From Farm to Fork Part 2: Ranch and Garden Tour

Have you ever been to a farm or ranch? How about owning one while working a full time professional job? That's what our friends, Marie and Shane are doing out in Northern California. Marie and Shane recently had us over for an amazing four course pork dinner made from Mangalitsa pigs that they raise and butcher themselves on their 40 acres!

We aren't sure what's more incredible: the fact that they have full time professional jobs (science and marketing) or that they have pretty much taught themselves how to do all of this. They've built the shelters, feeding equipment and pens themselves and taken classes on how to humanely and appropriate butcher a pig- not to mention all of the food preparation they've learned. Check out our previous post where you can see what they are doing with food and beer (yes, they brew their own!). In addition to raising the pigs, they are growing a tremendous garden of fruits, berries, vegetables and even grapes! It's astounding.

The pigs they are raising are called Mangalitsa and you'll notice right away that they have curly hair! These pigs are prized for their quality meat and they take quite a while to mature. You'll find the pork at high end restaurants like Chez Panisse and One Market. Marie and Shane are the only raisers of these pigs in Northern California and while they can butcher for themselves to eat, they sell the pigs to these restaurants to butcher as they wish. Those pigs are slaughtered an approved USDA facility.

On their ranch, they've pastured the pigs and given them shelter as well as plenty of mud to wallow. They have spritzers to cool the pigs and create an even bigger mud wallow in the summer.

You'll notice right away that the pigs really root up the land creating lumpy earth in place of green pastures.

They almost blend right in!

The pigs are separated by age groups so the adults don't pick on the little guys. Currently they have three different age groups.

Of course, the piglets start out as cute little guys without all of the curly hair but they grow pretty quickly.

This brave one came up to say hello but most of the piglets were pretty shy. The older pigs weren't shy at all and liked to be scratched.

This little one took in some sunshine.

So how did we feel seeing these pigs and their lives and then having dinner that was created from them? I felt grateful for the privilege and glad that these animals were treated with respect and dignity. Seeing their pasture with the open space, sunshine, and mud- they seemed content and relaxed. And knowing our friends, we were assured that they were honoring these animals throughout their lives and afterwards, as they looking to use all parts of the animal in cooking and eating. We couldn't help but be impressed yet also realize how disconnected most of us are as a society from our own food. We've been invited to the next time that Marie and Shane slaughter and butcher a pig and I'd like to go. It sounds like a tremendous amount of work, possibly intimidating but also a very real and honest experience of what it means to eat meat.

Have you been to a farm or ranch? Have you ever slaughtered and butchered an animal?

How connected do you feel to your food?

Food from the Road: St. Louis

Here’s a quick little homage to some great food we had on the road in St. Louis, MO at the Sidney Street Café. This unassuming café served us inspiring dishes including fried morel mushrooms, this beet salad with goat cheese, and lobster turnovers.

My companions enjoyed lovely halibut and vibrant beet risotto, sea bass with polenta gnocchi and a stunning ham and egg appetizer with an encrusted soft egg, over toast (in photo above). Once, the fork dipped into that egg, envious oohs and ahhs could be heard around the table as the bright yellow yolk eagerly ran down the crusty bits.

For the Love of Wedding Cake

Last weekend, we had the honor of attending K and J’s wedding in Amador County, CA. This natural and rustic setting was perfect for their heartfelt and outdoor-loving wedding. I particularly enjoyed their wedding cake which was elegant and delicious.

Justin received a perfect piece of this four layered chocolate cake with berry filling. The cake was accompanied by a scoop of honey lavender or strawberry ice cream.

The cake topper was also very sweet as these two little lovebirds sat perched atop.

Congratulations, K and J!

What was your wedding cake like?

Here’s a link to our wedding cake. We had a small version remade on our fifth wedding anniversary.

Birthday Cupcakes!

Ah, it's June, the time of weddings, baby showers and birthdays!

I made these birthday cupcakes for my friend, Mama A who just had a birthday. But I also have to say Happy Birthday to my cousin, Jen, who we just threw a baby shower for two weeks ago.

These Billy's vanilla vanilla cupcakes are one of my favorite recipes because:

1. they are from scratch and they have a slightly denser crumb which I prefer to a mix.

2. the butter doesn't have to be pre-softened and they turn out just fine if the butter is a bit lumpy in the mix.

3. it's a one bowl recipe.

The vanilla buttercream frosting is super fresh and delicious and made with lots of powdered sugar and butter.

For the little flower, I used Wilton melting chips and melted them in a glass bowl in the microwave at 30 second intervals until soft. I spooned them into a ziploc bag, cut of the edge and piped the flowers on parchment or waxed paper. As you can see, not all of them turn out perfectly but I make more than enough so that I can choose the very best..

You can make anything with these melting chips. They aren't a great list of ingredients but you eat just a bit and they made wonderful decorations.

Here's a little link love to two other cupcakes that I have made- you'll see some similarities!

1. Butterfly Cupcakes

2. Wedding Shower cupcakes

Hoping to make a few more cupcakes before the summer ends...

Do you have a favorite cupcake recipe? I'd like to branch out and try something new.

Summertime Sundae- Fenton's Creamery

When you grow up with a classic, sometimes you don't realize how special it really is. I grew up with Fenton's Creamery in nearby Oakland and it turns out, so have a lot of other people because Fenton's has been around since 1894!

This landmark creamery makes its own ice cream onsite and has a rich history. Whether it's a walk-up ice cream cone that you want or a full sit-down sundae, Fenton's has both. We thought a warm weekend was the perfect time to meet up for a sundae with Anita, who is a local Oaklander.

With Beaker, our dog in tow, we got a seat immediately on the patio and took a look at the extensive menu- it's two pages of ice cream and sundaes!

There are so many delicious choices, it was very hard to choose. What did we have?

A caramel sundae with toasted almond ice cream for Anita...

A root beer float for Justin...

A hot fudge sundae with Swiss milk chocolate ice cream for me.

And some fresh French fries...what can I say, I'm pregnant and salty French fries and sweet ice cream sounded so good!

Drink the Pink: Watermelon-Strawberry Coolers

It's almost summertime and that means time for watermelon. We ended up with a watermelon that's bigger than my head and wanted to make something different but still refreshing.

So what better way to cool off than to blend a bit of watermelon with a few leftover strawberries and some ice in the blender?

Thanks to the ridiculously powerful Vitamix, pulverizing ice is easy peasy for this blender.


In a matter of seconds, I had an icy, naturally sweet pink drink...yum!

What other things do you make with watermelon?

Baby Shower Desserts: Onesie Cookies and Pinwheel Cupcakes

And now for the treats! This is my favorite part...the baking! We decided that Debbie, cake and cupcake baker extraordinaire, would make the cupcakes and darling pinwheels and I would make the sugar cookie favors.

The Cookies

I borrowed a cookie cutter shaped like a onesie from my neighbor, Toni. You may remember that she is my cookie decorator partner in crime from our wedding shower cookies. Because my cousin doesn't want to know the gender of the baby, I chose yellow as the frosting color and to decorate half like boys and half like girls.

For the cookie recipe, I use a classic Martha sugar cookie one but for some reason, it's no longer online. And this time, I had some new tools to use! Above is my new pastry mat from the Pampered Chef. It's non stick and I love the grids to roll pie crust or measure. I also have a new thin spatula that is great for lifting the cutout shapes. Lately, I've learned to bake the cookies and decorate them on separate nights. If I can't do it back to back, I've been freezing the cookies in tupperware and thawing them the night before I frost them. This time, I made the cookies on a Wednesday and frosted them on Thursday. Toni came to help on Thursday!

The shower was Saturday and from past experience, this royal icing frosting needs 2 days to fully dry before you bag the cookies. You might recall that I bagged the wedding cookies after one night of drying and even though the surface felt hard, the frosting wasn't and the moisture migrating into the cookies and made them soft. I had no problems this time with a 2 day dry time before bagging. We made about 30 cookies and tried many different designs. First we piped an outline and then filled it with flow frosting. Then we piped over the top.

Here are a few designs:

For a boy...

For a girl...

A little lighter on the frosting...

and a little flower design.

and finally we bagged them and tied them with ribbon.

The Cupcakes

I can't take any credit for these- the lovely cupcakes were made by Debbie. She also made the darling pinwheels. She used Billy's vanilla vanilla frosting, which is my favorite.

She also piped in a raspberry cream filling using a number 5 tip and pastry bag after the cupcakes were baked. The top layer of frosting covers the hole.

Take a look at these tiny pinwheel with a sparkly center. She made them by hand out of the same paper as the invitations that we made and then glued it onto a lollipop stick.

Do you have any clever desserts for baby showers? We'd love to hear them!

Baby Shower Food Ideas: Fruity Flowers, Savory Salads and Panini

Are you planning a shower? We were excited to plan the menu for this baby shower for 22 ladies. We wanted the food to be fresh and festive. Here's the main menu:

Appetizers:
• Baked brie wrapped in puff pastry
• Vegetables with yogurt dip
• Hummus with pita chips
• Asparagus wrapped in puff pastry with prosciutto

Lunch:
• Edible Fruit Flowers
• Greek salad
• Field greens with pears and honey lavender dressing
• Black forest ham and Swiss cheese panini with cornichons
• Chicken parmesan panini


The Details:

Baked Brie in Puff Pastry

I absolutely love this appetizer because it is easy to make and easy to eat. I've posted a version of this before with jam and puff pastry and brie. This simpler version has no jam, honey, nuts or dried fruit and the seam is on the bottom. Click here for a great video tutorial on how to fold this.


If you have cookie cutters, using the scraps, you can easily cut out shapes and use a bit of whisked egg to "glue" the scraps on top.

It always turns out very cute. Here it is before baking. After you bake it, be sure to let this cool at least 45 minutes or a hour such that when you cut into it the brie doesn't gush out. I also recommend serving it on a platter with sides in case it does gush out.

Asparagus Wrapped in Puff Pastry and Prosciutto

This is an easy and elegant recipe that wraps prosciutto and puff pastry around asparagus. I have already posted this in detail from the Oscar party so just click on the link.

Salads
This Greek salad was made by Amber and it was juicy and fresh, filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, feta and green onions.

My mom made this field green salad with fresh pears, asiago cheese, pecans and a honey lavender dressing. You can also surround the salad with the pears for a more formal appearance. The honey lavender dressing was made with garlic, honey, white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and coarse ground mustard. Be sure to use culinary lavender, available at cooking stores and some grocery stores. Non-culinary lavendar may not be food grade.

Fruit Flowers
I've learned a few tricks in making these since the original post about fruit flower bouquets. Click the link to see the how-to but a few new tips:

1. Cut the fruit the night before and store it covered and in the fridge. Save the assembly for the next day.

2. Use small seedless watermelon. Larger watermelons seem to have less dense flesh that falls apart when cut. I tried both this time and the seedless one was much more homegeneous and dense and cut easily without falling apart.

3. Get creative with grapes and use them to fill in. I did a lot of grape and strawberry skewers to fill in the elaborate watermelon-kiwi-pineapple- strawberry flowers.

4. Use an Easter basket for the holder if you don't want to carve a melon as the base. I'm still figuring out what is the best dense material to stick the skewers in inside the basket...I used part of a cantaloupe in the basket.
Here's a finished basket with a mix of the elaborate flowers and the simple grape skewers. We made three different ones and they were lovely to eat but also as decoration.

Panini
My mom made two kinds of panini: Black forest ham with swiss cheese and cornichons on top as well as a chicken parmesan panini.


The cornichons made a lovely garnish. Mom also used a bit of mustard and mayo as a spread.

The chicken parmesan sandwich was made with a pounded chicken cutlet, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. It was garnished with fresh basil and parsley.

And dessert....coming in the next post!