Fat Guy on a Little Bike

A chicken got loose again yesterday evening.  I don’t know what happened, except I came back there to get my potato fork and one of the chickens was on the other side of the fence.  It wasn’t happy to be there as it was scrambling around trying to get back, and it’s friend was frantic on the coop side of the fence.  I chased it for a while and then got Rachael to help me chase it down.  Eventually we had 2 adults and 3 kids chasing it and we cornered it against a fence and snagged it.  We trimmed their wings so they shouldn’t be popping over the fence anymore.  Chicken wrangling is an adventure!  Those things are darn fast, and quick.  Now I know why Mick told Rocky to chase the chicken around when he was training for Creed.

A lot of commenters were talking about cabbage and how to prepare it.  My big concern with cabbage is that I went to my go to method of preparation that makes about every type of vegetable go down (stir fry) and it was rejected. In fact, he rejected the fresh peas that were in there as well. (I think they needed to cook longer and be a little more soft)  So if that failed I’m concerned.  I’m going to give this recipe a try and we’ll see how it turns out.

The Veggie Man:  In the post yesterday I mentioned that I was working with some local CSAs to distribute excess vegetables to some food kitchens.  I did my first run tonight.  The farm is fairly close to town, maybe 10 miles or so.  I drove out there and she gave me 46 lbs of broccoli, 20 lbs of lettuce, a bag of beets, 21 lbs of shell peas, 13 lbs of snap peas and 32 lbs of snow peas.  I’m pretty excited about this endeavor.  Before she would compost this excess, not it’s going to people.  Once I get a schedule down and find another driver or two we’ll be able to get some serious local, organic food to the food banks.  She thought she would have enough for me to pick up twice a week until early October.  Rock!  And that is just this one CSA, I have one other to work with (who has expressed interest) and also one on the north side of town that I haven’t contacted yet.

I’m adding a tab to the storing/harvesting tab above to track this.

Man, tons of updates.

OK, sorry to disappear for so long but it is sooo crazy around here right now. What have I been doing?

Friday, Sat and Sunday I helped demolish the interiors of 2 houses. The houses were ripped down to the studs. Immense piles of rubbish were piled on the curbs. Have you ever used a wheelbarrow inside a house before? It’s interesting. Makes it easy to haul out the material, especially when you have a 4 ft high ramp down the front stairs. As we said while were were doing the work; if it wasn’t such a tragedy we’d say we were having a good time. We had a lot of help which helps the work go fast. I hope all the volunteers don’t burn out too fast though. This recovery will take a long time and we’ll need everyone for a long time to make it happen.

I’ve got more thoughts on the flooding, but too much other stuff going on. This is a critical time in the rehab because the houses have to be torn up and opened up to dry out to keep away all the mold and other bad things away. My sister is trying to organize a mission trip up here from AR, which would be very good for all of us.

When I wasn’t doing that I was too damn tired to do much else. Between those three days I spent about 22 hours yanking apart houses and picking up trash. Enjoyed some nice lunches which were donated by the Red Cross and area churches. I need to get on my church about why churches that are flooded can provide food but my church can’t, or hasn’t so far. I have to tell you, we hit a Mexican place Friday night with some friends (1 couple that is flooded out that we helped on Sat and Sun and our friends that they are staying with (flood victims brother)) and I have never had a beer taste so good as that night. Man, that was a good beer.

While this is going on my wife decided to paint the family room. Yeah. Really. So the house is torn apart and the room is partially done. It does look better already with trim and some primer in place, but bad timing I’d say. This weekend we might be able to get it finished. When the demolition at the houses is finished then they are left alone to dry for a while.

When I was at home I tried to keep up with the garden. The rabbit and woodchucks are eating too much stuff, so they are going to have to be removed. My wife is getting a trap and we’ll trap them and move them down to the nearby park or creek area. Things are coming along very well out there, not withstanding the rodent damages. We are being well supplied of lettuce still. The warm weather plants are growing well even though it’s been cooler than normal. When I have a few hours I’m going to get back to the garden plot and get some things planted. Specifically the long season plants of melons and squashes need to get in the ground soon. I have to worry about how contaminated the soil might be though.

Then of course one child had a stomach bug yesterday, but seems to have kicked it in one day (I wonder if it was something he ate at Grandma’s as she was sick too and he got better as soon as he starved all day). And the other child came home with critters in his hair. So massive cleaning, delousing and haircutting was undertaken last night. Oh, and it’s VBS week so that’s going on from 6:30-8:30, so both kids are up later than usual as the younger one won’t go to sleep until the older one gets home (mostly) and the older one goes to bed around 9 now instead of 8. Even though kids having critters is “normal” it still makes me feel like a failure as a parent.

Whew, I’m tired just writing that. I was able to can 7 pints and 7 half pints of strawberry jam last night. And I just found a recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam (from the Zahn Zone) which I’ll be trying this week with some of the remaining strawberries. I’ve eaten so many strawberries lately that I think my hair has been replaced by a green stem. At least I don’t have to worry about strawberries not being available this year.

said the zookeeper.  Has anyone else read that book?  Anyway, we had turnips for dinner tonight.  I’m trying to get into eating turnips for a variety of reasons, but one of the big ones is that they provide two side dishes from the same plant, and they are fairly easy to grow and grow quick.

Tonight we had a recipe called Tugboat Turnips which has turnips and carrots in it, along with a half cup of butter and some brown sugar.  I didn’t care much for this recipe.  It tasted like acorn squash with butter and brown sugar, which I’m not all that fond of.

We also enjoyed the greens following this recipe for Leon O’Neal’s Turnip Greens, and my wife and I both enjoyed this recipe.  Of course, you could bacon on just about anything and I’d eat it.  But it was very good.  Similar to a recipe I tried down in AR with some collard greens that my grandfather brought to us at a recent holiday.  A great way to eat the greens from turnips, and in the future perhaps some collards or mustard greens.

These turnips came out of my garden.  They are really so easy to grow and the rabbits don’t seem to care for them, which is a definite plus in my book.  If you have any other turnip recipes please share them and I’ll try them.

It’s spring break week this week, so Zach is staying at his Grandma’s house, but he also has swim lessons this week (at Coe College which are just awful swim lessons) so Grandma is driving him up here every day for his 30 minute lesson. (Yes, I know, we are really burning up the dead dinosaurs this week) Knowing that I would be feeding a whole troop this week I roasted one of the hams from our pig on Sunday.

Wow! Amazing. I had previously home brined a ham and roasted it, but this one was from the butcher and I had them smoke it first. It is incredible. Unbelievably good. Not to mention that it’s large enough for several meals.

After it was officially cooked Sunday night I cut some chunks off it and put them in aluminum foil so I could warm them up on Monday night. We enjoyed it with some mashed taters, gravy, roasted carrots, cornbread muffins and applesauce (we have a ton of applesauce here). It was great. But I was eyeing those ham bones.

Monday night I finished cutting up the ham and was left with two good sized ham bones. I followed Ed’s lentil recipe (sort of like a split pea soup) to make use of the meat that was still on the bones. Ed’s lentil recipe is very good. The ham adds a great smoky flavor and the lentils break down well. I used 1 cup green lentils and 1 cup orange lentils.  Let it cook on low for a few hours and it really melds together well.  My mother in law was in Texas in January and she brought me back some fresh bay leaves from a friend’s bush in their backyard (how nice would that be?).  Those fresh bay leaves add tremendous flavor to soups.  I’m very glad I have them.

I still have some huge portions left in the fridge, but I did dice some up so I can make up scalloped potatoes this week too. I love making use of big items like this for many, many dishes.

If you get a chance to buy a fresh, local ham that is smoked by a local butcher. You have to buy one. Far and away the best ham I’ve ever eaten, included those fancy Honey Glazed ones.  Check out my Local Chow link if you are in Eastern Iowa and need a supplier.

We decided to make peanut butter today. Organic brands are expensive, and I can get bulk organic peanuts, so what the heck.

I combined about a pint of peanuts (I spilled some on the floor which was not very pleasant), a pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and at the end we determined it needed just a little sugar. We added 1/2 tsp.

Run that in the food processor for about 2-3 minutes until it’s the consistency you want.

Homemade peanut butter has a much deeper and robust peanut flavor. We added just enough sugar for it to pop, but not to be overly sweet. They’ll have it with honey or jam anyway, so that’s enough sugar. Comparing to what we had in the cabinet it was much less sugary. It’s very good. You should give it a try.

Here’s a video showing the steps.

This cost us about $2 for the half a pint, not counting the massive amount of peanuts I spilled on the floor. If I’m able to grow my own peanuts in the future this will cost us even less, although the amount of work will increase exponentially.

Enjoy!

Sorry there have been no posts lately. I’ve been sick. I’ve finally got some energy, although I’m still going to bed early and napping after work. Hopefully soon I’ll be back in fighting form. Until then enjoy these pictures, with commentary!

A nice loaf with a neat design in the top. This is natural, no slicing before it baked!

SNOW DAY! (one of many this winter)

Two little guys playing chess. Neither really understands the strategy of chess, but they definitely know the rules! And they like to be up really early to play.

The things that can be done with LEGOs!

Here’s one little guy working on his “problem areas”. His mom is trying to get in swimsuit shape. I don’t know why, she looks just fine. I can understand the appeal though. I keep myself in tip swimsuit shape year round. Round is the best shape to elicit cheers when attempting cannonballs into the pool, so that’s what I shoot for. It’s something I come by naturally. It’s a gift.

Did someone say PETCO?

Breakfast-Donuts. (The breakfast of champions!)

Lunch-The last of the chicken noodle soup.
Local chicken and homemade broth, frozen noodles, organic onions, carrots and celery.

Dinner-Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, baguette, applesauce.
Packaged pasta, store bought baguette, homemade applesauce.
Bolognese sauce had local ground beef in it, 2 jars of local tomatoes, organic carrots, celery and onions. 1/2 cup of wine from CA. (I can find local wine on occasion at stores. During the summer’s I can get it at the Farmer’s Markets)

I did find out that a Vegan version of Bolognese sauce is called Napolitana. At least they look very similar.

Breakfast-Leftover fried potatoes and bacon from Saturday’s breakfast.

Lunch-Chicken, pasta, carrot and pea casserole from Saturday’s dinner. Homemade Applesauce.

Dinner-Creamed chicken with biscuits and green beans.
4 TBs butter melted, mixed with enough flour to make a roux. Then stirred in leftover chicken broth and simmered until the sauce was kind of creamy. Mixed in local, home canned chicken, and broth. While this was working I put biscuits in the oven. The biscuits had lard in place of shortening, organic flour, local organic milk. We covered a biscuit (or two) with the creamed chicken but also had some with local butter and homemade jelly. The biscuits were very soft and moist, although they didn’t rise much. I have that problem every time.

Breakfast-Cinnamon roll from the grocery store.

Lunch-Mexican Beans leftover from lunch on Sunday. Leftover Ham from the same bean pot’s ham hock. Leftover biscuit to dip in the bean juice. Grapes. (not organic even)

Dinner–Stir fry with squash, carrots, green onions, onions, napa cabbage and celery with noodles, rice balls (from leftover sticky rice) and some of those homemade egg rolls from this weekend.
Squash was local, carrots, green onions, onions, cabbage and celery are organic. Noodles are from Vietnaim. Sticky rice is from Thailand I believe. Egg rolls were stuffed with a previous day’s stir fry. Who knows where the egg roll wrappers came from.

*************************************************************************************

I’ve hit the jackpot the last couple days at dinnertime. The boys couldn’t get enough of the spaghetti or the creamed chicken. I elicited comments of “What’s for dinner??? OOOOO, I love that sauce!” and “This chicken stuff is really TASTY!”. Zagat’s couldn’t have said it better. Ethan had three helpings before I told him no more chicken (and he had some for breakfast). Tonight seemed to be the same. They ate it fast, but didn’t ask for seconds.

I’ve been reading more interesting books lately. I really enjoyed Stephen King’s book Cell, as well as Lord of the Flies, which wasn’t that deep but was an interesting study in human interaction and the motivation of groups. Interestingly I see a lot of similarities to how our government manipulates us. I’m having a hard time slogging through War and Peace and have become distracted by Wild Fermentation for the time being. I also am reading through a book on Communal Living, which is very interesting.

We’re running low on meat products right now, and I’m feeling the need for a little meat added to the diet right now. When we’ve had meat lately it’s been really small portions, and for some reason I’m craving a big piece of it right now. The downside to eating this way is that I can’t just pick some up, at least not in the winter. I’ve got a half a pig and a beef quarter in process, but they won’t be ready for a while still. I still have a ham in the freezer. It might have to be cooked up this weekend. It is a little strange not being able to just cook whatever I want whenever I want. My Dad gets here tomorrow for a visit. He might be in for a rude awakening as we eat meat lite.

If you’ve been reading my blog you probably read that Tuesday night my family had roasted chicken.  Well, we finally finished the chicken today, sort of, and I thought the journey of this chicken might make an interesting tale.

As I said Tuesday I roasted a chicken.  Not a large chicken.  About 4 pounds.  After it was done, and we had eaten a fair amount for dinner Tuesday I picked it fairly clean and deposited the bones and the gizzards into a stock pot.  Overnight they cooked until the morning when I had a nice large batch of chicken stock, as well as a nice bowl full of meat I was able to glean off the used up carcass.

Some of this meat and this stock populated a chicken noodle soup dinner Wednesday night.  This soup is still in the fridge, and I had 2 bowls of it for breakfast on Friday.  Then Friday night I diced up some of the chicken and added it to a stir fry.

The leftover stir fry (with chicken) was then added to egg rolls on Saturday.  Additional chicken was also diced up and mixed with cabbage and carrots to stuff more egg rolls Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night the remaining chicken was diced and put into a cheesy pasta shell casserole for dinner with 7 people.  I measured this amount and it was 10 ozs.

I still have at least 4 bowls of soup in the fridge and a healthy amount of stock left.

From one 4 pound chicken I had 12 adult meal servings, 8 child sized portions, used it in 15 egg rolls and have 4 bowls of soup and a good amount of stock left.   I’m going to pat myself on the back a little and say that I fully used that chicken, and it was enjoyed for many meals by us.  While that little chicken may have given it’s life for us, I think we respected it’s sacrifice sufficiently.

Friday the 15th

Breakfast-2 bowls of leftover chicken noodle soup.  (Hey, if it’s in the fridge it’s fair game)

Lunch-Leftover stir fry from the previous Sunday.  Valentine treats.

Snack-Popcorn

Dinner-New stir fry with carrots, peas, onions, cabbage, sweet potatoes and chicken.  2 egg rolls.  Applesauce.  Sticky rice

A friend who is from Laos gave me a Thai steamer for Christmas, so I used it to make sticky rice for the first time.  Very good.  I love sticky rice.  They also hooked me up with some special seasoning sauce (really good soy sauce).  The stir fry was the best ever.  The sauce in it was crazy good.  5 tb seasoning sauce, 3 tb fish sauce, 1 tb oyster sauce, 2 tb brown sugar, 3 tb arrow root powder, 1/2 cup chicken stock, a little veggie oil, dash of cayenne pepper.  Add to veggies and enjoy.

Carrots, cabbage, onion are organic.  Chicken and sweet potatoes are local (and leftover from Tuesday’s dinner).  Applesauce is homemade.  Egg rolls were premade frozen ones.  (I’m all out but I fixed that today).  Sticky rice is bulk, but probably from Thailand or Vietnam.

February 16th 

Breakfast-Bacon, fried potatoes with onions, eggs

Bacon, potatoes and eggs local.  Onions organic.

Lunch-Quesadillas, western beans, applesauce, carrots, brownie

Tortillas were the same as the other day, cheese was local and organic, peppers in quesadilla were local.  Beans were local, as were peppers and ham hock in the beans.  Applesauce is homemade.  Carrots are organic.   Brownie is homemade.

Dinner-Chicken and cheesy shells with peas and carrots.  Roasted carrots, applesauce, brownie.

Chicken, cheese, butter and milk are local.  Stock, brownie and applesauce is homemade.  Peas and carrots are organic.

Today I also made a new batch of egg rolls for my freezer.  Egg rolls are easy to make if you’ve thought ahead and have some stir fry leftover.  Most of the time an egg roll recipe tells you to basically make a stir fry, on a smaller scale, for the stuffing.  Well I dumped the leftover stir fry on a cutting board, diced it all up and then stuffed the egg rolls.  Put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer and now they are all individually frozen ready to pull out and cook in the future.  I also made up a second batch of stuffing with some leftover chicken, shredded cabbage and shredded carrots.  I ended up with about 15 egg rolls.  I would normally make these in the summer to take advantage of the fresh produce.  This coming summer I’ll have to plan ahead more when I make them.

You may also have noticed that I’ve been having cabbage.  It’s not local.  If I had been thinking I could have bought some and stored it through this winter.  But this is perhaps the first time I’ve ever had cabbage, so I’m experimenting.  I know I don’t like fermented cabbage, so I’m trying to find other ways to use it.  If I can find ways to prepare it I’ll be able to store it in the cellar next year.  Winter is my time to experiment a little, which leads to off season food purchases.  But I don’t have as much time in the summer to experiment.

February 13th 

Breakfast-Toast with butter, fried egg.

Homemade bread, local butter, local egg.

Lunch-Leftover Mexican Skillet (I pulled this from the freezer), carrot, crackers.

Skillet had local beef, bulk rice, local sweet peppers, local tomato puree and organic  onions in it.  Local cheese on top.

Dinner-Chicken Noodle Soup and grilled cheese.  Organic oyster crackers.

Homemade chicken stock, local chicken, organic carrots, celery and onions.  Grilled cheese had homemade bread, local butter and local cheese.

February 14th 

Breakfast-Oatmeal

Snack-Bread with nutella, carrot

Lunch-Yellow Curry vegetables from Thai Moon.  Spring rolls.  (Valentine’s lunch with my sweetie)  It wasn’t a very good lunch choice.  Spring rolls were good, and the sticky rice was excellent, but the curry wasn’t so good.  I would have preferred the curry from the Indian place.

Dinner-Cheese Pizza, organic salad mix, oranges.

Homemade crust, local cheese, organic pizza sauce,  organic salad mix, organic oranges