Hounds In The Kitchen » Recipes & Meals

We Love Garlic Scapes

Rachel — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:57:15 +0000

What is it?

Garlic scapes are the magical-wand-like flower shoots of the garlic plant. They emerge in late spring and contain a small bud that will become a flower if left on the plant.

Many farmers, including me, prefer to cut the scapes away. The theory is that instead of the garlic spending energy growing the allium blossom, it will focus on the bulb.

The scape is edible at this early age. Many farmers include them in June CSA shares. Others sell them at the farmer’s markets.

Eating Garlic Scapes

As with all vegetables, I encourage cooks to taste the garlic scape raw as a first step to using it in recipes. I find it has a mild garlic and onion flavor. The texture is dense and stringy in wider parts of the scape but palatable raw in the thin ends.

Young scapes are very curly. Choose these for the most tender bite. The flower bud can also be eaten and tastes like the rest of the scape with a hint of bitterness.

If you enjoy the scape raw, toss it in salads or use as a garnish. You can also blend it with basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper to make a delightful pesto sauce. We’ll be eating scapes that way at least once this week.

If you aren’t a fan of raw garlic flavor, try cooking with the scapes. Chop finely and use as you would use garlic or chives. In larger chunks, a garlic scape is a savory addition to stir fry, frittata, or quiche. They can flavor rice or quinoa dishes.

If you find yourself unable to fit them into your menu, freeze the scapes whole with the rest of your vegetable scraps for the next time you make stock.

Our family <3s garlic scapes, does yours?

PS. I asked Lil to arrange the scapes for me to photograph and she came up with the heart. How cute!

Added to Hearth and Soul First Year Anniversary.

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We Love Garlic Scapes is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Friday Five: Loving Home

Rachel — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:10:42 +0000

It has been one strange week here.

On Sunday I was awash with disappointment as the chance to travel to California with Alex slipped from our hands. On Monday, I made no plans. Good thing, because the next three days were spent nursing an ill Lillian and surviving the ice storm. She tested positive for strep and has a viral cough on top of that. Today she is still home from play dates and school recovering with a low fever and icky cough.

Amazingly, I am not stir crazy. Instead, this week gave me five new reasons to appreciate my simple life and home:

1) Chickens: Our girls and their need for care in the winter motivated me to step outside the house each day, something I admit I might not have done otherwise. I slip-slided my way to their coop to refill water and give treats at least twice a day, absorbing sunlight and breathing fresh air as I went.

2) Real Chores: To keep the fire going, I moved wood in the house. I washed dishes, did laundry, and cooked real food. Though they may seem like simple tasks, when addressed mindfully, keeping house was rewarding for me.

3) Food stores: We have a lot of food in this house. Dozens of jars of home canned fruits and vegetables sit in the basement alongside pounds of flour and a freezer full of meat. Though icy branches creaked and breakers burst, I knew we could stay inside and eat well for many days, probably even weeks.

4) Warmth: In the afternoon each day this week I started a fire in our wood stove. It wasn’t easy because our most recent delivery of wood is entirely big pieces and the ice prevents me from splitting it. But I did get fires going, leaving me confident that even if the electric power failed in the ice storm I could keep Lil and I warm.

5) Support: Friends and family overwhelmed me with offers of assistance this week. There were phone calls, facebook and twitter conversations, and food delivered. I am so grateful for the virtual and in person encouragement.

Alex was the only thing missing this week and he returns this evening to complete our loving home.

PS. Are you on the Hounds in the Kitchen newsletter list? There’s a simple sign up form to the right. I’m making a big announcement there next week!

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Friday Five: Loving Home is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

A Day in the Slow Life

Rachel — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:33:45 +0000

The only pictures captured Oct 19 are of the tandem bike

Annette of Sustainable Eats recently shared a day in her life and challenged others in the slow food lifestyle to do the same.

It is an interesting idea to compare our individual days. What chores do we share? What aspects of our routine are unique? What can we learn from each other? Why call it ‘slow life’ when we are so busy?

At any rate, here’s what I did this Tuesday October 19, 2010:

7:45 am Wake up and get dressed with yesterday’s clothes
8 Drop off Devie at the vet for surgery to address an eye ulcer
8:15 Return home, shower, dress in clean clothes (Lil and Alex still sleeping)
8:45 Eat half a Pattycake sticky bun and cup of coffee while posting pumpkin seeds recipe
9:15 Drive to Franklin Park Conservatory
9:30 Meet with Julia Hansel, education director, to brainstorm topics of kids and family cooking classes for 2010-2011
11:15 Return home, greet Lil and Alex for the day, start re-arranging basement to make a play area for Lil and better storage of home canned goods
12:15 Reheat homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch, pack Lil’s preschool snack with crackers, apple, and kefir
12:45 Preschool drop off
1:15 Come home, begin making pumpkin puree from homegrown pie pumpkins
2:00 Take pictures of our tandem bike for sale
2:15 Finish pureeing and packaging 11 cups of pumpkin puree.
2:30 List Franklin Park events on the events calendar
3:00 Preschool pick up, play/chat with friends at playground
4:15 Return home, stopping at Clintonville Community Market for produce
4:30 Move a few more things in the basement
5:45 Pickup drugged Devie and meds from the vet
6:30 Return home, cook and eat polenta with roasted beets and goat cheese inspired by my friend Vanessa’s recipe. Lil cries during dinner because she doesn’t want to eat or get herself an alternative
7:30 Bedtime routine, including extra cuddles with healing Devie
8:15 Watch a little TV and drink wine while reading blogs, checking in to facebook and twitter
9:30 Realize I can barely keep my eyes open (seriously, this sinus infection or whatever it is WILL NOT GO AWAY) but continue to surf
10:30 Finally go upstairs, brush teeth, and settle in to bed with a short chapter of The Cook and the Gardener

What goes on in a day of your life?

This post added to Simple Lives Thursday.

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A Day in the Slow Life is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Tips to Save Time Cooking

Rachel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:17:24 +0000

I recently revealed that on a fairly average week, we spend a little less than 13 hours cooking. That’s a lot for some families, but there are ways to spend your time in the kitchen efficiently and still prepare whole food driven meals. Here are some tips:

Prepare or pack lunch the night before, ideally as you are cleaning up dinner leftovers.
Prep veggies for the week on a single day. Cut apples can be kept fresh in the fridge with a splash of lemon juice, carrot sticks can be kept upright in a little water, washed dry greens will keep for a few days in a barely closed container.
Build bread baking into your weekend routine. Maybe start it before brunch, allow to rise during, and bake after. Or, start on saturday night, rise overnight in the fridge, and bake on Sunday morning.
Unload or load the dishwasher as breakfast is cooking. I typically put a pot of oatmeal on the stove, heat up water for french press, and then unload the dishwasher as those are cooking. By the time I sit down five minutes later, the kitchen is ready for the day.
Keep knives sharp. Sharp knives cut better, saving you time and making the task more satisfying.
Plan simple meals. Home made cooking need not be complicated. Soups are great simple meals often made in one pot. Vegetables can be roasted alongside a simply seasoned serving of meat or tofu and served with a salad.
Use leftovers. Eat them as is for lunch or transform into the next night’s meal.
Eat fresh raw foods. Sides at dinner are often cut fruit or veggies. Lunch usually includes a whole piece of fruit. Snacks are nuts, dried fruit, or veggie sticks. Not only are raw foods easy to prepare, they are great ways to get vitamins and fiber in your diet.
Use high heat quick cooking methods. Trim foods into bite sized portions and cook over high heat for a stir fry. Invest in a pressure cooker to cut roasting and bean cooking times by half or more. Use a hot pan and sauté individual servings of meat or tofu.
Try quick cooking grains. Pasta, quinoa, and couscous can all be made in under 30 minutes. Look for whole grain varieties to get a little more fiber in your diet.
Double your recipes. Freeze the extra portion for a quick heat and eat dinner sometime later. This works especially well for soups, stews, and casseroles.
Practice. The more often you trim carrots, peel potatoes, or bone chicken, the faster you become. As you become more proficient at cooking, it will also become more fun.

What helps you save time cooking?

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Tips to Save Time Cooking is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Time in the Kitchen

Rachel — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:13:26 +0000

We aim to make most things from scratch. To that end, we spend plenty of time cooking. Because we love to eat, cooking does not feel like a chore. Still, I was curious exactly how much time we spend in the kitchen.

Like last year’s gardening time study, I recorded every person hour in the kitchen this week. This was a fairly typical week for our three person family with one lunch at a conference, one dinner at friends’, one dinner at family, two dinners hosted here, and breakfast and lunch at home every day where not noted. Our menu for last week is here. There were also two ‘special’ events: sausage making and stock making. In sum, we spent 12 hours 40 minutes cooking this week.

The breakdown is as such:

Sunday – 10 min. breakfast, 2 hours sausage grinding and stuffing, 15 min. prep dinner at friends. (We snacked our way through lunch.)

Monday – 10 min. breakfast, 10 min. lunch, 30 min. beans, 20 min. dinner

Tuesday – 20 min. active bread mixing, 60 min. bread baking, 10 min. breakfast, 15 min. lunch prep, 20 min. food saving, 30 min. dinner prep., 15 min. dinner serving.

Wednesday – 10 min. breakfast, 10 min. lunch packing, 30 min. dinner prep, 30 min. making stock, 10 min. loading stock in freezer

Thursday – 10 min. breakfast, 5 min. knife sharpening, 15 min. cookie prep, 20 min. cookies baking, 10 min. lunch prep, 30 min. dinner prep, 30 min. dinner cook

Friday – 10 min. breakfast, 5 min. lunch prep, 5 min. afternoon snack, 30 min. pizza prep, 15 min. bread prep, 15 min. pizza baking, 60 min. bread baking

Saturday – 10 min. breakfast, lunch at volunteer event, 15 min. dinner salad prep (communal dinner with Rachel’s parents)

I know that nearly 13 hours sounds like a lot. For us it is time well spent because we enjoy cooking and eating simple made-from-scratch foods. We also know that home cooking is healthier than processed food and cheaper than dining at quality restaurants.

Coming later this week: Tips to Save Time Cooking

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Time in the Kitchen is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Our personal blog begins

Rachel — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:09:32 +0000

We cook a lot and most people don’t seem to do that these days. We’ll blog about interesting food finds here, as well as updates to our kitchen. We plan to renovate it in December 2008 – January 2009 to make cooking and eating even more enjoyable. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Our personal blog begins is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen. If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit [...]

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Our personal blog begins is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!