French Onion Risotto

2 med/large onions

1 Tbsp butter

Get a pan onto the stove on a medium heat.  The key to carmelizing onions is cooking them slowly,  so you don't want the pan too hot.  Melt the butter in the pan, cut up the onions and pop them in.  If I'm making carmelized onions for burgers or something like that, I'll use onion rings, or half rings, but for this, you'd want them closer to bite-sized, so I cut quarter rings.

Keep the onions moving, and if they start to brown too quickly (like mine did as I sat here typing out how to cook them as slowly as possible) turn down the heat.   I read a tip for housewives once...  if your husband is coming home and you haven't started dinner yet, just put some onions on the stove.  It'll smell up the house and he'll never know.  I'm not sure why that matters, I'd just tell Husband to make his own dinner if he was that concerned. I'm liberated.

pepper to taste

1 tsp hot mustard

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce

Once your onions are soft, brown and you're starting to wonder where all the onions went, they're done.  Add some pepper and a teaspoon of hot mustard and Worchestershire sauce for a bit of a kick and empty them into another dish to wait for a while.

glug of white wine

1 cup arborio rice

3-4 cups beef stock

Put the stock into a small saucepan and get it simmering on the stove, you don't want to add cold stock to the hot rice.  De-glaze the pan with a good sized slosh of white wine.  This gets all the tasty stuff off the bottom of the pan and into your rice.  The size of the glug depends completely on you (and how much you want to have left to drink).  

Add the rice, and stir it around until the wine is completely absorbed, then start adding your stock half a cup at a time, stirring in between until the liquid is absorbed.  Don't neglect the stirring, it's what makes risotto more than just good rice.  The starches come out and make a deliciously creamy sauce. 

Once you've use up more than half of your stock, add the onions back in, and start tasting, season as you need with salt and pepper (I needed to add a bunch, because I used homemade stock that had virtually no salt in it, storebought stocks tend to have much more, so taste, taste, taste!)

I ended up using about 3 1/2 cups of stock, but have extra on hand, you don't want to run out and have to start adding water.

This stuff is pretty much amazing to eat as is, but for extra special dinners, put it into a french onion soup bowl (or any other oven safe vessel)  top with grated cheese (swiss is traditional, but I find it a bit strong, so a mix of mozzarella and swiss is better for me), and broil until the cheese is bubbly.

"Prepare Canner, Jars and Lids"

I realized recently that I've been writing "Prepare canner, jars and lids" on a lot of my posts, but I think I have yet to explain what that means, so in an effort to be helpful I'll make it easy (and then go back and link here from all my posts).  Basically this is a "Canning 101" type post, so I'll explain everything.

Preparing Canner:

The canner is the big pot that you get.  They're really cheap, likely because they're not made to put anything into but water (so please don't try cooking in one).  They come with a rack for jars that you lower into a hot water bath, and also a set of tongs to lift hot jars out of the water.

All you need to do to prepare the canner is put water into it (enough that you'll completely cover all the jars once you lower them in), and put it on the stove to come to a boil. 

I should also note...  the cheap canners you can buy at your local big box store can't be used on induction cooktops or any flat top surfaces.  I understand that for those types of cooktops you need to have a pot that has an entirely flat bottom, and a canner doesn't have that.  You can buy flat-bottomed canners, but they do cost more.  I knew there was some benefit to having a coil cooktop. 

Preparing Jars:

You need to sterilize and heat your jars.  Sterilize to kill bacteria, and heat them up so that when you pour hot stuff into them and stick them into boiling water that they won't break.  I do this in the dishwasher.  A regular cycle with a heated dry does the trick.  Just make sure you time it so you can use them hot (feel free to take them out before waiting for the dry cycle to finish, as long as they're reasonably dry.)

Preparing Lids:

I don't usually do anything with the rings, since they're on the outside of the seal, so other than making sure they are clean and not rusty, they just wait until they're needed.  The seals also need to be sterilized and warmed up (to soften the rubber part of the seal).  You can't do this in the dishwasher because it will degrade the rubber, so I do this in a small pot with water.  I bring it to a boil, and then turn off the heat, letting the seals sit in there to stay warm until they're needed.

A note on pressure canning. 

There is also a type of canning for "low acid foods" but I'm not really familiar with that personally (I have yet to need it, since I don't have a garden of veggies to store, or the cash to buy a pressure canner), but you can go here for more information on that.

Beauty products I stole from my baby.

I have a ton of baby products.  Well, not really, I can pretty much get by with a bottle of baby shampoo and occasionally some diaper cream.  I bought a lot of products with Girl because I thought that's what you were supposed to do, and most of them are still kicking around.  Discovering new uses for them is great!  Not to mention, baby products are significantly cheaper than the magic stuff in tiny bottles marketed to me.  Here are some of my favourites:

1. Zinc Oxide Cream:

Great for diaper rash, but even before I had kids I was using this stuff on my feet.  I have terribly rough feet, especially in the summer.  I think it's because, as a rule, I avoid socks like the plague as soon as I can get away with it.  As a result, my feet get chapped, skin peels off, and a few days ago I realized they were so bad they were acting like velcro on our carpets.  This cream works wonders.  Zinc is a healing agent, so it will also help with minor cuts and scrapes (though, I wouldn't use the same container you use for diaper rash...  too easy to cross-contaminate).  Just smear a heavy amount onto the soles of your feet, pull some socks on and go to bed.  By morning you'll see a noticable difference.  For even better results, get out the footfile first.  I've also done this with my hands with wonderful results.

2. Pure Lanolin

If you're like me, you likely bought a bottle of this before nursing...  and most of it is still in the container.  It's so thick and sticky, I pretty much abandoned it after a week or so with Girl, and I think I used it once with Boy.  Here's a great tip...  it's a wonderful lip protector/chapstick/gloss.  I'll admit, I'm kind of addicted to the tingly feeling chapsticks offer, but I'll be using my Lanolin this winter.  It's thick, has a nice subtle gloss, and softens your lips nicely.  (Like my feet, I have always been cursed with dry, chapped lips).

3. Baby Hairbrush

I've bought the microderm abrasion machines too.  Haven't used it in a long time... because now I have a baby hairbrush.  (I had two, so it's not like I was doing double duty between my face and Girl's cradle cap).  Use it gently in circular motions with your favourite cleanser as often as you would normally exfoliate for a soft, glowing face.  Added bonus, you can use it in the tub/shower without the nagging fear of electrocution.

4.  Baby oil

I know the commercials say to use this after you shower to "lock in moisture" and all that jazz...  but I use this as eye makeup remover.  SO much cheaper than any remover you can buy, and since I have a giant bottle with perhaps an inch used, I'll never need to buy makeup remover again.  Apparently baby wipes will do this too, but I can't confirm that one (they'll also take white anti-persirant marks off clothing).

There...  now you can be soft and dewy too (like your baby...  not me).  I have yet to find an anti-aging baby products, but as soon as I get all the ingredients together, I'll give you one of those too!

Curried Ketchup.

If you're like me, those two words sound about as weird together as "purple mustard".  I, however, am a convert.  I tried it once, and was blown away.  Not so blown away as to spend $5 on a small bottle of the stuff, but sufficiently blown away to spend the day attempting to make it myself.  (I have an odd way of looking at cost, I admit it). 

You need a stinking huge pot for this one,  just to warn you.  I borrowed my brother's giant 14L stock pot and let me tell you, I just squeaked it by. 

I found a recipe for Ketchup, and since I can't leave well enough alone, I modified it enough to call it my own.  I don't have a giant surplus of tomatoes (mainly because I really only grow enough to stuff my face with for a few weeks) and I wasn't about to buy fresh tomatoes to make this (the recipe called for 24lbs of them), so I opted for canned.  I'll give you a tip, when you use canned tomatoes instead of fresh...  watch the salt.  I completely forgot that canned tomatoes have salt in them, so when I added the requisite 1/4 cup while reducing the ketchup, I made a fatal error that resulted in me throwing away the whole first attempt.  It was a dismal failure.  I didn't add any salt the second time.

Curried Ketchup (makes about 6 pint jars)

3 Tbsp celery seeds

4 tsp whole cloves

2 cinnamon sticks, broken (each about 4 inches)

1 1/2 tsp whole allspice

3 cups cider vinegar

Make a spice bag with cheesecloth and the first four ingredients.  Put the vinegar in a pot with the spice bag, bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and let steep for 25 minutes.  Discard spice bag.

4 3.8L cans of diced tomatoes

3 large onions, chopped

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix tomatoes, onions and cayenne in a large stock pot.  Bring to a boil, stirring regularly, reduce heat and boil for about 15-20 minutes.  Add vinegar, and simmer for about 30 minutes.

(I took this picture during the first trial, I added more tomatoes for the second, so it barely fit in the pot)

Working in batches, either run tomatoes through a food mill, or put them in a strainer and push through with the back of a spoon (I've tried both methods, they are equally tedious) to extract all the liquid.  Return liquid to the pot.

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp hot curry powder

2 5.5oz cans tomato paste

Add sugar and curry powder to the liquid and bring to a boil.  Boil until the volume reduces by about half and the liquid is close to the consistency of commercial ketchup (it will be a bit runnier).  Add tomato paste and simmer a few minutes longer.  Also, prepare your jars, lids and canner.

Ladle hot ketchup into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe rim, add seals and rings, finger-tight.  Place into hot water canner, process for 15 minutes.

It's got a strong flavour, so if you're expecting Heinz, don't bother.  It's got some heat, but really only enough to warm up your mouth a bit, you won't be sweating.  Also, it's best to do this one with your windows open.  The curry, vinegar and cooking tomatoes really stinks the place up.  I have an "odor eliminator candle"  going right now (thanks Marion!).

Smokin!

In my quest to find interesting things to make food taste better, I stumbled on these:

Basically, smoke in a can.  It's actually technically compressed wood in a can.  You buy a pack of 3 for under $9 (I bought mine from Golda's Kitchen...  I could spend some major coin there), take off the labels and plop one into your propane BBQ, under the grill, just sitting on the burner/coals.  Each one says its good for about 3 sessions on the barbeque, and boy, are they smokin!  Husband thought the grill was on fire...  the most delicious smelling fire ever!  We've made chicken, ribs, and hamburgers so far, but I can't think of anything to put on the BBQ that couldn't use a bit of smokey goodness.  I will warn you though...  don't get the smoke in your eyes.  It burns like campfire!

I have one of those smoker boxes already that do the same thing...  you just have to add your own chips.  But silly me, I left it outside on the BBQ all winter and it rusted to high heaven.  Oops.   This is more my speed. 

They come in Pecan, Alder, Cherry, Apple, Hickory and Mesquite (what is "mesquite" anyway?)

Try it, you'll like it.  Especially if your husband won't let you buy a $300 smoker. 

I have mixed thoughts about purple mustard.

I didn't think about it really.  Cranberry Mustard sounded intriguing, and there wasn't a picture of it to go with the recipe, so I really had no idea what it was going to look like, but lo and behold...  it's purple.

I mean really purple.  See?

I don't know.  Smells like mustard.  I'm not a huge mustard fan, but Husband said it smelled really good.  I'm just confused by looking at it.  I've never thought "you know what this sandwich needs?  a bit of PURPLE!"  That beet horseradish stuff confuses me too.

I digress.  In case you want purple mustard, here is the recipe:

Cranberry Mustard

1 cup red wine vinegar

2/3 cup yellow mustard seeds

Bring vinegar to a boil on high heat, remove from heat and add mustard seeds.  Let soak until they absorb most of the liquid (about an hour).  Prepare jars, lids and canner.

1 cup water

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 3/4 cups cranberries (fresh or frozen)

In a blender or a food processor, combine soaked mustard seeds, water, and Worcestershire sauce, process until they are a desired consistency for mustard (basically, as smooth as you have patience for).  Add cranberries and blend up some more.

I warn you, by this point you might think you've made some sort of smoothie, since it looks like this:

Looks like a smoothie, smells like mustard.  Yummy!

Transfer the mixture to a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.  (At this point, I added another half cup or so of water...  since it was already pretty thick, and the recipe wanted me to reduce it further.  If I boiled it from the consistency it was, it would have just burned to the bottom of the pan.) 

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup dry mustard powder

2 1/2 tsp ground allspice

Whisk in sugar, mustard powder and allspice, continute boiling until volume is reduced and thickened (anout 15 minutes)

Ladle mustard into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles, wipe rim and add lids, finger-tight. 

Process jars in hot water canner, ensuring they are completely covered in water.  Process for 10 minutes.

I made Husband try it, and the stuff is tasty, just purple.  I don't know about purple mustard. 

My pantry runneth over.

You should really invite me to dinner.

I love to entertain, so I don't get invited out all that much.  I like to cook, and people seem to like my cooking (since they come back time and again) and honestly, sometimes when I get invited somewhere else, I miss being able to spoil my friends and family.  I came up with a solution...  this is it:

The Host/Hostess Gift!

In my pantry is a shelf of delectables just waiting all Martha-Stewart-style, including (but not limited to) blueberry jam, blueberry sauce, strawberry sauce, strawberry syrup, black velvet apricot jam, raspberry jelly, praline syrup, spiced honey, curried ketchup, and cranberry mustard.  They're even labelled and decorated already!  (btw, I love the idea of using circles of scrapbook paper under the jar rings to add some pizazz)

I'm still planning on adding to this stash, since I have yet to make anything with the chokecherries and highbush cranberries growing on my property, or with my mom-in-law's apples, and I have plans for BBQ sauces and salsas.

I'm going to spoil you if you come to my house or not.  *evil cackle*