July garden

In my preparations for Nerd Prom and surgery, I have been neglecting posting about the veggie garden, though I have not been neglecting the garden itself.

I'm mostly growing roma tomatoes this year, since last year I bought tons of them at the farmers market. And we ran out of the pasta sauce I made from them far too early. This variety seems to be quite susceptible to blossom end rot, but I think I've got it mostly managed now.

I've never grown cucumbers before. The one you can see there is about the size of my pinkie fingernail. It'll only get to be the size of quarter. Adorable!

I kept seeds from a mystery variety of winter squash that I got at the end of last year's farmers market. They're incredibly happy. If we can't find Kaylee one of these days, I'll be sure to check to make sure they haven't dragged her in.

Squash flowers at the end of the day.

Dill! I've made two quarts of refrigerator pickles with this dill and cucumbers from the farmers market. It reseeded itself from last year quite happily.

I had an issue with peppers this year. The ones I grew from seed all died. But I got some from Oakland that are doing very well. I like the two little baby ones still in their flowers at the top.

This is Ohio, so I grew soybeans. These are fancy-schmancy black soybeans, though. They're fuzzy-stemmed. I didn't know they'd be like that. Nifty.

Crossing my fingers that it will keep going so well!

Jessica's universal refrigerator pickle juice

This can be used to make refrigerator pickles of just about any sort: cucumbers, cauliflower (shown), green beans, peppers ... Just add a tablespoon of pickling spices of your choice to the bottom of the jar, pack in the veggies, and ...

Ingredients
(makes enough for one quart of pickles)

1.5 cups water
3/4 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons kosher or pickling salt

Combine ingredients in small saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Uncover, stir to dissolve sugar and salt and boil for two minutes. Pour over vegetables and pickling spice in canning jar.

Let cool, then close jar and store in refrigerator for at least one week before eating. Eat within two months, if you can manage to keep them that long. This recipe can be doubled or tripled or quadrupled. If you make too much, just keep it in the fridge until you want to make more pickles.

You can vary the the type of vinegar, as long as it's at least 5% acidity. You can up the amount of sugar if you like sweeter pickles. Vary the pickling spices*, either by buying a commercial blend or making your own (both Penzey's and McCormick's are both good).

For dill pickles, put one tablespoon of pickling spice and one dill flowerhead (or one teaspoon dill seed) to a quart jar, then pack jar with either whole canning cucumbers or cucumber slices. Pour pickle juice in and then try to wait a week before eating!

* for a very simple version, try...

5 peppercorns
4 allspice berries
1 tsp whole yellow mustard seeds
1/4 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

for dill pickles, add a dill flowerhead or one teaspoon dill seed

How to make yogurt

I remember my mom making yogurt when I was little, and I remember making it when I was in college, but I had a special yogurt maker and yogurt cups and yogurt starter and ... in short, it was a big, complicated deal to make.

However, since we've been trying to save money, I've discovered that it's actually really easy to make yogurt. You don't need a special yogurt maker, and the most specialized piece of equipment you need is a candy thermometer. Since I already have a thermometer I use for canning and to make candy, I didn't need anything special.

The supplies list may look long, but you very likely already have everything you need.

Supplies:

• large double boiler or two pans that fit inside one another (I use the two pan method)
• candy thermometer (thermometer that can attach to the side of your pan to measure the temperature of your milk)
• spoon for stirring milk
• tablespoon
• large bowl or measuring cup
• ladle
• containers to hold eight to nine cups of yogurt (I use four to five plastic one-cup containers, two one-pint glass canning jars, and one other container to hold the inevitable leftovers)
• plastic or glass containers to hold really hot water
• large cooler
• thermometer (optional)
• towel

Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon milk (whole, 2%, skim, whatever)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk (optional)
• 6 tablespoons plain yogurt with active yogurt cultures

Short version:

• clean your containers
• heat up milk
• cool milk
  
• add yogurt to milk
• put in containers
• leave in warm environment for 6-8 hours
• yogurt!

Longer version:

First, clean all of your supplies really well. You don't have to sterilize stuff, but it does have to be really clean if it's going to come in contact with milk or the yogurt you're making.

Fill the bottom of the double boiler (or the bigger pot) up with some water. Put the top of the double boiler on or put the smaller pot in the bigger pot. Make sure the water won't slosh into the top part. Pour in the milk.

We love Snowville Creamery milk. Pastured cows, no antibiotics, non-homogenized. L-O-V-E. I usually use 2% milk, but skim was all they had this time. It really doesn't matter unless you care about the fat content. Use what you have and don't get too wound up about it.

Add in the nonfat dry milk if you're using it; it makes the yogurt thicker and higher in protein. Stir it well and put the thermometer on the pan that the milk's in. Make sure the thermometer doesn't touch the bottom of the pan. I suggest sticking your stirring spoon against the bottom of the pan and lowering the thermometer until it touches the spoon. That way, you know you aren't against the bottom.

Turn the heat to medium high and heat the milk to 180° F. This will take about five minutes. Stir a few times to keep the heat distribution even, but there's no need to obsess over it; the water in the other pot will keep it from scalding. You're heating up the milk to kill any nasty bacteria. Even if your milk is pasteurized, I don't suggest skipping this step. At minimum, your milk needs to get to a nice bacteria-friendly 120° F for the next step

While the milk is heating, fill your plastic or glass bottles with very hot tap water and put them in the cooler to warm it up. Make sure you close the cooler lid. Put the thermometer in there if you have one handy.

Once the milk hits 180° F, turn the heat off. It's OK if it gets hotter as long as it doesn't boil. If it gets lower than 180° F, turn the heat back on for a minute or two. You want to leave it at about 180° F for five to eight minutes.

After five to eight minutes, you'll want to cool the milk down to about 120° F. I fill the sink with an inch or two of cold water and leave it there for five minutes or so while the water slowly drains out of our leaky drainer. Keep the thermometer in.

While you wait, spoon six tablespoons of the plain yogurt into the measuring cup or bowl. You can use commercially-made yogurt as long as it has live bacteria in it, or after you've made your own, just use the last of the previous batch, if you remember to leave some.

When the milk hits 120° F, ladle out about a cup into the measuring cup with the yogurt in it. Stir it really well. There's no need to whisk it, but it should be really well-mixed. Then remove the rest of the milk from the water (if you do that), and stir the milk-yogurt mixture into the milk.

Fill your containers. I usually use five or six 1-cup containers that I fill about 7/8 full. That leaves enough room for dried fruit and such later. I also usually fill a few bigger containers so I can make yogurt cheese or frozen yogurt.

Put the filled containers in the cooler with the hot water bottles. Try not to let the dog help too much. If you have a thermometer, put it on top of the containers, then cover it with a towel. Then, close the lid and LEAVE IT ALONE.

OK, you can check it after three hours and make sure the temperature is between 120° F and 110° F. That should feel very warm when you stick your hand in if you don't have a thermometer. If it's a little cool, you can either leave it in for an extra hour or two or you can do what I do and refill the bottles with hot water.

After six to eight hours, take out your yogurt. The longer you leave it it sourer and thicker it will be. I usually leave it for seven hours. I've left it as long as ten hours when I was unexpectedly invaded by family members and the yogurt didn't kill me. But you probably shouldn't leave it much more than that or nasty things could happen.

Stick your yogurt in the fridge. Add flavorings to it when you're ready to eat it. I like honey and dried cranberries. Jeff likes to add vanilla and honey. Sometimes I add ground flax seed if I'm feeling really healthy.

Enjoy your yogurt. Try to remember to save some for the next batch. :)

I find I need to make yogurt every two weeks. This makes plenty for us for breakfast and for yogurt cheese in lieu of cream cheese. YMMV.

Enjoy.

Today I have made...

• steel cut oatmeal for the week
• yogurt
• yogurt cheese
• 2 loaves of bread
• 1 pound of butter
• 24 soft pretzels
• roasted veggie chowder (tonight's dinner)
• beans & rice (Monday's dinner)
• roasted veggie hand pies (Tuesday's dinner)
  

Stocking up

The last Clintonville Farmers' Market of the year was on Saturday, and I stocked up on winter squash.

I would have liked to get more, but Jeff wasn't with me, so this was all I could carry; about 15-20 pounds of squash. I also picked up Jeff's December meat share, so the larder is full and my arms are tired.

Pot pie is perfect comfort food

It's cold out, so today was a perfect pot pie day. I started with roasted veggies with broth, olive oil, wine, and a little butter. In there are potatoes, carrots, celery, cauliflower, onion, broccoli, and the very last of the itty bitty tomatoes from the garden.

To pre-cooked bottom shells, I added faux chicken to mine and real dead chicken to Jeff's, and some gravy made from the leftover roasting juices and a little more broth.

I added tops. Mine is the one with one slice, Jeff's has two.

Yum!

Autumnal chowder

DKM sent me a link to here, and I made my own version. Red potatoes, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, egyptian walking onions, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and celery.

Before:

After:

(Yes, it matches the bowl a bit too much or it would be a prettier photo)

I burnt my tongue on it, but it sure was worth it!

Labor day weekend canning

Remember when I said I was going to try to relax this weekend? Yeah, I didn't.

This is one of each of the ten (!!!) things I canned, plus one more that is in the freezer already. Starting from the top left...

1. Tomatillo salsa
2. Butterscotch peach jam
3. Stanley plum jam
4. Apricot jam
5. Apple plum jam
6. Melon orange preserves
7. Tomato basil pasta sauce
8. Roasted veggie pasta sauce
9. Pepper salsa
10. Leftover fruit chutney

Only two major issues: the apricot jam over set and the melon orange preserves under set. As these things go, not too bad. I think the apricot jam will be good cut up in homemade ice cream, and the melon orange preserves will make a tasty syrup.

I'm pretty much done with the canning now, though I've got a few more little things, and we'll see what we see at the next few farmers' markets.

Mango chutney

I made mango chutney last weekend, and even fresh out of the preserving pot, it was tasty! I significantly changed the recipe I used (because I didn't have everything), so I wanted to write down what I did so I didn't forget...

Mango Chutney Recipe
(makes about 4-5 cups)

6 cups chopped just-ripe mango (about 4 mangos)
1.5 cups peeled, chopped apple (about 3 or 4, depending on the size)
1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup Turbinado sugar
1 cup diced red, orange, and/or yellow sweet pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup sultanas or mixed raisins
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup non-crystalized candied ginger (found at Trader Joe's)
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp. dried hot pepper flakes (I used Aleppo pepper because it's what we had)

(mango chutney before)

1. Prepare your preserving jars and lids.
   
2. Mix all of the ingredients together in a large preserving pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Be sure to use a large, tall pot since it will start to spit near the end.
3. Simmer, stirring frequently for 45-60 minutes, until the mixture is thick and reduced to about a third of its original volume. I take a bar stool and sit next to the stove, stirring, and read a book. Squish up the apples when they get soft enough if they don't break up by themselves. Near the end, when it's spitting the most, you'll need to stir it constantly so it doesn't burn.
4. Spoon it into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. I like widemouth pint jars, but anything but really big jars will work. Put anything that won't fill a jar into the fridge and make some curry to go with it. Yum! Put on the lids and seal.
   
5. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
6. Try to wait at last a couple weeks before you try it!
   

(mango chutney after)

More canning

Over the weekend, I did some canning.

That's mango chutney, pickled cabbage, and spiced pickled apples. I also made plum jam, but but the cans away before I took a picture. Plus slowcooker applesauce.

A busy weekend! I'm taking the day off today to give me a four-day weekend; maybe I'll actually get to relax this time ... but probably not, knowing me ...

Canning

I've started the canning already this year.



That's pickled cherries, pickled onions, and peach and sweet pepper relish.

Close up of the onions:



Close up of the relish:



While those jars are pretty, they don't stack, much to my annoyance. Don't get them!

Sweetish Refrigerator Pickles

I call these "sweetish"one, because it sound like "Swedish" and that amuses me, and two, because I don't like sweet pickles, but I do like these. These pickles are super-easy to make and take a whole 15 minutes. Plus four days in the fridge that you have to try to keep your hands off of them.

Ingredients
1 quart pickling cucumbers or 1/2-3/4 English cucumber, thinly sliced
3/4 cup thinly sliced white onion
1.5 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup turbinado sugar*
1/2 tsp. mustard seed
1/2 tsp. sea salt
4 whole peppercorns
2 whole allspice berries
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric

Directions
1. Thoroughly wash a 1 quart/1 litre container and allow it to air dry.
2. Layer onion and cucumber in container, starting and ending with onion. You may have a little too much cucumber. Eat the leftovers.
3. In a small saucepan, combine the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute, then let cool.
4. When cool, pour the vinegar over the cucumber and onions.
5. Refrigerate. Try to keep from eating it for at least four days, but if you can't stand it it, you can try them after 24 hours. They'll keep in the fridge for a month, if they last that long.


*You can use regular sugar and it will taste just fine.

Eggplant & onion pasta

Eggplant and onion pasta, made with eggplant and onion from the garden. :)



With faux chicken, makes a tasty lunch!

Grill-roasted beets

Ingredients:

• beets, any variety, any amount
• balsamic vinegar, regular or white
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

1. Heat grill to 400-500 degrees.
2. Top and tail the beets, then chop them into 1 inch cubes or so.

3. Make a double layer of aluminum foil and put beets in the center. Pull up the edges of the foil to make a bowl.
4. Add vinegar and oil, about a quarter cup of each, more or less depending on how many beets you have. Add salt & pepper to taste.
5.Pull up foil around beets and crimp well to close. Turn the packet over quickly a few times to coat the beets with vinegar and oil.

6. Place packet on grill over direct heat for about 20 minutes.
7. Move packet to top grill shelf, still over direct heat, for another 20 minutes.
8. Enjoy!

Grilled pizza

We finally did grilled pizza right.

The first time, we basically smoked them, which is not as appealing as you'd think. But these were quite good!

Artisan bread follow-up

I posted last week about the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. A couple people asked for me to let them know how it went, so here's an update.

I'm shocked to say that it worked pretty well. I've actually made a second batch of dough this morning, and I think I'll continue to do so. I had to return the book to the library, but the basic recipe is easy enough to memorize, but I think I'll buy the book, too.

To make the bread, there are three pieces of equipment you need: a five-quart loosely-lidded container, a pizza stone, a pizza slide (one of those wooden things you use to put the pizza in the oven), and a pan to put water in. I had the pan and the pizza stone already, but had to buy the container and slide. The slide wasn't mandatory, but it really does make it easier. The container is just a big Rubbermaid one, and I just leave the lid cracked. Both set me back about $25. The other thing you need that not everyone may have in the house is stone-ground cornmeal. That's to cover the slide and keep the bread from sticking. I had some of that.

The recipe is simple. For the dough, I had to add more water - about a quarter cup - than called for in the recipe. I think that's due to the way they have you measure the flour: you scoop it up and level it off, which compacts the flour in the measuring cup. I think if I measured properly, the amount of water called for would be fine. It's no big deal overall.

The amount of dough did, in fact, make four loaves. I was convinced that it would make more, but it really did make four reasonably-sized loaves. I never did get the "audible crackle" when I took it out of the oven like the book said I would, but the crust was crunchy and the bread itself was nice and soft.

With the price of bread rising, it seems to make sense to continue making bread like this. Flour is going up in price, too, but not as fast as the processed bread. I figure that after this batch, I'll make back the cost of the equipment I had to buy. Plus, I do like knowing exactly what is in my food.

All in all, I'd suggest giving the recipe a try, even if you don't normally have much success with baking. It's pretty simple and the results are good.

(Click on any of the photos for a bigger view)

Bread

In addition to the gardening, I've been trying to lower the grocery costs a bit by doing more cooking at home. We've never been ones to go out much, but I have been guilty of buying processed convenience foods probably more than I ought.

I'd heard about "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" on a few blogs and it sounded interesting, so I got it from the library. That's my first batch of dough rising in a five quart container.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Perception vs. reality

I was looking for a quick dinner this past Wednesday night, so I picked up a frozen pizza. It was Kashi brand, so not cheap.

Here it is:

Now, I know that packaging rarely shows what it really looks like, but this was really unappetizing. It didn't taste all that great, either. It didn't taste like roasted veggies, but veggies that were cooked with sugar. Far too sweet.

Oh well. I could have made a homemade pizza for just a little more effort and it would have been better. I shouldn't be so lazy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

New cookbooks

For Christmas, I got a bunch of new cookbooks, so I've been doing a fair amount of cooking. When I worked four days a week instead of five, I did a lot more cooking. Since I've been working at OSU, I haven't been cooking nearly as much as I used to. I'd like to get back to doing that, so I got some new cookbooks for inspiration and recipes.

I'm not really big on following recipes; I tend to view them as starting points and suggestions, but I still like having someone else come up with the basic ideas for me. Two of my three new cookbooks I had previously gotten from the library, so I knew I liked them. One, I bought on Amazon reviews alone.

125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes is one of my new ones. From it I've made Sante Fe Sweet Potato Soup and Caribbean Pepper Pot Soup. I know that when I got it from the library about a year ago, I made something then, too, but I don't know what. However, I liked it enough the book, so it must have been good. Both of the recipes that I remember trying were really good, and had the added bonus of being super-easy to make since they just get tossed in the slow cooker and cook while I'm at work.

The only big downside to the cookbook is that a lot of the cookbooks use mushrooms, which Jeff doesn't like and absolutely refuses to eat (except in small quantities when he doesn't know he's eating them :). Other than that, there's lots of stuff in here that I'm looking forward to making.

I got another slow cooker book, too: Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Again, I especially like that I can toss the stuff in the slow cooker and just ignore it until I get home. I know I made something from it when I got it from the library a couple years ago, but I can't remember what now. But like before, I liked whatever it was enough to add it to my "buy it when I get around to it" list.

Today, I put all the ingredients together for Farmhouse Fricassee, which is veggies with tempeh, basically. That's for dinner on Wednesday, when I have knitting and not a lot of time to make dinner.

That's one of the things I like about the book; it uses different proteins, not just beans and tofu. Not that I don't like beans and tofu, but they get a little dull after a while. There's even a recipe for making your own seitan in the slow cooker. I'm not sure I'll ever do that, but it's nice to have the recipe if I decide to.

The third book, One-Dish Vegetarian Meals, I got on Amazon word-of-mouth alone. It's written by Robin Robertson, who also wrote Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, so I was pretty sure I'd like it, and I was right. I made the Southwestern Pasta Gratin last week, and it was pretty good. It all hinged on the quality of a bottled salsa/picante; I think maybe next time I'd use a different one, since the one I used wasn't quite the flavor I wanted. But that's not the fault of the recipe, but my choice.

Today, for later in the week, I did all of the prep work for Ziti with Red Pepper-Walnut Pesto and Creamy Noodle Curry. The Red Pepper-Walnut Pesto is pretty good all by itself, even before there's been a chance for the flavors to blend.

I'm going to get another cookbook by Robin Robertson, too, the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. I just got it from the library, and the stuff I've made from it so far have been really good. I've never really liked a cookbook author before, but I seem to like Robinson's stuff!

Garden update

It's been a while since I posted pictures of the garden, so I thought I would.

This little bed along the fence used to have our lettuce and spinach and kale in it. Once the weather got warm, however, it was given over to Swiss chard and some "leftover" pepper plants from a coworker. You can also see the nasturtiums that are keeping the fig tree company.

I need to harvest some of the Swiss chard before it starts to shade the peppers again. Good thing we like it, since it grows like crazy!

This is the first year that I'm growing eggplant, but I seem to be doing well. One of the plants has five eggplants on it. This one has two, but they're starting to turn purple.

In addition to the peppers my coworker gave me, I've got another container with ones that I raised from seed. These were a mix, so I've got some green bell peppers, as well as some purple and red ones, too.

My tomatoes are producing, but they look like crap. These are the Mr. Stripey heirlooms, which are doing OK.

I used to have tomatillos in the same bed as these tomatoes, but they were doing horribly, so I yanked them up. I'll probably plant a fall harvest of kale in their place in a month or two.

My tomatoes may not be look nice, but my basil looks fantastic.

I'll be making pesto this weekend.

This picture is for my Auntie Connie

My Aunt Connie in Louisville just subscribed to my flickr photos (and possibly my blog), and mentioned how much she liked my lunches. So I photographed one in my big container for her.

I used this to carry veggies as car snacks on our trip this weekend, and it worked wonderfully. It was one of the rare times on the weekend that I had veggies (the other time was at the wedding reception - great food!).

Today's lunch was black beans and rice, a spinach salad, apples, steamed broccoli and red peppers, and some Japanese dark chocolate.

So nice I packed it twice!

My new bento box holds just about the perfect amount of stuff. And as an added bonus, the dividers go all the way up the the top, unlike so many divided containers. That keeps stuff from getting into the other compartments. I love this bento box!

I didn't know what I wanted for dinner last night, but I knew what I wanted for lunch, so I made that instead. The big compartment has udon with veggies (and soy and sweet chili sauce that's not in the photo). The top small one has roasted tofu and steamed snow peas. The bottom one has a cream corn croquette, a pair of cherry tomatoes, and some edamame.

A nicely pan-Asian lunch. Yum.

New bento box!

A great friend who understands (or at least indulges :) my love of bentos of all shapes and forms. So I got a package full of all sorts of fun stuff, including a new bento box!

It's hot pink and lime green, even - one of my favorite color combinations. It comes with a fork and knife that snap onto the lid and have a cover to keep them in place. I don't know why it has both, since I nearly snapped the cutlery in half trying to get them loose. Maybe in case of a nuclear explosion, they wanted to make sure you had your plastic cutlery? :)

I've made a nice hot-weather lunch to go in it for today. It's a little random, but a very good combination of stuff.

I've got one of my recent favorite things in it: faux-chicken salad. I go through these phases every so often, and right now is one of those times. I make it with Morningstar Farms' Chick'n Strips (chopped up), celery, pepper, spring onion, dijon mustard, mayo, and Miracle Whip. Very tasty.