A Kid'll Eat Ivy, Too!

By way of update, from my earlier post, here's the latest in the goat mower saga!

This little dear is working his way, chest deep, to the choicest leaves.  He is a special type of goat that has very small ears.

He is the first goat my eldest son got to hold.  He said, "He feels like a cloud!" So we named him Cloud.

These pictures are from the day we moved the goats to the second area.  They moved in and started eating like they hadn't eaten in a week.

Pulling her weight.

Our ewe was still sagging with pregnancy when she left.  Poor darling!

It's not cold.  I don't know why they decided to wear winter gloves.  I think they just wanted to look cool.

This little brown one is named K2 (the only one we actually knew the real name of) and was my eldest's favorite.  My youngest loved the little black one here most and named her Little.

 This is the part of the first section easily seen from the driveway before and after.

Further up the bank.

All the brown here used to be green.  Including the fence.

On the other side of the fence, was our second area for clearing.  Believe it or not, these pictures are exactly the same area!

 

Mario on the right, easily walks through an area he'd have been wading through before.

This poor tree has been killed by ivy and will have to come out.

 Part of the dead tree that has already fallen.  Wouldn't believe it was even in that first picture, would you?

I had no idea how wonderful goats were.  Such gentle and sweet little things with so much personality.  My husband and boys all had their favorites.  My favorite was any goat that happened to have a mouthful of green stuff when I looked at her.

 After four days, the sad time finally came to say goodbye.

Cade carried K2 down to the truck.  But we will have another quick visit next week for one last section.  (For now.)

To prepare for our goaty guests, I decided to move a couple of plants.

I had a small group of trilliums blooming that I just love and a few ramps I transplanted from my grocery store last year.  Ramps are a wild leek that grows natively in the Eastern part of the US.  I love them and they are catching on in popularity in this area.  I found out that they like to live near trilliums so I stuck some in the ground near my trillium patch.  I was delighted to see these sprigs appear this Spring.  Now that I've moved them, I hope they come back next year!

Here are some harvested ramps.  They have a strong garlicy/onion flavor.

I paired them with eggs to make this lovely breakfast.

Egg with Asparagus and Ramps

1 egg

2 thin stalks of asparagus, sliced in 1/4 inch pieces

1 ramp, chopped small, leaves included

1 oz feta cheese, crumbled

butter

salt and pepper

Sauté the asparagus in a small amount of butter until it is warmed and starting to soften.  Remove from heat, fry an egg in the same pan a few minutes until it looks the way you like.  Remove from the pan, and heat the ramps for a few seconds to warm them up.  Sprinkle the asparagus, ramps, and feta over the egg and salt and pepper to taste.

Review: 

This egg is terribly quick and delicious.  The feta I found had a mild "goaty" flavor that reminded me of my girls.  I can't wait to see them again next week!

UPDATE:
The goat man is coming back today!  Eeeeeee!  =)

An Unassuming Dinner

     People often give me weird looks when I tell them I'm vegetarian and none of the rest of my family is.  Or maybe I've got something gross in my teeth... This week, it's probably asparagus.  I went a little crazy when my local market delivered up local asparagus.  I bought 4 pounds.  Yeah...  It's the first Spring vegetable.  I can't help it.  Plus, it's freakin' delicious.  It's one of the few plants I'm genuinely sad I can't grow here in the Pit of Darkness.  I also picked up a few early beets and some onions.  Since I'm the only vegetarian, our meals are often two veg and a protein.  The vegetables are always prepared vegetarian (no lard/bacon/fat back) and I just switch out the protein. Though more times than not, like tonight, we eat full vegetarian.  My hubby won't eat beets unless they're roasted (they taste best roasted anyway, so no complaints here) so I decided to go ahead and roast the rest of the veggies, too.

Beets:
any number of smallish* beets, I made about 7
aluminum foil
feta or goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 400°.  Wash and wrap beets in aluminum foil.  Roast beets for about an hour.  Beets are done when a knife pierces easily through to the middle.  The time it takes to cook the rest of the meal should be plenty of time to cool the beets.  When they've had a chance to cool off a little, it's easy to peel off the skin by pulling it back with a knife.  Slice into pieces and sprinkle with a little feta cheese.

*(The larger the beet, the longer it will take to cook I've had some take over two hours!)

While the beets are baking you can prep the asparagus, onions, and lentils.
 
Asparagus:
asparagus
olive oil
salt and pepper

Lower the oven temp to 350°, wash and snap off tough bits of asparagus.  Lay flat on a baking sheet with no overlap.  Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Bake until tender which will depend on the size of your asparagus anywhere from 5-20 minutes.

Onions:
onions
olive oil
salt and pepper

Wash the onions and trim off the roots and brown bits on the leaves, then give the same treatment as the asparagus.  Cook time will be similar to the asparagus.  I put mine on a separate baking sheet than the asparagus because I wasn't sure if it would cook faster.  You can try cooking them on the same sheet, but be prepared to take them off early if they beat the asparagus.

Lentils:
French lentils
water
salt and pepper

Lentils are the easiest beans to do as they cook up so quickly.  French lentils hold their shape a little better than regular green or brown lentils but if you can't find French, the cooking method still applies.  Rinse the lentils, check for rocks and put about 1 Cup of lentils into a pan with about 2 1/2 -3 Cups of water.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  You can also flavor the water with a little bullion or stock if you like.

This would be good with chicken or turkey if you decided to swap out the protein.
 
So as you can see, this meal took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to cook, but it doesn't require much babysitting so I actually only spent about 15 minutes in the kitchen.  The hardest part of this meal is remembering to put the beets in the oven beforehand.  That, and remembering to floss out the asparagus...

Review:
The boys are back and forth with lentils.  Some days they love them, some days they don't.  Today was a "don't" day.  They are ambivalent toward asparagus.  They'll eat it with enough coercion.  But the beets?  Those go flying.  Big boy asked for seconds before he even got his plate to the table.  Hubs and I loved all of it.

Shameless Bragging

     OK, can I just say how much I love my farmer's market?  The last time I was there buying eggs, I heard a woman insisting that she get "a rainbow dozen."  Little did she know they're all rainbow dozens.  Beautiful, green, brown, tan, and white eggs dutifully laid by happy chickens who forage in the grass, eat bugs, and do happy, happy chicken things.  Whatever that is.  Roost in the forests of the moon or something... Anyhoo... I also found asparagus, morel mushrooms, and hazelnuts, and garlic...

     Have I mentioned morel mushrooms before?  Allow me to expound.  They're the little brainy looking things on the plate there.  They don't taste like any mushroom you've ever had.  They are drier, meatier, chewier, and they don't taste like a fungus.  I love mushrooms.  Just about all kinds (there's a few Asian ones I'm not too keen on) but the morel is just above and beyond.  They're hard to find, which makes them rare.  And the hiding spots are often a well kept secret.  Like the take it to your grave kind.  Fortunately for me, our farmer's market has a forager who brings fiddle head ferns, morels, sea beans, elder flowers, all kinds of wild edibles.  I love morel season.  If you can find some, buy them.  If you like mushrooms, you won't be disappointed.  If you don't like mushrooms, try them anyway, you might be surprised!

     I put this recipe together to highlight the morels and the asparagus, which I'm also nuts for.  You could also sub garlic scapes or fiddle head ferns earlier in the spring.

Morel and Asparagus Sauté
1/2 bunch asparagus
1/8 lb morel mushrooms
1/4 C chopped hazelnuts
4 cloves garlic
red wine for de-glazing
pre-cooked chicken (optional)
Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend

Sauté garlic, asparagus, hazelnuts, and garlic in pan with a little olive oil.  Meanwhile, make grains according to package directions.    As vegetables begin to stick to pan, de-glaze with red wine.  Cook until asparagus is cooked, but still firm.

If using the chicken, re-heat it in microwave or in a frying pan with a little bit of water.  Or, if you eat meat, go ahead and throw it in the pan with the veggies.

Serve!

Notes: 
TJ's Harvest Grains Blend is mostly little cute pastas, so if you can't find it, this would be great with pasta or brown rice.  I cooked mine with a little mushroom stock and a tad of butter.

Review: 
Absolutely fantastic.  Morels are a delicacy for a reason!

Also, just another quick little bit of bragging.  One of my hummus photos was featured yesterday on Finding Vegan!

A Farewell to Spring...

Primavera means "Spring" in Italian, or so I've been told.  We have had a cloudy, cold, miserable Spring here in the Pacific Northwest and I, for one, am glad to see this mythical season they call "Summer" arrive.  I do love all the Spring vegetables though, like asparagus, morels and most recently, as you well know, I have discovered the sweet seduction of garlic scapes.  So I thought I'd make this little Pasta Primavera using the last of the local Spring veggies, though I wish I'd thought of this while fiddle heads were still in season... oh well, next year.

Pacific Northwest Pasta Primavera

4 or 5 baby beets
1/2 lb garlic scapes
1/2 lb asparagus
1/8 lb fresh morel mushrooms
1/2 lb kale

1) Roast beets.  Wrap in tin foil and bake for one hour at 350°.
2) After the beets have roasted for about 30 minutes, start the pasta water, and chop garlic scapes and asparagus in 1 or 2 inch pieces.
3) Roughly chop kale into bite-size pieces.
4) Chop morels into rings.
5) Sauté veggies in a frying pan with a little olive oil.  Start with scapes and asparagus.  Add  kale and mushrooms after about 5 minutes.
6) If the garlic scapes are taking too long to cook, add a little water and cover the pan to let everything steam.

A little wine would be nice in the sauté, too. 

7) When pasta water boils, add pasta and cook according to package directions.

 I fubared the alfredo sauce, so it was more like tasty milk with Parmesan curd, but it still tasted awesome...

Alfredo sauce:
1/2 stick butter, melted in pan
1 C skim milk
1 C Parmesan cheese
1 crushed garlic clove
1/4 C fresh parsley
pepper

To make a proper alfredo, you should use cream in place of milk.  This may have been what made mine all farshlugginer...

1) Melt butter in a small saucepan.
2) Boil milk, stirring consistently, for 5 minutes.
3) Slowly add Parmesan.
4) Add garlic clove, parsley, and pepper.

When beets are ready, let cool slightly (until you can handle them) and peel skin off, then slice.  Dress the pasta with the alfredo.  Top with sauteed veggies and sliced beets.

Eat it, 'cause it's awesome!   This could be more quickly made if you cook the beets a day or two ahead of time.  I served this with salmon because we had some that needed to be eaten, but this would probably be better with chicken.