eating away the pain

we are drowning our grief in good food over here… not a bad coping technique when you live in the land of plenty.

Turns out we have luscious chantrelle mushrooms that have snuck up in the moist and mossy coves of our back yard. After much anxious research with web sources and real live expert humans to confirm that these little treats will thrill us rather than kill us, we sliced them up and licked our chops. First we had them sliced and sauteed in butter, garlic, salt, and pepper and then just tickled them with finely grated pecorino romano. The drool that is escaping my lips as I write this might endanger this computer so I will move on…. but then we had them chopped and sauteed in oil with some chilies and then hugged in a warm corn tortilla topped with oaxaca mama salsa, avocado, and goat cheese… gheez. SO GOOD.

Then, with the 5 gallons of apple juice we recently pressed, I began brewing hard cider. It doesn’t look to pretty now ( as you can see in the photo), but hopefully it will blossom into a delicious, grown-up drink. I say hopefully, because after rampaging into the brewing project with zero understanding of the process, I realize that I’ve made some significant errors. I’ve consulted with the experts, our friends Josie Brown and Justin Horner – both of whom have confirmed that I have, in fact, made some errors. Justin did inform this kuntrywife that what the mixture is doing now is fermenting. Seems like a no brainer, right? It was news to me. So, “if it smells terrible“, said Dr. Horner, “like sulfur or something, don’t drink it.” This is the kind of practical information I need since I seem incapable of finding time to actually read beyond the ingredient list. I recognize that brewing is a science and an art and that what I’m doing is a bit spazzy and fisher-price. But what if it does work????

Did you know that making pasta noodles is super easy and a really fun thing to do with squirmy toddler? Just found that out myself. Trust me, it’s really easy, and just do it:

2 cups flour

2 eggs

2 teaspoons olive oil or water

1/4 teaspoon salt

Before you read further or toss in the towel, just know that all these bullet points say is: mix ingredients together, knead the dough, roll it, cut it, cook it. I swear it only took Osh and I about 35 minutes from beginning to end – this was 16 minutes longer than it could have taken if she’d been willing to stop kneading the dough a little sooner.

• just make a heap with the flour and scoot a little crater our of the top

• put the eggs, oil, and salt in the crater then break the yolks with a fork

• begin pulling in the flour from the sides of the mound

• bring in as much as you can and then knead the dough.

• get it “silky but not sticky… 3-4 minutes” ( if your toddler insists on kneading for 20 minutes, don’t sweat it, turns out that it still works)

• put the dough in a plastic bag for a 10 ish minutes to rest and soften – meanwhile, you can get out a clean pillow case and a rolling pin and any cookie cutters your toddler desires

• break the dough into a few or four pieces, roll into a ball and then flatten

• begin rolling – roll until thin

• cut into noodley strips with a knife or let your toddler go wild with shapes – Ossian chose the star cutter

• then lay the cut pieces on a clean pillow case to dry – takes just a few minutes

• boil up some water and toss your new noodle friends in

• they cook fast so maybe in 4 ish minutes, check them

they are so good, you can just eat them with olive oil and shredded cheese – or if you must, add some frozen peas during the last minute of noodle boiling and squeeze a clove or two of garlic over the whole mess (this is yet another recipe taken from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and debased by me)

Want to liven them up? Add some chopped rosemary, chili flakes, or pepper to the dough

Then, there was last night’s instant, homemade, irresistible chocolate loaf cake…. should I talk about it or hold off for another post? It is dangerously fast and easy…I’m not kidding.