Homestead Braindump

...because I'm too lazy to make multiple posts outta this stuff.

• When we got home from vacation, we noticed Kung Pao was spending a lot of her time in the nest box. Eventually, we realized she was spending ALL of her time in the nest box.  She got all puffy when you got near (good thing she wasn't a RIR, or we'd never have been able to get to the eggs!), she had plucked all of her tummy feathers and was VERY warm.  From what I've read, the 2 best ways to discourage broodiness are to lower their body temperature and to make them as uncomfortable as possible on the nest.  First, I hoped stealing her eggs would work, then I moved her off her nest several times a day, then I put an ice pack in the nest box, then we started dumping her in buckets of cool hose-water.  Nothing.  She is now quarantined in an elevated dog crate in the yard.  It's drafty, uncomfy and at the very least will hopefully keep the broodiness from spreading.  Although, nick said he spotted another of the girls without tummy feathers.  ugh.  This is definitely affecting egg production.  

Get away from my nest!

Do I look comfortable to you?!?

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Souffle aux Epinards

Aka: Spinach & Cheese Souffle

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Souffle de Poisson

We have a freezer full of Spanish Mackerel and Nick asked me to do something different with it.  I asked Julia what I should do with it, and this is what I found.  I'd been reluctant to try it because I've always had such terrible luck with meringue and other whipped egg whites, but Nick wanted something different and not only have I never made a souffle for him or anyone else, but neither of us has ever been served one.

I'm gonna deviate from my usual strategy of giving you a working overview of the recipe, because the original was a (necessary) 8 pages.  Instead, I'll just skim over the steps.  If you want to make it, Go get the book already!

 Get a 6c souffle dish, butter it and sprinkle it with grated cheese.  

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Beurre au Citron... on Broiled Spanish Mackerel

I'm not a huge fan of fish.  As a matter of fact, as far as I've been concerned, if it isn't beer battered and fried maybe it shouldn't be eaten at all.  Now, admittedly, today's recipe prolly is just as fattening (thank you, Julia) but my hope was that at least it'd help broaden my palette.  At least Beurre au Citron only calls for 1 stick of Butter, Beurre Blanc calls for 4!  You heard me, a whole pound of butter.

Julia was Right

...when she said fresh eggs poach much more easily.

Of course, I first broke them into separate dishes to investigate and check for blood spots.  Apparently thin shells, no yolks and blood spots are all more common in the small first eggs.  Our chickens have been on layer feed probably a little longer than they should have been, so the shell was anything but thin.  Thankfully both of our tiny eggs had tiny little yolks to match and were blood-spot free.

Aren't those yolks yellow?

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Concombres aux Champignons et a la Creme

aka: Baked Cucumbers in a Mushroom Cream Sauce

Baked Cucumbers?  Yup... that was my first thought when I read it too.  However, I am swimming in cucumbers (among other veggies) and getting a little sick of canning/freezing everything... AND it's been a while since I mastered any new French Cooking.  

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Eggs Benedict, Julia Style

I have to admit, Eggs Benedict is a totally American invention and not included in the awesome tome that is MtAoFC.   BUT, Eggs Benedict is an English Muffin topped with Canadian Bacon, a Poached Egg & Hollandaise Sauce and Julia does include 2 basic Hollandaise Sauce Recipes (and of course more variations than I care to think about) as well as an awesome tutorial on poaching an egg.

Hollandaise Sauce
Julia gives 2 separate recipes for hollandaise sauce.  One for an electric blender that she describes as "fool-proof" and one by hand.  Why would you make it with a whisk when the blender recipe is so easy? "...we feel it is of great importance that you learn to make hollandaise by hand, for part of every good cook's general knowledge is a thorough familiarity with the vagaries of egg yolks under all conditions."  Yeah Julia, thanks.  Maybe another day, but I've got to get to church on time this morning, I'll just grab the blender.

A blender, mind you, which could have easily been in Julia Child's 1960's kitchen.  Don't hate, it's awesome.  I did have one of those margarita blenders, but I traded my brother for this glass-jarred beauty when he got a place of his own.  Figured he'd get more use out of it.  

Cultured Buttermilk & an Accidental Aspic

Life has a way of messing up even the best laid menu plans.  My grandfather-in-law passed away this past week and we now find ourselves driving to Wilkes Barre, PA to pay our respects.  Seriously, I’m typing in the car (thanks for the inverter mom!) while John Cleese tells us where to go.  Now, instead of a Superbowl Party, we’re going to be out of town today and Instead of having all day Monday to make French Onion Soup and prep Chicken’n’Biscuits for Tuesday, it all had to be done before we left. 

Friday night after dinner, while I was making French Onion Soup, I tossed a 1 lb. Chicken breast in a very small casserole covered in foil to bake.  When it had finished and I was sure it was cooked through, I tossed the chicken, juices and all, into the ‘fridge still hot and just as I had baked it (thank goodness for glass shelves!)  The Chicken’n’Biscuits called for cooked chicken.  It also called for homemade whole wheat buttermilk biscuits, which I can’t wait to try but I didn’t have time to make butter anymore so I had bought cultured buttermilk.  In my browsings on the interwebz, I learned that if you put a cup of cultured buttermilk in a jar and topped it off with regular milk you can make your own cultured buttermilk.  It’s way easier than making your own yogurt because, unlike yogurt, the bacteria in buttermilk can work at room temperature.  So, I pulled out a big jar (cleaned thoroughly), added a cup of buttermilk (still plenty in the carton for my biscuits if it doesn’t work out) and topped it off with skim milk from the springhouse.  I put my jar in a cupboard and left it there for 24 hours.  As I understand, if you do this with heavy cream instead of milk, you’ll get sour cream. 

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Quiche Aux Fruits de Mer

aka: Shellfish Quiche (Lobster, in this instance)
pgs: 149-150

2 cups of flour worth of Julia Child's Pie Crust Recipe
2 tbsp Minced Shallots or Green Onions
3 tbsp Butter
1/4 lb cooked fresh or canned crab, shrimp or lobster
1/4 tsp Salt
Pinch of Pepper
2 tbsp Madeira or Dry White Vermouth
3 Eggs
1 c. Whipping Cream
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1/4 tsp Salt
Pinch of Pepper

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Soupe a l'Oignon Gratinee

aka: French Onion Soup with Croutons and Cheese
pgs 43-45 Mastering the Art of French Cooking (ed. 1)

Recipe

5 c. Thinly Sliced Yellow Onions (I used 3 c. cuz Nick's gma had written  that 2.5 were sufficient)

3 Tb  Butter

1 Tb  Oil

1 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Sugar  (I used organic raw sugar)

3 Tb Flour  (I used whole wheat and you'd never have known)

2 Qt Boiling Beef stock  (I used organic "Better than Bullion" to make my stock)

1/2 c. dry white wine or dry vermouth

Toasted Rounds of French Bread (I used whole wheat croutons I made from leftover bread) 

Sliced Swiss Cheese or Gruyere

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Potage Parmentier

aka: Leek & Potato Soup
pgs. 37-38

Ingredients
2qt Water
3-4 c. Peeled & Diced Potatoes
3 c. Thinly Sliced Leeks
1 Tbsp. Salt (I thought this was WAY too much and won't be putting nearly as much in next time)
4 to 6 Tbsp. Whipping Cream
Parsley

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Quiche Lorraine

aka: Mastering the Art of French Cooking from the Pantry

Dinner tonight was going to be Ham'n'Swiss pie made with my homemade bisquick and leftover Christmas ham. I had everything on hand for that recipe.  Then, I got to thinking how similar it is to a typical French quiche and decided to find out what Julia had to say on the subject.

Quiche Lorraine is a cream and bacon (or ham) quiche.  At first, I wasn't gonna share this little French experiment with you because I did some substituting and adding, but that is the life of a home cook, isn't it? I used the ingredients I had on hand and customized it to my tastes (something even Julia encourages when it comes to quiches, because they are so easily customizable).

You start out with a half-baked pie crust (pgs 39-46).  The recipe, per cup of flour, follows.  I used 2 cups worth, which was enough for a n 9 inch pie plate and some tartlets.
1c. All Purpose Flour (3.5 oz)  (I used whole wheat)
4 tb. Butter
1 1/2 tb. Vegetable shortening (I used palm)
2 1/2 to 3 tb. Cold Water (I wound up needing 4 1/2 but that may have been because of the flour)
1/4 tsp. Salt
pinch of sugar

I then started out with a basic quiche lorraine recipe:
3 eggs
3 or 4 oz ham cubes or boiled bacon
1 1/2 to 2 c. Whipping Cream or Half and Half (I mixed milk & sour cream)
1/2 tsp Salt
pinch of Pepper
pinch of Nutmeg
1 to 2 tb. Butter

Mix it all together and I added a little parley, a handful of mozzarella, 2 diced roma tomatoes and 1/4 diced yellow onion.

The instructions are to pour in shell and bake 25-30 minutes @ 375.  at 30 minutes.  At 30 minutes, I still had soup in a pie crust.  I added another egg, turned the oven up to 400 and gave it another 45 minutes.  Luckily, it did eventually puff up and solidify, but I was scared there for a minute, and the extra time gave the crust quite the browning.

The crust, despite being whole wheat, is incredibly tasteful and flaky.  Whole wheat can sometimes detract from more delicate foods, but not in this instance.  The filling is flavorful and fluffy.  It def gets my vote all around!

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Soup a l'Oeuf, Provencale aux Pommes de Terre

Ok, I am by no means attempting to mimic the Julie/Julia Project, but about a month ago I got my hands on a first edition copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and swore to myself i'd make something out of it once or twice a month and here I am a month later, barely getting started.

Most people have never cooked out of this cookbook for the simple reason that it really isn't a cookbook.  It doesn't read like one, anyways.  It's basically a cooking textbook.  Today's recipe, for example, took 3 pages of instructions (more if you count the 2 pages it referred to on poaching eggs), though it took only an hour and 15 minutes to make.  It's daunting, and it was not written for people who have our understanding of what it is to "fix dinner".  It was written for obsessive housewives of the 50s and 60s.

I started flipping through soups, the first chapter in the book and this was the first one I was ready to attempt that Nick thought would be filling enough, and to be honest it's a mashing of two recipes: Soup a l'Oeuf, Provencale (Garlic Soup with Poached Eggs) and Soup a l'Ail aux Pommes de Terre (Garlic soup with saffron and Potatoes).  They are both variations on Aigo Buido (Garlic Soup).  The recipes can be found on pages 46-48 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, First Edition but here is my quick synopsis of it.

INGREDIENTS:
One head of Garlic
2 qts Water
2 tsp of Salt
2 Cloves
1/4 tsp Sage
1/4 tsp Thyme
1/2 Bay Leaf
4 Parsley Sprigs
3 tbs Olive Oil
3 c. Cubed Boiling Potatoes
6 Fresh Eggs
Toasted French Bread Rounds

Separate cloves, but do not peel.  Boil for 30 seconds.  Run under cold Water.  Peel.

Put Water, Peeled Garlic, Spices & Olive oil in pot (I chose a saucier, she said sauce pot) and simmer for 30 minutes.

If you chose a sauce pot, strain contents through collander into saucier, if you started out in saucier, skim to make sure you have removed cloves, garlic & bay leaf.  Mash garlic with fork or food mill and return it to soup.

Poach eggs in soup.  If they aren't as fresh as you'd like, boil in shell for 10 seconds before cracking.

Set eggs aside.  Add cubed potatoes and simmer for another 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.  Add eggs back to warm up.  

Fill bowl with soup.  

Add toasted French Bread Rounds.  

Top with eggs.  

Top with Swiss or Parmesan Cheese.  

Enjoy!

P.S. If you're as nebby as me, here are the Julie/Julia Project posts where she tackles these soups.  

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/11/08.html

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/11/15.html

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/11/20.html