Foraging food!

I'd like to thank Jeanette for her beautiful blog. I know my blog is not really read by anyone now, but in case someone sees it here.. She inspired me to keep track of our little efforts towards a simple homestead style life. She says " we can't all have 40 acres in the country.. " and we actually have about 2,300sq feet of garden, half of which is grass for play area!

I don't want to share too much on FB or the like because I don't want to pretend that I have figured it all out and my life is perfect and pretty in every way. hahaha. Not so.
BUT keeping track, taking notes and pictures really helps to find the beauty in every day life. Who knew canned food could look that good!

So here is a little note I'd like to share about foraged food, food you can make out of stuff found on your way back from a long walk..

Yesterday I found wine leaves!

And we had so much vegetable mix left, I had been eating it for 3 meals and was getting tired of it..
So I thought to make dolmas out of it.

To make dolma you need
-wine leaves (about 5 or 6 per person, or more if you feel like it) and salt
-left overs (or some veggies and meat, no meat for us this time but it's better with some ground beef or lamb)
-olive oil, garlic, parsley and a can of tomato
-some cooked rice

*wash the leaves
*prepare a container with lots of salt, stack your leaves and add boiling water on top, to cover the leaves. I find a weight helps to hold them under water.

 * let them soak for as long as you wish (2 days if you want, in the fridge) at least a couple hours, and you can renew the hot water (with salt)
this pre-cooks the leaves.
*prepare a stuffing: in a pan heat oil, add garlic, a pinch of allspice or cinnamon, parsley (meat goes here too) let it simmer for a couple minutes.
Add the can of tomato. Let simmer an other few minutes. turn the heat off.
*Mix your left overs, add them in the tomato sauce with the rice. Stir it well.

*Now you can roll! :)

 place the leaf face down, add a tbsp of stuffing in the bottom third.

fold on either side

fold the bottom part

and roll it up!

This is the same way I roll stuffed cabbage, spring rolls etc.
Wine leaves are much easier though because they don't (usually) break! 

*last step is to steam those little guys for about 15 to 20 min. You can pile them up they won't stick.
I personally add a cube of beef bouillon in the water to steam it, but some bay leaf would do fine too.