A Frenzy of Baby Spinach

My darling husband came home last week with four pounds of organic baby spinach. (That's FOUR of the large bins pictured above.) It's a bit of a long story as to how we came into all this spinach - but it feels like freekin' Christmas. We've kind of stayed away from the fresh salad greens this winter - salads have been mostly cabbage and carrot based rather than composed of delicate tender leaves imported from far away lands.

Using the spinach as an excuse to take a break from the 'locavore' ideal was clandestinely thrilling!
We ate Greek salad with lovely hothouse tomatoes and cucumbers and Kalamata olives. Strawberry salad with California berries and almonds from who knows where. And the lovely wilted salad with (homemade) pancetta and hard boiled eggs.

I also finally made a recipe of Spinach Brownies that I first discovered from my cousin Lorna. The main ingredients in this were a pound of cheese, a cup of flour, two eggs, and a bunch of spinach. So cheesy. (So much better than chocolate brownies!)

And of course, it is a lot of spinach to eat fresh, so these lovely spanikopita went straight into the freezer for some future party appetizer.

I can't wait for June, when we get nothing but greens in our CSA veggie boxes! Bring it on!

My Second Kick at the can - Ham Edition

As mentioned in the Bacon Edition earlier, things were a little easier this year.
The ham was brined for 3-4 weeks in our cold, cold basement, and then the ham was smoked for about 10 hours without catching fire! Everything went nicely and according to plan.

I found myself wondering how I should store the ham until Easter - about three weeks later. Iwas trying to figure out how I could vacuum wrap or somehow seal it before freezing it until I realized that I had CURED A HAM. No refrigeration necessary. So up in the basement it went again until it was time to eat it.

I boiled it in several changes of boiling water to reduce the saltiness. Then I removed the rind, stuck some cloves in the fat, smothered it in honey and baked it up.


Ham to be proud of. Easter dinner will never be the same again.

My Second Kick at the Can - Curing Bacon

They say that the third time's the charm - but my second try at bacon was so vastly improved over the first batch that I feel plenty charmed already. (For those of you interested in the miserable results of my first attempt at bacon, click here.)

The first and most important thing I learned from last year was not to brine the belly for so damn long! Last year I kept the bacon and pancetta in the salt mixture for about 5 days, which is what you'll need if you want to truly cure the meat to avoid refrigeration. However, these being modern times, I have a freezer and need not fear spoilage. So the bacon soaked up the salt for just under 24 hours this year.

The second thing I learned from last year was that I needed a better smoker with an off-set firebox so my meat can't start on fire! My little charcoal BBQ unit still provides a pretty amateur smoking situation, but it's easier to use than my old kettle smoker.

And the third thingI learned from last year - don't use yucky wood! Apparently Manitoba Maple is not a premium smoking wood. (Who knew?) A less acrid choice was a bag of little Hickory and Applewood chips that I bought in a bag at S.I.R. It wasn't 100-Mile smoke, but it actually resulted in enhancement of flavour rather than the detriment of flavour.

The bacon sat in the smoke (away from the heat this time!) for about two hours.

My result - lovely pink bacon. hampered only by the nasty hack-job that I performed on the skin removal.

Just enough sugar to have a slightly carmelized effect when cooked, without the overwhelming saltiness from last time.

Yay for modern packaging. Say no to oversalting.

PS - I made pancetta too. It was also good!