No BPA in my Chicken Cacciatore!

Unless one has a bounty of 'maters from from their own garden and/or the farm available, Pomi tomatoes are the only BPA free and pesticide free canned tomato option out there that I know of - crazy they have to come all the way from Italy, but Viva Italia!

Being that I'm out of the home processed variety I decided to order a case of them from one of my favorite local family owned grocery shops, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, and Springtime Chicken Cacciatore is once again on the menu in my house!

Ingredients

3 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 whole chicken, or 6 chicken leg quarters cut into pieces (skin on or off, your choice)

1 large onion, chopped

2 celery sticks, chopped

2 carrots, scrubbed, chopped

4 oz chopped mushrooms (optional)

6 garlic cloves, crushed

4 oz red wine

2 packages Pomi crushed tomatoes

4 oz water

1 Tbs balsamic vinegar

Drizzle of honey

1 bay leaf

Chopped flat-leaf Italian Parsley

1 Tbs fresh rosemary, chopped or 1tsp dried, crushed

Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning, until browned on each side. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Add the onion, celery, and carrots to the pan and saute over medium-low heat for 5 minutes until the onion softens.

Add the garlic (and mushrooms) cook for a another 2 minutes.

Return chicken pieces to the pan, add the wine, raise the heat and bring to a boil.

Add the tomatoes, water, balsamic vinegar, honey, bay leaf and rosemary. Bring to a boil again, then cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 20-30 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a platter, then reduce the sauce over high heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring. Turn off heat, add chopped parsley.

Wonderful when served, topped with sauce, on a bed of quinoa, accompanied by fresh bread and a salad.

NOTE: This recipe can easily be made with rabbit instead of chicken.

Makes approx 6 servings

Blueberry Lavender Honey Ice Cream

It is 100 degrees outside and blueberries are on sale. To me that sounds like an invitation to make homemade ice cream.

Blueberries make a lovely lavender color ice cream, which inspired me to add lavender as a flavoring. Then I chose to use honey in this recipe because flavor wise lavender and honey compliment each other very well; to the point where the hint of lavender in this recipe is more a slight amplification of the wildflower flavor of the honey itself rather than a particularly distinct or powerful flavor of its own. I certainly didn't want anything to overshadow the flavor of fresh blueberries present at the party!

1 & 1/2 Cup Blueberries, rinsed
3/4 Cup local raw Honey
1/4 Cup Water
1 Pinch of pesticide free Lavender Blossoms
1/4 Teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1/8 Teaspoon ground dried Ginger
3-4 Drops of Lavender Essential Oil
3-4 Drops of cane alcohol based Vanilla Absolute
3 Cups half-and-half

In a medium size heavy bottom saucepan, bring blueberries, honey, and water to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for about 4 to 5 minutes while stirring until the berries begin to pop. Remove from heat. Add dried lavender, cinnamon & ginger. Blend with a stick blender until pureed. Using a sieve, strain into a bowl, pressing the berry skins to release all the liquid. Refrigerate for several minutes until lightly chilled. Add the drops of Lavender Essential Oil and Vanilla Absolute, then stir in the half-and-half. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker (1 1/2-qt. or larger capacity). Freeze according to manufacturer's directions until firm enough to scoop. Enjoy!

Note - The mashed berry skins can be placed flat on waxed paper, flattened and dried to make fruit leather :)

Optional - Like a lot of flavor with an exotic flair? Add 1-2 drops of Cardamom Essential Oil to this recipe!

Making Herbal Labna Cheese

One from the Archives; many moons ago with my elder son :) Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas and everyone's mama!

Labna is a traditional soft cheese from the Middle East that is made with yogurt. We've made our Labna with kefir we cultured ourselves from local raw goat's milk. Kefir is a cultured milk product that is similar to yogurt, but has a wider variety of micro-organisms.

This cheese is very easy to make, in fact, my 5 year old has prepared the cheese for this article.

For this you'll need the following clean (sterile) materials:

Kefir (or Yogurt)
Work Bowls
Strainer
Linen cloth (do not use grocery store "cheesecloth" - a birdseye weave cloth diaper works well as does a white cloth napkin)
Fresh herbs of choice (chopped)

1. Getting Ready Assemble your materials. Make sure your hands and all of your materials are as clean as possible.
2. Prepare For Straining Place a strainer into one of the work bowls. Line strainer with the linen cloth.
3. Straining Slowly pour the kefir (or yogurt) into the linen lined strainer.
4. Making a Hanging Bag Gather all edges of the cloth to make a bag and tie up the cloth at the top.
5. Tying the Bag Now your bag of cheese to be is ready for hanging to let the whey drain.
6. Draining The Whey Let the bag hang overnight. Be sure to place your bag over a bowl to catch the draining whey. Tip: Whey can be saved in a jar and refrigerated for a variety of uses, including lacto-fermenting vegetables (pickling), making bread, cooking pastas in, etc ... Don't throw it a-whey :-D
7. The Next Day Open the linen cloth and using a rubber or silicone spatula scrape the drained curds from the inside of the cloth.
8. Gathering The Cheese It doens't look like a lot when you open the cloth, but as you can see, it starts to pile up.
9. Making It Smooth Now its time to mix the cheese to get a smooth cream cheese like consitency.
10. Adding Herbs At this point chopped herbs can be added. We used green onions for this batch. (Note: Adding herbal and fruit jellies are also a delicious option.)
11. Mixing The Herbs Mix the herbs in well. The cheese can be kept cream cheese style and smeared onto bagels, flat bread (pita), toast rounds, crackers, etc ... It can also be rolled it into small balls and covered with olive oil and stored in a sealed container. Another variation is to shape the cheese into a log and roll it in chopped nuts. (Note: The cheese is easier to shape if refrigerated a bit first.)
12. Enjoying Enjoy ...this cheese is being munched on a whole grain cracker. Yummy! The cheese will last refrigerated for about a week (if it doesn't get all eaten up in the first day ;)

by Christine Ziegler - © 2004 - Author's Bio: Chris has studied the art of cooking as an apprentice to a Pastry Chef and a Sous Chef in 2 Manhattan restaurants. She is the owner of A Little Ol'Factory ~ http://www.alittleolfactory.com ~ where she sells exceptional quality essential oils for Aromatherapy, makes olive oil based soap, all natural toiletries and teaches classes about Soap Making and Essential Oils.

Lime Light Grilling

As the day wanes and twilight approaches, I'm about to grill up some chicken and corn seasoned with my new "Lime Light" flavored salt - a blend of unrefined sea salts, white and pink peppercorns, paprkia, chili powder & parsley, accompanied by the essential oils of lime zest and thai lime leaves .. add a salad and we have supper time numminess!

All of my local "taste testers" have been giving rave reviews for the seasoned salts, which means they will be available on the web-site soon!

Kids' Blog: About Rosemary - By Bria

Hi I`m Chris`s friend`s daughter, Bria. I am 12 yrs old and i love to txt. thts y most of my stuff below will b in txt. It is 2010 and i am writing about Rosemary. we grow Rosemary in the front yard. Its easy to grow, u don't need to do much. water it, and give it sunlight, see not much. Basically its a small-ish plant that smells like lemony vick`s rub, like if u bustd open a freshly peeled lemon with vicks. smell it but b sure not to get it too close to yr eyes bc it hurts rlly bad. Rosemary rlly smells tht fresh, may b even a lil fresher. its small and green, and if u cook chances r u have cooked something with Rosemary. well tht concludes our blog for today. have a great friday.

<3 Bria :)