Cooking With Vikings

A recent all boy play date reminded me just how much like little Vikings our boys can be. Even the most well trained boy can be easily coaxed into throwing rocks, chasing people, and other aggressive behavior that quickly lead to all out war.

But this morning, the house was quiet and we had a rare Saturday with no definite plans.  I had been thinking of new ways to use up or stash of quail eggs and decided to make quiche, as well as some extra pie crusts to put in the freezer for the coming holiday season. I was delighted to hear a little Viking voice ask, “Can I help?”

We relished an undisturbed hour slowly rolling dough and fluting edges, mixing eggs, cream, and bacon.  There is something about cooking bacon which calls an end to a quiet kitchen (do you know how hard it is to get ten pieces of bacon for quiche with three Vikings hanging over the pan drooling?)

As the quiche slowly solidifies, the Vikings go back to being Vikings, and they will be hungry when it comes out of the oven. If nothing else, they will always have good food, for good food comes to those who know how to make quiche.

The Caviar of Fall

This time of year we are busy collecting seeds from around the garden and enjoying the tail end of the summer harvest. This week we are enjoying two of our foodie treasures, pumpkin soup and pickled quail eggs. I guess the thing that makes them special, is that we grew them ourselves.  It would be difficult to purchase the ingredients for these recipes at any store, which makes them rare and unique. They also happen to be extraordinarily delicious.

The Amish Pie Pumpkin is a treasured heirloom in my garden every single year. One pumpkin yields enough seeds for growing and sharing for years to come, and the large vat of soup it makes is simply divine. You can find the recipe titled Roasted Vegetable Soup on my Beautiful Soup Page.

Our other home grown specialty is the quail eggs. We spent the summer learning how to raise quail. We chose them because of their small size, quiet demeanor, hardiness, and quick reproduction cycle. By the time the snow began to fall, they were cranking out 14 eggs a day. Many people see a decline in egg production during the winter months but we found that a string of Christmas lights solved the problem for us and heightened egg production to a frenzy. After collecting a large container of them for a week, I pickled them in beet kvass I had been fermenting on the counter. When they have bathed in the brine for a week or so, we will have tons of salty, pink, little eggs that we can pop into our mouths any time of day.

 

 

 Now that the nights are frosty, and the garden is put to bed, we are enjoying the results of a summer well spent; the caviar of fall.

 

 

Garage Sale Shakespeare and Fake Blood

One of my secrets for inexpensive home schooling is garage sales. We like to stop at a lot of them, especially if there are books. People get rid of tons of useful old books and usually only charge a quarter per book. Talk about a steal! One of these finds was an old copy of Shakespeare’s complete works in two volumes. It is old, smells comfortingly musty, and in very good condition. My kids were still quite young so I wondered if we would actually ever use it and stuffed it into my overflowing book case. Today, as we began our Monday morning history ritual, we finally came across a unit on Shakespeare. The story of Macbeth caught my oldest son’s attention and he expressed an interest in reading some more of Shakespeare’s plays. “Ah Ha!” I yelled as I jumped up and pulled the books from the shelf.  Yes, these will finally come in handy and I didn’t have to run out and spend a bunch of money. We also staged a Shakespearian sword fight at lunch, complete with sticky, fake blood, made of corn syrup and food coloring. And now, as the afternoon sun filters through the leaves, a boy sits reading Shakespeare.  A fabulous education, for pennies!

October

By Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost;
For the grapes; sake along the wall.