Country Cobb Salad

We like salads of different kinds but they can be a pain to make (all of that chopping––I know, it's something I need to get over). In restaurants we often order Cobb salad. Traditionally it is a concoction of several kinds of lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, egg, bacon and avocado, sprinkled with blue cheese and dressing. Here is an interesting website, The Kitchen Project, that has a great deal of information on food history, including the origins of Cobb Salad, along with a recipe for dressing, too. It is essentially a chopped salad and you can substitute anything you like for the meat and veggies.

It made a very easy supper for us tonight and I am proud to say that half of the ingredients were raised right here on our farm: eggs, bacon, tomatoes and cucumbers. You could also use green or colored peppers, steak, shrimp, beets, green beans, broccoli, you name it! Wherever you are and whatever your produce options, it's a fun salad to eat and to make and at this time of year you can really rely on what you have in the garden or locally. My recipe makes four hearty servings.

Country Cobb Salad

• 1 package romaine lettuce, chopped
   (or combination of other lettuces)
• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 2-4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 2-4 medium pickle cucumbers, chopped
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped
• 8-10 slices of bacon, chopped
• 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese or roquefort
• dressing of your choice, drizzled lightly
• cracked pepper

[Note: I omitted avocado because I didn't have one here and wanted to use what I had on hand]

Chop each ingredient one at a time and arrange on plates, starting with the lettuce on the bottom layer. Arrange remaining ingredients as you like on top of the lettuce or toss altogether in large bowl. Sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese. Drizzle dressing of choice over salad and finish with fresh cracked pepper. It is especially good if the bacon is still warm.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine

"Two Look at Two"

From "Two Look at Two" by Robert Frost
...A buck from round the spruce stood looking at them
Across the wall as near the wall as they.
This was an antlered buck of lusty nostril,
Not the same doe come back into her place.

He viewed them quizzically with jerks of head,

As if to ask, 'Why don't you make some motion?

Or give some sign of life? Because you can't.

I doubt if you're as living as you look.'

Thus till he had them almost feeling dared

To stretch a proffering hand––and a spell-breaking.

Then he too passed unscared along the wall.

Two had seen two, whichever side you spoke from.

This must be all. 'It was all. Still they stood,

A great wave from it going over them,

As if the earth in one unlooked-for favor

Had made them certain earth returned their love.

Our dear yearling Emmet left several months ago, along with Gertie (now two), into a neighboring farm where there are no cattle grazing (which prompted their departure) and many undisturbed fields and woods. Our neighbor sees them, and reports on how they are, and his hunting friends will know to watch for the deer with the bandanas around their neck (and they never shoot does).

Emmet was grazing along our road yesterday, surprised by our passing until he heard us call him, and we by his random visit (we were on our way to town). Then he was on his way again into the forest where he belongs. I am not against hunting, if done with care and respect, but when you gaze into the eyes of these magnificent creatures you know that they possess something mystical and primeval. We have been blessed by these encounters.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine

Been Farming?

CATTLE DRIVE! One of many we've had in bringing them to different fields on the farm to graze.

Yup! And visiting here with dear family, tooting off to Ohio for a needed four-day getaway to meet some friends from New Hampshire (and to pause, refresh, revisit), and generally de-stressing from a busy few months and the loss of our dear Aunt Cynthia on June 16th, who lived with us all of our married lives (and our 15th wedding anniversary was also celebrated in late June).

COUSINS! All but our daughter (who is back in Vermont) are pictured,
including one son behind the wheel of the JCB. They haven't seen each other since 2007.

CALVES! Charlotte, left, and Wilbur were bottle-fed after their mothers died this spring.
They still hang together even though they are now with the rest of the calves.

I have more to write and post, of course, but I just wanted to check in. If you want to see where I've been posting more of late, check out a new blog on local produce in nearby Casey County: GROW Casey County. And come on down for some excellent local cantaloupes and other fine produce!

CLOTHESLINE! A belated birthday gift erected at the cottage this spring.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine

Oh those Chickens!

We have a gooseberry bush next to the doublewide. I thank Miss Lillian every June for planting it about ten years ago. She also planted a peach tree (that's another story) and many lovely plantings around the place. I don't do them justice (that's also another story). As we have been in transition over to the cottage at the farm, let's just say that the doublewide acreage has gotten a bit lush and jungle-like in the past year––there are even snakes in the grass!

The other day I remembered the gooseberry bush. We've had a busy month and the loss of a dear relative and there has been haying and what-have-you. I saw the green orbs forming in early June and said, "ah yes, gooseberries." Then, a week or so ago I saw them turning a lovely rosé color and vowed to pick them. On the very day I was going to do just that, I got out of the car and what should I find? A chicken in the bush and several more on the ground! They were having a regular old gooseberry feast! No, they were not content with green ones, which are perfectly fine for picking. They knew that they had to be ripe to enjoy them.

I just laughed and let them all have-at-it! After all, there is always another June and more gooseberries for the picking next year. Besides, I'll bet I still have a quart or two in the freezer.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine
For more gooseberry fun and lore, read these blog posts at In the Pantry:

• Gooseberries [written on June 29, 2009]
• Real Simple Suppers [w/Gooseberry Crumble]

Fine Herbe: Chervil

A bouquet of chervil fit for a gnome––like frondy, fairy ferns.

"According to Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz in The Encyclopedia of Herbs, chervil is 'essential in French cooking, often supplanting parsley which it does resemble although the leaves are more feathery, and the flavor is reminiscent of anise.' Think of chervil like a delicate and refreshing parsley alternative. Use it in pesto, as a garnish, in salads, with asparagus and starchy vegetables like beets and potatoes, eggs, or seafood—especially oysters. It withstands neither prolonged heat nor drying. Use fresh and add at the last minute. Buying dried chervil lacks flavor and aroma."

~ Rebecca Wood,  The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia 

You can read on chervil from The Herb Companion here.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine