Two Birthdays, Three Cakes

Not a bad ratio, huh?

Today was Mom's birthday so we went on the Enchanted Gardens of Northwest Denver Tour (benefiting the Conflict Center) and toured Proctor's Garden (benefiting Denver Dumb Friends League). Clarity spent the day with Daddy and went to the Mini Maker's Faire at DMNS.

Since we were going to be out in the sun all day, I started Balsamic Roast Beef Dip Sandwiches in the crockpot in the morning. This was a new recipe and is going into the regular rotation. It was extremely good.

Now on to the cake - Southern Coconut Cake, also a new (now beloved) recipe. Delicious. FYI if you try it, I didn't bother to use cake flour and ran out of coconut flavoring. The cake only ended up with 2t and the frosting didn't have any. I did use coconut milk instead of regular milk in the buttercream frosting. Used organic sweetened small flake coconut on the outside and didn't toast it. Still turned out plenty coconutty.

At the end of May, Clarity's 2nd birthday came and we had our "small family get together". Over 20 adults and 8 kids for our family parties now. Love it! That many people called for two cakes because running out of cake is a birthday disaster. 

Raspberry-Laced Vanilla Cake has raspberry liqueur in the buttercream frosting instead of milk. This is a very good idea.

Chocolate strawberry cake was this frosting  (used semisweet chocolate chips) and some random chocolate dump cake recipe. I frosted the bottom layer then added a couple cups of strawberries, lightly mashing about half of them and adding the rest chopped. I frosted the bottom of the second layer before putting it on to keep the cake from soaking up strawberry juice. After frosting the cake, I decorated with some more sliced strawberries. It worked well. The strawberries were sweet enough without any added sugar and the frosting also wasn't over sweet.

Other birthday pictures...

(Aunt Pauline has made each of the girls a beautiful quilt. She brought Juniper's over at Clarity's party. It's the "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" jump rope rhyme - love it!!!)

Homemade Yogurt is Simple

Making yogurt at home is so easy. YOU DON'T NEED A YOGURT MAKER! That machine was invented as a solution looking for a problem in my opinion. A cooler works just fine. I thought I'd post the process to encourage people to give it a try. When we used to make yogurt with store bought skim or 1%, it was helpful to let the yogurt drain on some cheesecloth until the desired consistency was reached. It can be quite runny to start with. (The drained liquid can be added as the liquid when baking or to any soup, etc. so the excellent nutrition it contains isn't wasted. It imparts no noticeable flavor.) You can also drain yogurt to the point that it's spreadable like a soft cheese (hence, "yo-cheese") and put it on crackers. Now that we're using whole milk (starts out raw but the process pasteurizes it) it's a perfect, thick rich consistency without any additional steps.

(Note: "Greek" yogurt, so popular right now, is just yogurt that has had more whey drained out than usual. Amazing the premium that that little detail is commanding.)

One note - homemade yogurt is "plain". To me it's too sour to eat without some doctoring, usually in the form of fruit and a swirl of honey. It is disturbing how much sugar one has to add to make it taste like store bought flavored yogurt. It's something that I sometimes wish I didn't know. (The taste of your final product will depend on your culture. If you're using commercial yogurt as your starter, make sure you like it. For instance, Nancy's is much more sour than Noosa.)

Plain yogurt is an awesome addition to savory foods, especially ones with strong or spicy flavor. It can be used like sour cream on Mexican dishes. Indian foods (like daal) are made even better when paired with it. The other night, I made curried cauliflower, mixed it with pan fried spicy sausage and threw in a little bit of cooked kale and onion as well.  The yogurt was the perfect condiment to bring it all together.

It starts with putting your milk on the stove top. Either very low (my preferred temp, takes longer but I can wander away for a while) or slightly less low with constant stirring to prevent scorching. I don't think hotter saves any time since you're dissipating heat with stirring. A double boiler is also an option but that sounds like more work than I'm willing to do. You want the milk to get to 185 degrees F.

The next step is removing it from heat and waiting it to cool to 112 degrees F. It's got to be this cool so your culture isn't cooked and killed as soon as it is added. I've been using Y5 powdered culture (available online or from brew stores) lately but you can use a tablespoon or so of any yogurt that advertises active cultures. This packet says it works for 1 qt. of milk. I've done 2 qts. with no noticeable difference in success. 

While I'm waiting for the milk to cool, I arrange canning jars in a towel in the cooler. I pour boiling water from the kettle into the two outside jars and screw on lids, closing the cooler to keep the heat in. Depending on the configuration and size of your cooler, organize the jars so they fill the bottom of the cooler and the yogurt is as central as possible.

When the milk reaches the right temperature, add your culture, allow it to sit a couple minutes, stir, and pour into the waiting cooler jar. Screw a lid on to the yogurt jar and replace the cooler lid. 

Let the yogurt sit, undisturbed for 6-12 hours. I always let it go to the long end if I've used lots of milk to my amount of culture. You can open the cooler at 6 hours and gently tilt the jar to see if you've got a set. If it still acts like milk, just put it back in and wait. 

Save a little from the previous batch as the starter culture for the next batch. You may notice that it gets more sour over time. If that happens, just buy a new carton of yogurt (or another packet of culture) to get a fresh start.

If you're a regular yogurt eater, I strongly urge you to give this a try. It can be a very economical (and environmentally friendly) alternative to buying carton after carton at the store.

Some New (to me) Recipes

In an attempt to live more like we use to, now that our lives have finally settled down after the move and the NICU baby absorbed our last two summers' time and ambition, we are having a "no spend" July. I wanted to do it partially because it would spur me to use more of the pantry stuff up and cook all of our meals instead of most. The other, prosaic part is that I like the idea of tightening our belts a little after the new roof, new sewer main, new back door, and basement support beams came (unexpectedly) all at once. 

Since we've made the choice that I'm not going out to make money, what I can do at home is figure out ways to save it. Our rules are nothing "unnecessary". Regular bills are necessary and pretty much everything else isn't really necessary. You might make a case that food is a necessary expenditure, but a look at our pantry and freezer suggests that it is not a very immediate need. We have already prepaid for our egg, veggie, and milk CSAs, which pretty much covers fresh foods. I've got a little of the "prepper" in me and feel better with a full larder but it will be nice to trim it down a little for a month (or two?) before we start stocking it for the winter again in September. I did buy a loaf of bread and some lunch meat to help with Q's lunches in the coming week though. Maybe a roast next weekend, thin sliced for sandwiches? Pork loin? Getting breadmaking back into the regular cycle can eliminate those groceries next week. I like not going to the grocery store (aka dens of evil processed temptation). :)

And it's SUMMER! GARDEN SEASON! Fresh, inspiring foods constantly appearing in my yard and in our CSA from the farm down the street. I love having a garden again. I'll have to do a garden post very soon but we have about 1000 sq. ft. of garden just starting to take off for the season.

Anyway, on to my new delicious finds...

Five Anaheim peppers needed to be picked. This recipe was the inspiration but I used canned chicken breast (9.75 oz. can) and just winged it with proportions until it looked right (including green onion from the garden!) They were small peppers so there was extra stuffing but it was perfect for Willow baked by itself so she didn't have the peppers' heat.

The farm linked this recipe to its Facebook followers since the CSA has been getting a nice bunch of radishes each week. I liked the idea but a recipe seemed like so much work (dramatic sigh). I just used 3/4c apple cider vinegar, 1c hot water, and a large teaspoon full of honey to make the brine then put a bit of dill in the jar (also from CSA) and dumped in the sliced radishes (not paper thin from a mandolin). They're darn good. Wil is so funny about anything pickled and these were no exception. She's pretty much willing to eat as much as I'm willing to give her. 

They remind me a lot of sauerkraut and make me want some other strong flavor to complement them (think Reuben sandwiches). I've been virtually creating in my head with chopping some up with something else and making kind of a chutney to serve over patties of kasha? Still pondering...

I looked up our old favorite breakfast cookie recipe today. I had forgotten it took bran flakes, which we don't have and I didn't really want to buy (even if we weren't no spending). Happily I found these and I think I like them even better than the old ones. Quentin will argue that they aren't really that recipe any more so I'll document my changes here. Most of them were made because of the ingredients I had on hand.

• replaced the apple sauce with apricot puree
• skimped on the syrup and used 3/4c (instead of 1c) for a double batch. It is grade b though, which we think has more flavor (along with being cheaper).
• replaced the pistachios with walnut pieces
• left out the flax seed (if I had any I would have put these in since they're the healthy fat source)

Okay, Quentin may have a point...

I'm so happy to be cooking and planning more rigorously again. I just feel better when we're eating this way. Hopefully, there will be lots of new discoveries to come. The ground cherries are just starting to ripen so we have a whole new fruit that we've never had before. 

Easy Pantry Potato Soup

Q's in self-imposed isolation in the bedroom to keep myself, the girls, and the rest of society from further exposure to what I'm calling "the plague" (positive test for type A flu, likely H1N1 based on what has been the overwhelmingly common strain this season). I have no desire to take the girls out in the snow (it's snowed pretty much constantly all day after having several inches yesterday as well). This means that there is no spontaneous food purchasing this weekend. About 5:30p, I realized that we would expect dinner in about an hour. Thank heaven for well-stocked pantries, freezers, and simple cooking. My inability to do the whole "plan and shop for a specific meal" thing means that most of the time I don't use recipes but throw myself into it on a wing and a prayer. This one turned out particularly well so I'm sharing.

Ingredients (enough for about 3 people when served as the entree)
1 lb bacon
1 medium yellow onion
7 medium red potatoes
2 c chicken stock
salt, pepper, dried parsley
shredded cheddar cheese


Using a large pan, cook the bacon until crispy and remove to drain, leaving the fat in the pan. While the bacon is cooking, cook the whole potatoes in the microwave until tender and dice the onion.

Add the onions to the bacon fat. Continue to cook the onions in the fat as you cut the tender potatoes into medium sized chunks.

Add the potatoes to the onions and continue to cook for a few minutes then add the stock and simmer until the potatoes are soft.

If the soup in your pan is too shallow you'll have to transfer it into a deeper bowl to use the immersion blender until the mixture is fairly smooth. (I like my big, wide pan for cooking so there's plenty of bacon cooking surface area but then I have to pour it into a narrower, deeper bowl for blending. I suppose this isn't necessary if you start by using a kettle.)

Stir in salt and pepper to taste (about 2t and 1/2t for us) and about 2t of dried parsley.

Crumble the bacon and stir in those pieces.

Serve hot so the cheese shreds melt as you stir them into each serving.

Baking!

I've been on a bit of a baking binge. We had Whole Wheat Cranberry Scones on Saturday morning and Chai Spiced Shortbread Cookies tonight. I just started grinding some soft white wheat berries that we got last year (having just run out of the hard red) and I'm delighted by the light airy results even though I'm using only whole wheat flour in the recipes.

I'm going to try this walnut pie crust with our favorite pumpkin custard recipe for Thanksgiving since we have friends who don't eat flour or sweeteners coming for dinner.

Goodbye Summer

First frost came last night. As I surveyed the blackened garden, I noticed that the tomatoes I'd given up on as hopelessly infested with bugs didn't look as bad as I thought. I gleaned 4 pounds off the ground! With a few salvaged basil and oregano leaves, untouched by frost at the middle of the stand, and some garlic from the fridge, I just got a Goodbye Summer Homegrown Marinara batch started. At least we've still got beets and carrots in the ground and a hearty kale plant for my harvesting cravings. And tons of frozen and preserved food. :)

Putting the Yard to Bed

It's that time of year. This season's been made especially neat due to the purchase of an electric rototiller, which Q has put to good use. He double tilled the corn bed, including another couple of feet of sod, which the tiller had no problem with.

He also did the oat bed. We planted annual red clover as a green mulch in both beds. He's also going to do the front edamame/squash bed and who knows what else!
We also finished getting the corn husked this weekend. A few ears of sweet corn had a couple of moldy spots, so those are getting slowly fed to the chickens fresh. The rest are up drying along with the popcorn (which we need to try soon). It looks like we're going to crack most of the corn and use it to help lower our chicken feed costs this winter (along with the oats, which we haven't found a good method for threshing).
Here's Willow helping me test fit a pants pattern for her, courtesy of a worn out pair of Daddy's boxers. I'll post pictures of the finished first real pair tomorrow.
And here's an easy fall dessert...

I cut the apples in half and used the melon baller to remove the cores before putting them in the baking pan. A dollop of butter and teaspoon of brown sugar in each center, liberally sprinkled with pumpkin pie spice, and baked uncovered at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Stocking up

So, admittedly, we don't grow most of our food (although we tend to grow more than most people do) but I really really try to avoid buying produce at the grocery store so, when I can, I try to stock up from local farms during the summer.

Some of the ways we do that are...

Buying bell peppers at the farm when they're 5 for $1 (!) and dicing and freezing them for use all winter. We also do this with onions and broccoli and green beans. We freeze our own edamame and corn. It's just like having the grocery store freezer section in your own home and have you looked at the price of quality frozen vegetables?!

We also buy and can peaches, cherries, and apples in season but freezing vegetables and berries preserves more taste and nutrition. Canning vegetables is also a much more involved process.

We pulled 20 lbs. of tomatoes out of the garden on Monday and simmered them down into a delicious marinara with some homegrown basil, oregano and garlic and farmer grown onion. Q cooked some Italian sausage and we had it over white sweet potatoes last night. It was so good and hearty that I ate the leftover sausage sauce all by itself after my potato was gone. The back left burner also has a chicken carcass getting transformed into stock for winter cooking. Heehee, the pun with the title was totally unintentional but I suppose we really are "stocking up". :)

Whole 30 Challenge Desserts?

Q was getting quite burned out on the Whole 30 Challenge over the weekend so in a fit of madness I committed to joining him for the rest of the time (through October 11), although I didn't completely give up dairy. He wants me to make sure everyone knows that he never once asked me to join him or lusted over any forbidden thing I was eating. Anyway, "treats" were being sadly missed so I turned to the magic of the internet and found a couple of real winners.

Here's a strawberry rhubarb crumble. The only modification I made was doubling the strawberries. It was impressive how sweet it tasted with the group efforts of the pecans, coconut (unsweetened) and the strawberries. I would make it again just like this but Q thinks he'd prefer adding a couple tablespoons of honey when we're not on the challenge.

It's pumpkin and apple season.

A hint we learned last year for cooking winter squash (including pumpkins) - bake them whole and then cut them apart and remove the seeds. The rind is far easier to cut through and the seeds are easier to remove.

We canned 9 quarts of applesauce and have already eaten 2. Thankfully, we've got another two boxes of apples waiting to make another dozen quarts. We made a mixture that was primarily Macintosh with a few Early Gold and Gala thrown in to add sweetness.

Homemade applesauce liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and walnuts is a wonderfully satisfying treat (and healthy enough to be part of breakfast).

The pumpkin custard also turned out well and works great for breakfast or dessert. Sprinkling it with walnuts is also wonderful. I modified this recipe enough that I'll include my version below. I didn't think it was spicy enough this time around so I'd probably put in half again as much next time of the spices. After we're off the challenge I also want to try it with whole milk since coconut milk is so expensive. I was also wondering how just a little grated fresh ginger might jazz it up?

2 lb. 5 oz. pumpkin, baked and pureed

6 eggs

2 1/2 t cinnamon

1 1/2 t ginger

1/4 t nutmeg

1/8 t (?) salt

1 can coconut milk

2 t vanilla

It took about 1 3/4 hours for the largest ones to finish baking in a 350 degree oven.

Also, October Unprocessed 2011 is about to begin and though we're not committing - as Q put it "I think I've had enough food challenges for now thankyouverymuch". Thankfully, we tend to follow most of his rules anyway. I also discovered that I really like his blog, a great post is here.

Summer Squash Bread

The yellow crookneck squash are going crazy and we got wondered if it could be used to make the equivalent of zucchini bread. This recipe came up. We added 1/2 c. of chopped walnuts.

Today, for the 5th loaf, I experimented by using 2 T Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer (but didn't add the liquid it called for) for the eggs and replaced the sugar with 3/4 c honey. Delicious delicious bread for the freezer.

This week's meals are being doubled for the freezer so Mama can do easy meal preparations after baby comes (next week!) - Three Bean Casserole, Marvelous Mostaccioli, Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Enchiladas, and Tamale Pie.

The Humble Baked Beans

Poor beans! They're so much less photogenic than glowing orange peaches or juicy red cherries. They are, however, the carriers of protein and, until now, have been one of the very few things I buy canned, largely because Q has a little beans on toast obsession.

When I came across a canned baked beans recipe on the National Center for Home Food Preservation site it seemed like a good experiment. Unfortunately, the recipe as written should be titled "White Beans in Vaguely Brown Water". It had almost no flavor so after they'd finished their oven time and I was convinced that the recipe was a dud, we doctored them before proceeding to the canning steps.

Here's the ingredients I would follow from the beginning next time (instructions for preparation are in the link above).

3 lbs. white beans (made about 10 pints of beans)

Reserve all of the cooking liquid. To 1 qt. of the liquid add...

1/2 c molasses

1/4 c apple cider vinegar

1/4 c ketchup

3 T mustard

3 T salt

Mix this in with the cooked beans and 2 strips of bacon cut into 1" lengths. Place the mixture in your baking dish and add additional reserved liquid until the beans are covered. I did give them a stir and add a little more liquid every hour and I would definitely only bake them for 4 hours. I did them for 5 and they seem just about right but I fear that the canning process pushed them over the edge to mushy.

Q's been having beans as part of his breakfast for the last couple of days and enjoying them. The first attempt was definitely successful enough to try version 2.0 next time we need beans.

Summer Lunch

Summer Squash Salad, Caprese Salad, and Homemade Bread

We had the first fresh zucchini and yellow crookneck yesterday and we had just gotten some beautiful basil from a local farmer. The squash salad was a first time experiment, as was the mozzarella. For the mozzarella, I used this easy to follow tutorial. The texture turned out a little grainy but it was still really good. I'm anxious to try again. I think I may have let the milk get a couple of degrees too hot before adding the rennet.

Summer Squash Salad (adapted from free magazine from health food store)

2 T soy sauce + 2 T almond butter + 2 t curry powder

Whisk together until well mixed - it will be thick, just short of pasty

yellow crookneck squash + zucchini (about 8 oz. each)

Use a vegetable peeler to create squash "noodles". Use the skin. I found that I couldn't make strips from the core of the squash so that went to the chickens.

Stir the veggie strips into the soy sauce mixture. Add...

1/4 c shredded coconut + 1/3 c golden raisins

Serve or refrigerate. (The original recipe also called for cilantro, which I didn't have, but we didn't really miss it. I also think adding cashews would be delicious.)

Latest Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

(aka "The search for a whole wheat sandwich loaf")

1 1/2 c water

1/2 c milk powder

6 T melted butter

2 eggs (Lacey's, so probably 1 1/2 "normal eggs")

2 T sugar

3/4 t salt

4 1/2 c home-milled whole wheat flour

1 T yeast

I did get a good rise, always an exciting sign using entirely whole wheat flour and perhaps a result of adding in the extra sugar for the yeast to get excited about. As it cooled it got a little crumbly, although that was better than it usually is as well. Maybe 2 regular sized eggs would help with binding? Either way, it's still delicious with butter and jam. This is one of those experiments that is not painful to repeat until I finally manage to get it just right.

Tonight's Dinner

Happy Friday!

Salad with lettuce, peas and carrots from the garden and store bought tomato (hopefully we'll have tomatoes soon, the first fruit is set!), dressed with peach balsamic vinegar and blood orange olive oil from EVOO.

Rotini with homemade pesto from last summer's garden

Grilled chicken breast

Homebrewed apple cider (for Q, I stick to sparkling water)

I was again struck by how we need to stay on track to start growing some of our own grain because percentage-wise the rotini was the largest portion of the meal that we don't currently produce on our property. (I realize that, for the moment, apples for the cider and pesto walnuts are not practical for us to grow ourselves - although in this case they were at least both locally sourced.) On the grain front - we were examining the oats tonight and the first planting seems to have reached the milky stage; I'm curious how long it will be before it gets to "harvest ripe storage stage". Apparently, there are still soft dough, hard dough, and kernel hard stages to get through first though. :) The ins and outs of growing grain are fascinating.

Speaking of good eating, I had a friend give me some of her homemade herbed chevre today. It's absolutely divine, and I have actually never liked goat cheese before. I really need to get serious about cheesemaking. So many things to do, so little time (and energy right now).

Tomorrow Q's going to set up the new smoker for the first time and smoke a pork shoulder. Mmmm, I love food.

How to Make Paneer

I've had spinach in the freezer since late last summer but never got around to making saag paneer, so here is a little paneer making and Indian cooking tutorial. Making paneer is so easy that I did it with my Waldorf 8th Graders as part of the organic chemistry block.

Heat 2 quarts of milk to boiling, stirring constantly, then remove from heat and drizzle in 1/4 c lemon juice as you continue to stir. Curd will immediately begin to form.

Line a colander with cheesecloth and pour the curds/whey mixture in. This picture is after the liquid has been pressed out.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture. Cube the paneer and pan fry it in a little butter (or ghee if you're after authenticity). In the picture it is already dumped on top of the "saag" (spinach) mixture.

My saag paneer recipe...

paneer, fried (see above)

12 oz. spinach, chopped

1 medium onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 T Penzey's garam masala

salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cumin to taste

1 T canned green chiles

2 T buttermilk powder mixed into 1/2 c water

After frying the paneer, add the onion and garlic back to the pan and use the remaining oil to saute. When the onion start to become translucent, add the spinach, chiles, and spices and simmer it until it looks well-cooked. Use a hand blender to puree the entire mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture and simmer until it reaches the desired consistency, tasting and adding additional spices as necessary. Stir in the paneer and serve over rice or with naan.

Q doesn't like saag paneer so I threw together a chicken curry for him. It turned out pretty yummy and was really easy. This was enough for his dinner after adding about 1/2 c. of rice.

4 oz. grilled chicken

1 1/2 c peas (I used frozen)

1 medium onion

1 clove garlic

2 T canned green chiles

1 T curry powder

salt to taste

2 T buttermilk powder mixed into 1/2 c water

1/2 t cornstarch

Cook the onion and garlic in a little oil until the onions begin to become translucent. Add the chicken, peas, chiles, and spices. Heat through, sprinkle with cornstarch and mix to coat then add the buttermilk mixture. After the sauce thickens, remove from heat and serve over rice or with naan.

Oatmeal Pancakes

I realized this morning that I haven't ever shared this link here - Dee's Oatmeal Pancakes. They are phenomenal. I keep buttermilk powder in the freezer so it's easy to have all the ingredients on hand. I up the flour to 1 c. because otherwise they have trouble getting good form in the pan. Whole wheat flour substitutes easily into this recipe and it ends up being quite a good source of whole grains. The trickiest part is remembering to start soaking the oats the night before.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

I don't know where it originally came from but this salad is really delicious. It's especially nice because spinach and strawberries are in season at the same time. For the amount of dressing below, the original recipe calls for "2 bunches of spinach" and "1 pt. strawberries". My guess is that I tend to use more strawberries than that and that the dressing probably covers about 2 lbs. of spinach.

Sweet and Sour "Seedy" Dressing

I think it's better if it's made a little in advance and allowed to sit for a few hours before it's used to dress the salad.

2 T sesame seeds

1 T poppy seeds

1/2 t onion powder (or 1 1/2 t finely minced onion)

1/4 t paprika

1/4 t Worchestershire sauce

1/2 c salad oil

1/4 c sugar (I halve it from the original 1/2 c and it's plenty sweet)

1/4 c apple cider vinegar

Happy 4th of July!

Time to Make Dinner

I've been enjoying being able to make dinner every night without having a time limit or lack of energy to deal with, both of which I faced when we got home at 5:30p every night. What I enjoy, I take pictures of, so here are a few snapshots of recent meals.

Here's last night's chicken pot pie. No recipe, I just cooked the garlic, onion, potato, turnip, carrot and celery on the stovetop with some thyme, rosemary, tarragon, salt and pepper until everything was tender. I added the peas and boiled chicken last with some white wine and chicken broth and mixed in some cornstarch. After the biscuits got put on top, the whole thing baked in a 450 oven for 15 minutes.

For the falafel, we buy the tzatziki and feta already made. I cooked and mashed the garbanzo beans in the morning and set the pita dough to rise. I pan fried the pitas, so they were really more like chapatis. I'm still working on making them thin enough that they're bendable when they come out but Q said his open faced sandwich was still very good. The falafel just had egg, almond butter, celery, onion powder, cumin, turmeric and salt mixed into the beans. The patties were dredged in bread crumbs, sprayed with oil, and baked for about 25 minutes at 375, turning them halfway through.

When we have tacos, one thing that's made a huge difference in their deliciousness for us is frying our own shells using corn tortillas. It takes almost no time and they taste a lot better, since they're quite a bit fresher. Here's Q's mini-photoessay of the process. :)

Lastly, here's a "pie" for the chickens to enjoy, rather than the humans. A friend gave me some ciabatta that was too tough for the chickens to tear apart on their own. I tore it up and soaked the pieces in water. We also had a few cherries that had gotten past their prime. It accidentally got quite a bit more picturesque than most of the chickens' treats.
We've also got pesto, chicken salad, grilled lamb chops with baked potatoes and broccoli, and saag paneer on this week's menu. I've found that I'm a much happier camper if we plan the week's meals out over the weekend and do the grocery shopping then. Otherwise, morning comes and I draw a total blank on what to have for dinner. Any meals that are favorites for any of you?

In the Kitchen

Here are a few adventures from the kitchen this week...

I spent over a day babysitting drying spent grain from Q's weekend brewing in the oven. If it had been warmer I would have spread it outside to dry. The chickens love this stuff and now it's been preserved so I can keep supplementing their feed with it. It was in rimmed baking sheets in about 1/2" layers and stirred every 20-30 minutes at 250 degrees.

Here are some roasted potatoes for a potluck this afternoon.

Strawberries and biscuits are a family favorite for breakfast during this time of year.

I also made a batch of strawberry rhubarb honey jam. It turned out really fantastic but I only got 4 pints instead of the 5 pints I filled. As I put one into the canner, there was a loud pop and the bottom of one of the jars just broke off.

I'm going to make at least one batch of strawberry and, hopefully, a batch of blueberry jam, which should get our jam closet stocked for the year. We actually ran out this spring; rather shocking really!

Cherry Pie

Here's Q's cherry pie that I made him for Father's Day. Cherry pie filling canned last summer, whole wheat pie crust, and melted butter/oatmeal/almond pieces as the topping.

Zucchini Cookies - Cooking with Honey III

I love cookies. I've realized over the last year or so that my love for them is much greater than I used to believe. I actually get cookie cravings now and pie or ice cream or cake or my many other dessert loves will just not cut it. Fearing for my (lack of) post-baby waistline and knowing breastfeeding can only do so much, I chose to make these when I decided cookies were a must for Craftacular Getaway 2011. They're the cookie that's (almost) healthy.

I first blogged about making them last summer and now that I know the original recipe rocks, I modded it into a former shadow of itself based on healthier/more local/what I had on hand choices. Here's the adjusted ingredients list with the caveat that for the honey and puree I guesstimated as I dumped it in. They still bake at 350 degrees and mine took 13 minutes.

1 1/2 c honey

1/2 c butter

1/2 c apricot puree

1 1/2 t cinnamon

1 t salt

2 T Bob's Red Mill egg replacer (I didn't add the water the bag calls for since the honey is wetter than sugar)

1 t vanilla

18 oz. grated zucchini (thawed from frozen then pouring off about 1/4 c of water)

3 c whole wheat flour

3 c rolled oats

1 t baking soda

2 1/2 c chopped walnuts

1 1/2 c chocolate chips

I baked up 36 cookies, which I think was about half the batch. The rest got rolled up as a log in saran wrap, put in a freezer bag, and frozen for future use.