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Here's a quick tip to use at home and share with recipients of home-canned gifts:
Yes, this video was recorded way back in July at our old house and I did cut the video short at the end because a certain little girl and her little dog interrupted the last sentence during the umpteenth take. Making and editing videos is hard for me!
I am tired beyond tired.
I am sleepy from waking each morning at first light to open up the chicken coop and feed the animals.
My back aches from raking and transporting leaves from under the trees to where they will build soil for new garden beds.
My wrists are thick with fatigue after skinning a deer.
My calves twinge at every step with reminders of the moving boxes carried upstairs.
But my mind is free and alive.
My nose is full of the smells of our first bonfire. My ears remembering pleasant banter of family around the table at Thanksgiving. My eyes are anxious to look at plans for the orchard one more time.
This is the reality of hard, self-chosen work. My body is spent but my soul fulfilled. My brain motivates my aching joints because processing a wild animal, creating new growing areas, and setting up a more spacious home is what I have desired for so long.
I am tired and happy to be working so hard.
This post is inspired by James Ward, my grandfather, who died recently. He understood hard work as a child building airplane models, a young adult racing and fixing cars, and a home gardener and chicken keeper who turned rock solid dirt into thriving soil that grew the best strawberries I've ever tasted. We will attend a memorial service for him today. Rest in Peace, Grandpa.
Cocktail drinkers know that a Manhattan isn't a traditional Manhattan without Angostura bitters and one can't make a Sazerac without Peychod's. But home mixologists might not know how simple and fun it is to make bitters and home.
Bitters are strong herb and spice alcohol infusions including at least one bittering agent like cassia, wormwood, quinine, citrus peel, or gentian root. A drop of flavorful bitters is the strong guest that holds the door open for the remaining sweet and sour seats around the table.
Bitters were born of the ‘tonic’ movement, a period in the mid 1800s - mid 1900s where people claimed to cure all with drinks flavored with herbs and spices. They were commonly consumed neat or over ice as digestifs. A culture of secret recipes and labels listing the afflictions for which each bitters were recommended surrounded the compounding craze.
Now, bitters are most commonly used in cocktails. Bitters support a drink with complexity that is notably absent if the mixologist neglects to add a drop or two. Creating bitters at home is one way cocktail makers can customize a drink recipe.
1. Mix spices into alcohol. 2. Allow to age for up to three weeks at room temperature, tasting along the way to determine when the flavors reach your taste's desired strength. 3. Strain out solids and reserve alcohol. Dilute with a slight bit of water if desired. 4. Bottle and store in a cool dark place.
Because one only uses a few drops of bitters at a time and some of the ingredients are expensive, it is best to make very small batches. Organic bitters spices are available locally in tiny quantities at Clintonville Community Market and online through sources like Mountain Rose Herbs and Frontier. I like to store mine in dark glass bottles with eye droppers, available at Amazon and Mountain Rose.
I created and tweaked the recipes below to my taste. Participants in my recent Infusions and Bitters class at Franklin Park Conservatory enjoyed them and many left planning to make bitters as gifts this holiday season.
Cocoa Bitters 1 teaspoon cacao nibs ¼ teaspoon sarsaparilla ¼ teaspoon orange peel ¼ teaspoon wild cherry bark 1 allspice berry 1 inch length of cinnamon stick ½ cup rum
Turkey Day Bitters 2 inches fresh rosemary 2 inches fresh sage ¼ teaspoon pink peppercorn ¼ teaspoon gentain root ¼ teaspoon juniper berries 150 mL vodka
Rachel’s Bitters 3 allspice berries 1 star anise ¼ teaspoon each pink peppercorn, gentain root, wild cherry bark, lemon peel, sarsaparilla 150 mL vodka
Even our kitty Moonshine was interested in bitters as I was photographing! Try making bitters yourself and see what flavor magic you can create.
Local notes:
1) I run a monthly co-operative buying group for Frontier herbs, spices, bath and body supplies including bitters ingredients and bottles. If you live in Columbus and are interested, contact me.
2) I am hosting a Gifts In Jars event at City Folk's Farm Shop, 4760 N High St, this Friday November 23. I will have everything you need to make and label a beautiful Weck jar of hot cocoa mix, bath foam, or culinary herb salts with custom flavors. Each jar costs $6, will take about 10 minutes to make and the mess stays out of your house. Drop in anytime between 11 am - 2 pm this Friday.
Howdy! My workhorse of a five-year-old laptop bit the dust last weekend. It's where I did all my writing and editing work. A Lenovo Twist (squee!) is on order to replace it but in the meantime, blogging on shared family computers is a little difficult. In the meantime, a few thoughts on the upcoming holiday.
Thanksgiving Day is a week away. We are hosting this year. I can't wait to fill our spacious new house with family and food!
Our Turkey Day menu will include many of these tried and true favorites of my family:
Brined Roasted Turkey (don't forget to save the bones for turkey stock)
Maple Vinegar Sweet Potatoes and Kale
Cranberry Sauce (make extra to can!)
Pie with Sassafras Crumble Topping
What are your Thanksgiving plans? What will you contribute to the feast?
You may not be able to see, but Lil is bouncing up and down in this picture. The reason? The Ohio National Poultry Show.
The show runs this Saturday and Sunday at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus. Judges will award ribbons and trophies for perfectly conforming birds in all categories for both adults and youth on Saturday.
The rows of cages contain feather-headed chickens, fancy ducks, Buckeye chickens*, poultry for sale (expensive, show-quality birds), and dinosaurs.
Really, who can deny that this chicken looks like a dinosaur?!
Amid cockrel cries and duck calls, a limited number of vendors offer books, equipment and information. Owners are more than willing to share about their animals. Several breed groups also have tables with information about their varieties.
Backyard chicken keepers, those curious about poultry, and photographers will enjoy the Poultry Show.
The Ohio National Poultry Show - website and show schedule (beware the colorful text, unaligned pictures, and lack of organization) Saturday November 10, 2012 & Sunday November 11, 2012 George Voinovich Livestock Building on Ohio Fairgrounds (near 11th and I-71, enter from 17th) $5 admission
*Slow Food Columbus and the fine chef at Knead are offering a 'beak to tail' harvest dinner featuring the Buckeye chicken breed on Monday. Buy tickets ASAP as they are very limited.
Sometimes my life is forever changed by the simplest updates in cooking technique. Such a moment happened a few weeks ago when we went to a friend's cabin.
Lacey had a pie pumpkin and roasted it so simply. She yanked off the top, popped it in the oven, and cooked. No pounding with a cleaver, no smashing on the sidewalk (look at Lil so little in that video!), no scraping out the insides. Because the squash steams itself from the inside, it takes just as long as halving and roasting, approximately 45 minutes per small squash.
The flesh never ends up burnt as it occasionally does when I roast halves too long without enough water. The finished squash, which is done when the skin yields to the pressure of your finger, is not only easier to open and scoop, but the seeds are pre-steamed. When I roasted the seeds in the oven, the resultant seeds are crispy outside but tender inside, perfect for snacking.
This is the best technique. I can't believe I've been roasting squash for so long in any other way. Do what I say, not what I do - cook your squashes whole from now on!
Meet Moonshine, our new kitten!
Moonshine's mama was dumped, pregnant, on a friend's farm. On August 6, our kitten was born with white mitten paws.
Lil suggested the name after reading the book Pumpkin Moonshine, an old story about Jack-o-lanterns. Who were we to refuse a name that references the ultimate DIY activity?
The hounds are confused by this furry creature who has captured our attention. They spent all day yesterday staring at her. Moonshine is very tolerant of their snarfling though she hisses and runs when the dogs get too close.
'Kitten' has topped Lil's gift wish lists for years. Moonshine is a promise fulfilled, a new addition as thrilling as a sip of illicit booze.
Alex has been following the 2012 Presidential race like other men might follow their fantasy football teams. He is most fired up about reproductive rights and asked to publish this editorial on Hounds in the Kitchen. Though it reveals some very personal information, I agree with him that this topic is of utmost importance.
Women’s rights, more accurately called reproductive rights, have been given much coverage in the waning days of the 2012 election season. While I have always been staunchly pro-choice, one aspect of the abortion debate has caught my attention over the past couple of months: whether or not there should be exceptions in abortion restrictions for the life and health of the mother. Many prominent politicians and candidates have come out strongly opposing abortion in all cases with no exceptions; even if the life or health of the mother is in jeopardy.
Who is saying this? Congressman Joe Walsh (R-IL) said in a recent radio interview: "There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing, with advances in science and technology." While this is somewhat incoherent, he went on to explain that he believes science and medical advances are at such a level that a woman’s health will never be at risk due to pregnancy, and that there has never been an instance of the where an abortion was necessary to save the life of a mother. Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan has held the position for years that health exceptions render any abortion restrictions meaningless as “...the health exception is a loophole wide enough to drive a mack truck through...” He is currently on record as opposing abortion in all instances with no exceptions. Finally we have the Republican Party official platform which states that abortion should be banned with no exceptions whatsoever, and which supports a personhood amendment (life begins at conception) to the US Constitution.
Why is this particular issue important to me?
In 2004, a year before our daughter Lillian was born, Rachel and I were overjoyed to find out she was pregnant. This happiness soon evaporated as we found out Rachel was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. This type of pregnancy occurs when the sperm fertilizes the egg in the fallopian tube, but the egg implants in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus. The most common treatment in modern medicine is to give the mother an injection of Methotrexate, a cancer-treatment drug, in order to terminate the developing embryo. The body will then flush the system in what appears to be a miscarriage or heavy menstrual cycle. An embryo developing in an ectopic pregnancy is never viable, with vanishingly rare exceptions, and will often result in the serious injury or death of the mother. Rachel received the Methotrexate injection, and the ectopic pregnancy was ended. Happily, we conceived later in the winter and our beautiful daughter was born in September, 2005.
By any medical definition, Rachel had an abortion. We felt there was no 'choice' involved: it was her life versus a dying mass of cells. Not undergoing this procedure would have directly lead to her serious illness, sterility or death. However, by the statements of the politicians and political party listed above, she should never have been allowed to undergo this life-saving procedure.
What might our country look like if such draconian restrictions came into being? (Un)fortunately there are real-world examples not very far from our borders that we can look at to see the results of the policies championed by the far right of our political spectrum. Nicaragua and El Salvador have both banned all abortions with no exceptions for any reason. The push for these ‘reforms’ came from the Catholic church and affiliated religious organisations in both countries.
The end result has been women dying due to botched illicit abortions, doctors and women being sentenced to lengthy prison terms for participating in abortions, and situations where doctors are forced to watch patients suffer and sometimes die as they fear being incarcerated for performing necessary medical procedures. El Salvador has taken matters to such an extreme that there are entire law enforcement divisions, medical spies (seriously) and prosecutors solely concerned with investigating and punishing those involved in any abortion whatsoever. In the case of ectopic pregnancies, doctors are forced to watch their patients until fetal death or fallopian tube rupture occurs. At this point, they intervene surgically to try and save the mother. Often the end result is sterility, debilitating pain, extensive recovery times or death.
Many will say that such a situation is impossible in this country. I certainly hope this is the case, but I am very alarmed that supposedly ‘serious’ politicians are quite happy taking the exact same stances espoused by the governments of Nicaragua and El Salvador. Why else would they support such a draconian stance if their intent is not to have our country emulate these two Central American countries?
All I can think of in our situation is what it would have been like to watch my wife suffer through a painful condition, knowing she might die, and that this could have been prevented with a simple injection.
Do your research, decide where your values lie and determine how you want our country to address serious medical issues. Consider how Mitt Romney would treat women and how President Obama has already shown support for wives, daughters, sisters, and friends. I'm supporting President Obama with my vote, and I hope you will too.
Find your voting location here.