Better Homemade: Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate milk is one of life's most wonderfully extravagant pleasures. 

If you are already convinced, and want to skip straight to the recipe, click here.

My mom never bought chocolate syrup. "It's full of nothing but junk!" she said. We did make hot cocoa on snow days, mixing cocoa and sugar and milk and vanilla in a saucepan on the stove. As we got older, she started buying the cocoa packets, and they were nice (and a lot faster, especially because we now had a microwave), but the flavor didn't compare.

My kids also prefer stovetop cocoa to anything out of a packet. On a really cold day, I'll add a tiny dash of cayenne...so pleasantly warming with the chocolate. Cinnamon is nice too!

Chocolate milk made a regular appearance in our lives when my kids started school five years ago. My son remarked early on that he generally preferred the "regular" milk, but the chocolate and strawberry-flavored milks had all the fun cartoon characters on the containers, which he thought wasn't right (and I agreed). He bought his lunch occasionally, and my daughter did the same when she started school, but she made an argument that a weekly chocolate milk was a good "sometimes treat." I thought this was a fair argument, and my son by this time had developed an appreciation for it, so we agreed they could do it once a week, whether they brought or bought their lunch.

Shortly after this, I went to school and bought my own school lunch with the kids, and I looked at the carton of chocolate milk. High fructose corn syrup was the second ingredient in a long list of unpronounceable items, and it had 26 grams of sugar! What?? That's almost as much as a bowl of chocolate ice cream!

"I can do better than this," I said, and the tinkering commenced.

First, most recipes called for a mix of granulated white and brown sugars. I quit storing brown sugar a few years ago, since I already stock both molasses and sugar, and it's easy to mix up brown sugar on the few occasions I need it. 

Interestingly, a teaspoon of molasses contains more sugar than a teaspoon of granulated sugar (4 g to about 4.6 g). However, the molasses has a little magnesium, iron, calcium, and potassium, and its rich, deep flavor really complements the cocoa. I mixed up brown sugar once for this, then decided to just substitute straight molasses for it, which is easier and tastier!

My recipe makes the most deliciously-rich, intensely-chocolaty hot cocoa, chocolate milk (and occasional an iced mocha) I've ever had. It uses only six common pantry ingredients, though I could make a good case for adding a dash of cinnamon!  

My "Deliciously Rich Chocolate Syrup" has about 4 grams of sugar per Tablespoon versus Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, which has 10 grams of sugar per Tablespoon. Cocoa is the fourth ingredient on the Hershey's label (the first is HFCS, then corn syrup, then water...finally some cocoa). Besides water, my recipe has more cocoa than anything else (and some of that water disappears when you reduce it, so we could argue it comes out as the top ingredient).

A printable recipe is below.

Better Homemade: Bloody Mary Mix

A few years ago, I discovered that "The Best Bloody Mary Grows in the Garden," and I think you should give it a try! I still don't have an exact recipe, but what you see above should give you an idea of proportions. I did end up adding another hot pepper because my flaming-hot serrano lost almost all of its heat when I seeded it.

If you can make a smoothie, you can make the most delicious tomato juice and/or Bloody Mary mix you've ever tasted. You can blanch and peel the tomatoes, but I put everything in a blender and strain it through a sieve, which I think is superior because (1) it requires no heat, (2) less mess, and (3) it's actually faster overall.

You can click the link above for the recipe, or just look at the picture. I use tomatoes, sweet onion, cucumber, hot pepper, juice from 1-2 limes, fresh horseradish, worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Throw it all in the blender and let it rip, then strain through a sieve. Fresh and delicious!

#MakeYourOwn

Morning Shot: Sláinte!

To Good Health!

Fire Cider is an herbal tincture. You can find any number of recipes online that will yield a pleasantly fiery vinegar with a well-balanced blend of spicy, pungent, and citrus flavors infused into raw apple cider vinegar, and finished with a little sweet local honey.

Fire Cider is warmly delicious, whether as a shot or in a salad dressing. It's also a wonderful blend of medicinal herbs! The Fire Cider recipe was developed in early 1980s by Rosemary Gladstar "as part of her effort to bring medicinal herbalism back into people’s kitchens, as part of their food and as a way of being, not just for medicinal purposes." Her original recipe contained garlic, onions, horseradish root, ginger root, hot peppers, sometimes turmeric, and often echinacea; all powerful immune enhancers that help ward off infections, colds, flus, and bronchial congestion.

I have been using Fire Cider this winter, a shot a day (when I remember), to help keep the immune system healthy and to ward off infections, and all told, I've suffered significantly less illness thus far (knock on wood).

This recipe is very close to my own, though I used fresh (chopped) turmeric, and I added a whole chopped orange and some fresh oregano. Use what you have!

That ain't jaundice: Turmeric Facial Mask

The skin on our faces is exposed to more of the harsh winter weather than everything that gets covered with mittens and scarves, so I decided to give mine a little extra nourishment this January.

Your skin is your largest organ, so know what you put on it....just like what you eat becomes part of you (literally), what you put on your skin is absorbed by your body. My mask is actually edible, so you could actually have a healthy snack if you make enough (I did not actually try this yet).

Turmeric is a powerful antioxidant, and also has anti-inflammatory properties. Yogurt provides zinc, B vitamins, lactic acid, and calcium. Honey is full of antioxidants, and is natural moisturizer for skin. I added a little oil because my skin tends to be dry. If you don't have yogurt, whole milk is a good substitute.

TURMERIC FACIAL MASK

Mix 1 tsp ground turmeric with +1 tsp plain yogurt + 1 tsp raw honey + 1 tsp nourishing oil. I used avocado oil, but coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and olive oil are all good options. Apply to face and let dry (about 15-20 minutes). Rinse well with warm water and a *washcloth.

*Remember that, while turmeric is a powerful antioxidant, it is sometimes used as a natural food-coloring agent (I sometimes add it to mac&cheese, for example, just for color). I recommend a dark or orange washcloth.

Maximizing water on slopes: berms, swales, and countour

My Master Plan to plant my full-sun real estate (aka "the front yard") continues this fall....I learn by doing, so I tend to go do something and then revise it based on what I've learned. Several years ago, I build a sheet-mulch bed on the side of the house, which has done well, especially after I added a few berms to control water. I've been reading up on permaculture design over the last year or so, and plan to change that layout of that bed this fall to dig some swales/paths "on contour" for the permanent design.

In the front part of the yard, I built a circle bed two years ago, which is a nice feature. The first year, I planted it with Scarlet Runner Beans (growing up a "tepee"), which the kids loved. The second year, I put all my tomatoes there, and this summer, I had beans, chives, flowers, and an artichoke that grows well but hasn't bloomed.

Last winter, I saw this great idea in Mother Earth News to use straw bales and old windows to make some cold frames, so I plunked some down on my hillside to see if it would work. It did!

Cold frames with straw bales and old windows protected plants from several days of single-digit temps (Middle TN).

Once spring arrived, I put the windows away, added some compost, and planted the area with tomatoes, herbs, peppers, eggplants, and flowers. I was very pleased with this new "bed" area. It runs right next to a natural (and well-traveled) path, but I wanted to expand it for the next growing season.

Enter the simple A-frame, which is a great tool for figuring out where the natural contours of your hillside fall. I used a level with mine, but this video uses a plumb bob...it's short and explains how to do it if you're interested.

The "well-traveled natural path" is not  on contour, but I'm hoping to build/move my beds to intersect it. Today I dug out a swale, and I'm posing this to share my process and to get feedback!

Here is a longer view from the same angle as the "cold frame" picture above.

Envisioning the future....

The green lines on the left show one side of the natural path -- I planted the border with some liriope (monkey grass) that I got from a friend this spring. I'll mulch the area to the side of it well, and plan to add creeping phlox and possible some perennials, though the Magnolia tree does offer quite a bit of shade. The orange area shows one side of my "cold frame" hay bales, and I plan to make this my path border....I have plenty of large limestone rocks I can use to set the path border.

Intersecting with the path, you can see the swale I've dug, which is on contour. I have some hay bales out right now to kill the grass and hold the berm. The plan is to build a small wall in spring (purple lines), using stone pavers that match my circle bed. I can build another berm/swale bed (lower purple line) next spring or fall, depending on my time.

Here is the swale (so far) from the opposite side:

The swale is about one foot deep right now, and about 1.5 feet across (maybe slightly less). I plan to make it a little wider/deeper, and fill it in with small rocks/mulch to make a permanent path. The top "triangle" portion of the bed will be planted with perennials/herbs.


And here's one more view, from the perspective of the middle circle garden. Next spring, instead of hay bales, we'll have a low wall of matching pavers. (Also, you can seem my awesome hugulkultur bed in the background.)

I'm planning to plant the berm in some kind of cover crop this fall, and will use some low row covers for winter planting in the old "cold frame" beds. I had great luck with all my herbs/veggies there this summer, so I have high hopes for winter gardening!

What do you think?

"Yours is way better mom!" - School Lunch is elementary

Last year, my daughter asked if I would be willing to buy her some Lunchables. We talked a little about the ingredients, and nutrition, and packaging, and I offered to make her a homemade lunchable instead, and it turned into one of her favorite lunches. This summer, I decided to buy the kids some lunchables as a treat for the beach...and they were fairly underwhelmed. For one thing, my 4th grader doesn't care for marinara, and you can't get pesto in a lunchable. "Yours is way better mom!" he said. Is there anything better to hear from your pickiest eater?

When I pack lunches for my kids, my goal is (1) to make sure they have enough to eat so they're not hungry, and (2) make them healthy and appealing. When my (now) 4th grader was in kindergarten, I found a wonderful blog, 100 Days of Real Food, focused on cutting out processed foods that included wonderful pictures of ideas for lunches. He looked through them, picked a few things to try, and we went from there.

It's definitely a stretch to say that I "enjoy" packing lunches, but I love knowing that my kids are well-nourished with plenty of fresh food each day. I know parents are always looking for lunch ideas, so last year I snapped a few pictures of lunches to share.

PB sandwiches on homemade chia seed bread, cheddar cheese, grapes, carrot sticks

Turkey sandwich on homemade bread with salami, apples, lettuce/cucumber/pepper salad, homemade chocolate milk

Wraps (one turkey/pepperoni/cream cheese w/ lettuce on side, one turkey/cheese/lettuce), grapes, carrots, weird kid-made chocolate cookie

Leftover chicken drummie, triscuts, mozz/salami rollups, peppers, grapes

Mac&Chz with peas, tomatoes, apples, Trader Joe's gingersnaps

Leftover pasta w/chicken sausage+broccoli, peppers/cucumber, cheese stick, ~1tsp mini-m&m candies

Wraps (one with lettuce "on the side"), apples, orange slices

Salami/mozz rollups, PB/berry smoothies, lettuce/pepper/apple salad, cucumber

"Camping leftovers" lunch: storebought rolls w turkey/provolone, oreos (!), grapes, cucumber, boiled/deviled egg

Four years later, we still visit the Real Food blog for inspiration, and I still buy/pack more processed items than she does. Easy lunches revolve around staples: grapes, apples and cherry tomatoes all keep well, and can be packed for snacks in reusable fabric zipper bags. Spinach wraps are a weekly item here, crackers/pretzels are used often, boiled eggs are popular, and I do pack a dessert of some kind at least once a week (thought the day varies). The Trader Joe's gingersnaps are hands-down my favorite dessert -- few ingredients, low in sugar, they keep a long time, and are delicious!

Our daily goal is "half of what we eat is fruit/veggies" and we get pretty close. I believe in baby steps, and I know we all like some oreos once in a while! (Though I also have to recommend the Trader Joe's dark chocolate version.) This year promises to offer even more health and variety, with the kids expanding their "likes" to soups and herbs over the summer. Oh, the possibilities!

"Yours is way better mom!" I just had to type that one again.

Healthy Hair & Scalp

No hair product here!

Way back in 2008 after my daughter was born, I was dismayed to see my hair gradually losing all of its body. It's pretty fine, and I'd always used a good bit of product to give it curl/body, but nothing seemed to be working. Around that time, I started hearing from people who ditched shampoo for baking soda/apple cider vinegar and found that they had better results with less/no hair products. 

I was getting desperate, with my hair getting flatter and limper by the day, so I decided to try it. I found that I loved this new method, and it was better for the environment to boot! It's EASY: take about 1 TBSP of baking soda and dissolve it in a cup of water to wash your hair, rinse well, then follow with a rinse of 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar to a cup of water (and rinse well again). Hair is naturally mildly acidic, so the vinegar rinse restores pH and smooths the hair follicle.

The only downside I found was that my scalp would occasionally get dry/itchy. I'd do a coconut oil scalp treatment (also good for ends), and that worked really well for almost six years....until I decided to let my hair grow longer. Suddenly, my hair seemed dry, and my scalp turned flaky, itchy and generally unhappy, so I headed back to the internet and found other people with the same issues.

After so many years, there was no way I was going back to commercial shampoo, so I tried several alternative recipes, and found a wonderful hair care regimen based on the aloe/glycerine recipe here.  Aloe and glycerine are both moisturizing, and left my hair looking/feeling a little greasy, but combining that with the baking soda was perfect. I haven't tested the pH or anything, but my hair looks/feels amazing! 

Old spice bottles with a shaker top open easily in the shower!

Above you can see what I have in my shower: 1 sport bottle for mixing, one bottle of apple cider vinegar, one bottle baking soda, one bottle of Aloe/glycerine hair wash (all re-used, of course!).

Healthy Hair/Scalp Wash

1 part pure aloe gel

1 part vegetable glycerine

2 parts filtered water

Essential oils -- I use tea tree, rosemary and lavender

Combine ingredients well. Add 1-2 tsp to 1 cup water + 1 TBSP baking soda or 1 TBSP Castille soap (I find I typically prefer the soap, though I will sometimes use baking soda for a second wash) , and apply to hair. Rinse, and repeat if necessary. Follow with an apple cider vinegar rinse if you like (rinse again with plain water to finish).

One note about this recipe: the "pure aloe gel" is NOT the green stuff in the bottle, it's actually what is inside the aloe plant. I can buy large leaves of aloe at my grocery store, but I prefer purchasing a bottle (needs to be refrigerated after opening).

I really dislike defining anything by what it isn't, and I think "no poo" sounds horrid, but I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't mention it if you want to google for other testimonials. There are also some really great-looking recipes here, including another version of the aloe/glycerine recipe that I might try this winter.

Save money, reduce waste (re-use bottles instead of buying more), put fewer chemicals you can't pronounce on your skin....make your own healthy hair wash today! 

You don't "knead" that much flour

Really, you don't. Like me (until recently), you're probably using too much flour in your bread.

I've been playing with breadmaking the last few years, beginning with the no-knead Artisan bread and including the abysmal crockpot bread. Until this autumn, I'd made bread maybe once a week or so, to accompany dinner  -- this was mainly for my toddlers who were certainly just as strangely and inconsistently picky as every other toddler I've ever met (but they'd always eat bread/butter and vegetables or fruit).

So how did I work my way up to the mouthwatering French-style loaves I positioned proudly at the top of this post? Well, this past autumn, a friend gave me a bread machine, and it is so easy to use that my spouse and I started making all of our sandwich bread from scratch. He has a wonderful light wheat with chia seed recipe, and I have been experimenting with sourdough.

Along the way, I've been seeking out instructional videos and advice from other sources about breadmaking and kneading, and I found out something really, really useful for anyone who is making anything that requires both flour and kneading: most of us use way too much flour when we first start baking.

When your recipe calls for 8 cups of flour, that generally means all of the flour, including what is kneaded into the bread. So mix 7 cups into the bread, and hold out the last cup for kneading. Then flour your board very lightly with flour, not a whole huge mound of it.

I don't have a marble countertop, so I usually knead on a silpat. It works well!

Here's how much flour was left after kneading my French loaves. Bread with too much flour will be much heavier and denser -- it really makes an amazing difference!

Now, I have baked plenty of tasty loaves before learning this tidbit. In general, I find baking bread to be surprisingly forgiving for an experiential learner (like myself). But what a revelation! Next time you plan to knead, save our some of the recipe flour; you'll be glad you did.

Inside My Fridge - September 29, 2014

Hurrah! I cleaned out the fridge!

I've got a pot of beans in the back, and I think I'm going to try some red bean hummus. I've become a bean convert after reading (and subsequently purchasing) An Everlasting Meal; cooking them with Tamar Adler's method and mindset yields an abundance of blessings, for both palate and soul.

It's a busy week, but I think we're in good shape. In the foil packs are leftover chicken ( which I am planing to freeze for easy chicken-noodle soup on the first chilly/rainy day) and country ribs (which I can't eat so spouse will probably take for lunch). We've got plenty of fruit (there are still local-ish peaches here, but they're going fast), cucumbers, squash, tons of yellow peppers from my dad, two pints of yogurt and a little half-pint of almond pesto. You can see some homemade sauerkraut on the top shelf; I've been making an active effort to consume more fermented items, and find that this crunchy kraut is great on a sandwich!

Also (not pictured) I have my first butternut and acorn squash, though I know I'll pick up several more at our last Farmer's Market. I'm thinking to do soup with white beans for the acorn squash, and probably roast the butternut and toss with pasta and the rest of that leftover chicken. I also have a few Brandywines I need to pick before the critters get to them and one gorgeous eggplant that will probably have to become Eggplant Parmesan.

I really love Eggplant Parm, but if no one else was enthusiastic about it, I'd probably make that dish once during the growing season, and just roast or sauté the eggplant the rest of the time (which the kids will eat, but not much and not with gusto). This will be the third time this summer for me to make this dish, and it's because...well, who could say "no" to a 6-year-old who begs for eggplant? Not me!

Soothing Body Balm, with Lemon & Lavender

 

I have fairly dry skin, especially in the winter. I used to slather my face with Vaseline before bed, but wanted to find a non-petroleum alternative (FYI, aquaphor is 41% petrolatum). I began experimenting, trying many formulas and ingredients, and this is my official "Becky's Body Balm" recipe. It is soothing, moisturizing, and chock-full of great stuff for your skin!

I started out making it as just a blend of oils, but it was too....oily. The beeswax helps a lot. If you make your own, experiment with varying proportions of ingredients to suit your taste and/or budget. 

The basic recipe is 1 part beeswax, 1 part coconut oil, 1 part shea butter, and 1 part a mix of olive/sweet almond/jojoba oils. I also add some raw cocoa butter, pure Vitamin E oil, and essential oils.

Step One: set up a double boiler. Mine is just a stainless steel bowl set over a saucepan filled with water. I turn it on to medium, but then keep it low once the water has heated up.

Step Two: Add beeswax; I like these little pellets. Keep an eye on it and, when the beeswax melts, you'll probably want to lower your heat.

Step Three: Add coconut oil. I try to put in the things that can take a higher heat first, so the heat will only go down from here!

Step Four: Add raw cocoa butter. This is what it looks like, if you've never seen it before, and yes, it does smell like chocolate. 

I was so excited when I first got my cocoa butter that I decided to make something with only cocoa and shea butters, but what began as a "deliciously chocolate" aroma was so overwhelming after heating/cooling in my kitchen for a few hours that I actually became nauseated. Now I only add a small amount (as you can see above).

Step Five: once all of that has melted well while I mix gently, I turn off the heat completely and add in the shea butter. Shea butter can range naturally in color from a more ivory to a yellow color but it's never pure white in color. What I'm using in this picture is actually Shea Butter’s fraternal twin, Kpangnan Butter (sometimes called Golden or Yellow Shea), and is very similar in quality to shea...it's a good substitute if you can't find shea.

Step Six: add in olive oil, sweet almond oil, and jojoba oil.

Step Seven: Remove bowl completely from the saucepan and stir regularly. If you have a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, I think it would be ideal to use here on a really low speed, but I don't have one. I set my bowl on a towel stir it very regularly. Once it begins to firm up at all around the edges/top, stir continuously. This is very important to ensure a smooth, even consistency.

Once I can see it getting firmer/thicker, I add the Pure Vitamin E oil and any essential oils. Currently, I use tea tree oil, and lemon/lavender essential oils until I like the smell.

Once it has cooled down and smoothed out, pour into your container of choice and use/share! This is a great way to reuse old body butter containers. Jelly jars also are an affordable/convenient option. I recently found a great source for these little tins, which are wonderful for the Body Balm.

I use this on my face and body every day. It is terrific for dry, cracked hands in winter, and for soothing skin in summer. Not everyone can handle the emollients on their face, but I don't know anyone who doesn't like it for knees, elbows, or ankles. I am experimenting with adding some zinc oxide to the mix for a mild barrier sunblock, and thus far I like the results! I'll keep you posted.

Go forth, and make your own!!

Teacher Appreciation = Edible Bouquet

Who wouldn't want a beautiful bouquet....that you can eat? (Well, all except for the bright yellow Rudbeckia, but they are sunshine itself, aren't they?)

Includes freshly-harvested lettuces (grown from seeds I saved), Thai basil, parsley flowers, and chives with the blossoms. Grown and given with love for all of the amazing work and creativity our teachers share with our community.

Easiest way to build a great garden: Sheet-mulching

Easy. Do it easy. I believe this so strongly, that I even have an "Easy" tag for posts here South of Sunnybrook. And "sheet mulching" is the easiest way I've ever seen to build a garden. 

While I'm still all about adding veggies into my front flowerbeds, now that the blueberry "shrubberies" are getting larger, I can't plant tomatoes there any more. Plus, I wanted to try a Three Sisters Garden....and our full-sun real estate is our front yard, but the idea of tilling up my hillside seemed both daunting and unwise.

Summer 2013: No room for tomatoes here!.

Luckily, in May 2012, I learned about a technique called sheet-mulching. Basically, you make a big pile of organic matter on top of cardboard and let it sit for six months before planting. How easy is that? I decided to give it a go.

Building Soil

I started with several inches of manure in my bed. I am very lucky to have an aunt with horses. She is lucky to have a niece to help her cart it away! Generally, the sheet mulch begins with cardboard, but I didn't have any yet. It really doesn't matter, as long as the weed barrier is near the bottom -- it's all going to end up as topsoil anyway. A nice feature of this method is that you can make your beds any shape you like. As you can see from the picture below, I have a curve in my garden to accommodate the shade of the magnolia tree.

Wet each layer down well to get things mixing and breaking down. This does need to stay moist for optimum soil development, so I did water it occasionally during the hot Tennessee summer.

So easy, a child can do it.

Here you can see my first layers: manure, cardboard, straw...then compost, lawn trimmings, and other organic material on top of that.

I decided to use my remaining straw bales to act as a barrier to keep all my good stuff from slipping down the hillside. Two years later, I can tell you that was a good call. I am planning this year to grow a living fence just beneath the straw bale layer, using the abundance of forsythia I have on my property. I would love to know if anyone has done this before, or has other suggestions for which plant(s) to use.

I planted a cover crop in the late summer, and then last spring, I had a bed all ready to plant. I have a picture here of the bed in August of 2012. 

Getting into permaculture

Below, you can see the garden in May 2013. I decided to add a path near the tree. I also observed some erosion issues, so I built two hugelkultur berms, with swales to control water, where the two pink lines are. These have worked beautifully.

Below, you can see tomatillos, flowers, and purple basil growing near one of the hugelkultur berms. I also started an asparagus bed near the driveway. This method builds great soil, and it's so easy that I am slowly but surely planting my front yard this way! It's highly recommended here South of Sunnybrook.

January seedlings

Hope springs eternal, and every planted seed is a grain of hope for a new year, a new life. This January, I started seeds for the new year. Little lettuces and herbs offer wonderful cheer, brightening a wintry day with their fresh, green shoots. I can sow them in the garden in another month, along with seeds of the same (or different), to fully exploit the wonderful, long growing season here in the mid-South.

In the past, I've made seed pots out of old cardboard rolls, but this year, I found a little wooden pot maker (like this one) to use with newspaper, and strongly prefer the resulting pots. They are sturdier and I think the newspaper will disintegrate better when they're planted in the garden.

Some of these seeds came from my favorite Bunte Forellenschluss, with the life inside waiting, like a djinn in a bottle, for the magic of light and water. In the Talmud, there is a line that says "every blade of grass has an angel that stands over it and whispers 'grow,' 'grow.'" I like to think of all the angels invited into my home, thanks to the sacred magic in those seeds.

Easiest to make instead of buy: Homemade Stock

When Fall arrives, I start making chicken stock again. Homemade chicken stock tastes better and is far more nutritious than anything you can buy at the grocery store. And it's super easy to make. Really, I promise. Basically throw stuff in a pot and let it simmer....and enjoy the smells all day. Strain and freeze. 

Chicken, garlic, onion, celery, carrots, herbs, peppercorns....add salt later after tasting.

The biggest revelation for me was learning that I didn't need to peel things or chop them small. Just quarter that onion and throw it in (remove produce stickers and wash off any visible dirt, of course). Chop a head of garlic in half and add it. Throw in some carrot peels. This is going to simmer all day, and the peels will add a lovely color to the stock. If you plan ahead, you can have a Stock Bag all ready to go! Use of a Stock Bag is quite thrifty and can add a wonderful depth of flavor because of the vegetable variety. I should caution you not to add purple cabbage, though, unless you want Barney-colored broth as my neighbor Abby discovered, much to her chagrin.

Making homemade stock -- especially if you use a Stock Bag -- is a wonderful way to Use It All! Here in America, we throw away vast quantities of edible food, and our house is (sadly) no exception, though we've cut waste dramatically in the last few years. Small changes make a difference! So if you have a few mushrooms that need to be used, but don't fit tonight's menu...toss them in the stock bag. Don't wait till it goes off and chuck it in the compost: SAVE IT in the freezer until you can USE IT.

The addition of some giblets to this batch produced a very small amount of foam which is easily removed. 

So...I never use fresh chicken for stock (except for giblets when I have them). Instead, when I roast a chicken (or very occasionally cook bone-in breasts or other parts), I save the carcass/bones in a plastic bag in the freezer and use those to make the stock. Most of the nutrition in homemade stock comes from the bones. You can put them on a sheet and roast them first for a richer color/flavor for the stock, but I am all about easy, so I never do this and my stock never suffers from flavor deficiency. We did make stock with a fried turkey carcass once and it was delish!

Note: if you do use fresh chicken, you'll want to put it in a pot of cold water, bring it gently to a simmer, and scoop off the foam, or "scum", that forms on the top. This foam is not harmful, but it will make your stock cloudy. So remove, Then add veggies and continue to simmer. 

Here is the "recipe" I use:

1-2 chicken/turkey carcass(es), including giblets if available (excluding the liver)
Good glug of vinegar (to leach nutrients from the bones)

Bag of vegetable trimmings

Add quartered/halved fresh veggies if necessary -- I make sure to have roughly equal parts of onions, carrots and celery, and then I add some garlic

 -- other veggies that work well include mushrooms, leeks, fennel, tomatoes, any greens, broccoli, zucchini, squash...you get the idea

Add fresh herbs if you have them (parsley, thyme are my favorites)

Add a shake of peppercorns

Add a bay leaf or two

Start it cold and slowly bring it up to a gentle simmer. It won't hurt it it it boils, but the "low and slow" will give you clearer stock in the end. Simmer for several hours stirring/tasting regularly. If you like, you can let the bones sit in cold water/vinegar for a half hour or so to pull even more calcium, gelatin and other nutrients from the bones. Once it has been simmering for an hour or so, I start to taste and add salt sparingly as it cooks. I do not add salt at the beginning because there are generally trace amounts on the carcasses from when I cooked them the first time. I prefer a lower-sodium broth, since I can always add salt based on what I'm making with it. Taste as you go to learn how the flavor develops!

Here you can see the stock after simmering for about five hours. The broth is developing a lovely color and the vegetables are quite soft. By now, little bits of meat will also float off the chicken bones and the carcass will come apart when I lift it with the spoon. This photo was taken at 4:30, so this stock will cook another hour or two until dinnertime, but I could certainly stop here if I wished.

When you decide it is done, turn off the heat and let it cool. Strain it through a colander, and put it in the refrigerator. The next day, you'll see that any excess fat will congeal on the surface in the fridge, so you can just scoop it off the next day. Sometimes I've made stock that had a jello-like consistency when cooled -- this is very nutritious and great for soup when someone is sick!

The final step is to strain it through cheesecloth and portion it into containers for the freezer. Nowadays I use wide-mouth glass jars instead of ziplock or plastick (just don't tighten the lids).

You can make vegetable stock by leaving out the meat. Ask at your grocery or market for beef bones or fish bones to make other types of stock.

Besides delicious soup, use your stock instead of (or half and half with) water when making rice, use it to make risotto, pan sauces,  use in mashed potatoes with 2% milk instead of cream, cook veggies in stock, sub for wine in pasta sauce, it is liquid gold baby!!

Best Bloody Mary Grows in the Garden

As today is the Labor Day holiday here in the U.S., I thought it fitting to begin the day with Labor (today: laundry and organizing) and then go for a pre-lunch Bloody Mary. Imagine my dismay when I realized that we had no Bloody Mary mix in the pantry. I did spy some V8 juice, but I'd much rather drink that plain than mix it with anything.

Looks delicious, doesn't it?

In general, I try to find the advantages of every situation so I told myself, "well, a V8 isn't really festive, but I guess all in all it's a healthy option," when I remembered that I have a freaking Kitchen Garden! I have an abundance of fresh tomatoes and herbs and such. Surely there is no need for me to go without my beverage of choice on this holiday. It's not exactly urban homesteading, but it's a nice degree of self-sufficiency.

I am glad I embarked upon this endeavor! And I strongly encourage you to try this. 

If you can make a smoothie, you can make your own Awesome Fresh Bloody Mary!

Here are my ingredients: fresh tomatoes (Super Sioux and Martino's Roma), fresh parsely, fresh basil, one fresh serrano pepper (most of seeds/pith removed) leftover chopped tomatoes/onions (in bowls) from last night's dinner, cucumber, juice from one lime, horseradish, worcestershire, salt, pepper. Lemon is for garnish. 

Chop tomatoes, cucumber and put in blender with other ingredients. Puree, taste, and adjust seasonings.

Now, some people may prefer to peel the tomatoes beforehand, but that is way too much trouble (and heat, and energy) for me. After pureeing, I just strained out the seeds/skin with a sieve, as described here. Seriously easy. The whole process, start to finish (including taking these pictures and two interruptions from children) was less than a half-hour.

Wow...could it be better than Zing Zang?

Becky's Bloody Mary Mix...I like the sound of it! The tiny chef inside said to put it in the fridge for an hour to let the flavors marry, but the tiny scientist inside wanted to try right away and an hour later to see if there was a difference. The tiny bacchanalian agreed with the scientist, so I went ahead and made an experiment.

The result is a Bloody Mary with a nice initial "kick" from the pepper and a nice depth of spice from the horseradish. I was pleasantly surprised by the sweetness from the fresh tomatoes. I loved the citrus and cucumber mixed in there -- very refreshing! As I suspected, the flavor was overall better on the second one. I also went low on the salt, with the plan of doing a salt-rimmed glass, but (as you can see) I forgot, so I ground a little sea salt right on top and let it "melt" into the beverage as I sipped. That was quite nice also.

Who needs a mix???  

Rinse well

Spring Mix: peas and lettuces in a sink full of cool water.

Homegrown foods often get eaten right off the vine, but if they make it into the house, they are chucked straight into a sink full of clean water for swishing. I do the same with produce from the grocery store or Farmer's Market, but add a mild vinegar/citric acid solution -- no need to buy overpriced "veggie washes" to clean your produce!

Better than a Bakery! Artisan bread for dinner in less than an hour.

There is nothing like still-warm-from-the-oven bread on the dinner table.

I absolutely love freshly-baked breads and muffins, but have always found kneading/rising and the intricacies of yeast to be daunting. It all just seemed like a lot of work when I can pick up a really nice loaf of bread at the bakery for a special dinner. Then I started hearing/reading about "no-knead artisan bread" and was intrigued. Finally, about two years ago, I stumbled across this "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, Seriously" post and decided to give it a try. 

Basically, it goes like this: dump ingredients into bowl, mix, cover loosely/let rise, put in fridge. Later, cut off dough, let sit, put in oven, eat yummy bread. Have I mentioned how my family raves about this bread? So, here it is again, with pictures. A printable recipe is here.

My ingredients: Flour (my "everyday" flour is a mix of unbleached white and King Arthur's white wheat), flaxseed meal, yeast, kosher salt, and warm water.

Put 1 1/2 Tablespoons of kosher salt and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of active dry yeast in a large bowl. If you are using the packets of yeast (this is what I bought at first), use two. Now that I make bread often, I buy yeast in bulk. I keep a jar of yeast in the fridge for regular use and store the rest in the freezer.

Add 3 cups of warm water (from the tap is fine). It should feel warm to the touch, but not hot.

Add 6 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour, using the "scoop and sweep" method to measure. This is a great place to experiment! Whole wheat, spelt flour, sprouted grains flour, etc. Here, I used 6 cups of my unbleached white/white wheat mix and 1/2 cup of flax meal. I love the subtle, nutty flavor of flax meal, it gives a beautiful color/texture to the bread, and it's also a really great thing to put into our bodies. 

Mix until there are no more dry spots of flour. You can use a mixer if you have one, but I don't and I wouldn't use it for this even if I did. Here I am about halfway mixed; it's coming together, but I still have spots of dry flour.

Here, it's well-combined and ready to rise! I scrapes down the bowl sides also. I have a lid for my bowl  with holes punched in the lid (more about that later), but you can just loosely cover your bowl with plastic wrap.

Bread rising: pictures from l-r at 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30, respectively. You can cut off a bit now for your first loaf or just pop it right into the fridge, which is what I did this time. I think the flavor develops better if it has some time to sit. With this amount of dough, I'll typically make three loaves over the course of 5-8 days. You can leave the dough in your fridge up to two weeks; it will develop more of a "sourdough" flavor as it sits.

You need to bake in a preheated, 450-degree oven. You can bake it in whatever you usually use in the oven: pyrex pan, pizza stone, cookie sheet, cast-iron skillet. I did try baking on a pizza stone with a little dish of water, but decided it was too fussy for me. Then I went searching for other options and loved the idea of using an enameled dutch oven as shown here at Oregon Cottage. I don't find that I need the parchment paper she uses and my dutch oven is quite large, but I use a little enameled stoneware baking with a lid. The crust comes out beautifully with this method! 

Whatever you use, I recommend preheating the dish in the oven.

Here is the dough the following afternoon when I took it out of the fridge. As you can see, it lost a bit of mass as it cooled. Sprinkle some flour on the top and dust your hands. Have a sharp knife or kitchen scissors ready.

Pull and cut the amount of dough you want. Then stretch the dough to create a gluten cloak. 

I did not even attempt to photograph myself shaping the loaf because this short video will be much more helpful.

Do note that your bread may look different from the bread in the video because she used 100% white flour and bread flour at that! Here is what my finished loaf looks like before I let it rest. You should really let it rest for at least 30 minutes, though 45 is better if you have the time. I have popped it in the oven after only 15-20 minutes in a pinch and it comes out fine, though it doesn't rise up quite as much in the oven.

Before baking, dust the top of your loaf with flour and then slash the top (I sometimes do an X design as well). I pop mine in the hot pan, put on the lid and cook for 15 minutes. Then I remove the lid and cook an additional 15 minutes. When it's finished, the crust should be brown and it should sound hollow when tapped. Remove to a cooling rack.

To store uneaten bread, turn the cut side down on a plate or cutting board. Sometimes I wrap it in a clean tea towel. I did try storing it in a plastic bag but the crust became soft right away and I found it was prone to mildew in the summer as we are in the humid South.

If you start making this often, as I did, you'll probably want to invest in a bowl with lid that is a good size for your fridge. I'd initially meant for this picture to show the holes drilled in the lid, but then I saw the cool reflection of my kitchen window in the lid and went that way instead. Just make sure the dough is mostly covered but has a way for any gases to escape.

I cannot believe how easy it is to make fresh bread for dinner! Basically, I make a ball, let it rest for 15 minutes, preheat the oven and my pan, pop it in when the oven beeps that it's preheated and cook for a half hour. It's simple to do while making other food -- or to have fresh bread for a leftover night. I love being able to take freshly baked bread when I visit a friend or neighbor.

Updated 4/8 to add picture of bread interior. This was the last loaf from this baking and had been in the fridge for about 6-7 days. The crumb is denser if I use a higher proportion of wheat flour, I have found. The little nooks/crannies make excellent buttered toast!

I hope you will try your own hand at making this simple and delicious bread! I encourage you to explore further, either via web search or here at the original Artisan Bread in Five web site. 

Bon appetite!