Today Kim came over to play at my house!
First we took a walk, taking our foraging basket, kitchen scissors and gloves. Between the back door and the garden, we harvested all we needed for a wildcrafted lunch, some infusions and teas, cheese flavoring, healing oil, and some experiments.
I made a pot of chevre cheese last night, ready to be finished this morning. Kim grated zest from a lemon and an orange with a microplane (if you've never used one, go immediately to your nearest kitchen store and add a microplane to your essential kitchen tools), gently mashed the zest into some of the chevre, then added a few drops of orange essential oil to zing the citrus flavor.
Then she rolled the chevre into little "logs"...
and put them in ziplock snack size bags. Perfect! Incidentally, chevre freezes very well.
(Um...sorry about that Kim, I know that's not your tongue; it's a knothole in the background. Very poor planning on the part of the photographer...)
Kim's next concoction involved chives and dill, freshly snipped from the garden, and a pinch of salt.
Looks yummy, yes? It tastes even better than yummy! Good job, Kim!
Once you start messing with cheese additions, it's hard to stop! The next flavor combo was honey and toasted pecans. A swirl of honey, then rolled in the pecans - magic!The final important step, is to make sure each package is labeled. Flavor and date.
While Kim blessed her personal touch to the cheese, I created our salad from the greens we had gathered. Spinach, arugula leaves and flowers, lamb's quarters (better known as "weed") and chives from the garden, young dandelion leaves and tiny baby plantain leaves from the yard, garnished with viola flowers from the flower bed, sprinkled with toasted walnuts.
Our stir-fry ingredients, sauteed with coconut oil, included fresh asparagus, some red pepper for color (this was a REALLY GREEN lunch!), onion (from our garden last season), bok choy, mushrooms, and lamb's quarters (that weed again). A small amount of grilled chicken breast added some protein. I sprinkled in some Pampered Chef Asian Seasoning, the perfect touch for a simple stir-fry.
I had some Greek soup already made in the fridge, so we heated that up, too. It is made with ground turkey breast, onion, garlic, chicken or vegetable broth, and any greens I happen to have handy - usually spinach, or lamb's quarters, or nettles. Sometimes all of them!Then we put it all on the table, and prepared to feast!
The ice cold tea was made with peppermint, catnip, alfalfa, and spearmint. I keep a quart of it brewing in the fridge - a wonderfully refreshing summer drink.
Kim finished off the stir-fry, while I lingered over the last bite of salad. The dressing was made from cashew butter (like peanut butter only with cashews), a bit of tamari, lemon juice, chives and garlic, some nutritional yeast, a pinch of chili powder, blended with enough water to make a pourable dressing. Devine!
While in the garden, we didn't even try to resist the perfectly ripe strawberries. Kim says she may never buy another strawberry from a store... We savored the sweet sweet berries with a slice of the Honey and Toasted Pecan chevre.
Now don't you want to come play with us?!
The ice cold tea was made with peppermint, catnip, alfalfa, and spearmint. I keep a quart of it brewing in the fridge - a wonderfully refreshing summer drink.The herbed cheese does nicely with a hearty cracker such as harvest wheat or whole grains. The more delicate flavors of honey and citrus shine on a buttery plain type cracker.
I'm a strong advocate of eating (and shopping) from local sources. We were quite smug with the satisfaction of creating our lunch with exceptionally nutritious, fresh ingredients we had harvested less than 100 feet from the kitchen. Doesn't get much more "local" than that! The chevre cheeses and fromage blanc, which was crumbled over the salad, were made from milk that traveled less than 1200 feet after I milked the neighboring goats.
I'm a strong advocate of eating (and shopping) from local sources. We were quite smug with the satisfaction of creating our lunch with exceptionally nutritious, fresh ingredients we had harvested less than 100 feet from the kitchen. Doesn't get much more "local" than that! The chevre cheeses and fromage blanc, which was crumbled over the salad, were made from milk that traveled less than 1200 feet after I milked the neighboring goats.
Kim finished off the stir-fry, while I lingered over the last bite of salad. The dressing was made from cashew butter (like peanut butter only with cashews), a bit of tamari, lemon juice, chives and garlic, some nutritional yeast, a pinch of chili powder, blended with enough water to make a pourable dressing. Devine!
While in the garden, we didn't even try to resist the perfectly ripe strawberries. Kim says she may never buy another strawberry from a store... We savored the sweet sweet berries with a slice of the Honey and Toasted Pecan chevre.
Now don't you want to come play with us?!
1 comment:
It's dinner time and this makes me really, really, really hungry.
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