hAppY THAnKSgIVINg !

I am thankful to God every single day. For his blessings, his presence, his communion with me. I can't express my thankfulness enough for miracles and for supernatural healings he has allowed me. He has proven his love for me in countless ways, how can I say "Thanks"? 

My daughter raced outside this morning because it was snowing. This photo captures her unbridled joy. She raised her face and hands to the falling snow.  I don't have the words to say how thankful I am. But this image says it.

I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with joy and wonder. 

I made Paneer

I posted a video by Michael Pollan on FB this week about home cooking. I quoted him, "you can eat whatever you want as long as you cook it yourself". I was struck by his concept that if you cook at home you are less likely to eat fries everyday. With today's corporately cooked foods you can visit a drive thru and easily eat fries everyday. He goes deeper into the horrors of the industrial, pesticide potatoes that are used for those fries.

It got me thinking about this "eat anything you want" idea. I make donuts maybe 4-5 times a year. Same thing with cinnamon buns. My chocolate babka, once (for Easter). I love all these foods, they are amazingly tasty. They are even more special because they are connected to holidays or snowed in days with my family. These indulgences take time to make so they won't be made every day or even every week. Since I eat only my own versions of these things it keeps me from eating too much of them. 

People want their food quick. Fast foods are there for them and they are usually these carby, sugary fat foods. You want a quick sweet when you are out running errands? Carry bananas with you.  I take my chai or a pumpkin smoothy when running errands, I am never tempted to stop for a fast overpriced, overly sweetened beverage. Home cooking takes forethought and planning. It's not only cheaper and healthier, but it's tastier because you use quality ingredients and you tailor it to your liking.

The day after my FB post and comments on the subject of homemade food I found myself in front of the frozen food at my local healthy grocery store. I saw a pre-made frozen Indian paneer dish and I wanted it. Right away my own words came back to haunt me...."make it yourself". Practice what you preach, right? Paneer was a always mystery to me, exotic and delicious. I purposed to give it a shot.

I went home and found a recipe, it seemed too easy. Just three ingredients. I enlisted my youngest to help and we went at it. First I heated a 1/2 gallon of whole milk just until it started to boil. Then we streamed in 1/4 cup of water mixed with 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice. The curds immediately started to form, we stirred and then took it off the stove to let it sit for five minutes. We then poured it through a sieve (lined with a kitchen towel) over a large pyrex measuring cup.

All the whey that was collected. 

I wrapped it tightly in the towel, rinsed it under cold water and then put in back in the sieve to drain with a weight on top. I did this in the morning, by the time I was ready to cook dinner it was dry. I cut it into cubes and sauteed them in a mix of oil and butter. Once browned I removed from the pan while I made a sauce of jar tomatoes, ginger, garlic, lots of Indian spices and peas. It was better that the frozen counterpart and there was much more of it for the money. I ate 1/2 of it straight from the saute pan wrapped in hot sourdough naan. It was a perfect combination because at the same the cheese was drying out all day the nann dough was fermenting. The finished product is pretty fancy, but honestly the prep was not too time intensive. This was actually made on our busiest day out this week. I hope you will watch Michael Pollan's extremely informative video and even more I hope you will take the challenge to to make something that you usually buy in it's factory cooked form. Let me know how it goes.

The only other cheese I have ever attempted was goat yogurt cheese, which was even simpler that this paneer, check it out here: Hanging the Cheese

Green Morning

You have to use your veggies while they are ripe and fresh. Herbs and avocados are especially prone to deteriorating. It's miserable to let that window of opportunity slip by and have to dispose of good food. This morning my cilantro, basil, kale and avocados where ready to go. The rest of my week will be busy. I figured I might as well go ahead and make them into things that will keep that I can use later on. 

I made some kale chips, guacamole, pesto and a cilantro lime salad dressing. It made a big mess, but it was one big mess to clean and I was done. Instead of many small messes over a couple of days. 

We had the kale chips for breakfast as soon as they were done. The girls had theirs with sourdough rolls and fried garlic. I had them with a mushroom omelette and continued munching on them throughout the day.

For lunch I had the cilantro dressing on salad and some of the guacamole on a raw seed cracker. There is plenty leftover for whatever meals or snacks come next. The point here is to make a few things all at once. Since you're making a mess you might as well go for it and then you can reap the rewards for days to come.

Halloween and black donuts

I have always liked all things spooky. Bats, spiderwebs, Frankenstein and green glowing the dark aliens. But each year I see more and more gore and horror popping up in our local Halloween events. I won't participate in this kind of entertainment. I won't shop in a store that has severed limbs and decapitated heads hanging around as part of their decor. I'm all for make believe and fantasy. But murder is real, and should not be part of any celebration. 

That's why I love my daughter's Dark Elf. It's a good example of how you can have fun, be creepy and still bring beauty and light to the world. People always respond in a positive way to her costumes. It makes them happy, they can't help smiling. They ask to take pictures with her and give her lots of encouragement.

Now on to other dark things. My 11 yo said she wanted to eat black food. I was making donuts, I said if you can come up with a way to make black naturally we'll do it. She immediately said "We can use activated charcoal." She was right! It worked. I mixed some into the donut glaze and it turned extremely black. So now we have a tasty donut that can absorb any toxins from your digestive system!

She was very pleased with her black donuts and now wants a black pumpkin pie. I'll let you know how that turns out.

p.s. Creepy clothes pins painted by this happy girl.