Thursday, May 31, 2012

Frickadellen...or what to do with ground pork glut

It's official.  I've been asked one too many times about what to do with ground pork glut.  For those of you who have a half or whole hog in the freezer you're likely to have lots of ground pork (unless you had it all made into sausage, which is the best thing to do with ground pork).   Here is a family recipe I received from a good friend at church.  She is 80 something years old, grew up in Germany, lives in the quaintest apartment in town and manages to host delightful dinner parties for 12 or more people in a space that can't be larger than 400 square feet! You'll have to play with the amounts of some of these ingredients--like all great family recipes, the measurements are inexact!

Frickadellen
1 lb pork
some bread crumbs
1 egg
some cardamom
salt and pepper
1 tbsp of ground onion (I use lots of chopped onion)
capers (I don't use these, because I don't like capers)

So you mix everything (except the capers) together in a bowl and knead really well before forming little golf-ball size balls. Then pat them down.  It's almost like you're making sliders.  You put them in the pan to brown, adding some water at times to help with the browning process.  My friend likes to pour a gravy (with the capers) over them.  We eat them straight up.  The cardamom really adds a nice flavor and the breadcrumbs keep the pork very moist. 

Enjoy!

P.S  When Belle was at the vet clinic, they asked me to bring in some human food for her to eat.  The frickadellens were what I had on hand so I brought in two of them (I actually handpicked the onion pieces out because I wasn't sure those were good for her at the time).  When the vet tech warmed the patties up and the smell of yummy frickadellen permeated the clinic the staff was very sad that the food was for Belle and not for them!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Being Mindful on Monday: Memorial Day Observed

 Carl Sandburg "Grass"

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.


 

Friday, May 25, 2012

All Creatures Great and Small

It's been a tough week on Clearfield Farm thanks to our ten-year old beagle mutt, Belle.   

After dinner on Monday night she began to display some obvious discomfort.  When I called the vet clinic and recounted her symptoms, they wanted to see her right away.  A few x-rays confirmed some sort of abdominal mass but it was unclear what it was.  An ultrasound was also inconclusive.  The vet, who happens to be a good friend of ours, set out our options which included supportive care, euthanasia, or surgery.  I told her I would get back to her first thing on Wednesday.  My darling husband and I had to talk.

It's an agonizing decision when it comes to spending significant sums of money on a pet, particularly an aging one (and one who is not so friendly to those outside her pack).  My husband offered this advice...WWJD.  "What would Jesus Do?" I asked skeptically.  "No, what would James [Herriot] do?"  "Well, because of the lack of technology available at the time, he probably would have put the animal to sleep if she was in as much discomfort as Belle currently is" I answered.  My husband concurred.  He added that if we were striving to live simply (I have often touted the "just because we can, does it mean we should?" philosophy), euthanasia would be our best option. But is that what we would do for Belle?  What if it was just a simple mass that could be removed and give her several more years of quality life?  But what if it is malignant?  What if whatever it is was going to come back? Of course, it was impossible for us or the vet to determine any of this without going in in the first place.

She obviously needed something done because she was suffering.  Euthanasia or surgery.   After a quick discussion of our own financial situation and an understanding that extraordinary measures (say a trip to Cornell University) were out of the question, we decided that she deserved this one shot to continue on in this world.  We agreed that if there was a relapse or if there was no improvement then we'd put her down if it became clear she was suffering.

When I called the vet on Wednesday, she agreed with our decision.  She did want to know whether we wanted her woken up if the mass could not be removed.  We said yes because Bud had not yet said his goodbyes and we felt this was very important.  The surgery was scheduled for that afternoon.

Unfortunately, the surgery did not turn up good results.   The mass is really coagulated blood and cannot be removed.  It is unclear where this mass originated from or why.  The vet and her colleagues felt that if they tried to remove whatever it is, she would bleed out in a "terminal event".  So they ended up sewing her back up.

She spent two days at the clinic and was doing all normal doggy things (eating, peeing, pooping) so it seems like she feels a little bit better, although the long-term prognosis is relatively poor.  Our vet was very realistic with us saying it could be weeks or months or it could be days.  The best case scenario would be if this mass was the result of some sort of trauma and shrunk on its own after a bit of time.  However, the onset of her discomfort and the unlikelihood of her getting hit by something without us noticing render this trauma hypothesis relatively weak.
Daisy
Luke and Belle
So we will just wait and see.  Daisy is happy to have Belle at home and takes turns with Luke the cat watching over her.  Belle, whose favorite activity has always been lying out in the sun, seems relatively peaceful at the moment.  As long as she doesn't complain we will give her as many sunny days as possible.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Transformations

I've been struggling this week with what to write about.  After starting three different posts and then not liking the direction they've gone I've decided to take some wise advice and just pick a really broad topic so that everything can be made to fit into it.  So here it goes.  Transformations in the last couple of weeks...

First, the gardens.  I have spent the majority of May in my gardens.  A dear friend (that's you Deborah!) brought up the subject of edging gardens last fall.  I never even knew that one was supposed to edge a garden until then.  Having the time this spring (sort of), and after looking despairingly at the weed invasion in my perennial gardens, I decided to jump on the edging bandwagon.  This was not a decision to take lightly as once you are committed to edging part of a garden, you have to do the whole thing.  And once you edge one garden, it's impossible NOT to edge the others.   While edging, I also tackled the vast majority of the weeds.  My gardens are by no means weed free, but they do look substantially better than they do before.  Speaking of gardens, we've got much of our large vegetable garden planted, and only two more 12 x 12 plots to double dig.  Hopefully all will be dug and planted by the end of the upcoming long weekend.

Which brings me to my second transformation.  My poor hands.  As I do every year, I started wearing gloves when I garden.  But I hate not being able to feel the cool, damp earth, and I have much better control of what I am weeding or digging with my bare hands versus gloved hands.  So until I find some type of gardening glove that is like a second skin, I will continue to garden with naked hands.  Which means I generally have dirt encrusted in the grooves of my fingers and of course under the nails.  This was really only a problem back in May 2006, a month before I got married.  I went to the day spa to have a trial run with the nails and my esthetician (that's a really hard word to spell correctly!) made me promise that I would take the month off from gardening.  I don't think I did, but at least I wore gloves.   So to remedy the chronically dirty hands I allow myself a long soak in a tub each night.

Which brings me to the third transformation.  Children.  I share my tub with a "Little People" castle and many plastic "guys" (and dinosaurs).  I also find that the only shampoo downstairs is Cowabunga Coconut.  Our coffee table has a veritable young adult library spread across it, and the back steps are always collecting something that belongs to Bud. And it's all good.  This past weekend I went to visit a high school friend and her family in the Boston area.  She has a two year old daughter.  Where there used to be beer and music and card games, there are now juice boxes and diapers and nap times. I also happened to stop by another dear friend's home in the Berkshires on my way back to New York. She has a three year old daughter.  I always loved her decor--sort of a French/African theme with lots of different textures and interesting prints.   I hadn't seen her since right after her daughter was born and the house had been comfortably, tastefully and lovingly transformed into a toddler's haven. 

Finally, the last transformation of this week regards more babies.  My nephew, whom I last saw in person when he was a week old, now looks completely different at six weeks old.  He has lost all of his hair, has filled out tremendously, and loves to smile.  At least he still has his elf ears!  It was startling to see the change.  How quickly newborns grow up!

Enjoy the spring showers and the bountiful sunshine!









Monday, May 14, 2012

Being Mindful on Monday

"Let it Go" by Dana Faulds

Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold:
the holding of plans or dreams or expectations – Let it all go.
Save your strength to swim with the tide.
The choice to fight what is here before you now will
only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts
to flee from the very energy you long for. Let go.

Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes
through your days whether you received it gently
or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders.
Take this on faith; the mind may never find the
explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward
nonetheless. Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry
you to unknown shores, beyond your wildest dreams
or destinations. Let it all go and find the place of
rest and peace, and certain transformation.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

On Mothering

On this gorgeous Sunday I'm taking some time for myself (and my garden) and so I send you to Courtney Cowgill's blog Life, Cultivated where you can read her very powerful post about mothering.  She certainly captures how something as intuitive and integral to a woman as mothering has been turned into something so complex and controversial by our society (and particularly our fellow women in society). Trust your instincts and your intelligence.  There are a million ways to mother correctly and the kids turn out okay!   Happy Mother's Day!


Friday, May 4, 2012

First Fridays: Artisan No-Knead Bread


Okay, so maybe I'm stretching my First Friday concept a little bit here, but really, a good homemade loaf or boule of bread can be considered art.  Plus I am super excited to share with you a new recipe that is SO easy.

I have been baking bread fairly consistently for about 6 years.  A couple years ago I provided my parental units and my in-laws with a bread-of-the-month club where I baked a loaf of bread and sent it (overnight shipping) every month.  Selections included a variety of yeast and quick breads such as anadama, French, Vienna rolls, squash bread, banana blueberry bread and challah.   I've also had fun working with flat breads such as naan, pizza doughs and have even attempted making crackers on occasion.

When my brother and sister-in-law gave me Alice Waters' In The Green Kitchen, I flipped right to the "No Knead Bread" page.  A quick Internet search revealed that this recipe was hot, hot, HOT!  It has a cult following.  I'm serious.  The recipe entered the public realm in 2006 from the New York Times article printed here.  It was adapted from Jim Lahey's recipe of the Sullivan Street Bakery.

Anyway, this is why I am in love with the bread.  It takes 2 minutes to make, literally.  You throw some flour (3 cups), salt (1 1/4 tsp) and yeast (1/4 tsp) into a bowl.  Stir.  Add water (1 1/3 cups).  Stir.  Cover.  Let sit for 12-18 hours.  Yes, that means you have to plan accordingly. The next day, flour your hands, scrape the dough out of the bowl, put it on a floured or cornmealed cotton dish towel.  Wrap it up and let it sit for 1-2 hours.  Then you bake it (450 degrees for 30 minutes) and you end up with a crusty, airy boule of bread. So good.

The hitch comes with the baking.  Essentially you're creating an oven within an oven by baking the bread in a covered pot at 450-475 degrees (the temperature depends on the recipe you use).  This means your pot has to be able to withstand high temperatures.  All of the bakers seem to suggest Le Creuset Cassoulet pots but I am not so fortunate to own one.  So the first time around I used my cast iron dutch oven.  After 30 minutes at 475 degrees, the bottom was unfortunately burned although the rest of the bread was perfect (I simply sliced off the bottom and threw the burnt bread frisbee to our lab; she seemed to enjoy it).   For the next loaf, wanting to get rid of the burnt bottom, I decided to change a few things (unfortunately, this is bad scientific method because I'm not sure which of the changes was actually responsible for creating the most yummy bread ever).  I used King Arthur bread flour instead of all-purpose flour.  I lowered the oven temperature to 450 degrees (and ended up baking it for 15 minutes longer).  I also used my crock-pot insert to bake it in (with a foil lid because I wasn't sure that the crock-pot glass lid would withstand the high temperatures).  The result is pictured below.

I think I may have found a new item to sell at the Farmer's Market this summer.  It would be lovely if I could find some locally sourced flour.  Until then I will continue using King Arthur bread flour.  So much for the no/low carb diet this summer. This is too good to pass up!  Enjoy!