Venison

It's deer season in Ohio, and as I write this, my husband is sitting in our woods with his shotgun. Venison is a very healthy meat. It has less fat, calories and cholesterol than beef. It is also wild, organic food.

Some people look at deer hunting as cruel, or as an activity for "rednecks." They couldn't be more wrong. My husband's family has been hunting deer for generations. It is a time-honored tradition. Deer are treated with respect and dispatched as quickly as possible. The meat is never wasted. It is a more humane way of getting meat than the methods used by factory farms that supply the supermarkets.

Because venison is so lean, it must be cooked carefully. It has a tendency to be tough if not handled properly. It's not a meat to be put on the grill. Tenderloins can be fried, but most of the cuts of meat should be cooked in sauce or gravy. Some people like to make summer sausage, but I'm not crazy about it myself. I like to prepare venison in the slow cooker with a mushroom gravy or hunter sauce. I also like to can it. Canned venison is almost like shredded beef and is very tender. The recipe below came from my husband's Aunt Cheryl in Minnesota. When canning, always be sure to follow your canner instructions carefully and use all food safety precautions.

Aunt Cheryl's Canned Venison

1. Make a bouillon brine, using 2 beef bouillon cubes to one 1 cup of water. (The amount you make will depend on how much meat you are canning.)

2. Cut venison into chunks.

3. Fill canning pint jars with meat up to 1 inch from top of jar. Add 4 tablespoons of bouillon brine and 1/2 tsp. of canning salt to each jar. Put lids on jars as directed in your pressure canner instructions.

4. Process venison at 10 lbs. of pressure for 75 minutes, or 15 lbs. of pressure for 60 minutes. Remove and cool as directed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For most of us, this week will be a busy one! There is the Thanksgiving meal to plan and buy food for and cook. Or there are travel plans to make. Or both! And, of course, Christmas is just around the corner. But during this busy time, don't forget the reason for all the fuss. Remember that the Thanksgiving meal is a true blessing, and when you sit down to break bread with loved ones, it is the perfect opportunity to really think about what nourishes us. I wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving!

Great Fish Recipe

I've been looking for more vegetarian and seafood meals to cook for my family. It had been a while since I had found a great seafood recipe, though. My husband is a meat-and-potato kind of guy, and I need delicious recipes to get him to eat healthier. Last night I tried a recipe that I saw on David Rocco's Dolce Vita on the Cooking Channel. It was great! It uses a sweet and sour sauce made with balsamic vinegar. Very different, but delicious. The recipe calls for sea bass (or branzino), but I used tilapia. It worked great. The link to the recipe is below.

Branzino alla Max - Italian Fish Recipe

Soup Weather

It's November now, and the garden has now been put to rest for the season. Before pulling up my tomato plants, I picked the several green tomatoes that were still on the vines. I've been putting them in my kitchen window and letting them ripen there. They aren't the same as the tomatoes picked ripe off the vine, but they are good!

Nothing tastes better on a grey November day than a hot bowl of soup! I've had the following recipe for years and have tweaked it over time. Everyone I've made it for loves it!

California Chicken Soup

64 oz. chicken broth (recommended: Imagine Organic Free-Range Chicken Broth)
1 pound chicken, cooked and cubed (recommended: organic, pasture-raised chicken)
1 small onion, diced
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 3/4 tsp. lemon pepper
1 tsp. oregano
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. parsley
2 bay leaves
15 oz. package of cheese tortellini
grated romano cheese

1. In a stock pot, combine all ingredients except tortellini and cheese. Bring to a boil.

2. Add tortellini and reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 25-35 minutes.

3. Remove bay leaves. Serve with romano cheese sprinkled on top.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Toasted pumpkin seeds, or pepitas, make a tasty and healthy snack. And why throw away all of those seeds when you carve your jack o'lantern? It does take some time to make them, but they are worth it!

The first step to making toasted pumpkin seeds is to rinse all of the pulp off of the seeds. This is the time-consuming part! Next, you need to let them dry. I like to wrap them in a dish towel and swing the towel around a few times to get most of the water off of them. Then I spread them out on wax paper (I've tried paper towels, but they tend to stick to the paper) and let them dry overnight.

When you are ready to toast the seeds, preheat the oven to 250 degrees. You need to mix the seeds with oil or butter and whatever seasoning you like. I mix the seeds of one pumpkin with 2 tbsp. of olive oil and a teaspoon of garlic salt. Toss in a bowl until all the seeds are coated. Spread them out on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for one hour, tossing them every fifteen minutes. They should be golden brown when done.

Cool the seeds before eating. You can store them in an airtight container for 3 months, or refrigerate up to one year. But they probably won't last that long!!

Happy Halloween!!

Lessons from the Garden

As colorful leaves begin to fall from the trees, and the cool autumn temperatures announce the end of the growing season, I've been thinking about what I have learned from my little garden. A garden is a grand teacher, and my little plot has taught me a lot.

I've learned that with a little planning and thought, anyone can grow healthy, organic food. There are many methods of gardening, and the key is to find the method that works in the time and space that you have. Square foot gardening worked great for me. And if I can do it, with my notorious black thumb, anyone can!

Gardens are very forgiving. I made several mistakes along the way, but my vegetables grew in spite of them. Gardens don't demand perfection, only care.

My little garden also taught me that this wonderful place that I live in has a rhythm all its own. Plants will sprout and bloom at the right time - no sooner, no later. The timing in my garden may be different than the timing in someone else's, but it is perfect for this place. I just need to trust and be patient, and the fruits of my labor will come. And isn't that a perfect metaphor for life?

Perhaps the greatest lesson that I have learned during this adventure is the true love of food. When you really love food, you care about where it comes from and how it was grown. You treat it with respect, because you realize what a blessing it is. You savor each bite with a grateful heart. And when we slow down and approach what we eat with care, we then take better care of ourselves - physically and spiritually.

I am already excited about next year's garden. I plan to build one or two more gardening boxes. I am going to try my hand at a larger variety of vegetables and also plant some heirloom tomatoes! This year's garden isn't done yet, though. I'm still enjoying a few vine-ripened tomatoes and green peppers - and keeping a watchful eye on the weather. :) It will be sad when the last of the garden is gone, but that, too, will be a lesson.

The Last of the Basil

Now that we've had our first light frost, it's time for me to use up the last of my herb garden. My basil did wonderfully late in the season, and most of it survived the frost. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon making pesto with it. I love to eat pesto over pasta, and there are several recipes that call for pesto as well. It can be frozen for up to six months, and freezing it in ice cube trays is a convenient way to store it. You can just grab a couple of pesto cubes at a time.

Traditionally, pesto is made with pinenuts. I've never had much luck finding pinenuts in this area, though. The few times our local grocery store has had them, they were in very small bags, stale and overpriced. I started making my pesto without pinenuts, and later I read that this is how the French make it, calling it "pistou." Pesto is very easy to make. No cooking!

Basil Pesto (without pinenuts)
makes approx. 1 1/4 cups

3 c. fresh basil leaves
3 cloves garlic
3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy. Use immediately or freeze.