Happy Blog Anniversary!

We started this blog around St. Patrick's Day of 2011, and now here we are a year later! We didn't stick completely to a themed meal for the holiday, but a couple of the items kind of go along with the theme.

Our main dish for dinner was a variation of Mahi Mahi with Asparagus and Almond Sauce from the April 2012 Food Network Magazine. Instead of mahi mahi we used halibut, and we were doing other side dishes so we didn't make the asparagus. The almond sauce was made in the blender, and the parsley stirred in at the end

After the fish was broiled face down for a few minutes, we brushed it with the sauce and continued broiling it until it was almost cooked through

Our salad was from the same magazine: Warm Butter Lettuce Salad with Hazelnuts. The warm part comes from the dressing, which included reduced white wine, shallots and butter

For the herbs, we used chives, parsley, and thyme from the garden at Cornerstone

The last two components of dinner have the most to do with St. Patrick's Day. Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Raisins from the March 2012 Bon Appetit seemed to fit the theme because they are in the cabbage family. Our only alteration to these was to make them with prosciutto instead of bacon

And finally, the item that definitely goes with St. Patrick's Day: Soda-Bread Biscuits from the March 2012 FN Magazine. Ours looked more like scones because we cut the dough into wedges rather than rounds

On the menu for dessert was Boston Cream Pie from the March 2012 Food Network Magazine

First we made the vanilla pudding, and put in it the refrigerator to set

Then we made the cake and set it aside to cool

Next we sliced the cake in half and filled it with the pudding

Then the whole thing is topped with a dark chocolate glaze

Overall, everyone loved it! The one thing we all thought is that it would be even better if it had more pudding!

These pictures of Wesley enjoying his piece are a little blurry, but they were too cute to pass up!

For breakfast the next morning we made Walnut Cake from the March 2012 Bon Appetit. The recipe suggests serving it cold, but we ate it fresh out of the oven with whipped cream, and loved it that way! It was really buttery, and just slightly sweet

Happy blog anniversary to us!

Going Bananas!

We started and ended our day of cooking with bananas, which were a big part of both the breakfast and the dessert that we made! Jeanette made this banana bread for breakfast and Bethany drove down to Olympia that morning.

It has shredded coconut in it, as well as walnuts and dark chocolate chunks--we could still taste the banana, but those additions made it a little different than your typical banana bread. Wesley kept calling it chocolate bread, and was so excited to choose a piece!

We decided not to make too much for dinner since our time was limited, so we chose a salad and a roasted vegetable tart

We made a variation of Wilted Greens Salad with Squash, Apples, and Country Ham from the February 2012 Bon Appetit magazine. The changes we made were to use prosciutto made by Farmstead Meatsmith instead of the ham, and to use mixed salad greens rather than wilted greens. The buttermilk was, of course, raw buttermilk from Cornerstone Dairy

This salad was so good! The combination of sweet, salty, and tangy flavors, and the different textures really made it great

The Roasted Vegetable Tart recipe was from the January 2012 Bon Appetit magazine

Neither of us like fennel very much, so we just used more onions instead--there were a lot!

On top of the onions was a layer of roasted eggplant and sweet potatoes

Then came roasted red peppers, thyme from Cornerstone, and cream cheese that Bethany made in place of the goat cheese

Instead of roasting fresh tomatoes, we decided to use sun-dried tomatoes that we soaked in some hot water, and then added the balsamic vinegar

After all the vegetables you pour on a custard made of eggs and cream

Unfortunately there was a little crack in the crust that allowed most of the custard to leak out, so once it was partially baked, we made some more custard and added it!

For dessert we made Banana Cream Pie with Salty Bourbon Caramel from the February 2012 Bon Appetit magazine. We didn't put any bourbon in the caramel, and it wasn't noticeably salty, so it was really just regular caramel, which is delicious just as it is!

Our pastry cream was pretty loose for some reason, so it got a little messy! After layering pastry cream and bananas, it is topped with whipped cream and ground peanuts

We didn't get any pictures of the pie once it was cut, because it was so messy that we just had to sort of scoop it out! But the flavors were great, with the peanuts in the crust, the rich vanilla pastry cream, the sweet bananas, and the caramel to top it off!

Thanksgiving at Cornerstone Farm

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year at Cornerstone Farm again.
We are just posting the dishes we made, no pictures this time. Since we had so much to make we didn't feel like taking the time to take pictures of everything too!

The Salad Ian made with some lettuce greens from the garden at Cornerstone and a delicious creamy dressing he made from local bacon and its drippings, garlic, fresh thyme, parsley and sage from the garden, raw egg, and feta cheese that Bethany had made.
The Stuffing Lauren made with her homemade sourdough bread, their pork sausage, and homemade broth.
The Chicken, Lamb, and Gravy Brandon and Lauren made. The chicken (from Cornerstone) was roasted and stuffed with some of Lauren's stuffing. The lamb/mutton was from a sheep that was raised at Cornerstone. Brandon made an incredible rich gravy sauce from the roasted lamb drippings which he reduced down a lot to make into almost a syrup consistency that was so good!
The Cassoulet Brandon made was delicious. With beans and either sausage or lamb, or both, it was amazing.
The Mashed Potatoes Bethany made with potatoes from Cornerstone, her homemade fromage blanc, milk, and butter.
The Roasted Winter Squash Jeanette made with local squash Lauren had brought over. The squash was chopped into small pieces and tossed with maple syrup, a little olive oil, and fresh sage from the garden.
The Green Bean Casserole Jeanette made from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine recipe.
We used fresh green beans, raw milk from Cornerstone, and cheddar cheese that Bethany had made.
The Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate and Hazelnuts Bethany made from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine recipe.
The Molasses Biscuits Bethany made from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine as well. They were delicious!
The Sweet Potato Biscuits Jeanette made from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine were really yummy too. We used pumpkin instead of sweet potato since we had enough left over from a pumpkin that had been cooked from the garden at Cornerstone which had been for the Pumpkin Cheesecake we were making.
The Cranberry Sauce Bethany made. She added some cherries that had been grown at Cornerstone, maple syrup, and cinnamon sticks to add some spice!

Dessert:
The Pecan-Butter Scotch Pie Lauren made following a recipe out of the November 2011 Food Network Magazine. She substituted maple syrup instead of using corn syrup in the recipe. We served it with homemade raw whipped cream.
The Pumpkin Cheesecake we made was from the November 2011 Bon Appetit Magazine. Bethany made the filling using ricotta that she had made earlier and the fromage blanc she had made as well instead of mascarpone. The pumpkin, as I mentioned above, was from the garden at Cornerstone. Jeanette made the crust which was a delicious homemade gingersnap cookie crust!

Jeanette's Birthday

To celebrate Jeanette's birthday, we spent the day in Olympia cooking, eating, and planning for Thanksgiving, which was later that same week!  Jeanette picked out everything we made, choosing things that sounded particularly good to her or that she's been wanting to make for a while.
Since Bethany was driving down that morning and we had a lot planned for the day, Jeanette made breakfast the night before so it was all ready for us to just enjoy that morning.  The recipe was from the book 'a passion for Baking' and is called Rougemont Apple Pastry Cake.

Of course, we made fresh raw whipped cream to have with the cake! 

And now for dinner:

The salad we made was Escarole and Bacon Salad from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine.  We substituted prosciutto for the bacon, and used romaine lettuce in place of the escarole.

Using a couple different cuts of lamb from Cornerstone, we made Braised Lamb with Almonds & Mint from the November 2011 Bon Appetit.



As a side dish we had Spice-Roasted Cauliflower and Jerusalem Artichokes from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine

The Jerusalem artichokes and chives were from Cornerstone as well, and they were delicious!

Lastly, to go with dinner, we made Thyme Gougeres (October 2011 Bon Appetit)

We replaced the Gruyere with homemade raw cheddar from the Cornerstone Dairy, and used thyme from the garden at Cornerstone too!

All the flavors went really well together and complimented one another--it was a great dinner!

Last but not least...dessert!

This Toasted Nut Tart from the November 2011 Bon Appetit was a delicious twist on pecan pie, and the homemade, raw pistachio ice cream put it over the top!

We left out the pine nuts and used maple syrup instead of corn syrup--the filling was rich, but sooo good!

Free!

We were able to put this dinner and dessert together without needing to buy anything!  We just used things that we both already had and made a few small substitutions if needed.

Now that Cornerstone has a dairy cow, there have been lots of fresh, raw dairy products available for us to use--one of them is real buttermilk, which is the byproduct of making cultured butter.  When we saw the recipe in the October 2011 Bon Appetit magazine for Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Waffles, we thought it would be a great thing to make with chicken raised at Cornerstone and buttermilk from the Jersey cow, Tess!

The garlic and herbs were from Cornerstone as well, and we used a combination of pork fat and coconut oil to fry the chicken in.

Chicken and waffles was something we hadn't tried before, but the combination of the slightly sweet waffles with homemade butter and maple syrup, and the spiced chicken with hot sauce was actually really good!

In order to use some of the winter greens, such as kale and swiss chard, growing abundantly at Cornerstone, we made Creamed Collard Greens from the November 2011 Bon Appetit, using the greens we had available in place of the collard greens.

Of course the milk and cream were from Tess, and we used smoked bacon from La Biondo Farm on Vashon.

We also made a simple green salad with Cornerstone greens and a maple-mustard vinaigrette, and Brandon and Lauren made polenta with delicious homemade stock.

For dessert we had To Die For Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting from Tasty Kitchen.

We almost had to buy one banana to be able to make this cake, since Luke saw the bananas on the counter and had one for a snack!  But there just happened to be one over-ripe banana left at Cafe Luna that Bethany was able to grab as she was leaving work :)

This post is far overdue...this meal was made in the end of October...so there are a few more to come that will hopefully be up soon!