This weekend Todd and I were talking about how we so wish that there was a way we make a living with our little farm. Selling eggs, raising Heritage Breeds for preservation, fostering the eat and buy local movement, it should be worth something right?

It is…

The payoff comes in the message. It is a message of hope that yes, everyone can bridge the disconnect we have with our food, our communities and our world as a whole. I try not preach at my readers, I really do. And I try to keep my personal views somewhat contained. You don’t find talk of religion and politics here, they are important of course. But we are here to share our experiences with the hope that others might find them interesting enough to try for themselves. I am going to break with tradition a bit and share something with you today. I know my readers know that I fully support buying from local food producers. And that includes meat. We eat meat if I “know” the meat. That means that I personally have met the farmer, visited the farm and met the animals in their care. I still struggle at times with it because animals and I have a thing…I just tend to “get them” in way others don’t. Luckily for me I have met others like me in my life and I am personable enough in my social life that I can fend off that “crazy animal lady” stereotype.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I have been struggling lately with myself. I keep wondering “why?” Even my parents think my views are silly. Can you imagine how hard it is to be the person I am and have your own family disrespect it SO much that it seems every conversation is an intentional slap to my face? They won’t even eat the eggs we produce. Go figure…Then this morning I pop onto facebook (yes, I know…me on facebook, isn’t that funny?!?!?) and a local group, The Binghamton Animal Alliance is showing a screening of “Peaceable Kingdom, The Journey Home”. This is a film I have been following due to its subject matter…ethics in farming.

I am going to embed the video here for you. It isn’t a PETA propaganda laced film, it is a beautifully produced documentary of the reality of where our meat comes from. It isn’t meant to shock or scare you, but rather give you a glimpse inside a world we rarely see. It is the glimpse inside that world that makes my believe what I do and why we are trying to live our lives here at the farm in the way we do. The movie is about an hour long, I really hope that you’ll stop to watch at least some of it, and it has Spanish subtitles. I welcome your feedback as well.

I know that I have been terribly negligent in the recipe/cooking department of the blog lately. It seems that since before Thanksgiving every meal has been this whirlwind that I just haven’t had time to document or *GASP* photograph. Somehow in between work, family and farm though we still manage to churn out some incredibly delightful food.

We were in Syracuse most of the day yesterday and when we got home we realized that we had some pork shoulder we needed to address so late into last night we made nearly 20 pounds of various sausages. Chorizo is a favorite here, we love the smoky spiciness and the depth of flavor from the chilies. If I have Chorizo I can make a feast! Chorizo is also a sausage we almost always buy locally rather than make ourselves. I’m not sure why really? Anyway, I was craving Chorizo Risotto (my favorite risotto on the planet) so I pulled out my spices and made some…wow…just wow. It will need a few days to develop its full flavors but the panel is already back on this one, we have a winner! A blend of Chilies, smoky paprika, garlic, cumin and a tiny bit of coriander, plus some other bits and pieces of flavor and I have found my Chorizo bliss.

I have been having some migraines again lately, which has me down. I know it’s stress but hey, what can you do right? All I crave the morning after a migraine is spicy food so thankfully we had processed the sausage! So this morning I whipped up a pan of Chorizo and eggs. And I will come right out and say that for a traditionally peasant breakfast, it is just divine. You’ll need about a quarter pound of chorizo with the casings removed (we don’t use casings on our sausage), 6 eggs and some onions and tortillas if you wish.

Brown your Chorizo in your pan over medium heat

Move your Chorizo aside when cooked through. And yes, these eggs are fresh this morning and were still warm from the chicken when they hit the pan.

Give your eggs a scramble in the pan and cook until set (don’t overcook your eggs, they should be very soft. There is a terrible tendency in America to cook things into oblivion. And overcooked egg is a tasteless egg). Then fold the Chorizo into the egg.

You can add chopped onion now, or other vegetables, rice even beans now and serve it on a tortilla or right in a bowl like we do.

Enjoy!