One of the ways we have always wanted to prepare our venison is as a sausage. This year Proeun found this great recipe.

Hot Venison Italian Sausage

2 pounds ground Venison
1 pound ground pork (we used all venison)
1/2 cup water
4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP black pepper
1 TBSP fennel seeds (we used anise)
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil

We added paprika for color, sugar and Sriracha pepper sauce (Asian staple). We also chopped carrots, onion, bell pepper and cilantro. We made approximately 35 pounds of sausage so I am not sure on the proportions.

We ground up the meat, chopped the veggies and added the seasoning.

Turns out sausage making is a long process, especially when you are using new equipment to get used to. Took us one whole evening to figure out how to use the grinder as a stuffer. We ended up calling customer service the next morning. Then it took us a while to figure out the best stuffing technique with natural casing so as not to burst the casing but get them even and full.

Finally after about 2 hours of experimenting, starting and stopping to deal with children we figured it out. Sunday night we were up until 11:30 stuffing and cleaning up. Another long night.

We had some seasoned meat left over for meatballs and tried them in our weekly spaghetti. They were fabulous! Just drain off any fat before adding the sauce.

We also went over to my parents and they made a wonderful dish of venison tenderloin sliced into medalions and dipped in dijon mustard and ground pecans and walnuts and pan fried–so amazing!. Add crusty bread some rice and pasta and you have a meal fit for a king.

Yesterday we finally had a break in the heat and I decided I couldn’t delay baking and preserving any more. We had some early tomatoes, not enough to give to customers but enough to do up a batch of tomato sauce. This is my all time favorite tomato sauce recipe but I should be clear, I don’t can this, I freeze it to make sure it is completely safe. Tomatoes are best canned without additives due to their acidity level though Animal Vegetable Miracle has a pretty great one that is safe to can. I did up 7 quarts of this last year but because I was using ground spices the end product was brown which the children didn’t really dig. I like it anyway and will probably do a few more this year.

Here’s the recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce

8 cups tomatoes coarsely chopped
1 cup onions
4 cloves garlic whole
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix together in shallow baking pan, and roast at 450 degrees for 35-40 minutes. As it cools mash with potato masher or fork and add 1/3 cup basil.

My goal is 12 freezer quarts of this sauce. Last year I only did 4 and it was such a treat eating it in winter. It tastes like summer! Actually this picture is from a winter dinner when I was really craving summer.

I also did up 4 quart bags (about 1 serving each) of pesto and baked some Good Brown Bread. It was a pretty sucessful day.

This is the week when things are really getting done (read preserved). My aunt had given me a couple shelving units which I finally set up. I organized and arranged my canning jars and realized I have plenty of quart and pint jars, but I do want to add some 1/2 pints to my collection more for gifts and the toiletries I am making.

Today on the preserving agenda is basil pesto. Though our basil plants are still not very big and sturdy yet we had to “top” them this week to encourage growth. Topping is pinching off the tops so that it will branch off in more directions. So I had a few leaves and made our first batch of basil pesto this morning. It is so easy.

Pesto Basil

1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup walnuts (toasted if you like)
1 bunch basil
Olive oil
Salt to taste

Put garlic cloves and walnuts in blender and grind to meal consistency. Pack in the basil and add a couple tablespoons olive oil. Turn on and drizzle more olive oil. Continue adding oil and packing (when you turn off the blender) until you have a thick paste consistency. Add salt last and stir.

I like to put this in quart size freezer bags and freeze flat for winter.

I still have more preserving to do and I realize I have to run to the store. I use a lot of oil olive oil and I am gathering herbs for my first herbal rememdy which i hope to use this winter–or not have to use. More on that later.

I had 3 little pints of blueberries left in the frig. I could freeze more or make jam, but I decided to bake. I love blueberry baked goods and I remembered a recipe from the The Country Life Vegetarian Cookbook. I couldn’t find a direct link at the website but if you are interested you could probably call. The book is literally stuffed with wholesome breakfast recipes. Normally I am not a breakfast person but with all these recipes I could eat breakfast all day, which I guess I am kind of doing since that’s what’s for dinner.

Mavis is getting to be quite the helper. Of course for her any addition to the recipe after honey was superfluous. At first she didn’t understand why I was adding the blueberries to the batter, then she decided to add more while my back was turned. Oh well I guess you can’t have too many blueberries.

Blueberry Buckle

3 cups oat flour (can make your own using rolled oats and blend)
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 cups warm water
2 TBSP honey
2 1/2 TBSP yeast
1/2 cup oil
1 TSBP Vanilla
1 cup honey
1 cup blueberries

Combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl and stir together.

In a small bowl mix together next 3 ingredients. Set aside for 10-15 minutes to bubble in draft-free area to make sponge.

While sponge is bubbling, beat together next 3 ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

When sponge has fully bubbled add liquid ingredients and blueberries to dry ingredients. Stir well together. Immediately pour into greased 9X13 inch baking pan and spread evenly. Do not let rise, but bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 25 minutes more the center will spring back when touched. When cake is slightly cooled top with blueberry topping and Streusel topping.

Blueberry topping

2 cups frozen blueberries
1/2 cup water with 1 TBSP honey
1/18 salt
1/2 cup apple juice concentrate
3 TBSP corn starch

Put first 3 ingredients in a saucepan and boil stirring frequently, until berries give off juice. Blend or whisk together cornstarch and apple concentrate. Add to boiling berries while stirring and cook until clear. Stir and cook 1 more minute.

Streusel topping

1 cup granola
1 cup coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla
 1 1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp anis

Blend first two ingredients on high 15-20 seconds until finely ground. Pour into a bowl and add remaining ingredients Mix together well with hands.

So so yummy and virtually guilt free. You can make it the night before for breakfast.

Last night I was up late canning. It was warm during the day so it was probably almost the best time, except not. Anyway I had 18 lbs of cherries to put by. Most I froze but then I decided I wanted to do something unique and interesting with them. So In addition to plain sugar free jam (which still tasted fabulous by the way) I made Danish Cherry Sauce from my Ball Blue Book of Preserving. I have a little left that didn’t fit in the jars so I will try that one of these days. I did try the sauce right after it was done and oh so yummy, though I do have to admit that with the cinnamon and almond it seems a little more of a cool weather treat. Here’s the recipe.

The zucchini is here. I don’t have much experience with this plant. A couple years ago I think we had a plant or two in our backyard garden but nothing like now where we must have close to 300 plants. The thing about zucchini is once they start producing they do it prolifically. We picked on Wednesday for our larger CSA account. We thought we picked everything available but today low and behold there were already close to 50 more ready to go.

This was the first week zucchini appeared in our CSA’s box as well and I think it will be a presence for many weeks to come. In the Doeun household our favorite way to eat them is sliced thick, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt then roasted at 400 degrees until just tender. I have eaten them at least once a day for 3-4 days now. So this afternoon Mavis and I tried something else,

Dell’s Zucchini Brownies from my favorite vegan cookbook– “The Best of Veggies.”

Here’s the recipe.

1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sucanat
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp cardamon or cinamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 cup carob chips
1 cup grated zucchini

Combine all ingredients. Add baking powder last (I didn’t see it on the ingredient list so I added 1 tsp) Pour batter into well oiled 9 x 9inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

The batter was really thick and I had to mix it with my hands and it definitely didn’t pour. I think it came out more like bread but with a nice flavor.

I have more creative zucchini recipes to share and I think I’ll have lots of zucchini to practice on. We did get that gopher on his way to another plant, now we just have to make sure there aren’t anymore with a taste for zucchini.

Here is the newsletter for this week with my favorite zucchini recipe “Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies.”

Yesterday was a great day. As I was waiting for customers to pick up all those boxes of yummy food I was getting very very hungry. My tastes differ a lot from the rest of my family so sometimes it is really hard to get motivated to whip up a really satisfying dinner for one. Though sometimes I have to admit the children really surprise me with what they decide they want to eat–like grapefruit but that is a different story.

Anyway I was hungry and had all this good food lying around so I decided, “Let’s do dinner.”

I find myself craving beans a lot and though red lentils are not officially beans they are in the legume family and when you haven’t planned ahead fit the bill for beans quite nicely. This is my favorite way to cook them, my own variation on an authentic mid-east recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. I paired it with mustard greens cooked using a basic greens recipe, fresh radish and raspberry and nettle leaf tea for beverage.

Armenian Red Lentils

1 cup red lentils
4 cups water.
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp tumeric
2 TBSP vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp anise seeds
4 cloves garlic chopped
squeeze of lemon

Cook the red lentils in the water. I sometimes adjust slightly to make it thicker depending on my mood. Last night was a thicker night.
After the beans are cooked add the salt and tumeric. Adding salt too early can make your beans hard.

Heat oil in a frying pan, add the bay leaves, mustard seeds, anise and garlic. Stir constantly until garlic is golden. Be careful the mustard may start popping and it really hurts if it lands on you. Add the flavored oil to the lentils and finish with a squeeze of lemon. Eat over rice. We tend to eat a lot of Jasmine rice (a favorite with Southeast Asians) but i love it over brown rice also.

Then I was in the mood for dessert so we had

Banana Bread! using a mix of white flour with the germ and whole wheat flour. For sweetening I used sucanat.

Sometimes a nice meal made from your own hands using quality healthful ingredients can be so satisfying.

A friend of mine was interested in the Pho recipe but being a vegan it was not a good fit for her. So here Katie is a Vegan Vietnamese noodle soup. I have made it fairly regularly before marrying a carnivore in denial. It is from The Volumptuous Vegan Cookbook one of my favorites for vegan recipes that are phenomenal and not something I could come up with on my own.

Vietnamese Noodle Soup

4 cups vegetable broth of Southeast Asian Stock (also from the cookbook)
1 jalapeno, sliced in thin rounds
1 lemongrass stalk, cut into 2-3 pieces and bruised
3 TBSP shoyu or soy sauce
1 TBSP Maple syrup
1 14 ounce can of unsweetened coconut milk
2 ounces rice noodles
3 TBSP creamy peanut butter
2 TBSP fresh lime (or lemon) juice
2 cups shredded napa cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced snow peas
1 cup mung bean sprouts
2 TBSP fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup cilantro leaves chopped
1/4 roasted peanuts crushed

1. Add the stock to a medium pot. Add the jalapeno, lemongrass, shoyu (or soy sauce), maple syrup, and coconut milk. Bring to boil over high heat, lower the heat and simmer, partially covered for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, place the noodles in heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water over them to cover and let soak for 10 minutes. Put up additional water to boil so that it is ready when your soup is.

3. Remove the lemongrass from the soup and discard. Place the peanut butter in a small bowl. Add 1/2 cup of hot soup to the peanut butter and whisk them together until the peanut butter is well dissolved. Add the peanut butter mixture to the soup along with the lime juice. Add a pinch of cayenne and sprinkle with salt to taste.

4. Drain noodles. Put the napa cabbage, snow peas, bean sprouts and noodles in a a strainer. Pour boiling water over just to heat them. If you are eating only a portion of the soup, pour boiling water only over the portion of vegetable you are going to eat.

5. Divide the vegetables and noodles among the soup bowls. Pour the hot soup over each portion.

Garnish with scallions, mint, cilantro and chopped peanuts. Serve with a wedge of lime.

OK I am really hungry now!