Kitchen happenins & other stuff

A recent procurement of 40 lbs of Jumani apples through Bountiful Baskets led to two long days of canning.  The majority of apples were made into applesauce but I wanted to have some other items to mix up our pantry lined with applesauce, peaches, & numerous jams.  I'm not much of a chutney fan but I liked the idea of a savory apple mixture to use with meals.  Unable to find specific recipes, most of my research was spent ensuring the ingredients were safe for water canning (& canning in general) - everything else was fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants & taste.  We split the rest of the batch into curry apples (chopped apples reduced down in Simply Apple juice & curry powder) & apple rum cinnamon sauce (chopped apples reduced down in Simply Apple juice, brown sugar, rum & cinnamon - idea from Ball peach rum sauce).

We opened a jar of the curry apples to have with pork chops - success!

 Apple rum cinnamon sauce - with ice cream, it's like a party in your mouth.

If you need a successful black bean burger recipe, check it out.  The secret ingredient to keep it all glued together?  Plaintains.  Who knew.  These are delicious dish.

 Homemade ranch dressing.  This stuff is the bomb dot com.  Never again will I be able to eat store-bought ranch dressing.  Ever.

Our local community college offers "community enrichment" classes - most are one-day & for a small fee, you can learn such items as baking, cooking, jewelry-making, soap-making, etc.  I took a ceramics class in high school & was hooked but never made much of an effort to pursue it after graduating.  Note: I didn't say I was good.  Just that I really enjoy making ceramics.  Fast forward post-college in Sheridan & I find out one of the local potters is offering a 10 week, Monday night ceramics class at the community college.  We don't have assignments but instead show up & for three hours, once per week, have complete access to the clay, wheels, glazes, & kilns (our pieces are fired with the college student pieces, which is a nice perk).  Since then, I have taken the class a handful of times the past few years & I decided to take it again this semester.  I'm finally noticing improvement.  Ceramics is an art form that most certainly takes a lot of practice - our instructor, who makes beautiful pottery, mentioned it took her ten years before she felt comfortable opening her own shop.  Of course, our house now has more damn bowls than I should admit, but I think I'm getting the hang of some other shapes.  :)

When life gives you leftover (home) canned peaches...

...make a quick peach crisp with whisky peach sauce  for Sunday breakfast.

My precious...

I have a strong penchant for peanut butter.  And other peanut butter-like condiments.  Such as Nutella.  When I saw this beautiful item in the grocery store, I couldn't resist: 

If you've never tried Biscoff cookies, you're missing out.  But the Biscoff spread...oh my...excuse me while I go grab another spoonful...

Food Stuffs

Food is, without a doubt, one of the highlights of my life.  Seriously.  I consider eating/cooking/baking/imbibing a hobby.

Steve calls the picture below a "Ramirez family dinner."  I love meals that consist solely of tapas - and although I don't have access to some of the wonderful cured meats, I make do with the overly priced cheeses at the stores.  These dinners typically occur when: a) I'm too lazy to cook; b) Steve is away for the night for work & I'm too lazy to cook; or c) I'm too lazy to cook.  Wait...did I say that already?

This particular meal of loveliness is a few marinated olives, a variety of artisanal cheeses, & asparagus broiled with olive oil, salt & pepper (the broiling method gives the asparagus a nice crisp at the top of the spears).  Oh, and don't forget a key ingredient - giant glass of wine.

Peanut Butter is one of my daily staples.  If I don't have PB at least once a day, something is missing in my life.  Usually, I work PB into my breakfast.  Although you have to be aware of the calorie content, if eaten in moderation, it provides a great amount of protein, which is a necessity to get me through to lunch.  I read about Peanut Butter & Co. some time ago & knew I had to get my sticky lil' mitts on some.  On a recent trip to WalMart (which is the bane of my existence & a store I try to avoid at all costs...but living in a small town, is an unfortunate necessity), I just about danced through the aisles when I saw none other than PEANUT BUTTER & COMPANY hiding so quietly next to the big-kahuna brands of PB.  Will I overpay for what is supposed to be super delicious peanut butter that is made of all natural ingredients??  You bet'cha!

Oh. My. Goodness.  I took one little taste of the Dark Chocolate Dreams & let me tell ya...was it dreamy!  Sooooo so so so so very delish.  Not overpowered by cocoa, not overpowered by sugar - just perfection.  After finishing off the jar (not in one sitting, darlin', I have some self-control), I jetted back to WalMart & decided to balance out the Dark Chocolate Dreams with White Chocolate Wonderful.

I tried both this morning with my breakfast.  I fainted in delight.  While at my desk at work.  My boss considered calling the psych ward.

Just kidding.  But this stuff is awesome.  And yes, the nutritional content is relatively similar to standard PB - in fact, it has only a few more grams of sugar but less calories.

 Don't worry, the bottle of wine doesn't go with me to work for my breakfast.  Although there have been days when I've considered it...

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes, you read that correctly.  Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting?  I made one such concoction recently.  Nom nom nom.

Chocolate cake recipe found here.  It was moist, flavorful, & easy-to-make (which is always a plus in my book).  I was hesitant to add coffee, but I highly recommend it - no coffee flavor was detected, but it gave a depth to the chocolate I think would have been missed without.  Peanut butter cream cheese frosting found here.  I had to add a bit of milk to make the frosting more spreadable for a cake.  The frosting had an amazing balance of sweet & salty.  I'm still partial to regular cream cheese frosting, but the addition of peanut butter was oh-so-delicious.

Put it all together & you have a combination made in heaven.  I took one bite & angels sang down from high.
Moist, rich, decadent, unique, sweet, salty.  Did I mention it was really tasty?

(Please note the thin slice.  This is not a diet-friendly cake.  All in moderation.)

I'scream! You'scream! We all scream for ice cream!

If the world were ending & I was only allowed one thing to eat for my last day(s), it would be ice cream.  And cake.  And cookies.  And custard.

Can I just have "dessert" for my last day?

Now that we have an ice cream maker...and four hens that make eggs...what better to use up eggs than make ice cream?  The good kind.  The custard kind.  Early in my ice cream making days, I read the creamiest ice creams have a higher fat content because of all things physics and science that I don't understand.  Something to do with ice crystals & their inability to form in fat.  Is that why my layer of blubber keeps me warm in the winter?  Because ice crystals can't form?  Why didn't someone tell me I had to be a Rocket Surgeon to understand the delicate inner-workings of ice cream??

Last night, I made the most amazing ice cream I have ever tried.  It's a simple vanilla bean ice cream that can easily be used as a base for other flavors.

See recipe here.

It's still creamy, even after being in the freezer overnight.  I know because after lunch, I had a small scoop.  Or two.  Or five.

Who's counting?

I did make a small minor adjustment.  I didn't have 3 cups of heavy cream, so I used what I had - which is the one-pint container (equivalent of two cups, for those of you that reject the Metric system).  I adjusted my half-and-half to 2 cups & used 7 eggs.  Ahhhhhhmazing.

I have a whey problem

Sounds nasty!

Not really.  As I continue experimenting with yogurt-making, my biggest issue has been runny yogurt.  I want thick yogurt, like Fage, a creamy delicious Greek strained-yogurt.  Key word: STRAINED.  The company's website has a short, fun cartoon explaining the process, found here.

Well duh, I haven't been straining my yogurt, so if I wanted similar results, I would need to strain the yogurt to reduce the whey.  I'll let Wikipedia explain whey.  I don't often resort to unconfirmed sources for explanation, but type "whey" into Google & you'll be inundated with body building websites.  So Wikipedia it is.

I grabbed a recent batch of homemade yogurt (made with 2% milk), poured it into a strainer lined with a clean white handkerchief & suspended over a bowl in the fridge for a few hours.  Ta-da!  Thick, creamy, just-how-I-like-it yogurt.  But then my health conscious mind went into overdrive...."I just got rid of whey!  Isn't whey supposed to be some super-healthy product?  Is my yogurt un-healthy now??"  Back to Google I went, trying to find an answer.  Yes and no.  I did strain out a lot of calcium, along with additional vitamins.  But I also concentrated the yogurt into a more protein-packed food.  See here.

Answers weren't very clear & I still am not sure just what I'm getting rid of.  Oprah  kind of gave me an ok to strain out whey.  But like Wikipedia, I take it with a grain of salt.

I found two variations that might assist in reducing the whey & allowing me to not strain nearly as much whey out of the yogurt - adding dry milk in addition to the liquid milk before heating it & scalding the milk for a longer period of time to really force the proteins to bind.

We'll see what happens.

Who cut the cheese?

We have several homebrews on tap (I'm a lucky gal) but one of the more popular is Steve's Cascadia, which is a black IPA.

Love this pint glass from a brewery in Utah...if you look closely, underneath the name, it says "Good for What Ales You."

We're continuing to experiment with cheese-making. We have yet to taste-test the final products, but currently a Farmhouse Cheddar & a Manchego are aging in our basement.

This morning I made crepes with a homemade mascarpone filling, topped with strawberries.

Homemade mascarpone is out-of-this-world delicious. So creamy. And so easy to make. Adding a bit of powdered sugar & almond extract, we had a crepe filling in a snap.

Tonight's menu includes a Cheddar-Ale soup with homemade Naan bread.

Before I finish breakfast, I'm already planning dinner. People wonder why I run so much.

Homemade Goodies

I don't have pictures, but Steve & I are still experimenting with homemade goodies - yogurt, mozarella, mascarpone (Italian "cream cheese"), etc.  Our go-to expertise source has been this website - so many things to try!  My favorite, by far, has been the mascarpone (recipe found here).  Mascarpone is the dreamier, creamier, tastier, smoother, yummier version of cream cheese (in my humble opinion).  And it's not cheap.  I think I can find an 8-oz tub in the grocery store for approximately $7-8.  You can use it as you would cream cheese, including cheesecake (yum yum YUM); be sure to find a recipe for mascarpone cheesecake, as I'm sure it has a different liquid/protein/fat content which might change the way it reacts when baking.  I've used a Giada de Laurentis recipe with great success.

And yes, we made homemade mascarpone.  With 16-oz half-and-half, 16-oz heavy whipping cream, & 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, we created an almost identical mascarpone to the store-bought version.  I have yet to use it in cheesecake, but I did use it in a cream cheese frosting & it was DE.LIC.IOUS.  The recipe is super easy & I highly recommend giving it a try.

Homemade yogurt

Homemade yogurt?  Ummm, really?

You betcha!

Hell, we have chickens & we spent a summer gardening & canning our fresh goods.  Next step is to move onto some acreage & add a milk cow to our family.  Ha!  We've joked about it...but we've actually taken the thought into consideration.  :)  (Cue eye roll from our families)  We're serious about wanting to find a quiet piece of property - to build our dream home & have our own sanctuary away from the hustle of everyday life.  Idyllic?  Absolutely.  Possible?  With hard work.  (It's a very distant future dream.)  And a milk cow named Bessie to add the whole fam damily?  I think I hear "Farmer in the Dell" playing in the background somewhere...  :)

But I digress...  The homemade yogurt adventure started with three things:

1. The price of Greek yogurt (oh-my-expensive!).  I fell in love with Greek yogurt recently & it's a love affair that does not appear to be fading anytime soon.  I was intrigued by the health benefits (super low in sugar, high in protein, & au natural), took a taste, & decided my sugar-filled, fake tasting yogurt days were over.  (Goodness, I sound so very elitist)

2. We love making the food we eat.  Part of that stems from the life-altering Food, Inc.  Oy vey.  It will change the way you think about food.

3. We purchased an ice cream maker (YES!) & would like to try some frozen yogurt - what better than using our own homemade yogurt for homemade frozen yogurt?

We checked out a few recipes & found it's not really that hard.

 Step 1: Freshly opened starter.  This little cup o' goodness provides the necessary friendly bacteria to create yogurt.  We used 0% Greek yogurt.  The 6 oz container cost $1.50.  ON SALE.  Yikes.

 Step 2.  Scald milk.  I had no idea what recipes meant when they said "scald milk," but now I'm well-versed in scalding milk.  Basically, it means heating it to high temperatures w/out burning (constant stirring!) or letting it boil (messy messy).

The rest of the steps we didn't take pictures.  FAIL.

Step 3: Cool scalded milk & add starter.  Milk must be cooled so that it doesn't kill the happy little starter bacteria.  On the same end, the mixture can't get too cool or else the little bacteria guys can't get hot & happy & go to work.

Step 4: Pour scalded milk/starter mixture into sanitized jars.  We used 1-cup jars - our recipe made 8 jars (with a bit leftover).  We used 1/2 gallon skim milk & 1 cup starter.  For approximately $4, we made 8 cups of yogurt.  You do the math.

Step 5: Put jars in a cooler & fill cooler with warm water (don't fill above jar lids).  The warm water keeps the cooler warm internally to avoid cooling too much & negating all the hard work of the bacteria.  Some people have yogurt makers - the only thing a yogurt maker does is keep the yogurt at a warm & steady temp to cure.    The overeager newbies that we are, we covered our cooler with a few layers of blankets to keep it warm overnight.

In the morning, we popped the jar & much to our surprise, had wonderful, delicate, light, tasty homemade yogurt!  We'll experiment a bit more (adding powdered milk can assist in making a thicker yogurt, using a higher percent-fat milk, such as 1 or 2%, can also alter the consistency), but we're very happy with our first trial.

Butcher block

We have a dishwasher.  And it runs well.  It's a good dishwasher.  But our tiny kitchen didn't have a cabinet for the dishwasher.  So it was a free standing dishwasher.  Which doesn't work so well when you open the dishwasher, pull out a drawer of dishes, & the dishwasher falls over.  

Steve has wanted to build a cabinet around the dishwasher & put a nice butcher block on top of the dishwasher.  He found a good deal through Lumber Liquidators & his dad kindly drove the block from Sioux Falls to Sheridan when he came for a weekend of hunting.  Pictures of our lovely & usable butcher block...