Amish White Bread

I just have to post a photo of the Amish white bread I have been making from this recipe. It turns out great every time I make it. This loaf I had frozen for a few weeks before thawing out to use. I keep it stored in the refrigerator, so it has last over a week after thawing and hopefully a bit longer for me to finish off this loaf.

Rice Vinegar Success

After 5 weeks of fermentation I tasted my rice vinegar I created following these instructions. I peeked in my closet a few times during the weeks and noticed no bubbling and was worried something had gone wrong. However it tastes good and very sweet. I heated the vinegar over a double boiler to set the flavor (kill the yeast) and stuck it in the fridge. Now I just need to finish up my bottle of extremely delicious home made French salad dressing so I can experiment with rice vinegar dressings.

Prickly Pear AKA Tuna Syrup

I've been wanting to harvest the prickly pear fruits, called tuna, for a year now. While traveling on Thanksgiving I found a lonely prickly pear cactus in front of a closed up restaurant in a run down town. Weilding a pair of tongs, I twisted the fruits from the paddles, being careful of the sharp pricklers. I tossed 'em in a plastic bag and took them home.
Today I juiced about half of them which gave me about 10 cups of juice! I searched the internet for how to prepare prickly pears and found the various ways to remove the spines. I tried to peel the skin carefully but it was difficult to do, so I tried soaking the fruits in water for an hour, swishing them around and rinsing them to remove the spines. This removed most, but not all. Lastly I found Chile Chews blogger site and followed the directions she used to prepare prickly fruit juice. The one difference I did was I used an old T-shirt to strain the juices through because I was scared a spine may squeeze through my cheesecloth.
I made the syrup following her recipe for the most part and the bit that spilled during canning tasted very good. I can't wait to try it over ice cream! I may even try to use it as a substitute for maple syrup in granola.
No matter how careful I was I did end up with spines. Most of them I was able to remove with tweezers but I have a few that broke off close to the skin and are very irritating. Next time I plan to use tongs, hold the fruit over a fire and burn the little spines off.
With my left over 7 cups of juice I plan to freeze some of it, and make jelly with the rest. I want to try to use the low sugar pectin, so I will report how that goes.

Home Made Mayo is easy for a beginner

To go with all this bread I made mayo to make chicken sandwiches. I am not a huge fan of mayo and I have purchased just one tub of miracle whip in my life, none of mayo. Recently I had olive oil mayo on a sandwich and I just loved it! Knowing that everything tastes better made fresh at home I looked up some recipes. I followed Alton Brown's recipe on making mayo, but I made some changes to go along with what I had at home.
I used just regular white vinegar and added just a smidgen less. I also used olive oil, which gave my mayo a nice light green color (the mustard color came out more in the pic though).
When adding the oil I added it a teaspoon at a time while I was whisking quickly the whole time, towards the end I slackened a bit and added the oil a little quicker because the mixture had "emulsified." This is easy to do with just a whisk but I did have to switch arms a few times, because you want to keep the quick movement of the whisk so it the mayo doesn't turn out runny. I used a bit less than a cup of oil also, because others had theirs come out runny. It came out perfectly and although I am not brave enough to try it on its own, I mixed it up into some chicken salad tried a bit on my Amish white bread, died and went to heaven. :)

Thankful for bread

This November I am being thankful for learning how to make my own bread! My mom & dad bought me a 50lb bag of bread flour Friday, and come Sunday they already had a loaf of focaccia and 1/2 dozen bagels. Last week I also made Amish sweet white bread. Here are the links to the recipes I used with some alterations I made written below...
Amish White Bread ~ I cut all of my ingredients in half with this one, and it came out very light & sweet. Next time I will cut down on the sugar though, it is a bit too sweet for my taste. Also it is a bit chewy, but good for sandwiches.

Easy Bagels~ Making these I had to measure out my sugar and salt with a kitchen scale per the directions. Everything was measured perfectly and once all the flour was combined the dough was much too wet still. Turns out I had proofed my yeast in 1/2 cup more water than needed. So I added more dough and followed the directions anyways~ boiling the bagels before baking them, letting them rise again after shaping, etc. They came out great! The outside is crisp with a soft center~ just a perfect bagel.

Focaccia Bread~ I followed the recipe on the back of the 50lb bag of bread flour and it told me to used 1 1/3C water and 3 C flour. If you've made bread before, this may seem like too much water to flour ratio. With my hands all covered in sticky dough I had my boyfriend keep emptying more flour little by little until I had something that was workable. It was very soft still, not like the dough I am use to making, but since I never made focaccia before, I don't know if the dough should be soft and gooey or a bit dense.
After the first rise I divided the dough and lightly patted it into two round loaves. After the second rise they were touching on the pan so I moved the smaller one to another greased pan, and in doing so make the dough fall. I baked them both as they were and they both turned out delicious and different!~ The large one was more just a round loaf of rosemary bread, while the smaller, flattened one (on the left in photo) was more like naan or flat bread. I guess the larger one was more like the focaccia I have had before. I LOVE having a rosemary bush growing in my neighborhood.

Here's an updated look of my garden, I have had to move the buckets to keep them from falling within the shadow of our apartment building. I wish I had been able to get a South facing apartment. Lobster (my cat in the pic) also moves around the yard to lay in the sun. I fertilized my broccoli and the lettuce and they are doing great. I keep picking little salads off my lettuce plants and they do not mind. I also have some resident lizards that have been eating those horrible bugs off my plants~ thank you lizards! When I have a my garden later in time, I may try to put out a rock for lizards to sun on and attract them to eat the bugs. However I do not want to attract snakes to eat the lizards.
Yesterday I caught a small black snake in my sun room. I got one of my long metal stakes that has a loop at the top, grabbed the snake up in the loop and tossed him into the yard. Pretty easy~ but fun! I'm glad to practice "snake wrangling" with a small non-threatening snake.

Easy & Yummy Cheese Crackers

I made my own cheese crackers today~ I used Cabot Sharp Cheddar cheese and it is far superior to other cheeses~ you can use whole wheat, but I just used unbleached all purpose flour to get as close to a Cheezit taste as possible. Man, its delicious to succeed!

Recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 3/4 cup butter, chilled
• 1 cup shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese
• 6 tablespoons cold water, or as needed

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt, white pepper and mustard. Cut in butter with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in Cheddar cheese. Stir in water one tablespoon at a time, until the dough is able to hold together. Press the mixture into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a rectangle that is 16x12 inches. The dough should be about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 1x3 inch strips. Place the strips onto the prepared baking sheets spaced about 1 inch apart. A pizza cutter works great here.
   
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden and crispy. Cool completely before storing.

Mine came out thicker because I used a cup as a rolling pin, so my bake time was closer to 25 minutes. Just keep an eye on them and check often. Mmmm goes good with the 3 pepper hummus I made with them!

Prudhomme Redfish Magic Seasoning

I love Chef Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic seasoning. It is superb on any meat, especially chicken! The skinny bottles of his seasonings go fast for how much they cost, leading me to wonder what the ingredients are so I can make it at home. Thank Science for the Internet!

today I will be following this recipe to create my own "RedFish Magic"
3 teaspoons salt, optional
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons paprika

Prudhomme's redfish magic became so popular in the 80s that the Redfish entered the endangered species list. Too bad they didn't know his seasoning is good on anything! Now you can enjoy your own home made bottle of Redfish magic without his creepy fat face staring at you from the bottle... unless you like it then buy one of his seasonings, use it up and refill it with your own! Everyone can get what they want :)

Smoothie Goodness

Some people pay $5 for a smoothie. Some people are also crazy!
All you need is a blender, fruit and liquid.
Bags of frozen fruit (usually picked at ripeness, not beforehand like what you get in the produce section) cost around $2-$3. If I buy 3 bags I can make well over 10 smoothies with them. Fruit juices come in cans (like Jumex at 33cent 8oz can), bottles, frozen concentrates, and in fruit(if you got the time to juice your fruit.
Got a pint of berries which half are beginning to mold? Toss em and freeze the un-molded berries. Bananas starting to get spots? Unpeel em and freeze em too!
Here are some suggestions for smoothie success:
Pick your fruits: Strawberry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Cherry, Mango, Peach, pineapple, banana, guava, kiwi, etc!!
Pick your juice: Fruit juices like apple, pineapple, grape, orange, cranberry; water, green tea (or any tea, I have only tried green and its great!), Soy Milk, Regular Milk, Almond Milk... you get the point here...
Pick your add ins: Honey, Yogurt (plain or flavored), powdered greens mix, or VEGGIES! That's right. Take a handful of spinach and throw it in there. The fruit will completely over power the taste of the greens.

How do I know how much to use? I always end up making a bit too much... but what I do is add my fruit to the cup of my choice, then add my liquid almost to the top. Throw it in the blender and blend away!
Now you have at least half your daily dose of fruits/veggies! don't it feel good?

Pindo Palm Jelly: Take 2

Today I am going to attempt the pindo jelly again. This time I am going to follow these directions:

Palm Fruit Jelly
5 cups juice (see cook's note)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 box Sure-Jell fruit pectin
5 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon butter, to prevent foaming

Cook's note: Gather fruit when the first fruit begins to fall from the tree, Chris says. People are happy for you to take it, especially if you give them a jar of jelly in return. I collect it in a plastic clothes basket and let the fruit ripen outdoors until it begins to fall off the stalk, usually in a day or two. I covered it with screening this year to keep flies away! Edit: I used a little more than what is pictured and came up with just at 5 cups of juice. Whew!

Rinse the fruit thoroughly; it is not necessary to remove the 'caps' on the fruit as they will cook off. EDIT: I removed the caps and pits, as the pits may change flavor and texture. Fill a large pot with the fruit leaving several inches at the top. Cover the fruit with water, bring it to a boil, and then cook at medium for 1 hour uncovered. Let the fruit cool down for an hour. To collect the juice: Scoop portions of fruit and juice into a jelly bag over another container and squeeze the bag to get the juice, some of it will appear thick, and then discard the pits. (This is the messy part). You may notice that your juice may vary in thickness, and you can combine all of it and stir to get a more homogenous batch before you begin the jelly making. As I measure for each batch, I sieve it through a handkerchief. (clean and free of hair or fuzz) to remove any small bits of pulp.
To make jelly: In large pot (pasta size) combine palm juice and lemon juice, and stir in box of pectin, using a whisk. Heat to a boil and stir in sugar and butter. Bring mixture back to a boil and turn heat down to medium high and continue to cook for 13-15 minutes. Monitor closely so that it does not boil over. Palm jelly requires longer cooking time than other jelly.

Pour jelly into half-pint sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, and process for 5 minutes.

*except I am going to remove the pits from the fruit (which is a bit difficult as the pulp clings to the pits securely) before I boil them for juice. I read that the pit may secret an oil substance that makes the fruit more difficult to gel, perhaps it is because of the fruit's naturally high content of pectin that the pit's job is to keep the fruit from becoming a jellyball on the frond. That would be Willy Wonka-esque!

Success!

My jelly has jelled successfully! The recipe calls for a juice of one lemon, one lemon equals about 2 tablespoons juice. i only had 1 tbs, but that didn't cause a problem. This batched turned out more orange than yellow color the last batch was.
There is another frond ripening today~ so beginning tomorrow I will collect the fruits to make more batches. I hope to sell them at the next festival I attend.

Pindo Palm Jelly

Also known as the Jelly Palm, the Pindo palm produces small orange fruits in the summer time. Each front of fruit ripens at a different time, giving you fruit all summer long. The taste is similar to apricot, mango and peach; but with a different (yet delicious) twang. The other day I picked a few fruits, just enough to cover the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. Then we had a massive storm that picked the rest of the fruit for me, and threw them in the bushes. Now I am more prepared for the next batch. (Photo: Six 8 oz jars Pindo Jelly and Two jars Banana pepper rings.)
I followed this recipe:

2 cups prepared palm fruit juice

3 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup liquid fruit pectin

Remove pits from palm fruit, barely cover with water and bring to a boil for about 5 minutes. Crush fruit and strain through a jelly bag. Measure into a saucepan. Add sugar to juice and mix well. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. At once stir in pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim off foam and pour quickly into hot, clean jars. For long term storage, the USDA recommends heat processing all jams and jellies in a waterbath canner for 5 to 10 minutes. Yield about 4, 8 ounce jars.

As far as the "Jelly Bag" goes, I made mine ghetto style and just tied up my fruit in a handkerchief and dangled it over a bowl to catch the juice. Once it cooled more I crushed them.
The amount of fruits I picked yielded me about 4 cups of juice so I can make another batch probably.
I also bought the liquid pectin, as specified, and used just one envelope of it, which looked to be about 1/2 a cup.
I also cut the sugar down a whole bunch, just measured 3 almost full cups of sugar. I put it all in a one quart jar, but I didn't fill it all the way up, I poured the rest in a small mason jar as a "tester". This is my first time making jelly EVER, so hopefully it turns out good! It sure smells wonderful.

Here is my set up to drip the juice out, thinner fabric may work better)

EDIT~ Aug.9
This morning my jelly is still a bit too liquid. I understand that some jellies do take a few days to set, so I am going to sit this one out until tomorrow or the next day and remake it. Luckily it is easy to fix jelly! you can find out how at here (How to Fix Runny Jam or Jelly), at pickyourown.org. So either way I come out winning! Looks like the next front is ripening, if I get good at this I can send jars of Jelly to my friends. I missed a majority of the fruits that fell, and the amount I collected gave me a good amount of juice. If i play my cards right I could make several dozen cans of jelly this summer! Now that's the kind of work I like!

Edit~ Aug 11
Today I fixed my jelly. I also made another two 8 oz jars since I had just enough juice and pectin left over. They are still setting but I can tell that this time probably worked. The mixture became very firm and gelatinous towards the end. Also the bit that remained on the bottom of the pan was jelly~ and delicious! I added lemon juice the second time around, as I added this in when I fixed the first batch.

I also canned Banana Pepper rings while I was at it. A farmer at the farmer's market was selling Banana Peppers for 5 cents each! I should have bought them all. But instead I bought just enough to make Two 8 oz jars. I boiled two jars of filtered water and one jar vinegar. Meanwhile I crammed banana peppers, cut into rings, into sterilized jars. In each jar I added a pinch of sea salt (regular table salt may discolour the fruit and/or water), 1/3 of a huge garlic clove, and some black pepper corns. In one I added a pinch of sugar, but I wanted to see what difference would be to leave it out. Then I poured the water/vinegar mixture to fill the jars most of the way.

Everything got processed (canned) in boiling water for 10 minutes. You can probably get away with just doing it for 5 minutes, but I wanted to make sure I did it right. You know you are doing it right when the cans Pop! when they are cooling, this is when the cans seal. Pretty neat!


Who wants some jelly??

Wheat Bread

While making pizza the other night I noticed the recipe for whole wheat bread on the back of my King Arthur wheat flour.
I had most everything I needed already, so i got some molasses and went to work. It turned out very tasty but it did crumble a bit towards the end, and in the middle. I maybe should have cooked it a bit longer?
I still have half a bag of flour left and I have made bagels, bread, 2 pizza crusts and pancakes. Go Me!
Since the bread became crumbly I made breadcrumbs. So far I have made baked chicken tenders with them~ sooo yummy! Chicken cut up into strips, dipped in flour, then egg, then the crumbs. I'm not sure if you need to dip them in flour first or not, but it works either way!

To make crumbs, leave bread out to sit around and get stale. Then bake it a little bit on very low heat, like 200 degrees to thoroughly dry it out. Then add spices of your desires and chop!
My cucumbers are coming back! this makes me soooo happy~
they were forming teeny cukes, turning brown and dying. Leaves were dying, it was awful. But now I have soooo many happy little cucumbers, I can't wait to make so many pickles!

Farmer's Market! For your health!

Saturday I went to the local farmer's market and got 2 large zucchini, 3 medium yellow squash and 6 pickles for $3! Usually farmer's markets operate a weekend day (or both) and a week day, and every town I have ever lived in has had a farmer's market. This one is pretty small, but still wonderful! I like to go Tuesdays so I get a chance to talk to some of the farmers and get advice.

I made Farmer's Market Lasagne.
It turned out so delicious that my neighbors were bartering food for it!
1 chopped zucchini (and I added 1/2 a squash)
1 chopped sweet red pepper
1/2 cup shredded carrot (store bought for me)
3 cups baby spinach (also store bought, too hot now for it)
1 26oz jar pasta sauce (Full Circle Organic Roasted Garlic was on sale and info read healthiest)
1/2 15oz jar ricotta
6 regular uncooked lasagne noodles, broken in 1/2
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Step 1: Cook the zucchini, squash, pepper & carrots however you like, just until slightly tender. Heat up pasta sauce (I don't think I did this now that I think about it...)
Step 2:Layer 1/2 cup sauce, 4 noodles, 1/2 veggies, 1/2 cheese & repeat! Bake for a WHOLE HOUR at 350 degrees. Cover with foil if it browns. The reason for the caps is that I always forget to look how long it takes to bake and starve in the meantime. ;)

I also made Honey Glazed Chicken Stirfry
This turned out super easy and delicious, the sauce is like terriyaki
12 oz skinless/boneless chicken breasts
2 tbs honey (local)
2 tbs vinegar
2 tbs Orange Juice
4 tbs soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
4 cups veggies
2 tbs oil for cooking veggies
2 cups hot, cooked rice

Use a WOK~ they ROCK!
Step 1: cut everything up. For veggies I used peas, onion, broccoli (frozen, store bought) squash & zucchini of course, and shredded carrot for color & oomph! Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Step 2: Mix up your sauce in a bowl~ honey + vinegar + OJ + soy + cornstarch.
Step 3: Cook the veggies in oil 4 minutes or so, until tender. Remove from wok and put the chicken it. Cook it all the way, pile it all in the middle and add your sauce. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly and add the veggies in, tossing and coating it all in deliciousness.
Serve over rice, aint it nice?!

Tonight I am going to make pizza again, and I think I am going to do some jalapenos, cheddar cheese... and chicken sausage. Yum! :)

Pickles and Hot Sauce

I grew some cucumbers and they were yummy, but I don't prefer plain ol' cukes. I like 'em pickled. Refer to page 212 in Back To Basics for info and recipe. (don't have this book yet? Well you're crazy because it's awesome!) Ok, so it may be in the mail... I will tell ya what I did.

Pickled Cukes~ I sliced my cukes into spears and soaked them in Brine (1/2 cup salt : 1/2 gal water) it is best to use salt with nothing else in it or else the cukes will turn color or the water will cloud. I used regular table salt because that is what I had, so the water is a bit murky but that is just because of the additives...
I let them sit on the counter for about 8 hours and drained them. Meanwhile I brought vinegar, salt, sugar and water to boil. I put the cukes in a mason jar along with jalapenos I grew and some garlic. Usually you want to add some fresh Dill here, but the dill got over run with weeds and I haven't started anymore.
After you're smelly vinegar mixture is done you pour it into the jars with your cukes & spices. Now put on your lid and boil it in water for 20 minutes. This cans it! Take out your jars with some tongs and let cool. Enjoy!

Pineapple Jalapeno Hot Sauce & Spicy Pickled Cucumbers

Pineapple Jalapeno Hot Sauce~ I have 4 jalapeno bushes in 5 gal buckets (now I know you only need 2-3 gal per bush) plus some young plants that started from seed and take forever. Its wetter here than their natural habitat so I've had to pick some peppers early. I made hot sauce with these cause they are so dang hot! !
We had around 10 or 15 peppers, put in a blender, added vinegar, sea salt and pineapple juice. It turned out wonderful! Just add a little bit of everything at a time and taste~ you can always add more but can't take it out! :) Also if you aren't doing sweet, use water & onions & garlic for savory-ness.

Holla!!!! Penos

In my large cucumber pot I had dill & carrots growing. In the first photo you can see a tiny dill baby sprouting up. The other shoots I thought were carrots, but they were weeds! I let them take over the dill and I pulled one up randomly to see how it was and there was no carrot on the end! So we pulled the rest of the weeds up... Gotta watch those weeds, they are sneaky.