The Charmed Kitchen

I am now more than 3 weeks from my last trip to the store for food. I’ve mentioned before that I am sure to run out of eggs before I go to the grocery store. I am planning at this point to not go to the grocery store until March 1st. May try for April 1st- but don’t really want to think about that yet.That mean another 5+ weeks before I get fresh supplies.

The egg situation: I actually have a fair amount of eggs right now. The real problem is their freshness. They will only keep for so long. I can and will freeze some. I have already. I have gotten a lot of surprised response when I mention freezing eggs.  I think it’s because people imagine me freezing whole eggs. Yes, you can freeze eggs. No, they are not frozen in their shells. I just crack a couple of eggs in a small freezer container. Then I date them and pop them in the freezer. They can be defrosted and used in baking. If you ever find yourself with more eggs than you can use- keep that in mind. Freeze some for later rather that tossing them. We already waste way too much food in this country already.

I have enough eggs for the next month and a half- but what about later? I had an interesting proposal from my niece, Sarah. She thought I might be able to barter for eggs. Bake bread perhaps, in exchange for a dozen eggs. I think that would still be in the spirit of what I am trying to do. It is about using what I have- not buying more. Trading sounds reasonable to me. Will sound even more reasonable to me after I run out of eggs. haha.

I am getting into week 4 of not going to the grocery store and as I had planned I have started having people over for dinner. That’s harder than just finding food for me. Friday night was a vegetarian meal that included 2 kinds of ravioli- cheese filled and pumpkin filled. One was serves with a red sauce- I did can a lot of tomatoes. The other was in pesto sauce- I also froze a lot of basil.  Saturday night’s dinner was in honor of Chinese New Year and included a vegetable soup with tofu. For this soup I did a pantry raid- using cans of baby corn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and straw mushrooms. I also made a chicken stir fry served with 2 different rices and spring rolls.  I had made lavender shortbread cookies and used them for dessert both nights. Guests brought wine so I did have plenty. Thanks Joe and Linda. 🙂

Here is the recipe for lavender shortbread cookies. Rather than make them the way I normally do I made a half batch, rolled tablespoons of dough and pressed them into small disks. Shortbread cookies don’t change size much when baking so I was able to put them pretty close together on the baking sheet. I then sprinkled them with a little extra sugar. I baked them at 325 for about 20-25 minutes- just until they started to brown on the bottom.

Lavender Shortbread

1 c. sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

2 c. butter or margarine

4 c. flour

2-3 T. lavender blossoms

Cream together the one-cup of sugar and butter. Stir in the flour and lavender blossoms. Press mixture in to a greased 9×13 inch-baking dish. Cut or score into small squares, or on the diagonal for diamond shapes. Sprinkle with extra sugar and bake in a preheated 300-degree oven for 50-55 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Re-cut the squares as soon as you remove the shortbread from the oven. Cool before removing from pan. Make about 100 small squares.

One of the challenges of not going to the grocery store is trying to be creative with what is around. I made yogurt in my crock pot a couple of nights ago. It turned out great. The problem is I have a good supply of yogurt and I wanted to use this batch for something different. I also had been given some beautiful elderberries this summer. Special thanks to Sarah Taylor. I used them to make elderberry syrup.

I made juice from the elderberries and combined the juice in equal proportions with local honey. Cooked it for a few minutes then packaged it up in small containers and froze it. Elderberry syrup is great to take when you have a cold or sore throat. I decided to combine the syrup and yogurt and put this mixture in my ice cream machine. The result is a beautiful pale lavender confection. I am looking forward now to serving it to guests at my first dinner party.

That really is the point of the challenge for me, at least. Not just to live off stored foods but to use them in ways that are different and fun. It’s not just about whether I have enough food- but how can I use what I have to stretch my culinary skills.

Just wanted to thank all the students from last night’s class in Mentor. We had such a good time. Looking forward to Wok This Way next Tuesday. 🙂

Felt a little like the dairy princess yesterday. I decided to make cottage cheese and yogurt. Started off with powdered milk in both recipes. Thanks to a generous gift from Jonathan a few weeks ago I have a nice supply of dry milk. The funny thing is that I was sure I had plenty beforehand but he insisted on giving me extra. Smart guy!!

The cottage cheese was needed for pierogi filling. I am teaching “My Mother’s Polish Kitchen” through SELREC at Brush High School on Wednesday night.  I have a  book on cheese making but the cottage cheese recipes all needed ingredients I didn’t have. Luckily I remembered seeing Alton Brown make easy cottage cheese. Found his recipe which only required skim milk, vinegar and salt- well heavy cream- but that is sort of optional. It worked out perfectly. I little firmer than regular cottage cheese- but I like it better. Here is the link :

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/quick-cottage-cheese-recipe/index.html

My friend, Pam Calvey, asked what I was going to do about dairy while I was not going to the store. I replied that I had canned milk, dried milk, cheese and would be fine. I forgot to mention to her that I also had a pretty big carton of Greek yogurt. I bought it at Costco so you know it’s big. Still I looked at the yogurt the other day and realized its expiration date was coming up. Also, once opened it is supposed to be used in 6 days or so. I thought I had better try to make some or I would soon be out. Spurred on by the success of the cottage cheese I felt confident.

The yogurt is still in production as I am writing this. I have all sorts of recipes for making it at home. I no longer have a yogurt maker but I have made it without one before.

To make yogurt at home you need milk- you can use soy milk- and you need yogurt with active cultures.  The milk is warmed and then cooled and then some yogurt is stirred in. It then has to go through and incubation period.  Now the process is a little more precise that that- but you get the general idea. I have several recipes using a crock pot so I decided to give it a try.

I should have awakened to yogurt this morning- more like Kefir. All hope is not lost. Turned crock pot to warm for 30 minutes- turned off- covered it with a towel and let it be. Last peek revealed a product that has thickened considerably and with any luck will be yogurt soon. If it works- and I expect it will I can look forward to fresh cottage cheese and fresh yogurt whenever I want it without a trip to the store.

As I begin week 3 of not going to the grocery store I am thinking about the little things. Bread, for instance. I had a couple of loaves of store bought bread in the freezer. I am now down to 2 slices. If I want to eat bread I am going to have to bake my own. Not a big deal. I love to bake bread and prefer my own- but it takes time. I think we all kind of take stuff like bread for granted sometime. Running low?- run to the store. Well, I have taken that option out of the equation. So this morning I am baking bread. Will involve more time than running to the store- but the up side is that the house will smell yummy and I like my bread better.

The bread I am making today is 100% whole wheat. I know that is sometimes tricky at home. People tell me there whole wheat bread is too coarse or crumbly to slice for sandwiches.  Or they tell me it is too heavy and dense. It does not have to be that way at all. Whole wheat bread can be as soft and easy to slice at its white-flour counterparts. The process is a little different, though.

Gluten is the protein found in wheat flour that makes it stretchy and when worked in a yeast dough helps the bread to rise. Whole wheat flour has plenty of gluten- but it takes longer to get it stretchy. You can knead the dough longer but of you knead it adding flour as you go- the dough gets too heavy. If you knead it the 8-10 minutes you would knead white dough it won’t become stretchy and rises poorly. Kneading takes about 20 minutes with 100% whole wheat bread dough. The solution is to knead the whole wheat dough on a wet board. Rather than adding flour- use a little water or oil. Just enough to keep the dough from sticking. That way you can knead the dough long enough to develop the gluten. To test if the dough is stretchy enough pick it up and start to pull it apart. It should stretch thin enough that light shows through it before tearing.  If you are using a mixer to knead the dough- get it to the thick batter stage and then just let the machine run until the dough is stretchy. Unlike white flour doughs- which take 8-10 minutes allow the dough to knead about 15-20 minutes, the same as when kneading by hand. You can see why I love my Kitchen Aid mixer so much.

Here is the bread I am making today.

 100% Whole Wheat Bread

2 packets active dry yeast

2 2/3 c. warm water

½ c. oil

½ c. honey, molasses or maple syrup

6 ½ -7 c. whole wheat flour

½ c. non fat dry milk

2½ t. salt

Combine first 4 ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir in 3 cups of the flour the dry milk and the salt. Beat with electric mixer for 3 minutes. Stir in enough flour for mixture to form a thick batter and continue mixing on low in mixer for 10-15 minutes. Dough takes time to become elastic. Add extra flour slowly until dough comes away from the sides of the work bowl, but not too soon. Note: if you must do this by hand add flour until dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl and knead with oiled  or wet hands on work surface for 10-15 minutes. Transfer dough to lightly greased bowl and cover, allowing to rise until puffy, about 1 hour. Punch dough down and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Divide in half and shape each half into a loaf. Place in a lightly greased 9×5 – inch pan. Brush top with oil and place a piece of plastic wrap over the top. Allow to rise until doubled. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Tent with foil after 20 minutes to prevent over browning of the top. Test for doneness by removing bread from pan and thumping on the bottom. Bread should sound hollow. Makes 2.

As the weeks go by I am more aware then normal about making foods last. Onions aren’t hard to store for a long time if you give them the right environment. I am talking about cooking or yellow onions. Sweet onions don’t keep as long and should be used fairly quickly after you buy them. So what do you do?

Onions like cool and dry surroundings to hold up best. Unlike potatoes which like cool, moist conditions, onions will start to get moldy or sprout if the air in too wet. Ideal temperatures are around 40-50 degrees. Most basements have areas that are close to cool enough during cold weather. You can just hang the onions in the mesh bags they often come in however, if there is one bad onion in the bag the whole bunch may follow.  You can use old pantyhose to keep them apart and last even longer. Just take the leg of old pantyhose and drop in an onion. Tie a knot in the hose and add another onion. Continue until you run out of onions- or hose. Hang up somewhere cool and dry. When you need an onion just snip the pantyhose and remove. Onions stored this way can easily be stored for several months.

I have plenty of oatmeal- but one does need a break from that every morning. Since I have plenty of dried fruit and a  supply of nuts I made granola this morning. Here is the recipe I used.

Granola

3 c. rolled oats

1/4 -1/2 c. each of any of the following to equal 1-2 c. total

Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, peanuts, pecans, almonds, hazel nuts, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, coconut (chop up any big pieces)

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. orange peel

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/4 c. oil

1/4 c. honey

2 t. vanilla

Dried fruit to equal 1/2 -1 1/2 cups. Some choices could include: raisins, dried cranberries, cherries, pineapple, dates, figs, apricots, bananas, blueberries etc.

In large bowl combine oats with seeds and nuts and toss well with seasonings. Heat together oil, honey and vanilla and pour over oat mixture, tossing to coat evenly. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes. Halfway through the baking time stir mixture so the edges won’t burn. Remove from oven and return to large bowl. Toss with the dried fruit and allow to cool before storing in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Use in 1 month. Makes 5-7 cups

Well it’s been two weeks and I haven’t been to the grocery store. I must admit I am going through a certain amount of withdrawl. It isn’t that I am running out of food- I am not. I just like the grocery store sometimes. I like to find that bargains or get that impulse item because I went there hungry.  I am getting low on some fresh veggies and I will sadly run out of oranges soon. Still, I have plenty of tasty, nutritious foods to pick from.

The real mystery is the freezer. I’ll explain.

I carefully defrosted it and did an accurate inventory. That was more than 2 weeks ago. I have been eating chicken and other stuff out of the freezer. I carefully mark the sheet to keep track of what has been removed. Two weeks. It is still full. Like the biblical story of the loaves and fishes- no matter what I take out of the freezer it seems to remain full. There is some explanation in what I did yesterday. I took out a duck, made duck soup and put 6 quarts of duck soup in the freezer. Ok, that makes sense. But the freezer was jammed as I tried to get the soup in there last night.

What is the frozen food up to when the door is closed?

So the agenda for this week is all about replenishing. I have been sprouting pea seeds- I’ll post the photos soon and talk about spouting.  I have a lot of seeds to choose from and they’ll provide me with fresh greens. I am nearly out of lettuce. I also plan on using some of my Greek yogurt-it has active cultures- and making more yogurt. That way I can keep the supply up. I don’t have a yogurt maker- but think I have a solution. time will tell.

Invited a couple of people over tomorrow night. Still hadn’t decided what to make for dessert. Having posted it on Facebook I got some ideas. Since I am still eating and cooking out of what is on hand I have to make do with what is already here. Good news- I haven’t really been baking much this week so I have plenty of ingredients to choose from. Sarah Scherer mentioned little cheesecakes with wine jelly on the top. Sounds yummy. While I am still deciding on dessert here is a quick and easy recipe for mini cheesecakes. The recipe only makes 6  cheesecakes but can easily be multiplied.

Mini Cheesecakes

6 vanilla wafers

1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/4 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 egg

Line 6 muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 wafer in each. Beat together remaining ingredients for 1 minute with electric mixer. Divide this mixture in the muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake 25 minutes at 325 degrees. Cool and decorate with fruit topping, if desired. Makes 6. These can be frozen. Serves 2-3.

I got an e-mail from my cousin Marianne the other day. She was asking about capers. She bought them for one dish, but found she didn’t use them otherwise and ended up tossing them. There are those items that we all cook with that fall into this category. You might use it once in a great while but aren’t sure what else to do with it or how to keep it from going bad. These ingredients are often expensive and can be a great waste of money to just toss.

There are ways to handle the situation. You can find more uses for the product or ways to make it keep longer. So let discuss a few products and how you can get more from them.

Capers: The buds from the caper bush, capers come pickled and are salty and similar in flavor to gherkins. Probably most often used in tartar sauce they can be used lots of other places. Since they taste like intense little pickles use them where you might use pickles.  Capers are great in potato salad, chicken, tuna or ham salads and in eggs dishes and omelets. They also go great with seafood.  Once open they are kept in the fridge and will keep for a good while. For longer storage you can add a little vinegar to the jar to up the acidity. It will keep them longer.

Tomato Paste: Think of tomato paste as super concentrated tomato sauce.  Strong in flavor a little goes a long way. How many of us have opened a  jar for the one tablespoon of tomato paste a recipe calls for and then end up throwing the rest away when we find it in the back of the fridge weeks later looking like a science experiment gone bad? You can get tomato paste in squeeze tubes that keep longer in the fridge or you can freeze it. That seems to be the easiest solution. Put dollops of tomato paste in ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen you can pop out the cubes, place them in little freezer bags, label and toss back in the freezer. Now when you need that tablespoon on tomato paste- you’ll have it.

Chutney: This fruit- based relish is used in Indian dishes. Most often made with mangoes. It can be used in tuna and chicken salad. You can use chutney as you might use cranberry sauce as a side dish or to glaze meats. A mix of fruit, garlic, vinegar, sugar and spices it has a complex flavor. I use it in boboti- a North African casserole. It is one of those items that you might use a couple of times and then forget about. Because of its sugar and vinegar base it will keep for a pretty long time in the fridge. Like tomato paste you can freeze the chutney in smaller amounts and defrost for later use. What’s better though is to start to use it more.

 Ginger:  This versatile root can be grated in everything from savory to sweet dishes. Although often associated with Asian cooking ginger is used in all sorts of foods.  I get this question all the time. How do I keep my fresh ginger root longer? Some people like to peel it and place it in a jar of sherry and keep it in the fridge. You can also save peeled garlic cloves this way. But I prefer to just freeze it. Take the whole ginger root and place in a freezer bag. I like to keep mine on the freezer door so I can find it easily. When ready to use just scrape off the peel, like you might on a carrot. Use a grater on the ginger while it is still frozen and return the unused portion to the freezer.  It will keep for a very long time this way- as long as the ginger is in a freezer bag. You can even slice and chop the frozen ginger- although I must admit that is a little trickier. Next time you are making gingersnaps try using the fresh/frozen ginger over the dried version.

Buttermilk: I buy fresh buttermilk planning on baking more with it. Unlike my friend Martha, I do not like to just drink it. That leaves me with unused buttermilk all the time. I hate just pouring that money down the drain. I freeze it! Keep in mind it will separate when thawed- but you can still cook and bake with it.  Another easy solution is to buy powdered buttermilk and just mix up what you need. Yet another answer is to make your own- well, sort of. Just use regular milk in the recipe but add some acid to it to make it curdle. I use lemon juice- but vinegar works well, too. If the recipe calls for a cup of buttermilk- measure out the cup of milk just a little short-leaving room for the extra liquid.  1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar per cup of milk will work fine.

I hope this helps you to save more of the food you buy and then end up saving money. Thanks for all the questions and input.