Big – I Mean Little – Dreams
Winter is a time for dreaming. During the slow months of Jan-Mar we usually have more time than we do the rest of the year. We always have big plans for this time, things we want to build, places we want to go, things we want to see. We love camping and hiking vacations, so this time of year we always start dreaming of our next hiking excursion. Generally we car camp with tents and occasionally we backpack with or without a tent. We always admire little trailers we see when we’re out and about and have dreams of getting one “someday”. We spotted this little beauty on our last camping trip to the Catskills.
We decided that instead of searching for the perfect little camper that’s light enough to be towed by our MINI, we’re going to build a small teardrop instead! We may have enough time this winter, if not hopefully next winter. Until we build it we’ll keep dreaming about it and all the places we’ll take it. It helps keep us going during these cold dreary winter months.
What are you dreaming about during the slow winter months?
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Local Variety
One of the things I love about eating locally is the variety of foods that available. A couple weeks ago my brother-in-law asked me if I’d be interested in some meat rabbits. He had found a local lady that raised them and she had some that were almost ready. Last week he delivered my 2 fresh meat rabbits. My local grocery store doesn’t carry rabbit, I would have to drive all the way to West Side Market in Cleveland to buy some, and I don’t even know if those are local.
I was trying to decide how to cook them, when I remembered the Jamie Oliver cookbook I read last winter featured a wild game section. Since his recipes focus on fresh local ingredients I knew one of his recipes would fit the bill. After some searching I came across his recipe for: Grilled Marinated Rabbit and Rabbit Stew with Dumplings. I decided to try them both. The stew was my favorite, probably because I’m partial to stews with dumplings instead of grilled things.
I was happy to have all the ingredients needed in my pantry, and most of them were local. The garlic was from my garden and the herbs are potted in the living room. The pearl onions were the little ones from my garden and I happened upon oyster mushrooms at the market on Saturday. I didn’t have local dark beer, although if I got some Great Lakes that would count. I generally keep Guinness around for cooking.
I love learning new things, so it was interesting to learn how to portion and cook rabbit (I did take some photos but I’ll spare you, they’ll be on my Flickr if you want to see them). This wasn’t my first time eating rabbit, but it was for Mr Chiots. I also just found a local source for Muscovy ducks and I’ll be getting one of those soon, perhaps instead of a Christmas goose we’ll have Christmas duck. I can’t wait, I don’t think I’ve ever had duck before. I just found out that there are wild boar in Ohio! I’ll be encouraging Mr Chiots to go hunting for those now that he’s an accomplished hunter.
What’s the most interesting local item available to you?
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BRRRRR… It’s Soup Season
Winter finally arrived to Chiot’s Run. We had a hard freeze 2 night ago, the night before last was in the teens and it was frigid again last night. This means the furnace is on more often, a few more layers are worn to keep warm, a big pot of soup is on the stove, and fresh bread is in the oven.
We love eating soup when it’s cold outside. We keep our house fairly cool in the winter, so soup is as welcome meal for lunch or dinner. We have a lot of favorites, one being the tomato soup I canned many quarts of this summer. We also like chicken stew with dumplings, butternut squash and chipotle soup, venison stews, sausage & lentil soup and curried red lentil soup. I found this recipe on-line somewhere a long time ago and have amended it a little to be a soup. If you want to eat it over rice omit the coconut milk and chicken broth.
Curried Red Lentil Soup
* 1 C. red lentils, picked over, rinsed, and drained
* 3 C. water
* 1 large tomato, cut into 8 wedges (or 8 oz. diced canned tomato)
* 1/4 C. olive oil or ghee
* 1/2 t. cumin seeds
* 1 medium onion (yellow or red), finely chopped
* 5 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
* 1 t. ground coriander
* 1 t. ground turmeric
* 1/2 t. cayenne (or less if you like it milder)
* 1/2 t. ground black pepper
* 1 T. butter
* 3/4 t. salt (or to taste)
* 1 can of coconut milk
* 1 pint of chicken stock
Directions
Place lentils, tomato (if using fresh tomato, if using canned add later) and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered until lentils are tender and have lost their shape, about 40 minutes (begin checking that there is still water in the pot at 30 minutes and add small batches of water as needed). Pick out any tomato skins and whisk to break up the lentils. Keep warm over low heat.
Make the tadka (Indian spice prep) as follows:
Heat oil in a medium skillet over high heat when oil is hot, add cumin seeds. After seeds have stopped sputtering, add the garlic and onion and saute over medium heat until most of the onion has turned brown, 5-10 minutes. Add the coriander, turmeric, and cayenne, stir, and pour the onion/spice mixture over the dal. Add the butter tomato (if using canned), (cilantro/parsley), and salt to the dal and simmer for another 5 minutes.
If eating as a soup add coconut milk and enough chicken broth to reach desired consistency. If eating over rice you can still add coconut milk or omit, whatever you like. Serve hot. I like to serve with naan (Indian flatbread).
What’s your favorite kind of soup?
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Chiot’s Run Moo MiniCards
I’ve been wanting to get business cards for quite a while. When I’m out and about at farmer’s markets and chatting with people and tell people about my blog they always ask for the web address. It’s hard for me to explain “Chiot’s Run” and it’s easy to forget (note to self, next blog address needs to be easy to remember). I finally decided to order some Moo MiniCards.
You can feature up to 100 different images on your cards. I picked out 30-40 photos for mine. I simply had “ChiotsRun.com” printed on the back. Now when I’m out at the markets and people ask for my web address I can hand them one of my Mini Moos.
They’re the most wonderful little cards, perfect to carry around to hand out. They feature some of my photos, which is a big part of my blog. I think they’ll definitely get people interesting in visiting this blog!
I can’t wait to hand my first one out!!! If you’re in the market for some interesting and different cards, definitely check out the Moo MiniCards. (PS. they didn’t pay me to say this, or give me anything for free).
If someone handed you one of these would you be interested in visiting the site it advertised?
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All-Natural Outdoor Christmas Decor
I spent the day yesterday putting Christmas up out front. When it comes to outside Christmas decor I’m a big fan of the natural look so I stick to all-natural ingredients. No big blow-up things, colored/flashing lights, santas or plastic things decorate our home. We stick to an all-natural Christmas.
It was a beautiful day, sunny and bright. It wasn’t very warm, so I started around 11 am after it had warmed up, frosty fingers don’t do well wiring lights. I unrolled the garland and stretched it out on the front lawn to dry. Then I carried containers of lights, pine cones and grapevine stars down from the attic.
Of course all of the strands of lights have to be checked to make sure they work and any burnt out bulbs get replaced. I find that buying an extra strand or two of lights is a cheaper source of replacement bulbs than buying those little replacement packs.
Then came the wrapping of the lights around the garland (we get a lot of wind here so this is a necessity). Out came the ladder and up went the garland, I find that I like turning the lights on while I’m putting them up. The lights go on a timer when I’m finished so they come on after it gets dark and they go off around 11 pm.
It’s always tricky getting each swag to be the same, or at least close enough. I’d put up one and climb down the ladder head out to the front of the lawn and see what I thought. It sure is a good amount of exercise putting up this garland!
After getting the garland up, I realized it was two o’clock and I hadn’t eaten lunch yet. My stomach was grumbling, so I headed inside and warmed myself with a steaming bowl of chili. I ate in the living room so I could enjoy what I had accomplished with all my hard work.
After lunch it was time to wire the pine cones into the garland and put the grapevine stars up.
The pine cones and stars were laid out so I knew where they were to be placed along the garland. Adding the pine cones adds more work, but I really like the end result!
Along with the pine cones I use grapevine stars everywhere. I made star topiaries to flank the front door. These were put in big terracotta pots (out came the tomatoes out and in went the stars).
Some greenery was added to finish them off and a few smaller terracotta pots were filled with pine cones. I left the watering can up there as well because I thought it looked nice, although I may replace it with my old zinc one. I may add a few more pots filled with other natural things as well.
Not too long after I was finished with the front porch the sun started to set. I could hardly wait for it to go down, I was so excited to see what the lights were going to look like in the dark!
The lights came on at 5:30 and it finally feels like the holiday season at Chiot’s Run. I hope that people driving by smile and get that feeling of Christmas. I always do when I pass houses all dressed up for the holidays!
This is the view from the inside of the house. I love sitting on the couch in the evenings with a cup of tea, listening to my favorite Christmas music and watching the lights outside.
This doesn’t conclude my decorating efforts. I still have to add garland, lights and stars around the garage door. The front fence will get some garland and stars as well and I may put up some more lights in our little pine trees on the back hill. I also have to decorate the inside of the house, but this gets to be less and less with each passing year. I appreciate the outside decor much more than I do the inside decorations.
What’s your favorite outdoor or indoor Christmas decor?
