I had to post about them if I had any leftover.

Fortunately, although we had a few new faces and a decent-ish turn out, I ended up with enough leftover to take some pictures of when I got home (if maybe not the prettiest ones). They actually go together pretty quickly – and are a more-than adequate substitute if you happen to be outside of Girl Scout Cookie Season and craving some caramel coconut goodness. The real trick to making these decadent treats though, would definitely be to use the best ingredients you can – especially the chocolate. I ended up using some terrific flake coconut that I had in the pantry, with some lovely dark Valrhona Chocolate bars that my nearby Trader Joes carries. If I’ve said it once, I know I’ve probably said it a milli0n times – when making anything with only a few ingredients it’s even more important that you use the finest ingredients you can lay your hands on. Your tastebuds will thank you.

A couple of other quick notes – next time, I would probably pre-bake the crust. I didn’t this time, and although I loved the tenderness, it did make them harder to dip – since the bars kinda wanted to crumble a little bit. Post-dipping, they held together fine, since the chocolate provided more structure for them – I also might consider using shredded coconut next time – mostly because cutting the bars was a pain with the big flakes of coconut, and I imagine it would be easier with finely shredded coconut instead. Which is really too bad, because I loved the taste and texture of the flakes. I also tempered the chocolate – unlike the time I made Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies. If you don’t want to bother, it will probably be fine to simply melt the chocolate and dip. You will have to keep them in the fridge to make sure they stay set up, but they’ll still taste good. For the record, although tempering was a pain, I’m glad I did since it made for a more finger friendly snack at the Meet & Greet – and I’ll probably temper from now on.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups Sugar
• 3 sticks Butter; softened; divided
• 1 cup Sour Cream; Room Temperature
• 2 cups Flour
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 cups Unsweetened Flake Coconut
• 1 cup Chopped Pecans (optional)
• 10 oz Fine Quality Dark Chocolate; coarsely chopped in to chunks
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt; divided

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°
• Place the 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar in a heavy bottomed pot over medium-low heat
• Cook the sugar without stirring until the sugar begins to melt, liquefy and caramelize, at which point you can gently swirl the pan around
• Once the caramel is completely liquefied and golden dark brown in color, remove from heat and add the butter.
• Stir to combine (careful – the caramel will spit and hiss)
• Add the Sour Cream, vanilla, and 1/4 tsp of the kosher salt. Stir to combine.
• Set the caramel aside to cool
• Line a 9″x13″ pan with Parchment Paper
• In a medium sized bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, and remaining 1/4 tsp of Kosher Salt
• Add the remaining two sticks of softened butter to the flour mixture and mix together to form a soft dough
• Press the crust mixture evenly in to the bottom of the parchment lined pan
• Stir the coconut and pecans (if using) in to the caramel, then spread evenly over the crust
• Bake for 45 minutes, or until crust is set
• Cool Bars completely before cutting
• Cut the caramel bars in to squares
• Temper the chocolate
• Take 2/3′s of the chocolate and place it in to a medium sized bowl
• Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water
• Stir the chocolate and use a candy thermometer to heat to around 105°
• Remove from heat and stir in the reserved 1/3 of the chocolate chunks until they melt to bring the temperature down to 88°
• Monitor the temperature and try to keep it at or close to 88° while dipping and drizzling, returning to the saucepan of water when neccessary (do not heat above 89-91° or you’ll have to add more chocolate to start the temper over)
• Dip the bottoms of the bars in the chocolate and place on a sheet of wax paper to set
• When all bars have been dipped, drizzle with remaining chocolate