buffalo barley stew

A few weeks ago, I subscribed to an organic delivery service called door to door organics.  They take fresh produce from local farmers, put it in a box, and ship it right to your door.  I used to get this a few years ago, but then when we moved I didn't set it back up.  I am so glad that I subscribed again!

This time around they have a whole shop section, where you can buy farm fresh items other than produce.  When I saw the buffalo stew meat, I just had to get some.  If you've never had buffalo meat, it really isn't that much different than cow.  It has a bit of a stronger flavor, and because it is much leaner, it tends to be a little tougher.  I thought it would make for a great slow cooked, stewed deliciousness....

I've said it before, I'll say it again.  I love soup.  It is so easy, fulling, nourishing, and just downright satisfying.  Of course, stew is the same; just chunkier, thicker broth, and a longer cook time.  And sooo good....

buffalo barley stew

Obviously, if you don't have access to buffalo meat, you can just substitute regular ol' cow.
This recipe is actually just my beef barley stew, modified.  I love to serve it with some good, crusty bread and a great big salad.

2 tbs olive oil
1 - 1 1/2 lbs stewing meat, cut into cubes
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
4 c. water
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, roughly chopped
3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
2 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
large pinch of dried thyme
large 1/4 c. pearl barley
4 c. beef stock
salt and pepper
chopped fresh parsley

Heat oil in large heavy pot or dutch oven over medium high heat.  Sear the meat until well browned on all sides.  Add the garlic and water.  Give it a good stir, scraping up all of the brown bits in the pot.  Heat to boiling, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, partially covered, for about an hour.  Skim off the foam as it rises to the top.

Add the vegetables, thyme, barley, and stock.  Simmer, partially covered, until meat is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours.  If the soup becomes too thick, add water.  Cut off the heat and season with salt and pepper.  Add the parsley and serve.

roasted tomato bow ties with fresh pasta

In the beginning of the summer, my husband went to the plant store.  He came home with probably 7 different types of tomatoes, and 7 pots for each type.  At least.  I thought he was nuts.  Last year, we grew tomatoes, but we were not organized in the least.  We had tomato plants and tomato carcasses all over the place.  It was a mess.  I was so convinced that we would have a repeat year, so I gave him a pretty hard time over it.  Poor guy.

So we planted the tomatoes in June (geez, was it July?  We got a late start this year.  And I am really enjoying the use of the word "we"-  I didn't plant anything).  Every time I went outside, I questioned the whole tomato plan.  Where the #$%@ are the tomatoes??  I was so impatient to make fresh tomato sauce, and yet every time I went outside with my colander, I came up empty.

But it's like they say:  if you plant them, they will come....

 All of a sudden, they all came in all at once.  We couldn't eat the tomatoes fast enough!  And the broccoli. Oh man, I don't think I will ever really be able to eat store-bought broccoli again.  It is so tender and sweet and perfect when you grow it yourself.  The zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, radishes, spinach, swiss chard, kale, and all the herbs we would ever need.  I love growing herbs.  And so do the kids- they pick off the leaves and pop them into their mouths.  The corn was ok- I had one stellar ear, but the rest were weird and thick skinned.  I've heard that it takes a couple of years for the corn to establish itself.  Who knows.  I am not the gardener in the family.

I was allowed to have a garden once.  It was a wildflower garden, where you just sprinkle a packet of seeds onto the ground and add water.  Yeah, it all dried up and the only plants that grew were prickly weeds....

So with all of our beautiful, sweet, fresh, totally unsprayed produce, I could make tomato sauce whenever I wanted!  Which was pretty often....  And what would really make the fresh tomato sauce? 

Fresh pasta, of course.  

I have been making it for a while now, mostly in the form of ravioli or spaghetti, but this time I decided to make little bow ties!  They were so easy to make and a perfect little size for my kids' little hands.  This was definitely a case where the extra "help" was actually helpful..

*Time management tip*

The thought of making fresh pasta may be a little daunting.  But just know that from start to finish, it takes about an hour, give or take.  But you can easily make the whole meal at the same time so that it gets to the table all at once.  Start to make the pasta after you put the tomatoes into the oven for roasting.  By the time the sauce is completely finished, after all the roasting and simmering, your pasta will be rolled, formed, and cooked and ready for the table!  And if some unforeseen circumstances occur (which are commonplace in my house), don't worry.  You can take the sauce off the heat and reheat it later if necessary.  Also, after the pasta is bow tied, you can let it sit and dry for however long you need.

To make the sauce, I didn't really measure anything.  I just took enough small halved tomatoes to fill a baking sheet.  I then drizzled it all with olive oil, some sea salt, a few sprigs of thyme, and put the whole thing into a preheated 400˚F oven.  I roasted them for about a half hour, until their juices oozed and they started to get browned on the edges.  I then heated some olive oil in a pan, sizzled in some chopped garlic, and put in the roasted tomatoes.  Because they had lost much of their juice, I took about 1 to 2 cups more tomatoes, put them into the blender for just a few seconds, and then dumped their juicy sweetness into the pan as well.  I set the heat to low, gave it all a good stir, and simmered for about 40 minutes.  If it gets a bit dry, just add some water.

Oh.  And I also added bacon, well....  because it's bacon!  

When I buy bacon, I find that I will use about a half a pack at a time.  I'll take the rest and put it into a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, and pop it into the freezer.  It freezes beautifully, and whenever I need to use it (for a sauce, for example) I just take it out and chop it while still frozen.  So that's exactly what I did here.  I cut the frozen piece with scissors (this piece was actually half of a half, since I had already dipped into my bacon cache), it was about 1/4 cup uncooked bacon.  I crisped it up in a pan and scooped it out and put it right into the sauce.  The smokey flavor of the bacon (or prosciutto if you have it) pairs so wonderfully with the sweet and tangy tomato sauce.

fresh pasta

2 cups all purpose flour, plus about 1/2 c. extra for dusting

1/4 tsp salt

4 eggs

2 tsp olive oil

I have made pasta all by hand before, but it really is just so easy to do in a food processor.  Put the 2 c. flour and salt into the bowl of the processor and pulse a few times to mix.  Then add the eggs and oil, and pulse until it comes together in a ball.  Generously flour your work surface, and turn out the dough.  Knead the dough for 10 minutes, and you really have to stick it out for the full 10 minutes.  It doesn't really start to come together until minute 8.  

It will be sticky at first, so you have to keep adding flour, a sprinkling at a time, until it is tacky, but not sticky.  In the end, the dough will be smooth and elastic, and a bit tacky.  And keep in mind, that the more flour you add, the tougher it will be in the end, so add the flour sparingly.

Take the dough ball and cut it into quarters.  Put the whole thing underneath an overturned bowl.  You need to let the dough rest for 15 minutes to activate the gluten.  

I have a pasta machine, which is really just a roller with a crank.  It also cuts it into spaghetti if you like.  If you do not have a pasta machine, you can roll it out with a rolling pin.  The basic premise is this:  take one quarter of dough, sprinkle it with flour, and put it through the largest setting on the machine (1), or roll it flat with the rolling pin.  If it is still sticky, fold the flat dough into thirds, sprinkle with flour, and roll again.  When the dough gets a nice elastic smooth consistency, then you can just keep rolling until you get it to the right thickness.  If you use the machine, put it through the 1 size, then take it down to 2, then 3, then 4, and then to 5 for cut out pasta shapes or 6 for spaghetti.  This all sounds like a lot to know, but once you make it, it's really easy to see how tacky and smooth it needs to be.

When you are finished making the shapes with one quarter of the dough, put the formed pieces onto a dish towel and let sit until you finish with all of the dough.  Do one quarter at a time, and keep the remaining dough underneath the bowl.  If you take it all out at once, the dough will dry out.

*forming the bow ties*

When the dough is smooth and rolled out, take a pizza cutter or knife, and cut the dough into 1x2-inch pieces.  To make a bow tie, you want to slightly roll the centers of the long sides in, and then pinch them together in the middle.  Sound confusing?  Maybe a visual is more helpful.

Maybe another?

How about one more?

Bon appetit!!

fried apple pies

I have a confession to make.  Up until my daughter was born, my husband and I had a tradition.  Every time we went to Europe, we would find a McDonalds.  I know, I know. What kind of jerk travels around the world to fabulous destinations like Amsterdam, Berlin, and Switzerland, to be surrounded by delicious, genuine, local fare that you would never really find in the States, only to go to a McDonalds?

This jerk, that's who.  Why?

Three words:   fried      apple      pie.

That delightfully greasy, flaky, molten lava hot deliciousness is not available in the States anymore.  And until 2007, I could only find it overseas.  In 2007, however, McDonalds put that awful baked apple pie on the menu everywhere.  My beloved fried apple pie was gone.

Why I had never thought to make it before is beyond me.  Maybe I was in denial.  Maybe I was trying to forget the apple pie of my eye, so that it couldn't hurt me anymore.  Whatever the reason, the time for grief and woe is past.  This is the dawning of a new era.  A new era that includes fried apple pies.

Whenever I want.

fried apple pie

1 half of a double crust pie dough (recipe to follow)

4 apples, peeled and chopped

3 tbs Earth Balance butter

1/4 c. sugar

1 tbs brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ginger

scant 1/8 tsp allspice

Heat about 1 inch of oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat.  If you put in a thermometer, it should reach about 350˚F.

Meanwhile, melt the butter and sugar together in a skillet over high heat.  Add the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice, and cook, stirring often, until tender with crisped edges, about 10 minutes.  

Take 1 dough patty and roll it out into a rectangle, about 1/4-inch thick.  Cut the large rectangle into 4 smaller rectangles, or rectangle-like shapes (which is what mine turned out to be).  Put a couple tablespoons of the apple mixture on one side of the shape.  Be sure to leave about a half inch dough border.  Smear a watery finger along the dough border, and fold the other side of the shape to seal.  Crimp the edges with a fork or your fingers.  Or both, as in my case.  

I probably could have made them look neater, or I could have taken better pictures, but with the constant chorus of "Fried apple pie.  Fried apple pie!  Fried apple pie, mama!!  Fried apple pie!!!" I had to move quickly.  The natives definitely won that war....

pie dough for double crust pie

2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 sticks Earth Balance dairy free butter, cubed and very cold (I will cube my butter first and put it in a bowl and into the freezer while I get my other ingredients together)

1 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp salt (the Earth Balance is salted, so I usually omit the salt here, or at most I'll add a pinch.  If you use unsalted butter however, add the salt)

8 tbs ice cold water, give or take

This dough is fantastic.  I usually freeze half to ensure I can throw together a pie at any given moment.  Because you never really know when you'll need a pie.  Which happens over here.  A lot. 

I have done this by hand for years, but just recently I started using the food processor.  I have found that since having kids, I am usually in a hurry.  Food processor pie dough is perfect.  But you have to be careful not to over process.  You want to be able to see chunks of butter throughout the pie dough because when the butter melts, it forms pockets of buttery steam which is what makes the dough light and flaky.  If you don't want to use a processor, than by all means, just mix it with your hands or a pastry blender until the butter is about the size of small peas.

Put flour, sugar, and salt into food processor.  Pulse a couple of times to blend dry ingredients together. Add butter all at once and give it about 5 pulses.  I don't like to pulse it too much here, because there is more pulsing to come and at the end, I want my butter in bigger chunks.  Add the water, a couple of tablespoons at a time.  Pulse 2 or 3 times after each addition, just to mix it in.  The pulses should be very quick.  The butter chunks should be the size of large breadcrumbs or small peas.  

Once the dough has come together, turn it out and gather it into a flat ball.  Cut it into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other.  Wrap each patty in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for at least an hour to let the dough rest.