Recommended Reads: Hungry Monkey, Insatiable & Cooked

Every night after cooking, gardening, parenting and teaching, I settle in to bed to read.  Columbus is the home of the number one library in the nation by many measures; most of the books on my nightstand come from their nonfiction section.  Below are my thoughts on three recent reads: Matthew Amster-Burton's Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater is part journal, part editorial. He honestly and humorously details dining out, eating in, and cooking with his daughter, taking on fast food, child dieting, and bland baby food along the way.  The account is peppered with unique recipes for family friendly dishes. This fun read is perfect for any parent who desires to share their passion for great food with their children.  Amster-Burton also writes the fascinating food blog Roots and Grubs and records a biweekly podcast Spilled Milk.

Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess is the autobiography of food critic Gael Greene. Greene details her unexpected journey to reporting during the free reeling 70s, celebrity sex affairs, and delicious descriptions of restaurants in New York and abroad. As only a food writer could, Greene reveals the details of 40 years of lavish meals and restaurant gossip.

The true story of a cocaine dealer turned chef, Cooked kept me up late too many nights. Jeff Henderson's book is a first hand account of his rise in power in the 90s California cocaine market, arrest, jail time, and eventual success as a professional chef. I was fascinated to read about the cocaine trade and federal prison system. The conclusion, with Henderson finding redemption and passion through cooking, is soul satisfying.

I've chosen a few other books to feature in the Shop page. Check them out of your local library or click through to buy from Amazon to fill your summer reading list.

I want you to read and learn with the best books and tools. I'm a big fan of borrowing but if you click through from HitK, I earn a commission. Disclosure served.

Leftover Cakes

I have an unnatural obsession with using up leftovers.  Even though the chickens now eat most of our food scraps, I still hate to waste.  All that effort to source ingredients and cook them well just shouldn't end up in the chicken bin or the trash in my opinion.

I find myself often making leftover cakes.  Maybe one of you can come up with a more clever and appetizing name.

It starts with a few cups of a starchy leftover such as mashed potatoes, lentils, couscous, or risotto.  I add in a little bread or cracker crumbs and egg to make the cakes hold together.

Then the mix is dropped into a skillet with a little olive oil and pan fried on each side.

I usually serve the cakes with homemade ketchup or chopped seasoned fresh veggies to add a bright dimension to the dish.  They're a nice thing to serve in the summer when no one wants to use the oven.

Leftover Cakes

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes, risotto, lentils, couscous or other starchy grain

1/4 cup bread or cracker crumbs

1 egg

2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix together leftovers, crumbs and egg.  Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high and add olive oil.  Drop leftover mixture into skillet.  Cook five minutes and flip to the other side.  Continue cooking until cakes are cooked through and browned on both sides.

Meal Plan May 31, 2010

We skipped a few weeks of meal planning recently and our diet has been lacking.  We're hopping back on the bandwagon this week, an especially busy one. Monday - Memorial Day - sandwiches and fruit for picnic lunch at Hoover Dam with family, leftover chicken, rice, and coleslaw for dinner

Tuesday - grill sausages, tofu, potato packet, home canned applesauce

Wednesday - Homemade bread and butter for Rachel to take to  Open Heart Art summer camp orientation, fish, rice, carrot sticks for Alex and Lil

Thursday - Rachel eating dinner with Chef Druck, Alex on his own, Lil eat pasta with babysitter

Friday - Sushi Ting Restaurant

Saturday - Mint tea and homemade snacks to be determined for our Homestead Open House (11 - 1, you're coming, right?), lasagna with greens for dinner

Sunday - Family dinner and/or Asparagus Fest at Wild Goose

Canning Season 2010 Begins!

On Friday I made rhubarb jam. The day before, reporter John Ross raised an eyebrow when I told him I love canning. He's writing an Alive & Unedited piece about me that will be in the June 3 issue of Columbus Alive! It's true. It pleases my soul to take an in-season about-to-spoil fruit and transform it into something that will last years. I like the rhythm of my work when I am chopping, stirring, sterilizing, filling, and boiling. I love the 'pop' sound that tells me a jar is sealed.

And the rows of colorful preserves in clear glass jars as they cool overnight on the counter? Pure satisfaction, in my world.

If the thought of canning fills you with fear instead of affection, look forward to simple tips and recipes over the summer. You can also come to my Jam Party at Wild Goose Too Many Cooks on Sunday August 1. It's $10 for a hands on workshop from 7 - 9 pm and everyone will go home with a jar of jam!

Where Can You Get Real Food?

Wow! How do I follow up my most viewed, most commented, most retweeted post?! I am so appreciative of the interest in real food*. I am glad to be in community with people who support and practice choosing sustainable foodstuffs.

Slaughtering your own animals is not practical for most people, not even us, on a regular basis. So where are the best places to purchase real food?

1) Your Backyard - growing your own fruits and vegetables is easily the most local, delicious, and cheapest way to pack your meals with fresh ingredients. My Grow Your Garden series gives tips about how to start or expand backyard gardens. If you don't have space for a backyard garden, search for a community garden plot.

2) Direct from the Farmer - Local farmers are the best source of what you might not be able to grow yourself. Sustainable farmers are excited to share their raw milk, small batch cheeses, free ranged meat, vegetable CSA shares, and more. Find them at a farmer's market (see below) or Local Harvest. Ask around at work and in the neighborhood, as many people know a small farmer or know someone who does.

3) Farmer's Market - Our favorite markets are full of stands directly representing individual farms. Some offer CSA pickups. Producers are eager to answer your questions about the variety, farming practices, and cooking use of their produce. Many will take time to chat with you at length, forming friendships and partnerships in the food revolution.

4) Local Grocery - An independent grocer, like our local favorites Weiland's and The Hills, is more adaptable to consumer desires than a chain. If your grocery doesn't carry products you want, request that they stock seasonal produce from local farms. Ask more than once and be prepared to help source the ingredients you desire.

5) Chain Grocery - Even in a chain, you can find real food if you search it out. Read labels and choose seasonal items from as close to your location as possible. Select whole ingredients to make foods from scratch. When buying processed food, read carefully and question contents whose names you can't pronounce or understand as foodstuffs. Local managers at your grocery are sometimes willing and able to take special requests. It never hurts to ask for seasonal and local food.

Where do you shop for food?

*Real food is just another buzz word among 'organic', 'local', 'seasonal', 'sustainable', etc. What I mean in this article is food you can source to a specific producer; whole ingredients that are free from unnecessary additives and processing.

How We Slaughtered a Pig

Meet Red.  She's the pig we slaughtered last Saturday with the able assistance of another meat lover, JR, and Red's owner, Denise of 2Silos farm.  Earlier I published why we wanted to slaughter a pig. What follows is a factual account of how we humanely harvested this meat animal.  It was hard manual labor that we attended to with reverence for the life we took.

I have included pictures to illustrate exactly what happened.  Some readers may find this subject and the photographs graphic.  If that's the case for you, you might want to wait to read a reflective and less intense post I will publish next week.  Intrepid readers, keep on.

We arrived at 2Silos farm early Saturday morning.  We met Denise's pigs and plethora of chickens, sheep, and geese housed in and around her gorgeous two siloed barn.

Red was allowed out of her pen and into the chicken yard.  She was wiley and escaped for a quick jaunt around the farmyard before we corralled her back into the pen.  The plan was to shoot her centrally between the ears and eyes to instantly stop brain function.  Alex, who won a marksmanship award while in Army Basic Training, manned the 22 long rifle.  He took his time to corner and aim because a miss would cause the animal to suffer unnecessarily.

The kill shot was perfect.  Red fell with not so much as a peep.  She convulsed involuntarily for about a minute as all large animals do.

We loaded her 250 pounds into a wheeled cart and pushed it up the hill into the barn.  After several attempts, we finally strung her up by her ankles over a roof beam.

Denise felt for the juglar and cut a slit in the throat to drain the blood.  The blood was drained into a sterile bucket so that it could be used in making blood sausage.

It took nearly a quarter hour to capture the blood.  When the stream finally slowed to a drop a minute, we moved on to gutting.

Denise ran a sharp knife carefully through the center line.  She was aiming for just through the skin but accidentally made a small cut into the small intestine.  Small intestine contents smell and are a source of bacteria so we worked quickly to clean up the mess and remove the guts.

We discarded the intestines.  Though they can be used for sausage casing, we had neither the skill nor time to process the intestines as carefully as is required for use.  Other organs (liver, kidneys, pancreas, heart) were reserved for offal recipes.

Alex cut around the anus so that the colon, uterus, bladder, and connective tissue could be removed.

Then skinning began from the legs down.  We took turns running sharp knives halfway between the skin and meat so as to retain as much fat as possible.  It took almost 45 minutes to completely skin the pig.

Another option is to place the carcass in boiling water, scrape off the hair, and retain the hide for leather making.  Denise did not have the facilities for this process and we did not have an interest in curing the skin, so we discarded it in the way described above.

When the pig was finally skinned, Alex sawed off the head.  JR kept the head for head cheese making, giving Alex a jowl for guanciale (a cured dried bacon, similar to pancetta).

Denise and Alex then sawed through the backbone to split the pig into two halves.

The halves were rinsed with fresh water.  From there, JR and Alex cut the pieces into appropriate primal cuts and packed them in ice filled coolers.

We carted the coolers home for further processing.  Alex butchered while I ran the Foodsaver, resulting in a freezer full of honestly raised honorably killed pork.  The belly, jowl, and ham were kept fresh for curing and smoking.  If y'all make a fuss in the comments we can write more about the exact cuts we made and how we plan to use the parts of the animal.

There you have it, the story of Red's end.  The experience was profound and fascinating.  Please return next week for our reflection on how it felt to slaughter a pig and the implications of doing so.

Due to overwhelming response, I'm linking this to April 23rd's Food Renegade Fight Back Friday.

Pantry Roasted Tomato Soup

Do you ever come home to an empty fridge but still want something delicious to eat?

We recently returned from the Mid Atlantic coast. Without time for a trip to the grocery store, I wanted a simple healthy meal we could make from pantry ingredients. Knowing that we had plenty of home canned tomatoes in the larder, I invented this recipe for tomato soup and served it with toasted cheese.

This tomato soup is made from only seven ingredients which are found in a well stocked pantry. The oven roasting adds depth of flavor and caramelized goodness.

Pantry Roasted Tomato Soup

Two quarts whole or pieced tomatoes One medium onion, chopped roughly Three cloves garlic, halved (or one half teaspoon garlic powder) 1/4 cup olive oil 1 ice cube block of frozen pesto (substitute a tablespoon of dried italian herbs if no pesto is on hand) 1 Parmesan rind (we keep these in a ziploc bag in the freezer per Lisa the Waitress' brilliant suggestion) 1 tsp balsamic vinegar salt and pepper

Strain tomatoes from their juice, reserving it for later. Place tomato pieces, fresh onion and garlic in a large roasting pan with a heavy pinch of salt. Drizzle olive oil over top and place in a 350 degree oven for one to two hours, stirring occasionally.

Bring tomato juice + 1 cup water (use stock if you have it for richer flavor) to a simmer.  Add the Parmesan rind, pesto block or herbs, and several twists of freshly ground black pepper.

Remove onions, garlic, and tomatoes from the oven. Blend with an immersion or standard blender until smooth. Adjust seasonings and add the balsamic vinegar.

Add to the juice mixture and simmer for a half hour.  Serve warm.

Following this recipe exactly yields a tasty basic tomato soup. There are plenty of variations on the recipe depending on what's in your pantry. For instance:

• Omit parm rind if you don't have it (you may need to increase salt)
• Stir in some cream just before serving
• Top with sour cream, shredded cheese or plain yogurt
• Substitute chili powder, cilantro and cumin for the italian herbs
• Dice onions and garlic before roasting and skip the blender for a rustic style soup

Mid Atlantic Spring Break: DC, Chincoteague, Antietam and more

We just returned from a vacation to the Chesapeake Bay and surrounds.  There were so many things I wanted to write about on the road but we never had good enough coverage to upload photos. Pictures are worth the wait, right? On Monday we drove west out of Ohio and stopped for lunch at the pre-researched Union Cafe in Washington PA.  We made our way to Rockville MD by evening and enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool before resting up for the next day.

Tuesday was our day to spend in Washington DC.   I expected Lil to be thrilled to ride the metro into the city but she was non-plussed.  As soon as we hit the National Museum of Natural History, though, she could not stop running excitedly from exhibit to exhibit.  We spent most of our time in the Oceans, Dinosaurs, Gems, Minerals, and Mammals halls.  We happened to be in the Butterfly exhibit when attendance was light and tickets were free, so we spent some time with live butterflies too.  Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus has a more spacious and beautiful exhibit, in my not unbiased opinion.

We left DC in the late afternoon to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Chincoteague Island.  We made our way into our vacation rental by the glow of the lighthouse.  Our fabulous home away from home, Eagle's View Bayfront Home, will have a post of its own very soon.

As advertised, the moment we woke up on Wednesday I spotted ponies across the marsh.  After harvesting some mussels and oysters from the muck, we drove over to the Chincoteague Island National Wildlife Refuge.  We saw more ponies from afar, bald eagles nesting, sika deer, and the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel.  Back at the ranch, we made steamed shellfish with asparagus mushroom linguine for dinner.  Later, Alex cooked up some fried oysters for an evening snack.

Thursday brought another windy day.  We hopped on bikes this time to view Chincoteague Island more closely.  Just past the visitor's center we spotted a monstrous snapping turtle.  At one of the overlooks I found a snake sunning itself.

After ten miles on the bikes we had resigned ourselves to going home without seeing a pony up close when this one walked by.

Following her were another ten horses with a stallion prodding them on from behind.  We were not fifteen feet away from these wild ponies. Lil was jumping up and down with excitement, not even pausing to take off her bike helmet, while I snapped picture after picture.

After a bit of lunch and rest, we headed towards the more touristy side of things. Island Creamery was a recommended stop for their homemade ice cream and we were not disappointed.  My praline cheesecake was a perfect profile of sweet and salty with crunchy bits of homemade praline laced throughout.

Alex chose cherry brandy with delicious real brandy soaked cherries in a waffle cone.  Their dense crumbly cones were unlike any I've seen elsewhere.  Lil's chocolate was rich, complex, and clearly tasty.  I wish I had more time and room in my tummy to taste enough flavors for a complete review!

We wandered through a few shops that sadly carried very little local memorabilia and did not hold our interest.  There is a sweet statue of Misty of Chincoteague near the town center, pictured above.

On the way back to the house, we purchased fresh flounder from Gary Howard's.  This place was a real-deal fisherman's outlet with hours-old clams, mussels, crabs, oysters, and fish.  We cooked up the flounder with stuffed mushrooms and baked sweet potatoes for dinner.

We left Chincoteague on Friday morning.  Lil was sad that we couldn't stay at the house longer and I agreed we could have occupied ourselves for many more days there.

We drove a little and met Alex's uncle Peter and aunt Susan at Pirate's Cove restaurant in Shady Side Maryland for lunch.  It was fun to catch up with our croquet-playing Chesapeake Bay-loving relatives, especially over regional specialties like cream of crab soup.

Alex wanted to see Antietam National Battlefield and what a lovely side trip that turned out to be.  The weather was cold but sunny and almost no other visitors were there.  We followed the split rail fences and viewed the copious monuments to the thousands of soldiers who died.  It was humbling to explain the events of the civil war in four year old terms to Lil.

I took a family picture looking into the sun at this marker to honor Ohio soldiers.

Friday evening found us in Hagerstown at another hotel pool.  We watched the basketball Buckeyes play Tennessee (and lose) and relaxed before a final day of driving back home today.

The dogs and chickens survived our absence with the help of our lovely neighbor Jan.  There was some interesting mail including asparagus crowns.  As it always seems to be, the vacation was over too quickly yet we are glad to be home.