October 12, 2012

Spiced Nuts – Recipe

Boy howdy, if the weather hadn’t just turned cool i would still be feeling mega autumnal: Pinterest is blowing up with pumpkins, spice, hearty meals and tons of baked treats for warming bellies on cold nights. We’ve been getting some really great seasonal ideas posted to our blog hop as well. Y’all are gearing up for a snowy Winter, i can tell!

I guess i’d better “keep up with the Joneses” and start posting some seasonal goodies myself. Since i live in Oregon and am surrounded by hazelnut trees, what better recipe to adapt from my old blog than “Deborah’s Spiced Pecans“? Spiced nuts satisfy both savory and sweet tooths (teeth?) and they’re not difficult to make. Pecans and filberts are totally different nuts, but what the hey it’s worth the try.

Spiced Nuts

  • Preheat to 300
  • Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat, or grease with butter or coconut oil
  • Mix 1/2 cup sugar with spices in small bowl
  • Spices: 1 1/2 t each salt and chili powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, pinch cayenne, i also added a few dashes cloves
  • Beat 1 egg white lightly in larger bowl.
  • Toss in nuts (2 cups raw nuts) to coat. Sprinkle with spice mix & coat evenly.
  • Transfer each nut separately to sheet with space between.
  • Save leftover mix in plastic baggy for next project.
  • Bake 30-35 min for pecans/ 25 minutes for filberts or almonds (don’t let blacken on the bottom!)
  • Cool 5 min and transfer to wax paper, breaking apart as necessary.

Laying out each nut is tedious: but trust me, it’s necessary to prevent a major burnt mess. Let nuts cool completely: their texture will change as they cool from gummy feeling to crispy. They even make a lovely pinging sound as they cool and harden up. Store covered in a dry place (or fridge) and try not to eat them all in one setting. These nuts make great party snacks, stocking stuffers, or ice cream toppers.

Do any nuts grow locally in your neck of the woods? What do you like to do with them?

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October 11, 2012

Eat, Make, Grow: Blog Hop #11

Welcome to this week’s Eat Make Grow Blog Hop where you share what you have been eating with your family, growing in your garden or making with all your creative impulses. Eat Make Grow is a collective link party that is shared across three blogs and runs every Thursday-Tuesday. Whichever blog that you choose to link up your post, it will show up on all three sites! Eat Make Grow is a way to share with many people posts about your domestic doings, whether that’s growing veggies, hosting parties, sewing, mixing up cleaning supplies, or trying out a new recipe. We want to learn about it! Every week, we will feature the most popular link, and one chosen by the the host. This week, your host is Foy!

Your Hosts:

Miranda from Pocket Pause
Marigold from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!
Foy from Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat.

We’re not big fans of rules so there are just two of them:
No big corporation or business advertising or promotional posts. Let’s not dilute Eat Make Grow with junky posts. We don’t mind helping out the little home grown businesses of independent bloggers or handmade merchants (Etsy, etc.). **We will be deleting any spammy posts**
Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Eat Make Grow community by sending your readers to all of the other participant’s posts. We will feature two posts each week and we will only consider posts that have a link back. A text link is fine, or you can grab this button and put it anywhere on your blog:

Grab the code from my sidebar!

Hello, all! Marigold of Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! here. I have to say, you guys are really getting me into the Autumn spirit with all of the yummy recipes and spooky crafts that popped up on last week’s hop! There were all kinds of pumpkin and cinnamon and apple and stew stuff happening. I like it!

One quick thing I’d like to mention before sharing this week’s features. Did you guys know that in addition to our Featured Bloggers Pinterest board, we also have an Eat Make Grow Posts That Inspire Pinterest board? Throughout the week, Foy, Miranda and I all pin our favorites to this board so that we can share our favorites with each other and our followers. So even if your post isn’t featured here on the blogs, your recipes and projects may be getting pinned and repinned :)

Let’s get to this week’s features:

This week’s most visited link was Odd Little Creatures by Bella of ArtClubBlog. These creepy-cute creatures made me smile.  I love that it is low-concept and super easy with a perfectly spooky effect! Check out the simple how-to on the ArtClubBlog.

 

So, first, I should confess that I am on an empty stomach as I choose this week’s host’s choice post. I have been absolutely drooling over all of the delicious recipes you guys linked up! But in the end, I had to pick these Better-for-You Burger Buns from Denise of Whole Made Goodness. I love, love, love homemade bread. Maybe it’s because my grandmothers were such skilled bakers, but the smell of baking bread, the warmth of that first bite…perfection! This recipe is gorgeous. She shows us an interesting technique for rolling the buns to give your bread a beautiful, airy texture. I’m excited to try this one!

Is one of these featured posts yours? Grab our “Featured Blogger” button to post on your blog and show off how cool you are. You can also visit our Pinterest Eat Make Grow Featured Bloggers pin board to see some of our past favorites.

Grab the code from my Sidebar!
And as a reminder, PLEASE remember to add a text link or button for Eat Make Grow to your blog when you link up. We’ve had to pass up lots of great posts to feature because of not having a backlink :(



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October 9, 2012

Savory Pear Tart – RECIPE

October has firmly landed with brisk, blustery breezes and fruit ripening on trees all over this fine valley. The pears are starting to look tantalizing, though all i’ve tasted are still nasty tart. I thought i’d post this decadent recipe in time for folks thinking what to do with all those pears when they finally are ready. I made this recipe last fall, pre nicer camera, but i think you’ll get the jist. Basically, if you “pear” fresh goat cheese with caremelized onions and fresh fruit and homemade crust: you’ve got a big plate of delicious!

My step-mama gifted us some of the pears from her tree in Eugene, and it took me ages to use them in anything. I’m really not much of a pear eater, though i do like them in a salad or dehydrated. I thought up this recipe totally randomly after having the pears in a savory cold salad – why not heat them up in a savory fashion? I paired the pears (tee hee) with my Mom’s rockin pie crust recipe and came up with something truly decadent and delicious. I’m glad i wrote it down, because this is a truly knock their socks off party treat. And I think it probably should be eaten that way – in much smaller portions. A half a plate full of pie crust left me feeling really gross and sad that I’d wasted the day’s 3 hour hike on one meal.

Gross feelings aside, my husband was fist pumping all over the place and the kale chips complimented the crispy pie crust perfectly. It was a glorious meal…. but maybe better served as individual bites next time, or at least as more of a side dish to something more healthy.

First, the crust:

  • 2 Cups Flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 Cups shortening or lard
  • 5-6 Tablespoons cold water

You can halve this recipe, as i did or make the whole thing to fill a cookie sheet. The recipe is for pie crust, so the full recipe is for a top and bottom of a pie. I halved but kept the salt at the full 1 teaspoon and also added some dried basil and ground pepper.

For the topping:

  • 2 small onions, one red one white, halved and sliced
  • 3 Serrano peppers, sliced
  • Garlic
  • 2 pears, sliced
  • Herbed goat cheese
  • Ground sage, rosemary, salt and pepper
  • Sauteed sausage for some extra yum


Mix up the pie crust with two knives or a pastry cutter. Don’t over work that gluten! Get the texture to the point of ‘not too crumbly’ then squish together with your hands and roll out. I rolled directly onto a cookie sheet and it worked great. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare the veg/fruit and sautee the onions, peppers and garlic with the herbs until onions are soft. I used a nonstick pan with lid, no oil. It’s okay if you get some charry spots. More to yum! Scatter the veggies evenly over the pie crust. Slice the pears and saute on just one side until getting soft through. Arrange pears evenly over other veg. Dollup some goat’s cheese on top of the pears. Salt well.

Bake at 400 for about half an hour, more or less to the point of ‘just browning.’ This will result in a nice, flakey crust that is pick upable and not soggy. Don’t let it get too brown or it won’t taste as nice. I served ours with some kale chips tossed in coconut oil, smoked paprika, nutritional yeast and lots of salt. I think we may eat too much salt. haha. If you want some sausage on there, i recommend sauteeing it while the tart is baking and placing it on top just before serving.

Pretty delicious looking, right? It smelled great, too. Mmmmm, now i guess i’d better get some exercise. Sigh.

What’s your favorite pear recipe? Sweet or savory?

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October 8, 2012

He’s an Oregonian Now

I’ve come to impression that being an Oregonian is kind of like happiness: it’s a state of mind. Most “Oregonians” you’ll meet are actually FROM somewhere else. I was actually born in CT, but consider myself an Oregonian, having grown up in the Oregon high desert overlooking Mount Shasta. Many of my fiber artist friends here came from places ranging from Colorado to Maryland, yet they seem fairly native to their homesteads. On the occasion you DO meet a “native” Oregonian, they tend to be really good fisherman or hunters, and have some tales to tell. Well, my husband may not be a true native (yet) but he’s finally overcome his first hurdle on his way to Oregonian-ship: he caught a salmon!

Note: this is actually his second salmon, but since he shared that first fish with a friend i’m counting this as his real “first.” While i “slaved” at work on Saturday, Andy drove himself to Waldport where the Alsea river meets the great blue sea. Armed with his newish pole and some salmon rigging, he joined the line of fisherfolk along the banks and did his best to throw bits of metal into the water in hopes of exciting some large aquatic life. And he succeeded!

We have a few things to learn about “fileting” i’m afraid, but we managed to get meat off bone, scraping off any wasted bits from the carcass for scrambled eggs the next day and i cooked up half a salmon for two proud humans for dinner just hours after the Coho was plucked out of the sea. We overdid it. I learned my lesson. Despite the freshness and rarity of this particular harvest, i will eat less next time. 😉 in one sitting at least. Pocket was proud of her daddy (and enjoyed the liver, heart and some undigested tiny fish from the salmon’s gullet) and i was proud of my Oregonian husband. You fed us well, sweety! Now get back out there and do it again: those fishing licenses and salmon tags haven’t paid for themselves quite yet. 😉

It’s an amazing feeling to sit down to a meal you harvested yourself. Whether it’s a plate of homegrown veggies, or a cut of meat from an animal you raised, there’s something satisfying and honorable about eating food you provided. I think it’s especially true about fresh fish you caught yourself. Fresh fish is so much more delicious than anything from any market, and the process of catching a fish contains so many emotions and sensations that connect you with both your environment and your self. Do you or your mate hunt or fish? Do you do it for the food, the sport or for the psychological benefits?

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