Cooking With Cider - Red Cabbage and Apples

It's almost tax time, so we were on a Skype call this past week with our German friends, Harald and his wife Inge. We help Harold negotiate the finance world of US banks and tax law sometimes. Anyway, in making small talk about late winter and what everyone has been doing and eating during COVID lockdowns, the topic of schnitzel and veggies came up. One thing lead to another and by the time I began planning for dinner, pork medallions and red cabbage became my targeted ingredients. Hiel and I really miss the German fare that we had when we would meet friends at the local restaurants in Baden -Württemberg. Between missing our friends and missing the German culture, I was back to the schnitzel and sides.

'Kind Of' Colcannon ...Just in Time for St Paddy's Day

Weekend fare that seems fitting for a bowl of comfort and a cold beer at the pub ...

Hokumpoke Haluski

Whoa ! Summertime ! Our heat broke after some thunderstorms passed through ! Hurray! The crickets and katydids are starting to chirp throughout the days and the scree of the locust has been competing in the afternoons. Fall is on the way. That said, the gardens are really beginning to give up their harvest at a quickening pace! Summer's not over yet, but this Hokumpoke Haluski heralds the cooler days of autumn.

Hokumpoke Farm had small heads of cabbage in the CSA bag last week, so it got used in this nod to Polish food culture ... ever had Haluski with Ham ? It's such a simple, yet rich and peppery comfort food ! You MUST try it! 

DH's Slaw and Stories

Here's a cabbage and apple slaw without all that mayo. Diana Henry presents it as a great healthy side dish in her cook book called A Change of Appetite - Where Healthy Meets Delicious. This crisp and crunchy side nestled up to potato salad and a slow-cooked beef brisket dressed with Bourbon-Peach BBQ Sauce last evening. More on that beef brisket in another post.

Mamushka's Cabbage Rolls

Steamy and packed with a little torpedo of rice and meat, these Holubtsi (read Cabbage Rolls) were a bowl of sweet and savory. Cabbage rolls don't look like much, but they are these wonderful little wrapped packets of wonderful comfort. They involve a concentrated bit of flurried preparation in the kitchen and then ... they get popped in the oven to smell up the place with the best homey aroma! Served piping hot with a cold dollop of dilled sour cream, you will be wishing you had an old kerchiefed Mamushka living with you to tweek your cheek, pour you a nip of vodka, slap a loaf of crusty bread down and holler for you to get to the table.

Ukrainian Beet Borshch and Pampushky

Christmas always brings me at least one new cookbook and this year was no exception! My traditional first recipe from most of the cook books I get is a soup recipe. This is, perhaps, the result of looking to use leftovers from the Christmas food shopping fest or maybe just a rustic reaction to all the rich food we consume during the holidays. Soup seems simpler, less caloric, and less stressful to create.

A Tailgate Supper - Slow Cooker Pulled Pork and Creamy Cole Slaw

Fall's here in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire! No more knocking on the door with a tentative crisp day or a showy bright blue fall sky. Labor Day has come and gone and now it's back to busy school days, harvesting the final garden produce and beginning the buttoning up of things for the coming (say this word in a whisper!) winter. Soon we'll be raking leaves, planting spring bulbs, cleaning out the greenhouse and stacking the planters and hanging baskets for the season, cleaning out the gutters, stacking the wood up closer to the house,and enjoying the occasional high school football game. Busy days, indeed!

Cooking With Grains ... Cooking Light's Virtual Supper Club

Okay, so THIS is what sunlight does blasting down through my skylight onto the sauce base for today's dinner - Barley Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Pine Nuts and Currants. I'm drooling already, aren't you? Wait til you see this platter all decked out!

Maple Season! Maple Glazed Spareribs and Winter Slaw

 

... maple glazed spare ribs with winter slaw ...

 

Whiskey and Cider Glazed Ham with Colcannon

I know I'm pushing the Fall thing, but it's presence is ever closer - just look at all that goldenrod that's in bloom! SB and I went for a bike ride today out along one of  the New Hampshire rail trail bike paths. This one was over in Jaffrey. There were clumps of goldenrod along the path and ponds carpeted with defunct lilypads ... limp, drooping blossoms laying on the water and bullfrogs 'galumphing' away.

Picnic Fare - Creamy Cole Slaw

Well, here comes the 4th of July holiday and for the rest of the summer, the weekends will be taken up with picnics at the beach, state park reunions, long weekend camping trips, outdoor concerts and all manner of festivals and fairs. All that activity requires easy dishes that you can whip up in a snap and throw in the fridge or the cooler for later. There's no sense missing the fun or being a harried cook!

Here's an easy classic of summertime knoshing - it goes perfectly with everything from a fish fry to a pulled pork sandwich, from fried chicken off the grill to boiled lobsters and corn on the cob. It IS summertime on the plate, folks!

Swedish Meatballs and Sweet Braised Cabbage and Cranberries

When I first married SB, I came to the our kitchen (and the marriage!) with a goodly number of recipes in my cache. Over the years, though, he has told me that he cannot get enough cabbage. The other day, I was browsing Diana Henry's cookbook, roast figs sugar snow - winter food to warm the soul, and came across a recipe for Swedish Meatballs. Now, I have a perfectly good recipe for Swedish Meatballs, but what got my attention was a side cranberry relish that Ms. Henry suggested would go beautifully with the dish. So... I took her suggestion and played with it a bit.

Farmers, CSA's, and Severine von Tscharner Fleming

                                                                                                

 Photo Credit - Rich Pomerantz Photography

SvTF is the way I'm going to refer to her. I'm sure she must have a nickname that she goes by ... perhaps Madame Greenhorn ? She's worked very hard to bring organization and support to young farmers nation-wide through her efforts in forming The Greenhorns. The homesteading and CSA movements have blossomed while she has been recruiting the most enthusiastic of supporters in the fields of agriculture, film, art, technology, and marketing to jump on board the Greenhorns advocacy group and help promote its mission to recruit and support young farmers as they go up against the large agribusiness complex that threatens small scale farming. The organization's blog,  the irresistible fleet of bicycles , is a wealth of information on finding available farm land, farming issues, seminars for learning farming practices and business strategies, ways to advocate for the small farmer in the political arena, and celebrations of successes. This is grassroots organization in a 21st century world and technology is helping a lot! The Greenhorns organization, with SvTF as its director, has its hands in the worlds of on-line communication, independent film production, and radio.

SvTF is an eloquent advocate. Yes, she's on a mission. Sounds a little daunting, doesn't it?  Well, it is when you really think about it, but there are so many small farms struggling to grow good food and raise healthy animals to supply the American public with healthy local foodstuffs. CSA's are just the tip of the iceberg. Local farmer's markets are the place to really see what small farmers can provide. The networks that are formed through those markets and regional food festivals are the backbone of the locavore movement  ... and I'm sure SvTF is cheering the little explosions of enthusiastic support that are occurring all over this country (and the world!). Yup, she must be ... and giving small farmers a place to connect and collaborate ... and THAT's game changing. Period. Peace.

As an aside - For a really great look at SvTF and other young farmers who are jumping headlong into this resurging agricultural renaissance, see Rich Pomerantz's blog and, in particular, his Young Farmers series at Rich Pomerantz Photography . He's taken some amazing pictures and has given  great write-ups on all these young people.

Braised Red Cabbage with Apples

I've begun a new sewing project so my time today was spent on my hands and knees, laying out four inch quilt squares ... pushing Penny, the inquisitive kitty and Mimi, the naughty Corgi away from the quilt lay-out and talking them to calm lumps of fur beside me on the floor while I figured out the best color scheme. It's a miracle that they behaved so well  AND that I managed to get the rows of quilt squares laid out and then picked up and arranged in a small piles that are ready to sewn together tomorrow ... much easier than keeping them away from that Challah dough last week!

 Regardless ... I needed an easy dinner strategy after all that 'up-and-down', place and replace tedium, check and double check to make sure pattern is correctly laid out ...

From Lidia's Table ... Polpette di Verza

Lidia Bastianich is such an inspiration! Her roots may be in Europe, but she has embraced the American dream whole-heartedly. Her family came to the United States after WWII, sponsored by Catholic Charities, and worked hard to establish themselves. Lidia married, raised a family, apprenticed in restaurants to learn her cooking craft, and built her career step by step. She has maintained a tight family that works together to establish critically acclaimed restaurants, run cooking classes, host television shows on Italian cuisine, and develop the family name 'brand' through cookbooks and affiliation with various commercial ventures. Now THAT'S fulfilling the American dream, huh? Right on, Lidia!