What's for dinner?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Tonight we're having spicy grilled fish, quinoa with lime and cilantro,  and a salad.  Oh, and second rounds of all the Korean side dishes I made yesterday.

The girls and I have plans to bake all day today, and to make peanut brittle.  We're going to a cookie exchange tomorrow... our ladies' Bible study is hosting one, and I've never done this before... not really sure I get the whole point.  Anyway, we're making toffee/walnut cookies, oatmeal cookies, and maybe one other kind.  The peanut brittle is to send home for Christmas.  My grandma and I usually make peanut brittle and "aunt bills" (have no idea where the name comes from... maybe it is ant bills???  but that doesn't make sense either.... all I know is it has been a tradition with my Grandma since she was a little girl) for Christmas.  In the past few years, Grandma's shoulder is so bad that she can't lift and pour the candy out of the big iron skillet, so unless I'm there, she doesn't get it made, and then she gets kind of bummed out about it.  Out of all the kids and grandkids, I guess I am the only one who knows how to make the aunt bills... even though they're so rich that I only eat one and I'm done with them for the year.  I took a tin of them back to college one year and was very popular for a few weeks, though.  If I have time, I'll make some of them just for Grandma and send them to her.  Wish I were going to be home for Christmas, but it should be a nice quiet Christmas here.  My mom WAS going to come back for Christmas, but then she got damage from the ice storm that she's still trying to clean up, and then yesterday the fuel pump on her van went out and she's not sure how she's going to pay for it, so I don't think she'll be coming back up here after all.

Well, I guess I should quit horsing around on the computer and get busy in the kitchen getting everything ready to go for the day.  Baking with two pre-schoolers is messy and requires serious prep work!

[Drew]

Tonight I think I'll make a vegetable lentil soup and some 10-grain bread.

Ah virtue thy name is Bob's Red Mill.  If you haven't seen it, it's a line of bagged products that include things from plain organic flour from any grain you can think of to bread mixes, soup mixes, pancake mixes, etc.

Certainly these mixes are one step up from the recipe for boiled water, but they are a great starting point for new ideas.  "Soup and bread for dinner.  It's easy.  I don't need 1,000 calories before bed.  Heeey..."

Dan and I became vegetarians last March.  I did all the cooking, and my philosophy was that if nothing died, it wasn't dinner.  Switching over left my repertoire completely flat.  I didn't cook with prepared foods, but I did work around meat as a centerpiece.  Switching out of it required a lot of research and a lot more prep time.  Dan stepped in with prep and some recipes and we are back with a new bag of tricks.

Ah.  Dan and I are vegetarians, but the kids are not.  Dave is close, but Robin is still an avowed omnivore.  We deal with this by having three classes of dinners:

Class 1 - Native vegetarian - This is something like vegetarian enchiladas, soup 'n bread, vegetarian chili etc. that is naturally vegetarian.

Class 2 - Omnivore option - This is a dinner that people can add meat to it if they want, like homemade pizza, chef salad, or what we call Roman Night.  That is basically a bunch of cheese, crackers, fruit, marinated vegetables, bread, and maybe some smoked salmon.

Class 3 - Two dinners - This is two dinners at the table; one vegetarian, one omnivore.  This is so Robin can get her steak or meatloaf without having to move out and join the gypsies.

A while ago, before the vegetarian thing, I noticed that no one but me was eating much of the vegetables at dinner.  Even so, they would only eat corn or broccoli (Except Dan, who only likes corn.  Period.).  I addressed this problem by replacing the vegetables with a bowl or plate of cut seasonal fruit.  Last night we had a bunch of mandarins and pears.  Sometimes its strawberries, bananas, grapes, and apples.  This stuff gets hoovered up, and the vegetables started getting some collateral damage as well.

[Drew]

Oh, one more thing.

The homemade pizza was a non starter when we tried it with either the store bought pizza crusts (yaaack!) or the pizza dough recipes.  Dan did it once with a focaccia recipe from the Williams Sonoma Breads book (Although any one would do) and it was the Thing.  We make a recipe, cut it into 3 parts, and press each part into a 9" cake pan.  Dress your pizza, cook it for 15-20 minutes (the temperature will be in your focaccia recipe) and you have food.  This is much better than $25 plus tip for the pie that came through the winter night.  And for those of us training for the 2008 Laziness Olympics, you can mix the dough in a bread machine and let it rise on the stove.

It's a great way to finish off the leftover cheese and onions, too.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Drew, if you like Bob's Red Mill, try making the cracker recipe on the back of the dark rye flour/meal bag.  It is absolutely wonderful.  Make two batches the first time because it just doesn't make enough.  We ate them all up immediately the first time... couldn't even wait until they were cool and the kids were burning their fingers trying to snatch them off the pan.   It is one of their favorite things to help cook now... we cut them out with cookie cutters and they'd take them over cookies any day.

If Dan only likes corn, being a vegetarian must be mighty boring!     Do y'all still eat eggs and stuff, or not at all? I'm thinking you must from some of the meals posted. I have a good veggie frittata recipe that I like because it only takes one skillet and because it tastes great.    I could be a vegetarian for four or five days a week, but I know eventually I'd break down and have to have a steak or something...  I did go about three years without eating any pork at all, though.  I had a bunch of Malay friends in college, and they couldn't eat stuff cooked in the same pans as pork, so I totally quit eating it for their sakes, and the first time I had bacon after that period of time, I felt absolutely awful... like I was coming down with a stomach flu or something.   

[MountainDon]

Red Mill products are good. I use some with the bread machine breads. I've also used it for prepping pizza dough, but don't always feel like it.

As for the store bought refrigerated pizza dough, you can't beat the convenience and the Kroger tastes better to us than the big popular brand. Crispier crust too.

[Drew]

I know what you mean, HT!  I'd been away from all meat for weeks when my dad came over.  It was his turn to cook, so he put out some shrimp and calamari while he was cooking.  I had about five shrimp, and it felt like it took two days to digest it.

Thanks for the tip on the dark rye flour.  I'm planning to stop by the market on the way home and I'll pick some up.  I bet Robin would even teach her 4H baking kids how to make them if I can win her over.  Sounds like that will be easy.

You hit the nail on the head with Dan and corn  .  Fortunately she's expanded her horizons a lot.  She used to hate beans, but now actually craves them.  I bet there is some body chemistry at work there.  Beans and corn together are supposed to have the right kinds of proteins (or amino acids to make those proteins, I forget which) to keep you healthy.  Kind of like in "Slaughterhouse Five" when the P.O.W. Billy Pilgrim ate the vitamin syrup and his cells sang out with joy.

Yeah, vegetarian, but not vegan.  But I'll do some pretty strange things to keep from taking Lipitor. 

It's funny talking to people about being a vegetarian.  I end up in conversations with people that are more than just being polite.  They seem to want to know how a human can exist without meat.  Maybe they just want to talk about food to keep me from talking about my building projects all the time. 

Someone once asked me what it was like becoming a vegetarian.  I said it was like quiting smoking.  The first couple of weeks really suck, then you feel a lot better.

Dan and I are ambivalent about the idea of raising livestock on our farm once we move out there.  It's not all about animal ethics, but a bunch of things.  Economics, management, conservation, etc.  Our neighbors raise stocker cattle, and I don't want to do that.  Too much hassle, even though they leave them alone all week.    Their infrastructure is also very expensive.  I'm not sure how these guys plan to make the loan payments with  8-12 head.

I'd like to raise laying hens for the eggs, though.  I had my first yard bird eggs not long ago and can't get them out of my mind.  I thought for a while about raising pastured broilers for sale even though I wouldn't eat them myself, and I'm not sure where that sits.  I have no problem at all providing clean food to people.  It provides a valuable service and gets the word out that there is an alternative.  I don't think that raising meat birds is a contradiction, but I have some time to let that one stew...

[MountainDon]

Tonight: Poached catfish; the method of cooking not the method of acquisition.  In white wine, water, white wine vinegar, peppercorns, garlic. Baked sweet potato and steamed green beans. Was very tasty.

[glenn kangiser]

Tonight: Poached catfish; the method of cooking not the method of acquisition. 

I was ready to call the game warden.

[Redoverfarm]

Don I know how you felt last week.  Everything imaginable to eat. Yes I tried it all. THE WHOLE THING.  I don't think I will even be able to munch on the Wasaba Peas I picked up at the pantry.  Maybe tomarrow.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Tonight we'll have baked chicken, broccoli, and maple-chipotle glazed pumpkin for dinner... and leftover Korean side dishes.  Can you tell I've gone back to planning meals in advance?  Got the rest of the year covered.  DD wants sausage and pancakes with strawberries and cream for her birthday on Christmas Eve...She'd choose breakfast for any meal of the day.  I get tickled at her whenever we do have sausage because she always says, "This is the best pig I ever ate!  It must have been a nice pig!" without a tinge of remorse for the pig.  She's so pragmatic about it that it cracks me up.  When I was her age, if I had to think about the animal I was eating, I would get all choked up and have trouble eating it, but not my oldest!  I still remember when I was about three or four crying over the deer strapped across hunters' hoods and my dad making up this crazy story about how those were "bad deer" and the hunters had to kill them because they were attacking families.  My oldest has no problem accepting that we eat big animals, like goats, cows, pigs or deer... her greatest conflict is with chicken because she likes chickens so much.  While she understands that that is why we raise them, it's still harder for her than anything else.  When she was two or  three she also flipped out one time at a buffet where they had the little mini corndogs... she'd never tried a corndog or a hotdog, and I decided to let her have one.  When I said, "Take a bite of this corndog and see what you think, " she began to wail (very loudly) about the "poor doggie!  poor doggie!!!" As much as we tried to convince her it wasn't really a dog, she wouldn't stop... then her little sister began to cry just because she was crying, and we sort of gave up on the all you can eat aspect of the buffet to get her out of there... it was obviously too traumatic.

[Drew]

Heeee!  If only they made those things out of dogs, I think we'd be better off! 

The kids are in 4H, and Dave helped raise a steer one year.  He was 9 or so (Dave), and maybe 60-70 pounds.  The steer was named Kobe (Yep.).  He had a few other steers for company, but still learned some bad habits.  He was not good on a lead and got aggressive with Dave.  He wasn't a show steer, only a meat steer, so he didn't get the training time he could have used.  That, and I'm sure there are some things that we could have done differently.  Nevertheless, Kobe Got On the Truck and one of the families brought some of him along on an camping trip.  Dave was very happy to be eating that steer.

"Not so tough now, are you Kobe?  Hmm.  Kind of tender, actually..."

It's not easy for some kids with food animals, even in ag programs like 4H.  Dan and I are the community leaders for our club in Belmont, and we wanted to open the small animal projects to something besides rabbits.  All meat animals that go to fair need to get aced, and that was hard on the younger 4Hers.  I proposed doing a laying hen project both for the experience and the revenue from the eggs.  We ended up in a bunch of red tape over it and I ended up helping out the Pacifica club on the same idea.  I'm still hoping for some yard eggs!

Anyway, back to the topic.  Today our vegetable bin comes, so I think it's Roman Night!

[Redoverfarm]

Drew my son also in 4H raised a show pig.  I am glad he sold it as we would have never been able to recover the cost of the pig, feed and so forth.  Did real good 40# to 330# in 5 months.  He tried to chow at County 4H but it was 30# over allowed weight.  Several others were in the same boat. His was with 5 others in pen and only 3 were light enough. He got Best of Show in overweight class. Auction followed and a buisness owner purchased for $2.45#.  Wanted to enter in State Fair(only 35 miles away) but found out he had to have two seperate ones and twice the work.  He's working toward next year for a steer and pig.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Tonight is quesadillas and salad.  And hopefully after that, we can go Christmas shopping for the kids a little bit, IF I can find someone to babysit for a few hours.  Of course, my husband is wanting to go Christmas shopping for himself and buy a set of wrenches he's been wanting because they're marked down to half off, and he needs them because we have major repairs that need to be done on the car.  I don't know what they charge per hour around here for labor, but it must be fairly extravagant.  He priced three different places, and the cheapest one was about $500.  The part is less than $80, so even though it's cold and our garage is small and unheated, he is going to do the work himself, which will take a couple of days.

[Drew]

Tonight it's pasta and salad, and I'm not making it.  It's our last night in town.  Tomorrow we'll drive out to my dad's place in Colusa so we can wake up early and get to work on the place in Palermo.  Casa Guacamole, our uninsulated 10'x12' shed makes a great summer cabin for four, but even Henry the dog starts cursing if we try to camp there in the winter.



Red, our 4H club has seen a decline in "animal families" over the last few years.  We got down to about two who had animals at our 4H farm and their kids were getting old.  Bird diseases ruined a year for fair.  Poultry was a great entry project, so that hurt (All kids have to raise a small animal before they raise a large one).

Our community leader terms are two years.  Dan and I are in our second, and we've spent the time bringing our membership numbers back up.  We had a lot of older kids and no new ones.  That effort was wildly successful, and we're laying the groundwork for a bigger animal presence at the farm next year.  Now we have three new small animal projects that will set those kids up for large animals in '08-09.

I hear you about the effort and cost.  While we're not an "animal family," we see what it really takes.  Good luck to your son and you!

[Redoverfarm]

I was ready for supper tonight after working all day outside.  The menu tonight was flounder, snap peas, corn and baked potato.  Then to top it all off 30 minutes in the hot tub to take the chill out of these bones.

[MountainDon]

Cheese and potato pirogies, w/sour cream. A small piece of kielbasa, w/spicy horseradish mustard. A spoonful of sauerkraut. Mixed veg; steamed corn and green peas.

[tanya]

Homeade chicken soup again, we eat that so often but no one seems to get sick of it. 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

We're having venison stew tonight, and homemade bread.  Might be going out to buy flooring to install over Christmas week??  Don't know yet.  I'm going to finish my mosaic on my kitchen wall TODAY.  The house is clean and ready for Christmas, so I need to get back to work and quit being so lazy.  That's the thing I hate about being pregnant... I just feel so slothful yet can't handle drinking more than one cup of coffee a day.

I wish my husband liked venison....  we got this from friends whose parents are pastors and receive a lot of their tithes in meat from their congregation.  They can't always deal with the large quantities, so they sent some home with our friends who shared with us. 

[tanya]

If your husband doesn't lilke the venison because it tases gamey you can soak the meat in apple cider vinegar overnight and it tastes great, no game taste left.  An old native woman taught us this method for a bear and everyone said that bear was going to taste pretty bad but in fact it was very delicious and I am very sensitive to that game taste, I hate it. You could try it with just one steak and see how it goes. 

[peternap]

Steak sandwich with real butter!!!!!!

Just what I'm NOT supposed to eat

[MountainDon]

Green chili chicken enchiladas. White and dark chicken, onion, sharp cheddar cheese, mild green chili enchilada sauce. Salad.

That sandwich sounds good Peter. Wash it down with a dark beer.  Mmmm

[Redoverfarm]

Half the family's not here so we opt for homemade Pizza. The boy is spending the night with a friend to go bear hunting tomarrow.  I hope he see's one but not too thrilled about dressing it.  Peter you are making me hungry for a steak sandwich.  When I was in High School I frequented the only sizeable town near where I live. Cumberland, MD. There was an Italian sub shop called Diatri's that served the best that I have found steak sandwich. No pressed beef there. You watched as you picked it up 5 gallon of sliced sirloin, 2 gallons of onions all cooked on a large grill chopped. Then on a 12" hoagie bun, lettuce , tomato and mayo.  To think I would get two at a time.  I still could get two but would have to wait a day apart to eat them now. It has been several years ago now but about 10 years ago I did get in that area and picked one up. Nothing changed still the best.

[glenn kangiser]

Sassy cooked dinner - I had a small serving of mashed potatoes with butter and salt, green beans and chicken because I was still a bit plugged from lunch.

The company I am sub-contracting for bought all the Pizza we could eat and Soda's ... and one of the Mexican workers brought great Tamales for everybody -- so I had 2 -- one had a big hot pepper in it -- like a chile rellano tamale.

I had a tough time working on the roof bending over welding after lunch.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Tonight, shrimp and cocktail sauce and veggies and  dip.  That's it.  Simple.  I finished the mosaic on my kitchen backsplash completely today, and now I just have to get the grout done... I am so glad that this project is just about finished!!!

[peternap]

Tomorrow the buffet table goes out and p :Pretty much stays out until after Christmas. Today, we cooked a country ham.....

So, tonight, I'm having Country ham sandwiches
Something else that's on my forbidden list

Christmas morning with the Kids and grandkids....fried oysters! I'm sure I'm not supposed to eat them either