Spicy Black Bean Cakes

My seedlings 1 month later

About five years ago I made a commitment that the animal

products I eat be local, organic and pasture raised

 by farmers I know and trust 

Financially for me, this means that I can't afford to 

make meat my main entree every day

This is good

It opens me up to the wonderful world of 

grains, legumes and vegetables

and keeps me curious how to produce 

a tasty meal that is still

balanced with complete proteins and healthy carbs etc.

At my first cafe -The Production Line- in Cincinnati

I used to make black bean cakes and top them 

with salsa and sour cream

I was certain that I had put the recipe in my first cookbook

but just couldn't find it, so I made these up instead

and decided to add some roasted sweet potato to the mix, since I am

in love with them combined with black beans

 This recipe will make about 14 cakes, because I am all about

freezing some for later, so if you want to divide it in half

and maybe have some left for lunch the next day, feel free

Black Bean Cakes:

2 cups dried black beans cooked in salted water until tender-

let the beans cool in the cooking water and then drain

4 small sweet potatoes, roasted in a 400 degree oven until tender, 

scoop out the yummy flesh and set aside

4-5 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro - use the stems it's where the flavor is

3/4 cup almond meal -almonds processed until fine crumbs in a food processor-

up to a teaspoon of aleppo or cayenne pepper - you make the call how spicy you like things-

1 T dried oregano or 3 T chopped fresh

1 tsp onion powder

1 T cumin

2 T arrowroot or cornstarch to help hold them together

Juice of a lemon

1/2 cup diced roasted poblano peppers, or red pepper if you don't have any or none at all!

1/2 cup or more chopped fresh chives

Place everything except the roasted poblanos and chives in the bowl of a food processor

and process until nicely blended and fairly smooth

you may have to do this in two batches depending on the size of your processor

Scoop the bean mix into a bowl and fold in the peppers and chives and

taste for seasoning, adding more whatever,

I also added a few shakes of Ume vinegar at this point as well

Form into burger size patties and place in fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes

I made two salads to go with my bean cakes

a simple salsa with fresh tomatoes tossed with garlic, cilantro, diced onion,

salt, sherry vinegar and a bit of olive oil

and a kale salad where I julienned kale -tough stems removed- and

tossed it with equal parts of lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper

It is best if you let both of these stand at room temp for at least 30 minutes

for the flavors to meld and the kale to "cook" in the lemon juice a bit

I pan fried the cakes in coconut oil in a non stick pan until they were nice

and brown on both sides

I served them on top of the kale salad with the tomato salsa,

some sliced avocado and I used Greek style yogurt, but sour cream would be lovely too

Enjoy! And have a wonderful weekend

Kyra

Random Thoughts

My first thought of the day today was that there is

just NOTHING like a good hair cut

It is SO much easier to put that self doubt aside

when your hair is just swinging!!

I have had the pleasure of two great hair designers 

over my 15+ years in Maine

Starting with Missy in Bangor and now

with Shaina at the Alchemist in Ellsworth

Thank you, thank you , thank you

I scored this awesome quilt at an auction on Sunday

It is all hand stitched and the printed hexagons are definitely 

from old grain/feed bags 

Thankfully I was surrounded at the auction by guys looking for doors and tractors

  Now I don't have to take that hexagon class - HA!

I LOVE having TIME to spend in my home kitchen

with my cats and my weird thoughts and crazy food ideas

Someone asked me, very kindly, the other day if I was getting bored.

I think excited is more accurate

I am 5 months today, into this year of pause, and

really just able to let go about a month ago.

 I am having a blast!  Plus, I really feel like I am

repairing, and I am SO filled with gratitude 

I love being able to throw myself whole hog into my projects

and I've kept events happening about once a month - 

so I still have my feet in the mix

Speaking about projects I have been developing a new

twist on my granola.  It is gluten free and 

full of goodness and it tastes awesome!

Making a batch today, I pulled out my Mom's old nut chopper

I don't think I've used it since making Christmas cookies as

a young girl in her kitchen.  Crazy how things instantly

transport you somewhere - it was a nice trip -

One last random craziness for today is my favorite shovel

It is little, like a really tall person could wear it as a necklace.

Carol Collins, who used to garden for me long, ago had one

and she said it was her favorite tool

Not being shy I found one at a yard sale for $2.00 and decided

to give it a try.

Awesome!  Weeds, transplants, holes, shoving, shucking you name it

be on the look out during tag sale season

Enjoy~

Kyra

Room to Grow

My existing lower garden is wonderful for lettuce and peas and

greens, items that will tolerate partial shade, but I  can't grow the 

sun lovers down there.

  I learned this after my first year

of 15 rotten tomato vines and sogged out onions

So, last Spring I took out all the flowers in the beds on the back side of Lily's

so that I would have some seriously sunny space to play 

By Fall I knew I wanted to create some more beds and really 

see if I can grow some of the food that I both eat and serve

I just love the idea of making you a salad from greens out of the

back 40 with no GMO's in sight! 

But, the only other open sunny space available is on my leach field

When I was informed that raised beds would be fine, and

the fence had to be free standing so nothing was puncturing the surface

I set to work

After watching a few YouTube videos I decided the easiest thing

was to order 8' lengths of 2 x 10 boards and 

screw them together into boxes - no saw cutting etc.

I did this myself with the help of Renee's awesome screw gun

and these honking screws she likes to use

Totally not wanting to have grass coming up inside, I covered

the bottoms with three layers of this organic weed guard paper to smother

the situation

Excavator Timmy came with a truck load of loam 

and filled the boxes for me with his back hoe

I then added some composts and turned it all in

TA DA!

Now for the tricky part, the free standing fence -

Enter my very talented partner Renee

After limbing up all the spruce trees around the property

we used the trunks as supportive archways to hold the fence in place

They are attached to the fence and the raised beds

Again, not wanting anything to do with grass, I lined the paths

with more weed guard and spread a 9" layer of straw all the 

way around.  I also have some straw left over to use as

mulch on the beds, a la Ruth Stout

Come on in,

 I realize that it is my version of that peaceful

barn with the goats that I talked about

No animals (I hope),

 but hopefully those healthy seedlings inside will be very happy here

Enjoy these days!

Kyra

Sweet Saturday

This is one of my MOST favorite things

I've washed all my bedding and hung it to dry out on the line

in the spring sunshine and Winnie the Pooh wind

It is all put back together and ready to jump into 

 How simply sweet life can be 

Enjoy,

Kyra

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Flageolet Beans and Sautéed Mushrooms

Yum!  

Sometimes called Sunchokes

I can't believe I dug these from around my compost pile

A cross between an artichoke heart and a potato

a bit earthy, but nutty and sweet

I wanted a thick creamy soup, without the cream

 French flageolet beans to the rescue, a creamy delicate white bean

To compliment the earthiness I decided 

to add some sautéed mushrooms on top,

toasted pumpkin seeds, wintered over parsley and a drizzle of nice oil

I've got soup for today, tomorrow and the freezer!

Soup:

 4 lbs. jerusalem artichokes (because that is what I had)

washed and cut into thick slices

6 large shallots, peeled and sliced

4 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half

4 stalks of celery, chopped

Sunflower oil

Kosher salt

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

3 cups water

1 1/2 cups flageolet beans - any creamy white bean will do-

1/2 cup white wine if you have it around

Heat 2 T of oil in soup pot, add shallot, celery and garlic,

season with a bit of salt and sauté until beginning to soften

Stir in sunchokes and beans to coat with oil

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SOAK BEANS BEFORE YOU COOK THEM!!

The older they are the longer they take, but soaking them only takes about

15 minutes cooking time off.  Ask the master researcher and cook book author Brook Dojny

or Jaques Pepin if you don't believe me

Add Stock and water and season with salt - I used a few teaspoons to start

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a mild simmer and cook, partially covered,

until the beans (along with everything else) are very tender

about 1 1/2 hours

stir occasionally

After about an hour add your wine if you are using, and taste for salt to see

if you need a bit more 

Just in case you thought you were the only one who doesn't plan ahead

I thought you would appreciate my frozen chicken stock - it does melt down

in no time at all :-)

While the soup is cooking, toast about 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds, dry, in 

a skillet until golden brown

Slice your mushrooms nice and thick and sauté them in a bit of 

olive oil and sea salt until caramelized and tender

Chop some fresh parsley

When the beans are done, puree the whole pot until smooth and creamy

Adjusting the salt and adding some fresh ground black pepper

Serve hot with mushrooms and seeds on top with a sprinkle

of parsley and a drizzle of your best olive oil (or toasted pumpkin seed oil if you have it)

I also gave it a pinch of Maldon's Sea Salt on top

Enjoy!

And have a great weekend

Kyra

Fear No More

After 15 years I finally have a chance to become intimate

with my yard at Lily's

Someone has always cut the grass,

 who the hell had time to do that,

 and even though I would

plant all the plants, someone else weeded them

and my lovely employees would trudge to the compost 

pile once or twice a day for years,

creating these heaping mounds of whatnot 

that quite frankly I was petrified of

Well - FEAR NO MORE  I say

I've cut the lawn twice, giving me this wonderful

sense of understanding about the lines of the

small acreage and how it settles in to grow every year

and yesterday - while Renee worked on fencing in 

my big garden project this spring - more on that soon to come-

I conquered my fear and tackled the compost

I think the problem for me was that the system that

everyone tells you to set up just doesn't work with

the way I am

Little contained boxes, that I couldn't even begin to understand

how to turn, let alone what to do when one got full etc. etc.

I ripped all that out and decided to continue on my journey

of just not being like everyone else

I spread the piles out, got rid of the grass that was growing all around it,

There was no smell, no bugs, and most of the 70 thousand egg

shells we have tossed in there over the years have broken down

I found jerusalem artichokes abounding, (now I know what

that lovely tall small sunflower was every year coming out of

the compost area) and tossed the bejesus out of the 

older piles that actually are starting to look like some good stuff

ahhh, I'm pretty pleased with myself

Now I have two piles close to being done and then

a huge section reserved for new stuff that I can actually

get to and continue tossing about once in a while

and my lettuce seeds have sprouted! 

I think I'll mulch in between the rows with some of my 

"black gold"

Get out there kids! Have some fun!

Kyra

Okay to be on a Road to nowhere?

Yes, I should be in Chicago now, sorting my way thru

thousands of booths lined with the newest and coolest

in design ideas,

planning my outfit for dinner at the newest dinner hot spot

The Girl and the Goat with friends later tonight

In fact, was it just yesterday at this time that I was

joking with those friends, who, didn't have a direct flight

from Portland as I did, and were stuck in Buffalo for 12 hours?

Yes, that was me

Strapped in and ready to take off last night at 5:30, the

nice little Steward's hand set wouldn't work, so, following

regulations, we all trudged off the plane so they could fix it

An hour later, all strapped in again and

 able to hear the safety spiel just fine...,

my denying little brain registered it as a joke

when the steward started saying in a choked panicked voice
ON HIS NEWLY FIXED HAND SET

"exit the plane as fast as you can, do not take

your bag, just exit the plane quickly"

It wasn't until my seat neighbor started imploring that

no one panic and I smelled fire that I realized they were serious

I grabbed my bag - sorry- my Mother taught me

to never leave your purse anywhere-

and filed off

SO grateful that the plane hadn't taken off yet,

overcome with emotion at how well we all did 

as fellow human beings together - 

no one pushed 

and everyone was so KIND to one another, 

and giving my friends in Buffalo reasons to cheer in their airport bar because

my circumstance was now worse than theirs,

I felt pretty fortunate

I can't say I am not supremely disappointed,

 but I have to admit

that I had this incredible change in personality experience

In my matter of fact, get everything done, restaurant personna, I would have

bellied up to the reservation desk, been first to get rebooked etc etc

but last night I decided to just ALLOW 

Allow the grace of the universe if you will

allow myself to be guided by circumstances instead of guiding them

I observed, waited, and made a decision on my continuing travel based

on what was available by the time it was my turn at the desk

Not much it turns out, so I am home

I'm still adjusting to the change in plans,

and I'm SO not sold on the personality change,

but I think I really believe that I am supposed to be home

Weird.

By the way, for some great nutritional info on polenta go to Sarah B's latest post

on My New Roots

Thanks for listening

Kyra