I planned to swing by Skillet Diner and pick up a jar of Bacon Jam for my brother Alex’s stocking, but I realized that I could probably make it cheaper, and then I would have more to give away. A quick search got me this recipe, which looked pretty good, and I was off and running. It is basically equal parts bacon and onions, cooked down for hours and hours with garlic, coffee, brown sugar, maple syrup, and vinegar to round out the flavors.

So how does bacon jam taste, you may want to know. I won’t resort to the superlatives that the other blog did about this stuff, but I will say it’s pretty tasty. It won’t change your life, but it would definitely improve a burger. When it finished cooking at midnight or so, I decided to test it with an egg poached in plastic wrap (testing a breakfast I was planning for the family getaway) and it definitely satisfied that late-night fat- and salt-tooth that I could really do without. Alicia said it was sweeter than she expected, but it is called jam, after all.

A personal note and disclaimer on bacon: I am not usually one to want to wrap everything I see in bacon. We do have a freezer full of it from buying half a pig earlier this year, though, so access isn’t a problem. However, this month I not only made bacon jam as a stocking stuffer, I also brought bacon-chocolate-chip-pecan cookies to a Cookie Exchange Party. And when I noticed that I was almost out of Bacon Salt (a stocking stuffer I received – and secretly mocked – last year), I thought, “I wouldn’t mind more of that.” Hmmmm…. I may need to re-examine the cool distance I try to maintain from bacon-obsessed dudes who are weaving bacon baskets to hold a dozen pigs sculpted in foie gras (or other ridiculous things…).

Share on Facebook

We have had chicks in the basement in a box that fit them just fine when we first got them, but they’ve grown quite a bit in the last month. They’ve got plenty of feathers now, so it was time to put them outside (plus, our basement was starting to smell like a barn). In order to make the transition, I had to build a new house for them inside the coop. It could use a coat of paint, and come spring it will need a few nesting boxes, but it’s a big improvement over the last one.

After a day out in the new coop, I will say that the concept of ramps is a pretty complicated one for a chicken brain to wrap itself around. Or maybe they just like to stay close to the heat lamp. Hopefully, they’ll figure it out soon and learn how to scratch around for worms. Either way, Bob Dylan is happy for the company out there.

Share on Facebook

When I was studying graphic design in college, a magazine called Critique was the most highbrow thing going… smart, critical, and as a design challenge they used Times New Roman as the main font just to see if they could make it look good. They had a cover for their Economy issue that completely blew my mind; it was maddeningly perfect:

It's probably too small to read; click to see a larger version.

All this to let you know that we’ve simplified just a little bit: our domain name has dropped the “the” at the beginning. You can still go to the old address and it will bring you here, but if you’re used to typing it in still (Mom), you can type one less word in an already long name. Onward, upward, and winterward!

Share on Facebook

We’re having a pre-Thanksgiving potluck with the neighbors tonight and I decided to make a pie with the sour cherries we got this summer at Paul’s parents’ place in Wenatchee. If I had room to grow a cherry tree it would be this kind; super tart and really only good for baking or jam.

When I thawed them out a ton of juice drained off, and I realized that I could do a batch of jelly alongside the pie. We had everything we needed in the basement (including the obscene amount of sugar that goes into jelly), and besides the processing time, it only took about a half hour to make 8 cute little pints.

Plus this was my first lattice-topped pie. Alicia accused me of showing off and I won’t deny it.

Share on Facebook

My design class took a field trip to the Volunteer Park Conservatory (one of Seattle’s best-kept secrets) yesterday, in search of patterns in nature for their final project. Though I have a relatively strict no-decorative-plants rule in my garden, I’m loosening up on that stance in my advancing years. I’ve planted some succulents along the front stairs, and I don’t fight against the poppies and daffodils that come up every year.

I can only aspire to a thumb green enough to cultivate a whole room full of cacti like the Cactus Room at the Conservatory… if you’ve never been there it is a must-see.

Share on Facebook

We have a history of neglecting the fruits of our garden, and here is another instance. We grew a bunch of little delicata squashes last year, which were a bit of a pain to use because they were kind of petite. So down into the basement they went. We’re trying to pinch pennies these days, so in scouring the food storage, Alicia found them and decided it was time to make some risotto. They had changed colors from white with green seams to a golden yellow, almost like little pumpkins. Those things were over a year old, and still going strong… talk about staying power.

Share on Facebook

Alicia has been making applesauce like crazy with the bags of apples that we brought home from Wenatchee back in October, and we have probably 20 or 25 quarts so far. I kept saying that I was going to make some apple pie filling since we just used up our last batch, but it’s been busy. Finally last night the Venn diagram of motivation and time overlapped, and I canned 10 quarts of pie filling. It looks like a good batch this time around; I followed this recipe (mostly, and despite the Comic Sans). Blanching the apples after they were peeled and sliced seems like it helped keep the whole production from oxidizing too much, though I had to run the sauce through the blender to de-lump it before pouring it in the cans.

A week or two ago, I also made some apple jelly with rosemary, which is an amazing combination of flavors. Rosemary usually overpowers things, but with the apple, the flavors are perfect together. We received a jar of this jelly from someone a few years ago and loved it, but I can’t figure out who it was. If you’re out there, reveal yourself! At any rate, it is tasty, tasty jelly, and it’s all Hannah wants on her toast for the time being. Just take any apple jelly recipe, and add a sprig of fresh rosemary after filling the jars, right before you put the lid on; the rosemary flavor infuses the whole jar.

Share on Facebook

Our friend Lark just invited us to the most impressive dinner party the other week, inspired by a festival she ran into somewhere in Europe I want to say. Maybe France? Or Spain. At any rate, it celebrated the late-season root vegetables and hearty greens that are still around, nearly forgotten in the garden. She and her sisters-in-law cooked probably 10 different dishes, served thali-style, and it was absolutely incredible.

I was doing some late-fall putting away of the garden this afternoon, and came upon three artichokes that were still OK. Inspired by the Feast of the Forgotten Vegetables, I tossed them on the porch to bring inside, though I will admit that in the back of my mind I was thinking, “Those will sit in the crisper for a few months before I throw them in the compost.”

We just let our artichokes bloom this year, partly because the purple thistle was so pretty, and partly because I was for some reason intimidated by the spiky things. This is our second year growing artichokes, and until tonight, we’d never cooked them. But after the kids went to bed I wanted a snack, and there they were.

Boiled for 20 minutes. Melted butter with lemon. Seriously, these were the best artichokes I’ve ever had. Surprisingly tender. But seriously, as a side point, who figured out you could eat those things? “Ok, now you’re going to scrape inside of the very bottom of the leaf off with your teeth — no seriously, it’s good.”

I’m on board. No more letting them blossom for the color, we’re eating them from now on.

Share on Facebook

I teach color theory every spring, and when we talk about color psychology I always say that blue is an appetite suppressant because there are no naturally occurring blue foods. I’ll have to add an asterisk to my lecture next semester. We grew these blue potatoes this year, and when they are mashed, they make the most impressive blue color. They get a little more purple when they’re heated up.

Share on Facebook

My brother Alex told me that the hops would be ready when the tips started turning brown, so I guess it’s go time. I planted them with a long rope to climb all the way up to my office window on the top floor, and they didn’t make it last year, but this year they did, and how. I pulled one off the vine and it smells delicious. Some people would say BO, I say IPA. It’s time to drop the rope and pull all the hop blossoms (flowers, blooms, what are they called anyway?) and get them dried. Or better yet call up Alex and set up a fresh hop ale brew day.

Get to know your Urban Farmer’s Almanac history and read about the history of these hops here.

Share on Facebook

A couple of years ago Dan’s parent gave us some cuttings from their grape vines.  Let me start by saying these grapes are amazing.  They are small champagne grapes and are so sweet and delicious with a flavor like none I’ve found at the store.  They are perfect for kids to watch grow and eat – even our littlest one.  The first year the cuttings were literally just sticks in the ground.  The following year they had grown enough to call it a vine and had sprouted leaves.  Last year I think we may have gotten a couple of grapes even, but this year is the year they really began to bear fruit.

I would love to experiment with grape juice and jelly and I know Dan would love to try his hand at wine, but they get eaten up so quickly there is never enough to preserve.  Our littlest one (who is almost one) does not crawl yet, but scoots around on his bottom.  Whenever he sees someone come in with grapes in their hand goes crazy and scoots over faster than I would think is possible.  We dried one clump in the dehydrator just to see what these taste like as raisins and to be honest I think they lose too much flavor that way.  They are definitely preferable fresh.

The bummer about these vines is that our long term plan for the garden includes a replacement retaining wall and new (non-chain link) fence.  This winter we may try to remove the vines from the fence and create an  arbor that they can live on permanently.

Share on Facebook

More canning… I really don’t know how this all fits in with everything being so busy these days. We brought back a box of beans from Yakima and pickled them. My grandma made these and I loved them as a kid, both the regular dill ones, and the spicy ones with red pepper flakes in the bottom. My mouth is watering just thinking about them now.

I’ve been doing a little bit of design work for Panacea, an awesome dinner delivery service here in Seattle. I am all for getting paid in food, especially when it’s this tasty. They did house-roasted beef sandwiches earlier this summer, and it came with a really good Tomato Jam, with big slices of ginger in there. I used the leftovers on egg sandwiches, a burger, and shamefully, straight from the spoon. So I took a shot at approximating it with the Tomato Preserves recipe in my trusty Ball Home Preserving bible. It’s close enough and will have to do… until I can get them to pass along the secret recipe.

Share on Facebook

Every August we spend a weekend in Yakima picking up (and u-picking) produce to preserve for the coming year. The first year we went may have been pre-children, and I think a couple other times we managed to leave them with the grandparents, but by now it’s become a full-blown family vacation. There is the hotel with a pool, Mexican food for dinner, the quirky winery we go tasting at, and of course our favorite places to buy produce.

This year we made quick work of the tomato fields, picking 140 pounds in 20 minutes or so. Even when the tomatoes are 35 cents a pound, they end up costing quite a bit when you get 4 huge boxes full. When we got home and realized what we’d done to ourselves… the project was pretty daunting. The first half of the batch we peeled, pureed, and cooked down to a really tasty pizza / pasta sauce (the recipe in the photos is what we added to each stockpot of sauce after it had reduced by about half.

The second half of the batch we peeled, chopped, boiled, and canned as stewed tomatoes; it was a lot less work and we put those away as quarts rather than pints. All told, we ended up with about 25 pints of pizza sauce and 25 quarts of stewed tomatoes. The best part was getting that bucket of tomatoes out of our fridge.

Share on Facebook

I am done with yellow squash.  In the last three weeks I have made
Squash pancakes
Squash muffins
Squash cookies
Squash quick bread
Squash risotto
Stuffed squash
Squash chips
Squash fritters
Squash sandwiches
BBQ’d squash
Grilled squash

Basically almost every meal has had  squash component and I don’t particularly like yellow squash.  I am declaring myself done with squash for awhile.  I have started handing out squash to any and all visitors to our house.  Yesterday a friend left town for a week and gave us the rest of their only lightly used CSA box.  Wouldn’t you know … there was plenty of yellow squash in it.

Share on Facebook

is to stay out of the kitchen.

Share on Facebook

We mentioned a post or two back that our yellow crookneck squash plants have hit their stride (as opposed to everything else in the garden…). The other day Alicia made squash muffins, squash quickbread, and for dinner, stuffed squash. I’m starting to feel like Bubba and Forrest Gump, scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush.

Anyway, on the way to the mailbox this morning I decided to see if anything needed picking. And, um…

Share on Facebook

Back in July we were invited to tag along on another orchard gleaning out in Wenatchee (we did apples last fall) at Peter and Maryann’s and we ended up with a significant quantity of Rainier cherries, plus a couple bings thrown in for good measure. Apparently the Rainiers were  being selectively harvested for just the right size and color at the end of the season, and a bunch were just going to be left to the birds. Dodging rain showers, Paul, Michaellynn and I spent a couple hours up on ladders filling bags.

Alicia had the foresight to get on Amazon and buy the highest-rated cherry pitter she could find, and we put it right to work. We were going to be pretty busy with a home-improvement project, so we froze them in gallon bags until we would have a chance to work on them.

(Time passes… one month to be exact.)

OK, I’m back and have finally started processing the cherries. Michaellynn had suggested freezing the cherries before drying them because when they thawed, they would release a lot of their liquid, which she made into jelly. We followed suit, and indeed, each gallon bag of cherries drained about a quart of liquid. After that it was into the dehydrator for about 16 hours, and we had what looked like giant raisins on hour hands. I reduced down the cherry liquid into a thick syrup, and we’re trying to decide what to do with it. Probably keep some for pancakes, and maybe make a bit of jelly too?

Share on Facebook

In the precarious, cold, wet months when we’re starting seeds, transplanting the seedlings, and hoping the plants take root, a lot of things can happen. This year I find myself with three yellow crookneck squash plants, and two of them are starting to produce pretty heavily. These are yellow squash pretty similar in taste and texture to zucchini, so we have a decent idea of what to do with them, but we’re still scrambling to stay out in front. Alicia made squash quickbread and squash risotto the other night. Last night she wanted to try open-faced squash Parmesan sandwiches, so I got to work.

I sliced the biggest of our crop into 1/8″ planks, and marinated them in some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and smoked paprika. After a half hour or so, it was onto the bar-b-que with them, monitored closely so they didn’t get too soggy or overcooked. I made plenty so there are leftovers for lunches.

To finish the sandwich, the squash was placed on grilled sourdough, then topped with marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese, and broiled to brown them. Robbie was convinced they were pizza sandwiches and ate it right up, but Hannah decided she was back to being a picky eater and cried about dinner. You can’t win them all, especially where squash is concerned.

Share on Facebook

The little crabapples out in front of the run-down church next door are ready to go, so Robbie and I filled up a basketful yesterday. The sauce they make is really tart, but the batch we froze last year was perfect as a base for pie filling, adding either apples or rhubarb. The first batch today made 7 pints of applesauce, and I have the rest prepped to cook down tomorrow, hopefully for another 5 or 6 pints. That should get us through to next year in pretty good shape. Though pies have become my go-to potluck dish, so I think we’ll also do some apple pie filling this fall.

I got a little artsy with the photos this time, just to warn you. Here’s to steamy August nights in the kitchen.

Share on Facebook

In a good year, we have time to braid our garlic. Last year it all got dumped in a box and didn’t hold up very well. This year, I’ve settled for the messy bun approach in lieu of braiding. Not as pretty, but hopefully effective.

Share on Facebook

My mom used to make biscuits for breakfast all the time, and we’d have them with butter (let’s be honest, it was margarine) and jam or honey. Then I went off to college and the one thing I still miss from the Fairhaven dining hall is their biscuits and gravy, which I think were usually available on the weekends. Despite these fond memories, I rarely make biscuits these days.

Enter the New York Times Magazine a couple weeks ago. Like most weeks, one of the first things I read on Sunday morning is the recipe in the magazine, and it happened to be about biscuits, so I cut it out and pinned it to the fridge, which in the past has meant that Alicia will have to recycle it when I’ve forgotten about it in about 6 months.

But I woke up (or rather, was woken up by a baby) early today, and after finishing the last 25 pages of the book I was reading, I was ready to face the day, starting with a fresh batch of biscuits. You can get the recipe here, and the only change I made to the easy recipe was I did all the sifting and mixing in the food processor, instead of getting a bowl dirty too. The sausage gravy looks awesome as well (and the recipe features the instructions to cook “until its flavors are gathered close”, which is awfully poetic for a truck-stop specialty.) But I think the full biscuits and gravy assault on my arteries is best attempted on a weekend.

Breakfast today was equal parts nostalgia and the New York Times, a perfect description of most of the things I love, and it makes me laugh at the person I try so hard to be.

Share on Facebook

Putting radishes in the salad and trying to get the camera to capture the electric pink; close but not quite.

Share on Facebook

Robbie and I were out picking raspberries today and he said, “These plants are dead, dad,” referring to the potato buckets we planted earlier this year. He was right. What was lush green leaves a month or two ago had faded to a couple yellowed branches. The dirt looked pretty dry, too. Things on the side of the house don’t get watered much.

I decided to see how the potatoes did this year. The design of the planter makes it really easy to harvest – since they’re sections of a garbage can, you just pull the container up and sift through the dirt pile for treasures. It’s pretty amazing that I was able to plant some mushy, terrifying looking potatoes from the drawer and get these as a result. The harvest was relatively modest but it will be fun to fry up some potatoes for dinner tonight.

Share on Facebook

There have been a couple ingredients that have been languishing around here, causing me all kinds of guilt. One was a bowl of porcini mushrooms (King Boletes) that we foraged out near Leavenworth when we went camping a week or two ago. I owe you a post about those, by the way. The other was bok choi that’s been ready for at least a month in the garden, and was starting to flower.

Finally today, we woke up to a bit of rain after a string of 8o° days, and inspiration hit. I decided to make some mushroom and bok choi miso soup with rice noodles for lunch. It hit the spot, used some food up, and the kids even ate it.

Share on Facebook

Awhile back on this blog we wrote about the revolution that was the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day .  It was a great change of technique that really improved our bread making.  However I still ended up buying or making a lot of our sandwich bread because I prefer whole wheat bread – it just makes me feel like a better mom.  Enter Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  A new (ish- I am little late to the table with this one) book by the same authors that includes 100% whole wheat, sandwich bread and many enriched breads.  I’ve checked it out from the library twice and am now thinking I will just buy the darn book so I can always have it around.  It makes a really nice sandwich bread and I am anxious to try some of the other recipes in the book.

Share on Facebook

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion–put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.

practice resurrection

- Wendell Berry

Share on Facebook

Our strawberry patch is doing MUCH better this year, having been hooked up to the main watering system.  Even with this improvement though there is no way we can grow enough strawberries for the jam we need for the coming year.  Luckily we are close enough to local u-pick fields to make acquiring strawberries not too difficult.  This year Hannah and I went to Harvold farms in Carnation, WA.  This is a no-frills farm that charges $1 a pound.  I was hoping to get 20 pounds, but my co-picker’s steam ran out pretty quickly so I settled for 13.

With this I managed to make 6 batches (30 cups) of Dan’s favorite freezer strawberry jam.  We actually had enough berries for a couple more batches, but we don’t want to run out of freezer space this early in the season.  Besides if we can’t make 30 cups last a year we may need to take our jam consumption down a notch. We’ve already enjoyed crepes with jam for breakfast today and now have plenty to last us a year, plus a gallon of frozen berries and a 4th of July strawberry shortcake to boot.

Share on Facebook

I’ve found lettuce and greens to be one of the best crops for beginning gardeners.  It has a quick growing cycle, is not too fussy and its easy to know what to do with it once it comes in. We’ve been enjoying daily salads even though much of the rest of our garden is still getting established. Even our kids can recognize that fresh young lettuce from the garden tastes great.

This Sunday in the paper I was reminded of another reason why its great to grow your own greens – food poisoning.  The recent outbreak of e coli in Europe is just scary – people are dying because they ate a salad.  This article reminded me that every bite of raw food I eat is an act of confidence in the whole food system that brought it to my plate.  But I don’t trust the system.  I know that contamination happens.  Sprouts were mentioned in the article as particularly worrisome and I was happily reminded that my sprouts are safe from this kind of contamination as is my lettuce.  Certainly the food systems that create these kind of issues needs to be fixed (although don’t ask me how – I am just a humble urban gardener) it is nice to know there is a way to avoid this to some extent at least.  Its great to enjoy fresh produce from our garden for many, many reasons but this one was a new reason why I am happy to have a garden.

Share on Facebook

Last year was the first time I went morel mushroom hunting, and Jared and I did OK for a first try. Over Memorial Day weekend this year, I decided to head out east to a clearcut off 97 between Cle Elum and Leavenworth (which is as close as you’ll get from me, unless you’re a blood relation, in which case I might tell you which Green Trails map it’s on. And this is for a pretty mediocre patch).

With 2 kids in tow, I was only hoping to find a few and leave it at that. Which is exactly what happened. I found exactly 15 morels. Which I was pretty happy with. The sausage leek mushroom pie was delicious, but maybe not worth all the time and gas it took to track them down.

Share on Facebook

The last few years the strawberry patch has claimed a prized location in our little urban farm and has repaid us with little to no yield of fruit.  This year we’ve added a soaker hose into the bed that is connected to the rest of our watering system.  The location of the strawberry patch made this quite a big project, but dreams of actual handfuls of strawberries made it happen.  We’re hoping being connected to the main watering system will insure plenty of moisture and will be the push it needs to give us some fruit.  If not this may be the last year that patch exists.

Share on Facebook