The Charmed Kitchen

Freshly sliced bananas

I hate to waste anything and I often find myself with bananas that are getting ripe faster than I can eat them. I freeze them often but I actually like to dry some and use them later in baking and cooking or as a snack. Dried bananas are not to be confused with banana chips. The crunchy banana chips are actually fried to get their crunchy texture. Home dried bananas will have the same texture as other dried fruits, soft, pliable and a little chewy.

They are really easy to make. Just peel and slice your bananas and dip in a solution to prevent darkening. You can use citric acid, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) or lemon juice combined with a little water. Some people don’t bother with this step. Frankly I do it, but with or without treatment your bananas will darken a bit. Place on an oiled dehydrator tray and dry until pliable. This can take several hours. I normally place them in the dehydrator overnight. You can leave them in long enough to get crisper, if you like. I just prefer them softer.

Same bananas a few hours later

Warm Winter Salad

The coldest night in years and I had a taste for salad last night. I wasn’t in the mood for a side salad I wanted the salad to be the meal. Don’t get me wrong, I love soup and eat it all the time. I just craved crunch last night. I also wanted a warm meal so I decided to add some warmth to my salad. I had romaine lettuce so I had the crunch part covered. I also had a perfectly ripe avocado to add richness. I checked out what I had in the fridge and ended up with leftover turkey from making stock. I did a sort of pulled turkey thing and added barbecue sauce and heated the whole thing up. I also wanted fresh croutons- so much better than store bought. I sauteed up a small shallot in oil, added bread cubes and some parsley and cooked, stirring often, until the bread was toasted and crunchy. Time to assemble the salad. Romaine lettuce in first. I cut the avocado and tossed the slices in olive oil, lemon juice and a little salt and placed them in the salad next. I drizzled the lemon juice mixture over the lettuce. Next the hot barbecue turkey and then the croutons and toasted shallots. Not exactly what you might think of having on a below zero evening but every bit at comforting as a big bowl of soup.

Pasta with Carrot Sauce

I made this for lunch today and it was awesome.  Since I’ve been pushing myself to not waste food I used something I might normally throw away. I was making turkey stock yesterday. As usual I added aromatic vegetables like onions, celery and carrots to the stock. Normally when the stock is finished I strain out the veggies and toss them. OK, I do like the carrots and may munch on them, but still, I often toss them. I was wondering what I might do with them. They are cooked to mush but still have some flavor. I saved the carrots and some of the onions from the stock-making.  I put them in a pot and warmed them with a little of the stock then I pureed the mixture using a stick blender. After I blended it I added some leftover diced ham, parsley and a little hot sauce. The sauce looked great and even better, it tasted great. The addition of the ham added a little smoky flavor, which I liked a lot. Even before I added the ham it tasted pretty good. It was tossed over hot cooked pasta and I added a little Romano cheese. So good and made from something I would have thrown away without a second thought.

Puree carrot mixture until smooth

It was smooth in no time

Toss sauce with hot cooked pasta

Ready for plating- and cheese!!

Dinner last night

I’ve only just started on my experiment to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store and I already see a change. Predictions for this week are for near record lows and blustery, snowy  weather for the next few days. I read multiple posts from friends on Facebook about crazy busy stores and empty shelves. I would normally be part of that crowd. Not so much because I didn’t have food in the house. I can, dehydrate and have a freezer. There is always food in the house. The trip to the store would be because there are a few items I might not have. Not so much about need as about want. Not going made me feel more secure and more independent.

I certainly get the need for fresh milk for kids or making sure you have bottled water and batteries. I believe completely in being prepared. I am in awe of some of the people I know who can go weeks and even months without going to the store. That kind of self reliance is admirable. My friend, Pris Hastings responded to  an earlier post of mine with this comment.

Pris wrote:

“Enjoyed reading this Judi Strauss. One of my resolutions last year was to stop going to the grocery store. Started out by taking inventory of what I purchased from the store. Figured out what I could grow myself, then raised a huge garden. Canned most of the summer to get my inventory built up. We raise our own beef and hubby hunts so that helped. Will start chickens this year. Also bake bread to keep from buying it. Have fruit trees and strawberry’s planted. You can grow lettuce year round in a tub (protected). Would love to have a cow for milk so I wouldn’t have to purchase milk and butter. And then there’s the things u have to buy, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. make my own laundry and dish soup. Going to start making my deodorant this year. It’s amazing what you can do if you put your heart in it. I love reading what all others do and get some great ideas. My kids say I’m a prepper, but I say I’m just a person who likes to know what I’m eating and I’ve lived thru a terrible hurricane. It was no fun running out of food. I plan to hit it really hard this year and do even more. Love suggestions.”

I am impressed. Thanks Pris for your comments.

I realize that there are more limits living in the city, but there are community gardens and vacant lots. My friend, Mari Keating, has people digging up their suburban lawns and planting food crops. Support local farmers and buy stuff in season and preserve it in some way.  Like Pris said it is also about knowing what food your family is eating.

This isn’t about stockpiling food then not using it. Its about taking steps to insure that if there is some natural disaster you and your family will have food.

Ham and Swiss Bread with Spinach

I was invited to a party last night at the home of good friends Rita and Tom Burke. Great mix of friends and food. I made a ham and cheese stuffed loaf of bread enriched with fresh spinach. It was a big hit and disappeared quickly. 

Ham and Swiss Bread Florentine

3 ¼ c. flour

1 T. sugar

1 t. salt

1 package quick-rising yeast

1 c. hot water

1 T. oil

¼ c. Dijon mustard

6-8 oz. sliced ham

4 oz. sliced Swiss cheese

1 large bunch fresh spinach, rinsed and steamed a few minutes to wilt, drained well.

Set aside 1 cup of the flour. Combine remaining flour with the other dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir in water and oil and gradually stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Roll dough into a rectangle about 16 x 8. Spread mustard down center middle of dough. Top with meat slices, cheese and spinach. Cut one-inch wide strips of dough from filling to edge on both sides. It will sort of look like fringe.  Alternating sides, fold strips up and over the filling at an angle.  Carefully lift loaf onto greased baking sheet and place at an angle. Cover with a towel and place sheet on top of a roasting pan half-filled with simmering water for 15 minutes. Bake in a preheated 400-degree for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly before slicing. Serve warm and refrigerate leftovers.

Note: The variations for this bread are almost endless. Some favorite combinations are Corned beef and Swiss with sauerkraut and thousand island dressing., roast beef and cheddar, chicken, broccoli and cheese, Spinach with ricotta or feta and onions, pizza, assorted fillings. You get the idea. Use your imagination and have fun. Just be careful not to overfill, or the bread will be hard to move, use fillings that aren’t too runny and always use cold fillings.

If you want to use regular yeast use warm, rather than hot water. Also, don’t let dough rise over boiling water. After kneading cover dough and let rise 45 minutes. Punch down and assemble as in original recipe. Cover with a towel and let rise until dough looks puffy, about 40 minutes. Bake as directed above. These breads can also be frozen. 

Dough ready for folding

Alternately fold dough strips over the filling

Fresh out of the oven

Pasta Florentine

I think it’s kind of fun that you can add spinach to a dish and then call it Florentine. Sounds a lot fancier than “Spinach with Pasta.” For dinner with a friend recently I wanted a simple side dish. I had fresh spinach but didn’t want the spinach in a salad this time. I decided to make a spinach and pasta side dish. It turned out really nice. I wanted that creamed spinach feel but without all that dairy. I am lactose intolerant.

The secret? I used chicken stock to make the sauce. I started by sauteing an onion in a skillet in a little oil. I added a couple of cups of low sodium chicken stock and cooked it down by half. Then I tossed in about 8 cups of fresh spinach. I’d washed it and removed larger stems. I also tossed in 4 cups of cooked pasta and stirred it all together. I turned the heat down to medium/low and stirred it every couple of minutes until the spinach was cooked through and the pasta was heated through. Most of the cooking liquid was absorbed into the pasta or had evaporated. I added a little salt and fresh ground pepper and I did serve the dish with fresh grated Romano cheese on the side. It was really good. It tasted rich but not heavy.

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Since I announced that I going to see how long I could last without going to the grocery store I have been getting a lot of questions about how I get ready for this. What did I buy? How do I decide what I’ll need? What about perishables like dairy foods?

First, this is not about stockpiling food. It is more about using what I already have. I canned, dried and froze a lot of foods when they were in season. I am glad that I did. It fits in with my philosophy that we have to waste less food. By preserving seasonal foods I can enjoy them year round. It also enables me to eat more local food. There aren’t too many fresh veggies in Ohio in the winter. I will be enjoying Ohio tomatoes, apples, corn, broccoli and more this winter.

Second, I have a pretty good amount of stuff in my pantry already. When I get home from the store, like most people, I just unpack the food right into my cupboard. I don’t bother to pull old stuff forward every time. What that creates is a pantry with new things getting used first and older foods lingering in the back. I am not above the occasional impulse purchase so I have some foods in there I might never have used before, but they looked like fun at the time.

I like to use the New Year as a time to take inventory. Not just the personal inventory that a new year  inspires but a more literal inventory of what I have. I think we all should do this at least once a year. Go through all the foods we purchase and store and can and see what we have already.

I started by defrosting my freezer a few weeks ago. I sorted the shelves by proteins, fruits and veggies and prepared foods. There are always a few surprises when I do this. I try to keep a ledger of what is in there and mark what is added and then removed so I know what I have. Still I find that several weeks or months into this process I get busy or distracted and start to lose track.  At least my list now is pretty up to date.

I  went through my kitchen cupboards and took everything out. I checked dates on cans and boxes and made sure to pull out anything that needed to be used soonest. Found some fun ingredients I will be sure to use in the next weeks and months.

I thought about staple foods that I didn’t want to run out of. I made a list and picked up flour, butter, eggs and more. The idea was not to go crazy and get a 10 year supply of flour but rather to be sure I had enough food for the next few months and that I had options.

I went in the basement  and did a quick count of home canned foods. Just an idea of how many jars I have. I still have to finish sorting them so I use older jars first. I always date the jars so I’ll know. It’s a good idea with home canned foods to check them from time to time to make sure all the jars are still sealed and look OK. I have a pretty good idea of what I have but I’ll do a complete inventory in the next few days.

So what DID I end up getting? Well, I got dry milk and canned milk to cover dairy needs. I am lactose intolerant so I don’t consume that much of it- but I do use it in cooking and still eat dairy sometimes. I also have almond milk. I got butter and eggs and some flour. Shopping with a friend for something for New Year’s Eve we ended up in Cleveland’s Chinatown so I must admit to buying a few sauces and condiments I might have not thought about. I also thought in terms of breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. I like oatmeal and oat bran for breakfast so I was sure to get more of both of those.

I also bought some fresh produce: tangerines, Romaine lettuce, carrots, cabbage and bok choy. Those won’t last me the whole time but I will enjoy them while they are here. Even though it is winter I still enjoy salads and will miss the lettuce most of all. I have some plans for some less conventional salads later on.

So that is where I am. First day of officially not going to the grocery store. Not much of a challenge yet, but my journey has just started. I’ll keep you all up on how it is going and will be posting recipes along the way. I’ll also be having friends over to eat so they may have something to say about how I am doing, too.

Natural disasters happen all the time and so many people are unprepared. As the snow falls outside my window I feel pretty good. I don’t HAVE to go out in search of food.

Thanks for all the feedback I’ve gotten already. Hope to hear more from you as this little adventure continues.

Ham with Brussels Sprouts

I love ham. The smoky flavor is good all by itself but also compliments a lot of other foods. Since so many people have ham for New Year’s I thought I’d share some ham recipes for all the leftovers. I’ll be posting recipes using ham all week long.  Today is a super easy recipe using ham and Brussels sprouts. I started by trimming the Brussels sprouts and cutting small ones in half. I quartered the larger ones. I heated a little butter in a skillet and added 3 cups of prepared Brussels sprouts. I cooked them until they were getting a little color on them. I think their flavor is enhanced by sauteing. I then added 1 1/2 cups of diced cooked ham and 1/2  cup of water. The water helps steam the sprouts so they are tender. I like Brussels sprouts tender. You can skip the water, if you like. The water evaporates quickly and as soon as the ham starts to brown a little the dish was pretty much done. I added a little freshly ground pepper- but it didn’t need salt. I also served it with fresh grated Romano cheese. You could serve it as is or toss in some cooked pasta with the ham.  Simple and really good. You might even get a Brussels sprout hater to give this one a try.

If you couldn’t get to a store to get more food how long could you hold out?  We assume stores will be there and the income to shop will be there but sometimes circumstances change. There can be natural disasters, power outages, loss of income. If something unexpected happened how long do you think you could go without being able to get to a store for fresh supplies. How self-reliant are we?

A couple of years ago I decided to try that for myself. A friend and I were talking about how much I had canned, frozen and dehydrated that season. The conversation became about more than just how long I could hold out but about how much food we waste and about how much we take for granted. I took the challenge and decided to see how long I could go without setting foot in a grocery store.

It was an eye opening experience. I managed for a good while. I knew I was going to do this so I stocked up on things I thought I would need. I got fresh produce and those green bags to keep it fresh for as long as possible. I read up on cold storage for things like potatoes and onions. I even sprouted seeds for fresh greens. I cleaned out my pantry- using things that had gotten stuffed in the back and might not have been used otherwise. I got creative.

I went into the challenge thinking I would go for a month. Funny thing was the first month was no big deal. Then I tried for another and got through pretty well. It was February so not that long a month. I managed in the end to go three months without going to a store. I’ll admit there were things I missed after a while. I was craving oranges and lettuce for sure. Still, it was doable.

Truth was it made me a better cook. It also made me a more thoughtful consumer.

Part of what I did to challenge myself was to have dinner parties. It wasn’t just about having something to eat, but about having something good enough to serve to guests. I planned for company about once a week. I lucked out in that it was a mild winter and by the end of March that year I was able to forage enough greens for a salad from my little city yard. There is stuff in our yards that is edible that you might not even consider eating normally. More on that in a later post.

I was happy with what I had done but didn’t plan on ever doing that again. But I have been getting inquiries from a few friends about the challenge. Several said they would like to try it, too. So I decided to go for it again. After January 2nd I will stop going to the grocery store and see how long I can hold out this time. I must admit to having some mixed feelings. I want to get something new out of the experience.

Maybe you can help me there. If there are things you want me to talk about or do or cook please let me know. If you decide to try this out I would love feedback about what you are cooking and how you are holding up. With your permission I’ll share your stories.  I also need dinner guests so if you want to come on by for a meal, let me know that, too.

Blackberry Cinnamon Muffins

I found myself with a nice package of blackberries and wanted to do something fun with some of them. I never had blackberries in muffins before, although I am sure they exist. I used a recipe I had that used different fruit and used blackberries instead. I then added a cinnamon butter topping. The results were sublime.

Blackberry Cinnamon Muffins

 1 c. milk

1 egg

¼ c. oil

2 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1T. Baking powder

¾ t. salt

½ t. cinnamon

1 c. blackberries, I used fresh but frozen would work, too.

Topping:

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

4 T. butter, melted

Beat together milk, egg and oil. Combine dry ingredients and add to milk mixture, stirring to just moisten flour. Fold in blackberries. Fill 12 paper lined muffin cups to 3/4 full.  Bake in preheated 400-degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Place melted butter in another bowl. When muffins are removed from the oven carefully dip the top of a muffin in the melted butter and then in the cinnamon sugar. If muffins are too hot to hold wait a few minutes before dipping. Repeat with remaining muffins. Serve warm. Makes 12.