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!