The Apartment Farm

I’ve raved about it enough - it’s time I shared the recipe with you. This is a household standard at Apartment Farm - we usually eat it at least twice a month. It takes about an hour to make, but what’s more relaxing than enjoying a glass of wine and doing a little cooking after a long day at work? And it’s a one-pot meal, so you can enjoy the process and not worry about a pile of dishes to clean up later.

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1 package of pancetta, diced

2 carrots, finely diced

3 celery ribs, finely diced

1/2 red onion, finely diced

6 ounces tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup red wine

1 cup beef stock

1 cup water

2 teaspoons thyme

salt and pepper to taste

1. ) First, you’ll need to make a mire poix, which is a finely diced mix of carrot, celery and onion. You’ll want to saute the mire poix in the olive oil until the vegetables are translucent and lightly browned. Once cooked, set the mire poix aside in a bowl.

2.) In the empty saute pan, brown the pork, beef and pancetta, mixing well to combine. Once the meat is cooked through, drain off most of the fat. Add the tomato paste and mix well.

 3.) Return the mire poix to the pan with the meat, mixing to combine. Stir in the thyme. Carefully add the water, wine and beef stock. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes until some of the liquid has reduced and it has a “saucy” texture.

4.) While the sauce is simmering, boil water for you pasta and cook according to package directions. I recommend rigatoni because the sauce adheres to it well and it looks great in the bowl.

Ever wanted to make your own mead, vinegar, mustard, or such things? Does it seem to intimidating to learn it all yourself and get together all of those “special” supplies? Why not get a kit? I came across a website that sells kits for all manner or DIY foodstuffs, and I think it’s great. Pretty affordable too. This stuff would also make good gifts. Check out the goods at Leeners and see for yourself.

Everyone has attended or is at least familiar with the wine tasting party or event. Good friends (or perfect strangers) get together to sample a variety of wines to see what they like or dislike. It’s a great way to explore a new varietal or region, and it’s fun. But why stop at wines? You can have tasting parties for all sorts of things - craft beers, espressos or artisan liquors would be fun too. But how about going a step further, and host a non-beverage tasting?

I got the idea the other week when husband and I stopped in at Fox & Obel to pick up a new olive oil. We’ve spent too much time in our lives buying mediocre olive oil, and we wanted to take it up a step. We figured we’d go in and buy a small bottle blind, and try a few here and there until we found something we liked. But we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the store had set up a tasting station. They had about 20 bottles open, with a container of bread slices, toothpicks and paper napkins. What a fantastic idea! I mean, if you’re going to spend $40 on an 8 ounce bottle, you should get to try it first (one of the many reasons we love Fox & Obel - I also rave because they sell fresh demi-glace).

So, why not have a tasting at home? Olive oils would be perfect, as would vinegars and salts. Or you could do olives, proscuittos, sausages… anything really. You only need a few things to get your event together - tasting scorecards with pencils, small glasses/dishes for each sample, and some appetizers. I think Italian antipasto is a great thing to serve at tasting parties - and Epicurious has a great recipe for Mixed Antipasto. Add some breads/crackers and charcuterie and you’re all set. If you’d like to serve a meal after your tasting, Italian is perfect as well- pasta bolognese or a garlic-lemon spaghetti would both be good choices.

You can make your own tasting cards, or there a lot of resources for printable cards online. The Aroma Dictionary site has a lot of good olive oil resources and printables, as well as page for wines. It’s also nice to send invitations for an event like this; it’s supposed to be classy and fun. And it seems like no one sends proper invitations to anything except weddings these days, which is a shame. Design or get something that complements your tasting cards. You can also make or get tasting placements- which are simply paper sheets with the name and pertinent info of each oil/wine/whatever written in it’s own spot- you then set the sample glasses/containers on the placement, and that makes it easy for each taster to remember what’s what. For small parties, I recommend trying no more than six, any more than that and it gets cumbersome. If you’d like to send your guests home with samples of their favorites, buy larger bottles and decant the leftovers into small glass bottles, and label them.

So, what are you waiting for? Spring is the perfect time to try new things, so why not host a tasting for your friends? Plus, it’s just another good reason to have a dinner party.

I don’t usually refer people to big box stores (shop local!), but I do have to admit that mega home store Lowes does have a pretty good resource available for DIY-ers in their free Creative Ideas magazine. They have pdfs on their website, and you can also sign up to recieve them mailed to your home. They have an archive of most of last year’s issues up as well.

It’s a DIY magazine in the flair of the early days of Martha Stewart Living, which as Martha would say, is a “good thing”. The current issue includes some great projects, including designing a pantry, painting planters, building a basic box, etc. You should check it out - and why not? It’s free.

One extra day, every four years. Odd, isn’t it? Well I didn’t actually get to post yesterday (on our “extra” day) because we ended up celebrating it in an amazing way- we went to dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery (standard bar food- the pub tips are good) and then we went to a show. Embarrassingly, it’s been years, but what a show to come back into the music world with! We saw The Donnas and The Hives at the Riviera (right here in our neighborhood!) and it was probably the best show I’ve ever been too. It’s good stuff kids and it was a great way to celebrate Leap Year and kick off the weekend. Un-Apartment Farm- like? Maybe, but remember- you’ve got to have something good to listen to while you do all this stuff!

Well, I am still waiting for my seed order to arrive, on March 1st. That’s what I get for waiting so long to put it in! But what I can’t wait for is some fresh greenery around the apartment, so I’m starting seeds today (even though I said I was going to do it last week) from what I’ve got left over from the last few years. I have my windowsill trays filled with soil and watered, and now they’re resting so the water can distribute through the soil evenly. For seed starting, I like to water the soil first so it doesn’t displace the seeds. Once they’ve rested, I’ll plant. I’m doing some edamame, scallions, Lollo Rossa lettuce, Tom Thumb lettuce, chives, oregano, and thyme. I’ve also got to replant some parsley that could use it’s own space. And I’m going to pop in a few garlic cloves, because those will sprout super fast and be excellent on baked potatoes. I might take a few garlic to work to liven up my space too. So, after the long winter (which may never end), the greens are coming.