P is for PESTO!

At the request of a Mrs. Sarah Shipley this post is dedicated to Pesto!! Here's what's so great about pesto, it doesn't have to be all about basil!! Pesto is my favorite way to use an excess amount of greens, and really you can use any green at your fingertips, as long as you know the basic pesto recipe. I've made pesto from kale, mizuna, ruby streaks (an amazing mizuna/kale hybrid!), blanched peas, arugula, spinach, cilantro, mint and any combination of the above!! It's funny, this year I didn't even freeze any basil pesto because by the time there was an abundance of basil on the farm, my freezer was already completely packed with other kinds of pesto!

So here's the basic pesto recipe:

2 cups greens

1/4 cup toasted nuts (walnuts, almond, pine nuts, whatever)

-P.S. I haven't bought pine nuts in SO long, they are still 20 something dollars a pound, ridiculous!

1/4 cup parmesan (you can omit if you'd like to make the recipe vegan)

garlic (optional, depending on the green you're using)

Olive oil

Salt to taste

1) Wash your greens and let them dry as much as possible (yeah for salad spinners!!)

2) Place the nuts, garlic, and cheese in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the greens. It helps to do the greens in batches in order to make the pesto as smooth as possible.

3) With the blade of the food processor spinning, add the olive oil until you've reached your desired consistency. It's important to add the olive oil while the blade is spinning in order to emulsify the whole mixture (yeah, that's right, I said emulsify).

4) Feel free to half this recipe, double it, or triple it. Just base your recipe on the amount of greens you have.

If you're freezing your pesto for later use I recommend storing it in sandwich sized ziploc bags. Fill the bag with a few table spoons of pesto, flatten the bag (trying to get as much air out as possible), label the bag with type of pesto/quantity/date, and then freeze. If you flatten the bag before you freeze it, storage of the pesto becomes very efficient! You can line them up like books or stack them. Awwwwesome!

Feel free to vary this recipe to your liking! You could add lemon juice, sundried tomatoes, mix the greens, you get my point :) Also, pesto isn't just for pasta. It's my favorite topping for a fresh baked pizza, and you can use it as a rub on any meat. Just the other night, I made a braise with chicken and white beans, and topped this juicy goodness with a dollop of spinach pesto. You can also use it to brighten up a variety of soups. Next time you make minestrone, think of adding a 1/4 cup of pesto to the pot right before serving. Yum!!

A tasty mix of chard and ruby streaks

Food and Community

For me the two are inseparable. Every food memory I have includes the table of people I shared it with. Last night I was fortunate enough to share the table with the community at All Souls Church, and it. was. Amazing! Everyone was excited about the food, and I was super excited about sharing it!! For me the highlight was definitely the Peruvian Pork Stew, so, I thought I'd share it with you :)

Peruvian Pork Stew with Limes, Chilies, and Apples

adapted from Mark Bittman's New York Times Column, which I highly, highly recommend!!

Olive Oil

3-4 lbs boneless pork shoulder cut into stew sized chunks (if you want a leaner cut of meat, I recommend using chicken thighs)

2 white onions

4 large apples, peeled, and chopped

-I used dried apples, which really intensified the flavor! And, the apples that I used were from the Misch family's tree. I dried the apples back in September, and they were as tasty as ever in the stew!!

3 dried ancho chiles, roughly chopped

-FYI: ancho chiles are actually just dried poblanos, so, they are on the milder side. If you want more heat, feel free to leave all of the seeds in the stew.

3 bay leaves

pinch of ground cloves

4 cups chicken stock

rice for serving

chopped cilantro and roasted peanuts for topping

1) Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the pork in it on all sides; unless you have giant sized skillet, you're going to want to do this in batches. Once all the pork is browned, set it aside.

2) Saute the onions and apples in a pan with the chilies and cloves until the onions are tender, about 10ish minutes.

3) Combine all the ingredients in a Dutch oven, slow cooker, or heavy soup pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to a very slow simmer.

4) If your using a slow cooker, turn it to high and walk away from it for about 4 hours. Otherwise, cover the pot, and let the magic happen. You'll want to stir the mixture every 30 minutes or so, for at least an hour; you want the meat to be falling apart and you'll know when you get to this point because your dinner guests will be salivating from the overwhelming porky aroma.

5) Once the meat is super tender, adjust the seasoning (more salt? maybe a dash more lime juice to cut through the fattiness of the pork?). At this point you can remove the pork and reduce the broth to intensify the flavor.

6) Serve over rice and top with cilantro and peanuts.

7) Aaaaaand of course enjoy!!

SOURDOUGH

I've been reading quite a bit about sourdough bread baking, and here's why I think it's cool:

1) To start your own starter requires very little time, effort and ingredients: flour, water, and poof!
2) The varieties of things to be created from a starter are endless: bread, english muffins, bagels, and onward.
3) You can order a starter that dates back to 1847 on the internet. Yep, that's right, and it costs the amount of a self-addressed, stamped envelope. That would be approximately 45 cents.
4) When your starter is growing it develops a layer on top that is termed, "the hooch." heh.

Here's a website that has been pretty invaluable to me in my research of sourdough baking:

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.html

Every topic of the sourdough process is covered in detail. The idea of creating a starter now and passing it down to future generations is a pretty cool idea. Who knows, my starter could be sold on the world wide web in the year 2112, just a thought :) Anyways, you should really take a look at the site I posted above and I challenge you to create your own starter!! Seriously, it's no harder than having a pet goldfish, and bonus, you get to eat it!! Oh, and P.S., I promise to post mouth watering food pictures once I revive my poor macbook...sniff, sniff.

DIRTY OVERALLS and DIRTY APRONS

Seriously people. You knew you'd be hearing from me sometime and that sometime is NOW. I'm joining the Biber legion of bloggers (rocky mountain kids, brewer central, endlesspossybilities, and made ba stories) to bring you my perspective on life, community, and of course, food.

Why Overalls to Apron? Well, for those who know me best, this choice of title is obvious. From the fields to the kitchen, enough said. One of the reasons you're hearing from me know is because I'm not in the fields from dawn to dusk. In these winter months I find myself itching to be there, but know that I should be savoring my form of a summer vacation. In these winter months I really get to dig deep (obviously no pun intended) into the rudiments of cooking and baking techniques, and I get to share the results with friends and family, love it.

With the first snowfall of late Fall and Spring, I allow myself to open my freezer and pantry to enjoy the huge stockpile of fresh harvest from the season that just came to a close. This is really my time to slowly enjoy all of the hard work that took place over the prior 8 months. I take this stockpiling pretty seriously - it is common to find me up at midnight on a random Tuesday in August finishing a huge batch of tomato sauce. Or you might find me finishing th 27th batch of arugula pesto. One might call it "vegetable anxiety" but I'm really bursting on the inside knowing what joy it will bring to the table during the winter months.

If you browse the common cooking and recipe websites these days, you'll find numerous posts on how to eat seasonally during these months, and you'll find your average roast chicken recipe with a side of root vegetable. And yes, I flipping love the roots, but here's a recipe that I pulled from my freezer. It will leave you reminiscing about August, for sure. It's simple, tasty, and of course, delicious!!

Roasted Tomato Soup
adapted from a recipe found on lovefoodeat.com

2 cups frozen corn kernels
4 cups whole roasted tomatoes (please, don't buy canned, email me if you want to know the magic of roasting tomatoes!!)
2 cups stock or water
garlic, and lots of it
olive oil
fresh herbs, really water you have in your fridge

1) Heat a couple of table spoons of oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Once the oil is heated add your desired amount of garlic and heat until you start to smell the garlic (about a minute).

2) Add the corn kernels, roasted tomatoes, and stock to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium low. Allow the mixture to simmer for at least 20 minutes.

3) Once the mixture has simmered blend in batches in a food processor or in the pot with an immersion blender. At this point you can throw in whatever herb you have on hand: basil, thyme, whatever!! Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Just a thought: The corn is the magic ingredient here. It adds creaminess to the soup without actually adding cream (whaaaat, imagine that!).