Chipotle Butternut Kale Salad W/Goat Cheese

* We linked this post at Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS *

I have a mixed bag of remnant veggies in my fridge at the moment, so I thought a little experiment would be a good way to make some progress getting through the last bits of it all.  This salad is a savory combination of roasted butternut squash, chipotle peppers, cilantro, red Russian kale, and goat cheese.  The result was delicious, and easy:

Straw bales and potato cages

Straw bales with soil topping and drip irrigation system.  We eat the dandelions, so I don't count them as weeds... ;)

* We linked this post at Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop *

My straw bale experiments are finally yielding some results, so I thought I'd pass on what I've observed so far, and give a little update on the process while I'm at it.

Carne Adovada, Real New Mexican Food

* We linked this post at Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade *

Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  Probably among the very last places you'd expect to have genuine carne adovada, made with real hatch red chiles (I brought them back with me on my last trip to NM -- that's the kind of chile addict I am).  I was following a recipe I found here, at least approximately.  I had never made carne adovada with smoked pork before, but I will never make it without smoked pork now that I have.  This stuff is GOOD.  Be warned though, it is pretty spicy for those who aren't accustomed to chiles.

Carne adovada is a New Mexican dish consisting of cubes of pork marinated in red chile puree, then smoked and finally slow simmered in red chile sauce until they are fall-apart tender and bursting with chile flavor.  The ingredients are simple, the method is simple, but it does take a few days to do this properly.

Onion Braised Beef Roast

* We linked this post at the Hearth and Soul Hop at A Moderate Life and Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS *

This is one of the simplest recipes I've made in months.  It has only 5 ingredients, but the flavor achieved by the long, slow braise in nothing but onion juice is really incredible.  This one came from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.  I added 50% more onion that it called for, and used a larger rump roast (the original calls for a 2 lb roast, I think mine was closer to 4).

There is no liquid added to this recipe -- just the onions.  As they cook down they caramelize into a delicious sweet and savory sauce.  Turning the roast frequently in the oven bastes it with this sauce, infusing the meat with a rich onion flavor reminiscent of French onion soup.  If you use a good cut of meat (one with some fat and connective tissue) it will come out fall-apart tender and nice and moist. The best part is that if you're quick with a knife, you can have this recipe in the oven in 10 minutes flat!

Teriyaki Ahi Tuna Steak with Miso Soup

* We linked this post at Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop *

We try to get at least one serving of fish in every week here for the purported health benefits, and because I love fish.  Ahi tuna is one of my favorites, and I recently found some that claims to be sustainably wild harvested, so I thought that was a great match.  I also found some organic soy sauce and miso at my local health food store.  When you have a setup like that, the only possible option is some teriyaki grilled fish steaks and miso soup.

T-Bones with Charred Pineapple

It's really getting to be grillin' weather out here, and I've got the bug big time.  One thing that doesn't get grilled by most people nearly as often as it should is pineapple.  When you get this right, it's like a big, juicy piece of candy.  The charred outside is reminiscent of toasted marshmallows, and the ultrasweet, juicy interior is a completely unique experience in the food world.  I highly recommend grilling the next ripe pineapple you come across.

Tzatziki (cucumber and yogurt dip with dill)

Tzatziki sauce -- it is a wonderful combination of flavors that adds a whole new dimension to the foods you put it on.  It's good on meats, cooked vegetables, raw vegetables, chips, or eaten with a spoon (okay, I might be a little extreme...).  The point is, this is a fantastic condiment to make, and it's really very easy.  Here's my recipe:

Cultured, Raw, Grass Fed Butter

* We linked this post at the Hearth and Soul Hop at Hunger and Thirst *

Butter -- it makes everything better.  So what could make butter better? Culturing it!  Our farmer friends who provide us with delicious raw milk recently fired up their cream separator, which is something we'd been eagerly awaiting for a long time.  At our fist opportunity, we picked up half a gallon of the delicious stuff and after using a quart for various other things, we decided it was high time we had some real cultured butter around here.  Here's how we did it (Check out Nourishing Traditions for more details):

Update:  Here is a really great video about how to make butter from raw milk that I'll be following next time.  I think her method is better than this one (I didn't know about washing butter until I watched it), so I'd say try that one first!

Five Minute Homemade Breakfast Sausage

 

* We posted this recipe at Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop *

I love a good breakfast sausage.  This is a fact that can be very frustrating to a person who also tries to avoid things like monosodium glutamate, corn syrup solids, sodium metabisulfite, and other chemical additives.  I'm fortunate to live right in the middle of a collection of conscientious farmers who raise some of the best meat anywhere, but because of various regulations, laws, and other interference they must subject their fantastic ground pork to spice blends that include most or all of the above ingredients.  For that reason, I've started making my own spice blend.  At first, I was a little intimidated by it, but it turns out that breakfast sausage is one of the simplest things you can make, and the resulting flavor and quality is something that you will never be able to get from a grocery store.  Here's how to season up some ground pork into delicious breakfast sausage in under five minutes:

The Very Best Fried Eggs (according to Dude2)

Eggs are a staple for breakfasts at my house, so I've had the opportunity to try cooking them in dozens (maybe hundreds) of different ways.  For over easy fried eggs, this is my favorite of the bunch:

Menu for 2/16/2011 - Ground Beef Tacos (Dude2)

Cooking tonight was a challenge -- my entire family has the flu, and we're in the middle of moving so we have nothing in the kitchen (two pans, a knife, and a cutting board). On top of that, I was supposed to go pick up a new water heater to install in the new house tomorrow, but when I got there they said that they had shipped it to the wrong store! Despite that though, I managed to make some decent tacos and calabacitas guisadas. Serve it with a nice cold Mexican beer for maximal effect. Total prep time was about an hour: