Mayonnaise

I've been waffling on the idea of making homemade mayonnaise, mainly because it seems like a bit of a waste.  I know it's really easy to do, but the idea of making a batch of stuff that will only last 2-3 days (because of the raw eggs) seemed annoying to me.  While the ability to make chicken salad, egg salad and tuna salad sandwiches appealed to me (since deli meat is all but off the menu), I was too worried about killing us. 

Lo and behold, the internet came through again.  I found a method of making mayo that supposedly will last a few weeks.  A few weeks is good enough for me.  The added ingredient is whey.  Apparently the good bacteria in whey helps to preserve it.  Don't ask me how, because I have no idea.  Since I recently made cheese, I had a surplus of whey that I froze into 1Tbsp amounts (knowing this was on the horizon).  If you need whey, the easiest way to get it is to drain some plain yogurt through cheesecloth.  The liquid that comes out is whey.

Here is my version of the recipe.  Tip, use the freshest eggs you can get.

one egg plus one egg yolk (at room temperature)

1 tsp prepared hot mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp whey

put into a blender and blend.  Once it is well mixed, drizzle in your oil.

As far as oil goes, there are a variety of different ones you can use.  Basically you want a mild flavoured oil.  Traditional olive oil tends to be too strong, but canola, sunflower, safflower etc would work nicely.  While in the grocery store this week, I did stumble on "Light in flavour" olive oil...  So I decided to go with that.

You want to drizzle as slow as possible.  Apparently some blenders have attachments that do this for you...  mine, does not, so I just poured it as slowly as possible from a measuring cup.

3/4 cup oil

It does get messy, spots start to splatter out of the top, but I just stuck my hand over top as I drizzled to minimize the cleanup.

Once the whole batch has emulsified (gotten thick and white), pour into a clean mason jar and close the lid tightly.  This is the part where it gets scary.  Leave it on the counter for 7 hours. 

Here is a hint... don't start this at 6pm.  I didn't read the whole recipe before starting, so I was up till after midnight waiting to put it in the fridge. *YAWN*

Apparently this stuff will last a good 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

Buttermilk Bread

Part of this journey, has for me, been the quest for perfect bread.  I had made bread on a few occasions in the past, but have never had luck.  It always turned out kind of bland, boring, with an odd texture (likely since I am trained to like bakery bread).  So far, I have had a few disasters, a few "alrights" and this one.  So far, this is the best of the bread I have made.  It's a really nice plain white bread.  It doesn't have a hard crust, (which is nice for those among us who have yet to have all their teeth come in) and is fluffy and soft and full of flavour.

3/4 cup warm water (think baby bathwater)

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

pinch of sugar

stir together in a bowl and let proof until frothy (about 10 minutes)

In the bowl of a mixer (ideally with bread hook attachment) mix together

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
(if you don't have either, use an additional half cup of buttermilk)

1/3 cup butter, melted

2 tbsp liqid honey

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 cups bread flour

Mix together until smooth.  You can do this in a food processor too.  Continue adding flour half a cup at a time until the mixture starts to stick together until you get to an additional

2 1/2 cups flour

Reserve an additional half cup for kneading.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 minutes.

Set the timer.  I never seem to knead long enough, and no matter how long I need to do it for, I always find I think I'm done well before I actually am.  The dough will get smoother, but will still be a bit sticky when you're done.  If it's sticky like post-its, you're fine, if it's getting stuck to everything and not releasing cleanly, add a bit more flour.

Put into a bowl (lightly coated in oil), cover with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap and let rise for one to one-and-a-half hours.

Once it has doubled in bulk, form 2 loaves and put them into greased loaf pans. Cover again and let rise again for one to one-and-a-half hours.  The dough will be starting to stick out of the top of the pan.

Brush the top with milk

and with a sharp knife cut a few slashes in the top (about 3/4 inch deep).
 
Sprinkle a handful of sesame seeds on top and bake in a 325º oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. 
 

Remove from pans and let cool.

 

Look fear in the eye...

Last year sometime, Husband stumbled on quite a find.  A brand-new-still-in-it's-shipping-crate-oven from 1953.   It was being stored in a barn somewhere and he picked it up for a great price, considering what a collector might pay for it.

This past weekend he brought it into the house.

Now I am terrified.

The idea is that I'm going to test it out, see if it cooks and bakes better (or at least as well as) the 1980's models we currently own, and if so, potentially change around the kitchen to fit it in.  If not, we'll sell it at a grand profit to some crazy collector.

My problem?

Look at these elements.  They are perfect, unmarred, and spotless. 

This is what my cooktop currently looks like...

Obviously it's in need of a scrub (it doesn't always look like that), but this is the product of cooking.   I don't necessarily want to have to fret over the stove when a pot of spaghetti sauce is bubbling away.  You see...  I cook.  A lot.   It's not that I purposely dump food on the stove, it just happens when you cook.  

It is so beautiful...  and no matter how cool it would be to pull off a turkey dinner in that baby...  I feel a little ill just thinking about the potatoes bubbling over.

Virtually indestinguishable.

Ice cream.  So delicious, so simple.  If, of course, you have an ice cream maker.

My mom brought a brownie over one day, so what else could I do, but whip up some delicious homemade vanilla ice cream?

Start with

2 eggs

Beat them until they look light and fluffy (a hand wisk is fine for this...  you're not making a meringue or anything)

then add...

3/4 cup sugar, wisking continuously until it's all well blended.

Wisk in...

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

and then pour the whole mixture into your ice cream maker, following it's directions.

Apparently my SIL has been looking for her ice cream maker recently.  Julie... any similarities between it and this one are purely coincidental.  (*wink*)

Ta Da! Ice cream!

After trying some Husband said "This is virtually indestinguishable from ice cream".

It's a good thing I love you honey... because it is ice cream.

Don't let it die... part deux.

I've been thinking about this whole thing all day, and I have come to some conclusions about why our generation is moving away from some of these traditional things.

Some people may say it's difficult.  I beg to differ.  I could go and try to explain to a 95-year-old how the words I'm writing right now will be instantly visible to everyone in the entire world.  That would be difficult.  We have a weird perception of "difficult".  Everything that takes time becomes hard.  Not because it's complicated, but because we're already so overbooked that FINDING time is what is difficult.  I'm pretty sure if we told our grandparents that making pickles is hard, they would be confused.  What part of "sticking cucumbers in a jar, pouring brine over it, and sticking it in a jacuzzi for a bit" is hard?

I remember stories my grandmother used to tell me.  She grew up in a world where they had significantly less money.  What they did have...  was time.  They planted gardens, and stored the food for the winter because it was cheaper than paying someone to do it for you.  They fixed their own clothes because it was cheaper than buying new ones.

Reality has shifted.   We work all the time to make money to pay for things we have already bought.   It's not that we have much more money, we've just made conscious choices to buy what we need (to save us time), and therefore need more money, so we work harder, leaving us even less time.  It's a vicious cycle. 

Yes, doing things for yourself takes time, but I prefer to make the time.  We aren't rich, but we have what we need, and while Husband works, I will work just as hard to make the dollars he brings home stretch as far as they can.  And in the meantime, I'll look at my cupboard full of preserves, and my freezer full of food (that are all going to taste better than their store-bought counterparts) and be satisfied. 

Don't let it die.

A friend of mine told me about a series on Hot 103, where they were talking about not letting things die...  things that our parents can do, but we don't, things that will likely disappear with their generation.  I have stumbled onto numerous conversations about this in the past, and have always been amazed.  Why on earth should we enjoy tortes while we still have them?  I personally am planning on just taking over the reigns.  I wonder why our generation is so fearful of those things?  I love making pickles, and jam, and every year I worry that I won't be able to find new jars or lids anymore, as it gets less and less popular.

Doing all of these things is simple, and I wonder whose fault their disappearance is.  Is it our lack of intrest?  Or is it our parents failure to instill those skills in us?  I know in some families, the parents are reluctant to pass the torch, "It's what I do", and they will cook the turkey dinner until the day they die.  When that happens, either someone will have to jump in to be the designated dinner-maker, or they will be ordering pizza.

I have also seen a big lack of interest.  We take for granted that someone will always be there to do these things for us.  When I lost my grandmother (at 75) and Dad (at 50) in the same year, I realized this is not the case.  If I want traditions to be part of my family, I am the one who has to do it.  My 52 year old mother is our family matriarch.  There are no 4 or 5-generation pictures for us to take. 

I will sew, I will pickle, and I will bake.  I will teach those skills to Girl (and Husband can teach her how to change the oil in her car), and we won't let it die.

Eat! bistro

We tried out Eat! bistro last night.  I had emailed the owner who assured me that while they don't have free-range chickens running around the back, "virtually everything at EAT! is made in-house".  I figured that was good enough for me.  Now, I don't know if to them, "whole ingredients" include things like mayonnaise, but whatever.  If a restaurant promotes itself as making things from scratch, I'm not about to trek into the kitchen to look at ingredients.

The ambience in Eat! was fun, ecclectic and there was a lot to look at.  I'm not sure what they'd do if it was really busy though, because at our table (four adults and 2-under-2), the backs of our chairs were rubbing against the next tables. 

Our food was enjoyable.  I ordered the taco salad.  Sitting among the rest of the entrees, it seemed a bit like the "thing to put on the menu for people who don't eat everything else."  It was tasty, but a bit uninspired.  There was nothing new and interesting about it, and I personally would have preferred if the meat was hot.

A note about the entrees, They are SMALL.  For an average man like Husband, get two.  Husband ended up eating his (the crabcakes) and then ordering some more (a really tasty pulled-pork flatbread pizza).  The crabcakes were good, but after talking to Husband, he found them "not very crabby" (I guess he's used to me).  He said it could have been virtually any seafood.  He would have liked to see big hunks of crab in there. 

I really enjoyed the fries.  for $5 you get this massive pile plus one of their 15 or so dipping sauces (each additional  dipping sauce is $1...  which concerned me slightly, since ketchup and vinegar were listed separately).  We went with the chipotle mayonnaise and the tzatziki.  I think of the two, the chipotle mayo was my favourite.  The tzatziki was ok, but nothing special.  The fries are huge and well cooked.

The rest of us finished our meal a little hungry (after each having our own entree and sharing the fries) so, in addition to Husbands extra pizza, we also ordered the chicken dippers.  I'm not sure what planet that chicken came from but it was extremely light and tender.  It had a nice light, crunchy breading, and for $7 for four pieces, I'd say it's worth it (just get the fries or a salad too, if you want it to be a meal).

Overall, I found the food enjoyable.  The prices were ok, average for an "expensive-bistro", but that was mainly due to the size of the entree.  It ran us just under $20 per adult plus tip for 6 entrees plus a side of fries (no alcohol, just coffee and lemonade... which was very sweet).

The desserts, which apparently were supposed to be amazing, fell a little flat.  Looking at the website, (no, I don't know what's wrong with it...  you have to scroll down to see anything) I was excited to see the desserts, as the pictures looked stunning.  In reality, there were some small pies, some sad-looking brownies a cake and some cupcakes.  Nothing that tempted us away from the brownie and homemade ice cream I had at home. 

Eat! is a great spot, good for lunch downtowners, and I'd go there again.  Though, I'd like them to put the Mexican Wontons back on the menu, I saw them on the website and wanted to order them, but they were crossed out.