Kitchen Cure 2009 | Update #1

I'm still doing the AT Kitchen Cure, although I keep kind of jumping around instead of doing it in the order they are. Whatever, I'm almost done and thought I'd start updating you on my progress. Because you care. In case you forgot. I would probably be further along if I did something other than watch Battlestar Galactica on the couch with Craig every day. Details.



Look how much happier my freezer is! I put a few things in mason jars so that they can sit happier in the freezer door. As in, they don't fall out on me. Also I finally got around to buying a shelf. Oh, and I ground all my bread crusts into crumbs and put them in the bread crumb jar. They take up less space that way.

The top of my fridge had been collecting items that live on very high shelves. Clearly these items need to be in reach so I found other homes for them and put different things on the very high shelves. Hopefully these things don't end up on top of the fridge...



This is my corner cupboard. As famously (or infamously) seen on The Kitchn. I got rid of a bunch of things I didn't really use, and stacked things in a way that I have high hopes of working better.

More to come soon! Can you wait?

Links | Pressure Canning

(this is my mom explaining pressure canning to my cousin)

I've always been slightly afraid of pressure canners. Because they can explode. I know this because when I was a teenager my mom asked me to watch the pressure canner for a bit. And because I was a teenager I didn't actually watch it at all. And it blew the top off.

Oops.

(I wasn't really paying attention)

However much like my fear of sturgeons, it was time to put my fear of pressure canning behind me. Because there's only so much soup that will fit in my freezer. So I borrowed my mom's canner for a bit and guess what? So far no explosions. Finger's crossed.

(Because I was totally distracted by my nephew. Hi Baby!)

Pressure canning is pretty cool because it allows you to can things with less acid, like beans and soup. I however am no expert at this, so I will refer you over to my parent's food blog where my mom wrote a great article about pressure canning. Because she is the expert. Click Here.

Ginger Pear Crostatas

This is a yummy and not too sweet dessert. It's especially good with vanilla ice cream :) This recipe makes four little crostatas which are perfect for 2-4 people (depending on how big of pieces you want?). I like to freeze them before baking so that I always have a treat waiting to be baked up for snuggly movie nights.

Pecan Pastry Dough
2/3 cup pecans
3.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut up
4 tablespoons sugar
2 egg
2 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
4 tablespoons ice water
Extra flour (for sprinkling)

Filling
4 pears, peeled, quartered and diced
1/2 cup candied ginger, minced
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar

Topping:
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons raw sugar


Directions:
1) Toast the pecans lightly in a dry skillet until fragrant. Chop finely or grind in the blender.
2) Combine pecans, flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl or food processor.
3) Cut in butter and sugar until mixture resembles crumbs.
4) Add eggs, vinegar and water, mix until the dough makes a ball.
5) Combine filling ingredients in a separate bowl.
6) Split dough into four balls. Roll each out into a circle with the dough about a 1/2 cm thick. If you break the pastry just squish it back together, it's very forgiving.
7) Put a quarter of the filling on the center of each pastry circle and fold the edges of the dough up to hold it in.
8) If you are freezing some, freeze them at this stage on a cookie sheet, then when solidly frozen, store in a zip lock.
9) Paint the top of the pastry crust with whole milk, then sprinkle with sugar.
10) Bake at 400 until the pastry is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Book Review | Supernatural Cooking

I love this book and it's on my to buy list. She's given me hope that I can make amazing food without compromising taste and texture while using great natural ingredients.

Here's the website.

Here's a blurb by salon.com:

"Can this woman make quinoa sexy?" -
"...In Super Natural Cooking, Swanson not only goes a long way toward helping "whole" foods shed their stale, hippie stigma but also makes a strong case for putting natural foods at the center of an emerging, modern, global cuisine. Her seductive recipes, like lime-bathed peanut salad and an updated (almost guilt-free) take on the classic Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie, reach out to cooks who want to eat smart but still do it in style. Without preaching, Swanson playfully shows readers five simple steps -- including building a natural pantry, embracing grains, and cooking with an eye on color and super-foods -- that should form the foundation of healthy habits. The result is enough to make any closet Cheetos muncher think we're lucky to be living in times when food that is good for you can actually taste good too."

The five sections of the book mentioned above are all started by a great resource on how to use the ingredients, for example she goes through all the natural sweeteners available and explains what they are, what they taste like, what they go well with, how they will react in recipes. It's fantastic.

Heidi Swanson started off as a photographer and it's obvious by how gorgeous this book is. It makes you hungry when you look through it.

Happily, Heidi also has a great food blog which I follow called 101 Cookbooks. Her recipes here are also very healthy and yummy looking. I've tried her maple sryup scones, and they were fantastic, as well as the cherry choconut ice cream.

Go check it out, see if you get urges to buy strange food. I now have whole wheat pastry flour, millet and maple sryup in my everyday cooking and it's all her fault.

Recipes | Chicken Noodle Soup

This is my Mennonite Gramma's Chicken Noodle Soup and it is pretty much liquid gold. It bears no resemblance to the sad stuff you get in a can. It's the only thing I love when I'm sick and I swear I feel better just inhaling the steam. It's the most comforting food I know. This is also one of the only recipes I have that I don't mess with. My mom does. And her soup is excellent. But it's not my Gramma's. There's just something about this soup...

Ingredients
1 whole chicken

10-12 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 pieces star anise

1 small onion, minced
3-4 sprigs parsley

Salt

3/4 cup broad egg noodles



Directions:
1) Cook the chicken down into broth, I describe in more detail here. You need the strained broth with the meat shredded into it. You could use store bought broth and chicken pieces, but it won't be nearly as good.

2) Put peppercorns, bay leaf and star anise into a spice ball or cheesecloth. Add the spices, onion and parsley to the broth.

3) Simmer for 1-2 hours. Salt to taste. Taste and see if you need to add a bit of water, depending on how concentrated your broth became.

4) Boil noodles separately. I made homemade egg noodles for this, it's pretty easy and makes the soup even more amazing.

5) To serve, put some noodles in the bottom of each bowl, then pour the soup over top.

Best eaten with warm cheesy biscuits. Mmmmm.

I'm so glad that I make my own now, when I was stealing from my mom I would have to ration it, so that I would always have some when I was sick. Feels good to have 9 more jars in my pantry where this one came from!

Thoughts | Earth Day

It was Earth Day yesterday and we went to release some sturgeon. I'm not so secretly afraid of sturgeons (as they can grow to be 20 feet long and look like prehistoric monsters...because they are) but they are actually quite cute as babies, like most animals.



I hope you remembered Earth Day and took some time to think about how you live your life. Our planet is on the verge of collapse with our current way of life. I know a lot of people don't like to think about it, it's overwhelming and it's depressing and we hope someone else will fix it.

Here's something to think about. You are everyone else's "someone else". You have the same responsibility as the other 6 billion of us, and it's going to take all of us trying to change to make a difference. And no, you can't make 6 billion people change how they think. But you can change. And that's a start.

So think a bit about your lifestyle, think about what could be improved. Strive to live simply and lightly on this planet. Don't just drift along through life, make an effort to do what you know to be right. Your children and grandchildren will thank you, and your life will be richer for it.

Recipes | Chewy Chocolate Cookies

These are guaranteed to cure your chocolate cravings! I used half white half WW pastry flour and they turned out great.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2/3 cups cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1) Cream wet ingredients, mix in dry.
2) Make 1 inch balls, give them lots of space on the cookie sheet, they really spread.
3) Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes
4) Let cool slightly before removing for cookie sheet.