Productive day! And Zombies....

There is something about picking up my CSA produce that gives me a tiny thrill. I am kind of getting into the rhythm of it and I can tell the growers try really hard to mix things up, even when... well what is ripe at any given time changes at its own pace. The items have been largely the same on a week to week basis so far (I know this will change as other things come into seasonality) but they try really hard to throw in some variety (today it was chard and frozen figs, which were beautiful) even if what is actually ripe doesn't change drastically on a week to week basis.

I have been eating the greens we get almost as soon as we get them home but the dancy tangelos have been building up albeit my daughter is eating them daily! So I don't want to waste any of it and I've been perusing my 1964 Gourmets for tips on canning and freezing things.

Today I took the figs and tangelos and made marmalade.



I put ginger, galanga, cloves, mace, and nutmeg in the mix. I am going to serve one of them on top of the Russian Easter cheese tomorrow.

A tip from a commercial kitchen:

Raw meat spoils if it's not frozen so what commercial kitchens often do is process the meat into a cooked form (like grilled chicken, or meat into a meat sauce) and THEN they freeze it. The nice thing about this is, you can save meat that is close to going bad AND when you are out of ideas for dinner, you have ready made food all you have to do is thaw out.

You can do this with left overs too, I took our frilled flank steak from last night and covered it with two cans of diced tomatoes, some red wine, tomato paste, bay leaves and spices and a little sugar and stewed it all day. It made a great pasta sauce for dinner and I still have some I can toss into pasta tomorrow night for fighter practice.

I also really liked the pickles John Thsophilus brought to Paul's birthday party and it inspired me to make a new batch to set up in the pantry:



I forgot how easy and delicious it is to make your own ricotta (which is basically what the Easter Cheese is with a tiny amount of brandy and honey added)... 1/2 gallon of whole milk, 1 cup of cream, 1 tsp of salt... bring it to a slow boil, wisking now and again to stop it from singing to the bottom and sides of the pan (it will anyway) then when it is slowly boiling add 4 tbsp of fresh lemon juice (I have not tried it but I think vinegar would work as well) and then put the heat up to a more brisk boil and wait like 2-3 minutes, stirring now and again.

Then if you want to add 1/4 cup of honey and some brandy and stir it for like another minute, you can, but it does make it a much sweeter cheese than what you might want to use on a lasagna. Then you line a colander with double layer of cheese cloth and drain it... you CAN add raisins or currants (I added currants because I am out of raisins doh!) ... they have special molds they set the cheese in that have crosses on them. I wait about an hour than add a weight to the top (like a salad plate with jar of pickles on top) overnight in the fridge, then you can unmold it and eat it, or store it in Tupperware til you need it.

Having a fascinating conversation on an earlier post with Else about the unfortunate divide between the consumers perception of food and where it comes from and what is viable, vs. the farmers and what... you know... people will actually BUY once they are in the store.

My step dad owns a pretty decent size commercial farm and let me tell you, times have been really hard for farmers. He went quite a few years where he was not really breaking even. They have to grow things people will buy, not just the discriminating few, but aim for the majority of people. If you want to blame anyone for not getting the kind of seasonal organic, free range pig, pesticide free food you think you deserve... blame the mass of human beings who don't want to pay one farthing more than they absolutely have to for anything. And if that is you... well, times are hard, I can't really blame anyone for skimping on what they buy at the grocery store.

But that doesn't make the farmer a penny pinching bastard... they have to be able to do the things we all want to do, make the mortgage, buy the kids new shoes before school starts, have a car that runs. They are not trying to poison us with crap food but they are also not running a charity. If you don't use pesticides on your produce, bugs eat them, and they look like shit, and then no one buys them. We eat with our eyes first.

And Americans... we are woefully spoiled. We don't have culture that joyfully eats it's frogs, tripe and bugs.... why? Because we don't (generally, maybe in some Florida Bayou?) have a past where we had to be inventive with these common staples because we simply could not afford to eat every part of an animal. Lucky us... only... a living creature dies so we can eat steak... maybe we should be trying harder not to be wasteful?

I mean... when the zombies come baby, what is your plan? When it's just you and like 40 normal people and 3 billion zombies... let me tell you, I will be eating high on the hog on Alameda Island while Illadore, Ajax, Bri and Paul cut the heads off anything that tries to get thru the one tunnel we leave open. I mean Else has to be there to help us with our meat/poultry stock. When the zombies come, you better be useful. I mean, I know how to cook a whole lot of stuff that I can find just walking around the shores... mussels, fresh anise, wild grains. I can smoke and preserve fish and all kinds of foods. If you can't eat seaweed and shell fish, guess what, it's called the "bottleneck effect" (check it on wikipedia) and you are going to cease to exist in the genetic make-up of homo Sapien sapien. It's called survival of the fittest and we have become a lazy haphazard people... how will you fare on the "Useful Scale" when the zombies come?

Ok.... hmmmmm... possibly I have been in a wine drinking cooking frenzy of spring joyfulness that has gone somewhat awry in this post? tee hee!