Monthly Ingredient Project Update – January

January - Quinoa
I can tell you that my first experience with quinoa was not a pleasant one. I tried it at a spa retreat that Doug sent me to for my birthday several years ago. To be frank, it was just plain gross and only one spoonful made it past my lips. So, to say I was apprehensive about this ingredient is an understatement.
The goal was to make 3 or 4 different recipes with this ingredient throughout the month. In actuality what I did was make one recipe four or five times because it was so amazing. I will, however, post the other recipes I was going to try for anyone else that might want to make it for themselves.
These recipes were taken from cookbooks at a Border’s store here in San Antonio. Unfortunately, I did not write down the names of the books or author, so I don’t know who to give credit to. I will do that in the future. It was hard enough standing in the store trying to copy down the recipes in shorthand while the store manager glared at me, but I was not about to buy three different books for one recipe (especially experimental ones). Perhaps that’s from my low moral fiber, but I will deal with my Karma when that day comes.
So without further ado, here are the recipes…

Aztec Quinoa – this is the one I made repeatedly
1 tsp butter
1 lg onion, diced
1 tsp cumin
1 poblano chile, diced
3 c. vegetable stock
Salt
3 med. Potatoes, peeled and cut in ½” cubes
2 carrots, sliced in ¼” rounds
1c. quinoa, washed
1 c. corn, frozen whole or cut from 2-3 cobs
1c. whole milk
Pepper to taste
Minced Italian parsley and cilantro
Grated Pepper Jack cheese
Sour cream
Tobasco or hot sauce

Melt butter in a large soup pot on medium heat. Sauté onion and cumin 3 to 4 minutes or until onion is softened. Add poblano chile and sauté for 3 minutes more. Add vegetable stock and bring to a boil.

Add potatoes, carrots, and quinoa to the pot. Return to a boil, stir well, and turn down to simmer. Cover pot and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Add corn and cover and cook for 5 minutes more.

Turn off heat and pour in milk. Stir once and let stand covered for 5 minutes. Spoon into bowls and top with parsley and cilantro. If you like, pass the cheese, sour cream and hot sauce to add at the table.

Quinoa Tabbouleh
1 c. quinoa, raw
2 c. water
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp dried or 1 tbsp fresh chopped mint
1 red, green or yellow bell pepper
4 scallions
2 garlic cloves
1 ½ c. lightly packed fresh parsley leaves
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 ½ tbsp olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Rinse and drain quinoa in a fine mesh strainer to remove any residue of bitter coating. In a covered sauce pan on high heat, bring quinoa, water, salt, and mint (if dried) to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender (approx. 15 min.). Fluff with a fork and place in a serving bowl.

While quinoa cooks, finely chop bell pepper, mince the scallion and garlic and finely chop parsley and mint (if fresh). Add to the serving bowl with cooked quinoa. Pour on lemon juice and olive oil. Mix well. Salt & pepper to taste.

Menu ideas: Garnish with cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber, chopped toasted almonds, grated feta and or kalamata olives. Goes well with all things Greek.

Asparagus Quinoa Salad
1 c. quinoa
2 c. water
Salt
12 spears asparagus
½ c. kalamata olives
1 lg. tomato
1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
Pepper
4 oz. crumbled feta

Cook quinoa in 2 cups of water. While quinoa cooks, cut asparagus into 1” pieces. Place in saucepan and ½” of water and bring to boil. Cover and cook on medium low heat 3-4 minutes or until barely tender. Drain under cold water for 1 minute to cool.

Cut olives into thin slices. Seed tomato and cut into ½” pieces. Zest lemon and strain for 3 tbsp of juice.

Combine quinoa, asparagus, olives, tomato and zest. Whisk lemon juice and olive oil together and pour over mixture. Salt and pepper to taste and top with feta.

Foiled Again...

Doug and my mom were supposed to be meeting with the guy today to talk about getting our back property line cleared for a fence and having the other 16 acres he cleared disked and raked so we could get some grass seed out there for the cattle. Unfortunately, due to this cold front, he had some work he had to get done for another guy before the cold front came in. So we have to postpone the work a little while longer. GGGRRRRHHHH!

Zen And The Art of Farm Maintenance

We got a lot of work done one the property this weekend. In fact, aside from the stock tank, I think we got more done on the property this weekend than all of last year.

Doug and my mom put t-posts along the fence line where there were just twisted spacers. Then we went in and wire clipped the barbed wire to the t-posts. Wire clipping the barbed wire to the t-posts is actually really meditative. But, after awhile, you forget to meditate because your hands can't even grip the plyers anymore.

This was Thursday and Friday. Saturday we continued down the fenceline, removing prickly pear and pencil cactus, along with some mesquite trees, as we went. I HATE CACTUS! (insert footstomp here) I know it serves a purpose...but when you have to dig out entire neighborhoods of it that are older than you are, it gets tedious. Plus I think I have stickers in places that have never even seen the light of day and I was stuck using The World's Heaviest Shovel. On a side note, yesterday Doug and I saw a shovel with teeth marks in the blade...I was ready to give up our first born for it, to not have to use the other one again, but Doug said he'd rather take a saw to the other shovel and do it himself. Foiled again...

Our tractor was in a low spot where it was moved 30 feet by rainwater overflow the last time it rained 3 inches. Our friend James was wonderful enough to come out with his Jeep and help Doug move it up the hill, where we don't have to worry about it floating down to our neighbors property and can get it fixed.

Getting that done actually felt like the biggest accomplishment of the weekend, though, clearing 165 feet of cactus and mesquite and fixing fenceline is nothing to sneeze at either.

Farm To Do List

1. Clear back property line and install fence

2. Clear roadways around property

3. Buy and spread road base on all cleared roads

4. Rake and disk the 16 acres cleared 6 months ago

5. Continue perimeter and interior fencing

6. Plant native grasses on disked 16 acres

7. Repair tractor

8. Build water troughs and install in paddocks

9. Buy cattle and release on property

10. Build cattle shelter on South corner of property

11. Buy and install solar fence charger

12. Build garden shed that will sub for temp. shelter

13. Install culvert at water feature on easement

14. Improve water quality in tank and stock with fish

15. Dig second tank

16. Cut channel from 1st tank to 2nd tank

17. Improve channel between tanks for improved drainage

18. Improve dams on both tanks

19. Dig water well

20. Improve paddock fencing

21. Buy and release goats on paddocks

22. Establish rotation and implement

23. Disk the garden and plant

24. Install irrigation

2010 Resolutions

Piano –Complete Music Theory Book (Complete 1 Chapter per week), then move on to other music theory books
Practice 30 minutes 4x/week

Healthy Eating & Weight Loss –
Pick 1 ingredient each month and make at least 3-4 recipes using that ingredient
January – Quinoa
February – Broccoli
March – Barley
April – Garlic
May – Carrots
June – Zuccini
July – Basil
August – Summer Squash
September – Tuna
October – Black-eyed Peas
November – Bulgar
December – Duck

Workouts – Strength Training MWF (work through circuit on home gym)/Cardio TuTh (30-45 minutes on stationary bike)

Property –
Create to do list with Doug and post on blog

Coven -
Meet every 2^nd & 4^th Friday

Garden –
Grow enough food to make one meal (this is apparently a stretch for me)
Follow planting schedule on Angel Song Acres Farm

Homework – Weekly, review where I am at with my goals and if I am still on track. This will probably happen at Sunday breakfast.

Au Revior 2009...

I am ready for this year to be over with. Period. There have been some good parts, like the trip to Ireland and such, but as far as the farm goes, it has been slow going this year...though we did get the stock tank dug (which is a huge accomplishment). Being a huge accomplishment though, it seems to take a lot more to feel as though we are making progress.

That being said, we did finally sit down and get our resolutions done up for 2010. I am a huge proponent of resolutions. It gives me something to focus on and work towards. I will be posting those here (personal resolutions and farm resolutions)...in order to create a higher level of accountability.

Of course, I leave this place "post-less" for months at a time without any accountability...but I do feel bad about it. In fact, it keeps me up at night...well, for a few seconds anyway.

Bottom line, I think that we have finally got the right fire lit under our rumps to get motivated and get things done.

Let's hope we can keep up the momentum.

Where I spend my time not really giving you an update...

So...long time no see. All I can do is apologize and give you an update or at least an update on the updates I will be posting later.

We just got back from Ireland. It was a great trip. I'll have to do a post on that later but I have some other things I need to catch up on first.

We haven't done anything on the property, but we a planning on sitting down and re-working our "to-do" list so that I can have a better grasp on where we are and what we need to get done. I feel lost not knowing where we are and where we are headed. I'll give you an update on that too once I have it figured out in my head.

With that little bit of a "no real update to speak of" I will get back to you soon.