Tag Archives: meals for the whole family

Anasazi Bean Hoppin’ John

My mom is from the South and got me started making black eyed peas every New Year’s for good luck. Sometimes we make a spicy bean dip, but often she makes a traditional Hoppin’ John with sauteed onions.

After work the other day I set a cup of Anasazi beans to boil, not really sure the direction dinner would head. After that Baby Bird wanted to be held. Inspired by Hoppin’ John, I put a little brown rice in the rice cooker and threw the cooked beans together with the leftovers of the simple tomato sauce from this post. Post baby, I have a new definition of easy recipes: cooking one handed!

Anasazi Bean Hoppin’ John Recipe

Rinse and pick through the beans. Place in a large pot and add at least four cups of water. Add the bay leaves, cumin and epazote. Boil for about one hour until the beans are tender, adding water as needed to keep the beans covered. Drain.

While the beans are cooking, prepare rice in a rice cooker, or as you like.

Once the beans are done, rewarm the sauce with the cooked beans, just until heated up. Serve over the rice, accompanied with avocado, cilantro, lime, etc.

If you don’t have sauce, simply sauté some onions and garlic and add to the cooked beans.

Growing Tips

A subscriber to the Baby Bird’s Farm Facebook Page asked for more information on growing beans. Papa Bird likes to “direct sow” most beans meaning you can place a dried bean directly in the ground without sprouting. Plant an inch and a half deep and two inches apart. Thin to four inches apart. He generally recommends researching plants and selecting one that is appropriate for your zone, and they are traditionally grown in the Four Corners region, but he just kind of winged it with the Anasazis. Papa Bird also recommends researching whether the bean you have selected is a bush or a climbing vine, and planning accordingly. He shared that he felt like Anasazis were somewhere in between a bush and a vine in our garden, although supposedly they are vines.

For more info on growing check this article out.

About Anasazis

Please check out my first post on Anasazi Beans. Personally, it is one of my favorite posts. The beans can be bought locally in San Diego at the Hillcrest farmer’s market, on Amazon or from our “Store” page on this site.

Alice Water’s Simple Tomato Sauce with Meatballs

Ever since a friend posted a picture of canning this tomato sauce recipe by Alice Waters, I’ve been wanting to try it. The owner of the legendary Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Waters is well known for pioneering California cuisine and championing organic and local food. I begged my friend to share the recipe and once she finally did I was shocked at how simple it was. (I also thought it kind of reminded me of this simple tomato sauce I threw together the other day.)

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My sister and her fiance were visiting from Portland. She teaches science and shared that she had recently been reading an article on why homegrown Heirloom tomatoes taste so much better than commercially produced, genetically modified and supermarket sold “tomatoes.” According to the article in Scientific American, “a tomato’s flavor depends not only on the balance of sugars and acids within the fruit, but also on subtle aromatic compounds.” These compounds are called “volatiles”, are largely lacking in supermarket tomatoes, and the rarest of which make for the tastiest of tomatoes.  –We always knew we were on to something, right?

In a sauce this simple, the freshness and quality of the ingredients really shine. We served it with our favorite meatball recipe, hearty penne pasta and freshly grated parmesan.

Step by Step Tomato Prep

Cut or obtain 2 pounds of tomatoes. I had been wanting to try out our new kitchen scale.

20120906-215109.jpgEscali Arti 15 Pound, 7 Kilogram Digital Scale

It’s cute, huh? It is the size of an iPad and also comes in fun colors, like purple. It has a hold function, but it was quick and easy to put another (identical) empty bowl on the scale and zero it out.

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Although the recipe calls for 2 pounds, I happened to have 2 pounds and 5 ounces and just rolled with it.

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I washed and scored the tomatoes. Please see this post for step by step directions on how to easily peel tomatoes.

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Simple Tomato Sauce Recipe by Alice Waters

Peel, seed and dice 2lbs of ripe tomatoes. Save the juice, strain out the seeds, and add the juice to the diced tomatoes.

Peel 5 large garlic cloves. Smash them and chop coarse. Put a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat and when hot, pour in 1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil. Add the garlic and when it starts to sizzle, immediately add the tomatoes and their juice with a large pinch of salt.

Cook at a simmer for 15 minutes. For a smooth sauce, pass through a food mill.

Variations: Add a handful of chopped parsley, marjoram, or oregano or a chiffonade of basil leaves to the sauce a couple of minutes before it is done. Saute 1 small diced onion in the oil before adding garlic. Add a whole dried chile or a pinch of dried chile flakes for spice.

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I used just the tomatoes, garlic and basil. I was going to use the pepper from our garden but I really wanted to test out the basic sauce. It’s surprisingly flavorful! I did end up sautéing the pepper with zucchini and onions from the garden. We served the veggies, sauce and fresh parmesan over hearty penne with meatballs made by Papa Bird.

How To Boil the Perfect Fresh Egg

On our little backyard homestead, summer brings not only a bounty of vegetables and herbs, but also a plethora of eggs. Chickens respond to the longer days and increased light and are at their peak of production. This is one reason why commercial egg producers will keep lights on the hens, day and night. We live in San Diego and have never felt the need to add artificial light, but if you live more to the north, it might be something to consider for a few hours a day during the winter months.

This year I have been having fun swapping or trading extra eggs with other local urban homesteaders. In exchange for eggs and some dairy products, we have received homemade jams, fresh salad, kombucha, lemons and lemon curd, AVOCADOS (our absolute fav), home-baked bread, homemade granola, fresh bay leaves, chicken broth and more.

But one of my favorite ways to enjoy extra eggs is to hard boil a batch. Hardboiled egg yolk has also been a staple in baby’s diet, especially during months 6-10. Plenty of people use the following technique, but it was my grandmother who showed me how.

Boiling the Perfect Egg

Step 1: If using fresh eggs, wash them.

Step 2: Place the eggs in a medium-sized pot. Try to have enough eggs so that they are somewhat cozy, without too much room, and only in one layer.

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Step 3: Cover the eggs in cold water.

Step 4: Put the pot on high heat and bring to a boil.

Step 5: As soon as the water boils, take it off the heat, cover with a lid and set a timer for 12 minutes.

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Step 6: Have a bowl ready with cold water and ice. As soon as 12 minutes are up, pour out the hot water, rinse once with cold tap water and then transfer to the ice bath. If you leave them in the pot to cool, the water will quickly heat up again from the residual heat in the pot and continue cooking the eggs.

Ways to Enjoy the Eggs:

For baby the yummiest combo is half a hardboiled yolk, mashed avocado and breastmilk. My baby is “so over” purées at 11 months but will make an exception for this silky, creamy concoction. No special equipment needed other than a fork for mashing, making this a great combo to take on the road.

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Hardboiled eggs make a great quick snack. Just like the raw energy bites, I love having instant food on hand. Oftentimes, when I am making baby something with the yolk, I just pop the white of the egg in my mouth. :)

My go-to summer lunch includes a green salad topped with sliced hardboiled eggs, an artisan balsamic vinegar and olive oil and fresh veggies. You can use any dressing you like, but try a really good balsamic and oil. There is something magical about the way the bits of yolk mix with the vinegar. Perhaps it is emulsifying a little in the mouth?

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This salad has spring mix, avocado, hardboiled egg, tomatoes from my garden, snap peas from my mom’s garden, an espresso balsamic, blood orange olive oil and a little truffled goat cheese. The oil and vinegar are from a local shop.

Notes:

Occasionally fresh eggs will be hard to peel. One tip is to reserve the oldest eggs in your fridge for boiling. Papa Bird shares that thin shells can be a symptom of a calcium deficiency in the chickens. A simple remedy is to feed the hens shells that you have rinsed and crushed up. Since he has been doing that our eggs peel easily now.

Egg yolk can be constipating for babies. At one point we had to cut back from eggs daily to every other day.

And finally: Papa Bird’s tip on how to tell if an egg is raw or hardboiled. Try to spin it like a top… if it spins, it’s cooked. If it wobbles and can’t get a decent spin, it is raw.

A Reader Asks: What To Do With All the Tomatoes?

A friend and reader on our new Facebook page asked about what to do with ALL the tomatoes her garden was producing. You can certainly freeze tomatoes, make salsa, eat salads and oven dry them. But when time is of the essence, and you happen to be hungry, nothing is better than a quick tomato sauce.

The heat has been strong for San Diego and many of our tomatoes have been splitting. This evening Papa Bird strapped baby on with his favorite carrier (an Ocah mei tai Didymos Indio wrap conversion, for those that are into Babywearing) and picked at least a dozen tomatoes. I was busy pasteurizing milk, switching out the kefir and starting cheese. I had spinach and ricotta ravioli that my sister gave me when she cleaned out her freezer before moving to Portland. That plus this recipe was about all I had time for.

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Quick Tomato Sauce Recipe

  • 1/2 large sweet onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • salt and pepper
  • 4-5 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • splash of red wine (optional)
  • fresh herbs, such as basil

Saute the onion and carrot in a pan with olive oil and salt and pepper. When soft, add the garlic, then the tomatoes. Let them cook down a little. If you add wine, make sure the alcohol cooks out totally. Simmer for about 10 minutes. If it’s soupy, don’t cover. If it’s on the dry side, keep covered.

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I love how the center of this tomato looks!

Watermelon, Mint and Feta Salad

Here is another recipe we enjoyed camping last weekend. Our mint is abundant right now and there are only so many mint cocktails one can drink. I thought this simple little salad would be refreshing camping and easy to throw together.

Packing for the trip, I cut several stems of mint, washed them and then stored them damp, wrapped in a paper towel, in the fridge (and then the cooler). This, by the way, is my favorite way to store herbs and lettuces from the garden. Except at home I just as often use a clean kitchen towel instead of a disposable one. I also packed up the last of my homemade feta. (The feta is another recipe I plan to share, so feel free to subscribe to follow.)

This salad is great with figs, too. This year a little birdie we call Baby eats our figs as fast as they come off the tree. She has even full on shoplifted a fig! We were in Whole Foods and she was sitting in the cart. I turned my back for a second to pick out a peach and when I looked she had grabbed a fig out of a basket on the display and had started eating it! Baby also got into a shopping bag today, found an avocado and bit into it as though it were an apple.

Anyway, she loved this salad. It is a great way to showcase fruit at it’s peak. For babies, watermelon is a great first solid once they are ready to try venturing past purées since it is so easy to “bite into” with just gums.

Watermelon, Mint and Feta Salad Recipe

  • A large bowl of watermelon cut into large bite sized chunks, chilled
  • Mint, ripped or cut into smaller pieces
  • Crumbled feta
  • Balsamic vinegar glaze or reduction
  • Squeeze of lime juice (optional)
  • Salt and pepper (optional)

I don’t have measurements for this salad, so just eyeball it. Cut up the watermelon and chill, if it isn’t already cold. Then add the rest of the ingredients, mix and serve immediately.