Food for Thought

Tuesday evening I played with my favorite autumn side dish: apples 'n onions.  I decided to ignore the entire way I'd been taught to make them and instead work with the ingredients as I would with the skills I have now.

Here's the result:

Caramelized Apples 'n Onions:

1 large Videlia onion, French cut
3 medium to large apples, cored and French cut (I used Kikos)
6 Tbls. butter, divided into 1 Tbls. chunks
a good pinch of Kosher salt (to taste)
3 dashes of cinnamon (to taste)
2 dashes of cardamom (to taste)
3 c. apple juice (you will need enough liquid to cover the apples in your skillet)
1 Tbls. dark brown sugar

- Melt 2 Tbls. butter in a large skillet and saute onions until a few of them begin to brown.

- Add 2 Tbls. butter and the apples and cook until a few apples start to brown.

- Sprinkle cinnamon, cardamom, and salt over the apples and onions and pour enough apple juice over them to just cover the piece.  Raise burner heat to high and bring the juice to a boil.  Cover and simmer over low heat until apples are cooked through.

- Either use a slotted spoon and remove the apples and onions from the liquid or use a strainer to separate solids from liquid, returning the liquid to the pan.

- Reduce the liquid until only 1/3 volume remains, stirring in the dark brown sugar.  Remove from heat and stir in the last 2 Tbls. butter to finish the sauce.  Pour sauce over apples 'n onions.  Enjoy!

Sometimes it's worth revisiting old recipes and recreating them using new skills and knowledge.

On Wednesday and Friday I took the apples 'n onions a step further.

I started with store bought pizza crusts... I didn't have the time nor inclination to mess with making my own.  Then I made a béchamel sauce and threw in some mozzarella cheese to make it lovely and gooey, a bit of dried chili flake for a kick, and a bit of salt.

Once the sauce was in place I added some apple and onion slices, carefully removed from their caramel sauce.  Then I added some of the smoked pork butt roast from Sunday's dinner.  I topped it off with a 12-year aged white cheddar cheese.

Wednesday's results showed us the idea was good, but it needed more coverage from the toppings.  For Friday's pizza, FH suggested that I cut the pork finer to give better coverage and spread the flavor around more.  We didn't skimp on the cheddar cheese on Friday either.

That's all for this week.  My store-bought pastry treat on Friday didn't agree with me.  To be blunt, I've been recovering from a suspected case of food poisoning all weekend.  Luckily, FH didn't share my treat and was spared being ill.  I think next time I'll just make my own dessert too.

See you next week!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I made two different attempts at a classic party dish this week.  I'd never made deviled eggs before and saw a fun way to dress them up on a really cool food blog.  I think they're going to be a hit at the next guild meeting I host here.  They were good, but the whites tasted more like a pickle than an egg white.

 I also did some in a darker green, just because, for the second attempt.  This time the outside weren't overly vinegary.  I gave the whites a quick rinse after pulling them out of the dye.  This time they were perfect.

The appliqued violets are finished, waiting for Tuesday's guild meeting to be turned into a tool case.

That's all for this week.  I was busy running around for several days, hence the lack of projects.  Friday I visited a historic home in Bloomington, IL that would be a gorgeous dollhouse.  The David Davis Mansion is a stunning home that was constructed between 1870 and 1872.  Pictures were not allowed in order to better preserve the antiques.  I will have to go back with a sketch pad and colored pencils sometime.  The ceilings in the public rooms are all hand painted with different floral motifs.  The hall stand in the front hall can hold six gentlemen's hats and is graced with a bronze stag's head on top.  The hat hooks are all carved animal heads as well.

I know I'm going back between Mother's Day and Father's Day.  That's when the gardens are in full bloom. Happily they allow cameras in the garden.  All the plants are either original to the garden (and thus very old) or have been replaced using information from letters written by Sarah Davis and the help of other historic gardens.  Many of the replacement plants have come from Monticello, as did several of the original plants.

That's all for this week.  Happy crafting!

I Need A Break From My Break

First I want to thank everyone for the kind words about 'Bert.  It's still painful but we're surviving.  Tempie has the run of the basement everyday now.  FH and I have discussed letting her roam 24/7 but we keep coming up with reasons to crate her at night.  So I think it's going to stay that way.

I was hostess to the embroidery group from Guild today.  This group meets first thing in the morning and goes until people need or want to leave.  It's also one of the smaller groups and it's fun for those who love entertaining to really go all out.  I'm one of those delusional people in case you hadn't figured that out.  As an example the ladies usually bring their lunches but I told them in advance that I would be providing a light lunch if they were inclined to partake.

Since any and all planned productivity on Sunday was a complete wash I had to play catch up on Monday and Tuesday.  Not really feeling like cleaning, baking, or having company didn't help the situation but (as my middle sister would say) I put on my big girl panties and dealt with it.

Monday I bought all my baking supplies and other treats and started the cleaning.  Tuesday I finished cleaning and did all the prep work like pressing linens, washing my milk glass plates and cups, and dug the second table leaf out of storage.

Here's the final result:

 I didn't make these candies but they were just so pretty I thought you might like to see them up close:

 

 Now for the fun part.  I absolutely love Alton Brown's Blueberry Muffin recipe, but I wanted there to be some variety in flavor.  Since each batch only makes 1 dozen I made two batches and divided them both in half.

So we had blueberry, lemon poppy seed, cranberry orange, and cherry white chocolate chip muffins at breakfast.  There was also a selection of fresh fruit.

 I used my favorite snickerdoodle recipe (scroll down you'll see it) and forgot that I usually chill the dough before baking.  The result were yummy cookies that were more like proper biscuits from across the pond.  Oh darn. ;-)  I usually just keep cookies/biscuits in a biscuit jar on the buffet when we have company.  It lets the "snackers" snack without me feeling rushed to get to the real dessert.

For lunch I served fresh fruit, little spicy rice crackers that are flavored with lemon and chili,  green bean chips, four varieties of cheese (Brie, smoked Gouda, fresh mozzarella, and marscapone), and water crackers.

And for the finale, an Orange Cake.  Juice and zest from fresh oranges in both the cake and the frosting.  I found the recipe in an old Family Circle cookbook.  Very easy and extremely good.  FH solved the problem of the original calling for an egg yolk in the un-cooked frosting.  He beat one in a double boiler with a little lemon juice added.  It worked beautifully and the result was an extremely rich frosting.

I couldn't find a link to the recipe, but given the book is older than I am I'm not shocked.  If you'd like it just send me an email.

I'm going to go put my feet up somewhere... after I find a lemon poppyseed muffin and some tea.  Hopefully I'll be back on track with the Nursery tomorrow.

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Happy (belated)Thanksgiving to all my blog friends.  FH and I have been busy for the last several days with prep work.  My parents came up for the holiday and we cooked a feast.  Everything with the exception of the pumpkin pie was home-made.  [FH was given the pie by the Red Cross for donating blood Tuesday night.  One less thing I needed to bake and it wasn't bad.  My pies are better though.]

Everything went smoothly except for the weather.  It was so cold after three hours of smoking the bird FH had to bring it inside so it would finish properly.  However it only delayed getting to the table by thirty minutes.

Hickory smoked turkey, before carving.

Set table, complete with shaped napkins.

Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread dressing, blue cranberries, and plain cranberries.

Pumpkin pie, stir-fried broccoli, turkey, green beans with almonds, cherry-pecan cake, grape tomatoes, clemintine oranges, the sulphide-free wines, and chocolate.

Plate lacking bread dressing, since I forgot it.  Also the home-made dinner rolls.

Tea with cream and sugar.

Blackberry cobbler with ice cream.

Late night snack that FH whipped together for us.

A cure for leftovers: turkey salad with dried cranberries, pecans, celery, sweet onion, egg, and mayonnaise on home-made honey-oat bread.

Same sandwich bt with home-grown cabbage and carrot sprouts.

Not bad for the first big dinner that involved parts of the family.

Afterward I was able to get a bit of stitching in.

Crochet-top towel for my stash of gifts.

Ornament for the Guild exchange next month.

I'm off to go sleep off the leftovers.  Night all!

And People Wonder Why I Don't Loose Weight

I just keep finding new ways to have it stick around. 

Monday night I whipped up some Snickerdoodles to take to Guild, so of course some came back home with me.

Today I tried out a recipe for blueberry-lemon scones.

 

FH isn't much help either when he makes lovely dinners like this: 

 

 Moroccan beef over couscous with stir fried broccoli... it may sound healthy, but only if you can manage to control how much to eat.  ;-)

Tonight's Culinary Delight

Tonight's dinner: Campanile topped with beets and heirloom tomato from the garden that were simmered in beef broth. Toppings on that are feta, ripe olives,prosciutto, and pistachios.
Another fantastic meal by FH!

Dinner and A Warning

I'm still feeling unwell, so this week I'll be blogging on and off about the various noms that come out of FH's kitchen. Yes, the kitchen is mainly his territory.

First dinner provided by the ever lovely and eternally fuzzy husband:Cucumber stuffed with prosciutto and a mixture of ricotta, feta, and dill, served alongside a cheddar-bacon bratwurst.

Now the warning:

In case the overly corpulent, buck-toothed, sneak-thief, and lastly CHEEKY whistle-pig that resides in our neighbor's yard is stealing internet access in addition to our tomatoes and my flowers is able to read this, your days are numbered. I find myself in need of groundhog pelts to line a cloak hood for winter Rendezvous season and FH has discovered that he may lawfully help your mortal coil shuffle off provided he speaks to the neighbors, get this year's hunting license, and uses his bow. Your days are numbered you wannabe Phil.

Refries with a Twist... Literally

Not my normal modus operandi, but I didn't think about soaking beans two days ago. Usually I use dried beans, soak them overnight, boil them with spices, cool them overnight, and the refry them. But this worked well in a pinch and has some different flavor.

1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
one half of a sweet onion, minced
2 stalks of green onion, slice thin
1 Tblsp minced garlic
2-3 tsps bacon fat
1 tsp lime zest
black pepper to taste

Melt bacon fat in deep skillet (non stick or cast iron is best) and add the onions and garlic.
Once the onions start to become transparent add the lime zest and some black pepper.
Dump the beans into the skillet and wait for the liquid to start bubbling.
Use a potato masher and start crushing the beans. Stir often to make sure you get all the beans crushed.
Cook uncovered on low until desired thickness is reached. Remember that once the beans start to cool they will thicken up even more.

*Notes:
Normally I use more sweet onion; once when I boil the beans the second day and again when I refry them the third day. I wanted to use up the available onions in the fridge today.

Canned beans are cooked with a good deal of salt and I cooked the onions in bacon fat, therefore I didn't add any additional salt. Some folks dislike refried beans because they are too salty. Homemade refries do not have nearly as much salt as the pre-canned types and have a more nutty flavor.

The lime zest added a nice bit of "zing" to the regular flavors. It's not something I would want all the time, but it was quite nice.

Wednesday and Thursday's Work

It's time to relax after running errands and making minis. I've got a pint of stout and an interesting concoction for rice, ginger, sweet onion, beef heart, and Thai sweet chili sauce that tastes like an Asian version of haggis. I like it.

Yesterday I stained pieces for a small bed to put in the Greenleaf and added more accessories to their final destinations.

Today I assembled the bed.You can see my pint behind it. After I'm sure the glue is dry I will hit it with spray varnish... probably tomorrow.

I also found a second dog for the Greenleaf. Her name is Petunia.
I decided it was hard to tell see was a she, so I gave her a bow. I thought of Marsha while I was doing this, so I chose pink! ;-)
Isn't she pretty? :-)

I might still give her a collar. Not sure. If I do I'll use a strip of black leather leftover from covering the Poe project and put sparkly bits on it. Aren't you proud of me, Marsha? ;-)

Tonight I'm looking for solid color fabric that isn't yellow to dress the mattress with.

Tomorrow I need to finish the baseboards and get the rafters in place. Then maybe I can finish the outside of the building, since there isn't much left to do for it.

Saturday I'm gone all day to a Rendezvous. No minis for me. Sunday I might start trying to make Patch and Petunia's owner...maybe.

That's all for now. I've got quite a bit to get done before Monday's deadline. I haven't even dug through the garage for a base to landscape and set the building on. Ugh. I will probably do that tomorrow too.

At this point if I get it presentable to enter the contest, cool. If not, at least I've got a good chunk of work done straight on one project. That's a rarity around these parts. ;-)

Gardening

After a bit of cleaning in the kitchen, FH and I went out for a picnic lunch in the park and then began seriously looking for heirloom tomato plants.

We found two different heirlooms, different from the ones we enjoyed last year. Along with a regular Roma hybrid, we brought home a Pink Brandywine and a Mr. Stripey. FH found some heirloom French carrot seeds as well. And I convinced him to get four different chile plants and some bush beans.

FH bought some pansys and tulips for me. Everything is planted now and we're back inside relaxing.

Castor and Pollux were "backseat gardening" through the screen door.

Sometimes Ups Outnumber the Downs

No work for FH today! Huzzah for a three day weekend!

Today started with FH and I taking Castor to the vet. He has lost two pounds since before Yule. The vet drew some blood and gave him some fluids. We will know more tomorrow when the blood tests are done.

After we got home I found this beauty in the mailbox:
Isn't it adorable!?! Love the bunnies! Hand crafted by Alice of Double Purr! Thank you again, Alice!

Then I put together three parcels for the mail and we went into Peoria for shopping and lunch.

A new restaurant opened in town called Feldan's. It's locally owned and run by a married couple who do all of the cooking themselves. There is a buffet, regular menu, and full bar. How rare is it to find a buffet who silverware is wrapped in napkins and wiped spotless before it's wrapped? I mean spotless. The entire place is clean. The decor is very comfortable and casual, the music is jazz, and the food is fabulous! We will be going back in the future.

After shopping we treated ourselves to a nap. A rare luxury these days.

To further brighten my day, Castor has been in the office with the most recent paper wad and begging me to throw it for him. Apparently the fluids today have made him feel quite a bit better. Hopefully we will know a course of treatment tomorrow morning.

Cupcake Goodness

So a friend of mine found a recipe for Grasshopper cupcakes on the blog sixoneseven. I just made a batch and they are absolutely wonderful!
There is a York peppermint patty on the inside. Mmmmm.....
I'm taking these to the Rendezvous sewing circle in the morning.

Mmmmmm

The taste of fresh cinnamon bread that completely lacks raisins (the fleas of Satan) is one of the best tastes I've had in a while. The swirl of spice is evenly distributed and generously thick. The crust is delicate and flaky. All things considered, it is the best cinnamon bread I've had in my life. What's even better is I didn't have to bake it! ;-)

The wonderful brothers at St. Benedict's Abbey baked this bread, along with many other types, and offer them for sale via a local farmers' market. The Heritage Farmer's Market doesn't advertise except by word of mouth. They have no website. In fact if you didn't know they were next door to a vet's office in Tazewell County, off of Route 9, between Tremont and Pekin, you would never find them. They sell only foods and crafts that are produced locally. Meats, cheeses, breads, preserves, home-canned vegetables, candles, honey, and even wine from the same abbey.

FH and I took a field trip out there last Saturday and we will be returning. We're almost out of bread... and we'll have cooked up the pork steaks this week. Oh yeah, they have fudge too. Really, really good fudge. The lady makes it with local cream. It's awesome. We brought home some Snickers and Amaretto varieties. I think FH forgot we have it, since the Snickers flavor is still intact.

We were lucky enough to meet one of the brothers from the abbey. He was there with his knitting. He and I talked about good science fiction, baking, Canada (he's Canadian), and hockey. FH gabbed with the owner for a while about everything. They got along great. The owner's wife is the veternarian next door. She and I talked about critters, the benefits of eating locally/organically, and chemical allergies/sensitivites. All in all it was a fun day. I believe we'll be heading back there this Saturday.

Sick bunny and bunnydaddy

Albert Wilbert is feeling a bit under the weather. From the looks of things he's probably working on a bit of a hairball. I'm guessing nobody brushed him while I was so sick after Thanksgiving... I know I didn't have the strength to hold him then.

So since it's Saturday/Sunday and the best rabbit vet is 200+ miles away, we're administering canned pumpkin mixed with banana baby food via syringe and forcing extra water. If I don't like the feel of his skin tomorrow (too loose) we're going to give him some sub-q fluids... that shouldn't be necessary though. Thankfully we've been through the mill with our other bunny to the point that our vet back in St. Louis loaded us up with various things to create a lapine critical care hospital in our living room and the knowledge about giving fluids and force feeding.

From the looks of the litterbox his kidneys and bladder are functioning well. It's just his bowels that are not their usual selves. The last time this happened two rounds of force feeding is all it took to set him straight. I'm hoping that works this time around. Otherwise I may have to somehow get the two of us to St. Louis.

FH has a nasty cough that is sounding drier and more painful by the day. He's coughed his back out and I'm starting to try and use logic to persuede him to see a doctor. Apparently the pain he's currently in still isn't enough to get him to see reason...not even when added to the guilt of keeping me up at night with the coughing. I'm wondering if he will be sick enough tomorrow that I can load him up into the car and drive to the nearby Urgent Care place. That's what it took the last time he was sick.

I'm going to go collapse and see if I can get to Holly's in time tomorrow to let her dog out before he has an accident in his kennel. It's been a long day.

Maybe if I get some sleep I can blog about the awesome market that sells only locally produced food, including fresh bread made by the monks at the nearby abby.

How things went

The cats all had fun removing their stockings from the tree and relieving them of their contents. Case in point Confetti who had to be instructed as to which stocking she could play with. Observe if you wish:



The Beast of Antioch (Tempie) had a great time attacking her wrapped gift. I got a video but it's 4 MB too big to post here. If I can figure out how to edit it a bit I will put it up. The other bunny was more scared of his present than interested in it.

We both have sore throats and feel sort of cruddy.

Friends came for dinner. I made my first ever turkey. It was actually good. Mashed potatoes, mixed veg, stuffing, cranberries, gravy, and biscuits were on the side. The cranberries and stuffing were from scratch since they're better that way.

Dessert consisted of mint fudge brownies that our friend made (omg they are good!), peanut butter balls, Heath bark, and the aforementioned cookies from the previous post.

Things are quiet again. The critters have nestled down for the evening. FH is on the couch reading forums and blogs via the laptop. I suspect if he was feeling better he'd have out one of the new books he got today. Between his family and I he got a good start on tools and a library for leather.

I got my first ever subscription to a doll house miniature magazine from my in-laws, some books, some cross stitch charts and kits, a ball winder, a set of knitting needles, and my wedding ring repaired. Oh and an obnoxious little snowman that plays "Up on the Housetop" when his arm is squeezed. FH just loves that. I think his mom gave it to me on purpose! ;-)

Speaking of FH and leather you can check out his various projects here from time to time.

Thoughts on future food prep

I just figured out why I've been not feeling well so often in the last several months. I've been using ground ginger and dried celery flakes in my various dishes and it turns out they are dried and preserved and/or dried with sulfur dioxide.

Anything that deals with sulfur and food makes me sick. No Mounds or Almond Joy for me. No mass produced breads with fancy dough conditioners. No mushrooms. No sea food. No Worcestershire. No wine. Hell, no grape juice. It doesn't matter if it is a sulfite, sulfide, or straight up sulfur. I get sick.

The reactions vary depending on what concentration I've ingested and what type of food stuff I'm dealing with. I can only eat sweet or green onions. I can only eat so much garlic before I'm miserable.

And now my spice cabinet is being attacked...

Well FH and I love fresh ginger, so that isn't a problem. I'm just annoyed we were out this morning and I couldn't have any in my oatmeal. And celery flakes can be worked around again by using fresh. But that leaves many questions about the other bottles that are in the kitchen.

So now we're going to systematically go through every seemingly innocuous bottle and jar of spices to make sure we can be warned. And probably take a trip to the spice aisle at the store to do some recon.

Hopefully whatever else contains the sulfur can be worked around. I'm tired of saying "I can't eat that, even though I love it." Or, "sorry I'm allergic." Or, "umm... there's nothing on this menu I can eat except a dry salad, hold the mushrooms and onions."

What kills me is that this started in my late teens and has gotten worse as time goes on. I had time to learn to appreciate fine wine, enjoy sushi, and develop an obsession with coconut in confections.

Recently we have found one winery in the States that makes wone I can drink. They ferment in a room filled with nitrogen gas. Yay for anerobic environments. I can get fresh coconuts and extract the meat out myself for sweets, and have in the past. Fortunetly we found a store that sells organic coconut nearby. Less work for chocolatey, coconutty goodnees.

So I guess we'll figure out more after our trip to the store. This whole mess is getting on my nerves though. I decided not too long ago that if I'm ever diagnosed with something terminal that I'm going to eat what I want in my last couple of days and damn the consequences. I'm going to go out with a smile on my face and favorite, good, and maybe new tastes on my pallet.

Experimentation

Since he was feeling better last night, FH tried something completely different for dinner. Here's a rough guestimate of his recipe:

3-4 strips of bacon, minced
1/2 cup water
1/2 olive oil
1 small Black Krim tomato, diced
1/2 small Orange Oxheart tomato, diced
2 dashes dried basil
2 dashes italian seasoning
pinch kosher salt
a couple of grinds of black pepper

enough pasta for two hungry people and water to boil it in

garnish: minced fresh parsley and carrot top

Cook the bacon in the water so that the fat renders and the meat is cooked through. Drain the fat off and add olive oil. Add the tomatoes and spices; cook until the Krim caramelizes.

Stir into the pasta. Garnish with minced parsley and carrot top.

Before you ask, the types of tomato will make a difference in flavor. The first batch only had some Oxheart in it. It was good. We wanted more and he decided to use the rest of the Oxheart and the Krim. It was better. The sweetness of the Krim made a huge difference. Given that we only planted those two heirloom varieties this year, we have no idea what it would taste like with others.

FH is planning on doing more research into heirloom tomato varieties this winter. I want him to plant those same two again but we both want to try another types as well. It will ultimately come down to available space. Until we own a house with some land it will be hard to plant everything that we want.