Hoop garden harvest

Chard, basil, goat cheese quiche, with whole wheat crust.
Note the fancy Ozark quiche pan.

I'm really liking my little garden circles. The fresh produce right next to the house makes the minimal work well worth the time. The only things that the bugs are currently eating is the rhubarb. I'm not sure it's going to survive. But everything else is doing great.

 I'm getting chard, tomatoes, potatoes, beets and onions right now. Somehow, I forgot to plant pole beans this spring and it's way too hot now. It is taking me about an hour a day, three days a week to water everything. But that's fun harvesting and weeding time, too.

This week we've had new potatoes and onions creamed with our own goat's milk and peas. Last night I made goat cheese with pesto and sliced tomatoes over whole wheat pasta. The night before, we had an awesome goat cheese quiche.

I made a whole wheat crust with whole basil leaves from our garden. I used a dozen eggs from my friend Kathy Jensen, as our little chickie girls aren't laying yet. I served it with sliced Black Prince tomatoes, warm from the vine. The cheese was a crumbly unsalted farmers cheese, out of the freezer as the goats are not milking much in this heat. I decided to make it in the cast iron skillet  and it worked great. It's my new favorite quiche pan!

Rainbow chard and goat cheese quiche

Crust
Heat oven to 475.
In a 15-inch cast iron skillet, melt 1 stick butter.
Add two cups whole wheat flour to butter in pan.
Add 1/2 tsp salt
stir well, will be crumbly
add 1 egg and stir in well.
blend in one large handful of fresh basil leaves and one clove chopped garlic.
Pat around bottom and up sides of skillet. Prick with fork and bake for 10 minutes.

Farm fresh quiche served with tomatoes sliced fresh from
the garden.

Filling
2 cups soft goat's cheese
10 washed and shredded rainbow chard leaves, dice stems
12 farm fresh eggs
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp marjoram
1 clove garlic, diced
1 tsp salt

Blend this all together in a bowl and pour into crust in skillet. Bake at 475 for 10 minutes, then lower oven temp to 250 and bake for 1 hour.
let sit for 10 minutes in oven before slicing.

Serve with fresh sun-ripened sliced tomatoes.

Sure makes watering the garden worth it!





,

What was that commercial?

Ok, let me preface this by saying I don't watch tv. We live in an area that doesn't get any reception. I have never seen an episode of Simpsons, Survivor or Cheers. But off and on over the years, I have seen snippets of shows and commercials.
There was that one commercial, about chocolate and peanut butter...

Tonight I was wrapping up in the kitchen, finishing the dishes, straining the milk to chill and scooping the last of the cheese curd into the drainer. Shawn came in to siphon off an evening glass of the Framboise (raspberry beer). Just to test it, he says. "You've gotta check it every evening to make sure it's coming along ok."
(I'm thinking at this rate, by the time it's done fermenting, there won't be enough to worry about bottling!)

So, just as I was scooping the last of the curd over the sink, Shawn swung the siphon hose into the sink. "Hey, keep your beer outa my cheese!" I griped. But now, thinking about it.... I wonder....

Laffing Horse Cheery Valentine Cookies

Laffing Horse Cheery Valentine Cookies, that's a much better title for a recipe than - "We were cleaning out the freezer and thought these might go together!"

While Shawn and I made the last trip to Arkansas, Lena did the oh-so-fun chore of cleaning out the freezer. Now the dogs are happily noshing on elk burger from 2000, road-kill cow roast from 2004, left-over goose from Christmas 2003 and all other manner of unidentifiable used-to-be-food stuffs. The chickens are enjoying freezer-burned peaches, corn, apple sauce and hot (hot!) chilies. They should have it all cleaned up off the snow in the next few days.

But there are all those things that are still good to eat, and yet won't really fit in the freezer on the fridge. Today I wanted cookies. So, I picked through the thawing items in the cooler and created these... eventually, the recipe will get around without this back story and sound much more appetizing. :-)

Laffing Horse Cheery Valentine Cookies

1 lb very dry goat cheese ricotta
1 c melted coconut oil
2 eggs
1 c sugar
1 tblspn baking powder
2 c whole wheat flour
2 c frozen pitted sweet cherries

Blend the goat cheese, coconut oil, eggs and sugar until creamy.
Stir the baking powder into the flour and add to the cheese mix.
Mix completely, it may take a few minutes and it will be somewhat chunky.
Add the cherries and stir just enough to spread them through the cookie dough.
Roll into teaspoon sized balls and bake on a cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

I think this recipe made about 80 cookies, but Shawn ate them so fast I'm not sure :-)