The Greening of Dinner

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

November 10, 2010

Here’s a list of things I didn’t expect when I started a blog:

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Trout Stuffing in America

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

July 7, 2009

Yes, the Fish Music, a poem by Richard Brautigan

A trout-colored wind blows through my eyes,
through my fingers,
and I remember how the trout
used to hide from the dinosaurs
when they came to drink at the river.
The trout hid in subways, castles,
and automobiles. They waited patiently for the dinosaurs to go away.

When I was in college I was obsessed with the work of Richard Brautigan, poet and author of “Trout Fishing in America” and “The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster,” though my favorite was an obscure and hysterically funny novel titled “The Hawkline Monster, a Gothic Novel.” Whimsical yet sad, his work gave me the same feeling I had reading Depression era writer William Saroyan.

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Thoughts On: Birth and Death on a Farm, Pt. 3

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

July 7, 2009

Chrissie Zaerpoor of Kookoolan Farms continues the series (read part one and part two) about trade-offs, transitions and new beginnings on their farm in Yamhill:

Last year we kept eight milking Nubian goats, and had 16 baby goat kids during the kidding season. They were the cutest things, and we bottle fed them three times a day for a total of about 16 weeks. Of the 16 kids, only three were girls (of course, since they’re dairy animals, you hope for a larger percentage of girls than boys). We tried keeping the goats on the same pasture with the cows, since they’re all dairy animals and they eat the same grass and hay and alfalfa ration.

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More Meatballs, But Chicken This Time

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

July 7, 2009

A previous post on meatballs began with an ageless ditty. This one starts with more plebeian concerns, in other words, “What’s for dinner?”

Uninspired described it perfectly. It was one of those nights when it was little muggy and sticky (I can hear you Midwesterners snickering, you know) for spring in Oregon, and nothing was sounding particularly tasty in the dinner department.

But I had to go to the store anyway, and I remembered a recipe for chicken meatballs by Pete Wells in the last New York Times Sunday Magazine that looked easy. It would be lighter than beef, and we had most of the rest of the ingredients, though it called for dipping them in lime raita, not so Dave-friendly. Then I recalled that my brother had recently posted a recipe for remoulade sauce that he was touting as better than tartar sauce. So, since I’m always open to putting more mayo in our diets, I thought I’d give it a try.

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Thoughts On: Birth and Death on a Farm, Pt. 2

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

July 7, 2009

Chrissie Zaerpoor of Kookoolan Farms continues the series (part one is here) about trade-offs, transitions and new beginnings on their farm in Yamhill:

It always seems that just when you think you have everything figured out and under control that nature reminds you otherwise. Earlier this spring, we were milking cows one morning and one was missing. After almost an hour of searching, we found her drowned in our little creek.

The cows have had continuous access to this creek for more than two years and have never had any trouble with it; the water was not particularly high; it’s a very small creek, only six feet wide or so and no deeper than boots for most of its length, but it does have one deep swimming hole in it. Poor thing, if she had found her way a few feet up or downstream, she would’ve been fine.

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Getting a Head

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

June 20, 2009

Fellow blogger Hank Shaw, of the Beard-nominated blog Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook, is one of the most adventurous eaters/cooks I know. Game is his middle name, and if he can kill it he’ll find a way to use everything from head to tail and make it look and sound delicious. Recently he went boar hunting and decided to make his first batch of head cheese. An excerpt follows:

I’d never done this before. After all, who wants to eat something called “head cheese?” But Maximus was not a large boar, and I wanted to to use everything I could — besides, Maximus had impressive tusks, so I want to make a skull mount, and you need to simmer off all the meat to do that.

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Thoughts On: Birth and Death on a Farm, Pt. 1

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

June 20, 2009

Chrissie Zaerpoor, farmer, cheesemaker, up-and-coming mead producer and one of the hardest-working women I know, began Kookoolan Farms in Yamhill with her husband Koorosh in order to build a life and a business together that they could be proud of. Here she reflects on what they’ve learned about the cycles of life on the farm.

A bittersweet cycle of beginnings and endings
By Chrissie Manion Zaerpoor

“Living in the country” conjures up such a lovely, pastoral image for most of us: fresh, soft mornings, baby animals, the bounty of harvesting from gardens and orchards, the rhythm of daily and seasonal chores, a slower pace and a deeper connection to community, land and food.

And indeed the joys of farming encompass all of these experiences. But yin and yang apply to farming, and the joys come with costs. “A deeper connection” implies a deeper intimacy, to the dark and difficult side as well as to the joyous side. Intimacy comes only with a deeper commitment and connection, and that means not turning away from the aspects that we were most sheltered from when we lived in town.

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Truly Verde Enchiladas

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

June 20, 2009

Apologies to Al Gore, but reducing your carbon footprint is so last year. Anyone who’s been even vaguely listening in the last few months is hearing the growing chorus of voices from the likes of Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver and, most recently, New York Times columnist Mark Bittman about bringing green to the table. And they’re not just talking parsley.

Even Monsanto is trying to (falsely) jump on the bandwagon with a new tagline that trumpets the giant agrichemical, GMO-promoting corporation as “committed to sustainable agriculture.” Though I almost threw an (organically grown) tomato at the radio when I heard that on NPR’s business show, Marketplace, yesterday. (Don’t they vet those sponsor taglines for accuracy?)

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Cabbage Fit for a King

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

June 12, 2009

I’ve been revisiting my love of coleslaw lately, so when I read this recipe from Jim Dixon of RealGoodFood and then saw, to my amazement, that he included the addictively delicious bread and butter jalapeños made by Barb and Dave Barber, I just had to tell you about it.

I was making a batch of my semi-creamy coleslaw last week, and there in the refrigerator was a container of the incredibly tasty bread and butter jalapenos from Picklopolis at the Portland Farmers Market. Mashup ensues:

Semi-Spicy, Semi-Creamy Coleslaw

Dissolve about a tablespoon of sugar and good pinch of sea salt (kosher salt also works) in a half cup or so of Katz Gravenstein Apple Cider vinegar. Add a cup or so of extra virgin olive oil and stir well.

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Great Grain

From Good Stuff NW Annex by Kathleen Bauer

June 3, 2009

With the weather creeping toward summerlike, I’m thinking more about cool salads and picnics in a park, not to mention easy but impressive side dishes I can take to potluck dinners. This recipe for farro salad fits all those categories, and is perfect for any vegetarians in the crowd.

Farro & Pecorino Salad
From Luan Schooler at Foster & Dobbs

1 c. whole grain Farro
Salted water
4 oz. good aged pecorino, cut into little cubes
1 c. halved cherry tomatoes
1/4 c. oil-cured olives, pitted & chopped roughly
A handful of basil leaves
6 tablespoons (more or less) of good, full flavored olive oil
Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

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