Adrienne's Food Adventures

Pan Seared Five-Spice Duck Breast with Plum Wine Sauce

2011-01-18T21:47:00.005-06:00

When I heard that Ott, A was going to be hosting an Iron Chef Challenge, I was intrigued. I like to cook, but I can hardly call myself a chef. I also enjoy eating duck, but I think I've only eaten it 3 times. Once it was excellent (surprisingly at the Safe House one New Year's Eve many years ago), once it was ok (so unmemorable that I don't know where that was), and once it was awful (at a local Asian restaurant...good sushi, bad duck).

I scoured my cookbooks and the internet looking for the perfect recipe. I thought of doing a duck sausage, just so that I could use the grinder attachment for my stand mixer. But I didn't want to get in over my head. I still may try this option in the future. Maybe stir fry the sausage with some veggies and a garlicy ginger soy sauce. Yum!

I did narrow down my search to Asian recipes...when you've got a craving, you have to go with it. I decided on a delicious sounding recipe I found at the Food Network...Seared Five-Spice Duck Breast with Plum Wine Sauce. And the best part was that I loved all the ingredients! Yay! I've been known to be picky and leave out onions or other ingredients I don't like. For the sides I chose Wasabi Mashed Potatoes and Orange Scented Snow Peas. Since I was going all out, I made dessert...Plum Wine Poached Asian Pear.

The first step was to track down some duck. The was easy once I found the right store. I'm loving Grasch Foods. They have an extensive selection of 'different' meats. I saw ostrich, elk, buffalo, goat, wild boar, venison (although this can hardly be labeled as 'different'...probably half of the freezers in Wisconsin have venison), and duck! They carried fresh and frozen duck, and a wide variety of Maple Leaf Farms duck products. Because Maple Leaf Farms is sponsoring this month's Iron Chef contest, and they supplied me with a $5 off coupon, I picked up 2 of their frozen duck breast filets. They are convenient because when you cook the breasts, you need to score the skin, and these come pre-scored. For someone who's never cooked duck before, this takes the guesswork out of it!

I prepared the breasts to be marinated a day in advance. The marinade included the chopped up ginger and the white part of the scallions, the five spice powder, freshly ground black pepper and some sea salt.

I added the sesame oil, mixed it all together, and put it in a Ziploc bag. Then I added the duck breasts and refrigerated them for 24 hours.

The next day was D-Day...Duck Day! I got my homemade chicken stock out, and some plum wine.

I heated a pan (NOT a non-stick pan) over medium high heat. Then I added the duck with the skin side down until the skin was seared. Do not touch the duck. Don't poke at it and move it around. Just leave it alone so it sears nicely. Then flip it over and sear the other side. We're not fully cooking the breasts, so don't leave them for too long.

See that nice sear? Beautiful!

After both sides have been seared, place them on an oven-proof plate (I used my knock-off Le Creuset Dutch Oven) and cook them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

While the duck is in the oven, you've got to make the plum wine sauce. Go back to the same pan you seared the duck in. Pour off the fat, but leave the stuck on goodness that is left behind.

Add the wine and chicken stock and deglaze the pan. I used a wooden spoon. I don't know why you use a wooden spoon when you deglaze, but you do. Let the sauce simmer and reduce to 1 cup. After it's reduced, add the butter (of course I used my homemade butter).

This is what the duck looked like when it came out of the oven. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes. I let it rest for about 10 because it took that long to let the sauce reduce.

After the duck was rested, I sliced it, and added the sauce. Check out this plate!

Here's some info about the sides I made!

For the Wasabi Mashed Potatoes, I roasted the garlic in the oven. Mmm, I love roasted garlic! If you've never roasted garlic, it's simple. Cut the top off, drizzle a little olive oil on top of the garlic, and make a little aluminum foil packet to roast it in.

It comes out looking like this. The cloves are mushy and squeeze right out.

Here's the wasabi powder.

I made a paste of the roasted garlic, wasabi powder and a little water.

I put my cooked potatoes through a potato ricer (I prefer this to a mixer...I tend to over-mix and make the potatoes to starchy). Then I mixed everything all up and ate them! I went easy on the wasabi powder because I've never worked with it before. I could have added more, but they were still tasty!

Ah dessert! Honestly...I'm not a huge fan of pears. I find them too grainy. But I was in an adventurous mood. I picked up an Asian pear. I did some of the prep work a day ahead of time. I cut it in half and spooned out the middle.

I put the pomegranate juice and plum wine in a pot with the Asian pear (cut side down). I simmered them in the wine/juice for 20 minutes. After they cooled, I put them in a container with their juice in the fridge overnight.

This is what they looked like the next day. I dried them with a paper towel then dipped them in sugar. Meanwhile, I heated a grill pan on high heat (the recipe said grill, but hey...it's winter here in Wisconsin).

I put them on the hot grill pan until the sugar crystalized. It took about 15 seconds!

Here's what it looked like! Mmmm! Pear! I added some vanilla ice cream and pomegranate seeds.

This dessert was wonderful...and coming from someone who doesn't care for pears, that's huge! I'd make it again! And my 2 year old son loved it too.

My afterthoughts: I really enjoyed the duck. I've heard that duck is more like red meat than poultry. I didn't quite believe it. I've eaten it before. But not like this. Both my husband and I were shocked at the taste and texture of the duck breast...it was like eating a steak...a juicy filet mignon. My diet-minded husband, who didn't even want to even try the duck, said he'd eat it again. I'd call it a giant success.

Seared Five-Spice Duck Breast with Plum Wine Sauce

Ingredients

10 ounces boneless duck breast with skin
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger root
3 scallion heads white part only, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
4 ounces sesame oil
2 cups duck stock or canned chicken stock
1 cup plum wine
1 ounce unsalted butter

Directions

Marinate the duck breast with 5 spice powder, ginger root, scallions, salt, pepper and sesame oil for at least 6 hours or overnight.
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Heat skillet on moderately high heat, do not add any oil. Sear duck breast skin side down, brown both sides. Transfer duck to oven proof plate and cook the duck in the oven for 10 minutes for medium rare. Pour off grease form the skillet, add plum wine, add duck stock season with salt and pepper and reduce the sauce to 1 cup. Then incorporate the butter to the sauce and set aside and keep warm. Remove duck from oven let it set for 5 minutes before slicing.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/the-best-of/seared-five-spice-duck-breast-with-plum-wine-sauce-recipe/index.html

Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

1 medium head garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
12 potatoes
1 cup butter, softened
4 teaspoons wasabi powder
water as needed
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Remove papery outer skin of garlic bulb. Rub with olive oil and place on a small baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until skin can be easily pierced with a fork.
While garlic is roasting, peel and quarter the potatoes. Place in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and allow potatoes to simmer until very soft, about 20 minutes. Drain water and mash potatoes with butter until smooth and fluffy.
Squeeze softened garlic cloves out of skin into pot; in a small bowl, mix wasabi powder with just enough water to form a thick paste. Mash garlic and wasabi paste into potatoes, pour in milk and continue to mash until mixture is light and fluffy; season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Wasabi-Mashed-Potatoes/Detail.aspx

Orange Scented Sugar Snap Peas

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Pounds Sugar Snap Peas
1/4 Cup Butter
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
2 Teaspoons Finely Shredded Orange Peel

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, cover sugar snap peas with cold water. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce heat; simmer until crisp-tender, 5 to 6 minutes.
2. Drain well and return to same pan. Add butter, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until butter melts, stirring frequently. Transfer to a serving bowl; top with orange peel.
http://www.mapleleaffarms.com/88?recipe=247&reccat=6

Plum Wine Poached Asian Pear

Ingredients

2 small firm Asian pears, peeled
2 cups pomegranate juice
2 cups Japanese plum wine
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Vanilla ice cream
Mint leaves [or pomegranate seeds], for garnish

Directions

Cut the Asian pears in half vertically. Use a small spoon to scoop out the core. Put the 4 halves in a pot large enough to fit the pears in a single layer.
Cover the pears with the pomegranate juice and plum wine. Add more juice and wine if the pears are not completely covered. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and let the pears come to room temperature in the pot. Remove the pears and juice from the pot and put in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat a grill [or grill pan] to high.
When you're ready to serve the pears, dry each half thoroughly using paper towels. Put the sugar on a shallow plate and dip the flat side of each half in the sugar. Put each pear half, flat side down, on a very hot grill and grill until the sugar is brown and bubbly.
Transfer the pears to serving plates, flat side up. Put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle of each pear and garnish with mint [or pomegranate seeds]
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/plum-wine-poached-asian-pear-recipe/index.html

Homemade Chicken Stock

2011-01-12T21:18:00.003-06:00

After making beef stock, chicken stock was the next thing to tackle on my to-do list. Because this was my first time, I wanted to do it right and 'by the book'. In this case, 'the book' being Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, of course. I wanted to track down some happy, pastured chickens, and I knew just where to go. If you happen to live in the Milwaukee area (or even in the Madison area), then you should check out Ruegsegger Farms. I was referred to Ruegsegger Farms this summer by Annie Wegner LeFort, master food preserver, pastry chef, urban homesteader, among other titles. They specialize in 'all natural meats'...pastured chickens, grass-fed beef, pastured pork, and many other animal products. And what is extra special is that you can place an order early in the week and pick it up at your local farmers market (St. Ann's Center on a Saturday morning, anyone?). They even deliver! I've placed several orders and have been more than pleased every time (seriously...try their bacon! Yum!).

For this recipe, I ordered their stewing hens (which are old egg layers and come 2 in a pack) and a package of chicken feet. Honestly, I wouldn't know where else to go to get chicken feet. I guess my backup plan would be an Asian market. After watching Top Chef last week, Casey fried up some chicken feet for dim sum (and apparently they weren't very good...) that she got at an Asian market, but I think that was in New York. I don't know how popular chicken feet are in Milwaukee.

The beginning is going to look familiar. You start out just like the beef stock. I was using my giant pot and 2 chickens, so I really considered myself as doubling the recipe. Otherwise, you would only need to roughly chop 1 large onion, 2 carrots and 3 celery stalks.

Here are my 2 stewing chickens, still in their packaging.

I cut the wings off the chicken. I wish I would have a nice, heavy cleaver, but I don't. The recipe says to cut the wings up, but I couldn't. I was able to cut the neck up into a few pieces.

L to R: Chicken, neck, innards (gizzard and liver?) and wings

The lovely chicken feet. I know. They look disgusting, but at least they had the nails trimmed off! The feet are important to broth because they add lots of gelatin (which is what you want for a thick, healthy broth). Don't worry. You strain them out. I won't make you eat them. I did have fun with them, though. While they were cooking, I'd fish them out and tease my son with them. He thought they were funny. If you want to read more about chicken feet, check out this post at Nourished Kitchen.

You'll need 2 tablespoons of vinegar. I chose raw apple cider vinegar.

Hmmm...I seem to have stopped taking pictures at this point. I don't know what happened. I'll just talk you through it. Put everything in your pot, cover it with filtered water, and let sit for about 30 minutes to an hour so the vinegar can do it's thing and get some of those wonderful minerals out. Then you can add more water if you want, bring it to a boil, skim off the icky stuff that floats to the top, then turn down the heat so that the water is just simmering. Leave it on for 6-24 hours.

Mine ended up cooking for about 16 hours because I had to go to work. I ended up setting an alarm for 3:30 in the morning to turn off the stove so that the stock could cool.

After the stock cools, you strain it through a fine strainer. I put it in quart jars and some juice pitchers, then into the fridge. I was expecting there to be a thick layer of fat at the top, just like the beef stock, but there wasn't. I don't know if the chickens I used weren't fatty, or if chicken stock just doesn't produce as much fat. There was a slight layer of fat on the top that I just skimmed off the fat with a spoon.

I froze the stock in plastic freezer bags and ice cube trays again.

You may be wondering what I did with all of the meat from the chickens. I did save it. I had planned on making chicken enchiladas. But, I was surprised at how many small bones there were mixed in with the meat. Plus, because I had used stewing hens, their meat was a bit drier...it really is meant to be used in soups. So I made some chicken noodle soup with it.

But...the next time I make chicken stock, I will not be using whole chickens. I'll just use a chicken carcass (bones) and chicken feet (I plan on keeping some on hand in the freezer). And...I'll use my crock pot so I don't have to worry about leaving it on while I'm at work (and I won't have to wake up at 3:30 in the morning).

Another great post on Chicken Stock is at Cheeseslave.

This post is linked to: Simple Lives Thursday and Real Food Wednesday.

What's your decorating style?

2011-01-11T16:13:00.000-06:00

What is the style in your kitchen? Do you go for modern furniture when it comes to your dining set? I must admit that I'm style-less. I'm terrible at anything related to decorating. In my entire house, there is barely anything hung on the walls. It looks like we just moved in, and we've lived here for 5 years!

I was browsing the furniture at AllModern.com, and they have some cute stuff! I love this dining set, although I'd never be able to pull it off!

http://www.allmodern.com/Johnston-Casuals-1702-1730B-GL30-JCS1202.html

And the items in the kitchen department? Too adorable!

http://www.allmodern.com/Skagerak-Denmark-183672-TT1297.html

If you're looking to update your home, check out AllModern.com!

Disclaimer: I am compensated for this post with a gift certificate to CSN Stores. I will receive a product and review it.

Beef Stock

2011-01-05T21:14:00.003-06:00

I wanted to make Beef Stock following the recipe in Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. I've never made stock before, but it seemed easy and very nutritious. According to Sally Fallon, if stock is properly prepared, "meat stocks are extremely nutritious, containing the minerals of bone, cartilage, marrow and vegetables as electrolytes, a form that is easy to assimilate."

I have a huge stainless-steel 21 quart waterbath canner that I used to make my stock. No need for me to run out and buy another pot! You could also use a crockpot (this is a good choice if you are uncomfortable leaving your stock on the stove overnight or have to leave the house). The drawback of the crockpot is that you get less stock.

My first task was to track down some beef bones. I wanted some bones from pastured cows, so I called Whole Foods. They set some aside for me...at the hefty price of $3.99 per pound (I got $20 worth). In the future, I don't think I'll be so picky. We recently went out to dinner and 3 of us had prime rib. I could have saved those 3 bones in the freezer, but at the time, I didn't know I was going to be making beef stock. I put out the word to my family and coworkers to save any beef (and chicken...for chicken stock) bones they may get for me.

While I was at Whole Foods, I also picked up 3 yellow onions, 3 carrots, celery, fresh thyme and parsley (which, I forgot to use). I wanted to use organic produce because I was trying to make a healthy stock, and pesticides aren't my idea of healthy. If it were the summer, I would have picked up the produce at the farmers market.

One thing I might change next time is to attempt to track down a calves foot (which was an optional ingredient in the recipe). I really don't know where to begin to look for one. My stock turned out great, but it could have been thicker...meaning it could have contained more gelatin. According to Fallon, "proteinaceous gelatin in meat broths has the unusual property of attracting liquids-it is hydrophilic-even after it has been heated. The same property by which gelatin attracts water to form desserts, like Jello, allows it to attract digestive juices to the surface of cooked food particles." She also says that gelatin is a digestive aid...great for people with intestinal disorders, as well as a protein sparer, meaning it helps the body use the proteins that it takes in. So, it's great for people with anemia, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and cancer.

Ok, now on to the cookin'. First I roasted the bones in the oven at 400 degrees until they were browned.

While the bones were roasting, I cleaned the carrots and celery, and cut up the vegetables. There's no need to chop them up really small. A rough chop is fine.

One more important note is the vinegar. The vinegar is important because it, "helps to draw minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium, into the broth." After reading about real food, I chose fermented raw vinegar.

I put the roasted bones, vegetables, and a 1/2 cup of vinegar into the giant pot. Then I covered them all up with filtered water and let them sit for an hour.

After an hour, I added more filtered water and turned the burner on to high. Once the water was boiling, I turned it down to a simmer, and skimmed off all the nasty stuff that floated to the top. Then I added a bunch of thyme (tied together with kitchen string) and about a teaspoon of freshly ground pepper.

I let my stock simmer for 36 hours. The recipe says anywhere from 12 to 72 hours is good. During the last 10 minutes I was supposed to add a bunch of parsley, but I forgot.

This is what it looked like when it was done.

After letting it cool, I pour it through a fine strainer into a bunch of quart jars and a couple of juice pitchers. There was some meat left in there from the bones, and I ended up giving that to my dogs as a special treat. They loved it.

Then, they were refrigerated overnight. As it cools in the refrigerator, the fat rises to the top and gets hard. It makes it easy for you to take it off (I just used a spoon). I just threw it in the garbage, but you could always render it if you want.

See the fat at the top?

Ewww...congealed fat!

All of my stock with the fat removed.

Now I had to decide how to store it. I like to make French onion soup, and the recipe I use calls for one can (which is 15 ounces). I decided to freeze most of the stock in 15 ounces in plastic bags. EDIT: oops. I guess it calls for a 14 oz. can. Oh well. Close enough.

I also froze some in ice cube trays. They'll be good for stir frys.

I laid the bags flat in a pan so that when they are frozen, they won't take up much space. I have 14 bags, so I had to make sure to take up as little space as possible. I'm glad I had them in the pan, too. One of the bags leaked, and that would not have been fun to clean up if it was all over the freezer.

I thought I'd post my costs. If I had some FREE bones, this broth would be much more economical. Even still, I got 14- 15 oz. bags, plus 6 ice cube trays (which each have 14 ounces). That is roughly 20 cans of beef stock. I'm not sure the cost in the store, but the organic broth is probably at least $2 per can.

Beef Bones from Pastured Cows $20.15

Organic Onions $2.65

Organic Celery $1.36

Organic Carrots $0.71

Thyme $2.00

Apple Cider Vinegar $1.25

TOTAL $28.12

A couple of great posts about making your own beef stock are at Nourished Kitchen and Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

This post has been linked up to: Simple Lives Thursday and Hearth and Soul

20% Off Healthy Meal Plans at Nourished Kitchen

2011-01-04T15:07:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to let you know about a sale over at Nourished Kitchen. Right now Jenny's meal plans are 20% off with the code RFM20. You can read about her sale here (as well as the other real food bloggers sale items). You'll want to hurry, because I don't know when this sale ends. There are 2 subscription options. You can pay weekly or annually. And, if you aren't happy, you can get your money back within the first 30 days.

These meal plans are really cool. I recently purchased these meal plans, and I love them! The instructions are very concise and there is even a shopping list. Every week you get an email with a link to the meal plans. Each meal plan includes:

3 Full Simple Dinner Menus Each Week

1 Dessert of the Week

1 Probiotic Fermented Food of the Week

1 Soup of the Week

All whole foods, no refined or processed ingredients

Easy-to-follow Recipes

Simple to-do lists

Information on health and wellness

Suitable for Gluten-/Grain/Dairy-/Soy-free and GAPS Diets

Recipes serve four, but can be easily halved, doubled or tripled

Most menus can be prepared in under 40 minutes

I just got done making one of the bonus recipes from last week...orange creamsicles! I can't wait until they are frozen to try them out. But I must admit that I did taste them before I poured them into the moulds, and they tasted just like the frozen treats you can buy in the store, except with healthy ingredients!

If this sounds like something that is interesting to you, click here for more info, see a sample or to order your own menu plans.

Disclaimer: I was not offered anything in exchange for this post. I purchased the meal plans, and I love them. This is my own opinion. I do not receive any commission if you purchase the meal plans.

Piima

2011-01-03T22:25:00.005-06:00

I mentioned Piima in this post, but I thought I'd dedicate a whole post to it, because I like it so much! The taste is so rich and delicious and the texture is wonderfully creamy. It's one of my new favorite foods. Plus, it's good for you. It has beneficial bacteria (probiotic) that is great for your gut. You can go here to read a little bit more about cultured dairy products.

I'll let you know how to make your own Piima. You will need 1 tablespoon of Piima starter culture, 16 ounces of heavy cream, and a clean glass jar. It would be best to have raw cream, but it's not available in my state. The next best option is pasteurized heavy cream. This is surprisingly difficult to find. Locally, I've only found it at Outpost Natural Foods...even Whole Foods didn't carry any. Do NOT buy ultra pasteurized heavy cream. It will not be able to support the culture, plus there are other icky additives in it that you don't want.

First, you have to get your hands on a starter culture. If you're lucky enough to know someone that has some Piima, all you need is about a tablespoon of their Piima. If you're not that lucky, I know of 2 places where you can order some. I got my Piima from Moonwise Herbs when I took a Fermentation for Health class. You can order some online and it will be shipped to you with instructions on how to make more. Go here for ordering information. Another online source is from Cultures for Health. I don't have any personal experience with their Piima, but I have heard great things about Cultures for Health, and I would order from them. They have great instructions online, and I'm sure they also come in the package. Go here for ordering information. They are $12 from both places, but I'm not sure of the shipping charges, so you'd have to look into that yourself.

These are the instructions for the Piima cream that I have from Moonwise Herbs. The one from Cultures for Health is dried, so I'm not exactly sure how to get it started. Refer to the instructions provided.

Piima cream, clean empty jar, 16 oz. of heavy cream

Next, add your starter culture to the clean glass jar. I then add enough heavy cream to cover it and stir it up well. I've read that you aren't supposed to used any metal utensils with it, but I use a regular spoon, and haven't had any problems.

Piima cream (starter culture) in jar & 16 oz. of heavy cream

After the Piima starter is mixed well into the heavy cream, I pour the rest in and stir it some more. Then put a cover on the jar. I love the plastic covers that you can get for mason jars, but the metal covers are just fine too. Don't tighten it. Just place it on top. You want air to get it, but you don't want bugs or dirt to get in.

The next part was difficult for me the first time. You leave it out on the counter for 24 hours. Yes...you don't refrigerate it. You want the good bacteria in the Piima to multiply and do its thing.

Here's a tip that I learned the hard way. Piima needs a temperature of 70-78 degrees to culture. It's winter in Wisconsin and I'm not rich, so my house isn't quite that warm. The first time I attempted Piima, it didn't thicken like it was supposed to. It actually didn't get any thicker than the heavy cream because it just wasn't warm enough. I ended up turning that 'failure' into some delicious cultured butter (and a learning experience). On my second attempt, I placed the jar in the oven with the light on. I also turned the oven on for about 5 seconds to get it slightly warmer than our current room temperature. This trick worked like a charm. After 24 hours the Piima cream was nice and thick.

After the Piima cultures for 24 hours, you need to refrigerate it. It will thicken even more. My Piima is thicker than sour cream. It's not jiggly at all. The taste is very similar to sour cream, in my opinion, only slightly more sour.

It should be good for 6 months. Save a little bit for your next batch. It could be never ending, as long as you save a bit from your previous batch. I keep a small 4 ounce mason jar in my freezer just in case something ever happens to my Piima cream and I need a backup starter. Of course, I could always order a new one if I had to, but I'm cheap.

Now what do you do with all of that Piima cream? Here are some ideas:

Turn it into butter (called cultured butter). Check out this post on how to make your own butter. Just add it to your mixer as is.
Use it like you would use sour cream. It's great on baked potatoes. Or use it in dips. How about on top of pierogies?
Dip fruit in it.
Put it in smoothies (recipe to come in another post).
Add beneficial bacteria to pasteurized milk (same process as making Piima, only use pasteurized milk instead of heavy cream). [Also, from my internet researching, it seems that after the Piima is cultured in milk for 24 hours, it is technically Piima yogurt, even though it's much more runny than traditional yogurt...it's more like a drinkable yogurt] This can then be turned into cream cheese and whey (recipe to follow in another post).
Pan-fried brussel sprouts with Piima cream
This Piima bread recipe looks interesting.

Those are all of the ideas I have for Piima for now...if I come up with more, I'll come back and update this post.

What are you waiting for? Go order your culture! Or, if you know me and live in Milwaukee, I'd be happy to share mine with you!

This post was linked to: Tuesday Twister and Real Food Wednesday

Breakfast Sausage

2011-01-02T23:20:00.003-06:00

I just HAD to try out the new attachment for my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer...the KitchenAid FGA Food Grinder Attachment for Stand Mixers (which I got for $37, and as I type this it's down to $33!). I picked a relatively easy sausage recipe from The Mixer Bible: Over 300 Recipes for Your Stand Mixer, breakfast sausage! Next to bacon, breakfast sausage is my second favorite breakfast meat. The most difficult part was tracking down the meat I needed, pork shoulder and pork fat. I like that I know exactly what is in the sausage. I can control all of the ingredients and the spices. No high fructose corn syrup 'maple syrup' included in these puppies. No MSG. No nitrates or nitrites or whatever that stuff is.

Here's what's in Jimmy Dean Maple Sausage Links, according to their website:

PORK, WATER, SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF THE FOLLOWING: CORN SYRUP, SODIUM LACTATE, SALT, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL MAPLE FLAVOR (WITH MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, MALTODEXTRIN, MAPLE SYRUP, BROWN SUGAR), MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, FLAVORINGS, NATURAL BENZALDEHYDE, BHA, BHT, CITRIC ACID, BEEF COLLAGEN CASINGS.

I think I'll pass on those, thank you very much.

Slightly better is the breakfast sausage that is the favorite in our house, Jones Dairy Farm All Natural Golden Brown Maple Pork Sausage Links. Their ingredients are significantly better than Jimmy Deans, but there you will never know what all of the ingredients are. Here they are per their website:

pork, water, maple sugar, salt, spices, sugar, maple flavor (caramelized sugar syrup, flavorings, maple syrup, brown sugar)

The recipe I used called for 2 1/2 pounds of pork shoulder and a 1/2 pound of pork fat. The smallest pork shoulder I could find was 3 1/4 pounds, but I still only used a 1/2 pound of pork fat. A note about the pork fat: it wasn't out in the meat department. I asked the meat guy if they had any, and he packaged some up for me.

The not-so-appealing pork fat and pork shoulder.

First, I had to chop up the meat and fat into 1 inch cubes and place into a shallow-sided pan.

Next, I placed the pork in the freezer for 30 minutes (ok...it was a bit longer because I ate lunch). When you grind meat you don't want it to be too soft. And let me tell you that fat is really, really soft. I think it gets stuck in the grinder, but I don't want to find out, so I made sure it was pretty hard, but not totally frozen.

Mmmm...cubed up pork (I know, it doesn't look too delicious).

Then I put together the brand new grinder. I was so psyched to give it a try. It was so easy to put together and attach to the mixer. Even my husband was excited. You know how men are with meat!

Isn't it cute? I just love the new grinder! You just put the bowl underneath the grinder to catch the meat, and you're ready to go!

Then you just shove the meat down the grinder. It actually kind of pulls it through itself. It was fun, and took less than 10 minutes.

I had to throw in a picture of the meat coming out.

After I ground up all of the meat and fat, I added pure maple syrup (the real stuff, not the fake stuff), thyme, sage, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a little bit of allspice, as instructed by the recipe.

Everything in the bowl before being mixed.

Finally, it was time to test it out. I cooked a little bit up in a frying pan to see how it tasted.

The cooked up sample.

The first test sample was pretty bland. I added more of the maple syrup and spices. Cooked up another sample. Still too bland. I added even more syrup and spices. It was finally where I wanted it to be. I'm not sure if sausage is one of those things that tastes better as the flavor sinks in or not...

If I had sausage casings, I could have made little sausage links, but I didn't buy any. So I decided to make little breakfast sausage patties. I shaped them all on wax paper and froze them on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, I transferred them to freezer bags. I ended up with 57, so with the 3 test sausages, that makes 60 sausages total. Those will last us a long time!

I had to include a photo of my helper/taste tester!

A Look Back on My First Year of Canning

2010-12-30T21:31:00.000-06:00

It's the end of the year, and the end of the year brings lists. If you know me in real life, you know I like lists. So, here's a list of things I learned in my first year of canning (in no particular order).

1) A jar will break into 2 pieces. I only broke one jar in the waterbath canner, and the reason is still a mystery to me. But, it broke into 2 clean pieces...the top and the bottom.

2) I haven't found the right pickle recipe...yet. Most of the pickles I made sucked. Some were less sucky than others. The hamburger slices are my personal favorites, but none of them were excellent or even great. I tried so many tricks...grape leaves in the jars, soaking the freshly picked cucumbers in ice water, brining the cucumbers first, using Pickle Crisp. No great successes to speak of.

3) I did not make enough salsa or applesauce to make it through the winter. To be fair, I didn't know that my 2 year old liked applesauce this much or that my husband would eat salsa EVERY SINGLE DAY. Apparently, when you make it yourself it really is that much better.

4) There will never be such a thing as too many Leena's 5 Spice Pickled Cherries. Ever. I tried them as an experiment, not really expecting to like them. Boy was I shocked when I fell in love with them.

5) A bushel of peaches is probably too many peaches. The problem with peaches is that they go from unripe to ripe to over ripe in 2 days. Then you have to take off of work to process them.

6) Speaking of peaches, Vanilla Bean Peach Jam seems to be everyones favorite. I'll have to make a lot more next year. Maybe a bushel of peaches isn't too many...

7) We eat a lot more jam, jelly, butter when it's homemade. Before I canned, we didn't buy much. Now we go through about a jar a week (sometimes more, sometimes less). It's amazing when a jam actually tastes like the fruit it is instead of sugar!

8) Even with the long list of things I canned, I didn't make a dent in the long list of things I still want to can, but haven't. There are so many delicious recipes out there, but only so much time in the day.

And one more list...

Here's the list of what I 'put up' in 2010 (in reverse canning order)

Apple Pie in a Jar
Pickled Jalapeno & Fresno Peppers 7 pts
Cinnamon Applesauce 9 pts
Apple Butter 8.5 1/2 pts
Cinnamon Applesauce 5 pts
Tomato Jam 6.5 1/2 pts
Stolen Grape Jelly 5.5 1/2 pts
Apple Butter 6.5 1/2 pts
Zesty Habenero Salsa 14 pts
Grape Jelly 10 1/2 pts
Zesty Habenero Salsa 6 pts
Raspberry Preserves 19.5- 1/2 pts
Crushed Tomatoes 3 Qts, 1 pt
Charred Tomato and Chile Salsa 4 pts
Pickled Garlic 6- 1/2 pts
Thai Hot & Sweet Dipping Sauce 9- 1/2 pts
Pickled Green & Yellow Jalapeno Peppers 6 pts
Extra Garlic- Garlic Dill Pickles (I) 2 Qts
Kosher-Style Dill Pickles (H) 3 Qts
Garlic Dill Pickles (G) 3 pts
Pickled Hot Banana Peppers 3 pts
Pickled Mucho Nacho Jalapeno Peppers 1 pt
Favorite Dill Pickles 4 Qts
Fiery Dill Slices 5 pts
Peaches in light syrup 5 Qts & 8 pts
Leena's Chinese Five Spice Pickled Cherries 5- 1/2 pts
Ginger Peach Pineapple Butter 4.5- 1/2 pts
Summertime Vanilla Bean Peach Jam 8.5- 1/2 pts
Cherry Syrup 6- 1/2 pts
Honey-Spiced Peaches 3 Qts
Polish Dill Pickles 7 Qts
Dill Pickle Slices (E) 3 pts
Dill Pickle Slices (E) 6 pts
Cherry Relish 1 pt & 2- 1/2 pts
Cherries in Wine 5 pts
Hamburger Dills (D) 2 pts
Kosher Dill Pickle Spears (C) 4 Qts
Dill Pickle Spears (B) 3 Qts
Dill Pickle Spears (A) 7 pts
No Sugar Added Berry Cherry Jam- 4 1/2 pt & 4- 4 oz.
No Sugar Added Strawberry Jam

New Toys in My Kitchen

2010-12-29T12:25:00.001-06:00

I've got some new toys in my kitchen, and I can't wait to use them! First, my wonderful husband got me this Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven, Cafe Brown. I've never had a Dutch oven before, and I had no idea how heavy they were! I love that I can start cooking something on the stove top (maybe sear some meat in it) then throw it in the oven (it's oven safe up to 400 degrees). It will be perfect for making my jams in the summer! Now I just have to figure out what to make in it first!

Next, on sort of a whim, I ordered myself the KitchenAid FGA Food Grinder Attachment for Stand Mixers. I couldn't resist when it went on sale for under $37! After reading The Mixer Bible: Over 300 Recipes for Your Stand Mixer I was inspired to make my own sausage. The food grinder attachment had great reviews on Amazon, and 2 of my coworkers have it, and also recommended it. I also got the KitchenAid SSA Sausage Stuffer Kit Attachment for Food Grinder so that I can make actual sausages too.

Then the hunt was on for some sausage casings. That's where I ran into some trouble. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on them. I ended up back to Amazon, and ordered these Eastman Outdoors 38672 Natural Hog Casings, for 25-Pounds of Sausage

I guess I've got my work cut out for me. Lots of new projects to do! But my wish list is still never-ending. If anyone is feeling generous, I'd like:

Long Time No Post!

2010-12-27T21:38:00.008-06:00

Well, it's been a long time since my last post. I'm still alive and cooking! I've been trying new things in the kitchen, and it's been fun, and overall, successful.

I took a very interesting class about fermentation for health by Linda Conroy from Moonwise Herbs. I learned so much and got to try all different kinds of fermented food; very dense (on purpose) sourdough bread, fermented fruit, fermented pickles and other various vegetables, homemade ginger ale, and Piima cream. The fermented fruit was my favorite...it was so delicious! I didn't care for the vegetables, but Linda said that they could be an acquired taste. Everyone in the class was able to take home sourdough starters and a Piima culture.

My sourdough is growing strong in my kitchen. Although, I have yet to cook or bake with it.

It did take me 2 attempts to successfully make more Piima cream. Because it's winter here in Wisconsin, my house isn't really warm enough for the culture to grow well enough, so it was too watery the first time (I don't call it a failure, though because I turned it into cultured butter). Luckily, my mom also took the class and gave me her Piima culture. I was successful at making more Piima cream by keeping it in the oven with the light on.

Wait. What's Piima, you ask? Well, according to Moonwise Herbs, it's a Scandinavian Culture-this culture originated when it was noticed that cows who had grazed upon a northern European wild herb called Butterwort at the peak of its growth, milk would clabber at room temperature. It was then carefully cultured from this starter and fresh starter taken from each batch. Piima is similar to buttermilk acidophilus and kefir. You can make cultured cream, butter and buttermilk as well as a feta style cheese using this culture. So far, I've made cultured cream (which tastes a lot like sour cream and is just slightly thicker), cultured butter, buttermilk (the by-product of butter), and cream cheese with my Piima. And the great thing about Piima is that you can have a never ending supply. You just take some cream from your previous batch (about a tablespoon) and add it to 2 pints of heavy cream (raw or pasteurized, NOT ultra pasteurized), and in a day at 72-75 degrees you'll have more Piima! You can use the cream anywhere you would use sour cream...on baked potatoes, in dips, in cheesecake. And it's got beneficial bacteria in it! If you can't tell, I'm in love with my Piima right now! You can purchase a Piima starter from Moonwise Herbs for $12 (plus shipping) here. I can recomend this Piima because it is the one I have in my kitchen and I love.

There is also some great information on Piima at Cultures for Health here. You can purchase the Piima starter from Cultures for Health for $11.99 (plus shipping). I can't specifically recommend it because I haven't tried it, but I have heard great things in general about Cultures for Health.

One more great resource on Piima is Nourished Kitchen. You can go here and here to read about it.

My faves!

There are 3 cookbooks that I've been loving lately: The Mixer Bible: Over 300 Recipes for Your Stand Mixer

The Mixer Bible has a bunch of awesome recipes to help me use my stand mixer more. I love that piece of equipment, but it is ignored too much (right now it's only used to make butter). Nourishing Traditions is a wonderful resource that every kitchen should have if you care about real food. I love that Sally Fallon not only gives wonderful recipes, but also describes why certain ingredients are used and how to find the right quality for your budget. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It is a fun book for making all sorts of things by scratch. Mmm....homemade bacon. I can't wait to try MY own bacon.

And one more book recommendation: the eBook from Michele at Frugal Granola, called Herbal Nurturing. It's only $8.95 and worth every penny. I made the earache oil for my son after he said his ear hurt (afraid he was getting an ear infection) and he was better by the next day (I put the oil in his ears for 3 days just to be safe). I've also made the lip balm, scrape soother, and sinus rub and plan to try other remedies from her book. I just love it.

Oh, and I just want to share the most recent 'new' recipe that I tried, and I LOVED! It was Beef with Snow Peas from the Pioneer Woman. It was simple and delicious, and even better as leftovers! I highly recommend it.

Vanilla's New Home

2010-10-05T09:54:00.001-05:00

I ventured to Ikea last recently. I say 'ventured' because it was a nearly 2 hour drive. I really wish there was one closer. That was my first time to Ikea, and I loved it! They had so many cool things for the kitchen. Plus all of the organization items were interesting, and the textiles were affordable. All of their 'fake' rooms that were set up were unbelievable. I wish my house looked liked some of their sample rooms.

I got this awesome jar for my homemade vanilla. I love it!

Someday I'd like to get this stove (I had no idea Ikea had their own appliances):

Pickled Jalapeno and Fresno Peppers

2010-09-29T12:59:00.001-05:00

I thought I was all done pickling things. But then I found out that my husband was eating all of the peppers that I pickled. I know it's a good thing that he actually likes them, but I wanted them to last through part of the winter, and autumn just began.

We made an impromptu trip to Whole Foods, and I picked up 3 pounds of organic jalapenos and fresno peppers. Fresno peppers look a lot like red jalapenos. But, their skin is thinner, they are more hollow, and they are hotter. Jalapenos typically rate around 4500 Scovilles. Fresnos are hotter (I kept finding conflicting Scoville ratings between 5000 and 10000).

I used a different recipe than the one mentioned in this post. I again referred to my current favorite canning book, Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry. This recipe included a little bit of honey in the pickling mixture. It added just a little bit of a sweet taste to the heat of the peppers.

I ended up with what my husband nicknamed 'Christmas in a Jar.'

I increased the pickling liquid by 1.5 times (seeing as the recipe called for 2.5 lbs. of peppers). The recipe yielded 7 pints of peppers. Of course, I only had 5 jars sterilized, so a quart jar ended up in the fridge. I've really got to work on more accurately guessing the right number of jars...

Roasted Turkey Breast

2010-09-27T13:22:00.002-05:00

On Sundays we usually eat something that is more time consuming to cook. I didn't know what we were going to eat this Sunday, then my husband mentioned that we haven't had a turkey breast in a long time.

I took a trip out to our favorite local butcher shop, and picked up their last turkey breast. It was a good size for a full meal for us, plus leftovers (probably a whole 'nother meals worth)...just under 3 pounds.

I didn't have a recipe that I followed. I just made it up as I went along. Here's what I did.

I looked in the spice cabinet and chose Penzey's Bicentennial Rub (which includes coarse flake salt, Tellicherry black pepper, sugar, turmeric, minced orange peel and coriander). I also love garlic, so I minced about 4 cloves.

I poured some extra virgin olive oil in a shallow-sided pan.

I lifted the skin and made a pocket (careful not to remove the skin). I put a splash of EVOO, the minced garlic, and about a teaspoon of the Bicentennial Rub in the pocket.

Then I tied up the breast with some kitchen twine.

I melted a tablespoon of my homemade butter in the microwave.

Then, I brushed the butter over the top of the breast.

Here's the beauty, ready to go into the oven. I preheated the oven to 450 degrees. When I put the turkey breast in, I turned the heat down to 400 degrees.

After 20 minutes, I basted the breast and brushed another tablespoon of melted butter on top.

I thought it would be done after 45 minutes of cooking, but I was wrong. It ended up taking about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I knew it was done when the thermometer read 170 degrees. I let the turkey breast rest for 10 minutes to let the juices redistribute.

The skin came out so crispy and delicious.

When I sliced into the turkey, it was so moist. It was cooked to perfection. The garlic flavor was noticeable without being overwhelming.

I would have used butter in the pocket instead of EVOO, but my husband doesn't have the same opinions about "real" food as I do. I was trying to keep the majority of the turkey breast healthy. I figured he could pick off the skin if he was unhappy with the butter. It turns out, he loved the skin, and didn't mind the butter. Although, if I caught him on another day, the result may have been different. He ate his turkey with couscous, and I had mine with corn and mashed potatoes. I'm not anti-couscous, but it's new to me, so I'm slow to warm up to it. Plus, I think that mashed potatoes pair perfectly with turkey.

This post is linked to:

Replacement Post

2010-09-26T20:59:00.000-05:00

Sigh. I was hoping to get up a post about making apple pie filling. However, I failed. I didn't even make any yet. My plan for the weekend was to process the rest of the apples that I had picked the previous weekend.

Here's the deal. I needed ClearJel. I thought I already had some ClearJel. It turns out I didn't. ClearJel is a form of corn starch. It's a thickener needed for apple pie filling. You may be wondering why I didn't just use corn starch. Because it's not USDA approved. I try my hardest to only post recipes that follow USDA recommendations.

Now...I thought I had ClearJel. It turns out I had Certo. Certo is a liquid form of pectin. I swear I'd seen ClearJel in the store before. I ran to the local Pick 'n Save. NOPE! They had Sure Jell, which is a brand of pectin *insert eyeroll here*. Grrr!

This meant no apple pie filling for me until I could get my hands on some ClearJel. I ended up ordering some online. I've got my fingers crossed that they ship quickly. As a side note, if you ever want to give Pomona's Universal Pectin a try, and order from their website, they ship VERY quickly. I ordered on a Friday, and received it on the following Monday.

Hopefully an apple pie filling post will be coming in the next week or so.

To Be Continued...

Tomato Jam

2010-09-23T08:15:00.001-05:00

Here's a food quirk about me that I'll let you in on (that is, if you don't know me in real life). I don't like ketchup. It feels so anti-American to say that, but it's true. I really can't stand it. There are a lot of foods that I don't like, but I can at least tolerate. I might like the way they smell, but not care for the taste or the texture. But when it comes to ketchup, I can't even stomach the smell. Yuck.

My husband isn't a huge ketchup eater either. He doesn't hate it like I do, but he doesn't need to have it in the house. I checked the fridge, and we do have a bottle of ketchup in there, but I'm pretty sure it's from the last time we had people over for a party (maybe Father's Day???).

Marisa at Food in Jars posted this Tomato Jam recipe on her blog recently. I'm surprised to admit that it intrigued me (being that I'm so anti-ketchup). I had slightly under 5 pounds of tomatoes in my freezer. **As a side note, did you know that you can freeze your tomatoes whole? Well, now you know.** I decided to give the Tomato Jam a try. Well...not 'a try' as in 'I'll actually taste it', because I don't intend to eat it. I have no problem cooking foods that I don't like just to please others. I do it all the time. Probably half of the stuff I canned this year I won't eat. It's no biggie.

I chopped up the frozen tomatoes as well as the last bit of cherry tomatoes I'll probably get this year (just so I'd make it to 5 pounds). Well, maybe I should say slightly defrosted tomatoes. I took them out of the freezer for about 2 hours and they were still pretty solid. It actually made them really easy to cut up. The only downside was that the peels were coming off. Not too bad if you're using a recipe that calls for peeled tomatoes. However, in this recipe, Marisa notes that the peels are neccessary. I did my best to keep as many of the peels on the tomatoes as possible.

Then I added the freshly grated ginger and lime juice.

And finally, the salt, sugar and spices were added.

After mixing everything together, this is what it looked like. I guess tomatoes can macerate just like other fruit. I was surprised (but I guess I shouldn't have been...it makes sense).

After simmering for about 1 1/2 hours, this is what it looked like. It was relatively thick and jam-like. It cooked down by about 1/2.

I ended up with 5 half pint jars and 3 quarter pint jars. Less than what the original recipe lists. I'm guessing I may have cooked it down too much, but I didn't think it was thick enough until the 1 1/2 hours were finished.

Now, you may be wondering, "Adrienne...what are you going to do with that Tomato Jam?" Well...it's going to be gifted to family and friends. I'm thinking of marketing it as Adult Ketchup, Ketchup for Grown Ups or Ketchup for the Finer Palate. That's what it sounded like to me after reading Marisa's description. She said it can be used in place of ketchup (such as on top of a burger) or paired with a soft, stinky cheese.

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday.

Homemade Applesauce

2010-09-20T20:51:00.003-05:00

Sunday was apple picking day. It was a day that I was very much looking forward to. It was my first time apple picking, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. I went with my sister-in-law, Karey, who also is a canner. We went to the Elegant Farmer, a cute farm in Mukwonago that is great for families (there are hay rides, pony rides, make-your-own caramel apples, corn maze, pumpkins, trolley/train rides). It's a bit on the tourist-y side, but I still enjoyed it. Of course, I don't have any pictures of us picking. Every time I've gone picking this year (strawberries, raspberries, and now apples), I've failed to take pictures. When we got there, we each picked up an empty bushel basket (which holds around 42 pounds of apples...I think I got about 46), and loaded them into a wagon (I'm so glad they had wagons...there would be no way I would have been able to carry my bushel full of apples). The farm had about 10 varieties of apples, and the trees were color coded with ribbons. We were on the lookout for the white ribbons, which were the Cortland apples. They are great all-purpose apples. Because we wanted to do many different things with them (applesauce, apple butter, apple jelly, apple pie filling), we chose the Cortland.

When we came across the first set of trees with white ribbons we just had to laugh. We couldn't reach any of the apples. Oh, and did I mention it was raining? On and off, and not too heavy, but the rain was definitely there. So, then we started jumping to try to reach some apples. Everytime I tried to pull an apple off, I'd also get a face full of water. We also tried climbing some of the trees. I got a few apples that way, but either other people beat me to it, or not many apples grow near the middle of the tree. I could have walked out on the limbs, but they were wet and I didn't want to break my neck.

We walked over a couple of rows and found some more trees with while ribbons. Score! These trees were full of apples. Even apples that I could reach without jumping. Even better? There was a ladder nearby. My sister-in-law climbed the ladder and handed the apples to me. This made the job a lot simpler, plus saved us a lot of time. We would have been there all day if we had to jump to reach the apples.

Check out our trunk full off Cortland apples!

The first thing I wanted to make was some applesauce. I was dying to try out my new food mill. I chopped up 6 pounds of apples. It was awesome to not have to peel them or worry about the cores or seeds. I added a cup and a half of water and boiled them, covered, for about 20 minutes. [On my next batch I think I'm going to use apple cider instead of water. I think it will add a little more flavor to the applesauce.]

Hmmm....I seemed to have forgotten to take a picture of what they looked like after 20 minutes of cooking...

Anyways, I broke out the brand-spanking-new food mill. I put the finest plate on the inside. I didn't want any of the core or seeds slipping through. I set about cranking it.

Then the applesauce started draining out of the bottom! Holy cow! It was so easy! If it got a little clogged up, I just reversed it for a few turns.

All that would stay behind in the top were the seeds, core and skins.

The best part was that there was so little waste. After preparing 6 pounds of apples, this was the total waste I had! I'd estimate it at less than a 1/2 cup!

After running the apples through the food mill, I cleaned out the pot, put the applesauce back in, and added about a cup of sugar and some cinnamon. I didn't exactly measure, I just tasted it until it was perfect. I processed the jars in the waterbath canner for 15 minutes. I ended up with 5 pints worth of applesauce. Cortland apples make the most beautiful pink applesauce (which I learned ahead of time from Under the High Chair).

If you want to take your applesauce a step further and turn it into apple butter, check out this post.

And, these pictures are only semi-related. I just couldn't resist posting them. I tried to take some pictures of my son with the bushel of apples (minus 12 pounds that I had already processed while he was napping). The first 2 were pretty cute. He played along with me.

Then I think he was trying to tell me he had enough. I have no idea why he decided to put his hand down his diaper. He never does that!

This post is linked to:

This post is linked to Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday.

Stolen Grape Jelly

2010-09-20T08:28:00.001-05:00

I'm sure this happens to everyone. You're sitting in your front yard with your neighbors. The kids are playing. The parents are enjoying a few beers or cocktails. Everyone's having a great time. Then somebody brings up the neighbor across the alley. Can you believe he's got that beautiful grape vine with those gorgeously ripe purple grapes just hanging on that giant pergola, and he's not doing anything with them? What a shame! What a food sin!

Let's go steal some! Another neighbor chimes in. Come on. We'll go together. It's dark out. I don't even think he's home.

All of a sudden, there you are committing a crime with a neighbor and a few minor children (and one of said children's little shopping carts to carry the grapes home in).

In the middle of our 'foraging' another neighbor pulls into the alley. Oh no! We're busted! We admit to our crime. This neighbor informs us that it's probably ok. The grape vine owner has told them in the past it was ok to take his grapes because he had no plans for them. Well...that actually sucks a little of the fun out.

We ended up with about 5 pounds of grapes. And you couldn't even tell we stole any. We just grabbed what we could reach, so all of the grapes hanging from the top of the pergola were untouched.

The following day, I began teaching my 9 year old neighbor, Kaytlin how to make stolen grape jelly. I've got to spread the love of canning somehow, right? I showed her how to wash them and pick off the over-ripe ones. Then I showed her how to squish them in a big pot and bring them to a boil. I made my makeshift 'jelly bag contraption' which was cheese cloth, binder clips, and a bowl. I told her how we had to let the juice drip out and then refridgerate it for a day.

On day 2, I had Kaytlin make the jelly. She washed the jars. She boiled the grape juice and pectin, and added the sugar. She stirred and stirred until it felt a little bit thicker as she stirred. She then filled the jars, put the lids on, and processed them for 10 minutes. And learned the joy of the 'ping' as the jars were removed from the canner. I brought a hot jar over to her house so she could admire it on her counter for a day before trying it.

On day 3, we distributed the stolen grape jelly to the accomplices, witnesses, and victim. We admitted our crime to the victim, who laughed, and thanked us for returning his grapes. He then told us to help ourselves to as many grapes as we wanted.

On day 4, there was a ladder underneath the pergola. An invitation?

Cookware.com Giveaway Winner

2010-09-20T08:25:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to the winner of the Cookware.com $45 gift certificate! It goes to commentor #31, Christina. I'll be emailing you shortly and you'll have 48 hours to respond to claim your prize.

Great Mail Day

2010-09-18T21:11:00.000-05:00

Friday was a great mail day at my house. First, the Fed Ex truck delivered my brand new Oxo 1071478 Good Grips Food Mill. Then, the UPS truck delivered my very own copy of Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry as well as the 2 vanilla beans that I won from Food in Jars.

I couldn't resist the food mill any longer. I caved and ordered it from Amazon. And, if you haven't heard yet, they have a new promotion going called Amazon Mom. I signed up for it because it came with 3 free months of Amazon Prime. I already had the free trial of Amazon Prime when it first came out and loved it, but I was too cheap to pay for it. What's nice about it is that you get free 2 day shipping on most purchases. I ordered the food mill on Wednesday and received it on Friday. If you sign up for Amazon Mom, you also can get discounts on certain baby/kid items. I also ordered some diapers for cheaper than I can find them in the stores, even with coupons. If you want to learn more about Amazon Mom, you can read about it here.

Canning for a New Generation became a staple reference book when I borrowed it from the library. Once I had to return it, I knew I had to buy it.

And as for the Nielson-Massey vanilla beans? I already used one. That post will be coming soon.

Daydreaming About Chickens

2010-09-17T08:38:00.001-05:00

Chickens aren't legal in my city (yet). But when they are, and when I've finally convinced my husband that we should get a few, I want him to build me this chicken coop.

I've already talked to some of my neighbors, and they don't mind my fantasy chickens (but maybe they don't mind them because they know they aren't legal yet). I'm not talking about roosters, so they won't be noisy. I hear hens also make nice pets. They are great for the garden because they eat the bugs. And their ~~poop~~ manure is great fertilizer. Of course, I want their eggs. Have you ever had eggs that were from free range chickens? I'm not talking about any eggs you can buy in a grocery store. I'm talking about free range chickens from a local from. The color of the yoke is amazing. The vitamins are unmatched in store-bought eggs.

Maybe I should think about actually doing something to legalize chickens in my city...

Grape Jelly

2010-09-15T08:14:00.002-05:00

Ah, grape jelly. To me, nothing goes better with peanut butter, than grape jelly. It's so smooth. There's no chunks, no seeds. It's one of my favorites.

I had no intentions of making grape jelly this year. To be honest, I had no interest in jelly because it sounded like a lot of work to get the juice out, and I wasn't too excited about it being a 2 day process. Well, after I was offered free grapes from my aunt (the master gardener I mentioned in a previous post), I knew I had to make some grape jelly.

I did some googling about how to make grape jelly. I thought I'd give a no pectin version a try. I did refer to Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry. Here's the process I went through on my grape jelly experiment.

I went to my aunt's house and picked about 7 1/2 pounds of grapes. I washed them and picked off the overripe grapes. This was a long process, and I ended up doing it in 2 batches due to my lack of patience.

I crushed the grapes with a potato masher.

I thought that I'd give a no pectin added version a try. Because I didn't have enough under ripe grapes, I sliced up an apple and added it to the pot. I ended up cooking the grapes and apples for about 15 minutes.

When it was done cooking, I put the grape/apple mixture into my homemade jelly bag contraption. I can't take credit for this idea. I saw it on another blog (I can't remember which one, or I'd link it). I took 2 layers of dampened cheesecloth and used binder clips to attach it to a bowl. I let the apple/grape juice strain for about an hour. The trick here is to let gravity to the work. Don't squeeze the juice through, or you'll end up with cloudy jelly.

I ended up with about 9 cups of grape juice. I had stored the processed juice in the fridge for 24-ish hours. As it sat, it developed crystals on the container. After some good ol' Google research, I learned that they are tartrates. They aren't harmful and aren't supposed to affect the taste.

I poured 1/2 of the juice into a pot. I slowly brought it up to boiling and added 3 cups of sugar. I kept waiting for it to thicken, but it just wasn't happening. I thought maybe I just didn't notice. So, I did the plate test, but it definitely wasn't ready. I cooked it for about 2 more minutes, and did the plate test again. Fail. Hmmm...Now what? I went to the cabinet and grabbed a package of No Sugar Added Pectin. I mixed it in, and did the plate test again. This time it worked. Yay! I processed them for 10 minutes in the waterbath canner.

On the second batch (remember, I had 9 cups, and you aren't supposed to double a jelly recipe because it probably won't set properly), I didn't even try to not use pectin. I followed the directions on the pectin insert. It went more smoothly. The first batch took about 3 days to fully set. The second batch was set within 24 hours.

Another kid tested recipe! Another success!

This post is linked to Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

This post is linked to Grow Your Own #45 hosted by Girlichef.

Cherry Tenderloin (using Cherries in Wine)

2010-09-14T05:56:00.003-05:00

After participating in Canning Week hosted by Amy at a Latte with Ott, A and Jen at From Mess Hall to Bistro I was invited to participate in their new weekly blog hop. I Canned a Whole Lott, Now I'm Baking in My Bistro is a blog hop that focuses on what we do with the items we have canned.

I must admit that this is an area that I need some serious help in. I should be a member of Canning Hoarders Anonymous. I like to put all the pretty produce in jars and stare at them once they are processed. I DO NOT like to open the jars. Every time I catch my husband opening a new jar, I give him a dirty look and think: you can't open that yet. Summer isn't even over, jerk! You have to save them for the winter. But I don't say anything. I'm just happy that he actually likes what I made.

I did make a small step this past weekend. I shared a jar of salsa with the neighbors, and even gave another jar away to the neighbors. It wasn't easy, but I did it. I think salsa might be the hardest thing for me to give away because it takes so much time to make. All that chopping (even if I do most of it in the food processor) is very time consuming. Jams/jellies/preserves/butters are easier for me to share because they are easier to make, and I have so many jars that there is no way my family of 3 will ever eat them all.

Well, on to what I made with an item I canned. At the height of cherry season, I canned some Door County cherries in wine, according to the recipe from Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods. I used Satin Red from Von Stiehl Winery (a Wisconsin Wine). Since I was using Wisconsin cherries, I wanted to stick with a Wisconsin wine. This was the first jar I opened, and they were delicious. They weren't too soft or soggy. They still had a bit of crunch to them.

I liked Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods because it helps a person like me who is not very creative with the items they can. After most of the canning recipes, there are recipes on how to use those canned items. Perfect! Cherries in wine meant cherry tenderloin. The original recipe was for 4 servings, but I only needed 2. The only ingredients I actually cut in half were the steaks. Instead of buying a tenderloin, I bought 2 filet mignons (on sale, of course). I started by putting the 2 raw filet mignons on a broiling pan. Then went into the oven (preheated to 450) for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, they look kind of ugly and grey-ish.

I preheated a medium-sized pan (NOT non-stick...you'll want to deglaze it later on) with 1 TB of olive oil over high heat. When I read the instructions I was surprised that I had to heat olive oil to 'high' because it smokes at that temperature. But, I followed the directions. As soon as it started smoking (like I knew it would) I added the grey-ish looking steaks.

They sizzled up a storm. Make sure your little kids aren't around. Let them sear for 2 minutes.

I had prepared 1 TB of crushed garlic and set it aside. I heart garlic. If you don't have a garlic press, get one.

After the steaks seared for 2 minutes, I flipped them over. Much more splattering happened. I added the garlic. What did I get? Burnt-ass garlic. Immediately. That's what happens when you add garlic to a pan that's on 'high' heat. I adjusted the heat down to 'medium high'. This is also the point that I lightly salted the steaks with sea salt.

After searing for 2 minutes, remove the steaks (not the garlic) and place on a plate to rest. Be sure to cover (I just used a bowl). While the steaks are resting, you add the canned cherries in wine to the pan that had the steaks in it. The pan will have bits of stuck on steak. That's good. Use a wooden spoon to scrape it in with the cherries.

After the steaks have rested for a couple of minutes, add the juices that accumulate on the plate to the cherry mixture.

After the cherries have simmered for about 4 minutes, add 2 TB unsalted butter (yes, that's my homemade butter).

I let the cherries cook for 2 more minutes. Meanwhile, I sliced the steaks on a the bias.

Then the cherry sauce was added on top, then a bit of freshly ground black pepper.

I ended up serving the steak with some Balsamic Roasted Red Potatoes (with the changes suggested by the first reviewer, Serena).

I'm not exactly sure if that's a good pairing or not. I'm not great at figuring out side dishes. But, my husband LOVED the potatoes and I LOVED the steak!

Surprisingly, the sauce didn't taste like burnt garlic at all. The flavor was wonderful, and this is absolutely a dish that I'd make again. I wouldn't even make any changes to it.

If you are wondering what is in the cherries in wine (seeing as I don't have a post on it because I canned it before I started my blog) here are the ingredients: 2 quarts red wine, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups orange juice, 24 whole cloves, 16 3-inch strips orange zest, and 4 pounds pitted cherries. They are also great for dessert. Just top with whipped cream! Simple!

Please take a few minutes to visit these other blogs participating in this week's blog hop. Maybe you can get some new ideas of how to use the items that you've canned (or, if you're not a canner, a new recipe!).

a Latte with Ott, A

From Mess Hall to Bistro

Gourmet Meals for Less

From the Hive

This post is also featured on the Tuesday Twister Blog Hop hosted by GNOWFGLINS.

Apple Butter

2010-09-13T08:14:00.005-05:00

On a trip to the farmer's market Labor Day weekend, I couldn't resist the apple stand. I walked up intending to buy just a couple of apples, then ended up with a 7 pound bag of Zestar apples (an earlier-in-the-season cousin of the popular honey crisps). I guess I was going to have to can them, right? Apple butter is popular in our house, so that's what I decided to make. It was an unintentional, impulsive decision that I cannot explain. My hands put all of the apples in the bag, and my mouth told the farmer that I also needed a 1/2 gallon of apple cider.

I broke out my current favorite library book, Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry and turned to page 186 for Spiced Apple Butter.

In the summer I picked up a handy apple peeler/slicer/corer. I knew I was going to work with some apples in the fall, and I'm glad I bought it. It was easy and fun to use.

I took 6 pounds of the apples sliced, peel, and cored them, then boiled them in a pot with 2 cups of apple cider and 4 cups water.

UPDATE: I looked at the USDA's recommendation, and they used 2 cups of cider and 2 cups of vinegar. I'm wondering why vinegar instead of water? Does the cider alter the acidity to an unsafe level? How does the vinegar affect the taste? You can read the recommendation for yourself here on page 6: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/usda/GUIDE%202%20Home%20Can.pdf

ANOTHER UPDATE: I contacted my local extension office. I was told that, "The vinegar is added for flavor and may be omitted in fruit-based butters. The apple cider is also for flavor; in the applesauce [I had asked if it was ok to substitute cider for vinegar in applesauce] you can certainly use cider in place of water." Phew! My apple butter is safe! I'm wondering how the vinegar affects the taste. It doesn't sound appealing to me...

The apple cider was so delicious. I'm glad I made that impulse purchase.

After boiling the apples for about a 1/2 hour, I blended them with my immersion blender. I didn't puree them, I made them to be the consistency of applesauce (which, it technically was at this point).

After blending, the applesauce was poured into a slow cooker. 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice and 1/2 tsp anise were added (and 1/2 tsp cloves would have been if I had some that were ground...).

I set the slow cooker to low, and put the lid on (but propped it open).

After about 12 hours, it was nice and thick. The color is dark because the sugar caramelizes a bit.

I processed the jars for 10 minutes in the waterbath canner.

If you've never had apple butter, I absolutely recommend it. It's great on peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches. There are also other great uses suggested in Canning for a New Generation: stir it into oatmeal, cottage cheese or yogurt; smear on hot biscuits, waffles, pancakes or French toast; mix it with mustard and use as a glaze for pork loin or ribs; use instead of frosting between spice cake layers.

If you are looking for other creative ways to use your jams/jellies/butters, check out this post by the Hungry Texan.

This post is a part of the Hearth 'n Soul Blog Hop.

Cookware.com Store Giveaway - CLOSED

2010-09-08T21:00:00.004-05:00

I've got exciting news! I was contacted by Cookware.com to host a giveaway. It was an exciting day when I received that email, being that my blog is just a baby blog...less than 2 months old. But, I do use lots of cookware to make all of my canned goods and my many other kitchen experiments.

Le Creuset 5-Quart Oval Wide Oven in Caribbean

One handy item for the kitchen that you can find at Cookware.com is a Dutch Oven. You can use one for boiling, baking, stews, frying, and roasting. They are great for the stove top and inside of the oven.

Rival 5 Qt. Programmable Round Crock Pot

Another great kitchen tool is the slow cooker. I've got 3, and I don't feel like that's too many. They're all different sizes and fit different needs.

Rachael Ray Porcelain Enamel 4-Piece "Soup It Up" Cookware Set in Orange

About 6 months ago I won a giveaway from a blog (for the life of me I can't remember what blog I won it from) from Cookware.com. I won the Rachel Ray "Soup It Up" 4 piece cookware set. I use the flat-edged ladle for almost everything I've canned. It's perfect for scraping every last drop out of the bottom of the pot.

On to the giveaway! Cookware.com is giving one of my readers a $45 gift certificate. You can use it to buy anything from Cookware.com, and it even can be applied to shipping costs. But, if I were you, I'd choose something that has free shipping. *wink* *wink*

There are 3 different ways to enter. For each entry, please leave a separate comment.

Visit Cookware.com and tell me an item you'd love to buy if money was no object.
Visit Cookware.com and tell me what you think you'd get with the $45 gift certificate (don't worry, I won't hold you to your choice).
Become a follower of this blog (on the right-hand side). Or if you already are, that counts too!
Link back to this post via your blog. Please post the link for me. (worth 3 entries)
Tweet about this giveaway with a link back to this post.

The winner will be chosen via random.org. The giveaway will close on September 19th at 8:00 pm CST, and the winner will be contacted by email. Please be sure that your email address is in your profile otherwise you can post it in your comment (tip: post it like "adrienne at hotmail dot com" so the bots can't find your email and spam you). If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to the U.S. and Canada only (Canadians, please be aware that international shipping costs may apply).

I was not given any compensation for this post. I am simply hosting this giveaway and Cookware.com will be supplying the gift certificate.

Free Produce! Did someone say free?!

2010-09-08T09:52:00.000-05:00

When people find out that you are a canner, you start to get offered free produce. What a great way to save money!

I was having a hard time keeping up with the pickling cucumbers in my garden. I ended up giving a bunch to my co-worker (who has been my canning guide). Her husband made some pickles that I hear rival Claussen's (my favorite). I'll get to taste them soon...

The above mentioned co-worker had a hard time keeping up with her tomatoes. I ended up with a big box of them, and turned them into 3 quarts and 1 pint of crushed tomatoes. I know it doesn't sound like much, but they really reduce down a lot.

My aunt Inga (a master gardener) has a pergola with grapes in her yard. She invited me to come pick them. That's what I did on my lunch break yesterday. I only picked about half of them and ended up with around 10-12 pounds. They'll be turned into grape jelly this weekend.

Between my garden, free produce, pick your own farms, and the farmer's market, I keep myself busy in the canning department. I haven't burned myself out yet, but I'm trying to slow down. The problem with canning is that when something is ripe, it is ripe RIGHT NOW. Not tomorrow, or the next day. Right now. We currently have a small freezer, so I'm only able to freeze small amounts. I'm looking forward to an additional freezer so that I'm able to spread out my canning efforts in the future.

Sunshine Award

2010-09-03T12:08:00.001-05:00

I started this blog less than a month ago, so I can't describe to you how shocked/honored/elated I was to receive the Sunshine Award from a fellow blogger, Ott, A. Last week she co-hosted Canning Week, and linked up a couple of my canning posts. It was a fun event to spread the word about how easy canning really can be. Ott, A's blog, a Latte' with Ott, A is a fun blog with info on gardening and cooking.

The Sunshine Award works like this: once you receive it, you are to pass it on to 12 other blogs whose positively and creatively inspire others in the blog world.

I don't regularly read 12 blogs, so here are my 7 favorite (in no particular order):

1) The LeFort Urban Homestead: I love this blog for many reasons. The author, Annie is a very inspirational woman. She's a master food preserver, a pastry chef, a mom, a wife, a forager, a sewer (as in someone who sews, not like the place where waste ends up), a gardener, a columnist...and the list goes on and on. I recently took one of her canning classes and had a great time. I also love that she is a member of the same CSA as I am, so when I have no idea how to use the produce, I can check out her blog. And if you are in the Milwaukee area, she still has some canning classes this year, so check out her blog for details!

2) Food in Jars: Marisa has awesome posts about canning. She includes great recipes and even better pictures. I love to try the recipes she introduces me to. She also touches on many different areas of canning (jar storage, food safety, etc.). And, who doesn't love the relevant giveaways she hosts (yeah...I may have won some vanilla beans from her...). She's got a book coming out in 2012!

3) Handcrafted with Altitude: The Redhead writes very entertaining canning posts! I love to read about her experimenting (better her, than me, right?) and impulsive purchases at the farmer's market.

4) Leena Eats: I'll be honest. I fell in love with Leena's blog after making her Chinese 5 Spice Pickled Cherries. The rest of her posts are great too, but when I read the word "Leena" I just think of the best cherries I've ever eaten.

5) A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa: Diana inspires me with every post she writes. I learn about what REAL food is from her.

6) GNOWFGLINS: Wardeh is amazing....simply amazing. I see her as the real food master. Also, she offers 2 e-courses on her blog. One is on the fundamentals of cooking and the other is all about sourdough. And the best part? It's pay-what-you-can.

7) heartland Renaissance: Sarah writes often writes about food, and of course, the canning posts are my favorites. She also includes a lot of real food...with yummy pictures! (and I may have won the Surf & Turf e-course giveaway she hosted)

Oven Dried Tomatoes: FAIL

2010-09-02T11:08:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, my projects don't work out. This was one of them. I have a cherry tomato plant that is producing like crazy. I've been giving away the tomatoes (I don't like to eat plain tomatoes, but I like sauces). I thought I'd try to dry them in the oven. It sounded like an easy process.

I washed the beautiful cherry tomatoes.

Then I stemmed them and cut them in half. I placed them cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I set the oven around 225 degrees. They went into the oven at about 7:30 pm.

They weren't done at 10:00 (which is when I wanted to go to bed...it was a weeknight). I turned the oven up to about 250, and made my husband stay up until 10:45 to take them out.

I woke up in the morning to see that they STILL weren't done. I had an hour before I had to leave, so I put them back into the oven at 250 degrees. Mistake. When I took them out an hour later they were crispy and burned. No picture...but do you really need to know what crispy little tomatoes look like?

I'm not giving up on this project, even though my first attempt was a failure. I'm going to try again this weekend when I have more time to monitor my tomatoes, and keep the temperature low. I would have loved to try sun dried tomatoes or dehydrated tomatoes, but sun drying doesn't work in Wisconsin (it's too humid, you'll just get moldy tomatoes) and I don't own a dehydrator (yet).

Raspberry Preserves

2010-09-01T15:10:00.003-05:00

I had the opportunity to go raspberry picking last weekend (after cancelling plans to pick the previous weekend due to rain). I went with my mom, sister-in-law, and son to pick raspberries in Cedarburg, Wisconsin at a cute little farm called Witte's Vegetable Farm. I really liked the farm, and would love to go back. They grow all kinds of things (like beans, tomatoes, corn, peppers, beets, and many more items that I can't remember). A lot of the items are pick your own, but they also have a stand where they sell pre-picked items. I picked up some carrots and corn in the store and they were both very delicious.

I wish I would have taken some pictures of the berry picking, but I didn't. It was a bit messy, plus it was pretty hot out. I made the mistake of only bringing plastic grocery bags, and the berries on the bottom got squished as the bag filled up (and by filled up, I mean about 1/4 full). Plus the berries were extra soft since it was so hot out. Next time I'll bring something more supportive...some type of box (or 2 boxes). It took me a while to get into the groove of picking. When I picked strawberries in early summer, it was difficult to bend over so much, but the picking was easier because you could see results quickly. With raspberries you don't have to bend over so much, but you have to pick a lot of berries before you start to feel the weight of them. The farm had a minimum weight of 3 pounds, and we all had a hard time telling when we had 3 pounds. After being interrupted by my son for juice, water, and snacks, I ended up with slightly under 5 pounds. My mom and sister-in-law got quite more than me (but my mom shared with both of us...thanks mom!).

Because the raspberries were so soft, I couldn't really freeze them. I wanted to make preserves and a chocolate raspberry sauce. However, I was out of cocoa powder, so the sauce was out of the running. Preserves it was. I came across a great recipe from the Boston Globe. They featured a young woman, named Afton Cotton who is starting her own canning business. She shared her recipe with the paper, and I feel lucky to have found it. I love that it includes vanilla extract, cinnamon, and allspice.

First I washed the berries and put them in a pot.

Then I mixed in the sugar, lemon juice, and brown sugar, and let it macerate for about 10 minutes.

As the berries were macerating, I mixed 1/4 cup of the sugar with a package of No Sugar Needed Pectin.

After 10 minutes, it looked like this:

Then I added the vanilla extract, cinnamon, and allspice.

I slowly brought it up to a boil, then added the sugar/pectin mixture and turned the heat up to high. The trick here is to continually stir the preserves. You don't want them to stick to the pot and scald. After you make jam/jelly/preserves a few time you really get a feel for when it's ready- it feels thicker. If you have a candy thermometer it's ready at 220 degrees.

There is a test you can do to check if your preserves will set when canned. Place a small plate in the freezer. Place a small amount of preserves on the plate and put it back into the freezer for about a minute until it's cooled to about room temperature.

Then you run your finger through it. It should hold it's shape and not close right up.

When I knew (from the feeling) that the preserves were cooked to the right temperature, I removed them from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. If there is any foam on top, you can skim it off.

Fill the jars, and process for 15 minutes.

Enjoy the taste of raspberries without an overwhelming amount sugar. This recipe was kid tested and mom approved!

I'd like to note that the recipe is supposed to yield 4 or 5 half pints. I was lucky enough to get 6 1/2. I made 3 batches of this recipe the exact same way, and got 6 1/2 every time (with a little bit extra for the fridge). Also, when making any jam/jelly/preserve you cannot double the recipe because you run the risk of the jam not setting. It doesn't affect the taste, so if you don't mind ending up with syrup...go ahead with the gamble.

Pickled Garlic

2010-08-27T10:49:00.001-05:00

I really like garlic. A lot. It's great in Italian dishes. It's great in Asian dishes. It's great in Mexican dishes. Basically, garlic goes with just about everything. I thought I'd try canning some! I found a recipe, and got my Farmer's Market garlic. Where's my recipe from, you ask? *Sigh* I wish I could tell you. I went nuts for a few weeks and got a bunch of books from the library. I copied about 100 recipes, and put them in a binder. Unfortunately, I don't know where the recipes are from when I decide to use them. I think this recipe is from Williams-Sonoma The Art of Preserving. I checked my reading history from my library card, and that is the book I narrowed it down to, although I'm not positive.

Here's the lesson in today's post. Read the WHOLE recipe before you decide to follow it. I'll tell you why at the end.

First I started with 20 heads of garlic. Do you know how long it takes to peel 20 heads of garlic? A very, very, long time. I peeled garlic in front of the TV. I peeled garlic while hanging out with the neighbors. I peeled garlic while my son napped. I peeled garlic for a weekend.

I then took the zest of 4 meyer lemons.

After preparing the picking liquid (which had some vinegar, salt and lemon juice), I put the garlic, lemon zest and hot red pepper flakes in sterilized jars.

I think they look so pretty!

I filled the jars with the pickling liquid and left a 1/2 inch of head space.

Put the lids on.

And processed them in a waterbath for 3 minutes.

It turned out great!

What's the problem, you ask? Well, the last line of the recipe states that I should let the garlic cool for 24 hours, the place in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. Seriously?! 2 weeks?! Why would I go through so much work and have to use it all right away? I can't even describe how livid I was. I know it was my fault for not reading the whole recipe, but I was still angry. I have since discovered another pickled garlic recipe with an easier way to peel the garlic that is shelf-stable for 1 year that I will use next time.

Make Your Own Butter

2010-08-27T08:51:00.001-05:00

When I decided to try to eat more 'real' food, I thought I'd give butter making a try. I have a couple of e-friends that I asked for advice (shout out to JuLinda and T.R.). It's a pretty easy process. I figured I could try it once, and if it was too difficult, I didn't have to do it again. It turns out it's simple. There's the old school method that takes a little more elbow grease, but is fun for kids. I'm not very athletic, so I chose the new school method.

What ingredients do you need to make your own butter? Just heavy whipping cream. You'll end up with the solid: butter and the liquid: buttermilk.

Old School Method: Put heavy whipping cream into a jar and shake until the butter separates from the butter cream.

New School Method: Use a handy dandy (and seldom used in this house) stand mixer!

I used 2 pints of organic heavy whipping cream. Pour it into the stand mixer with a whisk attachment.

I really didn't know how high to turn the mixer on. So, I started it at 4 for about 10 minutes. It did thicken up a bit and looked like a thick cream.

EDIT: I now drape a kitchen towel over the mixer so that there is no mess when the butter separates.

Then I decided to turn it up to full speed.

After a couple of minutes it got pretty fluffy. I think it would be considered 'whipped butter' at this point.

I briefly got distracted. All of a sudden, I saw my dog licking the floor. The butter had separated, and was splashing buttermilk all over the place! I was surprised to see how solid the butter was all of a sudden.

See the nice mess of buttermilk underneath the bowl? Note to self: pay better attention next time.

You can put the separated buttermilk aside and use for something else (I have no idea what I'm going to use mine for...I'm taking suggestions...and I'm not big on pancakes).

Then I took the solid butter and put it in a bowl. I added cold water and kneaded the butter. I dumped the water out (don't save this water) and repeated until the water came out clear instead of cloudy.

And here's the lovely result! My beautiful butter! You can add salt at this point if you want (I chose to make salt-free butter). You could also get very creative with your butter. You could add garlic or honey or something spicy. The sky's the limit.

You can put your butter in any type of container you wish. I decided to put this butter in a canning jar because I love how they look. You could wrap it in parchment paper and shape it into rectangles just like the butter you buy at the store.

I don't know why I was surprised to get 1 pint of butter and 1 pint of buttermilk out of the 2 pints of heavy whipping cream...but I was.

After cleaning up, it was time to test it out. It was getting late, so I just made some toast. It was the BEST toast I ever had. I can't even describe the awesome-ness of homemade butter. I don't think I've ever had a butter taste anywhere close to as good as this butter tasted.

This butter will only keep for about 2 weeks, although you probably won't have a problem finishing it before then!

Charred Tomato and Chile Salsa

2010-08-26T11:22:00.003-05:00

I had a bit of a harvest from my garden the other evening. I picked the first roma and globe tomatoes, as well as some jalapenos and the first 3 cayenne peppers that finally turned red. I only had about 3 pounds of tomatoes, but I wanted to make some salsa.

harvested tomatoes

harvested peppers + onions & garlic from farmer's market and CSA box

I recently checked out an awesome book from the local library. I think it's going to be my new favorite. I'm going to order it from Amazon soon. It's called Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry. It's an amazing book with great recipes and even better pictures.

There is a recipe on page 169 for Charred Tomato and Chile Salsa that I wanted to try. It called for 3 pounds of tomatoes, 8 ounces of jalapenos (it said red, but I used green). Those were the exact amounts I had just picked. It also called for garlic, onions, cider vinegar, salt and a little sugar. I had everything on hand, so it was time to start!

First I halved and cored the tomatoes. I then placed them on a foil-lined baking sheet.

I broiled them about 4 inches from the broiler for about 10 minutes until they were charred looking.

Then they went into a bowl to cool until I could handle them. This allowed the juices to go to the bottom of the bowl so I could dump them out. You could use them if you like a runnier salsa. I wanted to try to make a thicker salsa.

Then I halved and cored the peppers, peeled and quartered the onions, and peeled the garlic. They all went on a foil-lined baking sheet and under the broiler for less than 10 minutes (I think they made it about 6 minutes).

When I pulled them out they were pretty charred looking, but ready to go!

I don't have any pictures of the following steps (sorry!). I took the skins off of the tomatoes and discarded them. They slid right off! The tomatoes went into the blender to be chopped up. I have to practice with my blender a bit. I think I may have chopped them up too much. I put them on a big pot on the stove. Then the onions, peppers, and garlic went into the blender to be chopped. I added those to the pot. The the rest of the ingredients were added and it was boiled for 5 minutes.

Then I filled 4 sterilized pint jars. The recipe said I should get 5, but I had 4 plus a little bit extra that went into the fridge (less than a quarter of a pint). I'm guessing this is because I discarded the water from the tomatoes. I think if I had used all roma tomatoes (and no globe tomatoes) that I would have gotten 5 pints.

They were processed in the waterbath canner for 40 minutes. I had one jar with a bit of seepage. I'm not sure what happened, but after doing a some of research, I think I may not have put the lid on tight enough. All of the jars sealed, and are ready to be enjoyed all winter long (if they last that long).

This post is featured on Simple Lives Thursday.

Thai Hot & Sweet Dipping Sauce

2010-08-24T08:38:00.001-05:00

My plans for Saturday morning didn't turn out as expected. I was supposed to go raspberry picking at Witte's Vegetable Farm with my mom and sister-in-law. However, we got some thunderstorms on Friday night, and the fields were closed on Saturday morning. *cry* I had a back up plan, though (and my sister-in-law asked me the last time I did something spontaneous- point taken!). I ended up getting 40 heads of garlic for a decent price. Bargaining is not one of my strengths. I feel like someone will think I'm cheap if I ask for a discount. But, what's the worst that will happen? They'll say no. What do I care if a stranger thinks I'm cheap? After watching a friend bargain for a few items at the Wisconsin State Fair, I was inspired. I walked up to the vendor that had the best price and the largest heads of garlic. I told him I needed 40 heads and asked if he could give me a deal. He was selling them for $0.75 a piece, and gave them to me for $0.50 each. I thought 33% off sounded good. I saved $10. Score.

Here's the first thing I made with them. Thai Hot & Sweet Dipping Sauce from Ball's Fresh Preserving website. I love the combination of sweet and spicy, and I enjoy Asian food, so I thought I'd give this one a shot.

First I peeled the 36 cloves of garlic.

36 cloves of peeled garlic

I have an awesome garlic press, but I thought I'd save time by pulsing it in my food processor. It was quick and easy. I've got a feeling I'm going to be using this processor more and more.

garlic after being 'pulsed'

Then I mixed the garlic with salt in a bowl and set it aside.

garlic & salt mixture

Because this recipe is processed for more than 15 minutes, I kept the clean jars hot in the oven until it was time to fill them.

jars keeping warm

Then I prepared the vinegar and sugar mixture.

vinegar and sugar boiling

sugar and peppers

I removed the pot from the stove and added in the peppers and the garlic & salt mixture.

Then I ladled the sauce into the jars, checked the head space, and wiped the rims with a damp paper towel.

I love my Rachel Ray flat-edged ladle!

Next the lids were placed.

And the bands were added to finger-tip tight.

The jars were placed in the waterbath canner, covered with the lid, and processed for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, the cover was removed, and the jars rested in the canner for 5 minutes. As I removed them, I heard the lovely 'pinging'! I counted 9 pings! However, 1 jar failed to seal (my 1st jar ever). I have no idea what happened. I placed it in the fridge to be used soon.

The pepper floats to the top and the garlic sinks, but a good shake up, and you're ready to use it!

This recipe yielded 9 half-pint jars plus probably about another half pint that I didn't have a jar ready for. So, I just put it into a Tupperware container and refrigerated it.

Never Canned? Here are the Basics

2010-08-23T15:12:00.000-05:00

So. You're curious about canning, hey? You're wondering how it's done? Well, I'm going to give you a basic overview. This is not meant to be any official guideline. If you decide you want to try canning, I suggest getting the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (which you can probably find at your local grocery store for around $6...it's a great resource to give you all of the details you need to can food safely).

What tools are you going to need? Well, a big pot (like the Granite Ware 11-1/2 Quart Covered Preserving Canner with Rack). Make sure you have a canning rack. You can't have the jars touching the bottom of the pot. You'll also need jars. You can generally find them at grocery stores (I've bought them from Woodman's Pick 'n Save, Menards, and Farm & Fleet). They run from about $6 to $9 per case, depending on the size (4 oz, 8 oz, pint, quart...they even sell 1/2 gallon and gallon jars). When purchasing jars, you have the option of regular mouth and wide mouth when it comes to the popular pint and quart sizes. I personally prefer the wide mouth because I find them easier to fill. When you buy the jars, they come with lids and bands. The bands are reusable (as long as they aren't misshapen or rusty). The lids are NOT reusable. Don't even think about it. They are only made to seal once. I've seen the lids go for about $2 per pack.

There are also tools that make the job a lot easier. You can usually find them in a kit for about $10. The kit includes a jar lifter, a lid lifter (this nifty contraption is just a stick with a magnet on the end...it's awesome for taking the lids out of a pot of hot water and positioning them on the jars), a funnel, and a head space measurer/air bubble remover (this is basically a stick you use to get air bubbles out of the jars and to quickly measure the amount of space at the top of a filled jar).

Now that you've got your canning essentials, here's the basic run-down on the process:

1) Wash the jars, lids and bands in hot, soapy water. If you will be using a recipe that requires a processing time (which is the amount of time the jars spend in the waterbath canner) greater than 10 minutes, then you can place the jars in a cool oven. I put them on a cookie sheet, then turn the oven on to a smidge over 200 degrees. The thing about glass jars is that they don't like big changes in temperature. They don't like to go from room temperature to really hot or vice versa. So, you'll want to keep them hot for when you fill them. If you are going to be processing your jars for 10 minutes or less, then you'll want to sterilize them. I just place them in the waterbath canner, then turn the burner up to high until the water starts to boil. I make sure they are in there for at least 10 minutes until I'm ready to fill them. NOTE: It takes a giant pot of water a very long time to boil. Do this step first! Place the clean lids into a small sauce pot and let the simmer (or just under a simmer...DO NOT BOIL) for at least 10 minutes. This softens the rubber ring so that it will create a proper seal later on.

2) Prepare your recipe. In this post I'll be making pickled green and yellow jalapenos. First I washed them. Next, they were chopped up (while wearing gloves, of course...I don't want to burn my eyeballs out when I take my contacts out later!).

chopped up jalapenos

Then I peeled the garlic that would go into the jars, and ran outside to pick some oregano (and washed it).

fresh oregano from my garden & peeled garlic

3) Pull your jars out of the oven. I place mine on a towel so I don't wreck my very ugly counter tops (they came with the house and I think they may be from the early 1950's) and so that the jars aren't shocked by the cooler temperature of the counter top.

4) Fill your jars (the funnel makes this step neat and clean). Make sure to leave the appropriate head space that the recipe recommends. Use the stick tool mentioned above...just poke it around in the jar a few times to release the air bubbles. Remeasure the head space and add more liquid if necessary.

5) Take a dampened paper towel, and wipe the tops of the jars. You don't want to leave anything behind on the top where the seal is going to be made. It must be clean or you jars may not seal, or you could have a faulty seal that could cause spoilage later on (eeewww!).

6) Use your handy dandy lid lifter to take the lids out of the hot water and center on the jars.

filled jars, lids, and lid lifter

7) Put the bands onto the jars. Adjust them to 'fingertip tight' which means don't tighten them as much as Superman can. Just tight enough with your fingertips. It needs to be just loose enough to be able to create a nice vacuum seal. Too tight, and this cannot happen. Too loose, and the contents could leak.

8) Place the jars into the canning rack that is positioned in the waterbath canner. When they are all in, lower the rack (the water must cover the jars by at least 1 inch of water). Place the lid on the canner. When the water returns to boiling, start your timer for the time specified in your recipe.

jars in the canning rack before it is lowered

9) When the time is up, turn off the heat, remove the lid, but leave the jars in for another 5 minutes. This allows them to cool a bit, and also helps to reduce leakage when you remove the jars from the canner.

10) After the 5 minutes are up, remove the jars from the canner and place on a towel, hot pads or trivets. You may hear the lids 'ping'. This is a good thing! It means the jars are sealing.

11) The jars need to sit undisturbed for 24 hours. After they cool off a bit, I like to check the seals. This means I push down on the center of the lid. If it doesn't bend up and down, it usually means there's a good seal. I then take the bands off so they don't rust. It gives them a chance to dry out. Some jars take a bit longer to seal. Don't take the bands off the jars that don't have a good seal yet. If they haven't sealed after 24 hours, put the jars in the fridge and use those first. With all of the canning I've done, I've only had 1 jar not seal...and I'm not sure why it happened.

admire the finished product

12) After 24 hours, you can store the jars with or without the bands in a dark, cool or room temperature place (sunlight and heat can alter your products). Or, you can leave them on the counter or table to admire for a few days. I usually do this (even though my husband isn't a fan of this step). It's also a good idea to label all jars with the name of the contents and the date when it was prepared. Most items are officially good for 1 year (although some swear that they are still good past 1 year).

A note on food poisoning: cleanliness is very important when it comes to canning. You do not want to poison anyone. However, if done correctly, canning is very safe. For the specifics on food safety, please refer to the Ball Blue Book or USDA Guide to Home Canning.

Vanilla Extract: 24 & 48 hours later

2010-08-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

24 hours of steeping

48 hours of steeping

Can you believe how much darker the vanilla extract got within 24 hours? 48 hours? I sure can't! And, it actually smells like vanilla. I gave the jar a nice, vigorous shake up, and put her back in the cabinet.

I've got so many things I want to try from scratch. I can't wait to share them all with you. Sure, it might be easier to buy butter from the store. But it's not too hard to make your own. Yeah, you can buy mozzarella, but imagine how much better it tastes when you make your own (this may be a winter project...too much canning to do right now). Your own yogurt? Sounds divine...and healthy too.

My Food Philosophy

2010-08-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

I don't really have a diet I adhere to, but I do have an ever-evolving idea of what I consider healthy. To me, the least processed, the better. The least distance your fruits and veggies have travelled, the better (ah, the local movement). The least amount of chemicals, the better. Basically, I'm attempting to shift my diet to be more 'natural'. Of course I'd love for it to be organic, but organic isn't always feasible. It can be very expensive or hard to find. I'd also love to get my hands on some grass-fed beef and free range chickens.

I'm not going to jump right in. This is going to be a gradual shift...dip my toes in first. But this is going to be a challenge. I honestly am a pretty picky eater. I'm not always open to trying new things. I didn't like steak or salad or lobster or shrimp until my husband made me try it. I didn't eat pizza until I was about 14. I think I survived on macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and nachos for most of my childhood (seriously...ask my parents). I truly enjoy the taste of processed food. I still don't like fish (no matter how many times my husband tries to force feed me his fresh-caught fish). I don't really enjoy most veggies.

What do I love? Dairy products! Maybe that's the Wisconsinite in me. Cheese is just divine. My current favorite is a Gouda called Big Eds. I get it at our local farmer's market. It's great on grilled cheese sandwiches (mmmm....with avocados and bacon...) or in mac and cheese. This weekend I plan on making some french onion soup with the Gouda on top. Yum! I also love a great fillet (medium rare is just to die for!) and shrimp.

Well...those are my ramblings for now! Stay tuned for upcoming posts on raspberry picking, pickles, and homemade butter.

Up to Our Asses in Pickles

2010-08-19T21:33:00.002-05:00

I have a 5 foot long row of pickling cucumbers in my garden. Let's just say that the plants have been quite abundant. Every 4 days or so I get a bunch of cucumbers (maybe 7-ish pounds). That has meant a lot of pickles. My husband doesn't like relish (and neither do I) so I didn't even bother making any.

And, since this is my 1st year of canning, I really don't know what kind of pickles I like. I do know that I don't like bread and butter pickles, though. So, I've been experimenting with a bunch of different dill pickle recipes. I label them all (A, B, C, etc) so that when I taste them, I know if I want to continue making them or not.

The thing with pickles is that you can't really eat them right away. They have to sit for about a month before you eat them. I cheated and cracked open a jar after only 2 weeks. They were very vinegar-y. Not so good. I waited 2 more weeks and they were much better. Because of this delay in tasting them, but then how rapidly the cucumbers were growing, I have no idea if my pickles are good or not.

If you see the list on the right side of my blog, I've made a ton of pickles. We are up to our asses in pickles. But, because I haven't tasted them all, I hesitate to give them away. I take pride in my homemade goods, and I don't want a reputation for crappy pickles. I want to be known for my kickass pickles.

Canning in the News

2010-08-18T13:07:00.000-05:00

Photo by Mary-Liz Shaw of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

An article on canning was on the front page of the Food section in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can check it out here: Preserving Summer. There are quotes in the article from Barbara Ingham who is a food scientist with the University of Wisconsin Extension in Madison. I had actually emailed her last week asking if there were going to be any Master Food Preserver classes added to the Milwaukee area next year. Unfortunately, there won't be *insert sad face here*. I was really hoping to take the 3 day course, but I'm not willing to pay for a hotel to take the class halfway across the state. Oh well...maybe in 2012, right?

There was also a great canning article in the L.A. Times recently. You can check it out here: The New Can-Do Spirit. It featured a few of the bloggers you'll see listed on the right-hand side of my blog. I love reading the positive articles on canning, instead of the you're-going-to-poison-your-whole-family types of articles.

And finally, in searching for recipes for raspberries, I stumbled upon this article in the Boston Globe: Building a Company, a Few Jars at a Time. Its a cute article about a young woman who is canning in her home, and trying to build a business from her passion. And it amazes me that she only does small batches!

Kitchen Experiment: Make Your Own Vanilla Extract

2010-08-17T21:23:00.002-05:00

I love reading the Simple Lives Thursday posts over at A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa. There are always so many new recipes I want to try. This past Thursday I came across a post by Wardeh over at GNOWFGLINS about making homemade vanilla extract with bourbon. When I first read the post I was shocked! You can make your own vanilla extract?! No way! I really had no idea it was even possible.

I started googling 'homemade vanilla extract' and saw that there were lots of posts in the blogging world about homemade vanilla extract. Huh. Who would've thought? I quickly decided to make my own...and a trip to Penzey's was in order. I bought 5 tubes of vanilla beans. I was shocked when the cashier asked me if I was making vanilla extract! She said that they had been selling a lot of vanilla beans lately, and that many people are making the extract now to be given as Christmas gifts.

After reading lots of posts about it, here's what I've learned. You can use vodka, rum, or bourbon. It's really up to you and your tastes. Vodka has a very 'clean' taste...it doesn't really add flavor to the vanilla, so that's what I chose to begin with. You should use a dark colored glass. Apparently sunlight is bad. I'm not sure why. Of course, I don't have any dark glasses handy (although I did see one post where the person put the vanilla extract into a dark colored beer bottle...sterilized, of course. The thing is, you need a lid. I'm not sure where they got one.) I decided just to use a pint jar and a plastic lid, and I'll keep it in a dark cabinet. If I happen to come across a dark colored glass with a lid (at a good price), I'll get one (or two or three). Also, the jar of vanilla extract that you make can be a never-ending jar. You just add more vodka and more beans as you use it up. You could have the same jar for years or decades! Lastly, vanilla beans will give you all of their flavor in about 6 months. You can then remove them from the jar and re-purpose them (more on that a little later).

If you're a baker or you use a lot of vanilla extract, making your own might be an economical decision. You could also develop your own signature flavor (depending on the liquor your choose or the strength you make it). Do you want to know how it's done? Well, I'll show you!

First, get a clean glass container with a lid.

Then slice 6 vanilla beans lengthwise. This exposes the beans on the inside. There is no need to scrape the beans out of the pod. Next, cut the pod into sections about 1 inch long.

Then add the sliced vanilla beans to the jar.

Next, add 16 oz. of vodka.

Then, shake the jar, and admire!

Remember, I stated above that sunlight is bad. So store your jar in a dark place. Shake it when you remember to (could be daily, could be weekly). When will it be ready, you ask? Good question. From what I've read, anytime after 8 weeks is good. You will achieve maximum flavor from the vanilla beans by 6 months. Then you can remove the pods and use them for something else. I recently used vanilla beans to make some vanilla sugar for some jam. Allow the pods to dry, then place in a container with some sugar. Shake it up occasionally, and you'll have some yummy vanilla sugar! It's great with strawberries!

Update: 24 & 48 hours later

The Beginning of My Canning Obsession

2010-08-17T09:55:00.001-05:00

What made me decide to start canning? I'm not exactly sure. I had been throwing the idea around in my head for a while. When you have a garden, you tend to get an abundance of produce all at once. While it's nice to have 50 pounds of tomatoes, what the heck do you do with them all? Especially when your neighbors, friends, and coworkers also have too many? I considered donating them to a food shelter, but I never looked into it. I casually mentioned the idea to my husband, and he was all for it (salsa...all year round?!).

I didn't know anything about canning. I mean anything! I knew you took food, and put it in a jar. That's all. I had heard about a website called House Party. It's a website where you can fill out an application to host parties (you pick the ones that interest you). If you are chosen to be a host (basically meet the qualifications they are looking for) then you're one lucky person! You set up your party information on House Party's website (including sending invites via email), and House Party sends you a box of goodies in the mail for your big day!

As I was browsing around the House Party website, I saw they were accepting applications for a Ball Taste of Summer House Party. Perfect! The kit would include a Ball Jar 1440010740 Collection Elite Waterbath Canner, Stainless Steel with canning rack, 2 cases of jars, canning tools, Ball Canning Discovery Kit, Small-Batch Rack and 3 Jars, Plus Easy Trial Recipe Book, 2 Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, pectin, and coupons and reusable tote bags for my guests. This sounded like a great opportunity to learn what canning is all about. I submitted my application and crossed my fingers.

The goodies we received. Photo courtesy of Karen T. from the House Party website.

A few weeks later, I received the email I had been waiting for! I was going to be a host! I can't tell you how excited I was. I immediately filled out my party info on the House Party website, and sent the e-vites. When the big box finally arrived at the door (seriously Fed Ex guy?! 8:30 p.m. on a Friday?!)...I couldn't believe all of the goodies I received. You may be thinking...what's the catch? Are you selling something? Nope! It's just a different approach to marketing. It's a great way for a company to get a new product out on the market and get some word of mouth advertisement. I wasn't selling anything.

I read over the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. It's almost like canning for dummies. It's a great place to start if you have no idea what you are doing. If you are interested in canning your own food, I'd highly suggest starting there. You can find it in many local grocery stores (I've seen it at Pick n Save for about $6).

Finally it was party time. The turnout was small, but that's what I was expecting. I really didn't think too many people would be interested in canning. We had a fun time chopping up ingredients to make Zesty Salsa. Now, you have to keep in mind that I had this party in June. The ingredients for salsa aren't locally available in June...so I had to resort to veggies from the grocery store and fruit stand. While it turned out well, I"m sure that the salsa I make with tomatoes and peppers from my own garden and other local produce will taste much better. We also made some no sugar added strawberry jam (once again, grocery store ingredients...). It turned out fine, but the no sugar added strawberry jam I made after I went strawberry picking was MUCH better.

I learned a lot that first day canning. I learned that it is much more fun to cut up ingredients for hours with friends. I learned that just about anyone can 'put up' food to use later. I learned that a giant pot of water takes a VERY LONG time to boil. I learned to keep the fan on while I'm canning...it keeps the condensation off the ceiling.

I learned even more in my canning adventures in the following weeks. It quickly became an obsession. I began requesting books from the library. I'd photocopy all of the recipes I wanted to try. I now have a large binder full of recipes!

Where is this blog going??? I'm not so sure yet. I'm hoping to recap a couple of my canning experiences up until this point...then hopefully keeping up with posts as I can (ha!). Future posts will most like have more pictures (who doesn't love pictures, right!?).

A New Cooking Adventure

2010-08-12T16:11:00.000-05:00

I have a feeling that the term 'adventure' may suffer from some over-usage around here. Oh well. I recently found out that I won a blog giveaway from Sarah over at heartland Renaissance (yes I realize that the 'h' in heartland isn't capitalized...this is the way it is on her blog). She hosted a giveaway for an e-class. I've never taken an e-class, so I'm excited for this opportunity. Plus, it's a $120 class! It's got to be good, right?! The class is from CHEESESLAVE and is all about Surf & Turf: Cooking Wild Seafood and Grass-Fed Meats.

Here's what I get to learn in the class:

Lesson #1: Protein & Fat: Why You Need It
Lesson #2: Shopping & Stocking Up
Lesson #3: Grilling: Setting Up an Outdoor Grill
Lesson #4: Seafood: Raw & Lightly Cooked
Lesson #5: Seafood: Broiled, Fried & Braised
Lesson #6: Bone Broth: Making Stock from Scratch
Lesson #7: Soups & Stews
Lesson #8: Roasting, Braising, Reductions Sauces & Gravies
Lesson #9: Pan Frying & Deep Frying
Lesson #10: Sandwiches & Salads: Meat-Based Salads & Grain-free Breads
Lesson #11: Organ Meats 1: Heart, Tongue & Bone Marrow
Lesson #12: Organ Meats 2: Liver Four Ways
Bonus Lesson: Appetizers, Side Dishes & Snacks

Check out this great You Tube video on the e-class!

And if you're interested, sign up by August 14th!

Introduction

2010-08-12T15:26:00.001-05:00

I decided to create a blog as a type of diary to keep track of my cooking/canning/food preserving/gardening adventures.

My husband and I have been living in our house in the south-eastern suburbs of Milwaukee county for about 5 years. We have a 10x30 foot garden in our backyard that has been an adventure/challenge in itself. When we purchased this house there was a big rectangle of dirt covered with inches of woodchips. The previous owners kept a swingset on top of our garden! My husband put a lot of sweat equity into turning that play area into my garden. He got rid of all of those pesky wood chips and eventually shoveled in 5 yards of beautiful dirt into my new garden.

This first couple of years were interesting. We grew tomatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers and dill. I'm sure we grew more, but that's all I can remember right now. The dill came back like a weed, and I vowed to never grow it again! Of course, after I took up canning this year, I changed my mind. Dill is on my list for next summer. I battled with the weeds over and over, and always seemed to lose the battle at some point in August. We didn't have much of a garden to speak of the last 2 summers due to my pregnancy and trying to figure out how to be a mom. We started the garden back up this year. In the previous years, I used lots of Miracle Gro. Boy! Did that make for a lovely garden. However, my worms seemed to disappear. This year I decided that our garden would be chemical-free. So far, so good! I've been using an organic fertilizer with duck poop in it. I'd have to say that the results have been similar to those of the Miracle Gro (except that my lovely worms are still here!), however, the smell isn't as pleasant. I learned that I should not fertilize the garden a few days before we have people over for a cook out in our back yard. To my family: sorry about the smell on Father's Day!

After deciding that I did not want to lose another battle with the weeds, I chose to get some landscaping fabric. I covered the garden with the fabric, and the weed war has been a breeze! I think I may be winning this year. But, it's too early to tell. I also decided to test out this red plastic mulch for underneath my tomato plants. I honestly don't know if it was worth the money. Plus, it's on the flimsy side, so I probably wouldn't buy it again.

I planted about a 1/2 of a pack of sweet peas and 1 pack of pickling cucumbers. I learned that I needed to plant more sweet peas next year. Apparently you can never have too many (and my son LOVES them). I am amazed at the amount of cucumbers I've been able to grow. I would estimate I've gotten about 120 pounds...and they're still coming!

We also have hot banana peppers, cayenne peppers, red bell peppers, mucho nacho jalapeno peppers, green salsa peppers, 1 zuchinni (which is 1 too many), 2 watermelons (which is 2 too many), and 6 tomato plants (roma and globe) and 2 cherry tomatoes. There is also a variety of herbs.

giant zuchinni blooms = giant zuchinnis

Another gardening experiment this year is my attempt at blueberries. I bought four blueberry ~~sticks~~ plants and put them in pots. I got the blueray and patriot varieties. I read that you will get a better yield if you plant more than one variety. We'll see in the coming years. The reason I planted them in pots is that I do not have the correct soil for them to survive. They need acidic soil with great drainage from some sandy soil. Guess who's got clay soil? This girl.

Then there are my gardening dreams: cherry trees and chickens (do chickens count for gardening???). So far both have been shot down by my husband and chickens aren't exactly legal in my city (yet).

This is just the beginning...there's more to come. I'm debating on whether or not to type up my canning escapades thus far. And, I'm sure you'll be in for some laughs for my adventures in cooking. There are always lots of disasters in that area.