A Pickled May Day

I spent my Saturday attacking the monster level of grass and weeds in my yard with a weed eater and my gloved hands.  I woke up almost unable to get out of bed this morning.  Enough with the yard for the weekend! Forget the raking that needs to be done - it can wait. Time to pickle some things instead! 

Two of my friends recently got carried away with their shopping and were kind enough to share their over abundance with me.  My friend Sony was over zealous with her Costco shopping and bought herself a whole bag of garlic - for one person!  I use a lot of garlic, but that's just too much for one person for every day cooking.  And my friend Michelle bought a pound of serrano peppers not realizing they might be a little too spicy for her taste.  For some reason they both thought I might be a good person to offer their excess purchases too.  Imagine that! 

But, I live 2 weeks of every month alone, and the other 2 with my girls, who eat like birds, so there was no way I was going to be able to use all of this abundance up with conventional every day cooking either, so I decided it was time to get the canning equipment out.  Time to PICKLE!

I started with the serrano's.  I found this great recipe from Rob Walsh's blog Texas Eats. Normally I fool around with peoples recipes and make them my own, but this just sounded too good to mess with.  The only difference is my serrano's weren't red.  I have to say, the smell in my kitchen while I was putting this together was spectacular.  I love the smell of chili's!  The serrano's I had were pretty mild, so they didn't overwhelm like pepper's usually do, they just made the house smell delicious, homey, pleasant.  Perfect for what felt like a summer day here in Humboldt. 

1 lb of serrano's, 1 lb of carrots, 1/2 lb onion, 1 1/4 cup white vinegar, 5 cloves of garlic peeled and quartered, t tbs olive oil, 1 tbsp Mexican oregano, 1 tbsp pickling salt, and 4 bay leaves - click on the Texas Eats link above for all of the instructions.

These babies aren't run through a hot water bath canning process, so they're perishable and need to be kept refrigerated.  I can't wait to taste them in a few days!

Now for the garlic!  Man!  Even with blanching garlic is a challenge. The pickling is easy, but it takes a lot of patience peeling all those cloves.  This would be a good thing to do with a friend or two.  It would go a little faster with extra hands, plus it would just be a nice way to sit and chat while you make it happen. 

I found this recipe at this awesome site called Gourmet Garlic Gardens.  This site has a lot of great information on garlic, you should check it out. 
Once I got my 10 heads of garlic separated, I blanched the cloves for 30 seconds in boiling water then threw them into some ice cold water to keep them from cooking any more.  This made it a lot easier to get the peel off of the cloves. 

I then combined 2 1/2 cups vinegar, 1 cup of white wine (can't help but wonder how red wine would do in this),1 tbsp pickling salt, 1 tbsp sugar 1 1/2 tbsp Mexican oregano and boiled that for 1 minute.  Removed it from the heat and added the peeled garlic and stirred for one minute. 

I then packed the garlic into 3 hot, sterilized pint jars, added one dried chili to each jar, then the hot liquid up to within 1 cm of the top of the jar.  I knocked the air bubbles out with a rubber spatula, wiped the rims clean, put the lids on and then processed them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.  If you're at an elevation over 1000 ft increase the time by 5 minutes, 10 minutes if you're over 3000 ft and 15 if you're over 6000 ft. 

And there you have it!  A pickled Sunday!

Cooking up an Easter

Easter breakfast was a baked french toast recipe that my aunt gave me.  Very simple and very easy.  This was what it looked like the night before.  It took 1/2 loaf of white bread, cubed, 4 oz cream cheese cubed and softened, 1/2 dozen large eggs , 1/4 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup milk - the night before serving line the bottom of a 8 by 8 baking pan with half of the bread cubes, layer the cream cheese on top, add the remaining bread cubes.  Beat the eggs, maple syrup and milk together. Pour the mixture over the bread, cover and refrigerate over night.  The next morning bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until lightly browned.

This is how it looked right before serving.  It was more then enough for the 3 of us.

Now for dinner - The main course was Nigella's Ginger Ham which I've made before.  It's so simple and always comes out great.  I was very happy to actually find ginger preserves to glaze the ham with this year.  Last time I had to use marmalade with powdered ginger mixed in, which was delicious, but it's definitely better with the ginger preserves.

This is a horrible picture I know, but believe me, it was very good!
The sides were a green bean and celery dish that I got from Williams & Sonoma Complete Entertaining Cookbook.  From the "Autumn Sunday Supper" section.  I had about 3/4 lbs of green beans, trimmed, 1/8 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 cup yellow onion, 2 large celery stalks cut on the diagonal and salt and pepper to taste.  I quickly boiled the green beans for 5 minutes and dunked them in ice water to keep them crisp.  I melted the butter and sauted the onion until tender and translucent then I added the celery and stir fried for 3 or 4 minutes.  Last I added the green beans and seasoned with salt and pepper.

My other side was yam, sweet and white potato au gratin which is a recipe I found at ksl.com by Marguerite Henderson.  This dish consisted of a yam, a sweet potato and a russet potato, all peeled and sliced.  A 1/2 red onion, two tablespoons cubed butter 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.  1 cup cream and 1 cup gruyere - I think I should have added more gruyer, or found a stronger cheese.  The dish was very good, but I love cheese and would have liked something that stood out a little stronger.  I think an asiago would be good. First I mixed the potatoes, and then lined half of them in the bottom of a greased 8 x 8 baking dish.  I topped that with half of the sliced onion and the butter.  I layered the remaining potatoes onion and butter.  I mixed the thyme, nutmeg, salt, pepper shredded gruyere and the cream together and pored it over the potatoes and onions.  I covered the dish in foil and baked at 375 degrees for an hour - it could have gone a little longer, maybe 15 to 20 minutes, but it was still good.  I pulled the foil off and cooked it another 5 minutes uncovered.  At these measurements this is  enough for 5 to 6 people.

Oh, and I can't forget my bread.  The bread was the biggest hit with my daughter's dinner guests.  I used the same recipe I've used to make my flat bread pizza's.  It's a basic brioche recipe from the awesome book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  If you wish you could make bread but feel intimidated by the process - get this book - you'll be making delicious bread at home guaranteed!

Dinner:

 Then there was dessert.
Another great recipe from my Williams and Sonoma cookbook.  This one came from the Mediterranean Easter section at my oldest daughter's request.  Citrus and honey cheesecake with a hazelnut crust. 
The crust was 2 cups of hazelnuts, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
I chopped the nuts in a food processor with the sugar and cinnamon, as finely as possible with out letting them turn to a paste.  I added enough butter to hold the mixture together, then pressed the mixture into the bottom an half way up the sides of a springform pan.
The cheese filling was 1 1/2 lbs of cream cheese - at room temp.  1/2 cup sour cream - at room temp, 3/4 cup Loleta wildflower honey, 6 eggs separated and at room temp, 1 tbsp each of lemon zest and orange zest, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 3/4 cup sugar.
I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, then placed the cream cheese and sour cream in the bowl of my mixer and beat until smooth with my paddle mixer.  I added the honey and beat some more, the I added the egg yolks, lemons and orange zests and the vanilla. Mixed well.  I set this aside and then beat the egg whites until frothy and gradually added the sugar and beat until the peaks of the egg whites were almost stiff.  I stirred 1/3 of this into the cheese mixture, then folded in the rest.  I poured this into the prepared springform pan and baked it on the middle rack of the oven until set.  45 to 50 minutes.  Then turn off the oven and let it set in the oven with the door ajar for 2 hours.  This is what I ended up with:

The girls seemed to enjoy their dinner

Time to relax after a long day of cooking - time for a little bubble break.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! 

Homemade Crackers and Hot Artichoke and Cheese Dip

I got a wild hair this weekend and decided to make homemade crackers, just to see if I could do it.  Turns out it's pretty easy.  I found a great recipe for Olive Oil Crackers at 101 Cookbooks.  The only change I made to the recipe, which you can find by clicking on the above link, is that I added sesame seeds and some celery salt.  They turned out great, and my girls loved them, but I decided I needed something yummy to dip them in.  I bought some hummus from our little market in town, but I wanted something more.  So I found this great recipe for a baked cheese dip.  I, as usual, changed it a little.  Instead of monterey jack cheese, I used Garlic Jack from Loleta Cheese Factory and I used marinated artichoke hearts instead of plane canned ones, and I doubled the amount of garlic.  It's gooey yumminess!  It goes great with my homemade crackers. 

The cracker dough resting before being rolled out, kind of like you would roll out pasta for lasagna noodles

 Rolled out and cut with a cookie cutter for fun

 The final product.

The molten lava bowl of oooie gooie deliciousness. 

Now, time to dig in! 

Food Raves

This is an interesting article on people skirting around the system to serve up they're wares. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/us/15rave.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Is Gluten Making Us Fat? | Fitbie

In my opinion, it isn't gluten, carbs, or fat that's making us fat, it's lack of activity.

"So even if you stick to a gluten-free diet, it can actually lead to weight gain. A 2006 study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology followed 188 people with celiac disease (half of whom were overweight or obese) on a gluten-free diet for 2 years and discovered that 81 percent of them gained weight."

Is Gluten Making Us Fat? | Fitbie

Pictures of St. Patricks Day Dinner & A Friends Yummy dinner.

Our St. Patrick's Day dinner turned out great.  The lamb chops were marinated in olive oil, basalmic vinegar, garlic and rosemary.  The potatoes, were "smashed" by my youngest and loaded with butter, garlic and whole milk, and the peas were steamed.  Here's how it all turned out:

And now for some mouthwatering pictures of my friends St. Patrick's Day Dinner - She's recently discovered cooking her corned beef in a slow cooker - Seems it turned out perfect.........

You can fined the recipe for the Slow Cooker Corned Beef with Horseradish Cream, Carrots, Red Potatoes and Cabbage here at Yumsugar
And here is a picture of the Irish Onion Soup that I hope to be making myself soon.  It looks incredible! 

Doesn't that make you hungry looking at it?
If you feel the need to make this for yourself you can find the recipe here at Yumsugar.

The lovely lady who made this delicious dinner has a wheat free family, so she made this recipe her own by substituting her homemade almond flour focaccia for the regular crusty bread this recipe calls for.  I'll be trying to get that recipe from her and post it here for anyone who is interested in a wheat free option.
Hope everyone had a lucky and delicious St. Paddy's Day - Happy Spring!

2011 St. Patricks Day - Not like any other for me

Last year, I pulled out all the stops and put on an amazing St. Patricks Day dinner.  I brined my own beef brisket, cooked it up with potatoes and cabbage and made my favorite bread pudding recipe for desert.  I love brining my own Corned Beef, it's far superior to anything you can buy, and you can skip the nitrates.  But, this year is a whole different situation.  I have since left my married life and I'm living as a single mom off and on as I share custody with my ex.  A full corned beef would be a crazy amount of food for me and my girls.  But I figured, what the heck - plenty of sandwiches later.  But, the economy being what it is, and the divorce doing what it has to my own personal economy, I can't justify buying an entire brisket to corn when I have just $60 to make it to the next paycheck.  So what to do.

I decide, while I'm feeling sorry for myself, to pick up one of my favorite books, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day.  Angela's Ashes.  Frank McCourt's memoir of his extremely challenging and poor childhood in Ireland and the U.S.  This book always makes me feel grateful for what I have, and points out to me the hell that human beings can survive.  After re-reading the part in chapter three about Frank's mother, Angela, managing to get a pig's head for Christmas dinner.  That's all they could afford, and they were lucky to get it.  To top it off, there isn't enough coal to cook the pig's head, and the boys and their father have to go out on the streets to scrounge for coal to get their Christmas dinner cooked.  I won't even begin to go into the hell that their living conditions were.  I will just say, that's enough to make me stop whining about not being able to have corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day. 

So - I decide to thoroughly go through my pantry and figure out just what we can have for St. Patrick's dinner - I have managed to find 6 lamb chops left from the 4-H sheep Cordelia raised a couple of years ago, and I decided to take with me when I left my married life - tightly wrapped, and due to be used.  There are 3 potatoes in the bottom of my fridge needing to be boiled up and mashed up with some butter and milk, and, hello!  A bag of frozen peas in the back of my freezer.  Voila!  St. Patrick's day dinner is good to go, and I'm counting my blessings!  Lamb chops!  Yum! 

Hmmm - and desert?  I know apple pie doesn't sound Irish - it's all American right?  Well, apples were a big part of the Celtic diet, and I already have the apples sliced and frozen in my freezer.  I just need to make a pie crust, put the apples in it with sugar, butter, cinnamon and a little lemon zest, all of which I have on hand, bake it, and we have a traditional Irish desert for St. Patrick's day. 

Hopefully I'll pull of of this off, and hopefully everyone else out there will have a wonderful, nourishing, and plentiful St. Patrick's Day. 

'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!'
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

P.S. - when the money situation lightens up a bit, I still plan to corn that brisket and have myself a belated St. Patrick's Day dinner.