to be continueed

Hi,
how are you? Please, do not ask me how I am doing. Though, I do respect your good graciousness and manners. But, please do not ask. Its not like I am suffering from some artistic incantation, its just pure i hate society sh&t. Stay tuned, I'll be back. (yes, i do hope you said that with an ahhnold accennt). Please think of me when you purchase your firsts of the season, ie. asparagus, strawberry, etc.

Spring a Leek

Spring vegetable couscous, lentils, and braised CSA leeks (with a little white wine, woohooo!).

Spring vegetable couscous - a friendly gathering of little pasta pieces, asparagus, and fava. Nice and simple, nothing beats it.


Lentils = bliss. Chef added cumin to the pot, thanks for that Chef!


Now, to the leeks. If I haven't already mentioned this, I am a huge supporter of the leek. I like leeks. It is my favorite onion. And in case you are unfamiliar with the leek, it looks like a giant green onion, as in scallion green onion. The edible part is white and the green stalk is thick and even almost blue. When you buy it, look for it tied to together as a pair with all its green-blue-ery still attached - just a little tip for not getting hustled. Now (April) is the time for leeks, too, by the way. You should be able to find it at the early farmer's markets. We got ours with our weekly CSA basket. Once you get it home, don't clean it until you are ready to cook it up. There might be some grit in between the stalks > just a head's. And as for cooking it up, the first thing you probably think of when you hear 'leek' is potato and leek soup. Sure, go for it. It's great in soup, especially potato soup. You can also roast these onion cousins (see Conquering meat and other tales posted in March), or even eat it raw. The onion flavor is very mild and does not linger on the breath. It is the easiest onion on the breath in that respect! As for the preparation for this particular meal, Chef BRAISED the leeks. Oh yeah, if you want to chomp on a stalk of leek, braise it my friend, braise it. Braise it with white wine and some broth. Braising has been a game changer. A game changer. In fact, I think it has contributed to my leek obsession. I checked the LocalHarvest website in order to provide additional ideas on preparing leeks - they suggest to pair it with potato at all costs, gratins are good. Chef, here's one: potato, leek, chervil, and crouton. Interested?? And the website also says there is a famous Scottish recipe called cock-a-leekie soup. There you go,  I guess you can put it in your chicken soup, too, if you're into souping on chickens..

get your udon on

Udon: a thick, round, filling noodle hailing from the Far East. Udon is made of wheat flour, water, and salt. After mixing the ingredients, the dough is kneaded, takes a break, gets rolled out, and then cut into strips. Udon is usually served as a soup, or at least with a little broth. Haven't had it? It is quite a noodle and I heartily recommend you bump this up on the to-do list.

Tonight's udon was brothed in a spicy miso and joined by quite the array of veg, and included tofu cubes. We're talkin' carrot, edamme, leeks, sa-weet potatoes(!), cilantro, and. AND! et ready. First of the season ASPARAGUS!! Yes, the peepee perfumier! {And, yes, from our CSA, thanks George!} Chef garnished the bowl with a sheet of spicy seaweed. It like disintegrates in your mouth and then zzzing, the burn.  We bought special spoons and chopsticks for our souping pleasure :)

Satur-bee

Today we completed a 6-week short course in beginning beekeeping.  We received handsome certificates with our names on it. It was a proud day.

We also stood among 60,000 + bees buzzing, above our heads, past our heads, next to our bare arms (it was warm today), and sometimes landing on our shoulders to bzzz in our ears. WHOA! A totally new experience for me. I've been out in 'the field' and exposed to insects before, but NOT 60,000 at once! It was totally awesome!

a 'package' of bees = 10,000 bees = 3 lbs

Though we will not be starting a hive this year, it has been an informative 6 weeks and what we have learned will help us plan for when we are settled enough somewhere to get a hobby operation in motion. Especially after seeing the live demo today. The apiarist took a little box of 10,000 bees, squirted them with sugar water, then shook the box so that all the bees fell into a pile, and then poured - literally poured - at least 9,000 of those bees into a hive box. WHOA! They poured in, a stream of bees. It was amazing!

installing/pouring of the bees 

The initial installation of a brand new hive with brand new bees is like no worries. You spritz those babies good enough with the sugar water, and they won't bother you. Why: 1. they are fed and 2. they aren't technically a colony or in a hive just yet, so they are not protective. This goes back to bee basics - when bees are full of nectar, pollen, or honey their stingers can't pop out and bees sting when they feel they are being physically threatened or when they are protecting their colony. So check and check on the no stinging criterion ... so far.

On the other hand.... when you check an active hive, its another story. And for new-bees (heehee) like us, checking in on that established hive was a test of our bee tolerance! Yes, you use the smoker thing but its not like a bee tranquilizer. The bees remain active! They will still take to the air and buzz around. I think three people got stung during the demo. One guy had a bee in his hair and then started shaking his head. The apiarist actually picked the bee out of the guy's hair with his bare hands! That part was amusing but the guy was borderline freaking out and that was a little uncomfortable. For the mens, I think this is a time when sparseness of the melon is to your advantage. Please watch the video to the right, you will notice that most of the crazy wackos are not donning the notorious bee suit.

fish delish!

No shrooms tonight, fish instead.

Somedays, I honestly think, "Is this what it was like in the 50's when the mens of the house caught aromas of dinner as they careened up the walkway and into their homes?" I absolutely love it when I catch a nostril full of the Chef at work in the kitchen when I get home from the j-o-b. (Yes, I do know how spoiled I am!) And especially when that smell is garlic in the saute pan - - ooh garlic!

the menu tonight (Wednesday): oven roasted wild Pacific salmon (frozen) with dill. Dill, by the way, is so soothing and flavorful. Sauteed CSA spinach with crunchy garlic slivers and a petit CSA sweet potater. That white dollop atop the spinach: Chef's homemade ricotta. A nice little change-up to the spinach saute :) I know I have been an ultra snob bragging about freshly filet'd fish, but hey! what do we look like? We do what we can, when we can. I still maintain, and Chef agrees, go fresh when you can. In the battle of fresh v. frozen - fresh wins! But the wallet dictates, fresh or frozen...

And as if all that wasn't enough (and it was), Chef tossed an ever amazing salad. Mixed CSA spring lettuces, including some unidentified herbaceous item, sliced CSA radishes, aquacate (mmm), goat cheese dollops, and cherry tomatoes.

A gut buster for sure!

move over mamoun's

ya know what I'm talkin' bbout?? falafel, my friend, falafel!

I had this feeling, that if I had ventured out into Baltimore in search of falafel, the super bad breath that comes from eating this sandwich would be in vain. Plus, I fear the disappointed, ripped off, or hustled feelings that would accompany that 'bouquet'. then again, just to be fair, there is a good falafel stand at the Sunday Farmer's Market, but its 8 bucks, and sometimes its pretty darn chintzy and other times is overflowing. There you go, I rest my case - hustled! I'd much rather wrap my chompers around Chef's falafel anyway! Along with the falafel balls, he stuffed green onion, cukey, and our house-sprouted sprout into pita.

And, yes, he made his own yogurt sauce. In addition to the obvious, Chef added dill, sour cream, homemade garlic powder, and S&P. It was quite flavorful & cotton mouth inducing -- ahh, garlic!  Not only do meals like this remind me of how good I have it, but it also solidifies it for me that we don't have to go out and spend money for a fave like falafel...except if I'm in Cape May, I'm totally going back to that place on the beach, they use fava beans in the falafel. Did you read that, Chef? Fava beans.

the morel of the story...

As I am sure many of you are aware and happful for, Spring has arrived! And for food-minded people such as ourselves, Chef and I anxiously await the arrival of Spring for the goodies of the Forest. Morels being the prime target. And while many children may have been hunting gifts from the Easter bunny this past weekend, Chef and I were hunting goodies of our own. As another 'hunter' put, the "natural" Easter egg - the famed morel mushroom.

Behold! The morel: Sneaky little devils 

that hide behind vegetation and

pop up from below the leaf litter.

But in case you weren't aware, mushroom foragers, or hunters, are a secretive bunch. So don't expect me to blurb too much about these fungi... other than the basics ... Morels are edible wild mushrooms found in the woods. They are so prized and so tasty, they are referred to as a choice edible. That's high acclaim in the world of fungi. Finally, morels are only 'out there' for 4-6 weeks in the early Spring. So people get ramped up and hot and bothered and such when it comes time to forage. And, yes, we are guilty of that as well, but to a lesser degree...or so I think :)

If you are thinking, "Are you nuts! Wild mushrooms are poisonous! You're going to die! But there might be bugs on them!", I say to you - pssh! And just to test that dying theory, I started typing this entry Sunday night, after I ate some of our find, then went to bed. Guess what? I'm still alive, and there was no weird bathroom experiences. And no, no bug parts stuck to my teeth. By the way, I did dream of morels, and I liked it!

A few more morel facts for those of you whose panties may have slipped up into an uncomfortable position. The morel is a distinctive mushroom period; there really isn't any other mushroom out there that you can mistake for this choice edible.  Albeit, there is a mushroom called the false morel and it is poisonous, but it really doesn't look anything like the tasty ones. The false morel is all blobby looking, and there are none of the pockets or pits and ridges that the 'literature' refers to that the choice morel boasts. (heehee, literature, don't I sound like such an expert? i'm making up for the use of the word blobby).  Another quick and easy field test is cutting your morel in half, lengthwise. The good ones will be totally hollow inside. The ones you don't want will not be hollow: you will see little compartments as well as a cottony-type filling. Additionally, there are several species of the edible variety, varying in color and often depending on habitat. And the most important fact about morels: it is fun as heck to go out and collect these things. It can be hard work, but totally rewarding!

And here they are, cooked up. Chef took an ol' timer's recommendation and cooked them up with heavy cream. Sherry was also recommended with the cream, but we did not have any sherry in the house so we just stuck with cream and parsley. These little gems topped el pierogie and were joined by chived mashed potatoes and sauteed cabbage with caraway. You might also see another tasty wild fungi in the photos above, the oyster mushroom. I will restate, I am still alive and have not had any sudden dashes to the bathroom.

And the morel of the story is .... don't be an un- fun-guy and scoff at people who eat wild mushrooms! Let me try that again .. if you are going to eat wild mushrooms, do your homework! Nah, that's too authoritarian. And the morel of the story is ... there ain't nothing like freely foraged food!  I'm going with that.