boogaj

Making Mozzarella

Stretching the cheese

I've had cheese making on my food project list for quite a while now, and this weekend when I mentioned that I was bored, Pete told me to make some cheese.  I didn't think I could find the supplies in town, but it turns out that there is a Brew & Grow not far from us and they had the 30 Minute Mozzarella kits in stock.

The kit -- you can get one at cheesemaking.com

As it turns out, making mozzarella is super easy!  From what I can gather, the one problem that can mess up your final product is over-processed milk.  Milk producers are now overheating their milk, even milk that is not labeled as ultra-pasteurized, so they can keep it on the shelf longer.  (Well, there is a lot more to it, but suffice it to say, this is yet another byproduct of the dysfunctional food system in this country.)  This messes up the proteins in the milk somehow which can cause your cheese to refuse to firm up. 

Finished cheese in an ice bath

If you are from the Chicago area, Oberweis milk is safe for cheese making -- that's what we used and it worked beautifully.  As you can see, my cheese set up, although I need a lot of practice with shaping  :)

Slices of our finished cheese -- yum!

One gallon of milk makes quite a bit of cheese, although I forgot to weigh the final product.  We've been eating it straight up, tossed with pasta and tonight Maddie and I are making homemade pizza.  It was a fun project and I'll definitely be making more cheese in the future.

Lime-Glazed Cookies from the Martha Stewart Cookies App

A while ago, I purchased the Martha Stewart Cookie App for my iPad.  Why?  Because I love her Cookies cookbook and I figured she'd do up this app the right way.  And it is super slick.  Just take a peek:

The recipes are easy to navigate, include lots of pretty photos and all kinds of extras like timers and technique videos.  (I know, this sounds like an advert, but I just really admire a beautiful app.)

So, I made the Lime-Glazed Cookies... and they were awesome!  So happy about this, because I would be super upset if the beautiful app didn't serve its purpose.

Yeah, Martha!  (Sorry your show got cancelled, btw, but really -- Hallmark Channel?  Who watches that?)

 

Kitchen Success!

Lots of baking and such in the kitchen yesterday.  First up we have Spiced Pecans from this wonderful recipe.

And homemade marshmallows -- or marshies, as we like to call them -- from Alton Brown's recipe. 

And finally, Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies -- based on this recipe, but obviously modified.

Today I wrap!

Donuts

I made donuts.  They were even the fried kind!

First of all, let me say that I was super scared to fry anything.  I tried frying once -- about 20 some years ago -- and burned myself pretty badly.  This time I made sure I had the right tools and lots of knowledge, and all went very well, indeed!  No accidents, no scary moments.  In fact, it wasn't even as messy as I thought it would be. 

I used this recipe and I'm sure it would have been awesome if I could have used regular flour, but I used my gluten free mix instead and they turned out too dense.  Don't get me wrong, we were chowing down on them -- especially when they were still hot!  Next time I need to cut back the flour, or increase the buttermilk, or something.  I think it would make a huge difference.

I see more frying in my future!

Gluten Free Thanksgiving

I made gluten free Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and I have to say, it went pretty well.  Of course we will all be going to my mom's on the actual Turkey day, but since there is a lot of gluten involved in the traditional meal, Maddie and I will be unable to truly stuff ourselves.

For our mini Thanksgiving I made a half turkey breast, stuffing (made with gluten free bread), mashed potatoes, gravy and fresh cranberry sauce.  The turkey cooked in about 1 1/2 hours and was quite moist for being just white meat, and the stuffing was reminiscent of my mom's stuffing, although not as good.

As for the cranberry sauce -- make your own if you have 10 minutes to spare.  Really, that's all it takes and I think it's quite a bit beter than that canned stuff.  Here's what you do... get a bag of cranberries, boil a cup of water + a cup of sugar.  Add the cranberries, bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.  The cranberries will pop, so may I suggest one of those spatter screens.

One bag of cranberries resulted in this much sauce -- enough for our mini gluten free Thanksgiving, a small jar for the freezer and another jar to take to my mom's for Thanksgiving.

Oh, and remember that lemon curd I made?  I made some mini gluten free scones and we ate them this past weekend too.  Super yummy!

Being Festive & Fall-ish

 

Maddie's pumpkin is on the far left, Pete's is in the foreground and mine is 5th from the left.

This was my pumpkin all lit up.

Friday night was our annual pumpkin carving contest at my mom's house.  I was super excited to win 2nd place!  I usually never get any votes (except for the occasional sympathy vote from Pete), so I was shocked to be in the running this year.

I also had some baking time this weekend, so I made some awesome peanut butter sandwich cookies.  I based them off some recipes that all led back to Thomas Keller's Nutter Butter Cookie recipe.  I used more peanut butter than butter (and salt -- which is not listed in the one recipe?!?) and had to make them GF, of course.  They are super yummy!

And last night I made Broccoli Cheddar soup -- the one that was on the cover of Food Network Magazine.  I have to say that the recipes from the Food Network Kitchen are usually a winner, so I'm guessing they are well tested.  I actually have better luck with these recipes than some from the network's "chef stars".  Be warned though, they say this soup can be made in 35 minutes, and that is just not true.  Even with Pete helping with potato peeling and clean up, it took about double that amount of time.  It was yummy though.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

I am in serious love with this cookbook.  It's called Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home and although I've owned it for less than a week, I've already made three recipes from it.

 
First there was Homeyed Peanut Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Freckles.  So delicious!!  Rich, creamy and flavorful.

The next day I made Lemon Frozen Yogurt for my girl, who loves lemony things as much as me.  As an added bonus -- Pete loved it and said it tasted a lot like cheesecake.

Today I made Salty Caramel Ice Cream (actually darker than this photo -- more caramel colored) which I just tasted, and it's amazing.

While you will dirty quite a few dishes while making these recipes, the process is simple and pretty much fool proof.  I had no difficulties whatsoever, and will be trying more flavors form the book in the future. 

If you have a home ice cream maker, you really need to check out this book.  I've tried a lot of different recipes, and none have resulted in ice cream this good.  Heck, better than good -- awesome!

Makin' Ginger Ale

The Sodastream thingy seems to be all the rage right now and having made soda from scratch previously (with yeast and all that), I was interested.  Then I saw the price and size of them.  I'm one of those people who do not like things out on the counter, and there are only so many kitchen gadgets that I can fit in the cabinets.

Then, while shopping at one of my favorite stores -- Williams-Sonoma -- I saw the Twist 'n Sparkle from iSi.  It's smaller -- just the bottle and wand, it uses standard soda chargers, and it's relatively inexpensive at $50.  And since I happened to have a gift certificate in said amount to said store -- it came home with me.

Yesterday I brewed up some ginger syrup, so that I could make my own ginger ale.  All you do is peel and slice some ginger -- I didn't measure or weigh the ginger this time, but rather used the piece I happened to grab at the grocery.  I'm sure it ended up being less than a cup.

I added a cup of sugar and two cups of water and simmered this mixture for about an hour. After it cooled slightly, I strained it and transferred it to a bottle and put it in the fridge to chill.

Don't toss that ginger!  You can use can dredge it in some sugar and put in a cool oven (225º) for a couple hours and you'll have some tasty candied ginger as a bonus!

To make the ginger ale, I took a tall glass, added about 3 Tbsp of the chilled ginger syrup, squeezed in a quarter of a lime, filled with carbonated water -- made in my new toy -- and topped it off with ice.  Very refreshing, and not too sweet.  I'm looking forward to making more sodas soon.

Strawberry Adventure

Yesterday I dropped Maddie off at camp and went to a little farm called Olive Berry Acres just outside Mazon, IL -- about an hour drive from my town.  It wasn't a bad drive, and after about 20 minutes I lost NPR and drove in silence -- admiring the countryside.

  Upon arriving at the farm I was given a little bucket and I went out into the strawberry field.  There were plenty of berries and I had a full pail in no time.

After driving home, I washed the berries in a big tub -- and hulled them...

And let me tell you a secret -- if you have a lot of strawberries to hull, use a grapefruit spoon.  Is this common knowledge?  Because I was looking through my kitchen drawers, trying to think of something that would make this long boring job a bit quicker.  I saw the grapefruit spoon and decided to give it a try and it was totally the right tool for the job. 

After that there was jam making and canning.  (Oops -- no jam making photos.  Had my hands full at the time.)

Then lunch -- which was eaten at about 3PM, at which time I was very hungry, indeed! 

Seven jars put up and one in the fridge -- a busy day, but totally worth it.  I'm looking forward to raspberry season.

Rose Petal Jam

This morning I logged on and checked a few blogs in my feed reader -- once again coming upon a post about Rose Petal Jam from Norma.  For some reason that I cannot explain, I decided then and there that today I would make this jam, because if Norma keeps making it year after year, it has to be good.

We have three main rose varieties.  First the big, old rose bush that was here when we bought the house:

Then there are the roses we planted on the side of the house -- which looked pretty bad last year, but seem to be doing well so far this Spring:

And finally, the most recent addition is in the back corner of the yard, which is somewhat shady, so they are not flowering yet.  (Ooooh!  Maybe that means I can make more jam later this summer!)

I used a mix of the two that are flowering at the moment, and when I mixed them up in the blender...

Love that color! 

The entire process was very easy, quick and painless.  And I discovered another reason to love my new dishwasher -- the "sanitize" feature!  So easy to get canning jars ready by running them through that cycle.

I ended up with a pretty good supply.  Considering there are only 3 of us, this should last a while.  And isn't it so pretty?

A note on the flavor.  Norma described it as "Summer on a spoon," and I would have to agree.  I'm sure the variety of rose determines the flavor to a certain extent, and mine really did taste a bit like the petals smelled.  I bit floral, a little like ripe berries and a pop of brightness from the lemon.  Highly addictive!

Spaghetti alla Carbonara & GF Chocolate Chip Cookies

We all love the new kitchen and find ourselves hanging out there quite a bit -- not something we did in the old kitchen.  I've also been enjoying my new range -- especially after cooking meals for six weeks using only a microwave, toaster oven and rice cooker.

This weekend I baked up a batch of gluten free chocolate chip cookies.  My recipe is nearly perfected, and I'll be posting it over at my other website soon.  Let's just say that Pete has mentioned that they might even be better then chocolate chip cookies made with regular AP flour, so there you go.

And last night I made something I've never tried before because I thought it was too easy to mess up -- Spaghetti alla Carbonara.  And it was not difficult at all.  Plus, one of the few ingredients is bacon -- so of course everyone liked it. 

I really need to mention the new non-stick pan I bought about a week back.  My old non-stick pan was looking pretty bad -- you know how it is.  It was definitely past it's prime.  After a bit of research, I decided on a Scanpan and I am loving it!  I bought mine at Sur la Table (love this store *so* much!)  It works beautifully, cleans up easily and doesn't have PFOAs, so it's non-toxic.  Oh, and did I mention that the non-stick coating is supposed to last ages -- they have a lifetime warranty.  Crazy, huh?  I'm hoping I'll never have to throw out another non-stick pan. 

Sort of Irish

I've got a good bit of Irish in me from my Mom's side and growing up I remember her making Corned Beef and Cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.  When I grew up and moved out, I really missed eating this every year, so I eventually decided to try making it myself.  It's actually super simple, but you have to cook it a *long* time.  Most recipes seem to recommend 2 - 2 1/2  hours, but I think you need to simmer the meat for close to 4 hours.

I also attempted a Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread (which I based on the one here) and it turned out pretty well.  In fact, I'm off to go toast a piece...

The License Plate State Game

How do you pass the time on a long car ride?  We had about 32 driving hours to kill on our vacation, and while I drove most of them (Mainly due to car sickness -- it's much better when I drive and much worse when I'm a passenger.  And don't even think of sitting me in the back seat!), it was still boring after a while. 

Enter the License Plate State game!  Each of us made a guess as to how many states we would see -- cars and other passenger vehicles count -- no semis!  Maddie kept track, thus learning her state abbreviation.  On the drive down to South Carolina I won, so I got a prize:

I use my Le Creuset French Oven and Stockpot all the time, so the Le Creuset Soup Pot it was!  A bit smaller than the French Oven, which is perfect for our little family of three.  Thank goodness the Le Creuset outlet was open early Saturday morning when we drove past!

I won on the way home too -- so I guess I have another prize coming.  I think I'll combine two of my loves -- video games and knitting -- and purchase Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Wii when it comes out next week.

Tomorrow I show off my recently completed quilt!

Ode to an Onion

Today I made turkey stock.  I get turkey necks at the farmers market from time to time and they make awesome stock.  You just throw about 3 lbs of them into a stockpot with about 14 cups of water, a teaspoon of salt, a couple carrots, a few smashed garlic cloves and some onion or shallots.  You can also throw in other veggies and herbs.  I went out to the garden and got some thyme, rosemary and oregano and threw those in there.  The house smells wonderful and my freezer is now full of stock.

Since I have all this stock, tonight is risotto night -- which takes 4-6 cups of the stuff.  For the risotto I also need an onion or a couple of shallots.  Unfortunately I used all my shallots on the stock, so back out to the garden...

I dug up an onion thinking it was going to be bad.  We had a weird summer -- too much rain early on and too much dry heat late in the season.  I didn't actually think the onions were any good.  I dug one up, brought it in, washed it off and peeled the outer layers off.  Isn't it gorgeous?    I love it when the garden gives me just what I need -- twice in one day!

I Love Food

In the aftermath of the garage sale, I decided to forget about tidying up the remaining, mostly empty, boxes and instead got down to cooking and baking. 

Since I had buttermilk left over from the red velvet cupcakes we made earlier this week (sans red food dye), I did a quick web search and found this tasty looking Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from Gourmet.  Now, you can probably see that I didn't use raspberries -- I had blueberries and so that is what I subbed.  It is easy, delicious and a recipe I imagine I'll be using again and again in the future.

For dinner we had brown rice & black beans topped with an egg over easy (yes, really -- an egg) and some salsa verde.  Yummy and healthy comfort food.  But of course, this photo is of homemade granola.  I know I posted a granola recipe a while back, but this is my new and improved granola.  I'll post the details on a day when I'm not so tired and cranky.

Oops!  I didn't think to take a photo of my delicious lunch until it was all gone.  Mango smoothies (lassi) are all the rage in our house right now.  I cut up one mango, added some honey, oj, yogurt and ice, blended until smooth and we drank them down right quick.  I really need to make more smoothies.

Now off to IKEA to check out their new goodies and grab some Swedish meatballs -- with lingon, of course! -- for din din.

Of thrifting and kitchen gadgets...

First let me just say that last weekend was not a very good thrifting weekend, however, I did find this great Jamie Oliver cookbook called Jamie's Kitchen for only $1.  I'm a sucker for beautiful cookbooks and this one is that, but it also has some great, doable recipes.  In fact, last night I made a pasta recipe from it using my own homegrown Amish Paste tomatoes and it was easy, quick and super delicious. 

So, what I'm trying to say, is that what my thrifting lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality.

I also have to mention the awesome Italian Tomato Press I picked up yesterday (and used last night to make the pasta sauce!)  Last year I spent way too much time peeling and seeding plum tomatoes by hand.  A task  which I did not enjoy in the least.  This nifty gadget separates the seeds and skin from the tomatoes and spits each out into it's own bowl.  *So* much easier!  And it was very easy to clean the press which is a plus.  Great investment for me for sure. 

Okay, singing the praises of the tomato press totally makes me think about the other awesome kitchen gadget I bought this year -- a gadget I love and am so happy I purchased -- the Oxo Corn Stripper. Maddie has braces and this has made life much easier! Quick, easy, so much less messy than cutting sweet corn off the cob with a knife -- plus the thing is very easy to clean.

Yes, I have a sickness. I am completely unable to resist a good kitchen tool. What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?

What do you do with over 7lbs of blueberries?

First, let me just say that it didn't seem like I had very many blueberries in my bucket when I was out in the field yesterday morning picking berries.  I mean, there were people with TWO full buckets and mine was just about half full.  However, when I got them home and started cleaning and processing them, I was shocked at the amount I had.  What are the people with two full buckets doing with all those berries?

At any rate, my 7+lbs nearly did me in.  First I picked over (removing those pesky little stem bits) and washed about half of them, laid them out to dry and froze them in batches -- in a single layer, so they wouldn't stick together.  I'll have enough berries for pancakes, muffins and such for a good long time.

Next I pulled out my blueberry crisp recipe and baked up a pan.  This stuff is seriously tasty, especially with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream on top -- try it!

Then this morning, I made up a batch of blueberry jam, using the recipe from Jan Berry's Art of Preserving.  The recipe worked beautifully and I think it's going to taste great with yogurt.

 

There are still blueberries in the fridge for snacking, can you even believe it?  Guess I had plenty in my bucket after all!

Lemon Granita

 

So yesterday after the dreaded dental appointment, I made this wonderful and surprisingly easy lemon granita.  It's like lemon flavored snow!  So light and fresh.  I declare this the summer of granitas.

If you want to try it, pop on over to The Pioneer Woman Cooks for the recipe.

Homemade French-style Custard Ice Cream

It would be nice if I had a photo to post here, but I have been very lax with the camera lately -- and besides, you know what vanilla ice cream looks like, right?

One of my all time favorite activities is to choose a food project to tackle over the weekend, and this past weekend I decided to try making custard style ice cream.  I had made ice cream quite a few times before, but while we liked it straight out of the ice cream maker, the leftovers always seemed to linger in the freezer until I finally decided to toss them.  The "easy" to make ice cream recipes that I had always attempted involved mixing cream, milk and sugar together and then throwing it in the ice cream maker.  The results were somewhat hard and maybe a bit icy after freezing. 

A while back I purchased David Lebiovitz's The Perfect Scoop, which is filled with amazing recipes, but I had this fear of making custard which prevented me from trying the french-style ice creams.  I think it's something about cooking the eggs, and the possibility of creating scrambled eggs instead of something smooth and creamy.  I do like that This book takes you step by step through the egg tempering and cooking process -- which I do prefer to making ice cream with raw eggs (which I have tried without a great deal of success -- plus that whole raw egg worry).

So, long story, short -- I tried it and it was super easy!  In fact, it hardly took any time at all -- or rather, hardly any working time.  Mostly you heat things a bit and then wait for them to steep/cool/process in the machine/freeze.

The results were incredibly good and miles better than the non-egg, non-cooked kind I had made in the past.  If you've ever been a bit worried about trying this style of ice cream, check out this book and give his method a try.  

All kinds of Pesto

Did you know that you can make pesto using all kinds of herbs?  In the past two weeks, I've made both cilantro pesto and parsley pesto.  It's the perfect use for those leftover herbs -- especially cilantro and pesto which come in huge bundles at the grocery. 

For the cilantro pesto I skipped the parmiggiano, used walnuts instead of pine nuts and added a bit of lime juice.  It was a great coating for steamed salmon.

The parsley pesto was made almost exactly like regular basil pesto (great recipe here), but I subbed parsley for the basil, I used walnuts (yes, I have half a bag left over from holiday baking that I'm trying to use up) and I added some lemon zest.  I used this pesto variation on spaghetti noodles -- just add a little reserved pasta cooking water to get a nice creamy sauce. 

I hate wasting food and I'm finding that this "pesto" thing is really working for me.  I just can't wait until I'm using fresh herbs for my own garden instead of store bought.

Molcajete Guacamole

I received a genuine molcajete for my birthday and while initially I was skeptical about needing a very heavy mortar and pestle, one batch of guacamole changed my mind completely.  

To make incredible guacamole, you add onion, peppers, tomato, lime juice and salt, them start smashing it up.

Then add avocado and cilantro, and smash some more.

Put it in the fridge to chill (with a piece of plastic wrap smashed against it, so the guac doesn't turn brown) and meanwhile juice a few limes for homemade margaritas.  Yum!

Chi Style 'Za

I make homemade pizza all the time, but it's always thin crust cooked at high heat on the pizza stone.  I'd been wanting to try a homemade (non-greasy, more healthy) version of Chicago style pizza for ages, but with a family of 3, and most recipes making a HUGE pizza, I hesitated.  Then last week I happened upon this recipe at Annie's Eats which calls for using a 9in. cake pan for a pizza that was just the right size.

 

The recipe was simple and while it does take a long time to make, most of the time is spent waiting for dough to rise.  I used less cheese than called for and added less oil to the sauce, so this was definitely not greasy.  If I make it again, I think I'll try to sub semolina for the cornmeal in the crust as I found it didn't hydrate completely and was slightly gritty.

 

One thing I loved was the rise on the crust -- light and flavorful, not at all dense and heavy (like I've had on some deep dish pizza).  The dough was even with the edge of the pan before baking and you can see how much it rose during baking.

Everyone loved the pizza and I can see making this in the summer when our tomatoes ripen.  A real winner!

Coveting -- Moleskine Passions

The Moleskine Passions Recipe Journal looks awesome and would resolve some of my messy recipe collection issues.

Homemade Baked Egg Rolls

The other night for some reason I decided I wanted to make egg rolls from scratch.  I'd never done it before, so I went browsing on the web and cobbled together a recipe.  This is the kind of thing that is completely customizable as far as ingredients go, so it's very flexible.  Because it was super easy, and Pete ate 6 of them in one sitting, I'm sure I'll be making them again.  In fact, I had extra ingredients so I made more the next day and froze them.  (I haven't tried thawing and baking them yet, so I'm not sure what the results will be, but I'm hopeful!)

BoogaJ's Customizable Egg Rolls

1 package of egg roll wrappers
I bag of slaw mix (cabbage and grated carrot -- you can cut this up yourself if you don't want to use bagged)
fresh ginger (you can use powdered, but fresh is so good!)
garlic
soy sauce
corn starch
oil

Add ins:  mushrooms, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, other veggies, shrimp, chicken, pork, etc. . .

Put about 1 Tbsp of oil in a pan and heat on medium heat.  Add things that need to cook longest first -- meat, veggies, etc.  Add finely minced or grated garlic and ginger to taste.  For a full batch I recommend 2 cloves of garlic and at least a tsp. of fresh ginger.  Next add the bag of slaw mix and drizzle with soy sauce (a few Tbsp. should be enough) and allow it to wilt down, stirring frequently to mix all ingredients.  After about 5 minutes it should be wilted and you may have a bit of liquid in the bottom of the pan, so sprinkle on a little corn starch (maybe a tsp. or 2)  and stir, cooking for another minute or two until sauce thickens.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Once the mixture is cool enough to work with, get out your wrappers.  Take one and spoon a couple heaping Tbsp. of filling onto the center.

Next, you want to fold up the corner closest to you and fold in the two sides.  It will look like an envelope.

Than start rolling.  Make sure you moisten the top corner so that the egg roll seals.

Once you do a couple, it is super simple and quite quick.  After they are all wrapped, set them on a baking sheet -- I lined mine with parchment -- and brush them with a little oil.  Bake at about 400 degrees for about 18-20 minutes, flipping them over halfway through cooking.  Serve with your favorite sauce. 

Cooking with all things Trader Joe's

A while back I mentioned how much I love Trader Joe's and next thing you know, a friend gave me a contact and Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's landed on my doorstep!

If you too love Trader Joe's, I highly recommend this book.  I have a habit of marking recipes I want to make with little mini sticky notes and look at what happened after a first look through this book:

That is a lot of sticky notes!  Some of the recipes I marked:

• Peanutty Sesame Noodles
• Pasta alla Checca
• Black Bean Soup
• California Fish Tacos
• Dress to Impress Lobster Ravioli
• Frozen Tiramisu
• Sangria
• Almond Pudding
• Mushroom Basil Frittata

And that's just some of what I marked.  The recipes don't use a ton of ingredients and look very simple to throw together.  What a great resource for us TJ fans!

Homemade Mayo

I hate buying mayo -- we almost never use it so most of the jar gets thrown away and I know the store stuff has crazy stabilizers in it (and who knows what else!)  So yesterday when I needed some mayonnaise for the crab cakes I was making, I decided to whip some up from scratch.

I searched around on the internet and found lots of recipes and tips.  I ended up using just 5 ingredients:  egg yolk, lemon juice, water, salt and oil.  Basically you just put the yolk, lemon juice (or another acid like vinegar) water and salt in a bowl and whisk it up, then *very* slowly add the oil while whisking.

It wasn't difficult at all and the taste is incredible -- so much better than the store bought stuff.  There is raw egg yolk in there, so use those pasteurized eggs if you worry about such things.

Add this to the list of things I should have done ages ago.  From now on it's fresh mayo for me!

Trader Joe's Love

I love Trader Joe's.  Unfortunately there isn't one in my town, so I travel a few towns over (usually at least 2 hours round trip) just so I can shop there.  I love that so many of their products are free of HFCS and hydrogenated fats, they have wonderful seasonal produce, including many organics, and a good selection of naturally raised meat and dairy products. 

A recent family favorite is the carnitas which we eat with beans, rice and the TJ's Verde Salsa.  And leftovers can be used in quesedillas or mixed with bbq sauce for a delicious sandwich. I'm sure if you shop at Trader Joe's, you have some favorite produts.  Please let me know what there are and how you use them! 

Homemade Pasta & Sauce

Over the weekend I picked quite a few Amish Paste tomatoes and while some of them went into salsa, the bulk of them were used to make tomato sauce.  When I thought about what pasta I wanted to pair the sauce with, I figured this was as good a time as any to pull out the pasta maker.  After all, the fresh light taste of the simple sauce deserved a flavorful pasta.

Making pasta is ridiculously easy and I have no excuse for my laziness in this area.  It's so easy to pick up a cheap bag of pasta at Trader Joe's -- and their pasta is pretty good -- but nothing compares to fresh made.

For the recipes for both the sauce and pasta, I turned to Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.  I find that I'm using this book all the time as it is a great reference which gives you simple, basic recipes and then allows you the freedom to alter those recipes to your hearts content.  Just the way I like to cook.  Really, I feel like this is the Betty Crocker Cookbook of this day and age and I can't recommend it highly enough.

So, back to the pasta and sauce.  The last thing I want to say is how fun it was.  I had pulled something in my back, so everyone helped out with the noodle making and I believe it made sitting down to the meal that much more enjoyable.  If you are interested in seeing a noodle making session in photos, let me know!  I didn't have the camera handy this time, but am certain I will be making noodles again soon.

Garden Harvest

A view of the garden from my kitchen window -- Pete and Maddie are in the background harvesting a carrot. . .

 

(Yes, he is happy to see you -- he he.)  We had very few carrots come up and I guess I was too lazy to do a second planting, but at least we have a few.  And I only need one for the pasta sauce I'm making tomorrow.

 

And since the tomatoes are finally turning red, I decided to make some garden salsa.  Luckily we still have a few jalapenos ripening, so I was able to throw a couple of those in there too. 

Julie's Garden Salsa

3 medium sized tomatoes, diced
2 jalapenos, finely diced, seeds removed (unless you like it hot!)
1/2 of a small red onion, finely diced
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, finely diced or run through a garlic press
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt to taste
Cilantro, chopped

Just combine everything, stir well and taste. Add more of whatever you think it needs.

My salsa is a bit lacking because my cilantro has already gone to seed and the grocery didn't stock cilantro (?!?) but no matter, gotta make do with what you have.

My Favorite Cooking & Baking Blogs

Speaking of cooking, I subscribe to a growing number of cooking and baking blogs.  Over the years, I've come to rely on some of them for their wonderful recipes and I want to share them with you (but only if you promise to leave me the names of your favorite food blogs!)

• Simply Recipes -- Elise's recipes are wonderful and have never failed me.  She rarely calls for exotic ingredients and I have learned to look in her archives for a recipe before searching throughout the internets. Why she doesn't have a cookbook out yet, I do not know.
• The Pioneer Woman Cooks -- I was drawn in by the beautiful photography depicting ranching life on her main blog, but was quickly sucked into her cooking site.  Her photography of each step in a recipe is fabulous and her commentary is always witty.  And get this, she has a cookbook coming out in October called The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.
• Bitten -- Mark Bittman's website.  But haven't I already raved enough about him?
• David Lebovitz -- His blog, subtitled "living the sweet life in Paris", is always a good read.  Not only are you guaranteed to learn something, but also come away craving some of his wonderful creations.  I have and love his book Perfect Scoop and I'm dying to get my hands on his new book -- The Sweet Life in Paris.

Other food sites of note:

• Joy the Baker
• Smitten Kitchen
• Baker's Banter

I'm sure I'm missing many good foodie blogs, so please let me know which are your favorites! 

Pesto, Sun Dried Tomatoes and a Wedge of Parmesan

It would be nice if I had a photo to share here, but I don't, so let me set the scene. . .  Me in the kitchen spooning some gorgeous dark red sun dried tomato basil pesto onto steaming penne.  Here's the crazy part -- I made the pesto (using my own homegrown basil, no less).

Why do I say this is shocking?  Well, I had heard of pesto before -- even eaten it in fancy cafes and restaurants, but had no thought of using it in my own kitchen until a couple years ago. 

Revelation!!!  Pesto is awesome and should be used with reckless abandon.  In fact, I went from purchasing pre-made pesto to making my own to then growing my own huge patch of basil so I could make it virtually all summer long.  It is so much more awesome fresh.

A couple weeks ago I went completely crazy and purchased my first jar of sun dried tomatoes.  What I would do with them, I wasn't sure, but the whole pesto thing went well, so it was time to add a new ingredient to my repertoire.  I made a sun dried tomato and goat cheese pasta last week, but had more than half a jar left over, so I went searching on the internets as I am wont to do.

I found a recipe that combined my love for pesto with sun dried tomatoes -- Sun Dried Tomato Pesto.  I looked in my fridge and realized that all the pre-grated Parmesan I had was moldy already (I just opened it last week -- argh) so I decided it was time to take another plunge -- I bought a big chunk of Parmesan.  As a result, I will be grating my own from now on since it's something like 100 times better tasting than pre-grated. 

Why do I wait so long to do these things?  Well, I guess sometimes you have to take baby steps in the kitchen.  I'm changing things up one ingredient at a time and loving it -- and isn't that what cooking and eating is really all about?

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto (adapted from this recipe)

Get out the food processor and throw in:

A large handful of basil leaves
A big clove or two small cloves of garlic
About 1/4 c. of sun dried tomatoes (with the oil)
About 1/4 c. Freshly ground Parmesan
A little less than 1/4 c. pine nuts
A pinch of some good salt
A pinch of some freshly ground pepper
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Pulse a few times, scrape down sides and pulse again. If the mixture is too thick, which it probably will be, add a little olive oil while the food processor is running. The sauce will be thick -- almost like a paste, but you don't want it too dry. Now taste it -- you must do this. If something stands out, add something else. For instance, mine tasted very tangy from the sun dried tomatoes at first, so I added a little more Parmesan and that did the trick.

Cook your pasta and before you drain it, reserve about a cup of the cooking liquid. This is important because the pesto will be too thick to make a good sauce. Now throw the pasta and pesto together and stir, adding some of the cooking water until you get a nice sauce that coats the pasta.

This made enough pasta for three of us, but the recipe is easily altered to make more or less depending on your needs. And if you make too much pesto, no problem! It's great on bread, eggs, sandwiches, etc.

Oh -- and the almost 9 year old loved it, so I would say this is a kid friendly dish.

Jalapeno Crop

I planted a few jalapeno plants on a whim and they ended up being real winners in the garden -- tons of peppers from only 3 plants.  So what to do with so many jalapenos? I searched around on the internet for some recipes and decided to try PW's Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies which I would hignly recommend. They were easy, tasty and filling (they were, in fact, dinner).

Do you have any jalapeno recipes?  I have plenty more peppers on the way.

Pickles from our Picklers

As part of the garden project for this summer, I planted two varieties of pickles -- a pickler and a regular, fresh eating type. The picklers went crazy and before I could figure out if they were ripe, a bunch went from immature to overripe in a week. I salvaged about 3 of them, and while they appeared to be a bit seedy, I decided to forge ahead and can a couple pints. At least we'll know if the flavor is good and will be able to adjust future batches.

These are simple to make -- slice up your cukes and place them in a jar with a garlic clove and a tsp. of dill seeds (important -- last year I used plain dill and it wasn't right. You either need dill heads, which are dill that's going to seed, or just pick up a jar of dill seeds and use those.) Then bring a vinegar, water and salt (non-iodized) to a boil on the stove. Use one cup of water, one cup of vinegar and one Tbsp. of salt for each pint you'll be canning. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the pickles in the jars, screw on lids and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I think you need to let these sit for several days so the brine can penetrate the pickles. Maybe we'll crack open the first jar this weekend and give them a taste. In the meantime, I'm keeping a close eye on the sneaky picklers, so I don't lose anymore to over ripeness.

Vanilla Simple Syrup Tutorial

Yesterday I made Vanilla Simple Syrup for use in my daily latte and you can make it too because it is ridiculously easy.

First you need something to store it in -- I used this awesome and cheap glass bottle that I purchased at IKEA. It was only $2.99 which makes me giggle because I just saw the same bottle in a fancy catalog for twice as much.

For flavoring I used a vanilla bean which could probably be replaced by vanilla extract, but I really recommend the bean. I purchased mine -- which came in this great test tube packaging -- at Penzeys Spices. These are the Mexican Vanilla Beans (as opposed to Madagascar) which are perfect paired with coffee.

Next you just want to cut that bean down the middle. Really, that's the hardest part of this whole process.

Then just throw that vanilla bean in the clean bottle and make sure you have a funnel standing by. You may want to set this on a towel because if you are like me, there will be some spillage.

Now just locate a saucepan, sugar and water. For beverages you want to use a 1:1 ratio. I used 2 c. sugar and 2 c. water. You'll notice that it looks brownish -- that's because I like organic sugar that hasn't been processed to within an inch of it's life so it has some color to it. Regular, white granulated sugar would work here too, as would brown sugar.

Now all you do is turn up the heat and cook the sugar-water mixture until it starts to boil gently. It's that easy. As you can see, it will change from being cloudy to clear as the sugar becomes fully dissolved. Once this happens, the sugar won't fall out of the solution, so no gritty bits on the bottom of your beverage!

I recommend that you let the simple syrup cool a bit in the pan before you pour it into the bottle so that you don't burn yourself or crack the bottle. After bottling mine, I left it out to cool overnight and put it in the fridge the next morning.  I'm not sure if it is necessary, but I figure refrigerating it can't hurt.  This morning I added it to my cofee and it was delicious! Sweet and mellow with a nice strong vanilla flavor. Why I never made this before, I have no idea.

I have a little crush. . .

on Mark Bittman. In case you don't know who he is, let me first direct you to his blog -- Bitten -- which is in *no way* related to vampires (sorry to disappoint). No, he's a food writer for the NYTimes.

And he's awesome.

A few years ago when my love of food, cooking & health led me to an exploration of organic, local, and seasonal eating, I bumped into the writing of Mark Bittman.  I purchased his award winning book, How To Cook Everything, started reading his blog and recently purchased his new book -- Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes. While you might call this a cookbook, there is an extensive discussion of food policy and it's affect on all of us in the first half of the book which flows almost seamlessly into the "recipe" section.

The discussion is thought provoking and just might change your eating habits. He makes an excellent argument for eating less meat and more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. If you've been thinking about these things, as I have, I think you will enjoy reading this book.

Then there are the recipes. Bittman is the kind of no nonsense cook that I identify with. He gives you the feeling that cooking isn't some big, difficult task, but rather a simple, enjoyable part of life that need not be stressful. He encourages you to throw together the best, freshest ingredients you can find and relax. These aren't complex recipes that require you to go out and purchase fancy ingredients, instead he gives you a blueprint for making do with what you have.

For example, in the "basics" section he explains how to cook just about any veggie, any way -- in less than three pages. Then he teaches you how to make a basic vinaigrette, cook pretty much any grain without fuss, and make a pot of beans. He includes customizable recipes for salsa, tomato sauce, stock, bread and so much more.

This is a wonderful guide to eating and thinking about what we eat, and if you can't get enough, I recommend his book How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food which I have any use all the time. It is an excellent resource that I find invaluable.

Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it and other cooking projects

Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And Other Cooking Projects by Karen Solomon is a book so awesome that I was freaking out as I looked through it. Seriously.

So how did I come across this amazing book? Well, I'm a library patron -- one of those people who wander the isles plucking random books from the shelves. I occasionally look up a book in the catalog, but I find a good 90% of the books I check out by hunting and gathering. This week my interests leaned toward preserving, canning and cheese making, so I hit the 641.4 section. This book called out to me when I saw the beautiful cover -- a quick page through it revealed equally lovely photos, so I brought it home.

When I sat down I noticed the subtitle -- "and other cooking projects" -- and knew this was going to be good. I *love* food projects -- making bear, soda, jam, bread, pickles, and so on. When I opened to the first section I was super excited to see cracker recipes -- well, one basic recipe with a bunch of variations. Since I almost always alter recipes, a book with variations makes me happy. And since I've been wanting to get away from processed foods and Pete loves crackers -- this is one recipe I've been looking for.

Condiments are covered next -- infused oils, salad dressings, ketchup, mayo -- all things I want to try my hand at. Then comes pickles and olives, which is wonderful since I'm growing pickling cucumbers and some of them are nearing ripeness.

The next section made me think the author was writing the book just for me, as it includes basic pasta dough, tomato sauce and ravioli (and more). Since we are mostly vegetarian, we tend to eat a lot of pasta and I've been wanting to make fresh pasta with Maddie.

The next couple of sections are for the meat eaters -- cured, smoked, dried, etc. fish and meat. I have to admit, I'm tempted to try her recipe for homemade bacon.

Section 7 is all about butter and cheese. OMG! I was actually looking for this book when I stumbled upon Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It. Recipes include butter and compound butters, queso blanco, ricotta and ricotta salata.

Section 8 is Preserves, curds and fruit butters. And section 9 is called "Sugar It". This section includes a recipe I've been meaning to make for ages -- marshmallows. She thoughtfully includes a recipe for graham crackers too, so you can get some smore action going. And I have to mention the fruit leather recipe because Maddie has been asking to make homemade fruit leathers for the last couple weeks. (Seriously, does the author know me?) In keeping with the sweet theme, section 10 include recipes for all sorts of popsicles, including chocolate fudge pops and burnt salted caramel icies.

Section 11 is all about candy making and includes some yummy looking peppermint patties, toffee and peanut butter cups -- Pete's favorite.

Since I've been meaning to try making flavored vodka, section 12 -- hard and soft beverages -- was well received.  I also bookmarked limoncello, ginger beer, chai and winter solstice brew.

Okay, I know I've gone on and on about this book, but it is right up my alley and has me ridiculously excited. Check it out yourself if you have the chance!  And I'll be sure to post my results as I work my way through this book.

Tasty Kitchen!

ACK! The Pioneer Woman (you all read her blog, right?) has created a recipe website. It looks pretty and fun and it's called Tasty Kitchen. Check it out!

Silvia is clean!

I got a few things from my "to do" list done before the week was up. In fact, I came in just under the wire by descaling the espresso machine this morning. Speaking of coffee -- I have a Rancilio Silvia Espresso Machine and I would *highly* recommend it to anyone looking for a solid machine that makes really excellent espresso. And it is simple to use -- my husband, happily makes his daily Americano with the Rancilio and he wouldn't mess with it if it was too much trouble.

Ah espresso -- sweet elixir of life!

Recipes I've bookmarked

Right now I'm so sick I can't taste a thing, but as soon as I'm feeling better, I want to try out one of the many recipes I've bookmarked over the past few weeks. Take a look at the goodness!

• Spreads @ Pioneer Woman Cooks -- These look so easy and tasty -- like a wacky chocolate chip cookie of sorts.
• Simple Bagels -- I tried making bagels once years ago and it did not go well, but I'm willing to give it another try.
• Mug Brownies -- If these are good, this might be dangerous!
• Hot Fudge Sauce -- This looks *so* good!
• Fastest Cinnamon Buns -- These look similar to the I tried in December.

Oh, if only this cold would disappear so I could tast things again!

Stretching the food $$$

I'm a big fan of using up leftovers and since I work from home, it's probably a little easier for me, but it still takes some effort. I mean, who really wants to keep eating the same thing over and over. So in order to keep things interesting, I've developed a couple of tricks.

First of all, I embraced stock. Yes, I never throw out a bone without first simmering it with a few veggies, maybe some garlic or other aromatics (ginger, perhaps?) I freeze the stock in manageable portions so that I can thaw just what I need. If you have stock, you have soup. For instance, last night we had chicken, roasted carrots and a grain/pasta blend. The carrots were all eaten, but I took the other leftovers, threw in a handful of peas and added stock, brought it to a boil and there you have it, instant soup.

Another thing I love to do is  to keep tortillas in the freezer. You can put pretty much any leftovers you have between two tortillas, add a little cheese and get a tasty quesadilla.  This week I had a mushroom & mozarrella quesadilla that was delicious and took only 5 minutes to heat up.  In the same vein, I have been known to make an omlette and throw whatever leftovers in in that I had on hand.  Cheap and good!

What are your leftover tricks?

Excellent Pizza Crust

I like to make homemade pizza a couple of times a month and often experiment with different pizza crusts. If I'm feeling lazy and have recently been to Trader Joe's, I use their pre-made dough. Sometimes it has a bit too much spring though and can be a pain to roll out thin -- which is how I like it. I've used the basic dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which worked quite well and is convenient if you have a bowl of the dough in your fridge already. Recently though, I've been experimenting with the doughs in American Pie, a really excellent book by Peter Reinhart who also wrote the incredible The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

A month or two ago I tried the "Neo-Neapolitan Pizza Dough" -- by accident. I meant to try another recipe, but the page must have flipped on me while I was pulling some ingredients out of the cupboard and this is what I ended up making. Unfortunately, I didn't use the high gluten flour (probably because the recipe I meant to make didn't require it) and the results were a little disappointing.

This time I used the "Napoletana Pizza Dough" recipe and it was a dream! The dough was very relaxed and easy to work with. The flavor was excellent and the texture was crispy-chewy. The other nice thing about this dough is that I was able to freeze half of it and now I'll have more dough ready for next time we want pizza.

Pot Pie How to

In case you are interested -- here's a semi-recipe for making pot pies.

First you need some chicken or turkey.  I made a half turkey breast the night before and cut the left over turkey into cubes, then reserved the bones to make stock. 

Make stock --
Throw bones in pot, add a carrot or two, a small onion or shallot roughly chopped and a clove of garlic cut in half.  If you have other things you want to add -- root vegetables, celery, etc -- go ahead.  Cover with water and add salt & pepper to taste.  Allow to simmer for at least an hour, 2 hours is better.

If you don't want to make stock, just buy canned stock, but it is *so* easy to make stock -- just try it, you will be so happy!

Make crust --
You can use any crust recipe you like (not one that has sugar -- think savory).  For mine I took out my food processor, threw in 1 c. flour, 1/4 tsp. salt and 10 Tbsp good quality butter cut into cubes.  Pulse until crumbly.  Add egg yolk while food processor is running.  Then add icy cold water -- maybe 2-3 Tbsp.  The dough will come together in one big chunk and that's when you know you've added enough water.  Take it out, flatten it into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap or wax paper and stick it in the fridge.  You can do this hours in advance if you like.

Make sauce --
Put some butter or butter & olive oil in a saucepan -- maybe a couple Tbsp of each depending on how much sauce you want to make.  Add a small onion or shallot finely chopped.  Cook a couple minutes.  Add potatoes and root veggies -- cubed -- and cook a few minutes.  Don't cook them too long or they will start to break down.  Then add flour -- 3 Tbsp or so -- and cook about a minute so flour cooks but doesn't burn!  When it gets frothy and bubbly and looks like it is sticking to the bottom of the pan, start to add chicken stock.  I used about 2 1/2 cups.  Add a cup of milk (or cream if you are feeling decadent) and bring to a boil -- now is the time to add things like peas and corn as well as the cubed, cooked turkey or chicken.  When sauce starts to thicken, it's ready.

You can add all different things to the sauce.  I had a couple potatoes, carrots and peas, so that's what I added, but corn, mushrooms, celery and other veggies would work!

Assemble --
Roll out dough and cut to size.  If you are using little crocks or ramekins, turn them upside down on the dough and cut around them with a knife.  You could also use a casserole dish or pie plate.  Whatever you have really.  The dough might be getting soft at this point, if so, throw it back in the fridge. 

Ladle sauce into dishes, being careful not to overfill -- things will bubble up in the oven.  I put down some aluminum foil on a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides) and put the crocks on that -- so worth it because clean up of baked on sauce would be a nightmare.

Cut slits in dough and then place it on top of dish/es. Press down edges to seal a bit.  Brush the tops with a simple egg wash (1 beaten egg and 1 Tbsp water).  Place in oven preheated to 350 and bake until crust is golden brown -- you want to make sure the crust is thoroughly cooked!

Enjoy your pie!

Apple Season

Over the weekend we drove out to a local orchard to pick up some apples.  I was absolutely amazed by the multitude of varieties they had available and had fun picking out this selection for applesauce.  I read that applesauce is best when a variety of different sweet apples are used, so I just randomly picked up some that were marked as "good sauce apples".

As I peeled, cored and sliced the apples, I cut off little bits to nibble.  As you can see, the flesh of each of the different varieties is remarkably unique -- some were shockingly white, others green and yet others a creamy yellow.  Likewise they each had a different aroma and taste.  While some were very sweet, others were floral and even a touch spicy. 

My yield was quite pathetic.  Out of that bowl of apples I got only 2 1/2 pints, so it was more of an exercise in canning than an actual "putting up" of apples.  I think we'll have these jars finished off in a couple weeks.  Making the sauce was remarkably easy and next time I'll definitely go for a bigger batch. 

Easy Applesauce

Peel, core and slice apples.  As you slice them, throw them in a big pot that has about 1 in. of water in the bottom and the juice of a lemon (maybe two lemons for a bigger batch).  The lemon will keep your apples -- and sauce -- from turning brown.

Cook apples until soft -- maybe 15-20 minutes.  Drain off much of the water reserving some in case your sauce is too thick. 

Put the cooked apples through a sieve or food mill, or alternately throw them in a food processor or blender and process.

Place in jars and eat within a couple of weeks.  To can, place in sterilized jars and process in a hot water bath for about 20 minutes.

Success with Pickles and Rootbeer

We finally tried the pickles this weekend and they were a winner!  Nice and garlicky.  So now that they have been taste tested I feel like I can share the recipe:

Dill Pickles from the pantry of BoogaJ

Tools & Ingredients:

3 - 1 pint canning jars with lids -- since these are refrigerator pickles you can use the plastic lids instead of the sealing kind
About 6-7 pickling cukes
3 c. H2O
1 c. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Salt -- non iodized!
Garlic Cloves
Fresh Dill

Soak cleaned cukes in ice water for about 2 hours.

Put jars and lids through dishwasher cycle or clean them thoroughly and boil to sanitize.

Boil water, vinegar and salt for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile cut cukes into quarters lengthwise and trim length if necessary.  You want the cukes below the shoulder of the jar so they will be completely covered by the liquid.  If you have little tiny cukes, I bet you could just use them whole.

Smash garlic cloves with side of chef's knife -- remove skin and discard.  Place a smashed garlic clove in the bottom of each jar.

Place a good sized sprig of dill in each jar.

Add pickles -- really shove them in and fill up as much of the jar as possible.  Top each jar with another smashed garlic clove and more dill.

Pour hot vinegar mixture over cukes, filling jar almost to the top.

Screw lids on jars and let sit on the counter for 24-36 hours.  Refrigerate and eat in 1-2 weeks.

There seem to be lots of pickling cucumbers at the farmer's markets right now, so I hope you find this recipe useful.  And if you have a favorite pickle, I would love to hear about it!

Final note -- I mentioned the root beer that we made at the beginning of August.  We tried it the week after we bottled it and it was flat and not so good.  We let it sit in the refrigerator a couple more weeks and now it is fizzy and wonderful!  Lesson learned -- be patient with carbonation using ale yeast.  I'm planning on trying lemon lime soda or ginger ale later this week if time permits.  I'll try to post more info on the whole soda making process then.

Guess what we made!

Can you guess what we made this weekend?  This photo may be a bit misleading, so here is another. . .

And here is the last photo which just might give it away. . .

So what could it be?

Best Lunch Ever

When it comes to food, I think I'm pretty hard to please -- or really easy to please depending how you look at it.  I love fresh, natural, real foods -- something that is starting to become difficult to find in the modern supermarket where even apples are pre-sliced and coated in some kind of "freshness" chemical.  But I digress. . .

Here is my idea of the perfect summer lunch -- fresh, toasted bread topped with pesto, farmstand tomato slices and fresh mozzarella.  Add a side of lemonade and it's heaven!  I'm sure I would get tired of this eventually, but I plan to eat it every day this week if my supplies hold out.

So about that jam. . .

I mentioned that I made strawberry jam last week.  I've seen lots of people around the blogs making freezer jam, but I chose to make small batch jam -- 2 jars worth which is a good amount for our family of 3.  This was all brought on by the fact that I bought a huge bucket of strawberries at the farmer's market -- huge!  I swear it didn't look that big when I was at the market -- but over an hour into cutting up the strawberries I was wondering what I was thinking.

I knew I had to figure out how to use these up, so I headed to the internets and found a recipe for small batch jam and even a video.  I pretty much followed it -- adding the extra step of using a candy thermometer to make sure the jam was up to the "jelly" stage before taking it off the heat -- 220 degrees I believe.

That photo up top is lunch -- the jam on home baked bread.  I used the good old Artisan Bread in 5 Min recipe but this time I mixed it up by subbing local, organic, stone ground wheat (also purchased at said farmer's market) for half of the AP Flour.  More dense, but still quite tasty.

What did I do with the rest of the strawberries?  Strawberry Yogurt -- frozen variety loosely based on David Lebovitz's recipe.  I actually used one of those big tubs of Fage greek yogurt so it was more creamy. And I used so many strawberries that I didn't have room in the ice cream maker so I made some frozen popsicle things too -- which were even better than the frozen yogurt and easier.  Go figure. 

Berry Day!

I love blueberries!  Seriously, I eat them almost every day -- sometimes twice a day.  So when they are in season, I like to take  advantage.  Back in 2005 I made up a recipe for blueberry crisp and thank goodness for the blog, because that is where I had to go to find it again.  In order to try to be a better recipe keeper, I'm starting to make recipe cards.  Here is the one for my blueberry crisp recipe:

Just click on it to download the pdf version of the recipe card.  I often create recipes on the fly and jot them down on little slips of paper that end up here and there, so I'm going to try to put more of them on these types of cards and I'll post them on the blog as often as I get my act together to do it.

Jam was also made.  More on that tomorrow. . .

Teaching Kids to Cook

This summer -- as part of homeschooling and part of life, really -- I am teaching Maddie to cook.  Since I take nutrition very seriously, I didn't want to start her out cooking the usual junky foods that kids like. 

So what do you teach a kid to cook that is simple but nutritious?  I didn't turn to a kids' cookbook, but rather turned to Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food.  We made a super quick and easy pasta dish with peas (her current favorite vegetable) and not only was she very proud of the meal, it was also very tasty!

Talking a little more about nutrition, we are quickly becoming mostly vegetarian -- eating meat only a couple times a week and then only in small portions.  If you want to learn more about why the Western diet is killing us, check out Bittman's Ted talk:

 

I haven't just been playing Zelda. . .

I've also been riding around Chicago in a limo with my family:

My Mom, sister Kristy, her husband Gregg (hidden), sister Heidi & her boyfriend, Kevin (belongs to my sister Amanda) & Pete


Other end of the limo -- Me and my sister Amanda

We have 3 brother-in-laws in the family and their birthdays are all around the same time of the year (Sept/Oct).  We used to have individual get togethers for each one, but three years ago my mom suggested one fancy dinner instead of three pizza/bbq type things.  It was so much fun that we've been doing it every year.

This year we took a limo so that everyone could enjoy a few beverages and we went up to Chicago to Keefer's.  Very nice place! 

I've also been cooking and baking quite a bit.  Recently I made the Crumb Coffeecake from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.  So good!  And it makes 2 - 8" round cake pans, so I froze one for later.

THen today I pulled out Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible (not to be confused with Rose Levy Beranbaum's  The Bread Bible -- also and excellent book) and made Real Lemon Muffins with the bag of lemons I had in the fridge.  I am completely powerless against lemons and when I see bags of them at Trader Joe's I often will throw them in my cart.  I never know what to do with them, but since trying this recipe I will never have that problem again.  Delicious and very lemony!  I used the whole bag of lemons for this recipe and it only makes 8 muffins, so there you go.

Speaking of Beth Hensperger, I just love her cookbooks and have had great success making everything I've ever tried from them. 

Another thing I've been trying to do on a regular basis is cook dinners from scratch.  I love to cook and bake and got away from this habit when Maddie was little and work was eating up all my free time, but as I step back from work a bit and Maddie becomes independent I find I have more time.  So, I've been trying to cook things fresh, organic and whole. 

I actually find that I'm loving Everyday Food.  From the current issue I've tried 3 recipes and all were a success!  (Well, Maddie wasn't a fan of the mushroom risotto, but it was delicious and turned out just great.)  The whole family loved the Chicken Parmesan recipe and it was so easy since nothing needed to be fried.  Of course, it always takes me longer to make the meal then they say it will, but I plan ahead for that  :)  (The third recipe I tried was the carmel corn -- very good, but I will make more caramel stuff next time I make it.)

So, I have been doing something besides playing Zelda -- really I have.  In fact, I have some book reviews to post very soon!