Food Is Love

Today I expressed my loving care for my family by cooking up a comfort food bonanza!

Above:
Drool over the 48-hour, 15-bean hambone soup. Spring ham is a home economist's dream at 99 cents per pound, so I get every ounce of goodness by boiling the joint after carving.

I cover the meaty bone with an inch of water, and simmer on low for about a day and a half.

Next, I added a bag of 15 Beans
2 onions
4 parsnips
6 carrots
Half a head of celery
2 anaheim peppers
2 green bell peppers
1 large can of organic diced tomatoes
A generous amount of jar garlic

This is just what I happened to have on hand. Pick your own favorites to add to your hambone broth.

I simmered it gently all day, and it came out mellow, rich, and tender. "Bone" appetite! 😋

Fresh homemade cornbread, the perfect accompaniment to a savory bean soup.

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 TBS baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 TBS melted butter
2 small homegrown eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375F
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk.
Combine the wet ingredients in a measuring cup, beat to break the eggs.
Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ones, and gently stir until uniformly moistened.
Grease a glass baking pan with a pat of butter.
Pour in the batter.
Bake at 375F for 20-25 min or until crisply browned on the edges, and a knife comes out clean.

Lambsquarter Again!

It never gets old. I think of this nutritional power weed as a cross between the green potherb nature of spinach--and the rich, brothy umami toothiness of artichoke hearts or portabello mushrooms.

Sauteing lambsquarter with carmelized inions and herbs in butter

The gif demonstrates my own culinary creation. After much research into promising lambsquarter recipes, I decided to layer rosemary roasted red potatoes with sauteed lambsquarter.

Next layer: a few slabs of spiral ham, cubed.

Then I poured a mixture of 1 cup buttermilk with one large homegrown egg, and topped it off with enough sour cream to equal 2 cups in total.

On top of that, I laid shredded sharp white Irish cheddar, and sprinkled with a confetti of parsley and smoked paprika.

40 minutes at 325F, and the edges were crispy delicious, while the dairy filling turned to delicate curds reminiscent of fromage fraiche.

Loving Food Requires Its Just Desserts

In this case, oatmeal raisin butter lace cookies galore! Crispy, chewy, meltaways all in one cookie.

I really need to keep working out this cookie recipe, so I will save sharing the directions for a future post.

May all blessings flow as do the salivary glands! Leaping forth at the mere suggestion of creative and caring cookery!

Love,Cat
@creationofcare

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