Wow! 2013 has zipped right along. Even Christmas is done and gone. My apologies for the extended hiatus. I had considered giving up on the blog altogether. Not because I’ve given up on my ethical eating aspirations, which I haven't, but because I haven’t been able to dedicate the time to blogging about it that I would like. I’m not the type to do things half-assed. After some careful consideration, however, I came to the conclusion that this is my project and I can write as often or as rarely as I like. I don’t need to adhere to somebody else’s idea of how often one should post. After all, I’m doing this for myself and to share with friends and family. I’m not seeking fame or fortune. I shouldn’t fret over it! So, I won’t.
Anyways, here’s a recap of the fall’s food related activities:
Well for starters, I jarred some locally grown tomatoes and so far this winter I haven’t had to buy any from the store, which has been great!
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| Beautiful local tomatoes: scored & hulled. No, I did not grow these! |
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| Into the hot bath then cold bath you go! |
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| Because the tomatoes were so perfectly ripe, the skin practically fell off! |
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| The tomatoes were then chopped and canned. I used the raw-pack method on page 354 of the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Voilà, the final product! |
I’ve eaten lots of moose steak. Sometimes all you really want is a good steak and a beer. The rest is just filler!
I did some berry picking. Stocked up some wild raspberries. Luckily my friend, Cecille has ample raspberry bushes right in her yard so I don't have to wrestle the bears over them!
I went grouse hunting and discovered a delicious new way to cook grouse! Simple and tasty!
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| A beautiful fall view near Mayo, Yukon |
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| One of two spruce grouse we got that day. To remove the breasts, simply stand on the wings and pull the legs. It flips itself inside out! |
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| Not a lot of meat on these little guys. Tasty though! |
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| We removed the breasts and sliced the meat into strips. |
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| We made ours in the frying pan and added a little butter for extra flavour. Thanks for the recipe, Taylor! |
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| No potatoes but in the bush, beans will do just fine as a side! |
On that same hunting excursion, we stumbled across some beautiful low bush cranberries and picked as much as we could.
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| And they say men don't pick berries! |
I harvested the last of my sad garden. Well, I did get some great carrots. Most were orange but there were some beautiful reddish and yellow ones too. The kale was abundant. I made as many kale chips as I could and then when I got sick of that, I simply loaded whole kale leaves into ziplocs, freezing them as is.
My husband spent several weeks hunting and ended up with a nice, young bull moose that he split between him and his hunting buddy. Thanks to their hard work, we have a nice bounty of meat: steaks, roasts, stew meat, burger, and sausage to last us the winter.
To round off our winter meat supply, we also have 10 chickens (down to 7 now) from Aurora Mountain Farms and a nice little pig that we got in October from our friends at Full Circle Farm.
We’ve already almost polished off all the pork chops but our favorite way of preparing the pork so far is pork tacos! You take a partially frozen roast and with a sharp knife, very thinly slice off pieces of meat. Then fry up the pork with minced garlic, diced onion and homemade taco seasoning. I've been using this recipe for years: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/taco-seasoning-i/. I usually reduce the amount of salt. Load the pork mixture on corn tortillas along with refried beans, guacamole, salsa, a crunchy cabbage slaw and you’re good to go!
And then of course, there’s Christmas! I somehow got away with not cooking up a big holiday meal this year. But I did get together with some friends for some holiday baking: shortbread, butter tarts, almond roca and peanut brittle. It was all gone before I knew it! See my mother’s shortbread recipe down below. She has always had the best shortbread as far as I’m concerned!
I came down with a cold on Boxing Day and as I didn’t have turkey leftovers, I dug out some chicken carcasses from the freezer and made chicken soup. I boiled the bones for a good couple hours then strained the broth and picked through the bones for all the meat. Then, in a big pot, I sweated some onions, celery and carrots in oil and added some poultry seasoning and salt and pepper. I added some of the broth, some cubed potatoes and let everything cook through. Finally I added back in the chicken meat and ended up with a delicious chicken soup. The best thing about that soup was that it was made entirely of local ingredients, except for the onions, celery and seasonings. Yes, it is the end of December and I still have beautiful local potatoes and carrots! The next day when I was heating up the leftovers, I broke up frozen kale into the soup. It was a delicious and nutritious addition.
So that’s the long and short of it. Never have I had such a bounty from my own backyard (literally and figuratively) filling my freezers and pantry. It's been great! Now just to use it all!
Carol’s Shortbread:
1/2 pound of butter, very soft
pinch of salt
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 cups flour
Place all ingredients in a bowl. Mix and work until very moist. Roll between sheets of wax paper and use cutters to make the desired shape. Bake on ungreased sheets at 300 degrees F for 25-30 minutes.
Notes:
-I usually just use salted butter and then omit the pinch of salt. I make sure the butter is very soft by letting it sit out at least a full day in advance. It’s easier to work the dough!
-I live in a very dry climate. I find that I have a better dough consistency if I use 1 cup of flour and 1 scant cup of flour. It’s a little more moist and easier to handle. If you find your dough to be too dry, add a bit more butter and work it in.
-I find rolling out the dough to be a bit fussy. I prefer to roll it into even balls, place it on the baking sheet and then use the bottom side of a measuring cup to press down the dough to the desired thickness. If you place a small piece of parchment paper between the dough and the measuring cup, the dough won’t stick. It gives the cookie an irregular edge, which if you add some small pieces of glace cherry to the centre of the cookie, makes it looks sort of like a wreath!
By the way, these cookies keep forever. They just don’t last very long! If you know what I mean...
