Blackberry Ice Cream

I love using the ice cream maker.  It is a great way to use up fruit that you have but no time to eat it.  I bought blackberries at a local wholesale club and they were not getting eaten.  I put them in the freezer to prevent them from going bad.  Some were used in smoothies but the rest went into this recipe.  As usual, I used organic ingredients to make this recipe.  This recipe is used in the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.

Ingredients:
3 cups frozen blackberries
3/4 cup whole or 2% milk
2/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy cream


Here's how:

Place the bowl of your ice cream maker in the bowl the night before.  I keep mine in at all times!

Place all of the ingredients except the cream into the food processor.

Process until smooth.

Add the cream and pulse until it is incorporated.  Do not let it go too long - if you do it will start to whip the cream.

Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and let it churn for 10-15 minutes.

Remove the ice cream from the machine and place it in a bowl and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Serve.

Pasta e Fagioli in the Slow Cooker

This soup is found in most Italian restaurants here on Long Island.  Amazingly, each one is different from the rest.  Inspired by the recipe from the Frugal Gourmet, I came up with this recipe.  Pasta, beans and vegetables are pretty common ingredients.  All of the ingredients in this soup were already in my pantry and freezer.  This is a great soup to make when you think you have nothing to make.  It uses up just a bit of each item so it is a good way to use up the veggies in the crisper drawer.  To make this vegetarian - omit the ham hocks and substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock.

Ingredients:

2 cups dried navy beans
1 lb ham hocks
2 Bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion
1 large carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 cups water
4 cups chicken stock
2 inch Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind
1 TBS plus 1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 tsp dried thyme
1 TBS salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup ditalini, small shells, elbows or other small pasta

Here's how:

Place the beans in a large bowl. 

Pour water over the beans and cover by two inches.  Let sit overnight or at least eight hours.

Drain the beans.

Add the beans, hocks, Bay leaves, garlic cloves, onion, carrot, celery, tomatoes, water, rind, stock and 1 TBS Italian seasoning to a slow cooker covered with a liner.

Veggies and hock into the slow cooker

Liquids, beans and seasonings added

Stirred up and cooker turned on

Cook on low for 8 hours.

After 8 hours

Remove the bones and bay leaf from the pot.

Use an immersion blender or food processor to puree half the soup.

Soup pureed

Add the remaining Italian seasoning, thyme, salt, pepper and pasta.

Everything in - almost done

Let cook for 15 minutes, until the pasta is cooked through.

Soup is done and ready to eat

Serve with grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top (optional).

Next Book to Read: "Rurally Screwed"

I have been so caught up in reading about people who leave their lives, follow their dreams and start a farm that I have not read about much else.  So I found a book about woman who finds love in a strange place - Montana...with a cowboy.  I was a bit tired of reading about the same things lately that I wanted something a bit different but about theme of going outside the comfort zone and taking a risk.  In  "Rurally Screwed: My Life Off the Grid with the Cowboy I Love," Jessie Knadler, a New York City magazine writer who is stuck in a life of yoga, drinking and bad romances, goes to Montana to cover a story and finds her polar opposite and soul mate in a cowboy.  Despite herself, she finds that the life she had been living wasn't living at all.  While she starts canning and raising chickens this story is not really about that.  It is about how the person who really are may be hiding deep down inside, beneath the expectations, suppositions and stereotypes - waiting for you to find her. 

Paleo Granola

I have posted granola recipes but never one that is Paleo friendly.  If you are eating according to the Paleo diet and are looking for a snack, make this recipe and enjoy.  The ingredients can be found in the bulk bins at Whole Foods.  Some of the nuts, seeds and honey can also be found at Costco, BJs or Sam's.  The coconut used here is not the coconut you use for cookie- that is sweetened. The one used here looks like dried panko bread crumbs. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey
1 TBS coconut oil
1 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups shredded coconut
1 TBS cinnamon

Here's how:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Line a 9 x 11 pan with foil. Spray it with nonstick coconut oil spray.

In a small pot, add the honey and bring to a boil.  Let it boil for 6 minutes.

Honey before cooking

Meanwhile, place the coconut oil in a large pot and let it melt.

Add the pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pecans, almonds and sunflower seed to the pan.  Stir often, toasting the nuts in the pan for 4 minutes.

Sunflower seeds

Pumpkin seeds and walnuts

Pecans

Everything in the pan

Remove from the heat.

Add the coconut and cinnamon to the pot.  Mix it in.

Everything combined and ready for the oven

Add the honey to the pot and completely incorporate it into the mix.

Honey after 6 minutes

Pour the mixture into the foil lined pan and pack it in tightly using your hands to a spoon.

Place the pan in the oven for 25 minutes, turning once during baking.

Remove from the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes.




Remove the granola from the pan by grabbing the foil and lifting it out.

Baked and cooled.

Let it cool completely or cut now into bit sized pieces.  

Store in a container with a lid or a zip top bag.

First Time in the Garden 2012

I have been wanting to get out into the garden for a few weeks now.  I finally got outside today and started on the work.  It felt good to get out there and work in the soil and make the garden look good again.  It also felt good to get the vegetable garden started.

I did not plant my peas on St. Patrick's Day as I had wanted.  In fact, the vegetable bed is full of weeds.  This is is disappointing considering how I worked in the fall to make sure the bed was cleaned out and ready for the spring.  So much for that!  We went to Agway and bought 10 bags of compost and 10 bags of dehydrated cow manure and then tilled it into the vegetable bed.  Next, I added a bag of blood meal to the bed.  I raked the bed to remove weeds and level it out.  Now the bed was ready to be planted.

I planted the vegetable bed with:

5 Yukon Gold seed potatoes, organic
5 Russian Banana seed potatoes, organic
5 Cal White seed potatoes, organic
21 Silver Rose garlic cloves, organic
1 row, on a trellis, Sugar peas, organic
1 3/4 row Sugar Peas 2, bush, organic
2 1/4 rows Provider Snap Bush Beans, organic

I still have to plant carrots but, today was too busy.  I also have my seedlings to plant in May.

I made a trip to Peconic River Herb Farm last weekend and bought shrubs for my northern fence.  It is an area that is bare and in need of some plantings.  Unfortunately I am without any ideas.  So on my trip to Peconic River I had a $75 gift certificate to use and I knew shrubs would be a good use of it.  I bought and planted 1 Cardinal Candy Viburnum and 2 Coppertina Ninebark.  They will grow to 6-8 feet tall and wide and help fill in the fence sections.  I need to keep filling in the fence area and make it pleasing to the eye.

I also continued work on my Memory Garden.  I found Astillbe bare root plants at a big box store.  They are 'Pink Beauty' variety, donate money to Susan G. Komen For the Cure and come 3 for $5.88.  I bought 3 packages and planted them.  I also removed a hydrangea from that garden that I planted in the fall but it did not make it through the winter.  I moved one of the pink coneflowers and am trying to better organize that bed.  I move a few tulip bulbs to make the arrangement look better.  I had originally designed that bed to be 4 feet long and three feet wide, about half of a fence section.  After stepping back from it, I decided that it should be the length of the entire section.  So I now have the hydrangea in the middle with the coneflowers on each side.  The front of the bed has Susan G. Komen For the Cure tulips.  The Astillbes are between the tulips and hydrangeas.  I also placed an angel wind chime that is on a stake in the bed.  It reads, "A Mother's Love is Forever."  This is the centerpiece of the garden.  I hope to keep adding to the bed with other perennials that give money to the cause and the garden.  I am in need of a yellow rose bush for this bed.  This was my mother's favorite flower.  My vision for the memory garden is one yellow rose bush surrounded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure pink flowers and plants. 

Granola Bars

"Good to the Grain", by Kim Boyce has really inspired my baking and this is her recipe.  I am very interested in baking using whole grains as well as ingredients that I have never used before.  While this recipe is made using common ingredients, it is more than the usual granola.  It has great flavor and texture.  I made this recipe and cut the bars up into small pieces.  After placing this on my desk, I saw people reluctantly eat one piece to appease me and come back for more willingly.  If you like granola or simply want a great healthy snack make this recipe.  I added coconut to these to add some additional flavor, although this was not in the original recipe.  I made this recipe with all organic ingredients, but conventional ingredients will still make a great granola.

Ingredients:

1/2 stick of butter plus more for greasing the pan
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup plus 1 TBS flax seed meal
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup raisins (or Craisins or dried cherries)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1TBS molasses
1 tsp kosher salt

Here's how:.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Grease a 9 x 9 inch baking dish.

Greased pan

Melt the 1/2 stick of butter in a medium sized pot on medium heat.

Butter melting

Add the oats and stir every minute or so for 6 minutes until the oats are toasted. 


Oats into the butter

Oats after toasting

Remove the oats from the heat and pour the oats into a large bowl.

Oats in the bowl

Add 1/2 cup flaxseed meal, coconut and cinnamon to the oats.  Stir to combine.

Flaxseed and cinnamon added

Coconut

Place the raisins and 1 TBS flaxseed meal on a cutting board and finely chop them.  (This helps to keep the fruit from sticking to your knife.)

Onto the cutting board

All chopped

Add the chopped raisins to the oats.

All combined

Now make the syrup.  Place the honey, brown sugar, molasses and salt into a small pot. 

Honey, brown sugar, molasses and salt into the box

Stirring but make sure the brown sugar gets incorporated in

Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil.  Cook for a total of 6 minutes.

Syrup boiling

Pour the syrup mixture over the oats and combine well.  Make sure it is all coated.

Syrup onto the oats

Scrape the oats mixture into the greased pan and press it firmly into the pan until it is evenly distributed in the pan.

Mixture into the pan, ready for the oven

Bake for 25 minutes, turning halfway through.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

Out of the oven.  Ready to cut.

Cut into 16 bars and remove from the pan.  If you wait until it is totally cooled, you will have a really hard time removing it from the pan.