Decadent Orange Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

I only make these once a year, to celebrate the new year.  Invite friends and family: this recipe makes 12 medium-sized rolls.  This dough works best when made early in the morning for a late morning breakfast.

Dough:
¾ cup milk
¼ cup yogurt (or sour cream or buttermilk)
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup evaporated cane sugar
2½ teaspoons yeast
1 egg
3¼ cup all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a small saucepan on medium-low, heat the milk, yogurt and butter until the butter is melted and the milk is between 105° and 115°. Stir in half the sugar and the yeast. Bloom the yeast for 5 minutes. Add to mixing bowl, and whisk in the egg and the remaining sugar. Add the flour, salt and cinnamon. Using the hook attachment, mix on low speed for 4 minutes.

Place batter in a greased bowl and turn to grease top. Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours until it doubles.  

Kitchen tip:  Speed up the rise by turning your oven into a proving drawer with a pan of boiling water set on the bottom shelf.  Best proving temp is 70-115 degrees.

Filling:
1 stick butter (room temperature)
2/3 cup brown sugar (rapadura if you can find it)
2 rounded tablespoons ground cinnamon

2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

an egg white

Whip the sugar, cinnamon and butter until smooth. On a floured surface, roll the dough out in a rectangle, roughly 8x12 inches, about ¼ inch thick.  Spread on the butter mixture, leaving an inch strip bare at the top of the rectangle.  Sprinkle the pecans. Gently, but tightly roll the rectangle into a log, brushing away any flour as you roll.  Brush the bare strip with egg white to form a seal.  Cut into 12 slices and place in a buttered Pyrex 9x13 baking dish. Let proof for 40 minutes. Bake at 375°(325° for convection) until lightly browned, about 30 minutes.  

Serve warm, topped with cream cheese frosting:

1 stick butter (room temperature)
6 ounces neufchâtel or cream cheese (room temperature)
5 ounces powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ rounded teaspoon sea salt

zest of an orange

Whip all ingredients together in a mixer until fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Mother's Day Picnic

To celebrate and show gratitude for our mothers, this year my family will be picnicking on a small farm surrounded by lavendar, sweet peas and sunflowers. I get immense joy from sharing a meal made with care and love from beautiful, wholesome ingredients with those I love. In May, we still have the best that spring has to offer us and the bounty of summer begins.

me & mom when we were young

My picnic basket will include a trio of salads, deviled eggs, assorted cheeses and crackers, and mulberry lemonade… oh, and probably some cookies or lemon bars, although mom is sweet enough already.

Deviled Eggs
1 dozen back yard chicken eggs, hardboiled
mayo
mustard
relish
a small shallot, finely diced
fresh parsley, minced
paprika
Peel the hardboiled eggs and cut them in half lengthwise.  Remove yolks and place in a bowl.  Arrange the whites on a serving tray.  To the yolks, add the remainder of the ingredients (except the parsley and paprika).  Mash the yolks with a fork and stir ingredients together until creamy.  Dollop the yolk mixture back into the egg halves.  Sprinkle with paprika and parsley as desired.

Kitchen Tip: how to easily peel a hardboiled egg
Crack each of the 2 ends, removing a bit of the shell at each end, seal your lips on one end and blow; the egg pops out of it's shell!

Spring Vegetable Salad
Mixed greens (a handful per person)
a diced avocado
fresh basil chiffonade (stack several leaves, roll them tightly, then cutting across the rolled leaves, producing thin strips)
a julienned red beet
roasted asparagus
a couple thinly sliced carrots
fresh corn (slice the kernels from a cob)
tossed with a champagne vinaigrette
…and if you really want a rich salad, add chevre & toasted pine nuts (but that just may be gilding the lily)

Champagne Vinaigrette
Shake ingredients together in a jar: 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar (or red wine vinegar or lemon juice), 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon dijon or whole grain mustard, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Grain Salad or Pasta Salad

Seasonal Fruit Salad
Toss together sliced nectarines, pluots, strawberries, and oranges, with mulberries or raspberries; drizzle with a little local honey, top with fresh mint chiffonade and garnish with edible flowers.

How to Cook Beans from Scratch

Home-cooked beans made from scratch are sooo delicious!  They are vastly superior than canned for many reasons: texture, flavor, you get awesome bean broth, they are cheaper, you can add your own seasonings, and I find it very satisfying.

It is very easy to cook dried beans from scratch but they do require some advanced planning because they take awhile to soak and cook. (You can also cook fresh or sprouted beans super fast but I'll talk about those later...)

Other than thinking about the approximate amount of cooked beans I want to end up with...

(kitchen tip: 1/2 pound dried beans = 1 cup dried = 3 cups cooked)

...I don't really measure ingredients, but here's the method I use:

1. Sort your dried beans: spread them out on a flat surface (like on a baking sheet) and make sure to remove any bad looking beans and anything that is not a bean (like little stones and grains).
2. Rinse the beans with water.  This removes dirt or anything else their surface has come into contact with.
3. Ideally: in a bowl, cover the beans with water by a couple inches (about 3 times as much water as beans), cover with a lid, and soak overnight in the fridge or for at least 4 hours. The soaking water contains the bulk of the raffinose (a bean sugar that we can't digest), so tossing this water after soaking helps eliminate gas. (If you forget to soak beans ahead of time, don't despair; you can still pull it off with a quick soak: boil beans in soaking water for a few minutes, the cover and let soak in the hot water for an hour.)
4. Drain & rinse the beans, then cover them with fresh water plus about an inch in a pot.
5. Boil the beans on a good hard boil for about 10 minutes and skim off any foamy scum that forms on top of the water (cuz who wants to eat bean scum? Also, it can boil over and make a terrible mess).
6. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook time will depend on several things: pre-soaked beans cook faster, small beans cook faster than big ones, old beans that have been sitting in your cupboard for years may not ever get tender.  Generally, pre-soaked beans will take 45 minutes to an hour to simmer until soft and tender, with larger beans taking close to an hour and a half.  So start 'em early; beans keeping warm on the stove waiting for the rest of the meal to be ready is not a bad thing.  Also, you can cook beans in a crock pot.
7. After you skim off the bean foam and reduce the heat, this is a good time to add any flavorings to the pot.  I always add 1/4-1/2 onion, 2 peeled whole garlic cloves and a couple sprigs of parsley, cilantro (for Mexican food), or epazote (for black beans).  If you don't have fresh herbs, you could use a teaspoon or more of dried herbs.  These additions enrich the flavor of the beans and the beany broth.
8. While your beans are simmering, periodically check the water and add more as needed to keep the water level completely covering the beans.
9. Periodically, scoop out a bean or 2 and taste to see how they are coming along. If they are getting close to done, this is the time to add salt to taste.  Do not add salt earlier in the cooking process or it will make your beans tough.  Some people like to cook their beans until they are super mushy but I prefer to cook them until they are a kinda soft creamy texture when I bite into them but they still hold their shape.
10. Now they are ready to eat!  You can serve them in their broth, drain them (save the broth for soup!) or mash them (add in the broth as needed when mashing).

If you grow your own or find them at the farmers market, cook beans fresh out of their shell! You can find beautiful heirloom varieties and fresh favas (which take forever to shell but are amazing) and cannellinis. In a pot, cover fresh beans with water, bring to a boil, add your seasonings (except salt) and simmer on low heat until tender, adding salt in the last few minutes of cooking.  Fresh beans will cook up in 10-30 minutes.

Or, Suzie's Farm sells sprouted beans, which you can eat raw or simmer like I've described above.

Make Your Own Mayo

Be not afraid - this is very easy.  The only problem is it makes about a cup and it only lasts a day or two.  So make it when you know it will be consumed (like for potato salad or lots of people having sandwiches).  If you want to make less you could look for smaller eggs and decrease the rest of the ingredients; sometimes the Schaners have little guinea fowl eggs.  Or if you want to make a big batch, sometimes they have larger turkey eggs.

You are using a raw egg - again, be not afraid. Do you know where your local eggs come from?  Do you keep them in the refrigerator once you get them home? Do you use them up and get fresh ones often? Are you immunocompromised? (yes, yes, yes, no) Good, then you have nothing to fear.

Mayonnaise
1 egg from your backyard or favorite farmer
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice from a local tree heavy with fruit
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 cup oil (more or less, depending on the size of the egg)
½ teaspoon sea salt
pinch cayenne pepper

In a food processor or blender, combine the egg, lemon juice and Dijon mustard. Process on high speed for 15 seconds. With the motor running, pour the oil in a slow, steady stream and process until emulsified. Watch while you're adding the oil: once it's real thick, (it will be harder to incorporate more oil and you don't want to over blend) and the oil just starts to pool on top, STOP.  Add the salt and cayenne, and pulse briefly to blend.

Makes a bit more than a cup will keep for about 24 hours.

I never liked mayo until I made it myself.  This is sooo much better than the shelf-stable stuff.

Variations
Try making with olive oil or half olive oil
Use different types of mustard
Use lime instead of lemon
Stir in chopped fresh herbs
Stir in other spices (black pepper, saffron...)
Make Aoli (garlic mayo): add 2-3 cloves of garlic to the blender first; blend well and then proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Kitchen Tip: How to Crack an Egg
Crack the egg gently (not too soft, not too hard) on a flat surface (e.g. your counter top), not the lip of your bowl.  This way, the egg shells don't go into the egg white and you shouldn't get any shell in your recipe.  Crack eggs one at a time into a separate small bowl before adding them to your recipe.  Then, if you do happen to break little pieces of shell into your egg, they are easily removed.

Peter Schaner's Autumn Salad

I wasn't planning on a salad but that's one for the wonderful things about seasonal, local cooking.  My spouse's mom is bringing arugula from her garden and one of my very favorite farmers, Peter Schaner, said "Here, use these in your thanksgiving salad" as he handed me a couple of persimmons, a pomegranate, and a lime.  And I'm quite happy to oblige!
 
homegrown arugula or your favorite greens
persimmon, cut in half and sliced thin
pomegranate seeds
vinaigrette of lime juice, olive oil, sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

When I make a vinaigrette, I usually make it one part vinegar or citrus juice and 2-3 parts oil.

Kitchen Tip
One trick to getting the seeds out of the pomegranate is to score the outside with a knife and peel it apart underwater and loosen the seeds in a bowl of water.  The seeds sink and the skin and pith float.

I love salad but I find at any event, most folks don't eat salad, so make way less than you think you'll need.

Thanksgiving To Do List - One Week Away

So, here's what I've accomplished on my checklist so far:

• I've sent the Evite (25 guests and counting...)
• I've created a menu & food shopping list (some will be foraged, most from the farmers markets and the rest from the OB Peoples Co-op)
• I've pickled my vegetables for apps
• I've got beds & linen for family flying in
• I've got all the kitchen equipment I need
• I'm borrowing tables, chairs, silverware, plates, and glasses
• I've bought all non-perishables & stuff from Peoples

Here's what I'll do this weekend:

• Make cranberry compote
• Clean up the house & yard 
• Buy perishable ingredients at the Little Italy farmers market

2 days before:

• Make gingerale, if I get ahold of my friends recipe (otherwise, I think I'll get some elderberry syrup and serve with sparkling water)
• Continue to clean the house...
• Prepare the serving pieces, plates, flatware, glasses, etc. 
• Iron cloth napkins or tablecloths (ya, right; sure I will)

Day Before:

• Endless cleaning of the house! 
• Cut and cube bread for stuffing
• Make pies & tarte dough
• Peel & cut the Yukon potatoes, then refrigerate them in a pot of cold water
• Assemble ingredients for side dishes 
• Set up tables and chairs

Thanksgiving Day:

Fortunately, I have several friends and family coming early to help with all the preparations for the meal.  I've encouraged folks to come whenever they like, bring an appetizer or their favorite holiday dish if they wish to bring something to share.  We'll keep nibbles out and drinks flowing throughout the day...

9am     Start rolls; Seed pomegranates; 
            Squeeze oj & slice melon for breakfast

10am   Roast garlic; Start sweet potatoes; chop broccoli

11am   Start tarte tatin; chop carrots & parsnip

12pm   Form rolls; 
            Chop onion, celery, apples & herbs for stuffing; 
            Prep mushrooms & shallots for gravy

1pm     Finish stuffing and bake; 

            Prep Brussels sprouts; Make salad
2pm     Boil mashed potatoes; Boil parsnips & carrots; 

            Make sauce mornay; Make gravy;             

            Sweet potatoes in oven; 

            Steam broccoli; Roast the Brussel sprouts;            

            Finish and garnish all dishes (except rolls)
3pm     Serve dinner; Rolls in oven            

            Give thanks & enjoy the bounty!

5pm     Make coffee; Whip cream; Serve dessert

            Make music & have fun! 

Ode to Julia: Leek & Potato Soup

This recipe is based on Julia Child's. It's one of my very favorite soup recipes and was very popular at Roots. It's simple, hearty, comforting, delicious, cheap, and easy to put your own spin on...

3 cups leeks, julienned
1 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
3 cups gold or red potatoes, well scrubbed & chopped (I leave the peel on for a more rustic soup but you can peel it if you prefer)
4 cups vegetable stock
sea salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

Heat oil or butter over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add the leeks and onions; cook until soft, about 5 minutes, stirring. Add the potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil; let simmer for 20 minutes. You can leave the soup chunky, or just blend half, but I prefer to blend (with an immersion blender) until mostly smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish options
sour cream or crème fraîche, grated cheese, crumbled blue cheese or cherve, fresh chopped parsley, chives or green onion, buttered croutons, blue cheese crostini…

Variations

• add in other vegetables (in with the potato or diced, sauteed, and added as a garnish): carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabga, cauliflower, winter squash, sorrel, spinach, kale…
• sweet potato & leek soup: use sweet potatoes instead of gold or red, garnish with grated gruyere cheese and fresh minced rosemary
• broccoli potato soup with cheddar: add a bunch of broccoli (rough chop florets; peel and shred stalks) to the last 5 minutes of simmering. Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese.

Kitchen Tip
Julienned Leeks
With a paring knife, remove the tough, dark green parts of leaves (save for stock). Starting at the root base, insert the knife through the leek and draw up through the top. Repeat, cutting leek lengthwise into thin strips. Cut into 1½ inch sections, removing root base. Place julienned leeks in a bowl of water and swish vigorously to rinse away all dirt.

A Trio of Hummus (& other variations)

Yes, the plural of hummus is hummus (but I had to look it up).  Anyways...
Hummus is a very easy recipe to riff on and I'm kinda into serving trios of things, so let's start with the "mother" recipe:

4 large cloves garlic (I like garlic, but if you don't you can skip or use less)
1 cup garbanzo beans, cooked from scratch (yummy) or canned
1/3-1/2 cup tahini
pinch of ground cayenne
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4-6 tablespoons garbanzo broth (if you cooked them from scratch) or water, more if you like a thinner hummus

In a food processor, buzz the garlic until minced.  Add the garbanzo beans, tahini & cayenne.  In a separate container, combine the olive oil, lemon juice and broth/water.  Turn on the food processor and slowly pour in the liquid.  Blend until very smooth (a few minutes).

Makes about 1&1/2 cups. Top with a drizzle of your favorite olive oil and sprinkle with za'atar (a middle eastern spice mix).  Serve with fresh pita and crudités.

A few suggestions for variations:
Fresh herbs - I served a cilantro hummus at Roots, if you'd like to duplicate it...add 1/2 bunch of cilantro (stems & leaves) (or parsley or basil - leaves only) and buzz with the garlic before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Roasted garlic - roast a full head of garlic and add the caramelized cloves in before adding the liquid.

Sun-dried tomato -  I didn't like these until I tried them from Terra Bella Farm & Sage Mountain Farm and they taste amazing. Add a handful and buzz with the garlic before adding the rest of the ingredients

Roasted red pepper - or try roasting any of the beautiful peppers from Suzie's Farm.  Add 1-2 roasted, skinned, seeded peppers in with the garlic and blend until pureed before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Baba ganoush - roast a smallish eggplant and scoop out the flesh to replace the garbanzo beans (and hold off on the water)

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Sage Mountain Farm had gorgeous tomatillos this week and they have some of the best garlic!

a pound of tomatillos, peeled
1 small head garlic cloves, skinned
a few of your favorite chiles (or more or less to taste) - this week: padrons from Suzie's Farm
a little olive oil
1 bunch fresh cilantro (from the Schaners), chopped, including stems
1 small onion, diced small
sea salt to taste

Kid's Day at Reeger's Farm

Toss tomatillos, garlic and chiles with a little drizzle of olive oil and roast on a baking sheet under a very hot broiler until blistered and soft (5-10 minutes), stirring occasionally. Cool; transfer to blender, including juice, and blend to a course puree. Add cilantro and onion and season with salt to taste.

Makes about 4 cups - if this is too much, freeze or can some of the puree (before adding cilantro and onion) for later.

Kitchen Tip: Peeling Garlic
Pull cloves apart. Using a wide chef’s knife, cut off tough base of clove. Place the side of the knife flat against the clove, parallel with the cutting board. Very carefully – don’t cut yourself - crush (lighly if you want to keep the cloves whole, with more force if you're going to be mincing) the clove between the cutting board and the flat side of the knife. The skin now can be easily removed.

eggs and backyard chickens

We are very fortunate to be fostering a friend of mine's chickens, 3 of which lay beautiful eggs.  we even got one with a double yolk!  I'd heard of these but never saw one in real life before - how special.  We were surprised how big the egg was compared to  their normal eggs.

Our favorite way to prepare the best eggs is to poach them:
Take your eggs out of the fridge to allow them to come to room temp (or use your fresh eggs from this morning!).
Cooking one egg at a time, crack your egg onto a small plate and set aside.

in a small pot, bring a few cups of water to a simmer.  Add a splash of vinegar and pinch of salt.  Swirl water to create a little "whirlpool" action and slide your egg into the center of the whirlpool (this helps keep the white of the egg together).  Cook for 2-3 minutes, depending on how runny you like it (I like my yolk a bit cooked so i slice into the poaching egg about half way through the cooking process.)  Use a slotted spoon to lift your egg out of the water and place on buttered bread with a bit of salt and pepper, a bed of dressed mixed greens, your favorite breakfast potatoes or hash. mmmmm...cheese sauce eggs!

kitchen scraps beyond composting

Of course we could compost our kitchen scraps but some can be used in other ways as well:

Make stock (or freeze for later) from scraps of onions (but not too many of the papery, bitter tasting skins), leeks, garlic, carrots, parsnip, celery, mushrooms - even hard cheese rinds - to make stock later. For a quick veggie stock, caramelize veggies scrapes in a little bit of oil and add any other scrapes from your soup recipe, herbs (such as bay leaf, parsley, thyme, and sage), enough water to generously cover and a bit of salt if you like. Bring to a boil and simmer for a half hour for a rich vegetable stock. Strain out the veggie bits and compost or feed to animals (my dogs always loved these super soft veggies)

Carrot tops and peels are also great raw for dog snacks (some dogs like raw broccoli and other veggies or fruits as well)

Feed chickens and ducks your greens, tomato bits, strawberry tops, melon rinds & seeds...

Broccoli stems can be peeled and chopped small or grated, raw in slaw or salads, or cooked where ever you use the florets.  I actually prefer crisp broccoli stalks to the florets.

Save and dry corn husks (for tamales), silk (for beneficial tea), and save the cobs for stock.

Tough vegetable parts (like chard stems and leek greens) can be sautéed until soft for eating.

Use stale bread and heels for bread crumbs and croutons (or freeze for later).

Increase nutrient value and decrease waste if you leave peels on and scrub vegetables clean when cooking with carrots, potatoes, parsnips and turnips.

If unpasteurized (raw) juice starts to "go bad," keep it loosely covered and it will eventually turn into wine or vinegar (I've currently got apple juice and blueberry juice converting in my cupboard).

If unpasteurized (raw) milk starts to sour (but still smells pleasant), use it in baking (pancakes or breads), desserts (cakes, cheesecake or custard), cooking (like mashed potatoes, soups, casseroles, or scrambled eggs), turn it into cheese...

After cooking, reuse nutrient-rich (unsalted) pasta and potato water in bread making, baking, soups or other recipes that call for water. Or use it in the garden!

Use leftover cooked grains to feed your sourdough starter.

Soak lemon or other citrus peels in distilled vinegar for a homemade cleaning product. Or grate & dry the peel to use the zest for later.

Freeze overripe fruit to save for smoothies, jams & fruit crisps.