Day 15 of 2011, Like An All-Day Feast

When my mom got me up this morning, she had warm Apple-Cheese pancakes waiting on the table.  She'd come across the recipe yesterday afternoon when we were looking for recipes for lunch then, and we'd agreed it would be good to try for breakfast some time.  Omigod, the pancakes weren't just good, they were amazing.  The titular cheese was ricotta, so it didn't really flavor the pancakes in the way a stronger cheese, like cheddar, would.  Instead, this recipe really allowed the apple to shine.  The recipe suggested serving the pancakes with maple syrup, which I normally would find an excellent pairing for apple, but the pancakes were sweet enough from the grated apple in every bite that no other sweetener was necessary.  The only problem was that my mom had only made a half recipe, so there wasn't enough of the pancakes to go around.  Both of us spent the day craving more!  I think it was definitely the best new recipe we've tried all month.

Because there wasn't enough of the pancakes, I ended up making smoothies to augment our breakfast.  My parents had rearranged the freezers on Sunday night to fit in all the chickens we'd butchered.  I'd forgotten all about the strawberries from Thorpes that we'd frozen in June because they were in the freezer in the garage, but I rediscovered them with when the rearrangement had some of them transferred into the freezer in the kitchen.  I snapped them up at the first smoothie-making opportunity, which was this morning.  Just as I suspected, though, they weren't sweet enough in the smoothie on their own.  I turned to trusty old peaches, my all-purpose smoothie sweetener.  The mix of strawberry and peach was pretty unique, although it vaguely reminded me of strawberry-banana yogurt.

Lunchtime once again came and went without us eating, and we had a bit of an argument about food when we finally got around to figuring out what to eat.  We settled on having boiled potatoes (garden), corn on the cob (farmstand), and homemade bread.

Still tense from our debate over lunch, we procrastinated on starting dinner.  I had dance class again tonight, so at a certain point we had to decide.  My mom was leaning towards trying a recipe for Greek pizza that she came across earlier this month, while my dad and I were more inclined towards a soup recipe I'd come across yesterday when trying to figure out lunch.  My dad and I ended up working together on the soup because the Greek pizza called for mozzerella cheese, which we didn't have.

As I cooked, I made a lot of modifications to the recipe.  I used Jacobs Cattle Beans from Cayuga Organics in place of red lentils, garden Swiss chard in place of mustard greens, and Delicata squash in place of butternut squash.  The cookbook is called Eating Local, and I think that my modifications to use the local food available definitely fit the spirit of the book.  We all liked the soup a lot, although I think I'd make it spicier next time.  (Other ingredients included the Wild Card Item olive oil, various spices that were Marco Polo items, a dried red chili from Thorpes, and chicken stock that we made from the bones of one of the chickens I raised.)

While I was at dance class, my mom went to the Lexington Food Co-op to get Flour City's pasta.  It seems to be the only local store stocking that pasta currently.  While at Lexington, she also purchased three jars of White Cow Dairy yogurt.  This yogurt, produced from the milk of local grassfed cows, is sold in these ridiculously expensive tiny glass jars.  The flavors, though, are just so amazing that the occasional splurge is so worth it.  My mom bought Strawberry Rhubarb yogurt for my dad and I, while she purchased Lemonberry (lemon raspberry) yogurt for herself.  The Strawberry Rhubarb was almost to die for, but the Lemonberry was ten times better.  What a nice late-night snack!

As we were heading home from dance, my mom was saying that she can't keep living with fighting about every meal.  I think it's a bit of an exaggeration, but I know a lot of our discussions about what to eat in the past few days have been tense.  We ended up eating some pretty great food today despite it all!

~*~

Apple-Cheese Pancakes
from Moosewood Cookbook


1 cup cottage or ricotta cheese
1 heaping, packed cup grated apple (any kind but Delicious)
3/4 cup flour (you can use 1/2 cup white and 1/4 cup whole wheat)*
1 Tbs honey
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs sunflower seeds or chopped almonds**
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmeg or allspice
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp salt**

Mix everything together except eggwhites.  Beat these until stiff and fold into batter.  Fry pancakes in butter on both sides until brown.  Serve with maple syrup or preserves, sour cream or yogurt, fresh fruit, cinnamon sugar.  (Mix and match.)

*Laura's note: My mom instead used 1/2 cup soft white whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup hard red whole wheat flour.

** Laura's note: Omitted by my mom.


Spicy Bean Soup with Greens and Winter Squash
modified slightly from "Spicy Lentil Soup with Mustard Greens and Butternut Squash" in Eating Local


2 Tbs oil or butter
1 medium yellow onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
OR at least 1 tsp ground dry ginger
at least 1 tsp ground turmeric
at least 1 tsp cumin seed, toasted and finely ground
at least 1 dried red chile, broken in half
2 c bean of choice
1 bay leaf
1 qt chicken or vegetable broth
1 qt water
Kosher or sea salt (optional)
freshly ground black pepper (optional)
2 c peeled winter squash, diced
1/3 pound greens like mustard greens, chard, or spinach, cut crosswise into 1/2-wide-ribbons

If using lentils:
Heat oil or butter in large pot over moderate heat.  Add the onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, and chile and saute until the onion is soft.  Add the lentils, bay leaf, broth, and water and bring to a simmer.  Cover and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.  Cook until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes.  Season the lentils with salt and pepper, if doing so.  Stir in the squash.  Cover and simmer until the squash is almost tender but still slightly firm, about 8 minutes.  Stir in the mustard greens, re-cover, and remove the soup from the heat.  Let satnd until the greens soften and the squash is fully cooked, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf and chile.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Serve immediately.

If using other beans:
Pre-cook beans.  Heat oil or butter in large pot over moderate heat.  Add the onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, and chile and saute until the onion is soft.  Add beans, bay leaf, broth, water, and squash.  Cover and simmer until the squash is almost tender but slightly firm, about 8 minutes.  Stir in the mustard greens, re-cover, and remove the soup from the heat.  Let satnd until the greens soften and the squash is fully cooked, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf and chile.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Serve immediately.