Chocolate cherry muffins

I had trouble choosing whether or not these would be chocolate cherry muffins or cherry chocolate muffins, but since two kinds of chocolate are in these - Mr. Chocolate gets first billing.

For these bad mama jammas you may omit the sherry and still get good results although it does boost the cherry into a more complex, lovely realm with it added.  Really though, who has sherry unless you are a nerd?  Imagine a neon arrow pointing in my direction and on it, it might say "I know you are, but what am I?".  After all, I spend my time drooling while recalling recipes (not a joke, I've had a mishap or two) and waltzing aimlessly into SALT stores (also not a joke, stores that carry ALL MANNER OF SALTS!) so sherry you'd think would have been on my shelf long ago, but nope - I bought it last week because I wanted to see what it was about and then tried it in a couple of recipes.  This one yielded the most pleasing results.

I once tried these muffins with dried cherries and I must say being exhausted and working with both baking cocoa and dried fruit is a terrible idea.  Doing so practically guarantees your food will be careless (as I was) and the results even tasted careless.  IF you choose to use dried cherries, I recommend using either a tiny bit of hot water to plump them up (heat water... just enough for cherries to sit in while putting together other ingredients) OR you can use lightly-heated oil and put them into that.  I didn't use any of those methods for these muffins. I used frozen cherries which I had picked from my soon to be mother-in-law's cherry trees last summer.

1 and 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat flour (I use Bob's red mill organic ww)
1 TBSP cinnamon (cassia is fine)
2 TBSP + 1 tsp baking cocoa powder (I use Equal Exchange)
shallow 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (I used Sunspire semi-sweet you can use Dagoba Dark is you prefer)
1 cup - heaping cup of cherries (if frozen set them in a low dish and add sherry to the dish over the top of them, let this sit while you work on the rest of the batter and come back to them)
3 TBSP rosso {the red}Martini Rossi sherry for the cherries (you wont become an alcoholic from baking with alcohol it bakes OUT and leaves just the wonderful notes and characters that are in it minus the inebriation, you'd have an easier time getting drunk from cough syrup than raw muffin batter) You can use cherry based wine instead - if you know of any that treat you well.
1/2 cup not packed but heaping light brown sugar
1/2 cup whichever favorite sugar (I used vegan sugar, you can use evaporated cane, raw or natural)
3 eggs
3/4 cup olive oil
350 for 20-24 minutes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  If using fresh or frozen cherries put them into a shallow bowl and cover with (in this order) sherry, sugars, 3 eggs pre-beaten and leave to mingle on its own while you prep the rest.  In a mixing bowl, put your flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking cocoa and chocolate chips, and finger blend.  Back to the cherries... mix these with a little tossing and add 3/4 cup olive oil and spatula scrape this into your flour and blend well until everything makes a smooth rich cinnamon chocolate color.  I use a 1/4 cup scoop to scoop batter into paper lined muffin tins and this made 18 average sized muffins.

20-24 minutes until done.  In my electric oven (I miss the gas stove!) in Portland, Oregon it takes 22 minutes to perfection. For those of you in the Alps, I don't know what it takes so just poke it early and eat it when it is perfect!

Oh my!

Brands, batches and consistency

Bonne Maman... doing it right!

One of the most disheartening things about trying to greatly reduce MSG and related excitotoxins from your diet is when something agrees with you just fine one time and not the next.  It's one of the things that starts to make you wonder if feeling good or bad after a meal is psychosomatic.  Well, there are a few things that make this very challenging, which I'll go through in a moment.  I will also detail some brands that we've had pretty good luck with.

First, let's talk about consistency.  Virtually all food manufacturers rely on a large number of sources.  The same is true of your local market.  Have you noticed how the veggies one week come from California, and Mexico the next?   Even individual brands have multiple sources that can change depending on a number of factors including price, weather, and competing purchasers.  If Farm A runs out of something, the supermarket or food manufacturer needs to have Farm B-G already lined up.  And, to make things even more complicated, Farm A may actually be a collective of farms and not just one!

So, with multiple suppliers in place, consistency becomes nearly impossible.  But, what does consistency really mean?  You'd think a red pepper one place would be the same as another, especially if organic, right?  Well, this is not the case, especially where regional differences are in play.  You see every area, every farm has its own unique challenges in terms of climate, pests, rainfall, and so on.  There's also the experience and preference of the farmers themselves.  Some prefer to use no sprays at all, some use organic sprays, and some mix both techniques depending on the time of year.  All of these circumstances can have a pepper be fine one week and not the next.  While it is true that organic sprays are generally healthier than non-organic sprays, they often have a much higher MSG/excitoxic content.  Organic sprays can (and do) employ MSG and broken down protein as a binder agent.  Unfortunately, it's incredibly hard to wash binder agents and waxes off of produce.  Also, organic fertilizers (like fish emulsion as one example) leach into root vegetables, and some other vegetables as well.  The net effect is a reaction, regardless of it being organic.  So, now you can see why consistency is really an illusion unless you know the people who grow your food on a first name basis -- and this can only happen if you shop at a farmer's market for most/all of your produce.  It was at this point we thought - Gardening doesn't sound as daunting as it once did.

 the Portland farmer's market

So, for those who don't have this option (most of us), we have to rely on brands that are as consistent as they can be.  This requires the company's commitment to buying from a select group of suppliers, and not changing ingredients regularly.  These are most often small companies that have individual relationships with their suppliers much like we all shhttp://www.bobsredmill.com/ould with those who grow and produce our food.

Now, there are two other important factors about selecting products that you should know.  First, companies are constantly shifting their ingredients to improve their sales and profit margins.  This has been seen in the greatest way in the shift from real sugar to corn syrup.  When a company changes their ingredients, they have 6 months to change the labels under the law.   It also appears that this law is not regularly or consistently enforced.  So, the end result (and probably the most maddening of all) is you do fine with something one week and not the next, but the ingredients on the label remain exactly the same.  You are only vindicated later when you pick up the same product and the label has changed.  Were it not for this happening several times, I might have thought I was crazy.

This leads to another important point -- TRUST YOUR INTUITION!  When you eat a product, the company has absolutely no concern or allegiance to you other than their obligation to list the ingredients and nutritional value.  Even small companies get regularly bought by giant corporations.  Like Burt's Bees is now CLOROX. Gross, oh, and they've added soy protein (essentially broken proteins with the same negative effects as MSG) to their ingredients since the purchase. They are in it to make money and in rare cases they use that money for good.   So, you can only rely on your own body to let you know if what you are eating is good for you.  The terrible thing is we are conditioned through advertising, the media, our friends and even the government to blindly trust that what we are eating is safe.  This leads to an inevitable clash between what your body is telling you, and what your mind is trying to rationalize.  Making the matter even worse is when you have spent a lot of time cooking and realize after it is done you've somehow used an ingredient that is bad.  This means you either throw away your hard work, or you eat it and suffer the consequences -- something I cannot bring myself to do anymore because of how awful I feel as a result.   It's always easier to check things out thoroughly at the beginning of the cooking process.

One side note I have found.  When cooking, if you get red in the face or feel "flushy" this can be a sign that what you are cooking has MSG in it.   I am no scientist, but when MSG-laden steam hits me, I can feel it.  In fact, going into a restaurant that uses it extensively gives me a major headache.  If you catch trouble during the cooking process, it's an easier burden to bear than once the entire dish/meal is done.

So, in my experience, there are a few brands that seem fairly consistent.  They are in no particular order:

Bob's Red Mill flours (make sure they are not enriched or contain malted barley or corn starch!), yeast and corn meal/corn flour.  The white unbleached is enriched, the ORGANIC white unbleached is not.
King Arthur flours (same deal regarding enriched/malted barley usually "bread flour" is the culprit along with white all-purpose so check labels!)
Hodgson Mills flour (do I have to say it again?)
Lundberg Farms rice (yep, watch out for enrichment in rice too...)
Kerry Gold butter and cheddar (the unsalted is cultured, all cultured butter is bad for you)
Laura Chenel's Chevre goat cheese
Simply Organic pure vanilla extract only
Eden Organic brown mustard, crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes (not the pasta sauce, or any other kind of sauce)
BioNature strained tomatoes
Coombs organic Maple syrup
Organic Adriatic fig spread it is Croatian and delicious.
Bonne Maman preserves (they have citric acid, but seem OK as the pectin is fruit not corn {yet?})
Humane Harvest eggs (during the winter can be more problematic due to the chickens eating soy)
Eggs - are best obtained locally and by making sure the farm you get them from feeds the chickens no corn or soy.  Cheaper usually too than the store bought.
Stahlbush Island Farms
Whole Foods Market 365 Brand organic whole wheat pasta
John McCann's steel cut oats
Fleishmann's yeast (this and Bob's are the only ones we don't react to)
Dagoba Choco-drops (Dark chocolate always, as milk chocolate has broken milk protein/caseine)
Sunspire Organic Chocolate Chips (semi-sweet)
French Meadow Bakery - European sourdough rye as some seeded breads can cause issues.
Sunshine Dairy (they don't use flash pasteurization, which while sounding like the future actually makes the protein more unstable, and this is what a majority of organic milk producers do, nor does Sunshine use rBGH)

Stahlbush Island Farms is a 2200 acre farm near Corvallis, Oregon doing it right

We will update these, as well as adding our favorite farms from Local Harvest.  remember that these foods are like "fast foods" when you can't call on things you have preserved, grown yourself or from farms you have a relationship with.

Cabbage wraps

 

Just noticed the name on the pan- not the best name they could have come up with.

Oh man,  you know what's tasty?  Feta.
So I have this thing for foods wrapped in vegetables... MEALS wrapped in vegetables even.  Lettuces instead of tortillas or cabbage instead of pita or???  You get the idea.  These can be made vegan by using extra apple and leaving out the cheese and serving with a salad instead of cornbread.

These are made with:

• Cabbage leaves whole
• 1 (cup after cooking) basmati rice
• 1 small potato cubed
• 1 small onion minced
• 1 small red pepper minced
• 1/2 cup ground meat or 1 cup mushrooms either - or
• 6-10 basil leaves cut chiffonade
• pinch salt and pepper
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• feta
• granny smith apple

For these little guys I wash my rice with a hot water rinse several times until the water is clear and not milky.  Cook rice and set aside with lid on.  In a skillet put minced peppers and minced onions into 1 TBSP  olive oil and cook until cellophane/translucent and meat (I used ground turkey) and brown. If you are making this with mushrooms I recommend cooking those separately and reserving the mushroom juice for either a gravy or veggie stock. Once everything is cooked set aside. Cook cubed potato until soft, then drain.

In a bowl combine 2 parts rice to your 1 potato and mush with a fork to break up the potato and work into the rice.  Then add pepper, and salt. Stir in your meat or mushroom and basil ribbons.

Now take the biggest leaves of cabbage and separate them from the head rinse them and be careful not to rip them.  Use a large pot and fill with just enough water that you can dip your cabbage leaves. Once the water is hot use tongs and dunk your leaves a couple at a time until just supple enough - not completely flimsy. Set these aside on a plate or clean surface, repeat until through all your leaves you wish to fill.

Then lay out your leaves.  Shake out the leaves to rid of water. With the curl in the leaf facing you looking like a bowl and the hard end closest to you. On the hard end put a slice of apple, a slice of feta, and a fat spoonful of prepared rice on top roll using your hands to tuck filling and slowly the leaf sides in continue to roll until the curled end cups the wrapped filling completely.  Lay your completed bounty on a lightly oiled baking sheet.

Pepper cornbread is made with:

• 2/3 C Fine ground corn flour
• 2/3 C Stone ground corn flour
• 2/3 C lightly coarse corn flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 C butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 - 2/3 C half and half ( don't worry about fat... share it! )*
• 1 small red pepper minced
• 1 jalapeno minced

For cornbread preheat oven to 375.  Butter a casserole dish, sides as well.  Put flours, salt, and baking soda together and finger sift together.  Once butter is softened a bit pour sugar into it and beat until fluffy and well blended then add eggs and beat until mixed, it is alright if it looks a little lumpy.  Pour flour mix into butter mix and blend with half of your cream and fold in the peppers then if dry add the other half. * Now you CAN cut back the cream if you wish but I would NOT recommend another milk.  And worse if it is a milk replacement like soy or rice (watch out for NATURAL FLAVOR).  {coconut milk or water being the best replacement for milk in this recipe} The less fat a milk has the MORE it will break down in cooking and that is the broken protein which is addicting.  You can get wild and try water.  It will be different, but with enough salt and sugar no one will miss it too much.  This cornbread should be done at 20 minutes give it a poke test to see.  If the center is jiggly it will need about 10 minutes more.  If the center comes out a little soft like sticking to a utensil then it will need 5 minutes. As ever... always eat this when it looks best to you!

After bread is about to come out put your tray of cabbage wraps into the oven for not much more than 5-7 minutes. Just long enough to melt the feta a bit and give a nice warmth over all. Serve up!  You can garnish wish a sauce or honey.  

Vegetable stock

Vegetable stock can replace any stock in most recipes.  You can make a more richly flavored stock (the color will let you know, but don't be afraid to taste it) for a beef or sausage dish.  A lighter yield is fine for chicken dishes and for a vegetable dish it is up to your tastes.

All those tough parts of vegetables that get thrown out or into the compost can be used in a stock.  Herb stems, the woody ends of asparagus.  The only things that wont impart much flavor or could water down a stock would be a lot of lettuces, like romaine hearts and stems.  You can add dried herbs to the stock but it is best to not too intensely spice your stock until you know what role it will play in your dish. Be careful with any hot peppers and their seeds, they can add a delightful boost to a stock but they can also make it inedibly hot.  Herbs that will keep it savory are cilantro stems; parsley stems and leaves, celery stems and leaves, thyme sprigs.  Carrots and onions make the best base to the stock and beyond that you can make it your own.  With squash pieces, chard, garlic.

You can roast the vegetable scraps to get a roasty flavor... I usually skip this as it is the caramelization and carbonizing that gives the stock the roasted flavor.  I just do that in the final meal if I want that taste.

Storing up to make a stock:
You can keep a jar, zipper baggie or plastic sealing container in the fridge for tossing in scrap vegetables.  If you don't have a lot of scrap on a daily basis then keep the stock container in the freezer to add to it slowly and then boil at your convenience.  What you make can be frozen, kept in the fridge (for a couple weeks) beyond that it will spoil. The bottom of the refrigerator toward the opposite end of the door is usually the coldest spot.  It is good to keep it frozen in amounts that you'll use it, so freezing it in 1 cup amounts or in icecube trays can help you control the frozen amounts.  Whether you use ice cube trays or muffin tins to get your stock cubes made they should go into a container after to prevent the freezer from flavoring them further!

A stock is a  tremendous way of putting to use the trimmings, stems, onion layers that you may not otherwise use.  Save yourself money, and add flavor to meals.

• olive oil (extra virgin)
• chard stems (save leaves for other meals)
• cabbage heart, brocoli, cauliflower and tomato bits should be used sparingly as they can rule your stock's flavor
• onion
• celery, including some leaves
• even peels from apples, pears can impart a delicate sweetness
• carrots
• green onions,purple onions, chives
• cloves garlic 
• mushroom stems
• beans including the snapped ends
• peas
• potatoes
• peppers
• sprigs fresh parsley and stems (they are lighter in flavor than the leaves)
• cilantro stems (save the leaves for other dishes)
• sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 quarts water
• peppercorns if the stock is meant for a darker flavor
• smoked dry peppers are excellent for meat dishes which require stock
• pepper seeds if it is meant for a spicy dish or a tortilla soup

Usually you'll want equal parts water to vegetables. 50/50  Or fill up your pot with your veg and make sure the veg is submerged in water.  Strain and deal with as you see fit.  The remaining vegetables are near flavorless if you've boiled them until soft.  They will lack nutrients as well and should be put to compost use I would not recommend making a meal out of them.  I am very cheap.  If it tasted good... I'd do it. However, it does not. 

I don't make meat stocks.  You cannot help but create MSG the old fashioned way when making a meat stock.  Because it is just broken down protein and boiled too long.  The marrow in bones and the skin of birds is what gives the stock its flavor and you can make a good soup without it and without the stomach aches later.  Also you've find gorging happens a lot less with homemade vegetable stock rather than a meat stock or any store-bought stocks.

If you've made a tasty vegetable stock, no one will be the wiser they'll just ask you "How do you do it!?"

Borscht

 This is a squash and tomato borscht.  Easy to make nearly no fat at all (croutons, cheese, olive oil would add fat).  It can be vegan, just leave out egg slices and no cheese.  It can be served cold on a wicked hot day or warm to make a chill go away.

This recipe is for 3 hearty servings, double for more or leftovers.

Soup Base:
2 cups pureed tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1/2 onion
1/4 jalapeno with seeds included
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 potato cut into little cubes
1 TBSP olive oil
pinch oregano
pinch salt
pinch basil (dry) or add fresh basil leaves in the last minutes before serving
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash

*1/3 or more concentrated vegetable stock from your own recipe! (below)

If you are having croutons you'll want to preheat the oven after everything is chopped and the soup is going. After the stock is finished and I'm about to add it to the soup then I bake the croutons at 350 for about 5 minutes on each side with the pan lightly olive oiled and making sure each slice is rubbed in the oil.  Once the croutons are browned and crisp they are done.

For the soup base put all your ingredients into a pot except the squash and zucchini and simmer until potatoes are semi-soft - now is when you add your squash and zucchini then the vegetable stock last and stir together and leave to simmer once potatoes are soft it is done. If your soup seems too thick for you then add a little water... taste and if you wish to extend it further add a little more.

Veggie stock can include a lot of things and is not limited to this list but is what I used for the one tonight.

*stock:
handful rainbow chard stems cut down (you can use the soft leaves in another meal)
handful parsley stems
handful cilantro stems
1/4 purple onion (doesn't need to be purple, whatever is on hand is fine)
handful carrot butts (the orange end before the greens can be used in the stock but the greens tend to not add so much flavor as the hard little stem parts)
1 handful mixed stems from zucchini and squash

To make the stock you add 1-2 cups water to cover some of the vegetables and boil until the broth becomes yellow-amber.  The darker the color the richer the stock. Strain the broth off and toss the stems and butts into the compost. You wont need much broth to add a lot of flavor to a soup. So don't worry if you haven't much after the boil and straining. Also boil just until veggies are starting to get soft, you don't want them to break down to the point of mush that creates the bad stuff.  I like to add my stock to the meal when it is nearly done as it wont need to cook again.  If it is frozen then leave it out to thaw it rather than simmering it down if you can.

I made some hard boiled eggs to serve along with the soup and a sprinkle of parsley and some grated cheddar.  I only regret not eating it with more parsley!  So tasty.

Cranberry Apple Muffins (vegan with simple substitutions)

The base of this muffin can be used for several kinds of muffins just changing the fruit you put in it (Or chocolate and nuts instead of the healthier stuff).  Pumpkin and chocolate chip is a favorite non-fruit muffin.

1 1/2 Cup whole wheat (you can double the wheat in this and not change any of the spicing and get the base for other muffins, Pumpkin I just add more spices and leave it at 1 1/2c ww)
1tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 heaping TBSP cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 Cup cranberries
1 granny smith peeled and chopped (I sometimes make just cranberry muffins if an apple isn't handy - I'll just make the 1 Cup cranberries a little more heaping!)

3 eggs (you can use applesauce instead or use 1/4 Cup applesauce to replace each egg you remove if you use applesauce you have to decrease the oil by a 1/4 cup - so 3/4 Cup applesauce and 1/4 Cup oil - if replacing all the eggs.)
3/4 Cup - 1 Cup vegan sugar or 1/2 Cup brown sugar plus 1/4 Cup other kind of sugar anything lighter in taste if using brown.  (you can use all light brown and it gives a richer earthier sweet, I do not tightly pack the brown sugar when measuring)  You can easily reduce the sugar by also using less cranberries as they can be REALLY tart.
1/2 Cup olive oil you can add more should your batter be dry, but I like to start out with less.

 

Preheat oven to 350. Okay, so dry stuff (not sugar) in a bowl, wet stuff and sugar in the other bowl.  Beat together wet stuff plus sugar. Pour cranberries into dry bowl... coat.  Pour apple chunks into dry bowl... coat.  Then rubber spatula the wet stuff into it and mix vigorously until all flour is blended into the wet and use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and scoop batter into the muffin tins.  I use unbleached paper liners to keep the muffins super portable and to avoid cleaning anything. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  I almost always use 22 minutes, maybe your stove is more awesome so always check them!  If you've used a good amount of sugar your muffin tops will be stiff and DELICIOUS! I also leave them on the counter uncovered so the tops stay firm and lovely. They are always eaten within the first night or the next morning anyway. 

Pasta

This pasta is so easy to do you can even have kids make their own portions if you have space and the patience for messy little ones.

The approximate proportions are for every 3/4-1 Cup flour an egg, a teaspoon of water, a teaspoon of salt and a TBSP of olive oil be used. From there you can make a great variety of kinds. You can leave out the oil and use more egg or you can leave out oil and use more water. Or in the water's place some puree spinach or herbs instead.

For about 4-6 servings is the recipe that follows:
1 slightly heaping cup unbleached flour
1 slightly heaping cup whole wheat
2 tsp salt
2 extra large eggs or 3 large eggs
2 TBSP olive oil

I chopped up a sprig of rosemary and put a little palm full into the 'pasta well.'

Pour the flour onto a large clean surface leaving it in a heap, push the measuring cup or your hand into it to make a little well to hold the other ingredients. Into the well put your eggs, salt, oil, any herbs or veggie mash/puree and blend the eggs and others in the center and push some of the flour into the center collecting as much flour as it will carry. Clean off your fork into your pile and toss him somewhere out of the way. Get your hands in there and work the dough from this ugly stage into a ball. DO NOT WORRY if it looks like a massive failure. Pasta does that, its a dirty trick it tries to play on you in a last ditch effort to not be eaten. It will comply with the palm of your hand. If you run out of flour and it wants more then add a little... if it is not blending and it is too dry then add a teaspoon of water until it gives up the goods and becomes blended.


Now that you have won and the ball is formed put it into either a covered bowl to rest or a plastic bag. Have it rest for 10-20 minutes until it goes from dry and leathery to lightly sticky and pliable. If not, give it a little more time. Clean up the chunky flour, sieve it and toss the chunks. Re-flour your big clean surface and press your ball out by hand into the floured surface allowing it to collect flour on both of its sides... form the ball into a rectangle to help you roll it out. Make certain flour is under it and roll, roll, roll, until it becomes smooth and thin. This is the most time consuming part. Once rolled out to be quite thin 1/16th of an inch? I don't know, I'm not an architect. Thin, but not totally translucent or anything. Flour the top which you were rolling on, flip and flour that side wipe off excess. Starting at one of the short sides roll it like a tube onto itself lightly.

 Once you have your tube cut little slices all the way through to make pasta strands. They'll look like little snails and now they can be put somewhere to dry or can be cooked straight away. I like to dry them for awhile or overnight so they are toothy and firmer. So if you like al dente then drying is for you.  Fresh pasta does cook faster than boxed pasta so monitor it closely.  It cooks in almost half the time.

I made a spinach pasta and was so excited that I didn't document much. So I promise to post that SOON!

Cast Iron skillet Pizza

Pear and goat cheese pizza

CRUST:

1/2 package dry yeast
1/3 cup warm or room temperature water
3/4 cup unbleached or whole wheat flour (you can mix and experiment with this)
3/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar or 1 tsp honey (honey is a great addition for aiding in rising breads)

This will make a 10-12 inch pizza. I often do a couple of bowls up with this recipe in it so each skillet can have a different kind of pizza in it. Does anyone ever agree on pizza toppings?

Mix yeast into warm water let sit for about 10 minutes. I preheat my oven to a warming temperature to create a warm environment for the dough. Mix salt and flour together and add sugar. Make sure it is thoroughly mixed salt kills yeast so you don't want direct contact. Then pour in water and blend with a spoon. Once mixed place in a warm spot and cover with either a warm damp towel or a clean towel. Let rise for at least 45 minutes. 2 hours is best but who has the time and it isn't all that different in the last hour. Oil the cast iron skillets - (the amount of oil/time you use will determine how crisp your crust is.  I cover it with a veil of oil and will check on it after 25 minutes to make sure it is crusting up.)

Then turn out dough onto a liberally floured surface knead in the flour and try to keep your dough approximately the shape of your pan. If the dough is a little firm and lost a lot of flexibility let it rest there for a few minutes (10). Make sure the surface is lightly floured for the roll out and use a pin to gently roll out your dough to the size of your pans bottom and or the sides as well. This dough wont be stiff enough to stay along the side of the pan but if you leave it a little thick it will make a "handle" crust.

Cover in your sauce, top with choice of toppings bake at 425 for about 20-30 minutes depending on your oven and your taste preferences.

Jalapeno cheddar pizza

Whole Wheat Focaccia

This is a FAST focaccia.  It wont have the complexity of a tenderly loved overnight focaccia. Chances are no one will complain. You can get wild with what goes on it or in it. ( I like to add jalapeno seeds on top) This recipe makes one loaf and you can make a smaller loaf which is much thicker by not rolling it out too vigorously in the end stages and that way you have something thick enough to cut for sandwiches and roll it out thinner if topping with cheese or sauces.

Directions:
3 cups whole wheat flour (this recipe isn't JUST for whole wheat so you can mix it up and half it with another fluffy flour)
1 teaspoon or 1 packet active dry yeast (you're safe with it rising as long as you cover the top of the water in the measuring cup, little more, little less wont hurt)
1 1/4 cups warm water (if the water is too warm it kills the yeast, so it should be warm to the inside of the wrist and a little less warm to the fingers)
6 cloves fresh garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp salt (my house likes it's salt so we use a coarse sea salt to top it with so it has that kick to it)
3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
3 Tbsp olive oil

Oil for brushing
fresh black pepper and coarse sea salt to taste (my house likes it's salt so we use a coarse sea salt to top it with so it has that kick to it) Garnishes include but are not limited to: oil, garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper(s). Anything like olives or softer things (feta) I recommend blending into the bread.


In the mixing cup:
Combine warm water and yeast. (let stand for at least 5 minutes so the yeast can activate and becomes foamy, if nothing changes stir the yeast with a spoon to get it saturated and let sit another 5 minutes)


In a large bowl:
Mix 1 tsp salt and flour together, you want the salt either already blended in or under the flour as it will kill the yeast. Stir in olive oil, 2 Tbsp chopped rosemary, pour in the water and yeast.

Work into a dough.
Add more flour if dough is too sticky.

Turn the dough on to a floured surface.

Knead the dough for a few minutes, in a folding motion until dough is smooth and 'happy' - when you see this in bread books it means silky and bouncy. Too much and it will be leather.

Grease the large bowl with olive oil and plop dough into it. Roll around a few times to coat dough in a gloss of oil.

Cover bowl with a warm damp cloth or clean dish towel. It is best to have towels just for bread and pastry baking, keep them clean and make sure they haven't any terry cloth loops to catch debris.  Paper towels may sink into dough, so are not recommended! I keep the dough near the stove and set the stove to a low warm setting to help the dough have a warm environment.

Let dough rise for 30-60 minutes. {Quick-rise yeast allows for only a 30 minutes rise time. Regular yeast is about an hour. Generally the longer you give a dough time the better it tastes, this isn't a wife's tale of patience making you hungrier it is the nature of the yeast  PUN NOT INTENDED like with sourdoughs which use a poolish (dough reserved from past recipe kept in the fridge and then added to the new dough) it adds a punch of flavor. But this at it's under 2 hours total prep time is considered a fast focaccia although faster if you use rapid yeast, I use Bob's Red Mill and not the rapid yeast, I have found that there is something in Redstar that kills me.  BRM is in the refrigerated section of many stores.} Be careful of yeasts as a lot of them are tainted with the bad stuff.

After the rise:
Punch out the dough. Just the one will do to collapse the dough.
Place it on your floured surface and knead gently a few more times. Should be silky and stretchy.

With a rolling pin, roll out dough to about 1 inch thick. You may modify this based on how thick you can your bread. 

Place dough on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Poke rows of holes in the dough with your fingers.

Brush or drizzle or spritz top of dough with a mixture of your remaining ingredients: olive oil,  chopped and whole rosemary and chopped garlic. Sprinkle some course sea salt on top as well.  Let rise again for 20 minutes, in a warm spot. ( I often skip this last step - put my temp on the oven and let it rest on the pan just until the oven is hot enough after transferring the dough and then popped it in the oven, so maybe 5 or 10 minutes - this is just to regain a little fluffiness from its handling trauma and seems fine enough) A good time to have the oven near ready.

Bake:
Place your dough in a 350 degree pre-heated oven. Let bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a light brown crust forms. Check bread for firmness with a toothpick. Let the bread cool for a few minutes before slicing.  You can cook it to you own preference. Behold the glory you have created.

Dried pepper sauce

I cannot get enough of dried peppers. Only smoked peppers beats dried, and they can be used in a plethora of ways.  Baked them into a bread or corn muffin to make soup companion.  Saute them into a sauce to make your marinara clear your sinuses.

Now depending on the kind of hot you are trying to acheive (I'm a firm believer that hots can be very complex) is how you treat the peppers and what kind of peppers you use.  I am horrible at organizing anything and labeling anything... so I often find myself discovering flavors as I go along.  For this sauce shown I heat up oil to enliven the heat of the peppers.

The basics:
1-4 tsp dried peppers
1/4 purple onion (minced)
2-4 garlic cloves (slivered)
1 pinch oregano Yes, that is a measurement I use, and hell that's the metric for it too.
You can add rosemary, I just forgot to.
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
drizzle - 1/4 c apple cider vinegar depending on your taste
drizzle olive oil for garlic slivers
and drizzle to taste after mixing everything else

I put the peppers into a little bowl, heat up a drizzle of olive oil. Cut the garlic and at med-high heat put slivers into the oil brown garlic for just a second, and once dark edges appear pour the whole thing onto the peppers... while the dry peppers soak up the hot oil I sprinkle a pinch of salt over it.  I take the purple onion and mince it, put into the bowl and pour in the vinegar a pinch of oregano and a little more oil.  Stir it up.  You can put this into a container or jar.  In the refrigerator the shelf life is pretty long and in the cupboard I would not leave it for more than a month before using entirely.

This sauce can be tossed into a pile of pasta, smeared onto a sandwich, put onto little crostini with a slice of cheese or blended with stale bread chunks to heat up your croutons (I'd add more oil for the latter).

Berry dressing

Dear God, do I love berries.  Nothing is more amazing than a berry vinagrette drizzled over soft buttery leaves!  Want to power pack that chicken or turkey sandwich?!  Put a berry dressing on it!

Yes, that was a lot of exclamations.  I mean it.  I can't get enough of them.  You can alter any of these basics to yield the most sumptuous sauce and add your own complexities as well.

I used frozen blueberries, but of course you can use fresh.
Blueberry dressing:
1 c blueberries
3 tsp sugar
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
a tiny sprinkle of salt

Pour berries into a pan and simmer them until they leak some of their juices as they look and smell warm add sugar and salt, mash loosely with a fork and let cool... while still warm add vinegar to the berries.  Pour this into a container and let sit in the fridge for at least 3 days.  The wait is hard, but the berries become more infused through the vinegar.  You can always add things to this to get other tones.  Sprig of mint during the heating stage, a dash of cinnamon... its a good base for going nuts.

I like this on spinach and butter lettuce.  I had it on a turkey sandwich and I made a pasta salad with spinach and turkey with it.  It's a delight and helps me get through the end of the winter.

 

Blueberry dressing 

Traditional eating?

With a lot of fad diets steadily replacing actual healthy eating it is easy to get confused, swamped and totally overwhelmed by what is healthy.  Moderation we've always known is healthy.  Variety we've always known is healthy.  But what amounts really are healthy?  If you eat a meal bigger than your fist you are over eating to which I say YEAH, DELICIOUS! I try to make meals that are just as tasty bite 60 as they are in the first taste.  I am an overeater.  I also have a sizable butt.

Okay, so there are so many diets which one can choose from and still be healthy.  The basic ones are omnivore (meat and vegetable and if it's tasty period), vegetarian - no animals in diet* but products of animals may be consumed (*under which a lot of microlabeling gets folks all the more confused so I've separated the main categories), vegan - no animal products, raw food (eats living foods but not cooked meaning nothing that's gone over 150 degrees usually and so dehydrated or smoked meats are in some raw diets), and so all of these diets can yield healthy, happy results as long as additives and MSG (in all its names) are avoided.

So NOW... there are so many diets it is astounding.  With Gluten free to worry about, High protein... Lets just think about how SLOW evolution is. (I'll call it evolution because no matter what you believe God or otherwise it sounds a lot better to call a natural process slow than to blame God for us not changing rapidly with our environment.)  In the most natural state a human would never have the luxury of opportunity we have now.  You wouldn't as a simple woman or man living off the land encounter a deer kill it and then bring it to the firesite to rub it in a rosemary, lemon, garlic marinade to have it sit cooling overnight.  You would IF lucky rub some salt on it and fricassee up that bad boy.  And more likely is you wouldn't encounter a deer to kill and you'd subsist on a handful of berries or some wild leafy edibles.  In our day and age not only can we encounter things from the entire globe without leaving the heartland but we can now for the first time consciously select the vital things we need in our diets and remove them- at a whim.  Just take out something that is crucial to proper brain function,  or muscle growth.  Deem what is needed as bad.  And what is bad as good.  The ways in which a fad becomes harmful is the whole dropping the word moderation... If a diet is severe in that it removes certain foods because they are "bad"  then what does that diet replace for the things you once ate to get its value?  A vegan can be healthy with taking away butter, but should replace it with olive oil not margarine.  (margarine isn't healthy for anyone)  There is a simple way of looking at food.  There is nothing NEW in FOOD.  Its food! Intake for energy.  Take it and change it to lack the properties of food and then it just becomes EDIBLE and not straight poison. You CAN eat erasers off pencils and NOT die, but why would you do that?  Factories can't make the next best thing in food.  Nature makes food.  Man either cultivates it or destroys it.

Traditional eating is a term that is circulating, although I am not certain what that means for a lot of people - even those who eat traditionally. This notion of what it actually means changes with inference.  So where you came from, how you were raised and what you think of food would impart something when you hear "traditional eating."

I take it to mean eating closely with nature as our ancestors did.  I also think that eating together is an important part of eating well.  Eating as a couple, as a family, with friends.  Sharing bounty when it is there.  I take it to mean a really compassionate form of eating as well.  If you eat animals then what they eat is important, how they live is important.  I will wax on later about what a noble and great creature the chicken is. So I take traditional eating to be a lot like the philosophy of slow food. 

And I don't get paid for saying it!  So cultivate it, or destroy it. Your choice!

Peach cake! seasonal/schmeasonal

If you can't wait for summer then grab a can of peaches!  Of course canned peaches that are prepared at home are best. Store canned peaches are OKAY if they are not in that syrupy goop.  Fresh are the best!!!  I am one of those people that will add so much fruit to a recipe that I often add a minute or few to baking time because the moisture content is so high.  I have yet to be unhappy about it. So I recommend acting on gluttony especially with fruit and vegetables! Cut down on the sugar or oil if you wish instead!  If the batter looks to not be moist enough slowly add some back and mix and see the results.

* 3 eggs, beaten
* 1 cup white sugar 
* 1/2 C light br. sugar
* 1/2 C olive oil
* 2 cups all-purpose flour (I used organic whole wheat- so good)
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or vanilla)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced ( I used 6 fresh peaches and chopped them small. And you can use ANY fruit that bakes well in this. Berries I recommend blending 1/2 to most of them and then folding in whole berries last.
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
* (1 tsp vanilla extract for any cake cake where it will come through, cinnamon often is so strong it over powers any vanilla you may add)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar (sugars are usually best in the wet mix), oil, mixing wet together first and then mixing dry and combining after usually helps thoroughly combining, flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, peaches and pecans. Mix thoroughly by hand.
3. Pour into greased, oiled or buttered (sift flour into it if the pan tends to stick) 9x13 inch pan, I used a bundt pan, and bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 50 minutes or until done. Should be firm on top and when pressed the cake bounces back into place. 

I just ate a meal that is killing me and I'll call the mortician after the plumber gets here to snake the toilet!

So you thought you NEEDED absolutely NEEDED to just 'feel normal' and 'eat out like everyone else' and that Indian buffet was too good to pass up. Well the truth is you most likely will survive - another truth is you may wish you don't.  But now that the tastiest meal in the world (and it was at least, for the first solid 10 minutes of shoveling) is rumbling your body and you're feeling a headache that you swear is trying to push your eyeballs out of your skull at least to get you a part in that local theatre production of Casablanca (who doesn't love a good Peter Lorre joke). Now what? 

Well your options are:

  1.  To ride it out (about 2 to 3 days depending on your body's work and what you choose to eat following said bad meal)

  2.Your following meals should be simple -not boring- just simple.  Hold off on making the home curry as a chaser to the toilet bowl curry.

  3. Be proactive and get some anti-oxidants in you or something with whole wheat or other high fiber to help it move faster (yeah, all these things help you poop they also get things back in order) things that help in the immediate are red wine, coffee, a berry smoothie or berry juice.  If you ate a large amount of cheese or something to that effect I would recommend not taking in a lot of citrus as this will do the opposite. (ever drink orange juice while eating a breakfast cereal and then getting that instant sick tongue feeling?...uh as a kid of course... totally not as an adult because what 30 year old would do that? Not me. Well that instant shocking taste is you using your tongue as a chemistry set to create msg/other glutamate charged reaction. And you don't need that now on top of it all in your stomach.)

Wines

Red wine is the highest in anti-oxidants and Sardinian Cannonau wine is one of the highest in them of all wine varieties.  Many wine-growing regions use pesticides and organic anti-fungals which contain MSG as a suspension or filling/bonding agent.  Homebrewing of all kinds is becoming more and more commonplace.  My guess is because there are so many varieties of microbrewing and hefty prices on the market coupled with the DIY revolution.  There isn't an immune part of the world for glutamates because they are usually associated with saving time and money and cutting corners during the growing or manufacturing process.  There will be a list of wines which have continued to save us from many a bad meal, and some really loose rules on picking out a wine.

Some wines we've had good luck with:

Masi:

Cannonau di Sardegna:

Zolo (from Argentina):

La Vieille Ferme:

and last but not least, Argiolas Costera which also appears in the picture at the top of the post:

In a future posting, I'll go into much greater detail why antioxidants are such an important part of staying healthy, and specifically why they help with fighting MSG exposure.  Until then, enjoy some red wine in moderation.

Garden do! Is like Karate YES!

I can kill a cactus, and I never had a successful chia pet.  Why am I digging up my yard?

The importance of a garden is that with it you are assured of a few key things - what was put on your food and where it came from (within reason, regarding plant starters and the origins of the seed). Perhaps you have an apartment and can't go the route of a garden, then  any container gardening you can manage and a well stocked pantry can save you money and grief.  Get to know your farmers at the local farmer's markets. A good deal of them will proudly tell you what they use and how the plants are cared for - write it down, look it up.  It you have a yard 20 ft X 20 ft then you have enough to get a really healthy amount of things from it to store yourself.  The bigger the better of course because then you can plant things like an apple tree, a filbert tree, a plum tree or berry bushes.  Kick that ornamental crap to the curb and in its place plant rosemary (a ten dollar plant can grow into a bush for a lifetime of rosemary when a package of "fresh" rosemary runs about 4 -7 dollars.  For those with a garden, I don't have to tell you how awesome it is.  I can however tell you how to stretch that awesome!

I'm a huge fan of peppers and think the world of heat spices and smoked goodies. You can keep your own dried peppers for those who miss having hot sauce, this is your key to salvation! No more MSG laden sauces.

Canning... the what and how

 

Napoleon is not often remembered for one of his greatest contributions to the world: canning food. Well, technically it wasn't him, but Nicholas Appert who at Napoleon's behest discovered after 15 years of experimentation that if food is sufficiently heated and sealed in an airtight container, it will not spoil. Englishman Peter Durand took it further in the early 1800s by sealing food in airtight tins. It wasn't til much later that Louis Pasteur figured out why canning worked at all: the heat kills those pesky little critters that love to do the backstroke in old food.

There are two types of modern home canning, water bath and pressure. Water bath canning relies on the natural or added acidity (or sugar content) of foods combined with heat to kill harmful toxins in the foods. Little critters don't like acidity.

Pressure canning uses extreme heat to do the same thing and can be used on foods that are not acidic like vegetables and meat. There are far fewer foods that can be water bath canned because of the acidity requirements, but it's an easy way to start. Plus, who doesn't love their own tomato sauce?

I could write all about canning here, but there are already some great resources out there for it. I will, however, recommend my All American pressure canner, since it works amazingly well, and doesn't use rubber seals that can wear out. On the Homestead, it's always important to keep in mind what parts on essential tools cannot be replaced "in the field." If your canner relies on a rubber seal, then that is the weakest link and may seriously shorten the useful life of it someday.

For a general overview on canning principles, I recommend this site that has a lot of good information. When it comes time to do your first water bath canning (start with tomatoes + lemon juice), check this site by Jackie Clay out.

I know that projects like this can seem daunting but I assure you it's not. And, the best part is that once you're done, you have a huge batch that can last you all winter. The cost savings and ability to have completely natural preserved food make it essential to know. Once you begin experimenting with recipes, you'll be amazed at what you can come up with. Later this year, I'll be sharing some of these recipes as we harvest the bounty from our organic backyard garden.

Coffee and Tea

ITS IN MY COFFEE AND TEA!? 

I know, is nothing sacred?  They add a "filler" to coffees and teas (in tea it is usually easy to see on the label as natural flavor), in coffee it is usually not labeled at all!  I have had major coffee and tea success with Equal Exchange which is great primarily because they are picking up steam and are large enough that you should have them available to you with a little searching. Teas in bulk CAN ALSO be bad.  Its a trial and error thing, if you find yourself buying a little more than needed to restock your cabinet or that you compulsively remember to buy that but not lettuce then it may be bad for you.  Also local roasters may buy beans which are fair trade and/or are organic and could be worth a try.  I am in the Pacific Northwest and Stumptown roasters would be my favorite local roaster.  They also use a cream that has no RBGH, and it is pretty superior even to a lot of smaller farms milks as far as not making me ill.  It is nice to have a safe haven scattered about my city.

Taking care of your coffee and tea:

It keeps best in an airtight container.  If you're a hoarder then keep it airtight and also dark.  Coffee has oils which you don't want to lose as they have been fine tuned to yield the flavor you like.  Coffee hates being frozen.  When you freeze coffee this will destroy the oils.  Also much like baking soda being put in a refrigerator to absorb smells coffee will do this to your freezer, absorbing minced onions, garlic, stale smells and then this is what you'll taste in your coffee later in its life.  The refrigerator is great for a lot of things but coffee and tea are not some of them. Coffee and tea with care can keep near indefinitely. The same places that recommend putting it in the freezer after you purchase it do not keep it in the refrigerator before you purchase it.  Perhaps they know this old wife's tale will keep you coming back to purchase more often.

About

The main focus of this blog has been MSG-free eating, and though my family still pursues that motive when selecting meals and cooking there just is a lot more that we do.

We have an urban plot with gardens and animals.  Jason engraves and I ...do things.  A lot of things and at the end of the day none of them are done, but somehow that just gives me something to wake up for.

Our hopes are to find community, live closely with the land and to raise endangered livestock as gently as can be done.  This blog will share some of those trials and sometimes errors.  It will share crafts and arts both lost and rediscovered.

I'm open to what your loves are and hope to gain knowledge of anything I may not know, so I have a busy future ahead of me.

Spices

Peppercorns

Coarse sea salt 

Iodized sea salt (you need iodine and not having it is dangerous, also it is something that is relatively difficult to get in your diet, but in large amount iodized salt is bad for you.  I just cut it {about 1 part iodized to 3 parts non} with a non-iodized sea salt to cook with or sprinkle at the table.)

Cinnamon sticks ( you can tell the difference between cassia and ceylon cinnamon by the interior of the barky tube, cassia is more hollow with usually one thick layer of bark, ceylon has multiple more delicate layers seen here http://cassiacinnamon.com/images/Cassia_Cinnamon.jpg )

Ground cinnamon (This is often not cinnamon it is Cassia cinnamon, Cinnamomum cassia, but something which tastes similar to Ceylon cinnamon {true cinnamon}.) EITHER is good stick form beware of decorative sticks, powdered form beware of brands that are notorious for processing dangerous or known tainted "spices." Cassia is higher in Coumarin which led Germany to put restrictions on it, possibly other countries have followed suit since. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coumarin  

Ground and/or whole nutmeg

Ground cloves

Whole cloves

Ground turmeric

Ground allspice

Ground mace

Pickling spice (which is your own blend of spices that you've created for pickling- not prepackaged)

Mustard seed

Dry mustard

Cayenne pepper

Celery seed

Caraway seeds

Fennel seeds

Ground ginger

Ground cumin (for some reason this spice is NOTORIOUS for being processed alongside the SPICE. It is hard to find good cumin, so if you feel "weird" after a seemingly lovely and quite delicious meal this could be the culprit!)

Ground sweet paprika, there is a hot variety and a smoked variety often being associated with a country or region, but the largest difference being in the three types named no matter it's origin. (for some reason this spice is NOTORIOUS for being processed alongside the SPICE. It is hard to find good cumin, so if you feel "weird" after a seemingly lovely and quite delicious meal this could be the culprit!)

Dried Herbs

Parsley

Oregano

Basil

Rosemary

Thyme

Rubbed sage

Marjoram

Cilantro

Bay leaves

Chives

Savory

Tarragon

Dill weed

Dill seed

Onion powder

Minced onions

Garlic powder

Minced garlic

Note: It is true that dried herbs and spices lose flavor after about 6 months. However, they do not spoil. If they have been in my pantry longer than that, I just taste as I am cooking and add more if needed.

Dry Goods

 All-purpose flour (Unbleached and NOT enriched)

Whole wheat flour (NOT enriched)

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (NOT enriched)

YOU DO NOT NEED Cake flour you can skip the cornstarch and SIFT your finer flour like grandma used to!

Cornmeal {{ when in desperate corn need I use Bob's Red Mill corn flours, It has treated me well IN MODERATION and I cut it like in the Killer Corn Muffins with other flours}} (I think by now most folks know the deal with corn is that it is heavily modified, it resembles corn as we knew it, it is nearly impossible to even grow any that has not been modified- the best you can do is either grow it or not have it)

VEGAN sugar (this is not because animals are cute or are our friends, and they are, it is because refined sugars often use bones to bleach and process the sugar. Natural MSG. It does other things too.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_char )

This Confectioner's sugar (NO! This form of sugar is derived from granulated sugar made from sugar beets -which are very high in naturally occurring glutamate- or sugar cane. It can have an additional ingredient -this was in the definition I do not know to what additional ingredient they are speaking, cornstarch, which helps to keep the sugar from clumping - yeah right, because we have never used cornstarch pour out some in half powder and half in clumps? Oh, or was that just me?. Essentially, granulated sugar is ground into a finer sugar to make the powdered form. It often does not have ingredients, or has INCOMPLETE ingredients)

Brown sugar (this is a tough one. I use it sparingly when used... never more than a half cup because the origins get muddy as with refined/granulated sugar which is its first ingredient)

Baking soda

Baking powder (Cornstarch with Baking soda, stick with the baking soda it will get you there without the problems!)

Yeast (Freeze for longer shelf life)

Cornstarch (NO NO NO! Nasty)

Unsweetened cocoa

Unsweetened chocolate

Semi or bitter sweet chocolate

Oatmeal

Cereal - GRANOLA!

Pasta, white and/or whole grain (Never enriched!)

Rice

Brown rice

Wild rice

Arborio rice

Barley

Couscous (never enriched)

Quinoa (high in protein so when it is cooked, it contains the natural break down of protein but not nearly as bad as the stuff ADDED to foods.)

Kidney beans

Great Northern beans

Lentils

Chick peas

Split peas

(ALL legumes, and beans will have the natural break down of protein but not nearly as bad as the stuff ADDED to foods.)