RESTAURANT: Bones

So I feel a big part of being a locavore is supporting local business, especially ones that try to be as locally conscience as possible.  Anyway, I am way to lazy to cook for my self ALL the time. 

I had never been to Bones.  It is very near my house on 7th and Grant.  Everyone says it is Oh Soh Good and I blindly assumed that it would be mostly local fare (although I did know that there is a lot of seafood on the menu, which obviously isn't from Colorado).  I told our waiter what that I was trying to eat local and asked him if anything on the menu was farmed in Colorado.  He wasn't entirely sure but did tell me that all of the pork was from Salmon Creek Farms, which is in a state that is not mine.  I was a little disappointed but he did mention that some of the greens were from Colorado, he thought...

Then he came back with our drinks and some GREAT NEWS!  They recently changed to a local farm, Torpedo Farms in Pueblo (which, by the way, is just within the 100 mile radius), for all of their pork.  Their greens are from Verde Farms - which seems to be a popular choice for Denver restaurants.  The distributor they use for other produce, tries to source as much as they can locally.  YAY!  Our service was really great.  We had a super nice waiter who was so helpful and went out of his way to help answer my questions.

it was a cloudy day so it was nice to sit outside on their adorable patio.

Onto the food!

So let's call Bones an Asian Bistro.  With lots of unique flavor combos and noodle dishes. 

Their appetizers are a pretty good price and the things we ordered were good proportions.  I would say that this would be a great place for snacks and drinks because of their starters but I could have been a little more impressed with their booze selection.  We started with the Jicama Salad which was really awesome.  For $3.50 we each got a small salad and it was a delight.  It had jicama, oranges, poblano and mushrooms.  It was so refreshing and really great for a summer day.  Then we had the Pork Belly Steamed Buns.  Everything was just right.  The belly was tender and juicy and the steamed buns were SO good!  Sweet and a little sticky I could maybe just eat them alone all day long.  

For dinner we shared a bowl of the Udon Noodles and The Soba noodles.  Both were very nice.  I preferred the Udon.  The broth was out of this world good and the pork shoulder was cooked just right!  The Soba was very good as well, it is served at room temperature which I think distracted me a little bit from the flavor.  There was also an overwhelming amount of prosciutto in the soba.  Leslie loved it though so it worked out for all of us.

Leslie really enjoying the udon.

The other nice thing about Bones it that even though $14 seems like a lot for a noodle dish you get A LOT of noodles.  Enough to fill you up and then some. 

I don't know that bones is a restaurant that I am going to go to all the time but it nice to keep in mind, especially because it is so close to home!

Jam Session

Jam session... get it??!!

Anyway...

My momma came over today so I forced her to help me make jam out of all those berries I picked before it was too late to do anything at all.  I did put some of the black raspberries aside for yogurt and things (I haven't made any yet but I hear it is easy) and I saved some of the red currants to dehydrate, scones maybe.

I found a recipe for red currant jam online and made a few changes to it for the black raspberries.  From what I can tell this recipe can be used to make pretty much any type of berry jam.

Here goes,
8 cups currants
1/2 cup H2O
4 1/2 cups sugar

Other helpful things
Jars
Jar tongs
Jar funnel

(I was able to get all three of those things at the ace hardware by my house although you don't need the funnel if you can pour well and and tongs are super helpful but regular tongs do, technically, get the job done)

Because the black raspberries aren't quite as tart as currants nor as juicy I cut down on the sugar by 1/2 a cup and did 3/4 a cup water.  In retrospect though I maybe could have cut down on the sugar a little bit more, it turned out fairly sweet.

So first rinse your berries (duh, right?) then throw them in a pot with the water and bring to a boil.

thems berries got the jazz boil!

Now that they are boiling and your berries are soft you are going to reduce the heat and mash those berries up.  A potato masher works right good but I used my non-electric hand mixer (an electric mixer would probably work, I only wish I had one).

I also hear a food processor works quite well if you want a super smooooth jam, I prefer the chunkier kind myself.  Now leave it on the stove to simmer, stirring frequently.  The recipe I had said to let it simmer for 20 minutes although I found I had to go a little more than that for the currants and quite a bit longer for the raspberries.

While your jam is simmering it makes for a good opportunity to sanitize your jars.  You can either hand wash and rinse well, put them through the dish washer or boil them.

After about 20 minutes you can start checking the viscosity of your concoction.  Now there are two ways to do this.  The method I have been using is the spoon test.  You dip your spoon in and when you pull it out you want it to really stick to the spoon.

Those droplets on the spoon were really slow moving and as they started to cool they stopped dripping entirely and just stuck there.  The other method you can use is a plate test.  Put a spoon full on a plate and stick it in the freezer just long enough to get to room temperature.  When you hold the plate sideways it should stick to the plate like, well, jelly would. 

So now you want to pour your super hot liquid jam into it's new jar homes.  Just a heads up, for the full recipe with the black raspberries I was able to fill 48oz worth of jars and the 1/2 recipe with the currants I got 24oz (side note, if you puree the berries you may get a little less than this).  Once your jars are full make sure you wipe the rims down really well then put the lids on, hand tightening them.  Now they go in a boiling water bath.  What this does is kill all of the bacteria and micro-organisms that may exist in there.  They only need to be submerged in the boiling water for about ten minutes but for you Denverites reading this you may want to do it for 20 or so seeing as how water boils at a lower temperature up here.  Use those jar tongs to get them out of the hot water and set them on the counter.  You are going to want to test the seals now, you can just push down on the lid if it clicky-clackies it didn't seal all the way, that's okay though just make sure you refrigerate them and use within two months.

YAY!  We did it!

"Wait Judy", you may be saying "I see the black raspberry on the right and the red currant on the left, but do tell WHAT is that in the middle?"

Well on Sara's suggestion I made a syrup with the pie cherries.  It was so easy, I did equal parts honey and water (a cup of each) and about two cups cherries.  I boiled everything for about ten minutes and then processed them in the same hot-water bath as the jams.  At my moms (Gwen) suggestion we did a few.  One has sage in it, one has rosemary (she was thinking pork chops) and one has mint.

The next time we make jam - jalapeno peach and strawberry!

Now go be free sweet things!

Berry Patch Farms

Good Morning!

Yesterday Sara and I took a little adventure to Berry Patch Farms in Brighton.  Now this is a pretty hoppin' joint seein as how it is only about 30 minutes outside of Denver.  They have it all, a small shop where you can get fresh picked veggies and "Pick your own" of berries.   A group of us went last week and picked pie cherries and red currants and while we were there they told us black raspberries would be ripe in a week.  Hence our visit.

As we approached the bushes they seem a little picked over, and as it turns out a little thorny (we didn't know).  We realized that if you looked into the bushes there were still plenty of raspberries left.  So, with blind and foolish determination we plunged into the spiney, evil branches that seem to have sprung up from hell. 

Black Gold

Tragedy only struck once...

Don't worry we picked them all up, we weren't about to give anybody any freebies.

 All in all, a little worse for the wear,

trying to figure out what is blood and what is raspberry juice

Okay, a lot worse for the wear, it was well worth it

Black raspberry and red currant jam here we come!!

And here is a checklist for future raspberry pickers

• long sleeve shirt and pants
• gloves
• stubborn determination

Also for anyone interested in visiting Berry Patch Farms visit their site to find out what is in season.  The staff is super friendly and chatty.  Their shop has other fresh picked veggies from their farm available and well as guest appearances by other farms.  A near by ranch sells beef there and when we went there were apricots from another farm too.  With pic-nic tables and roosters running amok it is a great place to take kids to see all sorts of farmy things!

Thanks for the tip NPR

While listening to NPR yesterday they featured a story on a shop that opened in the Highlands.  Even though it isn't in my neighborhood I am for sure gonna go give it a look.  Not today though, It's my birthday!

Here is a link to NPR's series called "Backyard Farmers".  Oh NPR, I love you.
And here is the link for In Season Market.  Let's all support this local business and local farmers!

On the birthday note...

YAY!!  Look at all that cold, delicious Colorado beer!! Great Divide, Breckenridge Brewery, Odell and Boulder Beer!  I love birthdays!  Now come on over and help me drink it!

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for joining me in my journey to become a locavore!

I have had a long standing awareness of what I consume and where it comes from but I very rarely act upon it.  About two months ago the events in my life made me rethink my behavior in regards to what I put on and in my body.  I made the decision to consume locally for a number of reasons.  Environmentally, I am attracted to the idea of my food traveling a much shorter distance (or none at all) to get into my mouth.  Economically, buying things close to home is sometimes cheaper and the times that it is not I know that my Denver dollar is going to a Denver citizen and will be put back into my community.  A local diet makes me more physically conscience of what is going in my body, no more chemicals, no preservatives and additives.  I will become responsible for knowing where my food comes from and what else is in it before I enjoy it.

I decided on a goal of 75% Colorado food with the intention for most of it to be within 100 miles of where I live in Denver.

It was a little slow moving gettin' on the ball with all this but now that I have maintained some sort of homeostasis in my life I am ready to tackle all of the extra work and thought that goes into a diet like this.   Considering the restaurants I eat at before I hand them my dollars, finding local businesses with the same mindset, drinking Colorado beer.  You also better be ready cause we're gonna do all sorts of crap we never thought we would learn how to do.  Making cheese, canning, pickling, making yogurt and ice cream - just consider this a novice's guide to urban homesteading and local grubbing!