Nor'easter

The nor'easter that blew in today is our second winter storm of the season. The season is actually still technically fall, I guess, since winter doesn't officially start until next week. 

Looking Northeast

Friday Recipe: Ratatouille

In the autumn, every warm day feels like a gift. Here on the hill, we have not yet had frost, and although I am no longer watering the garden, as we have instituted conservation measures because of the lack of September rain, it continues to produce some tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Whatever we aren't growing is easy to get from the farmers' market, but every eggplant also feels like a gift.

This is the perfect time to make ratatouille, while we still can, and on a day when the comfort of a slow-cooked stew will hit the spot. Saturday is forecast to be such a day, chilly and wet. As soon as we get home, I'll turn on the oven and get to chopping.

My recipe - really this one's just a template, too - is inspired by the wonderful writer, adventurer, and practiced palate MFK Fisher. If you haven't yet, read Long Ago in France. You can start it while the ratatouille cooks, instead of doing something fatalistic and useful like the storm windows.

You need a couple good sized eggplants (more if you have a giant oven-safe pot), plenty of tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a pepper or two. MFK wrote:

“The first ingredients were and still are eggplant and onions, garlic, green peppers, red peppers, plenty of ripe peeled tomatoes and some good olive oil. Proportions are impossible to fix firmly, since everything changes in size and flavor, but perhaps there should be three parts of eggplant to two of tomatoes and one each of the peppers and the onions and garlic. I really cannot say.

Las Blancas: Buttons, Vervain, and Bluebell

These are from the early summer, in a sweet moment on the hill. The whities, having a time. Vervain is on the left, Buttons front and center, and little Bluebell on the right.

Friday Recipe: Stuff Flowers with Cheese!

Cotton Hill Road is more than just your average thoroughfare. Schoharie County Route 66 is a steep and winding climb, treacherous in the winter; the location of thousands of acres of state forest; home to a hardscrabble mix of Sloughters and newcomers, with some rarely-seen weekenders; and these days, quite a culinary destination. We have our resident brewer (OK, the brewery is in town, but we were the beneficiaries of many a practice batch), Justin at Green Wolf Brewery, we the cheesemakers, and wonderful organic vegetables at The Farm on Cotton Hill. Jim and Greg are the farmers, and Jim and I got together yesterday to celebrate the end of summer by stuffing cheese into flowers and frying them.

I love eating flowers whenever possible, but somehow I never tasted squash blossoms. Now I am hooked! Try them! Here's what you do:

1. Harvest the flowers in the middle of a sunny day, when they are open. Use them right away, or keep them in a cool place to use later.

2. Gather your ingredients: flour and a couple eggs for dredging, some good soft fresh goat cheese and anchovies for stuffing, and olive oil for frying.

Flowers! We will eat you!

Friday Recipe: Summer Bounty Pasta

Got veggies? If you have a garden or a CSA share, I'll bet you do! At the farmers' market, eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, garlic, and onions abound. How about roasting them in the oven while you play outside, then tossing them with pasta when you're ready to chow down?

I saved the big tomatoes for sauce

I made this a few weeks ago with the first eggplant in the garden. It was perfect summer comfort food, good for a chilly night, and great at room temperature the next day. I think I used these ingredients*:

1 big eggplant
2 small summer squash
2 garlic bulbs
A quart or so of cherry tomatoes

Fresh or dried herbs: basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary, and/or thyme

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1 lb. pasta 

1/2 lb. feta cheese, cut into small cubes (our feta is somewhat creamy, which worked nicely)

*Peppers and onions would be nice additions too

Chop Chop

It's Easy:

The New Girls

There are a few new goat faces here at Cotton Hill Creamery. They are very little, so we won't be milking them anytime real soon. They've got some growing to do. 

Here's Nettle and Olive (with good old Buttons trying to photobomb in the background). Noisy Nettle and Black Olive stick together. This is good, because it allows me to distinguish Olive from Jem, who has one tiny white spot on her left side where Olive doesn't. Otherwise the two are identical.

Here's Raindrops. She is a yearling, actually, but she is very tiny. She has flashy markings and a pretty smile.

Little Daisy just came to our farm this week. She is sweet sweet sweet. After a few days in our pasture, she looks like a basketball resting on four popsicle sticks. She wants to follow me around all the time. Farmer Fin won't let me bring her in the house though.

And here they are all together. With Buttons, of course.

Friday Recipe: Fritatta Template

Everyone who cooks has a different approach to making dinner. Some people follow recipes, some have a repertoire of dishes that they rotate, and others just improvise based on what is in the fridge or garden. Most of us probably use a combination of these approaches. 

Myself, I love experimenting with new recipes, but most of the time, I play it by ear. I don't think I ever make the same thing with the same ingredients twice, partly because I'm too disorganized to plan and shop according to plan, and partly because I love food and gardening and farmers' markets. I shop for groceries the way some women shop for clothes: obsessively, impulsively, and aesthetically.

Also, I like leftovers. It's a great relief to have a good lunch for the next day in the fridge before you go to bed at night. This is one of the main reasons why a fritatta is my go-to last minute meal. Here's what I do; you can try it too.

Dinner is served. Now with product placement.

Equipment:

I can't imagine doing this in anything but a cast iron pan. Mine is 10"; I have to use both hands to pick it up. If yours is a little smaller, you could use fewer eggs, or just cook it longer. 

Ingredients:

10 eggs 

2 cups of veggies (and/or bacon, sausage, or ham)

1 cup of cheese 

Butter/ olive oil/ lard/ your preferred cooking grease

Onions, summer squash, and potatoes

Directions:

1. Preheat your cast iron pan. If you want to caramelize onions, remember to keep the heat medium low. If you're in a hurry, crank it and get ready to stir.

2. When the pan reaches your desired heat, cook your veggies/meats in plenty of butter or oil.

3. Meanwhile, scramble the eggs with a pinch of salt and a generous grind of black pepper. When your veggies are cooked, pour in the eggs. Don't stir, just even it out a bit. Turn the heat to low.

4. Wait a few minutes, and add the cheese evenly. It's ok if it sticks up out of the egg mixture a bit; that part will brown nicely under the broiler. 

Add cheese...

5. Let the eggs cook until the bottom is set. The edges will get less wiggly, but the middle will still be very liquid. Preheat the broiler while the eggs cook.

6. When the bottom and edges are set, put the pan under the broiler for 4-8 minutes, until the fritatta is  golden brown, slightly puffed, and feels firm to the touch. Let it cool for a couple minutes, and cut into 6 or 8 slices.

Voilà!

Serve with a salad and some good bread. If you're a small family, the leftovers make a great sandwich for breakfast or lunch.

Suggested combinations:

• Caramelized onion, bacon, and chèvre
• Spinach, onion, and feta
• Broccoli and cheddar
• Summer squash, onion, potatoes, and chèvre

You get the idea. Maybe you could put your favorite combination in the comments.