Tart-zza Anyone?

We had some friends visit with us and they left us a delightful tart pan (like this).  They also made a spectacular almond peach tart for us, with a cookie-dough like crust, and that got me thinking, when my brain wouldn't shut down as I was trying to get back to sleep this morning at 5 am, maybe I can do something savoury with that?

I've got a short crust recipe that I've used before for a meat pie, and wondered if I could jury-rig something using that to create a sort of tart-pizza crossover.  On top of that, I had to make it wheat free (and I've never really liked the pizza dough recipes without wheat I've tried thus far), no tomato paste, no basil... hmmm.  Well, it worked pretty well!

The crust recipe is:

1 lb of all-purpose flour or whatever you use for flour alternative (I did roughly 1/3 tapioca starch and 2/3 teff flour for this)

1 1/4 cup boiling water

4 tbsp butter

9 tbsp shortening or lard (I used bacon fat)

Boil the water & melt the fats in it, then gradually blend into the flour until it makes a dough.  Work the dough until it's well combined, then press into the tart pan (or two... depending on how big the pan is).  Bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes until shrunken from the edges somewhat and tart shell is mostly cooked in the middle.

The parsley pesto was made with probably about 2 cups densely packed parsley, finely chopped, 2-3 tbsp of olive oil, romano cheese to taste, and about 2-3 tbsp pine nuts, ground.

Spread  pesto on the baked shell, then layer on the goodies.  I used ham, havarti & a few slices of our garden tomatoes.

Bake at 400F for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the tomatoes are a little cooked.  All in all, a great success - we might be able to do pizza night on a regular basis now!

Nose to Tail Spot Prawn Feast

Thanks to our friend Maarten, we were provided with a bag full of spot prawn heads and tails.  The tails were sautéed with butter & garlic and served with a pesto pasta, and the heads were turned into this fabulous soup.

Spot Prawn by Dragan Maksimovic

Spot Prawn "Bisque"

approx 1 lb of fresh prawns, head on
olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3-5 small shallots, minced
1-2 baby fennel bulbs, fronds removed & diced fine
3-5 small to medium fresh carrots, diced fine
3-5 small to medium tomatoes, chopped fine

1. Separate the heads from the tails; keep the tails for another dish, or add them at the very end.
2. Roughly chop the heads (which includes legs and antennae), toss in a little olive oil and place in a rimmed baking pan.
3. Bake at 300F for about 20 minutes, or until caramelized and roasted smelling
4. While the prawn heads are baking, sauté the garlic, shallots, fennel & carrots.  Once the vegetables are softened and browned slightly, add the chopped tomatoes and simmer.
5. Scrape the baked prawns into another saucepan, add boiled water, and use a little of the boiled water to dissolve the prawn bits stuck to the baking tray and scrape all the goodness off into the prawn saucepan.
6. Bring the prawns in the water to boil, and then reduce to a simmer.  After it's cooked for at least an hour, strain the liquid into the vegetables, and run the prawn heads through a food mill to get the last of the juices out.  Alternatively, you could finely food process the heads, then run through a sieve or a sieve and cheesecloth.
7. Add the prawn juices to the soup, and reduce to a low simmer, and cook for a number of hours (one at least).
8. When you're ready to serve, bring back to a boil, and if you like, add the prawn tails to cook for less than 1 minute.  Alternatively, use the tails in another dish.
9. Serve the soup topped with grated romano or parmesan cheese or just as is.

Baking for Allergies

 

Got Milk?  Nope, we don't.

 While avoiding wheat is not a new thing in this household, we've now got the list of allergens or foods to avoid up to quite a challenging tally:

• dairy (K)
• eggs (K)
• wheat (K, B)
• corn (K)
• rice (K)
• soy (B)
• millet (B)
• flax (B)
• chocolate (D)
• most nuts (A)

(K = Kate, B = Betty, D = Dave, and of course, for now, much of what Kate is off, so am I)

I've found a lot of useful food ideas from the vegan community, since, by default, they don't use any animal products, and that eliminates any possibility of dairy or eggs in their recipes.  There are a lot of people out there going wheat-free, so that helps too.  But when I can't use rice or corn either, that certainly throws up a further challenge.

Here are some useful things that I've learned.

Baking powder usually has corn starch in it, and may even have wheat or gluten hiding in there.  So you can make your own!  All you need is baking soda, some kind of starch (e.g. tapioca, potato, or corn if you want) and cream of tartar.  Easy to do and it stores just fine.

While we've used brown rice flour for yonks (usually at 1/8 cup less per cup of wheat flour called for) instead of wheat flour, we only recently started using sorghum flour, thanks to the recipes from allergyfreemom.com.  I've also played around a lot with flour/starch mixes, and have learned that approximately 70% flour to 30% starch to replace what's called for as wheat flour works pretty well in many applications (I can't remember for sure where I pulled that from, but I know I didn't invent it).  I'm pleased with the  tef grain flour / tapioca or potato starch mix for cookies and muffins; I've yet to try it with cakes, but that'll be next on the list.

What to do about eggs?  Well, for those people who can use soy, that's often an alternative to certain recipes (especially stuff like quiches, I understand).  A half a banana can also replace one egg in a recipe (works for muffins or pancakes, and some more "rustic" cake recipes).  Ground flax meal (best if you grind the seeds fresh yourself) mixed with water (about 1 tbsp meal to 3 tbsp water per egg replaced) apparently gels well and works.  Since flax is one of the things we can't use for everyone here, I thought I'd try chia seed instead.  Same thing: 1 tbsp chia seed (but you don't have to grind it) to 3 tbsp liquid per egg replaced and let it gel.  So far, it's been great in the muffin and cookie recipes I've tried it in.  We've also used the commercially available egg replacer powder; however, I'm enjoying the chia goo more now. Obviously, you can't really replace eggs when it's a true "eggy" dish, like a custard or a sponge cake.

While nothing really replaces butter, I've found that for most of my baking I can get away with olive oil or similar vegetable oil.  Once in a while, though, you need something that will be more or less firm at room temperature, and I've been using palm oil shortening for those situations.  I've not yet tried coconut oil, but since it's usually solid (or at least firm) at room temperature, I think it might work, too.  I did a ginger shortbread recipe using the palm shortening that, ok, wasn't shortbread really, but it tasted fabulous (kind of like the crumble crust on a cheesecake, but with lots of ginger!).

As for milk, it's probably the easiest thing to replace, as long as you can use any one of the milk substitutes, like soy, almond, rice or coconut milk (now also they have barley milk!).  Still haven't figured out how to get around not using full heavy cream, but coconut milk cream does a pretty good job in many situations, and coconut milk is certainly my go-to milk replacement in any creamy-type soup.  And while it's not custard, chia pudding or using gelatin (if you're not vegan) to make puddings with milk substitutes is pretty darned tasty.

Whatever you try, remember, it's probably better than nothing, and sometimes really darned good, but you're never going to get the same results as you would using traditional wheat/dairy/egg in those recipes.  Experiment and see what you come up with - at worst, it's compost, at best, you'll discover a new family favourite!

Chia Pudding - Theme and Variation

Now that I'm at the "what on earth do I feed her" stage of Kate's development, compounded by complications of multiple allergens, I've been scouring the interwebs looking for dairy-, egg- and wheat-free food (preferably baking and desserts, I'm just that kinda gal).

Enter the idea of chia seed pudding: fits in with those of you raw and vegan (if you use a dairy-free option fot the liquid) foodies, fibre-full for those trying to "feel full", great source of calcium and omega-3s, plus endless opportunities to play with flavours.  Now, if you don't like gel-textured things (think: tapioca pudding), run, don't walk, away from this post.  You'll need to come up with some other way to eat your chia seeds.

photos source: blogilates

I started off with blogilates' chia seed pudding: 2 tbsp white chia seed plus 1 cup liquid (in my case, I tried it with rice milk first - this was before we were off rice...).  While it was tasty, it didn't gel at all like in her blog post.  Hmmm.  See how those are dark little bits floating around in the milk?  One of the staff at the Duncan Community Farm Market indicated there wasn't much difference between white and black chia, so I grabbed the least expensive available at the time, which was white.  I went back and picked up black, and it gels way better.

photo source: choosing raw

Next stop: leftover oven-roasted squash with smoked sea salt and rosemary.  That'd be neat, hey?  I used choosing raw's pumpkin chia pudding as a springboard, adding our own home-grown & pressed organic apple juice for the liquid.  Yum, yum.  Very nice use of leftover squash!

Now I have an opened jar of apple juice... let's add a banana, handful of frozen blueberries, and chia seed to the juice, plus a sprinkling of cardamom (a very under-utilized spice in my opinion), combine with stick-blender, and voila!  If you add a few more whole blueberries after the fact, it makes it even more appealing to blueberry-faced toddlers.

photo source: dinutrition

dinutrition decided to riff on this with her own take - I quite like the idea of adding some nut/seed butter to the mix; I will have to try tahini and almond milk next, I think, maybe with some vanilla and a little garam masala?  So many possibilities!

I also recently tried our own cranberry juice (read: extremely tart) with some of our apple juice for sweetness (about 3:1 cranberry to apple juice), some cardamom for spice, and it was really great.  Tangy, interesting, and the chia seemed to soak up the sour.  I wonder what pudding I'll try next...

Diapering Dilemma - An Overwhelming Choice

Trying to be somewhat responsible to the planet, and yet recognizing that life needs to be not too complicated, we have travelled down a convoluted path, working out what diapers to use. I really hate the concept of disposables, but they are undeniably convenient. We started with a local diaper service, and at the beginning when Kate was brand new (I can't believe that was 18 months ago!!!), we were really happy. They provided unlimited cloth diapers, and once a week picked up the bag of soiled diapers and left freshly cleaned ones for us. It was perfect, until she grew a little bigger, and then she was in between diaper sizes for some time. The positives about the diapers used by the diaper service: they were very absorbent (they had microfleece lining and some kind of microfleece suede outer cover) and the waterproof covers meant that usually we only had to change the diaper but not the cover, and of course the convenience of having them collected and cleaned cannot be overstated. The negatives, however, were too annoying to overlook. The diapers themselves didn't have many snap choices. They sold that as a positive (i.e. only one snap per side!) but that was not a positive as far as we were concerned, because as Kate grew, it became more and more challenging to find an appropriate setting for the snaps. That, and the manufacture of the diapers was hugely inconsistent and variable in the placement of the snaps and the shape and dimensions of the diapers themselves, so if you figured out the alignment for one diaper, it certainly didn't automatically work for the next one. I also wasn't a fan of the rash that developed along the serged seams on the leg openings. We ended up having too many blowouts for my liking, which kind of defeats the purpose as far as I'm concerned: it ceased to be convenient and relatively easy to use.

So we thanked them for their wonderful service, explained that it was more about the product than their service (which was fantastic, and for other babies, it's possible the diapers would work just perfectly), and I had to figure out what else we could do. We went through some various disposable options; I hate the chemical smell that most disposable diapers contain to let you know when the diapers are wet (like you can't tell just by squishing them slightly), so I tried to find unscented and undyed options. We loved the price and fit of the PC Green disposables, but I hated the plastic smell of them so much that I'd open a package and open every single diaper to try and air it first before Kate used it. They also gave Kate a rash, so that didn't work  We ended up using the 7th Generation disposables for a number of weeks. They worked well, they didn't give Kate a rash, and they didn't smell, but they are not inexpensive.  We went back to the PC Green brand since, as they have ceased to be plastic smelling, and haven't given Kate a rash again, so they're now our go-to disposable for travelling and night time; not cheap, but a somewhat inexpensive dye-free and scent-free alternative

I didn't want to stay with disposables, so I started the search for cloth diapers. Oh. My. Goodness. The options! Well, I suppose that's good, but it's certainly overwhelming. We luckily had a store not too far away that offered a trial borrow program. Fantastic! I decided that I wasn't a fan of fitted and prefold diapers. The fitted were pretty similar to the diapers used by the service, but like those diapers, the serged stitching along the leg openings were abrasive. One-sized diapers appeal, because they will grow with your baby, and in theory, you only have to buy one set to last for the length of diapering. The down-side is that for small babies (and Kate seems to have a skinny waist and thighs), one-sized diapers can be too big for some time. I didn't mind the concept of stuffing, so pocket diapers were a reasonable sounding option.

So we tried a few different varieties, and my favourites that we borrowed were the Baby Kangas one sized pocket diapers. The pockets on these were accessed from the front and outside, which, when you consider what you have to do to unstuff a poopy diaper, had huge appeal. They worked quite well, but had hemp inserts. While hemp and cotton are very absorbent, they're not very good at wicking moisture away from the skin. The Kangas do have a polyester layer between the baby and the inserts, it didn't seem to do a good enough job keeping Kate's bum dry.

I decided that I really liked the ability to remove a soiled layer and replace it, while keeping the outer covering for reuse.  I started looking for something along those lines, and discovered gDiapers, which seemed to fit the bill perfectly.  I looked high and low for them, but the only option you can buy here in Canada is the cover and the disposable insert.  Well, that kind of defeats the purpose of the reusable cover and not disposing (they say they can be flushed, but we're on septic and I sure didn't want to take the chance).

Finally, I ran across the Flip diaper system, and it seemed to meet all of my requirements: an absorbent insert that is easy to load & unload, leak-proof outer covers that have soft edges for around the legs and middle with lots of snaps options, and they're "one size" such that you change the rise dimensions with the three sizing snaps in front.  And I was able to purchase them in Canada!

The verdict?  These work really, really well for us.  They seem to fit our skinny, tall & lanky little girl, and they've grown well with her.  The process of washing every three days takes a little getting used to, and making sure to strip the detergent build up every once in a while is important too.  Sadly, since we have to use so much oily creams etc. on Kate's legs and mid-section for her eczema, I've had to replace the covers recently (i.e. after about a year of use) because they all of a sudden just lost their waterproofing (hardly surprising: oils and waterproofing do not mix well), but I think that wouldn't be necessary in most situations.  I believe that this product should be useful for most people right up until no more diapers are required.  And I feel that they were a good, economic solution to the cloth diapering that we were hoping to achieve (because oh boy, are those "all in one" diapers expensive).

What are your favourite cloth or disposable diapers and why?  Have you had any true disasters?  Please share - it's great to learn other options!

Winter Relief Update

I originally posted a recipe for Whipped Shea Butter over a year ago, and we've been using it quite religiously ever since.  I've made a few changes, though, which I find quite effective.  So here's the updated recipe.

• 10 oz Shea butter (preferably unrefined, cold pressed or however the equivalent works for it)
• 4 oz carrier oil (I used grapeseed oil or calendula-infused sunflower oil, if I've got it on hand)
• 1 oz unrefined beeswax
• 1 oz unrefined cocoa butter
• essential oils - I use about 20 drops each French Alp lavender, tea tree and grapefruit seed extract to help with K's eczema, but a nice smelling combination is peru balsam & cinnamon oils.
• 10 capsules of vitamin E - just the oil inside, I discard the capsules

Prepare your mixing bowl (i.e. if you've got a stand mixer, use that bowl, otherwise get a different bowl to whip the ingredients) by placing in the freezer.  Best not to use a glass or ceramic one, so that it doesn't shatter when you pour the hot liquid into it.

Melt the shea butter, beeswax and cocoa butter in a double burner (I use a ceramic bowl over a pot of almost boiling water, careful that the water doesn't touch the bowl).  Let the temperature of the mixture reach 180F, and keep it there for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour the melted mixture into your chilled bowl, add your carrier oil, and place in freezer for about 5-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of your freezer.  Just long enough to start to resolidify the mix, which will make it a little creamy but not solid.

Use stand mixer (if you've got one) or an electric beater to whip the mixture until it forms really thick peaks.  About half way through the process (i.e. it's getting more stiff but still quite creamy and soft), add the essential oils and vitamin E capsule contents, then finish beating.  Scrape the bowl often, because the mixture will solidify at different rates.

When the mixture has reached a nice stiff consistency and holds very strong peaks:

scoop into clean and preferably sterilized containers.  I haven't yet tried, but I bet using a parchment paper icing bag with a big icing nozzle would work really well.  Place the lids on the containers and put away.  Make sure to use up all the extra loveliness stuck to the bowl & mixer parts!

When you go to apply the cream, it will be stiff and hard-ish in the container, but the heat from your hands will melt it really quickly, so as you apply it to your skin, it will soak in beautifully.  Enjoy!

So Much to Tell

We have been very busy in the garden & kitchen during 2011, I just haven't had a chance to share with everyone.  In quick summary:

• Despite the extremely slow start to the season and depressingly cool summer, we had a surprisingly bountiful harvest from our garden, especially potatoes, dried beans, squash, and tomatoes.  Once again, we figured we would have no tomatillos and ended up with a bumper crop (although they didn't ripen very well, and as a result didn't store very well at all).  Even our peppers did really well this year, and we smoked our Guajillo chillies in our new Bradley Smoker!  They are fabulous in soups, stews and sauces, with just a little bite and a lovely smoky flavour to enhance anything they're tossed into.  We also tried dehydrated tomatoes and had enough of our Red Ruffle bell peppers to dry again this year, which I've been adding to just about all of my savoury recipes.
• We have our first livestock!  In July, we picked up 9 young Muskovy ducks: 3 drakes and 6 ducks.  They've been enjoying our orchard & field, and keeping the weeds cropped beautifully.  Plus, they really got into slug duty this summer, so we're enthusiastically looking forward to their slugging abilities this coming spring.  They started to lay in late November, and Dave's been collecting about 3-5 eggs every day since then.  We'll be letting them raise their babies in the spring, in the hopes that we can have duck meat to make into confit, casssoulet, ham, sausage, and just duck!

 

• We participated in a Community Supported Fishery through the Michelle Rose in Cowichan Bay.  As a result, we had about 11 pounds of king shrimp and spot prawns, and a little less than 10 pounds of sockeye and pink filets.  We christened the Bradley by cold-smoking some sockeye, and I made my first batch of gravlax.  The seafood (including the smoked salmon) has made it into a few chowders with our root veggies (rutabaga, potato, parsnip, leeks & onions), smoked guajillo & dehydrated ruffle peppers, home-made chicken stock, our grilled corn nibblets and coconut milk finish - totally yum.
• We had our first "feast of the fields" equivalent - we hosted a mid-winter feast with our friends, and dined on the gravlax with home-made butter (sigh, not yet with our own cream) on home-grown home-made rye bread, spicy pumpkin soup, espresso-braised venison, rutabaga potato gratin, and pumpkin pie, accompanied with home-made apple plum wine.  It was fabulous, and we're looking forward to repeating this new tradition annually (maybe even semi-annually with a summer feast, too!). 
• In dealing with eliminating eggs, wheat & dairy (and now corn & rice for the foreseeable future) due to Kate's eczema, I've been exploring baking with allergy-friendly alternatives.  I purchased allergyfreemom.com's recipe book and have made quite a few of her recipes very successfully.  I recommend trying the cinnamon rolls (they're weird to make but really, really tasty) and the gingerbread cookies (even if it's no longer Christmas).  I used sorghum flour in both to great success.     There are also some great recipes on Bob's Red Mill site.  I'm also now trying to eat a lot more veggies, especially greens (check out the TedX presentation by Terry Wahls), and have discovered that I actually love kale chips (go figure)!  I've also invested in some super food stuff via recipes from Meghan Telpner's Making Love in the Kitchen blog.  After enjoying the Tumeric Tea (actually more like spicy chai tea with tumeric added) and Raw Chocolate Bark yesterday, I am definitely looking forward to some more experimentation in this department.

Since I can't seem to keep up with what I'm doing in the kitchen, you can always have a look at my SpringPad site to see what recipes I'm collecting and trying out.

I'm sure there's been more activity - of course there has, Kate's now 18 months and there's been a year's worth full of development and exploration in that department.  The addition is now mostly complete, certainly Mom has been living there since about May, and really enjoying it.  We're now turning our thoughts towards getting Dave a shop built, so that he can get back into making his beautiful furniture.

Sausages in Jars

We've become huge fans of the "meat in jars" concept.  We started this last year when Dave got into making sausages, and we tried a pretty basic venison sausage recipe.  It's great opening a jar of meat and adding it to whatever you've got on the go - much quicker than having to think about taking something out of the freezer to thaw first.

This year, we played around a little with that basic sausage recipe, and came up with three new ones, two of which are in jars, and the last we made into freezer patties.  I'll give you the ingredients here for the mix, but please follow the directions from Hunter Angler Gardiner Cook's venison sausage recipe for the "how to".  Also, if your canning, please follow the pressure canning instructions for ground meat on the USDA's National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Dried Tomato & Fresh Basil Venison Sausage

4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
> 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil, chopped
1 head (small, about 8 cloves) garlic, peeled & chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup dehydrated tomatoes, chopped (we used 1/2 cup each of our dehydrated Black Plum and Principe Borghese tomatoes)
1/2 cup dehydrated bell pepper, chopped (we used our Red Ruffle peppers)
1/2 tsp dehydrated jalapeño pepper, chopped (more if you want it spicier)
1 tsp ground smoked sweet paprika
< 1 tbsp sea salt
1/2 cup cold grape juice

After making this into sausage, we canned it.

Curry Ginger Apple Venison Sausage

4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
1 tbsp smoked sea salt
1 1/2 tsp curry powder (my own mix)
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup dried tomatoes (Black Plum), chopped
1/2 cup dried bell pepper (Red Ruffle), chopped
1/2 cup dried apple (Gravenstein), chopped
2" fresh ginger root, grated
1 head (medium, about 12 cloves) garlic, peeled & chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cold grape juice

After making this into sausage, we canned it.

Fruit & Maple Breakfast Venison Sausage


4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
1 tbsp smoked sea salt
1/2 cup each, chopped: dried cranberries, dried blueberries & dried apples

2 tbsp dehydrated bell pepper, chopped (Red Ruffle)
1/2 tsp dehydrated jalapeño pepper, chopped (more if you want it spicier)
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp ground white peppercorns
1/2 cup cold maple syrup

After making this into sausage, we froze it into patties on wax paper-lined baking sheets, then cut the wax paper around the patties and vacuum sealed them into freezer bags.

Kitchen Whirlwind

Summer Preserves by chotda on Flickr

We've just spent the better part of this week on our feet, preparing food for the coming year.  Dave shot a small buck for us (more on that separately), and the produce from the garden has just been continuing to roll in (I'll try to compile a preserves tally again this year).

We made a discovery this year of a product for canning that I'd read about, but hadn't really investigated.  Low methoxyl (LM) pectin allows you to significantly reduce (or eliminate) the amount of sugar used in a recipe, and you can use honey, or other sweeteners (like stevia, or agave nectar or whatever) in place of sugar, because the gelling process does not require sugar to occur, unlike standard pectins.

I found Pomona's Universal Pectin at Galloway's Speciality Foods in Burnaby, so I picked up a couple of packages to try.  I had a huge batch of various berries (Oregon grape, currants, gooseberries, wild blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, evergreen huckleberries) that I needed to get out of the freezer (we're going to be getting a pig from my Dad soon), and was really keen on making a tart jelly with these fruits.

Well, I made the equivalent of six batches, and it gelled beautifully and perfectly, using little honey as the sweetener, and I made two triple batches following the directions on the package.  I did the same thing with whole strawberries and made the equivalent of seven batches all in one go!  Finally, I made a herbal jelly which I added very little honey to, and it gelled beautifully again.

Benefits of the Pomona's Universal Pectin:

• Low sugar or use sweetener of your choice.
• Beautiful gelling (although this might vary... I'll keep experimenting!) even if you make a multiple batch (unlike normal pectin which I don't have any success with because I'm always mucking with the sugar levels and am in a rush so I want to double & triple recipes!).
• Keeps indefinitely as long as properly stored (cool, dry location).

Drawbacks of the Pomona's Universal Pectin:

• Can be difficult to source (but check out their "free package" offer, to get you to encourage your local store to carry it).
• Expensive compared to regular pectin (but I'm looking into the option to purchase in bulk, as it keeps indefinitely).

Still not done yet... we've got a local source for some pears, and our Italian prune plums need dealing with, as do the tail end of our tomato harvest.  Sigh.  But it's so satisfying having all this good food available!

Canning Season Again

Jars by nicholasjon on Flickr

This is just a brief note of a list of canning & preserving links that were mentioned in the Victoria Times Colonist on Sunday, August 28, 2011:

Punk Domestics - sounds right up our alley!  Preserving, foraging, home brewing... when I've got some time (hahahaha!) this will definitely get a good look.
Well Preserved - a blog about food & foodies, with a bent towards home preserving techniques.  I like this post especially discussing safety issues around home canning, one of their first references therein is the USDA National Center for Home Preservation, my bible for all things stuck in jars.
Food in Jars - a blog about home preservation.  Some really intriguing recipes.
laundry etc. - a UK blogger's interesting collection of home-related stuff, with lots of luscious sounding recipes and lovely photos.

Another recent article in a recent Times Colonist about preserving fresh herbs.

Salmon Puff Muffins

Red Running

by burnishings on flickr

Having given up dairy since about October, I have now decided to try eliminating obvious sources of gluten from my diet, to see if that further helps with Kate's rash and eczemic skin. As a result, my lunch options are even further curtailed, sigh. Looking through the pantry this afternoon, I saw some salmon, and I was just not interested in salmon salad without the sandwich (we get fabulous whole grain bread from True Grain in Cowichan Bay, which mills their own flour, but alas, no more for me or Kate for a while). So off to the internet to see what else I could come up with (what on earth did we do before the internet? oh, yes, books... well, I still use those too!), and ran across this post which mentioned a sort of fishloaf muffin with salmon. Hmmm, I could do that! So here's my effort from today:

Salmon Puff Muffins

2 large eggs, separated

2 cans salmon (8 oz tin, or 213 g if you're in Canada)

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon dried dill weed (or if you've got fresh, go for it)

1/2 teaspoon curry powder (I make my own, so I reckoned, what the heck!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Whip the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Beat the egg yolks, then mix in the salmon, cornmeal and seasonings. Use a blender or food processor to mash the salmon mix up into a fairly fine consistency. Gently fold the egg whites into the salmon mix, then dollop into prepared muffin tins (I use the silicone muffin tray and I managed 10 muffins out of this recipe). Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until muffins have risen a bit and are golden brown, starting to crack & separate from the sides, and a tester inserted comes away clean.

I thought this recipe would also be delightful with some smoked salmon added in, or instead use crab meat (although why waste perfectly good crab meat this way?). Season to your taste, and it's very nice served with a little (wheat free!) soy sauce. I bet it would be super good with spicy red pepper jelly too.

As everyone in the household, including Kate, loved these (and I was hard-pressed to save a few for tomorrow's lunch), I guess I'll be buying the full salmon share off the Michelle Rose's community supported fishery, and getting busy canning salmon this year!

Smoked Pork Hock Soup

Soueee!

by burnishings on Flickr.

We discovered a wonderful source for local smoked pork products at the Duncan Farmers' Market in the Square a couple of weeks ago: Ravenstone Farm. We'd been making a delicious pork & beans recipe in the slow cooker, but I wanted something different. I cobbled together a couple of recipes from Art of the Slow Cooker by Andrew Schloss, my "go to" manual for slow cooking and pretty much 80% of our dinners lately! I used a roasted vegetable soup with what I'd been doing for the pork & beans recipe, and got something like this:

Smoked Pork Hock Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 carrots, peeled & chopped into 1" rounds

1 sweet potato (the orange fleshed one!), peeled & chopped into 1" pieces

1 small squash (I've used butternut and Marina di Chioggia), peeled & chopped into 1" pieces

3-4 celery ribs, chopped into 1" pieces

1 large onion, chopped into 1" pieces

4 whole garlic cloves

4 cups total liquid - I used about 2 cups red tomato salsa and 2 cups chicken broth, both home-made

1 medium (about 2 to 3 pounds, depending on the size of your slow cooker - ours is a Crock Pot VersaWare, I think 6 quart) smoked ham hock

1 to 2 cups cooked (or canned) chick peas, drained

1/2 tsp cracked white or green peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 425F. Toss the vegetables and garlic in the olive oil and spread over a rimmed baking pan. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until softened and slightly browned at edges. Place ham hock in the slow cooker. Scrape vegetables into slow cooker. You can use some of the broth to wash off the pan into the slow cooker if there are bits stuck, but I've not found that necessary. Pour the chick peas into the slow cooker. Add the salsa and broth and stir the ingredients together a little to distribute. Add the peppercorns, cinnamon stick and bay leaf and cover the slow cooker and cook on low for about 10 hours, or high for at least 5 hours, or until the ham is falling off the bone and the vegetables are tender.

This is a very versatile recipe: use whatever root vegetables you've got on hand that you feel like including. It's wonderful with parnsip, turnip (rutabaga), etc. Just enjoy! And like most soups & stews, it's even better the next night. And if you happen to do the baked beans recipe (which I'll have to post at some point) as well, it's fabulous mixed in with this.

Addition Part 3 - Raising the Roof

We're now pretty much past the weather-critical work, so we'll see how it progresses, but we're so excited that we've got to this point. Len has worked very hard constructing the pieces and figuring out how he'd manage to put it all together. It was a bit of a nail-bitter when the crane engaged the roof, but when the tension caught and everything lifted all beautifully in one go, it was perfect!

Addition Part 2 - Raising the Walls

Addition Part 1 - Construction & Deconstruction

We've had some delays with the construction of the addition to the house, but the bits are finally constructed and installed, yay!! So here's a quick review of the process for your viewing pleasure, broken into three posts.

Baby Led Weaning - an update

OK, we are totally hooked!! All of us are thoroughly enjoying this baby led weaning thing. Kate is having fun, we're amazed at what she'll try and what she actually manages to consume, and mealtimes are just so joyful. I know that Dave & Mom were both quite skeptical, Mom especially worried about the choking hazard possibilities, and while that's not completely eliminated (hey, we eat & breathe out of the same hole, choking is a risk for everyone), Kate seems to be developing the skills needed to successfully maneuver her food around safely. As long as we provide her with safe shapes and textures within reason, she's been pretty good at managing her food very well. She does gag now and then (much more at the beginning) as she would hit her gag point and try to move the food around, but she's definitely figuring things out very well.

I have been grappling with the dilemma of choosing between the order of foods I'm supposed to be introducing Kate to and following the concept of letting Kate try different things. We're balancing it somewhat, and I'm not being a very strict adherent to the order, although I am keeping her away from cow's milk products until she's at least a year (as she's demonstrated a reaction to milk proteins), and probably will wait until she's at least a year before introducing legumes & wheat due to intolerance demonstrated in our family. Other than that, we're having a great time exploring new foods together.

Baby Led Weaning

We are hugely enjoying parenthood. Yes, we're exhausted, yes it's an enormous challenge physically, mentally and psychologically, yes it is overwhelming. And it's fantastic. It is so much fun watching Kate develop and to see the changes as she gets more and more control over her actions. We didn't have any experience with babies, and I figured that babies were just lumps until they were a few months old; so I was sure surprised to find that Kate had a definite personality right from day one, and it's only got stronger.

What we've just started recently is introducing Kate to solids, and we're doing it through the "baby led weaning" methodology (thanks to Mila's Daydreams for the inspiration, otherwise I would never have known about it). So instead of spoon feeding her mush, then graduating up to solid solids, we're giving her pieces of whole food with appropriate shapes and "handles", and the argument is if she can support herself sitting comfortably, has sufficient development to pick up the food and bring it to her mouth, and be given the opportunity to work out how to move the food around her mouth on her own, she'll be able to feed herself when she's ready. Obviously, we have to provide her with healthy choices, and to not give her physically dangerous shapes or textures, but otherwise, if she's given the opportunity to figure it out on her own, with plenty of time, then she'll manage ok on her own. I really liked the idea, so here we are trying it.

Kate has been sitting up quite well for some time, but I didn't want to introduce her to solids until she was at least 6 months. Instead, we've been sitting her up at the table with us when we eat, and we gave her a baby spoon (plastic & silicone) to play with on her tray along with some other toys. She worked on getting it to her mouth, and figuring out how not to gag herself with it. Then we progressed to raw carrot sticks that she could do the same process; once she got something with flavour to suck on, the spoon was history. I was going to keep up with the raw carrot sticks for a bit longer, but yesterday we got some sweet potato fries on the ferry, and she was all eyes, so we thought "what the heck". We found one long enough for her and let her grab it and straight to mouth and suck suck suck, and grumpy pants when we didn't want to give her any more (they were a bit too salty so I didn't want to overdue it; besides, it was just an experiment).

Hmmm. OK. So last night, her Grandma prepared her some separate roasted veggies (with the appropriate dimensions and no added salt), and I cut a stick off for her from my steak, and she was hugely happy. She noshed on the squash right away, then tried the French fingerling potato (white shot with pink), then really sucked away at the steak, and finally tried the purple potato. We were fascinated at what she wanted to pick first and the fact that she ignored the purple coloured food until last, but once she tasted it and realized it was the same as the potato she'd been enjoying, she really got into it. This morning was some apple, banana and mango slices. She tried them all, but banana was the first and primo choice. The mango produced some consternation and a decision that she wasn't really that interested in the mouth feel or taste but loved the hand-squishiness of it! The apple was a bit of a challenge to get a handle on but she did enjoy sucking on it.

A whole new dimension has been opened up, for her and for us! What fun (and what a mess!).

Winter Relief

We had our first snow of the season (Kate's first snow!) and it's still sticking around as the Arctic outflow is keeping temperatures down. Rather unusual for here in November; that's more like January. So we're all suffering from really dry skin and chapped lips & cheeks this week. So off to the pantry to mix up some winter relief.

Rich Body Lotion

A beautiful thick lotion that feels silky going on and smells even better.

Step one:

Steep about 1 tbsp herbal blend (I use 1 tsp rose petals, 1 tsp comfrey root, and about 2 tsp calendula petals) in:

100 mL boiling water (distilled is recommended)

for at least 15 minutes. Drain into a ceramic dish or glass measure to cool. Once cool, add:

2 tbsp aloe vera juice
2 tsp witch hazel extract

Step 2:

Melt in non-reactive double boiler (I place the oils in a ceramic bowl over a pot of water and simmer):

100 mL carrier oil (I use grapeseed oil)
1/2 tsp grated cocoa butter
2 tsp grated beeswax
2 tbsp shea butter

Once the oils have been melted, get the temperature up to 175 F (I use a candy thermometer), keep stirring & heating for at least 20 minutes to properly and completely melt the shea butter, otherwise it'll crystalize into little bits in your mixture once cooled.

Let the oils cool down once finished, so that they're still at least mushy if not totally liquid, but not still super hot.

Step 3:

Gradually pour your herbal liquid mixture into your oils while using a stick blender to thoroughly beat everything together until creamy. Make sure to do this part gradually and thoroughly so that a proper emulsion forms, otherwise you'll get separation of the oil & water. You may wish to add essential oils at this point; I use about 10-15 drops altogether, but you can use up to 25-30 drops. Suggested essential oils would include lavender, citrus, rose geranium, depending on what you need or what the purpose is for.

Lip Balm

...which also doubles as a great baby bum balm!

Essentially, you want these proportions:

20% beeswax
25% solid at room temperature (e.g. coconut oil or shea butter)
15% brittle at room temperature (e.g. cocoa butter)
40% liquid at room temperature (e.g. pomace olive oil or grapeseed oil, cold pressed for either)

So when I make it, I use:

20 g beeswax
25 g shea butter
15 g cocoa butter
40 g grapeseed oil

plus
1 tbsp total of rose petals & calendula petals
10 drops of essential oil (e.g. lavender, tea tree, rose geranium)

I heat up the grapeseed oil separately in a Pyrex measure in the microwave, then infuse about 1 tbsp altogether of rose petals and calendula petals while the other oils are melting & heating, then strain it. If you're coordinated enough, you could do this a few days in advance so that the herbs have some opportunity to infuse into the oil; if you do, keep the oil in a warm spot, like a sunny windowsill (hah! around here?) or on top of the refrigerator.

As with the lotion, I heat up the beeswax, shea and cocoa butters in a double boiler, heat to 175F and hold for 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Once that's done, I add the strained oil infusion to the hot mixture and bring it back up to 175F, stirring. You can remove from heat, let cool a little, and stir in any essential oils at this point if you wish. I pour it into clean plastic jars that I got for the purpose (a long time ago), but I'm sure Tupperware/Rubbermaid or margarine/cottage cheese/cream cheese containers would be just fine. Let cool, and it'll solidify quite solidly. You have to scrape it a bit with your finger or thumbnail and rub it in your hands to soften it a bit before applying, but it works really well once warmed. If you want it a little less solid, you can always change the proportions by increasing the amount of grapeseed oil in the recipe.

Whipped Shea Butter

This is now my favourite dry skin relief.

10 oz Shea butter (preferably unrefined, cold pressed or however the equivalent works for it)
6 oz carrier oil (I used grapeseed oil)
essential oils

Melt the shea & oil in a double boiler (as before, I use a ceramic bowl set over a pot of boiling water) and bring up to 175F. Keep at that temperature, stirring regularly, for 20 minutes.

Cool over a bowl of ice water, add your essential oils, then whip using a hand mixer or stand mixer, until it reaches "soft peak" stage (like whipping egg whites or whipping cream). I didn't wait that long; mine got just to the equivalent of "trace" when making soap (which means you can dribble some of the mixture over the surface and write with the dribbling). Pour into your clean containers, and it'll set up into a mousse/paté like consistency.

This makes a HUGE batch, so feel free to halve or even quarter the recipe; although with one family member that has psoriasis, one with eczema, and all of us with dry hands, we'll go through it pretty darned fast. The consistency when cool is fabulous, creamy smooth, it melts into the skin instantly and stays moisturized for a long time.

Pickle-y Goodness

Dave & I visited family in Ottawa a couple of years back, and while we were there, we went to the Canada Agriculture Museum. While we were there, one of the demonstrators was canning up pickled carrot sticks. Before I started preserving the harvest, I wasn't that huge of a pickle fanatic; I mean, I like some pickles, but I know that some people like all kinds of pickled things. These pickled carrots were absolutely marvellous. So I knew I had to have the recipe, and lo! they had the recipe right there for us to take away.

Pickled Carrot Sticks

4 lbs carrots, peeled & cut into 4" sticks
6 fresh dill sprigs or 3 tsp dill seed
18 peppercorns
6 cloves garlic, peeled & thickly sliced
3 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup honey

• Boil water, vinegar & honey
• Raw pack carrots with 1 clove garlic, 3 peppercorns and one sprig of fresh dill or 1/2 tsp dill seed per scalded pint jar.
• Pour hot liquid over carrots to 1/4" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
• Process for 15 minutes in boil water bath canner (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

And of course, if you're pickling, why not do pickled cucumbers?

Dill Slices

4 lbs medium cucumbers
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup pickling salt
4 cups cider vinegar (see *Note below)
4 cups water
3 tbsp pickling spices in tea ball or spice bag
5 bay leaves
5 garlic cloves, peeled & thickly sliced
5 heads fresh dill or 5 tsp dried dill seed
2 1/2 tsp mustard seed

• Wash cucumbers, scrubbing lightly with soft vegetable brush to remove spines. Cut 1/8" off blossom end and discard. Cut into 1/4" slices or rounds
• Combine water, vinegar and salt, and place tea ball or spice bag of spices in, bring to a boil & simmer 15 minutes.
• Add honey, dissolve, and bring back to boil.
• Into each scalded pint jar, place 1 bay leaf, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp mustard seed and 1 head of fresh dill or 1 tsp dill seed.
• Pack cucumber slices into hot jar with 3/4" headspace. Add hot pickling liquid and cover to within 1/2" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
• Process in boil water bath canner for 15 minutes (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

Note: When I do this recipe, I always get about 1 L of liquid left over from 6 pint jars. As a result, I've got pickling liquid left for another batch.

We have usually an over-abundance of lovely French filet green beans (we grow Maxibel), and while we freeze a lot, we thought it'd be nice to try some kind of pickle recipe. This one is a winner, and is fantastic with dumplings like pot-stickers.

Dilled Green Beans

4 lbs green beans, tipped & snapped into pieces (of course, if you want to have competition worthy beans, then Blue Lake is apparently king, and you want them cut exactly to fit your pint jars. Meh, I say; I just wanna eat them!)
4 cups cider vinegar
4 cups water
1/2 cup pickling salt
1/3 cup honey
3 tbsp pickling spices into tea ball or spice bag
7 cloves garlic, peeled and cut thickly
3 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
7 heads fresh dill heads or 7 tsp dried dill seeds

• Bring to boil vinegar, water, salt & spices; reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add honey, dissolve, & bring back to boil.
• Into scalded pint jars, place one clove garlic, 1/2 tsp mustard seed, 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes, 1 head fresh dill or 1 tsp dill seed.
• Pack bean pieces into hot jars.
• Ladle hot pickling liquid into jars, leaving 1/2" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
• Process in boiling water bath canner for 10 mintues (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

Impossible Pie

I had this dessert for the first time at my best friend's house when I was in my early teens, and thought it was just so awesome that I got the recipe from her mum. What makes this impossible is that all the ingredients get piled into a blender or food processor, and the end result has three distinct layers: a crust, a middle, and a topping. Pretty cool, huh?

The original recipe calls for milk, but as I'm on a total dairy elimination diet for my little girl's eczema, we thought we'd try it with coconut milk instead. We're never going back. It was incredible.

We've also done this recipe using a can of pumpkin, and it works really well too. So in the following recipe, replace the coconut milk with actual milk, and just add a can of pumpkin puree, eliminate the coconut, and add some pumpkin pie spicing as desired.

Impossible Pie

4 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup flour
2 cups coconut milk (take a 400 mL can of rich, full coconut milk, not skim, and make up the difference with water)
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup grated coconut
2 tsp vanilla extract

Blender the eggs first. Add oil & coconut milk & blend again. Add remaining ingredients and blend until fully mixed. Pour into greased 10" pie plate and bake at 350F for 1 hour (check at 45 minutes if your oven runs hot), or until centre is firm, and top is toasted a golden brown.

UPDATE: While quite tasty hot, it's even better chilled and eaten cold the next day. It might be something like soups and stews, it improves with sitting in the fridge over night. If you can manage to keep your fork out of it until then, I recommend it!