Entries from April 2009
Finding a good dessert for just the two of us can be a challenge. Most make just too much for two people. And what about single people. When I was single, I had no business baking a whole cake and eating it by myself. Which is one of the reasons I love crisps.
Crisps are wonderful. You can make a small amount or a big amount. I usually use a muffin pan. And you can make it around whatever fruit is in season. This week I made up several different crisps with whatever fruit looked good at the grocery store – blackberry, apple, pear, cherry and peach. If you just want to make single servings, you can use a oven-safe custard cup or even a muffin pan.
I used a muffin pan and did a different fruit in each cup.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place fruit into cups. For pears, apples and peaches, that’s about a half a fruit sliced.
Squeeze lemon juice over fruit. Top each cup with -
1 t. brown sugar
1 T. oatmeal
1/2 T. chopped nuts (I like walnuts or pecans)
1 thin slice of butter
Pinch of cinnamon
Bake for about 20 minutes 
Categories: Breakfast · Dessert · recipes
Tagged: Apple Crisp, Blackberry Crisp, Cherry Crisp, cooking, food, Peach Crisp, Pear Crisp
It’s raining today. A lot. And it brings back memories of a wonderful, but rainy, week spent in Ireland. During this trip, I learned how important a fulfilling breakfast is to combating cold and damp. Since I was planning on an afternoon of digging and planting in between the showers, I decided to bake one of my favorite discoveries from that trip in Ireland.
Irish soda bread is one of those earthy, dense breads with a crunchy crust that I enjoy with butter and jam. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big white bread fan (sourdough being the exception). Just one slice will get you through your work and it goes great with a hot drink to relax with when you’re done. This is a low fat version I tried this morning.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
2 2/12 T brown sugar
Cut into the dry mixture:
2 T. butter
In a separate bowl, combine:
1 egg white, beaten until frothy
1 c. buttermilk
1 c. raisins or currants
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix. Turn onto a floured board and knead about 10 times. Shape into a 9″ round and place on a greased baking. Make a cross in the top of the dough with a sharp knife.
Bake 45 minutes.
Categories: Breads · recipes
Tagged: bread, cooking, food, Irish Soda Bread
A few years ago I began having problems with eating things like pasta, pancakes, pizza and sweets. After eating these items I would feel like I had drunk too much caffeine. I’d be hungry shortly after eating, even if I’d partaken in a large portion. I visited the doctor and he said my symptoms didn’t quite sound like hypoglycemia or a food allergy. To remedy the situation I avoided the foods that made me feel bad. I also found that by ingesting protein throughout the day, usually milk, I felt better. After avoiding these foods for several years I was able to begin eating them in small quantities. I could eat spaghetti as a side but not as a main course. Fast forward to today. I’m able to eat pizza or pasta as an entree but I can’t do it every day. Pancakes have been an exception though. It must be the combination of sugar and the refined wheat. A few months ago we were visiting Matt and Alicia (Melissa’s sister and brother in law) and Alicia served pancakes using a mix from Paul’s Grains. I felt fine after eating the pancakes, so upon returning home, I looked up Paul’s Grains and discovered their products could be purchased online. I finally ordered some flour last week and made my first batch of pancakes today. They were delicious and I felt fine after eating them! The recipe I used was out of Michael Ruhlman’s new book, Ratio. The recipe called for all purpose flour, I used Paul’s 7 Grain flour, so I ended up using more liquid to compensate. Ruhlman’s book mostly uses weight to measure ingredients, which I’m liking more and more. The base ratio is: 2 part liquid, 1 part egg, 1/2 part butter and 2 parts flour. This is my adaptation.
Wet Ingredients:
- 4.5 oz buttermilk
- 8.5 oz skim milk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 oz butter (1/2 stick), melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients:
- 8 oz Paul’s 7 grain flour or all purpose flour (1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons raw sugar (turbinado)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Combine dry and wet ingredients in separate mixing bowls. Then combine the wet and dry mixes together, stirring until smooth. Cook the pancakes over medium heat on a greased skillet.
By Kenton
Categories: Breads · Breakfast
Tagged: Breakfast, cooking, food, pancakes, whole grain
Toaster Oven Muffins
I baked the funniest looking muffins the other day and I have to share the pictures. The pictures may not do them justice, but if you imagine gold smurfs you’ll have a good idea of what these looked like.
Here’s the back story. A few posts ago I mentioned that Kent had converted our oven into a pizza oven with layers of fire bricks. I’ve been leaving them in the oven in hopes of more pizza or maybe calzone. Since this blog is about learning I thought I’d use this time to see how our toaster would do in baking muffins. It is a convection toaster oven.
I decided to use up two muffins mixes I had on hand. One, because the muffins pans that would fit into the toaster oven only had room for 6 muffins or were the tiny muffin kind. Two, I was still in a “experimenting” mood and I knew that a commercial mix would yield more consistent results.
Toaster muffins 2
The result – golden smurf muffins. Both sized muffin pans yielded muffins that rose to a high point and spread out to an almost mushroom-like appearance. Then there is the lean. This is where the convection oven part comes into play. The air of the convection most definitely comes from the left side of the oven and caused the lean as well as one-sided browning.
Lesson learned. And by the way, I’m still waiting for more pizza. And for Kent to post on his pizza making.
Categories: Breads · muffins
Tagged: cooking, food, muffins, Toaster Ovens
I’ve been trying to get better about cooking during the week. It hard because we’re usually hungry when we get home, and a bowl of cereal quickly takes care of the pangs. I know, I know, I should eat a snack around 3:00 or 4:00. Usually I cook on weekends and try to make enough so we have leftovers for the week. The past couple weekends have been spent with family, so I haven’t had a chance to cook and subsequently we have no leftovers. True to form I came home this afternoon and had a small bowl of cereal. I was going to have another but decided to make an attempt at throwing something together. We’ve got some cottage bacon we need to get rid of, and I purchased some kale the other day from the grocery store. What came out was actually pretty tasty. I overcooked the egg and added a bit too much salt, not taking into account the salty garnishes. But overall we were pleased and it was more satisfying than a second bowl of cereal.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of oil
- 3 oz of bacon, chopped
- 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
- 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 pound kale, including stems, roughly chopped
- 2 large eggs, fried
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Directions:
You need a large frying pan with lid. Saute bacon on medium with a bit of oil till crispy. Remove bacon from oil and set aside. Turn up heat a bit and add pepper flakes and garlic. Stir garlic once or twice and deglaze the pan with vermouth. Add chicken stock and kale stems. Cover and let the stems cook for a couple minutes, then add the kale leaves. Cover, cook at a medium simmer, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender. While the kale is cooking fry the eggs. To serve, mound kale on a plate, garnish with Parmesan cheese, bacon and top with an egg. Should feed two.
By Kenton
Categories: Economy Food · Pork Dishes · Vegetables
Tagged: bacon, cooking, eggs, food, kale
Not to be deterred from my failed first shake with no ice cream experiment, I persevere. The consistency was right on target so I’m keeping the frozen bananas. The carob was too strong so I’m switching to fruit. Drat! I was really looking forward to inventing the next great carob something-or-other.
Fortunately, I have some great frozen cherries (courtesy of my mom – Thanks Mom!). Unfortunately, we ran out of honey so I turned to raw sugar. Truth be told I’ve been wanting to play with the raw sugar since Kent brought it home. This was just the opportunity I’d been looking for–don’t tell Kent.
Experiment 2
Cherry Banana Shake
Take One
Blend:
2 frozen bananas
1 c. frozen sour cherries
1 c. nonfat dry milk
3 T raw sugar
3/4 c ice water
1/2 t vanilla
Pros: Great consistency again. Color was okay. Not great. Pink but not a bright pink. Very filling – one glass filled me up.
Cons: Very very rich. Too rich for Kent. He added skim milk to tone it down. I drank my straight.
Discussions: Okay, okay, maybe it’s time to reduce the dry milk. I don’t want to add more water because that might mess with the consistency which is the only thing these shakes have had right.
Trial Take
Okay, okay. I guess it’s time to cut the amount of nonfat dry milk. And the sweetener.
Blend:
2 frozen bananas
1 c. frozen sour cherries
2/3 c. dry milk
1/2 t vanilla
3/4 c. ice water
Pros: The good consistency is holding. Color is much much better. The sour cherry flavor is stronger and more flavoricious. There is a difference of opinion about the richness. My sister and I agree that the richness level was good. It was still a bit much for Kent who added skim milk to it.
Cons: Grainy. It’s been grainy all along but I was wanting this to be a simple “just put everything in and blend” kind of thing. Looks like I’ll need to premix the nonfat milk and water.
Next time: Fix the graininess. And do I dare combine the two experiments? A Cherry Carob Banana Extravaganza?!?!
Categories: Beverages · Dessert
Tagged: Cherry, cooking, food, Shake
We picked up our first order of the Spring from the Nebraska Food Cooperative last Thursday. Yesterday I finally got around to using some of our purchases. Using The Flavor Bible I looked up kale. I decided to use the following suggested ingredients in the dish: potatoes, onion, red pepper flakes, garlic, pork, chicken stock. The dish turned out great as far as taste, but it’s not the most appetizing thing to look at. The potatoes were a little overdone and the bacon wasn’t crisp. But I’ve got some ideas on how to rectify that, which I’ll list at the end of this post.
First I’d like to introduce the local fair I used to create this dish.
The Cottage Bacon was purchased from Harvest Valley Foods. Cottage bacon is made from the shoulder of the pig, not from the sides or belly like most bacon. As a result the cottage bacon is more lean. The bacon from Harvest Valley Foods had a nice smoky flavor and not too salty.
The potatoes we didn’t order, they were free! Nebraska Specialty Produce was at Jane’s Benson Health Market, our pickup place for NFC, giving them away. Apparently they had a few potatoes left over from last year. They had three varieties: Bintje, Purple Majesty and Laratte Fingerling. We chose to go with the Purple Majesty, instead of a mixed bag. We really liked the potatoes they gave us, and we’ll purchase some more when they have a new crop this year. Both Bob and Tanner Lemon seemed like real nice people. They don’t have a website at the moment, but they can be reached at rlemon [at] curtis-ne [dot] com.
The kale was purchased from Community Crops. The kale is on the left in the picture and cutting celery on the right. I made pesto out of the cutting celery, which I’ll post about at a later date. The kale was flavorful, clean, and the stems small enough to eat. The only thing I didn’t like about the kale was the size of the bunch, 3-3/4 oz. I just have to remember to purchase more than one bunch next time.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of potatoes, cubed
- 6-8 oz of kale, roughly chopped
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 4 oz cottage bacon, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- Salt and Pepper
Directions:
Precook potatoes until they are almost soft all the way through, drain, and set aside. Add the bacon to a large frying pan, with the oil, over medium low heat. Slowly cook the bacon to release the fat. Once the fat has rendered as much as it’s going to, turn up the heat and add the onion and red pepper flakes. Saute the onion until it’s translucent, then add the garlic. Stir the garlic until it releases it’s aroma and add the chicken stock. Mix in the potatoes and kale, reduce the heat and cover. Cook until kale is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
As I mentioned before I wasn’t completely happy with the way this dish turned out. Next time I try this I’m going to braise the kale with the chicken stock in a separate pan. Then at the end, briefly toss the potatoes in the bacon, garlic, onion, oil mixture; add the soft kale and warm through. That way hopefully the bacon will be crispy and the potatoes won’t be too soft.
By Kenton
Categories: Pork Dishes · Vegetables
Tagged: bacon, cooking, food, kale, purple potatoes, Vegetables
When I was a kid, I dreamed of getting into my mother’s cupboard and conducting experiments with spices and herbs and sugar and flours. So this week when the first recipe below was so disappointing, I decided it was time to become the food scientist I dreamed of being as a child.
First, let me tell you about my muse, The American Cancer Society’s Healthy Eating Cookbook. I’ve tried a couple of recipes from this book that I checked out from the library and so far none have really impressed me. But I acquired some unhealthy nutrition habits over the winter, so finding healthy recipes is part of my plan to get back on track. When I saw that the ingredients for “Pineapple Banana Shake” did not include ice cream, but used nonfat dry milk, I did a double-take but decided to give it a try.
Basically, you combine the ingredients below, adding the ice cubes slowly through the blending process.
1 c. pineapple chunks
1 banana sliced
1 T. lemon juice
2/3 c. dry milk
1 c. ice water
1/4 t. vanilla
8 ice cubes
This shake smelled great and I couldn’t wait to taste it. But the flavor was weak and the consistency was thin. More like a smoothie than a shake. If I ever try this again, I’ll leave out the 8 ice cubes and reduce the water. The shake did get me thinking though – could you really make a shake without ice cream?
Banana Carob Shake
Experiment #1 – Banana Carob Shake
I decided that bananas would be useful for the consistency. And I tried carob because I’m always looking for a good way to use carob (the reason why is another post).
Blend:
2 frozen bananas
1 c. dry milk
3/4 c. ice water
1 T honey
1/2 t vanilla
1 T carob powder
Positive results: The consistency of this concoction was very close to a shake. The color was perfectly chocolatly.
Cons: The flavor was strong. Probably too much carob.
Discussion: A little carob goes a long way.
Next steps: What about cherries?
Categories: Beverages · Dessert
Tagged: carob, cooking, desserts, food, shakes
Our spice storage had been a problem for some time. We’d made incremental improvements over the years. Moving from spices dumped in a drawer, to stacked in a cupboard, to alphabetized baskets. But about a month ago, I finally became fed up with our situation and decided to so something about it. I of course turned to the great sage, the web, for advice. I ran across an article in The Washington Post describing a magnetic spice rack. I dumped the 22 gauge steel plating they suggested, using the refrigerator instead. I also used our handy labeler to mark the front of each box. So far it’s worked very well, not only are the spices easily accessible, but we’ve regained some valuable cupboard space. The spices that won’t fit in the cases remain in the alphabetized baskets, but downstairs on a shelf out of the way. One thing I might do is purchase the largest size case, 70mm (2-3/4″) for some of the frequently used spices, saving a few trips down stairs.
I got the boxes at Lee Valley Tools. Each 53mm (2-1/8″) box holds 2 tablespoons of spice. I picked up 3/4″ round magnets at Lowe’s and used some 527 Multipurpose Cement we had laying around. It’s a pretty simple project. Just glue the magnets on the back of the cases, once the glue is dry, fill with spices, label and attach to the refrigerator.
Categories: Kitchen Organization
Tagged: food, spice rack, spice storage
Years ago, I went through a big mystery novel phase. In one of the mysteries, the heroine is stranded at a cabin with only a few items for food in the pantry – flour, baking soda, dry milk, etc. Of course, she is able to whip together a totally appetizing meal with minimal ingredients in a skillet in the fireplace. I was reminded of this story this morning when I wanted to bake but didn’t want to use the oven. (Kent turned our oven into a high-powered pizza oven with fire bricks last night and I was hoping that if I left his construction undisturbed he would make pizza again tonight).
So here’s a recipe for scones done in a skillet. As I was baking them this morning, it dawned on me that this might be a good recipe for a camping trip. The ingredients are all dry but water and a little vegetable shortening so most of it can be easily mixed up and placed in a baggy to go. They taste a little like french toast so they’re perfect for a Sunday morning.
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. cream of tartar
1/4 t. salt
1 T. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
2 T. dried milk
1/2 c. water
2 T. vegetable shortening
Stir the dry ingredients together. Add the water and mix well. Place batter on a well floured board and knead 8-10 times. Pat into 6 inch circle. Cut into wedges, 6-8.
Heat skillet on medium heat and melt shortening. Place wedges in skillet and leave until the bottom side is golden. Flip and brown other side. Split a scone to test for doneness.
PS – I did get more fresh pizza for supper. Watch for Kent’s upcoming post on it. Yummy.
Categories: Breads · Breakfast
Tagged: cooking, food, scones
Finding a good dessert for just the two of us can be a challenge. Most make just too much for two people. And what about single people. When I was single, I had no business baking a whole cake and eating it by myself. Which is one of the reasons I love crisps.
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