Welcome to My Farm

>> Funding for "Welcome to My Farm" has been provided by Manna Pro... >> As much as we count on them... >> They count on us all the more... >> To nurture their lives... >> With the same commitment... >> Together: Manna Pro -- Nurturing life.

>> ...Meyer Hatchery... >> Meyer Hatchery offers more than 160 breeds of poultry and carries a full line of feed, supplies, gifts and decor.

With nearly four decades of experience, the Meyer family is committed to supporting our customers through their entire poultry journey.

Learn more at MeyerHatchery.com.

>> ...and Grubbly Farms.

>> Grubbly Farms -- sustainable feed and treats made with grubs.

Find out more at GrubblyFarms.com.

>> And Horizon Structures -- Delivered fully assembled and ready for same-day use.

[ Rooster crows ] >> I'm Lisa Steele, author and fifth-generation chicken keeper.

I live in rural Maine with my husband, flock of chickens, ducks, geese, and Winston the Corgi.

We moved to Maine for the peace, serenity, and a simpler life.

Join me as I explore this beautiful state and experience all it has to offer.

Welcome to my farm.

[ Chickens clucking ] I've lived in New England almost my entire life.

I was born and raised in Massachusetts, then went to school in Rhode Island.

After that, I moved to Long Island and worked on Wall Street for a while.

After I got married, my husband was in the Navy, so we were in Pensacola and then Norfolk, Virginia.

But as soon as he was ready to retire, we knew we wanted to move back to New England.

So a couple years ago we moved to Maine, and it definitely felt like coming home.

I'm only a second-generation American, but he can trace his family roots all the way back to the Mayflower.

So I thought this Thanksgiving, instead of doing a traditional spread, I would throw it way back and do an old-fashioned New England Thanksgiving without a single turkey or green bean anywhere, using all kinds of delicious seasonal local ingredients.

For the main dish for our old-fashioned New England Thanksgiving, I'm going to be making a seafood chowder.

It's actually unlikely that the colonists even had turkey at their first few Thanksgivings.

It's more likely that they ate something like venison or waterfowl.

And I'm certainly not gonna cook a duck or goose.

So, we're gonna go with beautiful seafood chowder with all kinds of local Maine seafood in it.

To get started, I'm gonna crisp up some bacon and some sprigs of fresh thyme.

[ Igniter clicking ] Okay.

I'm just gonna cook it till the bacon gets really crispy.

I'll just let that sit a minute.

The time is gonna impart a really nice flavor into the bacon, and I'm gonna save some of the bacon for a pretty garnish on top, as well.

The bacon smells so good.

It's browned.

It's sizzling.

So now I'm going to put it on a paper towel, and I'm going to sear some scallops in butter.

My butter is melted, so now I'm gonna add my scallops.

They are patted dry, so I'll get a nice sear on them.

I'm using the bay scallops, the small ones, but if you have the sea scallops, you can just cut them into quarters.

You kind of want all your ingredients to be the same size just so it eats better and you don't have huge chunks of one thing and tiny chunks of another.

Alright, those are looking good.

I'm gonna add them to the plate with the bacon, but I'm gonna keep the butter and bacon grease in the pan because that's gonna be the base of my flavor.

Now I am adding some chopped celery... ...Some chopped red onion... ...and some peeled and cubed potatoes.

Alright, I'm just gonna give those another minute or two to soften up a little bit more.

And I'm gonna take my chicken bowl.

I put -- All the scraps and ends and pretty much everything that we're not using, I put in a bowl for my chickens.

They can and will eat almost anything.

There's so little that I don't give them.

White potatoes, citrus, avocados -- those are some things that can be problems for chickens to eat, but other than that, meat scraps, fish scraps, vegetables, fruits, grains, they love it all.

And that way they'll have a feast when we're having our feast.

So, now I'm gonna add some flour, which is gonna be my thickener.

So, we end up with more of a chowder than a watery soup.

I'm gonna stir that in.

Then I'm adding some milk... ...some heavy cream... ...and some fish stock.

Then I'm just gonna stir it to combine and then put the cover on, bring it to a boil, and let it cook for about 15 minutes just to make sure my vegetables are cooked.

Ooh.

My chowder has thickened up, and it smells really, really good, so I am going to add the rest of my ingredients.

So, I have some shrimp here and also some whitefish.

I have haddock.

You could use cod, tilapia, halibut, I guess, pretty much any kind of whitefish.

You even probably could use salmon if you are a salmon lover.

Season those a little bit.

These are gonna cook really quickly, so they don't need but 5 or 10 minutes.

So, I've got some corn... and my shrimp.

...and my fish.

We'll stir that up a bit.

And then I'm going to add back my bacon and my scallops.

I did reserve some of the bacon to use as a garnish when I put the soup on the table.

Alright.

That looks good.

I'm just gonna cook it for another 5 or 10 minutes, bring it up to a boil, make sure everything is fully cooked, and then I'm just going to keep it warm until it's time for dinner.

Now I'm just gonna garnish it with the leftover bacon that I had reserved and a little bit of fresh parsley.

It smells so good.

Next I'm gonna be making some homemade spiced cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Cranberries are very much New England and likely something that people were eating almost right from the start when they got here.

My grandparents came to this country from Finland -- on both sides, actually, but on my mom's side, they came from Finland and they settled on Cape Cod and they worked on cranberry bogs as their first job when they got to this country.

So, for me personally, cranberry sauce has a lot of meaning and it reminds me of home.

So, to get started, I'm gonna heat my pan up.

[ Igniter clicking ] Then I'm gonna add some water and some cranberry juice.

Then I'm going to add granulated sugar and brown sugar.

And I'm just gonna whisk it until everything is nicely combined.

Now all my sugars are melting.

I'm gonna add some spices.

So, I'm gonna add a few cinnamon sticks... ...and some star anise.

This has a really nice licorice flavor.

And it's also -- It looks like a star, so it's really pretty.

And also some vanilla.

Alright.

That looks good.

I'm gonna add some lime peel.

I'll be pulling most of this out before I serve it, so I want to keep things in fairly large pieces so I can fish them out of my cranberry sauce before people eat it.

Then I'm just gonna add a touch of salt to bring out the sweetness.

This is also a great recipe for Christmas.

It doesn't have to just be for Thanksgiving.

I use a lot of Christmas spices in it.

So, we're at a boil now, and I'm gonna add my fresh cranberries.

You can also use frozen.

Make sure they're all covered.

And then I'm just gonna let them sit here and cook until the berries start to burst and my sauce starts to thicken up.

My cranberry sauce is nice and thick now, so it's done.

I'm just gonna pull out my lime peels, cinnamon sticks, and star anise and put it in a bowl and it'll be ready for dinner.

For our traditional Thanksgiving dinner, I'm going to make Indian pudding for dessert.

This is a super traditional, old New England recipe.

I had never even heard of it until I moved to Maine.

But it's a recipe that the colonists brought over from England.

And then, because they didn't have access to wheat flour, they used cornmeal, which the American Indians taught them how to mill.

So, I think it's a really cool recipe.

It's not the most beautiful recipe, but it more than makes up for it in taste.

So, to get started, I'm gonna turn my burner on to medium low and then add my milk and butter and get that simmering.

[ Igniter clicking ] And I'm just gonna wait until the butter melts and I get a couple bubbles around the edges before I add the cornmeal.

My butter is melted, so now I'm going to add the cornmeal and then cook it until it thickens up, about 10 minutes.

I want it to get all nice and thick and bubbly before I start adding my eggs and my spices.

Okay, this looks nice and thick and bubbly, so I'm gonna turn off the heat and put it aside for a minute while I whisk some eggs.

Now I'm going to whisk three eggs to go into my pudding.

There are no leaveners in this pudding, so the only thing that's gonna make it rise is my eggs, so I want to make sure that they are beaten really well before I add them.

Okay, that looks good.

First, though, I am going to add some spices and brown sugar.

So, 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Just stir that in to get all the lumps out.

And 1/2 cup of molasses.

And then some vanilla bean paste.

You can also use vanilla extract.

I just happen to like the paste.

It is kind of thick like molasses, and it doesn't have that alcohol taste you sometimes get with the extract.

And it also gives you those wonderful flecks in your finished dish.

So, you can substitute in the paste anytime a recipe calls for vanilla extract.

It's a one-for-one substitution.

Now I'm going to add some cinnamon and ginger.

Really great fall, warm spices.

Then I'm gonna grate some nutmeg into the pudding.

I like to use whole nutmeg and grate it as needed because it's a lot fresher and you're just gonna get a better flavor from it that way.

Then I'm just gonna add a pinch of salt before I add my eggs.

Perfect.

Now I'm just gonna slowly pour the eggs in, stir while I pour them so they don't scramble and curdle as I'm adding them.

They're gonna bind the whole pudding together, give it a little richness.

I just want to stir this really well.

Alright, that's mixed, so now I'm gonna pour it into my buttered pan.

You can use a pie plate.

You can use a casserole dish, just some oven-safe container.

And I have buttered it so my pudding won't stick.

Just gonna pour it right in.

Now I'm gonna put it in the oven at 300 degrees for about 2 hours.

I want to cook it until it's set and glossy on top.

The last thing I'm going to make for our Thanksgiving dinner is popovers.

They are very New England, and they are just the Americanized version of a British Yorkshire pudding.

They are traditionally made in a popover pan, which is a very deep cupcake or muffin tin.

But if you only have a cupcake or muffin tin, you can make a parchment sleeve like this and put it inside so the popover has somewhere to rise up instead of overflowing over your pan.

But I'm gonna use a popover pan.

I have melted butter into each of the compartments and I'm just going to brush it up the sides of each.

I've got my oven preheating to 425 degrees.

If you just pop your pan in for a couple of minutes to melt the butter while the oven's preheating, that works really well.

So I've got all my compartments greased.

Then I'm going to make the batter.

It's kind of like a really thin pancake batter.

So first I'm going to add four eggs.

The eggs are what is going to make the popovers pop.

So you really want to beat them really well and make sure you get a lot of air into them or your popovers are not going to rise as well as they should.

That looks really good.

They're nice and bubbly and lemon yellow, and I've got a lot of air into them.

So now I am going to add some milk.

And just whisk that a little bit to combine it.

Then I'm going to add some flour.

I really want to make sure that this is smooth because we don't want any lumps in our popovers.

So you can't really overmix this batter.

Nice and smooth.

I'm just going to add a pinch of salt.

That batter looks really good.

I'm just going to pour it into my cup measure and I'm just going to let it sit for 30 minutes just to let it rest, relax a little bit before it gets baked.

You also want to make sure that it's room temperature.

I use room temperature eggs and milk, but in case you were using them straight from the fridge, it's a good idea to just let the batter come to room temperature.

Okay, I'm ready to fill my pan.

I'm going to fill each one about halfway with the batter.

Okay.

Now these will go in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, and then I'll turn the oven down to 350 degrees for another 15 minutes without opening the door or my popovers will fall.

And I want to cook them until they're nice and golden, brown and puffed.

Hey, chickies.

Hey, ducks.

Come on, you guys.

[ Laughs ] I got some Thanksgiving leftovers for you.

Look what I got for you.

We got cranberries, we got shrimp, we got walnuts, we got parsley.

[ Chickens clucking ] >> Funding for "Welcome to My Farm" has been provided by Manna Pro... >> As much as we count on them... >> ...they count on us all the more.

>> ...to nurture their lives... >> ...with the same commitment.

>> Together: Manna Pro -- Nurturing life.

>> ...Meyer Hatchery... >> Meyer Hatchery offers more than 160 breeds of poultry and carries a full line of feed, supplies, gifts, and decor.

With nearly four decades of experience, the Meyer family is committed to supporting our customers through their entire poultry journey.

Learn more at MeyerHatchery.com.

>> ...and Grubbly Farms.

>> Grubbly Farms -- sustainable feed and treats made with grubs.

Find out more at GrubblyFarms.com.

>> And Horizon Structures -- Delivered fully assembled and ready for same-day use.

Closed captioning provided by Eaton Pat & Pasture.