Lamb and Mushroom Pirog

Lamb and Mushroom Pirog is one of my favorite dishes to cook around the holidays. It’s a great seasonal choice for Easter, but it’s hearty enough for winter celebrations. I usually make it for Christmas parties. It is one of those dishes that looks complicated to make, but in fact it is very simple.  Best of all, it can be made ahead and frozen, which makes it perfect for dinner parties.

This dish always inspires me to fire up the samovar, which is the centerpiece of Russian hospitality. I usually serve this with a potato dish, dilled cucumbers and cold borscht. Our family cold borscht recipe is also very basic, but amazingly tasty with just beets, sour cream, green onions and pepper. (I prefer cold borscht to hot even in winter time, because the chances of splattering or spilling beet juice is so much higher with hot borscht.)

I'm including the pirog recipe here.  I borrowed it years ago from my mother, who had the recipe in a cookbook.  The cookbook is long gone, and I don't even know the name of it.  The recipe is probably very close to the original, so if anyone recognizes it and can send me the name of the cookbook I would be grateful. Otherwise, I hope you will try it and enjoy this wonderful, warm comfort food.

Lamb and Mushroom Pirog

Dough Ingredients:

½ cup warm water

1 package yeast

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

½ cup butter at room temperature

3 ½ cups flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 egg yolk

Filling Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of butter

2 pounds sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill weed

½ cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

1 ½ pounds ground lamb

Make the lamb filling:

Melt three tablespoons of butter in a four quart sauté pan.  Add the mushrooms and cover and cook at medium heat for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove cover, turn up heat and cook off the liquid.  Mix in the flour, dill weed and sour cream.  Stir and cook until heated through and blended.  Pour into a large bowl and set aside.

Rinse pan and add the ground lamb.  Brown the lamb and break up the meat.

Drain off the fat and add the mushroom mixture.  Salt to taste.  Cover and chill.

Make pastry dough:

Place warm water in a large bowl.  Add yeast.  Wait five minutes.

Grease the inside of a large bowl with the olive oil and set aside.

Stir in salt, sugar, and eggs.  Cut butter into small pieces and add to liquid.  Add flour and mix until moistened.

Shape into a ball and place on a floured board.  Knead until smooth and elastic.

Place dough into the greased bowl and turn over once to coat with oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about one hour.

Assemble:

Grease a baking sheet and set out a second ungreased baking sheet.

Knead on floured board to expel air bubbles.  Pinch off about 1/2 cup and set aside.  Shape the larger piece into a ball and place on a floured surface.  Roll dough into a rectangle about 10” x 18”. Lay the pastry across the ungreased baking sheet.

Spoon cold lamb filling onto the dough at one end.  Shape the filling into a compact rectangle leaving space around the three outside edges..

Fold the exposed dough over the filling and pinch the bottom edge up over the sides.

Place the greased baking sheet face down onto the pirog.  Supporting with the lower pan, invert the pirog onto the greased baking sheet.

Roll out reserved dough to create decorations.

Baking (Immediately):

Let rise about 20 minutes.  Brush with egg and water mixture.  Prick top in six to eight places with a fork.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.  Serve hot, cutting into squares.

Baking (Make Ahead):

Cool the unbaked pirog.  Wrap and either freeze for several days or chill for 24 hours. 

If frozen, remove from freezer about eight hours before cooking. If it thaws more quickly you may move it back into the refrigerator until you are ready.

If chilled, remove from the refrigerator and let sit for about 40 minutes at room temperature.

Brush with egg and water mixture.  Prick top in six to eight places with a fork.  Cover loosely with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Per Serving: 319 Cal (46% from Fat, 23% from Protein, 31% from Carb); 18 g Protein; 16 g Tot Fat; 8 g Sat Fat; 6 g Mono Fat; 1 g Poly Fat; 25 g Carb; 1 g Fiber; 208 mg Sodium; 122 mg Cholesterol

The Glaring's Limoncello Dedication

Every year we dedicate our limoncello to a special dog, but this year the cats took over the house and the dedication goes to The Glaring. If you want to make your own limoncello follow this link.

2017 -- The Glaring's Limoncello

It’s 3 a.m. and five month old Sprite is pacing between the pillows mewing and purring. It’s time to eat, but she is being ignored. Tommy Lee, the all-occasion-cat, is waiting at the bedroom door, saying nothing. The humans will not stir for another hour, but when they do Tommy Lee will add her short, delicate “Me!” to the Sprite’s call for breakfast.
The soprano is warming up.
When the kitchen light turns on it’s time for Richard Parker to come upstairs. “Meh,” she yawns. The cat flap clacks as Lucy returns from the morning hunt, dropping her spoils at the door in anticipation of breakfast. She announces herself with a “Maaw!”
As coffee is made the kitchen comes to life. The cat dancers glide around and away from one another in an intricate quadrille. Their tails swish and eyes flash. Their distinctive voices sing rounds with a common chorus until at last the dishes are dropped in their separate corners. One by one the choir rests.

And the dogs? Where are the dogs? This is too much chaos for dogs. They will stay in bed until the coast is clear. The cats have taken over.

2017 -- The Glaring

2016 -- Tallulah

2015 -- Ratchet (No photograph available)

2014 -- Calicocoa

2013 -- Griffen

2012 -- Zamboni

2011 -- Milo

2010 -- Maggie

2009 -- Parker

2008 -- Rocket

2007 -- Zero

2006 -- Roland

Farm Diva's Braised Rosemary Chicken

This is one of my go to recipes for nights that I don't have a lot of time to prepare dinner. I make variations on it, depending upon what I have in the house. Sometimes I use Zinfandel for a little spicier flavor. Sometimes I use white wine, because that is what I have open. Sometimes I use yellow onions for a sweeter flavor. More tomatoes will make it sweeter too. Adding extra rosemary makes it more fragrant. I've used turkey broth and goose broth, because that was what I had in the freezer. Sometimes I throw all of the ingredients in a crock pot and forget about it for the day.

It's such a versatile (and forgiving) combination that I don't even measure anymore. Nonetheless, this version with the red onions and Cabernet Sauvignon is by far my favorite. I hope you like it too.

4 Servings

Ingredients:

1 medium red onion, chopped

4 chicken thighs

2-2.5 cups of fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped (1.5-2 cups Canned or frozen tomatoes will work also. The more tomatoes are used the thinner and sweeter the sauce will be.)

2 tablespoons of minced fresh rosemary

4 tablespoons rosemary olive oil (You can infuse your own by combining fresh rosemary sprigs and olive oil over low heat for 15-30 minutes.)

1.5 cups of chicken broth

1 cup of Cabernet Sauvignon

Flour

Pepper to taste

Salt (optional)

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Heat two tablespoons of rosemary olive oil in a cast iron pan or dutch oven on the stove top. Dredge chicken thighs in flour and place in the pan. Salt and pepper the chicken to taste. Brown on each side. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside when the skin is just crispy.

Wipe the pan and add two tablespoons of rosemary olive oil. Heat the oil and add the chopped onion. When the onion becomes translucent stir in the rosemary, tomatoes, broth, and wine. Once it reaches a simmer, place the chicken back in the pan and scoop some of the sauce over the top.

Place the cover on the pan and move the pan to the oven. Bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes.

Per Serving:

351 Calories

17.4 g Total Fat

3.8 g Saturated Fat

0 g Trans Fat

60 mg Cholesterol

351 mg Sodium

17.9 g Total Carb

2.9 g Dietary Fiber

4.9 g Sugar

Grilled Cobb Salad with Asparagus and Prosciutto

This recipe is adapted from one that appeared in Sunset Magazine in May 2017.  The original can be found on myrecipes.com or you can try this version with jammy grilled eggs.

6 servings

Salad without Dressing has 391 calories per serving
Dressing has about 107 calories for two tablespoons


Dressing ingredients:

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper 
• 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped or pressed
• 2 tablespoons green onion leaves or chives
• 2 tablespoons Italian parsley

Salad ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon of pepper
• 3 bunches green onions
• 2 pounds asparagus
• 2 heads butter lettuce
• 6 large eggs (older eggs will peel more easily)
• 5 ounces prosciutto
• 2 avocados
• 5 ounces Gorgonzola crumbles

Preparing the dressing:

• Finely chop the green onion leaves and parsley in a food processor. Add the remaining dressing ingredients and process until blended. 
• Set aside at room temperature.

Preparing the salad ingredients:

• Place one tablespoon of olive oil and ¼ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper in a large plastic bag or container.
• Rinse and trim the green onions and place them in the bag.
• Trim the asparagus and add it to the bag.
• Toss the onions and asparagus in the oil mixture to coat.
• Slice the avocados into eighths or bite size pieces as you prefer.
• To save time at the grill, lay out the prosciutto slices on baking trays so they do not stick together.
• Separate the butter lettuce and wash. Then lay out the leaves on the bottom of a large platter.

Grilling the salad ingredients:
(You may want to grill the eggs while you are preparing the other ingredients for the salad in order to save time.)

• Place a grilling tray on your grill and heat the grill to 450. The allow to cool to 350 degrees.
• Once heated, place the asparagus and green onions on the grilling tray. Close your grill cover and bake for 2-4 minutes to soften slightly. 
• Turn the vegetables and lay the prosciutto and eggs over the vegetables. Close your grill cover.
• Cook for ten minutes at 350, checking occasionally. The asparagus and green onions are done when soft and slightly braised.  The prosciutto should be brown.  When ready, these can be removed from the grill and set aside in a foil wrapper to keep them warm.
• Slightly jammy eggs will take ten minutes, but if you want a harder yolk leave them in for an extra four minutes. Plunge the eggs in cold water after grilling.

Putting it all together:

• Arrange the asparagus and onions on top of the lettuce bed. 
• Add the prosciutto and avocado.
• Peel the eggs and add slices to the salad.
• Sprinkle with Gorgonzola. 
• Serve the dressing on the side.

#farmdiva

Doorstep Delivery

One of our neighbors has some mobility problems making it a big hassle for them to pick up the morning paper at the end of the drive. They requested that the delivery person bring it to the front steps. For years our carrier could be seen around 3:00 a.m. tossing our paper at the edge of our property then driving at break neck speeds down the neighbors' driveway and back before disappearing down the road in under two minutes.

When a new carrier took over, the doorstep delivery stopped, and a number of phone calls to the newspaper went unheeded. Day after day our neighbor's newspaper would wait in the snow until one of them could manage the trip down to the end of the drive.

Always thoughtful, Salt began picking up their newspaper and walking it to their doorstep. He had to walk to the end of our drive to pick up our paper anyway and walking the driveway is about the only leisure time we have.

My neighbor had recently prepaid for some eggs this weekend. Usually, she stops by late in the day, but I thought to save her the trip and deliver the eggs with the paper. When I told Salt that I would walk the newspaper over with the eggs, he said, "You should take the bike like I did yesterday. I delivered it like a real paperboy."

I had misgivings about the idea. "I haven't been on a bike in years," I said. "I don't think I want my first time on a bike to be with eggs in a basket."

We may not have a basket on any of the bikes, because he said, "Who needs a basket?"

"You want me to try doing it with just one hand?" This sounded like an even worse idea given the fact I am so out of practice.

"You need a hand to throw anyway." He explained.

"You want me to throw the eggs too?" It took me a moment to figure out he was joking. We had a nice chuckle about it.

Needless to say the eggs and paper were safely delivered on foot.

#farmdiva

Watermelon Agua Fresca -- Country Style

Step One: Cut a watermelon into slices and separate from the rind. Set aside the rind.

Step Two: Puree the watermelon pieces and strain the puree.

Step Three: Pour the watermelon juice into a glass of ice and cut with water or soda, to taste.

Step Four: Pick a spring of mint, for garnish.

Step Five: Toss the rinds to the chickens.

Step Six: Put your feet up and enjoy the chicken mayhem in the yard while sipping a cool drink.

Follow the Farm Diva on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PonderosaPlains/

#farmdiva

Homestead Tourists

At Home in the Spring

It seems like just yesterday we were taking down the Christmas tree for kindling and placing orders from seed catalogs.  Then I got sick and struggled through a very snowy spring to put in the garden before we left for vacation.  There were a million things to do before vacation and being flat on my back or snowed in did not help. There were seedlings to nurture and plant, beds to prepare, repairs to make and an irrigation system to reset. In a flurry of activity, we managed to get everything ready the night before we hopped on a plane to get away from it all.  

It was a busy spring indeed, and a vacation was well deserved. So where does a diva farmer and her dashing handyman go for vacation?  Of course, we chose a homestead in Alaska. Before I go much further I need to explain that “homestead” has a specific legal meaning and then there is a more colloquial sense of a self-sustaining farm. I am referring to the latter.

View from the Homestead

While I don't know how tourists find a homestead to play at sustainable living for a week in Alaska,  I just visit my family and add in some hiking and horseback riding*. 

Yes, I have family in Alaska; and yes, that is a fantastic conversation starter at cocktail parties. I often stand around sipping pear martinis telling droll stories about the amazing things people do without wireless internet access. As you know I am not and have never been a self-sufficient frontierswoman despite my familial link to the quintessential pioneer experience, so much of my life was spent hotfooting it away from such foolishness.  I come by my ineptitude at all farm related activities honestly.  The rural communities of my youth were by far more civilized than Alaska. Even though I was frequently at my grand parents’ farm growing up, I considered myself a visitor, proprio.

Now that I am by far more impressed by sustainable living than I was at sixteen, I am quite keen to go somewhere out of cell phone range and dig around in a garden.  Fortunately, my step-mother, a proper homesteader, lets me express my new found zeal by watering her plants between excursions.  I would honestly have been content to spend the whole vacation tending her garden and fishing had I not been intent on giving Salt his first real Alaskan experience.  

We hiked, we watched birds, we rode horses, and we drove a four-wheeler on what we think was the guide's hunting trip.  We caught halibut and collected rocks.

My Halibut

Our rock collecting was certainly a great amusement to the Alaskans.  Being used to the Outside -- the Alaskan term for the lower 48 -- and all of its rules about not collecting rocks in parks or reservations we were continuously asking with trepid curiosity, "Can we take a rock?" At first the Alaskans wouldn't understand the question.  They would look across the vast expanse of rock beach, then back to our innocent faces, before it occurred to them that we were dead serious. They refrained from openly laughing at us, but the mirth was in their eyes as they explained that we could take as many rocks as we wanted.  I am sure that they are still slapping their knees over those tourists who paid to ship back two boxes of rocks.  Rocks! But the joke is on them, because we would have gladly paid good money for those rocks.

On one night of our vacation, my indomitable relatives gathered for a party.  Alaskans are a special kind of people, whom I won't pretend to know well enough to characterize here.  But they know they are different and they know how they are special.  If you want to get a real look behind the rhubarb thicket into their lives, I suggest a memoir written by my Aunt Joan called "Cow Woman of Akutan," about homesteading in the Aleutians in the 1960s.  (Understand there was no indoor plumbing.) Unlike many memoirs I have read, it doesn't bore the reader with navel gazing.  It's a real page turner with every chapter leaving the reader wondering, "What will happen next?"  Obviously she survived, which is one of the unifying traits of Alaskans, but I will not spoil the book further other than to say that indoor plumbing is much more common now.

Head of the Bay

Another highlight of our trip was horseback riding to the head of the bay.  We watch a lot of "Alaska the Last Frontier" here, because the subjects of this reality show live a few miles from my family.  On the television show they are always riding to the head of the bay to tend their cattle and having to swim the horses across the tidal rivers because someone neglected to check the tide charts.  We did both of these things.  Riding a swimming horse was not on my bucket list, but it should have been, because it was fun... for me, but not for the horse.

Ultimately, though we had to pack up our halibut and fly home to catch up on our own chores at home. Over a month later, we have not caught up on our chores... but then I somehow doubt we ever will. We need a vacation.

Places to Stay in Homer, Alaska:
Katchemak Bay Cabin on Airbnb
Glacier View Cabin on Airbnb

Things to Do:
Trails End Horse Adventure --(907) 235-6393
Alaska Adventure 4-Wheeler Tour -- (907) 235-6393 (Read the signs. Don't touch the dog.)
Rainbow Tours -- (Ferry to Seldovia, wildlife tour, and halibut fishing.)
Grewynk Glacier Hiking Trails -- You'll need to book a water taxi round trip, so try Mako's Water Taxi.

Read Before You Go:
Cow Woman of Akutan by Joan Brown Dodd on Amazon