A Week of Meals

I think I can finally say it - I have come as close as I ever will to perfecting the texture of my breads.  This past week I put to rest some angst ridden emotions associated with my failure to achieve an airy, soft and light bread, with a crispy crust to match.  In the time since I have tried again and succeeded much to my delight - the bread was no aberration.

Yet, with all the hustle and bustle of summer - work on the farm, at the market, and at the coffee shop, occasional leisure activity, etc. - I failed to photo-document my accomplishment.  So, I decided this would be a good opportunity to simply upload some pictures of recent meals we have enjoyed, talk only briefly about them, and get back to the kitchen.

Tamara made Rosemary-Rhubarb Jam with some of the pounds upon pounds of Rhubarb filling up our valuable freezer space.  The flavor is strong, but delicious and suits pork really well.  I used it as a glaze on some pork chops (freeing up even more freezer space). 

To go with the rosemary-rhubarb glazed pork chops I sauteed a bunch of beet greens along with their attached baby beets and some garlic scapes.  I also made a little salad with goat cheese from Sweet Spring Farm, baby cucumbers (some of the first of the season), strawberries (some of the last of the season), and garnished it with a pair of cherries.  

Later in the week I got my hands on some of the Kilpatrick's squash blossoms.  Squash blossoms, like fiddleheads and garlic scapes, are one of those 'get them while you can' types of market fare.  I usually make a batter, stuff the delicate little flowers and pan fry them, however I was feeling slightly lazy on this particular night, so I just stuffed them and roasted them in the oven until they looked crispy and oozed a bit of the sausage, apple, and apple smoked cheddar I filled them with - words cannot justify how delicious squash blossoms are when stuffed with good cheese - add some tart apple and some fennel-seeded sausage [exasperated sounds of dumbfounded wordlessness] ..there is literally nothing I can say.

At some point in the not so distant past I made this loaf of bread with olives in the top.  I saw something similar in My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method, by bread mastermind Jim Lahey.  It turned out pretty well, but this was all before I unlocked the secrets of the often sought after airy bread texture.  I will try it again soon.  Mali, to the left eyeing the bread, is clearly not as picky as I am about bread texture.  She has a special way of begging that has a fantastic success rate, although I think some guests may find it annoying. 

Last, but certainly not least, I made a breakfast pizza with eggs, roasted fingerling potatoes (the last of the storage potatoes, so we'll be waiting patiently for the new harvest), Mesclun from New Minglewood, and homemade ricotta that I made using Willow Marsh Farm's raw milk.