Hohl Foods

Most beautiful eggs ever

2011-04-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

Check out the turquoise, deep red and gold colors!

Well, these eggs have already been in a rainy egg hunt but can you see the vibrant colors? They are even better than the first time I did them. Basically you just need the cheapest basic dye kit, BROWN eggs, and use a quarter cup of vinegar to let the pellets fizzle until they melt and then add enough water to just cover the eggs, about a quarter cup more. Let the eggs soak for about 5 minutes and you have the most amazing colors I have ever seen. I almost didn't want to eat them! These are way better than the pastel colors you get from using white eggs. Try it next time!

These eggs were more solid color looking until they got rained on, but still look so vibrant.

Turning "Granola"

2011-02-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the bad phone camera photos. Here is my general mixed up and three granolas made with milk.

First of all, why does my phone capitalize granola when I type it in? Is it a proper noun or something? Well, I have news for all you granola lovers out there...you're missing out if you haven't tasted my lime cardamom granola my friends. This week I did a granola demonstration for the Relief Society sisters and so this past week I delved into researching all granolas to find the best recipes. What did I find? A whole lot of nothing the same. Granola recipes couldn't be more different. I feel like I tried to search for just "soup" or something and got so many recipes with only a few ingredients in common.

Here are two jars of chocolate cinnamon and one of almond essence with maple syrup.

So, this is the skinny on granola...it can be really unhealthy if you make it with processed oil and brown sugar with just a dab of honey like most recipes call for. Just use coconut oil and only natural sweeteners and you will be well on your way to healthy and delicious eats.

This is the recipe...

5 cups of dry ingredients, whatever you like (can be all oats or a mixture of oats, seeds, and nuts and coconut)
3/4(scant) cup of oil(or milk)
1 cup or less of sweetner(depending on how sweet you like it)
Mix it all together, spread on two TIN FOILED AND GREASED cookie sheet at 325 for 8 minutes on the top rack and 8 minutes on the bottom rack and then take out, let cool, add any dried fruit desired and store in a tight container.

Having a recipe like this can open your mind to experimentation instead of following another's concoction. As I was making my granola I thought of what spices I could throw into the mix. Cinnamon, yes! Real almond extract, Oh so yummy! Chocolate powder, yes! Peanut butter(in place of oil), yes! Lime cardamom sauce, double yes! I'm telling you that not one of them turned out bad. I'm only sad I didn't get a chance to try cranberry juice concentrate to essencify a batch with cranberry flavor. I think I have about 50 lbs now in my cupboard so I think I'll just send it off to the Missionary Training Center where my sister is learning how to be a missionary for the Fukuoka, Japan mission. I miss her so much. Take care little sista and I know you'll enjoy some of this healthy granola so you don't have to eat the biscuits and gravy(death to the body!)

I mostly love this granola because it adds a much faster breakfast to our list of acceptable breakfast foods which is limited to, home made yogurt, french toast, pancakes, eggs, steel cut oats or cracked wheat, all made with whole wheat and all from scratch. For once I can decide to not cook breakfast in the morning and spend a half hour cleaning up! I know some of you are thinking, what's wrong with cereal? Well, 1. because it fills my kids up for all of 5 minutes and, 2. there's nothing more processed on the face of the planet. Plus, 3. it's super expensive and most of it is just air. Anyway, please make up your own granola recipe and tell me how much you love it:)

Indian wedding extravaganza

2010-12-26T21:03:00.001-08:00

Two weekends ago one of my dreams came true and we attended a real Indian wedding at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. It was definitely worth the ling drive for the two day extravagant celebration complete with three meals and entertainment amongst elaborate decor. The food was excellent but extremely spicy and I have never been more grateful for plain yogurt in my entire life. There were some traditional American elements to the wedding like a chocolate chocolate ganache cake that was to die for delicious. That's my kind of wedding.

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Best Gingerbread houses ever

2010-12-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

This year I did two gingerbread houses: One for my friend Gulzat(her first ever real gingerbread house) and another for me. Hers was a traditional one but mine turned out really modern and I think is the best one I have ever made.

Gulzat's house had a chocolate sugar roof complete with Santa's sleigh and reindeer with Santa in the chimney. She decorated the rest with tiny gingerbread ornaments and a family complete with a sister that her son Daniel is wishing for someday. She's showing it off to all her friends and getting many compliments:)

I decided to make a taller house this year and I cut out some round windows instead of all square. I covered it with cinnamon sticks on the sides, black licorice on the back and Hershey's chocolate bars on the front polka-dotted with various candies. The roof is frosted Mini Wheats with Rudolph on top. It kind of looks like a bank to me. What do you think? I also stayed up until 2am the night before making a chocolate tree and Santa. Everyone comments that he looks like a black Santa, but it was either that or albino, so I chose the dark chocolate and I think he's fabulous!

New Christmas Treat:Toffee

2010-12-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

My favorite: Dark chocolate on bottom, toffee, white chocolate with sliced almonds and TC

I know it's been a long time. I've been busy traveling all over the globe and we're still on the run, but here is my favorite new treat over the holidays....toffee. It's super easy and looks fancy. This is the recipe you get when you search for "best toffee ever" on Allrecipes.com. I added a generous tsp vanilla in with the sugar and butter and chocolate on the bottom with a various assortment of nuts along with, what other than, toasted coconut.

Our three kinds: Milk chocolate with pecans, dark chocolate with ground almonds and the above mentioned.

Ingredients:

2 cups butter

2 cups white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup finely chopped almonds

Directions:

1.	In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the butter is melted. Allow to come to a boil, and cook until the mixture becomes a dark amber color, and the temperature has reached 285 degrees F (137 degrees C). Stir occasionally.
2.	While the toffee is cooking, cover a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
3.	As soon as the toffee reaches the proper temperature, pour it out onto the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the chocolate over the top, and let it set for a minute or two to soften. Spread the chocolate into a thin even layer once it is melted. Sprinkle the nuts over the chocolate, and press in slightly. Putting a plastic bag over your hand will minimize the mess.
4.	Place the toffee in the refrigerator to chill until set. Break into pieces, and store in an airtight container.

My sister Lucy with our precious cargo...that we couldn't eat or taste until Sunday, our treat day. I think we made this on a Monday too, so we waited all week long to try it and it was delicious!

Dilly Bean and pickled peppers

2010-08-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

I just did my first pickled peppers and dilly beans the other day. I didn't realize how easy it was to pickle things, but I'm not sure how much I really like pickled things. I have to say I like the sweet pickled stuff more than the dill pickled stuff, but nonetheless I really enjoyed not having to give away the peppers and beans we picked at the farm before we left on our California trip. Basically this is what you do...

Stuff beans or peppers in a sanitized jar
put in a couple cloves of garlic and some dill
pour in hot a vinegar solution of 2.5 cups vinegar and 2.5 cups water with 1/4 cup salt. Add 1 cup sugar if desired.
close jar and either process in boiling water or stick in the fridge

That's it. You should try it!

Georgie's Cherries

2010-07-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Kids in front of the tree with the pie

Many of you know that when our son died we planted a sour cherry tree in our yard to remember him by. We planted it in the early early spring and it was not expected to have cherries on it that year but it totally did. We had enough cherries to make one pie for the previous two years and now this year our sour cherry tree produced enough cherries for TWO cherry pies. We made this one and have quite a few more frozen in our freezer for one more. Henry also enjoyed picking many of them and sharing them with his friends. I think we may have had enough for three pies but the bugs, birds, and babies got to them first!

Close up of pie in my new bakeware pan. Thanks Gammie!

We love everything about our sour cherry tree...the million blossoms in the spring, watching the little cherries ripen and seeing all the red cherries plump up. They are very tart to eat right off the tree, but it reminds us of Georgie and the pain we still feel with his absence, but then we whip them up into a delicious pie and it turns into our most favorite desert. I am grateful for his presence in our lives and we think of him daily and we will always remember him every time we see a sour cherry tree and are reminded of how sweet our reunion will be when we taste our delicious pie.

The pie in front of the tree. See all the cherries left over?

Bea snacking on the cherries on the lower branches.

Thought this was a cute shot. We love our cherry tree.

Favorite new treat...Kale?

2010-06-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, I said it. Kale is my favorite new treat. I have been getting all sorts of strange things in my CSA(community supported agriculture) box that I have had to find new recipes for and I was really afraid I wouldn't find a good recipe for my giant bunch of kale. I looked up a recipe online and this one got four stars and I totally agree. My kids were eating these and Bea was asking for "mo' mo' mo'!"

Kale Chips

Cut the stems out of the kale and cut the leafy part up into bite sized pieces,
Lightly coat the kale in olive oil and spread them out on a few cookie sheets. Don't pile too much on one sheet.
Sprinkle with seasoned salt or any herb/salt mixture you like.
Bake in an oven at 350 for ten to fifteen minutes until crispy but not burned. Watch them carefully!
Enjoy! And you will. I promise.

How do I have time for this?

2010-06-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm already trying to get back into the things I did before having Clementine. I enjoy doing just about anything crafty or sporty. I still have three weeks before I can hit the treadmill and work myself into the ground to get in shape. Until then I'll stick with crafting. This is the latest thing inspired by some really cute barrettes that were sent to me by my friend Sarah. It only took about an hour to make all these.

Basically I got a bunch of different colors of felt, buttons, and little flippy clips, sewed them together(you can hot glue them together if you want) and then glue the clip on and they're done. You can get pretty creative.

Arugula Rocket

2010-05-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Justin is obsessed with Arugula. I grew a bunch in planter boxes this year and it is doing great. We have been eating bruschetta (officially pronounced bru-SKET-ta in case you were wondering) any time we can. Justin toasts the bread either in the toaster or over the grill, then we lightly rub a clove of garlic over one side, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and then add toppings. Our favorite is parmigiano cheese and arugula on top. Sounds really simple but it's pretty incredible, especially if you get good bread.

Introducing...

2010-05-27T15:28:00.001-07:00

http://clementinerebecca.blogspot.com/

Bum Bananas

2010-05-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

How could I be so bad at updating this blog? So sorry people.

So we've had some banana drama and I wanted to ask you all if you've ever experienced this.....I bought a bunch of very green bananas two weeks ago. Usually they ripen in a few days and occasionally they stay green but get brown spots and they're still ripe but just look green. This time, however, the bananas never ripened. I had them for almost two weeks and before I threw what was left of them into the garbage, I tried to open it and it was just like the first day, hard as a rock and unpeelable. Henry was crying for bananas for two weeks and every day I assured him that they would be ripe soon and they NEVER matured one bit. I wish I had the patience to just let them sit to see if they would ripen over a month or two, but with the impending baby I couldn't waste the time. Has this ever happened to any of you?

So, then I went to the store for more bananas and what do you know, they're all over ripe. I finally found a decent bunch of bananas that had a tiny bit of green left on the stem and would have to be eaten in two days or less but I thought we would all devour them quickly since we'd been depriving ourselves. While I was at ALDI (our favorite discount grocery store that makes you pay for a cart and bags, or bring your own) Henry had to go poop, Bea had a meltdown and Henry was picking hot peppers off the plants for sale and trying to feed them to Bea. During the fiasco I forgot to buy bags and I didn't have any in the car.I decided that I could get home without bags so I loaded everything, loose, in the back of my car and drove home, hearing the watermelons rolling around and back and forth with every turn. I guess I wasn't careful with where I put the bananas because the two watermelons found their way to where the bananas were and slightly squished them, but not enough for me to notice until yesterday when I went to finally eat a nice ripe banana and it was like a banana peel filled with baby food. Not one of them was acceptable to eat. Justin later told me that he tried to peel one and it just fell over limp.

So we went from the most rock solid bananas to complete mush. How could it be so hard to get a decent banana and how else do I eat all my nutella? Please, let me find good bananas tomorrow at Costco.

Cherry Pie with leaves crust

2010-04-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Henry and I had a blast making this real sour cherry pie. I just realized that I only have two frozen packs of cherries left to make pies out of:( Good thing cherry season is right around the corner! This cherry pie is my usual recipe from Bon Appetit with a full Meyer lemon zest in it along with Meyer lemon juice. The flavor was incredible and this pie turned out better than usual with no super runny middle. My crust did get a little drowned in overflow from the sides but the good thing about a pie is that it never has to look good to taste good! I used some stamps that Justin got for me at William's Sonoma to make all the leaves. I just love the effect. I think I'll make one for this weekend for my friend Christi when she comes up to visit.

Georgie's Day

2010-03-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today is three years from the day my baby boy, Georgie, died and in honor of him I planted my tomato seeds for this year's vegetable garden. Spring gardening always reminds me of him and everything in my garden keeps his memory alive in my heart. I am still amazed that the tiniest tomato seed can make such a giant plant but at the same time I see the seeds that come up with no leaves at all and soon wither and die and I am reminded of the fragility of life and that it is such a miracle that I even have two healthy children and another one wiggling around inside me. There were no tears today, no calls, no hugs, no cards but I really don't feel like I need them anymore. I wore his birthstone baby ring on my heart locket necklace so it would be close to my heart and I am happy and find joy in my life every day. He is such an important part of my faith and hope in the plan of salvation and I receive strength from his perfect example. I will always strive to do what is right so that I may someday be reunited with him because I know he walks with Christ and is working to bring us all home. I love you angel boy.

Culinary Adventures of the Holidays

2010-01-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

I spent so much time cooking over the holidays I hardly had time for anything else (like blog about it!). Here is a glimpse of what I was up to...

I wish I made this gingerbread house

This was the one we made. This one alone cost me about $20 of candy which we never end up eating. It's a total waste of money but it's tradition, right? The best thing about this one is that the candy was so stuck on it that Henry wasn't able to pry of many pieces so that means less candy consumption!

These are some of the quick and easy cookies I made. These took almost no time compared to...

These ones. These are my ornaments covered in royal icing. I just love how they turned out

Bea kept pulling the letters off but they were so hard that she couldn't even break off even one single piece! lol! A few sprinkles would make their way into her mouth but no bites of cookies

And here I am...the Stepford wife. Well, not really. Next year I will make one who hasn't showered in a few days, has hairy legs and pigtails. That's more like me. lol!

This candycane is spearmint

This one was peppermint

Mmmmm, butterscotch.

Can you see the candycane in her hair? That one was rootbeer. I actually really liked her hairstyle in this photo. It's so modern. That's my fashionable baby!

This is my chocolate nativity I make every year. I had to wait until I got more chocolate to make the manger though and when I finished it I found it like this...

(See the missing heads?) I ended up only eating the manger since it seemed wrong to eat anyone else, especially the baby Jesus(even though there was already a bubble hole where his face should have been. I'll be more careful next time.)

This is what Bea looked like after giving her just a couple pieces of chocolate. How does she make such a mess? Only Henry knows.

It's still refreshing to know that my kids would rather eat fresh raspberries from the garden...

And here's Bea eating raw Brussels sprouts which package she ravagingly ripped open to get a bite. That's my girl.

Christmas Craziness

2009-12-10T19:55:00.000-08:00

So if you've wondered if I'd fallen off the face of the earth, you're wrong. I have been devoting all my evenings to Christmas crafts, which I should actually be doing right now, and I've been cooking up a storm. So far Henry and I have made a huge gingerbread house, which I let him eat pretty much all day long. Funny thing is that the candies are so stuck on it that he can hardly chip anything off and it takes him FOREVER to get his favorite candies off. We then made gingerbread ornaments and cookies for eating which we pretty much gave all away. Yesterday I got together with some friends and made candy canes and chocolate dipped pretzels rolled in toasted coconut and other goodies, which we already gave away, and in-between that I've been making ABC quiet books for both Henry and Bea. We've accomplished all this in just about one week.

Can I just tell you about my day yesterday? Well I got up, got ready, did laundry, cleaned the house and made bread by about 10am, then my friend Trixie came over to make candy canes. We both burned our hands and bodies while working with the hot sugar but it was worth it. They are so beautiful and really tasty. Then we had a couple other friends come over and made chocolate covered pretzels and another couple batches of candy canes. During this whole fiasco we had three boys running around screaming and Bea basically just wandered around the house looking for food all day. I don't think Henry had anything but candy canes to eat all day long. So bad. At 5:30 I hopped in the car, picked up one of my Young Women for our activity and we made Christmas baskets for non-members and went around singing Christmas carols, delivering them to neighbors and friends. Each girl made something to put in the basket along with Books of Mormon with testimonies in them and the Joy to the World DVD. They were really beautiful and we had a blast delivering them. After the activity I went to a friend's house to pick up some more canning jars she was getting rid of along with some camping equipment and then I finally arrived home, spend a little time with Justin, cleaned my kitchen, worked on my ABC books until I heard Bea crying around midnight(I think she was starving) so I fed her something and put her to bed. I finally crawled into bed around 1am.

Basically I'm starting to get exhausted....but there's still so much to do! Is it totally wacko that I really love living like this? I felt so fulfilled when I went to bed.

Winter Squash Wonderland

2009-11-11T20:33:00.001-08:00

Here's what I've been up to. As you see we have a lot of eating to do. Hurray for Beta Carotene and tons of vitamins and minerals! Actually what I really want is the Vitamixer, I saw the demonstration again this week at Costco and the guy even remembered me from last May! Am I that easy to spot?(Crazy screaming children, pigtails, high heels) Yup.

Anyone have any favorite recipes you'd like to share that have winter squash in them? Can't wait to use my new cookbook Justin got me for my Birthday(can't find it on goodreads). These squash were also totally dirty when we got them so Justin painstakingly washed them one by one. We must have hundreds because we ended up with 300 lbs of them. We have Butternut, Buttercup and Acorn which is a pretty great variety and have very different flavors and textures. They can be kept for up to 6 months in a cool, dark, dry place so it looks like squash for dinner every night until about March. Easy, yummy, and healthy.

Pesto Chango

2009-09-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

So many of you have asked about my pesto. Just for background, pesto is the Italian name for herb paste and as we all know, there are a limitless number of herbs so pesto isn't just the basil and oilve oil based paste you are used to seeing. I actually have a book of really tasty pestos of all kinds in case you have an excess amount of herbs and want to do something with them. Pestos are easily frozen and thawed for later use and that's exactly what I do with my classic basil pesto.

There's this farm market I go to to get bushels of basil. It's $20 per bushel to be exact which is a steal since the one oz of basil you get at the grocery store costs at least two dollars and then you say to yourself, "I can just buy this basil plant here for four dollars, maybe I should just do that and grow some more", but that plant never has enough for your recipe, so you end up buying two packs of cut basil and it still doesn't even equal the cup you need. If any herb companies are out there reading this, you ALWAYS need more basil in recipes than, say, fresh thyme or rosemary. You can use cups of basil but one tablespoon of rosemary so why are the packages the exact same size? Can those people be more uneducated about the amounts of basil used in recipes?

Table of Basil

Anyway, so my suggestion to you is to find a farmers market that sells basil by the bushel and turn it into a basil and oilve oil puree to freeze for the whole year so you never have to buy that tiny package again. This is the recipe

2 cups packed basil
1/2 cup oilve oil.

Put all ingredients in blender and pulse, push down, and blend until it's as puree'd as your blender can do. Pour into a plastic bag and place in the freezer. I made around 50 bags of pesto base this year. I had about 30 last year and I ran out two months before the basil harvest.

IF you want to make the pesto with the cheese and nuts you may add them in when you serve your dish. I read that you shouldn't really freeze the cheese and nuts for long periods of time so you should add those ingredients in when you're serving the dish. So to your basil paste you add...

1 garlic clove
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs freshy grated Pecorino Romano (optional)
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into the blender once more and blend until creamy.

Tip: If you make your own pesto, make sure you wash the leaves well and let them dry before blending them. Also make sure you pick the leaves off the thick stems. The small ones are fine, but large stems don't puree. If your basil is wilted, just soak the leaves in water and put in the fridge in a closed bag overnight and they will crisp back up. This works with any herb.

I also have a small glass jar in the fridge filled with my basil paste that I use on sandwiches instead of mayo and mustard. I throw it in omlets, top sunny side up eggs with it, spoon it on top of soft or hard boiled eggs (delicious!) dip cold veggies in it, throw it on top of home-made pizzas, and put it on grilled cheese sandwiches. The options are limitless so go find your bushel of basil and make your pesto for the year!

Colored Vegetables are the Best

2009-09-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

When we went with our friends up to Lake Chautauqua I spent a significant amount of time in the kitchen preparing delicious meals. Justin, as usual, hid the camera so we have almost no photos of any of the kids, but I managed to get a few shots of my bowl of tomatoes and wildflowers I picked before he hid it again.

Here are also some shots of my colored beets and carrots to go along with my multi-colored tomatoes. Nothing excites Henry like pulling carrots and not knowing exactly what color will come up. You should try it at home:). And yes I know that tomatoes are a fruit...just in case you were wondering:)

Canning Craze

2009-09-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

What? No comments on my last post? I know it's only been 24 hours but I hope it at least sparked your interest. I'm actually in the process of ordering bulk coconut oil for me and a bunch of my friends online. We'll probably get like 30 gallons. Anyone want in?

Anyway, I've been busy canning everything from salsa to applesauce to pasta sauce. I have been lucky to have so many friends come to help me in my efforts. Not only does it make things fun, but having an extra couple hands when you have two kids running loose all over the house is really nice, especially when some of those hands are from baby hungry teenagers:) Here's my super darling friend De'Mia. She's a gourmet chef in the making and we've decided to become You Tube stars by doing our own cooking show. Stay tuned:) She helped me make salsa and my dried corn the day she came over.

Here are my two salsa recipes. I am seriously considering planting some tomatillos next year in my tomato garden because they make such thick salsa, way better than any tomato I've used, even roma. They are already limey and thick so you don't have to add much to get the flavor or consistency of great salsa.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

INGREDIENTS

    * 12 roma (plum) tomatoes
    * 1 small head garlic, unpeeled and cut in half
    * 1 onion,
    * 1 jalapeno chile pepper
    * 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
    * 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    * 1/4 teaspoon salt
    * 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
    * 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
DIRECTIONS

   1. Preheat the broiler.
   2. In a medium baking dish, place roma (plum) tomatoes, garlic (cut side up), onion and jalapeno chile pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.
   3. Checking often, broil 5 to 10 minutes, or until outsides of vegetables are charred.
   4. Remove vegetables from heat. Remove and discard tomato cores, jalapeno stem and garlic skins.
   5. In a food processor, coarsely chop the charred vegetables. Transfer to a medium bowl and mix in cumin, salt, lime juice and cilantro.
You may add as little or as much of each ingredient as you like. I like to add more garlic and more lime juice because I’m just that sort of gal, so add or subtract whatever you like to come up with the best combination. This is best served warm right out of the blender with chips warmed in the oven. Yum!

Salsa Verde (Tomatillo)

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 1/2 pounds tomatillos,* husked, rinsed

4 large fresh poblano chiles,* halved lengthwise, cored, seeded

4 unpeeled garlic cloves

2 cups (packed) coarsely chopped fresh cilantro plus additional for garnish

1 cup (packed) chopped green onions

Preheat broiler. Line large rimmed baking sheet with foil; brush lightly with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Arrange tomatillos, poblano chiles, cut side down, and garlic cloves on prepared baking sheet. Broil until tomatillos and chiles begin to soften and blacken in several spots, watching closely to prevent burning, about 10 minutes (do not turn). Remove from oven. Let stand until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.

Transfer tomatillos to processor. Peel garlic and add to processor. Peel charred parts of chiles; coarsely chop chiles. Add generous 1/3 cup chopped chiles to processor (reserve remaining chiles for enchilada filling). Add 2 cups cilantro and 1 cup green onions to processor; using on/off turns, blend until coarse puree forms. Season salsa verde to taste with salt and pepper.

The amazing truth about coconut oil -- please read for your future health!

2009-09-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is to the body as the Book of Mormon is to the soul. It's so horrible to know that our own government allowed the soybean industry to tell us that coconut oil is bad for your health for financial gain, however it's so great to know that all the horrible effects of the free radicals and harm they have already caused in everyone's body can be reversed and your body can be healed by adding coconut oil and coconut products to your daily routine -- and with no calorie restrictions or limitations! This is a must read. Everyone needs to be using coconut oil almost exclusively to cook and bake with. The best part is it's so delicious! Thank you God for creating this wonderful fruit/nut/vegetable miracle!

View all my reviews >>

The Big Corn Harvest

2009-09-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have been buying, picking, and processing food for weeks now...because I really have been. Here are some photos of what I've been up to. The Big Kahuna was the 70 dozen ears of corn that my friend and I bought for .75 cents per dozen at the Amish Auction. I don't think you'd find a better deal than that anywhere. We either sold it or processed it all and now I think we will have corn for the next couple years...for every meal. One recipe I used was an old pioneer recipe for drying creamed corn so it doesn't have to be canned or frozen. I think it turned out way better than the blanched and frozen kind, but took a lot longer to process, as everything did back then.

Dried Creamed Corn

Put 16 cups of corn and milk from the cobs(you scrape the cobs after you cut the kernals off to get the milk) into a large saucepan with a half cup of cream, 6 Tbs of sugar and 4 Tbs of salt. cook on high, sturing constantly for 20 minutes. Pour mixture onto cookie sheets one layer thick and put into oven and slowly bake to dry. I increased the heat to dry it faster and mine got roasted a little bit, which I think will taste fabulous when served. After it's looking really dried, transfer the corn to paper lunch sacks and let hang in the driest room in the house until the corn shakes freely in the bag. Pour into glass jars and keep tightly closed. Serve by heating corn up with some milk on the stove. I am going to make a corn soup or chowder with it.

What the Gourd?

2009-08-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Our compost pile is the home of most of our most amazing plants. The things growing out of it are gigantic and when we saw the vines we were excited to find out what they were and how much bounty we would get from the surprise. Were they Pumpkins? Cantaloupes? Squash? Watermelons? Alas we were wrong. They are all gourds. Gourds?? What is a gourd good for? You can't even eat the blasted things!! Ugh.

There are at least 20 little gourds growing rampant in our garden. What a waste of space. Well, at least I didn't have to water them and I won't have to spend $5 on new gourds this year for my Autumn display. I don't even remember throwing gourds away in there and how 'come no squash grew? There must be hundreds of seeds down there. We did get some cantaloupe but the vines died early since I think they were too crowded and I heard they're particular about their space. I guess the gourds needed it all.

More Garden Delicacies

2009-08-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

I've been busy canning, traveling, cooking, planning Birthday parties, and I have no time to write about all the yummy things we have been eating. Most have been fresh from the garden. Here are some photos of the foods we have grown this year in our garden. Nothing I grow is of the ordinary variety. Check these out...

This is a box of tomatoes I picked to bring to our family reunion. So beautiful.

This is the chocolate stripes tomato. Are your taste buds going wild with jealousy?

Bea examining the colored carrots we picked from the garden. They are yellow, white, pink and red. So wild!

Blanched peaches
The jam, if you're wondering, is all peach jam but I've made raspberry, blueberry and cherry as well this year. I have a new recipe that it working great so far that is as follows...

Buy a box of Ball no sugar pectin and follow the instructions for your desired fruit
Add ONE cup of sugar and one teaspoon of stevia as the sweeteners.

That's it. I did absolutely no sugar jam last year and the jam started to brown and it just was not appetizing so I decided to use a fraction of the sugar in regular jam (which was up to 7 cups for the sour cherry in some recipes) and just used one cup plus the stevia. It preserves the fruit longer, makes it look better and gives it just that tinge of sweetness so it doesn't taste like you're just eating cooked berries or fruit. I'm quite happy with this recipe and I feel fine eating it and feeding it to my family. We treat it like a dessert so I think it's worthy.

First Tomatoes

2009-07-25T20:53:00.001-07:00

Henry and I picked the first ripe yellow pear tomato yesterday and a couple of tiny spoon tomatoes that were also ripe. I can only tell you that they were DIVINE! The one sad thing is that our pineapple heirloom tomatoes are all suffering from bottom end rot. I really dislike the weather here that causes this sickness. It's like rain for three weeks and then dry for three weeks, on and off, all summer. That is NOT good for tomato plants.
This plant has probably a few thousand flowers on it. I don't know how it will support all the tomatoes but I hope they all survive.
Here are the tomatoes at the bottom ready to ripen. We should get an excellent crop from just this one plant. I believe this is the Isis Candy Cherry plant. We'll see:)

These are from the spoon tomato plant. You can't really tell but these tomatoes are about as big as peas and that's as big as they get. We ate some that were almost ripe courtesy of Henry and they were pretty acidic. I hope they get sweeter when they're fully ripe. There are also tons of tomatoes on this plant, which is my largest one of all.

These are the green pineapple heirloom tomatoes. I LOVE how gnarly the bottoms of these tomatoes are and check out the coloring! When ripe they will be yellow with green stripes. I wonder why my other pineapple heirlooms got rot and these didn't. I might have to order new seeds next year instead of propagate my own to get rid of any disease.

Crepe Mountain

2009-07-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

I had a few dozen left over eggs that might have gone bad so I decided to make a giant stack of crepes and freeze them since I read they freeze really well. It took me the better part of the day but we've been enjoying them so much. I ground my own whole wheat pastry flower for the crepes which makes them just as light and fluffy as the white flour ones and we fill them with fresh berries, whipping cream and real maple syrup. We also make cheese crepes and pizza crepes. Any of you have any other good savory crepe filling recipes?

End of Berry Season

2009-07-23T14:33:00.001-07:00

I have been picking berries for the past month and now my 9 cubic foot freezer is almost completely filled with nothing but berries. We're about half way done with our winter stocking. I still need to go pepper picking, get peaches to can and freeze, and buy a bushel of basil. I'm really worried though because it's been raining every day and has been cool this whole month and that's not good for most fruit, especially my tomatoes! Most of mine are late season crop plants so I might not get many at all. We'll have to see!

What we do with our berries. We get about a pint every day from our own bushes.

REAL strawberries from the pick-you-own farm. These are delicious and organic too!

I think we bought about 30 lbs total.

This gives you an idea of how big our white raspberries are. They fit on my thumb and my thumb aint small, people.

A mixture of berries. They black are from the farm and the white and red are mine.

Did I really beat Justin?

2009-06-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. I beat Justin for once in my life in the Yellow Creek Triathlon. And it was by 5 minutes. I also won third place in my division. Woo hoo! I'm not sure how well I did overall though. Justin and I are planning on doing a couple more of these this summer and maybe some other races. It's hard to find races that aren't on Sundays but we have a couple more in mind. My hair tie broke after the bike portion so that's why my hair looks like a lion's main. haha. So the swim is a half mile, the bike is 9.5 miles and the run is 3.5 miles and I finished it in one hour and 23 minutes and Justin in an hour and 28 minutes. There were Amish children out on their porches watching us go by on our bikes, beautiful farms everywhere, and it wasn't even very hot. The lake was pretty warm, but there was seaweed or lakeweed? tickling our bodies the entire way. Justin was pretty freaked out by it, but I didn't mind so much. Overall it was really fun and I love doing things together! I love you baby, and Happy Birthday!

Gourmet Rice Cakes

2009-05-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

I have a fabulous new friend who is from South Korea and has been here only 3 years now and she made me the most delicious and beautiful rice cakes! I told her they were yummy, but she told me that someday she hoped I would tell her the truth about how I liked them. I'm here to say that I genuinely liked them and wouldn't mind eating more of them someday. I could tell that they had a little sweet soy sauce, chestnuts, a mini date roll and a tiny pine nut flower on each one. One thing I love to eat is beautiful food. In fact, I heard that you can fool people into thinking something is delicious just because it is so beautiful. Not that these were the case, but just something to consider next time you pay $100 per plate at a French restaurant. I love Asian food and those darling little cakes were right up my alley. Thanks Jihye! You made my day:)

Beautiful Vegetables

2009-05-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

Someday I'm going to have these framed and put up in my home. Nature's bounty leaves me breathless sometimes...and reaching for my camera:)

Pizza at your fingertips!

2009-05-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

What you will need...

Pastry flour, yeast, water, salt, olive oil, pizza stone(optional), pizza slip(optional), If not using a pizza stone and slip a cookie sheet will suffice

toppings: fresh mozzarella, basil, San Marzano tomato puree or whatever you like

Combine...
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Cups very warm water
Let activate for 5 minutes

Add 1 Tbsp salt
Turn on your mixer and slowly add about 4 cups pastry flour or "00" (as defined by the Italians) flour you can get at your local Italian market. It's the most finely ground flour you can get and can be expensive. You can grind it yourself though if you have your own grinder like I do, but then you get whole wheat pizza and you might not want it. If you use regular flour, your dough will not be soft and squishy after it's baked. It will be hard so you should just get the good stuff. Add more or less flour until you reach the desired consistency.

Okay, so then when your dough looks like it's coming together slightly in your bowl,not to runny, but not in a solid looking ball, let it mix for about 20 minutes on the lowest setting on your mixer. The dough should still be somewhat sticky to the touch, but not runny.

Put your pizza stone in the oven and turn it on at the highest setting, usually 550 degrees.

Take it out of the bowl and pour it onto a well floured surface and sprinkle with flour. You are going to be making the ball of dough which is an art in itself and key to making sure the dough doesn't get holes in it when you stretch it out. Start dividing the dough into pieces that are about as big as a clementine, or as big as a tennis ball for a larger pizza. Add just enough flour so your hands don't stick to the dough. The trick is to add as little flour as you can get away with. Start rolling the dough on the sides into the middle and then squeeze it together while you're stuffing it through your thumb and first finger(making a circle) and pinch it off to form a perfect ball with no creases. Put it on a cookie sheet with flour sprinkled on top and make as many as you can.

You may freeze the dough at this point and use some of it at a later date. This recipe makes about 10 personal pizzas.

You don't need to let the dough rise and you may use it right away if you want to. I make all the balls first and so they rise a little bit before I use them.

When you are ready roll it out, you take the dough, use the pads of your fingers to flatten it as much as you can and then start pulling at the edges and try any technique you want to stretch it out without creating a hole. You can look this up online and get better instructions than I can detail.

When your dough is pulled out to the desired size, put your pizza on a lightly floured surface or right on the pizza peel that you use to slide it onto your stone. I like to sprinkle the peel with coarse cornmeal for an easy transfer. QUICKLY add toppings to your pizza. We usually only use...

Coarsely pureed San Marzano tomatoes (Can get a giant can at Costco and freeze in individual packs for later use)
Fresh Mozzarella in chunks
Fresh Basil or pureed basil with olive oil (for winter months when basil is expensive)
Salt and a little olive oil drizzle at the end if desired

Right when you are done putting the toppings on, transfer the pizza to your pizza stone by gently shaking it to get it to glide off the peel onto the stone. If it sticks, don't shake it hard because if your toppings fall off onto the stone they will burn and set of the fire alarm. If your pizza gets a hole in it, it's ruined, so make it into a calzone or pizza roll. Also, don't load up your pizza too much. The toppings aren't finished cooking by the time the crust is done and it is really hard to slide off the slip.

Bake your pizza for about 5 minutes, until the edges turn golden brown. Your pizzas will cook better if you let the stone warm back up in between pizzas or get two stones like I have and alternate.

Take your pizza out, cut it on a DIFFERENT cutting board, not the slip, and enjoy!

Other yummy pizzas I have created are...

Goat cheese, prosciutto, and pear
Olive oil, salt, and herbs
Roasted pepper puree with roasted vegetables and green chile

Enchilada Breakfast

2009-05-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Just add an egg to the recipe below. Delicious! We ate these right before we went on a 22 mile bike trip in Ohiopyle with the kids in tow in a trailer. Just what the doctor ordered!

Main stream FINALLY catching up with "alternative" nutrtiton claims

2009-05-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

So I read in my Bon Appetite this month that science has all of a sudden "discovered" that many of the foods that the main stream media told us were bad for you are actually very, very good for you. They call the list THE TERRIFIC TEN and they are...

1 Bacon
2 Whole Milk
3 Pine Nuts
4 Duck Breast
5 Watercress
6 Cannellini beans
7 Leeks
8 Anchovies
9 Fresh Strawberries
10 Buckwheat

Okay, so many of the things on this list are already known to be good for you, but I bet you don't know why and I encourage you to read this article. The studies' findings are very interesting. BACON, for example has mostly monounsaturated fat and oleic acid which is just like olive oil and you know what that does? It LOWERS BAD CHOLESTEROL LEVELS! Also whole milk helps the absorbtion of the vitamins already present in whole, real milk (what a surprise that the vitamin supplements added to skim milk aren't absorbed very well into the body). They studied women who ate full fat cheeses and milk and discovered that they gained less weight over their lifetime. I'm sure you have also heard that drinking non-fat or low fat dairy products makes many women have fertility issues, while whole milk fat products actually boosts fertility. So you ladies out there, try whole milk and whole milk products on for size and you will be doing your body some good.

Happy Cinco De Mayo

2009-05-06T20:49:00.001-07:00

We were invited to a Cinco de Mayo party so I sacrificed 1/3 of our weekly budget money to make two giant pans of gourmet enchiladas and then at the last minute our host family got sick so we had to eat them all. Darn. I got the recipe from Bon Appetite this month and is actually on the cover called Shrimp and Cotija Enchiladas with Salsa Verde and crema Mexicana and it's excellent. We've been eating them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In fact, I think I'll make myself a sunny side up egg for breakfast tomorrow and plop it down on top of one. Delicious!

Here are the instructions in a nut shell. Don't be frightened by the title. It's easier than you think!

Ingredients:

4 Tbs oilve oil
2.5 lbs or more fresh or canned tomatillos
4 large poblano chiles, cored and seeded or canned and roasted chiles
4 unpeeled garlic cloves
2 cups packed chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup packed chopped green onions
1 1/4 cups chopped red onion plus thinly sliced rounds for garnish
2 lbs uncooked medium shrimp
2 Tbs chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
12 small corn tortillas
12 oz crumbled cotija or feta cheese
plus Crema Mexicana. I just used my homemade yogurt and it was delicious.
Also optional is avocados. I didn't have any but wish I did.

First make your salsa with either fresh or canned ingredients. I went canned because already roasted and canned tomatillos and chiles are way easy to work with and since they're just going to be pureed you can use canned. So I got a giant 6 lb can of tomatillos, a medium can of roasted, peeled and seeded poblano chiles(you can really use whatever chiles you want. Green chiles are fine), a couple bunches of cilantro and a couple bunches of green onions and a half a head of garlic. Basically just put them all in a blender and blend! Voila, salsa verde! If you want to go fresh, you have to roast everything and then blend.

THEN... saute red onions in olive oil for a few minutes, add shrimp, oregano, cumin, and the last cup of poblano chiles and cook for a few minutes until the shrimps are almost cooked.

Coat your corn tortillas with salsa, fill them with the shrimp mixture, add a teaspoon of cheese (I used fresh feta and it was incredible), roll up, and place them seam down in a baking dish and start stacking them together to fit as many as possible. When you are done filling and stacking, cover the enchiladas with two more cups of the salsa verde and put in the oven for 20 minutes and you're done!

Way easy and as Justin put it "the best thing you've made in months." and I cook gourmet on a regular basis so that's saying a lot!

Pasta Pasta Pasta

2009-05-06T20:42:00.001-07:00

Can I just say how much I love pasta? I have been making the most delicious combinations lately and most of them are by accident. I usually use penne, sometimes part whole wheat, and add tons of roasted vegetables, then add in some of my puree'd basil and olive oil packs I made last year, add vinegar, salt, more olive oil, goat cheese or mozzarella, and it's the tastiest concoction ever! I even put in some left over bacon bits for flavor. The best thing about cooking is experimentation.

One Tough Cookie

2009-04-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm training for a triathlon sprint this June and so I've been getting into shape. Plus, it allows me to eat more delicious food like the yogurt I just made tonight. Yum! My cousin, Daphne, sent me this tank top for Christmas and when Henry saw it he said, "Mom, is..is that a cookie on your shirt???" (look of disbelief) I said it was and then he was at first concerned that someone had taken a bite out of it, but then he thought for a second and said very seriously, "mom, I really love that shirt".

500 heirloom tomato plants anyone? and not quite mozzarella

2009-04-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have 500 heirloom tomato plants growing in my basement. I hope no one looks in the egress window and thinks it's something that shouldn't be growing down there. I also tried making my own mozzarella the other day and it turned out more like cream cheese, but it's the tastiest and most expensive cream cheese ever! Making cheese with an entire gallon of whole milk makes you rethink eating so much cheese at one sitting. You only get 3/4lb of mozzarella after your pour off all the water. I can eat that in one sitting, but would I ever dream of drinking a gallon of whole milk? NEVER!, but now I know it contains the same amount of fat so I might as well. Ech.

My cheese wouldn't form a thick curd even though I followed the directions exactly and so it wouldn't stretch when I melted it. I poured it into an unappetizing ziplock container and we've been eating it with crackers all day. Bea loves it melted all over her baby food. It's all organic too! Yea for organic cheese.

Also, Here's a photo of a chocolate mold I forgot to take a photo of. It's a 3D bunny pulling an egg cart. The inside of the cart is hollow and we filled it with other chocolates we made. So darling:)

"Thmoovie"

2009-04-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Henry has a hard time using the "th" sound. Especially when there are double syllables with a "th" in the middle. He always ends up putting it up front as in "thumfing" for "something" and "Thmoovie" for "smoothie". We have been making some yummy breakfast smoothies lately with our unsweetened, organic yogurt and various fruits. They are seriously delicious. We use organic strawberries(always do organic with strawberries) normal bananas(never treated with pesticides anyway), plain yogurt, frozen berries that I picked last summer (black raspberries, mulberries, and blueberries) and milk. It is a delicious and healthy way to start your morning!

Easter Treats

2009-04-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some things I have been working on for Easter. I made Easter themed chocolate suckers, sewed Beatrice an Easter dress (cuter photos of her in her dress to come on beabella.blogspot.com) and coloring eggs. I have to say that brown eggs are so much more beautiful when colored and I used the old school method with the vinegar and dye pellets. The more pastel ones are white eggs and the lovely earthy colored ones are the brown eggs. I'm definitely not going to buy white eggs for coloring again.

Better than candy

2009-04-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

One thing we loved about early spring last year is that we noticed that we had forgotten to harvest a few carrots from our patch and they started to re-sprout as soon as it got warm enough. I decided to try it again last year and left quite a few in the ground but they were found by some sort of animal so we ended up with only about 5 or 6 total, but boy were they tasty!! How delicious are home grown carrots? Better than candy.

Also in our efforts to go organic and also decrease refined sugar intake I made Henry popsicles out of blended watermelon, strawberries and black raspberries. They are really tasty!

Going Local and Organic: Worth the effort

2009-04-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I read a book about why to go organic and I'm finally convinced. This book doesn't say that everything has to be organic, but it's nice to know what the facts are and even though I'm going to miss buying strawberries for $1 per pound, I think I'll feel better about what I'm feeding my kids and what my body is feeding Bea through nursing and what a growing baby would be absorbing while developing(No I'm not pregnant). Check it out. To Buy or Not to Buy Organic: What You Need to Know to Choose the Healthiest, Safest, Most Earth-Friendly Food by Cindy Burke

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is such a quick and easy read about the dangers of eating some conventional foods. It lets you know what you should eat organic or locally grown and what you can eat conventionally grown. I am most definitely going organic. Everyone should also know what the dirty dozen is! You'll be grossed out at what you've been eating!

View all my reviews.

I also read this book a while ago and you should definitely read up on the dangers of soy. The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food by Kaayla T. Daniel

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
The information in this book is "must know" but this almost 400 page book is a little long to read fully. Basically, stay away from soy. We're at the mercy of the government and food industry on the misinformation we're getting about the nutritional benefits of soy. It's a poison from being packed with estrogen(bad for men) and preventing the absorption of vitamins (called an anti-nutrient) it should be avoided at all costs. If you don't read this book, at least be informed.

View all my reviews.

So much to catch up on

2009-03-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

Well as you may have noticed I haven't been posting in a while. It's not because I haven't been cooking, but every night I have been spending every precious minute painting my house or preparing for Henry's Birthday party I threw for him on Saturday. It was a giant feat but I got the entire downstairs painted and home-made all the party favors and decorations for the party as well as made about 6 gourmet dishes for the adults to enjoy while their kids played. Here are some photos of what I did with the painting. Along with painting my house I also re-did the playroom and it's working out fabulously for us. No more giant messes for us and all his new toys fit perfectly in all the spaces! The food stuff is to come, but here are some photos of the house colors...

The colors are from Restoration Hardware and are saffron(great room) sea green(kitchen) and chocolate for the alcove around the back door. I LOVE it. It's bold but it totally works.

Refreshing Beverage

2009-02-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

This is what I drink after a long hard work-out (which I do purely so I can eat lots of delicious gourmet food). Mmmm the refreshing taste of sweat...

PS. CONGRATULATIONS STEELERS!

BAK-LA-VA...sounds a little naughty...and it is

2009-01-29T13:44:00.000-08:00

I made Baklava the other day for a Young Women's cultural night that we were supposed to have last weekend, but most of them didn't show up because there were all at a going away party for some boy in the ward so I ended up bringing most of it home and since I thought we were going to eat it all that night, and so Justin wouldn't cry about not getting any, I made an extra giant pan of it for home. So basically I ended up with enough baklava to gain 20 lbs. Luckily it freezes well because I was eating so much of it and ruining my plans to get in shape!

So the recipe I used is on Allrecipes.com but I did a few things differently after I read all the comments. After you get your recipe just remember a few things...add some lemon slices and orange slices to the honey syrup while it cooks, add a pinch or two of nutmeg and cardamom to the cinnamon and nuts and use a variety of nuts if you can. I used almonds, pecans, walnuts and pistachios ground up pretty finely, but not overly ground. Lastly, you must cool the honey syrup and pour it into your just baked and hot phyllo dough OR pour hot syrup into you baked and cooled phyllo dough. It's not hard to make, but it takes about an hour of constant labor to put it all together, but at 1 to 2 dollars a piece they charge you at the store, it's totally worth it every once in a while! Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say that I put in a layer of dark chocolate after the initial 8 layers of dough on the bottom and it was heavenly!

I have too much to put on this Blog!

2009-01-28T19:54:00.000-08:00

Well I just realized that I have so much to put on this blog that I'm not getting around to doing. I guess my New Years resolutions to cook better food for my family AND get to bed early are preventing me from having the time to write and at the same time giving me more to write about. Today I have to talk about my Asian Food Extravaganzas I had this January in honor of the Chou family who are our in-laws and who are Chinese (well I guess technically Taiwanese) and so we celebrated Chinese New Year with three days of Asian food. I had a ton of recipes planned out but I bagged most of them when the second meal we did the HOT POT and fell in love. The hot pot is basically the same in China and Japan and is a boiling pot of water or broth that you cook small chunks of veggies and meat in at the table. I remembered eating it when my family lived in Tokyo and I always wanted to do one of my own...but forgot until my bro in law reminded me how yummy they are. I went to Lotus Market and spent hours familiarizing myself with the ingredients and vegetables while Henry ate Hi Chews. We ended up loving all sorts of strange mushrooms and the baby bok choi or Shanghi Tips. Chinese cabbage, huge white radishes, bean sprouts, tofu, carrots, and string beans were some of the things we cooked. You basically can't go wrong with this dish. If you can't stand anything exotic, just throw in what you usually eat. I used my electric wok as the hot pot and along with shrimp, beef and a large bowl of udon noodles in broth we ate to our hearts content. We each made our own dipping sauce out of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, green onions, garlic, ginger, and spices -- yum. The best part about the Hot Pot is that even though it takes a decent amount of preparation at first, I had leftovers for an entire week and when water boils in the wok after just two minutes, it was easy to pull out my ziplock bags of veggies and boil me up a healthy lunch. I'm going to make this a staple in my house. The best part about it is that Henry LOVES all the veggies and noodles. Bea was even giving me the eye while I was devouring my concoction.

I also have to tell you about my cool bud vases I got for Christmas. The flowers last longer and you don't require as many to make it look beautiful. I just love the way it looks and it's even pretty when there are no flowers in it. I also got this tulip that has a leaf that couldn't decide if it was a petal or a leaf. What do you think?

Brussels Sprouts ARE so delicious...no matter what you think

2009-01-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Justin had Brussels Sprouts(don't forget the s) for the first time on one of our first dates and he had, as many of you do, misconceptions about their deliciousness. I, however, have always loved them and decided to grow some in my garden this year. All members of the cabbage family are pretty hearty and can be harvested well into the winter. I still have two gigantic stalks out there to be enjoyed soon. This cold week is starting to make them wilt so we'll have to harvest the rest soon. Henry also loves eating them and usually eats more than half of whatever I cook. The ones I grew didn't get enough sun and were attacked by caterpillars three times so they are all very small, but that doesn't affect the taste. They are yummy! Oh, and the stalks are so tough to cut through! You wouldn't believe that they are hard as wood! Justin had to get out the hacksaw to cut the thing down! haha.

Best bread ever

2008-12-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

Amelia Hohl’s Sourdough Bread

NOTE: for my wheat bread, I just use home ground wheat flour, pour an arbitrary amount of natural pumpkin seeds, brown and golden flax seeds, and whole oats into the mixture. Occasionally I put in crasins. I have also rolled olive oil, salt and herbs into the regular sourdough loaves. My favorite is olive oil and sage.

Starter

Takes 5-10 Days to get it started. Get a large plastic pitcher with a lid that opens and closes completely.

Mix 1 Tbs. Yeast

½ cup warm water

1 Tbs. sugar or honey

Stir with wooden spoon and let sit for 10 minutes

Add 2 cups warm water or milk

Add 2 cups flour and let sit for 5-10 days.

Pour off extra liquid, close lid and sore in the refrigerator

To replenish

Add 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour and 1 Tbs. sugar (you may add as many cups as you need to fill the container about ¾ full. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Leave out for a couple days or until you can tell the fermentation has spread throughout mixture. Store in refrigerator. Pour off liquid and skim top when necessary.

Bread recipe (in kitchenaid mixer)

Two heaping Tbs. yeast, not fast rising.

4 Cups warm water

1 Tbs. Sugar sprinkled on top. Do not stir yet

Let activate for 5 minutes

Add 2-3 heaping cups of sourdough starter

1 heaping Tbs salt

½ Cup sugar

½ Cup oil

4 Cups flour (to begin with)

Handful of instant potato flakes if you have them.

Mix on low until everything is combined (make sure yeast comes up from bottom of bowl)

Begin to add more flour until it just starts to pull away from the sides. Seriously under-add flour even though it may look really runny. Put on low/medium speed for at least 20 minutes. Pour mixture out onto a well floured surface. Dough will be pretty runny. Knead dough until it’s just firm enough to form into balls. Divide dough and set in greased bread loaf pans. Preheat oven at 350. Put loaves on your warm oven and let rise until dough just reaches top of your bread pan. This bread has a lot of yeast, so it will rise quite a bit more in the oven. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, but check to make sure it’s cooked all the way through. I usually have to cook it longer because I make huge loaves. Take out of pan immediately and put on a cloth and cover to cool. Enjoy!

Candy canes and more...

2008-12-22T15:51:00.000-08:00

Today I didn't get ready, Henry still has his rat nest in the back of his hair and his pajamas on and Bea took all her naps in the Bumbo on top of the kitchen table because I was cooking all day long! This morning I woke up and made bread, then I made two batches of cherry jam, then my friend Trixie came over and we made three batches of candy canes. They were so delicious this year and they came out perfect. The three flavors were peppermint, spearmint and cherry lemon. I just put them up all over our tree and Henry and I have been eating them all afternoon. I'm hopefully making yogurt tonight. Oh, and we also made home-made pizza for lunch. I had the dough all made though beforehand, but we still rolled it out and made it from scratch. I love days like this:)

The candy cane recipe we used was from this website

http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/christmasfun/candycane.htm

Gingerbread ornaments

2008-12-21T04:44:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to bake over Christmas is gingerbread ornaments. The recipe you use isn't that important because most people get sick of them after eating one or two, so it's just important to bake them enough so they get really hard. The frosting is just Royal Icing and you can use eggs or merengue powder if you're worried about salmonella. The one thing you have to be careful of, though, is that you don't put them too close to the window if you live in a humid environment because when it rains, they all get soft and fall off the tree.

I always make ones that spell the kid's names. I already put Henry's on the tree so this is Beatrice's. I didn't realize how long her name was! Next year maybe I'll just stick with Bea.

Jammin' good

2008-12-18T20:16:00.001-08:00

One thing I love to make more than anything in the world is jam and jelly. I have these really cute jars that I get from the Specialty Bottle Company and I even had some friends help me make labels for some of them. I named my jam Hohlberry, which has more significance than you would think because my Grandma Berry taught me how to make raspberry jam which started this all. She died a few years ago and we really miss her! Her spirit lives on in my jam though and I hope she's hanging out with me in the kitchen while I cook. The jams in the photo are, from left to right, sour cherry jam, peach, sugar-free peach, grape, and pomegranate jelly. I'm making some more sour cherry jam tomorrow. It's the best of all the kinds. Yum!

I don't really have any special methods for making jam. I just do what they tell me on the box of pectin. I do, however, use my rice cooker to process my little jars and since I've been making jam so often, I can whip out a batch of jam in about half an hour from start to finish. I can even make bread at the same time and have hot fresh ground multi-grain, wheat bread with my hot cherry jam. Now if I could just learn to make the butter, I'd be set! Have any of you ever tried to make butter? Someone please tell me that it's really easy and I should start making it too. I'm going to make a batch of yogurt this week for my guests and we'll see how it turns out. I can mix it with my jam and serve it for breakfast. Yes!

Thanksgiving feast

2008-12-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

This year I went to Dallas for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time preparing Thanksgiving with my family. It's always nice to have a few cooks in the kitchen who are all on the same page as me and who all expect everything to turn out perfect. We brined our turkey overnight which made the meat so moist and aromatic so I think I'll do that from now on. It looks like it got burned, but we cooked it on a super high heat for a half an hour to sear it, but the insides melted in your mouth. Here are a few pics of my family cooking in the kitchen...I'll post some of the recipes soon...

Learned in Amish Country

2008-11-23T17:59:00.001-08:00

I did some research a while back on how to make hard pretzels and couldn't really find any real recipe online. All I found were recipes for soft pretzels, but my visit to Amish Country this weekend proved very profitable because the Julius Sturgis pretzel bakery explained the whole process. This place is the oldest pretzel bakery in America and they have some pretty gourmet pretzel varieties such as spicy jalapeno and cinnamon sugar baked into the dough. Most pretzels these days are just dipped in some synthetic junk to give them overpowering flavor, but these pretzels had just enough flavor to not overpower the pretzel itself. So the process of making a soft pretzel is something you can look up anywhere online. You basically make a bread dough, let it rise a little, roll it out and shape it anyway you like, dip it in some sort of caustic solution, which these days usually means a boiling water and baking soda mix, and baking it in the oven at 550 degrees until golden brown. Then, you decrease the temperature in the oven to 200 degrees until the pretzels are hard. Super easy, right! I'll have to put it to the test.

The really fun thing about making hard pretzels over the holidays is that you can shape them anyway you like and even decorate your tree with them. You can make gigantic candy cane pretzels or pretzels that look like snowmen or snowflakes or make the manger scene all out of pretzel people! Well, maybe next year I'll attempt that one:)

I also have to mention that we visited the Wilber Chocolate Company before we found the pretzel place and as soon as we opened the car doors, our senses were flooded by the aroma of chocolate and I almost died! Even though we were in Hershey, that chocolate smell was nothing like this gourmet chocolate factory. Totally delish. I bought some chocolate molds, including a two sided cornucopia that I hope to use to make a chocolate centerpiece for Thanksgiving. We'll see if it works!

Pizza Napolitana Anyone?

2008-11-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Anyone who know us knows that we are Italian foodies, however I have never learned how to make pizza mostly because I know I could never make it as good as our favorite pizza, Grimaldi's, in Brooklyn, NY. When our favorite local Italian restaurant here offered a brick oven pizza class, I jumped at the occasion. I spent the entire evening with very lively and tipsy people and we learned how to make everything from the dough to how to turn the pizzas in the 1200 degree oven. Bea was strapped to me the entire time and was admired by all in attendance. The pizzas were incredible and a couple nights ago I tried to re-create my masterpiece at the class and the pizzas came out awesome. I do have a pizza stone, which is totally key, and we got fresh mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes (you can get them in a huge can at Costco for cheap), Basil that I processed with olive oil and froze this summer which we drizzled over the top instead of fresh basil, olive oil and salt. We cooked our pizzas at 550 degrees and they turned out almost as good as the brick oven. One key is to let the pizza stone heat back up again in-between pizzas so the crust rises more and gets more soft on in the middle of the crust.

One tip I got from the class was to buy the largest pan you can find that covers the bottom of your oven, take it to Home Depot and get un-glazed ceramic tiles and have them cut them to the exact size of your pan, then set that on the very bottom of your oven (only if you have a gas oven) and keep it there forever. You can cook pizzas and bread right on top of that and it makes everything else you cook come out less "well done" and more "golden brown" on the edges. I can't wait to do it!

I am ashamed to admit, though, that I'm planning on using whole wheat dough from now on, which my teacher said ruins the whole idea of eating a pizza, mostly because I have a million pounds of wheat in my basement and I just got a new wheat grinder that makes the superfine flour that pizza dough requires. Otherwise it's like $5 for 5 lbs of pizza dough grade flour and that's just ridiculous when I have it for free in my basement. Sorry Larry!

Breakfasts are the yummiest

2008-11-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

I am a hot cereal breakfast kind of girl, but since I'm usually in a hurry in the mornings I don't have time to boil water and wait for my oatmeal to cook so I have created my own way to cook it and my own yummy additions to make it special. I basically throw in...
an arbitrary amount of oatmeal into a bowl
1/4 cup golden and red flax seeds
a few tablespoons natural pumpkin seeds
and a pinch of salt
pour milk into it about a half inch above the dry ingredients and cook it in the microwave for three or so minutes.
I let it sit for an extra minute or two to soak up the milk and then add...
toasted coconut that I make myself (which I will hilight at some point)
fresh or frozen pomagranite arils(those are the red seeds which I will also talk about soon)
I also throw in whatever fruit is in season. Henry LOVES this breakfast and it has no sugar, plenty of fiber, and is hearty and delicious.

Me and my food

2008-11-18T20:06:00.000-08:00

I had to start this blog because I was writing pretty much everything about my life and kids through Henry's blog and Bea's blog, but the one thing I was missing that seemed really important to me and that brings me great joy is cooking! I really enjoy the process of planting my tomato seeds to harvesting to preparing the food to eating it. I feel such a sense of satisfaction when I cook, especially bake, and I need to share my feelings with the world. I'll also post other crafty projects I'm doing on my blog from time to time, but this will mostly be a food blog and I hope you enjoy it and are inspired to cook by reading it!