wild turkeys Archives - Good Food St. Louis

Putting Spring into Your Step

When I drove into my farm driveway last weekend, I was greeted by scatterings of daffodils and forsythia swiped with a tint of color.

I headed to the house with a file folder tucked under my arm labeled: “Recipes for Spring.” It was overflowing with printouts from the Internet and recipes I wanted to make again. But nearly all our family and guests were on some diet or another. So I had to scale back a bit. I think it’s a spring thing; we all want to get back into our pre-COVID wardrobe.

Here’s some of the side dishes that graced our table.

My neighbor, Chef Ken, brought us a couple loaves of homemade sourdough bread, that set the tone for a rustic meal.

I repeated a favorite, La Scala Salad, made famous in the California restaurant years ago. The recipe has consistently gotten more hits on this blog than any other. One taste will tell you why.

My nephew and wife, the consummate gardeners, bought a dish of homegrown green beans and tomatoes and a jar of bread and butter pickles preserved from their garden last year.

I uncovered a jar of duck fat in the fridge and drizzled it over Yukon Golds and carrots. Oil would work for anointing the veggies before roasting, but duck fat takes the spuds to whole new realm. Roasted Vegetables.

My nephew and wife, Bobby and Peggy, also brought a homemade cream of tomato soup. It won the Oscar for the evening. The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen, but made with fresh tomatoes that they’d canned. Another more fancified version is shown here: YouTube video.

Angel Food Cake always makes the the dieter seem more virtuous.

During the weekend, we spotted a gaggle of wild turkeys—at least 50! This one almost walked onto the deck. Obviously, he felt unthreatened for a little longer. Turkey season doesn’t start till April 18 and goes until May 8.

My nephew, Bobby, displays a homegrown cantaloupe the size of a bowling ball and sweet as honey!

Veggielicious!

Along about mid-summer, I begin to get cryptic messages from my nephew, Bobby, who lives in Marshfield. “Coming soon: tomatoes . . . green beans . . . corn. . . squash . . . watermelon . . . cantaloupes . . . refrigerator pickles . . . tomato sauce and juice.”

All Aboard the Squash Train

By way of context, let me say he and his wife, Peggy, are both retired Air Force pilots and she’s now a commercial pilot. Having conquered flight, they’ve turned to farming, the latter being the more difficult.

Peggy standing in the squash patch. This green-leafed monster is scary enough to be cast in a sequel to Little Shop of Horrors.

The picture of Bobby’s garden could be the center fold for Fine Gardening. A bug, rabbit, or deer wouldn’t dare trespass!

An Entire Homegrown Meal

This is what you call “living off the fat of the land.” Bobby and Peggy arrived with dinner in a cooler: corn picked that morning, okra, cantaloupe, watermelon, refrigerator pickles. Not shown here: potatoes, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, and beef. All major ingredients in the meal were farm grown. They also brought some canned tomatoes and Super Sauce for another day.

Grandson Austin joins the kitchen cook team. He’s the culinary guru the family looks to these days.

Veggin’ out! We found lots of ways to use up zucchini: Bobby’s Zucchini Boats (center); Zucchini Bread (below); and the New York Times Caramelized Zucchini Pasta (upper right).

Oven-Fried Okra makes it a bit healthier than the Southern fried version. People eat it like popcorn. Just the thing for the serious nibbler.

Ahh. . . tomatoes, let me count the ways. These freshly picked tomatoes made for a great caprese, gazpacho, and sandwich enhancer.

Tomato PIe

Austin put together this Cantaloupe Melon-Tomato Gazpacho. Really good! Though the Spanish soup is traditionally served cold, I like mine room temperature and unstrained.

Austin’s Hasselback Potatoes were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The thinly-sliced, whole potatoes are named after the restaurant in Stockholm where the dish was first served.