Big day of sweets....

I guess I had a bit of a sweet tooth today as I have made homemade chocolate chip granola bars and a blueberry sorbetto today. I will try and get pictures, but it just might not happen!

A-DONG

I had a day full of errands with my little one, while my bigger one was at school today. It included Costco (lots of cheese....oh, and a new cookbook that I am very excited about....A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop -- it looks great and is organized by season, which I am really into lately) then we went to the local Asian market (A-Dong). I hadn't been there in many years and it was quite an experience. It can best be described as a dingy 7-11 type joint atmosphere, except that all the labels are in different Asian languages and there is a HUGE assortment of frozen sea creatures that resemble eyeballs of varying shapes and sizes. I did, however, get all the obscure items on my list and a couple "extras" including tapioca that I get to figure out what to do with!

Crazy for Coconut!

I *heart* coconut!!! Everything about it....I could go on and on, but I'll spare you all! Today I got to make coconut milk though. Which is a quite easy process of taking fresh coconut meat, blending it with hot water and then straining the solids out. I am making a pumpkin carrot ginger coconut milk soup for dinner tomorrow (with coconut cream freiche) and needed some coconut milk. As I took a can from the pantry my DH reminded me that "isn't it pretty easy to make coconut milk?" And that reminded me of the coconut meat that I had frozen for just such a purpose. Now I have the remanants of the coconut milk-making process toasting up in the oven so I can add it to some homemade granola.

Uses for Whey

In the past when I have made cheese I've just thrown out the whey (the by-product) but when I made yesterday's cheese I vowed to try and use it up! It seems like such a waste to just pour it down the drain. I googled and found a variety of uses and even toyed with making beet kvaas (kvass?) a whey and beet drink that is supposedly good for digestion, etc. But then figured that was likely to go down the drain as well! Maybe I'll get more adventurous and try that one some other time!



So far I made this fabulous bread with the whey - a peasant style wheat/flaxseed/honey combo. In fact, the bread is so tasty that I might just make another batch of it tomorrow.....I am also in the process of making a kale/potato soup for dinner that uses the whey in place of broth. It is looking really yummy too and I am feeling quite resourceful!

It's a BIG day!

So I got on a bit of a craze this afternoon and during little's one nap I have started several projects....

First up, GINGER BEER (not the alcoholic type). I have never made homemade soda before, and we don't drink any soda anyways, so it is a bit of a random project, but it looked fun. I'm using a recipe from the book Wild Fermentation. First you have to create a "ginger bug" with fresh ginger, water and sugar. I can't go to the next step until this starts to bubble, which the recipe states may take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. Since it has been cold in the house lately it might be the longer time period....I'll report back on the next step when the time comes!



Next, I had to roast some more coffee beans. Which, since we had some heavy coffee drinking company this past week, I feel like I have been doing an awful lot of! Thank goodness for my i-roast. If I were still doing it in the oven I'd be REALLY tired of it!



Then I decided to make some more fresh ricotta cheese. The other day I was going to make a recipe, but didn't have any. Now, of course, I can't even remember what recipe that was, but I shall have it in the freezer for whenever I remember! The photos of the cheese making process didn't turn out that well (bad lighting) but here's one before it was strained and drained : )



Finally, I made some toasted buckwheat groat cereal (my 2 year old's favorite topping for her Nancy's yogurt). It's a simple recipe that requires toasting the groasts in the oven at 300 and then stirring in some natural almond butter and maple syrup.



Whew! No wonder I am tired and on my second pot of coffee! After all these projects we're having an easy dinner of some farm fresh eggs with grated cheese and homemade sourdough toast from my last batch of bread. I'll throw some veggies in my eggs, but have learned my lesson that the kids won't eat them if there's anything green in it!

Penzey's Spices

I finally made it to our local (read 1 hour away....) Penzey's Spices store. For those of you not familiar with it, I highly recommend checking out their website if you are looking to get totally lost in the wonderful world of spices. I have been ordering from Penzey's for a while now but have never made it to the actual real-life store....only catalog and web ordering up to now. Well, that all changed. My daughter had a birthday party which happened to be very near the spice store. I was restrained though and only bought what I needed....with the exception of a very large bag of very delicious crystalized ginger. I was excited to not pay shipping (although to offset the fact you have to pay shipping, the company always puts in a free spice blend jar, which is really great!) I know I'll be going back soon, if for nothing else, to smell all the spices and let the kids color at the little coloring nook they have so thoughtfully set up!

Let the fermenting begin!

Well, my first attempt at fermentation begins....NOW! I have 2 quart jars of kraut beginning their fermentation process on the counter right now. I am using the method from Simply in Season and the new cookbook I acquired this weekend at the local Salem Public Market (the year round indoor market here in town). Both methods use shredded cabbage, a little salt (one had sugar, but I opted out of that) packed into mason jars and covered with boiling water. Left to do their thing! It was so timely because our CSA share this week had a nice head of cabbage. I can't wait to watch the fermentation process in action and I really can't wait to enjoy them with some nice sausage and potatoes! Yum, yum!

Organics To You

Here's what we got in our produce bin this week (it is every other week right now, but the kids eat right through the fruit!)

Big bag of grapes
6 bananas
4 red pears
2 bosc pears
2 barlett pears
3 asian pears
9 apples (honeycrisp and other variety)
4 oranges
3 kiwi
1 pomegrante

Pumpkin Ice Cream

As I have an abundance of frozen pumpkin puree I'm going to be trying out a lot of new recipes in the coming months! Here's one I am churning as I type.....

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups pumpkin purée
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 Tbsp brandy

Method
1 Put the pumpkin puree, sugar, spices, and salt in a blender. Purée until smooth. Slowly add the cream, a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. Chill for 15 minutes (or longer, this part you can make ahead).

2 If you are using brandy, mix it in to the cream mixture right before churning. Churn in your ice cream machine 20 to 25 minutes. Keep in freezer until served.


I'm hoping to make some gingersnaps to serve with this ice cream as I think with that and a dollop of fresh whipped cream it is going to be delicious!

Navajo Stew

Here's what was for dinner last night....with some leftover homemade naan that I had frozen. It's an adaptation from Moosewood's recipe for Navajo Stew (I think from the Simple Suppers cookbook).

Navajo Stew

1 red bell pepper
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 small zuchinni
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
5 golden roma tomatoes (mine were frozen)
1 Tbsp. canned chipotles in adobo sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3/4 to 1 cup black beans
flatbread (tortillas, lavash, or pita)
sour cream (or plain yogurt)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet.
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes. Stem and seed the peppers and cut into 1-inch pieces. Peel the onion and cut it stem end to root end into thin wedges. Cut zuchinni into large chunks. In a bowl, toss the vegetables with the garlic, oil, cumin, salt, and pepper. Spread on the prepared baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes. Stir and continue to roast for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender but not mushy.
While the vegetables roast, puree the tomatoes, chipotles, and cilantro in a blender until smooth. Set aside. When the vegetables are tender, put them into a 2- to 3-quart baking dish, stir in the tomato-cilantro sauce and the beans, and return to the oven until hot, about 10 minutes.
A few minutes before serving, warm the bread in the oven. Serve the stew in bowls topped with yogurt or sour cream, with warm flatbread on the side.

No photos today

I've been too busy today dealing with some whiny coldy kids to take photos, but here's a brief snynopsis of what I've been up to today:

drying the last of the cherry tomatoes
cooking and pureeing sweet meat squash and freezing
baking pumpkin seeds
making homemade veggie stockand freezing for soup this coming week
slicing and freezing red bell peppers
preparing menu for the rest of the week and weekend (when family is in town)

All Natural Sugar Cookies

My 5 year old has been begging, whining and throwing fits to make sugar cookies for the past week.....she read in one of her kids' activity books about decorating sugar cookies and has had an insatiable desire to do so ever since! I haven't made sugar cookies in years, but the recipe I last used was full of white sugar and flours and I didn't really want to make that one again. Let's face it, no cookie is health food, but some are "healthier" than others. (Note: my daughter's book nicely informed her that sugar cookie dough is also available in a tube at the store....I shudder to think what all ingreidents that has!) Anyway, my google search came up with little that helped me, so I created my own recipe of sorts. It's chilling in the fridge right now, but I'll repost the results.

Sugar Cookie Dough

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) at room temp
3/4 cup Florida crystals organic cane sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teas vanilla
1 cup plus half of a 3/4 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 teas non-aluminum baking powder (I used Bob's Red Mill)

Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg. Stir in vanilla. In small amounts add dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Place dough in a covered pyrex bowl in the fridge for at least 3 hours (or overnight).

When they come out I will be rolling out the dough and letting my daughter's cut them into shapes to be baked at 350 for 5-10 minutes, until done. I am sure they will be covered with a nice layer of powdered sugar frosting, as I think that is the whole point of this experiment for my daughter!