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The secret to this recipe is that the tomato and sausage is roasted on a sheet pan rather than the stove top. Maybe this means it doesn’t technically qualify as sauce, but it taste delicious, and it requires much less attention than trying to brown onions in a skillet. Because this recipe has just a...
Out driving earlier this week I passed a sign for an upcoming fundraiser in support of Anabaptist HealthShare, an insurance alternative geared towards communities of Plain People. There were a few dozen Amish setting up tents and tables in front of a new building, still under construction, which I assume will be a clinic. I’ve...
Farmers are as prone to chasing trends as anyone else. In the past couple decades there have been alpaca bubbles, pigeon pyramid schemes, and absolute manias for a couple different breed of beef cows. For a while everyone wanted to plant hemp for CBD, and with legalization marijuana cultivation took off, but neither has turned...
“Do you think you cut a diamond with a tool or with a laser?” my son asked a few days ago. “A tool,” I replied. “Yes, because a laser is light, so it just passes through the diamond.” When he’s explaining something he often emphasizes what he considers the most important idea (“a LASER is...
Easy recipes are rarely as simple as they sound on paper. There’s usually a strange ingredient, a finicky technique, a cooking step that requires hawklike watchfulness, or just a big pile of dishes left in the sink. Usually these are worth the effort, but there often simply isn’t enough time to put one together. That’s...
Drumsticks are my favorite cut of chicken to grill. The meat has plenty of flavor, which means the a good char is complementary rather than overwhelming. They are also much harder than chicken breast or steak to overcook; along with chicken wings, they simply don’t dry seem to dry out the way many other cuts...
Pictured above: the bowl of ice cream I ate immediately after writing this. If I told you that ice cream was healthy, would you believe me? What if I got more specific and said studies have shown that regularly eating ice cream reduces your chances of developing type 2 diabetes? What if I told you...
This time of year the grass is sweet and green, perfect for grazing, but it grows so fast the herd can never keep up. The trouble is that pasture isn’t consistent. After the spring flush — the wonderful period of prolific growth we’re in the middle of now — it will slow down, make seed...
Stir fry is delicious. Done properly, it consists of meat and veggies sliced paper thin, cooked in small batches in a screaming hot wok, then served and eaten immediately. The heat and the speed combine for tender meat and crispy veggies kissed with a lightly charred flavor that recalls the grill. And this is the...
Over the past month or so I’ve received a bunch of calls and emails asking me this. I’ll get the answer out of the way quickly: no, they are not. There are no mRNA vaccines authorized for use in cattle, at least not in the U.S. But the idea is clearly ubiquitous. The National Cattlemen’s...