Labor Day Weekend Cooking and Shopping

Almost exactly a month ago I read this post by @ericvancewalton and a lot of what he writes about big corporations vs small businesses resonates with me a lot. I dislike the way we shop as all it seems to be these days is Amazon, Amazon and Amazon again.

I get it though and I do it too because it's just so darn' convenient. No dealing with crowds and parking, delivery to your door next day or the day after - sure, sign me up. But do we really need whatever it is that we bought that fast? More often than not the answer to that is probably 'no'. 'Then why don't you use Amazon delivery day or ground transport' to have fewer trips to your home - LOL - yeah, tried that many times and every second time Amazon stuffs up exactly those no-time-critical deliveries. So, sadly, none of that for me anymore. Now I am punishing Amazon and order everything that I order through them the fastest way possible - hah - there take that inflexible, insatiable corporation!

Rant off! Breaaaathe...

So, yeah, EVW posted a couple of links to small(ish) businesses that are family owned and operated. I was immediately interested and checked them out. And when I found Einkorn flour on Dutch Meadows Farms (this is a referral link that will give both of us $10 off our next orders should you decide to follow the link and shop at Dutch Meadows Farms) I was hooked. I have been baking sourdough bread for a few years now and started looking into getting heritage flour a couple of times in the past but each time I was out of luck because it had sold out. Not this time!

Labor Day long weekend was just around the corner so I decided to put together a nice order to Dutch Meadows Farms. All went really smooth, lots of information on their website about the individual products and loads to choose from. Of course, I bought a bit more than I needed to but I didn't feel too bad because it was good stuff I was getting for us.

_{This is how my order arrived, actually earlier than expected while I was on business travel, so hubby took these photos}

One of the boxes was insulated and contained ice packs to keep the meat, fish and butter frozen, the other box contained the product storable at ambient temps. All was packed immaculately and in recyclable material, no plastic, well, except for the foil on the meat/fish and the leakage proof bag in the frozen package.

This is really the only slight regret I have about my purchase - the added transportation and packaging. Which, of course, is no different to Amazon but it were better if I could find the same product locally. For some of you or us this may be possible but for most of us this is not the world we live in anymore.

So, what did I order? Sockeye salmon, rabbit meat (haven't had that in ages), raw butter salted and unsalted, orange blossom honey, strawberry/rhubarb jam, carrots, red cabbage, blue potatoes, raw cashew nut butter and, of course, lots and lots of Einkorn flour as well as Whole Spelt flour.

I already made an Einkorn sourdough bread which was highly yummy but I forgot to take photos so that's for another post. I'll probably be baking another one tomorrow and photos WILL be taken.

So, in the meantime, here is what I made for Labor Day dinner

Oven-roasted rabbit with red cabbage and blue potato gratin

Gravy, of course, as well but that just doesn't belong into a dish's title for some reason. I'm not sure I ever prepared a whole rabbit, if I did I forgot about it, maybe it traumatized me? No, no, it didn't I am not that squeamish when it comes to cooking. But I did have to look up how to best cut up and prepare i.e. butcher the rabbit. There are lots of websites illustrating this, apparently hunting rabbits is a (good) thing. I wouldn't know, I'm a city girl. Anyhow, cutting up a whole rabbit shouldn't be keeping you from preparing one. It tastes really good.

Since a rabbit cooks pretty fast, faster than chicken in my experience, I had some time before I had to start the actual cooking. Hence, I decided to marinate the rabbit pieces in - something. It was likely a mix of olive oil, wine, salt pepper and fresh basil and rosemary from the garden, oh, and garlic.

While it was marinating, I cut up the blue potatoes, a red onion, some carrots and the red cabbage.

For the red cabbage I also used some bacon and an apple plus a little sugar and apple cider vinegar. All of this goes into the pressure cooker for just a few minutes, salt and add maybe more vinegar/sugar and - done.

For the potato gratin arrange the slices together with half the onion in an oven safe dish, salt and pepper and pour in generous amount of milk, I use oat or almond milk. This goes into the oven together with the rabbit.

First though, the rabbit pieces get browned in a pan and then you can either transfer the pan, if oven safe, into the oven or transfer its contents to a dish which is what I did.

I roasted the rabbit in the oven for just over thirty minutes but it felt a little dry, so next time - less oven time. It still tasted great though especially with all the sides and the gravy which I made from the rabbit juices (pan and oven dish) + white wine, water and I also always puree in the carrots, onions, garlic etc. that were baked together with the rabbit in the roasting dish. There is always tons of flavor. Finish the gravy with spices and a little Herbs de Provence and the gratin with a little cheese on top.