fresh picked produce

This past weekend, we went on down to Reedley, to my wife's folk's house. Being that it is the month of July, and her father is a gardening fiend, a trip to their house is like a trip to the market. As usual, we picked stuff for a few hours before packing the car and heading back home, this time resulting in a whopping 111 pounds of produce. Which come to think of it, is about half of our all time biggest load.

While visiting, I was speaking with my father in-law about our recent jam adventures and intentions of preserving stuff from this trip. He mentioned some of the things his mom used to "put up," including elderberry and blueberry when the berries had a good year. His reference to putting up food struck a chord with me. It reminded me of being very small and wandering into my grandma's pantry to stare at the multi-colored glass jars filled with food. He meant preserving and putting on the shelf for storage too, and coming from a child of the depression, this was something nearly everyone did. It wasn't considered liberal, or hippy or new age. You weren't considered weird or even strange in the least bit. You had an excess of a particular kind of food, so you feasted on it and then preserved it for later. No contemplating whether you needed to, or should. No pledging to folks that you would. You just did it.

So are we. I guess that makes me a child of the depression. Only this one is defined as the time when we forgot for the most part, how to grow, prepare and preserve our own food. We rely on others for our processed food needs, keeping the source obscured, cheap and distant, resulting in a massive depression of another kind marked by excess filled with emptiness.

As I write this, we have golden ketchup, seasoned tomato sauce and dried figs. There are peaches to jam, dry, or cut up for freezing. Plums to eat. Not pictured was corn and carrots. There were a number of white onions. That paper bag was half filled with green bell peppers and these light yellow, medium-hot kindamagigs. After picking up a pork roast, tomatillos and jalapeños yesterday, I've been having fun with chile verde in grandma's test kitchen today, and the aroma is making me weep with happiness.

Keeping this one short today, so I gotta go. Gotta stir, peel, chop. Salt and boil. Try not to burn the hell out of myself in the process. A lot of work, that will be yummy later. September and beyond is going to be delicious.

Time to put up.

respecting my eldgers

Elder bloggers. Not older in years on earth necessarily, but on the food blogger scene, certainly. They come with experience and attitude. They should be respected more. So here, I will pay mine to two.

One is a meat master.
The other is mad.
They both rock.
And roll.

(can I get a drumroll and E-chord please)

Okay....First. Dr. Biggles recently commented that I will no longer be known as D-man over at the Henge. His logic was bulletproof. Monkey Wrangler is far better than D-man. I figured I should listen to the wise ways of the master, who with a site so exquisitely named, obviously has the upper hand in discerning title recognition. An image of the mythical meat heaven came to mind, and I saw a big red-bearded angel engaging in discourse with a file clerk:

"You know, maybe you should uhhh, change your HELLO MY NAME IS tag Bro."

"Yes, yes Mr. Meathenge.......I mean, Sir Angel of Meat. Thank you, I'll get right on that!"

So, I went into my Blogger profile and updated it. From now on, my posts will be signed Monkey Wrangler. D-man still exists. He's right here. He just has a better, more modern and descriptive title. You can still call me D-man if you want, many of my friends do, and it's easier to sign, but if I were a real livestock rancher, my critters cows say, I'd be a cattle rancher right? So if the animals I tend to are little and pink, somewhat hairy, that often screech and break stuff, have incredible strength and the ability to climb everything, I'd be a monkey wrangler. Which I am.

Thanks Biggles. This picture of St. Patty's Day pork butt and brisket goes out to you.....it's a bit out of focus, as I was.



Second. Cookiecrumb had been experimenting with a recipe of mine, and I believe her version was better. Why? Because I made my own version of hers. Really, that makes this a version, of her version of my version, of my grandmother's version of my great-grandmother's version of rice torte.

Do I hear another version? Any takers?

Cookiecrumb's version was brilliant in it's use of maitake paired with asparagus. Funny thing is, my family version doesn't have mushrooms anywhere near it, but my winter take on it did. While my use of trumpets instead of say, crimini, were a nice change, cc's take on using maitake instead was perfect. I tried it that way and was very impressed. I will qualify all this by saying that mushrooms in a rice torte change the character of it completely, and with veggies other than zuchinni in it, it is certainly not grandma's.

It is something new and exciting and worth a try. Thanks for the take on it cc! This is one that will be had again and again, during the winter and spring while awaiting the tender young summer squashes. So yeah, you could easily call that an "Intant Tradition." And since she didn't give you a recipe of a recipe of a recipe, I will. It goes something like this:


CRUMBY WINTER RICE TORTE

1 bunch asparagus (1 pound)
1 large yellow onion
4 ounces maitake (hen of the woods) mushrooms
10 ounces baby spinach
1 large carrot
2-8 cloves garlic

1 c arborio rice
4 c milk
1/2 stick butter

6 eggs
1+ c grated dry jack

simmer rice in milk and butter (in a small covered pot) with salt and pepper to taste, until tender but not completely done (about 20 minutes). while cooking rice, saute chopped onions and mushrooms, along with thinly sliced carrot in olive oil. when onions are translucent add chopped asparagus and garlic. saute until most of moisture is gone and the veggies are soft. toss in spinach and saute until it begins to wilt. remove from heat and set aside. crack the eggs and mix with grated cheese. combine the rice, veggie saute, and egg/cheese mixture and fold thoroughly, (being careful to temper your eggs into the mix if the ingredients are hot enough to cook them). pour into a 13x9 inch glass or ceramic dish and sprinkle with more grated cheese. if the ingredients are hot going into the dish, then no need to grease it as the mix will melt it and incorporate your well intentioned plans, making this step unnecessary. bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes, depending on the initial wetness of the mix in the pan and the degree of brown you like on the top. and like cc's version, save the nicest looking tips of the asparagus to impress your friends with cool projectile toppings. serve with beer, or wine, or water. it's all good.

Thanks eldgers. For paving the way, and showing us newbies where the trail is.......