I chose this recipe for the first Wok Wednesday not only because its delicious (I’ve made it at least a dozen times since my first try) but also because its super easy. I wanted the introduction to stir-frying to go well; other than perhaps burning the garlic there is almost nothing you can do to screw this up. It takes under five minutes to prep and cook, and its a healthy and delicious snack, lunch, or side dish.

As with all stir-frying you have to make sure you prep the ingredients before-hand; no time to be mincing or chopping while something is in the wok. Once you have all your ingredients together though you can be assured of a quick and yummy treat in no time at all. Here’s the recipe:

Stir-Fried Garlic Spinach

Serves 4 as a side dish, or two for lunch

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil (I use avocado oil)
• 3 medium garlic cloves, smashed (I also lightly chopped them)
• 12 oz spinach (16 cups), ends trimmed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp sugar

Directions

1. Heat your wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Swirl in the oil, add the garlic, and stir-fry 10 seconds or until the garlic is fragrant.
2. Add the spinach and stir-fry 30 seconds or until the spinach just begins to wilt. Sprinkle on the salt and sugar and stir-fry 1 minute or until the spinach is just wilted but still bright green.

I’ve also added a dash of soy sauce or fish sauce at the end, but if you do that you might want to cut down on the salt.

If you’d like to join in the stir-fry fun head on over to Wok Wednesdays for more information!

A recent stress-induced baking session yielded these beauties – flaky, buttery rolled scones stuffed with a sweet & savory combination of prune lekvar, toasted almonds, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. I initially set out to make plain old scones, but then I saw that jar of prune lekvar that has been sitting in my cabinet for months and decided to go a little crazy.

The scones themselves are super-simple to make; once you get the basic recipe down pat you can begin to tweak and adjust to your heart’s content. They can either be rolled around a filling, like these ones, or cut into the traditional wedge shapes and topped with some chopped nuts or shredded coconut. Try these out first and see what you think, and then get creative!

Sweet & Savory Rolled Scones

Makes 24 scones

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter, in pieces
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 4-5 tbsp prune lekvar*
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Place the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
2. In a small skillet toast the almonds over medium heat, tossing frequently until lightly browned and fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with a fork. Dump the cold butter in the flour and quickly cut into the flour, using either your fingers (my preference) or a pastry blender. You want the dough to look shaggy and you’ll have pea-sized pieces of butter left.
4. Pour in the buttermilk and mix with the fork until it just comes together. Don’t worry if the dough hasn’t come completely together at this point. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured  surface and lightly knead until the dough comes together. If the dough seems too dry you can add buttermilk by the teaspoon-full until it comes together. Be careful not to over-knead the dough, 10 or 12 turns should be fine.
5. Cut the dough in half and set one half to the side. Working with your hands or a floured rolling pin pat or roll the first half into a rectangle about 12 inches long and about 1/2 inch thick – it will not be very wide. Spread half of the prune lekvar over the dough, top with half of the toasted almonds, and grate a teaspoon or two of the Parmigiano-Reggiano over the topping. Roll the dough up form one of the long sides, pinch the ends together, and place on a cutting board seam-side down. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.
6. Once you’ve formed both rolls its time to cut them – cut each roll in half, and then each half into six 1-inch slices. Place cut-side down on two un-greased cookie sheets and bake 10-15 minutes, until the tops of the scones are just browned.
7. Let the scones cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing to a plate or serving platter. They are best served warm.

*If you don’t have prune lekvar you can use any sort of jam or preserve that you have on hand.

Dubbed the “Best All You Can Eat Feast in the Country” by Bon Appetit magazine, this year’s Farm to Fork picnic will feature the combined talents of 28 farms, 28 chefs, and 11 food artisans whose creations range from farmstead cheese to local mint julep jelly.

Proceeds from the event will support new and beginning farmer programs at CEFS and the Breeze Farm Incubator, including apprenticeships, education, and mentoring for aspiring farmers. With the average age of North Carolina farmers at 59, recruiting new farmers is necessary to meet the state’s future food needs.

According to CEFS Director Nancy Creamer, “Providing new farmers with training and opportunities to have access to land is critical in maintaining our local capacity to raise food.” Creamer added, “Everyone loves fresh farm products, but unless we address this crisis, we won’t be able to meet the growing demand.”

“The Breeze Farm has done so much with the funds raised from the Farm to Fork Picnic and other sources; from a new well to a new tractor, two new hoop houses, and new waterlines and fencing for livestock grazing, these funds are equipping the farm to train new farmers to become stewards of our land and producers of our food,” said Noah Ranells, Agricultural Economic Development Coordinator for Orange County.

Tickets for the event are $100 per person, which includes drinks, and may be purchased through the Farm to Fork Picnic website. Since the inaugural picnic in 2007, the event has sold out each year to ever-growing crowds. Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food International, was a distinguished guest at the first Farm to Fork picnic.

One of the event’s participating chefs (and farmers) is Isaiah Allen, Chef de Cuisine at Il Palio restaurant and a new farmer who, along with his wife, established Rocky Run Farm in Hillsborough. Says Allen, “With a culinary background, growing good honest food just makes sense. Farming has fallen into place for us and has been heavily influenced during my time spent at Il Palio…Our plan for Rocky Run is to grow produce as sustainably as the land and resources will allow.”

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems is a partnership of N.C. State University, N.C. A&T State University and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. CEFS develops and promotes food and farming systems that protect the environment, strengthen local communities and provide economic opportunities in North Carolina and beyond. For more information, visit www.cefs.ncsu.edu.

Slow Food Triangle is a local, volunteer-run chapter of Slow Food USA with the simple mission to work toward a world in which all food is good, clean, fair, and accessible to all. Through advocacy, education, and special events, the organization also seeks to celebrate food as a social and cultural connector of people to each other, their food traditions, and the land. Learn more at http://www.slowfoodtriangle.org/.

The Breeze Farm was donated to NC State University by Colonel Bill Breeze and his family to support sustainable farming system programming. It conducts an 8-week new farmer training workshop series in January and February and leases land to aspiring farmers and livestock producers. For more information see http://www.orangecountyfarms.org/PLANTatBreeze.asp.

More information on the Farm to Fork Picnic is available at www.farmtoforknc.com.

• Put up enough pickles and jams to last through the winter
• Order my coffee in bulk and roast it myself
• Start a compost bin
• Plant a medicinal herb potted garden
• Make my own shampoo
• Make my own deodorant
• Make my own moisturizer
• Make my own lip balm
• Start a nukadoko pickling crock to make nukazuke pickled veggies
• Make homemade laundry powder
• Revitalize my sourdough starter, and use it regularly
• Start learning how to homebrew

Are you looking to establish your own modern homestead? What do you do to remove yourself from the corporate food/retail/supply chain?

If you live in North Carolina or follow me on Twitter you’ve surely heard of Amendment 1, the anti-marriage, discriminatory amendment that would forever bar ANY legal recognition of ANY relationship other than that of a MARRIED man and woman. That means same-sex couples AND heterosexual, unmarried couples would have NO legal rights in the eyes of North Carolina law. I could go on for pages about how this Amendment harms NC families (kids without health care, negating domestic violence laws, etc), but I’ll leave you with this video from The Vote Against Project, and encourage you to visit the Coalition To Protect All NC Families to learn more about what you can do to help North Carolina keep discrimination out of its state constitution.

Focus from Vote Against Project on Vimeo.

Well I fried some chicken, which is always good. I also made my first ever homemade ranch dressing, which was fantastic with the chicken and a market salad.

I’ve also gotten in the habit of slow-roasting tomatoes. Due to a generous fellow vendor at the farmers market, I usually find myself with a sack full of seconds hothouse tomatoes. Toss them on a pan with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, & rosemary and a few hours later you’ve turned slightly bruised tomatoes into gorgeously roasted tomatoes. I usually make soup, and this past Sunday I tossed in a hunk of blue cheese as I blended it all up. Delicious!

I’m looking forward to a few things coming up – more Baking With Julia recipes, start of Wok Wednesdays, and a trip to Florida for a wedding where I hope to explore some local treats on my drive across Alligator Alley. Fried gator tail anyone?

Oh, and I should probably cut my hair.

Tane Chan, owner of The Wok Shop in San Francisco, is donating a wok for me to give away as a free prize for one of the Wokkers!

It will be a standard, 14″ flat-bottomed carbon steel wok, the kind that I use and the one that is most suited for Western kitchens.

To enter all you have to do is go to this post and leave a comment with your biggest wok/stir-fry related question:

Wok Giveaway!

(Note: you must comment on the post at Wok Wendesdays. Comments on this post do not count.)

Now, before you spell-check me, I meant MORELS, not MORALS. I have morals (sometimes), but this year I’m high and dry when it comes to morels.

I checked the usual spots, but with this insane spring-summer-back to winter-spring again weather, who knows when the delicious little buggers will show up.

To make matters worse, it seems like folks up in the mountains are hitting the mushroom mother-lode. One posting on the Morels NC message board recounts the finding of hundreds of black and yellow morels earlier this month.

I guess I’ll have to give up on morels this year. Hopefully the early-summer-wild-berry harvest will make up for it.

Do you forage? What are some of your favorite wild foods?

When I see something called Lemon Loaf Cake I want to taste LEMON. I love lemony things; I want to be punched in the face, knocked on my butt, just plain bowled over by sharp, puckery lemon taste. This recipe just didn’t do it for me.

The recipe calls for the zest of three lemons, which is a lot, I admit. Somehow though it didn’t end up being enough. The texture of the cake is spot on, however; somewhere between a pound cake and a layer cake. It just needed more lemon!

On my second go-round I tweaked the lemon a bit, adding a 1/4 cup of lemon juice to the wet ingredients and only using the zest of two lemons. As soon as the loaf came out of the oven I poked it all over and drenched it in a lemon glaze.

BAM! Lemon! The cake was tart and bright and the glaze added that extra kick of lemon that I was looking for. From reading what the other TWD’ers thought it seems like I wasn’t the only one who needed to kick up the lemon a bit.

The recipe this week is hosted at Treats and The Beauty of Life.

Catch up on my other TWD adventures here: Baking With Julia.

After Grace Young’s recent visit to CHOP NC the idea for doing a stir-fry group a la TWD was born. Matthew Glassman (@burgeoningbaker) threw out the name Wok Wednesdays and I ran with it.

The concept is very similar to TWD. Each month we’ll make two recipes from Grace Young’s Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge.  Along the way we’ll share successes and failures, learn more about the history of the wok, and hopefully become masters of the stir-fry. If you are interested in joining us check out the link below, we get started in May!

Wok Wednesdays