Awaiting Spring; Winter Foods

Winter just hasn't been that...winter-y around here. All of the area bulbs have been halfway out since mid-January, and I noticed some daffodils in full sun blooming last week. The temperatures are still bouncing between actually cold, and quite spring-like, but I have to remember to hold my horses when it comes to spring planting etc. My neighbors did think I was a little crazy for putting together the new garden bed in the beginning of February, but now it will be ready when the weather is!

As it is still winter, I'm trying to go through the stock of food built up in our freezer and pantry. Last fall we purchased a decent amount of beef from Oakland Green, an old farm/ B&B about an hour northeast of us. Hubby actually went with me (likely to restrain my spending, but he actually chose the more expensive cuts!) and we had a lovely time - resulting in bringing home enough meat to fill half of our freezer. We've since gone through the roasts and ground beef, and I have been slowly incorporating the more "interesting" cuts (offal), which are cheaper and require some creativity to make appetizing. Liver is still not high on my list, and tongue does add a different taste (even when slow-cooked in BBQ sauce), and the heart also makes a decent stew. It's nice to try different things that we may otherwise not have, and I like the idea of making use of/eating the whole creature. The freezer is the emptiest its been in a long time, save for stock, pizza sauce and even some ice cubes (which makes the hubby very happy).

My Reblochon is aging nicely in our corner (by the poorly insulated back door -thus nice and cool for cheese aging!) and I've been learning a lot along the way. The main thing I learned is that brushed rind cheeses are actually not that easy, and possibly not the next step I should have taken! After the cheese is pressed and salted, it needs to be flipped and wiped down with a brine every other day, and I guess such diligence is not my strong suite. I ended up battling some vicious fuzzy blue mold (not the yummy good kind!) and I think I delayed my cheese's proper aging in the process. In the past week it has finally started to develop its characteristic orange hue, and my blue arch nemesis seems to have been put on the back burner.

Just to prove that things haven't stopped fermenting here, I made my first batch of Kombucha, from a scoby I grew myself! I don't like the idea af spending $20+ to purchase a starter (and then what if something goes wrong?!?), so I found a method to grow it from one store-bought bottle ($3 - much better!). It's neighbor the sourdough starter is starting to behave (and smell/taste) better, mostly because I've learned how to better take care of it (aka cook with it more often!). I just pre-baked a couple of sourdough pizza crusts for dinner tonight - to be topped with homemade mozzeralla and pizza sauce! I'm still working on acheiving the proper crust and flavor when baking sourdough loaves, but they are steadily improving in both departments.

Hubby does not always appreciate all the healthy foods I keep around here (and therefore force upon him), so for Valentine's Day, he received a basket of goodies that don't normally make it through our door. Candies and chips were the majority, but some homemade chocolate chip cookies seemed to also go over well. The flowers he got me are still doing well, but the chocolate and banana bread beer are now only a memory. ;) 

Current and Future Food; Early Spring as Well?

Well, now we've started February and we should be in the middle of winter. Virginia is, technically, part of the South, but it's still not supposed to be 65 degrees in February! All my bulbs in the front yard are inches above the ground and pushing higher by the day. My garlic never died back, so everybody received a healthy dose of bulb fertilizer this past weekend. I am very prepared to put blankets and/or sweaters on everyone, should winter decide to make a comeback (as it is prone to do).

This past weekend was comprised of two time consuming and rewarding undertakings - multiple dozens of cupcakes, and a raised bed in the backyard. I always love an excuse to test my baking abilities, and my co-workers are always happy to test the results - especially when a birthday is involved. After much planning and mess-making, the resulting two dozen normal sized cupcakes and three dozen mini cupcakes were ready for celebrating and sharing. The green-topped lovelies are mint chocolate chip, and about as tasty as two perfect bites could be. Making mini cupcakes is definitely a lot more work (a recipe for a dozen normal cupcakes equals three dozen+ minis), and I only have one mini pan at the moment, so there was a lot of shift work for that pan. As cupcakes go, the minis are the absolute perfect size, however. I try to avoid making a ton of white sugar/white flour baked goods, but this recipe is definitely going into the repertoire.

The warm weather of the past couple of days made it impossible to stay inside; also impossible to not think about this year's garden. I stuck my name on the list for our local community garden plots, but I won't hold my breath for this year. So, I bought a couple more fabric pots for the front yard, and also got the itch to put a raised bed in the backyard to try my root veggies again. I tried double digging a small corner late last summer for some fall crops, but even with all the amendments, the clay compacted right back down. This second attempt involved about a hundred bucks worth of cedar bed kits (two of them), amendments and the most bad ass shovel I could find. In addition to breaking our back digging up the ground last year, hubby snapped our ground breaking tool in half last year. It seems that this shovel was the answer because even our awful clay didn't stand a chance against it. Once I mastered the in-and-outs of the power drill (and leveled the yard to the smallest extent), the box of beautiful soil was ready for spring. I still need some more compost and soil to fill it a bit more, but fast-forward to early March and there will be spring planting happening! All my attempts with root vegetables have failed thus far (mostly in large pots, and then the stupid clay), so fingers and toes are crossed for success this time.

I also finally got around to starting the earliest of the early seeds. I want my annual herbs and flowers to be approximately nursery size around last front time, so we are going for an extra early start. The Striped Marigolds from Monticello and heirloom bok choi are the first to emerge. The Bok Choi seeds are from '08 so I am especially impressed with their vigor! Sharing the grow light next to the seeds are a couple of Rosemary cuttings (I expected my main plant in the front yard to croak, but it is heading towards medium-sized bush status!), as well as my lone Alpine Strawberry, and an Oakleaf Hydrangea started from a cutting (very proud of that kid). We're going to have to do some re-arranging at the end of this month to accomodate the onslaught of tomato family seeds (several heirloom varieties, but tomatillo and ground cherry as well), how exciting!

Now it is time to make some soup, because it is still February!