Busy, Busy, and Need to Bake!!!

It's that time of year when gatherings and obligations multiply and it's hard to find time for it all.  Here's two quick recipes and your chance to get 25% off my cook book with FREE shipping!  Go here and use promo code DECSHIP25 until December 13th.

Gluten-Free/Vegetarian

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Yule Dates

Taste of Pakistan

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Prep: 15 minutes Makes about 50

10 oz. pitted dates, room temperature

4 oz. local creamy goat cheese

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

2 tbs. finely chopped dried cranberries

1 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary

Mix all ingredients except dates thoroughly. Hold date firmly and make a shallow cut down length of narrow side. Gently pry open and fill with cheese mixture, using one side of a butter knife. Repeat with remaining dates. Garnish plate with a sprig of rosemary and fresh or dried cranberries.

Vegetarian

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Rosemary Rounds

Taste of Earth

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Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 20 minutes Makes 48 cookies

1/2 cup softened, unsalted butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Pre-heat oven to 300ºF. Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in remaining ingredients in order listed. Press dough into greased mini-muffin tins, filling half-way. Cook 18-20 minutes, or until just golden. Cool and carefully remove from tins. Store in air-tight container.

Cookbook Signing at the Winter Market

It's here!  Around the World in 100 Miles will be available THIS SATURDAY December 5th, 2015 at the Pawtucket Winter Market in the Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main St, Pawtucket, RI 02860.  I will be there with food samples and copies of the book from 9-1.  Stop in and say hi, and use the book to do your shopping for delicious dinners, appetizers, and sweet treats this holiday season, using local New England foods.

My book is also available (unsigned) through Lulu and Amazon.
See you there!!!

Gluten-Free Stuffing and More!

Thanksgiving is coming!  I'll be doing a FREE workshop MONDAY on cooking with local ingredients, including TWO gluten-free stuffings!  Reduce your carbon footprint, save money, improve your health, save the world with these world-cuising recipes using New England-sourced ingredients.  There will be samples of pumpkin polenta, stuffed squash, apple parsnip soup, firecracker cabbage rolls, and Jamaican ginger apple carrot bread.  Plus, you get to try acorns!

Monday, October 26th
6 p.m.
Harmony Public Library
195 Putnam Pike, Harmony, RI 02829
(401) 949-2850

Free Food Workshop

World Cuisine with Local Ingredients:

Love to eat around the world?  Master Gardener, cook, and author Melissa Guillet will take you through four seasonal fall recipes featuring local ingredients.  Get a taste of Jamaica in a gingery bread, try the firecracker flavor of China, indulge in an Irish apple and parsnip soup, and rediscover pumpkin with Italian polenta.  Recipes will be available to take home.  Don't miss this unique event!

Monday, October 26th

6 p.m.

Harmony Public Library 

195 Putnam Pike, Harmony, RI 02829
(401) 949-2850

Weevils, Acorns, and Wild Harvests

Er...What IS THIS on my house?  It's tiny.  It's weird.  It's got this snout and heart-shaped feet.  It is WEEVIL!!!!

What is a weevil?!!

Curculio glandium is a beetle with a long snout called a rostrum.  There are boll weevils, potato weevils, acorn weevils...  This is an acorn weevil, and in this mast year for acorns, it is very happy.  It will bore into acorn shells to feast, as well as lay eggs.  The eggs are laid after the female bores a hole into the acorn's center, then the nut heals over the hole.  By the time the acorn falls from the tree, the tiny larva is ready to bore its way out and dig as deep as a foot underground to live up to five years before pupating into an adult.  More info here and here.

Weevils aren't the only ones who eat acorns.  So do gray squirrels, blue jays, black bears, chipmunks, ruffed grouse, deer mice, and people.  I have two oaks in my yard and plan to harvest some of those acorns for some yummy pancakes and brown bread.  There are approximately 58 species of oak trees in the United States, with white and bur varieties producing the biggest acorns.  A single tree can yield over 29,000 acorns in a good year.  But acorns don't come ready to eat...

Acorns are high in tannins, which naturally occur in many plants, including grapes.  Tannins are bitter-tasting and too much will interfere with kidney function.  Red and black oak have the highest tannins, white oak the least.  Not coincidentally, red and black oak acorns take two years to sprout, thus storing well for animals, while white oaks sprout quickly and being sweeter, are quickly eaten up by animals fattening up before winter.  But all are edible with this process: water soaking.

The squirrels figured this out by burying acorns for later and letting the rains soak and resoak them.  By the time winter arrives, they are a lot more tasty!  Native Americans stored them in baskets they weighted down in rivers and streams, letting the current do its work over several weeks.  Today, we can boil the nuts and change out the water.  First, crack the shells with nutcrackers, discarding nuts with holes, rot, or visible larva.  Place in a large pot with clean water.  Bring to boil.  The tannins will turn the water black.  Drain the water and replace with fresh water.  Repeat boiling and draining until the water stays clear.  The acorns are now ready for roasting.  Roast in oven at 375 until aromatic.  They have a taste similar to hazelnuts.

Once roasted, they can be ground as flour, added to batters, or baked into bread.  Here's the recipe from my new cookbook, Around the World in 100 Miles:

Wild Option

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Mercy Brown Bread

Taste of Old New England

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Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 2 hours Makes 3 loaves

1 cup processed acorns (see page 134) or raw hazelnuts
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup molasses
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine nuts and buttermilk and run through food processor to make a thick paste. Mix paste with yogurt and molasses. Stir in washed and picked over cranberries, removing stems and soft berries first. In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Gradually stir flour mixture into wet mixture. Grease three coffee cans and divide batter between them. Seal cans with foil and rubber bands.

Place cans in large stock pot with at least two inches of water. Cover and bring to gentle boil. Steam breads two hours, adding more water as necessary. Allow to cool before removing foil. Slice and serve.

Make Room for Mushrooms!

Once upon a time, I found a 12 lb. hen of the woods mushroom.

Some of the mushroom got dried in an oven overnight.  It made REALLY strong stock later.

Some got frozen and was quite useful later.

And some got cooked right away in this Italian dish.

Cacciatore means "catch all" and often used whatever was at hand, but always mushrooms.  The origin story goes like this: The man went out to hunt in the woods in late summer.  He found no game, but brought home mushrooms from his search.  The woman then took one of their chickens and whatever vegetables were on hand to make this meal, perfect for when the hot summer days have finally yielded to cool breezes and bumper tomatoes are canned.  It is hearty and needs a robust pasta to stand up to it, such as rigatoni.    This one also has baby bella mushrooms.  Button, chicken, or oyster mushrooms would work as well.

Gluten-Free/Vegan Option/Wild Option

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Cacciatore Catch-All

Taste of Italy

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Prep: 15 minutes  Cook: 45 minutes  Serves 4

2 lbs. local chicken parts (optional)

2 tbs. olive oil

1/2 red onion, diced

1 red or green bell pepper, coarsely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups peeled tomatoes* (Roma and/or cherry)

2 cups sliced wild puffball mushrooms** (or white button)

1 cup of “catch-all”: washed and chopped zucchini, summer

    squash, eggplant, or what-have-you

1 tbs. dried oregano (or 2 tbs. fresh)

1/2 tsp. salt 

1/4 tsp. white pepper

1/2 cup red wine (from freezer cubes?)

“Cacciatore” means hunter in Italian and often features wild mushrooms** (assuming the hunter did not want to come home empty-handed).  This recipe is a great way to use up odds and ends from canning.  Consider measurement of vegetables approximate.  Leftovers can even be added to an omelet, frittata, or soup.  

Heat olive oil on medium-high in Dutch oven or large skillet with cover.  If using chicken, brown meat five minutes each side and set aside.  Add onions, garlic, and bell pepper to pan.  Cook two minutes, or until onions soften.  Add tomatoes, mushrooms, and remaining vegetables.  Season with salt, pepper, and oregano.   Add wine and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to simmer.  Add chicken and cover.  Cook 30 minutes, or until chicken reaches 165ºF and vegetables are soft.  Serve with crusty bread, pasta, or rice.

* When canning tomatoes, skins are removed by blanching.  This is done by dropping whole tomatoes in boiling water about one minute, then into ice water one minute, to easily peel skin.  I’ve used the leftover seeds and juice from canning harissa sauce with plum tomatoes.  You could also use already canned tomatoes or just chop fresh tomatoes and leave skins on. 

** Do not attempt to gather wild mushrooms without a certified guide.  Puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) should be the size of two fists or larger and white throughout.  Discolored puffballs are not safe to eat and will not taste good.  Immature amanita can be mistaken for puffballs, thus the need to look for larger mushrooms.  (Puffballs can grow quite large and have even been mistaken for Styrofoam trash in littered woodlands!)  Cutting the mushroom may reveal more: A “U” shape indicates the immature cap of the poisonous amanita, but may not always be visible.  Alcohol intensifies reaction to any poisonous mushroom.  Don’t risk it!!!  The author and publisher assume no liability for injury, poisoning, illness, or death from consuming wild mushrooms or plants.  Leave it to the experts: Puffballs may be available at some farmers’ markets or high-end food stores. 

Gnome-Hunting

This is a partial reprint of a previous blog from my old site, but this activity continues to be fun the more I learn (and has taught me a lot on him to adjust the AV setting on my camera).  Plus, new photos!  So grab a Peterson Field Guide to mushrooms if you've got one and get outside!

Emetic russula

It's the new after-storm sport!  After a lot of rain – be it rain storm, tropical storm, or hurricane– come the mushrooms.  Make a family activity of it and bring your camera. Go in the back yard, in the woods or a field, and keep your gaze low to the ground.  (Mushrooms also grow on dead and dying trees, of course, but it's the ground-dwellers that appear out of nowhere that we look for now.  Call it "gnome-hunting" if you want.)

This activity serves three purposes: Time with the family (that doesn't require electricity aside from the batteries in your camera and flashlight), exercise, and learning to identify mushrooms.  Most mushrooms are poisonous and your first foray into their unknown world should be cautious and respectful.  Don't touch mushrooms with bare hands or taste them.  Wear long pants.  Bring insect repellent.  (Lavender and feverfew are natural insect repellents and can be rubbed on clothing and hair.  Never use insect repellent with deet on pets or small children.  Do not use feverfew or pyrethrin-containing products on cats.)  Take lots of pictures and note when (month) and where (log, ground, field, sun, shade, etc.) you found the mushroom.  Note stem and cap sizes, gills, spore color, or other distinctive characteristics.   Bring a flashlight if you're in a dark area.

I am by far NOT an expert in mushrooms, but I am starting to learn about edible ones.  Misidentification can lead to severe illness and death.  Do not eat wild mushrooms unless you have a positive identification from a trained guide (mycologist), the mushroom is not spoiled, and the mushroom has been cooked!  One Asian family, gathering mushrooms in the U.S. that looked like the edible ones from their homeland, all died.  Another family in Mexico bought wild mushrooms at a Farmer's Market that were misidentified and also died.  Alcohol intensifies the effects of toxins.  Then there's simple allergy.  I don't mean to scare people, but foraging of this sort should not be taken lightly.  For help with identification and symptoms of poisoning, check here.  It's fun just finding mushrooms and trying to identify them.

Here are some photos of specimens I found in Chepachet:

bracket fungus?

bolete?

Not a fungus or mushroom, but a plant
that does not have chlorophyl called "Indian pipe".

Is this how a gnome flips his home?  Next to sassafras.

Buddies!

Pacman!!!!!!

Curiouser and curiouser...

A bit stuck up?

russula again?

The Big Butterfly Count!

July 17th to August 9th is The Big Butterfly Count!  Sign up at this link and record your findings as a citizen scientist: The Big Butterfly Count.  It only takes 15 minutes, making it an ideal "15 Minute Field Trip™".  Simply go outside, preferably on a sunny day, and identify and count butterflies.  This guide will help you, as well as the Bug Guide and Peterson Field Guides.  Remember, butterflies are nectarivores, so look in areas with plenty of flowers.  Some great butterfly attractors include bee balm, black-eyed susans, butterfly bush, butterfly weed, coneflower, lavender, liatris, milkweed, oregano, phlox, and yarrow.  Group plants in clusters for best success.  Butterflies are especially found of red, orange, and yellow flowers with umbrels.  Look up a particular favorite's host plant.  For instance, Monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed.  Here are six ways you can save the Monarchs.  Swallowtails lay eggs on members of the carrot family: carrot, dill, fennel, parsnip, and Queen Anne's lace.  All butterflies will benefit from a puddling, or drinking area. Fill a shallow dish with sands an pebbles and keep wet.  Butterflies will drink from it and males will get minerals from the pebbles to aid their fertility.

Frittilary on coneflower.

Monarch adult and caterpillars on milkweed.

Painted lady on oregano.

Eastern pine elfin hairstreak????

Painted lady on allium.

Skippers????

All photos © Melissa Guillet

Packaging

It was one of those BIG shopping trips, where I was tired of running around and just wanted to get the house stocked up.  I had coupons.  I had gift cards.  I had my reusable shopping bags.

Dairy: 1/2 gallon Rhody Fresh milk
           1 lb. Cabot unsalted butter
           16 oz heavy cream (for quiche and whip cream - no can!)
           Philly neufchâtel

Meat/Deli: 1/2 lb. Lacey Swiss
                  1/2 lb. Black Forest ham
                  2 lbs. Cod
                  2 cans albacore tuna
                  2 cans beans

Fruit/Veggie: Tropicana OJ
                      Fresh salsa
                      1.9 lbs. bananas
                      2 lbs. butternut squash
                      1.73 lbs. sweet potatoes
                      2 lbs. onion
                      1 cucumber
                      .7 lbs. green beans
                      2 bags kale
                      1 grapefruit
                      1 lemon
                      1 pt. grape tomatoes
                      1 pack baby bellas

Frozen: 3 boxes pierogies
             2 pints Ben & Jerry's

Grocery: Pomi boxed tomatoes (no plastic-lined can!)
               Jar of pasta sauce
               6 boxes Annie's mac and cheese
               2 cases of seltzer
               6 pack Ginger beer
               box of coconut milk
               Bag of bird food
               2 spinach feta tasca (prepared food)

All for a total of $154.93 at Stop & Shop, food for three for about two weeks.  Now let me analyze it for waste:

Glass: Seven (pasta sauce, six bottles)
Aluminum/Steel: 30 (cans of food and seltzer)
Cardboard: 21, including cartons, boxed tomatoes, ice cream pints
#1/2 Plastic: Four (tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh salsa, prepared food)
#5 Plastic: None (would include yogurt containers)
Plastic bag packaging: Four (bird food, deli meat, deli cheese, bag around fish.  All produce except mushrooms bought without bags.  I used reusable mesh bag for green beans.)

Not too bad.  Mushrooms get me every time.  I could buy them at the farmer's market and bring my own mesh bag.  They bruise too easily to travel to supermarkets.  I could make my own salsa next time to avoid the plastic.  I did recycle all the containers, but just the production of such containers causes pollution.  Aluminum can be collected, melted, and reproduced as cans in 90 days, so no guilt recycling those.  It takes far less energy and natural resources than, say, digging up a mountain fir virgin ore.  I don't get deli meat and cheese every week, but I don't usually reuse the zip-lock bags either...  Bird food purchases just started this past (harsh) winter and I wonder if there are paper bag versions that I can get locally.  Maybe the farm store.  Recycled my glass too, but our state does not have it's own glass recycling plant and until recently just ground it up as layers in the landfill.  (Starting in early 2013, glass has been shipped out to MA for recycling. Eco-RI)  Here's a petition to create a glass recycling center in Rhode Island (where our local Narragansett beer is also bottled out-of-state), creating jobs and perhaps leading to a bottling plant as well: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/recycle-glass-in-rhode?source=c.em.cp&r_by=2175639

On another shopping trip (pictured above), I spent $64 at Dave's and $21 at Target getting everything you see there.  (My daughter wanted her doll in the picture.)  This included:

Dairy: 1/2 gallon Rhody Fresh milk
           2 Stonyfield yogurts (larger volume means less packaging)
           1 yogurt snack pack my daughter begged for

Meat/Deli: 1/2 lb. Lacey Swiss
                  1/2 lb. Black Forest ham
                  1 dozen Stamp Farm eggs
                  can of black beans
                  can of chick peas
                  can of refried beans
                  stuffies (foil and plastic package)
                  andouille sausage (plastic!)

Fruit/Veggie: bananas                    
                      2 locally-grown tomatoes
                      swiss chard
                      carrots
                      3 onions
                      garlic
                      lemon
                      2 bags kale
                      canned olives
                      3 jars salsa

Frozen: none

Grocery: Spices (sesame seeds, cream of tartar, dried dill)
               small jar of mayo (I've made my own, but the recipe makes much more than I can use            
                    before it separates)
               tomato paste (box and foil tube)
               two bags coffee
               one GLASS bottle of Dave's coffee syrup (again, my kid begged, and Autocrat was plastic    
                    and had HFCS.  Yuck!)
              loaf of rye (plastic bag!)
              boxed chicken stock
              4 boxes Annie's mac and cheese
              1 box Annie's snack mix
              3 boxes cereal
              bag of chips
              bag of rice

That's a lot of food for $85.  6 Aluminum, 6 glass, 12 cardboard, 3 #5 plastic, 3 #2 plastic, 8 plastic bags (andouille sausage, deli cheese, deli meat, potato chips, bread, rice, 2 kale bags).  I do reuse the spice jars and sort my nature craft collection in glass jars to easily see them (mostly dried seeds and pods).  The bagged kale wasn't worth it.  It was pre-chopped for juicing and after 15 minutes juicing half a bag, I had 1/2 a cup of "juice'.  I would rather buy a whole kale I can chop finely for salad and rice dishes.  I did notice that Dave's has 8 oz. of Cabot cheese in wax paper MUCH cheaper than 8 oz. of shredded, preservative-laden cheese in the further aisle, so I know what I'll be staying with now.

Next trip: Whole Foods and the search for less packaging.

Back to Blogging!!!

Milk cartons repurposed for growing herbs and lettuce.

Hello Readers!

Some of you may have seen my previous blog, www.aroundtheworldin100miles.blogspot.com.  I let it go too long and my log-on email got recycled, so here is its triumphant rebirth!  I'll be posting recipes again, there will be a fundraiser to publish the cookbook in late summer, and of course, I'll be blogging about my successes and failures living an eco-friendly life.

Melissa Guillet