green eating

Very Mild Pad Thai

2008-04-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

So I had pictures and everything, but my laptop crashed. Bummer!

I have been craving Pad Thai for a while, but I am still having pretty major aversions to all things salty and spicy, so I mad the most bland Pad Thai ever created. In good news, somehow cilantro tastes better than ever before!

Bland Pad Thai:

~8 oz rice noodles, soaked in warm water for 20-30 minutes
1/3 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup lime juice
1/3 cup fish sauce (I used water because I can't handle salt!!)
2 T or so sugar
3 or so green onions
cilantro, a handful maybe. or less if it tastes like soap
3 eggs.
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
a few pinches of red pepper flakes
some olive oil
2 cups bean sprouts

1-Saute the garlic on the stove until cooked, add red pepper flakes
2-Drop in 3 eggs and scramble for about 20 seconds
3-Add all of the noodles and cook for 2-3 minutes
4-Add the sugar and liquids and cook for another minute
5-Add half of the green onions, bean sprouts, cilantro and peanuts and cook for a minute
6-remove from heat and add the rest of the bean sprouts, cilantro, peanuts and green onions

So good and so plain!

Avocado Soup

2008-04-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

There are no pictures of the finish soup because I kept on eating it while I was making it, it was that good! (and super easy!)

2 avocados
milk or soymilk
salt
pepper
green onions

Mash up the avocados, add milk until you get the right texture-- I added probably about a cup of milk, then add salt, pepper and a chopped up green onion. I'm sure other vegetables would be great in this as well. I put what I had left in the fridge for a half hour and then ate it all!

Kitchen renovations part 3

2008-03-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend we worked on putting up the glass tiles in our kitchen. We got the tiles applied to the wall, so now we just need to put in the grout which will be white and the caulk. It makes the kitchen seem a lot more finished. A lot of work though, ate up most of the weekend!

Best grilled cheese ever

2008-03-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while probably because pregnancy has be living on bland, boring foods. I am finally interested in fruits and vegetables again which is a relief after months of Nilla Wafers, yogurt, cereal (all of which I can't quite stomach now) and then moving on to the transitional cucumbers!

But, now, back to real food, 8 times over!
Ok, I didn't have a camera, but Sunsinger has the world's best grilled cheese and something that could easily be duplicated at home.

Thick white bread, obviously toasted with a bit of butter
gruyere cheese maybe? Something melty and delicious
thinly sliced green apples
fig preserves.

SO good. Seriously, apples and cheese with figs? Wonderful. In another week and a half we are finally going to finish up the kitchen. It's been like 7 months, but I guess I get a pass since I was so sick during 3 of them. But seven months? That's a little pathetic.

Pretty Produce

2007-08-13T11:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a crazy day! We got most of the countertop/sink/faucet work done. Still a bit leaky. There's tonight's project! I did help a bit, but I was pretty nervous about messing up. Here is the countertop and sink in with half of the faucet. There is now a big nasty patch right behind the countertop where the old backsplash was, but pretty soon we will have some great tile!

Now some squash from our garden and a pineapple tomato as well as some blue/purple potatoes from a local farmer:

The easy bagels

2007-08-06T07:43:00.001-07:00

Because these bagels are shockingly easy, I'm paraphrasing the recipe from Peter Reinhart's book "The Bread Baker's Apprentice." A really great book! Go buy it! (Peter, I will take my comission now:) )

Sponge:
1 teaspoon (.11 ounce) instant yeast
4 cups (18 ounces) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2.5 cups (20 ounces) water, room temperature

Dough:
.5 teaspoon (.055 ounces) instant yeast
3.75 cups (17 ounces) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2.75 teaspoons (.7 ounce) salt
1 tablespoon (.5 ounce) honey)

1. Make the sponge by stiring the yeast into the flour. Add the water and whisk until it forms a smooth stick batter (think pancakes). Cover the bowl and leave it out for 2 hours until it bubbles and looks foamy and is twice the size. If it doesn't get bigger (like, um, the first time I made mine) start over, making sure the yeast is activiated, that is where I had the most mistakes.

2. To make the dough, in the same 4 quart bowl, add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir, then add 3 cups of flour and all fo the salt and honey. Stire until the ingredients form a ball, adding the rest of the flour to stiffen up that dough.

3. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes on the counter. It gets very stiff and there shouldn't be any flour that isn't absorbed by the dough. If it is too dry add a bit of water and keep kneading. It should be heavy and "satiny".

4. Divide the dough into 4.5 ounce pieces for sandard bagels. This should be about 13 bagels from this recipe. Make the pieces into little tight rolls and cover them with a damp towel and let them rest for 20 minutes.

5. Line two baking sheets with parchment and mist with oil. Then shape the bagels. I like to do it by punching my thumb through the center and pulling the dough around my thumb until there is more than an inch diameter of the hole in the middle. It will shrink back up a bit in the fridge, so don't be too afraid of the hole. Put the pieces 2 inches apart on the pants, spray them with oil and let rest for 20 minutes.

6. This is the fun part! You have to test to see if they are ready to go in the fridge overnight. Get a bowl of water that is fairly deep and after 20 minutes drop one of the dough-bagels in. If it floats within 10 seconds, it is good to go. If not, wait a few minutes and try again.

7. Wipe that bagel dry and spray the bagels, cover them with plastic wrap, de-junk your fridge and find a place for both trays overnight or until you are ready to bake them.

8. When you are ready to cook them, preheat the oven to 500 degrees and get a big pot of water on the stove and set to boil the water and add some baking soda.

10. Drop the bagels into the pot a few at a time and boil at 1 minute per side (or up to 2 for chewier bagels). Place the bagels back on the parchment on top of cornmeal or semolina flour when they are done on both sides.

11. When all of the bagels are boiled, place the pans on two middle shelves. Bake for 5 minutes and then rotate the pans and switch the shelves they were on. After rotating, lower the oven to 450 degrees and continue baking for at least 5 minutes or until the bagels look golden or golden brown. This took me an additional 10-15 minutes.

12. Let the bagels cool for at least 15 minutes and then eat up!

Holy tomatoes!

2007-08-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

I think I need a picture update and brief telling of the past few months of food and gardening and camping!

Lowell and I went camping on North Manitou Island and I didn't cook at all but Lowell discovered he is a great campfire cook! He made some great eggs and potatos that we wrapped up in tortillas. Great after a huge long day of hiking. Plus, the view was amazing!

I had a good time! What I am really thinking in this picture is "I need some fresh cheese and a glass--or bottle--of wine. And some coke. Definitly some coke." I got a bit annoyed that this was during me washing my hair by wrapping a wet bandana around my head.

We came home from our trip and found that the storms helped out the tomatoes! We have some green zebra, brandywine, garden peach, yellow pear and red cherry coming up. Soon we will get our pinapple to start showing some love.

I realized that I have some latent projects including the kitchen. Step one was new paint! Coming soon: glass tile backsplash, new countertop and new sink. Maybe a rangehood microwave.

We got some amazing tomatoes and I decided to try to use them as a base for a pasta with a tarragon sauce. It was so-so.

And, because our cats love each other:

2007-07-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

bagels

2007-05-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

Last night I got everything read to make bagels. I have found that there are no decent bagel places within probably about 200-1000 miles from here. Seriously. The bagels you get at the store are really airy. Panera's bagels are so sweet. Nothing like the chewy, sour bagel taste of New York bagels that you get from the deli. I still haven't had bagels as good as New York bagels--ever.

Well, I think with some work this recipe will come close. It is made with practically 4 pounds of flour, some honey, salt and yeast. I used a mixture of gluten flour, all purpose organic unbleached flour and organic unbleached bread flour. The sponge that sits for the first few hours looks very similar to pancake batter. Then when another two pounds of flour gets added the dough becomes very tough. It was fairly difficult to work with; I had to really use my whole body for kneading (I am still insisting on kneading everything by hand and not using the bread attachment for my food processor or stand mixer). Shaping the bagels was fun. I made each one 4.5 ounces (I love my digital kitchen scale!). They were pretty decent sized. Once I had 13 bagels, which I thought was pretty neat, being a baker's dozen, I put them in the fridge until this morning.

When I woke up I just boiled them for 1 minute 30 seconds per side in a big old pot full of water made more alkaline with baking soda. They took 18 minutes in a hot oven and then fresh bagels for breakfast!! It was awesome. I was a total pig and ate two! They filled me up all day though, clear through the quick 1:30 hike we took this afternoon.

And a very full belly on the hike!

Ciabatta!

2007-05-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

I did it! I finally made a ciabatta! It took my third try, but it tastes delicious. It has been four days since I first started trying this bread, so biting into the harder crust followed by the chewy inside was very delcious. Even though it does bake at 450 degrees and it is really hot out. All still worth it.

Cherry Wine

2007-05-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

One of the things I am looking forward to the most about summer is sitting on my new deck and drinking ice cold cherry wine in the evenings. I have a bottle of Tabor Hill wine I am saving for the last day of the school year.

I love this wine because it has a tang that is similar to the same taste as cherry pie (which I don't love nearly as much). Not that this is a good thing, but it is easy to drink a whole bottle over the course of an afternoon/evening.

A bonus: It's regional! I have been trying to only drink regional alcohol, just like local produce, the benefits are widespread. It is not organic, but their employment practices seem to be very fair. Plus, they have free tastings of whatever wines you want.

(from the website: taborhill.com)

first greens!

2007-05-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Today was very productive. Our local Famer's Market opened today and there were so many awesome plant starts to buy. We also went to the local food co-op's plant sale. We ended up with 10 tomato plants and 4 basils. I will be putting more herbs into pots in a few weeks, but our garden is finally started!

We got a great variety of tomato plants; two red heirlooms, pineapple, green zebra, brandywine, husky gold, garden peach and yellow pear. I can't wait for the fruit!

Our spinach is ready to eat so I planted the second rotation in today as well.

Yeast Bread

2007-05-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

In my somewhat lofty goal of eating locally this coming summer I decided to tackle the ideas of breads. If I could make a bread with local flours and butters, I wouldn't have to make one more exception. Yeast breads to me have always been similar to bricks. I try and try and the bread smells delicious. And weighs about 18 pounds. It's deadly!

This time, for some reason it worked. I let the bread rise in the oven with the light on and it rose over the bowl!

Here is the recipe that I was able to use as the yeast-challenged:

2 packages yeast disolved in 2.5 cups warm water for 5 minutes

Add 2 tablespoons of honey and one of salt and mix together. Add 2 tablespoons oil and mix.
Add 3 cups of flour and mix until smooth
Add additional 3 cups of flour until doughy.

On a floured surface (I found that I needed two more cups of flour for the kneading) knead the bread until springy.
Let rise in a greased bowl for 1.5 hours (this is where letting it rise in the oven with the light on helped!)

After it has doubled, divide into two balls, rolling out into loaf shapes. Put them on a cooking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal and allow to rise until double (it took me about 45 minutes). Then bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Simple! And it worked!

The effect was more of a cheaper white bread than a good artisanal bread like the ones I always get sucked into paying $4.50 a loaf for, but it was cheap and made with local flour and honey!