Tomatoes and Egyptian Onions

About a month ago, I was one of the lucky winners of some Egyptian onion bulbs from Anna of the Walden Effect.  As soon as they arrived in the mail, I put them in a newly cleared area of my raised bed where the snap peas had been.  Anna predicted that I'd see growth within two weeks and, lo and behold, she was right:

Egyptian onions

 And, while I was admiring the onions this morning, I noticed that some of our cherry tomatoes are finally starting to ripen!!

Cherry tomatoes

However, the heirloom tomatoes have some more time before they will be ripe - yet another reason that I really hope that this warmer weather can hang on: 



Lastly, the couple of cherry tomatoes that were ready to pick ended in my gorgeous Ruby Receptionists lunch bag.  The few that were overripe and split went to the chicks!

Greek yogurt with raspberries, banana, Honeycrisp apple and two cherry tomatoes

Carnitas

I don't cook often.  If I had to venture a guess, I would guess that Ty cooks 99% of the meals in our house in any given year.  However, when I came across a carnitas recipe in a magazine over the weekend, I decided to give it a try.  Even though it was a crock pot recipe...  which I generally avoid. Let me just say, this turned out both incredibly flavorful and incredibly tender.  I think it'll definitely be going into the regular rotation! 

Here's the before:

 And here's the after:
 

The basic recipe is:

• 2 pounds beef stew meat
• 1 cup fresh salsa
• 3 or 4 chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, chopped
• 1 cup of low sodium beef stock
• tortillas
• shredded cheese
• diced red onion
• avocado

Put the beef, salsa, peppers and stock in a crock pot on low for 6 to 8 hours.  Once done, serve with tortillas, cheese, onion and avocado.  Simple!  

Veggie Pickup: 9/23/10

Let's cook it up!

Veggies!!!

We belong to the Luscher Farm CSA and we get to pick up fresh, local, organic veggies every Thursday during the 6 month summer session.  If you don't belong to a CSA, why not??!!  It is an amazing way to support your local farmer and local economy.  Not to mention the health benefits of eating local and organic - improved nutrient levels, reduced carbon, reduced long term health costs associated with chemical ingestion, just to name a few!  If you live in or near Lake Oswego, there are 14 whole shares and 24 half share remaining for the upcoming winter session - just follow the link above to purchase your share.  The pick up schedule is every other Thursday during the winter session.

We'll be heading to the farm tonight...  hopefully Ty will take and post a picture of our haul as his first contribution to this blog:). 

Processed Foods

Anna over at the Walden Effect says it better than I could:  http://waldeneffect.org/blog/Processed_foods_and_a_grain-based_diet/.

Ty and I have really taken to heart the importance of moving away from processed foods and focusing our diets more on whole foods, fruits and veggies.  It isn't always easy and we do slip up from time to time but we both can see and feel the difference in how we feel everyday.  It is well worth the effort and it feels amazing to support local growers and farmers. 

Canning

First off, I have to thank Susan for generously giving me 3.5 pounds of tomatillos and 4 pounds of Asian pears from her garden.  Tonight, I tackled salsa verde and pear butter.  Let me start by saying that neither recipe yielded as much as indicated and I have this problem frequently so maybe it's just me?

Anyway, first, I made the salsa verde recipe from my all-time favorite cookbook - Canning for a New Generation.  I didn't take in process pics like I should have but here's what the finished product looked like:

Salsa Verde - recipe said 4 pints but I only got 3

Next, I tackled this pear butter recipe:  http://hedonia.seantimberlake.com/hedonia/2006/10/pear_butter.html.  The flavor is AMAZING and the recipe was simpler than some of the pear/apple butter recipes I've seen.  My only complaint is that the website indicates that it will make 12 1/2 pints and I got just barely 1 and 1/2 pints.  I used Asian pears and the recipe called for Bartletts - could that make a five pint difference?!?!  

Jess using NEW food mill - thank you, Millers!!

Pear butter simmering away with four orange slices, a lemon slice, a vanilla bean, 4 whole cloves and a cinnamon stick

Cows and pigs

My grandfather was a cattle rancher and, growing up, we always had a chest freezer full of yummy beef from his ranch in our garage.  As an adult, knowing where my food comes from and how it was grown has become increasingly important to me.  We have a year-round half-share at our local CSA where organic and sustainable gardening methods are employed.  We have two raised beds in our backyard where I try my hand growing a variety of veggies (not always successfully but I'm always learning!).  We have three chickens in a backyard coop who keep us (and our friends) stocked in eggs*.  

So, it should come as no surprise that I'd be interested in buying a quarter of beef and a half or whole pig.  The first obstacle is that we don't have a chest freezer.  But, after some surfing on craigslist, I'm confident that we can find one for a reasonable price.  I'm leaning towards an upright just to minimize the garage space that will be taken up since we both park our cars in the garage.  The next step is researching local farms.  I've found a couple near Corvallis, Oregon that look promising.  We really want to buy from a ranch that uses sustainable practices and raises their animals without antibiotics or growth hormones.  We even have good friends who are willing to go in with us on the purchase - making it even more cost effective and helping to make sure that the meat is gone through fast enough to keep it as fresh as possible.  I guess that the next step will be to email the growers with any questions that we may have and then to make an order!!  


* - I'll be doing a post on this soon but our chicks have been eating their own eggs for about a month now.  I've done some research and will be implemented steps to correct this.  I'll post more once I've started the experiment! 

Breakfast

Oven roasted fingerling potatoes and zucchini topped with heirloom tomato, garlic, cheddar, mozzarella and smoked salmon. 

Pitxi

We don't often treat ourselves to dinner out but, when we do, we like to go to places that offer local, sustainable and organic fare.  Our favorite restaurant is Scratch in Lake Oswego.  So, when we saw a Groupon to Pitxi, we thought it would be our style and that we should check it out.  

We had 6 o'clock dinner reservations and we were the first table seated in the dining room...  I guess they must get more of a later crowd on a Friday.  Once seated, Ty order a nice Pinot from McMinnville (where our alma mater is located) and I had the Laurelwood IPA.  While they did have a nice wine menu, there were only three beers on the menu - which, IMO, ought to be illegal.  We were a little disappointed to see that the menu that we'd looked at online was not the same as the menu that we were given.  We then decided to start with the cheese plate mostly because it had received several positive mentions on Yelp.  It came with four cheeses and each one was paired with a little yummy tidbit like pistachios or chocolate.  Each bite was thoughtfully prepared and very delicious but I should mention that the portions were on the very skimpy side.  

For entrees, Ty ordered a seafood stew of sorts (sorry, I can't remember the exact name) and I ordered the duck.  Each type of seafood in Ty's dish was perfectly cooked to be its most flavorful and tender.  I've never had duck before so I wasn't sure what to expect and I was very surprised that it was so rich, moist and tender.  It was served with a baked apple, grapes and a delicate crepe filled with an apple stuffing.  The entire combination was perfect, especially if you like entrees that lean toward the sweet side, and left a comforting taste of fall in my mouth.

Service the entire evening was outstanding.  The timing of the courses was just right and they were quick to put another slice of bread on our bread plate every time it was empty.  The portion sizes on the entrees were spot on.  Overall, we'd highly recommend Pitxi and, if it weren't all the way in St. John's (which we didn't realize when we bought the Groupon), we'd probably be semi-regulars! 

Canning

A few weeks ago, Jewel and I spent 13 hours canning on a Sunday.  We ended up with all-purpose tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, ketchup, sweet pepper relish, classic cucumber relish and tomato cashew chutney.  It was a long day, to say the least, but well worth the effort.  Ty and I also had already canned some spicy carrots, dilly beans and hot peppers.  An entire shelf in our pantry is filled with jars and it is a very satisfying sight!! 

I've officially been bitten with the canning bug and we are now planning to more canning days in October - one for more tomatoes and one for apples.  Both days will be shorter now that we have a better idea of how long it can take.  We have also invited a few friends to each day - if they come, it'll make for more hands to do the prep work.  More beer will also be included in these upcoming canning days!! 

In the meantime, a friend has ripe tomatillos that she's willing to trade me and I am planning to make a batch or two of salsa verde. 

I'll leave you with two pics from our epic canning day:

Jess and Jewel canning away!



This is about half of what we ended up with at the end of the day.



Welcome!

Crab haul from 2009 AI trip

Welcome to Eat My Sauce - a blog about food in Casa D'Engvall.  We envision this being a place to put not only recipes and pictures of our creations but also a place to talk about our food philosophy, organic gardening and backyard chicken raising.  You might find links to articles that interest us here too.  Who knows what you might find...  but hopefully you like it and want to keep coming back to visit us!