We're moving to.....

Thailand!!!!!!

At the end of January!

Post Holiday Recipe extravaganza!!!!

Hello all. Here are the links to some of the recipes that were used at thanksgiving as well as some (hopefully) helpful commentary. Most of this is cooking technique rather that a magic recipe.

Turkey
Turkey Recipe here.
Simple formula-  1 TBSP of salt per 5 pounds, let it sit in the fridge for 3 days cook until 165 degrees in the thigh and breast. USE A MEAT THERMOMETER! Dry turkey usually comes from overcooking. Also let it sit at least a half hour before carving,this will allow the juice to redistribute through the meat. If you cut it before this you will end up with a puddle of juice and a dry turkey.

I seasoned our bird with pepper and lemon zest in the salt, garlic, a lemon, and fresh thyme and sage in the cavity,and brushed it with black pepper and butter as it baked.

Potatoes
No recipe.Sorry.
The trick with potatoes is to eliminate as much water from them as possible. So boil potatoes than put them back in the pot with the burner on low/medium. Mash them by hand, a couple at a time. DO NOT put them in a mixer and try to whip them. This injures the fragile starch molecules and creates a gummy texture. Besides you can use the arm workout.
In our potatoes I added softened butter and warmed cream. They are warm so I can keep a consistent temperature to keep the water coming out even as I add the fat.
SALT is of the uttermost importance in mashed potatoes, without it you might as well be eating plain oatmeal with gravy. Salt does not just make food salty, but magnifies the flavors. Without salt you cannot taste the butter or the potato flavors. So be liberal in your salting. Doesn't taste right--add more salt.

and here is the candied cranberry recipe for Tami. I would use normal sugar-I tried raw sugar last year and they were kind of brownish and the sugar wouldn't stay on.

Work and School

Well its been a long time but I thought I would let everyone know how we are doing.  Bethany is done with school and is now working.  She has two jobs.  She is first working at Gator Jacks in Rigbe so if you want to see her you can go out to eat and she may be there.  She is also working a Journeys which is a company that works with kids and adults that have disability.  I am going to school, my last semester, and i made myself a hard last semester.  The classes that make it hard is my evergreen ID class and my online entrepreneur class.  In my entrepreneur class I am doing a 100$ challenge where I have to raise 100$ in profit by the end of the semester.  I am selling Thanksgiving and Christmas Wreath which I am making by hand.  If you want one let me know and I will get you one.  You can also look it up on Facebook it is calls Blue Spruce Wreaths.  I will have 10 Fall/Thanksgiving wreaths and 20 Christmas wreaths to sell so let everyone know so I can get them sold.  So our lives at the moment mostly consist of work and school but after I am done we both plan on going to Taiwan to teach English.  Its something to look forward to at the moment.

Souper Douper Tomato Soup

If I ever owned a cafe, it would be a bakery/ soup shop and I would call it Souper Douper.

But I'm really posting because my mom wants my favorite tomato soup recipe, so here it is.

Cream of Tomato Soup

• 1 quart tomatoes-peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
• 1/2 TBSP butter
•  1/2 to 1 TBSP honey (depending on the sweetness of tomatoes, use the lesser amount for home grown summer tomatoes)
• 1 TBSP onions, chopped
•  1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 to 1 cup cream 
• salt to taste 

1.  Saute onions in butter with a little salt, until translucent.
2. Add tomatoes, chicken broth, sugar, and soda.
3. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
4. Add cream to hot tomato mixture, and heat, careful not to let it boil.
5. blend all or half of the soup depending on how smooth you like your soup, and serve with crunchy toasts.

Lunch in a Jar = awesome

I haven't been a very good writer lately, partly due to the fact that we've been all over the place the past couple weeks (camping/cycling/ Tetons/ Jackson/ etc.) and partly because I really have no desire to write about our travels. I like to write about what I'm thinking about. right. now, not what I did 4 days ago. So if you desire a travel post you should petition Todd. He can be most accommodating, especially if you say please.

So, right now I'm thinking about lunch because
a. it's lunch time,
b. I'm hungry, and
c. lunch has always seemed incredibly inconvenient and I want to fix it.

So fix it I shall-- and as my first act of fixing lunch I have began to make these fantastic salads in jars. Mason jars are my second true love of my kitchen (right after my beloved knife set) because they serve so many purposes. Yogurt. check. soups. check. canning. check. pantry storage. check. honey. check. glasses when cheap walmart set breaks. check.

The newest trick to hit the web it to put your lunch salad in a pint mason jar- dressing at the bottom, greens at the top, fixings in the middle and BAM! perfect lunch. And, PS, it's pretty too. Look at these lovelies from the daily muse.

Here are a couple of the combinations I've been using.

Thai peanut noodle salad
peanut sauce
tofu cubes
carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers
noodles
toasted peanuts 
greens/cilantro

Fruits and nuts
poppy seed dressing
red onion
blueberries/ nectarines
dried cranberries
pepitas/ toasted almonds
mixed greens

Southwest
something creamy...
salsa
black beans
fresh corn
jack or cheddar cubes
onion/ tomato/ bell pepper
mixed greens

Mediterranean
Italian Vinaigrette
large butter beans
kalamata olives
mozzarella cubes or feta
onion/ tomato/ cucumber/ tiny fresh zucchini
mixed greens

Duet

Todd and I need to learn this. Enough said.

 

End of the semester (or time to figure out how to stay in shape)

My semester is over and I'm a couple days away from graduation! While this is really exciting, I'm already sad about having to leave school. I really love school and living in Rexburg with only a 9-5 desk job, or sitting at home playing wife is definitely not the life I want to lead, especially after years of spending everyday flying through the air (or crashing into the floor) and filling my head full with lovely, lovely knowledge. But since I'm destined for 6 months of waiting for Todd to graduate I've decided I need goals, and I need them quick before the sitting-around-syndrome takes hold of me.

First I need fitness goals. I find it's difficult for me to live my life fully and honestly without a strong, energetic, deeply-connected body, so to stay that way is one of my first priorities. I will be working, (and trying to log) a combination of cardio, resistance and weight training, somatic work, and, when I can find it, dancing. A friend and I have been thinking about starting some student taught technique classes over the summer break, which will help immensely. :) Cycling, running, and zumba for my cardio, weights and Pilates for my weight training, and yoga for my somatics. I also want to do more research into somatics and start playing around with Alexander technique and Feldenkrais technique.  I've also started using the tracker at dailymile.com to record my workouts.

Can you tell I'm a major body nerd? ;)

Next I need intellectual stimulus, and lots of it. I have lots of things I want to learn about that I haven't had time to study in the past year. I want to understand science and physics. I want to learn more about human physiology. I love philosophy. So, I want to choose a few free online classes from Harvard or MIT and listen to one class period a day (probably while I'm cleaning my kitchen). I also want to read more, especially philosophy and history, specifically I've always wanted to learn more about transcendentalism, dystopianism, and feminist theory. Oh, and I have a paper I need to get edited and cleaned up before December that I'm submitting to BYU Studies. for publication. Anyone know any good editors?

And I guess, maybe, I should try to be, kind of, a little bit, social. It is way too easy for me to spend hours with myself swimming around with the ideas in my head. But I should probably try to spend time with friends. And I should probably try to enjoy church and relief society. And maybe show more love to my neighbors by having a conversation rather than leave baked goods on their door steps. I think I just need to get over the fact that being bluntly honest while using large words creates socially awkward situations.

I think I sometimes hate people as much as I love bodies and stuffing my head.

Those are my goals! Wish me luck!

Eating (really, really) well on a budget

We are taking a small hiatus from our locavore experiment as we've recently had quite a sharp drop in income (hey, it happens.) While our job search continues one of the easiest ways we find to cut costs is in our food bill. But, knowing me, this does not exactly translate into ramen and canned soup for every meal, we still eat really, really well, even on a limited budget ( less than $40 a week for both of us is what we're aiming for).So here's how we do it; our 5 rules for eating (really, really) well on a budget.

#1 Never waste anything- The old adage "waste not, want not" fits really well here. This rule usually applies to us all the time, we try to do our best to manage our resources in such a way that food is not wasted. Stale bread is made into french toast or croutons, old veggies are transformed into soup stock, overripe fruit goes in the freezer for smoothies, cheese ends get saved for stock, etc.

#2 Cut down on the animal protein- Newsflash: Meat is expensive. Second newsflash: Americans eat way too much meat and its contributing to our health crisis. We can get quality protein elsewhere without all the added fat and for much cheaper, so we don't buy meat.We also cut down on dairy products.

#3 Bountiful baskets- cheap produce. This makes up the bulk of our diet.

#4 Make your own- Making your own is always cheaper, better for you, and tastes better. We do all our own bread, yogurt, noodles, and stock.

#5 Shop the bins- Grains and beans are great for you and really cheap. I love the great variety in Winco's bulk food section. Grains get baked into breads, boiled or put in granola for breakfast, put in pilafs, gratins, risottos, and soups. Beans get made into soups and curries, are marinated, top salads, are mashed into dips, and added to mixtures to top pitas, tortillas, and sandwiches.

Locavore: Happy summer!

Happy summer! Summer has finally hit and the markets are in full swing with beautiful local produce beginning to overflow the stands!

Today Todd didn't have work so we decided to take a scenic drive to Driggs and check out the Teton Valley farmers market, specifically for the local cheese. Todd and I have both developed a love of good cheese and we were getting tired of the endless blocks of cheddar and mozzarella from our local dairy. We hit the jackpot in Driggs. There were two artisanal cheese makers there and the cheese was out-of-this-world good. We came home with a small wedge of mild raw blue and a semi-hard pecorino. I'm still blown away at how they can fit so much nuance and goodness into such a little wedge of cheese; the craftsmanship and quality is extraordinary.  I was making up songs about the glories of cheese all the drive home, much to Todd's amusement.

Also fruit has began to come to the market and we are ecstatic! One interesting thing that happens when becoming a locavore is the gratitude you feel when each new fruit or vegetable comes to the market. You learn to savor the season and enjoy it as much as you can. Such is the case for cherry season which is currently upon us! I have always liked cherries, and eaten them when I had them, but after a month of greens and more greens, seeing that first glint of sweet red cherries was one of the happiest sights I have had in a long time. A week and five pounds of cherries later we're not sick of them yet and we're looking forward to more tomorrow.

Here's one of our newest favorite recipes that use all the yummy snow-peas on the market.

Stir fried snow-peas with oyster sauce
1 pound snow-peas
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
3 cloves garlic, minced

Wash the snow-peas and shake off excess water. (You want some water still clinging to the peas, as that will help with the cooking process.) Chop the ends off and set aside.
In a small bowl, mix the oyster sauce, water, fish sauce and sugar.
Heat a wok or large skillet over a high flame. Swirl in the oil. Add the garlic and stir briefly, until sizzling and fragrant. Add the snow peas to the pan and stir fry until bright green with a few charred spots, followed by the sauce. Stir and toss the vegetables frequently until the peas are coated. Serve hot with rice or fried noodles.

Art of color and texture

I have been slowly working on some oil paintings and it has been a lot of fun. Bethany has motivated me a lot along they way. She wants some fun, interesting paintings for the kitchen.

The first painting was done to explore mixing colors. To get different texture I used a plastic knife to do this painting.

The second painting was my attempt to use other things as my texture and just keep the paint as smooth as I could.

The Husband of a locavore

As this is a blog about the adventure of both Todd and not just Bethany.  I feel that I should add my feeling upon the matter of locavorism.  When Bethany started to talking about only eating local food this summer I first thought it was a just a thought and not one that would be implemented.  However, as Bethany continued to talk about it I soon found that she was full-heartedly planning on following her desire to eat locally I know there was no changer her conviction.  At first this did not bother me for I would only benefit from that task of eating locally for Bethany would make, as she always does, some delicious food.  But as the spring season come and the local farmers market would be starting I also became excited about the idea of eating locally.  And after talking with my wife about the culture behind eating locally I found that it is a family task and I wanted to participate in the task.  Being a student of horticulture I decided to participate by growing a garden.

Being students and living in an apartment building we do not have land to grow.  The year before we had rented a 10 by 10 plot of land through the school to grow but the soil is horrific and the area has no wind protection.  We were not planning on growing this year because of the conditions of the plot, but if we were going to eat locally I wanted to contribute to our summer goal by growing some of our own food.  And I would have to say this year is going a lot better in spite of the two late frosts that our garden has faced and the 30 to 45 mile per hour winds that we have had excessively this year.

I got stared this year on our garden by starting seeds indoors.  I was able to get a florescent light fixture from my dad and set up a germination bed in our extra bedroom.  Its not the best set up but it works for us.  I planted beans, peas, basil, bell peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts, zucchini squash, and spaghetti squash.  The sad thing about this story is that we grew these indoors and then transplanted the beans, peas, and basil just a few days before a late frost come and killed them most of them.  Beans and peas are easy to grow so was not that bad of a lot but the basil as a great loss; lucky for us I only transplanted about half of the basil outside and the others I transplanted into window garden and they are looking beautiful and smell good too.  The basil is doing great in our window along with our rosemary, lemon thyme, oregano, sage, and chives.

Well now we are in the end of June and our garden is all planted and doing well.  I would have to say some of our plants are a little behind because of late frosts but it is looking good.  Compared to the other student gardens we have the most variety packed in our little 10 by 10 plot.  Starting from the top left corner we have brussel sprouts, four kinds of tomatoes, leaks, shallots, and yellow onions.  Second row we have bell peppers and fennel.  Third row we have green and red beans, and peas.  Fourth row we have bok choy, carrots and beats.  The fifth row we are trying to grow cilantro and basil and in the last row we have zucchini and spaghetti squash, and broccoli.  And I forgot that along the edge at the top of our plot we are growing sunflowers and along with them we are growing Asian beans. 

Locavore: AHHH! NO MORE GREENS!!!

Spring... the lovely green color comes back into everything. What I didn't realize about eating local is that this also applies to your food. We eat a lot of greens, and I mean A LOT. Currently in our fridge we have 4 types of lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, and bok choy.

But, while inconvenient, necessity is truly the mother of invention. I've never been very good at cooking with greens before, but I'm actually becoming quite proficient. Here is one of my favorite recipes lately adapted from the italian dish website, I make it in the crockpot.

• 1 cup dried cannellini or cellini beans or any combination of beans you like.
• 1/2-1/4 pound local ground sausage, turkey or pork
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced (I like garlic a lot, feel free to dial this down)
• 1 quart jar tomatoes
• 6 to 8 cups water
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper 
• 4-8 cups chopped greens (how green can you go?)
• grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 

Instructions:

If using dried beans, place them in a pot, cover with cold water and let soak for several hours or overnight. Drain.

In a large pot, brown the sausage.  Remove from pot.  If there is a lot of fat left in the pot, pour this out but do not wipe out pot.  Add onion, and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and saute about a minute more.  Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and pepper, the drained beans and the sausage and cover the pot. Cook for an hour over low heat, at a gentle simmer or for 4-6 hours on high in a crockpot.

If using dried beans, check for doneness at this point.  (If using canned beans, add the greens now.)  If the beans are not soft enough, cover the pot again and cook for another 30 minutes or until the beans are soft. Add the greens and cook, uncovered, until the greens are tender and wilted, but not dead looking and army green (no vegetable should ever be cooked to army green. Yuck!).  Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick for your liking, you can add more water.

Serve with grated cheese on top and an extra drizzle of olive oil.

Dinner at my grandmas or thoughts on food culture

For as long as I can remember my job at large family dinners was to put ice cubes in all the cups. My grandmother would pull the ice bucket from her ice machine out of the freezer and hand me a large measuring cup to scoop with; I would make my way around the table carefully making sure all the glasses had the same amount of ice cubes. As my brothers and sisters got older they would help with the ice and I got upgraded to table setting duty because I knew which side of the plate to put the spoons and knives.

These days I'm generally on kitchen duty at my grandmothers during holidays and family meals, helping her make gravy, juggle dishes as they come in and out of the oven, troubleshoot disasters, and plate dishes. I work next to aunts, uncles, parents, and siblings as my grandma runs around, directing traffic and trying to help with everything at the same time. After dinner we sit at the counter and grandma hands us dishes to dry as she washes them.

While the dinner is always excellent and the conversation good, I have found that the time we spend as a family in preparation of a meal together is just as rewarding, if not more so, than the actual meal.

For my family, during the holidays, food is not just another thing we have to get done in the Christmas rush, or a menial household task that must be completed to move on to what we really want to do. Food surrounds, encased, and is intertwined with our family get-togethers. Much of my best quality time is spend in the kitchen next to a family member I have not seen in months, becoming reacquainted as we peel vegetables, butter garlic bread, and skewer meat for the grill. Meaningful conversation seems to blossom when you work side by side.

While I was lucky to be raised within a somewhat healthy food culture in general American food culture is non-existent. Rather than eating to nurture relationships, enjoy others company, and appreciate our food, Americans generally eat to survive, and do so according to the principles of cheapness and convenience. We often eat alone, often while doing something else like driving or reading. Cooking is becoming a lost art and is viewed as a distasteful chore helped along by corporate America, which has used feminism to support the notion that emancipated women do not cook, but buy convenience food to feed their families.

The American relationship with food is in direct contrast to the Italians and the French, two peoples who eat some of the best food in the world. These people tend to eat socially, to enjoy their food, and they learn to cook. They value food, not only because they have to eat it to survive, but as part of their cultural heritage, and as a driving factor in their social relationships and family life. They spend time preparing the food and their meals are considerable longer- they are social occasions rather than fill-up stops.

 One of the most interesting things about these people is that they are much healthier than we are. One would think people who value and enjoy food would be suffering from an obesity epidemic and a people who is always suspicious of food, eats quickly, and is consistently dieting would be thin and healthy. The opposite is actually true. These people have created healthy relationships in regards to food-- relationships which have also influenced their health. It seems that our American epidemic is not only an issue of what we eat, but when, where, how long, and with whom we are eating.


What are your thoughts about food culture? Memories of your family and food? I'd love to hear it.

A bread for my family

My dad and I continually tease each other about our granola.  He prefers his with lots of flax, minimal sugar and oil, and a short baking time. I tease him that it tastes like horse feed. On the other hand, my granola is often greeted with a snarky "Hey look! Bethany brought us some dessert!"

My family has always had a thing for whole grains.  My dad would make heavy whole wheat cinnamon rolls, buckwheat pancakes, and whole wheat bread that he would devour, while the children would pick at it suspiciously. A little too healthy looking for our taste I suppose. For a long time we also had a hand turned wheat grinder and everyday we were required to grind one cup of wheat for my mom's bread making session. 

These days I tend to use more whole grain than any of them in my cooking and baking, but recently, in an effort to lower triglycerides and promote family heart health my mom's been learning to cook without processed white sugar and flour, and has been experimenting with other alternative grains-- specifically spelt. (She has also become an expert in honey within the past week-- and I now know where I learned my research skills from).

Anyway- on to the bread. I woke up this morning, and after cleaning my kitchen had an intense desire to mess it up again with bread baking. And not just any bread, a bread that would make my father and mother proud, a loaf of heavy-warm-whole grain-honey-sweetened-goodness. So here it is-- the bread of super heroes, supercharged with 8 whole grains and 5 types of seeds.

A bread for my family or Superhero bread
makes 2 large sandwich loaves or 1 large sandwich loaf and two rustic rounds.

1/2 cup of farro

1/2 of buckwheat groats

1/2 cup of oatmeal

3/4 - 1 1/2 cups tepid water

1 1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast

4 cups whole wheat flour (you could substitute some spelt here if you want)

2 cups unbleached bread flour

1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup honey

1 cup small grains- any mix of polenta, millet, quinoa, armeranth, teff, etc.

1 cup mixed seeds- any mix of sunflower, pumpkin, poppy, flax, seseme, chia, etc. 

1. Place farro, oatmeal, and buckwheat groats in saucepans with ample water to cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover pot, and cook until not quite done through. They still want to be a bit toothy when you take them off the heat so that they retain their integrity in the dough. farro will take the longest, about 1/2 hour; oatmeal about 5 minutes; and buckwheat groats about 10. When done, strain off water, if you can, and allow to cool a bit before adding to the dough.
   
2. To mix dough, pour water into the bowl.. Add yeast and whisk to blend. Add all other ingredients, including slightly cooled grains. Mix with a spoon or your hands until dough comes together and looks homogenous. This will be a very sticky and fairly soft dough, but it should generally leave the sides of the bowl, so add some bread flour if necessary; just don't add so much that it is too firm.
   
3. When dough comes together, stop the mixer and wrap a piece of plastic wrap or towel around the top of the bowl. Let the dough have an autolyse for 20 minutes. This will allow the whole wheat flour to become fully hydrated, and also allow the water in the grains to settle down. If you over-knead this dough before this, you'll essentially start squeezing water out of the grains.
   
4. After the autolyse, remove the plastic and again begin kneading with your hands (though it feels more like playing in the mud than kneading, it will stick to everything and your hands will look like swamp monster hands). Within a few minutes, the dough should come fully together, leaving the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5 minutes, then test for a windowpane. It will not be as thin as what you'd expect from a dough without all the grainy content, but it will form a general windowpane.
   
5. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl large enough to contain it as it doubles. Turn dough over once, then cover bowl with plastic or a towel. Let it proof at room temperature until doubled in size.
   
6. Flour your work surface - remember, this is a sticky dough! Gently turn dough out onto it.  Divide dough in half, and shape each as you wish: either shape it for conventional bread pans, or shape as hearth loaves. Dust the top of each with flour (I love that rustic look!), then drape your piece of plastic or towel over them. While your bread is proofing again (and the second proofing goes faster, so keep an eye on it), preheat oven to 375 degrees.
   
7. Just before putting bread in oven, decoratively slash the tops a good 1/2" deep. Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating loaves halfway through. This bread is deceptive - it tends to look done before it is. When done, an instant read thermometer inserted in the middle should read 180 degrees.
   
8. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Because of all those great, moist grains, and a touch of honey, this is an excellent keeper, and also freezes just fine. While it is still warm, cut a slice, butter it, maybe add some honey or your favorite preserves.

"These are a few of my favorite blogs..."

A couple years ago I took a Methods of Ethnic Dance Choreography class at BYU. I didn't get too much out of it, but one of the things I've retained, and have used quite frequently, is the phrase "fill your bucket".  The teacher said it referring to the research necessary to do good choreography; good art does not usually materialize out of thin air, but starts with inspiration. And to gain that inspiration we needed to fill up our choreography idea bucket to the brim with dance performances, YouTube videos, etc.

I also have a metaphorical cooking bucket (as cooking is an art), and I do my best to keep it filled to the brim with ideas and techniques I learn as I research. So here are a few of my favorite cooking blogs and sites that keep my creativity bucket running over.

101 cookbooks- A couple years ago Heidi Swanson set out to cook naturally-- to throw out all her processed ingredients and only cook with natural, vegetarian ingredients. Here blog 101 cookbooks follows her journey and provides lots of whole foods recipes along the way.

food52- more of a website than a blog this site provides great recipes using mostly whole ingredients. Their genius recipes series is one of my favorite- recipes I use over and over again.

sprouted kitchen- similar to 101 cookbooks with a slightly different feel. The photographs are fantastic!

running with tweezers- Again similar to 101 cookbooks except she uses a lot of sea food (she's a pescatarian). Whole food blog with fantastic photographs.

Punk domestics- traditional food preservation with a modern twist. This site has recipes and techniques for canning, cheese making, charcuterie, micro-farming, you name it.

Italian dish- Everything I ever wanted to learn about italian cooking I learned it here.

Locavore Experiment- What we eat

Since we've decided to try to eat local there have been many times that I have a concerned parent or friend look me in the eye and ask "Are you and Todd doing OK?", as if they think we are scouring the hillsides trying to fill our hungry tummies with dandelion greens. I've discovered that most just have no idea how you eat if you buy very few things at the grocery store. So, to appease those who worry that we may be secretly starving, I've compiled a list of our local resources we use. This is by no means an exhaustive list-- just what we've been using (or checking out), over the past month. There are lots of other local producers around.

Produce

• Rexburg farmers market
• Idaho Falls farmers market
• our little garden
• Bethany's parents garden-- my father has developed a habit of planting entirely too much, which we plan to use to our advantage
• Driggs farmers market- not open til June

Grain and baking

• Hi Stakes spelt- whole grains for milling
• Flour mill in Pocatello- sold in bulk at Brolims under the brand PFM
• Hooper Honey farm
• Lots of other honey producers all around Rexburg and IF- If you buy honey at the grocery store- Stop. Local honey tastes so much better and is much more economical.

Dairy and Eggs

• Reeds Dairy
• Manwiring cheese- local Rigby cheese
• Meadow Lark farms- Best cheese in Idaho. Fancy sheep's milk European style cheeses recently won some international awards. In between Rexburg and Sugar City.
• Udderwise Dairy- Goat's milk cheese. This lady makes an excellent blue cheese, feta, and gouda.
• Eggs from local producers- the lady who runs Bountiful Baskets in Menan sells eggs for $2 a dozen, I also get them from my yoga teacher sometimes. Local eggs are also sold at all farmers markets and probably by your neighbor down the street.

Meat

• Brady's Beef- really nice grass fed beef
• Big lost river meats- lots of types of sausages. I like the Cajun style.
• Falls Brand Pork Products- Local, all-natural bacon. Need I say more?

Locavore: Making Yogurt

If there is one thing that Idaho is not short on in the local food chain it is cows. Because of this, a beautiful variety of dairy products are available as well as some fantastic (albeit quite expensive) grass finished beef. Unfortunately yogurt is not among the dairy products available, but is pretty simple to make. I make it from a full gallon, which makes enough yogurt for us to eat and me to cook with for a week or two.

We start with 1 gallon of milk- most milk will work here, as long as it's not ultra pasteurized- they've pasteurized this milk so much that nothing will grow in it. This means no yogurt, cheese, etc. You can use raw milk, non-homogenized, or homogenized and pasteurized, and with any fat content you like. My mother even uses her dry, fat free milk from their food storage. I use whole milk, I like the texture and the fat is important to be able to absorb the fat soluble vitamins in the milk. Some people also thicken their yogurt with additives such as gelatin and dry milk powder, or other things that only an industrial food scientist would understand. Since we're trying so stay away from additives I generally thicken mine by straining it, the traditional Greek way. My yogurt is made with just a couple tablespoons of yogurt and milk

So the basics are easy- you just need to know a few things about bacteria. First they are happiest between 125-80 degrees F, so to make yogurt we simply have to heat the milk, introduce the bacteria, than keep it at that temperature while the bacteria happily munch on the milk sugar. After 3-8 hours your yogurt should have set up.

For those of you recipe people, here are more in depth directions:
You will need:
Milk
2 tablespoons of relatively fresh yogurt for every quart of milk (don't let it sit in your fridge for weeks before you use it)

 A decent thermometer
A smallish cooler
A thick blanket
A large pot to heat the milk (I use my pressure cooker to do a gallon at a time)
A larger pot to heat the water (I use my hot water canner)
Canning jars or other watertight containers to put your yogurt in (Big ones, or little ones for individual servings)

1. Heat the milk to 180 F, to pasteurize. Take it off the heat and let it cool to 120-125 with the thermometer in it to monitor the temperature (It's really handy if your thermometer has an alarm). 
2. While the milk is cooling heat enough water to cover the jars in the cooler, plus an inch or two. Also put the jars in here to warm and sterilize them.
3.When the milk reaches 120 take out a cup of the milk and mix it with the yogurt to thin it and make it easier to mix in, when mixed well put the yogurt mixture into the pot of warmed milk.
4. Fill the jars with the milk mixture and screw the lids on tightly-- they'll be underwater for a while.
5. Put the jars in the cooler and cover them with 125 degree water plus a couple inches You may have to add some cool water to your large pot to get it to the right temperature.
6. Put the cooler somewhere out the the way and cover it with the thick blanket, tucking it around the cooler to keep the heat in. Set a timer for 3 hours
7. Check it at 3 hours. It should be getting thick. I leave mine for another couple hours than put it in the fridge to finish thickening.

Your yogurt is finished!

To thicken it put the yogurt in a cheese cloth and let it drain for an hour for a thicker yogurt. For yogurt cheese let it drain overnight. Yogurt cheese makes a great spread and can be used just like cream cheese, though it has a little different flavor. I've even made a yogurt cheesecake before and it worked great!

Locavores: May 5-11 Shopping and menu

Another great weekend for eastern Idaho locavores! Here is what we found this week-

Rexburg Farmers Market- radishes, herbs, and tomatoes. Also some of the most amazing handmade blue cheese I've ever tasted.
Idaho Falls Farmers Market- small red potatoes, leeks, garlic, basil, arugula, spinach, garlic chives, fresh eggs, and handmade smoked andouille sausage. 
And we are still in asparagus season so we picked 3 lbs from the ditch banks in Rigby


And here is what we're doing with it
Saturday- With andouille sausage we have to make GUMBO!!!- This is a basic recipe, we'll adjust it for our needs.
Sunday- Arugula salad with blue cheese and and smashed potatoes
Monday-Asparagus risotto with spinach salad
Tuesday-pasta squares with radish green and basil pesto- a la this recipe
Wednesday- This asparagus salad, deviled eggs, and good bread
Thursday- Pizza night! Using whatever ingredients are on hand