Berry Muffins

  This post is brought to you by Derek William and Lynnelle Wing for sharing their honey.  Lynnelle and Derek have been beekeeping for the past year or so and generously gave some honey to Scott and I on thursday.  After receiving this delicious honey, I decided to search around for a recipe in which I could use the honey to honor them.  I kid you not, this is the most delicious honey I have ever tasted!  Yum!  So, with extra berries almost rotting away in the fridge, I decided on this one:

Berry Muffins (From Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil (I used Olive oil)
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen berries ( I used cut up strawberries and blueberries)

Procedure:

1) Mix all the dry ingredients together
2) In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (except the berries).
3) Fold in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened
4) Fold in the berries.
5) Fill well greased muffin tings 2/3 full.  Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.  Bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 15-20 min

     The recipe didn't include how you told the muffins were done.  Fortunately, I have made muffins before and knew that if you insert a toothpick into the muffin and it comes out clean it means that it is done.  The muffins themselves came out okay.  They were a little bitter to my taste for some reason, although the chunks of strawberries were delicious!  Looking at how little they rose (see pictures), I would say I probably need new baking powder as well.  But, at least they were relatively healthy as muffins go!  They were also a great thing to have for breakfast or a snack and lasted quite a while (the last ones were eaten today).  Thanks again to our friends Derek and Lynnelle and their bees, of course!



Berry muffins



A close up of whole wheat strawberry blueberry goodness

Thomas Jefferson Macaroni and Cheese

So... I might have to consider changing the name of my blog as I found an almost perfect Macaroni and Cheese recipe.  I give it the "almost" rating as I don't know if there is the "perfect" macaroni and cheese out there.  This one was definitely the best one I have made and I would rate it at a 9.5/10.  Very good!  And I owe it all to my co-worker Chris (who suggested looking up this recipe) and the people at Foodwishes.com.  Check out their video:

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2009/02/life-liberty-and-pursuit-of-cheesy.html

It was amazing.  What was most revolutionary (get it, revolutionary?) was the idea of using less pasta!  One big problem that I have had with Macaroni and Cheese recipes is that they never ever seem to be cheesy enough for me.  So, what does the person in this video suggest but using less pasta!  AMAZING!  The crust on this is really something to die for.  I suggest you go out and try it yourself!  Of course, using less pasta means less macaroni and cheese to eat, but it is a worthy trade off.  And what, you may ask, does Macaroni and Cheese have to do with our founding father, Thomas Jefferson?  Well, he was the one who invented it, according to historical legend.  I thank him to this day! 

Side note: FYI, I used about 8 oz of pasta (I eyeballed it) and probably more than the 3 cups recommended cheese (Tilamook sharp cheddar [always delicious!]).  It was ooey, gooey, cheesy and had a great crust!  I definitely know panko is the best for topping but I really liked the cheese part of it as well!

Before it went in the oven- you can see the beginnings of an amazing crust

Fresh out of the oven

My dinner plate.  Yum!

Calzone

This one is short and (relatively) simple.  I have been hankering to make a calzone for a while. When Scott told me Wednesday that he requested dinner brought in to him at work, I thought this would make the perfect portable meal.

Calzone

Ingredients;
1 1/3 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
pesto (see previous blog)
artichoke hearts
olives, sliced
feta cheese
mozzarella cheese, shredded

Procedure:

1) Put first six ingredients in a bread machine and set it on the pizza dough feature.
2) Cut the dough in half and roll it into two circles.
3) Put the pesto layer, cheese and toppings on half of the two circles.
4) Fold the dough over (pinching it tight) and transfer to a 425 oven for about 30 minutes.

  This is one of the few times where I prefer a bread machine to anything else.  However, the dough came out a little sticky so I might choose a different recipe next time.  The calzone came out perfect and Scott said it was his "best calzone ever."




Pesto calzone with mozzarella and feta cheese, olives and artichoke hearts



The kind of thing I always order in restaurants

     It is amazing how long I can make a meal last.  For example, today (sunday 6/12), I am still eating food that I cooked on thursday (6/9).  So, what did I make?  Whole wheat pasta with pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese and olives.  The kind of thing I always order in restaurants.  Best of all, it was way cheaper than restaurant fare (especially considering how many meals I have gotten out of it).

Whole wheat pasta with pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese and olives

Ingredients:

A bag of whole wheat pasta (I used the rotini kind)
Olives
Feta cheese
Sun-dried tomatoes
Pesto
  (1 cup basil leaves, 1-3 cloves garlic, 1/3 cup pine nuts, 3-6 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/3 cup olive oil)

Procedure:
1) Cook the whole wheat pasta
2) While the pasta is cooking, add all the ingredients for the pesto except the olive oil in a food processor until they are all finely chopped.  Add in the oil gradually while the food processor runs until it makes a paste.
3) Drain the pasta and then add in the rest of the ingredients to your flavor.
4) Enjoy with more parmesan cheese if you so desire!

     Delicious and easy! 



My pasta creation



With farmer's market salad

Bagels and a Bowl of Sunshine

     It all started when I bought cream cheese for a recipe to cook up at Cazadero.  I was going to make a green chile egg dish (delicious, by the way!) and had 4 oz of cream cheese left over.  As almost any body with extra cream cheese would think, I thought that the extra would be great with bagels.  Of course,we didn't buy bagels so that craving had to stew in the back of my mind for almost a week.  Until yesterday. 
     I came out of my cooking slump yesterday.  I haven't been doing much cooking lately for two reasons: One, I have been away from home for work a lot.  Two, other people (like my wonderful husband-to-be) have been cooking for me.  What luxury!  However, I have been meaning to make bagels for a few months now.  I went back to my favorite cookbook How to cook nearly everything by Mark Bittman and followed the recipe.  Here it is:

Bagels

Ingredients:


3 and 1/2 cups bread or all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses or sugar
Neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, for baking sheet (if needed)


Procedure:

1. Put the flour in a food processor. Add the salt, yeast and sweetener and process for 5 seconds. With the machine running, pour (don’t drizzle) 1 and 1/4 cups water through the feed tube. Process for about 30 seconds, then remove the cover. The dough should be in a well-defined ball, only slightly sticky and very easy to handle. If the dough is too dry, add water 1 tbsp at a time and process for 5 or 10 seconds after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for a minute or two longer by hand, adding as much flour as necessary to make a smooth, tough, very elastic dough.


2. Dump the lump of dough into a large bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rise for about 2 hours at room temperature, or up to 12 hours in the refrigerator. If refrigerated, bring back to room temp before proceeding.


3. Deflate the dough ball and let it rest on a lightly floured surface, covered, for about 10 minutes. Cut it into 8 or 12 equal pieces, depending on how big you want your bagels. Roll each ball into a 6 to 8 inch long rope and then shape into a circle. Keep all the balls covered as you work and lightly flour and cover the shaped bagels as well. When they’re done, cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.


4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and heat the oven (if using a pizza stone, put it in during preheating). Drop the bagels, one at a time, into the boiling water; don’t crowd. The bagels will sink, then rise to the surface. Boil for 1 minute on each side, then remove them with a slotted spoon and put on a lightly greased rack to drain.


5. Put bagels either on a pizza stone or a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the bagels are nicely browned. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Keep for 1 to 2 days.

     I forgot how much I love working with dough and baking stuff.  They were so very much fun to make!  I also realized I cannot make a bagel look good if my life depended upon it.  Oh well.  They tasted delicious.  Definitely different from the soft sugary stuff you get from the store.  These were chewy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Yum!  I covered them with sesame seeds and enjoyed them with all the cream cheese I wanted!

My lopsided but delicious bagels



The long awaited bagels and cream cheese


     Next on my list was a Bowl of Sunshine.  What's that, you ask?  Well, I am talking about the Bowl of Sunshine soup by David Wells, a gentleman known for making recipes for cancer patients.  Scott read about this butternut squash soup and really wanted to try it.  After all the cooking he has been doing for me, I decided to reward him by making this soup.

Bowl of Sunshine soup

Notes:
   High in powerful antioxidants: Vitamins A (beta carotene), C. Low calorie source. A great potassium and folate source. High in fiber. Excellent for improving circulation, and relieving nausea and indigestion. Bright visual color is appealing and stimulating.


Yield: 10 (12 oz.) servings


Prep time: 45 minutes


Cooking time: approx. 2 hours

Ingredients:

1 TB. olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup ginger, peeled and sliced
2-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup rice vinegar or sake
1 lg. butternut squash, peeled seeded and rough cut
3 quarts H20
3 TB. orange zest (orange part of skin only)
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 bunch scallions, thinly sliced on bias (angle)
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:


1) Heat soup pot on medium heat w/olive oil until smoking.


2) Saute onions, garlic, and ginger for 2 to 3 minutes until translucent.


3) Add rice wine and simmer for 2-3 minutes.


4) Add butternut squash and 2 quarts of H20.


5) Simmer slowly for 2 hours.


6) Ladle contents into a blender and puree.
CAUTION: Always be very careful, pureeing hot food in as contents may erupt. You may want to remove the top and cover with a plate. Always leave some space for heat to escape.

7) If needed, you can adjust consistency w/remaining quart of H20.


8) Return pureed mixture to rinsed pot, heat and simmer.

9) Add cilantro, orange zest, and scallions.


10) Season w/salt and pepper and serve.

     So, I found out a few things from making this recipe.  One, was to make sure the soup was at a simmer rather than just putting the heat on and then leaving and coming back two hours later to realize that no bubble were coming up at all!  The squash, alas, did not cook to the consistency I wanted and so it made more of a grainy soup than a coming apart liquefied soup.  I was also panicking since my blender is leaking (an immersion blender would be perfect here!) until I realized that I had a food mill.  Alas, I lost the instructions for my food mill so I experimented with the different disc sizes.  The first one (large) was too large but the second one (medium) was just right.  I feel like Goldilocks with that statement.  It is a bit inconvenient using a food mill compared to an immersion blender, but I bet it is a lot easier than using a standing blender.  Plus, it was just fun to use the food mill again!  The verdict?  I put in too much orange zest (in my opinion) so didn't really like the soup all that much.  I actually stopped eating it about halfway through my first bowl.  Plus, I should have cooked the butternut squash more.  Scott, however, loved it!  And, since the soup was for him in the first place, that's all that really matters!




Bowl of sunshine soup in the pot (after the food mill)




Add a little bit of garnish



The stir fry that we also had for dinner that night (thanks to my wonderful Scott)



Making sushi

     Yesterday, for the third time in my life, I made sushi.  Only this time it was at home and all on my own (with Scott's help, of course).  Sushi is one of my favorite foods in the whole world.  However, with its high cost, it is a food that I enjoy quite rarely.  Last night, making it at home and including the raw cost of the equipment needed, I calculated that it only cost us about $12 a plate to eat as much sushi as we could desire.  How, you may ask?  Well, let me tell you, it is quite easy indeed.
     To start out with, you need the right type of rice.  Sushi rice is short grained and sticky enough to stick to the nori and itself when rolling out the sushi.  Scott and I didn't read the instructions far enough in advance to do the "proper" technique with the soaking of the rice for an hour or so so we used the "cheater" recipe on the back for Lundberg Sushi rice (Lundberg being the brand).  Here it is.

Lundberg Sushi Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups Lundberg California sushi rice, rinsed and drained well
3 cups water
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Procedure:

Bring water and rice to a boil in 2 quart saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until all liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes (we used a rice cooker).  Place vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small sauce pan.  Heat slowly until salt and syrup dissolves.  Place hot, cooked rice in a wide, shallow glass bowl (not metal).   Toss (do not stir) rice gently with vinegar mixture using a plastic spoon.  The sushi rice is now ready for use in your favorite sushi rolls.

     Once that was made, the rest was pretty easy.  Lacking a glass bowl, I used a glass pie pin.  And used chopsticks instead of a plastic spoon.  The effect was the same, although I perhaps could have mixed it together a bit more as I got some clumps of slight sweetness.  The rest of the sushi making was assembling the materials.  Here is what I used:

Ingredients for sushi

Nori sheets
Sashimi/sushi grade tuna (We bought ours at Staff of Life. I would recommend definitely getting it from a store you know that you can trust!).
Carrots, peeled and cut into thin long strips
Cucumber, cut into thin long strips
Green onion and avocado, same as above
Rice vinegar
Bamboo rolling mat

Procedure:

1) Put nori sheet down on rolling mat, rough side up.  Handle with dry hands 
2) Place a thin layer of rice all over the nori except for one edge.  Wet hands work best to prevent the rice from sticking to your hands.
3) Layer a line of your ingredients across the rice.
4) Roll using the rolling mat, putting a thin layer of rice vinegar at the edge to keep the rolls stuck together.
5) Cut into bite-sized pieces using the sharpest knife you have, rubbing the knife with rice vinegar between each cut to prevent it from sticking to the nori.
6) Enjoy!

The bite sized pieces of vegetables for the maki rolls

Sticky rice in my glass pie pan "bowl"

Assembling the roll



The finished product.  Okay, so I'm no sushi chef




Scott's much nicer finished product.  Do you notice the difference in our rolls?




Enjoying sushi




Love this picture!



Farmer's market fare

     How I love the Farmer's market and all the fresh food that you can get there!  Needless to say, I have been making a lot of recipes that have been all/mostly from the farmer's market.  First there was the dinner saturday night; fresh red snapper with zucchini and sweet potatoes.  Lunch the next day was homemade pickles, a tempeh reuben sandwich (the best sandwich ever!), sugar snap peas and a dessert bowl of fresh berries with whipped cream.  For dinner, it was rice pilaf with beans and tempeh and artichokes.  So delicious!  Here are some of the recipes:

Kosher Pickles the Right Way



Makes about 30 pickle quarters or 15 halves
Time: 1 to 2 days

Ingredients:
1/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup boiling water
2 pounds small (“Kirby”) cucumbers, washed (scrub if spiny) and cut lengthwise into halves or quarters
At least 5 cloves garlic, smashed
1 large bunch dill, preferably fresh and with flowers, or substitute 2 tablespoons dried dill and 1 teaspoon dill seeds or 1 tablespoon coriander seeds

Procedure:


1. Combine the salt and boiling water in a large bowl; stir to dissolve the salt. Add a handful of ice cubes to cool down the mixture, then add all the remaining ingredients.
2. Add cold water to cover. Use a plate slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl and a small weight to hold the cucumbers under the water. Keep at room temperature.
3. Begin sampling the cucumbers after 4 hours if you’ve quartered them, 8 hours if you’ve cut them in half. In either case, it will probably take from 12 to 24 or even 48 hours for them to taste “pickle-y” enough to suit your taste.
4. When they are ready, refrigerate them, still in the brine. The pickles will continue to ferment as they sit, more quickly at room temperature, more slowly in the refrigerator. They will keep well for up to a week.

     I first made these at Camp Cazadero during our vacation.  They came out tasting wonderful and I have been looking for pickling cucumbers ever since!  I was glad to see some at the Farmer's market and so bought quite a few (I don't think it was 2 lbs worth), quartered them and made this simple recipe.  I don't have fresh dill, so I just used dried dill with no seeds and lots of spicy garlic.  Mmmm... crisp and spicy. 




Kosher pickles

 Tempeh Reuben sandwich

Ingredients:
tempeh, grilled and cut into slices
Swiss cheese, sliced
sauerkraut (I used a kosher dill pickle from the Farmer's market)
mayonnaise
pickles, cut into tiny pieces
ketchup
bread

Procedure:

1) Cut up the pickles and combine with the mayo and ketchup until it tastes like thousand island dressing.  I can't give exact proportions for this, I just combines them all together until it looked/tasted like thousand island dressing.
2) Grill the tempeh (I used a Foreman grill).
3) Assemble your sandwiches: Lay down your thousand island dressing on both sides of the bread, top with the sliced tempeh and cheese and finally the layer of sauerkraut.  Grill until all the cheese is melted.  Again, a Foreman grill works wonderfully.
4) Enjoy the best reuben sandwich ever!

     What can I say?  This really was the most delicious Reuben sandwich I have ever tasted!  Scott agrees too!  And with the tempeh instead of the traditional corned beef or pastrami, it is a lot healthier for you too!  The sauerkraut has a lot to do with the taste, so get the freshest sauerkraut you can find!  Make your own!  I originally got this recipe from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellex Katz.  Here is a link if you want to check out how to make sauerkraut. http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut



Tempeh reuben sandwich with sugar snap peas,
fresh pickles and a bowl of berries.  Best lunch ever!

      My final recipe is one that I made up myself.  I have been really enjoying this rice pilaf idea, so I tried to do something off of that (see previous entry and use no chicken chicken stock).  I figured that beans and rice make a complete protein, so I thought I would add some cooked beans into the mix.  I used the rest of my leftover black and red beans, soaked them overnight and cooked them separately from the pilaf.  I then used the rest of the grilled tempeh leftover from the Reuben sandwich and added that in with the beans at the end.  I also used leftover brown rice and wild rice.  I suppose it was a leftover kind of night!  My only complaint was, as usual (and even with soaking) the beans took forever to cook.  The rice pilaf took a long while too, although maybe that was because I followed the 1 part rice to 3 parts liquid instructions for the wild rice.  I think I could have gotten away with a 1:2 ratio.  A little no chicken chicken stock helped add in flavor and there you go!

A close up of rice pilaf with beans, wild rice and tempeh.