Tabla de contenidos para Spring 2017 en Capper's Farmer

FEATURED BLOG Going Greene By Amy Greene “In my constant pursuit of trying to learn how to make things from scratch, I am usually willing to try anything once. Sometimes, if I know I messed up a recipe or was interrupted midstream, I will try it again. “Such is the case with orange marmalade. My husband loves orange marmalade and over the course of our almost-30-year marriage, I have attempted to make this concoction for him. I have since decided that, although I can make jelly like a pro, marmalade is another story.” – from “Keep On Trying” (bit.ly/2iBlBwX) JOIN THE CONVERSATION On “Homemade Ice Cream Cake” By Erin Sheehan “Erin, ice cream cakes are the best. The Dairy Queen is where ice cream cakes are made for purchase here,…

Equipment should be scrupulously clean. Before and after each use, scald any wooden equipment, including spoons and the inside of churns. Scald repeatedly, if necessary, until there is no butter smell left in the wood. To make sweet cream butter, use fresh cream, skip culturing instructions that follow, and go directly to Step 1. To make cultured butter from raw cream, pour cream into bowl and cover with double layer of cheesecloth or clean towel. Leave out in cool room. If your room is warmer than 60 F, set bowl of cream in cool water. Become familiar with what is happening to cream as it ripens (sours, ferments) by tasting it every six to eight hours. Raw cream can be used at any stage from fresh or lightly fermented (e.g.…

Pies are the perfect dessert any time of year. In the summertime, cool and creamy pies are a refreshing treat. In the cooler months, nothing is more comforting than a warm slice of fruit pie, especially if it’s topped with a scoop of ice cream. And, if you’re looking for something to take to a potluck or church supper, you simply cannot go wrong with a pie. After all, who doesn’t love pie? It’s an American favorite. According to the American Pie Council website (www.piecouncil.org), pie has been around since the ancient Egyptians. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the word “pie” was popular during the 14th century. In those early days, pies were most generally made with meats. It wasn’t until the 1500s that fruit pies were…

Learning to create fresh cheeses is an art that is far easier than aging cheese — and you won’t have to wait months (or years) to taste the results of your alchemy. Three versatile cheeses that you can create in your own kitchen are paneer, mascarpone and fromage blanc (called chèvre when made from goat’s milk). You can save 20 to 70 cents per ounce by producing these cheeses yourself, even if you start with premium milk from grass-fed animals. The elementary science for turning milk into any of these delightful cheeses is the same, so below are the main steps for concocting fresh cheeses in detail. Look at the next page for the recipe variations required to turn out each specific cheese. 1 Heat the milk. In a heavy-bottom,…

The average American spends just 30 minutes preparing food each day. If you’re among those in a rush to get food on the table, consider becoming friends with weekly meal-planning — a clever strategy for saving time and money. In this meal plan, we make one big batch of tangy, fall-off-the-bone slow cooker pulled pork infused with aromatic onions, garlic and vinegar, and use it to create four meals you can put together quickly throughout the week. This preparation is quite forgiving, so it’s easy to adjust quantities or seasoning, and these cuts of meat are far less expensive than chops, ribs and steaks, so consider buying locally raised, grass-fed meat. This series of recipes is designed to feed about four people per meal. SLOW COOKER PULLED PORK Recipe by…

Busy cooks have a taste for one-dish meals, ranking them among their favorite recipes. When cooked together, individual foods blend flavors to produce a delectable dish that’s better than the sum of its parts. These dinners also minimize prep time in the kitchen and reduce the number of dirty pans to clean after everyone has pushed away from the table. Each of these meals comes together in a single pot, although you may need smaller bowls for mixing. Plan ahead to use leftover mashed potatoes in the Shepherd’s Pie (Page 45). Use a pressure cooker to shorten the cooking time of Short Ribs With Root Vegetables (Page 44). Find a year’s worth of dishes at bit.ly/2jIWtIj. Spicy Eggs With Kale Kale is the nutritious green at the heart of this…

If you’ve ever heard foodies and nutritionists say to shop the outside of the grocery aisles and avoid the middle of the store, then that would mean you’d be skipping the condiment section. There’s good reason for this advice – commercially made condiments are loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives, thickeners and other unnatural additives that can be unhealthy. Why not try your hand at crafting some condiments from scratch? You won’t believe the difference in flavor and quality. Dijon Mustard The famed mustard associated with Dijon, France, is easy to make. Some versions require grinding whole mustard seeds and spices. This one, however, champions simplicity by combining dry mustard with a few essential ingredients. The result is smooth and creamy, and not too hot. Recipe by Rick Field and…

After a long, cold day, nothing is more satisfying than a warm pie, bursting with the savory delights of meat and vegetables. Cold weather just makes a body crave starch and fat. Could it be our increased need for calories in order to maintain body heat? Or perhaps once we’ve removed ourselves from the supermarket culture of food – where everything is available year-round – our body tunes into its natural wisdom of eating with the seasons. A light repast of salads and fruit suffice in the warm months; meat, cheese and root vegetables are what we desire during the cold ones. Whether the meat you’re craving is encased in a buttery dough, topped with mashed potatoes – or both – your body will get what it wants in these…

Most often served with pork chops, fish or other meat dishes, sauerkraut is a savory addition to many fall and winter meals. It’s even more popular served on hot dogs and bratwurst at ball games. But there’s no comparison between the flavor of ballpark sauerkraut and what you can make at home. To begin with, homemade sauerkraut comes in many more variations. When European immigrants popularized sauerkraut in the United States, they brought along traditional recipes calling for ingredients including apples, turnips, juniper berries, wine, and garlic. In this way, homemade sauerkraut is similar to the Korean dish kimchi, which is sometimes made with fermented cabbage, but includes additional vegetables, such as radishes or cucumbers, as well as ginger and other spices. Homemade sauerkraut also has a number of health…

During my childhood years, Thanksgiving and Christmas were major events at our house. My parents often hosted the holiday dinners that drew relatives from other towns, and at such gatherings, our home was stuffed with people, joy, and laughter. Nowadays, celebrations are a bit more low-key. The children have all grown up, and there are fewer youngsters among the crowd, but we all still enjoy those holiday gettogethers. Looking back, I realize that Mom spent a lot of time on the little touches a good hostess brings to the event. Her candies and cookies are legendary. For many of us, those treats were the highlight of the day. My favorite among the candy selections were the chocolate-covered coconut balls that tasted like Mounds candy bars. Although, come to think of…

Fresh pastas are so easy to make that you can enjoy homemade noodles any time. My Italian-born mother made fresh pasta often when I was growing up. I would stand across the kitchen counter and watch as she fed strips of supple dough through her hand-crank pasta roller and then cut them into noodles — wide lasagna, long fettuccine, or square-cut maccheroni alla chitarra, a specialty of her native Abruzzo. It was once thought that Marco Polo “discovered” noodles during his travels through China. But evidence suggests that pre-Roman Etruscans were making a form of pasta using ground cereals and grains mixed with water. The Romans enjoyed a wide ribbon-like pasta called “lagane” — the precursor to lasagna — as early as the first century. The history of pasta in…

Of the sweet cream butter I’d made earlier in the day, my Italian visitor said, “It tasted heavenly.” Sweet cream butter is churned from cream that has not been acidified by the conversion of milk sugar (lactose) into lactic acid by lactobacillus bacteria. Think of it as butter straight from the cow. The butter I served my friend was unsalted; so, in the slightly confusing language of butter, it was sweet sweet cream butter (neither salted nor acidified). Sweet Cream Butter Sweet sweet cream butter is the purest butter — it most cleanly expresses the essence of the underlying cream. It was April when I made dinner for my friend, so the cows were eating from spring pasture. Spring pasture butter is more delicately flavored than the rest of the…

If you live rurally, you probably haven’t “enjoyed” the convenience of home pizza delivery in years. But there’s no sense crying over lukewarm, mediocre pie, when you can make your own right at home! Homemade pizza is not only delicious, it can be an adventure. Deciding on a crust, the toppings and sauce, and who’s going to do what, makes pizza night an event, not just another meal. As the vehicle for transporting pizza toppings, the crust is the most important part of this equation. The choice usually boils down to the weather: If it’s cold and blustery, maybe a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza – the kind where one slice weighs about a half pound. If it’s midsummer, perhaps a thin, crispy crust gently sprinkled with fresh mozzarella and garden veggies.…

No doubt you’ve heard about the health benefits of yogurt, the most widely consumed fermented milk product in the world. Delicious yogurt is nutrient-dense, packing a one-two protein-calcium punch, among other valuable nutrients. Those with moderate lactose intolerance may find yogurt easy to digest. Most famously, yogurt’s live bacteria (usually a combo of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus) may keep undesirable bacteria in our digestive systems at bay. In fact, some have speculated that the prominence of yogurt in the diet of Bulgarian peasants is responsible for their unusually long life spans. In other parts of the world, yogurt is a staple as important as bread or water, and it comes in many incarnations, from carbonated yogurt “sodas” to tangy cheeses to delectable sauces (find a recipe for a version…