More recipes

I sure do like this cookbook. The recipes are simple and the ingredients are all fresh. The flavors are light but a hint of zing. These two dishes were from the Mexican section. A rice and bean salad with a cumin vinaigrette dressing and a Veracruz potato salad. I like the potato salad because unlike the southern potato salad I'm use to it's not heavy with mayonnaise. The dressing is a simple lime juice, olive oil and oregano. These will come in handy this summer too because you can make both ahead.

A new bread!!

I'm trying out a new bread procedure that Jenny and I thought sounded interesting. You mix up a batch of dough. The bread in this picture contains a mixture of whole wheat and all purpose flour, salt, yeast and water. After mixing you let it rise in the container for about 2 hours then pop it in the fridge. The next day you cut off a chunk, shape it let it rise for about 90 minutes then pop it in the oven and in 30 minutes you have a wonderful dinner bread. The remainder of the dough is in the fridge waiting for the next day. As it ages it gets a sourdough taste to it. The last dough of the batch was actually the best but they were all good. It's all in the book ArtisanBread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois. It's yummy and quick. I still make my other bread because I can make that 6 loaves at a time and freeze it, but this is nice for a hot dinner bread.

All in a day's work

So spring is here and there's more daylight but seems like there's less time!!!! I can't seem to get it all done. Remember the African Violets I re potted back in the fall well here's a pic of one of them now. I think it's doubled in size.

Jenny gave me a subscription to Vegetarian Times for Christmas and I've had fun trying new recipes. The veggie fried rice is a definite keeper. I've learned how to use the sesame oil and chili paste, whew well still working on that one. Here's a pic of one of my creations, veggie pot pie with biscuit topping. I'm still working on it but it's getting better every time. The biscuits are made with my whole wheat flour and a little of King Arthur's all purpose. They are really yummy. Now here's another pic of me sitting in my favorite tool. It belongs to Vince's boss and we are using it at the house we're working on. It's real fun and sure beats the heck out of using a shovel. I'm still a little scared of it though especially after ramming the fence with the zero turn lawn mower I figure I should go slow. Well next time I'll take some pictures of the house, it's really coming along nicely. So far it has some new wiring, new plumbing, new windows and we've sanded the floors. I think it's going to be a nice place. Okay off to see what needs to be done next!!

Eggs, Eggs, and more Eggs!!

So what do you do when you're getting a dozen eggs a day?? Well, you sell some, you give some away, and you learn new recipes using lots of eggs. The latest is sort of like a frittata. I fried up some thinly sliced potatoes and put them in a bowl. Then I fried some thinly sliced onion and added a little spinach (from the garden) and put that in the bowl with the potatoes. I beat 8 eggs and poured them into the bowl with the potatoes and onions added a little salt and pepper and put the whole mixture back in the frying pan and let it cook on medium for about 10 minutes till it looked like the eggs were set. Then I placed the frying pan under the broiler just for a couple of minutes to finish it from the top. Oh boy are those eggs good. I'm thinking the chickens are doing a good job especially since the winter is suppose to be when production falls off. What on earth will I do during the summer?? I guess Vince might have to build me a little roadside stand, hahaha!!

The Secret Ingredient in Pizza Sauce??

Okay so what ever made me think you were suppose to "buy" pizza sauce??? Actually I never really gave it any thought at all. I would just plop it on the grocery list and pick up a jar. Well since I've been reading labels and watching prices things are changing. Oh sure you can get a cheapie and it's full of sugar and salt but to get a good fresh tasting one you pay!! So I thought why don't you just make it. Oh my it's sooo simple. I just sauteed a little garlic, poured in a large can of crushed tomatoes, added a little basil and oregano then let it simmer till it was nice and thick and it was the perfect sauce for my homemade whole wheat crust. I can't believe I'm this old and I am only now realizing you don't have to "buy" something so easy to make. I guess it's never too late to learn.

Vegetable Stock

Recently Jenny sent me a recipe for vegetable stock, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's amazing we pay for this stuff when it's so easy to make and for a fraction of the cost. I started with a base of carrots, onions and celery then added a few other things like a leek, some scallions, garlic, bay leaf, parsley, and mushrooms. I sauteed all that in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 10 minutes just to bring out the flavors then added 2 quarts of water, brought it to boil and then let it simmer for about an hour. A little salt, pepper and Taa Daa!!!! Soooo easy and soooo good. After straining it through a colander then again through a very fine strainer I pulled out the carrots to put in Annie and Rory's food later. No reason they shouldn't get some reward after having to smell those wonderful smells all afternoon. I can't wait to use it. I think I'll make the Split peas soup recipe Jenny posted awhile back and maybe cook up some brown rice. Yummy!!!!

Non-traditional Christmas food!!

Well I can't say anything we ate for Christmas is what you would call "traditional" for other people but it is becoming our tradition. We started Christmas Eve with some veggie subs. We had a foundation of homemade french bread, layered with some baby romaine lettuce from the garden then as many other veggies as we could pile on. For a side we had fresh steamed broccoli from the garden, yummy!!!! Then on Christmas day we cooked up a large pot of veggie style Brunswick stew, a pot of veggie beef soup for Matt and Irene brought over a really good spinach lasagna. So I'm guessing our food doesn't really meed the traditional standard but it was delicious. And as an added bonus there's lots of leftovers that freeze well so we can pull it out later.

Fall veggie stew, Yummy :-)

Well, I wasn't quite sure about this one but thought I'd give it a try. My mother-in-law clipped this recipe from our newspaper. It turns out it's definitely a keeper. It was yummy!!!! It is slightly spicy and has a smooth texture, and it has peanut butter. I thought the peanut butter would be strange but it's really interesting. Not overpowering but you can taste it. Here's the recipe:

2 large onions, chopped
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt or powder
1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage
1 cup apple juice
3 cups tomato juice (I used V-8)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 40 oz can of sweet potatoes, cut into chunks or cubes
( I used some I had baked the previous day)
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained
1/2 cup peanut butter

Saute onions in vegetable oil until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in cayenne pepper and garlic powder (or salt) and saute for two more minutes. Add chopped cabbage, saute, covered, for three minutes. Mix in apple and tomato juices, salt, ginger and tomatoes. Add sweet potatoes, and black beans. Simmer for five minutes. Stir in peanut butter and simmer gently over very low heat until ready to serve. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. Add more juice if stew is too thick.

French Bread

So today was bread baking day. I made 6 loaves of whole wheat, 6 whole wheat and buckwheat and decided it was time to try something new. Since we love veggie sandwiches from Subway but have a hard time getting them to put any veggies on them I thought I'd make our own bread to make them on. The recipe says it makes four loaves but they are giant loaves. I think next time I'll try to get six out of it. I saved a little piece of the dough to bake a bread bowl for serving chili or stew. It turn out nice. We had French toast for breakfast this morning and I used Agave instead of maple syrup, yummy!!!! Next time I think I'll try pitas!

Drinking carrots!

I don't think I ever thought I'd be drinking carrots. We've had our juicer for probably 20 years. I can't even remember what got us into juicing. I know healthy eating has been a lifelong process for me. I do remember going to the Brownstone downtown Raleigh for the demonstration. Over the years it's been the thing we pull out when one of us are feeling a little sick and honestly it does help with colds and such. Lately though I've been trying to have at least a glass a day sometimes two. Today I added an apple and a beet from the garden. I had no idea the beet would be so sweet. It was only about half the size of a golf ball but it gave a lot of juice. I think I might try some pears soon.

Scones Yummy!!!

Yummy Yummy!!!! I love to eat scones. I wanted to find a good recipe so I went to the perfect source. I have a friend from South Africa and not only does she have a wonderful accent but she's a great cook. So I find out that we (Americans) put a lot more sugar in our scones. Does that surprise you???? I used my fresh ground whole wheat pastry flour and added dried cranberries and some orange zest. I also juiced the orange for some delicious fresh juice. The scones turned out wonderful. Just like she said they should, more like biscuits. I like them just the way they are but I also want to try one with pumpkin butter. Maybe I'll do that with my afternoon "tea."

Pizza Day!!!

AAAHHHH, my house smells sooo good. I baked my usual 12 loaves of bread today and decided to try the pizza dough. I hadn't tried it in the mixer yet so I thought why not. I tripled the recipe and used the hard red wheat, prairie gold and just a couple cups of the soft wheat or pastry. I added a few tablespoons of herbs de provence for flavor. The outcome was 8, 12" crusts. We gobbled up one right away, wrapped 5 prebaked ones for the freezer, put one ball of dough in the fridge and one in the freezer. The last two are experimental. I want to see how they recover. The only bad thing is once you make your own dough it kinda spoils you and it's hard to get take out again. But oh well. Now I'm just plain tired but good tired.

Good "whole" Food!!!

Since planting the garden it's been a lot of fun to watch things grow. In an attempt to get back to eating "whole" food, real food, the Farmer's Market is getting to be my favorite day trip. Here is a picture of the dinner we recently had with some yummy food most of which was purchased at the Farmer's Market. There are roasted beets, which we had for the first time, sauteed brussel sprouts, rutabaga also a first timer, black beans and rice and a slice of my homemade wheat bread with a butter and roasted garlic spread. Not in the picture but also delicious was a "sweet" potato. Can't put these things in a box and still have them taste so good. I can't wait to start planting in the spring.

Yummy food!!!!

Oh my the garden is doing great!!! I'm not so sure about picking off the cabbage worms but otherwise it's like magic. I look at each plant and it's like you can see it grow right before your eyes. We've had a couple pickings of peas already, the broccoli is beginning to head up and so is the cabbage. Vince put a cooker on the deck so I can cook up the collards outside, not really the best scent for inside, but good to eat. The chickies get the worms and the leaves that we cut off but don't use. That's one of the great things about having chickens, nothing goes to waste.

Baking Bread Yum Yum!!!

Oh my, the smell, the feel, the taste, baking bread is amazing. I started with whole wheat grain from Wheat, Montana, the best place for growing wheat, and finished up with 12 loaves of the best whole wheat bread ever!!!! I made it by hand 2 loaves at a time for a long time then Vince got an amazing deal on a Bosch mixer and now I can do 6 loaves at one time. That turns out to be a good thing since we can go through at least one loaf a day!! It's a very simple process yet so many people are intimidated by it. It's another one of those "nurturing" things. The right temperature, the right timing, the right "feel" you get use to it and the best thing is even if something goes wrong (which it will) and a loaf doesn't rise or collapses it still tastes good. Even the loaf I forgot to put the salt in was good, especially with peanut butter on it. Now I'm just going to sit and read and enjoy knowing there's good healthy bread in my freezer.