Spring Soup Carpenter Style

The Carpenters love soup (I am now an official Carpenter!!!) and using up everything in the pantry. Nothing goes to waste; we compost it or Earl gets it (lucky boy). Last year we stuffed our freezer with kale, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, pesto, stir fry mix of cabbage, collards and kale; all from our gardens and a generous gift from Baltimorganic. And have thankfully feasted on it all winter long!
                           

We are nearing the end of our stash and just in time too! The garden is beginning to supply us with radishes, spinach (wintered over), kale, beets, lettuces, arugula and leeks. So its time to clear out the fridge of root veggies and use up some random food items. I adapted this recipe from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions  cookbook.    
                     
Spring Root Vegetable Soup

2 Tablespoons Ghee (clarified butter)
1 Bunch of fresh or dried Thyme (tied with kitchen string)
2 Large Spring Onions sliced into rounds
4 Medium Carrots sliced into rounds
4 Medium potatoes diced
2 Large Yams diced
1 Large Turnip diced
6 Cups Chicken or Vegetable Broth
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cayenne or Hot Chilies chopped up fine (Optional...I added in one of my hot red chilies!)
Hand held blender (optional)

Melt the ghee over medium heat. When melted add the spring onions and saute until tender. Then add the rest of your roots. Cook the roots until soft ( like to call this "sweating" I cover the pot and let them steam together for about 10-15 minutes). Once the roots have had a good sweat add the chicken or vegetable broth and thyme. Bring to a boil them simmer for 45 minutes on low. After 45 minutes season to taste and add your pepper of choice or a pinch of cayenne. Simmer on low for another 15 minutes and taste again. When to your liking remove from the heat, remove the thyme and blend with a hand blender until smooth. Serve with a swirl of yogurt and a sprinkle of fresh thyme if on hand and hunk of bread.

Enjoy! XOMC

Bees

Gotta get me some Honey Bee action!

I contacted Baltimore Honey today to join their honey CSA and hopefully host a hive! They offer a 5 week workshop that starts in early February to educate folks like me who have the dream of having honey bee children of their own. Their CSA is the first of its kind anywhere, what a brilliant idea! For 45 bucks you get a pound of micro-local natural/organic raw honey...sweet sweet sweet.

Some fun honey bee factoids...

•honey bees must visit approximately 2 million flowers to make 1 lb. of honey.
•honey bees pollinate approximately 25% of all the foods humans consume.
•honey bees are the ONLY insects that produce food for humans.
•honey bees have 4 wings that beat 11,400 times per minute.
•honey is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tut and was still edible.

Support your local bee keeper! Love the bees!
XOMC

I Heart Vermont

There’s nothing better than growing your own food. Ask any Vermonter and they will proudly show you their vegetable garden. If they don’t grow their own they can tell you who did and usually it’s just right down the road. Vegetables, fruit, honey, bread, beer, maple syrup, eggs, milk, sheep, goats, cows, pigs, cheese, kombucha, did I mention maple syrup? The list of what’s available to you fresh and local is incredible and most Vermonters that I spoke to take pride in all things made in Vermont. Needless to say I was in food heaven and I did not want to wake up from my lovely food coma. My first two weeks were spent at Vermont Studio Center where I had a two week artist residency. I did not have to lift a finger. Which meant no cooking. Fine, I’ll live I thought, at the whim of some school line-cook! I judged way too soon. Almost all the food was from the Vermont Fresh Network. NETWORK!!! And our "school line-cook" was the former head chef of a five star restaurant in Montpelier, VT. I ate my own thoughts.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner were all expertly done. Lunch and dinner always had a vegetarian main course option, only once in two weeks was red meat served and above all the food was amazing. One night we had Bouillabaisse with key lime pie for dessert. How decadent is that? When I asked the Chef how much of his ingredients came from VFN he said he guessed about 75%.
I took no pictures of the food I ate. Looking back it was probably because I was too busy enjoying scrumptious meals with fellow artists and basking in one of many of Vermonts fine qualities: complete food fulfillment.

More Vermont to come!

Week 1: Great Kids Farm CSA

Yesterday was the first week of 24 of our CSA share from Great Kids Farm. Great Kids Farm is the brain child of Toni Geraci, Food Service Director for Baltimore City Public Schools, the basic idea is to teach city school children about growing vegetables and sustainability while acquiring healthy eating practices...more info on the endeavor here from the Washington Post.

For those of you who are asking what a CSA is(Community Supported Agriculture) the U.S. Department of Agriculture breaks it down very well here.

If you are interested in joining a CSA you can find one by looking here on the Local Harvest website. I highly recommend it. You can join up with friends and split the cost. There is something so pure and simple about preparing and eating food that was grown so close to your home by a farmer and volunteers who care about good food for you and the environment.

Thank you to Farmer Greg Strella, the farm manager at Great Kids Farm and numerous volunteers for making our first share such an amazing gift. Here is what we received and what I made for dinner last night with some of the share items.

Week 1...Great Kids share

6 fresh eggs
strawberries
Herbs: Oregano, Lemon Verbena, Parsley
kale
Scallions
Green Garlic
French radishes
bag of mixed salad greens

Dinner...
Spiced Brown Butter Fried Rice with Eggs

To Make: Spiced Brown Butter
(makes a lot, keep what you don't use in the fridge for more cooking!)

1 stick organic salted butter
2 tablespoons organic olive oil
6 shallots chopped really well (from the Waverly Farmers Market)
Spice Mixture: Bring and mix together in a small bowl
1/2 teaspoon each of the following:
ground ginger
paprika
coriander
cinnamon
scant 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon + sea salt
fresh ground black pepper

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large skillet. Saute the shallots gently for 10 minutes or until the butter starts to brown. Stir in the spices and remove from heat. Transfer into a glass jar to use throughout the week.

Preparation for...
Spiced Brown Butter Fried Rice with Eggs
serves 2, total prep time 20-30 minutes

2 tablespoons of your Spiced Brown Butter
4 Green Garlic bulbs, sliced thin, greens too, remove the roots (csa)
Wash and slice to 1/4 inch: 4-6 leaves of kale (csa) and other green like baby broccoli or asparagus roughly 5-6 stalks
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
2 eggs (csa)
1 tablespoon or so fresh parsley roughly chopped (csa)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the brown butter and saute the green garlic for 2-4 minutes on med-lo heat. Add the kale and other green to the pan and saute for another 5 minutes, be careful not to over cook your greens.
Meanwhile make your egg cake: whisk together the eggs, pinch of salt, black pepper and parsley. Heat some of your brown butter in a small skillet, until hot, add your eggs. turn down to med-lo and cook. DO NOT scramble, your making an egg pancake. Rotate the pan around to cook the runny egg on top, once the egg-cake "slips" from the bottom of the pan gently flip it. Cook briefly, remove from heat and set aside.

Back to your greens- add your rice and saute until the moisture is removed from the pan and you have that fried rice look. Remove from heat and slide the egg-cake on top. Serve it up!