trombonish: kitty cooking (cooking)
I might get in to actual recipes later, but I feel like writing a response to the constant "HOW DID YOU MAKE SO MUCH FOOD given that budget?". It's flattering (especially coming from the board of directors), but I'm not actually magical here.

1. Sourcing
- learn the prices for common foods at grocery stores you frequent. I am now quite familiar withthe main ingredients I used at both Winco and Kroger. Winco is somewhat lower on canned/frozen food, noticeably lower on dairy, dry bulk, and onions, but charges half again as much per pound for potatoes. Since I was making things in bulk, it was frequently worth it to shop at both stores.
- when reasonable, buy the large size - assuming you're going to use it all (and that it's actually cheaper)! The 20 lb bag of rice was was $10, only $2 more than the 10 lb bag of rice. In the rice case, I did expand my ingredients and actually used it all up, but the idea is there. Similarly, I needed 15 lbs of flour for the baking. Since the 20 lb bag cost less than the 10# plus the 5#, I bought it, and will enjoy the leftover flour myself after saving the con some money
- learn what makes sense to buy in which section! Corn comes fresh, frozen, or canned. Since this is all getting cooked together and texture won't matter so much, which way is the cheapest? Also, beans - yes, $0.60/can looks cheap, but that's like a cup and a half of beans. A pound of dry beans costs about a dollar and makes maybe 6 cups of beans. Definitely worth the time to prep.
-Think outside the grocery store. This is especially true for storable bulk comodities, like flour/grains, rice, beans. Since they can be stored dry for a long time, you can buy larger portions if you're going to use it later. I did not have any on hand for this, but I've found a local supplier sselling 25 lb bags of rice, beans, wheatberries, etc, for about $15-20.
- Think outside the grocery store part 2: use what's availible. As it is late july/early august, if you stand still too long, you will find yourself holding zucchini. That goes great in soups or stews! Cabbage is also incredibly cheap right now, and is a great source of fiber and bulk!

2. Methods
- you can get away with a lot more if you make meals with everything mixed together! Most folks won't eat cabbage, but use it to bulk up red beans and rice, and no one even notices. Miss "I hate onions" was a bit alarmed to learn that there were onions in every dish, "but it doesn't taste like onions!" Mixing everything together gives it the flavor of the dish you are aiming at, even if it's similar ingredients
- on that note - vary your flavors and you can use the same ingredients over and over! The spaghetti sauce, red beans and rice, chilli, and chicken choweder, all used an astonishing amount of the same few veggies - cellery, corn, carrots, onion, peas (give or take a couple). But they didn't seem repetitive because they used different flavors - tomato/beef base with herbs, pork/stock based, tomato/beef based with spicy flavors, chicken/cream based. Respectively.
- meats: they don't need to be the feature! This was the hugest cost savings - meats are the most expensive part of the average meal. This is another part where soups/stews/mixed meals come in handy. If I served everyone 2-4 oz of meat on a plate, they would be seriously disapointed. But that same meat as a flavor/protine element in a stew goes a long way.
- also with meats: learn to suplement them. Three of our dinners were based around hamburger and beans, because beans are cheap (and good for you. And if you soak them, it eliminates a lot of the, urm, unpleasant aftereffects). Barley isn't a great source of protine, but it helps make meats go further too (mind, it isn't friendly to those who are gluten intollerant).

That is the advice that occurs to me now!
trombonish: (Subscription)
When we moved in, we couldn't test the air conditioner, as it was, y'know, December. At the end of June we had a heatwave of 10 days of 105+ temps, and we gave in and turned it on, even though it was untested. Unfortunately, we found that it was very slowly leaking water from somewhere into the mechanical room, so we turned it off. Still need to call a someone to look at it.

A couple weeks ago the dryer went temporarily offline - it started making a weird smell, something was glowing bright red in the back, and the clothes were hot to the touch. Theory is that something lint related might need cleaning in the back, or it's another thing on the "call the repairpeople" list. This one we at least have the healthy alternative of hanging clothes on our huge clothesline.

Two days ago, the garbage disposal gave up - again, I hope temporarily. It was right in the midst of my massive cooking fest for Fandemonium, which is inconvenient, but probably the cause. I was doing the dishes and it attempted to eat a plastic spoon. I have pretty much cleaned it out, but it still doesn't turn. This isn't a huge suprise, the inspector when we bought the house said, "garbage disposal jammed, unjammed it, then it jammed again." Actually, I'm surprised it worked this long with no issues. This is another one we should supposedly be able to fix on our own, but I haven't attempted yet.

Last night I came home from Too Late at Fandemonium prep, and the electricity was out for the street. It took me a surprisingly long time to figure out, because the first two lights I tried are finicky anyways. But there was a big windstorm last night, apparently caused the outage. The irksome part was, I had all the leftover chilli from dinner that I wanted to freeze. Also, needed to run a load of laundry, but instead I just went to bed. Also, my phone was almost dead, so I was Very Concerned about it giving me my morning alarm, but the electricity did come back sometime in the middle of the night.

This morning, alarm DID go off, and the electricity was back, though my brain was VERY confused by what time it was - phone said 5am, clock said 3:32. Went and started the laundry, then did the morning things. Laundry seemed to run pretty quickly. I took the chilli parcels down to the big freezer, noticed it was still off, even though the light in the room worked. Freaked out that the freezer was dead too. But actually, something on that circuit tripped the circuit breaker - the washer was on the same circuit. And the downstairs bathroom, and the back porchlight (it's a weird circuit). Flipped the circuit on and off, things came back on. Domino apparently finds a suddenly reanimated washingmachine TRAUMATIZING.

I don't know if it was related to the outage in the middle of the cycle or what, but then there was a tiny puddle peeking out from under the washing machine when I went downstairs to empty it.

I feel vaguely like the appliances are in cahoots against me.
trombonish: kitty cooking (cooking)
Judging by the speed at which these are disappearing, this is one of my most successful cooking experiments yet! Pizza is DELICIOUS.

 photo pizzamall_zps32215fea.jpg

How to make:
Soaked Whole Grain Pizza crust recipe from a fairly interesting home/life blog, mommypotamus (even though we are long way from kids, I find these blogs interesting). Apparently whether or not to soak your grains is one of those internet arguments that can get people all riled up. I am advocating it at least because it makes the dough WAY easier to work with!

Begin the day before
Whisk together
1 Tbls olive oil
1 Tbls honey
2-4 Tbls vinegar (acid medium for soaking - I use 4 because my vinegar is low acidity (4%)... cheap stuff)
1 1/2 cup warm water
Tip: use the same tablespoon for the honey and the oil. Measure the oil FIRST. Then when you measure the honey, it slips right out of the tablespoon!

Add 4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour. Stir to combine. It will be in lumpy particles, not a solid dough mass, and this is ok! It is like that mysterious step in pie making, "cut in til size of small peas" (though this will be like large peas. Or green beans. Whatever). Trust me, if you mush it into a solid dough mass, it makes tomorrow more difficult - I did this the first batch.

Put it someplace warmish for 12-24 hrs - I warm up the oven to 200, then turn it off and put the dough in.

Day of Pizza:
In a cup, whisk together
1 pkg (a smidge less than a tablespoon) dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeastie beasties. Like skin temperature warm) [edit: I originally said 1 cup. This is consistently turning out way too wet]
Let stand for 15 minutes or so

Open your container of flour and get out something to use as a scoop (I use white flour for this part), because soon your hands will be very gloppy.
Pour the activated yeast/water (it should be somewhat foamy, from happyyeast) into the soaked grain bowl. With your hands, smoosh the yeasty water and soaked grain together. It should absorb most of the water, especially as you work with it. Add white flour as necessary to make it cohesive.

Once it is staying in one mass, dump it onto a floured surface, and knead knead knead! Again, white flour to keep it smooth and not too sticky. I find I use about half a cup to a cup through this whole process. The recipes usually say "smooth and elastic" is the goal. I knead usually 8-10 minutes or so. It is somewhat therapeutic.

When you are done with kneading, grease the dough with olive oil all over, and plop it in a bowl. Let rise in a warm place for an hour.

Now prepare the rest of your pizza stuff! Shred cheese, cook meats, cut veggies, whatever. Cook sauce (recipe below). Preheat the oven to 350.

Sauce recipe:
In a saucepan, stir together:
1 can (15-16 oz) tomato sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp salt
garlic powder, onion salt, pepper, or ground fennel to taste.

Bring to simmer, stirring. Turn off the stove so not too much boils away (but leaving it on the burner even off, helps keep it warm).

When the hour is up, your dough will be VERY BIG. I used a rice serving spatula to scoop out lumps about the size of a raquet ball (or a small tennis ball, if you'd rather). It sorta deflates as you do this, that's ok!

Roll out the dough lumps into vaguely circular shapes less than 1/4" thick. Place on cookie sheets sprinkled with cornmeal, or parchment paper. Or be brave and just put them on a cookie sheet (I didn't...). Bake your naked!pizzas for 5-8 minutes.

Remove from oven. I used a measuring cup to deflate the middle, leaving the edges tall, to make a crust.

Top as you wish!
Tip: put sauce, a bit of cheese, your toppings, and then more cheese on top of the toppings. This makes things stay together SO MUCH BETTTER. I had mozzarella (about 1.5 lbs for all my pizzas), semi-frozen onion and bell pepper strips, mushrooms, dried basil-tomatoes, pepperonis, and sausage, in various combinations.

Bake for 25ish minutes more, until cheese is browning especially on the edges.

Ding! Pizzas are done! Repeat for MANY PIZZAS. I made 21. It was a challenge to get a dozen of them squirreled away before being consumed!
trombonish: kitty cooking (cooking)
So, since I shared my first, rather sad attempts at pancakes made entirely with home ground whole grain flour, I have been doing some reading and experimenting. A big way to help make the flour more cooperative is to soak it ahead of time in a slightly acidic mix. Today I am happy to report that I have a successful pancake recipe!



First attempt at home flour pancakes Here

Ingredients:
2 cups home flour
2 cups milk
1/4 cup plain yogurt

2 eggs
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs cooking oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 cup water, if necessary
fruit, if desired

The night before, stir to combine the flour, milk and yogurt. Cover and refrigerate overnight. It will thicken a LOT as the flour incorporates the moisture.

In the morning, stir in the eggs, sugar, cooking oil, salt, baking powder. If it is too thick add water. I used the water I soaked my (3/4 cup) dried juneberries in (about 1/2 cup loose water). You want the consistency to be about like applesauce.

Pour out 1/4 cup pancakes on a hot griddle and cook!

As my cooking teacher likes to point out, homemade pancakes usually have a "pretty" side (the first side down) and the second side never looks so good. So serve them pretty side up!
trombonish: (Subscription)
I just had one of those irritating internet arguments with a pseudo-friend where neither of us has ~proof~, because the studies haven't been done, but each of us have our own strong opinions. Which happen to disagree. Now, he's entitled to his opinion, and I'm entitled to mine. I'm going to have a reasoned argument over ~here~ with myself, to try and explain my position. And also to walk away from that argument.

Topic: Whole Foods is requiring label on all GM food in it's stores (the US government doesn't require this). I think this is a step in the right direction (though I don't really like Whole Foods). I think consumers should get to know what they're eating. I personally am opposed to GM food (others may disagree). I find it telling that the producing corporations persuaded the government not to require labeling, it seems an indicator that they know what decision most people would make.

His response: Why would people be opposed to genetically modified food?

My reasons:
A very few corporations own most of the food source (and sell a very few varieties).
I think this is not good news, because part of what makes food work is biodiversity. Large scale "efficient" monocultures are what is currently feeding most of America, but they are not the only option. I believe they are the lesser option. To make monocultures work requires huge energy inputs, and right now most of that energy comes from (pretty unarguably) nonrenewable resources. Nonrenewable bugs some people more than others. I think it depends on how far a person perceives we are from the bottom of the barrel.
Besides the energy problem, monoculture also reduces the gene pool. I am going to refrain from getting into this deeply, at the moment (I'd mostly be regurgitating my readings into this entry, and there's going to be enough of that already), but I would just like to point out that, when everything is the SAME, you're reducing the number of tickets you have in the natural lottery of Bad Things. See the Irish, the Potato, and the year 1847.
Finally, I'm not sure I ~want~ profit driven corporations to be the ones controlling my sustenance. What is best for them is not necessarily best for ME. Or a lot of other people. Which leads me to my next opposition:

Those corporations are doing very terrible things to farmers.
Going to stick with two examples:
One: in a very high-profile case, seed company Monsanto sued a farmer for "theft" of their genetic property. He didn't buy it. He actually didn't want it. But his corn cross-pollinated with a neighbor who had their GM corn, so he got it. Monsanto now demands compensation, and he can't sell his (previously non GM) corn to many markets which were previously available to him. I think Mr. Farmer would argue this is an unappreciated thing. I also argue that it brings up containment issues.
Two: On the subject of things which are good for corporations but under-appreciated outside it- one of the GM companies' Favorite Things is making seeds that don't make viable seeds later. Yay! Now the farmer has to buy their product every year if he wants to keep farming! Never mind that seeds making plants to make more seeds is the whole POINT of plants. I really hope this one transmissible plant to plant.

I don't want to eat a potato or corn partially composed of insecticide.
Yes the insecticide is "generally regarded as safe". No, there has never been proof that it is bad for you. I just say that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and I am choosing to not eat it.

His counterarguments (and my non-replied replies, instead I came to rant here):
Genetically modified food has saved hundreds of millions from starvation
This is, I think, one of the few potentials of GM food. I have no idea of the accuracy of the number, but yes, I know there are efforts to install genetically modified foods in impoverished countries to better withstand drought, provide better nutrition, etc. But again, in a battle between nature smarts vs. human smarts, and I would argue for a system that the locals could maintain on their own over one that requires inputs from a human's limited understanding very far away. If this were all the GM companies were up to, I would be more tolerant, but of course charity work is less profitable, and these ~are~ profit driven organizations. Very little of their work is in this direction.

You make it sound like the plant is secreting some sort of hazardous chemical. I doubt that's what it does.
I don't know the mechanism, I don't know what constitutes "chemical" (can there be natural chemicals?), and I don't know if it's hazardous. As mentioned, there is a lack of data. I know that previously, a potato I might eat did not kill bugs. And now it does. I would like to be able to choose to not eat that potato.

Show me the research that shows what effects the consumption of GM foods has on a person. There is no conclusive research. However, there is a few million years of research showing that non-GM foods keep us alive very well, thank you very much (with the possible exception of the modern western diet). I think I will default to the old fashioned kind of food and decline to be the guinea pig in that experiment.

"I also distrust the movement to eat only organic, natural, gluten-free, unprocessed, unbleached, sea salted, cage-free, low carb, koom-bai-yah tofu madness."
So, disagreeing with my lifestyle is what got my back up. Mind, I'm not into tofu or sea salt, and I love carbs too much to swear them off (I also wish he wouldn't include gluten-free in there, it has nothing to do with the rest). I certainly don't mind that he chooses to not follow that method. But the "distrust" bugs me. Where is the risk?
trombonish: kitty cooking (cooking)
I was going to advertize that the recipe has almost no added sugar, but it isn't necessarily healthy - it has a lot of calories anyways, particularly in the oil. Also, requires a waffle maker. And I know you CAN do whipping without a mixer, but I use a mixer to make it easy.
These waffles are REALLY fluffy and yum. They are rich but not particularly sweet.

Makes 8 - 8" waffles, in my wafflemaker

Ingredients:
Waffles:
1 3/4 cup flour
1 Tbls baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cup milk

Topping:
2 cups diced fruit (I have loads of diced and frozen strawberries from this summer, I thawed out two cups)
3/4 cups whipping/heavy cream
1 Tbls powdered sugar

Waffles:
In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients.
In a medium mixing bowl, crack eggs. Carefully scoop out the yolks with a spoon. Try really hard not to break the yolks! Put the yolks in the dry ingredient bowl.
Pour the milk and oil in the dry ingredients bowl.
If you are going to use the mixer on the batter, do it AFTER you beat the egg whites, you really don't want to transfer batter to egg whites, or they won't fluff right.
Beat the egg whites with the mixer on REALLY FAST. They will foam up. Beat a couple minutes, until the egg white foam is "stiff" (standard measure of this is, you lift out the beaters and the foam stands up in peaks with points).
Beat/stir the other bowl.
Fold the egg foam into the batter. This means combine it gently, so it is homogeneous but you don't pop all the bubbles you just made. You could use the beaters on really low if you wanted, but I prefer a spoon.

Cook in your wafflemaker. Mine uses about a cup of batter per waffle, and make 8 of them (the foam makes the batter BIG).

Real whipped cream:
Rinse off your beaters and medium mixing bowl that had egg foam in it.
Pour the cream in the bowl
Beat the cream like you did the egg whites. A similar thing will happen, except only beat until the foam is "soft peaks" (they sort of slump back down after you lift out the beaters).
Sprinkle in the powdered sugar and beat more to combine.

Serve with strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream on waffles!
Any waffles that don't get eaten make excellent snacks the rest of the day. I am experimenting with our extras to see if they freeze well. The whipped cream, however, doesn't keep (it will convert back to cream), so use it all up the same day.

Calories:
This recipe is almost all real food, but still lots of calories! The whole creation is:
8 waffles: 2139 cal
Whipped cream: 525 cal
Diced strawberries: 150 cal
(divide by however many servings you make it)

Improvements I'm going to experiment with:
960 of those waffle calories are the oil. I have read about substitution alternatives, like yogurt or applesauce for half of it. I will experiment if any of those work without mangling the texture (which is AMAZING).
The recipe calls for, and I made them with, all-purpose white flour. Going to see how much home flour I can substitute without detriment.
Next time I will take pictures instead of just inhaling the waffles!
trombonish: kitty cooking (cooking)
So, as this week we actually started eating contents of the pantry, instead of fresh veggies and ADDING things to the pantry... I declare it Start of Winter (and Pantry season)
Pantry


Food in the Pantry )
trombonish: kitty cooking (cooking)
So, I have a confession to make - I think Ragu tastes yummy, and is super fast and easy - brown meat, dump in, serve on pasta. But, in our move towards Real Food, I am attempting to learn to make my own pasta sauce. I won't call it "canless" yet, as I used two store-cans tomato sauce, but once I work through our stash of store-canned tomato sauce, I get to start on the home-canned tomato sauce!

Karen's Piles of Veggies Pasta Sauce:
Begin browing 1 lb hamburger

While browning, chop up and toss in the following veggies:
(Yes, this has something in common with "fridgeloaf", ie, "whatever veggies are in the fridge". Considering our fridge is about half veggies, this is a very veggie-tastic sauce)
(Also, I put these in in order of needs the most cooking to needs the least cooking, but it all kind of gets mushed together in the end anyhow, so it probably doesn't matter)
Half an onion (or a whole onion would be tasty)
Garlic (except I didn't have any, but you totally should!)
Half a summer squash (SHOCK I had no zucchini - pending post about continuing zucchini bread experiments, so I used a pattypan)
One eggplant
One bell pepper
1/4 lb button mushrooms

Saute around the veggies and meat til the meat's all cooked and the veggies are kind of cooked. Add two cans (15 oz from the store, or pints from the cabinet) tomato sauce. Stir. Add flavors and stir more:
3 teaspoons sugar
Healthy sprinkling of Basil
Same with Oregano
Some Thyme
Pepper
Salt (to taste)
Dash of red wine, if you have it around

More notes: a good friend who is also a cooking-person explained to me once that the key to managing flavors is to balance out acid, salt and sugar flavors. I used to be really opposed to tomato sauce and other cooked-tomato things because I disliked the very strong acid taste. Adding sugar, salt, and the cooking wine (which is salty and sugary) balance out the acid taste and make it taste very yummy.

Simmer sauce til it's hot through, and the consistency you like.

In my case, put half the sauce in a bowl in the fridge to cool before freezing. Even half the sauce, we easily had enough to feed 4 (or in our case, dinner and work lunches). Serve over pasta with Parmesan on top.

The freezer bit is, I'm working on building a stockpile of frozen dinner that I can thaw out and have easy dinners later :-) Spagetti doesn't freeze well, but the sauce should freeze fine.

(I can't can the tomato sauce with the veggies in from the get-go, because that would require a pressure-canner, it's too low of acidity)
trombonish: kitty cooking (cooking)
So the woggy and I have been meaning for a while to buy a bulk cow-portion, and have it in our freezer. Since the freezer finally happened this weekend, the cow buying happened today!

It is amazing how fast people want to bring things to your house when you are buying it from them, in both cases, I went, "Hi I'd like to talk to you about obtaining ____", and in both cases they said, "sure! can I deliver it this afternoon?"

What 232 lbs of meat looks like in our living room (considering the 100 lbs ground beef is still in the two boxes on the right):

Photobucket

Breakdown coming after I feed the EVERY YOWLING YOWLYBUTTS.


Ok, Breakdown list:
6 chuck roast
2 rump roast
2 cross rib roast
2 brisket (looks like a flat roast)
6 ribeye steaks
8 top sirloin steaks
4 big, 2 little sirloin tip steaks
6 top round steaks
2 back rib sections (4 ribs)
4 short rib sections (2 ribs)
2 skirt steak
2 blade meat
2 flat iron steak
2 flank steak
2 eye round (roast?)
2 hanging tender
2 tri tip
2 shoulder tender
8 beef tenderloin
8 new york strip steak
4 packages "beef for kabobs"
6 packages "beef for stew"
6 "Osso Bucca style" beef sliced shank

Plus 2 boxes (about 100-1lb packages) ground beef

I took pictures of all the different kinds, but to be honest they look like a lot of packages, red blobs, and labels.

I am SO EXCITED to make all the food. Over the next year. And JERKY.

And yes, it all fit in the new chest freezer (with room to spare. But maybe not room for a herd of chickens, which I was also debating buying, but then we bought the half instead of the quarter beef).
trombonish: (sewing)
My potentially Very Alarming experiment (not to mention Excessively Crunchy Granola Girl, to borrow a possibly negative descriptor from others), was my first ever attempt at grinding my own grain. And then I made pancakes. It was... not a disaster! (and for that, I am grateful)

Grain grinder:
Grinding grain has been on my List Of Things To Do for a long time (possibly longer than getting a CSA box). So, a month or so ago, I finally went out and bought the grain mill attachment for the Champion Juicer. Paul's mom sent us her old champion a few years back. The thing is MASSIVE, it is essentially a 25 lb motor with a drive shaft out one end. There's a masticating spinning blade that goes on the end, and a housing with a screen/funnel on it for making juice. This thing will make juice out of ANYTHING - I just checked and the motor is a 1/3 horsepower. And they sell a grain mill attachment ($70)!

Photobucket
Juicer, with grain mill attachement


It is, however, a COMPLETE PAIN to get on the juicer. Enough so that I am contemplating LEAVING it on, as I make juice far more rarely than I ought.

When I run it, I hang that bag bit over the edge of the counter. I started with about 2 lbs of dried hard red wheatberries. I filled the hopper (the funnely bit on top), and let her rip. Observation: grinding grain is LOUD. I am glad it was already 11am when I was doing this, else I was concerned about neighbors pounding down our door. The juicer is quite loud on it's own, but chewing up those hard kernels (yes, the name is apropriate) made a HUGE racket. Much louder than the lawnmower on the other side of the screen door.

It took a few passes to get the flour down to pretty small grains - the first time through was like steel cut oats, then like sand, then like fine-grain sand leaning towards dust. I was like, "aha! flour", but it was still much much coarser than store-flour, even whole-grain (by the way, this is REALLY whole grain - the whole grain went in!). But I cooked with it anyways.

One note: doing this, I can totally see what all the fuss was when white flour became available back in the day (like, late 1800s day). It is all fluffy and smooth and white and no grainy bits in it! I know my electric grinder doesn't have ~that~ much to do with how they ground grain back in Little House on the Prairie, but I don't imagine they got it all ~that~ fluffy!

Another note: now I know why the miller always wears an apron in all the old kid's books. Accurate thing! Flour milling is DUSTY.

Photobucket
"Finished" flour (and also, the juneberry pancakes I was attempting on the right)


Breakfast pancakes was the eventual goal of all this noise, and I was very excited to try. However, I quickly discovered that cooking with home-ground grain is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than with store-ground flour. Since my flour-particles were MUCH BIGGER than store-ground flour (even whole-wheat), at first my pancake batter was EXTREMELY runny. I waited a while, and it got better - letting the milk soak into the flour particles (picture making steel-cut oatmeal - at first it's just grains and water).

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First batch of pancakes! The yellow spotty bits are the kernel germ - super high in nutrients! It is removed from store flour, as it is also the part that makes the flour go rancid fast. This is why my remaining ground flour is living in the freezer.


First batch wasn't a ~complete~ disaster, but wasn't very coherent either - between not enough soaking time (I think), and what I am attributing to underdeveloped/low gluten content, the pancake was barely holding together - picture wet sand, where it sticks together, but clumps break off randomly. I could look closely at the pancakes, and see very thin webs of grain interconnects between the flour particles. It was kind of fascinating, in a kitchen chemistry way!

To help, I added a few tablespoons of my Vital Wheat Gluten, that I have on hand for baking - whole wheat flour is inherently lower percentage gluten than refined white flour, as gluten is a component of one of the few things they leave IN white flour. In this case, it was whole wheat, and I'm still attributing some of my problems to the particle size - it makes sense to me that so much of the flour-y-ness was still trapped in the particles that they were having a hard time bonding to each other.

Subsequent batches got better - in fact, each batch was better than the previous! (Except the last batch, because I forgot it was on the stove while I was eating and it burned.) Again, attributed to soaking the flour longer. Experimentally, next time I may combine the milk and flour the night before, and put it in the fridge, and add everything else in the morning.

The big question - how did it taste? Surprisingly good, actually. They tasted like wheat-juneberry pancakes, but with a lot more bite to them - something to actually bite into! I know white and fluffy and light is the huge goal of bread (so sayeth wonderbread, anyways), but I really enjoyed eating something with a bit of heft and chewiness to it - lasted us til dinner! (yes, breakfast was at 11. still, I am proud of this fact). I am planning to make zucchini bread with it later this week - and take it to my department picnic! Maybe I will make a practice loaf first...
trombonish: (sewing)
TWO experiments in food today. It was a good day.

Dinner was Thai Pasta Salad, adapted from owlhaven.net, adapted from Casual Kitchen
(I have spent an unreasonable amount of time this weekend on cooking/kitchen/food/living websites full of housewife/mom types, some of it is really good/interesting, some of it makes me go arg)

Original recipe: Thai Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 lb box of dried linguine
• 1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 4 cups finely chopped green cabbage
• 2 carrots, cut julienne-style
• 1 zucchini, cut julienne-style
• 1 white or yellow onion, finely diced
• sesame seeds, optional

Directions:
1) Season the chicken pieces with cayenne and/or black pepper. Heat oil in a large non-stick pan and then sear the chicken on high heat for a few minutes. Cook it through, but try not to overcook. Set aside.
2) While chicken cooks, mix up ingredients for the dressing, below. Add 1/4 cup of the dressing mixture to the cooked chicken and stir to evenly coat chicken. Let sit a few minutes, to allow the dressing and chicken flavors to combine.

Dressing Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)
3) Cook linguine according to directions. While water is boiling/pasta is cooking, chop all the veggies. Combine pasta with the chopped veggies and the rest of the dressing mixture. Add the chicken and stir well. Top with sesame seeds if desired. Can be served warm or cool.

Content Variations:
- Well, originally I was going to make this as I need another cabbage recipe besides coleslaw (which is good, but... once you add that much mayonaise to something, it loses any semblance of "healthy"). Starting with cold noodles might have helped (I started dinner last night about 10, got the noodles done, and decided maybe we didn't really need dinner). Today I went to the vegetable drawer... and discovered my cabbage was moldy. Ick, plus I hate wasting food. Oh well. I had some rainbow chard I'd been wanting to make something interesting with. Sliced it into strips, and it tastes just fine.
- I only had half a pound of diced chicken, so it was a half the suggested amount, would aim for a full pound next time.
- I dislike the taste of raw zucchini, so even though I have a foot-and-a-half zucchini-club in the fridge, I left out the zucchini.
- And then I guess I was just feeling lazy, because I left out the carrots too (juliening is hard! my carrots are old and crusty (but still good for stew)! plus, laziness)
- food processor-ed the onion, and the garlic cloves in the sauce recipe, added straight to pot
- Next time I'll try some other kind of pasta, the spagetti is basically being bulk, not really interesting to the recipe.

Sauce Variations:
- The lemon juice is surprisingly good. I added sesame oil instead of the sesame seeds, added a nice taste. Also a scosh of white wine vinegar.
- Didn't have red pepper flakes, so I put in some sort of pureed red pepper paste. ~may~ have gone overboard on the pepper paste. I am a spice wuss, but it was on the "barely edible" end of my spice tolerance.
- I had a yummy parsley/cilantro dried mix from the foodbox, that worked well instead of fresh cilantro (I'm not nuts about cilantro anyways - too peppery)
- Added almond bits on top, for texture

B+, would nom again
trombonish: (sewing)
Might need to find another icon, the "sewing and craftiness" one is as close as I've got to what I've read called "homemaking engineering" (I am amused).

I have been elbow deep in blogs this weekend, sometimes greatly appreciating, sometimes being exasperated by, different people and their different methods of feeding/clothing/upkeeping their families.

One I particularly enjoy is "Good Cheap Eats", the author of which has a pretty good grasp on (as her tagline says,) "eat well and act your wage". While we don't shop like her very much (though she ~does~ get a CSA box, yay!) and generally don't keep or watch our food budget (I know, we are... uncomfortably comfortable sometimes), and definitely don't have the part about 6 kids, she is full of generally good ideas and good advice about cooking and getting by and generally things I agree with. And where I don't agree, I am aware and ok with :-)

Good Cheap Eats blog here

One thing she does to track her spending/eating habits is to blog about how she shops, what she gets, how much it costs. I am intrigued by the idea. I am, however, friendslocking these posts in case it is unnerving or TMI or something to hear about how much we spend on food and maybe the whole internet ever shouldn't know?

One major difference would be, though, that she has a monthly number she tries to stay below. In our case, we have been spending a TON on food lately, but with the expectation that this winter we will be buying little except dairy from the grocery store. Actually, that's what we're doing now too. It's just the non-grocery store foods I've been buying up on - I've dried 80 lbs of peaches, 60 of plums, 20 of apricots, 15ish of cherries, have 50 lbs pears coming next week. Also I've been buying oatmeal/rice/beans in bulk, and we've ordered half a cow, frozen, for our NEW (to us) FREEZER. I think I might have some squirrel dna or something.

So, I am really interested, if I tracked how we spend on food/household stuff for a year, how the rise and fall would be over time, and what would the average be. Starting now might be a little strange (as we've put up a lot already for the year), but I might as well start somewhere. Also, wondering how to account for big one time expenses. My dehydrator (which I ~did~ buy new, before I discovered the magic of craigslist) and the new freezer weren't cheap, but we're getting (or will get) a ton of use out of them.

I am also intrigued that, for all she does "buy in bulk", it seems to mean something different to both of us... to me, more bags of 25lbs oatmeal, to her a flat of cans at Costco.

So, some things I've already put up:
The fruit wasn't all ~that~ expensive. The peaches were $13 per 22lbs, the plums/appricots/cherries were about $0.95/lb (u-pick), and the pears will be $15/25 lbs.
The dehydrator ran me about $300, I bought the Really Nice Version - it's been used for all kinds of drying, though, the fruit, and also everything we can't keep up with in our weekly vegetable box. Eventually I want to try jerky.

Oatmeal was about $15/25lb, and rice/beans come to about $1.15/lb.

I bought 50 lbs tomatoes at $1/lb, at the produce stand on Broadway, which was more than I would have liked to spend, but they were very tasty. Those turned into about 20 pints of tomato sauce. Not a great deal. (though, I will admit, that probably only 35-40 lbs made it into the sauce. I was eating 3-4 tomatoes a day for a week and a half.

The half-cow is going to be about 200 lbs of roasts, steaks and ground beef for $4.50/lb. I know that is way more than most people can pay for meat, but we want to do this (grass fed, local, yadda yadda). I think that will be way more meat than we'll eat in a year, but we'll see. 4 lbs/week seems like a reasonable amount for 2 people? to me anyhow.

So that's where we're coming from. I'm sure I could be labeled a foodie. But this is My Thing. I might make more updates, just because I like talking about it.
trombonish: (adverbs)
Long story still kinda long, my Domino kitty has narcotic painkillers for the next week. Aparently she is prone to stress induced sicknesses, because she's developed a new one (well, stress combined with us leaving her for 3 days and she refusing to drink out of the two water bowls that weren't her favorite). At the risk of being TMI about my cat, wonky body chemistry and too little water lead to urine precipitates that crystalize inside the kitty. Ow. So, painkillers while she works everything out, and a prescription food to fix the chemical balance.

Anyhow, purpose of long explanation is so I can giggle at someone about my drugged cat (woggy's out of town for a while, so I can't share with him)

Me: "Domino, do you want to come upstairs with me?"
Domino: "Nah, I'm good"
Me: "Dom, you're mushed with your head in a corner half way up the stairs"
D: "No, I'm good! See! Floor on 3 sides!"
/me scoops up kitty, sets her on the bed
D: "ooooh comfy!"
Me: "now, lets give you a brushing, since you are loopy as all get out and also don't bathe when you're drugged, aparently"
D: "No brushing! I am a cat! I have perfect grooming habits! Ooooohhh yes that prickly petting you're doing, more of that please.
/me brushes
/dom rolls
/dom rolls more
/dom rolls off the bed
*whomp*
D: "whadaya know! The bed moved! Help me back up there would you?"
/me lifts the kitty back on the bed
D: "you know what we need? An adventure! I'm going to go find an adventure!"
/dom leaps back off the bed and trots off
trombonish: (sewing)
Granola: one of those delicious theoretically healthy things that is unreasonably expensive ($6/lb?!?!) to buy! BUT super easy to make! And even more delicious, if possible, because it can contain whatever you like!

Adapted from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (1989)

2 cups oats (not the "fast cook" kind, just oats)
2+ cups cooked wheat berries (not in the original recipe, leave them out if you like, but they add lots of chewy, yummy volume!)
1/2 cup honey (or syrup, but seriously HONEY. it is nommy and NOT corn juice)
1/2 cup cooking oil

Yummy extras!
Me:
1/2 cup crunched up dried apples (expensive to buy from the store, cheaper to buy from the farmer's market, remarkably easy to make yourself!)
1/2 cup crunched up almonds (found them in the bulk section of the co-op)

You: whatever you want! any sort of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, coconut, whatever! about 1/2 cup of each. the bulk foods section (where you scoop or pour your own out of bins) of your local food store has an amazing collection of different dried, largely unprocessed foods to add to this!

1. In a bowl, stir together oats, wheat berries, dried fruits, nuts, etc (everything but honey/oil!)
2. in a small bowl, whisk together oil and honey. no, oil and honey do not want to combine, and will separate back out if you turn your back for a second. give it your best go, if you don't attempt to combine them your granola will have large sections paved together by honey at the end of this...
3. stir honey mixture into grain things mixture
4. line a cookie sheet (one with raised edges, preferably) with aluminum foil. that, or prepare to scrub a cookie sheet a lot
5. press the granola mixture into the cookie sheet, bake at 300F for 30ish minutes (until golden-y colored.) at about 20 minutes of baking, poke the mixture on the cookie sheet to move the less cooked to the top and the more cooked to the bottom (the cookbook's description of "stir" at this point is a little optimistic about handling this very thick mixture)

If you added wheat berries, the goal is NOT to cook it til it dries out, else your wheat berries will be inedible again. I think if you just have oats, it should be pretty dry, but I haven't tried it. Let cool, then crumble into a zip-lock baggie. Can store for 2 weeks (freeze if longer).

Note: Granola is a healthy food (whole wheats, fruits, no additives) but it is NOT something you can veg in front of the TV and eat all day and not gain weight! it is energy dense! no complaining "why can you call that healthy, it has so many calories!" /harumph (If you think this is a stupid thing to have to whine about, I just read an article about people complaining this exact thing, griping that "health food has so many calories, it's so bad for you!". Nimnoes. It is intentionally a compact form of calories to take hiking or whatever, if you insist on eating it straight. Otherwise, it is delicious and good for you in small quantities and as a garnish, like topping on yogurt for breakfast. Also, difference between calories from REAL food and what the nutritionists call "empty calories". most of the population could do to lay off the constant between-meal snacking anyways!) This concludes karen's "aurg People" rant for the day...

Oh! Dried apples:
Here, it is low enough humidity to do this easily. Cut the apples really thin (cored, and you can skin them if you want to, but I don't). To dry them, I put them on a towel on cooling racks (so air can get underneath!), lay out the slices, and cover with another thin cotton towel/sheet (keeps bugs off, if that's a concern). lay your cooling racks in a sunny window! they dry in about 2 days (shorter if they are hot days, longer if they are cloudy days). they will brown a little, but not much, in my experience. here is a link to more ways to apple-dry, especially in more humid climates: Link Yes, I apologize in advance for the comic sans, but it is good info regardless of the font
trombonish: (sewing)
It is what it sounds like. A delicious use of squashes, amongst other things.

Link to cooks.com recipe

My edited recipe:

1 lb. fusilli (corkscrew) (they suggest tri-color, I only found green ones...)
1/2 c. olive oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced (farmer's market green onions are BIG)
1 red sweet pepper, finely chopped
4 carrots, peeled & coarsely shredded
1 yellow crookneck squash, coarsely chopped (no idea how they got 3 squashes into this, maybe their squashes were MUCH SMALLER than mine, which were about 3 lbs EACH)
1 lb. fresh broccoli florets (broccoli in October? well I got lucky, and found a ziplock of it at the farmer's market, it worked!)
1 tbsp. dried chives
2 tbls. dried basil
1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar (I used a delicious "balsamic vinegarette", it was delicious, don't know if that's the same thing)
2-3 cloves garlic (1 clove elephant garlic >> 3 standard garlic cloves >.> but elephant garlic is AWESOME), minced
1 tsp. granulated sugar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
red (cayenne) pepper

+ 6oz cubed ham to make it a meal! (or... if not a meat person, it could be a meal already)

1. Cook pasta al dente, drain and toss in a large bowl with 1/4 cup olive oil

1b. steam veggies. my cheater-steamer way: put veggies in a BIG microwave tupperware bowl. add some water (about 2 cups?). put a flat microwaveable plate over it, hold the tuperware and plate together, and flip over. most of the water should stay inside with the veggies. microwave for 4ish minutes, viola, steamed veggies!

2. stir veggies, chives, basil, Parmesan cheese, and ham into pasta

3. Whisk together vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt, pepper and red pepper to taste. Continue to whisk while slowly dribbling in the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil. toss with pasta

4. they suggest chilling overnight or at least 2 hrs - I find this salad is good either warm or cold, so eat however you like! adding a little more Parmesan on top is yummy
trombonish: (sewing)
No, I didn't know wheat berries were a food either. At the farmer's market we bought a pound bag of dried wheat for $1.50. I had vague ideas about grinding them for flour, but it turns out I didn't have the piecesparts to do so. But, my cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens: New Cook Book) did at least mention them, something about soaking for a long while then boiling for an hour or so. I thought that seemed entirely too long, but... crockpots! This makes a nice chewy hot breakfast with hardly any actual prep work.

Mind: this is scaled for my little (1.5 qt) crockpot

Night before:

3/4 cup wheat berries
2 1/2 cup water

Combine in crockpot, set on low. Cook overnight (8 hours or so)

Morning:
Cooked grains! Treat like oatmeal. Add whatever you'd like.

Suggested things to stir in:
Brown sugar
Honey
Dried apple bits
rasins
other dried fruit
nutmeg
cinnamon
... whatever you'd put in oatmeal!

Woggy really likes these for breakfast, they are particularly chewy and stick-to-your-ribs ish. And I have been feeding them to him regularly since we've sworn off the packaged oatmeal packets. The 3/4 cups cooked lasts about 3 breakfasts. I find the texture a little weird, but it goes Excelent in granola/yogurt (up next!)
trombonish: (sewing)
The Sunday after the farmer's market adventure (that, and Eggs in a Nest were last Saturday), I indulged in one of my favorite hobbies, bread baking. Depending on how my bread experiments go, I hope to be making the weekly bread for us (I was rather dismayed at how much sugar goes into store-bought bread).

Bread Recipe (Better Homes and Gardens, though the same as about any bread recipe)

1. Combine 1 tablespoon yeast with 2.5 cups flour in a large mixing bowl
2. In a small saucepan, heat 2.25 cups milk with 2 tablespoons sugar (honey) and 1 teaspoon salt til warm (not yet bubbling, but hot to the touch - about 120 deg.) If it bubbles and foams let it cool before adding to the yeast/flour, or you'll kill the yeast!
3. Stir together milk mix with flour mix it should still be liquidy, like cake mix)
4. Stir vigorously for 3-4 minutes! I usually skimp on the stirring/working steps, but if you do your bread won't be as chewy and delicious! Stirring makes the gluten do its thing.
5. Stir in as much flour as you can
6. Dump on floured counter, knead for about 8 minutes adding more flour as you go (by the time you're done, this bread should use a total of 5-6 cups of flour). Don't skimp on that kneading time even if you're done with flour! Work that gluten!
7. Cover with a towel, let rise in a warm place for about an hour (I put mine in the oven set to "warm")
8. Punch down, divide in two, shape into loaves, let rest for 10 minutes (no, I don't know why it needs to "rest")
9. If you're cooking in loaf pans, put the loaves in the pans. Put back in the warm oven to rise. I cooked my loaves on a pizza stone (basically a big ceramic tile), so I just set them on the pizza stone and set that in the "warm" oven. Cover, rise for another 40 minutes
10. After rising, bake at 350 for about 50 minutes (take off the towel first!)

Viola! Bread!

First time attempting bread without loaf pans. I was hoping it would allow the bread more freedom to expand (when I bake in the loaf pans, it can only expand UP, and it usually doesn't even do that, it just gets crusty on the top and very dense inside due to crusty on the top not letting it expand!). Indeed, they grew OUT and a little bit UP but mostly out. So they were fat, not very tall loaves. I think I still need to work on them not getting so crusty hard on the outside so they can expand even more - next time I'll try cooking in a slightly cooler oven, perhaps. Hooray experiments!
trombonish: (sewing)
For our first post-farmer's market food experiment, I tried one from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle called Eggs In A Nest. Largely, this was due to the acquisition of late-season Swiss Chard at the market. This is a leafy green plant that can be used a lot like spinach - early in the season it is tender enough to eat raw, but this late you have to cook it or it is too bitter (or so I have read).

Link to Recipe on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle site

Basically:
Saute carrots, garlic, onions, tomatoes in a pan
Add chopped chard, cover to steam
Poach eggs in the chard
Serve over rice (I skipped this step, I don't have a very good history of successful rice)

Results: not very good. The chard was done about when I added the eggs, so was very stringy and overdone by the time the eggs were cooked (especially my eggs, because I can't stand runny yolks so my eggs were more thoroughly cooked til the yolks didn't run).

I added ham croutons on top, which helped some- I think it was mostly the salt. This recipe doesn't call for any spices, which I think is the cause for some of the blandness (that, plus over-cooked chard, mentioned above). I added sage and basil and that helped some. Still not particularly tasty. And I still have most of a big bunch of chard in the refrigerator. More experiments with that to come!
trombonish: (adverbs)
So,
Asked Leanna about an Eco Pass. She said our company doesn't do those (which I think is kinda dumb, as we are in the HEART of downtown. Definitely asking about an eco-pass during my interview if I ever interview downtown again.)
CU summer bus passes are not buyable unless you're an enrolled student in the fall. I'm asking, but I'm pretty sure CAETE doesn't count either as a summer class, even though I'm paying $2000 for it.
So I need to sit down and figure out if it's worth it to pay the $170/month for a bus pass (which works out to $7.80/work day, the cheapest option, or I can buy smaller blocks for more), or if it's cheaper to drive and park... *grumbles*

But I actually did EVERYTHING on my to-do list yesterday! (and this morning)

Today:
1. Work
2. Email EMEN coordinator, make SURE I will have my certificate at completion of this class, BEFORE I pay $2000.
3. Fill in paperwork (if the CAETE people get back to me)
4. Job Hunt Work: Update my resume
5. Job Hunt Work: Help Woggy with his resume
6. Sewing: Start Woggy's Starfleet pants.
trombonish: (funned)
Ok, so after Long Weekend of D00m, it is time to get back on the daily grind of work and stuffs. And I said I'd get back to applying for jobs once Amy's baby came, or when Paul was done with finals and stuff. Both are true now.

Today I will:
1. Ask someone at work (probably Leanna) about an EcoPass.
2. Try not to fall too far behind (or just franticaly scrabble to catch up, depending on whether Amy was still in on Friday or not)
Evening:
3. Get my receipts to the kappa locker (refund yay).
4. On the way, drop off that packet of old tests.
5. Email relevant people about getting into Prof. Ouelette's class next semester.
6. Job Hunt Work: Update my Monster.