Getting Yours Hands on Some Solid Meat and a Mean Taco Salad

Well, I Submitted to the Call of the Wild...

I bought some of you big fellow, thank you for your gift to my delicious meals.

Don't get me wrong, we are still flexitarian, eating meat only a few meals a week, but with winter approaching, no meat in the house, and my parents taking a break from raising animals this year, we needed a little something for the occasional meat eater in us all. 

There are any number of retailers that sell, local, quality processed, good tasting meat. Wal-Mart is not my go to, as you know. I have bought from the Kitteredge's at Bird Creek Ranch in Cascade, MT, and it is fabulous. I have procured from Montana City Meats at the Farmer's Market in Helena. This week, I went to Tizer Meats, a local butcher that sells its local meat in bundles for the penny pincher in all of us. Tizer Meats is a fine old time butcher and they had a coupon, so I tried, and have so far enjoyed. I bought a "family pack", and by my estimations enough meat to get us through the winter, spring, and maybe longer for $90. 

Tonight, I made my first batch of meal with ground beef, some mean taco salad, and I was pleased. It was fabulous, and here it is:

Mean Taco Salad

Ingredients: * means its local

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 walla walla onion, chopped (about 1 cup for us) *

1/4 red cabbage, chopped (about 2 cups for us) *

1 pound ground beef *

1 package taco seasoning (yes I cheated here)

1 cup whole skinned tomatoes *

8 corn tortillas, cut into quarters *

several pinches of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups chopped lettuce *

1 cup shredded cheese of your choice *

Heat your oven to 350 degrees as you cut your tortillas and use your hands to spread about 1 tablespoon of oil over them. Spread them on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake for 15 minutes or so.

While baking (and watching to avoid burning) chop your onion and cabbage and saute in 1 tablespoon of oil for about ten minutes. Add your ground beef and brown it, no need to remove your veggies. Add 1/2 cup water, taco seasoning, and cook until no more liquid sits around in the pan, maybe 5 minutes.

Remove chips from oven and cool. Add meat mixture on top of the chips and sprinkle with cheese and chopped lettuce.

Yum.

 

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread for Three Boys and a Pregnant Friend

I Love Chocolate and as I remember, so Do Pregnant Ladies

Ah zucchini, you go in everything!

Prepare yourself for a bit of a hippie soliloquy here: Hy heart chakra has been a bit blocked lately. I am not as free giving with my time, talents, and blessings as I could be and so am trying to remedy this, and quickly. If your chakras are out of balance, you can feel it, and I can feel it. Doing yoga, wearing necklaces and the color green, and giving freely are ways to ground yourself. Today, I am trying to ground myself through giving, or preparing to do it.

I have about two dozen pregnant women in my life right now, and for the first time in my life, I am not one of them. I loved being pregnant. I did it well. I loved every moment of it, and part of me thinks we could totally have a fourth. Reality dictates, however, that three is our limit, and I love my boys dearly. I will, therefor, get my pregnant and baby highs off my friends, and the next one due is my fabulous yoga instructor Nicky. Nicky, mind you, has been doing hot yoga every week she's been pregnant, and still kicks everyone's but. Nicky, if you read this, when baby Charlotte Shanti comes, I'm bringing her a present!

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ingredients: * Means its local

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, this makes two loaves

2 cups whole wheat flour *

1 cup all purpose white *

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup golden flax seed *

2 eggs * 

2 cups sugar

2 cups shredded zucchini *

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 container chocolate frosting

1/2 cup milk *

Mix dry ingredients (top list) in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients (bottom list) in a medium sized bowl. Add wet to dry, mix until combined, and bake in two greased loaf pans for 50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

I think it might be good with butter :)

1 teaspoon salt

 

 

More Montaxican with a Corn Tortilla Casserole

Still Experimenting with this Whole Flexitarian Thing

Michael Pollan in my secret boyfriend.

When I first started reading Michael Pollan several years ago I fell for him, hard. I am happily married, mind you, and my husband and I have been together for nearly 10 years, but my hubby had some competition around the time I started reading about food rules, responsible eating, and how someone besides me felt McDonald's was essentially wrong.

Michael Pollan taught me about being a flexitarian, or a vegetarian, more or less, that indulges in meat a few times a week instead of a few times a day. We dove in, first because we wanted to eat responsible meat, then because it was economically sound, and finally because it felt physically better. 

I shall try to avoid too much information here, but after a meat heavy meal, my family and I experience a phenomena we refer to as "the meat bloat" where we have heavy stomachs that don't seem to diminish after hours of digesting. Sometimes it takes 24 hours of vegetable eating to right us. After my brother's wedding last summer where every course was meat heavy (responsible meat, but meat nonetheless) my family ended up at the oasis of Norris Hot Springs the day after and scarfed down salad after salad, craving the veggies to balance us out.

Now, we still buy little meat, occasionally indulge at BBQs and friendly gatherings, but rely mostly on the veggie stuffs. 

We eat tons of black beans, quinoa, tofu, cheese, and leafy greens for out protein and iron. Sunday supper was a good feast, and a meatless one at that.

Corn Tortilla Casserole

Ingredients: * means its local

9-12 small corn tortillas *

1 cup cooked corn kernals *

1 can black beans

4 green onions, chopped *

2 heirloom tomatoes, diced *

1 yellow crookneck squash, diced *

8 ounces sour cream

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 jar salsa

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix your onions, black beans, tomatoes, squash and corn. Shred your cheese and set aside. 

Layers your casserole with three tortillas on the bottom, 1/3 the veggies mix, then 1/3 the salsa jar, and 1/3 the cheese. Continue this way and if possible mash three corn tortillas on the top of the casserole and add remaining cheese on top. Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 10-15 until the tortillas on top are crispy not burned.

I let it sit for a few minutes to gather together, but there was still some loose nature to it, like any good casserole. Serve with lots of sour cream on top, or if you like sour cream dolloped on each layer before you bake it.

 

 

Celebrating the Cold, Julia Child, and the Harvest with Rich Celery Gratin

I loved you Julia Child, and still do! Thank you for introducing me to the idea of butter, butter, and more butter!

Today was the first cool day in a summer full of 90s and 100s. In Montana that is odd and in my many years of living here, I do not remember the heat like this. I decided quickly to celebrate it, and reminded that it was Julia Child's 100th birthday, I broke out the good fat and a head of celery.

I adore Julia Child, and who doesn't. She was an inspiration, living into her 90's and eating good fat all day, she proved incredible.

Celery came in our CSA box this week and it was sweet, beautiful, and extra crunchy. I use it in stocks, mirpoix, and soups but was wanting to be adventurous. I heard about celery gratin, a creamy sort of gratin that uses crunchy celery instead of potatoes. I made something up, and it turned out to be an honor, I home, to Julia.

Rich Celery Gratin inspired by Julia

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter

1 head of celery chopped

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 cups homemade chicken stock (home made is best)

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup red wine

cornstarch (about 2 tablespoons)

8 ounces (or 1 package) cream cheese

2 hand fulls shredded cheese -your choice-I used raw milk cheddar

1 recipe biscuit dough

Whole Wheat Biscuits from All Recipes 

Take a cast iron skillet, plop in your butter and chop your celery and onion. Saute the celery and onion for several minutes in the butter to release the flavor. Breathe it in and love it! Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then add your stock and wine. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Turn to high and boil your celery as the mix reduces. After several minutes turn down your heat so it only bubbles, add your cream and stir. Add your cornstarch and thicken. Add your cream cheese in little chunks and stir until it softens and melts. Add your shredded cheese and melt. Turn off your heat and stir until its done bubbling. 

Plop the biscuit dough on top of your creamy mixture in the skillet and put it all in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes until the dough is cooked, fluffy and lovely. 

This, my friends, was a very creamy, deeply nourishing and satisfying dinner.

 

What Have We Been Eating lately? Like a Montana Summertime of Course!

Raisin Oatmeal Hand Cakes, Montana Plate, and Caramelized Onion and Fennel Pesto Pizza

Lunch. The Montana Plate. Yum.

I have not been writing lately. Bad me. Does that mean we've not been eating? Well, I've been busy trying to get back in the groove of yoga at my awesome hot Barkan yoga studio here in Helena, attending fabulously friendly BBQ's and driving about the Lewis and Clark National forest for work, getting 12 passenger vans high centered on beetle kill stumps. We have not been starving however, my family has been eating well, my boys like little princes. Take today for example, we had hand cakes for breakfast, a sliced meat and cheese and veg tray for lunch, and a fabulous pizza for dinner! Here are a few of the recipes and ideas before I move on to finishing my Mary Roach book before bedtime.

Raisin Oatmeal Hand Cakes

(Essentially Pancakes, but without the need for forks or syrup, almost a scone, but not.)

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oats

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 pastured egg

1 cup orange juice

1 cup whole milk (or cream)

1/4 melted butter

1/2 cup unrefined sugar

Essentially, it goes like this. I heat up an electric griddle for the ease of quick production. Mix the dry ingredients plus the raisins in a big bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another. Combine. You'll want a stiffer dough than pancake dough. Plop, drop, and cook them at medium heat. I served them with a smidge of butter on top. No forks, just hands. They were delicious cold as snacks this afternoon too.

the Montana plate

From our co-op this week I added on a few fine items we are truly enjoying. Raw milk cheddar cheese from the Lifeline Dairy in Victor, MT, beef salami, made without nitrates from the same place (no we're not totally vegetarian yet :). We also added on an extra bag of Flathead cherries, the sinfully delightful phenomena that descends upon all of Montana at exactly this time of year, every year. Lunch today was the pretty plate at the top of this entry, sliced salami and raw milk cheddar, cucumber slices and cherries, cherry tomatoes from the farmer's market this morning in the gulch. All in season, local, and fabulous. My little men love being able to grab and eat and share together at the table and everyone has a favorite part. It was all, toatally, Montana

Caramelized Fennel and Onion Pesto Pizza with Charred Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 foccacia dough recipe (one of my first entries :)

4 hearty spoonfuls of pesto

1 heavy cup of shredded raw milk cheddar

1 heavy cup of shredded jack cheese

handful of cherry tomatoes

1 fennel bulb

1 sweet onion

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 heavy pinch salt

sprinkle dried herbs, basil or oregano

About an hour before you'll want to bake your pizza, chop your fennel and slice your onion. Put them in a nice wide skillet with your butter and olive oil at medium heat and allow them to saute, stirring every few minutes, for that hour so they can caramelize. This will take almost an hour. About thirty minutes into your saute, make your foccacia and allow it to rise. At the hour mark, place your dough on a pizza stone or cookie sheet. Press it out with your hands and plop your pesto on top, smearing it with your hands. Place your cheeses on top of the pesto and add on the caramelized goodies and sliced cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle with herbs and bake for 18 minutes at 425 degrees, checking often.

It was good.

 

 

Montaxican Dinner

Venison Carnitas and Spanish Cream Wild Rice with 

Peppers and Corn

Its almost corn season in Montana, so we are desperately trying to finish last years frozen kernals.

Tonight was a fun opportunity as grocery shopping eve to indulge in some Montaxican food. Mexican is typically too spicy for my kiddos and honestly, I don't have a knack to do it authentically. Therefor, I fudge it and do a milder, more locally friendly version. Tonight, I sacrificed our last white tail doe roast to the crock pot to make carnitas and whipped up some delicious Spanish style rice for the timid.

Crock Pot Venison Carnitas for the Tame

Ingredients: * means its local

1 small (about 1/2 pound) venison roast-any cut is acceptable *

1/2 liter V8 

1 bunch chopped green onions *

4 gloves crushed garlic *

1 bunch cilantro *

Put all ingredients in your crock pot. Turn it on low. Let it sit and do nothing to it for 8 hours. Then pull it apart with two forks and you have Montaxican carnita meat.

Spanish Cream Wild Rice with Peppers and Corn

Ingredients: * means its local

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup wild rice

4 cloves minced garlic *

1/2 cup pizza sauce

1/2 cup green onions *

1 cup cooked corn kernals *

1 pepper (red or yellow) diced

1/2 cup sour cream

cumin and chili powder to taste

Put your stock on to simmer in a covered pot. When it hits boil, add your rice and garlic. Turn it down to medium and allow to simmer for a good hour and a half, watching it carefully to make sure it doesn't stick or burn (if it does, add water.) When it is tender but still a bit crunchy, add your pizza sauce, peppers and green onions. Add your corn. Add cumin and chili powder to taste. Allow to cook for 5-10 more minutes, remove from heat, add sour cream, and stir.

Yummmm.