Choices.

I'm torn.

I want to go back.  My brain tells me that I should, that I made a commitment, but the rest of me tells me I've already failed, so why bother?

After more than six weeks of morning sickness, the likes of which I would never want to experience again, and being completely unable to cook, I have completely depleted my resources.  All the food I worked so hard for 3 weeks to create, store and stash is gone.  I have nothing to fall back on anymore, no quick meals to pull from the freezer for the days when cooking is a chore.  It was hard work, but I had gotten myself to a comfortable point of maintenance when all hell broke loose.  I was unable to look at food, smell food, cook food and for the most part, eat food.  Regular Cheerios saved me.

The idea of starting all over again now is hugely daunting, because it truly feels like I'm starting from scratch, and if given the choice of whether to start this now, I can't say I would make the same decision.  I think if I had been able to continue without interruption, I would have stayed the course...

... but life changed. 

I think what I may do, is modify.  I still have a stack of exciting recipes to try, and fun food experiments to do, and that is what excites me most. 

The fact that I didn't go through weird withdrawl symptoms or have any physical reactions because of my diet change, kind of proved my point.  That was what I was mainly curious about...  would my body go through some sort of shock?  or would I suddenly "feel" healthier?  Those two factors were the only reactions that would have made me really question the diet I was previously eating.  It didn't happen.  Husband lost weight, but he also went hungry a lot of the time because he didn't know what to eat.  We weren't hit with extra energy, our have any noticable differences in the way our body processes food.  That said, we didn't have a bad diet to start off with.  Perhaps if we did, like we ONLY ate processed food, we might have seen a difference. 

It proved the point I was hoping to make for myself.  Life is about balance.  There is no evil food, there is no food that will help you live forever.  Think moderation, and balance.  Eat what you love, and love those you eat with.  Life is too short to cut out the things you love.

Eating only homemade and food made from scratch made us miss some of that.  Not only the food, but the fellowship and family.  We were unable to go out with our friends and family to most restaurants.  Even those that boasted about cooking from scratch had ingredients that I had purged from my fridge. 

There are a lot of things I won't go back to, and I'll continue to post fun from-scratch recipes, but I might have to keep Cheerios in my cupboard.

Getting Pregnant 101

Step one:  Do all things normally associated with getting pregnant.

Step two:  Commit to a year-long insane plan of eating all whole foods. 

Step three: Nope, there is no step 3.  That's it.

It happened.  I knew it would.  I knew that the second I committed to this cockamamie plan that I'd instantly get pregnant.  It's how things work with me.  Life changes only come when I don't allow time for them.  I wasn't too worried, I've been pregnant before and I didn't forsee any problems doing both at the same time.  Boy, was I wrong. 

Morning sickness hits me almost instantly.  I'm not one of those people who gets a few weeks to digest and then has the sickness hit at about 6 weeks (normal).  I usually have a pretty good idea that I'm pregnant when it's still too early to test.  Unfortunately, at 6 weeks...  the REAL morning sickness hit.  Suddenly I was sick all the time.  I couldn't stand to see food, eat food, think about food, cook food.   I was completely useless (still am actually).

I force myself to eat because I know it will only get substantially worse otherwise.  It's better to eat breakfast twice than to not eat breakfast at all, and unlike the stomach flu, you can't avoid puking by not eating.  You can however, sometimes avoid puking if you DO eat.

Interestingly, I developed a food aversion to, well, everything homemade.  Which gave me a difficult choice.  Well, it wasn't that difficult.  The baby needed food and if the only food I could keep down was pre-processed, I would eat it.  Contrary to popular belief, I'm not actually crazy.  I have been surviving on Cheerios, Saltines, fruit and granola bars.  I can usually fit in other foods too... sometimes, but please don't ask me to cook it.  Interestingly, I have discovered that I can eat a bowl of Cheerios right after throwing one up.  Who knew!?

So, if you think that means I failed my Real Food Experiment, oh well.  I suppose technically I did...  but I'm hoping I'm just taking a brief hiatus and this gets better so I can continue on.

However, the true, secret, motive for my plan has been accomplished, so even if I can't do it anymore...  I'm still pregnant. 

BOOYAH!

Update

I was told today that I have to put up new blog entries otherwise people may believe I have spiralled into a deep depression.  No depression thus far...  just the plain old crazy life.  I've been checking things of the list/pile that seems to be devouring me, and still so many of my dreams and goals are being left until I have more time.  Good luck with that.  I haven't written in months, though my book still swirls in my head at inopportune times (like when I should be sleeping).  I really need to write it down. 

The Real Food Experiment is really difficult in some ways.  I find grocery shopping really hard.  I think that's mainly because I am so used to buying what I see...  being inspired by the store for what to make for dinner.  I need to actually plan ahead now.  It saves me money because ther is virtually no impulse purchasing, but it takes a bit more brain power (of which I am lacking these days).   Lunches for Husband are especially hard.  When deli meats are out (a staple of his former lunch), and anything other than homemade mayo, it takes a lot of advance planning to figure something out.  Husband has gone to work with a container of hard-boiled eggs and fruit.  Sorry hon. 

There are definitely times when I feel like giving up.  Times like now especially when I can't even find the time in life to blog about how I feel.  What is the point of doing it if no one else can learn anything from the experiment? 

Speaking of how I feel...  not that different.  I had thought (especially with all the talk of toxins and free-radicals and the evils of preservatives) that there would be some measurable change in our health.  Not really, at least for me.  Husband has lost weight (grumble), but that likely has more to do with the inability to snack on doughnuts at coffee break.  I have lost about 10 pounds in the last while, but that's a story for another day.

We'll keep going.  Maybe someday I'll feel different.  I don't though.  I think just getting on my elliptical would make more of a difference to my health than this diet is doing, but time will tell.

A Play.

Mom:  "I'm going to make the turkey gravy for thanksgiving"

Suzie: "Why?"  (looks confused.  She thought she would be making it)

Mom: "Because then I can use contraband"

Suzie: (more confused) "What contraband?"

Mom: "Onion soup mix"

Suzie:  (Still confused) "Since when do we put onion soup mix into turkey gravy"

Mom:  "Trust me."

Suzie:  "I have made turkey gravy 5-10 times and I have never once used onion soup mix."

Mom:  "Trust me, it'll be better"

Suzie:  (Stares at Mom is complete confusion)

Mom:  "Or is that meatballs?"

Suzie: (laughs) "Yes mom, you use onion soup mix in meatballs"

END SCENE


Sorry mom, this story was just too good to share!  So, no onion soup mix in the turkey gravy (which is good, since it is a beef-based soup).  Mom is going to bring the meatballs instead.

Chicken Stock

What can I say...  I was in a stock making mood.  Actually, I just figured if I was going to have one stock simmering on the stove, I might as well have 2.  Husband and I had a roasted chicken this week, and since I know Thanksgiving is around the corner (and I have a turkey to make) I knew I needed some stock.  You see, I don't typically stuff my birds (they cook faster and stay juicier if they're empty, not to mention potential problems with too-low-internal-temperatures-sending-all-my-guests-to-the-hospital) so in order to get a nice moist and tasty stuffing without it being stuffed into the cavity of a roasting bird, I add some roasted chicken stock. 

When you're making chicken noodle soup, I'd recommend starting with raw chicken pieces, the flavour tends to be better, but for stuffing, roasted chicken carcasses are fine (they also work if you're making a soup with lots of other flavours, vegetable soups, etc).  Hey, waste-not-want-not right?

Take your decimated carcass and dump it (and any juices in the bottom of the pan) into a large pot with half a large onion (in chunks... and you don't even have to peel it if you don't want to), a good handful of carrots and some celery if you have.  I didn't, so onions and carrots did just fine.  Cover with water and simmer on ow for a few hours.

Strain, and stick into the fridge or freezer. 

 

I got about 4-5 cups or so...  soon I'll show you how to make the stuffing...  but we need to wait until next week for that!

Beef Stock

Beef stock is one of the stocks I just about never make.  The reason being...  unlike chicken (or any kind of poultry) stock or pork stock, with beef stock, you need to start with roasted beef.  The idea of making a roast (no matter how cheap the meat) purely to dump it into a pot with water kind of seems like a lot of effort.  Unfortunately I haven't found a natural beef boullion base, or onion soup mix so if I ever want beef gravy, I'm going to need to do it. 

So, I made my mom cry a little on the inside.  After they ate their fill of roast beef, I chopped off the section with the bone and popped it into a pot with water to cover and about half a large onion (in wedges).  Apparently the section with the bone is the absolute best part, but considering I was planning on using the leftovers for roast beef sandwiches, it didn't help me much.  Getting gravy was a bit more important.  Don't worry mom, next time I'll think ahead and get some beef stock in the freezer.

Simmer on low for a few hours and miraculously, you have beef stock!  Strain out the chunks and stick it in the fridge or freezer.  Give it a happy hug and imagine tasty gravy.

Standing Rib Roast

Roast beef is one of the many things that I cook purely for husband.  I can't stand the stuff myself, but I have a palate that would confuses the best of them.  For me, to eat meat, it typically has to be ground up, spiced and squished back together.  I'd take a hotdog over a steak any day.  I'm ok with poultry if it's swimming in a healthy pile of hot sauce, but beef...  unless I can make a hamburger out of it...  no thanks.

You might think I have some kind of animal rights thing going on...  I know some people don't like to eat meat that looks like what it was...  (fish with eyes...  whole chickens)  that doesn't bother me, I simply don't like the flavour.  I also don't like 99% of all alcohols, so I'm going to live forever. 

My first tip for making a roast is to get good meat.  A "standing rib roast" is one of the nicest cuts of beef you can get for a roast.  I bought mine at a local grocery store.  It was 5lbs and abou $20.  I know, that's a lot, but when you calculate based on getting something the same at The Keg...  Husband is getting a lot more meat, and enough leftovers to keep him in hot roast beef sandwiches for a week for less than a single meal.  The ambiance may not be the same, but he'll survive. 

First off, stud the beef with garlic.  Hey, everything is better with garlic.  Take a paring knife and stab the meat (close to veins of fat is the best, since the garlc will flavour better there)...

and shove hunks of garlic in as deep as you can.  For this 5lb roast, I used about 6-7 average cloves of garlic, sliced in half.  Stab them in from all directions so you get a somewhat even coverage.

Coat the outside liberally with seasoning salt and black pepper, and stick it in a roasting pan.  (any kind will do).  Get the oven to 350ºF and put the roast in.  We calculated by 20-22 minutes per pound for medium rare, so this one took just under 2 hours.  Get a meat thermometer if you're concerned and go with these internal temperatures

120°F to 125°F, (49°C to 52°C) for rare (Note: 120° is very rare).
130°F to 140°F (55°C to 60°C) for medium rare
145°F to 150°F (63°C to 66°C) for medium
155°F to 165°F (68°C to 74°C) for well done

Unfortunately, now that we're doing the Real Food Experiment, I'm not allowed to use onion soup mix, so the gravy was a little scarce (I also don't have beef stock readily available)  I should probably remedy that for next time.  This roast can easily feed 6-8 people.  We had 2 1/2 eating it, and we have a LOT left over. 
 
Husband was thrilled.  I ate soup.

Hot Sauce

You may be asking yourself...  what sort of recipe could there be for hot sauce?  doesn't it just come out of a bottle.  Why, yes it does.  You can use it straight from the bottle, or you could make it better.  We are hot sauce afficianados over here, so you really might as well.

Start with about a tablespoon of butter.  If you're sitting there staring at the screen in outrage at the added fat, I'd like to shatter your illusions.  In a restaurant, the typical ratio of hot sauce to butter is about 1:1... meaning, half of all the sauce you eat with your deep fried wings is butter.  So, a tablespoon seems pretty good.  It really does help though, you notice a big difference in how the sauce sticks and tastes.  Melt the butter in the microwave.

Add a good squirt of ketchup.  This is where you can decide how hot you want it...  if you like it hot, don't put in too much ketchup, if you like it milder, add more.  I've also had good results with also adding hickory BBQ sauce for a mild sauce. 

Add your hot sauce, and a splash of vinegar (maybe 1 Tbsp).  My mom started doing that, and it makes it really good.   Make as much or as little as you want.  We tend to eat sauce, using our food as conduit, so we made a lot for the two of us.  (Girl hasn't reached buffalo sauce stage yet).

Once it's all in the bowl, nuke it for about a minute or so.  It'll help the ingredients blend together, and warm up the whole lot.  You don't want to put cold sauce on hot wings after all!

Twice Baked Potatoes

Twice baked potatoes are one of those things that, once you get it, are impressive and simple at the same time.  The recipe is so basic that you can do almost anything with them...  switch out the cheeses, add spices, or roasted garlic.  I know it's hard to believe, but I have made miniature versions (using the baby red potatoes) as appetizers.

Stab all your potatoes... a bunch of times.  I almost yelled at the TV once when Paula Deen was on, because she said you were supposed to stab potatoes (just once) so they cook faster.  I'm pretty sure it's so that they don't explode.  I tend to start my potatoes in the microwave, especially since I usually make them with wings, and that way, they don't have to be in the oven much longer than the wings.  You can start them in the oven though if you want.  I do finish them in the oven so they get a nice crunchy peel.  (makes for easier scooping too).  They're usually in the microwave for about 5 minutes, more if they're all big, less if I'm only doing a few.  Then, into the oven for about 15-20 minutes to crisp them up. 

The most difficult part of making these is scooping them out.  Like I said, it does make it a lot easier if they're baked, but I have done them straight out of the microwave too.  Just cup off the top and scoop out the flesh.

Once it's all out, you can mash it, but I love my ricer.  There are never lumps when you make mashed potatoes with a ricer. 

Plus, it reminds me of my Play-doh barbershop.

Once it's all riced, simply stir in some butter, milk (start slow and add, you can always add more, but you can't take it away) and grated cheese. A bit of salt is smart too... especially if you're not going to eat them with copious amounts of hot sauce.

Mix it all together and stuff back into your empty peels.

I usually top with a bit of extra cheese, and then they go into the oven just until the cheese melts through. 

Winging it.

Chicken wings are terrible for you.  I heard somewhere that they are something like 50% fat.  I think that statistic was from a restaurant though, where they would be breaded, deep fried and served with blue cheese dip.  Understandable. I tend to prefer the boneless variety myself, but I do have a deep appreciation for buffalo sauce (let me tell you, if it was off the menu, there would be NO way I'd be doing this), and since wings are an acceptable vehicle for mass hot sauce consumption, I'll do it.

First, take your wings, and coat them in flour and lay them on a cookie sheet.  Putting some parchment paper under them is a smart bet... since it'll drastically improve cleanup. 

Lightly salt them, and pop them into an oven at 425ºF.  A note on salt... I typically skip it because as I said, we use a lot of sauce.  The salt is more important if you have a light hand with the spicy stuff. 

Baking chicken wings is easy.  Because there is so little meat, there is virtually no chance they won't be cooked through before they get a nice brown, crispy crust, so just get them brown and they'll be cooked through. 

Serve with twice baked potatoes and hot sauce.  It's 8 in the morning and this is looking good to me.

Finally finished!

I buckled down and finished "In Defense of Food".  After 150 pages of nutritionism and theory, it finally got to the suggestions for how to eat better.  One thing that I really appreciate about this book is that it doesn't give you "the easy answer".  There is no single evil nutrient (saturated fat... carbohydrates... etc) and no single good nutrient (antioxidants... omega-3... etc).  This book just prompts us to eat real food.  

Here are some of the suggestions in the coles notes version:

1.  Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.  (This means you powdered cheese and yogurt tubes)

2.  Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than 5 in number,  or that include d) high fructore corn syrup (a giveaway that it has been highly processed)

3. Avoid products that make health claims.  ("For a food to make health claims on it's package, it must first have a package, so right off the bat it's more likely to be processed than a whole food.  Generally speaking it is only big food companies that have the wherewithal to secure FDA-approved heath claims for their products and then trumpet them to the world")

4.  Shop the peripheries of the supermarket, stay out of the middle. (Whole foods tend to be around the outside)

5.  Whenever possible, get out of the supermarket (Nice idea if you live somewhere that has produce all year long.  Even our farmer's markets are only open a few months, and I've seen bananas at mine, so I'm pretty sure all the food isn't from nice, local, organic farms)

6.  Be the kind of person who takes supplements.  (This one made me laugh, because he's not promoting supplements.  There have been studies that say that people who take supplements tend to be healthier because they tend to be more aware of their health and willing to spend money to be healthy...  he recommends just being like that, and not bothering to buy supplements.)

7.  Eat meals (no snacking) and do all your eating at a table.

8.  Cook, and if you can, plant a garden.  (Be connected to your food.)

I think the very end of the book stuck with me the most...

"as you cook in your kitchen, you enjoy an omniscience about your food that no amount of supermarket study or label reading can hope to match.  Haven retaken control of the meal from the food scientists and processors, you know exatly what is and is not in it:  There are no questions about high-fructose corn syrup, or ethoxylated diglycerides or partially hydrogenated soy oil, for the simple reason that you didn't ethoxylate or partially hydrogenate anything (Unless that is, you're the kind of cook who starts with a can of Campells cream of mushroom soup, in which care all bets are off).  To reclaim this much control over one's food, to take it back from industry and science, is no small thing; indeed, in our time cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualify as subversive acts.

And what these acts subvert is nutritionism: the belief that food is foremost about nutrition and nutrition is so complex that only experts and industry can possibly supply it.  When you're cooking with food as alive as this - these gorgeous and semi-gorgeous fruits and leaves and flesh - you're in no danger of mistaking it for a commodity, for a fuel, or a collection of chemical nutrients...

...The cook in the kitchen preparing a meal from plants and animals at the end of this shortest of food chains has a great many things to worry about, but "health" is simply not one of them, because it is a given"

Overall, I found this book interesting.  There are a lot of things I don't feel I can change (for example, I'm likely not going to start herding my own cows and chickens to keep them on a grass-only diet), but I can make smarter decisions (buying beef or chicken instead of pre-made hamburgers and chicken nuggets).  I'm likely not going to follow everything in this book, but overall it had a decent idea of how we should eat in an ideal world.  Unfortunately the world we live in is not ideal, so we just need to muddle through and make the best decisions we can. 

I like that there was no magic bullet.  I too have been so confused about health and diet and weight, and I've been waiting for the previously contradicted theories to come around at tell me that now, potato chips are good for you.  I feel like I can't remember if I'm supposed to eat eggs now, or not.  Food has become so complicated that I feel a sense of relief about not having to listen to the commercials that tell me which b.regularis I should be eating, or that fruit loops are healthy now because they are made with whole grains. 

I haven't looked at calories in a month.  Very little of what I buy has an ingredient chart on it.  It's liberating.

I do need to work on some things... like eating at a table...  but that will come.  As it is, Girl is plainly too messy to eat on the couch, so that's a change that will be made soon I'm sure.   

Mushroom Barley Risotto

I was flipping through a magazine lately and stumbled on a recipe for barley risotto.  I hadn't even though of doing a risotto with barley before, and though the recipe was completely different, I instantly thought of  mushroom barley soup.  This is odd, since I don't like mushrooms.  I don't think I've ever actually eaten mushroom barley soup, but I could see how people would like it.

Husband likes mushrooms though. 

I also don't like steak, so while he was eating dinner tonight, I ate leftovers.  I don't eat a big chunk of the food I make.  It's weird I know.  Husband doesn't mind being my guinea pig.

Here is the recipe I came up with.

First, fry up some mushrooms in about 1 Tbsp of butter.

I used a 200g package, but it's about 10 good sized mushrooms.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Once the mushrooms are nicely browned, remove from the pan and set aside.  In the same pan, add another tablespoon of butter (let it melt), 1/2 cup of diced onion and 1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley. 

Let this cook for a few minutes, and then you can start adding liquid.  To make a risotto, you need to add liquid lowly, letting each bath absorb into the barley before adding more, while stirring regularly.  It's best to have your liquid (stock) being kept warm in a small pot nearby, you'll need about 3-4 cups.

Once the barley has toasted with the onions, add 1/2 cup red wine, this will also help you deglaze the pan...  all that gunk stuck on there is flavour, get it all up into the liquid.

Once the wine has been absorbed start adding beef stock (really, any stock will do in a pinch).  Add it one ladleful at a time, stirring until it has been completely absorbed.  Risotto requires patience.  Luckily, Husband was covering the steak on the BBQ.  Add salt and pepper and 2 cloves of crushed garlic too.

Once the barley has plumped up and is nice and soft and creamy, add the mushrooms back in for just long enough for the flavours to blend

There you have it.  Dee-lish! (or so I was told... granted, I'm pretty sure Husband didn't say "Dee-lish")

I think I can now make it through the year.

I have a confession to make.  I have never once, in my life, made a brownie from scratch.  I love love love the Betty Crocker Chocolate Chunk mix, and always figured, "why mess with perfection?"

So there I was... brownie-less.  Women should not be brownie-less.

Without any form of reference, other than a mix, I decided to try my hand at making a recipe to suit.  Luckily I was successful (though, I would have eaten all failures).

1 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

2-3 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped roughly

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

Mix all the dry ingredients (including chocolate chunks), then add wet ones.  The batter will be quite thick, but try not to overmix.  Pour into a greased 9 inch pan, and spread evenly.  Bake at 350ºF for 30-35 minutes. 

I may not need to buy a mix again.

Back to the hard work.

After a brief hiatus, letting my brain recover from the first six chapters, I have returned to "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. 

There is a lot in the book, that while, is interesting to know, won't really change the way I eat in any kind of substantive way.  However, there are brief excerpts that make me think about what I eat in ways I have never thought before.

This is one:

"Store food is food that is designed to be stored and transported over long distances, and the surest way to make food more stable and less vulnerable to pests is to remove the nutrients from it.  In general, calories are much easier to transport - in the form of refined grain or sugar - than nutrients, which are liable to deteriorate or attract the attention of bacteria, insects and rodents, all keenly interested in nutrients (more so, apparently, than we are).  Price concluded that modern civilization has sacrificed much of it's quality of food in the interests of quantity and shelf life."

I have never considered myself to be the kind of person who ate a lot of processed foods.  I cooked a lot from scratch, though, I did also eat all sorts of other packaged foods.  Reading this makes me wonder if I'll want to go back.  As much as I enjoy pre-made foods, I really wonder what nutrients I'm getting now that I was formerly missing out on. 

Which makes me think about all the people in the grocery store who have carts filled with boxes. 

Pan-fried pickerel

Once upon a time, pickerel used to appear in my freezer, frozen in water-filled milk cartons.  That doesn't happen anymore, so I had to fork out the cash to buy some (which, considering Husband went fishing a few weeks ago and caught a bunch, and didn't bring any home, was very depressing).  No free lunches.

I know a lot of people like to batter and deep fry pickerel, but I'm more of a fan of a simple pan-fry.

Take your pickerel, and dredge it in flour.  That's fancy "cook speak" for coat the outside with flour.  If it sticks it stays!

Then sprinkle with seasoning salt and you're ready to go.

Heat your pan with equal portions of butter and oil.  (about 1 generous tablespoon of each) You can do this with one or the other, but I like the flavour of the butter, and since butter burns more easily, adding oil to it keeps that from happening.

It only takes about 3 minutes per side (depending on the thickness of your filet.).  With whitefish like these, you just need to wait until it's opaque and flaky all the way through.  All in, this took me about 10 minutes, start to finish. 

Serve with seafood sauce, or tartar sauce, a salad and some creamy parmesan noodles, and you have my exact meal tonight.  It might get creepy if this happens often, but I won't mind this time if you copy me exactly.

Creamy Parmesan Noodles

Growing up, whenever we'd eat fish, we always had creamy parmesan pasta (usually with shell noodles), so, since we can't use the packaged kind, I had to improvise.

The easiest way to start is to doa white sauce, or a Béchamel.  It's easy and if you have it in your repetoire, it can be used for a variety of things. 

Basic sauce recipe:

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

2 cups milk

Melt butter in a pot over medium heat.

 
Once it is fully melted, add the flour.  Wisk like crazy to get any lumps out.

Now you have a "roux" (REW).  You can use this to thicken many sauces including gravies. The key to a good béchamel, is to cook the roux for a minute or two so the flour loses it's floury taste.

Then add the milk and stir to combine.  Bring to a simmer and as the sauce heats it will thicken.  You can wait until the sauce thickens to add spices, but why bother?  You have a few minutes, might as well add them now.  As I said before, you can do ANYHING with this sauce...  cheeses, spices, have fun, be creative!

I added

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp garlic

1/4 tsp onion powder

1 tsp salt

and a few grinds of fresh black pepper

Once it thickened, I took it off the heat and added

2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese.

This recipe makes enough sauce to cover about 3 cups of dry pasta (cooked).  I wasn't sure when I was making it, so I only used 2 cups, so it was extra creamy... not that it was a bad thing.

Tartar sauce

This is the first time I'm making something where the only ingredients are other things I've made and blogged about.  It's exciting.  I bought pickerel this week and decided I needed a nice tartar sauce.  My personal favourite tartar sauce is simple... 

2 parts mayonnaise

1 part sweet green relish

Mix together and serve.

It's been a few hours and no one has gotten sick yet, so I guess my fears about the mayo can be dismissed.  Yum! 

Bag washer.

I never thought I would be one of those people.  I rolled my eyes at them and always thought they were a little bit crazy.  We all know people like them...  the people who wash ziploc bags.

Now, don't get me wrong, there is a definite distinction as to WHICH ziploc bags I will wash.  I will always throw away anything that had meat in it, or other foods that harbour mass amounts of bacteria.  Plastic is porous after all, and I'm not taking chances.  I do however, wash the bags that I put bread into.  I found that making 1-2 loaves a week, they keep best in plastic, but it seems a waste to throw the bags away every week.  So, I'll wash them.

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.