Goats Get a Job

Just another reason why goats rule -
listen to this podcast about how to clear out unwanted brush - the natural way!

http://fyi.uwex.edu/news/2011/09/16/goats-for-brush-control/

Beetomania

"The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip... 

The beet is the murderer returned to the scene of the crime. The beet is what happens when the cherry finishes with the carrot. The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fossilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies. 



The beet was Rasputin's favorite vegetable. You could see it in his eyes."      - Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume


That said, beets are not only a miraculous dinosaur of the garden, but amazingly good for you - rich in everything, if a vegetable is bright it means it is good for you. The natural nearly florescent nature of the beet makes it wonderful for you. 


I'm always looking for a new way to cook beets, but I seem to have my same-old favorites. Either time-tested (pickled over many winters' moons) or freshly roasted on a September day. 


Here's my fresh, late summertime favorite:


Ingredients: 


A bunch of beets
Garlic
Olive Oil
Fresh thyme
Sea Salt
Goat cheese
Dijon mustard 
Red wine vinegar


Clean beets, if needed, scrub them. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. Place in an aluminum-foiled lined baking dish and cover with more foil. Bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until you can roughly pierce a fork through them. 


Once done, let rest for 20 minutes, then rinse and peel skins. Chop up in either slices or small pieces (depending if your crowd is beet friendly...they need a slow introduction sometimes).  Make a vinaigrette  with the mustard, olive oil, red wine vinegar and garlic. Drizzle beets with mixture, add plenty of fresh thyme and sea salt and top with goat cheese. Dish can be served cold or warm (newbies seem to like warm beets opposed to cold beets). Enjoy this farm fresh bloody, fossiled gem from the garden! 


Do you have favorite beet recipes to share? Please do! We all need our intake of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. Help our hearts and other muscles with beets!

Penne with Cognac

Who doesn't love bacon? Just admit it.

This recipe belongs to wine visionary Tony Terlato  - a true food lover, this is one of his favorite eccentric pastas - the secret touch is the bacon of course!













Penne with Cognac

4  slices thick-cut hardwood smoked bacon, diagonally sliced, divided
3  tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1  medium onion, chopped
Pinch of red pepper
Bay leaf
1/2  cup good-quality Cognac
1 pound penne pasta
Hot sauce, to taste
1 cup aged white Cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup heavy cream or half-and-half (room temperature)

In a large sauté pan, sauté remaining bacon with onion for about four minutes (do not burn onion). Add pinch of red pepper. Remove stems and core of tomatoes; quarter and add to pan. Sea- son with salt, pepper and the bay leaf. Cook over medium heat, stirring from time to time, for about 25 minutes.

When sauce is cooked, remove the bay leaf and pass through a food mill. Add the Cognac, return to the sauté pan and bring to a simmer.

In a pasta pot, cook the penne pasta according to directions on the box, drain and return to the pot. Pour the sauce over the pasta in the pot. Add the hot sauce and half the Cheddar cheese, and toss until well mixed. Add the cream and toss again. The sauce should not drown the pasta.

Serve in pasta bowls dusting with the remaining Cheddar cheese and garnished with bacon.
Serves 8

Suggested wine: Olvena “Cuatro 4,”  or Chimney Rock Elevage

Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

One of my favorite summertime appetizers, this simple recipe warms up appetites and the grill. Simply start with 2 ingredients, embellish as wanted.

Ingredients:
Jalapenos
Cream Cheese
Optional:
Garlic pepper spice
Bacon (because everything is better wrapped in bacon).

Cut jalapenos in half lengthwise, de-seed, and soak in water for 10 minutes to lessen the heat if desired. Fill with cream cheese and fixins', grill for 10 minutes on medium heat until the sides are charred a bit - this will also lessen the spice heat of the jalapenos.

And there you have, a beautiful start to your grilling night.

Wine/Beer Pairing:
A cold beer of your choice.

#1 Herb Drying Tip

Bushels of basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and bee balm stand tall in my garden. A little tip: When drying herbs to save for winter months, it is best to pick early (cut quite a bit) rather than later in the season. The reason why is the herbs have a more potent flavor right now, that will enrich your dried herbs.
Other Steps for Drying:
- Dry in a airy place (the standard, Italian-themed kitchen sink works perfectly).
- Tie a piece of twine or string, let hang for roughly a week, or until dry. 
- When dry, place in jars, date and save for winter.

It can be a lengthy process, harvesting, rinsing, drying and crushing - but sprinkling homegrown, organic thyme on your wintertime dishes is like a touch of sun in the middle of winter. 

Also, my new favorite herb this year: pineapple sage - not sure what to cook it with but it smells amazing. Perhaps pineapple sage smudge sticks?

When Life Gives You Lemons...Make Limoncello

I'm entertaining the idea of entertaining for an all-out garden-esque dinner party later this summer when Wisconsin's fruits and ripe and ready to devour. In prep for the picnic table party, I decided to make my own twist on an after-dinner drink: Limoncello.

Limoncello is commonly served in Italy as a digestive (deee-gesteeve they would say). I fell in love with the citrus concoction while studying there. Turns out - quite simple to make.

What you need:
Lemons
Sugar
High Proof Alcohol (Everclear is best, Vodka will do)
Jars with lids
Twine

I made my batch with Vodka, but realized that Everclear would be better because the high alcohol content soaks up more flavor. The cool-looking way to make this stuff is: use 1.5 lemons per jar. First, grate 1/2 of lemon peel and mix with the alcohol. Then, develop a contraption to hang another quartered lemon above alcohol, then sealing the lid (twine). Do not let the lemon touch the alcohol - just dangle above. Let sit on counter, wait a month for science to work its wonders!

Updates coming...in a month.

Cheers,
Holly

Old Time Farmer Advice

* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
* Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.
* Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
* A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
* Words that soak into your ears are whispered. ..not yelled.
* Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.
* Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads

* Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
* You cannot unsay a cruel word.
* Every path has a few puddles.
* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
* The best sermons are lived, not preached.
* Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway.
* Don't judge folks by their relatives.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.
* Don't interfere with s omethin' that ain't botherin' you none.
* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
* Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
* The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'
* Always drink upstream from the herd.
* Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
* Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
* Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Welcome - the Story of Pinot the Goat

Welcome to hollandgoats.com  - not just another food blog. This is the story of a pet goat, quality cooking and wine pairing, self-reliance, DIY projects such as soapmaking, old-time wisdom and learning about the art of the process of life. And I happen to love blue-eyed soul music. 

Pinot was an accident pet, I”ll admit. You don’t really plan to get a goat, especially if you’re at a transitional living situation with your parents in their lakeside retirement community condo building.

I woke up on a Saturday morning to the question, “do you want a baby goat?” Well, my infatuation with goats already had its seeds watered by watching the other goats at his hobby farm. They seemed like mystical creatures who always smiled. Somewhat dazed, I said, “Sure.” Thinking “Jim’s getting a baby goat, and I’ll help take care of it.” 

Later, about 20 minutes later on the drive, the truth was shared. “I’m getting five goats to raise and eat, you can keep one.” Talk about Sophie’s choice...my heart sunk, how would I choose? Even harder, now it was starting to sound like I had to be sole owner of this goat. Already roped into visiting the cute sanctuary of the goat farm, I was hooked. There was no turning back. 

We arrived at the farm at the exact same moment as the farmer, our trucks meeting in a perfect T. It was one of those moments so perfectly calculated it was nearly unreal. No words were spoken, car doors opened and slammed shut, a farmer walked straight to me and promptly handed me a tiny black goat. My choice was made. This precious little creature would hours later become to be known as “Pinot”. 

We ended up taking five goats home, and of course I fell in love with all of them, which created a problem for the coming months when Jim would joke about cooking them. Finally, Jim’s heart caved in, and he let me find other homes for all the baby goats. Since I had bottle fed and loved each one of them so much, they loved humans so they were perfect pets. I would have kept them myself, but again, the housing situation. I kept Pinot, and his misfit brother, Mohawk “Mo”.

Mo was referred to as the “lucky one” by the original farmer, as he was a difficult birth - his leg wrapped around his head. They almost killed him on the spot, but randomly he called a vet to help (pretty much unheard of in the goat dairy farming world...animals are livestock, not living things, but this was a newbie farmer with a heart.) So Mo stayed as Pinot’s best friend. Over time, we realized something was not quite right about him. He had dark circles around his eyes, he was always eating, he loved to lay and sleep in weird places -- food bin, wheelbarrow, anywhere. He looked like he was permanelty stoned. So, we loved our little no-nuisance Mo. He was chill, compared to Pinot. Since I had babied Pinot -- truly I gave Pinot his own milk bottle while the others had to suck off the bucket -- Pinot became a bit needy, crying all the time, now, still, whenever he sees me he cries until I let him out or play with him. But I still love him. But, Mo was the cool, chillaxed stoned brother.

Sadly, Mo’s lazy, food-friendly nature became his demise. On the first day of a snowfall, our little Mo was eating, as usual, from a barrel of hay, when because of the water weight of the snow, the barrel fell over and crushed him. We found him hours later. Our little stoner goat was not meant to survive a winter, he would have been a better beach bum goat. 

Rumors floated around the barn that it was a goat murder, that Pinot was jumping on the barrel when the tragedy struck. Nobody knows, but we still have sad holes in our hearts from where Mo was. I had even made Mo business cards, we were going to let him go mow lawns. He would have really loved what he did, it wouldn’t have been work at all.

So, today, Pinot is a little over one year old. He’s playful, energetic, cute as can be. He’s still growing, so I’m not sure most of the time what I’ve gotten myself into. But by spending time with him, in the garden and at the farm, I’ve learned some of those self-reliance things. 

I work as a writer, photographer and marketing coordinator for a wine company, so I spend most of time figuring out how to do things faster, with quality. I multitask like it’s a sport, getting excited when I learn a new keyboard command. Cooking, raising vegetables and watching the seasons of Pinot’s life and farm things, give me moments to take it reaaaal slow, the way things were done before. It’s back to process art. It’s the process of life art. And it's also the kind of stuff that's good to know given who knows where the world will lead us, I want to be as self-sufficient as possible.

So, let Pinot and I share what’s in store, what’s on the table, what’s the wine pairing of the seasons. Our tastes may differ, as he’s pretty much strict vegan who will always choose brussel sprouts over tomatoes, so most of the time I’ll share my favorite bounties from the garden, recipes, wine pairings, anecdotes, old-time wisdom and processes that really don’t make you any money or save you money -- but give you something through the process. And I will answer the question, "can you make a goat a pet?" and then, you'll all want to adopt the motherless male goats out there as your new best friends.