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Independence Days: Week 28?

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Anisa

Wow – I think it’s twenty-eight.  I have sort of lost count.  So we’ll go with it.

This week I’ve been playing catch up with the house and laundry and trying not to let any of the food go bad.  I don’t yet have all the green chiles peeled and in the freezer yet.  I’m hoping they will make it a couple more days, but I’m afraid they might not.

I’ve also been trying to get a lot done around the yard.  This weekend is Denver’s chicken coop tour, which we’re participating in.  So of course, I want our yard in an unnaturally clean and perfect manner.  ;)   Ha!

Back when we picked peaches, we got a few apples as well.  they’ve been yummy and lasting quite a while on the counter, but our time is about to run out with them, so I decided this morning to dry them.  I’ve never dehydrated apples before, so wish me luck!

Here’s the update this week.

Plant something – some more flowers and bulbs.  No food, but I am hoping to get a few seeds in the ground to over winter (garlic if it’s not too late).

Harvest something – eggs, tomatoes, kohlrabi.

Preserve something – tomatoes frozen, French onion soup made and frozen, some chiles in the freezer.  Put apples on the dehydrator this morning.

Waste Not – compost and recycling, scraps to chickens, etc.

Want Not – nothing.

Build Community Food Systems – I just realized that I never told you that Henry, Emmett and I helped with a film that Denver Urban Homesteading is making to get the city of Denver to lift the law preventing chickens inside city limits without a permit.  I am excited to see the video (I think it will be on youtube), and I will certainly share when it’s finished!

Eat the Food – made a big pot of veggie soup just to use some things up!  I also made this eggplant lasagna that was a bit of an experiment – the original recipe was a bit different, and I didn’t have what was called for so I made some substitutions.  It turned out really yummy.  Here’s the recipe – it sounds so weird, but it tasted great!

1 ½ pounds eggplant sliced ¼” thick
3 Tbs olive oil
coarse salt and ground pepper
4-6 slices bacon cooked until crisp and crumbled
¼ tsp ground all spice
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint
1½ tsp dried oregano
5 cups Bechamel Sauce (I would increase the milk in the recipe to 5 cups, the flour to 1/3 cup, and add 2-3 cloves of garlic)
8-12 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Toss eggplant with 2 Tbs olive oil, salt and pepper and put on a baking sheet.  Roast eggplant in 400 degree oven for about twenty minutes.  Meanwhile, make your Bachamel sauce and cook your bacon.

When the bacon is crisp, remove from pan and drain off most to all of the drippings.  Add 1 Tbs olive oil to bacon pan and all of the herbs and spices.  Saute about three minutes, and add crumbled bacon back to pan.

Spread 1 cup sauce in the bottom of an 8×8 pan (I use a pan that is about 8×10).  Place two or three noodles over sauce.  Layer with half of the eggplant.  Then 1 cup more of sauce and ¼ cup of Swiss cheese.  Layer two or three more noodles.  Layer on all of the bacon-herb mixture.  Top with another cup of sauce and another ¼ cup of Swiss cheese.  Top with two or three more noodles and repeat eggplant layer with remaining ingredients, reserving the Parmesan.

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove foil, top with reserved cheese and continue to bake 5 -10 minutes more until the cheese is bubbly.  Remove from oven, let cool 15-20 minutes and serve.

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Categories: Canning and Food Preservation, Food, Independence Days, Recipes | Tags: | 1 Comment

Independence Days: Week 19

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Anisa

The update:

Plant something – nothing planted

Harvest something – eggs, turnips, onions, cucumbers, sour cherries (destined for the dehydrator – and maybe a pie), zucchini.

Preserve something – Finally!  Made 10 quarts and 8 pints of dill pickles, and 7 half-pints of pickled garlic!

Waste Not – compost and recycling, of course, scraps to chickens, etc.  We usually have about half of a bag of trash per week – how’s that for not wasting??

Want Not – I feel like I’m really getting better at this food storage bit – what with the elk and getting things in bulk.  Looking for someone to split a bag of quinoa with…

Build Community Food Systems – my friend took me to pick the cherries this week – a tree at her church was just FULL of them – big and plump.  Can’t believe the birds had not eaten them.

Eat the Food – my favorite thing this week:

Chili-Basil Elk and Broccoli over Coconut Rice

1.25 cups jasmine rice
1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk plus 3/4 cup water
pinch of salt to taste
1-2 TBS olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3-4 green chiles, chopped
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1 big handful of green beans, trimmed (and cut if you like)
1-1.5 lbs thinly sliced elk (can subsitute beef)
2 tsp dried or 3 TBS fresh basil
1 TBS fish sauce
2 TBS plus 2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
1-2 tsp sesame oil
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed or minced

In a medium sauce pan, combine the rice, coconut milk, water and salt.  Cover, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 25 minutes.  Combine the fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic in a small dish and set aside.  Meanwhile, in a wok or large skillet heat oil over high and add onions and green chiles.  Saute for 3-4 minutes, and then add broccoli and green beans.  As soon as the veggies start to brighten in color, add the meat and the basil.  Stir often.  Just before the meat is browned completely and not quite cooked through, add the sauce mixture.  Keep stirring for 30 seconds to a minute, until it is fragrant, the meat is done to your liking and the veggies are bright green, but not over cooked.  Serve in a bowl over the coconut rice.

Categories: Canning and Food Preservation, Food, Garden, Independence Days, Recipes, Sustainability | 4 Comments

Independence Days – Week 18

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Anisa

Somehow time is passing me by in weird spurts and gusts.  I’m not sure where my weeks are going, and I keep thinking that I’m off on my week count for Independence Days.  We’re going with the week of July 11th as week 18.  If I’m wrong – then let me know.

The update:

Plant something – nothing planted

Harvest something – eggs, turnips, raspberries and, at the farm, garlic.  Also, Henry picked one orange cherry tomato.  Our onions are about ready too, but we’ve been getting a lot from the farm, so I’ve been dragging my feet on pulling them.

Preserve something – Continued to re-stain the fence.  Also moved everything into one freezer, and unplugged and defrosted the other freezer.

Waste Not – compost and recycling, of course, scraps to chickens, etc.  Also feeding Josie the elk scraps instead of buying more dog food.  She loves it and we are saving some money too.

Want Not – nothing??

Build Community Food Systems – the new neighbors that just moved in by us saw us cutting up the elk last week.  They brought over some salmon they caught in Alaska to share – in return we gave them eggs!

Eat the Food – we ate lots this week, but I had a zucchini recipe that I tossed together to share this week:

Zucchini Mushroom Frittata

6 large eggs                                                                     2 small or one medium zucchini cut into rounds
1/2 cup ricotta cheese                                                      6-8 ounces mushrooms sliced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese                                      1/2 onion, diced
salt and pepper to taste                                                    4 slices bacon, cut into half-inch pieces
1-2 tsp each dried basil and thyme (or 1 T each fresh)

Combine eggs, cheeses, herbs, salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside.  In a 12″ non-stick skillet, cook bacon and onions over medium-high heat until onions begin to soften and the bacon renders most of it’s fat, about 5 minutes.  Add mushrooms and continue to cook about 5 minutes more until the liquid is evaporated.  Add the zucchini slices and saute until the begin to soften and brown, about 3 more minutes.  Pour egg-cheese mixture over the zucchini mixture.  Stir gently, once to combine.  Reduce heat to medium and let stand.  Cook until the eggs begin to set on top, about 5 minutes.  Run a rubber spatula around the edge of the pan to keep the frittata from sticking to the sides.  If desired, place the pan under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to brown the top.  Transfer the frittata to a plate and serve.


Categories: Food, Independence Days, Recipes | Leave a comment

2010 Independence Days – Week 1

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Anisa

So – the first week has passed and I am excited that we have a few things accomplished, though not many. 

Plant something – nothing yet, but we are getting a plan together.

Harvest something - eggs – we’ve been lucky that our hens have laid through most of the winter with no heat lamp or anything. 

Preserve something – nothing – would have done the tamales, but they were too good and had to be eaten straight away!

Waste Not – compost and recycling.  We had to find a new place to take the recycling, since the local place moved away. 

Want Not – Rick started cleaning up in the yard a bit this weekend.  A bit more of this to do until the garden is ready to plant. 

Build Community Food Systems – Made a big batch of tamales with my friend Jen last Sunday.  I brought home about 25.  We were going to freeze them, but they were SOOOOOO tasty.  So we kept them in the fridge for quick lunches.  That’s good too though, since I often skip lunch if there’s nothing easy to eat. 

Also, joined the Advisory Group for the CSA.  I’ll be working on the web communications with a few other members. 

Eat the Food – We’ve enjoyed the pickled beets, canned and frozen peaches, elk sausage, bacon, basil pesto, and pablanos from the freezer this week.  Here’s the recipe for the delish tamales (from epicurious.com): Grilled Tamales with Pablanos and Fresh Corn – Yum Yum!  Oh – and Jen rendered the lard for us!  She went to buy lard, and the butcher at the store did not have enough, so he gave her some pork fat and we rendered it ourselves.  Easy and interesting.  No – we did not eat the chicharróns however.  ;)

Categories: Chickens, Food, Independence Days, Recipes | 2 Comments

The Left-over Cranberry Sauce of your Dreams

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Anisa

Must share this yummy recipe – I made it up myself last night!

Peach-Cranberry Pie

1 home made pie crust (made with butter is the best!)
8 cups sliced fresh peaches (or frozen, unsweetened peaches, defrosted and undrained)
1 cup left-over orange-rosemary cranberry sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 – 3/4 cup rolled oats (I used a big handful)
2 Tbs butter

Preheat oven to 375.  Put pie crust in a deep dish pie plate (or, if you’re like me, your cast iron skillet).  Stir together peaches, cranberry sauce, sugar, flour and oats.  Put in pie plate.  Dot with butter.  Bake for 40-45 minutes.  Cover edges of pie crust with foil if they are browning too quickly.  Let cool for about 15 minutes before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

If you wanted to, you can just put the filling in the pan and cover with the crust (like in my picture) and serve it in a bowl, or this would be very good with a lattice pie crust on top.  But I am in way too much of a hurry for my desserts to go to all that work unless I’m making it for a party or something.

Categories: Food, Recipes | 1 Comment

Where I’ve Been and Independence Update!

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Anisa

Wowza!  I’ve been off the blog for over a week – it’s been a mad house around here!  What with the teething and growing and friends over for dinner and getting all set for the holidays, plus prepping to do my student teaching!  Yikes! 

So a quick update…. I think I owe a few weeks of Independence days.  We’d be on week 28, but I really don’t feel like I have all that much to report for the last three weeks or so (see the mad house comment, above).  The chickens are just hanging out (or hanging in) in the snow, and we are still getting two or three eggs a day from them.  The two older hens are not laying, and I’m guessing they won’t lay through the winter.  The three little girls are busy, but they can’t keep up with Henry, the egg eating machine, so we did buy a couple dozen this week.  Yes, they are both local and humane.  ;)  

So there’s nothing in the Plant Something, and only eggs in the Harvest Something category.  Does any one know if it is too late to put garlic in the ground?  We’ve wanted to do this, but have kept putting it off and now it might be too late?? 

We did pick up our hog (well, only half a hog this fall) last week.  We split it with Dave the Dentist, and so maybe that counts as Want Not/Prep & Storage or Build Community Food Systems??  Since we didn’t harvest anything new, there was nothing to Preserve.  Wait, no, I take that back.  We did boil a turkey carcass to death, so we preserved some turkey stock (which is delicious!). 

Waste Not – well, compost and recycling, of course, and we are still mucking about with the pallets Rick brought  home for the new bins we want to make.  Rick brought home a piece of drywall that was to be cast off at work (they’re remodeling his office), to replace a damaged piece in our basement junk room.  Also, found a couple of cute uses for scrap fabric that have been transformed into Christmas gifts. 

Eat the Food - ah, food.  The one category that never fails me.  I always eat!  So this week, we are making green bean casserole from beans we froze, and chardonnay glazed carrots from the sweet carrots of the late summer/early fall.  And mashed potatoes from the spuds stored down in the basement.  Yum.  Yes, we are hosting Thanksgiving dinner.  I plan to break out the home-made dill pickles and watermelon rind pickles for snacks while the turkey roasts. 

And I made my cranberry sauce ahead of time.  I adapted an Everyday Food recipe.  I was standing there cooking it, when suddenly the urge to add rosemary overcame me.  I put it in and I think it turned out pretty tasty.  So here’s that one for you:

2 packages fresh cranberries (24oz each)
1.5 cups sugar
4 large strips of orange peel
1/2 cup water
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish

Rinse and drain cranberries.  In a large sauce pan, add cranberries, sugar, orange peel and water.  Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer 15 minutes.  Add rosemary sprigs and simmer 5-10 minutes more.  Remove from heat, and stir in orange juice.  Let cool, cover and refrigerate for up to a week.  To serve, bring to room temperature and remove rosemary, garnish with a fresh rosemary sprig.

So that catches up the Independence Days.  But what else?  Well, Emmett is rolling over both ways now, and quite the wiggle worm.  I know he’s just getting all set to crawl off, and we are so not ready for it.  He’ll be five months old this week, and I can’t believe how fast the time is flying. 

We signed him up to participate in a study on infant feeding.  He is exclusively breastfed, and the study is looking at first foods for babies, and how they absorb iron and zinc.  There are three groups: a meat group, and iron fortified organic cereal group, and an iron and zinc fortified cereal group.  We were randomly assigned to the organic iron fortified cereal group.  So yay, we got my second choice, although I would have preferred the meat group, since that means for the duration (until he is 10 month old) we are not allowed to feed Emmett red meat – including venison and elk.  But it’s not a big deal really.  We didn’t feed Henry ANYTHING until he was nearly ten months old.  So starting cereal and waiting for red meat is fine.  Emmett will begin next month when he is six months old.

Ah – times up.  I do have more to write, but now, not only is Henry awake and playing in his room, Emmett is paging me.  So with this post, something is better than nothing.  I will try to get more up this weekend.  maybe a few pictures too.  ;)  

Happy Thanksgiving Day to you!

Categories: Chickens, Emmett, Food, Independence Days, Recipes | 1 Comment

Independence Days – Weeks 21 & 22

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Anisa

Wow twenty-two weeks at Sharon’s Independence Days already.  It’s been fun and eye opening to track all these little baby steps each week and see how they are adding up. 

We had the first frost of the year last week and therefore had a mass exodus of produce from the garden.  5 gallon size bags filled with tomatoes went into the freezer and lots of winter squash went down to the basement for storage.  There is a lot of damaged squash that we’ll be cooking up this coming week, turning it into puree for soups and bread recipes. 

Look at the last of the garden goodies:

before the freeze

That of course doesn’t count the spinach, radishes, chard and kale that is still growing despite the weather.  I don’t think that the beets or lettuces pulled through though.  Next year we will have to put in those for winter a bit earlier so they can get better established.    Also, the potted herbs I brought home a few weeks ago bit the dust, besides the rosemary, which seems hardier and possibly strong enough to survive my kitchen gardening “techniques.”

Also, after the awesome compost class that Rick and I took in September, we’ve been working on the big compost remodel… first moving the chicken coop, then deciding on a plan for the space then collecting materials.  Rick was able to dig up some pallets from his work, so the biggest part of the bins will have cost us nothing.  Yay! 

So down to the nitty gritty:

Plant Something –  none

Harvest Something –  all the acorn squash & butternut squash, the pumpkins, all the tomatoes & zucchini.  Eggs.  Also Rick & Henry got a dusky (blue) grouse, and Rick brought home a mallard drake as well. 

Preserve Something –  Potatoes and winter squash to basement, froze tomatoes, froze the duck and a second grouse that Rick’s uncle gave us, made a double batch of curried carrot-leek soup for the freezer.

PalletsWaste Not – Lots of “new” clothes for me from my sistah.  Rick brought home some pallets from work to use to build our new compost bins. Also traded a large propane tank for a smaller one that will fit our gas grill. 

Want Not/Prep & Storage - besides items added to freezer, nothing to add to this category.

Build Community Food Systems –  posted on craigslist for the Englewood Farmer’s Market.  Ordered the hog that we’re splitting with friends.  Checked out another market in Littleton, will be going back to get apples this coming week… refrained from buying honeycrisp apples brought in from Washington at Costco for only $0.50/lb, even though the Colorado ones are $2.20/lb at the farmer’s market.

Eat the Food – ate the grouse, used some frozen peaches for a tart (yum!), butternut squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini bread, pickles (they turned out!  Yay!), potato soup, potato-leek quiche… lots of yummy things these last two weeks.  Here’s an old Field & Stream recipe for awesome duck breasts:

Doug’s Grilled Duck Breasts
Marinade for 4-6 duck breast halves:
1 T olive oil
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 T fresh sage, chopped
2 T fresh parsley, chopped
6 oz teriyaki sauce
1 oz +/- Jack Daniel’s
salt & pepper to taste

Place duck and marinade into a ziplock bag in refrigerator and marinade for 2-4 hours.  Heat charcoal grill.  Place duck breasts on grill when flame has died and coals are hot.  Cook for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes on each side until rare or medium rare.  Let rest 1 minute.  Serve.

*note that duck is a red meat (not like chicken), and can safely (and deliciously) be eaten rare.

Categories: Canning and Food Preservation, Food, Hunting, Independence Days, Recipes | 2 Comments

Independence Days – Week 20

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Anisa

DinoNot much to add this week.  We had a fun weekend, but not a lot of it was spent with food.  We went to a new friend’s home for dinner on Friday night (we met through the Urban Homesteader meetup group).  They are actually neighbors, and we had a wonderful time talking natural parenting, homebirth, food, gardens. 

They are restoring their 1925 home to orignal condition as much as possible.  It was so cool to see what they’ve done and to imagine what the home was like back when it was owned by a Madam!  How cool that they know the history and are working to preserve it! We swapped recipes and pediatrician names.  I’m happy to have neighbors who are as crazy as us!

We also went to the botanic gardens (on Saturday) to see the Jurassic Gardens exhibit.  Henry liked seeing the dinosaurs and the weather was just perfect. 

We wrapped up the weekend on Sunday with the cheesemaking class, and that was really fun.  I made another batch of addicting and horribly bad for you chocolate chip cookies, and we roasted the last pie pumpkins we had.  (Only have big ones left now).  Besides a few tomatoes, we mostly stayed out of the garden this week… (unusual for us lately). 

Here’s the rundown on what we did do:

Plant Something –  none

Harvest Something–  tomatoes, zucchini, eggs, pie pumpkins at the farm

Preserve Something –  Froze tomatoes, made pumpkin butter, froze pumpkin puree, toasted pumpkin seeds…

Waste Not – I took advantage of the extra “damaged” pumpkins that were not good enough to put into shares from the farm.  These would have otherwise gone to waste.   We also saved the whey from the cheesemaking class… some for the chickens, and some for our friends who use it for grains. 

Want Not/Prep & Storage - nothing to add this week.

Build Community Food Systems –   I hosted a cheesemaking class in our home on Sunday.  It was cool to learn how easy it can be, plus, I got to meet a few more ‘Urban Homesteaders’ from the meetup group. 

Eat the Food – mmm… we opened the dill pickles we made earlier this summer…. YUM!  I’m so glad they turned out well, since we have quite a few quarts of them! 

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds:  Rinse seeds and spread on a kitchen towel to dry most of the way.  Mix 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp sugar.  Spread the seeds on a baking sheet, and sprinkle spice mixture over them.  Stir the seeds to make sure they are all covered with the spices.  Place in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.  Stir the seeds and roast another 10 minutes.  Check them frequently so they don’t burn.

Categories: Canning and Food Preservation, Food, Independence Days, Recipes | 2 Comments

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