Thu-5-Nov-2009 - Powdered Enchilada Sauce Mix

I use the basic recipe from here, but I'm a Tweeker. I almost can't help it. If I can't change and tweak and subsitute, I have my revenge because I stop measuring ingredients precisely. Ha!

So here is the basic recipe and what I've changed. This is handy, if you have small children and going to the store to get that one can of sauce you need to complete supper takes so long you know you wouldn't make it back in time for dessert.

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Mon-31-Aug-2009 - Yummy Pink Meat

We are now working on our second side of 100% grass fed beef.

While we enjoyed our beef, and bragged about our beef, this time I also bought a $25 cookbook I'd been eyeballing.

I tried it out today, on The Brisket - the last offical cut of meat from the last side of beef that we had. I still have some hamburger left over, but I'm not counting that. LOL

I read the recipe. I followed the recipe. I double and triple checked my gut instincts by going to the American Grass Fed Beef website for a few tips.

Tips, such as:

• Don't over cook your grass fed beef
• Because it has less fat, it's easy to overcook your grass fed beef
• PLEASE cook your grass fed beef 30% less because it cooks faster because it is lean
• Use a thermometer because you don't want to over cook your grass fed beef
• Cook grass fed beef 50 degrees cooler because it's lean
•  Don't over-cook your grass fed beef

I followed the recipe for my brisket to the letter. Well, almost. The recipe said to rub this mix of herbs and salt on it, and let it sit for two hours. I only had an hour. Well, make that 45 minutes.

Then I cooked it to about fifteen to twenty degrees higher I mean, the requested temperature. I wavered between how can something cook like this? And I'm going to dry this sucker out cooking it hotter and longer than it said to .....

We cut it open, and it was pink inside.

Is that what medium-rare looks like?

Growing up, we never, ever ate pink meat. I promise. Maybe a steak, but still there was bound to be murmurs at the supper table and some steaks went back on the grill. Otherwise, we would have perished of E.Coli poisoning or something, I'm sure.

Tonight, was my first experience with pink-inside brisket.

My breath would literally catch when I saw the pink morsels on my dear children's plates. It looked unnatural, perhaps even raw?

Only the fact that I'd stabbed the poor roast all over and checked the temp multiple times and in fact, exceeded the required temperature ....

And the fact that it was the yummiest, most incredible roast  (I can't believe I'm saying this about a roast!)  I've ever eaten. There was no way I wasn't going back for seconds. How could I say they couldn't eat this yummy meat? It was melt-in-your-mouth BRISKET!

I think it's the first grass fed roast I've turned out. Seriously. It was beyond good. It was scrumptious!

It wasn't oozing blood, it was just pink. Which really threw me for a loop ... execpt it tasted so good. And I tasted with great trepidation, let me tell you ....

I like my new cookbook. I think it's a keeper.

What strange new horizons are approaching! I just cooked intentionally, then ate and served my family pink meat ....

~Ashley~

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Thu-23-Apr-2009 - What’s Cooking in My Kitchen

In order to really understand how the second half of my day goes, you really have to take a peek into how my kitchen works. Otherwise, it’s pretty confusing!

Bare in mind, this is my kitchen. There are many, many ways to run a home. I love making things, and a good example would be that I make my own soap. A few years ago my dad bought me a candle-making kit.

I haven’t really even opened it up yet. Isn’t that sad? Candles, unlike soap, are just not high on my list of priorities at any given point. LOL

You can try to be healthy and your life might look vastly different from mine. You might organize a totally different way. I just want to explain what I do, hopefully without putting any pressure on you to "be like me", and be up-front about why it works for me. 'Nough said.

I soak my flours. I know that sounds complicated, but I do it because it makes my life more simple . . . as my life gets more complicated, I still love and pursue simplicity. However, since it’s not really normal, and it takes some effort to figure it out in the beginning, it usually sounds overwhelming to others. What a paradox!

Let me explain that the best time for me to cook is not right before a meal. Typically, I have very hungry children, I’m tired, and 75% of the time I’m talking on my wireless headset to my Jonathan as he drives home from work.

That’s supper. Breakfast, on the other hand, I have very hungry children, I’m hungry, and it needs to be quick.

I did not learn to cook “in advance” or “when I had time”. I learned to cook – what little I would allow my mom to teach me – right before the meal took place. So,  most of my meals are really, really, really, really SIMPLE.

As in, dump all ingredients into a bowl, stir, pour into dish and cook in oven.

Side dishes? What are those? Who has time to cook multiple things while doling out snakes, tripping over stuff on the kitchen floor and talking on the phone?

So, when I learned about soaking flours, it became the answer to my life style. I whip up all kinds of stuff in the evening, when Jonathan is home and holding Eden or distracting the boys. Then, it sits on my counter, becoming more “nutritious” (I hope!) and then in the morning I cook up that bowl and those two bowls are a side dish for dinner.

Some days I grind up in advance two or three things (using Jonathan’s arms) and sometimes days go by where I don’t make anything of any type of grain. I cook carbs in spurts. I want to change that, but that’s how it is right now. My mind is a flighty thing, and I’m learning about bees and sewing. That’s enough for right now!

Does the simplicity part make sense now? Getting permission to leave something on my counter for 12-24 hours is just a huge blessing to me. I grew up thinking if something sat out overnight, it would kill me in the morning. Not produce fluffier whole-grain pancakes!

So, stuff that sounds complicated, may or may not be. Just so we understand each other!

And all of that was to say, here is what is going on in the ongoing adventure taking place in my kitchen. I'm venturing into new territory, and I'm so excited to blog about this stuff!

Water Kefir

It’s scrumptious. I may never drink pop again. I would call it weak lemonade when I squeeze a lemon into it, but everyone knows that weak lemonade is just plain gross. Like pop after your ice melts into it.

Water kefir is … mellow. Subtle and not over-stated. It makes a lemonade that goes down like Gatorade, and I find it totally invigorating.

It makes regular lemonade and Gatorade taste like pure sugar.

I bought my water kefir at this site. Different sources say you can ferment it and produce up to 3% alcohol if you keep the lid on tight. As you can tell, I “brew” mine with a coffee filter over the top, and it’s supposed to have about the same alcoholic content as an over-ripe banana this way. For a teetotaler at heart like me, I think I can live with that amount of alcohol. If you let it sit for too long, it just turns into vinegar.

I also bought my Filmajolk yogurt from the same place. I love it. You stir the culture into milk, let it sit on your counter until it “sets” and then stick it in the fridge. Then, you save a tablespoon of yogurt for each cup you want to make in the future.

So if you want a cup of yogurt each day, you just don’t eat the last spoonful and start over.

That, my friends, is really, really cool.

[Note, the "PS" on the jar stands for 'Pure Starter' - because the process is slightly more complicated for me because I use fresh raw milk.]

And lastly, this week I also fermented my own ketchup. I used this recipe.

Let me clarify; ferment fruit and you get alcohol, at least eventually. Ferment veggies and you get lactic acid and perhaps a bit of alcohol but I haven’t seen anyone mention that yet. And I'm on high alert because I'm really an anti-alcohol person. Except that almost all vanilla extracts are made with alcohol, and the whole alcoholic bannana thing I've just heard about. No wonder my mom likes her bannanas ripe!!!! Anyway, veggies just don’t act like fruit when you let them sit; which is why no one drinks potato wine or takes horseradish shots. At least I don’t think they do! (And I read Western novels occasionally so I should know, haha!)

So, how did my ketchup turn out?

I put in too much garlic. Stick with three cloves; don’t ask why I did more. Still, after two days, I liked it. My first bite, and I thought – whoa, this is too sour. But my second bite was completely different. It’s like I had to get past the way I thought ketchup should taste, simply because I’ve always had ketchup that tasted roughly the same, and “reset” my taste buds.

It’s crazy. I didn’t know there could be that much flavor in a condiment. It’s rich and savory and deep and adds so much kick. All in a minute amount. I used to pressure can ketchup; never mind! I can mix ingredients, let them sit on my countertop for a few days and then refrigerate.

I think in the future, regular ketchup is just going to taste mainly sweet, because of the corn syrup that is used commercially to preserve it.

I’m enjoying getting to know my food better. I never knew there was such flavor out there to be explored.  

And now that hopefully, I’ve unraveled some of the mystery that shrouds my kitchen, the next post will make more sense! LOL

Hope ya’ll are having a great week!

~Ashley~

[Edited to add: leaving something sit on the counter overnight can be done with whey, yogurt or buttermilk. Or even raw milk. HOWEVER, please realize that fresh, raw milk sours and that hinders the growth of bad bacteria. Milk that has been heat-treated DOES NOT sour. It rots. Research it. I promise it's true! So don't leave it sitting out overnight, please!]

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Fri-31-Oct-2008 - Blender Pancakes

I tried this recipe yesterday, and I must say, it was fun for me to use some of my red wheat - I'm still waiting for my grain mill to arrive - and it was fun for Samuel to run the blender.

Edited to add: The recipe calls for soaking the grains overnight. I didn't, because for one thing, I don't have buttermilk, and secondly, I'm not 100% sure about soaking. It's supposed to make the pancakes even lighter and fluffier but they seemed to do just fine without. Eventually I'd like to try both ways. ~A~

And none of us had any complaints about the pancakes! Of course, they are a bit denser but they rose perfectly! And we coat ours with homemade peanut butter and syrup. If all you are used to is butter it might be a bit harder to get used to . . . .

There was so much else going on that I really didn't take the time to evaluate the pancake too much; I was three bites in before I stopped and thought "Huh, this isn't really bad. At all! Cool." I don't think my boys either one noticed a difference.

I did notice a few things, though. The single pancake was much more filling and "stuck with me" longer than a normal, white-flour pancake would!

We used 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 oatmeal. I thought that would be fun, and honestly I couldn't really tell that they were made with oatmeal at all.

That was a very encouraging experience, and in the future I can see playing around with other grains, too. White wheat, maybe a pinch of brown rice or millet or something. Just for kicks. I love to "tamper" with recipes! It took me a long time to venture off the printed path . . . but I'm finally starting to get adventurous with cooking!

~Ashley~

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Wed-29-Oct-2008 - Cast Iron & Grains & 1st Tooth

I've been slowly falling for my cast iron griddle and 5" pan. Now I'm on the prowl for more! I'd still like a big skillet and a square skillet . . . mainly for frying bacon!

And I'm really getting intriqued by whole grains. It's facinating, really.

A few years ago, if someone had metioned grinding my own grain, I would have listened politely and never looked into it. I was already neck-deep into learning about cooking, or herbs, or something else! Whole grains was just too much - it would have been the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.

Now, just as I was plunged about a year ago in learning about herbs, I'm diving right into the grains now. There seems like so much to learn . . . I hope I never stop learning!

For one thing, flour loses so much - 40% of the nutrients are oxidized out after the first day!

The third trimester is such a good time for learning things . . . I'm also browsing some gardening books and learning how much I don't know . . . .

Oh, and I just found out Elijah has a tooth! His very first one!!!! He crawled under the desk and bit my foot, which is how I found out.  Hooray! His brother didn't have one until 15mo . . . Elijah is just speedy when it comes to everything. He walked later, but he caught on faster.

My little boy has a tooth . . . ack! He can't hit this many milestones all at once! He can't be this big yet! *sniff* Where is my little boy gone?

~Ashley~

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