Meatball Recipe

As some of you may know, I lived in the ECCO house, environmentally conscious and community oriented house, for my last two years of college. In the spring semester of 2012, Alex and Teddy decided to try out the Paleo diet. The boys bought a huge freezer. It was so huge that you could probably fit two humans in it! Then they bought 1/4 of a cow from Wheel-View Farm to eat for the semester. Since they were unable to finish the cow between the two of them, and Benner and I were the only two staying in the area for the summer, they gave us the rest of the beef.  WOHOO! Well, my new mission is to slowly work through this beef, mostly ground beef mind you, by the end of the summer. I've already cheated by giving some of it to other friends and co-workers, but yeah, it's still a ton of beef.

For this meatball recipe, you can really use any type of ground meat you want. When I'm home, I usually go through my parents freezer and take all the weird quantities of frozen meat (one pork chop here, a ground beef package there, etc), grind it up, and use that. This summer, we're have 100% beef meatballs because, well that's the meat we have!

These meatballs can be sauteed or baked: see directions below.





Ingredients:

2 pounds of ground beef (Wheel-View Farm)
3/4 wine (red or white, again use what you have open)
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
2 slices of thick, stale bread, ground up in a food processor
1/2 cup parsley, washed and chopped in a food processor (Dzen Farm)
3 large garlic cloves, chopped in a food processor
1 egg yolk (Casey Farm)
1/4 non fat milk (Organic Valley)
Salt and pepper to taste


Directions:

1) PREHEAT OVEN TO 380F.

2) Pour the wine over the beef and mix together. Let sit for 10 minutes.

3) In a separate bowl, mix together pecorino, bread, parsley, and garlic. This mixture should create two cups.

4) Add the cheese, bread, and herb mix to the beef. Add in the egg yolk, milk, a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Mix as little as possible. Stop mixing the second everything looks evenly dispersed.

5) TO BAKE: Grease a baking pan or cookie sheet with olive oil. Begin making small meatballs, about 1 inch in diameter. Place the meatballs on the baking sheet so that none of the meatballs are touching. Cook for 15 minutes. Cut one open to make sure it's not pink inside. If it's not pink, then it's done. When finished place them on a paper bag or paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

6) TO COOK WITH OIL: Heat 1 inch of cooking oil (light olive oil or vegetable oil) in a sautée pan. Put your hand over the pan (don't touch it, duh); if you can feel the heat, add the meatballs to the pan so that they are not touching. Cook for five minutes. Turn over each meatball so that it cooks evenly through. Cook for another three minutes. Cut one open and make sure there is no pink on the inside. When finished place them on a paper bag or paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

7) Serve with pasta and your favorite tomato sauce recipe. I'll upload my mom's one day.

Advice on sautéing vs. baking: When I first started making meatballs, I always cooked them in oil. I thought it would give the exterior a better looking texture. However, sautéing meatballs takes a long time because you usually have to do them in batches. If you are impatient like me, you can also make the mistake of trying to turn them over before they're ready, and then they can fall apart, which is a mess. They also are much oily-er, which you'll see on the paper bag.

This time I baked them and, honestly, they had the same flavor as when I sautéed them. Baking them also kept their structure in tact more. The meatballs were definitely less oily. While they didn't have as nice of "perfectly browned exterior", by the time they were covered in sauce, I did not notice the difference. It was also nice to walk away from them and get the pasta cooking/ do some dishes instead of constantly tending to the meatballs in the oil.

Winner: Bake

Italian Meatballs

Recipe Coming Soon!

Homemade meatballs using local meat from Wine Country and herbs!

Good luck on finals friends!

 I will post the recipe soon but if you can't wait check out Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food to see the recipe that inspired these!

Composting at Wheaton College

About the Program:

 In the Spring of 2011, Wheaton College started a small pilot- composting program for the on-campus student and faculty houses. Each house is given a food scraps container, biodegradable bags, and a lid. The households put the filled bags outside to be picked up weekly, just like a trash pick-up system. Students collect these bags and bring them to larger composting systems on campus. The waste is disposed of in the composting bins. The brand of our compost containers is the " New Age Composter". Wheaton College obtained these composters through a subsidized composting program sponsored by the Town of Norton's Board of Health. The soil will be used in the student -operated greenhouses; it will also be available for free for houses that participate in the program. Extra soil may be purchased at the college's farmer's market to fundraise for other sustainable activities on campus.

Want to Compost on Campus? Any person or household is welcome to join the composting program. All materials can be supplied gratis. It is also possible to deposit your own compost collection in the communal bins behind the Observatory and baseball field; however, please abide by the compost rules and do not dispose of any breads, cakes, meats, or dairy products here.

Below are downloadable and printable materials that provide more information about Wheaton's Composting Program and information about how to start your own backyard compost!

General Composting Brochure

Acceptable and Unacceptable Items for the Compost, illustrations by Rosemary Liss

Compost Recipe Flyer

Information on Massachusetts Subsidized Compost Container Program

Troubleshooting Composting Bin


To Access these files in a more pristine form, i.e. downloadable PDF instead of GoogleDocs, CLICK HERE

Schartner Farms

Asparagus Plant at Schartner Farms

EXETER, RI - Schartner Farms seems to be everywhere. At Farm Fresh’s Market Mobile warehouse, there are boxes upon boxes of produce from the farm going to dozens of local restaurants every week. It is also likely that you’ll see them at one of the 13 farmers’ market at which they sell. If  you drive up Route 2 in Exeter, the vast farmland will inevitably catch your eye and beckon for you to pull over and shop at the farm stand, which is always overflowing with a colorful bounty of produce, jams, and baked goods. 


Schartner Farms started in 1902. The first generation of Schartner’s came to the United States and began growing crops on two separate farms. The second generation moved to the farm’s current location of 150 acres and started a dairy farm. This generation also started an amusement park called “Schartner’s Kiddyland” but, in the long run, it was not as successful as the farm. Schartner Farms then began growing a ton of potatoes, which they sold to Lays® for potato chips. In 1972, Schartner Farms opened a small farm stand on location. Today, if you look closely, you can still see the perimeter of this foundation within their current, larger farm stand.


The farm is now run by third Schartner generation, Rich. He grew up on the farm with his two brothers and four other male cousins. The seven boys worked on the farm, and after college, Rich bought the farm from his father. The farm is busier than ever! There are nine full time employees and up to 100 seasonal employees. The farm has also expanded to include a plant nursery, bakery and gift shop. When I visited, the farm stand was bustling with customers and in back, everyone was working together, laughing and chatting.


You really get the sense that this is a family run farm. In the course of twenty minutes, I was meeting aunts, uncles, grandparents and children. Everyone was helping out and keeping an eye out for each other. It seems that people genuinely enjoy working here and want to be here. Everyone is also very gracious and interested in the work. When someone finished fixing a refrigerator, Rich was so pleased that he immediately put together a veggie box for them. When I asked Rich about any new upcoming projects, he immediately pulled out his cell phone to show me pictures of flourishing crops, new logo ideas, and other enticing photos. As we spoke, tons of food kept being passed around and offered to me. Even though I had just met the Schartner Farms’ crew, I felt completely welcomed by the entire group and they treated me as if I was an old friend passing through.



After learning about their new Belgium endive production, Grandpa’s pickles and Grammy’s jam, Lindsay took me out to see the actual farm. Lindsay is not a Schartner, but she has been watching Rich’s kids for years, works on the farm, and at many markets. It was 103° with a scalding sun and a weak, intermittent breeze to pick vegetables. Lindsay and I walked between the rows of healthy vegetables. We peered under leaves with curiosity and when something could be picked, we took turns cutting the vegetables away from the plant, got back in the truck and continued on down the road surrounded by rows and rows of food. We walked through the rows of various peppers, both spicy and sweet, tomatoes, eggplants, and then found our way to the pond. 






The pond is the farms’ reservoir for watering all of the crops. But, it’s more special than that. Lindsay says that they also have big parties out there with a speaker system, strings of lights, and a huge indoor/outdoor kitchen that any cook would have died to cook in. 


When we got back near the farm stand, we took a detour into the greenhouse, just about 120°+ in there, and I stood in awe at the rows hanging tomato plants and hundreds of seed trays. In the greenhouse, they grow a lot of seedlings and plants for the nursery.

Massive Greenhouses that reach back further than you'd think

Hanging Tomatoes

There is a lot of food on this farm. Rich thinks they sell about 200 bags of carrots at the Hope Street Winter Market per day. They produce 140,000 pounds of potatoes, 16,000 pounds of greenhouse tomatoes, 10 acres of field tomatoes, 60,000 pounds of carrots, and 435,000 pounds of corn annually. Between the farm stand, Market Mobile, and the farmers markets, they certainly have a lot of people to feed. Any extra food goes to food pantries or is processed in preserves or frozen.



A new project they have been working on is growing wheat and rye, a rare crop in these parts. They began growing wheat two years ago. Kenyon’s Grist Mill, down the road, grinds the grains for them, and Seven Stars Bakery bought a year’s worth of rye supply for their famous Rhode Island Rye bread. In 2011, they used their Winter White Wheat to make chocolate chip cookies for the Local Food Fest. 


When talking with Rich and Lindsay, both of them seemed so genuinely happy to be working on the farm. Rich’s favorite part is planting seeds between February and April and seeing them turn into plants and start producing food. He loves the idea of growing an everyday necessity out of nothing. Lindsay also loves working on the farm, but her favorite part is working at the markets, building relationships with customers and talking with them about where their food comes from. Now that I’ve told you all about this magical farm, you will start to notice them everywhere: on every menu and at every farmers’ market. Strike up a conversation with Lindsay at the market or take the twenty minute drive down from Providence to the farm stand. A visit to the farmstand is certainly necessary— or how else will you get your hands on Grammy’s Jam, mouth watering homemade pies and yummy cookies?

Oven Fried Chicken

One of my favorite feminist gossip websites Jezebel, keeps posting a photo of Rick Santorum eating fried chicken. My political beliefs aside, this photo has become a substantial problem in my life because it makes me crave fried chicken. I check this website several times a day, and every time I see this photo I crave fried chicken! It is inconvenient. Granted, I did not even have my first glorious bite of fried chicken until two years ago at Hodak's, a famous fried chicken restaurant in St. Louis, MO, and I never have really craved it until this picture, but ghad, I really want fried chicken all the time now. Seriously though, morning, day, and night. Good thing I know how to cook!

Photo from Jezebel.com

Rick Santorum Inspired Fried Chicken:

 

This recipe isn't quite exact, I will update it over time, but hopefully it is enough instruction to give you the gist.

Cooking Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1- 5 pound chicken, skin on and quartered

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

2-3 cups butter milk

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon chili pepper, divided

1/2 teaspoon paprika

2-3 cups flour

1+1/2 cups corn flakes, crushed up

1/2-3/4 cup bread crumbs, italian or whatever

olive oil

black pepper to taste

Directions:

1) In a medium bowl mix buttermilk, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon chili and pepper together. Add quartered pieces of chicken to mix, preferably submerged, and let sit for 10 - 30 minutes at room temperature.

2) Preheat the oven to 450º F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Oil the foil with light olive oil.

3. In a shallow bowl or large/ medium piece of Tuperwear, mix together flour, 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of salt, a few black pepper shakes, 3/4 teaspoon of red peper flakes, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of chili pepper.  

4) DO NOT POUR OUT THE BUTTER MILK!  Roll each piece of chicken in the flour mixture. Press the mix firmly into the chicken making sure every bit is covered well. Let sit for ten minute.

5) Thoroughly crush up corn flakes and add to remaining flour mix. Add bread crumbs too. Mix well.

6) Using a cooking brush, dab each piece of chicken with remaining buttermilk mixture and re-roll the chicken in the flour mixture. Try to get the corn flake mix on it. Brush more with buttermilk if the chicken is not wet enough to have more mix stick to it.

7) Put chicken on a baking sheet with the pieces not touching.

8) Cook for 25 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet at halftime (12.5 minutes). After 25 minutes, flip each piece of chicken over and cook for another 20 minutes, again turning the cookie sheet at halftime. Chicken should be a dark golden brown and at least 165ºF. (aka cook for at least 45 minutes)

9) Enjoy with steamed green beans, mashed potatoes, and your fingers!

ps: Just because this chicken inspired by him is delicious, this is by no means an endorsement of Rick Santorum... he makes my insides hurt from head to toe.

New York Times: "I Was a Cookbook Ghost Writer"

"I was a Cookbook Ghost Writer" is is a wee bit of a dark, but it is certainly a good read. Julia Moskin recounts her career as a ghost writer for cookbooks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/dining/i-was-a-cookbook-ghostwriter.html

I find this article interesting because I have noticed an exorbitant amount of new cookbooks on shelves these days. I know food is "in" right now-- if a necessity of life can ever be a trend. The article touches upon how "chefs", such as Rachel Ray, have published thousands of recipes. But at what cost? I have been wondering how these busybodies have had time to produce these books and perfect so many recipes.

 It turns out that very few chefs write or test their own recipes. Someone else is hired to do it and receives minimal credit for doing majority of the work! On top of that, many of these recipes lack the attention to detail, accurate measurements, or specific directions that classic cookbooks have, such as Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food or Irma Rombauer's Marion Romauer Becker's, and Ethan Becker's The Joy of Cooking. Just yesterday my former teacher Greg and I were discussing how unreliable recipes in various cookbooks can be. We noted how often they require adjustments in ratios and flavor. He even noted that in one well- reviewed cookbook, a recipe did not include basic ingredients like salt! Reliable and well-tested recipes are depreciating in value.

I think this loss of value is an utter shame and a greater reflection of the general population's dying relationship with food. In an odd combination of new behaviors such as a demand for immediate gratification, a constant flow of new products, and less value placed on quality, our instructive tools for cooking are becoming a mimesis of many American's relationship to food. Our cookbooks are becoming equally poor in quality and detached from their original sources just as much as our food quality has decreased and our removal of knowledge about a food item's origin or production process has increased.

Am I getting too worked up over this? All I know is that after working for a food magazine and trying to test chefs recipes as well as my own, I can tell you that it is a ton of work. It is hard and requires multiple testing.  In fact, there are books on how to test recipes and how to write cookbooks! It is an art for the patient and obsessive.  I remember testing this roasted purple cauliflower recipe over and over again this summer in 90 degree weather in my third story apartment with a poorly insulated oven and without AC. Then, I had to call up all my friends and family and ask to test the recipe and their ovens and using their baking trays! Do you know how much cauliflower a person can eat in one week? (Not that much). Hopefully Moskin's article enlightens the public that ghost writing is not just a weird -lack of credit- process only happening in the world of super celebrities. Let's give the ghosts some more credit!

Purple cauliflower from Rhode Island Nurseries--noms

Second Rise

Hello!

Somewhere in the midst of: studying abroad in Scotland, founding a compost program, becoming president of the Environmentally Conscious & Community Oriented House, getting a kitten, being president of Greenhouse Club, interning for edible Rhody, interning again for Farm Fresh of Rhode Island, and becoming an Italian citizen, I neglected this blog and I apologize.

I want to bring back The Wheaton Tomato and continue to do what it was created for: informing the public about local food and providing recipes that complement locally sourced food. Since I am not working for FFRI anymore, a.k.a it's not the summer, I will introduce some new features to the blog.

Ideas:
-Post and provide links to new and relevant websites, such as sites for jobs, other cool blogs, recipes, news articles, etc.
-More recipes and pictures!
-Maybe change the name of the Blog so that the title still makes sense when I graduate in 70 days!*
-Gardening: photos from the greenhouse, advice, problem solving
-Compost information
-Farm posts from Summer 2011
-Photos of the kitten, Koa, "making" food


*I am thinking about calling it "Jelly" for my middle school nick name, or Gelly, but I had enough trouble getting people to spell it with a "g" then and I don't have the patience to correct people now. Maybe JAM-- the sibling acronym-- did you know a bacteria was named after us? SFMA: the shorthands for the two most influential locations in my life. We shall see what is available and memorable.

My aim is to produce a more casual blog that is equal in quality to the old days.

Until then, here is a photo of Koa writing a philosophy paper. I promise this will not turn into a cat blog.