Popcorn

Pocorn is wonderful, high fibre, fat free (until you add the delicious tasty butter) and easy to make.  I always used microwave packets, blissfully unaware of the palm oil lurking inside.  I wasn't about to get an air popper, but when at the Crate and Barrel outlet in Texas, I found this:

It's a microwave popcorn popper.  It's fantastic!  I had to have it, so I bought it, stuffed socks into it and brought it home in my checked luggage.  It survived, glass handle and all. 

You just need to stick some popcorn kernels in the bottom, stick it in the nuker on high and let it pop.  If you like your popcorn to have butter baked on, just stick a chunk of it onto this top mesh thing and it'll melt and cook right in. 

(Don't ask me about metal in the microwave... some nerd can tell you all about it if you wander through other parts of the internet. I just know it says "microwave safe" and I haven't blown anything up yet).  I personally prefer my popcorn to have added butter on it, so I skip that step and add it later.

Yes, it is marginally more work (you need to put it in the dishwasher) but considering how cheap plain popcorn kernels are, it's a definite savings over microwave popcorn.

Hey look, you can buy it on Amazon and save yourself the trip to Texas. 

Just sharing my accomplishments.

Apparently yesterday was the day to be inspired by cooking shows.  These are my very first poached eggs (inspired by Whitney on Master Chef).  I just wanted to share.  They look great, were easy, and spilled yolk all over the place.  I'm so trying out for the next Master Chef.

No Whey!

I think it was even before starting the Real Food Experiment that I decided I was going to try to make mozzarella cheese.  I had seen it on a cooking show and was curious to see if I too could do it at home.  Granted, the show I was watching was "Anna and Kristina's Grocery Bags" (where they test cookbooks) and it was a dismal failure on there. 

I had higher hopes for myself.

The recipe seemed easy enough...  I did however, have to order some supplies online, namely rennet tablets and citric acid.  Once they arrived I was good to go.

1/2 rennet tablet

1/4 cup non-chlorinated water

Crush the rennet between two spoons, (At this point I had flashbacks to when my mom would do that with tylenol when I was sick as a kid) and dissolve it in the water.  Luckily we have a well, and a reverse osmosis system, so there is no chlorine in our water, but distilled water would work.  I recommend against rainwater.

1 4L jug of milk

2 tsp citric acid

Put the milk and citric acid (stir to dissolve) into a pot on medium heat and bring it up to 88ºF.  (I used whole milk, but apparently you can use any percentage, even skim). At first I was using a deep-fry/candy thermometer, but when it started to curdle and was nowhere near the right temperature, I quickly grabbed a different one.  The milk will start to have small curdles as it approaches the right temperature.

At 88ºF, add the rennet and water, and continue cooking until it reaches 105ºF.  At this point you will be getting really large curdles.  Turn off the heat and using a slotted spoon or a mesh skimmer, transfer all the curdles to a glass bowl.

Yes, it would be easier to use a collander and dump the whey, but you may need it later.  In fact, put it back on the heat and keep it nice and warm.

Using your hands, squeeze out as much of the whey as possible.  Then, stick the bowl into the microwave on high for one minute.  When it comes out, squeeze again and discard the whey.  Microwave again at 30 second intervals until the curds are just wet and starting to stick together better. 

Add some salt at this point.  I didn't add enough, and it ended up tasting a bit bland  (at least 1 teaspoon, if not a bit more).  Drop it out onto the counter and knead until it gets smooth and shiny and plastic-y

If it's still brittle, or doesn't stretch well, dip it into the hot whey for a few seconds to soften it up again.

Once it's done, form it into a log, or small balls.

I should have stopped kneading earlier, that's why mine isn't very smooth, but hey, it was the first try, and I didn't really know when to stop.  Still tastes good.

For storage, make a brine using 1 cup water to 2 tsp salt  (I needed double this).  Put the cheese in a container and pour the brine over to cover.

Even Husband ate some, and he refuses to eat anything that I curdle by myself.  (I made yogurt once a while back and he wouldn't touch the stuff).  Doing your own is definitely cheaper than buying fresh mozzarella.  It cost me a total of $4.25 for almost double what you would buy in a package for $5-6.   All in, it was maybe half an hour of work. 

Now get me some fresh tomatoes, some basil and some balsamic vinaigrette!

For my nieces and nephews, with apologies to their parents.

Having a kid is really fun, especially when people give her presents.  When I buy presents for other kids, I try really hard not to tell their parents what the gifts are, since I like to surprise them too.  "Here is a brand new PUPPY!  YAY!".  This present, however, was too much fun not to share, and since I'm pretty sure none of my nieces and nephews are avid followers of my blog (the oldest being 10), I had to post it.  Their mothers, however, do read my blog, so I apologize for spoiling the surprise.

I've always been a big proponent of school and learning (ironic, since by the end I was REALLY ready to get out, and I have ZERO desire to ever go back), so I decided to give something to my nieces and nephews to help get them excited for the school year.  Unfortunately some of them have already been in school for a month now (crazy Texans) and even the kids here are a few weeks in.  Oops.

Better late than never right?

Pencil cases!  With zippers for mouths and a waterproof lining.  I had to get my mom to come and re-teach me how to put in a zipper (I had done one maybe 5 years ago on a duvet cover), but I think they turned out well.  I'm really good at sewing things of the rectangular variety.  Please don't ask me to sew anything three-dimensional. 

They look a bit lumpy because they're filled with some fun school supplies I would have wanted as a kid, but were too "frivolous" at the time.  I got stuck with boring yellow pencils and erasers shaped like erasers. 

Here's hoping they like them!  I`m having trouble giving them up.

Smoked roasted red peppers

This was the last of my canning efforts, so I figured I'd throw it up here, since who knows, somewhere along the line I might use these in a recipe.  I have always liked roasted red peppers from a jar, and since I was on a bit of a canning kick, I decided to give it a go.  Of course, I had to modify, so mine are smoked first.  There is very little in the world that can't be made better with a lttle smoke. 

We were in the U.S. a little while ago, saving big money at Menards, and for some crazy reason, Husband thought bring home a sump pump would be better value for our cross-border-shopping-limit than a fancy smoker.  I did however manage to snag a smoker box for the BBQ.

I filled it wh mesquite chips and stuck it on the coals inside the BBQ, and turned on the flame.

I think it took about 20 minutes to go from this to this...

Then, under running water, I peeled of all the skin and washed out the seeds.

leaving me with...

...a pile of roasted red peppers.  These went into jars with some chunks of onion, a few cloves of garlic and the same brine I used for pickles way back when. 

13 cups water

4 cups vinegar

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

(I also did some pickled carrots using the exact same recipe as the pickles, so I did a whole batch of brine, otherwise, I would have cut the recipe down, since there were only 4 jars of red peppers)

Now, unfortunately, I didn't get as much smoke as I had liked from my wood chips (likely since I didn't read the directions before tossing the package) especially after they all started on fire... so I did add a few drops of liquid smoke to each jar before sealing them up.  It smelled AMAZING.

Into a boiling water canner for about 20 minutes and they were done like dinner. 

Quick and dirty carbonara.

Pasta carbonara is such an easy pasta it sometimes makes me cry when I think that I used to buy the Lipton sidekicks version of it.  I never really enjoyed it, but I thought it would be easier.  Fortunately, I grew wise to the carbonara's tricks.  The part about it that takes the longest is letting the noodles cook.  Everything else is easy like cake.

First, get a pot of salted water on the stove, and while you're waiting for it to come to a boil, fry up a few slices of bacon, cut into small pieces.

Don't get distracted by your toddler and burn the whole panful.  Not like I know from experience or anything.

Who put that picture up there?

Once the water is boiling, drop in a small handful of pasta (I use spagetti or spaghettini usually), about the diameter of a quarter. 

Take 3 egg yolks and 1/2 cup cream and whisk them together in a bowl.  Add a good shake of salt, pepper and I like a bit of garlic powder in there too.  If you want a lighter version, you can use almost any percentage...  even a whole milk would work.  (You could also use fried ham instead of bacon, but hey, you only live once right?)  I had whipping cream in the fridge, so that's what I used.  Sweet creamy cream.

Drain your bacon.  Just get most of the fat out of the pan, and leave the bacon in it.

Once the pasta is 95% done, I throw a good cup of frozen peas into the water...  kills two birds with one stone. 

Before you drain, always make sure to scoop out a bit of the pasta water.  It comes in handy if you need to stretch your sauce a bit, or just loosen it all up. 

Drain the pasta and plop it into the bacon pan.  (At this point the heat should be off and the heat of the noodles will cook the eggs in the sauce.  If you leave the heat on, you run the risk of making a really gross fritatta).  Pour the egg/cream mixture over and toss with tongs.

For more indulgence...  parmesan cheese is a wonderful addition.

It's a hundred times better than anything out of an envelope and it didn't take much longer.  You will need to wash one extra pan, but that's something I can live with for a plate of food that looks like that.

Oh, the Organization.

The canner went back to its home in the basement today.  It's been out for a few weeks now while I've apparently been storing up for winter.  My larter is full and I can't think of anything else that I "need" to preserve.

Luckily for me, Husband added shelves to a broom closet in the kitchen which until a month ago was filled with condensed soups, pasta packages, BBQ sauces, salad dressings and the lot.   The difference is startling.  Now, it looks like this:

I have jams and jellies, canned peaches and pears, apple pie filling, salsa, BBQ sauce, pickled carrots and pickled smoked/roasted red peppers.  (The actual pickles I keep in the fridge in the basement).  I sure hope those shelves Husband put up are beefy enough for the 70 some jars on that one shelf.  If I hear a big crash in the middle of the night, I'll know where to look first.

I love the modular containers for dry goods.  They're made by Rubbermaid and SO much cheaper than Tupperware.  I have 5 different flours in there, not including all-purpose which gets it's own big tub on the floor of the closet (and one in the cupboard).  I think Husband has kind of rubbed off on me.  I doubt I'd ever have worried about the size and shape of jars or dry-goods containers until he came around.  But I love it.  It's so organized. 

If only I could say the same about my bedroom closet.