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Pickled Beets: SageSpoonLiving Recipe

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Pickled Beets: SageSpoonLiving Recipe

Sometimes you just have a near 3 pound beet on your hands, and you need to do something with it.  You know? (Just in case you don’t believe me here is proof:)

 

IMG_0940IMG_0941This baby sat in my fridge for nearly a month before I decided to take him (her?) out for a nice roast.  I generally always roast my beets before I even have a plan for them and this gorgeous hunk (babe?) was wrapped in foil and in the oven before I thought too much about it.

Sometimes, for the sake of moving food along (you know the vegetables that linger in your fridge for a while with no purpose in life?), I will apply a simple cooking technique to them so as to force my eating of them.  And I love beets!  So don’t get me wrong when I say “force”…

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….the point is that I wasn’t that sure what to do with said beet, so I decided to just roast it, do a bunch of other stuff during the hour it was in the oven, and then go from there. Beets are delicious plain, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, or accompanied with (my favorite) some chevre (soft fresh goat cheese).

Before deciding to ultimately pickle this sucker, I treated myself to exactly that: nice warm beet from the oven, with some delicious local Donnay Dairy goat cheese. This beet was amazing.  The flavor was sweet and not too dirt-like (if you know what I mean).  It was exactly what I’m looking for in a beet. By the time I’d finished my snack, I knew what I wanted to do.

 

 

 

 

I quickly skinned and cut the beet up and put it into a quart mason jar.  I then boiled up a mostly traditional, on-the-sweet-side, pickled beet brine with a combination of  some brown rice syrup and barley malt syrup that I had (the classic recipe has sugar). As the mixture came to a boil, I tasted it frequently, looking for the exact level of sweetness I desired.

These pickles are really fantastic to have around.  They are a great addition to practically any green salad, and taste wonderfully as a side to many dinners that involve classic meat dishes like pot-roast, chicken, or burgers.

 

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Pickled Beets

4 beets
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. brown rice syrup, honey, or barley malt syrup
½ of a cinnamon stick 3 cloves and a pinch of allspice

1) Wrap beets in foil and bake in a 400 F. oven for 1 hour.   Unwrap and allow to cool.  When cool enough to handle, peel the skin off the beets and trim each end.  Cut into pickle-sized pieces and pack into a jar.

2) Combine the water, sweetener, vinegar, cinnamon, cloves and allspice in a medium saucepan.  Simmer for 2 minutes. Taste for sweetness and if not sweet enough add more to taste.   Pour liquid over beets in jar to cover.  Store in the fridge.  Will keep one month.

Buffalo for the Broken Food Chain

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Buffalo for the Broken Food Chain

For me, the bison, or the American buffalo, provokes the kind of passion that is at the very core of my love for food that truly satisfies and nourishes.  It is food to swoon over. The bison represents that which matters and that which I hold most dear. It is a sacred meat.

It all began in book club when I read Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O’Brien.  A bison rancher in South Dakota, Dan is also an ecologist who eloquently points out the vast differences between bison, evolved for about 120,000 years in their native environment, and cattle, transplanted onto it about a century ago by Europeans after most of the sixty million buffalo were slaughtered.  Looking for a reason to be, and a way to live out his passion for the biodiversity of the northern great plains, Dan turned to buffalo ranching, and his story is both inspiring and enlightening.

Bison represent a million years of coevolution that produces a community of species whose relationship is symbiotic. They evolved with the land, native plant species evolved next to them, and bison are perfectly suited to thrive in their native environment and live in harmony with it.  They dig up little seeps of water throughout the pasture instead of needing water brought to them. They move into the wind instead of trying to avoid it, and are not bothered by snow or frigid temperatures like the less protected cattle. Thousands of cattle often die during severe winters, but not buffalo.  We’re here too, living alongside the cattle, the bison, the native grasses, and other native species. We are at the top of the food chain, as some might say, stewards or keepers of the land. And this basic concept of interacting with the nature that we live next to and have a relationship with, extends to us, human beings, often in search of meat to eat.

I’m a meat eater and a relatively happy one.  Having said this, I totally relate to Michael Pollan’s dilemma in the The Omnivore’s Dilemma, when he attempts to enjoy a rib-eye steak cooked medium-rare, while simultaneously reading a book entitled Animal Liberation.  Eating meat is generally no longer couched within the cultural norms and rituals of the pre-industrial era, which allowed people to eat meat without agonizing too much over it.

As modern Americans, we have PLENTY of meat and can have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we please.  We go to the grocery store and see row upon row of neatly saran-wrapped pinkish red matter.  There is no limit to the amount of corn-laden meat the conventional American meat industry provides us, and many of us are mindlessly eating it here, there, and everywhere.  We are now part of a food chain in which we are the higher-order thinkers who have a block on thinking.  We’ve broken our connection to the earth and the animal.  So most of us don’t agonize.  But some of us do; even if just a little.

As a fairly cheerful meat eater, and one who admittedly spent years not really thinking about the meat I was eating (beyond how to make it as tasty as possible) I have more recently had to sustain an uncomfortable tension, a kind of dissonance, which comes from doing a little thinking on the subject.  I’ve seen FoodInc.  I’m a huge proponent of local, organic, sustainably raised food and only buy this kind of meat for myself. But I often don’t exercise a very discriminating mind when I’m  sitting in front of a savory steamy chunk that somebody else has offered.  I don’t want to question it when it’s put before me and a knife and fork are within reach. I don’t want to question it when my friends invite me to their house for Thanksgiving, or to a fun new restaurant that doesn’t necessarily source a product that I would purchase for my own dinner.  And then I feel a bit guilty.

I think the guilt and tension are good.  I should feel it.  I should think about it.  And all of us should make better decisions regarding our meat consumption.  This planet is not Disney World.  It’s not here to support our every whim and pleasure.

Did you know that because bison are born to live where they have evolved over thousands of years, they don’t need antibiotics or special food to survive?  While reading Dan O’Brien’s book, one thing that really struck me was that his buffalo rarely got sick, even in the depths of winter and below-wind chill weather.  A buffalo rancher from whom I recently purchased meat, corroborated this when I asked him, “Do your bison ever get sick?  Do you ever have to treat them with medicine or antibiotics?”  He replied, “No. In fact, I never even know if an animal is sick until it has keeled over dead and that is a rare occurrence.”  So when a bison is sick he’s really sick.  There’s no sequestering Mr. Buffalo to his room, or visiting the doctor for a dose of antibiotics when he’s under the weather.  The American buffalo doesn’t seem to suffer from the common cold. When something is wrong, it’s really wrong. These animals are engineered by natural selection to live alongside us, and they are a perfect example of hardiness in the ecosystem we all share.

So why eat them at all?   Well – Because something in me, that is fundamentally me, rejoices when I do so.  Because choosing to eat meat from an animal that has lived off of prairie grass, water, and open sky resonates deeply within me. Also, when I listen to my body, I know it wants meat.  I don’t believe that I can attain optimal health without some meat in my life.  And I know that a bison raised naturally, lives a life in stark contrast to that of the conventional cow who grazes on a feed of soy, corn, and in some cases candy, while standing in its own refuse in a feedlot.  Cattle are not meant to eat corn or anything but grass.  Ruminants like bison, they are designed to feed in open pastures picking and choosing from a variety of grasses that will most please them.   I eat bison because I am an omnivore, a meat eater who also loves my vegetables.  Given this reality, that I am a meat eater who is going to eat meat, I try to make good choices that involve knowing where the animal came from and how it lived its life.  I want to feel a connection.

And bison is delicious.  I wouldn’t have been half as aware of how wonderful bison can actually taste, if it weren’t in thanks to my fiancé’s parents, who read Dan O’Brien’s book and ran with it.  Inspired as I was, they sprung to action and researched good sources of bison meat in our area.  They landed on a producer who let the bison be (no corn or grain feeding).  Bison became the red meat of choice in their household and that’s when I really got on the bison-train.  I haven’t purchased beef in months and it’s not because I feel anything strongly against grass-fed beef.  It’s just that the bison is so damn delicious.

The other day I followed a recipe that was absolutely amazing for a sirloin-tip roast in the smoker.  I got it from this incredibly accurate and helpful video produced by what sound like cowboys with a deep passion for BBQ and b-grade movie saxophone music.  I followed their recipe to a “T” and the results were spectacular:  a mouthwateringly juicy, intensely flavored sirloin tip roast, perfectly cooked at medium rare.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you don’t have a smoker, you can achieve similarly succulent results by visiting Dan O’Brien’s website, Wild Idea Buffalo Co for amazing recipes. There is a Bison Roast Recipe on the site which is particularly fantastic.

One more thing about bison meat:  It is expensive. As it should be….

Americans eat too much meat.  We just do.  And the conventional meat industry is doing everything in its power to make that meat cheap and affordable (flashback to cheap subsidized grain-based feed and grossly packed feedlots.  Seriously!  If you haven’t seen Food Inc yet let this be your prompt).  Take a look at this world-wide meat consumption map for perspective:

 

The average American eats ten to twelve times more meat than the average person in Mozambique or Bangladesh.  We eat about eight ounces a day, roughly twice the global average. In Mark Bittman’s 2008 article entitled Rethinking the Meat Guzzler, we learn that “At about 5 percent of the world’s population, [Americans] ‘process’ (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total.” The bison roast I smoked recently cost $9 a pound, whereas a similar roast of conventional beef averages around $4 a pound.  This means that I less frequently turn to meat.  And when I do, I choose high-quality, organic, hormone and antibiotic free meat that I eat less of, appreciate more, and most definitely savor – a good thing for both my health and the health of the planet.

“But along the distant ridge, just as I had hoped, a string of buffalo appeared and began grazing where the wind had blown the grass clear.  I cut the buffalo thin, and when it touched my tongue, I tasted the sky, the wind, and the enormous scale of the northern plains.  Behind me, I felt the hum of contented people and knew we were gaining strength with every bite.” – Dan O’Brien

When Anxiety Hits: 5 Soothing Foods to Light a Candle Next To …

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When Anxiety Hits: 5 Soothing Foods to Light a Candle Next To …

…… a slightly misleading post-title if there ever was one.  Not misleading per se – just leaving out a huge part of the “discussion”. But then I couldn’t very well have put diarrhea and anxiety right there in the heading for all to see, could I?  Or could I?…. Read on dear reader, read on.  We’ll eventually get to the soothing foods.

When anxiety hits, all kinds of psychological and medical symptoms can show up, some more severe than others, depending on the level of anxiety and the way in which it is, um, manifested in your body. In this post I’d like to address one of the symptoms that my body (and millions of other bodies on this planet) suffers, and a symptom that is a clear sign of anxiety and stress.  This particular of symptoms being – ah, well – let’s just say it together folks:  diarrhea.  There. It’s been said twice in the very first few lines of this post.  Out with it I say (no pun intended)!  If you’re going to write about something just go ahead and write about it.  As somebody who suffers from anxiety and anxiety-caused diarrhea in my own life, I’ve sought to understand what is going on, and to figure out how to deal with it so I can both help myself and others.

Often the diarrhea phenomenon has to do with anticipation of some kind of performance.  This kind of anxiety is normal.  It’s perfectly normal to feel somewhat scared prior to a big event. Actually, this kind of anxiety is even helping us to prepare to meet the challenge at hand. Research has clearly demonstrated that having some anxiety enhances how we perform. However, if the anxiety gets too high then we run the risk of decreasing performance because we get to a point in which we become overwhelmed. Athletes and other performers learn to regulate this anxiety so that they can have just the right amount. If they don’t have any stress they won’t perform up to their potential.  But if they have too much, it will interfere.

Unchecked anxiety can easily become overwhelming given the right high-pressure situation. Anxiety can cause the many systems in the body to undergo changes that may include an increase in heart rate, elevation of blood pressure, and slowing of the gastrointestinal activity. We may forget to eat, work ourselves into a psychological tizzy by dwelling too much on the source of our anxiety, be unwilling to let little daily annoyances go, or indulge feelings of negativity, all of which will only increase our stress level.  These changes occur in preparation for the flight or fight response.  When we get to that point, of feeling overwhelmed and super stressed-out, we are in danger of allowing both our bodies and our minds to endure a kind of melt-down.  When we are feeling the stress, and close to some kind of collapse, it’s really important to stop, breathe, and pay attention to our bodies.  We need to recognize that we are undergoing stress that has the capacity to bring us down in a not-so-graceful way, and if left unattended, may really cause problems with our overall health and wellbeing.  It’s important to stop, try to put things in perspective, and to take care of ourselves.

Which brings me back to diarrhea.  While the causes of diarrhea are myriad, anxiety-caused diarrhea is a special case and I’ve come to understand that two things are happening simultaneously when anxiety-caused diarrhea sends you in the direction of the loo (hoping that using British-isms will distract from the frequency with which I write the word “diarrhea” in this post.  Constipation anyone? ).

 

When anxiety hits, input from the brain sends a message to decrease digestion and input from the brain also simultaneously sends a message to increase motility of the colon, resulting in the rapid passage of incompletely digested food.  Since digestion is not quite needed at a time when danger is felt, most of the blood supplying the digestive tract is routed to the muscles where it is needed the most, away from the digestive system.  This whole process of fighting or flighting, of manifesting an anxious response to danger, slows down our normal digestive functions, thereby disrupting the absorption of water and all of the beneficial nutrients in our food in the large intestine.  Quite simply, the process of digestion is badly affected because we are passing undigested food in an anxiety-ridden hurry that our bodies haven’t had a chance to properly deal with.  We are missing out on the full nutritional value of our food.

So what can you do about this terrible churning and immediate distress?  If you’re dealing with severe, uncontrollable anxiety, and have experienced multiple panic attacks and/or anxiety that lead to severe depression, you will want to seek help from a doctor or therapist. Don’t even worry about it!  There is no shame in asking for help and this is what therapists and doctors are for.  You might also seek help from yours truly, the Integrative Health Coach. I am trained to help in exactly this kind of situation and can aid you, step by step, in looking at all of the contributing factors to your anxiety, how it is affecting your health, and forging a new path of loving yourself both in, and outside of, the anxiety in your life.

And if this is something that you are dealing with and you are aware – you know the cause of your anxiety, can see its obvious impact on your daily life and your digestive system, and you are looking for in-home ways to help yourself, I’d like to suggest that actively nurturing yourself when these moments arrive, can be the soothing salvation you are looking for.  Again, it’s time to stop, reflect, and care for yourself.  The act of caring for ourselves when we are in distress can be just the powerful antidote that we need to put things in perspective and calm ourselves.

Light a candle. 
Cook some food.
 

Here are 5 Soothing Foods to Light a Candle next to:

Replace a Burger with Old-fashioned Chicken Soup

Eating fatty foods while undergoing significant stress may trigger diarrhea due to the body’s reaction to external conditions. High fat foods can also exacerbate existing diarrhea. So light a candle, breathe deeply, put on some music, and make some chicken soup (see recipe at the end of this post).  And if you are a vegetarian, make it miso soup.  Chicken broth and miso broth are both clear fluids, which are essential for avoiding dehydration when suffering from diarrhea. They both provide protein and iron. And both contain tryptophan which is most commonly associated with turkey at Thanksgiving and the sleepy drowsiness that often follows the big meal.  The truth is that tryptophan is in a lot of foods and it is actually a mood elevator because it converts to serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is the all-important neurotransmitter that, among other things, promotes feelings of relaxation and calmness and can help depression and anxiety, as well as digestion.  Besides, what is more fundamentally relaxing and nourishing than preparing a comforting brothy soup?

Replace Fried Greasy Carbs with Complex Carbohydrates like Squash

Starches like squash are also rich in tryptophan and can therefore also stimulate the release of serotonin, your feel-good brain chemical. The main thing here is that you want to nourish your body with complex carbs and stay away from the ones that hit your body with a rush of sugar and fat (e.g., French fries).  Simple carbs turn to sugar quickly in your body, and can only increase your anxiety, especially if you are already anxious.  Opt for whole grains, such as quinoa and oatmeal, which deliver more fiber and nutrients than refined ones.  Other nutrient-rich carbohydrate choices include fruits–such as apples, bananas and melons–and vegetables, including starchy, root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, broccoli and tomatoes.

Replace Potato Chips with Dried Blueberries

Reportedly, dried blueberries have a long history of use in Sweden as a treatment for diarrhea. The helpfulness of blueberries for diarrhea appears to be due to the fact that they contain tannins, which act as an astringent, contracting tissue and reducing inflammation and secretion of liquids and mucus. Blueberries also contain pectin, which is a soluble fiber that works against diarrhea by increasing the volume and viscosity of the waste. Pectin is actually an ingredient in several commercial diarrhea remedies. Pectin derived directly from fruits such as blueberries and apples, provides nutrient to beneficial bacteria in the colon and helps stimulate repair of damaged tissue.

Replace Ice Cream with Yogurt

It is generally recommended that dairy products be avoided during acute diarrhea episodes. Yogurt is a major exception to this rule. Look for yogurt that contains live or active cultures, or more specifically Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum. These active cultures are probiotics and they help to establish a healthier balance of bacteria in the digestive tract that both soothe and nourish.

Replace Coffee with Herbal Tea

While coffee can have its perks when consumed in moderation, now is not the time for increasing your heart rate and significantly elevating your cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone secreted by the adrenal glands when your body is experiencing stress.  It has many functions, one of which is to prepare the body for fight or flight.  You don’t need more cortisol.  You are already experiencing stress.  Now is the time to turn to a gentler tonic for the system.  There are many herbs known for aiding digestion.  And I can’t think of a more nourishing act (ok – I did mention soup earlier, didn’t I) than the preparation of a soothing cup of herbal tea. In particular, ginger, peppermint, and chamomile are known for their soothing qualities.  Chamomile acts as one of nature’s most safe and effective sedatives and can relax the body and mind.  Herbs in the mint family, especially spearmint and peppermint, add a refreshing flavor and mild sedative action to herbal teas. They are especially soothing to an upset stomach and digestive system. Since ancient times, ginger has a long tradition of being very effective in alleviating symptoms of gastrointestinal distress.

 

Speaking of ginger, here is that recipe for chicken soup, with the addition of this soothing spice:

Gingered Chicken Soup

1 1-inch piece fresh ginger
2 medium cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 onion finely chopped
1 large carrot, chopped into small rounds
1 lb chicken thighs (with bone and skin)
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 quart organic chicken broth
1 Tbs. fresh lime juice
1/4 cup packed fresh cilantro
2 Tbs. thinly sliced scallion (green tops only)
Real Salt
1 cup greens (spinach or swiss chard)

Peel the ginger and use a microplane zester (or any fine grater) to grate all of the ginger into a fine paste. Press in a garlic press or finely mince the garlic.

In a medium saucepan, com­bine the ginger, garlic, chopped onion, carrot rounds, chicken, soy sauce, and enough broth to just cover the ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer for 40 minutes. Using a pair of tongs, transfer the chicken to a plate. When cool enough to handle, take the chicken meat off of the bones.  Return meat to soup pot.

Return the soup to a simmer and season with salt to taste.

Finely chop the cilantro.

Add the greens to the broth and continue to simmer until it’s wilted, 1 to 2 minutes more.  Add the lime juice, cilantro, scallions and serve.

The Pragmatic Magic of the Potluck

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A few evenings ago I again bore witness to the phenomenon of the potluck, that ubiquitous of occasions in our part of the country, often associated with church basements or club-like functions. It was impressed upon me, as it is each and every time I attend one of these events, that a potluck that occurs as it was meant to occur – with minimal planning – always works out.  Always. I have no photos to share for this post.  I was too busy completely enjoying myself….

On this particular evening four of us were getting together.  Four you say?  Isn’t that a bit of a risky move?  How do you know you won’t all bring dessert?  And to make things even more interesting, two of the four were vegetarians.  For those of us who are planners, who need to know that all bases are covered, who shudder at the thought of leaving things up to fate, the stage set might have been cause for worry.  I’m so happy to say that in my home that evening, the results were truly spectacular.

First, I should be clear that there was “mention” over email of what we would like to bring.  So, it wasn’t all a complete surprise.  But I’d like to stress that we simply announced what we would bring in no particular fashion.  We didn’t really ask each other what the other was doing.  Nobody requested that we plan things so that all the basic parts of a meal would be covered.

Chris just announced that she would like to bring lentil soup.  Then Monica announced that she would like to bring a fennel-apple salad with mustard vinaigrette.  Then Angie responded “you had me at mustard vinaigrette” and announced that she would bring dessert, bread, and a champagne hard cider made by her friends who own an orchard  in Webster, Minnesota called Sweetland Orchard.  And then I was like, “Are you kidding me?!!!  I love lentils, fennel, apples, and hard cider and all of you are blowing my mind.”  I figured I’d fill in the rest and didn’t think about how I would contribute til the day before.  Ok. So it was kinda planned.  But not really.  Folks expressed what they’d like to offer, and others went with the flow and built a delicious, healthy, locally sourced meal that I will never forget.

 

Pre-Meal snacks by Bekah

Almonds pan-roasted in olive oil with thyme, red pepper flakes and Real Salt

Missouri Northern Pecans pan-roasted in local butter with Real Salt and Ames Honey

“Cheezy” Kale Chips (taste cheezzzzy because they are baked with a paste/coating of sun dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, cashews, garlic, and other tasty spices)

Local Seckle and Starkrimson Pears with Milton Creamery Prairie Breeze Cheese

Main Dishes

Lentil Soup by Chris – a simple, delicious lentil soup “kicked up a notch” with the addition of dijon mustard and red wine.

Apple Fennel Salad by Monica – Monica followed Mark Bittman‘s simple instructions from the New York Time’s 101 Simple Salads – “Slice fennel and crisp apple about the same thickness (your choice). Combine, then dress with mustardy vinaigrette and chopped parsley. Come fall, this will be even better.”  Monica likes the bite of a little bit of extra red-wine or balsamic vinegar when using a basic mustard vinaigrette.

Rustica Bread by Angie – Rustica Bakery was named one of the top 10 Bread Bakeries in America by Bon Appetit Magazine

Birchwood Cafe Pumpkin and Walnut bars by Angie

Drink

Sweetland Orchard Champagne Cider by Angie – This is the real stuff!  Raw and unpasteurized honest-to-goodness hard cider made by folks who own their own orchard.  Phenomenal!

 

Candles were lit.  Delightful conversation was had.  The best that television has to offer was discussed (i.e., Homeland, The Forsyte Sage, Downton Abbey, Breaking Bad).  Experiences as creative “educators” (we had teachers, a photographer, academics, scholars, cooks, and a nutrition coach among us) were shared.  Later, while sipping hard cider, a fire was crackling.  I’m still shaking my head and smiling as I reflect on how a good ole’ potluck can really deliver the magic. You never know what you’re gonna get!

 

Here is the recipe for the lentil soup:

Hearty Lentil Soup
From: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison
Serves 4 to 6

2 tablespoons oil
2 cups finely diced onion
3 large garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/3 cup finely diced celery
1/3 cup finely diced carrot
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 1/2 cup brown lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Heat the oil in a soup pot over high heat. Add the onion and saute until it begins to color around the edges, 5 to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, mince the garlic with 1 teaspoon salt. Mix the tomato paste with the onion, then add the garlic, celery, carrots, bay leaves and parsley and cook for 3 minutes. Add the lentils, 2 quarts water and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the lentils are tender, 25 to 35 minutes.

Stir in the mustard and vinegar. Taste and add more of either as needed. Check the salt, season with pepper (and more salt, if needed), remove the bay leaves, and serve.

Green Tomatoes and How Sometimes You Just Gotta Roll With It

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Green Tomatoes and How Sometimes You Just Gotta Roll With It

 

It’s been a super crazy week.  I know people say that all the time but this week was truly overwhelming.  Everything converged and I felt like the phone was ringing, or I was answering emails, or I was trying to solve some (albeit relatively minor – let’s face it) problem, during all my spare moments between work, school, refinancing my mortgage, and working on my website – not to mention cooking, yoga, running, meditation, hanging with friends, and all the “me-time” activities I try to make a priority.

Big Breath in.  And Exhale.  Big Smile.  Sheepish smile.  These aren’t really problems.  My life is good. Not just good. Pretty dang good. 

I also had a big bowl of green tomatoes just sitting on the kitchen counter doing nothing and I’d been thinking about preparing something new with them for two weeks.  Everybody and his horse has been writing a blog about green tomatoes this past week.  And I guess that I shall not be the exception. I mean, we are writing about them, because there they are, just sitting there, on the counter, calling our name, wanting to be cooked.  Or at least that’s how it can feel….

Here goes with revealing a reality I dare say I share with many others.  We cook because we love it and we wish we had more relaxed time to do it.  More often that not we are busy, hectically running around with our mind going in a million directions, and the cooking we do occurs in a state of relative chaos as we juggle many other priorities and happenings in our lives.  So, like everything in life, sometimes we just have to roll with it.   Here’s what happened with those green tomatoes……

……..In reverse.

 

 

Day 3:  Before running out the door to yoga just in time – because barely making it to yoga in a state of low level stress because you are super busy is better than not making it to yoga at all, right? ( Perhaps I should reassess…hmmmm)…-  I did enjoy a sliver of a delicious rustic pasty made with whole wheat pastry flour, green tomato catsup, ground pork steaks from a friend’s pigs up in Bemidji, rutabega, potato, carrot, and onion.  For more info about pasties click here.

 

 
Day 3:  The pasties came out of the oven piping hot, just in time for me to leave for yoga, with a smell that would rival Grandma’s house on Christmas Day.  Oh hubba.  So worth the time and effort!  And I loved the rustic look I ended up with.  
 
 
 
 
 
Day 3:  Pasties are super fun to make.  I just love cooking projects like this where you use your hands to shape beautiful little morsels that you can freeze for the future.  This time around I was initially challenged by the whole wheat pastry flour which was difficult to roll out.  I was using a recipe for white flour and should have made adjustments to the proportions of flour, butter, and chilled water (note to self for next time). Instead I just mixed it up without thinking about it too much and threw the ball of dough into the fridge on Day 2….it was rock hard on Day 3 when I removed it and nearly impossible to work with.  I thought I might have to leave it out for hours (time I did not have) to soften but instead I warmed it in the oven (I don’t have a microwave) and then churned out, with only the force of my own sheer will to help me, some VERY rough/rustic pastry dough.  But you know, sometimes when things go wrong they make “happy accidents”.  I quickly adjusted and realized that I had the opportunity to make some cool rustic looking pasties that were new and different.  I layered them with all the ingredients, sprinkled each layer with Real Salt and pepper, and then put a nice dollop or two of green tomato catsup on each one before closing them up.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Day 3:  Whoops, I realized I’d forgotten an important binding ingredient inside the pasty.  Potatoes soak up all the nice flavor from the meat as well as the juices that the harder vegetables release so that you don’t end up with a soggy, too-juicy pasty.   I made a quick run to the Seward Coop even though I had just been there the day before (silly silly me) to get some local potatoes.
 
 
 
 
 
Day 2:  I made a pastry crust with whole wheat pastry flour and Hope Butter.  I should have done some more research for a better recipe that actually used whole wheat pastry flour.  Oh well!  Next time.  Watch an awesome video about Minnesota’s Hope Creamery here.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Day 2:  I made a pork stock with the pork steak bones and odds and ends from my carrots, onions, rutabega, and the addition of some celery and parsley.  I figured I’d make a posole style soup with it later and by the time I’m posting this blog said soup has been made.  It’s delicious!
 
 
 
 
 
 Day 2:  I used the Vitamix’s “wet-chop” feature to chop up carrots, onions, and rutabega in 2 seconds.  Here they are draining in the sink.  To “wet-chop” with your Vtamix put veggies into a Vitamix full of water and run it for a second or two, then pour the whole lot of it into a colander and your veggies are chopped.  This was a great time saver as I didn’t have to spend 2o minutes chopping all these vegetables.  
 
 
 
 
 
Day 2:  The ingredients are assembled.  (All but the potatoes which I realized I was missing as I took the photo)
 
 
 
 
 Day 2:  Time to grind up the pork steaks for the meat filling.  
This is quality pork from a friend who raises his own pigs up in Bemidji, MN.
 
 
 
 
Day 2:  Yahoo!  It actually tastes like “Ketchup”!  
 
 
 
 
 
Day 2:  The Vitamix is just the BEST.  Rather than worry about green tomato skins and having to strain them out of the mixture before pureeing, I simply used my Vitamix.  Tomato skins disappeared and I had a silky smooth catsup.  
 
 
 
 
 
Day 1:  I’d been contemplating green tomato catsup because I’d made a green tomato relish once that basically tasted like catsup.  There are a gazillion green tomato catsup recipes on the interwebs.  I chose a pretty typical one and used honey and black strap molasses for sweetener.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Day 1:  And here they were in all their glory. I’d been holding on to them for about two weeks and was excited to do something new.  I like fried green tomatoes but just wasn’t feeling them this year.  Sometimes you just gotta roll with it, you know?