A Rambling Path Cookbook

A Rambling Path Cookbook is here!



Marathon layout sessions and last minute "we can do it" pep talks pulled it all together.



Hooray!

Miso

I just had to add - I got a newsletter from South River Miso that I read this morning, and what the owner writes about farming, our relationship to plants and to food is so beautiful, and illuminates why the processes people like Farmer Tim use matter SO MUCH, and why Lotfotl soup feels so very nourishing in the True sense.

Read it here

Living off the Fat of the Land Soup

Tenzin sitting on a tractor with Farmer Tim standing by

Megan and I are working on a little cookbook. A celebration of food and friendship and community. I shouldn't really be working on this cookbook at this moment, I should be packing boxes for the oh-so-soon move, but you know how it is, when you should be packing, writing cookbooks is more interesting.

My biggest problem is I get really hungry when I wax poetic about food. I have to bring snacks to the computer.

Here's a rough draft of a piece I worked on tonight, the soup I made for dinner (and yes, I went and ate a 2nd bowl after typing it up). And HERE is a post Megan put up about the art for the cookbook. What do you think? Want to reserve a copy of it?

My friend Tim became a full time Organic farmer a few years ago, and named his farm and CSA Lotfotl (Living off the Fat of the Land). We have been eager and appreciative consumers of the veggies he tends with love. On a trip to the farm, Tim let Tenzin mark one of the broccoli seedlings with a stick so that he could put "Tenzin's" broccoli in our share some future day. That single stick somehow yielded an entire season of broccoli that was extra eagerly eaten. That Farmer Tim, he know how to get a person excited about produce.

Baby Dorje wanted me to eat loads of greens while he was in the belly (Served with South River Miso, of course!) , and we can thank Farmer Tim for providing the vegetables that grew a ten pound 3 ounce baby boy.

A late season share of Lotfotl's harvest is probably pretty similar to the selection you'd find in other CSAs or at the Farmer's Market. My favorite thing to do is make soup with whatever happens to be included. Here's one version:

Saute:
2-3 leeks, chopped (or sub onions or shallots)
3 large cloves garlic, minced
4-5 salsify, chopped

Peel and cube the following veggies (or what you have!)
2 turnips
1 rutabega
1 celery root (celeriac)
3 potatoes
1 small butternut squash

Add to sauted leeks and cover with water. Add chicken stock or bullion if desired, salt & pepper and herbs you favor. I like to use a Penzey's blend called Tuscan Sunset with root veggie soups.

Simmer until the veggies are tender, and then whizz away with your hand held soup blender, or use a blender or food processor to puree soup.

While the soup is simmering, cut up one bunch of carrots and one turnip, coat in olive oil and roast at 450 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Garnish soup with goat cheese, chopped chives or other herbs and the roasted carrots and turnips.

www.lotfotl.com

Mulberry Pie (I heart butter)

My mom has a mulberry tree behind her house that has been the favorite haunt of Tenzarelli every year round about this time since he was a toddler. My boy can pick berries. He is like a little bear in the berry patch, not a mulberry makes it in the door.

So, for pie, I pick without him and guard my bucket from his grin and say "Now little Sal, you run along and pick your own berries, mother wants to make these into pie"

My new favorite way to make pie:


Easy and you get the perfect amount of crust with every bite. Here comes the I heart butter part:

Our local farmer's market has a vendor who sells FRESH butter - from pastured cows (not certified organic, but local and hormone free) and it is darn good. The best part? $3.50/lb. I used it for the pie and believe me, it is the best pie crust ever. I already love butter in general, but should you come and peek into my freezer this winter (once market is over for the season,) you may just find it full of the waxy white paper wrapped bricks of this lovely stuff.

Mulberry Pies:

1 batch pie crust (I use 1/2 lb butter, 2 c white flour, 1 c wheat, a bit of salt and sugar and ice water in the food processor.)

Filling:

3 cups mulberries (OK to leave stems on, hand pick or use my new favorite method of a shower curtain liner on the ground upon which the mulberries fall after you shake the tree vigorously)

2/3 c sugar

1/3 c flour

Roll crust out and cut into squares, place in muffin tin, spoon in filling, fold up corners and bake at 375 until golden and bubbly.

Eat em with fresh whipping cream


Tenzarelli did eat one, but he'd prefer his berries unadulterated. That's OK, more pie for me. (I shared with the birthday girl, too)

sweet strawberry day

I knew in my heart that it was today, or maybe not until next year.
The Wisconsin Strawberry season is oh so brief - and with the heat wave we had recently, it was particularly short (only a bit over 2 weeks, we are at the end already!!!)
So, the cool "chance of showers in the afternoon" forecast on a pick your own day at JehEhr farm (the only organic strawberry u-pick in "150 miles" said the gal at the farm) combined with the fact that I don't work until 2 on Tuesdays multiplied by the availability of Meg and her sweet babe = one perfect morning of strawberry stained goodness.


Tenzarelli waxed poetic about his berry finds "Oh! I found a berry family! A big mother and father strawberry just next to two babies!" and he thought he saw little Sal (from Robert McCrosky's Blueberries for Sal) a few rows over...


Jampaloo was in berry heaven, covered himself head to toe in the sweet red juice quite happily. We had to work hard to keep him out of the flat ("now, little Sal, you run along and pick your own berries.." doesn't work on him just yet!)


And Meg stood by with the babe, see his little head peeking out from under her jacket?



Now, I am eating some of them with some Vanilla ice cream and soaking our red splotched clothes from the day. Heaven.

A Pie for the Pala's Day

Pala Dhondup loves him some lemon desserts. When we first came to America, he didn't really like dessert in general all that much. A pregnant mama hooked on frozen custard slowly shifted him to the dark side...
His favorites are still lighter, lemony treats, so when I saw this pie on Zoe Bakes, I thought it would be perfect for Father's Day...
I felt very professional piling that mile high meringue on top of the pie.

A parting gift from Wood St

I have wanted to hunt for morel mushrooms ever since our friend April told me about them 6 years ago. As we pack up for our big move next Sunday, I have been excited to think that next year will be my year to become a morel hunter, since we are moving to a place with a forest known for good morel hunting right in our backyard.

Imagine my surprise, when right in my backyard Tenzarelli and I found TWENTY BIG MORELS by our back fence. (And don't worry, being a beginner, we first brought them to be officially identified before eating them)

Then, the next day April, the queen of morel hunting herself, was with us and we pulled over near a field....


Tenzarelli and I were enchanted by how gnome like and mischievous these morels are... I swear they all hid when we came, walking over the same patch of land 3 times, then I spotted one, and they all cried, "Game's over kids, she found us, you can come out now!" Pretty soon Tenzarelli and April were seeing them everywhere! THIRTY MORE!


There's my little helper Jampaloo - see the morel peeking out in the bottom left corner?


We couldn't help it, we went looking again today, by the traintracks near our house and found another 10. That's 60 morels in a weekend. Best morel recipe so far? A tie between a creamy garlic sauce with morels and chicken topped with spicy sprouts and the potato morel soup with nettles I made for lunch today. Nettle story and recipe to come...

Oh yes, I was supposed to be packing. Right. Back to that!

Brioche

The boys and I went to visit a friend in Cedarburg about a week ago and she took us to this amazing bakery where, of course, Tenzarelli couldn't resist the elaborately shaped, oh-so-tempting, beautiful Brioche. It was awesome. Pala and I got a few stolen bites of it, and we were all crazy to have more. But Cedarburg is 45 minutes away. Too far for weekly visits!

So, we got out the Vegetarian Epicure Cookbooks and found a recipe. She gives the way with "lots of energetic beating" or "the easy way" in the food processor. I am all about my food processor so this was an easy decision for me. It was all going great, warm milk, eggs, etc, frothing away in the Cuisinart... then I added the flour and the blade slowed suspiciously, with a dull sound and the faint waft of burning motor smell. In a panic, I dumped out the gloppy dough and the blade went back to normal functioning. So, finished it off in the mixer with a dough hook (I felt that the dough hook could probably beat more "energetically" then me, right?) So, a word of caution to the other Epicure fans - she has led us astray in suggesting the food processor for brioche.

Then comes the painful 2 hours of rising, 6 hours of chilling, while your mouth is already watering with expectation. Then the joy of shaping. With no brioche pans in the house (yet) we used a popover pan and a pie tin... 2 more hours to rise and then into the oven!

As you can see, Mr. Tenzarelli couldn't quite wait for them to cool (or be photographed).

We also discovered that brioche and marmalade are just lovely together.

Marmalade

I've had a notion to make marmalade for a few years... a fun food/canning project for the middle of winter - when it's been months since pickles or applesauce.

PLUS it uses ALL of the fruit, including the PEELS, so if we are going to be naughty and buy produce that is non-local, we can at least really get the most out of it!

So Miss Monday came over and we made two kinds... I had chopped blood oranges, grapefruits and lemons the night before and did the beginning stages of cooking and chilling to make "traditional" marmalade inspired by (yes) Martha. Meg brought more fruit, a vanilla bean and pectin to make a all-at-once version (no need for an 8 hour chill) so we could do the whole process together and try two varieties.

What could be better than having a girlfriend over to stir a pot of simmering citrus? She even brought already made bread dough to bake from her test baking side job.

A little bit of sunshine to take the edge off the winter...

brownies

I made brownies with this cocoa powder - a castaway from the latvian couple we know who moved back to their old country and left us a veritable treasure trove of furniture and random stuff that didn't fit into their TWO ENORMOUS shipping containers.

The brownies turned out awesome... the color of the cocoa is way darker then my beloved penzey's and the other cocoa powder I had in the cupboard and the taste far more intense.

They were not very photogenic... and if I wait until I have a photo I will never post, so I am going to free myself from the rule of requiring an image for every post. Is that allowed?