bee creative cooking

the beginning

In the introduction to Cooked, by Michael Pollan (which I have just started reading) he wrote:

"And it is entirely possible that, within another generation, cooking a meal from scratch will seem as exotic and ambitious-as 'extreme'- as most of us today regard brewing beer or baking a loaf of bread or putting up a crock of sauerkraut." 

I can imagine this.  And I suppose this is my response.

What if we consider cooking a creative act? Would that encourage more people to cook? Make it more of an experience to be enjoyed rather than a chore?

What if it is simple and flexible?    What if a recipe is only a place to start? 

Here are my goals and the parameters that I set for food:

• To cook with mostly local foods, organic foods, bulk foods and with what is in season. 
• To grow as much of my food as I can. 
• I eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, pasta, dairy products, eggs and occasionally meat.
• To eat minimal sugar and less wheat.
• To have a well stocked pantry (even though I live 1 1/2 blocks from a grocery store).

I want to share the story of how I cook.  As inspiration.  As an act of protest. I have no special training, other than the experience of cooking for at least 35 years (maybe I could even claim over 40?) and being a voracious reader of recipes.

My goal is to post every weekend.  Not so much recipes, because there are a lot of wonderful ones out there.  But to share what ingredients I'm working with for the week, how I plan ahead to make cooking easier on busy days, where my ideas come from, and some of the the things that I prepare.  I will probably share my food gardening here as well. 

I hope some of you will share your ideas. 

And so I begin...

 

 

farmer's market: winter

Some of what is available at a Pacific Northwest Farmer's market in January.

Last Saturday I collected a few things at the farmer's market.  It is being held once a month for January, February, and March.

What did all this become?

The kale was made into a pesto.  The recipe was from Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison. I'll be planting as much kale as I can this spring so that I can make this to freeze. 

It ended up on pasta, in winter squash soup, on mashed acorn squash and on roasted potatoes for a wrap.

Pesto can really be made of just about any green, with or without cheese and with a variety of nuts or no nuts.  I usually have some version available for seasoning pastas, salads, potatoes, or soups each week. 

The turnips ended up in a salad with apple, blue cheese and a drizzle of hazelnut oil. 

Proportions can depend on how much a person likes these things and of course, how many people you are going to feed...

I'm going to try this with pear slices too. 

The winter squash was steamed and then mostly eaten mashed with the kale pesto and a dab of blue cheese and butter.  It also was used for soup.

The cabbage and Brussels sprouts will be for this week.  Other ingredients I'm focusing on this week:  lentils and lima beans.  For the lima beans I am going to play with this recipe at seven spoons.     

To be continued next Saturday...

playing with recipes, two examples

The peanut butter cookies:

First I found the recipe for Peanut Butter Spelt cookies at Green Kitchen.  They've been on the to-do list for awhile.  It was Wednesday night, and it was the right night to make cookies.  Except...I didn't have spelt flour.  What I thought was spelt flour in the freezer was sorghum.  Well hmm... Okay why not?  I used the sorghum.  And then after I had it all mixed up and went back to look at the recipe again and noticed that they (Green Kitchen) had adapted the recipe from 101Cookbooks.  And for that recipe, whole wheat pastry flour was an option.  And I had that.  Maybe next time.

And that's how it goes... How recipes are changed and adapted.  All it takes is a bit of courage.  A bit of, "oh well, why not?" 

Part of it is also knowing what might be an acceptable substitute.  That comes with experience and knowledge, from a resource or community.

As for the cookies, very tender.  Very good.

The lima bean, butter bean, Cassoulet kind of thing...

Another recipe that enticed... from Seven Spoons, Bubbling Bacon Butter Beans.  I changed enough things that I feel comfortable giving my version.  It is based on what I had on hand and for 2 meals:

• 1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked lima beans
• 1/4 cup diced bacon
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 cup sliced savoy cabbage (bite sized), okay it was a handful. 
• 2 tab tomato jam
• 1/2 cup or so of water
• 2 tab white wine (more or less)
• About 2 teaspoons dried oregano

Cook the bacon until crisp and remove from pan (I use cast iron). Add onion to the pan and cook until tender.  If going vegetarian start with olive oil and onions. 

Add beans and cabbage to the mix and cook until cabbage softens a bit. 

Add tomato jam (or a bit ot tomato paste and a pinch of sugar or honey depending on what tastes right to you), the water and the wine.  Cook until most of the fluid evaporates, and everything is at a texture you like.  For me that's when some of the beans break down and it becomes kind of like a gravy. 

And I drizzled just a bit of olive oil and a couple grinds of pepper on top before eating...

If I were leaving the bacon out of this, I'd add a bit of salt. 

This is a good example of how a recipe might inspire me and how I might tweak it to what I like and/or what I have.  Lots of room to play with a recipe like this.