thoughtful consumption

Feeling greens

Tuesday I blanched kale and turnip and radish greens. From what I can figure, about 5 cups of roughly chopped leaves cooks down to about a cup of cooked greens. And that was the kale, which I only boiled a minute. The other greens I boiled for nearly five minutes. Their ratio of fresh to cooked was even higher.

The good thing about blanching en masse is you can reuse the water. I had one pot of boiling water and one bowl of ice water for three rounds of blanching.

Cooked turnip greens feel like velvet! They’re so soft. I just wish they tasted a little better. (more…)

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Pioneer porridge

We had Pioneer Porridge the other night for a late, late supper. It was terrific! I made it with milk instead of water. Next time, I think I’ll do half and half. It did take about 30 minutes to cook. Maybe if I soak it during the day in the fridge before putting it on the stove at night, I won’t have to be so patient.

I look forward to many more bowls of porridge this winter. With lots of honey on top.

Blueberry Oat Mini-Loaf

So moist! Instead of toasting slices of this little loaf, I microwaved them. They made our morning.

Honey Flax Wheat bread makes great peanut butter sandwiches! (more…)

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Caramel corn

My step-son’s away at college, and our new hobby is sending him care packages. (Okay, so I guess shipping boxes to Michigan cuts down on the environment benefits of eating local. But it’s his first quarter away.)

The most recent package had a movie theme and included homemade caramel corn. (more…)

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Behold my new yellow kitchen wall!

And the produce on the table, too.

• Asian turnips with greens
• garlic
• coffee
• lettuce
• arugula
• butternut squash
• eggs
• radishes with greens
• basil (In mid-November? Wow!)
• green onions
• honey flax wheat bread
• blueberry oat mini-loaf
• apples

Fall food: the easy and the greens

I like fall food. So much of it seems self-evident. (more…)

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Just in time for winter and the holidays, Farmers’ Fresh now has beeswax candles!

I love beeswax candles. I live in a small house and regular candles are just too smelly. But beeswax candles are terrific.

I bought four candles:

bee skep, bee cylinder, diamond cut cylinder, and honey pot.

My favorites are the diamond cut pillar and the bee skep. I think they will burn the best.

I’m worried about the honey pot. The melting wax forms a pool where the wick is, and it has nowhere to drain. Eventually the wax extinguishes the flame. I may end up carving the pot into a different shape.

I love lighting a candle before I tackle a project. It’s like having a little focus buddy on your desk. It’s even better to be able to get them from Farmers’ Fresh.

Beeswax – the gift that keeps on giving

I hang on to the beeswax once the candle’s done. Beeswax is just too cool of a material to throw away. I save it in bowls in the hopes that one day I’ll feel crafty and bored enough to make something with it.

Trimmings from the skep candle so far

Last year I made hand lotion and lip balm. It’s pretty simple. (If I can do it, it doesn’t require painstaking care.) Here’s one site with instructions.

And you can always google “homemade beeswax lotion” to get more ideas. I don’t like the smell of coconut oil, so I leave that out. My favorite oil is sweet almond oil. This time I think I’ll try adding some vanilla, too, for more aroma. To make lip balm, just increase the ratio of wax to oil. Same stuff, just thicker.

Here’s some thick, creamy lotion I made last year.

And from my scribbled notes, here’s the recipe:

• 8 oz sweet almond oil
• 2 oz beeswax
• 4 oz water
• 20 drops of Vitamin E

Melt oil and wax, remove from heat, add water, stir lots, add E, stir continuously. Pour when still warm.

It’s kind of like cooking and not at all like baking. You just play around with the ingredients till you get something you like. And if it doesn’t work, you melt it back down and try again. To make it even easier, pick up a cheap double boiler pan at the thrift store and designate it as your wax melting pan.

Even if you don’t feel like making anything you can heat the wax in the pan on low and make the house smell delicious.

And Patricia and Wally have verified that this wax is clean, so no worries there.

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• sweet potatoes
• arugula
• honey
• apples
• lettuce
• alfalfa sprouts
• kale
• eggs
• lemon balm
• garlic
• par-cel
• chervil
• edible flowers

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Susan rediscovers the microwave

I’ve got some half-roasted butternut squash in the fridge. My plan was to broil slices of it for a side dish, but last time they came out too dry. So this time I steamed the slices in the microwave for 3 minutes, and they were perfectly serviceable. (The drizzled butter and maple syrup probably helped.)

Maybe next time, I’ll steam the slices and the broil them for just a tiny period. I want to see if I can get some good caramelization.

“It’s amazing this doesn’t taste absolutely horrible.” (more…)

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Definitely an all fall haul this week. Note the absence of any summer stragglers. (And how about the absence of ugly wallpaper? We’re painting our kitchen this week… or this month… definitely this year… I think.)

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I have been cooking this week – not just playing with Squash and Pumpkin.

Tea thyme!

Pennsylvania Dutch Tea Thyme is a wonderful surprise! It tastes almost like black tea – maybe even better. (Now can we grow it with a little caffeine?) I had a cup with a few hyssop flowers one afternoon and really enjoyed it.

Onion soup

We had onion soup the other day with CSA onions and garlic but no good beef stock – only boullion. Some day, I’ll be mature enough to make real stock  like this recipe calls for.

The recipe is a good weekend one. While it takes some time in the kitchen, you don’t have to watch it too closely. And any recipe that starts with caramelizing onions for 30 minutes is going to be good. That’s something you can’t rush and is totally worth it. Smells great, too.

The real reason I made the soup was to complement the beer bread. (more…)

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