My day started at Walmart and will end with yogurt.

I know, I shouldn't go to Walmart, especially if it makes me mad.  But I did.  I wanted to look at a Virgin Mobile phone that I saw was highly recommended.  My experience in their electronics department made a very bad start to the day.  Let's just say it included not being able to actually look at the phone outside of a box clamped into the bottom shelf, an employee that told me that my research about their plans were wrong because 'some guy came in and told her', and I left after being handed a pamphlet and with no questions being answered. Then a lady came at me with her cart and I walked into a display sign, causing quite a bit of amusement for the young man behind me.

*face palm*

So I am at the point where I might give up cell phones entirely.  I'll see.

The rest of the day hasn't been much better.  The bunnies got sick from the spinach I gave them...for no reason than probably I gave it to them out of their usual eating schedule.  They are like piglets, and don't know when to stop.  As I cleaned them up, and my jeans and sweatshirt got covered in bunny sick-poo, they were NOT happy about what I was doing, so they scratched up my hands and wrists like kittens.  To the point of drawing blood.  I got them calmed down, we cuddled (after we all were clean again), and they are now happily bouncing around the cage.  I took pictures of the two does to sell on craigslist.

Pretty bunbuns!

Then my band aid came off.  I had sliced my finger and nail open with a carving tool, and a few days ago half of my nail fell off...so doing the dishes and making food is slightly painful right now (it needs to breathe anyways)...

I tried making yogurt in my mom's yogurt maker from the year I was born- 1987.

 I started as usual, and got everything ready to incubate.

But the machine didn't seem to be heating up.  The cover would NOT fit on properly, either.  After pinching my finger and getting a blood blister (*sigh*), I decided to scrap the machine entirely and just put the little jars into the oven with the pilot light on again.  They are doing well and are at the proper temperature.  Should be done around 9pm.  I also made some tomato sauce to keep in the freezer for future pasta.

Now I am making turtle bean soup with some ham thrown in to satisfy Jon.  I am exhausted.  The apartment building electrician is here, again, this time drilling the wall outside the kitchen.

But I am proud that I made it through Walmart without buying any chips.  Or blue cheese- even though I had it in my hand for a while.

___________________________

Earlier this week, I made the world's best bagels, substituting all of the flour for whole wheat and I added 1 Tbsp flax seed.

Before boiling.

*Love my Le Creuset pot!

Out of the oven...and one already eaten!

Really pretty with the flax seeds =)

The raisins also came out wonderfully!  They are tart, a little more chewy, and look a lot different than the store ones.  The fruit leather is AWESOME.  The best I've ever had, and Jon agrees with me, so there's none left to photograph.  Next time!

I give up for today.  I'm going to go hug some rabbits.

Potato chips and dehydrating fruit.

I am a potato chip addict.  I could and have eaten an entire family sized bag of Lays chips.  Full sized Pringles cans are gone in 5 minutes.  It is a problem.  Back when I was single, I was on a bag a day habit.  I kept them by my bed, in my car, in my work bag...anyways, I am really trying to cut back now.  Of course, it isn't working.  They are just too gosh darn good.  In my quest to quit buying processed food, I needed to figure something out, today.  So, I made my own potato chips.

Sea salt and curry, seasoned sea salt and pepper

I utterly failed my first attempt.  I used a slicer, and the slices were way too thick.  I ended up with overly done and strange looking fries.

I ate them anyways, with mayonnaise.

I next tried slicing them by hand really really thin.  It worked, but with soggy results.

Jon ate ALL of them.

I used vegetable oil, which I know is gross, but honestly, I didn't care.  I needed my fix, and if it wasn't with this, I would have just gone to the pizza place across the bridge and gotten some buffalo tenders and blue cheese dressing, which I have been craving for four days.

Today's attempt was more successful- the chips were darker, but more crunchy.  Next time, I will try a baking method.  If anyone wants to try the frying method, heat some veggie oil in a heavy pan on high.  Cut potatoes thinly after washing them, them soak in cold water for 1/2 an hour.  Fry in batches until they are as crispy/dark as you want.  Cool on wire rack with towel underneath.  Season while still warm.

To return more to a healthier point of view, I broke out the food dehydrator!  My mother has lent me her Nesco model, as well as her yogurt maker- but that's another day.  

SO PRETTY.

I used the instructions to prepare grapes, and now I have green and red ones going.  It should take about a day to make raisins!  There was a fruit leather sheet in with it, so I put some pear sauce in to see how that would work.

The machine is noisier than I would like, but it is an older model.  I calculated the cost of electricity to use it, and it should come out to about $3.38 for it to run 24 hours in Massachusetts.  Not too bad for some extra grapes hanging around.

Back to being unhealthy, I made Monkey Ginger Bread last night.  It is like monkey bread, but with ginger bread-y spices and molasses.  This is one of the best dessert recipes I have ever made.  Don't take it to a party, though!  I find that it is perfect to share with a husband while watching a movie on a cold night.

Really good after a meal of lentil soup!

My very own cracker recipe!

Whole Wheat Buffalo Crackers

Looking through different cracker recipes, I couldn't find one that included everything that I was looking for:

-whole wheat flour

-hot spices

-ingredients that I already had

So I came up with my own, and it worked.  It actually came out well and they are incredibly tasty!  Crunchy, buttery, and an almost buffalo flavor.  They were super easy and take less than 10 minutes to bake!  Anyone could make these!

*UPDATE: These are amazing with homemade ranch dressing!!!  I used 1 cup plain Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup mayo, garlic, onion powder, parsley, and sea salt.  This combination is SO GOOD that I actually shouted in joy!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar (or a squirt of honey or agave nectar, add a spoonful more of flour)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp ground mustard

1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes*

4 squirts hot sauce, any kind

4 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup water

*You can adjust this as much as you want.

Preheat oven to 375F.  Combine flour, sugar, salt, cayenne, mustard, and pepper flakes.  I used a mixer.  Cut in the butter, or just use the batter attachment for a mixer, until the butter is in pea sized pieces.  Add the water and hot sauce.

Mix by hand or with mixer for several minutes, until all ingredients are incorporated.  Adjust flour/water ratio if necessary, depending on how humid your kitchen is.  The dough should be wet, but not sticky.

Roll out dough with a rolling pin on a floured board as thin as possible (like a pie crust), while not tearing the dough.  It will seem really thin, but the crackers should not fall apart.  Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut in whatever shapes you want.

Grease a cookie sheet, or put a piece of parchment paper over it.  I like parchment paper.  Transfer the crackers to the cookie sheet, placing them as close as possible to each other without them touching.  They will shrink.

If you like your crackers to be flat, prick each cracker with a fork a few times.  If you like bubbles in the dough, like me, leave them as they are.  Bake for 5-10 minutes, or until they are crispy and slightly browned, but don't let them burn!  The smaller pieces bake faster, so if they seem in danger, take them off early.  I just leave them on, and when the entire pan is done, I set the dark ones aside to eat myself.  Strange person that I am, I like overcooked crackers.

Let cool on a wire cooling rack, and enjoy!!!  These would be great with a blue cheese dip.

No-time bread and dealing with a migraine.

I have had a migraine of varying intensity for nearly two days.  I've taken enough ibuprofen to be able to function, but I am secretly miserable.  There are so many things I want to do, even just get outside to enjoy this weather!  My landlord has also chosen this time to work in the basement directly under the couch with loud power tools.  I will be returning to the couch shortly with a hot rice bag on the back of my neck and some ginger candy, but I needed to get myself moving to at least bake bread today.  I'll deal with dinner later.

Today's bread, because I am barely focus, is the lovely no-time bread.  I use half whole wheat, half white and throw in some flax seed when I feel like it.  There always seems to be too much moisture in the dough, so I add enough flour to actually have it clear the sides of the bowl.  I also find that the bread is completely done after 30 minutes, and the crust is crispy enough, so I don't put it back in for 10 more with the lid off.  This bread is such a time saver!

A note on the zucchini oat-flake loaf I made for dinner last night, accidentally putting in vital wheat gluten instead of wheat germ- still turned out fine!  Even after I reheated it twice, waiting for Jon to come home, it was still moist in the center and crispy on top.  It nearly tasted like meatloaf, and I'm not sure what I thought about the sunflower seeds.  They were almost too chewy with the rest of the loaf being soft.  Still, with some bbq sauce, it was good enough for Jon to eat seconds!  I have a feeling that if I fried a slice up for a sandwich that it would be even better =)

 This is all that is left!

Making refreshments for an art reception in one day, from scratch.

As always, things got pushed to the last minute, and I needed to make the refreshments for Jon's art reception the day it was happening.  I also had a document that I needed to finish translating.  I hadn't even planned out recipes yet!  I was able to get the groceries I thought I would need the day before, so this is what I came up with:

Very small bricks of Irish cheddar cheese from the odds and ends basket at Whole Foods, cut-your-own-slice.
Red and green grapes.
Gluten-free peanut butter cookies (there was a chance that a guest was going to be gluten free, but she didn't end up showing up...)- with homemade peanut butter

Pearsauce brownies- with homemade pearsauce, substitute for applesauce

Rice-Sesame Crackers (gluten tree)- from Laurel's Kitchen Cook Book

Corn Crackers- from Laurel's Kitchen Cook Book

Overall, it went well!  I completely forgot that I needed to provide drinks, so I had to go grab some juice and soda.  Otherwise, that would have been from scratch, too.  Everything tasted lovely- the corn crackers are AMAZING, and the brownies are surprisingly decadent, which is why only two were left to take a picture of.  People were so impressed that I made everything myself, including the crackers!  *proud smile*

I ended up having a migraine after that all, pretty much a 'baking hangover'.

My trip to Whole Foods was so wonderful.  I could spend all day in there, with dangerous results.  I got a lot of food, but it should last a very long time.  None of it was processed!  I love their bulk section.  Finally, cardamom was within reach.  There is enough food in this kitchen to keep me busy until almost moving time!  I'm experimenting more with the Laurel's Kitchen Cook Book.  She's vegetarian, but sometimes that is the cheapest and most nutritious way to go on a budget.  I'm sick of pasta- tonight's dinner is zucchini oat-flake loaf!  It has a combination of rolled oats, shredded zucchini, sauteed onions, wheat gluten, sunflower seeds, two eggs, cheese, nutmeg, and salt.  And now that I see that the recipe called for wheat GERM, not wheat gluten, I'll see how it tastes...Oops...It looks good!

How to make yogurt!

It is a Saturday, and Jon is out on a job.  I have almost a full gallon of raw milk from Robinson Farm.  I have some plain Greek yogurt (the only plain yogurt in the store with active cultures), a stove with a pilot that always stays on so the oven, when turned off, is the right temperature for fermenting, and I have a large cup of coffee.  Let's see how this goes!

I've been taking my time doing research to make sure I get this right.  Not only do I NOT want to waste milk, but I am too excited for it to not work!  

So here are my step by step instructions, with photos, and comments on how it goes!

1.  Clean the kitchen.  Its been two days for me (I know, I know, but I had a migraine).  You need space for your mise en place!

2.  (I forgot I had to mail a bill, so I had to run to the post office).  Its 11am and I'm finally ready to begin!
I put together a bain-marie (hot water bath) with two pots.  It took me a while to get the right sizes.  I added enough water to the larger pot so that it was halfway up the smaller pot. Then, I put the spoon and thermometer  inside, with the smaller pot on top, and let it boil to sterilize everything.  I used the tongs to dip the smaller pot's lid in the boiling water, too.

(I ended up using a bigger pot on the bottom)

 

I'm going to pasteurize the milk for my first go at making yogurt, just because I want to be sure I'm doing everything right.  Also, I got this milk out of a farmstand, so it is not the absolute freshest.  When I do make 'raw milk yogurt', I will get milk that has been milked that day.

 3.  I put 3.5 cups of milk into the top, with the water boiling on the bottom.  At 185 degrees F, I kept it at that temp. for a few minutes, stirring every minute or so.

4.   Took it off the heat.

5.  Cold water bath, until it reached 115 degrees F.

6.  Here is where I made a mistake- I added two heaping tablespoons of the plain yogurt right to the pot, but I should have put it in the jars.  The ratio that I was using was 3.5 cups of milk to 2 heaping Tbsp of yogurt, but I decided that in order to get everything mixed evenly, I poured the milk equally into the two jars, then added 1 more Tbsp to each jar, shaking it.  I hope it works!  I also forgot that I needed 2 clean jars to put it in, until the temp. was about 120 and I needed something immediately.  Thank goodness I had two clean sauce jars on top of the fridge (all my mason jars are kept under the sink, where there has been a mouse problem...)  

7.  I put the jars into my oven (the pilot always stays on, and I previously recorded the temp. to be about 114 in there, so it should work).  No peeking!  Now I am going to wait a little over 6 hours, checking back at 6:30 tonight.

I also just realized that I can't use the stove today, or the temp. will be too high for incubating, unless I wait until after 6:30 to start.  Oops!  I guess this is why some people do this overnight...Pizza for dinner!

Cracked wheat bread and saving up for a grain mill

Today I sat down and skimmed Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book.  I couldn't believe that this book, given to me by my mother, was just sitting around for so long, and I had no idea how wonderful it was!  You should get this book.  Seriously.  Not only does it have amazing whole grain recipes, but it has instructions on everything to do and tips for ingredients and they are so healthy!  After getting to the section about milling flour yourself, I decided to sit down and really do some research on which one to save up for.

This site helped me rule out pretty much every model that I thought would do well.  The only one that they listed that they liked was WAY over anything I'd ever spend.  It cost more than our mattress did!  They did mention, though, that their absolute favorite mill, which they somehow forgot to actually review, was the Country Living Grain Mill.  I went to their site, read a ton of reviews, and fell in love.  For my purposes of milling flour to make bread, this is the best and most affordable mill out there.  They even sell 'blemished' mills for a huge discount.  The only problem: where to get the money to buy it.  I haven't even been able to afford to get new glasses (the frame is held together in the middle with industrial adhesive and the end of an art pencil, thanks to Jon!).  Money is scarce right now, and I can't justify using a credit card on this when I am having trouble paying my half of the rent.  Translating has been very slow recently, which is fine, but I'm going nuts.

This grain mill is going to be beautiful, produce more healthy flour because I will grind it as I need it (the most nutrient rich part of the wheat berry starts to loose nutrients right away), and I can finally stop relying on store-bought flour that has been sitting.  I can't wait to post all about my experiences grinding my own flour and finding local sources of grains!  If I start saving up my change now...

________________

Well, for today, I am baking a split wheat and whole wheat bread, made with all whole wheat flour, bulgur, and dates as the sugar.

 Bulgar, soaked in boiling water

 Dates, cooked to a mush with water

 Dough before rising

Done!  This is seriously the BEST tasting bread I've ever made.

House model taking up half of my work space.  After trying to cut half-lap with a knife, I slipped and sliced my finger open...No nerve damage, thank goodness, but I do have a new scar!  Jon's teaching me tool safety now while we are still at model stage, before I get to use big scary things like chisels.

Ginger carrot soup and a mushroom and spinach quiche with potato crust

Alright, I admit it.  Some days, I spend all morning looking up recipes, and spend all afternoon making dinner.  But its for a good cause!  Don't tell Jon that I'm not working on his sweater today ;)

I made orange juice today, too!  One bag of oranges made about half a large jar of juice.  I'm saving the pulp for muffins.  I would candy the rinds, but they have fungicide on them =(  I have a bag of grapefruit waiting for next time.

Tonight for dinner, I am making ginger carrot soup and a mushroom and spinach quiche with potato crust.  Sounds fancy, but is really easy!  The quiche looks absolutely beautiful, and the broth of the soup is AMAZING.  Like, restaurant quality.  Woo!  I substituted organic whole milk for the soy milk in the soup.  The quiche is taking forever to set, though, so next time I might use a higher temp. to begin with, then bring it down to finish setting up.  One more egg might help, too.  

I actually had ginger on hand from when I preserved it in some vodka in the fridge.  Now I have ginger extract, and the ginger tastes just fine in the soup.  No alcohol taste.  I did use a mid-grade vodka that doesn't leave a horrible taste in things.  Great for vanilla, too!

Jon's sweater IS coming along...slowly!  Here is what I have done so far, about one skein, next to my new favorite tea: Tazo Focus.  It has black tea, lemon balm, chicory, cocoa peels, roasted yerba mate, rose petals, citrus essence oil, rosemary, and 'natural flavor'.  LOVE the cocoa!