I’m super proud of the soup I made last night. A rift off of Linda Gordon’s Wild Rice Soup recipe but adapting it to use up a pile of little school lunch and breakfast servings that have been accumulating in our freezer. Here’s what I did:
-Sauteed and seasoned some chopped onion, celery, butter, and mushrooms in the bottom of my soup pot. (These things we had on hand… not from the school.) -Filled pot half-way up with water and brought to a simmer. -Added carrots—a mix of fresh chopped and frozen. And some bouillon. -Chopped and stirred in two school lunch “chicken” breasts and a little tub of turkey and brown gravy. Let this all cook until the carrots were tender. -Turned down/off the heat and stirred in several little tubs of rice (mostly Wild Rice, one of brown, one of white), four tubs of breakfast sausage and gravy, and a tub of Creamed Chicken (I hesitated the most on this one, but it turned out fine.. lol). It hit the spot! And now we have a lot more room in our freezer. I’m thinking I might be able to use the pile of baked beans and taco meat still in our freezer in a Chili one of these days. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out. Linda shared her soup recipe with me when I was working on a Local Foods cookbook project during my Farm to School days, so I don’t think she’ll mind if I share it again here (for all of you who aren’t getting the steady supply of little lunches each week). Linda Gordon’s Wild Rice Soup Recipe --Ingredients-- 1 cup uncooked wild rice 2 lbs pork sausage (1 lb hot and 1 lb regular or 2 lbs hot if you like it spicy) 1 small onion, diced 2-3 stalks celery, diced 11 cups water (or so) even better...substitute some water with canned chicken or beef broth 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tbsp (or so) good beef base (use the paste kind not those cheap bouillon cubes or granules) 16 oz. fresh mushrooms, chopped (or 2 small cans mushrooms) 2-3 carrots, coarsely diced 1 can evaporated milk 1/2 cup water (or canned chicken broth) and about 5 tablespoons cornstarch --Directions-- 1) Wash the wild rice thoroughly by running it under cold water in a strainer. Add rice to 3 cups of boiling water in a heavy saucepan or pot. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until rice is tender. This will take 35-45 minutes (don’t overcook), drain and set aside. 2) Crumble and brown sausage until about half-way done. Add onions and celery and brown some more. Add water (broth), soy sauce, beef base, mushrooms, and carrots. Cook until celery and carrots are done. 3) Add cooked rice. Let mixture cool slightly before adding milk. (It can be hot but not boiling hot—sometimes if it’s too hot it’ll curdle the milk). 4) Bring to boiling again and thicken with cornstarch/water mixture (add only 1/4 at a time to see how it thickens and stop when it gets as thick as you like it.) BONUS COVID DINNER IDEAS- -Dinner on our school lunch delivery day this week was a fruit and veggie tray (eat 'em up while their fresh!) with popcorn and shrimp cocktail. Covers all the food groups and no real cooking involved! -Another easy go-to has been egg rolls in the toaster oven and a bag salad dressed up with extra lettuce and mandarin oranges.
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With a fat beet. Yikes. Over five months since our last blog post. It’s been on my mind to write. Little notes here and there. But only now creating the time, to sit at my laptop with my back to the woodstove, wet hair drying after another nice fall run and shower. Fall has been more relaxed than summer for sure, but still kind of busy-- farm wrap-up, vacationing, negotiating winter work, finalizing details to finally build our house, out and abouting with O.… Today I brought him to the farm to hang with my parents for the afternoon. My mom was in the kitchen in the midst of a batch of pickled beets. It’s a good beet year in the garden. She told me she had harvested two large bags already and encouraged me to go out and harvest more. I have a goal though to enjoy and use the garden, but not let it stress me out. I enjoyed planting a couple heads of garlic in one of our raised beds with Oscar this morning, but was ready to move on with my day. I did incorporate beets into our dinners this week, a sheet pan dinner, and this awesome crockpot borsht that uses beets, carrots, cabbage, and venison (subbed for the beef). I’m partly making a point to write this post now, so I can find the recipe link again under my soup tag. This blog, for me, is both a way to connect and share, and a place to record and file away recipes, memories, books/articles, places to visit, etc. Blog posts coming soon (maybe) on my recent recommended reading and U.P. vacation spots. (In six words: the latest Sherman Alexie and Marquette.) This time last year, Kaite and I were dreaming and writing this blog into existence. I don’t need it in the same way this year, but I’m glad it’s here, and I wanted to say hi. Need any beets?
Grateful to have a choice, but still often thwarted by this question. So I'm gonna put some of my tried and true ideas in one place for me to scroll through, share, or reference when away from home. And because I live thirty minutes from the grocery store, here I am on Friday sitting in my part-time office in Washburn, trying to decide what I want to eat tonight, this weekend, what the rest of my family wants, what will get used and not go to waste... Nothing brings on my anxiety like the possibility of wasting food. Or packing.
It makes me so happy when I can clean out the fridge and make a super delicious meal with what needs to be used. A definite overall magic moment in my book. Especially when I can share it with friends. :) Here are a few recent examples: 12/3/16 A grouse flew into a post in the dog kennel yesterday and killed itself, so Jen cleaned it, brought it home, and sautéed it up for dinner. I made a version of this yummy barley pilaf to go with it using kale and squash from the garden, and red peppers and honey mushrooms from the freezer. 12/12/16 Katelyn gave us a huge fillet of Salmon that she caught while working in Alaska, so I made our go-to salmon meal (below) with steamed broccoli and roasted squash. I’ve never loved this meal as leftovers though. That is until I came across this soup recipe today. I subbed the raw fish, squash, and kale for my already cooked leftovers and this soup was ready in the time it took to heat it all up. Swirl in some sriracha. So good! 1/5/16
I was sifting through our freezer as we made our meal plan for the week and came across a meaty chicken carcass and a venison roast. I wasn’t in the mood for chicken soup, but chicken tortilla soup for some reason sounded good. So I tried out this recipe. It was pretty damn good. And made a lot. The next morning Jen threw the frozen venison roast with some water and salt and pepper in the crockpot. She asked me to get potatoes boiling when I got home, but by the time I made it home, I was too hungry and cold for all that, so I just put the soup leftovers on the stove to heat up, and we grazed on the venison as Jen shredded it. After eating and thinking about how to package the leftovers, I said to Jen: “I feel like I want to make brown rice, put the shredded venison with it and slather this soup over the top.” So that’s what I did. I brought some of it along to a blog night at Kaite’s house. Threw it in a pyrex with some cheese mixed in. Viola! Leftovers become casserole! We ate that one up before I could get a pic. It wasn't nearly as pretty as it was tasty though. I got excited when I got to the grocery today knowing there'd be one there waiting for me. It's been two weeks since I've had one and honestly, I can't tell you why it's been so long since I've enjoyed my favorite food. Probably because I’m at the point that I consciously cook other proteins just because I like chicken so much that I don’t ever want to get sick of it.
I think back to the first time I had a real craving for it. I was in graduate school in River Falls working on my teaching degree and was headed to the U.P. to meet my mom and Ambos for a yoga retreat to celebrate my birthday weekend and I was hung the fuck over. Like had puked up red wine (gross!) and I am so not a puker. I was green leaving my friend's house that morning and my boyfriend at the time knew something was up when he heard me dry heaving over the toilet once I got home. Yup, it was bad, but I couldn't miss the weekend with my girls. I muscled through the four hour drive and by the time I rolled into Ironwood the only thing I could think of was stopping at the store to pick up a chicken. I pulled up to the cabin, greeted my boos and dove in on that chicken. Hangover cure. I don’t think they even knew what was happening at first. Hangover details explained it all. We didn't make it to the first night of the yoga workshop opting for chicken, wine, and dinner. But that's where it began. One day, early in Josh and I's relationship he came home with a rotisserie chicken and the first thing out of my mouth was, "do you know I LOVE rotisserie chicken?" It was one of the numerous seemingly miniscule big deals that sealed the relationship. These days if I manage to walk past the chickens without throwing one in the cart, it doesn’t go without a surprised look of acknowledgement and small nod or comment that I just walked past my kryptonite. Wanna get romantic? Start with a chicken... Mention rotisserie chicken and I guarantee I’ll launch into my love of it. Close friends are familiar with the schpeal: “You can make soup….” I feel like it’s a fundamental kitchen staple and my secret weapon when cooking. I always get complements when one of the base ingredients is rotisserie chicken. Not long after the yoga workshop my mom was doing some research on rotisserie chicken, as happens in my family when new obsessions develop. And because it tastes so damn good, we needed to find out just how bad or good this new obsession was. Turns out rotisserie chicken is health food. YESSSS, insert fist pump (If you take the skin off). Game on. It makes the BEST, and I’m talking next level soup. Eat that damn thing right off the carcass. Take it to the beach, bring it home when you are fried after a long day, picnic that shit. Take it off the carcass, pull it apart, and save it in tupperware to eat all week. Throw it on salads. Making Mexican food? Add chicken. Pizza? Yes. You can even pick all the meat off the carcass, eat it up in all the good ways, and then throw the carcass, an onion, some carrots, celery and herbs in the crockpot and make stock. All chicken parts are usable, except the bones. Our go-to rotisserie chicken recipe though is “The Dip” We love Mexican. We’s the snacky people. And Josh moonlights as my sous chef (my favorite part ;) 1-2 cans of beans (white, pinto or black) 1/3-1/2 cup of sour cream 1 1/2 -2 cups of cheese 2 cups of rotisserie chicken 1/2 cup salsa verde 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp -ish of chili powder 1/2 lime juiced 1/2 red pepper pickled jalapenos sliced cherry tomatoes black olives Olive oil to grease cast iron skillet Chips or veggies for vessel Preheat oven to 400 Mix sour cream, 2/3 can of beans or 1 whole can of beans (save other can if using two cans), lime juice, cumin, chili powder in a blender. In a large bowl mix the blender concoction, diced chicken, 1 cup cheese, left over beans. Pour into greased skillet. Top with sliced cherry tomatoes, salsa verde, jalapenos, olives, you could also sneak in extra veggies like spinach. Finish with remaining cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes till bubbly and brown. This can be made as a white chicken chili dip (use white beans, red pepper, tomato) or as deconstructed nachos (pinto beans, jalapenos, black beans). At this point, I've become a connoisseur. Not just any rotisserie chicken will do. Washburn IGA is where it's at. Roasted fresh twice daily, amish-raised, tended and saved only till their prime. Can we talk about how it’s only $8.00, or $9.00? It doesn’t even really matter. It’s a deal, and even if it weren’t, l’d still be buying that shit. They're ready for pick up daily between 11:30-1 and 4:00-5:30 (if they last that long). You can even reserve a bird by calling 373-5566, extension 1. Jen Sauter-Sargent gave me a bunch of northern-grown celery (a rarity!) at the Applefest farmers' market on Friday and I enjoyed making and eating both these soups this weekend-- modified a bit by what I had on hand and to eliminate dishes: immersion blender and cook noodles in the soup! Celery Soup Pasta e fagioli Continuing the soup kick a couple weeks later, I stayed home with O and made blanket forts and this chicken wild rice soup (with a Washburn IGA rotisserie chicken carcass of course). I think almost every lazy, sort of grumpy, whatever day I've had this fall, soup has been the perfect remedy-- uses up the garden that can stress me out with it's abundance, warms, feeds, smells good.. Soup isn't hard to cook but to make it good, it takes a little bit of work here and there throughout the day or evening, and for me this is the time of year I have more time to be at home, but need to remember how to enjoy not being on the go go (I know not some people's problem) ;)
I basically want to make whatever you're making lately, its nice to have some inspo. I feel like I get stuck making the same few things, but here's a successful new recipe: Sheet Pan Dinner (new easy to throw together, easy clean up, way to clean out fridge/pantry) 1 Package of Sausage, I used Apple Brats (chicken, pork, brats, your personal fav) 3 Red Potatoes 1/4 Onion hanging in the fridge 2ish cups of brussel sprouts 1 container of mushrooms 1 Apple (Basically any combo of veggies lingering around the house options/combos are endless!) Olive Oil to drizzle over veggies Season: I used salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, oregano Preheat oven to 375 Cover sheet pan with parchment paper Slice veggies, toss in olive oil, sprinkle with seasoning Spread out over pan evenly then nestle in the sausages Bake for about 45 minutes, at the end turn the broiler on and move the pan up under it to brown the sausages a little. Boom-dinner! I had dinner with my mom this past week and she had made her own version using chicken sausage, sweet potatoes and portabella mushrooms. Great minds think alike (and she taught me how to cook :P ) tis the season for head colds and sore throats. for strategic showering-- in the early evening when my wet hair will dry in our sun-warmed little house, or on rainy mornings with my back against the wood stove. i came home from our camping trip with my nephews cold. not in the mood for chicken soup, i googled for new recipes. have been scrolling through a list by bonappetit on my ipod during in between moments for the last day and a half. tis also the season for putting up the garden. before we left to camp i helped my mom in her kitchen sort and blanch and skin and chop tomatoes. packaging them into freezer bags. later to be thawed and stirred into soup and pasta dishes. before we left on our trip I also noticed that the broccoli in my garden should be cut. came home to lots of yellow flowers. googled: okay to eat broccoli flowers? gardenguides.com says yes. boiled water while i chopped. blanched for 3ish min. remembered blanching green beans when we lived in andy's cabin while my college friend tessa was visiting. i asked her to help me time the blanching and she made a playlist on my computer of 3 minute songs to play in the background. a dunk in cold water, then bagged. one quart of garden broccoli now in the freezer. last summer i was in a good routine of putting up the broccoli and kale from my garden once a week or so. but that hasn't been the case this year. last summer was also a crappy blueberry season, so i had a little more time and energy to spare. fresh broccoli is generally affordable and available all winter, i console. i've got a pound of ground pork thawing on the stove for spaghetti, not really what i'm in the mood for but an easy dinner. flip through a few more of the bonapetit recipes. come across one that starts with 1 lb of ground pork, garlic, ginger (just had jen pick some up), cumin, pepper flakes, lots of mustard greens, rice noodles. sub kale and spaghetti noodles and i can do this. so delicious. pick all the kale from my garden that i've been meaning to blanch and freeze and make a double batch. broccoli AND soup in the freezer. dinner made. bring on the hulu...
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AuthorsMagdalen Dale and Kaite Sweval grew up a layer apart, overlapping and paralleling. Belonging to the shores of Lake Superior and yet not quite belonging. Laughing and dreaming on the bench outside the ferry booth as Mag passed the time and Kaite chose her time. Left to explore as soon as they could. And then as adults returned home, perhaps to their surprise. But glad to have each other... ‘cause we know there is strength in the differences between us and comfort where we overlap. Archives
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