Initiation and Carrot Top Pesto

It feels like its been forever since I posted anything! The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of work and play. Last week we initiated new members into the Society of Les Voyageurs. For those who don’t know, LV is a society at the University of Michigan dedicated to a love of nature and the out-of-doors. It was founded and 1907 and we have a cabin down by the river and we canoe a lot. That’s about all you need to know. You can find out the rest on the Wikipedia page. 

Les Voyageurs from the 70's taking the war canoe out on the Detroit River

We are a pretty ragtag crew, as you can see from these fine examples below. Cross-dressing and cutting up road kill while not wearing pants are just a few of our many talents and hobbies.

  

I made a lot of awesome food last week, including, but not limited to, beef stroganoff with spaghetti squash and swedish meat balls.

 

 

I also fulfilled my week-long dream of eating a BLT. Although it was actually a BLAT because I put avocado on it too.

 

For our weekly Sunday night potlucks at the cabin last week I made carrot top pesto with some of the 4-ingredient crusty bread. It was amazing. The recipe is posted below. I just kinda threw in whatever I had laying around so the measurements aren’t exact, but you don’t really need to be exact with pesto. It was also my first time using our new food processor. That thing is amazing.

 

CARROT TOP PESTO

2 cups carrot tops

1 cup parsley

1/2 cup basil (I used some dried purple basil I had laying around)

1 cup chopped walnuts (or whatever kind of nut you want to use)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or however much you want to add, I like mine less oily)

- put all the greens in the food processor and mix.

- add walnuts and pulse until finely chopped.

- add olive oil and pules until blended. 

- garnish with an extra carrot top and enjoy! 

* This goes great with this bread.

 

Pi Day!

Yesterday was pi day, so of course I had to make pie. I had some extra sweetened condensed milk laying around so I decided to make pumpkin pie! I just made the filling according to the pumpkin puree can, and used a couple of spelt pie shells that I picked up from whole foods. for the topping, I roasted some pecans in maple syrup. I also made some maple whipped cream by hand, which is quite a wrist workout! Here are the results:

The pies were a hit and got gobbled up pretty quickly with barely even a crumb left over. We the proceeded to watch silly videos on the projector including the orgy scene from Perfume.

Maple Syrup and Kefir Pancakes

The snow is melting, the birds are chirping, and the sun is shining! Spring is in the air, and you know what that means! Maple Syrup! My roommate started tapping the sugar maple in our backyard this year so I decided to get in on the fun too. She tapped a sugar maple, but pretty much any maple will do. The best time for optimal sap flow is early spring when it gets below freezing at night, then warms up during the day.

I put out a huge jar and after only 3 days I had plenty of sap to work with. I've heard that the sap to syrup ratio can be anywhere from 40-1 to 60-1, but it varies depending on the sugar content of the particular tree. My gallon of sap produced a little under a cup of syrup. While boiling the sap down, I used a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature. Some sources say the syrup is done when it reaches 217 degrees or so, but I just taste-tested it until it was sweet enough for me and had a good consistency. 

 

It turned out amazing with a beautiful amber color, and was actually a bit sweeter than the stuff I bought from the store! Now, for a pancake recipe worthy of this magnificent liquid gold, I naturally turned to Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. If you haven't picked up this book yet, I highly recommend it. It will change your life. The basic pancake recipe in it calls for the flour (I used a mix of buckwheat and spelt) to be soaked in kefir for 12-24 hours.

  

Then you add the basic eggs, baking soda, salt, and butter. I also added some organic frozen blueberries to mine. They come out wonderfully chewy and light, and with a hint of the sour kefir taste. I topped them with butter and my homemade maple syrup and barely managed to snap a few pics before gobbling them up while standing at the kitchen counter. My roommate who tapped the tree even ate a few, and she doesn't even care for pancakes. Success!

Blueberry Kefir Pancakes

1 cup spelt

1 cup buckwheat flour

2 cups kefir

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon backing soda

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

- Mix the spelt and buckwheat flour with the kefir and let soak in a warm place for 12-24 hours.

- Mix in remaining ingredients and thin with water if desired.

- Add blueberries and stir to combine.

- Cook on a griddle over medium low heat.

- Enjoy!

Bob and the Bandsaw

Some of my hand carved hairpicks

So the other day while hanging out with my friend at the farmers market, I met Bob. Bob is an awesome guy who makes wooden spatulas and the like. I also met his wife and his grandkids, who were all equally as awesome. I told him that I like to carve wooden hairpicks, and would like to sell them at the market, but it takes too long to carve them by hand. So Bob, being the amazing person that he is, decided to let me borrow his old bandsaw.

Bob's bandsaw

 This is a bandsaw. For those who don't know what a bandsaw is, it is basically a continuous saw blade that rides on rotating wheels and cuts wood and metal and sometimes meat. (I will not be using it to cut meat.) Bob dropped it off on my porch yesterday along with some beautiful wood scraps. I can't wait to start using it!

Close-up of the saw blade

4 Ingredient Crusty Bread

Cooling on the counter. I had to leave the room to stop myself from cutting it open right away.

So I made this really awesome bread the other day. It looked so perfect and round and crusty on the outside that I was sure it just had to be dense and overcooked on the inside. I was wrong. This bread was everything you think a loaf of bread should be and more. It was crispy, but not hard, on the outside and light and spongy on the inside. Perfect. Just. Perfect. And it was super easy to make! You can find the recipe here.

The loaf fresh from the oven.

I made mine in a dutch oven since I just happened to have one lying around, but you can use any oven safe container with a lid. The only thing is that there is a lot of waiting. Once you mix the four ingredients together (thats right, only four), you have to wait 12-24 hours for it to raise. Then you bake it for 15 min with the lid on (I had to bake mine for 25 min but I think that's just because the cast iron is so thick). And then you bake is for another 15 min with the lid off to get that gorgeously crispy crust. And thats it! I topped my slices with some veggies and cheese and toasted them.

Toasted with pesto, tomato, avocado, and raw milk cheddar. I ate like 4 of these.

First Post! WOO!!

A little background about myself: I'm a recent college grad and I have degrees in art and environmental science. I make a lot of stuff like wood block prints, wooden hair forks, and wooden spatulas. (I like wood). I also make glass beads and chain mail jewelry. I live in a cabin and do all the woodsy stuff that goes along with that like chopping wood, canoeing, and cooking over the fire with a dutch oven.

This blog is going to be about making art, making food, making friends, and learning new skills. (Stay tuned for a post about skinning and tanning animal hides soon). Enjoy!