E is for...

Eggplant. A necessary ingredient for Ratatouille. Late summer is the perfect time to make this French recipe that's experiencing a revival, thanks to Pixar's hit. There are many versions of this recipe, but I think they generally all include eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, onion and herbs. We had it for lunch yesterday with fresh-from-our-garden produce and rolls from the local bakery topped with Amish roll butter.

I also love to make eggplant parmesan, and as soon as there are a few more eggplants ready, it'll be on its way!

Growing eggplant was a big challenge for me this year. I planted two varieties, a Thai eggplant called Hmong Red Eggplant which is apparently quite rare. It was brought to the greenhouse this summer by a Thai couple and I fought away the flea beetles and colorado beetles, applying diatomaceous earth and picking off the grubs of the colorado beetles and covering the plants with floating row covers. Now I have little Thai eggplants that look like miniature pumpkins, though I'm not sure how to prepare them. If you are into Thai cuisine and would like some seeds, let me know and I'll send you a fruit...in exchange for a few recipes, of course!

And I have my purple eggplant as well, which I also fought to preserve, but now they're here and I have a lot of beautiful purple flowers covering the plants, promising me yummy eggplant dishes for the next few weeks.

I Would Eat It In the Rain!

It's unbelievable.

It was always my very strong opinion that there are "fish and seafood" people and there are those who hate fish and seafood. I always classified myself as the latter.

But, somehow, I've become a fish eater.

I know. I can hardly comprehend it myself.

After reading this list, I decided to try adding some salmon to my diet. I was sure I'd hate it. It would be fishy. It would taste like seaweed. I'd never like it. Never. Not ever.

So Saturday night, I was craving meat. Hunger overtook me and before long, Bo and I were visiting a restaurant in Cincy at ten at night. I looked at the menu, searching for a big, juicy burger, and I saw that the restaurant featured TWO salmon dishes. It had to mean something. I ordered the salmon, hedging my bets by making a deal with Bo. He'd order a burger, and if I totally hated the fish, he'd trade with me.

I do like salmon, Sam-I-Am!

Not only did I like it, I actually preferred it over the burger.

Astounding.

I bought a few salmon filets and prepared them for the family tonight. What a hit! I'd post the recipe over at Time to Cook, but it doesn't qualify because it only took minutes to prepare. So I'll post it here.

1/3 cup lemon juice
1 clove of minced garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
fresh rosemary (or dried, if you don't have fresh)
a teaspoon of crushed thyme
lemon zest
salt to taste
salmon

Marinate the salmon at room temp for about a half-hour. Grill or broil, basting once half-way through. I used my contact grill and it was done in no time. I served it with this:

Snow Peas

1 pound of snow peas
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce
2 cloves of garlic
a dash of lemon juice
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of salt

Mix all of this together, then spread in a baking dish in a single layer. Bake at 450 degrees farenheit for seven minutes, til tender but not soft.

Very yum.

I think I can handle this new way of eating.

Time to Cook: Introducing a New Blog!

I should take showers more often.

After a day of feeling pretty yucky and under-the-weather, I took a shower so that I could head out to the grocery store looking more like a human being than a monstah. While showering, I got an idea for a new blog.

Time to Cook.

Basically, it's about the basics. It's about slowing down and making meals from scratch, from good, basic ingredients.

It's about taking time to cook.

I'd love to see you there!

Time to Cook!

Yogurt!

I posted a short list of what I wanted for Christmas here, and my darling husband Bo read it. I'm happy to say that, out of the eleven things I listed, I'm a happy owner of four of them. One, the Asics shoes that were recommended to me by TrueVyne, were a gift to myself. I found a used pair on eBay for $24, including shipping, and the money went to a nature preserve in North Carolina. I've been very thankful for them. I think they're the first good pair of walking shoes I've ever had, and they really make a difference. Thanks, True!

The second gift I received was a membership to Feminists for Life of America. This was supposed to be a surprise, but Bo accidentally notified me a few days before Christmas. I'm looking forward to receiving the newsletters, which have always been interesting and challenging for me.

And the third gift from my list was candles. Two of my children gave me candles for Christmas and candle holders to go along with them.

The last gift from my list is probably my favorite, though the shoes are pretty close. On Christmas Day, PeacefulLady came for a visit, bringing with her a quart of homemade yogurt which was absolutely scrumptious. As we were discussing home-yogurt making, Bo confessed that he had also ordered the yogurt maker that I'd asked for which makes a quart of yogurt at a time. It came a few days later, and I've made four batches of yogurt since, thanks to PeacefulLady's yummy recipe, which I now impart to you. PL makes it in gallon batches, so I am including both the version I make, which makes one quart, and her version, which makes a gallon.

Quart Version:

1 quart of milk (I use whole raw cow's milk)
3 oz evaporated milk (which, I think, is a little less than 1/2 cup)
1/4-1/3 cup sweetener (I used 1/4 honey in one and 1/2 cup honey in one, and neither were super sweet. Today I used 1/3 cup sugar)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup yogurt which has live active cultures. PL says it doesn't matter if it's plain or vanilla. I've used both with the same results. Once you make your first batch, you can use yogurt from your own batches to keep it going until the cultures weaken, then you have to buy more.
(PL adds gelatin to hers, but I couldn't figure out the right ratio, so I left it out. Because we use whole jersey milk, it thickened just fine without the gelatin.)

Partially fill a sink with cold water and get all of your ingredients ready and measured. It goes quickly, so you want to be ready. Temperatures are very important for good yogurt.

For raw milk, heat the milk to 180 degrees F. I was hesitant to do this because I wanted the good health properties of the raw milk, but my first batch didn't come out so well. When I called PL, she said that heating it creates a creamier yogurt. I tried it, heating it to about 186, and she was right. Very creamy.

Turn of the heat.

Add the evaporated milk, sweetener and vanilla. Stir well.

Place your pan in the cold water and stir. Your goal is to quickly cool the milk to between 110 and 115 degrees. This happens more quickly than you'd think.

When the milk has cooled, add the yogurt using a very clean whisk. Bad bacteria can take over and make your yogurt clumpy and yucky. Very thoroughly mix in the yogurt.

Pour the mix into a quart jar or yogurt maker.

This is the tricky part, and this is why I asked for the yogurt maker. The yogurt must incubate for between 4 and 10 hours at around 100 degrees. Too hot, and you'll cook the yogurt. Too cool and it won't incubate properly. Some people fill a cooler with hot water, place their jars or containers in it and leave it alone until it sets.

Don't touch it. Don't open it. Wait for about four hours, then very carefully check it. If it seems thickened and creamy, you can taste it to see if it's tart enough. If it is, put it in the fridge until it's cool, then you're done!

Add fruit and stuff after it's done.

One Gallon version (makes five quarts):

One gallon of milk
2 T gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
12 oz can evaporated milk
1 1/4 cup sugar or 1 cup honey
2 t vanilla
1 cup yogurt with active cultures

Follow instructions above, except that you should dissolve the gelatin in the water before you start, if you plan to use it. Add the gelatin when you add the milk, sweetener and vanilla. Follow the rest of the directions, pouring your mixture into five quart jars or containers (doesn't matter if it's glass or plastic, just as long as their really, really clean).

90-120 degrees makes yogurt, so keep your temp within the range. I think around 90-95 is optimal.

Enjoy!

Simple Snack

These easy little pretzel treats look very fun to make and very yummy to eat. If you have a New Year's Eve party to attend and don't know what to make, this might just be the last-minute thing!

Recovering

Today is a day of recovery. And extended holiday.

I absolutely crashed after the Christmas festivities. We all gathered around the basement television to watch Hitchiker's Guide and I fell soundly, though uncomfortably, asleep on the hard carpeted floor. When I awoke, the movie was almost over, and I shuffled off to bed. I didn't think I'd go back to sleep; it was still early. But I did sleep, and slept soundly until this morning. I think I had too much Christmas.

Today I did a few errands in the morning, then I came home and started some kitchen cleanup and baking. I decided to make some more shortbread, but this time using cornstarch for part of the flour. I haven't baked the dough yet, so I can't tell you how it worked. I'll let you know later.

I also added chocolate chips to one batch of the shortbread, and I made a batch of Millionaire Shortbread, which is cooling as I type. We ate leftover roast beef and turkey carcass soup for lunch and I made a batch of Grandma Jane's potato salad to keep us going through the week. Bo's off work tomorrow and Thursday, and tonight the children and I are going to a bargain movie to see Santa Claus III. I hope I'm not terribly disappointed. :-/

I have the after-Christmas-bad-attitude-blahs today. I just don't feel settled, and my body has had about enough standing, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, and standing. Enough!

More about Christmas happenings when I return. For now, it's off to the theater.

Shortbread Cookies

Every time I make these simple yet fabulous cookies, I wonder why I bother with any other kind. I made a batch today as a gift for Bo's boss's family, acorn-shaped, and I dipped the acorn caps in a mixture of bittersweet chocolate, corn syrup and butter.

The keys are to be gentle with the dough, refrigerating it well before rolling and cutting, making sure to roll them thick (1/4 inch is good), refrigerating again, and baking them just long enough to harden them and slightly brown the edges.

I got this recipe from joyofbaking.com, which gives these tips:

Always use good-quality butter, NEVER margarine;

You can make them more flavorful by adding about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or cut up semisweet chocolate, 1 tablespoon of instant espresso powder for a coffee taste, 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, or 1 tablespoon of finely chopped orange or lemon zest.

The texture of shortbread can also be changed by replacing 1/4 cup of the flour with rice flour to give them a slightly crunchy texture.

For a more delicate tasting shortbread with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, replace 1/2 cup of the flour with cornstarch.

Sprinkle the baked cookies with granulated white sugar or dip the ends of the shortbread in melted chocolate.

Shortbreads:

2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar

1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract

In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. latten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4 inch (.5 cm) thick. Cut into rounds or whatever shapes you wish using lightly floured cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly brown. Cool on rack.

Shortbread with keep in an airtight container for about a week or frozen for several months.

Makes about 20 shortbread cookies.

White Trash Recipe

Here's a holiday recipe that's easy to make and looks nice in zip-type baggies; makes a great gift and a quick take-to-the-party treat. I just finished three batches--making them, not eating them. Sheesh!

White Trash

3 cups of Rice Chex
3 cups of Corn Chex
3 cups of Cheerios
(I suppose you could use any neutral-type cereals you want. I used just Chex for this batch)
1 cup of salted peanuts
1 1/2 cup of broken pretzel pieces
1 pound of M&Ms and/or Reese's Pieces (to make a total of one pound)
1 1/2 pounds white confectioner's coating

Mix all of the dry stuff together.
Melt the coating in a double-boiler or very, very carefully on low on a stovetop, stirring constantly until coating is melted and smooth.
When it's completely melted, stir it gently but thoroughly into the dry ingredients until everything is completely covered.
Spread the whole thing on wax paper and cool.
Break into chunks and store in baggies.

YUM!

This has absolutely no calories if you eat it while standing.

Enjoy.