Say, "Uncle!"

For the past month Jen and I, as well as the Wombats, have been engaged in an all out battle against our every-swelling inventory of fresh lettuce. It is certainly my least favorite time of the farm year. I have had very little leafy greens that have truly excited me over the years. Last year I did have some incredible sorrel and arugula in Austin, TX. I would have happily eaten entire plates of either with absolutely no accompaniment. However, this is the exception to the rule. In general greens are a little boring.


On Friday I used some of the Tropicana lettuce and topped it with kohlrabi which I boiled, chilled, and tossed with sour cream, salt, pepper, scallions, and a splash of hot sauce.


I also bused open this Ursa Minor Weizen Stout from Rising Tide Brewery in Portland, ME. I picked this up on my recent trip to Rhode Island and it was quite enjoyable.


For the main course I used up the remaining summer squash and spinach along with onion, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon, basil, and butter.


Jen had another wheat beer at the other end of the spectrum, this Sun Block from Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. This was another really nice offering from Captain Lawrence.


On Saturday morning the Wombats were able to use their toy drum from Aunt Lauren and the Xylophone from Jen to start a pretty awesome new band. Baby Hit Parade magazine has called them: "The White Stripes with a xylophone."

The xylophone is really weird in that it's like some sort of mixolydian scale. I think that's what Martin is going for though. Major keys are so played out.



For lunch they had their first straight milk. The verdict: they're on the fence. I think we've lost a bit of their trust after giving them something that looks just like formula but is not formula.

Milk is the main ingredient in formula so it's a little surprising that they don't like it. I guess once you get used to something as disgusting as formula it's hard to go back.


At Christmas Aunt Lauren told us that she was pregnant and we made an elaborate announcement for Grandma and Grandad where we dressed up the guys in T-shirts announcing the arrival of their first first cousin. Grandma opened this gift and was delighted by it but made no mention of the fact that her daughter was pregnant. Apparently she just thought it was some random, framed picture of her grandsons and did not read the T-shirts.


On Sunday Aunt Lauren gave birth to Evelyn! Martin was very excited to see her picture on Jen's phone. Elliott, however, saw the picture late as he was preoccupied with his afternoon nap.


I had planned a French(ish) dinner to celebrate Bastille Day but how was I to know that I would also be welcoming into this world my first niece? Had I known I would have tried to plan something more thematic for that occasion. Of course, I can't imagine what that would be.

I started off with duck rillettes, a salad with Tropicana lettuce and lemon vinaigrette, whole grain mustard, cornichons, Turkish figs, and Bethmale cheese. I wasn't able to find a cheese from the Rhone-Alpes region of France (where today's Tour de France stage was being held) so I went with the mountainous region on the other side of France. That, at least, shows that there was some thought there.


I also did not have a French beer so I went with a French(ish) beer, this Saison from Mystic Brewery. It was great, perfect for the season and the meal. And it was in a Belgian style. I've heard that that's near France.

Jen had this Cep d'Or rose which was also very tasty and also very much not from the correct region of France. It was closer than my cheese so that was a plus.

You can see here that I was not going to let go of my absurd need to try to pigeonhole this dinner into the Rhones-Alpes region. Even though I had next to no food or drink traditional to that area.


For dinner I made tartiflette which is a traditional dish from the region. It's basically like a potato Dauphinoise with cheese, onion, and bacon added. I cooked some onions in rendered bacon then added in the sliced potato, cream, milk, salt, and pepper and cooked it all in the oven. When it was almost done I put in some chunks of Saint Albry cheese. I should have used Reblochon but, again, there was none available to me.

The end result, as you could probably imagine, was quite delicious.



The Wombats celebrated by eating (but mostly destroying) a baguette.
A mere year and six days after the Wombats made their entrance their cousin joins them. That's much more exciting than some French people storming a crummy old jail.

This is America where Canadians give birth to Americans, son!

Swizz Beanz

As our mild winter draws to a close we need to make the most out of the slightly cool days that remain. With temperatures dipping into the twenties this evening I felt this may be one of our last shots at making another winter type stew.



We have long had these great beans that we picked up at the Lucerne Market in Switzerland last summer. While not standard I thought I would use them in a cassoulet.



Knowing basically no German I couldn't really make out much on the package other than the "best by" date which was February 20, 2012, surprisingly not written out in the European dating convention.

Here's what it said on the label:

Steirische Käferbohnen, Bio
Herkunft: Österreich, Bio
Übernacht einweichen, 2-3 Std. kochen, erst zum Schluss salzen
Dunkel aufbewahren Mindesthaltbar bis 02/20/12
L&W Brauchart-Moos, Biohof Widacher, 6102 Malters
Zertifizierung: SCESp 086

And thanks to Google's translate feature:

Styrian Bean Beetle, Organic
Origin: Austria, Organic
Over night soak, 2-3 hours to cook with salt, until the end
Keep in the dark until best before 02/20/12
L & W Brauchart moss, organic farm Widacher, 6102 Malters
Certification: SCESp 086

I didn't actually translate this until after the beans had been cooking for a while but luckily my bean intuition didn't lead me astray. I'm just hoping that there was something amiss in the translation and that these are actually Beetle Beans, not Bean Beetles. While we may watch a lot of No Reservations I don't think either of us has a strong desire to eat bugs.



Any cookbook will tell you that cassoulet it is a dish that can be cooked in no less than three days and needs to dirty every single pot, pan, and utensil that you own. If you actually know anything about cooking you can read through these recipes and eliminate a lot of unnecessary steps. They usually go something like this:

1. Render some bacon in a pan.
   
2. Remove bacon from pan and set aside.
   
3. Add onions and garlic to pan and cook for seven minutes.
   
4. Remove onions and garlic from pan and set aside.
   
5. Brown some sausages in a pan.
   
6. Remove sausages and set aside.
   
7. Brown some pork shoulder in a pan for five minutes.
   
8. Remove pork shoulder and set aside.
   
9. Add everything back into pan.
   
10. Add chicken stock, wine, and tomato to pan.
    
11. Cook on low heat for six days.
    

Here is my modified method of preparation:

1. Render some bacon in a pan.
   
2. Remove bacon from pan and set aside.
   
3. Add onions and garlic to pan and cook for seven minutes.
   
4. Remove onions and garlic from pan and set aside.
   
5. Brown some sausages in a pan.
   
6. Remove sausages and set aside.
   
7. Brown some pork shoulder in a pan for five minutes.
   
8. Remove pork shoulder and set aside.
   
9. Add everything back into pan.
   
10. Add chicken stock, wine, and tomato to pan.
    
11. Cook on low heat for six days an hour or two, or as long as you'd like.
    

After soaking the beans overnight on Friday, and having Jen cook them last night, we were ready to proceed. So I guess this recipe did take three days to make. Sort of.

In my neverending effort to only use one pan to make dinner I rendered some bacon then tossed in some garlic cloves and chopped onion to cook down with just a little olive oil. After a few minutes I added some chopped tomato then some leftover ham steak from the freezer, some garlic herb sausages, and a confit duck leg. I then covered them with some chicken stock from the freezer and added a dark strong ale (in lieu of the recommended white wine) and cooked it in a pot on low heat for about six or seven hours.



The resulting dish, served with chopped parsley and baguette, was pretty good. Maybe it's not as good as your average gourmand who takes three days to make their, however mine was ready for dinner tonight and was a far cry better than having nothing for dinner tonight then having a cassoulet that is ten percent better on Tuesday.



To pair with this winter stew I poured this Trader Joe's 2011 Vintage Ale which Jen's father got me for Christmas. According to Beeradvocate this is brewed by "Trader Joe's Brewing Company." However, just looking at the silver writing on the brown bottle makes it quite obvious it was brewed by Unibroue, one of my favorite breweries.

This is not the most overly complex Belgian style strong dark ale I've ever had but at $4.99 a bottle I can't think of a better beer for the price. It is inconceivable to me that a beer this nice could be priced that low. Comparable beers in 750ml bottles rarely are priced lower than $9.99, even when they're not all that good.



It was a little difficult to do but I even shared a little with the cassoulet.

After dinner, which was pretty filling, we were left with the culinary question: what does one have for dessert after this classic French dish?



Ben & Jerry's Boston Cream Pie ice cream, that's what! Holy hell, this is a good idea. Boston Cream Pie is one of my favorite desserts of all time so when I spotted this ice cream at the grocery store I stopped dead in my tracks and snatched it out of the freezer case. I was so excited that I almost forgot to open the glass and nearly put my hand through the glass.

It's basically a custard flavored ice cream with bits of chocolate and yellow cake in it. It's pretty much the best thing that has happened to me so far this decade.

It's going to be tough to beat.

Culinary Revolution

Since returning from Europe it has been our goal to try to eat a little lighter to counteract the multitude of fat calories and restaurant meals consumed during our trip. However, today is Bastille Day. I like to fancy myself a bit of a French history buff so I know that the French revolutionaries didn't storm the Bastille so that we could eat sprouted quinoa and whole grains. They did it so that Americans and Canadians living together in the future would be able to celebrate their shallow interpretation of French cuisine by eating whatever they wanted and writing about it on their poorly trafficked blogs.

If you want to learn more about the history of the Bastille please read The Days of the French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert.



I started by serving up some slices of pâté au poivre noir from Trois Petits Cochons. I also made a tarragon mustard with my mortar and pestle and some dijon mustard. This was to recapture the delicious Maille mustard I'd had in Zurich. It didn't quite match up to that one but it was pretty good. I served the pâté with cornichons, tomato and slices of shallot.

Jen really wanted to start off with a French aperitif. Unfortunately we only have two French aperitifs, both of which are contenders for Jen's least favorite drink. First we have Aperitruffe, the truffle flavored liqueur. Secondly we have pastis which Jen also despises. After much consideration we chose to skip the aperitif this evening.



For the main course I made a giant Salade niçoise made with the Encino lettuce from the farm, red and yellow peppers, red and yellow tomatoes, boiled baby potatoes, steamed haricots vert, hard boiled egg, and pan seared tuna. On the side I made a dressing with tarragon, shallot, Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

I opened a tin of anchovies as well to discover when I tried to remove them and they disintegrated at my touch. It was then that I discovered that they'd expired about a year ago.



For wine we had this rose from Domaine de Gournier. French rose is Jen's favorite wine any time of year. On Bastille Day it seems even more appropriate. I would have loved to have a nice French beer with dinner but the only French beer that is ever easily accessible in the United States if Kronenbourg 1664. While I enjoy a nice 1664 from time to time it hardly seems in the spirit of the French Revolution. I don't think the "red" and "black" they were singing about in Les Miserables were referring to beer.



For dessert Jen made some crepes citron which are basically just crepes with lemon juice and powdered sugar. I garnished with the currants from the farm but they are a little difficult to eat being about four times as tart as lemon.

Normally we'd watch the Tour de France to celebrate but the "all access" pass we purchased online was not really up for working this evening. However, I did entertain myself by continually attempting to reload the page and swearing at the computer. The site informed me that "This is a temporary issues that should be resolved soon."

I bet this was exactly what it was like before the French revolted. No one should have to live like this.

Tarragon in 60 Seconds

Our goal over the next week is to run down all the foods in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. This means very little new purchases and living mostly off of the haul received from our farm share. I'm very bad at not purchasing new foods when I see them so this will be a test of will power. I already know I will falter tomorrow because I'm planning on picking up some pork belly at the market. With the temperature in the low 70's tomorrow it may be my last opportunity to run the oven without regret until we hit the fall.

I'm not very good at meeting goals.



I started off by making this salad with red sail, buttercrunch, and mizuna lettuce. For a dresing I combined some shallot, Lyle's Golden Syrup, Maille mustard, lemon, and fresh tarragon. I've never been a huge fan of tarragon. I've always found it somewhat offensive. Jen shares this feeling because, like me, she once used too much tarragon in a recipe and suffered from what I like to call "tarragon fatigue."

In 1997 I made a tarragon sauce from the tarragon in my mother's herb garden and I remember my first encounter with this experience. Only recently have I figured out how to really use the herb without regret.



Today I saw someone making Poulet Veronique and I figured, since we're on the theme of tarragon, I would make this for dinner. It used up a lot of the things I happened to have lying around: butter, grapes, chicken breast, tarragon, cream, a shabby white wine. Why not throw this all together?

I probably haven't made this dish since 1997, the same year I turned myself off tarragon. I must say that tonight's return to tarragon was a success. I seasoned the pounded chicken cutlets with salt, pepper, and tarragon, browned them in a pan with butter, then removed them, added the shallots, grapes, white wine, and cream to reduce. I served the chicken and sauce over some couscous. This is probably not the most traditional preparation but if you are a reader of the blog you know that I have a general disdain for the rigid rules of classical French cooking.

I'll remind my readers that I also put a sweetener (Lyle's Golden Syrup) in my vinaigrette, a major French culinary no no. Somewhere my classical French instructors from culinary school are turning in their graves, even the ones that are still alive.



For beer I had the final of the six beers from Brouwerij Van Steenberge that my parents got me, the Gulden Drak. It just so happens that this may have been my favorite of the bunch. At 10.5% alcohol one beer was probably more than I really required this evening. Belgian beer was the closest to French that I could find after rummaging in our fridge.

Every so often I like to make a French meal. I like to remind myself that my general distrust of it from years of overexposure overshadows how good it can actually be. This meal ended up being very nice on a late night after bidding Jen's sisters adieu.

Tomorrow I plan on taking full advantage of not having to cook vegan or vegetarian. You can assume that mean some fatty pork will be coming your way soon. Pork fat rules!

Sorry. I feel dirty.