Tasty and delicious!

Everything I cook I make by taste, I don’t actually measure unless I am baking, canning or pickling.  If I want to write-up a recipe for the blog  I decide that ahead of time, measure out everything, and write down every step. It is a bit of a tedious process.  Lots of stop and go, season and taste, trial and an umm not error.  Just kidding, I totally make mistakes, we all remember the “Scampi incident” don’t we? Anyhow, back to the balls.  So I decided to remake the dish, and this time, write down each step, AND measure for the sole purpose of being able to share the recipe. Don’t you feel so loved now?  I posted that I was again, making Swedish Meatballs.  This in turn caused my friend Amanda to have a craving.  In all fairness, she is pregnant, and has various cravings, but she is a few hundred miles away so I couldn’t exactly send her some, otherwise I totally would have shared.  I love Amanda, and we share an equal love for hard Italian meats, when you find a friend that likes hard meaty delicious Italian treats as much as you, that’s a friend for life!!

This is how I keep my salt and pepper, using a pinch at a time

So Amanda posted that she was making them using Alton Brown’s recipe, but she also said she wanted my recipe.  I said sure no problem, since my other friend had already asked for it, and because of that I had already remade it, I just needed to write it up.  As we saw in my last post that can take months, Kerry visited in March, and I didn’t write about Baby Jesus until a few weeks ago.  THEN Matt chimed in, that he wanted the recipe too, thus continuing to light a fire under my arse to actually get this done. THAT was like 3 weeks ago now….

What roux looks like when it first comes together

You can see it pulling away from the pan as I whisk

Hot bubbly and ready for broth

Truth be told I have been a terrible blogger.  I don’t mean to be, I just rarely write. Life happens, things happens.  I’ve been canning like a maniac, gardening like a hoe, and working my regular job. The house flooded a few times, plus all that domestic stuff I do at home. From June till October I got a solid 4 hours of sleep a night. Lucky for me, Matt is worse than I when it comes to blogging, he hasn’t written since last year, and that makes me feel better. (he said I could say that) Then there is Jenny, that girl is my heart and soul, and honestly one of my greatest friends.  She didn’t start out in the Swedish Meatball conversation, which is surprising because whenever a conversation involved balls she is usually right there with me, so I kinda dragged her into it. All conversations of that nature must include her.  She has a blog too, and she’s freaking awesome. She inspires me to be a better, nicer, more compassionate and kinder person. I don’t read her blog enough, partly because I don’t read any blogs lately.  I promise to get better over the Winter, anyhow, back to the balls.

SO delicious

These really are the most delicious Swedish Meatballs I’ve ever had, I’m not just saying that cause I made the recipe, I swear on a stack of Bacon.   I add mushrooms because I like it better with Mushrooms in it. But if you don’t like mushrooms you can omit them for a more “classic” version. Please don’t let the details scare you,  it’s much easier to make than it sounds. I have never been to an Ikea store, but I know people who go there just for the Swedish Meatballs. I’m not kidding. I have a friend and anytime he knows someone is going there, he tags along JUST for the balls!  Besides, if the Swedish Chef can make them, you can to!

Swedish Meatballs

• For the Meatballs 
• 1/2 a Vidalia onion, chopped small
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• A pinch each of Salt and Pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lbs ground beef
• 1 and 1/2 Cup Seasoned Bread Crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F

In a saute pan over medium heat combined the onion, garlic, olive oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper. With a few flicks of the wrist shake the pan to combine. Or just get a wooden spoon and lightly jostle it.  Stir every few minutes, cook till translucent and cooked through.  Then take off the heat and set aide, we’ll come back to them.

When the onions look like this, they are ready

Ready to be rolled

Put the ground beef, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper into a medium-sized bowl; then pour the garlic/ onion mixture over it all. Using your hands (yes, you are going to get dirty)  squish and mix it all together.   Then roll into balls  about 1.5 inches across, place balls in an oven safe pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Then start on the sauce.

Chopped mushrooms

For the Creamy Delicious Amazing Sauce 

• 1 Stick Butter
• 1/2 Cup Flour
• 1 Pint Heavy Cream
• 6 Cups Beef Broth
• 8oz Baby Bella Mushrooms, stalk removed and sliced thin
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
• Salt and pepper as needed

To start the sauce, combine the butter and flour in a large sauce pan over medium heat. This is called Roux and it is essential as a thickening agent for the sauce.  (I actually love to eat just plain roux, I think it’s delicious.) Whisk often.  See the pictures above for an illustration of what it will look like.

After the roux cooks about 5 minutes, whisk in the beef broth, whisk well till smoothly combined with the roux and bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Add the mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper,  whisk to combine. Whisking often, bring to a boil again, then turn the heat down to medium.  Allow to simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, whisking, occasionally.  I added two more pinches of pepper at this point, but you should salt and pepper to your own liking.  After the 10 minutes of simmering, add the heavy cream, and whisk till combined completely.  Bring to a simmer whisking often.  When the meatballs are done, add them to the sauce. You can add any pan drippings as well if you like, that is totally up to you, I do.  Once the meatballs are in, don’t whisk, switch to a spoon, and stir gently, adjust any seasonings as needed.  If you would like the sauce a little thinner add some milk or a small amount of water and stir gently to combine.  Simmer for about 10 minutes, then turn off and let rest in the pan uncovered for at least 10 minutes.

I serve this over egg noodles, you can have it by itself, or however you like it. If you are having it with noodles, I would start the “noodle water” shortly after you start the sauce, that should have it to a boil just before you add the meatballs. Egg noodles do not take long to cook.

I use these, no yolks

Again, don’t be intimidated but all the details, I am probably WAY more detailed than I need to be. Chalk that up to my anal retentive ways. Enjoy and if you have any questions, let me know!

Riley showing Kerry how much he missed her

A very messy baby. Clearly not the best route.

We had dreamed up this cocktail rather far in advance, so putting it together in “real life” was the icing on the king cake! I left the libation concocting to Kerry while I cooked; though for the life of me I can’t recall what I was making.  Spaghetti and broccoli, eggrolls, fried broccoli, roasted tofu? No clue. We were having SO much fun. The only downside to the marvelous weekend was we didn’t have enough time at all!! There was so much more to cook, eat and drink!  I mean, yea, sure, I suppose we could have left the house… but ummm “Aint No Body Got Time For That!”  If you’ve never heard of that before, you NEED to click that link.  And the Roi Bombs! We made these drinks, in Honor of Roi one of the most wonderful to souls to ever grace the world with his presence.  And then we drank them in memory of  Roi and my dear college friend Russell, another amazing person that left us too soon. The drinks kicked our asses.  I am sure the gentlemen got a good laugh out of THAT! We drank them, and then woke up to the credits of “Salt” rolling. We missed the entire movie. They were White Russians with a shot, or was it two shots, of Baileys. Mmmmmm so good, at least from what I remember.

The rims are super easy to make, all you need is very simple syrup and a few different kinds of sugar sprinkles and sparkles.  Mix them together any way you want, and fill a bowl with them about half way.  Fill a bowl about 1/4″ deep with simple syrup, and then dip the glass in it, just like you would to salt a margarita glass. You may have to play with it a bit to get the simple syrup deep enough on the rim.  Pull the glass up and then plunge it into the sugar mix waiting in the next dish.  Move the glass around a little to evenly coat the rim and leave the glass sitting in it a few minutes to allow the sugar to really get into place. Then repeat with each glass.

Rock Candy Rims

Once the sugar and syrup hardens, it essentially turns into Rock Candy, and it is divine!  Look at the dimensions of the sugar on the rims! How cool is that?! Also, please pardon the canning jars in the background.  My kitchen has been a canning factory this year.  Also, after the KingCakeTails, BJ’s began appearing EVERYWHERE!!!  That little guy has a drinking problem.  He hopped from one glass to another like prohibition was about to start!

First he hit the gin and Tonic, huge surprise.

BJ likes Gin

And then he crashed who even know what this is!

what is he floating in?

And then we found him with what appeared to be a placenta…..

fig or placenta, you be the judge

Ok, back to the drink.  The recipe is in the picture below.  I am not going to retype it. Part of the wonderfulness of it, is that it still is as originally written by Kerry. Go ahead and give this drink a try, but don’t forget to add a proper BJ to it!

Kingcaketail recipe, original.

Swirling pesto

One afternoon the ice trays were full and I still had a lot of basil left, and by a lot, I mean a ginormous (yes I love Elf) bowl of basil. I looked around the pantry shelves, I had all the ingredients for pesto so I figured, why not? I literally threw this together in under half an hour. I think I spent more time figuring out volume vs weight for the ingredients than it actually took to make the pesto.  I’ve made it twice and I have enough basil for the entire winter, it will last me well until next year.  There is no reason to not make your own pesto, it is so easy anyone can do it.  I promise, I would not steer you wrong!

Garlic and pine nuts, ready for the processor

This is what they should look like

Many cooks don’t realize the importance of a scale in cooking. There are so many variables in weight and volume, and no two foods measure up the same.  For this recipe I could not have measured the basil accurately without the OXO scale. Have you ever tried to measure basil by the cup?  If you have, then you’ve found yourself wondering, did I pack it too much, did I pack it too light, everyone packs differently, but weight is always the same!!

For instance, A cup of water weighs 80z, and most people thinks that all liquids are 8oz, but that is NOT the case.  A cup of honey weighs 12, yes TWELVE ounces! If you were to substitute weight for volume or vice versa, the recipe would be completely off! What about dry ingredients, how much does that weigh, 8oz? Nope! A cup of flour weighs 2.3 ounces, what a difference! Can you tell how worked up I get over this? This is serious business, it could make or break a recipe!  And Peanut Butter, that weighs just over 9 ounces! You NEED this scale!!

Love this view

Homemade Pesto

• 7oz Basil (A LOT), washed and rinsed
• 12 ounces pine nuts, toasted
• 6 ounces Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 Oz garlic (about 10 cloves)
• 3 Ounces Romano cheese
• 1 3/4 Ounces Parmesan Cheese
• 3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
• 1 1/2 Tsp pepepr
• 1 1/2 Tsp Salt
• Toast the nuts in a preheated oven or toaster oven @350 just for a few minutes till light brown, maybe 4 minutes, maybe more maybe less. WATCH THEM and pull them out as soon as they are at the shade of golden brown you want them

Toast your nuts!

• Peel and degerm your garlic (by degerm I mean slice in half and them remove the green stem running down the middle of the garlic. It DOES affect the flavor!)
• Toss the Nuts and Garlic into a food processor and pulse till well chopped
• Add in the cheese, basil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, close processor and turn on
• While the processor is running, slowly stream in the olive oil.
• Adjust it to your taste and consistency, pesto is very forgiving!

Easy Peasy!

Now comes storing the pesto. The first time I made it, I froze a bunch in ice cube trays, and then the rest I put in a mason jar and topped with Olive Oil for future use. But THEN my amazing and wonderful friend Brandi (who has an awesome blog and an equally awesome sense of humor) told me a new way to store the pesto!! She puts it in ziplock bags and then freezes it flat!! GENIUS!!! So the second time I made pesto I did that little trick and WOW, was I impressed!! I did some bags with 2Cups and some bags with 1Cup, and then labeled accordingly. 2 Cups of pesto covers a pound of pasta and 1 cup covers half a pound.  Then you just lay them flat and stack them on top of each other and freeze!! It’s THAT easy!

And when you want to use it, just thaw, and warm in a small sauce pan. If you like you can add some milk to make it into creamy pesto. Either way it is delicious!

Dinner is served!

On to the giveaway! Who wants to win a digital scale?  No, not the dreaded kind you step on, one  for your kitchen! The wonderful family of OXO (who makes all the worlds more wonderful kitchen toys and tools) has given me two scales!! One to use in my own kitchen adventures, and one to give away to one lucky reader! I cannot tout the praises of this scale enough; it has been a  favorite in my kitchen since I received it from OXO a few months back. It retails for between $30 and $35 dollars, but you can win it free here! Thanks OXO!  Just check out all these great features:

• Display pulls away from base to prevent shadowing from large plates or bowls
• Convenient indicator displays how much capacity is left on the Scale
• Zero function allows for zeroing Scale before adding additional ingredients
• Measures in 1/8-oz (US) and 1-g (metric) increments for greater accuracy
• Easy-to-read, large display numbers
• Platform can be removed and washed by hand only
• Thin profile allows for easy storage
• 2 AAA batteries included

Would you like to win this awesome scale?

Giving it away on my blog took a lot longer than I planned on, mostly because I couldn’t get to anything at all since everything was packed up because of the flooding.  Yes, my house got flooded, that’s one of “crappy things” that’s been going on. My Office/Spare Room, Dining Room, all downstairs Closets, ALL of the flooded and a lot of my belongs destroyer. Ugh! Ok, anyhow, On with the giveaway!!

I use my scale all the time!

To win this spectacular OXO Scale, leave a comment below telling me you want to win it! It’s THAT easy!!

• For additional entries: (leave a comment for each one you do)
• For a 2nd entry to win, go and “like”  “Green Skies and Sugar Trips” on Facebook
• For a 3rd chance to win, go and “like”  OXO 
  
• For a 4th and final chance, follow OXO and Me, Bellacake on twitter
• For a 5th chance sign up to get Green Skies and Sugar Trips in your inbox, look on the right side of the page where it says Subscribe!
• And for a 6th and final chance, post this on your facebook page and tell your friends to enter too!
• Remember to leave a comment for each!!

I have never offered this many entries for a contest before, that shows how much I want you to have this scale!! This contest is open to anyone living in the US (sorry no shipping out of the county)  I’ll use random.org to select a winner and will ship the sampler directly to you.    (I will contact the winner for their address) Good luck!  (Contest is open until Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 11:59pm)

Disclosure: I received a free scale from OXO, and a 2nd one to giveaway, but  all opinions are entirely 100% my own

Sweet Baby Jesus in a KingCakeTail!!!

Moving on, one of my super spectacular, amazing, inspiring friends, Kerry, came up for a visit. Kerry is freaking awesome, seriously, I haven’t laughed that much in a long time, maybe years. We ate, we drank, we watch old movies and then ate more. Oh and fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the movie Salt, woke up to the credits rolling. EPIC good times were had!  Kerry is a vegetarian, considering I’m the queen of meat I know that seems crazy.  So I resolved share with her some of my favorite vegetarian throughout the weekend; after all we did tell Teesh (that’s her hubby’s nickname) that I would give her some badass cooking lessons.  We also invented cocktails, above, you will see the sweet Baby Jesus floating in a King Caketail!!! Since the Baby Jesus gets baked into King Cake, we felt it appropriate to include him in our libation.

Fried Broccoli, mmmm mmm good!!!!

I can’t remember everything I made, but the two most important things were fried broccoli, and egg rolls.  I’m not going to tell you how to make fried broccoli with siracha mayo, maybe another time, but not today; however I am going to tell you how to make egg rolls.

Check out this spread!!

Egg Rolls

• Make sure you have: A HUGE frying pan or wok,  brown paper bags from the grocery store, or the small brown lunch paper bags, several ramekins or bowls, tongs, small sauce pan, a good slicing knife or chef’s knife, a lot of counter space, wooden spoon or high heat spatula

deliciousness

Recipe:

• Olive Oil
• 2 Large Vidalia Onions, chopped small
• 6 Cloves of Garlic finely minced
• 1 head of cabbage, chopped up A LOT
• 1/2 bag of carrots, peeled and shredded
• 2 Crowns of broccoli, chopped up small, stems peeled and cut very small
• 2 Cups chicken broth (low sodium), or vegetable stock
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 cup soy sauce, more if you like
• Large Wonton Wrappers
• Add olive oil to the pan along with onions and garlic, season with salt and pepper and saute till onions are slightly translucent
• Add the carrots, cabbage broth, and soy sauce; let cook for about 10 minutes, mix and turn as needed
• Next throw in the broccoli stems and florets, mix and turn as needed
• Allow to cook till it’s done. It will cook down a lot. To know when it’s done you just have to keep trying it. A rough job I know. It’s a hard knock life.
• When it’s finally done, using a slotted spoon transfer it to a bowl that you can work from to make the rolls. SAVE THE JUICE!!!!!!!!!!! This is why we use a slotted spoon to retrieve the goodness from the pan. The sauce left after you have removed the filling cooks down to a delicious dipping sauce!!
• Pour the leftover sauce into a small sauce pan and heat over low flame and allow it to reduce. When it’s reduced by about half turn it off
• Wash the pan you just used to make the filling, dry it REALLY WELL, and then fill it between 1/3 – 1/2 of the way up with vegetable oil, or canola oil, whichever you prefer. You want the oil to come half way up the egg roll. We will come back to this
• Pour the sauce you reduced (see above) into a ramekin or bowl
• Line your counter next to your pan, or whatever spot you pick to drain the rolls on, with paper bags, if you don’t have paper bags, paper towels VERY layered will work as well

Eggrolls on paper

• To fill, roll and fry the egg rolls. 
• Fill a bowl or ramekin with water for dipping your fingers in
• Open the package, and keep a damp paper towel over it to prevent them from drying out. It should be damp NOT wet. If if is wet that will make the wrappers mushy. A delicate balance of moisture is needed
• Place a wonton wrapper in front of you with a point towards you, aka have the wrapper in a diamond shape
• Spoon about 1/4C-1/3C of the mixture into the center of the egg roll wrapper,
• Dab the edges with water, this will “seal” the roll
• What happens next is hard to put into words, check out this GREAT video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJTdKyDg_2Y  to learn exactly how to wrap them!
• Now that all your little rolls are rolled, remember that pan you washed and filled with oil? Turn it on medium to medium high heat.  Let it warm up for a good 5 minutes, place your hand over it (NOT IN IT) and see if  you can feel some heat off of it. If you can’t, give it another 5 minutes, if you can feel the heat then you are ready to rock.
• Place a roll in the oil, it should immediately start fiercely bubbling and crackling, if it doesn’t, wait to add any more rolls until that one starts singing.
• Let them enjoy that oil bath until the side you put them in on is beautifully golden brown, and them flip them over (tongs work best) and then let their other side get nice and golden.
• When they are the color you desire, take them out, again tongs work best, and place them directly onto the paper bags.
•  Allow to cool for a just few minutes,  just so they are cool enough to handle, then slice diagonally to serve (or eat them whole if you prefer)
• And don’t forget the dipping sauce!!!!!!!

mmmmm mmm good

As this post has turned out to be SUPER long, I will just have to write another with the King Cake Tail recipe, but don’t worry I promise to not take as long to write that one!!!

Enjoy and remember to share!

Original Size

Current Size, without the border

What my dining room looks like when it freezes for a week

I have been trying to get Sugar Trips off the ground for the past year, and when I say “trying” I mean wanting to do it, but not having the time available needed to devout to getting it up and running. Thus it has nestled into it’s home on the back-burner and little by little I have worked on it. I have been reading and note taking from some fantastic books on starting a home baking business. They have been so helpful, and they were written by an amazing and inspiring woman, Mimi Shotland Fix, who happens to be a Hudson Valley resident.  If you have ever thought of having a home based food business her books are a must;  Home Baking for Profit, and Start and Run a Home Based Food Business. I finally designed and ordered my business cards, have my DBA, and a call in for my inspection; I am moving along, little by little.

With all this lack of time, it can be really trying to find something  for dinner that doesn’t require a lot of work. (allowing me to do all the other things on my list) One of my go-to meals, is actually super easy and delicious. Let me introduce you to my good friend, panko chicken.  She is tasty, delicious, flavorful, juicy, and guess what, she’s healthy too.

I have never done a workup on the nutritional info of this recipe, but it can’t possibly be bad. Chicken, basic breading, seasoning, olive oil, see nothing bad!  This is really a  no fool recipe!

Panko Chicken 

• Preheat your oven to 375F
• 2 Boneless Chicken Breast
• 1 Cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 Eggs, Dash of Milk or Water (add a little salt in to thin it out)
• 2 Cups Bread Crumbs, season them with seasoned salt, garlic powder, salt and pepper, anything you want!
• Set up your dipping area, see the above layout
• Coat the chicken first in flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs
• Place breasts on a lined baking sheet, and spray the top of each breast with olive oil. (I use an olive oil sprayer, but you can use Pam Spray if you don’t have a sprayer)
• Bake for 40 minutes, take out, let rest for 5 minutes, and enjoy!

A few months back I went though all my cooking magazines and “ripped” out the recipes I wanted to keep, read, try etc.  (They then go individually into plastic page protectors and are organized by course, type of food, ethnicity, etc)  Anyone that knows me, knows that I am an OCD anal retentive weirdo.  I do NOT rip up magazines! In fact, on Christmas I flipped out on my mom because she “creased” the magazine.  In all fairness it was a Martha Stewart magazine, and those I do NOT rip up and take apart. They are sacred treasures, like the Bible, and are never to be disturbed, hurt, fondled, mishandled etc.  I LOVE Martha. I have been saving her “Weddings” magazines for about 13years. Which is ironic considering how it is my FIRM belief that when you marry the right person there is no need for a lavish hoopla or a huge ring.  Being able to be with the person you love, that is satisfaction enough.  Alas I digress, I will elaborate on my thoughts on engagements, weddings and receptions another time.

Ok, so back to Eggs!! I was going through the magazines and found an article in cooking light on how to make a perfect boiled egg so I pulled it out to add to my binder;  because well, I HAD to.  I will admit, I was very skeptical.   But, I tried it and it worked! The eggs were perfection!

Ok, so here goes the best method ever for making hard-boiled eggs!

• Place eggs in pan
• Add water till it covers the eggs with water by about 1 inch
• Turn flame/ heat on to high
• When the water boils, put a lid on the pan, then turn the flame off.
• Set your timer for 10minutes
• When the timer rings/minutes are up, place the eggs into an ice bath to cool
• Eat and use as needed!!!

And just in case you need a few more reasons to eat eggs; here are links to great resources on the health benefits of eggs!

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-eggs.html

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=92

http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/techniques/cooking-questions-tips-00400000064986/page36.html

Enjoy!!!

Words cannot describe how amazing the beef from the Osterhoudt Family really is, seriously, it is like NO other.  We purchased a beef share in the fall, it was $3.08 per lb, hanging weight for 3 – 1/4 shares.  I organized the share  and included in it my sister, some friends and a few other people (Sophie you are awesome!)  from Hudson Valley Food Network. This was a fantastic way to try a lot of different cuts; but eventually we ran out of beef, so about two weeks ago we went back up to replenish.  I would recommend not getting a share unless you are going to get an entire 1/4 share for yourself.  I think it works out better to just go to the farm and get what you like. Price wise and poundage wise. For what I spent this past time, I really got a lot of beef to feed my family with.  The farm is like no other, I’ve talked about it here at length previously, if you would like some more background on the farm, please read on here. It is a closed farm where the cows live and are harvested all on the same property. There is no “shipping them out”, no stress on the animal.  Just a beautiful walk up the hill, the way it should be.

The Osterhoudt family has their own harvesting facility, and WOW, it is beautiful. Impeccably clean and well maintained. Spotless doesn’t even begin to describe how clean it is! For more pics of the facility and the farm, check out the album here.  I just adore Holly and Claude, they are two of the most lovely people you will ever meet.  Holly is the kind of person I just want to sit and enjoy a cup of tea with and chat with and learn from; she is really inspiring to me! I called her in advance to plan on a time to go up, and make sure they would be “ready for us” since Becky and I were both planning on stocking up.  The first weekend we had in mind they were just going to be harvesting, so we planned on going the following weekend.  THIS is the kind of relationship everyone should have with where their food comes from! It really doesn’t get any better than this!!!! The prices are different for each cut, but I can say with all honesty, there really isn’t much of a difference between their prices and the supermarket. Further reason for you to skip the “grocery store” and go straight to the farm!!!! I didn’t make a list of everything I bought, but I can tell you, I got aabout 20lbs of ground beef, and lots and LOTs of steaks!!!! I spent about $150 and my freezer is PACKED full. I will have enough beef for a few months.  I can’t even convey how convenient it is to go there.  We brought my niece Taylor with us, and she loved it! They welcome children at the farm, and it is a great learning experience for them.  You just tell Holly what cuts (or ground) you want and she rings you up.  There is absolutely no reason at all that you should STILL be buying “meat” that is mass produced and packed in plastic and foam.  THIS is how meat should look!  This skirt steak which you see here in its package, when unfolded, is about three times that size! Yes, that picture below it, is indeed what came out of that package.  You won’t find that at the grocery; it fed us for two meals!

You can reach Holly and Claude by calling them at 845-687-9521, and leaving a message. They will call you back. And tell them you found out about them from me, Jessica.

• CEO Natural Angus Beef, 3866 Atwood Road, Stone Ridge NY 12484

Onto Pork. I don’t know what made me ask him, but for some reason, something just told me to ask my buddy Ted if he knew of anywhere, and guess what, he did! (Thanks Ted!) He pointed me in the direction of Meiller Slaughterhouse, in Pine Plains.  I called them and asked a few questions. They offer a pork share, half a hog or a whole hog’ half is 100lbs of pork, priced at $1.75 per pound, talk about a great deal! You will NOT find prices like that at a “supermarket!”  So again, my sister and I split it,   about 50lbs of pork each, and it was a GREAT deal!

Everything came cut, wrapped and frozen, it was perfect and ready to go right in the fridge. I have never had such a tender, flavorful pork in my life. It is definitely the pork equivalent of the beef from CEO! And I am just talking about the pork that came straight from them, I haven’t even gotten to the cured cuts yet!  The ham, hocks, and bacon came fresh (it all needed to be cured) so we took that to my good friend Mark Elia, of Elia’s Catering Company & House of Sausage, and for a very reasonable price he cured it all for us!  He cut the ham after curing it, giving us two HUGE hams to enjoy.

One we ate right away (served 10adults and LOTS of leftovers) and the second we froze and had this past Sunday for Easter Dinner (served about 14 plus leftovers)!! The ham hocks I used for a huge batch of split pea soup that I split (no pun intended) between Becky’s household and mine.

The bacon…. oh the bacon… bacon as far as the eye can see! Once it was sliced up there were 10 packages of bacon.  Mark not only cured the bacon, but also sliced and sealed it (he’s got a special machine) for easy freezing and storage, talk about service!!  I did not expect that bacon, but once it is cut, it is as if it multiplies!  I almost forgot about their sausage; their sausage is mind blowing!!! I mean REALLY REALLY amazing. It is by far the best breakfast sausage I have ever found!!!!

There is no earthly reason you should ever purchase pork in a store again. There just isn’t. If you can’t fit 100 lbs in your freezer than  split it with someone!  It is super easy to set up an order with them. Just give them a call let them know if you are looking for half of a hog (100lbs) or a whole hog (200lbs) and they will let you know when they will be harvesting. For us, it was about a 2 week lead time between us placing the order and the pork being ready to pick up. So it’s a very quick process.  Once you pick the pork up you will just need to take the fresh/unfrozen cuts to Mark for them to be cured, and that takes about 2 weeks, and is well worth the wait! He really knows what he is doing and will bring out the flavors of the pork. I would recommend calling Mark once you know when you will be picking up the Pork, that way it’s all planned ahead!

• Meiller Slaughterhouse, (518)398-7711 and they are located at 2768 Church Street, Pine Plains NY
• Mark Elia, (845)691-9312 and he is located at 85 Vineyard Ave, Highland NY 12528

Originally I planned on including poultry information in this as well, but I don’t want to overwhelm you too much. So I’ll save that for another post VERY soon!!! But enjoy, and if you have any questions feel free to ask me. Enjoy and !  :-)

This recipe I (yes little ole me) invented myself! Yes, all me, and I am quite proud of it! The idea came from a similar salad I got at Hannaford Supermarket.  After the first time I had it, I was like WOW, how had I never thought of this?!? BUT theirs had blue cheese in it (yuck), a REALLY weird aftertaste, and a long list of weird ingredients. I knew I could make a better version of it from scratch, and not to toot my own horn but I nailed it!

This recipe makes a LOT! A perfect amount if you need to bring a dish to a summer party, or for dinner for the family. It can be made well ahead and kept in the fridge, and it is really filling.  It would go great with a green salad or some corn on the cob, you will not have room for much else.  This recipe is so easy. Seriously so easy that the “most difficult” part was chopping celery.

I peel my celery, always do, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.  If you have any questions about celery peeling, feel free to ask me!  I highly recommend doing it.  Mr. Metz, the President of the CIA, taught me to do it years ago, and I’ve never gone back to unpeeled celery since. Also I bought the carrots pre-shredded.  This saved me a lot of time.  If you opt for this, I would recommend maybe just chopping them up a bit.  I didn’t, and I do think I should have because they were much bigger than the other items in the salad.

Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad

• 1lb Radiatori Pasta
• 1 1/2lbs Chicken chopped  up (about half a rotisserie)
• 2 Cups (9 oz) Chopped  Celery
• 3 Cups Shredded Carrots (10 oz bag)
• 3 Cups Ranch Dressing (I use Hidden Valley)
• 3/4 Cup Franks Buffalo Sauce
• 2 Cups Shredded Cheddar
• Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Drain the pasta, but don’t rinse. I NEVER rinse my pasta!
• Pour on the ranch and buffalo sauce and stir to coat the pasta, set aside in the fridge and allow to cool
• Add in the celery, carrots , cheddar and chicken and stir till combined.
• Serve and enjoy!!!!

Delicious Roux

I went about scouring the internet for chicken scampi recipes, I made a board on pinterest titled “experimental” in which to save these recipes, and any others I plan on experimenting with in the future.  I also got some help via my friends on Facebook; I left no stone unturned in my search.  Yet when it came time to make the meal, I did not follow a recipe, go figure.  Someone was insistent on making it with grilled chicken, which completely threw off the recipe, as I knew it would! The recipe NEEDS the flour from the chicken. But sometimes ya just gotta let people make their mistakes so you can say “told you so”

Scampi Sauce and Pasta

Well, since there would be no flour from the chicken, I figured I would make a roux to replace it.  The roux was delicious, I love roux, I could live on it really.  The recipe I “used” called for lemon juice, and WOW was it overpowering!!!  DO NOT USE RECIPES WITH A LOT OF LEMON JUICE!!!!!I should have followed the recipe a friend gave me on FB, but I couldn’t find it, big mistake, I should have kept looking for it.  Well this final photo is the mess of what my sauce turned into.

Between the broken sauce and the overwhelming lemon taste, it just was a disaster, NOTHING like what we had at Vigneto.  We tried to eat it, we ate some (barely) , but come 9pm we were hungry again, so naturally I picked up the phone and called Vigneto to see if they would deliver a meat lover pie.  They did, and saved the day (well night) and no one had to go to bed hungry!

Meat Lover pizza from Vigneto

Maybe I will get lucky and one day get the recipe from, but next time I will using the Coppola Recipe from my friend Dave! If you are looking for some Scampi recipes to try, check out my experimental board on pinterest a look!  Happy Cooking!

For a while now, I have had my heart set on a few: “dolce far niente”,  a dandelion on my shoulder blowing in the wind, a four leaf clover, and faith hope and love, each intertwined into an infinity symbol.  Faith, Hope, and Love are three things at the core of who I am. But ink is permanent, so I want to make sure whatever I get, that it’s right, ya know?  Of course looking for a sign of what tat to get seems ridiculous, right?  So I basically ask my sister once a week what she thinks of the idea, and she loves it and thinks it’s a great idea. But every time I go to explain the tatoo to her or anyone else, I say “The faith goes on the back base of my neck, hope goes on my left wrist and love goes on my right wrist”, yet when I go to explain it, and say hope, for some reason I always extend my right wrist, and then when I say love, I extend my left. This makes no sense, because then I have to stop myself and say no that’s the wrong wrists and explain that LOVE goes on my right wrist and HOPE goes on my left.  It irritates me that my brain keeps messing up when it is clearly NOT how I want the ink on me forever!!! Well I was in the shower thinking about what it will look like once it is on, I was thinking ”Faith, Hope, and Love” as I thought hope I envisioned it on my left, yet there in the shower extended my right wrist, and as I thought “Love” extended my left.  And then I looked at my wrists and it hit me, Love BELONGS on the left wrist!!!! Of course it does!!!! Where do people wear wedding rings?? On the left hand! I’m not married, but anyone who knows me knows how I feel about love, and how I regard it. So of course “Infinite love” belongs on the hand what wears a wedding ring!!! And BAM! There’s my sign! I will save talking about the meaning of this tattoo for when I get it; but I will say, Faith Hope and Love are, and have always been, a huge part of who I am.  The meaning of this tattoo goes back to when I was little, and continues through to my every day life and heart, and love.  Life is beautiful, but not always easily understood; especially when it comes to matters of love.  But if you have faith, and hope in that love….well, anyone that knows me, knows….

These pictures are NOT of me!!! These are just pics I found online of what I want .  But on mine all the script style will be the same and the lines will be more like the lines pictured with the “love”!

I feel SO ready for this new ink!!!!