When I came up with the concept of this blog I was determined to create recipes centered around ingredients grown on the farm. What I didn't realize at the time was A) there isn't much "farm fresh" produce available in April and May in the midwest on a tiny farm with no hoophouses in production, or B) exactly how challenging it would be to cook in an RV. With no running water. Or stove. This RV is a work in progress; the replacement tank for our water should be arriving soon, so we will then be able to indulge in the luxury of H20 (cold only) streaming from our very own kitchen sink. We've gotten by for the last 2 months without it, and we've decided the shower and toilet are not worth figuring out. The propane tank for the oven & stove is some rusty, damaged relic from the 70's that we've also decided to ignore. Even if some establishment could and would refill the thing, we just may explode. That's ok, we keep our silverware drawer in the oven. Right next to the refrigerator that doesn't work but instead serves as a nice pantry. At this point I'm starting to wonder where we would store things if our appliances were up and running...
So what conveniences do we have in this RV? Well, let's see. A pretty decent stereo, a laptop with slow-but-usually-functional internet (thanks to some dear friends lending us a wireless router) and a dvd player to watch our Netflix, a coffee maker, a microwave, and a convection toaster oven. We also have a propane camping stove which I fully intend on adopting as a regular method of cooking, but gosh darnitt that "first time" anxiety has postponed this momentous event. Now I've cooked on the camp stove in the past, when I was camping. So far though it has just seemed like too much of a hassle.
But I really wanted to get this blog going. And then one night for dinner our Farmer Boss Lady served up some steamed lambsquarters. Lambsquarters are an insanely prevalent (and edible! and nutritious!) weed that look like this:
And boy are they tasty. I've had lambsquarters before, raw, right out of the ground as I was yanking them out of places they were not supposed to be. I never found them to be that impressive. But jeez... when a whole mess of 'em are cooked up, it's like the very best spinach I've ever had. And they are everywhere, and kindly require absolutely no effort by me to help them thrive so I can eat them. So I had those on hand, as well as these wild onions
which we gleaned on a quick trip down to North Carolina. We stumbled upon them while hiking and thought they looked suspiciously like some sort of allium. I yanked one out, gave it a sniff, and sure enough, oniony-garlicky. A little taste yielded the same results. I helped myself to a handful and brought them home with me.
And thanks to these here chickies
we do have a constant supply of fresh eggs. So voila! Ingredients!!
I knew there was something I could do with this stuff in the micro/convection oven. I cheated a little because I was starving and didn't think just greens and eggs were gonna cut it. I buttered some rye bread and lined a round pie pan with it:
And then threw a bunch of lambsquarters on top. How much, you ask? A couple handfuls or so. I added them raw, because, well, I had no way of cooking them down first. It didn't seem to hinder the overall effect I was going for. On top of the greens I sprinked the chopped up wild oniony-garlicky things.
Then in my finest china I combined 4 eggs, a splash of cream, some hot sauce, salt & pepper, dried tarragon and mustard to make it seem French or something.
I beat that all together and poured it over the greens and bread and baked it for about 20 minutes @ 350. It definitely could have used more eggs, but I'm sure the skimpyness of it contributed to the ultra-fast cooking time. When it came out it looked like this:
and was quite tasty. Not over-the-top amazing by any means, but a totally satisfying meal mainly comprised of scavenged produce and stolen eggs.
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