Less Words, More Food 5.0

The end of January already?? Where does the time go :)  Hopefully its toward eating , drinking and being merry! This month I had the privilege of taking care of a Farmers chickens, feeding and egg collecting duties everyday.  Was a lot of fun, Ive handled more eggs in the last month than my whole life combined I think ...  with approx 50 a day x 30 days = 1500 eggs !!  Wow, all from 65 birds... and in the middle of winter!!  So Ill start with the barn and move on to some food.   I'm almost caught up :) All of these are from 2011!! lol Enjoy

Love old barns

Almost all the chickens :) Its Feeding time!! 

Making a pot of beef stock, Roasted the bones for extra flavour, some onion and garlic thrown in for good measure. 

Bacon, Egg & Chips - 10w5 #5 - Good Food, Cheap

Today is an interesting day :) For a few reasons, it marks the 3 month mark for this blog, and 6 months in for my FB food page.  I didn't plan it but they both started on the 28th. LOL So three months in and nearly 4000 page views later, here we are.  

With my latest Series, and a challenge post all rolled into one.  

Good food, cheap is a new series I'm going to work on , you should expect at least a couple a month , most likely more.   What I want to show, is that it doesn't take a lot of money to eat good food.  These will be the same as my normal posts but I will share the prices, and tips on where/how to get those deals.  

Ingredients : 

4 med/large russet potatoes $ 1.00 (10lb bag for $3)  

4 Farm Fresh Eggs $ 1.35 (A dozen for $4 ) 

Half a pint of Tomatoes $1.00 ($2 / pint ) 

Bacon $1.00 ( On sale $1 / lb )  ($4.00 for butcher Bacon ) 

3 cloves of garlic $ 0.25 ( $0.75 / head for organic ) 

Total for dinner for two $ 4.60 ( $7.60 using top quality bacon ) 

I would just like to make a note about the bacon , normally I have been buying bacon from a local butcher , and actually had done so here, but due to a few delays it had been in the fridge for a week , and had started to turn.  I had a craving for bacon, the butcher was closed. So I went for the back up bacon , which I buy on sale a couple of times a year , and usually just use for bacon bits.  

Assemble all your ingredients,  I rinsed this bacon to help remove some of the extra salt that cheap bacon tends to have . Worked out well . 

Slice up your chips,  crack the eggs into a large cup to help them warm up , and make pouring them into the pan easier :)

 Here is a link for how I make my Chips :)  http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/12/easy-hand-cut-chips.html

Chips take the longest , so you will want to get them started first .  

Less Words, More Food 4

I'm slowly getting caught up :)   What I really need is a full day at the PC, in a writing kind of mood.  This is the last of Decembers catch up posts, so at least now I'm in the New Year lol :)  I'm a little pushed for time , as I have dinner plans tonight... so Ill keep this one really short of words , and just show you some food!!!

Always a favourite:) Butcher's Bacon, Hand Cut chips, and farm eggs, cooked in a little bacon grease with chili . 

Free Range Beef, with mushrooms, peppers, onions and cheese on whole wheat nachos :)

Curry Turkey Tacos, with a red wine vinaigrette salad

Vegetarian Eggplant Curry - #10w5 - 4 Good Food, Cheap 1

From being behind a week on posting , I'm actually now a week ahead of myself. The next 6 posts have all been photographed, I just need to write them out .  ( The hardest part for me ) So that brings us to today's recipe,  Vegetarian Curry , a first for me.   Not the curry part ,Ive made loads of those over the years in all sorts of different styles, just never without meat .  Also , Ive never used Indian Eggplant before , so this dish was a little interesting for me.This is one of those quick and easy meals, it can be ready in under 45 minutes , with only a few minutes prep.  and for the people like me that are on a budget , this one is really cheap,  total cost about $5 for enough for 4 bowls full.    

You will need for this recipe. 

1 Can of Chick Peas - Or 3 cups of dried ones soaked over night, and boiled $1.00

1 Jar of Whole Roma Tomatoes - Homemade if possible $ 0.50

5 Indian Eggplants ( Baby Eggplants ) $2.50

6 or 8 Mushrooms - Again , I only seemed to have white on hand. $1.00 

3 Tablespoons of your favourite curry powder.$ 0.25

The stars of the show,  Chick Peas, Indian Egg Plant, White Mushrooms, Madras Curry , My home canned garlic/basil tomatoes :)  

First thing I did was to chop the ends off the egg plants , quarter them, a light spray of olive oil so they don't stick, and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt.
Second things is to get the chick peas boiling, while you get started on the mushrooms. 

Rinse the mushrooms, I like to remove the stems ( save them in a freezer bag, for future uses stocks, or mushroom paste ) then quarter,  a quick pan fry before adding the other ingredients will get some colour on them.  

Less Words, More Food 3

I had intended for this type of post to be a regular weekly addition to my blog... but after the disaster at Christmas, I lost all my tags ( very nearly a lot of photos )  Which of course included the LWMF series I had been working on .   So this is a little bit of a catch up post.  

 

Spaghetti and Meatballs...  Everything from scratch except the pasta ... and the canned pamasean :( I was out of the good stuff

Curry Turkey Tacos :) Using up Christmas Turkey. 

Beef & Mushroom Frittata 10 with 5 recipe # 3

I was off to a slow start with this challenge, but have been picking up speed nicely since getting the first one done  and out of the way.  Ive already eaten and photographed #4 :) and have the next few already planned out.
So on, to today's photo recipe ... and post number Three.  Frittata's are one of my favourite meals, I usually have them on the weekend when I'm clearing out my fridge.. but they can make a nice easy dinner too.   This one was a little special for me , as I actually collected the eggs myself , just a few hours before making this.  Which reminds me , I should do a follow up post on egg collecting .  :) This is a medium sized one, good for 2 for dinner or 4 for lunch .  

You will need :


1/2 pound of ground beef - This was my favourite:  local, free range and grass fed .
4 large eggs - Preferably free range farm eggs
2 med/large onions
6 cremini mushrooms
1 red bell pepper

The assembled ingredients. I should point out that this is actually a pound of ground beef,  I only used half of it for the frittata , the rest was saved for another dish.  

All sliced , you can slice them how you like , but bite sized is best 

Bacon & Mushroom Hummus - 10 with 5 , post #2

Okay , so this is probably the least healthy hummus I have ever made... lol I was trying to come up with something different , and unusual for the 10 recipes with 5 ingredients challenge. I knew I wanted to have a hummus in there somewhere.. and came up with the idea to skip the olive oil and use bacon :))  Everyone loves bacon right ??  I did include an apple in this snack , that makes it healthy again right ??

Ingredients required for a large cup full:

1 cup of cooked chick peas ( reserve a half cup of cooking water ) 

3 or 4 mushrooms - Your choice, I had white ones that needed to be used up 

3 or 4 pieces of bacon

2 cloves of garlic 

1 Granny Smith Apple

A note about chick peas, if your using dried ones, you will want to have them soaked overnight, before boiling them for about a hour.  If using canned ones ,  triple rinse , and then bring them to a boil for 15 minutes. For this one I used previously boiled , then frozen ones...  10 minutes in boiling water was all they needed.  

This is not my usual butcher's bacon , but the price was right :) and it tasted good.

When the bacon is almost finished ,  strain off the bacon grease , and reserve. 

I prefer my bacon crispy :) and give it a couple of minutes more in the dry pan. 

Creative Leftovers Pulled Pork n Beans Jacket Potato

   This is my first food blog challenge, and I think it overwhelmed me a little, so many thoughts, options and ideas have gone thru my head that I've  had a serious case of blog block going on, and just couldn't put thoughts to keyboard all week.   So here we are almost a 1/4 the way thru the challenge and I'm just getting the first one done !! I'm happy to say , this will be my first entry in the 10 with 5 challenge,  10 recipes with 5 ingredients or less.  A good match for my creative leftovers series, which I started as a way to help people use up all that extra food. Which is the case here,  Id made 6lbs of pork shoulder into pulled pork a couple days ago... and still had lots left. What to do with it ,  Ive already had several sandwiches and wasn't really interested in having another.   Its been a very cold, snowy kinda week , and comfort food is needed.  I grew up eating Jacket Potatoes.. and that was just what I needed today.
 For those people who are just finding my little Food Revolution,  you should know ... writing recipes is insanely hard for me.   I almost never follow one , and rarely write anything down.  I do however take a lot of photos, hopefully of all the steps, and explain it that way.  So here we go, I hope you enjoy :)


Ingredients you will need for dinner for two:


2 large potatoes  - I prefer russets or Yukon gold for baking .
1 cup pulled pork
1 cup of baked beans
1 cup of your favourite cheese grated ( 6 year old cheddar )
Okay this last one took me a while to decide on, normally Id have butter, onions, mushrooms ,red pepper and just about anything else i could find on top as well.  Hmmmmm colour won!!  lol
1 red bell pepper

Start by scrubbing your potatoes , and puncture several times on both side with a fork. I like my skins crispy so I don't wrap them , and just toss them in the toaster oven for about an hour and half at 350F.  Cooking time will vary with the size of the potatoes.

You can tell when they are done by giving them a little squeeze, they should give slightly .  Do it quickly tho , remember the game hot potato ??  Well this is the real thing :)  

The nice thing about this easy meal , is there really isn't a lot of prep. You can slice them however you like, I went thin today , then cut them into 1inch lengths.  

Everything assembled and ready.  I put the potatoes back in for 10 minutes will I started on the topping. 

Spicy Shepherds Pie

I grew up eating Shepherds Pie,  and its always been a favourite of mine .   So you can imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when I found out it wasn't really Shepherds pie , but was in fact a Cottage Pie.  The difference you ask ?  Is really just the meat.   A Shepherds Pie is made with lamb or mutton, while a Cottage pie is made with beef, which is what I grew up with.  After reading that, I was determined to try a real one.  It actually took me a month just to find ground lamb at a reasonable price..  but I did and made my first real Shepherds Pie :) It was awesome !! Since then I make sure to call them by their correct names . You can make them as fancy as you like or just keep them plain and simple.   This one has a few extras , but turned out really well.  

For a basic pie, you will need :

1lb of ground lamb

2 medium onions

2 large or 4 medium potatoes 

2 large carrots 

2 cups of brown gravy ( http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-doesnt-love-gravy.html ) 

1 cup of peas

Everything else is a bonus :)  The extras 

2 chili peppers

1 jalapeno pepper

3 cloves of garlic 

2 parsnips

jar of stewed tomatoes

baby corn 

Chili Powder

Mozzarella, and cheddar 

Most of the ingredients :)  Everything is local, and half of it was organic .  

Slice and dice all the veggies into small bite sized pieces,  and give them a quick saute. They do not need to be cooked thru as it will be going into the oven.  Pour into the bottom of a lasagna pan.  

Tortillas and Tostadas, my 1st real attempt

I say my 1st real attempt, as I tried this once before .. using the wrong flour, actually I didn't even use flour I had tried it with yellow corn meal :) Halfway thru I gave up trying to get them right and turned the whole batch into nachos... thick crunchy nachos lol.   I had tried the corn meal after searching seven or so shops for some Corn Masa.    A couple months later,  I finally was able to get my hands on some , it came from Texas lol  ( Thanks Mom ) .

So , this time , armed with proper corn masa , and a new tortilla press I was determined to get it right. 
I actually followed the packages instructions .. which is incredibly rare for me :)  No extra flavours .. just simple tortillas  :)  You will need : 

2 cups of corn masa
1 1/4 cups of water
pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup of sunflower oil

2 cups = 14 small shells

Mix in the water and salt , and start stirring

Roll them into golf ball sized balls, and arrange on a moist towel ( Helps keep them from drying out )

Well, that was an interesting year :) Bring on 2011!!

Happy New Year Everyone :) Best wishes and dishes to all ! 

For me, like most people , 2010 was a bit rough. Times are tough , prices keep going up and salary's never keep up. So what did I do ??  LOL I quit my job !  I'd had enough of the office life , it was time to move on.  And that's just what I did, without a plan or a direction I found myself a little lost .   That was until I ran into a farmer friend who offered my some temporary work building a greenhouse.... I think I have found my calling .  I love working hard, getting dirty and most of all I LOVE food!!  Especially local organic & free range kinda food. So to be a part of that process is fascinating and exciting!! :)  Sadly tho, the growing season is over up here, at least until we get closer to March.  But Ill be back there finishing the greenhouses, and helping with the planting soon enough.  This month I have the privilege of taking care of the chickens, feeding , cleaning and egg collection duties.  So very cool.  I think the chickens are getting to know me finally , as no longer run away from me , and have even tried pecking at my shoe laces or gloves. 
Here I go babbling away again , when all I wanted to post today was a quick recap of the 6 most popular posts from last year ... two of which are related to working on the farm :) Which I am so happy about!! As that is the direction I wanted my Good Food Revolution to go in !! 

#1 http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/11/very-vnteresting-day-for-garlic-lover.html

 #2 http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/11/roasted-double-stuffed-pork-tenderloins.html

Click the link below to see the rest :)