Happy New Year!! 2009 --> 2010!!

~~ Happy New Year! ~~

We hope you had a nice holiday season and are celebrating New Year's Eve in style!!

We'll be coming back in 2010 with new stories and many fantastic recipes!

Here are 2 recipes we plan on trying early in the New Year:

Kabocha Squash Soup (by Mark Bittman of the New York Times)

Savory Chicken Pot Pie ("Mad Hungry" by Lucinda Scala Quinn - found on the shutterbean blog)

- Erin and Ken

Meaty Goodness!!

Meat, meat, and more meat (you might want to skip this if you're a vegetarian) -

We are enjoying our pastured meat! We joined Marin Sun Farms' meat CSA recently. We were happy to find a local source of quality meat produced sustainably and humanely. We pickup our order the 1st Wednesday of every month from a nearby neighbor's house (they volunteer as a CSA pickup spot). The meat is frozen and on dry ice when we arrive. We chose package #4: 4 lbs roast/braise and 5 lbs ground. They have a variety of packages and offer extras too (sausages, steaks, eggs)... and you can omit 1 type of meat from your order if there's one you especially don't want (beef, lamb, goat, chicken, pork).

Our first order included goat stew meat, even though we checked the "no goat, please" box on our application. Oh, well! Tristen at Marin Sun Farms made it up to us though ;) I felt sort of guilty for ruling it out in the first place, without ever having tried to cook it myself. So this clerical mistake will turn out to be an opportunity! I have yet to find a good goat recipe, but I got some leads via Facebook for recipes from both coasts: Machias, Maine and Bolinas, CA. I'll share results with you after I hunt those recipes down and do an East Coast-West Coast goat cook-off.


In other CSA meat news, I recently made hamburgers a la Alice Waters: just some salt, pepper, and minced garlic mixed in with the meat, plus a good cooking tip: make a small indentation in the middle of your raw patties to allow for the swelling that occurs during heating. (See The Art of Simple Food, Clarkson Potter, 2007). I also made some impromptu pasta sauce with garlic onions, and peppers sauteed in butter, plus some salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. We added jarred pasta sauce at the end of cooking, and voila! Much-improved, yet still quick, pasta sauce! Ken discovered a good brand: Eden Organic.


Ken made a delicious chicken dish without a recipe (see his recent posting)! We still have oxtail in the freezer, and I plan to make oxtail soup using Sally Fallon's recipe. Here's a great source for information on the health benefits of pastured meat and dairy. You can search the site to find pastured products in your area!

According to studies, grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in ten different ways. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:

• Lower in total fat
• Higher in beta-carotene
• Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
• Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
• Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
• Higher in total omega-3s
• A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
• Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
• Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
• Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease

Journal article referenced: S.K. Duckett et al, Journal of Animal Science, (published online) June 2009, “Effects of winter stocker growth rate and finishing system on: III. Tissue proximate, fatty acid, vitamin and cholesterol content.”

One of the other topics covered in the "health benefits" section that I found particularly interesting: Have some red wine or some spinach with your hamburger! Apparently cooking ground beef above medium rare (I wish I liked it the French way!) oxidized much of the fat in the meat. Antioxidant-rich foods and beverages consumed along with the oxidized fats might counteract any associated health risks. The French had it right all along... :)

We're loving our meat CSA with Marin Sun Farms and would highly recommend it. Next up: we'll have an update on our produce CSA experience with Eatwell Farm - Erin

Yosemi-turkey 2009 - Recap

File this one under better late than never - our recap of Thanksgiving in Yosemite!! We had a great Thanksgiving at "The Bug" and enjoyed our hikes and trips through Yosemite :)


We stayed at the Yosemite Bug - an official Hosteling International Inn. The staff was very friendly and we were pleasantly surprised by how many other folks decided to spend Thanksgiving at Yosemite too! There were families, other couples and a bus-load of international students from UCSB! "The Bug" has dormitory style sleeping quarters, private cabins with shared baths (we chose this option) and private cabins with private baths. The lodge has a wonderful fireplace and many communal tables - perfect for eating and playing board games. There's also a great spa with a hot tub and sauna!!

We loved the Thanksgiving dinner served at "The Bug Cafe" - I had the Turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Erin had the Salmon dish which was also delicious. I didn't get any good shots of the food, but take our word for it - it was great!!




We also cooked our own meals in the shared kitchen. This was interesting on certain nights when the kitchen was packed with other hungry guests cooking after a long day's hike. With all of the international students from UCSB, there was an exciting mixture of meals being prepared - Italians were making giant pots of pasta, Korean students were making kimchi jigae and others were making pots of hot chili! Erin made a fantastic sweet potato hash brown dish with lamb patties from three stone hearth topped yogurt!




Other meals we prepared included hot dogs from "Let's be Frank" and tortillas filled with goat cheese. Mmmm... hiking fuel!!


We were well fed and had a great time at "The Bug" and enjoyed our visit to Yosemite National Park! - Ken