Goat Love...

So, after milking goats at a neighbor's house for 7 years now, I finally warmed my family up to the idea that we could raise our own goats too.  We have officially taken the leap from casual gardeners and chicken raisers to dipping our toes into the world of urban homesteading.  We now have two beautiful Lamancha doelings, Maizy-Ann and Tula who totally have us smitten.  I am finding all sorts of reasons to stay close to home these days, as I could sit and visit with them all day long.  Looking out the kitchen windows to the chickens and goats grazing about the awesome pen my husband spent the better part of the summer building, brings a ridiculous amount of joy to my heart.  A side benefit that I wasn't fully prepared for has been the way they have brought so many friends, neighbors and even strangers into our yard, everyone loves a good visit with these girls and they are beyond happy for the raisins and treats being shared.  We are loving all the visits as well, it is so much fun when a neighbor stops by with a bouquet of bay leaf branches for our kitchen and a pocket full of saltine crackers for these sweet girls, or when we get a last minute call from a friend in the south end asking if now is an ok time for a meet and greet, and all those that I have heard love to stop in when we are off at work and share smiles and raisins with these two.  Thank you all for sharing in this new journey with us!  I am dreaming of yogurt, ice cream, cheese making, and learning the ins and outs of making our own soaps once these girls are old enough to breed and become milk producers, but until then I am happy to settle for sharing the last of our garden's kale and chard in exchange for the affections of these little ladies.

Where have I been???

Oh my, how many post ideas have I started and abandon over the last many months?  Truth be told, more than I care to admit, but here we are deep in the days of mid fall in the Pacific Northwest.  I do love so much about this time of year, the cool and crisp air, the deep appreciation for every ounce of blue sky and sunshine that shows up, all things orange like squash and satsumas, vibrant and crisp leaves piling up along the walkways of my morning walks, and particularly the feeling of wanting to settle in for the impending winter.  Now that I am rooted in working life as well, my days off are something I am learning to really treasure and put to good use.  So today, after a quick trip to the dog park I am home and in the kitchen prepping several things that have been piling up for a bit now.  I had some extra milking shifts recently so there was a bit of a milk stockpile which I am turning into ricotta for an upcoming lasagna dinner, a bag of tomatoes from my in-laws garden which are being oven dried for soups and sauces in coming weeks, sprouts in various stages waiting for some love and the not so glamorous but oh so needed cleaning out of the fridge.  There were just a few too many last little bits of leftovers that have sat ignored and needed to go to the chickens before they become science experiments.  I do so love sending my compost out to the ladies knowing they will be transformed into lovely eggs for us very soon.  I could spend an entire day finding ways of keeping myself busy in the kitchen; maybe baking something for friends or family, prepping for the week's lunches and dinners, making some staple item like ricotta/yogurt/granola/kombucha etc, or just chilling on the window bench with a cookbook doing a bit of meal planning.  Here is a peek into my prepping today...

To make ricotta I follow the directions from Smitten Kitchen, heating the milk slowly and adding salt and lemon juice, letting it sit, then straining.  This is my first go around making sprouts, I started with alfalfa and broccoli and just today am starting a salad mix for the next batch, the strainer lids make it so easy.  And last, I am simply leaving the cut tomatoes in a low temp oven for many hours to dry them out, I have done this in the past and it seems to work really well, once they are dry to my liking I just put them in a jar and store in the fridge.  None of this is monumental or earth shattering stuff but there is a odd joy and satisfaction I feel when putting things to use and minimizing the waste going to the landfill.  Happy Monday all, I hope your week brings you some joy and satisfaction as well!

Another Cake...

One of my most favorite ways to spend time is cooking along side a friend, especially in fancy-dancy kitchens.  Yesterday I got such a chance and pounced (maybe even inviting myself over), to bake with a friend who is an amazing baker.  Not only does she consistently wow us all with her delicious confections, she is fearless about tackling new and seemingly complicated recipes.  A while back I had posted this torte recipe from Smitten Kitchen but have been totally intimidated to try the whole meringue thing, but not this friend.  She jumped on it and has made the torte several times all the while raving about it and extolling its amazingness.  Earlier in the week she mentioned that she was planning on making said dessert for an upcoming school event and I jumped right in and invited myself over to watch and learn from this master baker.  She upped the anti on me, informing me that I would not simply watch and learn but I'd bake right along side her and make one for myself.  So I packed up my eggs, cream, chocolate, vanilla, sugar and hazelnuts and headed for her lovely kitchen.  We baked, she instructed, we chatted and had a generally great time.  It was a great way to spend a particularly cold Northwest afternoon, thank you very much.  What I most love about this dessert is; that it is naturally gluten free so no experimenting with flour mixtures, it combines two of my most favorite flavors (chocolate and hazelnut), and it is a show stopper.  If you are looking for a dessert to wow a crowd yet is really fairly quick and simple to pull off, this will be your new BFF.  I hope you will not be like me and let intimidation get in the way, do yourself a favor and head to the kitchen this weekend to make this delicious treat.

The Soup That Kept Me Up All Night

I spend a crazy amount of time thinking about food; what I should cook for my family, what I want to cook for my family, what ingredients do I need to try to get into more of our meals, what have we been eating lately... it goes on and on but you get the idea. So to have something linger in my mind is nothing new, but TO KEEP ME UP ALL NIGHT?!?! Well, that was new for me. So let me back up a bit here, it all started with a sweet potato. I had one left over from this curried sweet potato salad I made last week, and I bought another to make these yummy looking sweet potato/pretzel balls. But time and life got away from me, I never got around to making the sweet potato/pretzel balls and now had two sweet potatoes sitting on the counter staring at me. I was thinking about the curried salad but it's been so cold around here lately I couldn't stomach the thought of a cold meal, I needed something warm and soothing and then it hit me - a steamy bowl of creamy curried sweet potato soup just sounded so good. I couldn't get the thought out of my head, I laid awake thinking how the flavors of curry, sweet potato and coconut milk just sounded like they were made for each other. I dreamt about creating this soup, crazy right? So 1 am, 3 am, 4 am the clock is ticking by all I can do is think about the amazing flavor of caramelized onions pureed with the sweet potato and finished off with coconut milk. So first thing that morning I got up and hit the WWW for a little guidance, really validation. I mean, to me it sounded like a little slice of heaven but would the flavors come together as gracefully as I had hoped? First off I found a recipe that suggested roasting the potatoes first, great idea. But nothing that I found in my quick search mentioned caramelizing onions, and most recipes called for all sorts of other additions like celery or apples. None that I found really hit the spot of what I was looking for, other than simply validating that I was on the right track with the curry and potatoes. So, I winged it. Roasted the potatoes in the morning, then chopped a big onion and caramelized it. Once that was done I threw in some garam marsala and curry powder to let the flavors really sink into those onions and toast themselves a bit. Next I added three roasted sweet potatoes and about a quart of homemade chicken stock. Once this came to a boil I pureed it all with my immersion blender and added a can of coconut milk and salt and pepper to taste. At the table we topped our bowls with some toasted pumpkin seeds and goat cheese. Home run I tell you. The smell told me I was on the right track, but when I finally had a chance to sit down to dinner and eat, it was exactly what I had hoped for. I was especially grateful for the suggestion to roast the potatoes and for the addition of the garam marsala. On a cold night, this was so warming from the inside out. It will definitely make a regular appearance on on our fall and winter table from here on out.

A Room with a View

I just returned home from a beautiful walk with a friend, and am now looking out my kitchen windows to the most magnificent sunny fall day. What is making the scene just right, is the lack of leaves that were blanketing our yard Friday afternoon as I left for a weekend away with friends. Apparently Music Man got inspired, recruited the help of Guru and Sunshine, and together they all raked, blew leaves and cleaned up the entire yard. It looks fabulous now, especially on the wonderful fall day we are having. We are blessed with an exceptionally large lot of land surrounded by trees which translates into lots and lots of leaves every fall. Until the next wind blows though, things are looking beautiful out there!!!

I was away this weekend with an incredible group of women to celebrate with a friend who is about to get married. The time was spent knitting, reading, sharing amazing meals together, playing games and most importantly sharing our thoughts and dreams with her on her upcoming marriage. This is the second such weekend I have been blessed to experience, both of which have come for me after nearly 14 years of marriage, both of which taught me more about what it means to share a life with someone than I had figured out on my own in those 14 years. There is something so inspiring for me about being with women who are living life with purpose, passion and a commitment to their communities. I am honored to walk among them.

I Love CSA's

I have been loving the beautiful photos of people's csa box contents. We get our box each Thursday, I am going to try to capture some of that beauty with a photo and post on our weekly bounty. There is something so satisfying about knowing not only where your food came from but that it is just a stone's throw from home to boot. Music Man even notices the difference in flavor with truly fresh local organic produce, I never thought the day would come when he would utter, "wow, this is really good lettuce, it tastes so fresh!" No joke, he really said it:)

Today we received; the so mentioned lettuce, D'anjou pears, apples, yukon gold potatoes, acorn squash, green onions, cauliflower, baby carrots, lemons, kiwi, tomatoes, kale, and spinach. Sunshine promptly nibbled up a pear on the ride home and the lettuce and tomatoes were enjoyed with our taco dinner tonight. The greens and carrots will disappear quickly as I have started juicing fresh greens for us all. We all love cauliflower soup so that will be on the menu for sometime soon. The fruit goes quickly in this house which leaves me with just the squash and potatoes, any ideas? We currently have much squash about, I am going to try juicing it as well and perhaps using the rest in soup next week. This time of year soup is a standby in our home and luckily all are agreeable to it around here, or more realistically they tolerate my obsession with it. As I mentioned I hope in the future to post some photos.

Fall Indulgences

I am always drawn to the heart of every home I visit, the kitchen. I love the way so often it becomes the gathering spot for family and friends. In our home the kitchen is not only where meals are prepared, but also where homework is done, songs are sung, tea is sipped, hugs and kisses abound and where we open our hearts to one another each day. If I could craft a home, it would start with the kitchen and everything else would be designed around it. I hope to share my view and vision of all the beauty and magic made from this special place.

I love the fall and all of the wonderful flavors that it brings. Our kitchen is currently stocked up with various squash, persimmons, bitter greens, pears and apples. In our csa box this week we received a bunch of sun chokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes). This was a new veg to our family, so through a quick query online I found an amazing lemon chicken with sun chokes recipe. My folks were joining us for dinner so, in true form for me, I decided to experiment with a new recipe. We also currently have a plethora of persimmons and there were more in our box, luckily so was a recipe for persimmon pudding cake, and another opportunity to experiment. I am pleased to say that both new recipes came out wonderfully, pleasing everyone. "Keepers" for sure as we like to refer to such experiments.