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.