Wrapped Up Weekend

What an awesome, non-stop weekend!

I hope everyone else had a great first weekend of spring. The whole world seems to be blooming mad right now. It’s one spring chore after another. Who in the world put a freaking revolving door on my to-do list???

I got the silly notion that the windows are a bit meh and next thing you know, not only am I washing the windows, I’m also doing the floors, polishing the bathroom fixtures, mending fences and scrubbing down our front porch. And that was only Friday afternoon. I used the remainder of Friday evening to finish getting ready for this weekend’s fiber fair and to put the final finishing touches on my Arachne capelet:

For more about the fiber swap and sale and my capelet, check out 100 Mile Fiber Fest.

Right now I’m running on fumes. Friday night was a bed tossing insomnia riddled night and as soon as I dozed off, the alarm went off. I tumbled out of bed and to help set up for Saturday’s fibre sale. I managed to keep myself semi-chipper and awake throughout the day thanks to a steady supply of coffee and enthusiasm where ever I turned. Once back home, I remembered that I was supposed to drop something off downtown after the fair so I put my tired feet back into my shoes and trundled back downtown. I can’t remember the walk except that it was really low tide at the seawall. The only reason I remembered that was that it was really stinky.

Finally back home, I put my feet up and do some knitting. My body had other ideas and within minutes I was out cold. DH woke me up when he returned from his Saturday dealings and adventures just in time for me to realize that had I no idea what to do for dinner.

Thank goodness I squirrel away food during my less sleep-deprived periods. I pulled out a package of homemade whole wheat torillas, made with True Grain bakery’s flour, and a packages of bison smokies from Island Bison. I threw the whole deal into a couple pans and popped them into a preheated oven. I had just enough energy to crack opened up a jar of pickled spicy veggies I canned over the summer and we had ourselves a simple but filling meal.

In celebration of our wedding anniversary today, we went out for anniversary wander up to the ridgeline of Mt. Cokley on Sunday. It was pouring rain at sea level but up there, it was snowy and windy and a brisk –2C. The snow pack was perfect and I got to work my French technique step work on some pretty steep slopes. It was also my first full-on play day with my Valentine’s Day present, a Black Diamond Raven Ultra ice axe (so very sexy). The axe is absurdly light. It even got to see some ice time as we traveled up some ice covered bluffs.

We got home half past late and I still had some tortillas leftover from the night before so I made up some fajita filling with a moose steak, also from the freezer’s belly. I broiled the moose for 4-5 minutes each side. While that was cooking, I sautéed up some local onions, peppers and mushrooms. A pinch of chipolte pepper, cumin, salt and pepper was all the seasoning it needed.

To end it all off, some chocolate-blackberry sorbet made with an organic bittersweet chocolate, organic cocoa powder, a couple shots of Cherry Point’s blackberry dessert wine and some diluted simply syrup.

I’m off to make gnocchi for my anniversary dinner. DH has promised that he was going to return with stinging neetle for tonight’s meal.

Have a delicious day!

Jen

Bison Carbonnade and crusted -up sausages

My interview about the 100 Mile Diet with Kait Light from Shaw TV is being aired and will be on rotation. Check it out on Shaw TV Channel 4.

After an assiduous week, I was ready for some coccooning yesterday. However, the universe wasn't on the same page. Forgotten errands ricocheted back, phone calls from frantic friends, unexpected visitors, and an uncooperative leaning, rotten backyard fence all conspired to keep me from my coccoon. By the evening, a mild pressure over my right eye blossomed into a full-blown tension headache. By 8pm, with dinner finally going, I settled in with my knitting and a cup of peppermint tea. Not two rows in and our usual unexpected visitor showed up at our door. ACK!!!! I just shut the gate to my personal space and knitted away and let DH deal with them.

Thankfully making dinner was a easy and quick affair. With the last of the Tuscan bean soup being sopped up last night, I was now yearning for a stick-to-your-ribs stew. With a quick look through the freezer, our pantry and fridge, I decided on a Bison Carbonnade.















No, not carbonated bison. Could you imagine the mess that would make?
Bison carbonnade is a fancy schmancy way of saying bison and beer stew. I used a couple pounds of bison stew meat from Island Bison, a bottle of Phillips Double Chocolate Porter.

It's a basic stew recipe. Here's the standard steps for any sort of stew.
1-Brown the meat in oil over medium high. Remove from pot.
2- Brown veggies (onions, garlic, carrots, peppers, celery, mushrooms are the usual suspects)
3- If using, dump in tomato paste. Let it caramelize a bit.
4- Dump in liquid. Bring up to a boil. Scrape all the bits of caramelized yumminess off the bottom.
5- Dump in meat. Dump in aromatics (herbs, spices). Bring heat down to a low.
6- Cover and let simmer until tender. For fresh meat it usually takes from 1-2 hours.

If I'm roasting or baking stuff in a low oven (300F) I'll usually just pop the stew pot into the oven with everything else.
You need enough liquid to just barely cover your meats and veggies. I used beef broth along with the beer as my liquid component. Stuff like potatoes can be added 20 minutes from the end of cooking. You can also wait until the end to add other veggies like peas, corn, greens to prevent them from losing too much colour. This time had leftover roasted veggies which I popped into the oven for 15 minutes to reheat them. To serve, I plopped a scoop of veggies in the bowl ladle the stew around it.

Once the meat is added back into the pot, make sure that the stew does rise back to boiling stage. It should simmer which means that anything livelier than small slowly rising bubbles coming up to surface calls for immediate intervention! Turn down the heat or else you'll end of with Shoe Leather Carbonnade.

We enjoyed our boozed-up bison stew with a glass of Scrumpy cider from Merridale Ciders. A tasty, dry cider that went well with the rich, deep and savory stew.

Remember all that sausage I cooked up in the beginning of the week? I still had a bunch left. I made a batch of sausage rolls for DH. They're nothing more than leftover cooked moose sausages and local bavarian sausages rolled up in some frozen basic pie crust pastry. I baked them at 350F for 30 minutes. My DH thinks I'm a genius. It took all of 2 brain cells to make them but I'm not tell him that ;)

Pie crust is one of those things that I used to be skittish about making. In the past, they'd end up either gooey or tough. The secret to the perfect pastry is to use both really cold ingredients and tools and to not handle the dough more than needed. Overhandling will lead to a tough dough. I usually pop my butter, water and mixing bowl into the freezer to get them good and cold.














Here's my Fast & Dirty Pie Pastry:

3 cups flour - I used sifted organic Red Fife flour from True Grains bakery
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (if you're making a sweet goodie. For savories, don't need add)
ice cold water

1- Sift the flour. Add salt and sugar
2- With a cheese grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour. This is easier than working with cubes of butter
3- Mix. Use a pastry cutter or a fork to incorporate the ingredients into a crumbly mixture.
4- Add water one tablespoon at a time. Incorporate the water in well before adding more water. You will use less water than you think you need. Once it starts coming together it'll still look at bit crumbly and ragged. If you pinch the dough and it comes together and sticks. It's done.
5- Dump the dough into a ziploc baggie. Pat the dough down flat and even. Put into the fridge for at least and hour before rolling it out.

As mentioned, it freezes fine. The above recipe is enough for 2 pie crusts. I usually keep them in 1-2 crust portions.

This is a note to Marianne/Mary Anne who I met at the Ban Terminator events this past week. I might have given you wrong contact info. Please email me.

Enjoy!

Jen

Frosted foggy flaky morning

I woke up to the ferry horns calling out through the fog. I love fog, especially in the mornings. It makes waking up so much more gentler when you only have to be aware of what’s right in front of you. The rest of the world is cloaked in an ephemeral white of amnesia and your only world is what’s right before you eyes. Makes it lighter work for my brain to pretend that the rest of the world doesn’t exist and the only thing I have to figure out is how much coffee to put into my French press.

Behind all that fog is a sunny, brilliant day. I’m just not quite ready for it yet. My brain is a tad fried from this weekend. We drove down the Rusty Coast to celebrate DH’s brother’s recent nuptials. The newly-minted married couple tied the knot in Vegas over the Christmas holidays and we were gathering together for an reception at DH's parents place. It was so great to see all the family and meet our new in-laws. We even had the latest addition to the family make his premiere appearance.

I managed to get the MIL sweater steeked, seamed and finished by the time we drove up to my in-law’s house Saturday afternoon. I was cutting it close, literally and figuratively. I didn’t get to steeking it until Friday afternoon. For those that aren’t knitgeeks, steeking means binding off and cutting into a knitted piece. In this case, I had to steek armholes into the body of the sweater. I chose to use a crochet steek since the Noro Silk Garden is a pretty ‘sticky’ yarn and would felt and hold together on its own.

Here it is in pieces, pre-steeking:

(the sleeves)

I measured, re-measured, and measured a few more times. I had a cup of tea. Wished I had something stronger like a gin & tonic. Realized that if I had a gin & tonic that I would really be in trouble. Finished up my tea and returned to the butchering of the MIL sweater. Can you tell that I was nervous about steeking? Actually, I can steek anything without batting an eye if it’s for me. It’s the fact that I’m steeking a sweater for my lovely MIL that had me a bit nervous. A sweater made of gorgeous Noro Silk Garden yarn. Yarn that I only have half a ball left of and probably is completely sold out on this island so if I do make a horrible mess of it, I’m don’t have a stash to dip into.

Here it goes:

snip snip snip

Yes, I should be using smaller scissors but all I had were these large general purpose scissors. Talk about living dangerously ;)

(The steeked edge of an armhole)

Phew! The hard part is done. NOT!

I seamed the first sleeve in and I don’t know what I did wrong, maybe I picked up the wrong stitches or something but the sleeve fell short of the opening by 2 inches!!!

I ripped the seam out, took a deep breath and prayed to the knitting gods to please find it in their hearts to not completely screw me over. I compared the sleeves to the sleeve opening and they matched. I allowed myself a half a sigh of relief and tried seaming the sleeve on again.

I managed to get both sleeves seamed on without much more drama. I decided to leave the shoulder seams and the turtleneck for the next morning. By this time it was a quarter to 9 and I hadn’t even thought about dinner. My stomach was too busy clenching and doing flips for the last few hours and wasn’t really in the mood for food. DH, however, was making hungry puppy sounds, so I whipped up a bison chili. Nothing fancy, just some ground bison meat from Island Bison, local mushrooms, carrots and onions all browned up. I used the leftover pizza sauce and a batch of frozen tomatoes and a couple glugs of leftover Philip’s Double Chocolate Porter for the base. With a big pinch of ancho chili and chipolte chili powder and a not so bit pinch of cayenne powder, I stirred it up and let it simmer for 15 minutes. By the time the chili perfumed the house, I was hungry.

Saturday morning I bounced out of bed, set on finishing the sweater before we headed down to see the in-laws. Due to my sleep-sticky brain and parade of unexpected friends knocking on our door and phone calls, I only managed to get the shoulders seamed up and had to do up the turtleneck during the drive down. I’m not a car knitter. Partly because I’m much too uptight about having sharp pointy things flying around the car. Partly because the knitting gods always choose for the most critical and complicated part of the pattern to throw a huge pothole, suicidal raccoon or erratic driver in front of the car, causing the driver to swerve and me to drop several important stitches. It’s fine to car knit if all you’re doing is stockinette or garter but heaven help you if you pull out a cabling hook. Mostly I don’t car knit because I get car sick really easily. As long as I have my eyes on the road, I’m fine. Luckily, the turtleneck was a simple 2x’s rib and I could do it without looking at my hands. I managed to get the turtleneck done by the time we hit the Malahat and arrived at his folks place with every loose end woven in and no more car sick than usual :o

Here’s my lovely MIL in her new sweater:

I'm so glad that she likes it!

BTW, here’s what I wore to the reception. My favorite shawl with my grey wool skirl and jersey knit shirt 'uniform' (gotta love those grey wool skirts).

I’ve deemed it the “Flight of Fuschia” from series of bird inspired shawls I did last year. I gave most of them away as gifts but this one I made especially for moi. I wanted a dramatic piece I could throw over myself for special events. I find that most big shawls swallowed me up and made me look short and stubby. That’s fine if you’re a beer bottle, not so good if you’re wanting to be chic maven. I wanted something light and airy that would deliver a punch of colour. So, I decided to knit a wing. It has the drama of a larger shawl but it’s asymmetrical shape wouldn’t cut me in half. I also made it a closed shawl so I wouldn’t haven’t to be forever fussing with it or needing to hold it around me.

Have a great week everybody!

Jen

12 days stuffed into a garden stroll

Over the weekend, a couple of friends, DH and I piled into a truck and headed down to the Butchart Gardens for their winter holiday light show. It was the first time either DH or I had been to the gardens. On the way, we stopped by Cowichan Bay for lunch at Hilary’s cheese & deli for some yummy homemade soup and sandwiches. Of course, we also made a few delicious purchases next door at True Grain bakery, including a 20kg bag of freshly milled organic Red Fife flour. (Thanks Jonathan!)

BTW, True Grains is going to be closed for the month of January. Hilary’s cheese will be closed for the first 3 weeks of January.

This years display was the 12 days of Christmas. The weather was cold and crisp and the perfect for strolling about all bundled up in my down and fleece cozies. The display was awe-inspiring. From running brooks of lights to dazzling landscapes, it was a constant parade of “Oh look at that!” and “Wow, how did they do that?”

Thanks Travis and Sarah!

Here’s photos from our magical evening:

So, we’ve been busy getting ready for our big, end of the year climbing trip. I’m so excited. We’ve been drooling over ice-climbing guidebooks and planning and scheming for this last week of 2006. Due to the fact that DH was stuck in retail hell last year this time and couldn’t get any time off, we’ve both been antsy for ice and just for some fun winter romping.

I’ve baked up a load of granola, a bucket of fruit & seed cookies and mixed up a batch of trail mix with our stash of dehydrated local fruits and organic nuts. I devoted yesterday to baking bread.

I made a cheesy pesto bread with pesto I froze up from this summer’s basil crop and local cheese, an olive and local cheese bread and a 3 Seed bread. There’re all made with organic Red Fife wheat milled by True Grains bakery.

Last night, we dined on bread, cheese and wine. More specifically, olive bread, a wedge of Hilary’s St. Denis and a bottle of Saturna Island’s Pinot Noir. The wine was a light and lively and brought a well-balanced brightness to the savory bread and cheese.

Tonight, I’m hosting a small Winter Solstice Eve dinner since we’re planning to be in Vancouver by tomorrow. I’ve got a pot of bison stew made with island-raised bison, local veggies (carrots, onions, parsnips, potatoes, sunchokes, shallots) and a bottle of Cherry Point Bete Noire that I made on Monday. I’m also going to sauté up the last of my collard greens and Brussels sprouts with some Hertel’s smoked bacon (nitrate-free, yippee!). Dessert will probably be a tasting of Christmas cake, nut brittle and cookies. Oh yes, and wine, lots and lots of good locally-grown wine. Now, that’s how I like to celebrate the shortest day of the year!

Have a great winter solstice and holiday season and I’ll be back to rant and ramble in the new year.

Happy Eating!

Jen

P.S. - "Welcome!" to the latest addition to the Hansen brood.

Weekend whirlwind

Another wild and burly weekend. I bopped about from craft fair to beachcombing (you never know what these storms will wash up onto the shore) to my back garden to some knitting to Gabriola Island with some friends for more craft fairs, beachcombing and a couple of awesome nurseries where I saw the most gorgeous eucalyptus tree (koala not included) and then back home for more knitting.

It was also the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau . Since BN is not a local wine, I decided that for every bottle of BN consumed, we would have to consume a bottle of local wine. I chose Blue Grouse’s Gamay Noir since it uses the gamay grape that the BN are made from. As much fun as the BN is, I blissed out on the summery tones of the Blue Grouse wine. Build on the fertile slopes of the Cowichan Valley, Blue Grouse vineyards puts out some of my favorite wines. Their Black Muscat is the perfect intense red wine to go with your favorite dark organic chocolate. Thanks to its great location and soil, the vineyard doesn’t use fertilization or irrigation.

We celebrated wine, local and not so local, with a couple of intimate dinners and a couple of not-so-intimate dinners. Here’s what we had for one of our dinners:

Local buffalo sausage, caramelized onions, roasted veggies and a butternut squash gratin. Pretty much everything was grown locally from the sausages to the veggies to the cheese in the squash. The caramelized onions are your basic recipe of sliced onions brown in butter and braised slowly. I used a glass of Blue Grouse wine to deglaze and braise the onions. Yep, it was divine.

The veggies included local purple & golden carrots and Saanich potatoes tossed in EVOO and dumped into roasting pan. The sausages were simply browned and then tossed on top of the veggies to finish cooking. The butternut squash gratin was leftover roasted squash dumped into a pan with some EVOO, Little Qualicum’s raclette cheese and a couple of cloves of roasted garlic. I drizzled some balsamic vinegar over it once it was done.

Everything roasted away in the oven at 350F for about a 40 mins while Kevin and I watched Harry Potter’s Goblet of Fire and drank too much BN and Blue Grouse’s Gamay Noir.

Here’s what we had the following morning to quietly move us into the day:

Blueberry pancakes with blueberry/blackberry syrup and scrambled eggs. I finally have started dipping into my hoard of frozen blueberries picked from a local u-pick this past summer. A sweet, summery visitor to our breakfast table, along with very egg-elicious scrambled eggs courtesy of Cedar Valley Poultry. This picture is Kevin before he stuffs that huge chunk of egg into his gullet.

I also roasted up a batch of local hazelnuts. These are from Foote’s Hazelnut farm in Chemainus.

They have a stand open on their hazelnut farm. Just go along the Island Highway to the big yellow and green Antique barn building on Henry Rd and turn in. Follow Henry along it’s mellow, winding limb for a couple of kilometers until you get to the green metal gate. Push the button for an ‘Open Sesame’ (or Open Hazelnut in this case), drive on through the orchard. You’re aiming for the big, brown house in the back. The hazelnuts are by the front door and it pretty much runs on the honor system.

I’ve found Foote’s hazelnuts also at the Quist meat market in Duncan. Nanoose Edibles also carries local hazelnuts.

To roast, simply dump the nuts onto a baking sheet in a single layer and toss into a 350F oven. After 10 mins, give the pan a shake and return it to the oven for another 5 or so minutes. Let the hazelnuts cool and then crack away!

They can be kept unroasted and in their shell for a few months in paper or mesh bags on the shelf or a couple years in a sealed plastic baggie in the freezer. Considering that hazelnuts in the stores are going for $1.50 to $2 for a 100 grams, buying them this way is a great deal. Especially since nuts go rancid once shelled, these are also tastier.

Warning: Ramblings about knitting ahead!!!

I’ve started on another sweater. I know I just finished one but I’m waiting for my lovely mum-in-law to drop off yarn for her sweater so until then, I’m working on this:

It’s the sleeve for what I’ve named the Midsummer’s Nights Dream sweater. I’ve been wanting to do a MsND sweater for ages. Here's the yarn I'm using:

The colouring is going to make it more of a Tri-seasonal Night’s Dream sweater but I can live with that.

My design ideas have taken several turns from a lace weight cardigan with bell sleeves (what the heck was I thinking? I can barely knit a lace weight dishcloth) to a cape and vest combo to an updated version of EZ’s Moebius sweater. Over the summer, I picked up a batch of Phildar Auteil yarn that struck me as very MsND sweaterish and decided to let the yarn tell me what it wanted to be. The yarn was uncooperative all summer long and wouldn’t confess it’s innermost desires. So I threw it into the darkest corner of my yarn stash and hoped imprisonment would loosen up its tongue.

While finishing up my kimono shrug, I heard whispers and sly riddles coming from that corner of the yarn stash. Or maybe it was the end-of-the-project itch. When you’re near the end of something and part of you is delighted that it’s finally going to be finished but the rest of you is wondering ‘What will I knit next?’

Finally the yarn betrayed its intent and I began doodling out scratchings and scribbles. So far I have a lot of scratches and scribbles in my knitting journal. I still have no idea what the body of this is going to look like. I’m hoping a couple glasses of Cherry Point’s Bete Noire will give me the inspiration I need when I get to that point.

I’ve usurped this construction idea from Knitty.com. Simple design of tubes and there’s no seams! Yippee!

Of course, leave it to me to completely morph a simple and brilliant design into a monster of mayhem. As you can tell from the above picture, I’m not working the sleeves in a tube. I’ve decided I want the sleeves to decrease down into a leaf point at the wrists. Yes, a leaf point. Right over the top of my wrists. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I don’t even know where the idea came from. I blame it on that 2nd glass of Beaujolais Nouveau. That will teach me to drink non-local wine.

I know that I could be working the sleeves on dp needles and be able to maintain the tube structure of the sleeves. However I hate working with dp needles. Also, there’s a high chance of my forgetting to count my rows, or mess up the decreases (or both) and turning this lovely pattern into a briars patch.

I am 2/3^rds through the 1^st sleeve. I haven’t done a swatch. I have no idea if I have enough yarn for this. On the good side, the yarn is machine washable and I’m loving that Aran pattern. It looks like dragon scales from certain angles.

I’m also playing with the idea of doing most of the torso with ribbing. Maybe a twisted rib. Not sure how I’m going to play the remaining two colours together. Maybe something intarsia, maybe I’ll just do panels. Not sure.

One of these days, I’ll actually design a whole sweater BEFORE I start knitting it.

Yeah, right.

Anyways, we’ve having our friends Karin and Dave and his parents over for a curry dinner tonight. Karin is coming over early for a refresher course on how to make naan. I have to make sure the house is in some sort of civilized order. I also have this annoying thing called a job I should get to...

Later,

Jen

Meat & Potatoes - 100 Mile Style

Kevin had some work thing to do last night so I needed something I could make for myself and then serve to him with minimal fuss. I looked at what I had and figured I would do a grilled veggie salad and some charred flesh on the bbq and more of those yummy Peruvian purple potatoes I picked up from Duncan.

I grabbed some buffalo from Piper's Meats on Bowen Road. They have a cut of buffalo marked 'mock tender'. It's cut in steak form and had a ‘Perfect for BBQ’ sticker on it. That’s all I needed to know. It looked super-lean so I marinated it once I got home. When I say I marinated it, I mean, I threw it in a bowl and squirted some already made vinaigrette onto it and let it sit in the fridge until cooking. I often keep a vinaigrette in a plastic squirt bottle on the counter. It’s a great flavour enhancer for the obvious things like salads but also as a last minute flavour burst for pasta, soups, stews and even as a quick sauce for a otherwise plain piece of flesh. As mentioned, I also use it as a marinate for veggies and flesh. I still have some of that blueberry vinaigrette I made the other night. I used one part Marley Farm’s blueberry vinegar to one part olive oil, a smidgen of Dijon mustard. If you want, you can dump in some dried herbs and a clove of crushed garlic.

I also grilled up a bunch of corn, yellow peppers and red onion. The corn I started in the microwave. I shucked them and tossed them into a large microwave safe bowl along with enough water to cover the bottom of the bowl and nuked it for 6 mins on high. I left it in the microwave for a few extra minutes after it was done being nuked. The peppers and onions I chopped into quarters and threaded onto some skewers and doused with a few squirts of the marinate. The potatoes I simply boiled-up while I BBQed.

With the BBQ all preheated, I turned the heat on both sides to medium high and plopped my meat and veggies onto the grill. The buffalo needed about 5-6 mins on each side. They were cut about 2 inches thick. I just rotated the veggies every 3 or so mins so all the sides got some grilling.

I let the buffalo rest in a bowl, covered with a pot lid and assembled my grilled veggie salad. I cut the kernels of the corn cob and chopped the other stuff into bite sized pieces. I also threw in some leftover blanched green beens, cooked kamut wheat and freshly chopped parsley. With a few more squirts of vinaigrette and pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. I now have enough grilled veggie salad to last me until the end of the week. It’s great on it’s own. I have also used it as stuffing for egg dishes (omelettes, fritatta etc), thrown with some pasta, stuffing into a baked squash, stir-fried with rice, tossed into a soup or pilaf.

To make it a complete protein vegetarian dish from this salad just toss in some beans. I haven’t been able to find locally grown chickpeas or other beans for sale at the stores but Saltspring Seeds is selling chickpea seeds for home gardens. They also sell a great range of soybeans. Locally grown fresh soybeans, or edamame, can also be found. I found some a farmers markets over the summer. Saltspring Seeds website offers some great info and advice on growing these.

Back to dinner. Once I assembled the salad, I sliced the buffalo steak into thin slices. I do this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it makes the steak seem much more tender. And even so, buffalo is such a naturally lean meat, it benefits from being served this way. Secondly, it looks like a whole lot more meat than it really is. I’m all for eating flesh. I just don’t think we need a whole slab of beast on the plate. There are enviromental and simple food budget issues that have led me to this conclusion. I'd rather spend my money on buying smaller cuts of higher quality, more sustainable , ethicially raised beasts. Kevin, who is genetically predisposed to being a carnivore (or so he tells me) hasn’t noticed that I’ve whittled down the meat portions to a few ounces per day on average. Don’t you dare tell him! (I actually split the meat shown in the photo above between me and Kevin. The rest I used in a fast & dirty soup for lunch the next day).

As you can see, I cooked the buffalo rare/medium rare. I prefer my grilled beast this way, especially for buffalo. I find that once you get past the medium range the meat gets tough and dry and simply not good eats.

The light shavings that you see beside the meat is freshly grated wasabi from the Hazelmere Farm. It provided a good shot of horseradish heat to the rich buffalo steak. The potatoes really are that purple. So pretty. They’re a lighter purple inside but still, very purple. The flesh is fluffy and high in starch like a russet. It would certainly make some cool mashed potatoes.

Dinner took less tha 20 mins to prepare. I got dinner for the two of us, a grilled veggie salad to last us for the rest of the week and some leftover beast that made for a yummy lunch today. The only ingredients that weren't grown within 100 miles were salt, pepper, olive oil and the kamut. The kamut is organic and I got it from True Grains bakery in Cowichan Bay. I'm waiting to hear back from the head baker there about where he's getting his kamut and other grains from.

BTW, Pipers Meats is taking orders for local turkeys for Thanksgiving. They’re coming from a farm just a couple miles away or from Gabriola Island. The turkeys will be coming in the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving. Of course, they also have a bunch of other locally grown beasts that you can roast up for the big holiday.

That’s it for now. I’m heading down to Ladysmith for the Happy Turkey Night at the Yellowpoint Cranberry farm tonight. I can’t wait! I’ve got to clean-out the freezer and make room for a load of cranberries.

Happy Eating!

Jen

www.100miledietnanaimo.com

Equinox Cafe Steps Up to the Plate!

I have some exciting news. This morning I got an email from Jessica and Sean from the Equinox Cafe in Duncan and they've stepped up to our 100 Mile Diet Restaurant Challenge and are offering not just one dish but a 3 course 100 Mile Diet meal! They'll be offering this meal from Sept. 14th to the 16th. Of course, much of their regular menu utilizes local products. It's so fabulous that they've gone out of their way to create a 100 Mile Diet meal. Bravo to them!

Unfortunately, no Nanaimo restaurant has stepped up to the challenge. I sent out someone else to get restaurants for the challenge so I didn't get a chance to talk to the restaurateurs and chefs around here myself but from what I gather there's a bit of bridge building that definitely needs to happen between farms and restaurants around here.

Oh well. I won’t allow myself to get too discouraged, especially when I look around and see other nearby communities that are embracing their local farms. To the south of us is the Cowichan Valley and southern island which are filled with restaurants that celebrate the local bounty. I heard that there is a group in Metchosin who are doing a 10 Mile Diet. 10 freaking miles! More power to them! As I mentioned in a earlier post, the Comox Valley has a great farm-loving community and the bakeries there are at the forefront of a artisan baking revival. That whole community is thriving. Now we just have to get Nanaimo’s head out of it’s SUV behind to see that the Wal-Mart food culture is not the way to go.

Let's hope the enlightened spirit of folks like the Equinox Cafe and other local farm loving establishments in nearby communities spreads over Nanaimo soon. But until then, let's reward those that do support local farms and food producers with our patronage. I am going to hit the Equinox Cafe for their 100 Mile meal. I may even drag the Mr. with me and make it a date night. For those interested, here's their fabulous 100 Mile menu:

First course - Potato and Zuchinni bilini, caramelized onions with blackberry and chardonnay drizzle.
Second course -Highland beef NY steak topped with charred cherry tomato compote. Served with fresh local vegetables and roasted Russian Blue potatoes.
Third course -Crustless apple and plum meringue.

(wipe drool off of keyboard)

***

Speaking of dinner, we had the most awesome bison smokie and roasted veggie stew last night. I did a small roast-up yesterday admist my last round of canning. From my garden, I picked 3-4 lbs of cherry and small heirloom tomatoes, tossed them into a roasting pan with a sprinkle of kosher salt and threw them into an 300F oven for an hour and half. I also threw in a couple cloves of garlic. In another pan, I was roasting up a turban squash, some yellow and purple carrots and peppers, all local, of course. I pretty much ignored it until the timer rang.

I didn’t get my canning finished until about 9pm last night. I canned up a batch of pickled beets and a batch of spicy pickled carrot sticks. Tired and running on fumes, I gathered the following:

-2 bison smokies from Island Bison, roasted tomatoes, garlic, peppers & carrots, leftover roasted corn from a few nights back, a few handfuls of spinach and a couple shallots from my Nanoose Edibles produce box, glassful of Cherry Point’s Coastal Pinot Noir.

I basically chopped up the smokies & shallots and threw those into my wok over medium heat. Let the meat carmelize a bit and shallots soften then toss in the wine to deglaze. Cook that down a bit and then simple toss in everything else except the spinach. Let it all simmer a bit for 10 mins. You can add some water or broth if it’s not soupy enough for you. Then right before serving, I threw in the spinach and a few fresh cherry tomatoes. I tasted and seasoned it accordingly. I had slices of Natural Pasture’s wasabi cheese and cucumber from the produce box as a side. Man, was it ever good. The bison was mildly seasoned to allow it's flavour shine through. It's definitely leaner than typical smokies. A couple went a long way. The roasted tomatoes provided a rich flavour base to the soup. It was a great 1st fall soup of the season.

There was enough leftover for lunch today. I love leftovers. Yes, it tastes better the second day. Next time, I just might add the spinach to the bottom of the soup bowl and pour the soup ontop and let the heat of it wilt the spinach. The spinach in the leftover batch tasted fine but it looked a bit grey.

(Update: I tried the soup again tonight but without roasting any of the veggies and with a white wine instead of red. The verdict. ..It's bitching.)

I found out that I’ve got another 4 weeks on my produce box. I guess had enough forethought in the spring to sign up for a whole 16 week program. Thank goodness, this week’s box included a bunch of local apples including some famous Bramley Seedlings which are some of the best baking apples. You know what we’re gonna have for dessert tonight. There amongst all the greens, tomatoes and apples was a small bunch of the most delectable grapes. They were divine. Small fruit with only a seed at most in each. They were tender and sweet, with none of that weird bitter aftertaste from the skin. The texture was a bit different with an almost velvety smooth flesh.

For all those whining that the produce box makes it soooo much easier to follow a 100 Mile Diet, get off my back and get your lazy asses over to a farmers market. It's harvest time and there will be a ton of stuff available there.

Until then, happy eating!

Jen

Nanaimo’s 100 Mile Diet Challenge