Busy Hands Homestead

Cherry season is short and sweet. The majority of the seventy pounds of  cherries we picked are now stored in jars as brandied cherries, two kinds of cherry jam, frozen pie filling or simply pitted, bagged and frozen.  There are still plenty of cherries for Sylvan and Ivory to open the fridge door and pull out dark red cherries by the handful.   "Next week will be the last for cherries," the woman tells me at the farmers market info booth. Short and Sweet. I thank her and peruse the market booths. I am here for cucumbers - dark green and crisp cucumbers. Cucumbers that will be paired with cherries.  Savory and Sweet.   Sweet and Savory.   Straight from the garden mint, thyme, onions, peppers, lettuce...   and cherries.   Cherry and Cucumber Crostini  1 cup pitted and halved cherries 1/2 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 handful of mint leaves, fine...

After heating up the oven to 450 degrees it was too hot to eat in the house.  We took our plates and moved outside to the picnic table and ate our slices of pizza in the cool shade our maple tree. I made my favorite pizza: roasted beet, feta, caramelized onion and walnuts. I made a second pizza: feta, pizza cheese, beet greens and morels. Between the two pizzas I used a beet and all the beet greens off of the bunch I bought from the farmer's market Saturday morning.  Reluctantly, I let Adam pack the remaining slices for his work day lunch.  I know that I will be making pasta with radish green pesto for the kids and I...  but that pizza was so, so good. I always enjoy pizza night. I like to think that it involves washing less dishes...  probably not true...  after making the dough, caramelizing onions and mixing up the sauces the dishes pile up just the same.  But it feels different. I like sliding the pizza onto the baking stone in the oven. I ...

I woke up and put on SANDALS! Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Fresh Basil in a giant wood fired bowl I threw out of 25 pounds of clay  A Northside get together at the Northside Park

A few weeks ago I sat in the noisy gym at the Y (during family fun time) listening to a voice mail from one of my WIC counselors asking me to call her back regarding the online session I had just completed.  At my last visit I had been offered the choice between a follow up in office visit or an online session on wichealth.org after which I would just email the office. I took the online choice and all I could think was: SHIT!... because there is nothing like an online, blank, anonymous appearing box to solicit my honest and uncensored opinion on a subject, especially a subject related to food.  And that opinion had NOT been kind.  In my mind the person reading my criticism was not received by the sweet lady I look forward to chatting with every few months but rather the creator of the lack luster content I had found when I clicked through the segments of my Meatless Meals Section I had chosen to complete. When I finally did speak to her, I...

September is flying past.   I am trying to soak up the last few days of summer and the first of fall.  This involves pulling things out of the garden, into my kitchen and preserving food in jars.  I pulled the largest of my second and third planting of beets, (they were so small, sigh, in spite of the watering), scrubbed them, boiled them and pickled them.  I am trying out a few new canning recipes and using a few of my old standbys.    Really, this process should not have taken more than a few hours, but some how it took me all day.  By nighttime four ruby red pint jars stood on my kitchen table. This new recipe only contains half a cup of honey..  although, I will admit, that I am going to make a second batch of pickled beets using my old sugar laden recipe because I don't think the kids will be chowing these down with quite as much enthusiasm.  I picked arm fulls of my blue curly leaf kale.  Running back and fort...

This recipe utilized the ENTIRE beet plant: the leaves as well as the roots!  3 medium sized beets with greens 2 tablespoons coconut oil peppered goat cheese salted and roasted sunflower seeds salt pepper Roast the beets ahead of time ( directions here ) and let cool.  Peel the beets and cut into cubes. Wash and chop greens.  Heat the coconut oil until hot and drop the greens into the pan.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the leaves are dark, dark green in color and a little crispy. Remove from heat.  Layer the greens, the cubed beets, crumbled goat cheese, and sunflower seeds.   Add salt and pepper to taste.   There are no exact quantities.  Just add all the ingredients in the proportions that look and taste good to you.  Enjoy.