California Rolls!

For Christmas Dan gave me a kit full of the non-perishable items needed to make California Rolls. What a great gift. Two weeks ago he succeeded in making his first batch. They were heavenly! He has since made them once more and we have just enough of the "crab" meat to make another batch say around Valentine's Day. Sushi can be expensive, but if you are willing to take the time you can do it much cheaper at home. Our two rice loving kids got to help out and they had a great time.

The stuff you need- he went to several stores (including an oriental market) and ended up getting everything at Wegmans!

Sushi rice- made with a particular type of rice along with rice vinegar and a few other things.

The first one laid out on the bamboo mat...

You flip it over and sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds- and they make a difference!

It took him a bit to get the hang of rolling them, but he's pretty good now. His second batch looked really handsome.

Do these look amazing or WHAT?

Oh man were these good! When I was little my mom had a Japanese friend and whenever we visited with her, she made the best food. These "rice rolls" as I called them were amazing and I use to eat my weight in them I'm pretty sure. Of course, Dan knew this and since he loves to eat Sushi and I go along for the ride and get California rolls, he came up with this fun gift idea. We used Alton Brown's recipe and it is really, super yummy. You can never go wrong with Alton. Seriously.

Thanks Dan!

A Meal- Angelo Style

We are in the midst of studying the FIAR book Angelo and this past weekend R9 and I made a meal together. If you don't have the Five in a Row Cookbook, I encourage you to get it- whether you are FIAR user or not actually. Who doesn't love the fun of cooking a meal to go with their studies like the different cultures you meet along the way?

Of course we made an Italian meal of linguine and clam sauce with focaccia bread. I skipped the Spumoni. Honestly, I don't think I could tolerate it. Now if I could pull of gelato that would be something! We followed the directions tightly and produced something fun for everyone. Best of all, R9 and I got to spend time in the kitchen together which she really enjoyed.


It had been a long time since I'd made this focaccia recipe that I'd gotten from my mother-in-law, but we'll have to make it again soon. Really soon. I thought you might enjoy it as well.

Focaccia

Mix with mixer using a flat blade until blended:

• 2 ½ c Bread flour
• 1 tbsp yeast
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½ tsp basil
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 dash pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 c slightly warm water

Using knead hook, knead for 2-3 minutes on 2.

Lightly oil a bowl and turn to coat the dough.

Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm place 30 minutes.

Punch dough down and form into circle about ½ inch thick on greased cookie sheet. I use my baking stone and it turns out really well.

Cover with 2 tbsp olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and coarse sea salt.

Bake at 425 for 14 minutes- a little longer if using a baking stone or warm the stone first.

We've had a fun look at Ancient Rome and tomorrow we'll do some work with birds. I'm planning another Italian meal this week. I think the family vote will be for more focaccia to go with it!

Apple Time!

Every fall we love to eat fresh NY apples and process them. We made make at least a bushel's worth of applesauce and we peel, slice, and core them for freezing. I pull them out to make pies, crisps, and fried apples all year long.

Apple sauce day is a favorite at our house. We work together as a family and enjoy the sweet smell of simmering apples all day. How do we do it?

First, I quarter the apples with a nice sharp knife.

We simmer them for about 5 minutes or less on the stove- we're really steaming them to soften them up.

We have to keep things moving, so I pile up the quartered apples waiting to be steamed in the large Tupperware "Thatsa Bowl". Everyone needs one of these. I use it all the time.

Then we put the steamed, quartered apples into the hopper of the food mill. We have a mill from Lehman's. You put the apples and use the red tool to push the apples into the hole leading to the auger.

You turn the crank and out the side comes the yummy applesauce and out the front are the peels, cores, seeds, and junk. If you are hardcore you run that mess through the mill a second time to get all the sauce. I'm not hardcore.

Close up- there is a screen the fits over the auger and as the apples are pressed tighter as the crank pushes the apples forward, the sauce goes through the screen. There are different sized screens for processing different foods. I'd love to get one for salsa and processing tomatoes in general.

Then we scoop it into containers. We freeze our applesauce because I haven't crossed the line into canning. Yet. Any of you want to donate long forgotten canning equipment. You let me know. I don't have the patience to yardsale for that stuff and I bet it's out there. New one's are pricey, but I would dabble if I could get some equipment.

We put them on our deck to cool and then we bring them inside to freeze. One bushel made us enough applesauce to have one a month for almost a year. I think another half bushel would have been great.

We usually go picking once and snack on those and begin to process some. I usually buy seconds from a fruit stand not far from here. You can get unsightly apples for $8 a bushel. They were closed when I went to get them. So, this year I bought another bushel of pre-picked apples where we pick. Those were too much. We ate them all and didn't process any- well maybe a few. Finally, I picked up 1.5 more bushels and so far we've eaten some, I processed 3 gallon bags for the freezer and made one healthy apple pie for Thanksgiving. The kids have one a day still and I will process the remaining 2/3s of a bushel or so for the freezer.

What kinds of apples do I prefer?

• Ida Red- they are firm and make a nice pink color in apple sauce
• MacIntosh- they are sweet and are a nice addition to sauce, but I don't like them in pies. Too mushy and watery.
• Crispins- are lovely yellow green apples
• Cortland- have a nice tart taste, but they pick early and they get like mush fast.
• Empires- for snacking
• Northern Spy

I mix them up and try different combinations ever year. I'd like to try out some apple butter this year, but I'm not sure it'll get done this year, but there's still time.

Pizza Fondue

I've only been talking about making pizza fondue for about two weeks or more. I finally did it yesterday. I went with a meatless recipe and made two batches of focaccia to go with it. R8 helped make the focaccia.

The focaccia dough ready for the oven

The fondue- it was yummy. My presentation leaves something to be desired I'm sure.

Rolling out the focaccia which I make into a flatter bread sliced in long pieces. I don't make a nice round loaf. Ignore the junk on my counter please. Tiny kitchens sometimes have messy counters. Sometimes they don't.

It was pretty good! Next time I'll put meat in it and serve it with a tossed salad. This time I went with a different green veggie. The meal did lend itself to a dinner conversation about fondue pots and the 70s. We imagined sitting around the table dipping things and eating them. We sung some disco. We reminisced about those early childhood days. Dan's family had a fondue pot. Mine did not. But I'm betting my parents did dabble in disco. Yes. I bet they did.

On a Whim

So, today it's been snowing all day. The predictions are for 6 to 10 or 12 to 15 inches depending on what you're looking at. I'm not certain what the freaking out is about but it's happening. Very unusual for New York.

I was invited to play a game of RISK with E10. Currently I hold the entire western hemisphere. We'll see how long that lasts.

Falling snow and long games make you hungry...on a whim I went for chocolate covered pretzels. Mmmm....I made it up. They aren't fancy, but they are tasty. I'm definitely not has cool as this lady.

This is a fun book which at the very least inspired me to try something new. But remember...I made them up. I melted some milk chocolate chips and dipped the pretzels in it. They are a total mess, but worth it.

Have You Seen This?

The "Year of CrockPotting" Blog? I really enjoy seeing what this woman will try to make in a CrockPot. How do you feel about your CrockPot? I'll be honest. I think everything tastes the same that comes out of there. Don't get wrong. I use my Pot, but the idea of making something in a CrockPot every.single.day is way too much for me.

You have to visit at least once. She makes some surprising things in there. Like soap and crayons. I bet they don't taste the same.

I visited this morning and I'm trying to figure out if I have the ingredients for this one Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. I think I have all the stuff for the soup, but this would call for cornbread and I know I don't have stuff for that.

I Mean REALLY Full...

So today at co-op, I picked up a delivery of food from some caring women at our church. Um it is a lot! Thankfully, we managed to get it all put away!!

I think we are going to be pretty set for food...

It's Full!

The freezer that is! Yesterday I finally started processing all those apples we got from the orchard. We started with a bushel though the kids had eaten many since we brought them home. Still, with Dan's help, we processed nine gallons for the freezer! We just freeze them in slices in gallon freezer bags and pull them out for fried apples on winter mornings and pies or apple crisps. Takes the work out of putting together a warm apple treat.



I also cooked up a storm yesterday. I crockpotted pulled beef bbq and salsa beef which frozen made two full meals. Plus, I roasted a chicken. I will freeze half of it to be used as cooked chicken in the future and I'm making chicken noodle soup for right before and right after the hospital next week. I have one more large pack of chicken to cut into nuggets and freeze and I think I'm out of time.

So, the freezer really is full. I'll be hard pressed to get those nuggets and the soup in there for sure. Thankfully our upstairs freezer has some room.

Freezer Cooking- Getting Ready...

Some of you know that I'm having surgery in less than two weeks. Yup. It's been a long time coming and it's of the major variety. I agreed to it in August and the end of October was the first available slot on the surgical schedule with my surgeon. All of a sudden though, it is coming up fast! I'll be in recovery mode for 8 weeks (this is the sixth surgery in the same area so I know what to expect). I am most grateful for all the help and support coming our way. Both of our parents will be staying with us helping for a week at a time. Dan has lots of days to take off for the week of my surgery and after our parents have gone home he'll be taking some days off each week so I'm not on full time duty for a few weeks after that. We also have friends helping with the kids while I'm at the hospital still.

And then there's the food... the steering team of my home MOPS group (the group I used to coordinate before becoming a Council Coordinator) offered to do some freezer cooking for me. It took us a while to settle in on how it would be done and where, but in the end I planned the meals and did the shopping and then we met all together this morning (6 of us or so) and put it all together. It took some effort to plan it and get ready for it, but the actual work was so easy! Thanks girls!!

We put together 6 full meals of stuffed shells and browned 6lbs of ground beef.

Here's the freezer after our cooking day- this does not include the taco soup still on my stove. I left out some important ingredients so I brought it home mostly put together and got it simmering. That one recipe will make about 3 or 4 meals for our family.

So, what did we make?

• 1 meal of chicken cacciatore
• 4 meals of taco soup
• 7 meals of white chicken chili
• 6 packets (3 meals) of parsley parmesan chicken (marinated chicken parts with a seasoning packet for each)
• 7 meals worth of chicken nuggets (cut up raw chicken for seasoning later)
• 12 cups of spaghetti sauce (enough for three of the stuffed shells meals)
• 6 meals of stuffed shells (120 shells!)
• 6lbs of browned ground beef

Our church has a few meals for us while I'm at the hospital and my MOPS discussion group wants to help out as well. We are truly blessed to have such a great support system so far from our families!

I do have a few more things to get cooking- several crockpot meals and some roasting chickens before I relax. I'm also hoping to get my bushel of apples processed into slices so we can make apple treats and fried apples (for breakfast) and to measure out the dry ingredients for lots of batches of our homemade waffles.

I'm working on updating my freezer inventory and marking what goes with each meal that is in the freezer. It's going pretty well all things considered. Here's a list of Freezer Cooking books I like.

• The Freezer Cooking Manual (I have the first and fourth editions)
• Once a Month Cooking (the grandmother of freezer cooking books)
• Don't Panic (Dinner's in the Freezer)

There's also lots on line especially for the Freezer Cooking Manual. You get a code if you buy the book and they have tons more recipes online. I've tried a lot of their stuff- snacks, sides, breakfasts, desserts. We don't use this method all the time, but my routine goal is to have something in the freezer all the time so that carry out isn't necessary if I have a day when I can't cook or just don't feel like it!

Waffles!

I finally took the plunge and made waffles without Dan around on a weekday. I did have to call him and clarify one thing, but I did it! Now I know that I can and while our griddle is broken I can make waffles regularly. Our recipe is from Alton Brown of course! The waffles are just as good as the pancakes and I took some pictures for you.

The Recipe

4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter
2 tbsp sugar
6 eggs
32 oz buttermilk

Melt butter and allow eggs and buttermilk to come to room temperature. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Beat eggs and then slowly add butter while stirring. Stir in buttermilk. Finally pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Let the batter rest for five minutes.

Use a cookie dough scoop to put the batter on the waffle iron. Leave on the iron for desired doneness and then transfer to warm oven rack while you make more! Yummy for the whole family.

You can make this with any portion of whole wheat flour, but I find them to be bitter that way. The recipe above is also the doubled version and makes about 14 or 15 waffles.

The batter- let rest five minutes and DON'T over stir!

Dueling waffle irons. To make this work I have to use a thick extension cord for one of them. The power of the waffle iron demands that they use different circuits!

Yes, a scoop is necessary- runny batter makes yucky waffles and pancakes.

Don't they look great? Now I just need to take some time to make tons and freeze them for a quicker breakfast on hurried mornings. We do have those on occasion.

In Honor of National Pancake Day...

...which was yesterday, I will share with you all our most favorite pancake recipe ever. No more boxed mixes, no more flat, dull pancakes for us! This recipe was tweaked from one that appeared in Cook's Magazine using the techniques suggested by Alton Brown.

Blueberry Pancakes

1 3/4 cups buttermilk
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp butter (unsalted)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup blueberries

Melt butter and allow to cool. Set out eggs and buttermilk and allow them to come to room temperature. Whisk together all the dry ingredients. Whisk together butter and egg until combined and then whisk into milk. Pour into dry ingredients and gently mix until JUST combined. DO NOT OVERMIX! Batter will be VERY thick. Heat skillet or griddle and spray with non-stick spray over medium heat. Use a scoop to put batter on the skillet, immediately drop 1 tbsp blueberries onto each pancake. Cook until edges are dry and bubbly and then gently flip. Cook another minute or so longer. Keep warm in oven on a plate until served.

Make sure you follow the instructions and don't try to skip stuff like whisking the egg and butter first. You know Alton is particular about this sort of thing. Also, make sure you pull out the cold things to get to room temperature first thing.

We make a triple batch for our family of six. Our boys can really pound down a pancake! Enjoy!

Soup's On!

Buttermilk Biscuits made from this Hot Roll No Rise Dough recipe

1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup oil
2 cups sour milk, buttermilk, or yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
7 cups flour (you can do half whole wheat half white flour if desired)

Dissolve yeast in the water with the sugar. Add remaining ingredients. Mix and knead well.

This dough will keep in the frig for two weeks. You can freeze it too and it defrosts nicely. I like to keep some on hand all the time though it takes no time at all to mix up and bake.

It's really versatile dough. I've made pizza roll ups, pizza crust, biscuits (the favorite by far), cinammon rolls, bread sticks, or even donut holes.

I bake at 425 for about 10 to 12 minutes for the biscuits. I made tons last night and brought them out this morning for breakfast with honey or jam on top. Yummo!

Hardy Turkey Vegetable Soup (from my friend Susan)

1 lb lean ground turkey (I've also used mild italian turkey sausage as pictured here)
1 can great northern beans (or pintos)
1 medium onion (I leave almost all onions out of everything- this batch turned out great without them)
2 small zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 can Italian diced tomatoes, undrained
1 large carrot cut julienne strips
3 cans reduced sodium beef broth
1 tbsp dried parsley flakes
1 jar garden-style or any meatless pasta sauce
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp pepper
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp hot pepper sauce (I skip it when using the sausage)
1 cup uncooked small shell pasta

In a Dutch oven coated with non-stick cooking spray, cook turkey and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add zucchini, carrot: cook and stir one minute longer. Stir in the broth, pasta sauce, beans, tomatoes, parsley, oregano, pepper, and pepper sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Just before serving, stir in pasta. Makes ten servings.

I love this soup! The kids eat it pretty well and it is fantastic reheated for lunch. I freeze it in small one cup containers to have for lunch. Again, yummo!