Sweet Potato Stew

I think this may be the simplest whole foods recipe I make. It is so good on a cold winter day. I reduced the cayenne pepper for this post. The original recipe I made up had 1 tea of cayenne. You may try this... but unless your kids are super human, the heat may be a bit much for them. It is one of those things that you want to try with a group of adults. Of course, all of these recipes you can easily adjust and make them perfect for your family.

Sweet Potato Stew

4 large sweet potatoes
Water to cover
2 Tbs sliced (or 1 Tbs grated) fresh ginger
1/4 tea cayenne pepper
1/2 tea cinnamon
1/2 c peanut butter (crunchy or creamy, really doesn't matter... just don't get the kind with added sugar)

Peel and slice sweet potatoes into small chunks. Put in a large pan and cover with water. Boil (with lid on so it doesn't reduce much) until potato pieces are falling apart into tiny chunks. Mash the sweet potatoes (without draining the water, leave the water in the pot) until you have a thick sauce like consistency. Add in all other ingredients, and salt to taste.

Serve topped with sour cream or whole milk yogurt (not flavored), with salted peanut pieces and chopped cilantro.

Preserving Food ~ Apple Peel Jelly

I got this idea from Callista, who made what sounds like the best jelly ever! For our family though, I can not add that much sugar in jelly, so I decided to try out an old fashioned recipe from the Ball Complete Book Of Home Preserving instead, but use her apple peel juice method, and tweak the seasonings. It turned out so wonderful and I have to share:

Old Fashioned Apple Peel Jelly

Step 1: Make the juice

First, boil the apple peels. I had a 9 quart pot filled to the brim. I added enough water so when I pushed down on the peels I could see it, and boiled. I let that simmer on low for over 3 hours once it got to a boil. I just left it there all of nap time. Then I took a colander, and set it on top of an upturned cereal bowl in my largest bowl (HUGE metal mixing bowl that I keep for canning). I don't have any cheese cloth. I didn't think that the people at the store would want me bringing the plague to them, so I figured it could drip sufficiently while I made and ate dinner. I ended up with 10 cups of liquid.

Step 2: Recipe

I then used the juice for this recipe:

4 cups apple juice
2 Tbs lemon juice
3 cups granulated sugar

(I used raw, organic sugar and it worked just fine)

Prepare lids and jars. (Here for info on how to do that)

Bring juice and lemon juice to a boil and add in sugar, stirring until dissolved.

Step 3: Season the Jelly

For Apple Pie flavor add in: 1 tea cinnamon and 1/2 tea nutmeg

For Apple Cider flavor add in: 1 Tbs whole allspice, zest of one orange, 1/4 tea cinnamon, 1 tea whole cloves (strain out at the end)

Step 4: Cooking and canning

Boil hard, stirring frequently, until mixture begins to sheet from a metal spoon. (For me it took nearly an hour... and I didn't stir it much). You do not need any added pectin for this recipe. The pectin in the apple peels will work fine. I added a pectin box the first batch I made and it make it more like jello! LOL! It still tastes great though.

Pour into prepared jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.

Process jars for 5 minutes in rolling boil, then shut off heat, and leave for 5 minutes.

Remove jars, cool, label and store.

Preserving Food ~ Apple Pie Filling

Today I am sick. This nasty cold has gone viciously through our family this last week, starting with Logan on Tuesday and all the way through Don and I these last two days. It is only a three day thing... but wow. It's a killer. We have spent many an evening all laying on my bed, watching movies, eating popcorn or pasta for dinner.

Getting sick really isn't a mother's prerogative. It seems as though it should be, but when I actually get sick, it is more like something I have to push through than 'recover from'. This week was no different. The worst day of my cold I was delivered 5 boxes of beautiful apples.

No stopping apples. So no stopping applesauce and apple pie filling. Being in Washington, I have honestly never bought apples for canning before. I have always had trees, or known people that have had trees. So this is the first time I have ever paid for boxes of apples and I wasn't about to let them go bad as I sat conversing with my tissues.

Sarah Jean's Apple Pie Filling

Granny Smith Apples

4 1/2 cups of sugar

2 Tbs cinnamon

1/2 tea nutmeg (I liked 1 tea)

1 tea salt

1 cup corn starch

10 cups water

Mix all ingredients, except corn starch. Mix the corn starch with a little water and then add it in. Boil all ingredients.

Being that this is the first time I bought apples, I forgot to ask if they were organic. Just to be on the safe side, I washed them all.

Peel and core a large bowl of apples, and cut them into halves or fourths (I like fourths, they are easier to stuff in the jars, but halves look better in the pie.)

I am saving aside the peels for Callista's Apple Pie Jelly. :)

The recipe calls for cramming as many apples in as you can up to the rim of the jar, but I found that if you fill the jar half full with apple slices, and then add a bit of the sour over those, then cram the jars with the slices it worked much better to get the sauce to the bottom of the jar.

Work bubbles out with a knife. Sauce will settle and you will want to add more in a few minutes. Add lids and submerge in hot water bath for 20 minutes.

Happy Canning!

Preserving Food ~ Sugar-free Peach Canning Marathon 2009

I'll be perfectly honest, I don't expect anyone to be as insane as I feel right this moment and take on 120lbs of peaches for the year. Yes, we use that many. And yes, it has become a yearly ritual for me to do a lot of peaches... but wow. Last year I did 4 boxes, and this year I did 5, and just after I did all of the tomato sauce. I am not sorry, but I am CRAZY tired. I have been running on nothing but coffee and junk food for days and I feel it. In the last two days, I have spent 18 hours canning, picking up stuff for canning, or preparing to can. That doesn't include eating the junk food I have bought, or cleaning up (which I haven't done yet). BUT, if you wanted to do a box or two of peaches (which would take you an afternoon and you would still be perfectly sane at the end) this is how I do it.

First, get your stuff together. You will need:

• "Freestone" sweet canning peaches (Ask your farmer or market guy for freestone peaches... he will know what you are talking about.)
• Jars (for each 20 - 25lb box, you will need about 12 jars)
• New lids
• Rings
• Pineapple Juice (2 46oz cans per box)
• Honey (3 cups per box)
• Two huge bowls (or three if you are not using your sink for the cold water bath)
• One small garbage bowl
• a sharp paring knife
• A water bath canner
• Large pot for blanching peaches
• Large pot for syrup

Step 1: Preparing the jars and lids

Your jars should be in your dishwasher on a hot light wash. Remember the heated dry. This should also be on. The jars HAVE to be hot when you fill them or they may break during processing. (To do this outside, my friends and I had success with pouring boiling water in the clean jars and then pouring it out right before we filled them. Even just filling them half way worked out well.)

Put the lids for your jars in a small bowl or pan, and pour boiling water over them to get the seals sticky.

Step 2: Making the syrup

Hannah's amazing sugar-free peach syrup:

1 cup honey to 4 cups pineapple juice

With these measurements I figured out that one 46oz can of pineapple juice needs 1 1/2 cups of honey added to it for the right ratio. I made two cans of juice per box of peaches. Put all this in a large pan and get to a good and hot simmer... boil before adding to jars.

Step 3: Skinning and slicing the peaches

Get the large pot of water boiling and drop the peaches in it for 2 mintues. Take them out and put them in a cold water bath. Could be a large bowl, I just use my sink:

This is to help remove the skin. It comes off so easily after the hot and cold dips that you can just take it off like this:

To cut up the peaches you will use your paring knife and slice them down to the pit slowly moving around the peach. This should also work very easily with the 'freestones' and they should literally fall into the bowl as you are cutting them.

Step 4: Filling the jars

Pull the hot jars from the dishwasher and add peaches.

When you have your jar filled with peaches, add the syrup. You should add it up to about a 1/2 inch below the top of the jar. Run a knife around the outside of the jar to remove any bubbles, and if you need to, add more syrup.

After the jars are full, place the hot lid on top and put the ring on 'finger tight'.

Step 6: Processing

Place jars carefully in a waterbath canner and process covered in water that is at a rolling boil for 20 minutes.

Pull the jars out with a jar grabber and place them on a towel on your counter with some breathing room around each one for at least two hours.

Most of my jars were sticky afterward, so I washed them off once they were cool and placed them in the garage on the shelf:

Enjoy peaches on oatmeal, peach cobbler, and everything peaches all winter long.

(My kids asked if they could have a jar this morning and I flat out told them "NO". Lol... maybe I am mean, but I need to look at this sight in my pantry for a week or two before I let them dig in.)

Preserving Food ~ Roasted Tomato Sauce

This sauce is best made with a variety of tomatoes. I used the Champions from the garden, along with the sauce tomatoes and the Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes from the farm.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes (One flat of tomatoes makes about 8 - 10 pints of sauce)

Garlic

Balsamic

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Pepper

Italian Seasoning

Equipment:

Roasting pans (I used my glass Pyrex baking dishes)

Knife

Large spoon

garlic crusher

water bath canner

clean and hot jars, lids and rings

First, cut all tomatoes at least in half. Even the cherries. If you don't do this, they 'pop' later in cooking and give your sauce a watery consistency. Fill a baking pan with the cut tomatoes about a layer and a half deep. Crush a head of garlic into each baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, 2 Tbs or more of balsamic vinegar, sea salt, and pepper.

Mix well and put in a 400* oven for 40 minutes. About a half hour into the roasting you will smell the tomato sauce. :) When your timer goes off, your sauce should look like this:

Then, VERY CAREFULLY, put it into a blender or food processor and process on low speed with the lid held on (but not tight, only so it doesn't splatter and burn you.) Slowly turn the speed up on the blender until you have your sauce to the consistency you want (I like mine super pureed). During this step, add your Italian Seasoning and any salt and pepper you might need to your taste.

This is what mine looks like when I am done:

At this point, it is the perfect place to let the sauce cool, and put it into bags for the freezer if you so desire. Make sure it is cooled completely in a bowl or in the blender before adding it to the freezer bags. It will separate if you freeze it warm.

Put the jar lids in a bowl of boiling water. Then fill hot, clean jars with hot sauce, and put on the lids and rings (again *very* carefully! Everything is hot at this point!). Process in a water bath canner for 40 minutes:

This is our soup base for tomato soup, our pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and is dumped into our chili for that tomato flare.

The process is time consuming... but oh so worth it! What an amazing taste this will be come January! If you want to try it... just make one batch to test and see if your family likes it as much as mine does. :)

Frittata ~ It's whats for dinner

We have had a thunder storm over us for the past two hours and so I figured that comfort food was on the agenda.

There is something truly divine about making something that turns out this perfectly. It speaks to a housewives soul. This one gives me a special thrill because the broccoli and onion were grown by the farm and the eggs I got from the vendor next door at the farmers market. So it is all local, except for the mushrooms. Makes my heart sing to give my children food like this.

A frittata is a crustless quiche. I enjoy it because it is quick and easy, and it has endless varieties... although we tend to come back to this one over and over again. Enjoy!!

Frittata

2 Tbs butter

6 extra large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/2 red onion

1/2 c broccoli cut into tiny florets

5 mushrooms

salt and pepper

Put butter into oven safe frying pan. Saute onion, and broccoli, adding in mushrooms a bit later as they take a shorter amount of time to cook. Once all are tender, salt and pepper generously and turn off heat. Mix milk and eggs, and pour strait into the still hot frying pan over the veggies. Add cheese and mix gently. Put in a 400* oven for 20 minutes.

Delicious!

"What in the world do I do with garlic scapes?"

I heard that question about 700 times in the last two market weekends. It totally makes me cringe sitting here right now. lol... But it is a good question. Garlic scapes are one of those things that are at the market for about three weeks. In marketland, that is gone in a flash, and within those three weeks people naturally want to take advantage of the most local, most seasonal, freshest food available. For the last two weeks, garlic scapes have been it.

So what are they and what do you do with them?

Well, garlic scapes are the young flowers on the garlic stalk. If you leave them on the stalk, they will have seed garlic in them... which if you are wondering, takes two years to grow into a decent head of garlic. So most people don't plant garlic from the seed. They plant it from 1 year old cloves for a 9 month (instead of 2 year) harvest. So each season they will have the garlic flowers for harvest!

Enter scapes. Garlic scapes taste... well, they taste like green garlic. lol... They have that same spicy garlic flavor, but somehow they taste fresher... greener. If that makes any sense.

What do you do with them? Anything that you would do with garlic! Saute them with stir fry, saute them with butter and olive oil and eat them crunchy, chop them up tiny and put them on top of salad, bake them slathered with cheese, add them to roasted root veggies.... or puree them for a wonderful pesto like I did last night.

A little bit about this recipe: It took two tries to get it right. I underestimated how spicy these suckers were! They are not just mild little garlic flavored flowers... they are just as hot as the garlic that you use in cooking... about 4 flowers makes for 1 clove of garlic. The first time I made this recipe I have 18 or so scapes in the processor... that was not good. Burnt every ones mouth and the kids couldn't even eat it at all. Best to tone down the garlic if you are worried about heat.

Garlic Scape Pesto

5 - 10 garlic scapes

1 oz (small handful) basil

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup slivered almonds

sea salt

Cut up the scapes really well and add them to a food processor or blender with some of the olive oil. Process for about 2 minutes (I know... it's loud, you can stop if you like more chunky pesto. I like mine super smooth.). Add in the basil, cheese (get the good stuff if you can, but the freeze dried stuff works too), and almonds and process for another 2 minutes. Stop and taste. Add salt if you need and toss a generous spoonful with a plate of pasta. I topped with tomatoes. :)

I also found that it has a wonderfully sweet garlic flavor that makes AMAZING guacamole!

Here is the recipe I used today:

Guacamole with Garlic Scapes

4 large avocados
6 garlic scapes
2 small tomatoes
handful cilantro leaves
2 Tbs lime juice
3 slices large sweet onion

Add all but avocados in food processor or blender and process for about 1 minute. Mash avocados in a bowl and pour in the puree. Mix well and salt to taste. It was amazingly delicious. I may make some scape puree to save for other guacamole days.

How to make the perfect iced tea

When I found myself wishing that they made Kool-aid without food dye I realised that it was Summer. Our Winter was long, and our Spring short, but Summer is here, and along with it 90* days and the desire to sip on a nice cool drink all day long. My kids were asking for juice... but I can't drink it... So I thought I would make up a big batch of iced tea. (Cheaper anyhow.)

Contrary to the picture, only the cup came from Starbucks. It is my new favorite thing. I didn't buy those water bottles... I bought a reusable cup from Starbucks. It has a straw. Oh goodness, I wish I could tell you how much I love my reusable straw! I have drank more water than I have in years because of this beautiful over sized straw. It makes drinking for me a joy. I don't know why... maybe I am crazy, but I figure as long as I keep good stuff in my cup, like water or tea, then I am doing my body good.... and I can continue to use my straw in contentment. Unfortunately for Starbucks, that means that once again, they have lost me as a customer. I guess they can consider the $14 I spent on the cup my final farewell gift. :)


So to start; basically, you are making tea concentrate. First bring out two heat resistant measuring cups (everybody has these, right?). Put 4 tea bags in the larger of the two and then 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup honey or sugar in the other. Add at least two cups of boiling water to the ones with the tea bags, and then add enough to get to 1 cup of liquid in the one with the sweetener. Let them sit for 10 minutes.

While that is steeping, fill your pitcher half full with cold water. As cold as you can get it.

Remove the tea bags (this is important) and add the sweetener into the tea mixture. Mix well. Add the whole thing to the pitcher of cold water, mixing again to make sure there are no bland spots.

Pour over ice to serve. Can keep without getting bitter in the fridge for 4 days.

Menu Monday

Let's face it, organic chicken is spendy. The easiest way to get your moneys worth is to buy whole chickens and have a two day chicken meal. I usually make a whole chicken for my family about once a week. I stick a whole organic chicken in the crock pot, cover it with chicken broth, and drop an onion (skin and all) in there with it. After 3 hours we have a perfectly cooked chicken for dinner.

The next day I have tons of tiny pieces of chicken that are not quite enough for a meal for the 5 of us... but perfect for adding to another set of ingredients to make a good meal base. Our stand by is of course, chicken soup. Adding the chicken back into the crock pot with all the juices, some celery, carrots, sliced onion, and a couple bay leaves. Sometimes I add some Summer Savory and broth concentrate (low salt bullion substitute) to make the flavors pop.

Lately I have been trying to mix it up a bit. The kids are kinda sick of roast chicken and soup and it is getting on summer weather out here, so I have been making chicken casserole and chicken/spinach quesadillas instead. And the change has been good. ;)

Leftover Chicken Casserole

Leftover chicken pieces (no bones)

1 box chicken broth (28oz)

2 pouches reduced chicken broth (or 1 cube bullion)

4 lg stalks celery

4 lg carrots

1/2 summer savory

2 bay leaves

1 lb package of small shell noodles

salt and pepper to taste

Add it all back into the crock pot and cook on high for 1 hour. That is enough time for the chicken to heat through and start to fall apart, the noodles to take on the broth and make a yummy thick casserole, and for the veggies to be tender but not quite mushy... and it is SO good!

Leftover Chicken and Spinach Quesadillas

Leftover chicken

1/2 lb Monterey jack cheese

pepper jack for the older people in the family

raw baby (or cut up) spinach

tortillas

Chop up the chicken into small slices. Grate cheeses. Place the tortilla on a hot pan or griddle and put some cheese on half of the tortilla. Then add the chicken, spinach, and then a bit more cheese, folding over and flipping when the cheese is melted.

Dip for quesadillas

1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbs hot salsa
1/2 can black beans
chopped cilantro leaves

Add all of this into a small food processor and process until chopped but still slightly chunky.

So good!

This weeks menu:

Shrimp and Sour Salad

Shrimp and Sour Salad

1 bag baby spinach

1 lb shrimp (25-30 or bigger)

Sea salt

black pepper

cinnamon

sugar

1 red onion

Wash and dry (spinning is best) the baby spinach and set aside. Clean and de-shell shrimp, and place them on skewers for broiling or BBQ'ing. Sprinkle sea salt, black pepper, and cinnamon liberally and the sugar sparsely onto the shrimp and cook for 4 minutes on each side on high heat or until they are pink throughout. Cut onion into slivers and place in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Saute until caramelized adding salt to bring out the flavor.

Dressing:

2 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

4 Tbs Asian sweet and sour sauce (like to dip egg rolls in)

Place onions and shrimp on the bed of clean baby spinach, and drizzle the dressing over the top.

I served with artichokes (in season this time of year) with curry/mayo dip. YUM!

Apple Cinnamon Bunt Cake

Can I spend some time making your mouth water? This cake was SO good! I hadn't ever done it this way before... I adjusted the recipe for my own tastes. The first time I made it, I used a 9X13 cake pan, and I followed the recipe exactly (which included quite a bit of white flour), but this time I changed the recipe and it was (personally) SO much better! (The recipe called for a bunt pan, but I didn't have one until this week. :) ) The apples from around here are starting to get grainy and pithy. Don't buy from Argentina! Turn them into a cake!

Apple Cinnamon Bunt Cake

Dry:

2 cups spelt flour

1 Tbs cinnamon

2 tea baking powder

1 tea salt

1/2 tea baking soda

Wet:

4 eggs

2 melted sticks of butter (1 cup)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar (buy the good stuff)

Toss in:

6 granny smith apples (or more if they are small)
Pealed and sliced.

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix dry together and wet together in seperate bowls. Pour wet into dry and mix well. Toss with sliced apples (which can be tossed with lemon juice beforehand, but is optional) and add the whole thing to a greased bunt pan.

Cook for 50 - 60 minutes or a stick comes out clean.

COOL COMPLETELY before taking out of the pan. Top with 2 cups powdered sugar, and 1 - 2 Tbs apple juice to make a frosting/glaze.

This is an AMAZING cake, and I didn't have a problem with the kids eating generous servings of it either. It's mostly apples... there are big chunks of apple throughout that practically melt in your mouth. YUM!

I am going to feed you friend dandelions for dinner!

Sounds like a threat doesn't it? lol! Well today, thanks to this post (I made up my own recipe), that threat came true!

Dandelion Batter

1 cup spelt flour
2 eggs
1 tea sea salt
1 1/2 tea Spike seasoning
2/3 cup of milk or enough to make the batter kind of runny.

Mix it all together in a large bowl.
Wash and spin dry the dandelion flowers.


Dip in the batter, and fry in hot oil (we used coconut oil)




Allow to cool on paper towels, and eat away.


The kids absolutely loved them! They didn't last until dinner. Weeds... who would've thunk?