Goethe put it over two centuries ago . . . Life as a whole expresses itself as a force that is not to be contained within any one part. . . . The things we call the parts in every living being are so inseparable from the whole that they may be understood only in and with the whole.
There are webs of complexity that tie everything together, and they are more numerous than the stars in the night sky. At the moment of self-organization of the bacterial membrane, complex feedback loops, both interoceptive and exteroceptive, immediately formed. Information from both locations began traveling in a huge, never-ending river composed of trillions upon trillions of bytes of data to the self-organized, more-than-the-sum-of-the-parts living system that had come into being. The system began, in that instant of self-organization, to modulate both its interior and exterior worlds in order to maintain its state. It began to modulate its environment.
I spent a week or so in Tuscany a few years back, traveling for school, and tried some of the local fare; Pappardelle al cinghiale (Wild Boar Ragu pasta, which I had to try a couple of times because it was soooooo good), Panzanella (Bread Salad, see J’s version – I love it more than the Italian made I had), and healthy doses of the digestivo Limoncino (the Northern Italian version of Limoncello) and Pappa al pomodoro.
Though, to be honest, I wasn’t as thrilled with the Pappa al pomodoro as I thought I was supposed to be. Everywhere is apparently slightly different (as family styles and recipes are malleable) so I shouldn’t have given up but the opportunity did not really offer itself again. I returned, slightly sad that such a signature dish left me wanting. I think what disappointed me was likely the restaurant’s lack of time taken for this dish – though it doesn’t take a lot of time, time is still the essence of the tomato flavor (this is just a guess, the tomato soup tasted a little watery and the tomatoes unripe or uncooked a bit, but it was a desparate last minute attempt at a less than exciting establishment to make sure I had some while in Tuscany).
My best advice is to use a bit of roasted tomato to kick up the tomato flavor and make sure to simmer whatever kind of tomato you use with as little water as possible until they break down a bit, concentrating all that goodness. In the late Summer when heirloom tomatotes are gorgeous and aplenty, we buy as many as we can (every week) and use some fresh, and roast the rest sliced thick on sheet trays with Garlic/Herbs like Thyme, Marjoram, Rosemary, or Oregano/Sea Salt & fresh ground tricolored Pepper/Olive Oil until they carmelize, let cool, then throw into freezer bags for just this sort of thing – adds tomato punch to any dish – soups and stews, pasta dishes, dips, etc.
I’ve also made this with a squeeze of anchovy and lemon (I think whoever came up with smashed anchovies in a tube is a genius! but you can also just smash one or two of your own) and Winter herb oil (dried herbs like Thyme, Rosemary, or Sage simmered in oil, strained then use the oil in the soup). I would not judge you if you added chunks of oil simmered Red and Green Bell Pepper and/or Onion, as well, or a healthy dose of Red Wine or a splash of Red Wine Vinegar near the end and a handful of Parm/Reg cheese. Instead of adding water, you can also up the nutrition by using Stock of any kind, too. Can also be served with a sexy cheese and cured olives (Josh really likes the wrinkly Black olives but mixed olives work great, too – or any of your favorites).
Pappa al Pomodoro (Tomato Bread Soup) Serves 4ish
3 Large cloves of Garlic, peeled and smashed with the flat of the knife
1 lb fresh Tomatoes, (roasted in oven for 15-20 min at 350 w/ Sea Salt/Pepper/drizzle of Olive Oil, if using Summer frozen – chop roughly and treat the same), or a 24 oz can of Diced Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
24 oz of Water or Stock
1/2 cup of Olive Oil
24 oz can of Crushed Tomatoes (with Basil – sure!)
Bunch of fresh Basil, torn a bit to let the oils out, hold back a few leaves for the end
About a pound of good quality stale Bread cut or torn into big bite sized pieces(half of our classic Panem Domus is a great match here- if not stale ‘enough’, cut or tear into chunks and bake or toast a bit to dry out)
The beauty of this soup is the marrying of flavors. * To start this, I recommend a Tablespoon of the Olive Oil in a Soup/Saucepan over Medium heat. Add smashed Garlic cloves and bring to a slow sizzle (do not let them brown but move around until fragrant). * Then add can of Fire-Roasted Tomatoes, if using (if not, hold off on the fresh or frozen fresh Roasted -or fresh frozen-Tomatoes, and move to next Step). Let cook in saucepan until thickly bubbly, stirring occasionally so as not to stick to bottom of pot (about 5 minutes). * Add Crushed Tomatoes (if not using can Fire-Roasted, treat as above, letting cook in Olive Oil with Garlic for 5 minutes) and 24 oz of chosen broth liquid (I just refill the can), and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. * Season with Sea Salt & freshly ground Black Pepper. * Add Bread chunks and torn Basil and let simmer another 5-10 minutes until preferred consistency (if I need to loosen it a bit, as I like it, this is the time I use a little Red Wine or Red Wine Vinegar, cooking after adding just a minute or two to reduce the alcohol/sharpness and bring to temperature) * Remove from heat and divide into serving bowls – adding a Tablespoon of Olive Oil to each bowl, and sprinkling with Flaky Sea Salt/freshly ground Black Pepper to taste, and the remaining torn Basil.
This little peach loves to plan/host/make goodies for parties. Duende is a hostess with the mostess. A slight sign of rain and she’s making a Thundercake (see Patricia Polacco’s book of the same name, recipe in the back). Any talk of ripe bananas and she’s whipping up banana bread. Or she’s baking biscuits, or scones, or pancakes, or cupcakes! She likes to bake. For the last year or so she’s been picking up some baking/cooking classes with the Homemade group – they are very charming and love to see her (generally the youngest by herself) showing off her goods and asking very sensible questions. Though her patience is a little thin on recipe following (she likes to be creative in baking, but maybe before she knows all the rules…hmmmm) most of her experiments are pretty good.
Duende has friends that are apparently busy little bakers, too. Pear has come up and taken an online baking class with her (remember those scrumptious strawberry and cheese triangles? I do) and she and her friend Dorothy conspired for Dorothy to make delicious little Cheese Danish for me as a birthday surprise! How amazingly wonderful! Baking faeries everywhere! Duende also made me a lovely little clay pitcher (and tried desperately to no avail to make me a pinata – ha!) and colorful paper beads – I love her creations.
Other exciting news – she’s excited to be in the front seat! She’s excited to be back outside for games and relaxation! She’s excited to be traipsing around town and country! Here’s to 11 year old excitement!
Many plans – expanding gardens, rebuilding fences, opening horizons; all sound like practical possibilities and philosophical processes at the same time. We are retooling how we go about the gardens this year. With the concern of the avian flu, and our reduced layer flock, it seems like a good time to readdress how we free range our birds (because they can be particularly destructive at times, and yet helpful, too) – so we are building the chicken run into the garden, enfolding a couple of apple trees into the fenced in space as well, and making rows instead of beds. All this goes with our bigger plan to start building an outdoor kitchen resplendent with raised herb beds, a bread oven, and a new pergola for the grapes that we will have to move (anyone want free grape canes? get them fast, they are drying up in the pile behind the garage! ha!).
Meanwhile, Harvest Party 2022 plans are being made – pencil in September 17th as a day to come and relax on our (hopefully) beautified landscape with lovely foods, good live music, and community connections. We’re nerding out this year on food themes (something classic, something foraged, something grown, something Rock Bottom made, something fermented, etc) as we try out some new fire techniques (Beltane will find us enjoying a hanging lamb leg over the flames) and set up country wines (this year I will continue to do the dependable and delicious Dandelion wine, but also will try Forsythia and Honeysuckle, maybe Lilac if I am fast enough). It will be a miracle if we get done all we aspire to but it’s a good motivator to try.
And try we will. We had a lovely day in Portland last weekend for my birthday – my lovely peoples take good care of me, we popped into a local thrift store to spend a gift certificate and across the street was a pop up Queer Craft Fair! Lucky me! I got a couple of amazing goodies there (real butterfly wing earrings and an awesome worm shirt!) and talked with some wonderfully creative folks. Then we went to the East End Park for a picnic and a little play which is always nice to sit on the hill above the water and see the view. The ‘hill was charming with bursts of blooms (both real and creative!). And to top it all off, we came home to a smashing grilled dinner and played Ticket to Ride which we love to play together, finishing with my favorite Strawberry Shortcake (the food, not the character – though I adore her, too). The next day, family came by with Sushi and Chocolate Cake and Key Lime Pie. What a lovely birthday!
How do you like your fondue? or raclette? or queso fundido (flameado)? Melted cheese in any country sounds like a sensual sort of heaven to me. We once watched an international cooking show which featured old women on some (likely) Mediterranean island melting cheese in a fire with two sticks, they had to stay in continuous movement so that the cheese did not drip off into the fire…though the details escape us, the image of this gooey cheese in tension with the fire caught our attentions. Cheese is already a magickal character in itself but revels in change of heated form – not all cheese, mind you, some need a few more ingredients to really make them shine in true melt fashion, but many are divine just the way they are. Even a good feta melts lovely with shrimp, olives, rosemary, and cherry tomatoes into a rich Saganaki worth scooping up with some bread.
But here today we feature Josh’s yummy Wallop bread- a fully fermented round with dark beer and a bit of maple to go with a mustardy, cheddary, melty cheese dip – you can slice the bread, spread the cheese and grill like a Welsh Rarebit or keep warm (I have a mini crockpot for just these things, not as scary as a fondue pot though the modern ones are less scary than their 1970’s versions) to use as dip (alternatively, if you warm small bean crocks or french onion soup bowls, this will keep the dip warm for a bit, too – ohhhh, and French Onion soup would go with this bread, as well!). The mirroring of the beer in the dip to the bread makes a nice pairing, while the mustard and sharp cheese makes your tongue dance!
This is a great little recipe for game night: a couple of card games (in this house, we’re all about Taco vs. Burrito, Sushi-Go, Uno, or Ratatat, or Mille Bornes, or even Apples to Apples), and cut and/or roasted veggies to go with the bread and dip away into the evenig while listening to records – our perfect evening.
Rock Bottom Cheesy Beer Dip
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons Butter 2 tablespoons All-purpose Flour 2 teaspoon Stoneground Mustard 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt, to taste 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper 1/2 cup Dark Beer (think Porter, Stout, or a strong Brown Ale) 3/4 cup Heavy Cream 6 ounces (approximately 1-1/2 cups) shredded well-aged Cheddar (see Note) 2 shakes (or to taste) Hot Sauce (the leek based local Maine Resurgam is our favorite)
For Dipping: Bread – in this case, we are highly recommending Stone Broke Bread‘s Wallop but any good hearty country loaf or rye would work lovely, and I dig roasted carrots, parsnips, artichokes, beets, purple sprouting broccoli or mustardy asian brassica’s which roast nicely but still retain some greenery and shape (I roast veg high at 400 degrees in a casserole dish and tossed with olive oil and sea salt about 20 min until slightly charred and al dente tender, stir if a thick pile so everyone gets a bit of flash heat).
Directions: Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, being careful not to let flour brown but to get slightly golden. Whisk in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add beer and whisk to combine. Pour in cream and whisk until well combined and smooth. Gradually add cheese, stirring constantly, until cheese melts and sauce is smooth, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add hot sauce. Serve immediately or keep warm for snacking.
Note: Grate your own cheese for this dish. Already shredded cheeses include potato starch or corn starch to prevent it from sticking. That starch can cause the dish to thicken too much.
Soft Spring steps get us closer to warmer weather days (today’s likely last Nor’easter, notwithstanding; we’re hoping those deeper in much wellness and safety). The pussy willows have bloomed and the buds on the forsythia and honeysuckle are swelling – the grass is greening up! I can see the bee balm creeping across the whole front garden (fine by me! but interspersed with peony and orange day lily shoots and unfurling hollyhock leaves – I love my black hollyhocks) and patches of early cleavers spreading in corners of the yard.
I’ve managed to get the peas and sweet peas in and the garlic is shooting up nicely in their bed. We’re not doing potatoes this year (which makes me a little sad but our beds need a potato break) but we are putting in a couple of sizeable patches of purple and black barley which we are excited about. The greenhouse babies are exploding – I’m trying to keep up but eventually I run out of room and 2 out of 3 coldframes failed this Winter so my extension spaces are limited. I’ve likely planted more than I need so hopefully we can share with others who might have the same sort of sense of humor I have when buying seeds (ha! yes, I did buy all purple plants at one point, and quite the variety of medicinal herbs that take a couple of seasons to come to fruition).
The last of the syrup is finished (yay, Josh!) and the chickens are being tractored around the garden (due to the rash of avian flu right now, my poor free range girls have to be a bit contained). The crocuses are popping up all over and the daffodils and tulips are trying (on the other side of the street they are bright yellow sunshines but they will take a bit longer here). D is making nature treks almost every day right now to collect mica, wintergreen, and various faerie house making supplies. It’s a lovely soft step into Spring!
We are very excited to introduce the new lovely addition to the bakery family – Charlie the Chocolate bread. A sweet but savory loaf with lots of nuanced pepper character with also bittersweet chocolate chips! Yes – I said chocolate chips but see, you want them, even in the savoryness as they punctuate the pepper and add space to the texture. Though a recent reviewer (these taste testers are a very willing bunch), a 6 year old faerie child – says that with butter, it tastes like ice cream. Of course, we were all convinced at that point (I would believe anything this child tells me) but the applications are so much more. Another chocolate bread maker I read about does toast and crumb the bread over ice cream, which sounds like a swell idea, too.
This bread has the potential to be treated like pumpernickel with classic flavors of aged cheese or sour cream and would go lovely with our Roasted Roots with Figs, Goat Cheese & Almonds recipe, stronger cured or roasted meats like pastrami/pork belly/lamb or even roasted chicken and anything with a bit of char, it would go great with Rock Bottom Chili, and rich stews in general, like a red wine base beef stew or a hearty pot of Maple Baked Beans.
Here today we add more more to this repertoire; a simple but sassy dessert bread pudding – I know, it seems on the nose, but this bread brings a new sophistication to a classic and since somewhere on this blog we have a smashing savory bread pudding (great for our Panem Domus or even the new Polenta Chili) we do not have a sweet one yet! This one is inspired by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann. With us finishing up boiling our Maple syrup, I can’t think of a better combination. Enjoy!
Chocolate & Maple Bread Pudding
Serves 6
1/4 cup dried cranberries (craisins) or chopped dried apricots/currants 1/4 cup raisins or chopped figs/dates/dried plums 16 cups cubed day-old bread 6 eggs 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3 cups whipping cream 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp pure vanilla extract Grated zest and juice of 1 orange 1/4 cup chopped & toasted pecans 1/2 cup Maple syrup
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place dried fruits of choice in a bowl and cover with hot water if needed (some figs/apricots/plums are very plush and will not need a soak) for 10 minutes or so.
Butter a shallow 16-cup baking dish or 9×13 pan (I use my 12″ cast iron skillet and it works wonderfully). Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar then stir in cream, nutmeg, vanilla, orange zest and juice. Add bread cubes and stir until bread looks thoroughly saturated. Let sit 10 minutes.
Then pour soaked bread into baking dish. Drain fruits and scatter evenly over bread, along with pecans (can sort of stir/stuff into nooks and crannies, if desired). Cover with foil.
Place baking dish in a large roasting pan or deep baking sheet and pour enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the bread dish. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake until golden and puffed, about 15 minutes. Pour Maple syrup over top and let stand for about 10- 15 minutes.
This is great with an after dinner (or daytime, heck – a brilliant brunch!) coffee or tea.
What have we been up to? With the fresh Spring weather being well, Spring-like – we took advantage of some gardening cleaning and repair (moved flower boxes which lead to rose bush trimming, a new gutter for the outside of the heat pump house that hangs over a flower box that needed desparate repair, raking of beds, getting the pea bed ready, and cleaning up the driveway cottage garden – I like to leave all the tall stalks of seeds – after saving some of my own, for the overwintering birds and such) and due to the national rash of Avian flu, the girls are being moved to and from the chicken tractor which is now in a couple of old beds to be renewed in the garden (double duty). Though it will still be too early to plant alot of garden friends for a month, getting all these beds cleaned up this early is a gift (normally we are scrambling around the leftover snowpiles trying to dig in potatoes or peas). And if we’re lucky, all this rain will curb the Browntail Moth infestation that wants to impair me from leaving the house.
The babies in the greenhouse (or rather, my poorly used front porch) are growing nicely (though, late, as usual but stronger this year thanks to newly learned suggestions from both Eliot Coleman and Deb Soule books). And I finally took some time to try a new seed organization – piling them all in baskets and seedstarter lids wasn’t amazingly working – for both my addiction to buying seed packets and saving my own.
Josh has been finishing up the maple syrup (all boiling outside is officially over and now it has been refiltered and in the finishing pots, it’s likely we’ll get about 12 gallons which makes sense since we did less trees this year) – beautiful dark slightly smoky syrup – that’s how Josh likes it, just like him – with lots of character. And his new Polenta Green Chili Bread is divine – lots of flavor and texture (though I think he might change the scoring next time) and we are suckers for New Mexican green chili (when we lived there – in season, the whole town smelled of roasting chili – Josh got to relive that last year when he helped a local farmer roast his own – and he was paid gloriously in chili).
Meanwhile, Duende has been the ambassador for all things appearing – pussy willows, watercress in the creek, spring peepers, honeysuckle buds, and emerging crocus and other bulb shoots. There has already been an uptick in outside games – frisbee, badminton, and yes – wagon riding.
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee
~ e.e. cummings
Rock Bottom Homestead 