The Charmed Kitchen

So many people have been asking for food preservation classes and I have a bunch coming up. This Saturday, July 28th, I’ll be in Shaker Heights doing a workshop on canning for Food not Lawns. I’ll be doing the same class for Shaker Lakes on Wednesday August 1st. I also have pickling classes on Monday and Tuesday this week. The Monday class is at The Wellness Center in Rocky River. The Mentor pickling class on Tuesday is sold out. Additional Mentor food preservation classes have a few spaces left. For details, cost and times please  go to my website. wwwTheCharmedKitchen.com and look under classes.

Rainbow ravioli cooking

We are having a great time. Today the kids made ravioli from egg pasta but we made things more interesting by also making pasta from beets, spinach, broccoli, carrots, concentrated grape juice, curry and fresh mint. A couple of the girls wanted smoothies so this morning we also used strawberries, bananas, milk, vanilla and ice cubes to make smoothies this morning. we went through 3 pounds of berries!!  One of the boys had asked about making curry pasta and mint pasta. I brought both curry powder and fresh mint with me. In the end he made five different kinds of pasta-curry, beet, broccoli and grape, mint and carrot. He saved it all for dinner with his family tonight. As I said the kids are just great. Creative and a lot of fun  Here is some of what we did.

Grape juice pasta

ravioli and spinach pasta

pasta with basil and tomatoes

ravioli to be cooked

Cole’s 5 five pastas

beautiful cookies

and more cookies

Smiley faced cake

Promised the kids I would post pictures of their food today. Been super busy tonight- butternut squash in the canner even as I am posting this. They did a great job today. We made bread and calzones and decorated cakes and baked dozens and dozens of cookies will will decorate tomorrow. Also making pasta tomorrow.

I love these pickled green beans. Made a batch last night. The hardest part is waiting a couple of weeks for their flavor to develop. I want to eat them now!

Dilly Green Beans

4 lbs. table‑perfect whole green beans

1 3/4 t. crushed dried hot red pepper

3 1/2 t. dried dill seed or seven fresh dill heads

7 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled

5 c. vinegar

5 c. water

1/2 c. less 1 T. pickling salt

Wash beans thoroughly.  Remove stems and tips, and cut them as much as possible in uniform lengths to allow them to stand upright in canning jar, coming to the shoulder of the jar.  have jars clean and very hot, and lids and sealers ready in scalding water.  In each jar place one dill head or 1/2 t. dill seed, add one garlic clove, and 1/4 t. crushed hot red pepper.  Pack beans upright in jars, leaving 1 inch of head room.  Heat together the water, vinegar and salt.  When the mixture boils, pour it over the beans, filling each jar to 1/2 inch from the top.  Run a plastic knife down and around to remove trapped air.  Adjust lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, after the water in the canner returns to a boil.  Remove jars.  …Wait at least 2 weeks for these beans to develop their flavor.  Yield: 7 pints

“Pizza” cookie

Well we started off great in the second Beachwood cooking camp. Older kids this week, well for the most part and I have a volunteer this week.  He has them cleaning up right away and as a result we got so much done today. We made pizzas- large and small, giant pizza-shaped  cookies, 2 types of cake, 5 batches of cookie dough to bake tomorrow, strawberry soda and Snickerdoodles . If that is just day 1 it is going to be a VERY productive week. Here are some of the things we did today.

Here is the recipe for the cookie.

Peanut Butter Pizza

½ c. butter

½ c. peanut butter

½ c. packed brown sugar

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

1 c. flour

1 c. chocolate chips

Toppings can include  mini marshmallows, peanuts,  M&M’s

or whatever you like

Beat together butter, peanut butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour and press into ungreased 12-13-inch pizza pan. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 15-18 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate  chips. Let stand for 1 or 2 minutes than spread over crust with a spatula. Top with remaining ingredients. Cool and cut. Makes 12 servings.

Making design in cake batter

Pita dough rising

If you have never made pita bread it is a lot of fun- and pretty easy. I made some for a program recently and thought I’d share the recipe. If the only pita bread you ever tasted is the grocery store stuff that may be days old when you get it- I think you will be pleased at the difference. You can easily add whole wheat flour to the dough- I do- or even spelt flour. We didn’t get to it in camp this week but I plan on making it with the kids next week.

Pita Bread

 4 ½- 4 ¾ c. flour

1 pkt. Active dry yeast

1 ½ t. sugar

1 ½ t. salt

1 ¾ c. water

2 T. oil

In large bowl combine 2 cups of the flour with other dry ingredients. Heat water and oil to 120-130 degrees (warm) and add to flour mixture in bowl beating until smooth. Beat three minutes then begin stirring in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover dough with plastic wrap and then a towel and let rest on board 20 minutes. Punch dough down and divide into 12 pieces. Shape each into a smooth ball and place on board, allowing space in between. Cover and let rise 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 500- degrees. Roll dough balls into circles. Be careful to flour the board well so as not to tear the dough. Place 3 circles at a time directly on oven rack. OK, if you are chicken like me you can place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up and place loaves on the baking sheet instead of the oven rack- or you can use a pizza stone. They will puff up and brown in about three minutes. Remove to rack to cool and repeat with remaining dough. Makes 12.

Fresh from the oven

Baking pita

Well the week flew. The girls and I had the best time. I got my hair braided a few times and had quality time with some wonderful kids. Traditionally I make breakfast for my campers on Friday and this camp was no exception. We had pancakes, blueberry pancakes, waffles and fresh watermelon. Topped off with real maple syrup, our homemade strawberry jam and powdered sugar. We made donuts and tiger paws and talked about the strangest foods we’d ever eaten. I let them go through the fridge and make their own lunches. Quesadillas were the most popular choice with assorted fillings. Made more mac and cheese and mini pizzas, too. They also made these cute cookie pops. Vanilla wafers held together with peanut butter ( you can use frosting if you have a peanut allergy). The cookies are pressed together on the end of a Popsicle stick.  Then they dipped them in melted white chocolate, tinted green.  They finished them off with M&M’s to make little flowers. Too cute. I’ll be back in Beachwood next week with a new group of kids.

Veggie pasta doughs

Can’t believe I only have one more day with this group of kids. They have been great. Today we made pasta from beets, carrots, broccoli and spinach, combined the dough and made rainbow noodles and rainbow cheese ravioli. They also got very creative with cake today. Here are some of the pics.

crazy cakes

decorated cake

so pretty

Chocolate dream cake

yummy!!

colorful!

yummy pasta for lunch

Fresh cooked rainbow pasta ribbons

rainbow ravioli

What a great day with the kids. We cooked with tortillas and did some baking. For the girls I think the highlight was decorating the cupcakes we baked the other day. Very creative- “pup”cakes, “kitty” cakes, beautiful flower gardens, abstract designs and even a little piggy. Fun day. The girls got quite good at using piping bags. I was again very impressed with their creativity.

Camper kneading her dough.

The kids are great and we are having a great week so far. We baked breads today. They made both braided loaves and big cheese stuffed breads. I was so proud of them for opting to use both whole wheat and spelt flour. It was their choice. They loved the breads they made. We also made our own soda with blueberry syrup and club soda and mango juice concentrate. Finished off the day with 2 batches of strawberry jam. Such a sweet group of girls.