Friday Favorite: Easy Bake Ovens
When I was a little, the Easy Bake Oven was one of my favorite toys. I’m sure that doesn’t come as a surprise since you know I love to cook.
Yesterday, we got out my mom’s Easy Bake and baked up a storm with my two older nieces. It was my sister’s (their mom) birthday, so they wanted to make her a cake. Happy Birthday WENDY!
My parents had to choke down many an easy bake cake, piled high with frosting. It’s nice that the tradition remains alive. Even my mom’s neighbor received her own individual cake.
Did you have an Easy Bake Oven when you were a kid?
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Elderflower Fritters
The elderflowers are starting to fade. Every year, when they bloom, I have great intentions to pick them for fritters; then every year I forget. This year, I finally remembered, or I suppose I was finally in the right place at the right time.
My mom has a ton of elderberry bushes in her garden. There are a few different varieties because my parents have been collecting them for years. They love the berries, my mom makes jelly and I usually make elderberry syrup.
Last week, I picked about a dozen blossoms, whipped up a quick batter. Here’s the recipe in case you’re interested: 3/4 cup of organic flour, 2 Tablespoons of melted butter, 3/4 cup water, milk, a pinch of salt and a dash of vanilla mixed to a batter. After letting this sit for 30 minutes, fold in a beaten egg white. The blossoms were dipped and fried in coconut oil. I learned that you should shake off some of the batter or the delicate elderberry blossom flavor gets lost.
The stems should also not be eaten, so after using the main stem for dipping in the batter, I snipped it off with scissors right at the base of the flower clusters. After removing from the pan they were sprinkled lightly with a little organic sugar. All-in-all, these were a hit. Not a bad way to get some extra coconut oil in your diet, and a much healthier version of heavy fried fair food!
Have you ever eaten elderflowers?
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Cilantro
I LOVE cilantro! Perhaps it stems from my childhood in Colombia, where it was sprinkled on top of pretty much everything, perhaps I just like it, who knows. It’s probably from my childhood though, because I like it when it starts to bloom. The ferny bits of cilantro are much better in my opinion. That’s how we always had it in Colombia, the flat, parsley like leaves weren’t seen very often.
My mom had a plant in the garden that was blooming, so I’ve been enjoying ferny cilantro sprinkled on everything. The other morning I made soup for breakfast with duck stock and freshly cut yucca.
If only I had some ripe hot peppers, I’d make the Colombian version of hot sauce that’s green from all the cilantro.
What’s your favorite fresh herb?
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From the Beginning
When we got our Muscovy ducklings last fall, we knew they’d eventually become food for our table. Some people have a hard time understanding how we can possibly slaughter an animal that we raised, particularly when they’re so cute as babies.
Being meat eaters, we want to make sure that the meat we’re eating was raised with respect. Nowadays, it’s not difficult to find local farmers that raise their animals in the best conditions possible. Even with that, we’d rather do it ourselves if we can. By taking part in each step of the process I know exactly how that animal was treated and what it was fed.
When you first see sweet little ducklings, it can be hard to imagine that they’ll ever grace your table. But, as with most animals, the males start to grow up and nature takes over. They become aggressive towards each other and often towards you. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought to cull our male ducks, they were beating up on each other and occasionally trying to attack us.
We kept one gray male and the one remaining female (two of our females were lost to fox predation). The lady duck is currently sitting on a nest of eggs, we’re hoping she’ll hatch out a nice clutch of ducklings in early July.
For the same reason I like to grow my own vegetables, I am raising my own meat. There’s just something about being involved from the beginning with what appears on your plate. When these ducks were small they were fed potatoes grown in my garden with greens harvested from the lawn. They lived happy lives splashing in a kiddie pool outside my kitchen window. When the time came, they were slaughtered right here on the premises, no stressful travel to a processing facility. We wanted to take part in every part of the process to ensure it was done in a respectful way.
After slaughter, they were seared, braised and salted & cured. I must say, they were delicious. It’s certainly easier to let someone else handle the raising and slaughter of your animals, but I’m not one to go for ease and convenience.
Another reason to raise your own animals is because there are other benefits. These ducks mowed the lawn and controlled insects while they were foraging. They also produced quality fertilizer for my garden in the process. I also like knowing that 100% of the animal was used, their feathers were added to the compost pile, their bones were made into a nourishing stock for us and then converted to bone char to improve the soil in our garden. Raising my own animals allows me to tighten the circle of my garden and it allows me to be 100% certain that everything that goes into my food was produced in the best way possible.
With lady duck sitting on a nest of eggs, the process will hopefully start all over again soon. We’re definitely looking forward to braised duck this coming winter! Even though raising animals from the beginning is more work than picking them up at the grocery store or the farmers market, they truly are a blessing to have around. These duckies provided us with lots of laughs along the way. I’m certainly glad we decided to keep ducks and there will always be a place for a small flock in the gardens of Chiot’s Run!
Have you ever raised an animal that ended up on your table?
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Cultivate Simple 35: Cast Iron Cooking
Today on Cultivate Simple we’re talking about all things cast iron.
Brands to Buy:
Staub enameled cast iron, I especially like Staub Round Cast Iron Cocotte
Lodge Cast Iron
What I use to clean my cast iron:
- Stainless Steel Scouring Pad
- Castile Soap Mt Rose Herbs
I use Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions, see my post about it.
Books of the Week:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13:22 — 51.1MB)
