Recipe: Duck Egg Noodles

These simple and delicious, homemade egg noodles, made using our Muscovy and Black Swedish duck eggs, were a hit with the whole family! I added 1/4 cup of blanched, finely chopped stinging nettles to this batch as well, as I had them on hand. You can take or leave the addition, or substitute your family's favorite fresh herbs, kale, citrus zest or a bit of beet or pumpkin puree to mix things up a bit. 

Fresh duck egg and stinging nettle noodles.

An eggy windfall - where it all begins!

Duck Egg Noodles

-3 cups all purpose flour (plus extra for rolling out)
-2 whole eggs
-4 egg yolks
-2 tsps salt
-2-3 tbsps water, more or less*
-1/4 cup blanched, well drained, chopped stinging nettles (or chopped herbs, kale, etc.) *optional*

Start with your flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle for your eggs & yolks. Gently scramble the eggs with a fork, slowly beginning to incorporate the flour/salt mixture. Once the eggs and dry ingredients are well mixed, begin adding water in small increments, kneading and squeezing the dough together after each addition. Continue adding water as needed to the dough to reach your desired consistency. Now it's time to fold in the nettles. Knead them into the dough well, until the are mixed evenly throughout. Allow the dough to rest for at least 10 or 15 minutes before rolling out. I run my dough through the pasta roller attachment on my Kitchenaid mixer, rather than rolling the dough out by hand.** 

After rolling out into sheets, I let the dough rest/dry again for at least 10 minutes or so before cutting into individual noodles.

I most often use the fettuccine attachment to make the final cuts, but rolling and cutting by hand with the kiddos is just as good a method (if a slightly messier one) for getting 'er done. 

I freeze any pasta that I don't use immediately by laying the finished (uncooked) noodles in a single layer on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and popping them in the freezer until thoroughly frozen, then transferring them to gallon freezer bags for storage. If you skip the cookie sheet step, and put them straight into the bag, you may end up with a giant noodle octopus rather than nice, individual noodles. ;)  I've had mixed success with drying them, but you're welcome to give that a go if your freezer space is at a premium.

*Because duck egg whites are significantly more viscous than chicken egg whites. You will likely need more water (or other optional liquid/puree, if using) than the 2-3 tbsps called for here.

**If you'll be using a similar pasta making attachment, I recommend starting at thickness setting #1, and running the dough through again on setting #3, and lastly, #5. Eggs noodles are meant to me a little beefy and chewy, so thinning them out further is just not necessary, and makes a lot more work, in my humble opinion. ;)

Autumn in the Hollow

Fall has very belated and abruptly, finally fallen on Boggy Hollow. The garden is very nearly wrapped up for the year, though not put to bed yet, that being a ginormous task unto itself. 

The temperature gauge on my car's dashboard read 39 degrees at 7:00 this morning, so I guess I'd better make it a priority to harvest the last of my hoop-house pimento and jalapeño peppers this afternoon before Jack Frost gets them. We also have a few scraggling pumpkins left out there, but - being volunteer mystery mixes - they're all destined to be chicken and turkey food anyway, so their cosmetic condition is not quite so important. To be honest, I'll be relieved when everything is buttoned up for the season.

I've been keeping fairly good track of our garden's productivity this year, but, as always tends to happen, I slacken off as the growing season progresses. Back in March/April, if we brought in a quarter pound of snap peas, it was written up in the log straight away. Now? We'll weigh one pumpkin and just assume the the rest of roughly the same size weigh roughly the same thing, and scratch it in the journal (maybe) when/if I remember to.

But anyway - I was talking of embracing the falling of Fall. Apparently a switch flipped and now I'm in hardcore Cozy Mode. In the past few days, I've suddenly rediscovered my love of knitting and have had my food dehydrator running 24/7, trying to put up one last jar/bag of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, calendula, spearmint, chamomile... etc. You name it, I'm drying it out and squirreling it away.

A new addition to my squirrelin' repertoire this year - wild mushrooms. Bill and I have always loved foraging, but were extremely intimidated about the idea of venturing into the world of mushrooms, as there is basically no room for error in identification. After reading half a dozen mushroom-specific guides and psyching ourselves up, a friend finally talked us into giving mushroom hunting a try by giving us the directions to his 'never fail' spot for lobster mushies. It was a bust for us. We've gone on hunts for morels, chanterelles, chicken of the woods and lobster mushrooms, all with ZERO luck. How bizarre it was then, to finally positively i.d. a much sought-after edible, the King Bolete (aka Porcino) mushroom growing in our very own yard!

Teeny-Weeny Porcini!

A very good day's haul

And to think that these have been growing there for years and we never realized - d'oh!

Apparently, they usually wrap up their Autumn flush in November, so I don't know how many more of these lovelies that I'll get before they're gone for the year, so I've been furiously hunting/cleaning/processing/drying them these past few weeks, trying to them all in while the gettin's still good.

Besides knitting and fiddling with mushrooms, I've finally got my baking groove back! Today's bake - a triple batch of Gingerbread biscotti. I've made this recipe several times and it always goes over big with anyone who has tried it. The smell of this in the oven will kick you into Cozy Mode lickity-split!

Lightly sweet and satisfyingly crunchy, Gingerbread Biscotti.

Gingerbread Biscotti 

Recipe courtesy of ShugarySweets.com

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 12 large biscotti

Crunchy Gingerbread Biscotti is easy to make and delicious too. Have your coffee ready!

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 cube Dorot crushed ginger (or 1 tsp), thawed*
• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup sparkling white sugar
• 4 oz vanilla candy coating, melted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar until combined. Add in eggs and molasses. Beat in spices, flour, and baking powder.
3. On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, shape dough into a 12x4 inch rectangle, patting evenly. Sprinkle with sparkling white sugar. Bake for 22-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes. Slice biscotti into 12, one inch wide slices. Arrange biscotti onto sides, separating them on the baking sheet. Return to oven and bake an additional 6 minutes. Remove and turn them to opposite side, bake another 6 minutes.
4. Remove biscotti and cool completely.
5. Once cooled, dip bottom of biscotti in melted vanilla candy coating. Set back on parchment paper until set, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container. ENJOY.

Notes

For the crushed ginger, thaw on counter while getting ingredients and baking sheet ready. OR, place in a small glass bowl and microwave for 5-10 seconds.

*I (Michelle) actually used fresh grated ginger instead, as that is what I had on-hand.

Happy fall, y'all! :)

The Three Little Piggies - Week 2

I spent an unreasonable amount of time this week reading some incredibly informative, yet utterly mind-numbing facts & stats on swine nutritional needs. Who's jealous? ;)

Trying to take everything that I'd read from various sources into account, I ended up deciding that the best diet for our pigs is one based on protein-rich organic grains and cereals, homegrown raw goat milk, beet pulp, molasses and some supplemental vitamins and minerals, and of course, the odd bit of produce or kitchen scraps. Tonight was our first time feeding the pigs their "porridge", and it seems to have been well received. Based upon whether this satisfies them, and whether or not they seem to be gaining well with this formulation, some tweeking and fine tuning the recipe may be in order. But here it is, as it stands now, my recipe for lip-smackin' swine delight. ;)

Chelle's Pig Porridge 

serves 3, 40-50 pound feeder/grower pigs

1 1/2 cups organic soybeans
1 1/2 cups sorghum grain
3 cups medium ground organic corn grits
3 cups organic cracked wheat
2 cups pelleted beet pulp
1 scoop (about a tablespoon) nutritional yeast
1/4 cup molasses
2 scoops (included in package) kid milk replacer powder - Eventually this will be replaced by fresh, raw goat milk, and the volume of water used to rehydrate/plump the cereal grains will be reduced accordingly.
1 scoop (included in package) loose minerals
14 cups +/- very hot water

Mix together in a large bucket, stir well and allow to sit and absorb the liquid and cool to room temperature over an hour or so. The dry grains themselves, before adding the water, weigh about 8 pounds. The water and other ingredients about double that, making for roughly 16 pounds of porridge, more or less. We also have a large stockpile of past-sell-by-date bread products and pastries that we feed at a rate of 3 packages (these could be doughnuts, hot dog buns or high-end whole grain breads, etc.) per meal. This seems to be an adequate meal for our three little piggies - for now. We'll make adjustments and additions as necessary.

As for the source of our grains, I had such a hard time tracking down certified organic products that I could buy in bulk quantities, that I ended up having to buy people-grade grains from a local (Oregon) mill, Bob's Red Mill. 

The single most expensive ingredient were the organic soybeans, at $46 for a 25-pound bag. The sorghum, corn and wheat were all less that a dollar per pound though, meaning that we got 150 pounds of grains for about $140, which sounds like a lot, until you consider that -

a) This should last us close to a month, being fed this porridge once per day (for now they have a lighter breakfast meal of pig chow, bread products and kitchen scraps)

b) Organic is always more expensive, and finding organic/non-GMO corn & soy is getting very hard.

c) This diet won't go on for more than a month or two. When the goat milk and garden food streams start flowing, we'll be able to reduce the amount of purchased feeds for our piggies.

d) If you believe the feed conversion rates that I've been reading about, ad nauseum, feeding three pounds of these high quality, high protein feeds equal one pound of pork. So, $140 worth of grain = 50 pounds of hormone-free, organic, happy pork. Keep in mind that that number is based upon the grains alone, and doesn't count the nutritional contribution of the goat milk, kitchen scraps, etc.

e) If all else fails, we can eat the grains that we bought for our piggies.

It's possible that I've grossly miscalculated everything, and these will be the most expensive, spoiled pigs on earth. It is also possible that I will have tried something non-conventional and slightly risky, and end up rewarded with ribs and chops that are to die for.

The proof will be in the puerco. ;)

Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin Scones (eggless)

What to do when autumn-induced baking fever hits at the same time as your hens go on strike?

Well, I could...
a) Break down and buy eggs (pish-posh! As if!),
b) Google "eggless baking" and get a lot of questionable-looking vegan muffin recipes, or
c) Throw caution to the wind and try a recipe that calls for eggs, but without the eggs.

Don't mind me, I'm just living on the razor's edge over here. ;)

I came across a Spiced Pumpkin Scone recipe that looked promising. The original recipe only called for a single egg anyway, and I'd recently seen an article that suggested that a whole mess of fairly common kitchen ingredients that could stand in for an egg in baked goods - applesauce, mashed banana, flax seed meal, whole milk yogurt, etc. So, I gave it a whirl. The result - delicious! The recipe that I used compares these pumpkin scones to those available at Starbucks. And they do taste a lot like Starbie's scones, but are actually lighter-textured and appreciably less dense than the original.

Soft, flaky, spiced and very lightly sweet - Autumn comfort in a pastry.

Spiced Pumpkin Scones

Recipe via SweetPeasKitchen.com, with my fudges noted.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup and 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves*

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger*

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1-inch cubes

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (about half of a roasted, small Sugar Pie pumpkin)

3 tablespoons half-and-half**

1 large egg**

*Save yourself the trouble and substitute pumpkin pie spice instead, if you have it.

**I substituted 1/3 c. plain whole yogurt for the egg and half & half

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with fit the paddle attachment, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, half-and-half and egg (or yogurt). Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into a 1-inch thick rectangle about 4 inches by 12 inches. Use a large knife to slice the dough making three equal portions. Cut each of the portions in an X pattern (four pieces) so you end up with 12 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes*, or until light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

*Mine needed 20 minutes to bake through.

I'm still fiddling with a few maple/brown sugar icing recipes to drizzle on these scones. I want big flavor in an icing that dries to have a nice crunch when you bite into it, but so far, I'm not thrilled with what I've been able to come up with. Guess I'll have to make more scones...

By the way - I also added about 1/4 cup of dried sour cherries to a batch - fantastic. I plan to try some with dried cranberries and/or maybe a teensy bit of finely diced candied ginger (that stuff packs a PUNCH), just to see which tweaks, if any, bring a little something extra to an already really good, really wholesome scone. 

Recipe: Easy, Homemade Biscuits & Dumplings

My basic biscuit and dumpling recipe are one in the same. These are just so easy to whip up, and are made using wholesome, real ingredients that I guarantee you already have at your house. A batch makes 24 small biscuits and the ingredients only cost around fifty cents! Beat that, Pillsbury! ;)

Chelle's Biscuit & Dumpling Mix

*2 cups all-purpose flour
*4 tsps baking powder
*1 tsp salt
*4 tbsps butter (cold)
*1 cup milk

Whisk dry ingredients together well. Cut cold butter into pea-sized pieces, and mix (but don't smash! You want lumps in your mix!) into dry ingredients. Add milk and mix until just incorporated.

If using as dumplings, drop by spoonfuls into simmering soup. Simmer with the lid on for 5 minutes, then 5 more minutes with the lid off or until the dumplings are cooked through, and mostly dry on top. Sprinkle with paprika, if you are so inclined. Serve.

If making drop biscuits, drop by heaping tablespoons onto a well greased or non-stick cookie sheet (I actually use a 24-cup mini muffin pan for my biscuits most of the time). Bake @ 425 for about 10-15 minutes. Biscuits need to be cooked hot, but don't stray too far - they can burn pretty quickly!

Variations-

*Replace some or all of the butter with lard or rendered bacon fat
*Add 1/2 - 1 cup of parmesan cheese or grated cheddar cheese
*Use seasoned or garlic salt in place of the regular salt
*Add a few fresh or dried herbs - chives, marjoram, parsley, rosemary, etc.
*Use buttermilk instead

Red Lobster-style Biscuits-

Follow main recipe as listed above with the following changes/additions -

*Add 1 cup shredded cheddar to the mix
*Replace regular salt with garlic salt
*When fresh out of the oven, brush biscuits with a generous amount of melted butter, then dust with a little garlic powder or garlic salt.

Enjoy!

How to Use Up a Lemon

Although we aren't super hardcore about it, our family tries to eat both locally and in season, as much as is possible.

When you live by Mother Nature's clock as we try to, you have to move fast to get your fill of what is ripe and ready while the getting is good, and, if you're lucky, manage to sock away a little extra for an upcoming rainy day via freezing, drying or canning.

Right now in the Pacific Northwest, we're well into our apple, blackberry, salmon and end-of-the-garden frenzies. Sun up to sun down is filled with food saving chores - harvesting, foraging, juicing, canning, dehydrating, smoking... you get the idea. Apple fatigue is setting in big time. But - and I have to remind myself of this occasionally - if I use what I have now, carefully and completely, then I probably won't need to purchase anything apple-y in the coming year. And if I can apply this attitude to a food that springs forth from my front yard with or without my help, then I certainly could and should apply the same rule to "exotic" foods that have taken a long boat ride (or series of truck rides) to get here to me. A prime example of this sort of rarefied foodstuff is my beloved Meyer lemon.

Up here in the maritime PNW, citrus doesn't grow, ever, at all. Therefore it must be shipped in, usually from California or Florida. So for us, buying citrus is a bit of a splurge both in terms of cost per fruit and the number of food miles racked up to bring it to our neck of the woods. As a result, I attempt to eke every last bit of sunshiney goodness out of every lemon, lime and orange that I buy. This is how I use up a lemon.

The peel:

I usually zest or grate the peel before cutting into the fruit to eat or juice. The zest can then either be used immediately, dried or frozen. Use a pinch here and there as needed to add zing to custards, sauces and vinaigrettes.

Once in a great while, instead of zesting the peel, I'll candy it.

Remove the spent pulp and the pith, reserving both.

Put the trimmed, sliced peel in a sauce pan and blanch at a simmer for 45 minutes. Drain peels and replace water with fresh water. Add an equal measure of sugar to make a simple syrup. Bring to a roil, then reduce to a simmer and let "poach" for about 45 minutes.

Let cool, then drain peel, reserving syrup. Air dry candied peels for 30 minutes, then "shake & bake" them in a bag with granulated sugar.

Lemony goodness!

The Pith:

The pith is arguably the most useless part of a lemon. It's spongy and bitter tasting - yuck. I've found just one use for the pith besides the compost heap - the garbage disposal.

That pith and pulp that you saved from the last step? Put it down your disposal while running some hot water to give your kitchen a burst of lemony freshness. I also think that the citric acid helps clean and break down greasy build up in your disposal and drain, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. ;)

The Pulp/Juice:

Whether you're eating the fruit by the slice or segment, or simply juicing it, odds are this is why you bought the fruit in the first place and already have grand plans for it. Nevertheless, I'll share a few of my favorite uses with you.

Soon to be blackberry lemonade!

Blackberry Lemonade

serves 4

*Juice of 5 lemons, diluted with an equal amount of water

*Simple syrup, made from 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar

*1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries

Put fresh squeezed juice and water into a pitcher, set aside. Simmer 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar together over medium to medium low heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture has reduced and thickened to the consistency of a thin syrup. Let cool.

Add frozen or fresh berries to the cooled simple syrup and muddle/mash a bit. Pour berries and syrup into the pitcher with the lemon juice and water. Taste, adjusting sweetness/tartness ratio to your liking.

Meyer Lemon Drop

Serves one

*1 (generous) shot of "Whipped" vodka

*1 ounce of Meyer lemon simple syrup (byproduct of candying peel)

*Granulated sugar for rimming

Mix vodka and simple syrup thoroughly. Serve either on the rocks or up in a fancy glass with a sugared rim. Sit in a lawn chair and enjoy. ;)

Scrumtrelescent!

Recipe: Osborne Family Applesauce Birthday Cake

This cake is another of my amazing Great Aunt Ethel's legendary treats. She would make an applesauce cake every year for each one of her siblings on their birthday. Keep in mind that she had twelve siblings. Therefore, she got to practice making this cake a lot!

Unfortunately, this is not Aunt Ethel's exact recipe. That, sadly, has been lost to me, so this is my best effort at making the cake from memory. And, believe me, do I have memories of that cake. When you only get one slice, once per year, you savor every speck of it and commit the experience to memory.

The coup de grace, the icing on the cake, if you will is just that - the icing.

Aunt Ethel always made this cake with a peanut butter frosting. So simple, and so dang good.

So without further slobbering rambling, I give you, the traditional Osborne birthday treat, Applesauce Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting. :)

Cake Ingredients-

1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla (can be left out if using boozy homemade applesauce)

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups applesauce  (Made from sliced apples that were left over from making "Apple Pie in a Jar" liqueur*.  But of course, your favorite store bought or traditional homemade applesauce would work just fine.)

1/2 cup golden raisins

Directions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, cream the butter. Add the sugars and continue mixing. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla, then mix until well blended and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the applesauce. Fold in the raisins. Pour the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan and bake until firm to the touch, about 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in the pan, then turn it out and allow to cool the rest of the way before frosting.

Frosting Ingredients-

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups +/- confectioners sugar

3 tbsps +/- milk

Whip butter and peanut butter until well mixed. Add 2 cups confectioners sugar, a little bit at a time until well incorporated and fluffed up. If you're happy with the thickness/consistency of your frosting, stop there. If you'd like a more spreadable consistency (more icing than frosting), then add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well between each addition, until you reach the desired consistency.

A really bad photo of a really good cake. This one made with cream cheese frosting, per my youngest monkey's request.

Slice up and serve, as dessert or as a really decadent birthday breakfast, with a big cup of strong coffee. :)

*Apple Pie in a Jar - Cored, thinly sliced apples, steeped in whipped vodka (or bourbon), brown sugar, vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick for 4 weeks. Add "Buttershots" liqueur for that extra buttery, caramelly flavor dimension. AMAZING.

Homemade Goat Treats

So, I'm still not 100%. Some days, I don't even feel fifty percent. I can't do "real" farm chores yet, so I sit on my duff all day and think of stuff I can do.


We've recently started milking Sidney, our 2 1/2 year old Alpine doe. Rather, Bill has started milking her. He said that she is a decent milker, but she loses patience with being milked the second that her food is gone. I wondered if I could make a milking treat that would be too good to refuse. Ergo, the Goatmeal Cookies.


I googled "homemade goat treats" and got 90% items containing goat. No. So I sort of winged my "recipe"


Goatmeal Cookies
Makes 12-15 Half-dollar sized cookies


1 big carrot, grated finely
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
2 slices crumbled oat bread
2 tbsps +/- Unsulphured molasses
1 tbsp water
sea salt


I mixed and mashed all of the ingredients until the consistency was like overly moist stuffing, then shaped it into pinball sized rounds that I patted flat (a la a hamburger patty). I dusted the tops of the "cookies" with a little extra sea salt, since my goats are nuts for it! I baked them at 300 degrees on a non-stick foil lined cookie sheet for about 20 minutes, until firm and nearly free of moisture.


The goaties dug them! Woohoo! Next batch I'll try adding some grated apple as well, and maybe some kelp powder or sunflower seeds too. It sure is gratifying to feel like, even though I'm not the one taking care of our critters, in my own way, I am taking of them. ;)

How to: Homemade Vinegar

Making homemade apple cider vinegar is as easy as…well, pie. Sure, it takes a little longer, but it also lasts a lot longer than that pie would have anyhow, and it doesn’t go to your hips. ;)


A jug if apple wine vinegar in process. The only difference between this and apple cider vinegar is the yeast that I used to initially ferment the apple juice into alcohol.

Although this process is easy-peasy, there is a term that you’ll see here that you might not be familiar with - “the mother” (or scoby, mushroom). This refers to the jellyfish-looking blob that resides in a “live” vinegar. It is in fact a cluster of cellulose and acetobacter bacteria, which love to eat the alcohol in your hard cider, and in return, produce acetic acid which gives vinegar its signature tang. The mother is your friend, and if you give her what she needs, you can keep a mother culture going indefinitely.
The quick and easy method for making your own Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)-

You will need-
1 clean quart jar
3 cups hard apple cider
1 bottle of store-bought organic ACV with the “mother” (Bragg is the brand I use)
1 rubber band
8x8 piece of cheesecloth or muslin (folded in half and half again to be 4x4)
Patience

Clean and rinse your quart jar very thoroughly. Remember we’re setting up an environment for bacterial organisms to thrive in, but only the ones we want, so be sure to wash any lurking bad guys out of there first.

Pour your hard cider into the jar. Next, add ½ cup of the store bought ACV, including as much of the mother as possible.

Place your cheesecloth across the top of the jar and rubber band it into place, then store it in a dark, warm place. (Mine is in the back of the cupboard above my stove.)
Forget about it for at least 6 weeks.

I fish mine out of the cupboard and start “sniff” testing it after 6-8 weeks. The longer you let it go, the better, so long as your vinegar-in-progress doesn’t show any signs of being invaded by contaminants. If, upon checking in, you see no signs of the mother, re-inoculate your cider with still more of the store bought ACV and give it some more time. Usually, once the mother is well established, it is pretty easy to keep “her” happy with fresh infusions of alcohol. (On this method of placating mom, the mother and I are in hearty agreement.)

A taste test will let you know without a doubt whether or not your vinegar is done. For the seriously scientific, you can also purchase an acid testing kit (sold at wine & homebrew stores) to verify acidity. Most commercial food vinegars are diluted to about 5% acidity. My vinegar was closer to 6% and while still being totally safe to use, oh, what an eye-watering difference that 1% makes!

When your vinegar is done to your liking, strain the finished product (no more that ¾ of the jar’s worth) into yet another clean jar or bottle with a firm sealing lid. This is your finished product. Now, go back to your mother jar, and fill ‘er up again with your alcoholic spirit of choice, put the cheesecloth covering on and send her back to her dark and cozy hiding place for another couple of months. The rate of conversion from alcohol to vinegar is directly proportionate to the surface area of the mother, so age your cider-come-vinegar in the largest diameter vessel you can reasonably manage for a faster turnaround time.



A view of the mother in my rhubarb wine vinegar.

The taste of your homemade vinegar depends a lot on the taste and quality of the cider/wine/beer that you start with, so if you want to guarantee a great vinegar, splurge a little on a bottle of your favorite cider or wine. Or, if waste not, want not is more your speed, use the collected dregs from various bottles of wine or cider and give them a go with the mother. Why not?

We make our own wine, cider & beer here on our little farm, so we always have a ready supply for my vinegar experiments. I have made ACV and rhubarb wine vinegar with our homemade wine & cider. I’m looking forward to “vinegarizing” some dandelion and rosehip wines soon, and want also give malt vinegar a try with my husband’s home brewed stout, if I can ever manage to sneak a little away.

Additional tips –

*Use a glass or lead-free ceramic vessel for aging and storing your vinegar. Plastics can etch and harbor bacteria or leach funky flavors into your vinegar.

*I use a plastic screw-top lid on my finished vinegar, so as not to have corroded metal-flavored vinegar.

*A clean, folded kitchen towel or paper towel can be used in place of the muslin/cheesecloth, as long as air is able to pass back and forth through the cloth while your vinegar is converting. Mother needs to breathe!

Quick and Easy Chevre Cheesecake

Things are finally starting to wind down on ye olde farm for the season. Our does are nearly dried off - hallelujah! - but in the mean time, we're still getting a few quarts of milk each week. Between the milk, and eggs that we're getting from our hens (who are all in ultra-high gear and laying like maniacs), I've been desperate to find ways to use my abundance of dairy and eggs. What luck, then, that I should have stumbled upon a recipe for a Fresh Goat Cheese Cake that, in addition to using more than an half-pound of chèvre, also calls for a half-dozen eggs per cake. Bingo!

You can absolutely use store-bought goat cheese for this recipe, but in the event that you, too, are swimming in goat milk, and want to go full-on Martha Stewart about it and make your own goat cheese for your cake, it just so happens that I wrote up a homemade chèvre how-to for todayshandmade.com just last week. Crazy how these things come together... ;)

Either way - try this cake! It is so much simpler than any other cheesecake that I've ever made and would work equally well as a sweet or savory dish. I'm working on figuring out a spinach, artichoke, tomato version and will post it here if I ever get it hammered out to my liking.

Anyway - get cooking and enjoy!


Fresh Chèvre Cheesecake-
Adapted from Goat Cheese Cake with Mixed Berries by Emily Luchetti

•11 ounces chèvre (or other mild, fresh goat cheese), allowed to come to room temperature
•¾ cup granulated sugar
•1 ½ teaspoons fresh lemon juice
•1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
•1 teaspoon real vanilla extract (or as is my preference, vanilla infused bourbon)
•6 large eggs, separated*
•3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a 9-inch cake pan, then dust with granulated sugar.

In a medium bowl, combine the goat cheese with the granulated sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract, and beat at medium speed until smooth. Add the egg yolks, 2 at a time, incorporating them completely before adding the next two. Lastly, add the flour, beating it into the cheese mixture at low speed.

In another bowl, and with clean beaters, whip the 6 egg whites until firm, but not dry (firm peaks that are smooth, not lumpy).

Fold 1/3 of the beaten whites into the cheese mixture at a time, taking time to incorporate the eggs well before adding additional whites.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan, and bake for about 40 minutes. (I began checking mine at 3-4 minute intervals after the 32nd minute, just to avoid overcooking.)

Remove after 40 minutes, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool, dress with a topping of your choosing and serve. Enjoy!

Instead of the berry topping suggested in the original recipe, I used what I had an abundance of on hand at the time – apples. I peeled, cored and sliced three apples into eighths and stewed them with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and still more of that lovely vanilla infused bourbon. The resulting topping was a little soggier than I’d aimed for, but the taste was pure Autumn apple goodness.



*If you are using homegrown eggs like I do, you may opt to measure your eggs by weight rather than by number. Since they are not cookie-cutter factory farm produced eggs that all look and weigh the same, there will be more variance in size and weight. You should aim for about 2 ounces (in-shell weight) per large egg called for in your recipe.

Recipe: Homemade Cajeta (Goat Milk Dulce de Leche)

-1 Quart fresh goat's milk
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 vanilla bean, slit lengthwise
-1/2 cinnamon stick
-1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1/2-1 tsp of water

Heat the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and cinnamon stick over medium heat, in a heavy pot. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to boil gently.

Remove from heat, still stirring, and add your dissolved baking soda. The mixture will froth/foam up a bit, but can be stirred down fairly easily.

Return the pot to the heat. Reduce heat slightly (I change the setting from 5 to 4). Continue stirring until you feel like your arm is going to fall off, about 45 minutes to an hour.

At some point during your endless stirring, you should notice your milk mixture beginning to deepen in color. The intensity of flavor increases with cooking time/darkness, so you can decide when the color, flavor and consistency look right to you. I stopped mine at the point where it coated the back of my spoon, and was a butterscotch pudding color.



Pour your finished cajeta into a glass container - you DON'T want to put molten-hot liquid candy into plastic, trust me. The cajeta will keep in the fridge for about a week. Let me know if yours ever lasts that long. ;) You'll also want to get your pan soaking in hot soapy water ASAP, as the caramel is like hardened epoxy once it has cooled completely.

Your quart of milk should have reduced down to about one pint of caramel. Cajeta can be used as a topping (try it with coffee ice cream!), a little sweetness in your coffee, or as my friend Libi says, poured straight down your throat. Enjoy!

Recipe: Stinging Nettle Pesto & Nettle Egg Noodles

I don't tend to post too many recipes on this blog for an assortment of reasons, the main one being that I am a slacker - writing up a recipe is hard for a lazybones like me. It certainly doesn't help that I'm somewhat of a lax cook as well; I almost never measure ingredients, and I add and tweak right up until the food hits the plate. I throw in odd bits of this and that as the spirit moves me, and therefore, A) never make anything exactly the same way twice (which cuts both ways, I assure you) and B) have a hard time putting my ingredients and methods into words that make sense.

But I had to post these recipes because they are not only earth-muffiny as all get out (thumbs up!), but are also great tasting and relatively easy to make. Let's cook with nettles!

My first go with harvesting and cooking nettles had me making a fresh nettle pesto. The recipe that I used was from Fat of the Land. The original recipe can be viewed here. The following recipe is my twist on the FOTL recipe.

Stinging Nettle Pesto

-2 cups (cooked) blanched and drained stinging nettles, squeezed-dry and chopped well (about 6 cups raw)
-1/2 cup +/- of Parmesan cheese
-1/2 cup raw, unsalted walnuts
-5 or 6 large garlic cloves, peeled
-1/2 cup +/- olive oil (I usually go for more. Nothing worse than a pasty dry pesto!)
-Fresh squeezed juice from 1 lemon (2 or 3 tbsps worth, I'd guesstimate)
-Salt & Pepper to taste

Just like any other pesto, you basically just pop everything into the food processor and whiz it up to your preferred consistency, adding additional oil and seasonings as you deem appropriate. (If you didn't take to heart my earlier disclaimer about not being a recipe writer, consider the proceeding recipe "Exhibit A". I hope that you'll try it anyway!)

Our second night of cooking with nettles had them in a less highlighted role, as the "spinach" in my homemade egg noodles. If you have a homemade pasta recipe that you like, simply add about 1/4 cup of blanched, squeezed dry, finely chopped nettles to your dough during the initial kneading and mix through well. Boom. That's it. If you're still game to try one of my recipes, well here you go:

Nettle Egg Noodles

-3 cups flour (plus extra for rolling out)
-2 whole eggs
-4 egg yolks
-2 tsps salt
-2-3 tbsps water
-1/4 cup blanched, well drained, chopped stinging nettles

Start with your flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle for your eggs & yolks. Gentle scramble the eggs with a fork, slowly beginning to incorporate the flour/salt mixture. Once the eggs and dry ingredients are well mixed, begin adding water in small increments, kneading and squeezing the dough together after each addition. Continue adding water as needed to the dough to reach your desired consistency. Now it's time to fold in the nettles. Knead them into the dough well, until the are mixed evenly throughout. Allow the dough to rest for 10 or 15 minutes before rolling out.

If you're lucky, you have an eager helper, just waiting to make a mess of your kitchen for you. Mine's named Scarlet.



This represents about 1/2 of the noodles produced. The rest went into our chicken soup.



Mmm, Mmm, Good!



The girls gobbled this up, not in spite of the nettles, but rather (at least in part) because of the nettles. They thought that it was pretty cool to eat something so "scary". Having them help with the preparation always demystifies new foods a little too. They always have seconds when they're the sous chef. ;)

They weren't the only ones pleased with these recipes. In fact, I want to get back out there and pick some more nettles while the getting is still good. I want to make some nettle tea. Nettles are purported to have numerous health benefits, including anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine properties and are said to also be helpful in the relief of symptoms of osteoarthritis. They also pack a ton of vitamins A & C, and according to various sources, when consumed as a whole (not in tea form), contain anywhere from 10-40% protein, the second highest plant source, next to hemp.

So this is me, encouraging you to expand your food horizons. Give wild food a try! The satisfaction of foraging your own is parallel to that of growing your own, without having to hoe a single row or live in fear of locusts or late blight. Mother Nature sweats the details, all you have to do is get out there and pick. ;)