So(a)urkraut/Vanilla

Since I'm a science person, fermenting foods is right up my alley. Of course, it takes special equipment that I don't have, but I managed to gather some supplies via ebay. And I had cabbage in a produce basket, so I've got some cooking, so to speak. Glass, wide-mouth mason jars, washed cabbage, sea salt. Just make sure the shredded cabbage stays under the liquid, lidded with an airlock. I put them in the cabinet to ferment, so hopefully there will be some great sourkraut in a few weeks. Usually you would do this in a stone crock and put weights on the cabbage to keep it under the liquid, but I don't think the baby would leave it alone, so I'm starting here. 

And I'm making another batch of vanilla. I ordered vanilla beans and bought vodka, so there should be homemade vanilla for Christmas. 

And I want to do kombucha, but I'm afraid it's going to take too much time and attention. Maybe this summer. It's such a great science experiment and good nutrition, according to all of the hype, but it tastes like ass. Unfortunately, it tastes so bad. This hibiscus flavor is the best I've tasted. And of course, mine would taste worse until I figure out how to make it taste good. You have to make a mother SCOBY and feed it on schedule so it makes babies, though it won't make good kombucha if its underfed and malnourished. This may be a summer project.  

Grain to water ratio

Produce shelf life

Waffle tricks

Anatomy of a cheese plate

Kitchen 101

Using the right onion

Canning dreams

One of the dreams was to grow and preserve whole foods. I haven't grown anything yet, but I have been canning.
I found some whole cranberries on clearance at the grocery store and wanted to make a jelly for Thanksgiving. I researched recipes and made one with jalapenos. Cranberries have natural pectin, so it was really easy. I didn't use enough jalapeno to make it hot, but it tasted pretty good. I canned it smallish jars and put it through a boiling water bath. And it worked. That was the first taste of success, so to speak.
My friend Joyce has a pressure canner that she got at a garage sale and let me borrow it. I put it through the tests, then got started.
I always make my own chicken/meat/vegetable stock. I keep a stock bag in the freezer and make stock whenever the bag gets full. Sometimes it's more chicken, lately it's been more vegetable. Kale has a very distinctive flavor. :)
So the first thing I canned was meat stock from a roast I made. Then I canned the roast itself, then some vegetable soup, then some chicken stock, then some more vegetable soup. When I have time, I like to cook, so making this all ahead and canning it lets us just pull from our own stock of good food to eat. The soups and meats can just be opened and used. I usually just freeze stuff, but our freezer is pretty small and was getting overcrowded. Right now I have 22 cans of stuff.

Produce co-op

I feel like our little area is getting big time. First a real Farmer's Market, now we have the opportunity for a produce co-op. It's not local produce, but it's fresh and I like that it's a random assortment each week. You pay with paypal, then go pick it up on Tuesday afternoon.  Fresh avocados with tomatoes make great guacamole, or even the avocado on sandwiches. I don't even like tomatoes, but the grape tomatoes were great. Lettuce, onions, garlic, celery, bananas, pears, apples. There was a pomegranate in this last one that I'm about to eat. I'm trying to figure out the cabbage. I think I'm going to make stuffed cabbage tomorrow. One of the farmers at the market is still offering winter produce, though I haven't gotten anything from them. They are looking into doing a chicken CSA. I don't think I'm going to do it this time, but I'm thinking about it for later. Local chickens, freshly processed - that's important to me, so I should put my money where my heart is and do it.

Sugar-Cinnamon donuts aka The best thing I’ve ever made

So I pretty much ignore the Facebook food porn. None of it is healthy, much of it uses pre-bought, processed-food ingredients, but I saw this one and thought it would be a great one to try for holiday breakfasts. AND it was. I didn't use the glaze; I just rolled it in cinnamon-sugar. They were too good. I ate way too many and gave some away as gifts. They are fried in grease; they are made of white flour and sugar. There's nothing healthy here.
This is my crappy picture. There are better ones at the link, along with the recipe. Sugar-Cinnamon donut recipe

Dehydrating Daily

I received a Nesco dehydrator for Christmas from my Mother-in-law.

And I've been using it every day since. It's so much fun.

 

I hate buying herbs and spices that I hardly ever use and just sit in the cabinet. And there's preservatives, it's not fresh, etc. I'd been toying with drying stuff in the oven, but it never worked out the way I wanted it. I tried kale chips that were ok. I dried onions and garlic with mixed results.

 

I also received a coffee grinder, which sets me up to make some really interesting things.

 

One of the first things I dried was bananas. But they weren't great. I think I need to salt them or something. I have a lot of bananas in a produce basket that I needed to use, so I tried it. I'll try again with salt tomorrow or so. I ended up making a ton of banana bread, but I'm out of flour now ;)

Also in the basket are usually onions and garlic, which I tried next. I dried them both, then ground them in the grinder. So now I've got onion powder and powdered garlic, then I did more onions and left them as flakes. I'm very pleased with those things.

I have some dried cilantro leaves that I can't wait to use for salsas, soups, taco stuff, etc.

I found a homemade ranch dressing mix recipe that calls for a lot of ground stuff and flakes and that may be the ultimate goal, providing it tastes good. Maybe for gifts? Is there a market for that?

 

Today I did more garlic, some green onions and some sugared oranges. I feel like these oranges will turn out better than my previous attempt. I tried to do candied citrus peels/sugared limes earlier and they didn't turn out well. I think the peels themselves were not good quality.

Oranges

Garlic

Random citrus/peels

green onions

I tried potato chips, but they are as greasy as they look here in the picture. Also, too crunchy. Not sure how to fix that. Even after a few weeks, they are still hard as rocks. The zucchini chips turned out really good. I made some parmesean green beans, but I let them go too long and they didn't look good. Tasted really nice, but were all shriveled. I'm going to keep working on it. It'll be great if my garden produces a ton of stuff and I can just experiment with those things.

So tomorrow - carrots, more bananas and . . . fun stuff.

Bread Mix

I’ve had this cookbook since college and it’s seen a lot of reading, not necessarily a lot of cooking-out-of.

There is a bread mix recipe that I have used a lot over the years. One of the things I use it for now is to bake bread in class to demonstrate fermentation or fungi. It’s a white bread mix- not that healthy, though you could probably make it healthier. I’m scared to mess up the proportions, though.  I use it to make a big loaf, to make 4 small loaves, to make rolls, to make pizza crust, bread sticks, pizza pockets and cinnamon nut bread.

Mix:

5 lbs all purpose flour

2 c instant non fat dry milk powder

1 c sugar

7 1/2 tea salt

Additional for basic loaf -

1 pkg quick-rise yeast

1 c warm water

1 egg

2 tbsp melted butter

The mix will yield 5 basic loaves, though I think I’ve gotten more out of it.

For the basic loaf, combine 1 cup mix with yeast, then add water, butter and egg. Beat until smooth. Stir in (use a wooden spoon) 2-3 additional cups of the bread mix to make a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface. Cover and let rest 10 mins. Shape into a loaf, put in in a greased loaf pan. Put over a boiling water bath to rise for 20 mins. Bake 350 for 30 mins.

I’ve added jalapenos and cheese to make rolls and bread. It’s really versatile, though, like I said before, it’s not all that healthy. Very basic and works every time.

Pizza Crust

2 cups bread mix

1 tea yeast

2/3 c warm water

1 tbsp melted butter

1 tbsp cornmeal

Combine 1 c bread mix and yeast with water and butter. Beat until smooth. Stir in remaining mix to form a soft dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and elastic. Cover and let read 10 mins. Roll dough into whatever shape you want. Sprinkle corn meal on pizza pan. Bake 450 for 10 mins. Top then bake 10-15 mins longer. 

I use this every time I find something neat to make that calls for pre-made or frozen pizza crust. Very versatile and doesn’t really take that long.

And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Farmer’s market and cooking

The weekend before school started, I spent cooking and prepping stuff to cook. I went to the Farmer’s Market and got this haul.

Eggplants (2 varieties), squash, jalapenos, jalapeno jelly and cheese. I got mushrooms from HEB and spent the day in the kitchen. My mother had given us a bunch of meat, so I prepped and prepped and prepped.
I browned the ground beef and froze most of it in baggies to use later. I used some of it to make a stuffing – onions, jalapenos, rice, meat, mushrooms, some homemade chicken broth, etc. I froze most of that stuffing, but I used some of it to make stuffed squash, stuffed eggplant, stuffed jalapenos and stuffed bell pepper the next week. Yummy!
I also sliced the eggplant and squash and grilled it on the George Foreman. The eggplant I added some spaghetti sauce and cheese for an appetizer for Star trek Sunday.
I also took 2 cans of spaghetti sauce along with onions, mushrooms, bell peppers and meat and made spaghetti sauce. Some of that I froze for later and some I used later in the week with tortellini  I found on clearance at Big Lots.
I processed most of the jalapenos and froze them into ice cubes. I stuffed other ones for me. Oh so good. 
I also processed some garlic and froze it into a large sheet so I can just break off some as I need it.
I ended up roasting some of the smaller squash and that tasted just like candy. I’m so amazed that I have never cooked this stuff before. Grace even liked it. 
I went back to the Farmer’s Market this week and found this.

No eggplant and no cheese this week, but I’m excited to stuff those little squashes and that huge zucchini. I took Grace with me and she played on the playground for awhile. It was a continuation of our “girl’s night” from the night before. I had wanted to find eggplant and cheese and some fruit, but there wasn’t. And I’m not paying $7 for a watermelon. Just not.  Though I paid $2 each for hibiscus tea and a blueberry cake thing, though it was delicious. I need to learn to make it myself.
We made fruit bars with pears and apples and those were good. We just need to get some other fruit and experiment.
I’m still making my yogurt and eating it for breakfast and my lunches. I still make homemade chicken broth. The freezer is full, so we are blessed.