Recipe: Spaghetti Carbonarra with Lamb Bacon

It amazes me that two years ago, I didn't even know that Lamb Bacon existed. It has won its way into my heart as a favortie meat product. I don't know where to buy it, aside from the Deck Family Farm, but if you are a bacon lover and in the Willamette Valley or Portland area... WOW. Try it out! It is intesnely flavorful and wonderfully fatty. It makes a killer BLT (especailly now that the tomatoes are getting ripe).

I wish I could upload the flavor for you. So very decadent

But our favorite thing to do with it? Carbonarra.




Frequently, Carbonarra is made with pancetta or proscuitto. Often people use pork bacon as the meat, but a good pack of Lamb Bacon really makes this dish something special. As a bonus, it's almost laughably simple to create.



Spaghetti Carbonarra with Lamb Bacon

Amazing ingredients for amazing dinner.

1 lb. Lamb Bacon
1 lb. fesh pasta (preferably a larger noodle like linguini. I used egg linguini from Pasta Plus.)

4 egg yolks
3/4 cup heavy cream (like the amazing raw cream from the Deck's Creamy Cow Share. Yum.)
3/4 cup parmesan, plus extra to sprinkle
Salt and Pepper to taste



Chop the bacon into small pieces and fry. Pull out of the grease and set aside. Save the grease - you'll need it later and want the leftovers for something else good.

Cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, whisk the egg yolks, cream, and parmesan together. Drain the pasta and mix with the dairy sauce over low heat till the sauce thickens and clings to the noodles, about 3-5 minutes. Add the bacon and 2-4 tablespoons of reserved grease, mixing throughly. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

Serve with a light salad or other veggie. Clearly this meal is the best kind of calorie fest, so keep your sides very light and simple. The Lamb Bacon has such a rich flavor you don't want to try and compete with it.

Also, if you do this and splurge on the Lamb Bacon... Go All The Way. Get really good pasta, cream, and eggs. Get local and raw if you can. I swear you will not be disappointed. It's worth it.

Recipe: Lamb & Cabbage with Fennel

Thus far, Summer is a tease. We will have a day - maybe two! - of warmth and sun, only to be plunged back into dreary, muggy, rainy days. I'm craving the flavors of summer - corn, tomatoes, cherries - but the weather calls for different foods. Grrrrr.

The following recipe is a result of wanting a rich and warm dinner, but also lighter summer fare. The results were very pleasant and just fit the bill. The fennel is flavorful and summery, but the warm lamb and cabbage helped combat the cold and dreary day.

When I posted about Lamb Burgers, I mentioned what a difference there is between pastured lamb and cheap lamb. Don't compromise on this. Like most of the meat we eat, our lamb is raised on organic pastures at Deck Family Farm.

This was a slow cooker meal, but with a little time to simmer it would also work well on the stove.

Lamb & Cabbage with Fennel

1 lb Lamb stew chunks
1 tbl. oil or lard
3-4 cups chopped green cabbage
1 fennel bulb
6-8 new potatoes
2-3 cups water
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbl dried oregano
Salt and pepper

Heat a frying pan and warm the oil. Brown the lamb chunks.

While they are browning, cube the potatoes, and coarsely chop the fennel and cabbage. Layer potatoes, greens, and browned lamb in the slow cooker. Sprinkle the caraway and oregano over the top. Add the water - less for a thicker stew broth, more for a thinner soup broth.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Stir once or twice in the last hour or two. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread and a salad.

The Day Lillies Are Blooming!

Summer is here, with Strawberries to eat and the bank of Day Lillies blooming out front. Last summer I was delighted to find out that

Day Lillies are edible!

They are so tasty added to salads.

Doesn't Sister-Bug look so...One...in that post? She's grown so much in a year!

Find some Day Lillies. Eat them. Enjoy.

What is your favorite edible flower?

Recipe: Palee-ish Corn Muffins

As I mentioned in my Dinner Swap post, the family I swap with eats a mostly paleo diet, which I love because it makes me cook different things and approach standby recipes from an experimental perspective. Gluten really doesn't work for the Mama in the family, so regualr bread products are out. But I love to bake, and last night the menu called for cornbread. But cornbread without some wheat flour?

I did a Google search and came up with lots of recipes, bless the internet! I adapted what I found to what I wanted and what I had. I came up with these delightful muffins. I call them "Palee-ish" because the cornmeal isn't strictly part of a paleo diet. Adapt for yourself as you see fit.

Palee-ish Corn Muffins with Bacon & Applesauce
Preheat oven to 350.

1/2 cup (one stick) softened butter (if you don't use butter mix coconut oil, olive oil, and/or bacon grease)
6 eggs
2/3 cup applesauce (no sugar added)
1/2 cup bacon bits - I chopped up leftover bacon ends. So good.
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

In a stand mixer, or with a strong arm, whip the butter, eggs, and applesauce. Add the bacon bits and combine. Mix in the flours and baking powder until well blended. Scoop into muffin tins and bake for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

We served this with salmon and collards and more applesauce. It was a very satisfying meal.

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A quick word on bacon ends: These are the bits that are taken off of the more uniformly shaped bacons strips. They are odd shapped and inconsistent - though just as tasty as their asthetic counterparts. Usually they are priced cheaper than bacon strips. The bacon I used was from Deck Family Farm, of course, from the pig I purchased last fall. Bacon ends are perfect for any time or place you need chopped bacon. If you are trying to eat local, organic, pastured meat they can help strech that budget a little bit.

Recipe: Goat Ribs with Greek Potatoes

Not everyone eats goat, which is a shame. Goat is darn tasty and good for you. It's also the most eaten meat on the planet. I've found that if I am doing any ethnic cooking, I can substitute goat for beef...and suddenly the spice blends synthesize with the meat flavors in really wonderful ways.

The other night, having failed to locate my lamb chops, I improvised with the goat ribs I did find. If you can't find pastured goat in your area, try this with pastured lamb instead.

Bonus: There were some leftovers. I cut the meat off the bones and mixed the warmed meat & potatoes with scrambled eggs for a wonderful breakfast!

Goat Ribs with Greek Potatoes

Goat Riblets (about 2 pounds)
4-6 firm potatoes (red or yellow are best)
Butter or olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbl. oregano
Salt & pepper
1 cup crumbled feta
1 cup kalamata olives, sliced in half

Chop the potatoes into 1/2 inch slices, and toss with butter/oil, lemon juice, oregano, and salt & pepper. Spread in a large baking dish. Reserve a little if the herbs and juice.

Rub salt, pepper, lemon juice & oregano into the ribs.

Place the ribs on the potatoes and cover. Cook at 350 for about an hour, remove cover and continue to cook for anouther 15 minutes. Remove ribs, let stand.

Toss potatoes with halved kalamatas and feta. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Serve with a spinach or Greek salad. Enjoy licking your fingers and gnawing the ribs.

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Note: I got my riblet from the whole goat I bought from Deck Family Farm last fall. If you are looking for this cut, you should contact the farm (or your favorite purveyor of pastured goat if you aren't in the Willamette Valley) and see what they have. You could substitute chops or a roast, but cooking times would have to be adjusted.

Recipe: Sweet Potato & Beef Stew

Here's the thing - I'm not usually a huge fan of your standard beef stew. It's okay, but the flavor combination never enthuses me. So I set off a couple of days ago to do something different. And I did - it is still stew and has many of the qualities of stew that we all know and love. But the flavors are new, to me anyway.

Sweet Potato & Beef Stew with Caramelized Onions

2 onions
1/2 stick of butter
4 cloves of garlic
1 pound stew meat (or chuck cut into cubes)
1/2 cup flour
1 leek
1 large parsnip
2 sweet potatoes or yams
4 cups beef broth
2 bay leaves
Rosemary, salt & pepper to taste

I used my slow cooker for this, but it should be easily adaptable to stove top.

Night before: slice the 2 onions and toss into the slow cooker with the butter. Set on low for 8 hours. Wake up to Caramelized Onions. This is a good thing.

In the mid-morning: cube parsnip, sweet potatoes, and slice leeks. Mince the garlic. Dredge the stew meat in flour and brown in a skillet with the garlic. Place veggies, meat, herbs, and beef broth in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve with crusty bead and salad.

A Warm Mug

After a run in our paltry half inch of snow (pretty for sure, but disappointing for Brorher-Bug) we came inside and a hot drink was in order. Often we go for cocoa on snowy days, but today Papa-Bug made his favorite from childhood.

POOH DRINK (Makes 4 Mugs)

4 cups Milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup Honey (to taste)
1/2 tsp Fresh Ground Nutmeg
2 Eggs

Beat eggs thoroughly, set aside.

In a saucepan, heat milk over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it simmers. Add honey and half the nutmeg. Stir.

Slowly add 1 cup of the hot milk to the eggs, stirring as you add it. Then add the eggs with the milk back into the saucepan and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly.

Pour into mugs and garnish with the remaining nutmeg. For kids, put the mugs in the freezer to cool for 5-10 minutes, until drinkably cool.

Blogging About Beans

I have a farmer friend named Kasey White, of Lonesome Whistle Farm. They grow amazing garlic, assorted tomatoes and etcetera, and heirloom beans & grains.  They also grow black popcorn, which is really exciting and a perfect Halloween treat!

Look closely at the amazing colors of all those beans!

Their farm offers a CSA for their beans and grains, and I am so excited to be on the list of CSA Members. I am doubly excited because I am working off part of the cost of my share by featuring these tasty foods, and creating recipes for them, all to be exhibited here on my blog. I like this arrangement because I love to work for food, I like the challenge of new recipes, and I want to help support farmers - especially farmers who are trying to grow heirloom species and keep bio-diversity alive.

The CSA starts officially this month, and to start us off, Casey gave me a little bag of "Ireland Creek Annie" beans from last year's harvest. Lonesome Whistle didn't grow this bean again this season, so we will have to look elsewhere for it... because it was really, really tasty.



To start learning about heirloom beans, I'm going to cook each one as a plain bean before I attempt any recipes. I had heard Kasey say that heirloom beans have more complex flavors than the regular old black bean or kidney bean you buy in the store, so with the Ireland Creek Annie beans, I set out to test that assertion.

Beautiful beans. Gorgeous garlic.

These beans are a "white bean", of the kind you might use in baked beans, or a simple bean soup (keep reading if you like the soup idea...).  With half of the pound we soaked them in warm water, and cooked them at a simmer on low for a while.

(In the future I will give better, more detailed information about my cooking process...promise.)

Sister-Bug examines the dry beans.

Anyway. They had a soak and simmer until they tested done.

I mixed them with a little of Kasey's garlic, some butter, and some parsley... and of course a touch of salt and pepper. Just plain beans.

And what do you know! They were way more flavorful than most beans I have eaten. The garlic and the butter were good, but these beans could have stood alone as just a simple bean and still been very enjoyed by our family.

Their texture was smooth and a little starchy, and the flavor was nutty. One thing I have noticed about other heirloom foods I have tried, and these beans are no different, is that they taste like the "normal" incarnation of the food (white beans in this case) only more so. These beans were "beanier" than my usual white beans.

When cooked, they retained their color and shape better than my usual bean. There were few of the exploded or mushy beans mixed in, and they held up well when I was stirring in the butter and garlic. 

They were a huge hit with my family - everyone eating them up with alacrity.

Beans, garlic, butter... Bon apetit!

 With the second half of the pound, I wanted to see how they fared in a more flavorful recipe. I invented

Dinosaur Bean Soup

It comes by its name from the addition of Italian Kale, which my family thinks looks like something a dinosaur might eat or wear.

1 large leek - coarsely chopped
1 celeriac - peeled and cubed
1/2lb bacon - cut into chunks or bits
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic - minced
1/2 lb Ireland Creek Annie beans - pre-soaked (or other white heirloom bean)
1/2 by Italian kale - coarsely chopped or torn
4-ish cups of water
Salt and pepper

Heat a large soup pot. Add the bacon (we used Deck Family Farm Lamb Bacon, which has a flavor like no other. If you haven't tried Lamb Bacon, I think you should. Unless you don't eat lamb...). I usually take scissors and snip the strips into 1/2 inch pieces as I add it to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes to let the fat coat the pan, then add the leek, celeriac, bay leaf, and garlic. Cook for until the bacon is just beginning to crisp.

Add the soaked beans and water. Cover and simmer for about 40 minutes. Check the beans a couple of times. If you have pre-cooked your beans, you need to just heat the water and everything thoroughly. Just before serving, add the kale, stir, and wait a few moments for the kale to wilt.

(To make a vegetarian version, omit the bacon, saute the veggies in olive oil, and add 1/2 tsp. veggie bullion to fill out the missing bacon flavor.)

Serve and enjoy. This is good with crusty bread.

Sister-Bug gives these beans her hungry toddler award. She wouldn't stop eating them!

Keep checking back for more bean recipes, information about heirloom beans & grains, and other related content. And go to your Farmer's Market and find a heirloom bean farmer, because if these beans are any indication, you will not be disappointed!

Preserve Us

Everything is ripe all at once. Peaches on Sunday, now tomatoes, Chantrelles, and applesauce in the next week. If I miss some of my regular posts it's because of a canning onslaught taking over my kitchen.




Keep your eye of the Canning Count in the sidebar there if you want to know what I'm up to...

Crisp and Tasty

Our new house is blessed with a bank of Day Lillies out front - both orange and a deep red.



I considered this quite a blessing because flowers are lovely and Day Lillies need little special attention.

A friend, visiting from elsewhere, enlightened my to the delightful prospect of eating Day Lilly petals! They are incredibly crisp and bitable, with a melon flavor. Melon might not be the best descriptor, but it is the best I can think of.

A google search has found lots of pages with recipes galore, like this page.

For now, I think I will add them to salads. It's amazing how a few flowers or petals make a salad so much more delightful, as well as appetizing to the Little-Bugs. Thanks to my friend for the new edible flower!