Chocolate Adventure Contest

My sister, who also loves to cook, and I heard about the Chocolate Adventure Contest sponsored by TuttiFoodie and Scharffenberger Chocolate, we thought it would be fun to try out a few recipes together and enter. In order to enter you have to create an original recipe using Scharffenberger dark chocolate (62%-99% cacao) and at least one of a list of "adventure ingredients."

On Saturday she came over for the afternoon to work on our recipes with me. We talked about several different ideas, including trying to come up with some savory dishes, but finally decided on three desserts. I won't tell you what they are, just in case we win (haha), but stay tuned for the recipes once the contest is over! In the meantime, here's a picture.

Raw Milk

I have been reading a lot about raw milk in the papers lately. There was a big article in the New York Times over the summer. I have been wanting to try some raw milk, but didn't want to buy an entire carton of it at the grocery store. Last weekend when I was strolling through the Berkeley Farmer's Market I saw the Claravele Dairy stand. This was my opportunity! I asked for a small taste of the milk. It was really good. Not remarkably different than the Straus milk that I usually buy, just a bit creamier and milkier, if you can imagine that. It was a subtle difference. I bought a quart of it to take home. We drank it during the week. Everytime I or the Boogie had a glass I felt a little thrill. Similar to the thrill you get when you are about to ride a roller coaster - like you are doing something a little bit dangerous. I know that it is generally safe, but with the warning labels on the bottle and that I've read, I was always a little nervous one of us would get sick. Fortunately neither of us did. In the end, I have to say that I am pretty happy with the Straus Creamery milk that I buy and I think I will stick with that, despite the purported health benefits of raw milk. At least while I have such young kids anyway. I will definitely continue to consume lots of raw milk cheese though!

Incidentally, I recently read that the state of North Carolina is requiring raw milk dairies to put gray dye in their milk, since it is only legal to sell as petfood. Go ahead and fertilize the spinach fields with cow shit, look the other way at those mega-slaughter houses, but whatever you do don't sell carefully handled raw milk from small family farms to informed consumers! So crazy!

Book Review: The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese

When I saw this book on a table at Barnes and Noble I had to buy it. Being the cheese lover that I am, I was intrigued by what I might learn about goat cheese. I wondered if some of my favorite local cheese makers would be written about in there. On top of the cheese aspect of the book, I was excited to learn more about the dairy goat industry. My family has a 400 acre ranch in Northern California, and my dad (a fellow cheese lover) and I often talk about how great it would be to move up there, raise goats and make cheese. I picked it up and bought the book immediately.

I enjoyed the book, but definitely felt a bit misled by the title. I learned more about the meat-goat industry than I did about making goat cheese and raising dairy goats. The book takes you on the cross country journey of a young NY couple as they try to learn everything there is to learn about goats in order to determine whether or not they want to quit their jobs and move to the country. It was a fun read and I definitely had moments of great envy. If I didn't have a house, two kids and a dog I would be all over my husband to take a similar journey with me. Somehow the thought of taking such a trip with two little boys seems far less romantic.

The only local cheesemaker that is written about extensively in the book was Redwood Hill Farms. They are well known for their goats milk yogurt, which is surprisingly tasty. The day after I finished the book I headed off for my weekly farmer's market shopping trip, and was delighted to see Redwood Hill Farms represented there. I bought a round of Camelia, in my opinion their best cheese. It is similar to a Camembert, one of my all time favorite cheeses! I also bought a little container of fresh chevre. We ate the Camelia with a nice Acme baguette and tomato salad for lunch that afternoon. Perfect!

I would recommend the book if you want a fun read, but don't expect to learn too much about goat cheese. Instead it is more of a well rounded goat education, which is also useful.

Quick and easy dinner

Monday night...hard to get back into the swing of things sometimes. This was one of those Monday nights that I just couldn't deal with an elaborate meal. My original plan was to make little pot pies with leftover chicken and veggies. I finally cooked my CSA Soul Food Farm chicken after 30 minutes of talking to it outside as I cut off its head and feet. My sister was in the kitchen with the baby and the dog, yelling at me "its already dead! it won't feel a thing!". Anyway, I didn't have it in me to make the pot pies tonight so I dug around in the freezer and pantry for something else to make. I came up with some nice local treats! I found an open box of lasagna noodles, which I broke up and cooked. I was cooking for a two year old and a 10 month old, so they didn't need to be pretty, and they weren't. I also found a package of Fatted Calf Breakfast Sausage and Happy Girl Kitchen pesto sauce. I cooked up the sausage, drained it, poured the cooked pasta on top and stirred in the pesto. Voila! A lovely dinner! I also gave the boys some peach Kefir to drink. The baby especially loved it. He had three helpings of pasta and sausage, plus an entire container of Little Bug Nectarines and Oats, and some Kefir from his sippy cup.

Lamb Breast and Eat Local Challenge

As a part of my meat csa box for September I got a little package labeled "lamb breast." I was intrigued but not sure how to cook them, as I'd never eaten them or seen them prepared before. I searched online for recipes and didn't find much that sounded appealing. Most recipes involved stuffing them and I just wasn't in the mood for that big of a project, especially since its been so hot where I live. On Friday I had my parents over for dinner and decided to make the lamb breast as an appetizer. I followed a recipe that I found on Jacques Pepin's website, figuring it couldn't be TOO bad if it came from him. They were delicious! They were like little spare ribs. I served them with a bowl of the tomato flip I made a few weeks ago with the tomato surplus from my CSA produce box. What a treat!

For the rest of the meal we had Marin Sun Farms chicken breast roasted in the oven with Bariani olive oil, csa garlic, backyard thyme and backyard meyer lemons. I also roasted some of those wonderful csa tomatoes with basil and garlic and we had an Acme baguette. My father brought over some local wine and my mom made an apple crisp with apples they had been given by a guy who my father recently bought bees from. It was a totally local and totally delicious dinner! All in keeping with the Eat Local Challenge.

Comfort Food

Booking Through Thursday, Comfort Food:


Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.

What do you read?

I would get myself a bottle of wine, an Acme baguette and a wheel of Red Hawk and sit down on my couch with a nice cookbook. Probably one of Julia Child's books or some other big book with lots of interesting facts about food and cooking. I find cookbooks to be very comforting reading, and then you can stop at any point for a good cry and pick it up again when you've gotten a hold of yourself again.

Meal Plans

We have been getting absolutely overloaded with basil, peppers, eggplant and heirloom tomatoes from our CSA over the past few weeks. I have been doing my best to keep up and eat them all, but I finally just started roasting them all together, whizzing them up in the Cuisinart and freezing them as pasta sauce for the winter. Tonight my two year old had an absolute fit that there was sauce on his noodles and refused to eat them. His 10 month old brother, on the other hand, gobbled up the sauce on some overcooked noodles and ate a whole wedge of Parmesan cheese (this is how I know that he takes after his mommy where the two year old seems to take after his dad, at least in the food departmetn). I am finally caught up on the eggplant and tomatoes, at least until Thursday when the next CSA box arrives. Here's what's on our menu this week:

Monday - Leftover penne with roasted tomato and pepper sauce
Tuesday - Fritatta with carmelized onions, tomatoes and goat cheese, which I plan to buy at the Berkeley Farmer's Market tomorrow afternoon. Green salad with vinaigrette and, you guessed it, tomatoes!
Wednesday - Sloppy Joes made with ground beef from my meat CSA, peas from my freezer (not local but I already had them on hand). This should be an agreeable dinner for my two year old.
Thursday - I guess I will just have to get on with that chicken and roast it with some potatoes and other local veggies, green salad.
Friday - Date night - we're goin' out!
Saturday - Leftover chicken in some form
Sunday - We're goin' out again!

Desert Island Gear

My friend (and cousin's wife), Marsha just posted a fun little contest on her blog. In order to participate she asks that we post on our blogs what three things we'd take if stranded on a desert island. The first thing that came to my mind, perhaps because I've been up since 5 with my two year old, was my French Press and a very large supply of great coffee. They will come in a box together, so I am counting that as one item. I am pretty worthless without my coffee each morning, plus it is nice to have a glass of sweet iced coffee on a hot afternoon. I am sure there would be lots of very hot afternoons on a desert island, right? I would need some sort of entertainment, so my next item is a year's worth of back issues of the New York Times. First I thought maybe I'd bring some great book, but since I don't know how long I'd be stranded, I would probably get bored with that. But it would take a long time to get through a whole year's worth of New York Times papers cover to cover. The last thing I'd bring is a cow. Yes, a cow. Then I would always have milk for my coffee, I could make butter for cooking all of the fish that I'd be catching in, I could finally learn how to make cheese since I'd have lots of available free time, and I'd have a companion. Hopefully it would be a tropical fruit eating cow. When do we leave?

Desert Island Gear

My friend (and cousin's wife), Marsha just posted a fun little contest on her blog. In order to participate she asks that we post on our blogs what three things we'd take if stranded on a desert island. The first thing that came to my mind, perhaps because I've been up since 5 with my two year old, was my French Press and a very large supply of great coffee. They will come in a box together, so I am counting that as one item. I am pretty worthless without my coffee each morning, plus it is nice to have a glass of sweet iced coffee on a hot afternoon. I am sure there would be lots of very hot afternoons on a desert island, right? I would need some sort of entertainment, so my next item is a year's worth of back issues of the New York Times. First I thought maybe I'd bring some great book, but since I don't know how long I'd be stranded, I would probably get bored with that. But it would take a long time to get through a whole year's worth of New York Times papers cover to cover. The last thing I'd bring is a cow. Yes, a cow. Then I would always have milk for my coffee, I could make butter for cooking all of the fish that I'd be catching in, I could finally learn how to make cheese since I'd have lots of available free time, and I'd have a companion. Hopefully it would be a tropical fruit eating cow. When do we leave?

Maybe I Should Be a Vegetarian?

I have so many conflicted feelings about eating meat. On the one hand, I hate the thought of animals dying for my food. On the other, I love meat and I do believe that humans were meant to eat it. I have solved this inner conflict for the most part by commiting myself to buying humanely raised meat exclusively. I even joined a meat CSA where all of the meat comes from small, organic farms. I haven't had an issue with any of the meat, in fact it has all been delicious. The only thing I have been having a hard time with is the chicken. You see, it came with its head and feet still on, complete with little eyeballs. Now, I have always said that people shouldn't eat meat if they couldn't witness the slaughter themselves and then turn around and eat the animal killed. I have even witnessed a chicken slaughter in person and ate chicken pot pie for dinner. But every time I think about cooking that bird, every time I pull it out of the freezer and look into its eyes, I am overcome with sadness for the life lost. Some might say it is just a chicken, and to give thanks to the bird and get on with it, but I haven't managed it yet. It keeps getting put right back into the freezer. I am in the midst of the Eat Local Challenge, and am running out of protein so pretty soon I am going to have to suck it up and cook the bird. I guess I have to wait for a day when I am feeling brave!

The last of the summer berries...

Last Tuesday I was having one-of-those-days with my two year old and ten month old boys. We needed to get out of the house and do something fun fast! I am currently participating in the Eat Local Challenge, so one of my regular one-of-those-days outings was out - the Starbuck's drive-through. Cookie for the boy, coffee for me and NPR on the radio. Everyone is strapped in and no one is getting into trouble. We decided to make the 30 minute drive to the Berkeley Farmer's Market, and I am so glad we did! I put the baby in the stroller and the Boogie walked alongside, holding the strap. We shopped, I bought the best iced coffee I have EVER had from Blue Bottle Coffee and then we bought a pint of beautiful little strawberries. The Boogie insisted that we sit right down on the curb to eat the "baby strawberries". I got maybe three berries, he ate every single one! Since then he's been bugging me to go back to the farmer's market for strawberries. Well, today is market day again, so off we went. And again he ate every single strawberry in the pint! I am sad that we probably only have a few weeks left of these delicious little berries. I guess we'll have to go to the market every week until they're gone.

More Canning

I am on a roll! Today I canned several jars of Grandma's bread and butter pickles and a few jars of tomato flip. I can't wait to make a nice roast this winter to put the tomato (TOMAHTO) flip on. Yum!

Eat Local Challenge - Day One

Yesterday marked the start of the newest Eat Local Challenge, which I have decided to participate in. My rules this time around are as follows:
1. I will buy only local produce and meat/dairy products
2. I am not giving up coffee, but will buy only from local roasters
3. I will buy all pasta, bread and baked goods from local sources
4. I will make as many bread and baked goods at home as I can
5. I am not giving up seasonings, spices and sugar, but I will limit them to what I already have on hand in my cupboard
6. I will cut back on eating out, and will primarily eat at restaurants that focus on serving local and organic foods (we'll be visiting Chow a lot).
7. I am not giving up alcohol, but will limit it to what I have on hand, or I will buy locally produced wines.

Day one was easy, it was way to hot to do anything so I stayed home with my boys and ate what we had from our CSAs. No problem!

Apples Galore

We have an old apple tree in our backyard which has been VERY prolific this summer. I've been working hard to keep up with the tree, but despite my best efforts our backyard smells like a cider mill. On Thursday evening I picked about 40 pounds of apples to put up. You wouldn't even know I had touched the tree if you looked at it. I decided to make apple butter for my first round of apple canning. I found a nice recipe on Culinate and got busy. I made 16 jars of apple butter. I also had two weeks worth of green beans in the fridge from my CSA so I decided to make some Dilly Beans too. Only 5 jars of those. I can't wait to see what they taste like! I've never actually eaten a Dilly Bean before. Now I have to find a good recipe for Apple Chutney and something to do with all of the figs and grapefruit!

I am looking forward to next year when the Boogie and maybe even his brother can help me with the canning. This year I did it at night while they slept.