Tree's Tree House

July 7, 2014 - Typical Kansas Summer Heat Has Returned

And believe me, it has come with a vengeance. It's been the kind of day when nothing sounds good except sitting on the deck with a freezer full of popsicles! The Boy is away at Scout Camp for the week, so Dear Daughter and I have spent most of the day playing in her wading pool on the back deck. It's definitely too hot to work in the garden.

We have some spring kittens at our farm, and the mommas have started bringing them up the house this week. DD has had tons of fun playing with the little ones, who really are old enough to handle now. Every time I look around, she has a different one on her lap, or snuggled up against her chest as she walks around the yard.

Most of the kitten mommas are okay with Dear Daughter handling their babies. They're much more hissy if Jazmin starts sniffing around them.

Summer Dining From the Farm

Swiss Chard Salad

Lettuce is done for the season, so we're moving on to Swiss Chard. There are so many ways to prepare Swiss Chard, but when the temperature is in the mid-90s, cold in a salad is the best way. If you planted Rainbow Chard or Ruby Red Chard, it will be beautiful and tasty!

Take a bunch of Swiss Chard leaves. I know. "A Bunch" is very general. Basically, pick as much as you think your family can eat in one sitting. When it's growing in your garden, you can always go get more, and there is no reason to pick too much, because it will keep better in the garden than in the refrigerator. When you pick it, you may want to pick it just below the leaf, leaving the stem on the plant. I like to use the stems in place of celery in recipes, but it's usually a little too tough for eating raw in a salad.

Okay, now wash the chard. Then lay the leaves in line on your cutting board and cut cross-wise in thin strips. Put them in your salad bowl.

Now add other ingredients. You can use a few strips of bacon, cooked in the microwave and broken into little pieces. If you do, add some chopped hard-boiled eggs from your hens, some diced sweet onion from the garden, and top it with a sweet-vinegar dressing. There are lots of recipes for homemade, but I admit that I usually use purchased dressing. This year I am liking Sweet Balsamic from Kraft Foods.

If you want a more vegetarian salad, just peruse your garden and see what is ripe. Today I used a small summer squash, a red onion, a kohlrabi, and some cherry tomatoes. Just chop everything up in reasonable quantities and add to the Swiss Chard. Use the salad dressing of your choice.

Dad's Fried Potatoes

My dad always made these for breakfast when I was a kid. Probably a decidedly non-healthy dish, with all the oil, but delicious all the same. We eat them with any meal. Right now, when potatoes are new and available in the garden, we make fried potatoes a lot.

Start with a fist-sized potato for each person who will be eating. Honestly, the size of the fist should be the size of the fist of each diner, so smaller for little kids, etc.

Our potato plants are still alive, which is amazing for July. Usually they're dead by this point. This year we've had a lot of rain, and I also really watered them early in the season. I even hilled them three times, so they're doing quite well.

If your potato plants are still living when you want potatoes, don't dig up the entire plant. Just take a trowel and carefully scrape the soil away from one side of the plant at its base. You should see potatoes a few inches down. If not, replace the soil and try another plant. Potatoes should be available once the plants have bloomed, so you should find pomme de terre under the plants.

Now that you have your potatoes, scrub them under running water, and trim away any blemishes. No green spots should be visible if they were properly covered with dirt, but if there are you'll need to peel that area away. My mom swears they never worried about eating the greenish skin when she was growing up, but I've heard it's not safe and I'll respect that.

Once they're clean (you don't need to peel them), slice them thinly. I have something called a mandolin slicer that I like to use. It gets them thin, but slightly more than paper-thin.

Start your electric skillet, set at 350 degrees F. Add a thin amount of cooking oil to the skillet. I usually use canola oil, because 15 years ago someone told me it was the healthiest for frying. But I've been known to use olive oil (pricey, but yummy) or even bacon grease (when $$$ were short and to be economical I had saved the grease in a clean jar).

Once the oil is hot, scatter the potato slices over the surface, distributing evenly. Dribble a little more oil over the top of the potatoes, and add salt and pepper to your preference. Place the lid on the skillet and cook for several minutes. Check with a spatula, by lifting the layer of potatoes. If it holds together and is a little crispy, flip the entire mess. You may have to do it in sections. Leave the lid off this time and cook the new bottom of the layer for a few more minutes.

It is now ready to eat! We like to drizzle ketchup over the top of it on our plates before eating.

Roast Beast

Okay, now for the protein part of the meal. This is easy, but does take advance planning. Take a small roast from the freezer. It can be beef, pork, or whatever meat is easily available to you. At our house it is usually deer. We've thought about raising a steer for butchering, or a hog, but with deer running rampant on our land, we have found that they are the easiest. They feed themselves and all we have to do is harvest them. If you discount the cost of deer tags, ammo, freezer bags, and the initial investment in hunting gear (and training), it's pretty darn cheap.

So take out your roast beast from the freezer. You'll need to do this probably the morning of the day before you want to eat. (Didn't think about that, did you?) Defrost the meat. I'm probably supposed to say something like, "Defrost your meat safely by placing it on a plate in your refrigerator for up to three days." I usually just let it sit in the drainer in the sink for a few hours, checking it every so often. When it is mostly defrosted, but still has some ice crystals, it's ready to cook. You can also defrost in the microwave, following the oven's specific directions, but I rarely do that. I think it makes the meat taste funny and have a tougher texture, because you're really starting the cooking process when you defrost in the microwave.

The easiest way to cook the meat is to put it in your crock-pot and cook it on low until done, probably at least 8 hours. I don't add any water, just little seasoning. When it's ready to eat (technically, get out your meat thermometer and make sure it's 160 degrees F in the center of it!), just slice the roast and serve. (In the winter, I make gravy out of the broth stuff in the pot.)

So there you have it.

An entire meal, mostly from your own land. Be thankful that you are able to provide such a meal for your family, because many people can't or won't do that. Join your family at the table and remember to say grace before digging in!

Tree's Tree House!