Burns Best Farm

2010 CSA Weekly Subscription

2010-03-10T03:07:38Z

We are excited to offer our second season of weekly produce subscriptions from Burns Best Farm. Due to the success of last year's program, we are gearing up for an expansion in 2010. Mike has been busy for weeks, starting transplants and planning our crop list and rotational schedule. He got our seeds way back in January and we are thrilled to see new varieties of beans, peppers, and tomatoes arriving in the mail.

We are offering a delivery day into East Cobb/Marietta on Mondays this summer in addition to our on-farm pick-up on Wednesday afternoons in Ringgold. Additionally, we are increasing the season from 10 weeks to 14 weeks of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables.

Here's what a couple of customers said last year abour our CSA:

My husband and I were fans of all of Burns Best's produce, but especially the arugula and heirloom tomatoes. They were delicious, and so different in taste from the supermarket varieties. Also, in trying to use everything we received in our CSA bags, we learned to be more creative cooks and incorporate fresher ingredients into what we cooked. We went the entire duration of the CSA without opening a can or frozen bag of vegetables. -Susan

I must honestly say my wife and I were thrilled with the quality, freshness, taste and value of the produce we received during those ten weeks, and we wished the season could have gone on longer.-Karl

Please send me an email: contactus@burnsbestfarm.com and tell me that you are interested in buying a subscription. I will send you the document with details that pertain to your location and pick-up day.

We are looking forward to serving you this summer. Please contact me with any questions!

BACON!

2010-02-16T18:46:31Z

Last Monday, we took two Berkshire pigs to the slaughterhouse. This was our first-ever livestock "processing" event and we have been looking forward to it since, oh, last July when we bought the pigs. It's been fun to watch them grow and root around in the hardwood forested area of the farm.

But honestly, every time I personally looked at the pigs, all I could think about was bacon. It really was that simple and easy for me. Bacon. Mmmmm.

The pork cuts and sausage were ready for pick-up on Thursday. Here's what a freezer full of pork looks like:

Mike had the processor hold the pork bellies under refrigeration so we could begin the multi-day process of curing and smoking our very first bacon. He had been studying the methodology by watching YouTube for tips and tricks, and he was ready to put his MaGyver skills into action.

First, he mixed up a brine using a Good Eats recipe from several years back (Scrap Iron Chef). He placed the pork bellies into food grade plastic tubs and poured the brine over them. They marinated for 72 hours, with Mike occasionally turning them to make sure they were evenly soaked.

On Monday morning, he poured off the brine and dried off the bellies. He inserted the meat hooks and then went outside to make ready the "meat locker":

Larry Holcomb let us borrow an old tall metal locker and Mike configured it with high tensil wire from which to hang the meat. He rigged up a smoker unit to the back of the locker, connected by a tube that forced the smoke into the bottom of the locker so it would waft up towards the bellies. He used applewood chips as the smoke medium ( and let me tell you, those things are hard to find. We had to buy them off the internet here because none of the retail stores around here can get them for us! Save yourself the gas and drive time and just order them in for delivery.)

We ran two batches of four belly pieces each. Each batch smoked for close to 6 hours. It was helpful that the temperature outside yesterday was in the high 30's with a wind chill factor of about 28 below zero. (I might be exaggerating on the wind chill by 10 degrees or so.) We could leave the smoke on for hours and not worry about the meat getting into the danger zone above 40 degrees.

I wrapped each piece in plastic film and refrigerated them overnight. Today, Mike put all of the bellies into the freezer for about an hour to firm them up and then he carved them up into thick-sliced pieces of goodness.

Here's a few half pieces left from the first round of sampling. They didn't stick around for long.....and you'll notice that I left the picture large and detailed so you could see the crispy lusciousness for yourself. Yes, this bacon was the best tasting bacon I have ever eaten.

All these pictures are copyrighted by Denise Burns. Don't even think about using them without written permission. Not even on your Facebook page. Oh, our Facebook farm page is here: Burns Best Farm. Please join us as a fan and then invite your friends to join. The Facebook page gets updated a *whole lot* more frequently than this blog does! I have a feature going called "Heirloom Tomato of the Day" which is motivation for me to "Think Spring" in the middle of all this winter weather that has been turning the ground white.

Pardon the Interruption

2009-12-16T21:21:23Z

This lovely blogging platform we use has been a little squirrely for the last week or so and I'm hoping this post will be "normal". I lost a couple of posts late last week when the platform wigged out and I have not had the time or patience to recreate them. So basically I'm just making a couple of announcements here while also making you aware of some other websites/blogs I have been reading lately that you need to know about.

First, we are now Amazon Associates. I have been including a coded link for the last couple of months anytime I talk about a cookbook or a product that Amazon might possibly sell. I had hoped to feature on the sidebar some of the cool banners Amazon provides, but for whatever reason, we can't make them work on our blog format. So, just know that whenever I provide a link to the Amazon website, I receive a little-bitty rebate on whatever you might buy when you buy from Amazon. It's a disclaimer or a feature, depending on how you look at it!

This is how it works: You should be taking fermented cod liver oil because it has naturally occuring Vitamin A and Vitamin D in a perfectly balanced form. Here is where you can get it. See the link?

Second, the new Weston A. Price Foundation website is up and running as of today. The format is less clinical-looking but every bit as jam-packed with solid information and research on traditional foods and nutrient dense diets. If you aren't already a member of the foundation, you can join now online and receive the quarterly journal in the mail as a key benefit of membership.

I have also volunteered to be the Chapter Leader for the Chattanooga area for 2010. There hasn't been an active chapter here for a while, so we're gathering names and emails for a Yahoo discussion group that will plan to meet up in the new year. Click on this link to join the Yahoo Weston A Price chapter discussion group: no dues or fees required.

Third, my cavity post from late November was featured on Hartke is Online! yesterday (and I am just now getting around to promoting the link. Sorry!) This is a great blog featuring lots of raw milk activism and natural healing with traditional foods. Kimberly updates it several times per day so it's always fresh.

Fourth, (this is getting kind of long, eh?) I have to direct you to a couple of great blogs I have been reading lately. The first is FatHead, written by Tom Naughton. He has a documentary by the same name (which I have not seen). He's written several posts lately that made total diet and nutrition sense but his latest post, More on Alzheimer's, focuses on the horrible side effects of statin drugs (cholesterol-lowering drugs). Please read it.

The other blog I just found today is Liberation Wellness. There are several authors that post throughout the day, but the one piece I read today really spoke to me: "Why don't they get it?!" Maureen Diaz, the author, makes a compelling case for the Christian worldview and how it relates to what we eat and how we take care of ourselves. I have tried to capture these thoughts in the past to explain why I think the Weston A Price dietary guidelines dovetail perfectly with a biblical approach to life and wellness, but Maureen does it much more effectively than I.

Lastly, (aren't you glad?!) I wanted to give you another link to our Facebook fan page for Burns Best Farm. If you are a member of the Facebook ~~cult~~ community and you'd like to keep up with farm happenings, you can join our fan page for the latest info on CSA shares and other interesting things that happen out here in paradise.

Thanks for reading to the end (Mom and Dad!) Only 5 more days to Winter Solstice and we start going positive again on minutes of daylight!

Homemade Sauerkraut and Acetic Acid: New News

2009-11-30T19:36:25Z

I have spent four decades thinking that I did not like sauerkraut. I'm pretty sure my Granny made me try it when I was little and it was too sour for my taste. Even though my palate has widened considerably in adulthood, nothing about store-bought sauerkraut could convince me to change my mind about hating that flavor.

So when I learned at the Weston A. Price conference that fermented foods are a key part of a traditional diet, I cringed. I am on board with the lots-of-butter, raw milk, and animal fat part of the plan but I was not at all sure I could successfully add the fermented foods into the mix.

After trying little bitty amounts of several fermented dishes on the buffet at the conference, I decided that maybe my problem was with the store-bought stuff. The homemade vegetables I tasted were very good in small portions (which is sort of the goal.) I decided to make it at home and give it an open-minded review.

I used the Nourishing Traditions recipe for basic sauerkraut on page 92: shredded cabbage, natural sea salt, caraway seeds and whey. I used a head of organic green cabbage from Greenlife (our own cabbages aren't far enough along yet to cut.) I started the recipe 8 days before Thanksgiving with that target as my goal.

You are probably ahead of me already. All the adults had sauerkraut as part of our Thanksgiving meal and it was very tasty. Commercial kraut is terribly mushy. Homemade kraut still has a light green color and a nice crunch. I really like it, quite a bit! I am having a small serving most every day and the next batch I make will be with purple cabbage, just for kicks. I will cut the tablespoon of caraway seeds in half in the next batch because that flavor is pretty dominant; if you like rye bread and dig caraway, the original proportions will probably suit you fine, but if that flavor is not one of your faves, consider cutting way back. I think on the next green cabbage batch I make I'll substitute celery seed for a little twist.

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So it is in the context of a new appreciation for fermented foods that I read today on Instapundit blog about acetic acid and its wonderfully positive impact on moderating blood sugar. Seems that studies out of Japan and Italy show that if a small amount of white vinegar is eaten as part of a salad dressing alongside a moderately carb-heavy meal, the acetic acid in the vinegar works to slow down sugar absorption into the blood stream. Vinegar blocks the digestive enzymes that convert carbohydrates into sugar.

I use Bragg's Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. The flavor is very nice and not at all sharp.

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I like to know the "why" behind the traditional/sacred foods that the WAPF recommends. It's really amazing how traditional people groups instinctively understood the importance of certain foods without any scientific knowledge of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and/or amino and fatty acids. Nutritional research is revealing how wise these people groups were in their approach to eating for overall health and wellness, and this news on vinegar, acetic acid and fermented foods is part of that wisdom.

The Broccoli Harvest

2009-11-25T19:46:29Z

Really, we didn't plant that much broccoli. It was a partial tray, maybe 30 plants at the most. That's not a lot, right? It takes up so much space in the garden and it takes such a long time to mature, we didn't go all in on broccoli like we did on arugula and lettuces.

The broccoli plants themselves were huge but the floret crowns were still pretty small by comparison. I stopped watching them so closely because I figured I had a few weeks and then they'd be ready to cut.

Big mistake. The florets got really big, really quickly! I was just out strolling with the camera on Saturday and this is what I found.

There were several heads approximately this size. A couple of them had started to show yellow flowers indicating they were about to bolt and go to seed. Not the best flavor, so I wanted to cut these right away.

So I fired up the steamer pot and got busy with my preservation plan: steam and freeze.

I added a lemon and a half worth of fresh lemon juice to the boiling water before I lowered the steamer basket into place. The lemon juice preserves the bright green color but does not alter the taste at all.

I set the timer for 5 minutes, topped the pot with the tight fitting lid and went back to chopping up the next batch. When the timer went off, I pulled the steamer basket out and plunged the whole thing into the ice water-filled sink to stop the cooking process immediately.

After the broccoli completely chilled down, I spread it over a towel-covered sheet pan to dry off until I was through with the rest of the steaming. When the broccoli was as dry as I could get it without smashing it to bits, I transferred it to a parchment paper lined sheet pan and placed it flat into the freezer so the florets would freeze as separately as possible.

I let the broccoli freeze overnight and then transferred it to a gallon-sized resealable freezer bag. Mike is bribing me so that I'll make him some creamy broccoli and cheese soup. I am trying out a new recipe that is Weston A. Price-friendly, and I'll let you know how he likes it!

Look Ma! No Cavities!

2009-11-24T16:42:40Z

Just to dovetail nicely with all the incredible information I learned at the Weston A. Price conference earlier this month, I took all three of the boys to the dentist for a big-time check-up. In fact, for our youngest son, this was his first dentist visit ever. So I was braced for bad news, at least from one of the boys who I suspect is a casual brusher. ;)

What a wonderful surprise I received when all the x-rays and cleaning was complete: no cavities!

About 18 months ago, the two older boys each had at least one cavity, with the casual brusher coming in with two (molars in both cases). I was worried: should I buy a flouride rinse since we left the fluoridated water source when we moved to the farm and started to use well water?

I did not, in the end, get the rinse. I did continue giving them real raw milk to drink 3 times a day with every meal, and we cut way back on all kinds of fruit juice.

I believe that 2 years now of drinking real raw milk has worked to fortify the enamel on their teeth, saving us loads of money on fillings and saving them the pain and anxiety of dental work.

This little one has been on the good stuff from the beginning. It will be very interesting to see what the dentist says about her teeth once she's old enough to be checked out! Look at these chompers:

Learning More Nutrition: The Epic Journey Begins

2009-11-21T04:38:03Z

I didn't blog ahead of time about my planned trip to the Weston A. Price Foundation conference in Schaumburg, IL. I think I was afraid that if I let anyone know I was going, I would somehow jinx the trip. But the plans worked out, I made the flight and met up with a friend who decided to attend at the last minute.

I first learned about Dr. Price's research and the foundation that continues his work about four years ago. Sally Fallon started the foundation ten years ago to teach people about the value of what she calls the "sacred foods": foods that people groups ate throughout the ages to ensure good overall health and nourish the unborn babies and expectant mothers.

I'd purchased the textbook/cookbook, Nourishing Traditions , several years ago and I'd dabbled around with some of the recipes but had never made the switch to following her nutrition advice across the board. After attending this four-day conference, I have a new perspective on why I should radically change what I buy and how I cook it.

This first installment of my little diary on traditional foods will be short, just to get me and you in the hang of what I'm trying to accomplish. So what has been my first big transition to the Price way of eating?

I am taking Cod Liver Oil. And I am not a child. There, I admitted it.

I have been giving CLO to the kids now for several months. Actually, I started them on fish oil capsules several years ago and have (mostly) kept up with that routine. But the CLO is different: the brand that I'm using is fermented and the method of preparation preserves the natural vitamins A and D. Most fish oil and even regular cod liver oil is refined in an effort to remove as much of the fishy flavor as possible and in the process, the naturally-occuring vitamins are lost to heat. Synthetic vitamins are then added back in. I didn't want synthetic vitamins; I wanted the naturally-occurring kind that our bodies would assimiliate easily.

So that's my first step. And it's my goal to add a new phase of this way of eating into our family meal plan each week until everything is implemented.

You don't want to miss what I'm calling, "Liver Week"!

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Amendment to the Post: I had some requests for a link to the fermented cod liver oil we're taking. That would be a great thing to include since I'm making a product endorsement! (I usually have a rule that I don't write blog posts after 9pm b/c the possibilty for errors and general slackness increase dramatically as the day draws to a close, but I violated my own rule last night just to get this ball rolling.)

I also added a link to the Weston A Price website that wasn't included last night either. The foundation is rolling out a new website later this month that will greatly improve the readability of the material and add some interactive features. Bookmark it now and then around December 1st, the switch should be complete!

Arugula is Back!

2009-10-16T11:19:06Z

We will be at the Marietta Square Market tomorrow morning from 8-12 with lettuce so fresh, it hasn't even been picked yet this morning (red and green varieties that look like flower bouquets), fresh eggs, hot and sweet peppers, and lots of peppery arugula!

Everyone asked about arugula all summer long when it was too hot to grow it, and now that we've had all this cool wet weather, the arugula is bountiful and you won't believe the flavor!

Back at the Market this Saturday!

2009-10-02T01:14:09Z

The dry weather and glorious sunshine this week have helped our fall plantings stretch out and grow. As a result, we have lovely lettuces and arugula that are ready to harvest. The pepper plants are still loaded with bright red, purple and green sweet and hot peppers, and the okra forest is growing a little slower but still yielding quite nicely.

The hens are also loving this cooler weather and I have several dozen fresh eggs to sell as well.

We will be at the Marietta Square Farmers Market on Saturday, October 3, 8am-12 noon. Please come by early, before your soccer and football games get underway!

Want to live in the country?

2009-09-28T14:47:56Z

For all you city-dwellers who dream about moving to the country and becoming more self-sufficient, there's an auction coming up this Saturday you might be interested in attending.

Follow this link to see a few pictures of the four acres up for bid, and Jeff Potts at Potts Auction told me they'd be having an open house on the property on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 6:00 pm.

The property is in south Catoosa County, which is a very pretty place to live!

Sheila Lukins, R.I.P

2009-09-23T17:07:42Z

I was online looking for a recipe in the archives of Parade Magazine earlier this week when I discovered that one of my favorite cookbook authors of all time, Sheila Lukins, had passed away at the end of August.

Sheila was one of the first serious professional cooks I began to follow in college (mid-80's) when the gourmet food movement rolled out of NYC and California and started to make itself known in the South. She was the co-owner of a gourmet take-out store, The Silver Palate, in NYC that opened in the mid 70's and by 1982, she and co-owner, Julie Rosso, wrote a cookbook featuring their successful recipes from the store. The Silver Palate Cookbook is just a gem of a book. My college roommate, Sally, gave it to me for Christmas in 1985, when it was already on its third printing and the poor book looks like it's been torn top to bottom, I've used it so much.

The Mayonnaise recipe is my favorite, the Potato-Cheese Soup is so good, all of the salad dressings are note-worthy, and I first made the Raspberry Chicken recipe for Mike when we were dating (he loved it). The cookbook was re-released in 2007 on its 25th anniversary. Most cookbooks never make it to a second printing, much less an anniversary celebratory printing. Wow.

Today I am making the Decadent Chocolate Cake, in honor of my mom and in memory of Sheila Lukins, who played a significant role in my love of cooking and my love of eating good food. My best wishes to her family as they mourn her passing at a much-too-early age. I will miss her!

Crock-Pot Yogurt

2009-09-18T01:16:37Z

I have been making the most delicious homemade yogurt in my crock-pot for the last few weeks and it's so tasty and inexpensive, I find myself in danger becoming a homemade yogurt evangelist. You can do it! It's the best! You have to try it! (I have said all those things to different people in the last week alone. See what I mean?)

First, credit where it's due: I learned how to make homemade yogurt the easy way through this wonderful blog, A Year of Slow Cooking. The blog is authored by Stephanie O'Dea and her goal last year was to use her slow cooker every day of the year with a new recipe. The project was so successful that she landed a book contract and her cookbook, Make it Fast, Cook it Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking, published this spring. Pretty cool, huh?

Back to the yogurt. The recipe is so easy, you will.not.believe that it works so well. However, the total elapsed time to achieve liftoff is at least 12 hours, so start late afternoon if you want yogurt for breakfast the following morning.

You will need:

*One-half gallon milk

*1/2 C store-bought yogurt, which supplies the bacterial starter culture

Heat the milk on low in the crock-pot for 2 1/2 hours. Turn the heat off (leave the lid on tight) and set the timer for 3 hours. At the end of 3 hours, take two cups of the cooled milk out into a bowl and whisk in the 1/2 C of store-bought yogurt. Pour the mixture back into the crock-pot and whisk to mix the culture in thoroughly. Replace the lid, unplug the crock-pot, and then wrap a thick bath towel around the crock-pot and over the top to insulate the crock and slow the cooling process. Leave it all night long to work it's magic.

In your breakfast bowl, stir in some strawberry jam for a tastier version of a dairy case staple. The thickened consistency is quite similar to Stonyfield.

We use this in smoothies for afternoon snacks and I sweeten it with local raw honey after adding in frozen bananas and a splash of vanilla extract. The family lines up for large glasses and the boys wear their "Got Milk" moustaches with pride. (You must pronounce that word "moose-stash" if you want the whole experience.)

The next best part of this recipe? You make half a gallon of yogurt for less than $3.00. Compare that with $3.69-3.99 per quart for the retail fancy organic brands. Hmm, $8.00 per half gallon vs. $3.00. Tough call.

My personal spin on this after having made it now for several batches: if you choose to use a store-bought yogurt as the source of the culture, do not rely on private-label grocery store brands. The bacterial cultures are not strong enough to culture the whole half-gallon and you will wind up with a lot of whey (the yellowish liquid that sits on top of the yogurt.) Go ahead and splurge for a 6 oz. cup of Stonyfield plain (fat free is OK). I actually use the whole 6 oz. cup instead of just the 4 oz. half-cup the recipe calls for, and my final product is silky smooth without any liquid whey.

You can also buy live culture from a number of sources. I haven't done that yet but I plan to try it out as soon as I can place an internet order from the people at Cultures for Health.

Summer to Fall Transition

2009-09-07T02:17:16Z

Where has the summer gone? It seems like just last week we were harvesting our first heirloom tomatoes, yet on Friday I found myself pulling up the t-posts to clean up the tomato garden. The garden clean up is in preparation for what will be for our biggest fall crop planting ever. The plots not planted will be seeded in cover crop to replenish the soil.

Thanks for the wonderful feedback you've given us at the market this summer, and based on your comments (and your purchases) we've invested in what you've told us you want to buy and enjoy. So far, we have hundreds of heads of lettuce in the ground with a couple thousand more soon to be planted. In addition, we've planted some fall root crops like carrots, beets, turnips and radishes. Fall greens include cabbage, kale and collards, and the broccoli was such a great performer this spring that we are bringing it back and adding cauliflower. The arugula looks great and should be available in a couple of weeks.

Because I just can't seem to let go of summer, I am experimenting with some later than usual plantings of summer squash and french filet beans. It will be interesting to see how these crops grow and perform this late in the season. My friend, Mark Tant, from Tant Hill Farm tells me that the Farmers Almanac is calling for a warmer than usual fall - perfect!

Burns Best Farm is expanding into some new areas that we will write more about in future posts. The big news is that we have acquired our first piglets and we intend to raise and market this fine quality pork to our customers. We've had a lot of interest in this venture already because of the strong interest in locally grown pastured meats.

Lastly, we made the jump this summer into Facebook and we have a fan page for Burns Best Farm. If you are a Facebooker and want to keep track of special events on our fan page, or better yet, leave us comments that we know for sure we'll be able to access (don't get me started on blog comments on Moveable Type!), please join us there as we build a community of people who appreciate clean, locally grown food.

Until next time... keep buying local!

Mike

Marietta Market this week: Basil Anyone?

2009-08-27T04:34:42Z

We will be at the Marietta Square Farmers Market this Saturday morning with eggs, okra, melons, cherry tomatoes, haricot vert beans, and some lovely sweet and hot peppers.

I had a taker last week on the fresh basil for pesto and it worked out well. If you need a pound of basil (or more) in order to make pesto for freezer storage, please email me using the link on the left sidebar. If I hear from you before 5:00 on Friday, I will cut your Genovese Italian Basil to order and bring it to market for you to pick up.

As always, we appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Basil in Bulk

2009-08-20T17:40:42Z

Last summer marked my first attempt at saving basil seed from my own garden. It was easy and pretty rewarding, but the true test of whether or not seed saving works is germination the following year. So to hedge our bets, we bought a couple of new varieties this year and planted both the saved seed and the purchased seed close to the greenhouse where we could tend to it easily.

The saved seed germinated beautifully and has grown well, making me both proud and confident that I did it once and can do it again. The purchased seed also grew into very vigorous plants.

As a result of all this experimentation, I have lots and lots of beautiful basil. (**See my Marietta Farmers Market special offer at the bottom of this post.)

So with my bountiful harvest, I have been making pesto and freezing it for winter. I made a couple of batches last year and we really enjoyed it in January and February when there is no fresh basil to be had except at the grocery store for $2.50 for 2 ounces. I found these Ball #82000 5-Pk. 8-Oz. Plastic Freezer Jars that work perfectly for pesto and they are durable enough that I am using the same jars again this summer (frugality is my friend.)

Here is the super tasty recipe I pinched off the Food Network website (thank you Dave Lieberman):

5 big handfuls basil leaves (about 2 hefty bunches)

1/2 cup pine nuts or 3/4 cup walnuts (I toast them first)

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Juice of 1 small lemon

2 cloves garlic, peeled

Kosher salt

About 20 grinds freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients with 1/2 cup of the oil in a blender and blend. Gradually drizzle in the remaining 1/4 cup of oil until pesto is thick and smooth.

Yield: about 1 1/2 cups

I make two batches of this at a time in a blender or a Vitamix and then I pour about 3/4 cup of pesto into each plastic freezer jar. (You'll note that the larger recipe for Bow Tie Pasta with Chicken and Cherry Tomatoes calls for 3/4 cup, while the pesto recipe makes twice that much.) Two recipes of the pesto filled up five freezer jars when I made pesto on Monday.

Market Special: If you are one of my Saturday morning Marietta market customers and you'd like a pound of fresh basil for $10 (less than half the price of what you'd pay at the megamart for a similar amount, plus mine's organically grown!), please email me on the left sidebar of the blog and tell me to bring you a bag. A one-pound bag would easily make three batches if you follow the recipe above, which would allow you to put at least 7 servings of pesto in the freezer for a quick-thaw dinner option.