Huevos Rancheros

One of our favorite family vegetarian dinners--which is amazing, I don't think we ALL agree on many dinners.

Not that huevos rancheros is that hard to make, but this one was kind of special, for a few different reasons.

First off: the beans. I did them in my slow cooker (after soaking the dried beans overnight), and they were the best beans I've ever made.

Cuban Black Beans

This is from a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Cookbook. They don't have you soak the beans beforehand, but I don't think that would have turned out as good.

• 1 pound dried black beans (about 2 cups)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large bell pepper, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained 
• 5 cups water (I only did 3 or 4 cups since I'd soaked my beans)
• 2 T olive oil
• 4 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp finely chopped jalapeno
• 1 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients in slow cooker; cover and cook on high heat setting 6 to 8 hours, or until beans are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove bay leaves before serving. 

The salsa was a little special, too. Last summer, after canning almost an entire year's supply of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes (I only ran out a couple weeks ago, just in time for fresh tomatoes...), I still was getting too many tomatoes from my garden. Brenda and Tom had read to just freeze them whole and that they would thaw under hot water easily. So I froze a few gallon Ziplocs full and had yet to use them. I pulled out a bag and ended up making this salsa with them.

I let the tomatoes thaw slightly, and drain a little. I put garlic, jalapeno and onion into my food processor and chopped them pretty finely. Then I threw the tomatoes in, coarsely chopped, with cilantro and salt, and continued processing until it was the consistency of salsa I wanted (not very chunky, in this case). This made such good salsa! I couldn't believe how good the tomatoes still tasted--and they never got freezer burnt.

The last "special" ingredient was our sour cream...which wasn't sour cream. I had needed whey recently, and after draining the whey, you're left with what most people refer to as yogurt cheese. We were out of sour cream (quite a rarity, actually), but I subbed in the yogurt cheese and my sour cream loving children were none the wiser. Danny was actually surprised when I told him what it was.

To assemble our huevos rancheros, I spread the beans on a corn tortilla, sprinkle with cheese, add the egg (sunny side up is what our family likes), then top with salsa, sour cream and whatever other Mexican food type accompaniments we have on hand (avocados, this night).

Cabbage Pizza

Sounds disgusting, right?

NO! Make it, now! It has to be the cheapest, quickest, most delicious thing I have stumbled upon in a long time. Danny and Isaac loved it. I think Chris would have liked it, were he home to try it. Unfortunately, I'll probably eat it all tonight.

This recipe is found at 101 Cookbooks, one of my most favorite food blogs. She actually calls the recipe Japanese Pizza, but the kids were calling it cabbage pizza. It's nothing like pizza, really a sort of cabbage fritatta. Apparently it's big in Japan.

I re-found this recipe about a week ago, and have been obsessed with it since (this happens to me a lot--I can't decide if it's totally unhealthy that I get obsessed by food, or a good sign that I just love to cook...). I can't believe it took me this long to make it, but I've been lazy about cooking and tired at night, so it's gone by the wayside.

I didn't have a leek to use in the cabbage mix, so I chopped up half of a small onion and tossed it in. I also cooked it in mostly bacon grease, with a little olive oil thrown in. I was kind of freaked out about flipping it, but Heidi's directions are ingenious; mine looked just as pretty as hers. Gah, if only I wouldn't have been so starving and would have stopped for two seconds to take a picture :(

I also didn't have a green onion or slivered almonds, her suggestions for a garnish. I used toasted pine nuts and goat cheese on my first slice, which was delish. On my second slice, I slathered it in Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce; also yummy (though not as healthy). And now, every time I go back in to the kitchen, I just keep eating slivers of it plain. So, so good.

Chocolate syrup

I have been having some intense chocolate milk cravings lately.

I cannot use Hershey's syrup though. Not with an ingredient list as follows:

High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, water, cocoa, contains 2% or less of: potassium sorbate (preservative), salt, mono- and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, xanthan gum, and vanillin (artificial flavor).

Polysorbate 60 tastes so good; and why splurge on vanilla when you can just use vanillin, right?

Yuck. I'm not sure why we have a bottle in our fridge still. It actually expired in May 2009. Maybe it's time to throw that out. I'm sure potassium sorbate doesn't keep things good that long.

Of course, by now, there are multitudes of "organic" chocolate syrup out there. But when even Azure is selling a 22 oz bottle for $4.15...not really in my grocery budget. I don't care what people say, eating more natural, local and organic foods is waaaaayyyyyyyy more expensive. So I don't buy stuff like this in order to keep a somewhat reasonable grocery bill.

But when I have a craving, I get motivated, and hey, if Hershey's and Santa Cruz Organic can make it, why can't I?

I can, very easily, it turns out. I looked at a few recipes and combined a couple to make what I deemed appropriate. I really wanted to do Alton Brown's, just because I love him and his show, but I didn't want corn syrup in my chocolate syrup. If my agave nectar wasn't missing, I'm thinking I could have subbed that in (and yes, the agave nectar is missing. I...am speechless about that. I know I opened a new bottle only a couple weeks ago. I'm blaming it on Chris, but guaranteed it turns up somewhere in the black hole of our pantry soon).

I used rapadura for half of the required sugar; I think next time I'll go with a full 1 c. of rapadura and 1/2 c. of sugar. I actually prefer the taste of rapadura by this point, and I think that the rest of the family is ok with that. 

Chocolate syrup

Makes approx. 2 cups

• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1 c. cocoa powder
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. rapadura 

Bring the above ingredients to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer a few minutes to thicken up a little. Remove from heat and add:

• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Let cool and store in fridge.

I thought ours tasted almost exactly like Hershey's syrup. I was hoping for something a little better, but I think it's because of the nasty cocoa powder I purchased from Azure. I was being cheap and bought their bulk, unnamed organic cocoa powder. Next time, I will splurge on the Rapunzel brand, or even just can the whole organic thing and stick with a more high quality cocoa (mmmmm...Scharffen Berger....). In the meantime, I have a 5-pound bag of cheapy stuff to plug through--well, it's at least half gone by now.

Hahaha, beware if I bring you brownies...you only think I'm being nice :)

Homemade mayo

I have been planning on making this mayonnaise recipe for a very long time now. It's from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. I've been trying to avoid soy as much as possible (though it's in virtually everything...disgusting), because of its estrogenic effects. Most mayo (think Best Foods or Kraft or any store brand) is made from soy oil. There are quite a few olive oil and canola oil ones on the market now, but I think they taste weird--reminiscent of Miracle Whip, which I hate--and they're expensive.

The Sally Fallon recipe calls for olive oil, but she says that if you find the olive oil taste too strong, that sunflower oil is a good substitute. A couple months back, I finally remembered to order sunflower oil from Azure; this bottle was $6.65 from Azure and I believe it was $11.99 at Fred Meyer's, which is why I kept waiting to order it from Azure!

And...it took me two months to finally make the mayo. The only reason it finally got done was due to my being incredibly antsy and anxious on Monday before our ultrasound--I always get nervous before any of these appointments, even my monthly meet-up with our midwives, like magically the baby inside me will have disappeared or something. Cleaning and cooking take care of my nervous energy

Anyhow, the mayo finally got made and I am so glad it did because it is the best mayonnaise I have ever tasted. And now when Danny and Isaac peel their mayo slathered bread off their sandwiches and eat it plain, I'm not cringing thinking about soy and they're not complaining of the taste. And it took a whole, oh, ten minutes, maybe. I can't wait for Chris to taste it, it hasn't passed his test yet, but I'm pretty certain it will :)

The recipe:

• 1 whole egg, at room temperature
• 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 tsp of dijon-style mustard
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (I used store bought, but will squeeze my own in the future)
• 1 Tbsp whey (optional; I'll talk about it below)
• 3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller pressed sunflower oil, or a combination (I did 1/2 c. of each)
• generous pinch of sea salt

In your food processor, place all ingredients except the oils; process until well blended, about 30 seconds.

Slowly stream in oils with the motor running, until thickened and well incorporated. Taste and check seasonings. You my need more salt and/or lemon juice.

Isn't it pretty and yellow? I had to place it on something white to show the effect from the nice pastured eggs we get. It's almost as yellow as our butter (which was surprising--the Organic Valley butter was on sale at Fred Meyer's and is so bright and pretty; their package says it's pasture fed, so I guess they're telling the truth).

The addition of whey gives a bit of a "fermented" spin to the mayo, adding beneficial enzymes and increasing nutrient content. It also stretches the shelf life from about two weeks to several months! Whey is super easy to make, too: simply purchase a quart of yogurt (preferably as fresh as possible), line a fine mesh sieve with cheesecloth and let the whey drip out, at room temperature (or the fridge is fine, too, if that grosses you out), into a glass container, for about 24 hours. Make sure and cover the whole thing if it's out on the counter so that flies can't get into it. Give it a good, gentle squeeze to get any residual whey. The leftover yogurt is often called "yogurt cheese" and can be used in a plethora of ways (cream cheese substitute is what we've mostly done). I've found the yogurt cheese to only keep for a couple weeks; the whey however will last several months, and can be used in other fermenting recipes. Sally Fallon has a lot more info in her book; the Laurel's Kitchen books also have recipes to use yogurt cheese.

Happy sandwiches!

Outer space pancakes!

The last time I was at my grandma's house (about three weeks ago?), I was perusing a Williams-Sonoma catalog and happened to comment aloud about some outer space pancake molds ("Oh, how fun!").

If you know my grandma at all, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that on Thursday, a box from Williams-Sonoma showed up on my doorstep! I actually left it by the door forever, not able to figure out what I'd ordered, thinking maybe it was an early birthday present that I shouldn't open. After we returned from a Costco shopping trip that night, it dawned on me, so the boys and I ripped it open and found the outer space pancake molds. Danny and Isaac were VERY excited. So I promised pancakes in the morning.

Of course, they were a bit of a pain in the butt. And mine do not look nearly as pretty as the ones that Wiliams-Sonoma shows, but whatever. We loved them. And the recipe was absolutely delicious.

 

  

  

The last moon and planet got a little brown--there were a couple little boys who felt like fighting all morning and Mama got distracted.

Now for the delicious recipe:

Outer Space Pancakes

2 eggs, beaten until frothy (I think this was the secret)
 

2 C flour, sifted (I used all soft white wheat, of course)
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
3 T sugar
1 t salt
 

21/2 C buttermilk (had none, so I used sour cream watered down slightly--wouldn't have ever known!)
4 T melted butter
1/2 t vanilla
 

Beat eggs, set aside.

Whisk together dry ingredients.

Stir everything together, but just until it smooths out. Don't over beat. 

YUM! I think these could have been soaked, too, of course I'll plan on trying it in the future.

Sprouting lentils

I was cleaning out some nooks and crannies in the kitchen last week and found the sprouting screen I bought....last summer. I had made one (failed) attempt at sprouting immediately after buying it and gave up.

In case you're wondering: a sprouting screen is simply a piece of fine mesh-type material that fits perfectly over a Mason jar (a wide-mouth, in my case), under the screw band; they cost about $1-2.

My first sprouting attempt failed because I failed to pay close attention to the details. I soaked hard white wheat berries overnight, and then instead of rinsing and draining, I just kept filling the jar back up completely with water. No, no, no. After 4 days, they looked and smelled very gross and there was no sprouting happening.

What you're supposed to do: soak your grain/bean/seed, completely submerged in water, overnight. Very important to use filtered water, too. Chlorine is not conducive to life! The next morning, you drain, rinse, then set at a 45-degree angle to allow it to continue to drain. And you rinse as many times a day as you remember (ideally at least 4), and continue with the draining. This is why a sprouting screen is so handy--you keep the grain/bean/seed in the jar and just drain them through the screen.

I have what seem like millions of types of grains and beans around. I decided on lentils, just because they sounded good. I only have plain, old brown lentils; I've wanted to buy green French Puy lentils and the tiny black beluga lentils, but Azure doesn't carry either, and I forget to check every time I'm at Whole Foods. I'm at a loss for where else to look.

So...I filled up my Mason jar (a wide-mouth quart), approximately one-third full of lentils (probably about one cup), rinsed them a couple times, then filled the jar to the top and left them overnight.

Then, the draining and rinsing. To drain, I propped the jar at an angle in a cake pan, which turned out to be a bad idea, as the pan was metal. You'd think living in the Pacific NW, I would have a better grasp on what happens when metal is exposed to moisture continuously. My screw band, cake pan and sprouting screen were sporting rust within a couple days. So YOU should use a better contraption for draining, as I will next time :)

I started this on a Friday night, and the sprouts were about a half-inch long by Monday afternoon.

  

My jar was very full; next time I'll use a bit less lentils.

As it happened, the day after starting the sprouting, I checked 101cookbooks.com, one of my fave food blogs, and she had Palak Daal (an Indian lentil and spinach dish) posted as her newest recipe. I love daal. My lentils were sprouting. I had a huge tub of spinach from Costco. It was fate. 

This picture is the lentils right when cooking started. Apparently I forgot to take one of the finished product.

In addition to reaping the health benefits of sprouting, the recipe cooked in one-quarter of the time (a bonus to soaking grains, also). I also reduced the water to only 4 cups, as the lentils had already absorbed quite a bit, and it was perfect.  I didn't have the asafetida the recipe calls for; again, hard to find. We ate it with some homemade whole wheat flat breads (which I even managed to soak the flour for!) and yogurt, and I called it good for dinner. The recipe was really good, I'd recommend it, sprouting or not. 

And now, I am planning more sprouting adventures. Chia seeds from Azure are next, then some soft white wheat, I think.

Meyer lemon yogurt scones (soaked!)

Last night, on one of my billion trips out to the garage that I make every day, I discovered the container of Meyer lemons that I'd purchased on my last Costco shopping trip--with not a single one used yet. Time to get crackin' on those!

Lemon scones popped into my head, and I decided I would give it a go to try soaking the flour overnight, as I would already be using an acidic ingredient (the lemon juice), which you need to properly neutralize phytic acid and the enzyme inhibitors found in whole grains, to make them more digestible, and the vitamins and minerals readily available.

Unfortunately, I lack the experience to just whip up a scone recipe all by myself, so I needed a recipe to base my experiment on (I just need to make sure to get flour/baking soda/liquid ratios correct). I went to 101 Cookbooks, one of my favorite cooking blogs, as she uses whole grains and all-natural ingredients (and lots of good vegetarian recipes!). She had a couple scone recipes, and I chose the Raspberry mega scone for my purposes. My scones ended up hardly anything like hers, but I figure I better give credit where credit is due :)

I actually hadn't planned on using as much yogurt as I did--but I'd forgotten that I was out of milk and cream. So yogurt was the only option, and it ended up working great. I love when cooking mistakes turn out good.

These turned out wonderfully fluffy and moist, and delicious, of course! I couldn't even wait to come post the recipe, I immediately brought my coffee to the computer, and started typing :) Hopefully, more this afternoon on our trip to Long Beach, but in the meantime...

Meyer lemon yogurt scones

• 4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (made from soft white wheat; it'd be interesting to try out other grains here in the future)
• 4 oz coconut oil, chilled, cut into small cubes
  
• 1/2 cup fine grain natural cane sugar (I may try Rapadura in the future)
• 1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice (if you use regular lemons, you may need to increase the sugar, as Meyer lemons are slightly sweeter)
• 1 cup of whole milk yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon zest (I find Meyer lemons a pain to zest, just to warn you--the rind isn't as thick, and seems to be more oily)

• 2 Tbsp baking powder (the original called for 3! That's a lot...)
• 1 tsp fine grain sea salt
•  1 Tbsp heavy cream or whole milk
•  coarse sugar (like Turbinado), for sprinkling

The night before:

In a food processor, pulse flour and coconut oil, until it resembles little pebbles in coarse sand (as with all biscuits in food processors, be careful not to overmix!!). Pulse in the sugar. Mix the lemon juice, yogurt, vanilla extract and lemon zest in a separate container, and pulse this in, until dough just comes together--this took a bit of pulsing in my processor. If the batter is too dry, add a little more yogurt (or heavy cream, or whole milk would work), a bit at a time. Place the batter in a glass bowl and cover to soak overnight.

In the morning:

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the top of the dough, and work in, again being careful not to mix too much (we do not want to develop gluten for this!).

Sprinkle a work surface lightly with flour, and turn the dough onto this. Your dough should be slightly sticky, but easy to roll out--if it's too sticky, add more flour. Roll into a circle, or square, whichever you like, keeping it about a half-inch thick. Cut into shape and size of your liking--I did a circle with eight wedges. Just remember your cooking time may differ from mine if you do it differently.

Place on a parchment covered baking sheet (or a Silpat mat, if you have it, which I need to buy, so I quit wasting parchment paper), giving them as much space as possible. Brush with the heavy cream and sprinkle with the Turbinado sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown where the scones touch the pan. Enjoy!

 

Ei hackele

This is essentially an egg salad, but way better than the stuff I normally make. Ei is German for "egg", and the "hackele" part refers to something being "chopped very small." (Chris, or Karin, correct me if I didn't convey that quite right...)

Christmas morning, after opening gifts and stockings, I had planned to make pancakes, but somehow Chris came up with this dish and wanted it. So...I made it. His Grandma (wait, Oma!) used to make this for him and apparently together, Chris and I came up with a pretty close approximation.

I don't measure, so I can't give exact measurements here. Mainly, add everything to taste! If you use my approximations, definitely start on the lower end and add as needed!

For our family, here's what I used (there were no leftovers, and I probably could have eaten another!):

• 7 eggs (4 were medium, 3 were large), barely hardboiled--with a little bit of runniness to the yoke
• extra-virgin olive oil--2-3 Tbsp
• white wine vinegar--1-2 Tbsp
• salt and pepper, to taste
• finely chopped parsley--about 2 Tbsp
• finely chopped green onion--half of one
• pinch of nutmeg

Chris' grandma actually used chives where I used parsley and green onion, so if you have those, by all means use them!

I mashed up the eggs with a fork, very well (this is supposed to almost be a paste-like consistency, but that kind of grossed me out, so I kept it a little chunkier).  Add everything else and your done!

In Germany, they eat this open faced on toast (which we did Christmas morning), but I think I'll also be making this in lieu of the mayo-cloaked egg salad sandwiches the kids and I sometimes eat. Much healthier, much tastier!

Bacon wrapped persimmon wedges

Or as Danny likes to call them, "persimmimins."

I had found this idea in one of my Rachael Ray magazines, in the corner of a page, almost hidden. I've been wanting to make them for quite awhile and even saved two of my Fuyu persimmons (the firm variety) for it.

By the way, the Fuyu persimmons keep for a very long time. These two were just barely starting to soften, and I think I've had them, at room temperature, for over a month (don't be too grossed out, I did keep checking on them!).

I'd cut the persimmons into eighths, cut each bacon strip in half and after wrapping, placed them seam-side down on my baking tray. I use a cooling rack (like for cakes or cookies) on top of a rimmed baking sheet, so the grease can drip down. Then I baked them at 425 degrees for 14 minutes (check on them after 12 minutes, though). 

Yum! We ate these with scrambled eggs (cooked in some bacon grease, the best way to do it) and toast, for breakfast this morning. They were a hit--I'm just sad that they're all gone. Hopefully persimmons are still around...

Lacto-fermented cranberry chutney

My grandma gave me a ton of fresh cranberries about three weeks ago--my grandparents and my parents are former cranberry growers, so I guess you could say cranberries hold a special place in all of our hearts. I still miss the smell of harvest (um, but not getting home from school, putting on hip boots and having to go help!).

Anyways, I am bad and still had a stash of LAST year's cranberries in my freezer. I had purposely left some in the fridge, so that I'd get moving on them, instead of continuing to accumulate them...

I'm making cranberry sauce right now (part of tomorrow's snack for Thanksgiving week of preschool!), but there were way too many for just sauce. A friend had mentioned cranberry chutney to me, which got me thinking about fermented cranberry chutney.

What did I do before google?! It took a me a little while, but I found a thread in a Mothering forum (YES! Reason #149 why I love Mothering!), with a recipe for lacto-fermented cranberry chutney. I probably would have just done it myself, but I had a few bombs trying to adapt pickling recipes into fermented recipes this summer (watermelon rinds, yuck), and I hate wasting the ingredients. The woman who posted the recipe happens to live in Portland, too. Would it be creepy to try and contact her?!

Danny helped me make the chutney--if it involves the food processor, that kid will help with anything. You'd think pushing the "pulse" button on the Cuisinart delivered an IV shot of chocolate, the way he acts! But it's nice, I like him to be involved in the kitchen--I'm hoping my sons will be able to cook. Future daughters-in-law, you're welcome :)

For my family, who may think I'm weird with the fermenting stuff and not want to eat my food anymore, read what Sally Fallon has to say and eat up!

Lacto-fermented cranberry chutney

• 3 cups of cranberries
• 1/2 cup of nuts (pecans was suggested in the recipe I found, we used hazelnuts)
• 1/2 cup of rapadura 
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/2 cup of whey
• 1/2 cup of prune juice or other juice (I used apple juice)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of cloves
• juice from 1 orange
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup of raisins
  

Pulse all, except raisins, in food processor. Stir in raisins. Ferment 48 hours, then refrigerate.

Usually the fruit ferments are good for 1-2 months, I've found. I weighed mine down with a smaller jar, to keep the solids under the liquids. And--I totally forgot the raisins. Maybe I'll stir them in afterwards. Or maybe I'll just chalk it up as a good excuse to make more of this later on in winter!


And this is what the boys were doing, while I played with cranberries:

 UPDATE! This is delicious. We will be making it again. Danny and Isaac both liked it, too :) I did let it ferment for a little longer than the recommended time--probably more like 60 hours. It just didn't taste tangy enough for me at the 48 hour mark, and probably could have gone even a full 3 days. Maybe next time...

Honey ginger muffins

I got it into my head last night that muffins tasting like gingerbread would be great for breakfast this morning. Danny and Isaac agreed. After a bit of searching (googling "ginger muffins" did not get me the results I wanted, but "gingerbread muffins" did), I found this recipe and got really excited.

Until, for the SECOND time, I made the mistake of thinking I had molasses, when, in fact, I did not. There is a bottle of Karo dark corn syrup that keeps tricking me (which I could probably use in place, but yuck, I reserve corn syrup for only when necessary, like fudge or caramels...um, b/c those are necessary sometimes). Molasses is now on my grocery shopping list :)

I'd already started soaking my flour (you can read about why I soak flour here and here, if you're interested), so the show had to go on. I'd used honey instead of molasses in the gingerbread people, and it worked, so I subbed the honey in. I also used coconut oil instead of butter; replaced 1/4 c. of the water with whey (for the soaking); used 1/2 c. rapadura instead of sugar; and added a few grinds of pepper (I love the peppery-ness of gingerbread items, and when I was refilling my pepper grinder last and smelling it, I decided that the next time I made something like this, I'd try adding pepper--and it was good!). I think the recipe is now mine!

I think the original recipe would be delicious, but if you'd like to try mine (I think I know at least one person who will)....they were delicious, and of the 15, only 4 remain and they will not make it through the day. Well, bread baking is commencing, so the fresh bread MAY save them for the morning...we'll see.

Honey ginger muffins

Night before:

Whisk the dry ingredients,

• 2 3/4 cups soft white wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 or 4 grinds of pepper
• scant 1/2 cup of rapadura

Melt and whisk together, then whisk into dry ingredients,

• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil

Add,

• 1/4 cup of whey (or just plain yogurt, or buttermilk, or kefir...)
• water to bring the whey up to 1 1/3 cups

Mix all of this well, cover and leave on the counter overnight.

In the morning, whisk in 2 large eggs (or 3 small, which was all I had) and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Sift in 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, whisk one final time, fill muffin tins, sprinkle a tiny bit of rapadura on top and bake at 375 for about 20 min. I baked mine for 12 min, then rotated and did another 10 min, and I think they could have come out a minute earlier.

I didn't do the glaze, either; too much work in the morning, plus I try to save powdered sugar for frosting, not breakfast!

I'm also trying french bread for the first time today.  I can't decide which is better: the heat of summer and NOT turning on the oven, or the cold of late autumn/winter and having the oven on all day, making the kitchen all warm and yummy smelling...

Persimmons

I love buying weird food that I don't know how to use.

My parents did this as much as possible when I was young (though living in a town of 1000 is slightly limiting), and through my grandfather's cooking, I was always being exposed to different stuff. Now that I have kids of my own, I want to make sure that they grow up appreciating a variety of foods, from different cultures.

Plus--it's fun for me. I like to think of this as stay-at-home-mom continuing education. A google search always yields recipes I can't wait to try. Most of the odd stuff I buy comes from Azure: parsnips; dulse (seaweed flakes); adzuki beans; millet; plum vinegar; and now, when I saw persimmons last week, I figured, "Why not?"

And now, I have to figure out what to do with them. They're sitting in the middle of the kitchen island, lest I forget about them, stashed away somewhere. Every time he sees them, Danny asks me, "Mommy, can we eat the persimmons yet?"

No, we can't. Azure sent me Hachiya persimmons, which fall under the "soft-ripe, astringent" persimmon label; there are also "firm-ripe, non-astringent" varieties. We have to wait until the persimmons feel "like a water balloon" before they're ripe, and therefore not nasty tasting. The other kind can be eaten just like an apple.

All the recipes I've found for the Hachiya persimmons are mainly for baking, which is ok with me! I did see in a few places that some people like to eat the liquidy-pulp inside the skin, or freeze it as a sort of sorbet; we'll probably do that with one, just to get the full on, unadulterated persimmon flavor! The others...I have plans. The James Beard's Amazing Persimmon Bread and Persimmon Oatmeal Cookies are at the top of the list.

Now to wait for the ripening. I will be updating with how they turn out!

As a bonus, you can predict your winter with persimmon seeds!

Good eats!

My kitchen adventures have been yielding some impressive results lately! I love it when that happens--too often I come up with concoctions that only I like and the leftovers sit in the fridge and don't get eaten. Sometimes even I don't like what I come up :) But I get bored so easily, cooking the same thing over and over, so experimentation keeps me interested in, and enjoying, the cooking process--much to Chris's chagrin!

Tuesday night was definitely one of my successes, though: squash and sausage pasta sauce over gnocchi. Chris went back for seconds and Mom wanted to know how I made it--that means it was good!

I had a roasted buttercup squash (from our CSA, I have no clue where to find it otherwise, but acorn, delicata or pumpkin will make good subs) leftover from Halloween--apparently the kids had no room for squash, what with grilled cheese and cocoa in front of them.

I had heard (or read) Rachael Ray talking about using cooked veggies as a pasta sauce--she'd done cauliflower, which I still have yet to try--so I decided that the squash could work as such. Monday afternoon, Danny and I pureed the squash in the food processor, using whole milk and a little bit of chicken broth to thin it to a sauce-like consistency. We added some fresh sage, nutmeg and of course, salt and pepper. Normally, I probably would have just let that be the sauce, but Chris was going to be home and he isn't too fond of my vegetarian meals. So I needed meat.

Alas, the dinner didn't get made Monday night b/c of picking Chuck up at the vet late, and my poor planning--we had Annie's mac and cheese and fish sticks that night, which is probably Chris and the kids' favorite dinner. Why do I bother?!

 And as luck would have it, at the gym Tuesday morning, Rachael Ray was on (apparently she's really influencing my cooking right now!), and making a lasagna from a pumpkin sauce, coupled with Italian sweet sausage. I didn't have Italian sweet sausage at home, but I do have tons and tons and tons of ground beef, so I decided I'd season that with some fennel seed and it would be close enough to sausage. Because, you may have discerned from above, this family doesn't have nearly sensitive enough palates to discern beef from pork. :) So I sauteed up my beef with the seasonings, and then simply dumped my already made squash sauce over the top and let it simmer while I dealt with what went underneath the sauce...

And, b/c I have to make life as hard as possible for myself, I didn't want regular old pasta, either. We'd eaten too much of it lately. Gnocchi, which is an Italian potato pasta, came to mind. Danny was excited to help me out again, and I have to say, it's great having such an enthusiastic little kitchen helper. He's even washing dishes for me now! The gnocchi was super easy to make though, and very kid-helper friendly. Danny was very happy to be eating the "milky", as he called them, that he'd helped to make.

If only he would have been so enthusiastic about the spinach I served on the side!

Here's the finished product, but disclaimer, the picture doesn't do it justice. I think I've found a new respect for all of the cooking blogs out there, with all of their pretty pictures. I have no clue how to make my food look pretty!