Potato leek soup

Granted, it's not the most creative thing to do with leeks and potatoes, but read any cookbook or blog or farmers' market flyer and it's probably listed as the number one suggestion for leeks.

I see no reason why we should be any different in this case since it's just so effing delicious.

It's the first thing I make with the season's leeks and I like to make a big pot so that I can freeze it for later.

Potato Leek Soup
Ingredients
5 cups of chicken, turkey or vegetable stock
5 leeks, white and light green parts sliced into 1/4" rounds
5 russet potatoes, peeled, quartered
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 T salted butter
Black pepper
Sea salt
If you like it creamy rather than brothy, 1/2 cup of milk or cream, too

To make
In a large heavy-bottomed soup pot, melt your butter over medium-low heat. Once melted, add your leeks and garlic and cook until softened. Don't burn the damn garlic, please.

Add your potatoes and mix them up with your leeks and garlic, pour in your stock, bring to a boil and then turn to low heat and cover to simmer for about half an hour.

Turn heat off and puree with a stick blender or move to a standing blender.

Add cream or milk a few tablespoons at a time until it's the right consistency, add salt and pepper to your liking (in my house this means ADD LOTS), toast up some bread, make a big salad and go to town.

Enjoy.

Our favorite winter salad

I guess technically, this is a "slaw", but who really knows the difference between salad and slaw?

Not I.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the greens are cabbage rather than lettuce, but I'll tell you that it does NOT include mayo, which in my mind is what makes something slaw-like.

And I don't enjoy mayo in my salad. Just no.

But I do enjoy cabbage! And apples! And cilantro! And wouldn't you just know that it's winter in NorCal and we have these things in abundance all at the same time.

Handy, that.

Which is one reason that this recipe for our favorite winter salad, adapted from an old recipe out of Real Simple magazine, has made a lot of winter appearances over the last oh four years.

I think it's hit the table one night a week from November through April for the last four winters. And not just because we have cabbage coming out of our eye sockets, but because it's fabulous, fast and easy to make, and gives us something to tell our moms so that they can be proud of their kids.

"Look mom! I'm eating my roughage instead of, like, Cheetos or something!"

Yeah, I can hear their chests swelling with pride right now.

Anyway, for the fast, easy, tasty, chest-swellingly prideful favorite winter salad recipe, then...

Cabbage Apple Slaw

Recipe adapted from Real Simple

Our changes in bold

Print this recipe below with the PRINT button. Yeah. That's easy enough.

Ingredients

3 T extra virgin olive oil - the good stuff

3 T apple cider vinegar or champagne vinegar  

1 T local honey 

1 cabbage - Napa, green, savoy, red - whatever you have is fine, chopped small

1 sweet and tart apple - we like Pink Lady, sliced thin-ish

1 bunch of cilantro,  washed really well and chopped

1 small bunch of chives or green onions, chopped

Sea salt

Cracked pepper 

To make

In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper into a frenzy or whatever you call "emulsified" in your house. 

Throw in your chopped cabbage, apple, cilantro and onion and toss well. Continue tossing every few minutes until all of the dressing has magically disappeared into the salad - sorry SLAW. 

If you have the time, let it sort of rest for about 15 minutes and then serve with whatever main dish you have going or just eat it by itself and then call your mom to tell her that you ate one of the healthiest vegetables for dinner in great quantity and she can stop worrying that you've ruined your life with junk food. 

 

Home composting Step 2: Building compost

So, tell me - in the first post when I mentioned common composting issues like the compost smelling awful or never turning into usable compost, did you totally nod your head?

Did you slightly nod your head while looking around to make sure that no one was watching you admit your shame?

Yeah - it's OK. We've been there. We've had the stinky not-working-right compost. We've had the bowed head shame.

But now we're going to change that. Right here and now, we're on the road to recovery! Or, at least, the road to not-stinky home composting.

Let the healing begin.

Remember, Step 1: Kitchen Collection.

This was where you got yourself a nice airtight container (so no bugs can play in your house while the kitchen scraps collect throughout the week) with a sturdy handle (so you don't have to EW touch the compost when you take it out) that has all of the YES! kitchen and household scraps written on one side of the container and the magic compost recipe on the other.

You got yourself a nice storage bucket for the carbon that makes its way into your house all week (newspapers, paper towel tubes, oh my word all of that junk mail and even those phone books they insist on delivering even though there's the Internet) and started filling it up.

Maybe you even started taking your scraps and carbon out to your compost pile/bin/tumbler to get rolling.

Let's roll. Or compost. Or whatever.

Good - let's go to Step 2: Building compost.

1. Shred that carbon
   

   

   Remember: When you make a compost heap - you must shred it. Shred it good. Sing the song if it helps.

   
   
   Seriously, friends. I do not jest. Big sheets of newspaper, giant swaths of cardboard - it will not do. Specifically, it will not break down properly in your bin unless you shred it up. The more rough surface area for the friendly bacteria to work on in there, the better.
   
   Put all that paper through your home shredder, tear it up by hand, make your kids do it as their after school activity - whatever. Just get it broken down a bit so that your compost can make use of it.
   
   And, if you have a lot of carbon, it might be worthwhile to do this activity in big batches and then store the shredded carbon in a big sealed container near your bin so that you can quickly get at it when you take the kitchen scraps out.
   
   But that last one is just a suggestion. You do what you need to do.


2. Stir that compost
   
   
   
   Once you're out at the compost site with your kitchen scrap bucket (held by its handle because EW) and your super shreddy carbon, take a look at the compost you've got going (if you have any going) and give it a little stir with a garden fork to introduce some new air.
   
   Even if you have a tumbler, this is a good practice and more effective than just spinning the thing around like a wild man. Or woman - women can be wild, too.
   
   Check the condition of the pile and keep that in mind as you add your scraps, carbon and water.
   
   Is it dry?
   Is it a big super damp blob?
   Are there bugs flying all about?
   Does it smell like holy hell?


3. Add your scraps
   
   

   

   Oh yeah - that roasted Brussels sprout and Delicata squash dish was good.

   
   Then, once you're done being wild and interrogating your compost, dump your kitchen scraps on that pile.


4. Add your shredded carbon
   
   
   
   Then, if your compost passed muster during interrogation, add twice as much shredded carbon as you did kitchen scraps and move on to Step 5.
   
   
   If your compost was super damp, had bugs flying all about or smelled like holy hell, cover the entire pile with a layer of shredded carbon and mix it in with your garden fork. Then add another layer of carbon to the surface of the pile.
   
   This will absorb some of the excess moisture, keep the bugs down and work toward drying that blob out.


5. Add water
   
   
   
   If you've arrived at Step 5 without having to add extra carbon, now you can lightly water the carbon layer on your pile, close up shop and go on to Step 6. Also, good going, Composter Supreme.


6. Rinse and repeat
   
   Rinse out your kitchen scrap container and dump that water in your composter or around a nearby plant and you're done.
   
   

   

   Apple tree says thank you.

And that's basically it.

Every week, just like you do with the garbage that goes to the street, haul your (much lighter) kitchen scrap collection container out to your compost pile/bin/tumbler with your shredded carbon, stir it up, survey its condition, add your scraps, add your carbon, add your water and rinse.

Depending on the size of your operation and the temperature (compost works quickly in warmer weather and slowly in cooler weather), you should have finished compost in six months or less.

Do remember though, that at some point you'll have to stop adding new kitchen scraps to the pile so that the whole pile can break down and finish.

When you've filled about 3/4 of your bin/tumbler with scraps, or you're a few months from needing your compost, stop adding scraps and start a new pile, letting this first one finish. Maybe let other composting fiends in your house to stop adding stuff to that bin/pile/tumbler, too.

Then keep up with the rotation so that when you empty your finished compost (leaving just a little bit behind as a starter for a new pile)  into your garden, you can start over anew adding scraps to it while letting the other pile finish processing.

It's a full circle thing.

Love on those mustard greens

For those of you who planted mustard seed this winter, good on you. And good on your garden.

It's good, is what I'm saying.

While it's busy fumigating the soil (really, it does this), you can eat it and imagine it fumigating your innards, too.

Does that sound bad? It's not. It's actually good. Mustard greens have cancer-fighting and cholesterol-lowering properties.

See - that sounds good. No one likes cancer anyway. It's a total jerk.

But do mustard greens taste good? We're not in the business of eating stuff *just* for our health, here.

Thankfully, it's quite good. And flexible - eat mustard greens as spicy sprouts, fresh salad greens or sauteed with ham steak and winter squash.

In case that last one got a raised eyebrow, here's a recipe we cook up often over the winter in order to keep the mustard cover in check and, you know, accompany a nice bottle of chilled Chardonnay.

Ham Steaks with Winter Vegetables

Serves 2
Ingredients
2 ham steaks, trimmed and cubed
1 Delicata squash, peeled, cored and sliced into 1" rings
1 bunch of mustard greens, rinsed and roughly chopped
2 T olive oil
Sea salt, pepper

To make
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil and add a bit of olive oil. Distribute your squash rings on the oiled foil (you know that rhymes, right?) and coat with a bit more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the squash is lightly browned and soft.

In a large skillet, brown your ham steak cubes over medium-high heat until brown on all sides. Your house will start to smell reminiscent of bacon and this is just a side benefit to making this meal. Enjoy that.

When your ham steak cubes are browned on all sides, add the mustard greens and saute with the ham until wilted.

Serve the ham and mustard saute with the squash and, of course, that chilled wine we were talking about before.

Let the fumigation begin.

 

Let's hang out

If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area today (Saturday, December 1) and *know* that you need to holiday shop but would rather just hide from the weather to drink and eat - I've got you covered.

No, really.

Bluxome Street Winery (MAP) is having their monthly Meet Market from 1-5p (12N if you're a wine clubber) today and it is everything I just said and more.

You can hide from the weather in their cozy and beautiful barrel and tasting room where it will be warm, joyous and full of wine, artisan food and local makers selling their handcrafted wares.

And we'll be there getting you growing food in the dead of winter.

No, really - again.

For $10 (+ stupid tax) you can sow a micro garden that will grow in your kitchen (or wherever - take it on vacation with you - that's not weird or anything) without any special lights or attention and then you can harvest it with your kitchen shears and put it on stuff.

Hello cuteness.

Like - you can put fresh sprouts on your sandwich. You can fancy up a soup. You can give the dog a new hairdo.

WHATEVER YOU WANT, is the point.

Grow your own organic harvest of sprouts and then you can do whatever you like with them.

You could even give this cute thing as a gift.

Also, it's only $10 (+ stupid tax), so you could get a couple, give a few to your garden-lusting friends and then keep one for yourself.

After you've grown your micro harvest in under two weeks (seriously, it's that fast. Awesome.), you'll have a great jar which can then do tons more things.

These guys have some good ideas what those things may be.

You could even do one of these things with the jar and then give it as a gift without it even being considered regifting.

TOTAL SCORE.

Anyway, it'd be great to see you at the winery today and I'd super love to sow a micro garden with you.

Cheers. Happy holidays. Happy day drinking. Happy growing. All that good stuff.

Cabbage beef soup

If you have a lot of cabbage lying around and you also need a meal that will reheat well for a solid week, this is your man.

Well, your soup. 

You know what I mean.

After you make this soup and want to reheat it over the next (5) days, just toss in a bit more shredded cabbage to liven it back up a bit. Cabbage can also be shredded and used as a garnish. 

You can use a lot of cabbage with this recipe is what I'm trying to say.

Cabbage Beef Soup

Adapted from Cabbage Beef Soup, The Book of Regional American Cooking: Heartland

Ingredients
1/2 large cabbage head, shredded
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 cups tomato juice (use your own preserved tomato juice here if you have it)
1 cup water
14 oz beef broth
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
Small handful black peppercorns
1 pound extra lean ground beef, browned and drained
2 tablespoons dried dill weed
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

To make

Combine cabbage, onion, tomato juice, water and beef broth. Bring to a boil. 

Add molasses, Worcestershire sauce, salt, bay leaf, peppers and pepper. Crumble in ground beef, dill and garlic powder. Simmer 30 mins, stirring occasionally.  

Too Big Coleslaw

Sometimes when I'm making dinner (or breakfast or lunch), I get lazy. Also, afraid.

In the case of coleslaw, I'm always faced with a fearful question:

Use the mandoline to shred the cabbage or chop it by hand or otherwise?

I'll tell you how many times the mandoline was the answer - once.

And then when I realized how close my limbs came to being sheared off by its unforgiving blade (despite the food stabber attachment that comes with it to "guide" the food through the blades and allegedly save your fingers), I retired it to the garage forever.

It's just too scary.

So, when faced with a shredding task, I'll either take to the knives or I'll haul out the food processor.

In the case of this coleslaw, I went for the knives and ended up with a sort of Too Big element to the cabbage.

I, personally, liked it because I got more of a cabbage flavor out of the coleslaw, but not everyone's going to feel that way. Some people like it to be shredded finer so that the coleslaw has a more scoopable way about it.

I'll let you sort that out though, depending on how death-defying you are in your kitchen tasks.

 Too Big Coleslaw

Ingredients
1/4 head of red cabbage, chopped wide
1/4 head of green cabbage, chopped wide
1 carrot, sliced wide
1/2 c cider vinegar
1 T celery seed
2 T mayo
1 T sugar
1/2 T fresh ground black pepper

To make:

Mix this whole mess in a big bowl and let it sit for about 10 minutes while you get forks and drinks and things. Serve it up alongside some pulled pork tacos and feel free to jam some in the tortilla. It's best that way. And then you also don't mind the Too Bigness.