CNY Bounty American Pie.

It's has been so long since I've baked a pie from scratch. Mrs. Smith and the Pillsbury Doughboy have spoiled me. But when Becca invited us to dinner, I just knew I had to take a pie. The question was "Could I make a Bounty pie?"

First thing - flour. I had some Gianforte Pastry Flour - soft white whole wheat. A little texture never hurt anyone.

Next - shortening. I made one crust for us with Ingallside Meadows lard, and I decided to use butter from Queensboro Farms for the one I took to Becca and Kevin's.

Salt - some things you just can't replace. Probably could have skipped this with the butter.

Apples - a couple of Crispins and a couple of Galas from Split Rail Apple Farm with a little more flour and butter. Made enough for two pie fillings.

Sweetener - Bailey's Drunken Raisin Sauce from Old Goat Salsa. I had done a sampling demonstration with the Szareks of Old Goat at the new Nelson Farms store (in The Peppermill) in Hamilton that weekend. When I tasted this sauce, I knew just how I was going to make the pie.

I made standard pie crust using the recipe in my red and white plaid cookbook (Everyone has one of these, don't they?). Peeled and sliced the apples and tossed them with a couple tablespoons of flour and chopped cold butter. Then stirred in the Raisin Sauce (one jar for two pie fillings). Spread that in the pie shells and baked it until golden brown.

Oops - someone got to this pie before the photographer.

When we tasted it, there were hints of peaches - probably from the orange juice in the raisin sauce. The crust was flaky. I need to talk to Gianforte about getting this flour in bulk for all my baking.

Kevin and Becca served us a delicious meal of roast beef, potatoes and gravy, with fresh asparagus and a green salad. We drank some homemade honey meade, ate the pie, and then sipped some hop tea to bring the evening to a "bitter end". Wonderful good time.

Great Goulash? Zesty Ziti?

Holy hops! I'm a bit caught up in alliteration right now. Sorry about that. My husband is French Canadian and English. I am English and German. But if we didn't know better, we'd think there was a little Italian and Hungarian in there. We love this beef and pasta dish that our families always called goulash. I guess a little was lost in the interpretation of the old world recipes. Still, it is a favorite, whatever it's called.

Wagner Style Goulash

1/2 lb fresh pasta (The Pasta Shoppe)

1 lb ground beef (Maple Avenue Farms)

1 chopped onion

1 chopped green pepper (or frozen chopped pepper)

1 qt marina sauce (The Pasta Shoppe)

Salt, Pepper

Paprika based spicy seasoning (I used Juanita's Soul Classics Rub)

While pasta is cooking, brown ground beef in skillet. Drain. Add onion and green pepper. Saute briefly, then add marina sauce, drained pasta (al dente), and seasonings. Cook slowly until flavors are blended or you can't stand waiting any longer.

Butter some Whispering Pines Bakery white bread and sprinkle with garlic powder - toast in the oven. Toss together some Fingerlakes Fresh Salad Bouquet greens, some cheese (here is some of my hop panir) and some salad dressing (Ramona's Sweet Italian).

Eat more than you should, then put the rest away for lunch tomorrow. Yumm.

What's Up? No posts in a couple of weeks?

No, I didn't give up the challenge. We've just been very busy. Spring is here and that means lots of new babies to care for, supplies to order, and work to do. Introducing "Eva", our little Suri Alpaca born in early March. We also have baby pot belly pigs (six born, four remain). The pygmy goats are bursting at the seams and there is a lot of movement in the reindeer - sure hope that is a sign of a calf. Hard to tell with them - no one can get close enough to check.

We're still eating almost completely from the Bounty when we are home. (Girl Scout Cookies are an exception. Good me for supporting my granddaughter's troop. Bad me for eating them a whole package at time.) We've eaten out a lot lately, but when we go out, we find that we are looking for farm names we know and words like local or regional or farm-fresh on the menus. You'd be surprised how many CNY restaurants are rallying behind the slow food locavore movement. We ate beef from Meadows Farm at a pub in Syracuse on Friday.

So excited to get carrots. I've been dying for them since January. I didn't understand what "Utility Carrots" were. Thought they might be bruised, but they looked perfect to me. Munched them raw, sliced and cooked them, shaved them into salads, chunked them in soup, stir fried them with brussel sprouts. We've eaten them every way except drank them. That gives me an idea. Maybe I'll go dig out the juicer and make some apple carrot juice. Hmmmm. Now that I'm thinking, maybe one or two will be destined for a ginger carrot cake this weekend. There is already another bag in my Bounty shopping cart for next week.

Got sauerkraut this week. Hope there are still Drover Hill Hot Dogs in the freezer. I didn't plan well. If not, we'll try some of the ring bologna that we got from Quarry Brook Farms in this week's order.

We spent some time with Eve Ann and Harmon of Maple Avenue Farms last weekend. Nice people. They have a double pyramid hop kiln and some hop artifacts that I'd love to own. We got to see their black angus beef cattle. Big animals! Healthy and happy. I had used some of their ground beef in a goulash earlier in the week. It was great. (See next post.) Left them with a jar of mustard and invited them over for a BBQ and a beer. Of course, they are bringing the steaks! Here is a picture. My husband Larry is on the left. Eve Ann and Harmon on the right. Becca Jablonski and me in the middle (I'm the chubby one) with the guys from Gorst Valley Hops at Maple Avenue Farms hop kiln. Becca's husband Kevin was behind the camera. I hate the word, but I can't find a better superlative so I'll just say ... What an 'awesome' weekend.

A Golden Chicken

I bought a half chicken from Quarry Brook Farm. A golden half chicken. I cost $16.90. When it came, I looked at it and winced. I was uncertain that I could make a dish worthy of its value. I put it in the freezer, but everytime I opened that freezer door, that chicken stared back at me, daring me to do something with it.

So Sunday I decided it was time! I thawed it out and pulled it apart - one plump breast, one meaty thigh, one wing and a long, full back. I placed the breast and the thigh in a shallow roasting pan - no seasonings, no herbs, no salt, no spices. A naked breast and thigh roasting in the oven while I boiled some small Bounty new potatoes in one saucepan and boiled the wing and back in another. On a third burner was a bag of frozen mixed vegetables - OK, I cheated!

Time to take the chicken out of the oven. First thought - nothing in the bottom of the pan. What? No water, no grease, no scum? The skin - golden brown, crispy. There it was, visible evidence that this chicken was far different from the frozen, skinless, boneless, tasteless chicken breasts injected with a solution of fat and water that I buy at the supermarket. If it were only for the way it presented on the plate, it was worth it. But more - it was moist and filling. One breast had the meat of two (or three) of those supermarket breasts. I watched my (chicken) leg loving husband dive in, oohing and ahhing, and then struggling to finish the last bite - it was so filling. The potatoes and veggies were a nice compliment, but the focus was on that precious chicken.

And what about the back and wing? They were removed from the broth, drained and packaged into the fridge. The broth, much more than the quart jar I had to put it in, was golden yellow with only a hint of fat. When I removed it out of the refrigerator on Monday night, it had only about 2 Tablespoons of grease on top. The broth went into the stockpot along with a chopped half onion from the Bounty and the meat from the back and wing - a good cupful. Brought up to boiling, toss in a handful of The Pasta Shoppe frozen shells, some Heritage Farms basil and oregano, a squirt of ketchup, and a pinch of black pepper. When the pasta was almost done, in went the remainder of those mixed veggies and voila - a hearty chicken soup. On the side, a turkey sandwich (I had to buy some sliced turkey from the deli for our daughter with maternity cravings.) with Fingerlakes Fresh greens and Ramona's Sweet Italian dressing. Delicious!

We devoured two large bowls of soup and there was still a full quart of soup to go back into the fridge for lunch and/or a quick supper. Three (or more) flavorful, hearty, comforting meals from that half-chicken. OK, so do the math. That works out to a little over $5.00 for each meal. Well worth it. I'll buy golden chicken again and I won't wait so long to cook it! Next time I'll have a container big enough for all the broth. I'll use half for soup and half for chicken gravy and get another meal out of it. The thought of chicken and biscuits is making me hungry. Imagine what I could have done with a WHOLE golden chicken.

The sun is shining and there is a male cardinal outside my window. What a beautiful morning. Off to work.