Gluten free products are the new frontier for me. I’m still dedicated to my glutenous sourdough starter (which regrettably does not have a snappy name), but I’m starting to tinker with gluten free cooking for health reasons. I would love to hear what gluten free goods everyone else is baking!
Peru!
Vacation plans for 2014 included a magical trip to Peru. After many empanadas and Pisco Sours later, we sadly returned. Stay tuned for chronicles about our food journey in Peru.
Brilliant for Brunch
Hands down, Turkish breakfasts are the best.
Check this out: http://www.ladyandpups.com/2014/02/18/hello-cilbir-eng/
You’re welcome.
My First Canning Experience – I’m Hooked!
Like many things, I had built up in my mind how canning was going to be a piece of cake. And it could be when you get the hang of it. But not when you’re a newbie canner and it’s 100 degrees outside, and you have to run your stove for hours. Well, needless to say, canning is a sweaty job.
One thing that I learned is that it is very useful to have a pot of boiling water nearby in case the amount of water in the pot starts to dip down. I used fancy Weck jars for my canning. What can I say – the cute strawberry logo was irresistible, not to mention the fact that Weck is known for their jars.
I started out with a recipe for what I thought would make tomato sauce from the Ball canning guide. It ended up being more like tomato soup and never really reduced to a thick consistency.
I was slightly disheartened. But for lunch today I decided to open up a sealed jar (fearing that I had not properly canned the first batch, I had stuck them in the refrigerator with the intent of eating them soon). Oh my stars, it was delicious as a soup! I threw some large hunks of stale bread in there, too.
My kitchen was a bit of a disaster during the entire process and the stove became a tad bit crammed, but I made it work…
I’ve now decided that I want to can everything. Except for meat – I don’t understand why people do this. Someone must be doing it if the Ball canning guide has recipes for it!
Here’s my finished product. Can’t wait to eat them in the winter!
Next up – sugar-free peach jam. I’m already readying myself for a hot, sticky mess.
Adventures in Canning
I’m about to enter into new territory for me. I know I’m a little late to the party, but I’m going to give canning a shot. I’m hoping this won’t turn out to be a disaster as I’ve scurried all around town to find various canning supplies. Who knew that finding a canning rack was near impossible? I’ll be sharing my first canning experience shortly…
Life is a Recipe?
I recently read a blog post on npr.org that left its readers with the question of: “Tell us: What would your “food” obit say?” In other words, because food can be a statement of our identity, what food-related memories might I want to leave behind for my loved ones? This, I find, is a very interesting question and something I will noodle on for some time. There are some immediate thoughts that come to mind, however: bruschetta in the late summer with tomatoes and basil from my garden, freshly made butternut squash ravioli in the fall, roasted tubers in the winter, and mountains of fresh peaches from the farmer’s market in the spring-summer. And paella, and kimchi, and chocolate on everything. The list could go on for a while.
Here’s the article from npr.org:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/04/02/176064249/what-do-we-lose-and-gain-when-reducing-a-life-to-a-recipe
Pan o’ chicken enchiladas
Making a great enchilada sauce can be very time consuming. Maybe one day I’ll attempt to perfect a recipe. In the meantime, I use store bought salsa for a tasty substitute. Continue reading
Tip: how to unstick sticky honey
From time to time, I bake or cook with honey. It’s a great substitute for sugar, but I often wonder how much of the honey I’ve left behind in the measuring spoon/cup since it naturally sticks to surfaces.
Here’s a tip: spray or wipe down your spoon/cup with any kind of oil or butter, and then measure out the honey. The honey will slide right out of your spoon/cup and into your bowl. Using some oil or butter makes cleaning up the honey much easier and you won’t wonder how much extra honey you need to add to make up for the amount left behind!
Butternut Squash Tart
This past summer I planted butternut squash in my garden for the first time. Oh my stars, they were the most delicious squashes I have ever tasted. The depth and sweetness in flavor were surprising to me. My palate could also be colored by the fact that it came from my garden, but that is beside the point.
I tried out this recipe from Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Butternut-Squash-Tart-with-Fried-Sage-51117300
I served it as a Thanksgiving pre-game warm-up and it got devoured (mostly by me). I changed it up a little though and made a pastry dough instead of using puff pastry. Although puff pastry is very easy to work with, it can buckle under the weight of food, especially while it sits on a table waiting to be eaten. And, next time I will add whole wheat flour and more chilis (I like some heat!).
This recipe is a definite fixture in my future party planning.
Beer for Breakfast
8 countries in 3 three weeks: Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Spain. We did it. My biggest souvenir was the 5 lb beer belly I brought back with me. It’s hard not to drink beer in eastern Europe. Not only is it cheaper than water (bottled or tap), it tastes so much better than it does in the States.
We were excited to find a bar in Prague that had separate taps at each table. This particular bar was linked up with other bars, also with taps at each table, so that you could see how you much you drank compared to others. A dangerous/brilliant idea, no doubt.
Another dangerous/brilliant idea is fried cheese. Some places served it with a blueberry or pomegranate relish, thus making it even more awesome.
We made our way from the Czech Republic into Hungary. Again, lots of beer. I’m not going to lie, I have no idea exactly what this is a picture of. I just call it a pile of yum. I had some heartburn after inhaling it, but I seemingly survived.
Burek is my newest obsession. This is a phyllo dough-like shell stuffed with with a variety of fillings (cheese, meat, potato, or spinach). We ate this particular spinach burek in Sarajevo for breakfast. It is often topped with yogurt. Of course, we tried every kind so to be most accurate, I should say that I brought back a beer/burek belly.
No trip to Spain is complete without eating pimientos del padron or jamon iberico.
I hope we will be back to this part of the world again soon. Besides the food, the rich and interesting histories of these places will pull me back. It is scary to think that the strife in the former Yugoslavia was so recent and you can still see the remnants of war. Nonetheless, it did not detract from the beauty of each of these countries.
Eat - Drink - Roam 