Dutch Style Red Cabbage

So sad. I am down to my last few items left over from this years farm share. Some parsnips, a few potatoes, and two red cabbages.

But on the up side, this was delicious! A great peasant meal. We ate it with baked sweet potatoes and some toothsome sourdough rye. I often end up thinking after meals like this "Wow, those peasants sure know how to eat!" It was a wonderfully satisfying combination for a snowy and bitterly cold (11 degrees...) day.

Dutch Style Red Cabbage from Nourishing Traditions

1 medium red cabbage, shredded
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp raw honey, or maple syrup for vegans
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of water
2 apples, peeled and quartered (I sliced them)
2 tbsp. butter, or coconut oil
1 tbsp. raw wine vinegar ( I used apple cider vinegar)
you could also add some raisins for extra sweetness if you'd like

Rinse the cabbage and place in a heavy pan. In a small pan mix the bay leaf, cloves, salt honey and cinnamon with the water and bring to a boil. Pour over the cabbage and cook gently about 20 minutes. Add the apple (and raisins if you want) and cook about 10 minutes. Remove cabbage with a slotted spoon to a warm serving dish and toss with the butter and vinegar.

Serve with simple food and marvel at the culinary prowess of those peasants.

Roasted Red Pepper Panzanella

A return to food! Oh how I've missed it. As it turns out, I like writing about food almost as much as eating it (living vicariously, nix the calories?). And last night I finally had it together enough early enough to try a recipe that I have been eyeing for a while now.

This salad came together pretty easily and quickly. I had roasted the peppers right after lunch and then let them sit until I was ready and that was perfect. Watching peppers roast is always one of those things that sounds so easy and effortless when I read about but it usually seems to takes longer than they say and I'm always afraid that if I turn by back they'll go from crisp and fresh to crisp and incinerated in seven seconds flat(not true). So if you feel you may have that tendency as well, I suggest the roasting happens early and leisurely.

4 large red or orange pepper
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1/2 small onion thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. fresh oregano and basil, chopped
1/2 loaf country style bread (I used my oatmeal molasses) torn into chunks
1 ounce thinly sliced soppressata
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces

Roasting the peppers:

Preheat the broiler. Rub the pepper all over with olive oil. Broil them until you've blacked the skin on four sides. You'll have to watch them and turn them a little more often as they warm up.
Transfer them to a large bowl and cover it with a plate. This will steam the peppers and loosen the skins for later. They can sit at room temp all afternoon, if need be.

When you're almost ready to eat:

Turn the over to 400 degrees.
Peel and seed the peppers. Cut them into 2 inch strips and toss them with onion, garlic, vinegar, half of your herbs, and about 4 tbsp. olive oil, in the same large bowl with some pepper juices left over.

Toss your bread chunks with a couple tbsp. olive oil and spread on a cookie sheet. Toast them for about 8 minutes, stirring them every now and them until they're crisped on the outside, but a little soft on the inside. Let them cool.

Now you can arrange everything on a platter. Toss the soppressata with your peppers and throw the cheese around haphazardly. If you like, you can out the croutons on first and pour all that pepper sauciness over them so that they absorb the flavor. Or you can arrange them amongst all the other ingredients to keep them crisp.

I served this with some pasta, soft boiled eggs, and sourdough.

Enjoy! If you tweek it your way let me know how it goes...

Pictures Of The Upstairs

After all this, I'm thinking my parents were really on the right track when they were considering living in yurts...

The houses we live in are so complicated! I really had no idea.

But the floors are down, the trim is on, and everything has been painted with at least one finished coat. Some of the trim in on it's second go around, and we hope to get the walls finished on Thursday.

We've had so much help from friends! Our friend Jonas spend two full days helping Tyson with the trim. That was huge! He had all the gear and the know-how and it was so so so much appreciated. And then we have our rogue band of painters. They just keep scheduling the next party as they're wrapping up the one they're on. They're all coming back Thursday after service and banging it out. And bringing food! What a wonderful organization! You know, aside from the essential spiritual food and all...

 

Letter From Life Down Here

Ridiculous I know, but I don't have any photos to share... for the moment. This month has been very discombobulated, but it is chug chug chugging along. The flooring has been finished upstairs, the trim is going on tomorrow, finish coat of paint Saturday and... we're done. Fire chief needs to sign off on the smoke detectors after everything is finished, so we wont be able to move anything in until next week, but that's ok. Sunday is usually a pretty tired day. I probably won't be feel like lugging a mattress and four dressers up two flights of steps anyways. Know what I mean?

Other than the house upstairs, it's been a pretty busy month down here, too. Our circuit overseer was here into November, we started the Kingdom News campaign, and Tyson and I are both pioneering. I feel like I've either been out in service, cooking for the helping workers, or in the grocery store shopping for cooking for the helping workers.

So yeah not a whole lot of creative anything going on. My sewing machine is surrounded by other exiled furniture in the basement, my kitchen has been churning out pretty standard group fare, and my sketch books haven't left the purse much. I am planning a little project of drawing different silhouettes of their choice on the kids roller shades in their bedrooms (it's looking like London wants airplanes, and surprise! Spencer wants cars). I'm thinking I'm probably just use sharpies but I'm open to other ideas...??

Hope you're all well. I'll have pictures of our painting party Saturday, maybe sooner.
Stay cool and keep warm,
Cass

Workers World

 

We have windows!



The lack of drafts was immediate. And with 20 degree nights lately that's been pretty welcome.

 
Tyson is still chipping away at the joint compound. With our circuit overseer's visit last week and both of us pioneering this month we've had pretty small snippets of time, but now that it's all insulated and window'ed it's not feeling as frantic.
 
^^See those two windows on the top?^^ That's Spencer's room!
 
This is our room. With windows! Pardon, I'm still pretty excited...
 
Some pictures of the farm...
 
 
 
 

Ground Control, Do You Copy...

I am still here! This is my new bedroom. Above is the front wall and below is the back/inside wall with John standing in the entrance hallway that goes between the kids rooms. The double window that you see is mirrored on the other side so the room has windows on three sides. It feels a little like being in a tower...

 We have been very busy. But the sheet-rock is being finished as I type! Thank you Uncle John(see above)!!!!! We've had so much help from Tyson's family that I've been able to pretty much keep live downstairs going in a normal way (other than everything being covered in drywall dust by 8:30am). Thursday London went to my in-laws so I got to help Tyson hang sheet-rock all day. It was good to feel like I'd put some actual sweat and effort into it other than just wildly dusting every evening and feeding the workers. Don't get me wrong, I love feeding people...

 On that note I thought I was going to have some beautiful pretzel bread bowls to share with you today, but alas, you can't believe every recipe that you find only. I'll have to try another one and let you know how it goes...

 The alcove shape is caused by the brick gable ends. We couldn't take them down because the garage and porch roofs anchor into them so we had them boxed out and then the wall extends full height just behind it. I'm really liking the texture that it adds to the spaces.

 Supervisor supervising

Last Chapter Of The Trip aka Home For Good

Well, I'm home for good. It was a long time to be away but it was so wonderful to catch up with some family. My Mom and Dad came up from Virginia with one of my sisters and my brother the last week I was in Pennsylvania. We talked, went for walks, visited Bethel, cooked, ate, painted, read books, etc. We made the most of our few days together. I always feel like I haven't enough to pictures to really tell the story but you can get the feel and imagine the rest.

 



 



Raise That Roof!

 Mixing mud for the chimney

Our bedroom (with a few missing pieces)

 

Wow. Eight days of working and this is where the house is!

We had an inspection of the framing and electrical yesterday and got a thumbs up. So next steps are insulation and drywall. And this is me: 'Can I paint then?' No, we need trim and a floor. 'And then I can paint??' I want to work! But it's been fun to see the progress.

I go back to PA on Monday so no guarantees on current photos for a little while but I promise some when I get back.

 

Talk to you then!

The Weekend

 The Barn ^^

 Mommom was at her assembly in Grantville Saturday and Sunday so we went exploring. We went to the silk mill in Hawley where they have set up some shops inside. The coolest part though is the coffee shop that they made in the old stone building where they used to hatch the caterpillars. It's called cocoon and I had some of the best coffee ever. Also an excellent croissant that London decided she could bring herself to share(it was that good).