WANT.

This is so fantastic. Want want want want.

Indulge Your Desire for Precision With the OCD Cutting Board

 Adrian Covert — Like perfectly-sized portions? Want to cut your sandwich at a perfect 45 degree angle? Need to know how to julienne? Allumette? Dice? Slice? The OCD cutting board provides a highly-scientific way to break your food apart. [The Awesomer viaCrunchGear] 

Spinach Cheese based thing.

So, in much the same vein as other posts of mine have been exceedingly slow in coming, this one has been a long time in the making as well. In fact, its probably been nearly a month since I made it, but better late than never, said the late man.

Leah gets the credit for making this, but I had a go at replicating it, sans food processor over here in the boonies of Edinburgh.

Ingredients:
Some* spinach, chopped up as fine as y ou can with a dull knife.
Some* cheese, preferably mozzerella, but shredded white cheddar will do in a pinch.
1 Egg

Shred the spinach and mix thoroughly with the egg and cheese, put onto a greased baking tray, or onto a pizza stone. I don't have a pizza stone, but it might make this recipe "crisp up" a bit better on the bottom.
Cooked on about 200 C.

*I know there are 1 cup measurements for these things, but A) I hate measuring things that have the capacity to be compressed and potentially fill more than their volumetric measurements suggest, and B) I don't have a measuring cup to begin with.

So we press on!

The point of this was making a bread substitute type thing, sort of akin to a pizza crust, but without all of the flour. It was...interesting. Mine always seems to eggy or too spinach-y. It probably helps to measure it out in terms of mass, or even volume, but perhaps I'll have another go sooner or later. This attempt was more or less successful, and I used it as a foundation for eating guacamole topped with more cheese. Yeah guacamole!

An update on yogurt making

We've had a few successes with yogurt making, but I was getting tired of constantly "babysitting" my yogurt while it was incubating. I decided to try (again) with the crock pot.

I followed all the same steps, except that, instead of letting it sit in a pre-heated oven, I let it sit in a warm water bath in my crock pot set to low. I did not put the lid on my crock pot, as this seemed to keep the temperature around 120 degrees (too high). With the lid off, the temp stayed a constant 110 degrees. No need to babysit! I let it incubate for 24 hours. The little guy is eating it up right now.

Paleo crackers were a success! Next: pate!

I'm pretty excited to try making pate, but I figured that I should master a grain free cracker recipe, first. Since the little one seems to react to tree nuts and dairy, I decided to try for tree nut free and dairy free crackers. This recipe is seriously the easiest cracker recipe ever, and B ate the whole batch in one sitting (well, I might have snuck one or two)!
I ground up hulled sunflower seeds in my coffee grinder to make a flour. I might try mixing some sesame seeds and flax seeds next time, too.
I mixed a cup of my "flour" in with one egg. I added a few dashes of paprika, but the flavor of the seeds really overpowered the paprika, so I think I'll just skip it next time. My seeds were already salted, but I would probably have added salt if they weren't.
I lined a baking sheet with foil and spooned the batter onto the foil. I then topped the batter with a sheet of wax paper. I rolled the batter as thin as possible with a rolling pin. Then, I removed the wax paper and cut the crackers into squares with a knife.

I then baked at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. At this point, the edges were browning but the crackers were still slightly soft. So, I turned the oven down to 200 degrees and baked for another 5 minutes. They were perfect!

Not beautiful, but tasty.

I think he liked them, too :)

Ok here goes.

Guacamole is the perfect food group, if you didn't already know. It also the most wonderful representation of Southwest cuisine that can be prepared given the availability of ingredients in the UK.With that in mind, I elected to use it as my representative at the Mountaineering Club Ceilidh.

Now, we need to get something straight between my cooking practices and the normal stuff you find on the internets. I still employ my moms process of 'a handful of this' or 'a dash of that'. Whilst I am perfectly capable and amenable to using actual metric or imperial measurements, I also tend to make stuff up, so if what I try turns out, I may not always be able to exactly replicate it.

So, without further ado: Guac!

18 (yes 18! There were boatloads of people there) avocados

6 7 tomatoes

6 4 small onions

6 limes

6 cloves garlic

Sea salt to taste

Black Pepper to taste

Cilantro (A.K.A. coriander in the Eastern Hemisphere) (not pictured) (about half of a 'bunch' that you'd purchase in your local grocery store)

That's a lot of bleedin avocados! Now let me note that straight away, I feel like 6 limes was too much taste wise. You get super strong on the citrus and it overpowers the creamyness of the avocado. Also, I stopped adding onion when it seemed appropriate, which occurred for me at about 4 small onions. Any more, and I fear it would be overdoing it. And I added an extra tomato to the mix, just for fun.

It turned out to be a pretty colorful mix, and it tasted pretty good, but there are several changes that could have made it even better. As stated before, less lime. probably about half the amount of lime would do, and about twice the amount of garlic. Additionally, Chili powder would absolutely rock the world of this recipe. Weirdly, I forgot to photograph the finished product. Ah well, I made a video of the delightfully visceral sounds that it makes when you mash it all up with the end of a rolling pin. Enjoy!

Choucroute: my tribute to Alsace

Ok, so I don't actually know if I like sauerkraut, but that doesn't mean I can't learn to make it! I figure I am pretty much obligated to acquire the taste, since choucroute garnie is a specialty of my favorite region in France.
So, as I'm on a fermenting kick, I decided to try my hand at making sauerkraut myself.

 My experiment resulted from a combination of several "how to" tutorials I found on-line. So we'll see how it turns out.

• First, I washed my cabbage in purified water.
• Then, I shredded in the food processor
• I put in a bowl and added 1 tablespoon of sea salt (no iodine added) and 1/4 cup of whey (found a use for it!)

• I pounded the cabbage down with a mallet for about 15 seconds, and let it sit for 15 minutes to let the salt draw out the liquid

• Finally, I put it in a mason jar, pushing the cabbage down so that all the cabbage was covered with water. Then, screwed on the lid tightly

.

 

Now, I just have to wait 3 weeks. I'll update in April! Can't wait to try choucroute garnie!!

Oh, by the way, I may be a little obsessed with fermenting these days...I may need to find a new hobby:

Finally, I did successfully refill my printer ink, so I can cross that off the list. No pictures, because, hey, it's not a very picturesque process.

Baconnaise!

Attempt one to make Syris approved, paleo friendly mayonnaise :)

Here we have a room temperature egg yolk, half a tablespoon of mustard, and a cruet full (1/2-3/4 cup) of warm bacon drippings (yum).
The actual emulsifying process is not as difficult as it seems, just beat the yolk/mustard constantly (I used the beater pictured, but I've heard food processors/blenders work too) while very slowly adding your fat of choice. I like the cruet because it keeps the pouring steady but slow. I kept my bowl on a damp towel to keep it from sliding all over the place.

Eventually, it ends up looking something like this. It seems counter-intuitive, but the more oil that is added, the thicker the mayonnaise.
At this point, I added a splash of apple cidar vinegar. This lightens the mayonnaise and adds flavor. Salt and pepper can be added to taste.

Finally, I added a teaspoon of whey and left the mayonnaise to sit, covered, on the counter for a few hours. This lacto-ferments the mayonnaise, making it slightly thicker and last longer in the refrigerator.
We'll call this experience a semi-success, as the mayonnaise did turn out and worked great in my broiled tilapia recipe. However, I didn't love the flavor or thickness (darn saturated fats) in my deviled eggs. I think next time I might try half bacon drippings with another, less saturated fat (maybe light olive oil?).

I got cultured: success with homemade yogurt (finally!)

Previously, I have not had success with projects dealing with fermentation (moldy fruit scrap vinegar, a dead sourdough starter, you get the point). But, finally, I accomplished homemade yogurt, and it was really easy. I'm excited because I now know that my lil guy is getting grass fed, minimally processed yogurt (and I don't mind the savings, either ;) ).

Steps:

• Fill pint size mason jar about 1 inch from the top with milk (preferably whole)
• Heat milk to 180 degrees in a boiling water bath
• Screw lid on jar and cool milk in a cold water bath to around 100 degrees (specifically in the 90-120 degree range)
• While milk cools, allow yogurt starter (just plain, store bought yogurt) to come to room temperature on the counter
• Also, preheat oven to 150 degrees
•  When milk has reached desired temperature, turn off the oven, wrap the mason jar in a towel and place the mason jar in the OFF oven. Latch the door (if applicable) to prevent heat from escaping
• After 4-24 hrs (I waited 4.5), the yogurt is finished! It's best to check the oven every few hours to make sure it is still warm

I strained mine in a coffee filter lined colander in the fridge for about 2 hours. You can see my yogurt (yay!) on the right, and the whey on the left. I think I may let it culture a bit longer next time to see if I get more yogurt and less whey that way. I'm not really sure why it made so much. Still, it's real, edible yogurt. So we'll call it a success!

 (Toddler approved!)

Ok, the first [real] post.

It's an interesting idea to try out cooking everything from scratch, and there's not much more 'from scratch' than growing your own vegetables. So Leah's having a go at growing some of the basics. We'll see how it goes, as she's a bit nervous about keeping anything in the apartment alive that's green. Also, I'm ghostwriting for her as may be apparent. We'll throw some updates on as the plants grow and progress. Check it out!

I am not a foodie.

I eat food. But foodie? No. So to engineer a blog that consists of food and home-economics style updates is a bit of a foray into the new. But hey, I'll have a go.