It's Alive!

Soon after we arrived in Utah we went to an outdoor festival with local artists, food and music. My family has a penchant for hand made one-of-a-kind mugs. You know when a mug is right for you, it fits your hand perfectly and feels just right. I love the idea that it is made from the dirt of the earth, just like us. We made our way over to the potter's stand and I found a perfect cup for me. 

After I purchased my lovely cup the potter and his wife offered me some sour dough starter that has been alive in their family since 1891! I made bread with it a couple of times and then parked it in the fridge. Life got busy and I ignored my poor starter for a couple of months. Last night I decided to take a peek at it. Eek! It was not a pretty sight. There was a pool of grey liquid on top that smelled of strong alcohol. I poured off the liquid and fed it with flour and goat milk in the hope that it may come back to life. It did! I left it to feed overnight and in the morning it was beautiful, active and sweet smelling once again. 

I proceeded to make some pretty tasty sourdough biscuits with it. (That intensely purple stuff is wild blueberry jam I made a few days ago.) I am always amazed at the transformative quality of microbes. Keep feeding the good guys and starve out the bad guys. 

God created our world (and our bodies) to renew itself. It will, if we give it what it needs.  When we're in need of even greater transformation, that same God can give us a turn on his potter's wheel. He can take a rancid old thing and build it back up to glorious life again.


1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2"Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5Then the word of the LORD came to me. 6He said, "Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 
Jeremiah 18:1-6

Loving Fall (and food)

Beautiful isn't it? Autumn, it's the best. We sat on a rock with friends, eating our picnic lunch. This was the scene before us. Winter is rough here in NY, but I don't think I would ever be content to live somewhere without the four seasons. I'm sure there are people who would disagree. I guess it's what you are used to.

The candles are lit. Bringing warmth and light to the table since it's getting dark early these days. Anything left in the fridge is being turned into soup. "Leftover Soup" is always a hit. I can never duplicate Leftover Soup, but I can make an equally tasty new one.

Curries and stews are happening, cosy comfy bowls of warmth. As it gets colder and those beautiful leaves disappear, I put the color on the table. I am a true believer in the effect of beauty and color on our souls. Those gourd candle holders are festive and very simple to make. Just drill the proper size hole and stick your candles in. Bringing natural beauty into the home is easy and very cheap, even free. Grow some gourds (they pretty much grow themselves), pick up some acorns and leaves.

I'll take any excuse to use the oven, it warms up the house. Just like Leftover Soup, crumbles are  popular on my table. Any fruit or fruit combination will work. Frozen, fresh or canned fruits topped with oats, sucanat, butter and flour make for a more cheerful afternoon when that sun starts to go down. The smell of good things baking always lifts up the mood of the home.

I don't bake cookies that often. Just for holidays or special occasion. Halloween kicks off the cookie baking season for me. I'd rather the kids satisfy their sugar urge with home made cookies rather than the artificial candy that will inevitably appear. To color the gray mushrooms and black bats I used activated charcoal, just like my black donuts and black pie. 

I consider the arrival of Fall a worthy enough occasion to celebrate with friends and fall leaf cookies.
I am feeling happy, warm, and almost ready to take on winter.

blizzards, bobbles and beans

I’m sure you all saw how NYC got slammed with snow and wind this past Saturday. It was convenient to be snowed in on a weekend. We were ready for it. I planned to knit, bake and enjoy the beauty of the snow. Which I did. I made another bumpy hat. This one is less slouchy and more bumpy. My daughter modeled for me, much better than those weird angled selfies!

Bean Cake. I found a garbanzo bean cake recipe in an old Mexican cookbook. Folks today are baking with beans for GF and other health reasons, I was surprised to see it as an old  fashioned, traditional cake. 

The basic recipe:

 2  10oz. or 1 19 oz. can garbanzos 

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

Bake at 350 degrees in a loaf pan for about 50 minutes

I have been tweaking and messing around with this. It is very adaptable to all kinds of flavors. You can add a grated apple, banana, vanilla, lemon, coconut, ginger, espresso powder, cocoa, cinnamon...you get the idea!

I also made a chocolate one with black beans instead of garbanzos, it was really good and less “beany”. The garbanzos do have a distinct flavor that some people won’t like. I have tried white beans and they are milder. If you are trying to hide the fact that you are eating beans go with the white or black beans over the chick peas.

Eating Acorns

The day I found those Giant Puffballs we were actually out collecting acorns. My husband was interested in learning how to make them palatable since we have so many in this area. He is into trees the way I am into healing plants. 

The White Oak is the one to collect, they are naturally less bitter.

First we froze them, that made the skins come off easier. The skin is the layer just under the shell. My husband shelled them.

Next began the process of  making acorn flour. There are different ways to do that. First the bitter tannins must be removed. Some people boil the acorns multiple times until the water runs clear. We went with a non cooked method of leaching out those tannins. 

First we ground them up in the wet Vitamix. More water was added to them in a jar and this sat for 24 hours. Each 24 hours fresh water replaced the old until the water was clear.

Once the tannins were cleared out, we dehydrated the wet acorn meal. I have an Excaliber 4 tray. It came out really nice, nutty and tasty. (I snacked on some.) The grain was quite rough still, so we ground it to flour consistency in the dry Vitamix. It is came out very smooth, with a feel and look of cocoa powder.

My first test was on some cookies. Some GF friends were dropping by for tea. I grabbed everything that I had that was GF and went to work experimenting. 

I kept it simple, much like a shortbread: butter, sugar, vanilla, with cashew meal, acorn and oat flours. They were so good! Even the smallest of humans wanted more, which is really how I judge a "healthy" cookie.

Next was a recipe from the book Acorn Pancakes, Dandelion Salad, and 38 Other Wild Recipes. A simple classic, pancakes with butter and maple syrup. The acorn is so mild and nutty. It doesn't have that extra bitter taste that many of the darker grains have.

Yesterday's yummy breakfast. I had some leftover pancake batter. I waffled it and topped it with butter and smoked salmon. Again, it came out really good. 

Acorn flour is a winner!I love the idea of eating wild foods that man has not tampered with. Everything that fed that tree is now feeding me and my family. It is nutritionally excellent and it is extremely tasty and versatile. Oh, and the acorns were free!

Foraging the Giant Puffball

It's a good time for foraging here in NY. We have been getting lots of goodies. Just last week we scored a haul of Chicken of the Woods and Puffball mushrooms as well as white oak acorns and plantain (not the banana!). I needed to get more plantain before the frost to make my healing salves. My husband was after those acorns, he is going to make acorn flour out of them. If I don't eat them all first as a snack!

This is a lovely white Puffball Mushroom. I set those two brown ones in the background to show you what not to eat. A Puffball is good when it's all white, feels firm and a bit spongy. When they are brown they are past eating and have moved on to their spore making phase. They are quite large and easy to spot. I grabbed two this size, but left a larger one for the next human or animal forager.

You can see how easy the dirty outside peels right off. You should not eat this mushroom raw. In fact it's best to not eat any raw mushrooms.

I treated the first Puff like tofu, sauteed and seasoned with cajun spices. That's my default way of cooking and it's always tasty. But since I had so much of this mushroom I decided to experiment.

 This idea came to me while I was slicing it up. The slices really held their shape, which made me think of eggplant. Puffball parmigiana was born! 

Here you can see what the inside looks like, the texture was very good this way. There is no poison lookalike for this mushroom, so feel free to forage up some yourselves.

Fall Food

Fall has hit New York. I have a fire in the fireplace, an ever brewing teapot, knitting projects in full swing, and a mind filled with the tastes, colors and smells of autumn. I recently discovered this one and have already made them four times. Sweet potato ravioli in browned butter with basil. They are so good and very addictive.  I make them when I am having company, so I don't eat too many.

I found them in Simply Ming One-Pot Meals. What makes them so easy is that you use pre-made wonton wrappers. I baked up a bunch of sweet potatoes and mashed them up in the Vitamix. I actually do a batch of sweet potato puree each week because I love my sweet potato smoothie every afternoon. When folks get that mid day coffee craving, I get a sweet potato smoothie craving.

I got that over at Sweet Potato Soul.

Super easy, I flavor the mash only with ground ginger and black pepper. You must use a little egg was to "glue" these guys together. 

When they are all assembled you brown them in salted butter, throw in lots of chopped fresh basil and there it is. Easy to make and way too easy to eat. A great appetizer or meal.

a sucker for mushrooms

With the variety of shapes, colors and flavors, I just can't resist mushrooms. They are so clean and easy to cook.

Especially when they are packaged like this! So cute and tasty, I can't say no.

Breakfast is one of my favorite times for mushrooms, with scrambled eggs and basil...

or cabbage and fried egg.

In salad

In soup

Anywhere is right for mushrooms!

steam once, eat much

I've been doing this a lot lately. Early on in the day, usually after breakfast I will steam my veggies. Carrots, zucchini  snow peas, broccoli, asparagus, whatever I have all layered up. The more delicate ones on the top. I steam them just as they turn bright green. I uncover them to stop the cooking and they are ready to use in many dishes throughout the day. 

They can be tossed into a salad. (Don't you love these paper animals? My girls print and build them from this site for free!

Or made into a quick soup. A bit of my kimchi to finish it off.

Steamed broccoli teamed up with rice and other veggies becomes filling for an omelet.  I've mentioned this before, having ingredients ready makes cooking easier and brings vegetables to "fast food" convenience. 

My Polish Easter

I enjoy keeping food traditions for holidays. My heritage is a mix of Polish, Hungarian and Puerto Rican. Easter always means Polish for me. Having lived with my Polish grandma for a good part of my life I can't imagine the Easter meal any other way. There is something about the experience of food that brings back memories very deeply. I love thinking that the traditions I create now will live through my children and their future children. 

My New Years Eve meal is always Latino. It can't get more festive for ringing in the new year than that! I make some of my own concoctions as well as my husband's favorites that he grew up with. He is 100% NY Puerto Rican, his family is steeped in food tradition. His mom has taught me how to make the family favorites. Our Thanksgiving is all American, we like to eat what we suspect the Pilgrims might have. For Christmas it's Victorian England for us, we have no familial ties there. Both my husband and I are literature fiends, we wish to experience a Dicken's fantasy Christmas. Let's get back to Easter!...

I used buttery babka dough this year to make buns for Good Friday.

Of course, the lamb cake made its appearance. You can see one of my "dressed" lambs here.

Days before Easter my daughter was busy planning out her egg dying designs as I was busy planning my meal. I will probably save this paper forever.

Fermenting Frenzy

I have been devoting much of my time to fermenting these days. Most of the time actually went into researching how to do it. The real fermenting takes place all by itself.  The good bacteria work their magic to transform simple (and cheap!) foods into healthy probiotic, super tasty treats that cost quite a pretty penny in the health food stores. 

 I devour Sandor Katz books and watch The Healthy Home Economist videos. I found their instructions very easy to grasp and execute. Especially Sandor. He leaves a lot up to your own taste and imagination. He encourages experimentation. There is no one perfect no fail recipe. There are many factors, the heat and climate of your house, the food itself, what you prefer the finish to taste like. My first fermentation experience was with sourdough starter. My starter has been going strong for about six months now. 

I made this starter with equal parts flour and water. I have seen recipes that use commercial yeast, but I didn't find it necessary. Left alone for a couple of days it caught the wild yeast it needed right out of the air. This stuff is free for the taking! It is very cold in my house right now so I don't have to feed it as much as I did a couple of months ago. Only about twice a week. I always feed it right before using it. Make sure those microbes are happy and alive, doing their thing. I should mention that even though I have a triple filter on my tap I boil the water that I will use for any fermenting to get rid of the chlorine. Chlorine kills bacteria so I don't want it to interfere or slow down the progress of the beneficial bacteria I am trying to cultivate. After using my sourdough starter I always add more flour and water to replace what I took. I keep my starter at a consistency of pancake batter.  I find it easier to feed and use this way, especially since I use it for pancakes and crepes.

My next fermented project was Kimchi. I have been eating kimchi regularly for over 20 years. My family loves it too. Unfortunately most commercial kimchis have sorbitol or msg in them. Sorbitol is a preservative, if kimchi is fermented it IS preserved. So, why sorbitol?

 I started buying only health food store kimchi. (as opposed to Korean market) That proved to be quite expensive as my family can go through a jar a week.

 I tried my  first batches with whey. Disaster every time. I don't know what I did wrong, but they were bad. Then I discovered Sandor Katz. "Why use whey?" he said, when you can make a delicious kimchi (or kraut) without it. I tried his method and it worked first time! One head of cabbage makes 2 quarts, now that is economical. I also made saurkraut and it also came out great. So addictive in fact that my daughter wanted more when it was gone so she just made her own 2 quart batch. She is tearing through it and needs to start an new batch soon. 

There are many sources detailing the process, but it is as simple as cutting, salting and washing cabbage, pushing into a jar and waiting for those happy microbes to come and transform your cabbage into something fantastic. I know I am oversimplifying, but this is basically what it's all about. The recipes always say you need to put a weight on top of your cabbage to make sure it is always submerged under 1" of water to prevent decay.  I don't have a suitable weight so I have been doing something else and it has been working out fine. I cut 2 rounds of waxed paper to fit on top of the cabbage. I pour salted water on top of that, it makes a good seal and I haven't have any spoil yet.

I moved on to a fermented soda beverage made with whey. I made 2 quarts of fresh lemonade and added 1/4 cup whey and left it alone to ferment. After 2 days I put it into one of those flip top beer bottles with the rubber gasket. As the bacteria eat up the sugar they produce carbon dioxide and this type of bottle creates a fizzy fun drink that we love.  

The only drawback was that I had to wait for the whey to form (from leaving out my raw milk). That could be 2-3 days. To get to the finished soda it could take 6-7 days all together.

 I moved on to water kefir. I purchased my grains from Lifetime Kefir. Now I can't keep up with drinking the soda. Every 2 days my grains produce a new batch of kefir water.  At that point I flavor and bottle it for 2 days for soda or mix it with tea for ice tea. So far my favorite soda flavorings have been lemon, ginger and vanilla. 

Be careful with kefir soda! I am scared to open it. My kids love to so I let them do that part. I've had a couple of real explosive bottles that I let ferment a bit too long.  A vapor so thick it looked like smoke came out and then VOLCANO eruption! We lost 1/2 the bottle on that one, it even blew the rubber gasket off the bottle. I advise always opening them the sink with a towel nearby.

The Christmas Goose

Each year my husband reads aloud Dicken's A Christmas Carol to my daughters. Each year I pull out Dining with Dickens by Dicken's great-grandson, Cedric Dickens. And each year I ponder what to cook for Christmas dinner. This year like every other year I dream of that mythical Dicken's Goose. This year I actually did it. I sourced and purchased a 12 pound freshly killed free range goose. It was much bigger than I had expected. I asked people's advice and of course read many opinions online of how to roast my goose. The more I found out the more intimidated I got! Goose seemed to be a love it or hate it thing. 

My Dad gave me advice, wished me much luck and asked for a play by play of my goose preparation. He had roasted a goose ONCE. Never again he said. "It's tough, it's greasy, it's not worth it", he said. 

Dining with Dickens advised "hanging the goose in an airy place overnight" before roasting. I asked my husband for help with this step. He rigged it up with bungie cords in the garage. Am I glad that he not only supports but enters into my hair-brained schemes! 

I roasted it on Christmas Day and I think as far as gooses go it went very well. Crisp flavorful skin and juicy meat.  I made traditional accompaniments- apple sauce, cranberry sauce, wild rice with roasted chestnuts. Was is worth it? 

Well, for the experience...definitely! Though I will probably never do it again. 

What I am enjoying more than the meat is all of the broth I made from the goose's bones and the jars of fat. (which is very abundant with a goose) I heard that the quality of meat will show when you simmer the bones for broth. If the bones have a lot of impurities there will be a lot of scum at the surface to skim off. This bird produced no scum! So I am comfortable using it's fat for sauteing vegetables. A little goes a long way. I use a tablespoon for cooking 4-5 servings of veg.

Do you have any experience with goose?