In addition to their superb beef, pork, and chicken, Skagit River Ranch also has a variety of recipes available at their farmer's market booths. The latest beef recipe we tried was Beef Chipotle Chili.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup flour
• Salt and pepper
• 3 pounds, boneless beef chuck or stew meat
• 4-6 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 2 finely chopped red onions
• 2 cups beef broth
• 7 oz can of chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

 

Take a large ziplock bag and fill it with the flour and some of the salt and pepper. I don't usually measure salt and pepper, I just throw some in. Add the beef and seal the bag, shaking to coat. Heat 2-3 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add as much beef as will comfortably fit in the pan without overcrowding and brown on all sides. This should take approximately 10 minutes. If you add too much beef, you'll end up steaming the beef rather than browning it. Transfer the beef to paper towels to drain and then transfer it to the slow cooker. Repeat with the remaining beef chunks, adding the rest of the oil if needed. When all of the meat is in the slow cooker, sprinkle with the oregano.

Add a bit more oil to the pan and add the garlic and onions. Saute for a minute or two, just until you can smell the garlic. Sprinkle with any remaining flour mixture and saute for an additional minute. (I didn't have any flour mixture left so I just added a spoonful of flour.) Pour in the broth and add the chipotle chilies and their sauce. The recipe says to break up the chilies with your fingers, but I extracted them from the sauce and diced them on the cutting board first.

Raise the heat to high and let the mixture come to a boil. Deglaze the pan, stirring to loosen any bits of browned beef. Pour the entire mixture over the beef in the slow cooker.

Cover and set the slow cooker for 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. Spoon the beef into bowls and top with cheddar cheese.

Notes: When the slow cooker finished, I looked at the contents and was a little disappointed. There was a lot of liquid and it was fairly thin. But I dished it out and added the cheese and we ate. The taste was excellent. It was fairly spicy, and we used slices of bread to absorb the liquid. After the first night, I was willing to call the recipe a success, but not a fantastic one. The next day however, we had the chili for lunch. It was excellent. The liquid thickened and coated the beef. There was still just enough to call for a slice of bread, but not enough to drown the bread. After eating the chili for several days last week, I'm definitely prepared to add it to our stock of successful recipes.

We're awfully spoiled here in Seattle. We have a wide variety of farmer's markets at which we can buy almost half of our groceries each week. During the summer we can buy closer to 2/3 of our weekly groceries at the farmer's markets.

One of our favorite market vendors is Skagit River Ranch. They sell organic grass-fed beef and pork, as well as pastured chicken and eggs. Eating locally (and organic) is more expensive than shopping at the mega-supermarkets, but we've decided it's definitely worth it.

Before I get back to Skagit's beef, a little bit of information on grass-fed beef versus grain-fed beef. Cows have evolved to eat grass. It's why they have those ruminating stomachs. Much of the beef sold today however, is grain-fed beef. It's faster. There are a number of potential problems with grain-fed beef including health problems for the cows. I'll spare you the gory details, but it's not pleasant. If you're at all curious, read the book The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'll warn you though, it will change the way you think about food.

Back to the beef... feedlot cows are fed a variety of antibiotics and supplements as well as grain. Feedlots also contribute to the prevalence of E. coli bacteria. The grain raises the acidity of the cow's digestive track which favors the growth of E. coli.

Now that I've preached a bit about the problems with grain-fed beef, I'll list some of the benefits of grass-fed beef. The first is the health of the cow. This should be fairly obvious. Cows evolved to eat grass. Cows eat grass. Cows are relatively happy. The beef from these cows is also healthier. The amount of saturated fat in grass-fed beef can be as low as 10%. In addition, grass-fed beef contains almost 6 times more Omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed or grain-finished beef. Omega-3 fatty acids are the same fatty acids found in salmon. Grass-fed beef also contains higher levels of beta-carotene and CLA (both anti-oxidants).

The end result of these differences is that grass-fed beef cooks and tastes differently. We've bought a wide variety of beef and pork from Skagit and one thing we've always noticed is that there's very little fat when the beef is cooked. If we're making a recipe that calls for us to "drain off any excess fat", there is usually no excess fat to drain. The beef also cooks faster. This can be a bit tricky as we've overcooked their beef more than once. Even overcooked, though, their beef is still tender and flavorful.

If you live in Seattle and have access to the University District Farmer's market, the Ballard Farmer's market, the West Seattle Farmer's market, or Madison Market, I highly recommend you pick up some of their beef.

If you live elsewhere, look for grass-fed beef in your area. It's well worth it.

I enjoy cooking. So the title of this post might seem a bit odd. But I don't often have the time, or the energy to cook an entire meal. Tonight, I made a meal. I suppose I really should have made the bread rather than slicing it for it to really count, but I'm not that industrious.

Here's end result of tonight's dinner.

(I really need to figure out better lighting for food pictures.)

This was Bourbon Pecan Chicken and Garlicky Kale with a slice of Tall Grass Bakery's sourdough bread. Since I posted the Garlicky Kale recipe yesterday, here's the recipe for Bourbon Pecan Chicken.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs (I used panko)
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons clarified butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon bourbon
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions (I left these out)

I mixed the chopped pecans and the bread crumbs in a bowl. I added 2 tablespoons of melted butter to the bowl and mixed it well. Then I dumped it on a plate and pressed the chicken breasts into the mixture, coating both sides of the breasts.

After this was done, I melted an additional 2 tablespoons butter in a large pan over medium heat. I should have clarified the butter, but it was late and we were hungry. I'll clarify it next time as I think it might have made things even better.

I placed the chicken breasts in the butter and cooked them until they were golden brown and cooked through, about 10 minutes per side.

 

When the chicken was almost done, I mixed the Dijon mustard, brown sugar, bourbon, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce in a pan over medium heat. I let it simmer for a minute or two and then turned the heat down to low. I added the remaining quarter cup of butter a few pieces at a time.

When it was all melted, I plated the chicken and topped with a few spoonfuls of sauce.

The end result was very good. We will definitely be making this again. The nuts and the breadcrumbs gave the chicken a crispy coating and the butter rounded out the flavor. The sauce was rich without being overpowering. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Vegetables and I don't always get along. In particular, though wilted greens always look good, I've never met a wilted green I liked. As we were on our way home tonight, John suggests that we get some kale. I was a little unsure about this, but I figured that he'd eat it at least and I'd try it.

Well, after we cooked the kale, I was amazed. It was great. So great that we stood there in the kitchen while the rest of dinner was cooking eating it directly out of the bowl.

We will definitely be making this again.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds kale (2 bunches)
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic
• Red pepper flakes
• Red wine vinegar (a splash)
• Salt and pepper

Remove the stems from the kale and chop the leaves coarsely. Wash and drain. In a large pan, heat 3 tbsp of the oil and a layer of kale over high heat. (NOTE: Do not heat the oil and then add the kale... very bad idea). Stir to rotate the leaves. As the kale wilts, add more, until you've added all of it. Add some salt, reduce the heat to medium, and cover.

Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. The length of cooking time will depend on the age of the kale. Older kale might need more than 4-5 minutes. If the leaves start to dry out, add a splash of water. Once the leaves are tender, remove the lid and let any remaining water cook away.

Transfer the kale to a warm bowl. Add the last tablespoon of oil to the pan with the garlic and red pepper. Saute for a minute or two. Pour the garlic mixture over the kale and add a splash of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Every once in a while I get a craving for baked beans. I have a great recipe for them. Or rather... I did. Here's my old recipe.

• 2 large cans Pork and Beans
• 1/2 cup catsup
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 TBSP ground mustard
• 1/2 lb bacon

Pour one can of beans into a large ceramic dish. Top with half the catsup, half the brown sugar, half the mustard, and half the bacon. Pour the other can of beans on top. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 425 for 60 minutes and then turn the oven down to 375 for 90 minutes. Yum! It was thick, sweet, and just plain good.

This afternoon I thought I'd make them again, this time with fake brown sugar. I was planning on leaving the rest of the ingredients the same. But when I got to the store and picked up a can of pork and beans, I looked at the label.

Fourth ingredient... HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! ARGH! I don't like high fructose corn syrup. It's in so many things, but I just don't see the point. It's not good for you. I attempt to avoid it whenever possible. Now all of a sudden, I have to completely rethink my recipe.

I ended up buying 4 small cans of organic great northern beans. At least the only ingredients were beans, water, and salt. Here's my revised ingredients list.

• 4 cans Great Northern Beans (15 oz each)
• 1 TBSP molasses
• 15 oz organic tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup catsup
• 2 TBSP ground mustard
• 1/2 lb bacon
• 1/3 cup fake brown sugar (Diabetisweet)
• 1/8 cup firmly packed brown sugar (the real stuff)

They were decent. I'd say 8 out of 10. They could have been a little thicker, but the taste was largely the same as my previous recipe.

I don't have a nutritional breakdown because I'm not exactly sure how many servings this makes. I'll post a picture soon.

 

Involtini is the name given to dishes that involve thin slices of meat or fish that are then stuffed and rolled. We decided to try an eggplant version this week. This recipe comes from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Bites: From Family Meals to Elegant Dinners -- Easy, Delectable Recipes for Any Occasion cookbook. It takes thin slices of eggplant and stuffs them with a feta, caper, and bulgar wheat mixture.

Since we need to have a decent amount of protein with each meal, we also had some leftover prawns with cocktail sauce as an appetizer.

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 40 oz chopped tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

4-5 Eggplants

Stuffing

• 1/2 cup bulgar wheat
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1/4 cup shelled pistachios
• 7 ounces feta cheese
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1 egg
• Pinch of cinnamon

Topping

• 3 ounces feta cheese
• olive oil
• dried oregano

I started by using my mandoline to finely dice the onion. The original instructions told me to use a food processor, but I opted for a little texture for the onion. I sauteed this and a minced clove of garlic in a little olive oil for about 7-8 minutes.

When the onion was starting to get translucent, I added two cans of organic chopped tomatoes, the sugar, and a little salt and pepper. I turned down the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

While this was cooking, I used my mandoline again to slice the eggplant into thin slices. I discarded the two slices from either end as they were primarily skin.  

The instructions said to coat the eggplant with oil and fry on a hot griddle. This didn't work so well. I think the eggplant slices were just a little too thin. But, I pressed on.

I fried up about 2/3 of the eggplant. At that point, I was tired and ticked at the eggplant. It was starting to fall apart as it was cooked. So I gave up on the rest of it. I let the slices cool and moved on.

To make the filling, take 1 1/2 cups of boiling water and pour it over the bulgar wheat in a bowl. Oh, and throw in some oregano. Cover the bowl, and let it sit for 30 minutes. While this is going on, chop the pistachios.

When the wheat has finished it's steaming, put it through a sieve and press the excess water out. In a larger bowl, mix the wheat, scallions, garlic, capers, feta, and most of the pistachios.

Mix well. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the cinnamon. Mix that in to the stuffing as well. Now you can start making the involtini.

Place a spoonful of stuffing at the bottom of each piece of eggplant (the part furthest from the stem). Roll, and place in a large dish coated with olive oil. When you've finished all of the eggplant, pour the tomato mixture over the whole dish. Top with the rest of the feta, the rest of the pistachios, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in a 375 oven for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool just a bit.

So, the verdict...

This was a good side dish. It wasn't spectacular, but it was good, although a little too much work for one person. The capers and the feta gave the dish a nice bite to it. The eggplant, which I was worried would be mushy, really had no texture at all in this dish. I'd probably have made a thicker tomato sauce, maybe even just using a store bought Greek style sauce. I'd also make the eggplant thicker and would add more feta. There aren't many dishes that can't be improved with a little more cheese.

Since I really improvised in this recipe (mainly with the eggplant), I haven't calculated the nutritional information yet. I hope to have that in a few days.

Next up... Blue Cheese and Pecan crackers.

 

We got this recipe from a post on Roots and Grubs, but the original recipe comes from the January edition of Fine Living Magazine.

Basically, boil some small potatoes. You can use new potatoes, but we bought 50 pounds of potatoes from the farmer's market back in Decenber and have been grabbing a handfull or two every few days.

Once the potatoes are mostly cooked (they should be fork tender, but not so tender that they fall apart.

Remove them from the water and let them cool slightly. Grease a cookie sheet. With the heel of your hand, smash each potato on the cookie sheet. Let them cool some more.

 

When you're ready to cook them, preheat the oven to 450. Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil (don't skimp) and sprinkle some kosher salt on them. Roast them for 30-45 minutes until they turn this reddish color.

Enjoy!

Notes: The actual recipe said you should cool the potatoes thoroughly. They even suggested you boil the potatoes up to 8 hours ahead. We don't usually have time for that. But, we found that boiling them, smashing them, and roasting them all within the same hour didn't produce quite as crunchy results.

 

These crackers are cheesy goodness without the carbs. In fact, there's less than 1 gram of carb per cracker!

Ingredients

• 4 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons gluten flour
• 1/2 cup at flour
• 1/4 cup soy flour
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspooon freshly ground black pepper (divided)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup cold butter
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Mix all the flours in a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces. In another larger bowl, combine the Parmesan, 3/4 cup of the flour mix, lemn zest, half of the pepper, and the garlic powder. Mix well. Make a well in the center and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well until the dough comes together. Knead the dough and form it into a 12 inch log. Wrap the log tightly and chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a baking sheet or line it with silpat. Slice the log into slices that are no more than 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Cool completely.

Nutrition Information

• Calories: 22
• Fat: 1.6 grams
• Carbohydrates: 0.75 grams
• Protein: 1.15 grams

Comments: These were excellent. They were very cheesy and almost melted on the tongue. Next time, I'm going to leave the log shorter and wider and make them bigger and possibly thinner. If I could get them to about 1/8" thick, I think they would cook in about 5 minutes and be even meltier.  Check back for pictures in a day or two.

 

Our first recipe of the weekend came from another good blog, bakingsheet. We eat a lot of crackers and cheese. Artisan crackers are expensive... up to $6 per package. Plus, we always seem to run out just when we get a craving for crackers and cheese.

This recipe was exceedingly simple.

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon wheat bran
• 1 teaspoon cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar or splenda
• 1 teaspoon honey or agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 1/4 cup water

Put everything except the water in a food processor and process until you can't really see the chunks of butter. Add the water gradually and continue to process until the mixture starts to come together in a dough.

At this point, I had to take the mixture out of the processor and put it in a bowl because my processor didn't seem to want to complete the dough making process. But a few seconds of kneading fixed that.

Place the ball of dough on a sheet of wax paper at least 12 inches long. Place a second sheet of wax paper over it and roll the dough out until it's around 1/4 inch thick. Place the sheet of dough in the wax paper in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Remove the dough from the fridge and peel off the top layer of wax paper (be gentle). Take a fork and prick all over the dough. You want to have a couple fork marks in each cracker. Use a pizza cutter to slice the dough into 1 inch squares.

Place crackers on a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 375 for 16-18 minutes until the edges are brown. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Nutrition Information (per cracker, figuring 25 crackers per recipe)

• Calories: 27
• Fat: 1 gram
• Fiber: .21 grams
• Protein: .5 grams
• Carbohydrates: 4.25 grams

Tips:

We made these twice over the weekend. The first time (pictured above), we put a sprig of rosemary on top of each cracker. This was good, but what was even better was mixing in the rosemary before we processed the ingredients.

We found that we liked the thinner crackers better. They were crispier and tastier.

As an experiment, after we cut the crackers into squares, we arranged the squares between sheets of wax paper and froze them. We took them out three days later, let them thaw for about 15 minutes, and baked them. They were still excellent, although they cooked slightly faster. I'll make a large batch this weekend and freeze most of them so we can pull them out whenever we want cheese and crackers.

It's winter here in Seattle. Unfortunately, that means the farmer's markets are rather sparse on fresh fruits and vegetables. The common finds these days are carrots, other root vegetables such as parsnips and turnips, garlic, and squash. Apples and pears are still available however, and are the inspiration for this recipe.

We found this recipe on the American Diabetes Association website. (www.diabetes.org).

Winter Beef Stew

1 tbsp canola oil
1 cup chopped onions
3 garlic cloves
4 carrots, sliced
1.5 pounds lean stew beef
3 cups low fat beef broth
1 tsp paprika
1.5 cups mixed pears and apples

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 5 minutes. Toss in the carrots and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the meat and cook until brown. If you have fat in the pan, drain it off. We use grass-fed beef from Skagit River Ranch and there's rarely any fat in the pan. Mix in the broth, paprika, pepper, and salt. The organic beef broth we buy comes in 4 cup containers and I recommend adding the last cup to make it 4 cups total. When I tried it with only 3 cups, the dish turned into Winter Beef rather than Winter Beef Stew.

Bring the concoction to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 1 1/4 hours. Add the apples and pears and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook for another 15 minutes. The apples and pears should be barely soft.

Here's the final product.

Servings: 6

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 449.3 calories; 57% calories from fat; 28.1g total fat; 80.5mg cholesterol; 732.5mg sodium; 834.3mg potassium; 21.6g carbohydrates; 2.7g fiber; 11.0g sugar; 18.9g net carbs; 26.9g protein.

I'm not sure I agree with the assessment of 6 servings. The beef we buy comes in 1 pound packages. Rather than measuring the pears and apples, we used one apple and two pears. Other times we’ve made it we’ve used two apples and one pear. We each had a good sized bowl for dinner, and we had enough for two slightly smaller lunches. I would estimate 4 servings for this dish.

This is one of the weekend cooking dinners from Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day.

We started the prep work about 3 hours before we wanted to eat. Here's the ingredient list.

• 1 beef chuck roast (approximately 4 pounds)
• Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds onions, thinly sliced
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 bottle of pale ale(12 oz)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 mushroom bouillon cube
• 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

 

I couldn't find a single beef chuck roast that was four pounds from Skagit River Ranch, so I bought two roasts, one that was 1.3 pounds, and one that was a little over 2 pounds. I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper and let it sit out on the counter for half an hour while I did some of the other prep work.

I preheated the oven to 300 degrees and arranged my pans. The recipe calls for the entire process to take place in a Dutch oven, but our Dutch oven really won't work well on our stove.

Heat the oil in a skillet or Dutch oven on medium-high and brown the beef on all sides. It should be crusty.

Add the onions, thyme, bay leaf, and pinch of salt to the pan. Stir frequently until the onions are soft and reduced in volume by about half. This took about 10 minutes.

 At this point, we added the beer (a Dogfish Head Ale), half a cup of water, and some fresh ground pepper.

I chopped the mushrooms and rinsed them under hot water before adding them to the pan. Once the sauce came to a boil, I got out the Dutch oven. We added the sauce to the Dutch oven and tucked the beef into the sauce.

We put the lid on the Dutch oven and slid it in the oven for an hour. After an hour, we turned the beef over and returned it to the oven for another hour. When the second hour was up, we transferred the beef to a cutting board and covered it with foil. We left the sauce in the Dutch oven and mixed in the Dijon mustard. If you want the sauce a little thicker, you could heat it on the stove a bit. The onions will practically melt. After slicing the beef and spooning the sauce on top, here's the final product.

 

That's a slice of Tall Grass Bakery's Oat and Honey bread and some smashed and roasted potatoes.

Nutrition Information

*I calculated around 8 servings. I would guess that the actual recipe is a little lower on the fat and calories depending on the cut of meat you use. Also, I recommend chilling the broth separately for leftovers and skimming off any accumulated fat.

• Calories: 746
• Fat: 56.84 grams
• Protein: 41.77 grams
• Carbohydrates: 12.6 grams
• Fiber: 1.82 grams

Final verdict: I think we'll make this again. I had it for lunch the next day and it was still very good.

 

We got a new cookbook for Christmas (thanks Mom). It's called Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day. The premise is that you should be able to get great food on the table every day. The cookbook is divided into Breakfast, Lunch, Soup, Weeknight Dinners, Weekend Cooking, Sides, Salads, Nibbles, Condiments, and Dessert.

In our quest to cook at home with fresh, local ingredients, we're trying a number of recipes from this cookbook.

After trying two of them, I believe that this cookbook will become a staple of our cookbook library.

I love to cook. I love to eat. I love to buy and eat locally. I'm also on a budget. I've decided that 2007 is the year I endeavor to cook the majority of my meals at home with fresh, local ingredients.

The love of my life happens to be diabetic. So the meals I cook at home need to be low sugar, and relatively low carb.

There are plenty of resources on the internet for low sugar and low carb recipes. However, most of those sites don't have the same feel as the great food blogs. I love Orangette, Roots and Grubs, Culinary Fool, and many others. These blogs don't just post recipes, they talk about them. I'm going to try to post a few recipes every week. Some of these recipes will be low carb, some low sugar, and some will just end up being really good.

With as many of these recipes as possible, I'll post pictures and reviews. Some of these recipes will fail and I'll probably even post some of those. Hey, just because I didn't like something doesn't mean you won't.

Enjoy!