Hearth cooking and cheese making

A few weeks ago we attended a Hearth cooking class at Woody Hill B&B in Westerly RI.What a great time we had.There were 8 students and we all took responsibility for specific dishes.Mine was Martha Washingtons spice cake in the dutch oven.I tend to burn whatever I am baking in the dutch oven.It came out great and I was able to replicate it at home in the fireplace as you can see in my photo.There were no burned spots.We also cooked a pork roast,butternut squash soup,cornbread,corn oysters,pear chutney,cranberry relish,Bread pudding.All this was cooked on the hearth,reflector oven(in front of hearth,beehive oven and dutch oven.It was a great night,none of us knew each other so it was nice to meet new people also.Ellen our host was great.I also have made my second attempt at cheddar cheese this week.We will keep our fingers crossed.When you make cheddar cheese you have whey left over.I made ricotta out of the whey and then made a dish I found in Edible Rhody.Gnudi in a lemon thyme sauce.Very similar to gnocci but mostly ricotta only a little flour and you roll into balls instead of off a fork to make ridges.It was a great recipe we really enjoyed it.

crab cakes

I was lucky enough to get 6 crabs from Danielle (the fishwife) at plymouths farmers market Thursday. I ended up with 1 lb of meat and made 8 lucious crab cakes.We had 4 for dinner with a Salad from the garden and 4 went to the freezer.Danielles crabs were 2$ a piece so 8 large crab cakes only cost 12.00.It would cost me more than that for 2 small cakes in a restaraunt.So our meal last night was at a cost of 6.00 and a few pantry items the salad was from the back yard.It took a little bit of time to pick the crab meat I only do it once or twice a year but it is so worth it.The home made crabcakes are so fresh they really out do any I have had in restaraunts.Joe laughs because I swear I will never do this again while I am picking the crabs, but the next day when I make the crabcakes I always say it was worth it.

Local pork Sausage

Last night I made a spaghetti sauce for dinner using home canned tomato's local carrot,garlic,onion and green peppers(from the freezer) and a little bit of honey(ours).Then I made some whole wheat fettuccine from ww flour from Maine.I had bought sausages from Beaulieu farm in Fairhaven Ma. They were sweet sausages and the were Delicious, I have in the past bought pork from local farms and a few times I had pieces that were very strong and gamy but these were Great!!Also a salad of local greens &microgreens and a salad dressing with local cider vinegar and maple syrup.Tonight we had the pasta again with some three bean salad I canned this summer. This morning we had local oatmeal grown in Maine with local syrup and local dried cranberries. I am focusing on eating local as much as possible this week we have such a stockpile of food in the freezer and shelves of canned goods.

Quahog

I have had some questions about quahogs. They are a large hard shelled clam,an adult little neck or cherry stone. They are ground up and used in chowders and stuffed clams. They are dug a few inches down unlike the soft shelled clam that is much deeper in the sand.

One Local Summer Week 8

We had quite a few local meals this week. Monday we had company over for stuffed quahogs made with clams dug by Joe 'local chourico local peppers from freezer and local onions.Bread stuffing from leftovers in the freezer, also a local salad with home grown lettuce local cucumber and carrot. Our dessert was homemade Amish root beer we bought on vacation with vanilla ice cream. We put the root beer down in the cellar when we got home a few weeks ago so the floats finished with a true beer flavor I guess I should of refrigerated it.(live and learn)Last night we had company over for Pizza. The crust was not local I made it with white flour from King Arthur,usually I would use whole wheat from Maine but I have not perfected the WW pizza crust so I did not want to serve it to guests. I did make the mozzarella,onion from our garden tomatoes and peppers from the freezer put up last summer and basil from the yard.We also had a salad from our lettuce and our first tomato and radishes and cucumbers from a farm d own the street. The picture of the clam meal shows the remains since I forgot to take picture till we were done.

One local summer weeek 7

This weeks local meal was one of many. A (bakeover) a recipe from Mary Janes Idea book. This is a meal of ingredients sauteed in a small wok then adding a pie crust or other topping and baking in the oven. I used my first green beans of the year,local summer squash,carrots,corn,onions all bought at farmers market,I also added green peppers and roasted poblano peppers I froze last summer. I added some Mexican spices. For a topping I used a cornbread recipe from a cookbook from the 1920's that does not use white flour. I used cornmeal from the local mill in Plymouth,honey from the back yard, butter salt and baking powder. The cornbread cooked over vegetables was almost custard like. It was real good .As a side dish we had a salad of local grated raw beets and onion,rice wine vinegar and non local orange.

We had a great dinner at a friends this week with almost all ingredients from the local farmers market,fresh salads and seafood on the grill it was delicious. We had a salad of carrots,small turnips grated with a fresh dressing of ginger and rice wine vinegar. A Mexican inspired salad of chopped vegetables(see photo above) .We had clams,shrimp,scallops and fish on the grill and to top it all off a colonial steamed pudding, similar to a brownbread with cranberries with a decadent sauce and lots of local libations. A collaborative effort a great casual summer evening. A good time was had by all I can't remember when I laughed so hard. Hope you all had A great week.

One local summer week 6

This weeks local meal is littlenecks dug by Joe with some local (fall River) Chorizo and two bean salad with shell beans from the freezer from last year, and green beans from the farm down the street and corn from the same farm. Sorry no picture I totally forgot. We also had local strawberries this week, local beef, salads with all local ingriedients. I used our qhahogs to make stuffed quahogs with local chorizo and onions and peppers, and bread ends from the freezer for a party they were a hit. We saw the new movie Food Inc. this week a definate must see.We ordered a rack to cook clams on the grill so I hope it will be here for a get together we are going
to later in the week.

one local summer week #1

Our first documented local meal for 2009 ols. We had roasted vegetables on Johnny cakes, with a tossed salad. The roasted vegetables: turnips,eggplant,asparagus from wishing stone farm Little Compton RI (approximately 57 miles) and Poblano peppers from last year (frozen) and garlic bought in Maine on vacation last fall. The salad was lettuce and radishes from our yard and cucumber and tomato from wishing stone farm(57 miles) greenhouse grown.The dressing was olive oil and red wine vinegar from a Friends homemade red wine and herbs from the garden. I had defrosted some garlic scape pesto to dress the vegetables but they were to good to cover up.Lastly the johnnycake's make with white flint cornmeal from RI. Salt used was smoked salt from Maine. Not local pepper and olive oil.