Grilled Chicken Thigh, Mushroom and Zucchini with a Balsamic-Soy Glaze

I am a big fan of grilling in the summer. We don’t have central air conditioning in our house, so using the oven makes way too much heat. Our grill is used year round, but especially gets a work out in the summer. I had some musrhrooms and squash in the refrigerator so thought it would be a tasty change to make a balsamic-soy marinade for the veggies. Once I had marinated the veggies and skewered them, the marinade smelled so good that I thought “I bet this would taste good on the chicken” so I made another quick bactch and then just brused it on the chicken during the last five minutes of cooking to get a little caramelized flavor on the chicken. It turned out so great!

As you may remember, I am not a big recipe follower. I usually just see a recipe I think our family will like and piece it together on my own. I remembered seeing a recipe for a balsamic marinade for mushrooms and googled to get a few ideas of what ingredients were used in the recipe. There are A LOT of variations. After reading several, I decided the ingredients most compatible for my famlies tastes were balsamic, soy and garlic. We keep a bottle of balsamic reduction in the house as a staple My boys love balsamic, and it’s nothing for them to grab some of the reduction, add a little olice oil, and dip hunks of Italian bread into it as a snack. You can use plain balsamic vinegar, but I would recommend a good aged balsamic, like Balsamico de Modena, which can be a little more expensive, but the flavor is outstanding. Using a reduction adds a bit of thickness that makes it easier to baste the chicken.

Balsamic Reduction: Take one cup of balsamic vinegar and pour it into a non-reactive pot. Stainless steel, ceramic, glass and metal cookware with enamel coating are nonfactive. Heat the vinegar slowly until it starts to simmer. Lower the heat to keep the vinegar at a simmer and watch. The vinegar will begin to thicken. Stir occasionaly to make sure it is not sticking to the bottom of your pan. The reduction process can take 30 minutes or more. The vinegar will thicken after you remove it from the heat, so be sure not to let it get too thick during the cooking process. Once it is cooled, you can store it in a jar. It should yield about 1/4 a cup. It does not need refrigerated.

Balsamic Soy Marinade:

5 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

2-3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (depends on how much you like soy)

3 cloves garlic minced (I cheat and used minced garlic in oil from a jar)

Whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl, then pour over mushrooms and squash (or whatever veg you have around) in a large resealable bag and smoosh it around to help coat the vegetables. I had 8 oz of white mushrooms and 2 medium yellow squash on hand. I did not skewer them until after the veg had been in the marinade for a few hours, just before grilling. I recently saw a “life hack” (#HurricaneHattie is obsessed with life hack videos on youtube) which showed skewering vegetables to keep them from falling through the grill grates. Brilliant I never seem to be able to get those grill baskets clean! Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

I am not alwasys the best at estimating cooking times either. My general approach is “cook until it is cooked.” While this philosophy is not helpful for follks who are new to cooking, the reality is that everyone has different preferences on how they like things cooked. For meats, I highly suggest using a meat thermometer to ensure the proper cooking time. For vegetables, some people like their veggies crisper, some softer. Personal preference is imporant in cooking . . . as long as the meat is cooked thoroughly. In my experience, every grill is different and on my grill, one o fthe burners does not get as hot as the other side, so I have to watch and rotate my proteins so they don’t over cook, undercook or cause flare ups, but I’d say these vegetables needed 7-10 minutes with a flip about halfway through to grill both sides.

Internal Temperature chart for meat

I doubled the marinade recipe to make the glaze for the chicken. Once the chicken was about five minutes from being cooked thoroughly I started basting the thighs. Again, cooking time varies based on your grill, but if you want precision, start basting when the chicken reads 150 degrees on a thermometer. Unfortunatley, my kids were starving so I never got a photo of the finished product. But all the plates were clean, so I guess it was a hit!

Come back and visit soon,

Jennie

Life with dogs… an unending saga

Saturday night, I asked #FarmerErik to call in the dogs so we could be sure to get their collars off. We had to install an invisible fence for the pups and Duke because they had started running off. It took way longer than normal. About the only proper training technique I managed with them while juggling their early pup hood with Erik’s hospitalization and recovery at home was getting them to come in the house and go straight into their crates by relic them “Go to bed.” The are well-accustomed to “go to bed” and get a Pupperoni as soon as they are in and we lock the crate doors.. So listening to him repeatedly call let me know something was up.

Unfortunately, what was up was that they, along with our Great Pyrenees livestock guard dog, Tate, had chased a porcupine had gotten quilled. Duke had gotten into one before, with our old Pyrenees, Bella, so he remembered to stay back. Both times happened on weekends when the only vets available were emergency. Extremely pricey and over an hour away. We knew what to do from the last time, and we knew there was no way we’d ever get three dogs in the car and be able to drive for an hour for a veterinarian to provide sedation, so we had to do it ourselves. Only problem was that last time, Erik was able to get down on the ground with the dogs to restrain them while #FarmerWalker pulled the quills out with pliers. The restraining portion would have to fall onto me. Olive had less than 10 quills so we started with her. She reluctantly allowed me to straddle her and hold her mouth open while Erik pulled the quills. She wasn’t happy but it was over in less than five minutes..

Poor Tate and Merle were in bad shape. Merle was scared and in pain and I ended up having to restrain him by lying on him while Walker helped hold his mouth open to let Erik get access with pliers. I felt so horrible handling him tat way, but he was going beserk running against us and the furniture trying to figure out how to get the quills out. It took almost an hour to get the quills out and it probably wasn’t until the last 10 that he finally realized our efforts were helping him and he became docile and cooperative. At the end, I was able to let him go and he laid patiently at Erik’s feet eating for the extraction to be over.

With how difficult Merle was to handle, we were scared about how Tate was going to react. If he reacted like Merle, it would be dangerous for all of us. Tate is a good 30 pounds bigger than 70 pound Merle. He is designed to ward off predators, and he frequently brings us ground hogs and raccoons he has killed to get our approval. Walker struggled just to get a leash on him. The only time he had ever been leashed before was to go to the vet to be neutered, so has some trauma there.

To our disbelief, once we had the leash on him, he sat patiently and allowed Erik and Walker to pull the quills out. Walker even sat on the ground in front of his face, eye to eye, his mouth inches from Walkers face and Tate never acted aggressively. He winced and whines at first but responded to the praise and ear scratches we were giving him after each quill was pulled. After the first few he must have realized they were helping him and he was an absolute angel for the rest. When we had pulled them all (about 100 between the two boys), I did a quick double check of Tate by running my fingers around his snout and he even allowed me to rub my fingers along the roof of his mouth! He just licked his lips when I was done, drank some water and went off to hide.

Because I had inflicted trauma on Merle to try to keep him and Erik and Walker safe, I broke out some ground beef to give to them hoping to replace the bad experience with the good memory of fresh meat hand fed to them by me. I was sure Merle would harbor resentment - Merle does’t like that I am the disciplinarian in the first pace. He always runs to Erik when I attempt to command him. Thankfully, when I called him today, he came and even rolled over for some belly rubs.

Hopefully these mongrels learned their lesson and won’t chase down a porcupine again! Just when I think things are settling down, we get thrown some excitement!

Come back and visit soon!

Jennie

Mojo Marinade

At the beginning of June, my sister Erin, who lives in Michigan, came back to Pennsylvania for a long visit. So al threel of my sisters, their husbands, and my nieces and nephews converged on my moms house the first weekend she was home. My brother in-law, JD, planned a “Staycation” menu for us for the weekend. First up was “Quarantine is Jamaican Us Crazy” themed, with caribbean inspired foods, and more importantly, drinks!

He made Jamaican Jerk chicken legs and Mojo Pork with chorizo rice and beans and Mexican street corn.. To say we stuffed ourselves is an understatement. The pork was so delicious I knew I had to recreate the marinade at home.

Mojo Marinade:

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon orange zest

3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (bottled will work too)

1/2 cup lime juice (fresh squeezed or bottled is fine)

1 cup cilantro finely chopped

1/4 cup lightly packed mint leaves finely chopped

8 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tablespoon minced oregano (2 tablespoons dried oregano)

1 teaspoon salt

Here’s the thing about recipes. Yes, they taste great when you follow the directions to a T. They also taste pretty good if you have to adapt, eliminate or modify the recipe. If you don’t have oranges, eliminating the orange zest won’t be the end of the world. No fresh herbs? Substitute dried.

My brother in law combined all of the ingredients in a bowl, whisked it together and poured the marinade over the pork in a large bag. I chose to blend all of my ingredients together in a blender because I didn’t want to take time to cut up all of the herbs. Plus, I had an accident with the lime juice (I knocked over my lime juice and spilled it all over the counter. Watch out, Food Network!) When that happened, I knew I was going to need more lime flavor in the marinade so I decided to put everything into the blender so I could grind the lime rinds in with the other ingredients. LIme zest would help with the flavor. I just put everything in the blender, blended it well and poured it over the pork butts, rubbing it into some of the nooks and crannies. If I had done this with a chicken, I would used bone-in pieces or a whole bird.

For the butt, my brother in law used a boneless five pound butt, and roasted it in the oven at 350 degrees until a thermometer read 145 degrees. He then took it out of the over, let it sit for 10 minutes under foil and then sliced it.

I chose to cook my pork butts low and slow at 180 degrees all day - preferably 8-12 hours or until the pork is fork tender (that means when you stick a fork in it you can pull a piece of meat off without needing a knife). You can go up to 250 degrees to cut the time it takes to cook the pork, but I like to be able to put the pork in first thing in the morning and not think about it for the rest of the day. I also think cooking it at a low temperature for a long time allows the fat to breakdown better and keep the pork juicy. I LOVE cooking roasts and pork shoulders in my cast iron enameled dutch oven. I use the less expensive discount brands sold at TJ Maxx because Le Creuset is out of my price range for the slze I need, but any roaster would do. You can even use an aluminum disposeable pan, just be sure to cover the pork with foil.

Once it is cooked, just place the pork on a platter surrounded by some lime slices, add your favorite sides and enjoy!

Come backe and visit soon!

welcome

Greetings from the farm!

it’s a beautiful June day, with weather that I imagine would be comparable to that “California weather” us East coast/midwesterners so often hear about. It is sunny, warm, no humidity and a slight breeze. Perfect!

We’ve been doing a lot of work around the farm sprucing up the back yard, moving fence, spreading NINE tons of river rock and brush hogging (it’s like mowing the lawn for big fields). We couldn’t have done most of this without the Covid restrictions. In one liefe changeing day in March, 2020, every one of our non-farm obligations was eliminated so we have had a lot of time to complete projects. In addition to the changes made due to Covid, we’ve also been busy growing and changing due to Erik’s accident.
For those if you new to the farm, our main farmer is my husband, Erik. I affectionately refer to him as #FarmerErik. On December 29, our 18th wedding anniversary, he fell off our sunroom porch roof and shattered his tibia, losing three inches of bone. Because of the damage and risk of infection, he was hospitalized for an entire month. He had seven surgeries during that time (I chronicled our lives on Instagram) and had a final surgery on April 28. He was one of the first “elective” surgeries permitted in Pennsylvania during the pandemic.
During Erik’s recovery, I was forced to become more active in our business and when the realities of the Covid quarantines hit, I knew that if we were struggling to find the staples we needed, other families were struggling too. So I did some research and managed to find a grocery store supplier who would deliver to our farm. My hope was to get 11 other families interested in buying a produce box so it would be worth it. Turns out my hunch ws right and lots of people were struggling to get produce. The produce boxes have been a big hit, but I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that while you love them, you don’t always know what to do with everything in the box.
That leads us to this blog. I’ll use this space to chronicle the adventures on our farm, but also offer meal suggestions and recipes for familiies looking for simple and healthy options, all while using the ingredients in our produce boxes and meal starter kits. I designed both to be a simple way for busy families to get what they need to feed their family without spending precious time in the grocery store.

You may have seen on our Instagram account, the recipe for Mojo Marinade. I used it with pork shoulder (often referred to as a pork butt) and I doubled the recipe so I had leftovers. Since I have spent the last two days pressure wasing our decks, I used the lefover pork for a second meal Tuesday night for Pork Carnitas with Lime Cilantro Slaw. This was a great option for us because Erik and our youngest son and foodie, Whit, were able to make it without me. Whitaker is ten and LOVES food and to help cook. He simply heated up the pork in a skillet while Erik put together the slaw with a simple bag of pre-mixed slaw and this dressing:

CILANTRO LIME SLAW DRESSING:
3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 Tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/3 cup Olive Oil

Simply whisk all the ingredients together, pour over the slaw and refrigerate for 1/2 an hour so the slaw absorbs the flavor. Erik ended up adding some onion to his portion, but kept it out of the main bowl because the kids don’t care for onion. It was the perfect meal after a busy day!
Come back and visit soon,
❤️Jennie