4. A Hankerin

hanker: possibly from Icelandic "hanga" meaning to cleave to.

I mentioned in Post #2 that we rarely bought meat that didn't come from the CSA in our regular share, unless we really had a hankerin' for something. We have fish and deer and whatever comes from the CSA. Really, that's enough.

But last week at the CSA, it was mostly non-perishables. It's the end of the season, truly, and we're about to take our month long break. Garlic, onions, potatoes, but not much else even remotely close to fresh. Frozen green beans and eggs and ground lamb. Took all that--but I traded the popcorn and apple butter and a few other things. I traded enough that I looked at the other options--sprouting onions, a butternut squash--and asked her about meat.

When we get red meat in our share, it is either ground into burger, made into sausage of various kinds, or rarely cut up into stew meat. We never get regular cuts because they're more expensive--but we can always trade up. Never have before, although I've ordered things special like a brisket for Leo's baptism. So I asked her about meat and she took me back to the cooler. There were fresh cuts back there, not yet frozen, delivered that day. I took a chuck roast and never looked back.

The next day I seared it on the stove and put it in the crockpot. Deglazed the pan with white wine and then sweat 8 cloves of garlic. Chopped up a few carrots, a parsnip, 6 little Japanese turnips, and 4 or 5 large potatoes. Three stalks of celery. All of it into the crockpot. I poured more wine on top and set it to low. Two hours later, I added more wine and a little water. About an hour before dinner, a bit of cornstarch and water.

It was a crowd-pleaser. I can tell my kids are getting older--we had enough leftovers for Mike's breakfast but nothing more. Ah well.