Liver Pate Duck

Posted on November 11, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

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Recipe

  • 1 Tbsp of butter to melt to start the pan
  • 1/2 a cup of finely minced onion
  • 1 tsp of finely minced garlic
  • Half a cup of fresh duck livers chopped into small pieces
  • 1 tsp of ground dried red pepper
  • 1 tsp of  dried Basil
  • 1/4 tsp of salt
  • 1/4 tsp of pepper
  • 1/4 tsp of ginger
  • 1/2 tsp of keens hot mustard
  • 1/4 cup of good Sherry
  • 1 tbsp of butter to finish.

In a cast Iron Pan or your good pan over med heat, I melted the first tbsp of butter, added the onion, garlic and the liver.. Cook them till the livers are just done, add your spices and your sherry, simmer them together.

Take them off the heat, pour into your blender add another tbsp of butter and blend, you can blend it course, med or smooth.  I choose course today, but if you blend it to smooth, it will be almost fluffy whipped in texture, sometimes that’s nice, other times , you just want it to be a bit more meaty. Scrape out of your blender and into a bowl to set up as it chills.

serve with crackers, pickles, bits of fresh veggies, a great choice to add to a holiday starter board.  it is a flavour that works so well with sour dough

Posted in Charcuterie, Duck, On farm Butcher | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Krazulya Pear Tree

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

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Photo credit to Bernie Nikolai who is growing this out on the very cold canadian Praires

Arriving well wrapped and ready for late fall dormant planting where a few more very HARDY fruit trees. One of these 3 year old fruit trees is Krazulya. Krazulya is Russian for “Beauty” and it is the most flavourful and hardy of all the early ripening pear tree varieties. Hardy to Zone 3 and being tested in Zone 2.

I picked this pear tree for a number of reasons, first that its crazy early.. mid aug for fresh eating, not much is ready at that time of the year pear wise, so I figure its great for us, and that one fully producing, a few can be sold out to friends for that perfect week of fresh eating..

The second reason is that mid-aug is a slightly slower time garden wise so its good timing for canning this pear not hitting me being ready in that heavier fall push..

The third reason I picked it despite the smaller fruit, is that it will be ready and can be juiced in 2nd and 3rd week of aug giving me one of the sweetest pears with good spice flavour to use to help can up our summer peaches in a fruit juice with the lightest amount of sugar possable.

So many others will be ready to late to help me in the canning kitchen, so while some is for fresh eating, most if for juicing for the canning use and the left over fiber and skins will be used for fodder.

“Krazulya is a very attractive looking pear, hence its name “Beauty”. The fruit is yellow with a bright red cheek. It is the best tasting early ripening pear, being very sweet with a hint of spice. In flavour tests, Krazulya received a mark of 4.7/5, which is exceptional among pears, and even more among hardy pears. The flesh is juicy with a buttery texture and the shape is more round than the common pear. Its skin is tender, smooth and glossy. Fruit is about half or two-thirds the size of a Barlett, weights ranging between 90 and 120g. It’s ready for harvest mid to late August and should be eaten quickly as it does not store particularly well (1-2 weeks).”

Thank you to the Hardy Fruit Tree company out of Quebec, I hope to add a few more russian produced hardy pear trees in 2021 or 2022.

Creating pear tree varieties is a lot more difficult than apple tree varieties and finding a flavourful and hardy variety is a huge and lengthy task that requires a lot of patience. It took many decades for Russian scientists and researchers to develop the Krazulya variety by way of  hybridization and selection techniques. It originated in South-Ural research institute of Fruit & Vegetable Growing and Potato Growing from a cross between Pozdnyaya (that means “Late” in Russian) and Malenkaya Radost (which means “Little Joy” in Russian). The author of this cross is E.A. Falkenberg.

Posted in Climate Change, Food Forest, Food in jars | Tagged , | Leave a comment

3 Tons of Grain

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

122331368_656785541701083_1895759599883326995_nA ton of Barley Wheat and Oats have arrived on the farm this week.. beautiful local non-gmo grains grown locally by a wonderful farming family about 15 min up the road.

Now that is close and that is local and that is community support.. buy local when you can and the prices were fair and on target for the whole grains on the market. I wish we had a area that we could just have the big bags driven into and placed but at this time we do not.. so they arrived and where placed on new clean dry pallets and tarped down in a fresh new heavy duty silver tarp and we will spend hours (many hours moving then into the croft and into the grain storage area.

Moving 6000 pounds by hand is a steady job for sure.. the trade off between paying for equipment vs hard manual labour..

Its going to be hard honest work and it give us enough grain for all my livestock needs for the next 310 days, not quite a years worth and there is a bit of flex on those days depending on how many lambs born, ewes in milk for the house, how hard the horse’s are worked and how many ducklings and chicks are hatched out.

The barley will be used in part for sprouting, and the oats will in part be used as a garden green cover and the oats and wheat will both be used as seed out for any areas that need extra coverage in the spring from winter wear.

I already have my pasture seed for the next three years to use for snow spring seeding, as well as have a order in for planting for higher intense pasture grazing.

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We are planning on getting a ATV next year and with it I can use a number of my horse drawn equipment as well some extra things like a trailer and a few other things we will see..

I know its not nice to say but by next year there is going to be a flood of peaple that will be looking to sell “extras” for cash in hand,, it will have hit the “just a few more weeks, just a few more months” peaple that it is in fact going to be at a min a 3 to 5 year event and a 5 to 10 year global recession.

However at least here in canada, we are very much at the moment and I think for the forsee able future in a K..  the whole country will BE EFFECTED but that back half of the K is huge for how each area and each family will feel it..  those with steady work from home jobs, those with steady in need front line jobs, those who meet the need of keeping things going.. will be on that upper heading up arm of the K and they will be doing a mix of great.. never had more money in the bank..  not eating out, not needing to buy the suit or the dress of the party, not paying for the kids in sports and so on..  then there will be the others that are doing well, but feeling the effect of the pushes and pulls in so many ways..

And then there is those that will be on that downward part of the K.. and they are going to struggle.. they will be selling off toys and extra’s..  right now in my neck of the woods, on the market place we can see this already just not in the way we will next year..

Top big ticket items folks are trying to move.. Pool tables, huge dining room sets, full spare bedroom sets, hot tubs, smaller second hand commute cars, and of course the moterhomes and extra fridges (but a freezer is hard to find, they move by word of mouth at this time)

By next year we will start to see the ATV’s, the motor boats, the canoes, the smaller moterhomes and vans (anything that really takes the gas) Ski-doo’s and more..

While we have always done things by hand and we will continue to do so in many many ways, we are both 48 and we are giving the farm the long hard look at what needs to be repaired, replaced and what would be the best way forward to age out on the farm in the best way possable..

I know its asking a lot but we want the best of both worlds.. planning and using some of the modern things so many take for granted but having the full in use backups in place and still be worked.. a prime example is that we are planning to drill a new well and that well will be on power grid and will be used to put in drip lines, keep the pond full and put in auto water for all year long for the livestock making things so much easier in so many ways..

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But we are keeping the back big barn drilled well and getting the repair work needed done and moving from the smaller hand pump to the old fashioned huge big pump on it..   Making our life easier but keeping the hands on no power ability of the farm alive and well..

So back to our ATV and my planned uses.. one of which is to continue to improve pasture but also to flatten, seed out and plant out fodder stripes in the front pasture in rows that will be done with hot lines within a new food forest type layout.. but I am going to use as much of my land as I can as things are planted and grow in layers..  more on that at a later point..

So did you bring in larger amounts of grain if you are small holder or homesteader..  are you buying monthly from the feed store or did you bring in skids..  What are you seeing for sale already in your neck of the woods on your local for sale sites?

Posted in 100 mile diet, Critters | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Sweet Potato Lentil Sausage Chowder Style Soup

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

This is a lovely heavier “chowder thick” soup and it can be served at two points.

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Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup.

  • 2 cups of peeled cubed sweet potato
  • !/2 Cup of green or brown lentils
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1/2 tsp of powdered ginger
  • 6 cups of veggie broth
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Cook till the sweet potato are starting to fall apart on the edges of the cubes and the lentils are softly cooked though..  It took me around 40 minutes at med heat.. Take off heat and let it come down from the simmer and using a metal or heat safe hand mixer blend it in the pot carefully or can blend in blender.. again.. careful.. its hot..

Can stop right there, adjust your salt and pepper and serve up thick and hot with a big spoob of sour cream in the middle with a some chives if you want.. or a swirl of cream on top with some crushed chili flakes.

However as much as I personally adore smooth soups.. Dear hubby does not!

Sweet Potato Lentil and Sausage Soup

In a fly pan at med heat with a touch of your choice of oil cook up..

  • 1 med peeled and finely diced onions
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 or 2 precooked diced sausages or you could take raw out of the casing and make bits of it..  If you are using precooked like I did.. I sliced it in half and then down the middle giving me many small bite size bits of sausage..
  • Cook till the onion is just starting to get clear and meat is getting some crisp bits and edges or if raw, is cooked though..

Add these the Sweet potato and lentil soup base, mix though and enjoy..

This soup recipe made 4 meal size portions or it would make 8 smaller soup starters or side soups. Its a great way to use up a single leftover sausage and turn it into a whole meal.

Posted in Recipes from the Root Cellar, Soups and Stews | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Dear Hubby Health and Diet

Posted on November 7, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

Early this Late summer/fall, we had heart health scare and issue with Dear Hubby, requiring some trips to emergency,  medical treatments and daily medications.

Combined and or in part due finding out that he is now type 2 Diabetic.   He is on two kinds of meds, a very strict diet that needs to be a combo of Diabetic/Heart health and unlike most Diabetics he does not have weight lose.. in fact he needs to stop losing weight, hold steady and start building more muscle mass.  For him because he does not have weight to lose, he needs to work the excess sugars in his blood by exercise.

Both a very good thing and a challenge given he does not have his standing desk at home like he did at work.. this puts him in his chair for longer timings then I would like, at some point, we will see if we can figure out or build a space that can be used as a standing desk.  We are looking into the idea of being able to claim a good percent as we have a full room that is going into office working space.  We are hopeful that we will be able to get the right T4 paperwork to claim some of the costs from working from home.

While the first part was VERY hard, I really like our medical doctor who cheerfully pointed out that we are lucky that DH is so healthy and strong.. this was a total HUH moment for me I will still running on empty from days of little to no sleep.. as she explained that he ran a full running race heart wise for about 5 hours and never slowed down and didn’t throw a heart attack that in the end after 3 IV doses to finally bring that insane heart rate down.. he said.. my heart feels tired.. According to her, most peaple can only have the heart rate he had for 15 to 20 minutes before they throw a heart attack or get the meds to slow it down..

I am beyond grateful that we had a doctor who feel that part of the reason he has no internal damage on any of the tests, scans and so on is because of our food on the farm and understood that while I would need to make changes, that eating whole food, fruit, milk, eggs and grass fed is the way to go!

We had a month were the allowed carb count was crazy low for the whole day never mind the meals.. but as his blood sugars are getting stable in the low and mid 6’s, instead of his worst highs are being given a bit more flex in our carb counts in the main meals..  after his next 3 month testing, we will see if we can go to the more standard carbs per main meal and 2 snacks..

I grew food for our storage that does not work but can go to friends or livestock.. so many winter potato’s.. its a good thing the pigs and chickens and such love them so much once they are cooked..   I have tried 3 times to use even the smallest amount of spuds and he spikes each time.. for now at least.. no more potato’s a staple that must be replaced in our gardens, pantry, canning and cooking..

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I will be bringing in heavy homemade sour dough rye bread back this month and we will see if in small amounts we can have some or if it will cause spikes.   So far Ryvita does not and as its rye based and as sour dough long slow rise bread is the favored way to go, we are going to combine the two of them..

Hubby has a “medical order” for 5 days a week of X amount of walking, which works well for many things but as winter is coming and we are still in a modified stage 2 lockdown locally, we are most certainly not leaving the farm to go anywhere indoors to be able to get his required “this much heart rate” for this long. Poor guy has to stop and do jumping jacks off and on to get his heart rate up higher on his walks/hikes .  so we will be getting one indoor piece of workout equipment..  Still in research mode on that at this point..

Clearly the goal is to work to get those numbers down and to get him off the meds as much as possable..

Stress and worry and a month an some of the new eating and I have lost over 25 pounds myself..  which I certainly can stand to lose.. it will not hurt me at all..  but I am finding myself very tired indeed..

Winter is coming and things will soon give me time to sleep more.. but not yet.. there is things to do and prepare..   In keeping with this, there will be even more whole food, lower carb meals, with lots of Soups, Stews, Chili’s.. more use for Beans, Lentils and Barley..

We are moving from the sweet side to the Savory flavour profiles which is a interesting challenge for me in the kitchen..

Posted in Health, Homestead Diabetic | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Friday Rambles Nov 5th

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

Friday's Rambles (1)

Normally Friday rambles is a mix of fact, personal views and some good snark at times.. I normally pick at least one or more related current events news and away we go..

But lets deal with the big one.. regardless of your own personal view on the disease itself (which i have heard ALL the view points and I am not touching it with a ten foot pole here on the blog)

The lockdowns, the phases and so on are effecting all of us, even if you live in a area with no cases, and the Canadian north has done a outstanding job at keeping it free of issues.. the eastern provinces in my country are in a locked in bubble with each other and they are also doing amazingly well..

Quebec and Ontario are the most effected and I live one county away from one of the main province hot spots of ottawa and about a hour from montreal (quebec)which is another crazy high hot spot.. my own area is very min in terms of cases and even less in regards to related deaths. However our health unit is in step with the big city in most ways as there is a lot of movement between the city and my county..

My own personal family out west are doing very well in having been in very quiet and or uneffected zones in terms of cases.. The numbers are climbing in their province at this time

So that would be my first question? Where are you currently in regards to lockdown, color codes and or phases.

So far our farm has been under both federal and province wide emerg acts and we have had in order..

-Modified Semi lock down- if you can work from home do so.. but really pretty much all stores and more are open..

-Lock Down.. Everything closes down tight other then food stores, feed stores, modified but still available medical and vet care.. This was a hard full on lock down and we left the farm once a month only though it.

Then we moved to Phases, that did a slow openning up..

-Moved to Phase 1, where you could get your eyes done, your teeth done.. but really phase 1 was just a bit of a modified version of a lighter lockdown, it was still very tight and heavy..

-Moved to Phase 2, patio eating openned up and so did many stores and so on as long as they had their own doorways and so on..

Moved to Phase 3- gyms, bars, event places, schools, even sport teams all came back online.. it was a short phase 3 before the local numbers went from under a hundred a day to within 6 weeks over a thousand a day.

Back into phase 2 lockdown.. but now they changed it again.. to color coding.. Now we are in orange, with red a full lockdown again.. yellow in warning and green good to go..

Regardless of how I personally feel about some of the choices made and when above, that is what we have to work with and we are coming into fall with higher numbers, they “say” we have untraceable 35% spread.. which means in lay terms we are going to be in versions of lockdown moving up and down all winter and into 2021.

Are you in one of those area’s that is low case or are you in a area of highly effected? Share if you are willing..

Here is the big things I want to dig into, are you preparing for the winter? Have you put away extras in the pantry? Do you have a plan in place for if or when your emerg act (if you have one in place) is going to tilt your world again.

We are finding some things are very hard to find, example I am currently in the hunt mode for the wool replacement part for fixing the lining of my dryer drum.. its a 15 dollar part with around 45 min to take the broken one off and replace with the new one.. but I never thought to put a extra away.. and so here we sit..

Now I have the outdoor cloths line and the indoor drying racks and can throw up a indoor drying line if I want.. but its just one small but real example of how limited supplies are effecting the global supply chain which is effecting what we are seeing on store shelves and even online.

I am way to frugal and stubborn to “go buy a new one” for something that can be repaired.. I will make due and we will see how long it takes the part I had to order online takes to get to us..

We are fully expecting in our area to be in red mode lockdown again by christmas and into the new year.. We are planning and preparing for it.. but in truth coming into fall, the pantry is full, the fruit/veggie freezer is full, the meat freezers are filling rapidly and the canning shelves are filling up.

The farm continues to produce our own milk(sheep) and milk products, fresh chicken eggs, Duck eggs are pretty done for the year.. we have lamb, mutton, chicken, duck, pork and we bought a whole long yearling from a grass fed farm down the road..

Many of the layers I have spent years building into the farm and gardens all paid off this year in giving us a leg up on planting, growing, harvesting and preserving the harvests..

Are you coming into fall feeling like you are prepared for the coming winter? If so why.. if not why?

Posted in At the kitchen table, farm journel, Friday Rambles | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

If there was ever a time for a couple good dogs!

Posted on November 5, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

Farm Dogs.. Needed more now then ever..

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My farm dogs over the past years (other then our old lab that moved to the farm with us) have all been on the smaller side, with the females ranging between 26 and 32 pounds and the boys on the high 30 pound range..

The last two older girls are retired into true house dogs and are coming 13 which leaves me with Dezzy..  my 28 pound 5 year old that is great in some ways and quirky in others.. (they are all right)

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Just not big enough for what is all coming.. I had been planning on adding in a new pup.. but fate stepped in and we ended up with two amazing boys.. I do not recommend getting two pups this close in age even though not littermates.. its a lot of work to raise one pup.. never mind two..  but it can be done.

I had already planned on getting a larger dog with a much deep woof to help me with the coy-wolf pack and I wanted a natural born farm and guard type dog but one that would still bond tightly with his peaple..

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Remmi ((catahoula) is just that.. he is 50 plus pounds at 6 months, is already everything I hoped for and more.. he should come in around 90? pounds full grown.. Adore him to bits!  Having said that.. he has already proven very good at backing peaple up and holding them down on the driveway and or off the deck..  he has some lovely clear different barks which I love that they are so easy to read..

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His best buddy Uther is a labX and he is far more friendly! (its a breed thing) but he is a great chore dog and he is strong on the hunting and will make a solid retrieving bird dog.  He will not be as big.. He should come in around 65-70 pounds but it will be what it will be..

Its been a great choice to add these boys for so many reason.. for the longer terms plans given the state of the world and my own local area having a couple good working dogs with some size and woof to them.. a very good thing..

Adding in puppies at stressful time..  Perfect timing..  lots of training time,  with Dear Hubby home, it was MUCH easier to split them out.. you take this one.. I take this one..  but also starting the training as a unit..  lots of laughs and ah’s and resting baby hound face is crazy adorable! I mean.. REALLY FREAKIN adorable.

Its been such a good thing for the farm to be marked again by males and to watch the coy-wolves pack swing wide around the farm as Remmi shows me where they are at by aiming is very strong nose work and hair comes up his back line by 4 or more inches and WOOFF WOOFF  comes out..

While I know that it means more barking is coming from my farm.. that is also not a bad thing. local’s have said.. new dogs.. big!.. hmmm.. word will spread.. so much theft has been reported in my local area..

Now I know that in our province and our country there has been a crazy price hike and increase in peaple getting dogs and puppies because they are home now. the local shelters are empty, the rescues are bringing in northern or Reserve dogs and puppies by the shipments of 50 or more and they are gone as soon as they go up for sale (call it adoption if you want but when you charge 450 to 800) its a sale..

I was lucky, I got Remmi from a awesome breeder, I had been following the breeder for around 9 years now.. almost got a pup from her 3 years ago.. but it was just not the right timing and had put myself on the waiting list for the breeding that Remmi came from within minutes of her annoucing it..   It was a very reasonable sale price..  right on target for a well bred pup.

Uther was gifted to us by Dear Hubbies Cousin.. (thank you) and the deal is that they get to visit him and watch him grow up.. Covid has put a damper on the visiting but I truly hope for 12 to 14 years so lots of updates, and visiting to come in years ahead.

I expect that we will only have Marie and Paris for another winter or two.. and then we will be down to our pack of 3.. but at the moment, I am enjoy them all each day.. and i can honestly say I have never had a easier time on housebreaking or teaching cueing for bathroom/door

Got to love a clean pup..  (while we do our part, a huge thank you goes to those that raised them)

While I wish the best for all the peaple that got new puppies, I expect that dog trainers will be very busy over the next year or two and that if and when you need to leave your teenage or 3 year old dog at home if you need to go back to the office that we will see a flood of them coming into rescue..

So Farmgal’s helpful tip of the day..  Raise your new pup to learn to be left at home, learn to crate, learn to go truck and go crate in truck..  yes love them.. yes train them, take them to town and walk them around.. train in the park, train on the road.. try and see if you can train with a couple friends at distance with masks if needed but do everything you can to help create well adjusted Canines.

Posted in Farm dogs, Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Ten years.. Today the blog is 10 years old!

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Just another day on the farm

Due to personal reason’s I decided to take a break from blogging, something I have done before over the years but never for so long.. Once Covid-19 hit, I had not be blogging for a while and I struggled hard at how could I explain all the things that had really mattered to me (and still do) compared to what was happening..

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It seemed so very small.. At that point, I was thrown into dealing with all kinds of things, a) hubby would be sent home to work but not before he would be one of the last in the office and we would be told that X amount of contacts were testing postive. He would come home to be pulled into a rapid Response C-19 team that would put a new meaning to the word.. overtime.

I on the other hand would close up, lock down and put all those skills and food challanges into full use and the truth is personally we moved though the first months of lockdown with no issues..

Not to be the same for loved ones.. for the family member battling Cancer, for the unexpected passing of friends, the very unexpected passing of Dear Hubbies and mines beloved Uncle..

What happened next was that local peaple reached out for help on planning and planting gardens, help on learning how to can, to get seeds, to get seed potato’s and I did my best.. I pulled on contacts, I put together and ordered in shipments of plants, fruit bushes and trees, I worked with friends that helped bring in soil, kelp, manure and so much more

We had a bitter long cold wet spring that stunted everything that moved into dry, hot late spring and early summer that pushed our whole area into a level 2 drought.. we bought and brought in 2 full tankers of water to fill the well, the water tanks, the barrels and our pond..

This cost us $800, which was a very good thing because it kept the garden watered, the fruit canes, trees and newly planted whips watered in deeply once a week.. giving us excellent yields compared to so many others in our area that did not.

Hay however was a different matter.. the drought was bad enough I had to buy and haul in hay from across the valley.. but So grateful to my friend that let me buy 230 small squares from her and from my regular who has my big bales in storage for me.

Fall arrived and right in the middle of it came health issues for Dear Hubby, I am beyond grateful that it happened in the “lull” of phase 3 in our local area in regards to c-19 that allowed us to get medical needed done.. but still I spent hours and hours in the parking lot waiting for word, not being allowed in is very hard!

A Month of driving for medical, learning new terms, changing some things, harvest and more….

Then today, I got notice that the blog is 10 years old.. and I decided to look at its stats.. I mean, I have not written a post so far for 2020..

The search bars sent over 22,000 peaple to the blog based on what they were searching for, 29,905 thousands peaple had read 43 660 posts.. WOW!

This means that in the past 10 months, just shy of 30,000 peaple searched for and read, used, gain knowledge or got helpful hints, found recipes, garden information and small stock and more.. Wild foraging and Canning and more..

It made me focus down and realize that I need to start writing again.. Maybe not as often, and maybe different on this or that to reflex the current new “world” we find ourselves in.. but the words must flow..

Posted in At the kitchen table, Blogging, farm journel | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Duck Breast in Cream Sauce

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Duck Breast in Cream Sauce

This is a lovely way to serve Skin-less duck breast and is a true delightful treat for those it would be served to.. Its got its fine ducky flavour, with a built in cream gravy and if served of loaded creamy whipped Potato’s.. YUM and then some!

Duck Breasts in a Cream Sauce

Serves two but easily scaled up for larger portions.

  • 2 Duck breasts (one each for 12 and up or half for younger) I recommend having brined them in salt water in the fridge for at least two days but the key is to bring them to room temp before cooking
  •  1 onion
  •  2 or 3 cloves of garlic
  •  1/2 tsp of fresh ginger
  •  1 cup of mushrooms or 1 cup of colorful peppers sliced
  •  1 cup of light cream
  •  Salt, Pepper
  •  1 Tbsp Montreal Steak

There are a few things that need to be done to make this recipe come together in a way that takes it from being good to being .. WOW!

The first is aging/brining the meat for tenderness and making sure you rest the meat before slicing it.

The second is all about heat..  We will talk about that in a bit of detail

The 3rd is the pan Deglaze.. This recipe will not be the same without that deglaze, its what adds that color/depth of flavour to the sauce.

Ok, so we want a good heavy pan, ideally a cast iron but if possible, you want it to be able to go into the oven.. it can be done on the stove but better if It can do both!

Put a touch of oil in the pan at lower med heat and place your room temp brined steaks in and let it heat up.. do not touch that meat! let is sear, let it crisp.. if the skin is on the breast, make sure its skin down.. In the rest of the pan you can add your onion, garlic, ginger. If you want you can use shallots instead of white or yellow onions.  6 to 8 minutes approx. (depending on pan it could be ten min)

If’s finally time to flip the meat, then place your pan into a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for another 4 to 6 min..

Take out of the oven, place the meat on a plate and cover it with tinfoil or another plate (if you are being green, cover it with another plate.. allow the meat to rest 4 to 6 min before slicing it.

Quick now, as soon as the meat is out and resting, get the rest of the veggies into the now hot pan and give it a whirl, you want the onion, garlic and such to be browned and melted but you want the peppers and mushrooms or combo of them to be just cooked and fresh to the dish..

Add your cream and use a whisk to scrape all the bits of duck goodness and onion/garlic into the sauce.. taste it and see if you need more salt, or more steak spice blend to it..

Simmer as it thickens naturally, it will be a thinner sauce but it will simmer down a touch..

Add your slices back into the pan and pour over the sauce on the duck.

Serve in a bowl with a bottom layer of whipped mashed potato’s with this served over top with a fresh bread or bun on the side..

Or serve on a plate with a green side salad

 

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Ask.. so Simple.. So hard to do

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Some times one of the hardest things to do in our world is to see what and where we need to ask.

Ask for information

Ask for help

Ask for support

Ask for ourselves

Ask for others

Sometimes we look forward and we see where we are and then we see the huge distance between where at and where we want to go..  (in the photo above that was taken with me on a hill looking down the valley/river I had hiked and way across on the ridge you can just see the housing..  Loved the landscape up in Nunavut Canada.. It was barren but beautiful..

 

Sometimes in life, we feel we are looking across that void of where we are compared to where we need to go and it can certainly have its challenges..   Up, down, Around, weaving back and forth, sometimes losing sight of where you need to end up.. when you are down in the valley, you can’t even see the end goal at times..

needing to forge across that river, that o so cold, chill you to the bone river..  That water will stop you breathless if you fall in and its moving fast, pushing and pulling.. but there is a way across, you just need to find the right spot to cross.. you need to use that is given to you.. find the rocks and balance carefully and choose to jump when you need to..

Some times you get given a break, a gift of a space to breath.. to rest and recover..  a moment where life looks back at you, looks you in the eye and everything just holds..

The more you hold on to that moment, the faster it will slip away from you.. that I promise you.. you need to hold those moments in a gentle way, a soft way, let them flow.. they are not to be held tight.. they must be enjoyed in the moment..

Everything is so much easier if you can ask for help, ask for advice, ask for guidance..

Sometimes that comes from other people, sometimes that comes from the land itself. Sometimes that comes from deep within you!

Breath Deep..

Be open..

Ask..

See where it leads you

 

 

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 6 Comments