an everlasting meal

Admittedly, I'm not much for cookbooks. I'll peruse them when I'm at the library or in a bookstore, but there are very few I own and very few I want to own. You could blame it partly on my age: like many other things, I get most of my recipes from the interweb. But it also has something to do with my high expectations. A proper cookbook must have good pictures. It must use ingredients that I can actually buy. It must spell everything out clearly yet simply.

But An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler is even better than all. It isn't a cookbook, per se. It's a book about cooking, eating and living well. And it's beautiful. 

The subtitle explains it completely: Cooking with Economy and Grace. It's divided into chapters ("How to Stride Ahead," "How to Teach an Egg to Fly") that outline and address different aspects of cooking: working with eggs, with vegetables; creating salads; rescuing meals from what seems like ruin; how to make one meal fold into another. There are recipes scattered throughout (like the end-of-the-week vegetable curry on page 51) but it isn't just recipes. Because recipes aren't everything when it comes to cooking. 

Every part of it is delightful, especially the prose. Tamar Adler has more than just a gift for cooking; she has a gift for words. 

If I were only going to own three books about cooking, it would be these: Simply in Season, Good to the Grain and An Everlasting Meal. I cannot recommend it enough. 

Visit Tamar Adler's website for more about her and about the book. 

inside the first share

Inside our first share from Side by Side:

sugar snap peas 

lettuce 

kale 

garlic scapes 

sprouted lentils 

arugula

bok choi 

   

The peas were used in a stir-fry with string beans (from our garden) and ginger root. The lettuce, lentils and arugula is being put on wraps, sandwiches and salads. I'm planning to turn the kale into a kale and feta crustless quiche. I'll probably throw in some sauteed garlic scapes too (a post all about these little treasures is coming soon). The bok choi we consumed after roasting it (the general consensus being that it would probably be yummier cooked some other way). 

For more information on CSAs, read this post. 

moving the chickens

There are two broods of chickens on the farm: one affectionally called Guantanamo and another whose area is moved around the fields. Nomad chickens who prepare the ground and eat wild things. Today, Devin and I shifted the nomads several yards over, to a new patch of turf.

At night, the chickens are tucked up in house carts (above). So transporting them was fairly straight forward. We took down the temporary fencing, moved it, and then moved the two carts. But in the process, four little brand-spanking new peeps escaped. We gathered them up in Devin's hat while the momma hen went berzerk. 

Everything was put back in order, the chickens were let out, and the peeps reunited with their mother. 

Along with dreaming of a garden, I dream of having a brood of my own chickens. Just a couple, enough for eggs for myself and my family. Already I have a few names picked out: Penelope, Odetta, Maude, Scarlett, Honoria...

harvesting the first share

This morning, Wednesday morning, I was at the farm earlier than I'd ever yet been. It was harvest morning. The morning of the first CSA share.

I found Devin in the fields with a helper from down the road. They'd already gotten the bok choy and I joined them in gathering the kale. As we worked, someone commented about how good it felt to get up so early and harvest real, nourishing food for people. I agree.

We also picked more sugar snap peas, lettuce and arugula. Then we headed down to the wash station and cleaned everything up. The heads of lettuce were soaked in chilly water, the peas too. The arugula was washed and then spun in the massive salad spinners (the red blob in the background of the above photo). It was bagged and boxed, then taken down to the spring house. Through the afternoon and next couple days the CSA members can come an pick up their boxes. There were also plenty of garlic scapes for the taking.

I came home with a share of my own and I'm excited to show you was it's comprised of, plus what we cook with it. But that will have to wait. The day has rather done me in.

strawberry basil scones

In an effort promote the consumption of the two flats of strawberries my mom, two brothers and I picked this past week, I went looking through my pinterest collection of recipes and came across strawberry basil scones. Perfect.

Strawberry Basil Scones

adapted from happyyolks.com

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into chunks

1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

2 tablespoons minced basil

1/2 cup coconut milk (or regular milk)

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add butter and stir. Then combine basil and strawberries. 

In medium bowl, stir together eggs and milk. Add egg mixture to flour mixture all at once. Stir together until everything is moist. 

Turn dough onto parchment covered baking sheet. Press in 1 inch thick circle and cut into 8 wedges. Brush with extra milk and sprinkle with sugar. Freeze for up to 20 minutes before baking. Baking for 15 - 20 minutes, until golden brown. 

Verdict: I think they could have used more basil. Perhaps double the amount. 

the someday house

I've been trying to make my way through Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space (it is, perhaps, somewhat over my head, being that it's French philosophy). In amongst all the references I didn't get and the wordiness and the gigantic concepts, I came across this paragraph:

These are a few pieces of my "someday house" - the little house I dream about.

And of course there is also an unruly garden wrapping all around the house. But I haven't yet found any images that make me think of it - the plan is all in my head. 

blue kitchen/purple dinning room/yellow beds/green door/dark wood/framed old letters

a little something

Here's a little something for you, my readers. A desktop wallpaper featuring one of my photographs and a favorite quote by Mary Oliver. Click on it to download.

Happy Friday!