Buying local means...no celery

I have no celery but I want to make a potato salad. So what did we do? We went out in the yard and cut down a thistle. It looks and tastes very much like celery when cut and trimmed. Most people cook the stem if they are going to eat it. But it was great in this potato salad. It didn't keep long though so I would recommend making just enough to eat in a day or two.

The thistle in the yard


The gear


The thistle hunter hard at work trimming off the leaves




The stem trimmed of leaves


Trimming off the fine hairs on the stem and the outer stringy part


The stem all ready to use


Split...they are looking more and more like celery


Tastes like chicken! I mean celery....


Add your favorite potato salad fixins
Local farm fresh eggs


Potatoes of course and yummy sweet onions from the farmers market


Canola Mayo and some Dijon mustard


Finshed! Yum!

Art blog tag

Looks like I have been tagged byDiane

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to me for tagging you
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share 6 unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 blogging friends.

Six Unimportant Things About Myself...

1. I drink a LOT of coffee
2. I don't like telephones or talking on the phone
3. I have been making art since I was tiny
4. I am uber messy
5. I am currently an almond M&M addict
6. I haven't painted in weeks! (Which is very rare for me)

My virtual studio

I just opened a virtual studio in second life (tm). If your a member check it out on axis mundi.

Apple Pie on the fire!

I have been wanting a pie iron for a while now. We found one at our local hardware store (they have everything at Henery Hardware). So I made some pie dough with gluten free flour and instead of lard I used a spectrum vegetable shortening. I also made an apple cinnamon filling. Then I just pressed the dough in the bottom of the cast iron pie form and then put some filling on. So it would not be too dry I added some rhubarb jam that I had made a few days before. I added about as much as I thought would fit in the pie form and then added the top. I pinched the dough together and put the top of the form on. Then I stuck in in the fire and checked on it every couple of minutes. I think it may have taken about 8 or 10 minutes in the coals and it was done. A perfect apple pie on the camp fire!

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That isn't a racoon that is Binah! Looking at the pie iron hoping we will give her a bite of pie.

Rhubarb Dessert

mmm Rhubarb plus apples and cinnamon topped with a buttermilk dough. YUM!

Pot O' soup with fresh noodles

I threw some of the left over homeade noodles in with whatever veggies were in my garden and at the farmers market last week. I added some water (you could use any kind of broth for more flavor) and I had a yummy homeade soup. This one has carrots, cabbage, leek, rutabega, and some kind of purple green that I don't know the name of.

Recipe for those crackers

Ok I am bad about following any kind of recipe...so this is sort of what I did to make the crackers.

I cut 3 tablespoons of butter into 3/4 cup of bobs red mill gluten free all purpose flour. (Cut like you would if your making a pie crust my house is cold so this is a challenge...I used a fork because I don't have a pastry cutter). Then work in 1/2 or a bit more cup of cheddar cheese (measured after grating) into the dough. Don't let the dough get too warm from your hands or you will have mush. Think grandma's pie crust trickyness. Yup. Then add a dash of salt and some dried dill. Blend one egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of water and add. Start working the dough add more water as needed. You want a firm dry dought not a sticky one.

Then I make my dough into a bit of a flat shape before I roll it out. You don't want to have to use too much flour to keep this from sticking at this point or the crackers will have a lot of flour on the outside when you eat them. It doesn't absorb as much as it would with a wet dough.

Roll out, cut and then back at 350 for about 8 minutes.

Gluten free crackers

I have been making my own gluten free crackers lately. It isn't as hard as I would have thought! It was pretty easy actually. I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour. This recipe just has some butter, a little salt, a lot of shredded orange cheese, an egg and a little cold water. I added some dill too The texture was flakey and it was like a better version of a cheese nip.

Local & Home grown food

With food and gass prices rising I decided to try to cook as much as I can from veggies from the farmers market in the nearby town and the food I grow in my yard. A couple of weeks ago when the market started there was not a lot to chose from. But it was fun thinking of dishes to make and it even got me to like rutabegas. Not jerusalem artichoke though...I am still not fond of that.

This is what I had to work from:
Rutabega and Jeresalem artichoke


Purple flowering greens of some sort and leeks


Greens and beets


The first night I made pasta from scratch and added a rutabega, leek and carrots that had overwintered in my garden


I also added some mustard greens and herbs from my garden and garlic


Here is the pasta rolled and cut by hand


And the dish:

Bella the New Boss of the House

It's Bella! Our new baby-thinks she is a big dog-kitten. Yes I said she thinks she is a dog.

Planes, Boats, and boots!

My new stuff available on second life (TM).