Sense of Home Kitchen

Honeyed Walnut Tart

2012-01-26T16:46:00.000-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Do you ever have those cravings? You know the ones, you want something, but you are just are not sure what. Something sweet, maybe a little salty, crunchy and chewy at the same time, filling and very satisfying. Perhaps a honeyed walnut tart is what you are craving? Flipping through the October 2005 Bon Appétit I came across a photo of this tart and immediately marked this page. Not sure why this recipe did not catch my attention back in 2005 when the magazine was new, but another time, another place and I had to make this one for myself. This recipe comes from Susan Herrmann Loomis, I read her book On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town when it first came out back in 2001 and loved it, to attend even one class of her cooking school would be a privilege. A few changes to the recipe to suit our tastes and pantry and I was ready to bake.

We have this wonderful local honey that people stock up on while traveling through town. The honey is raw and pure, made from the nectar of sweet clover, wild flowers, and sunflowers. Raw honey means that it has never been heated and contains some pollen, this is why it is beneficial to eat local raw honey, the pollen helps to reduce the sensitivity to hay fever. The man our health food store buys honey from is old school and has no website, we always stock up in the fall so we have enough to last until the next honey harvest. If the raw honey begins to crystallize, simply place the jar in a pan of water and warm over a low flame, do not boil. It will be runny enough to drizzle over toast soon enough.

This recipe uses a simple crust and while a traditional tart pan with removable bottom would be best, any pan would work, just roll out the crust pour the filling on top and fold up the edges. Don't get hang up on having the perfect pan to bake with, use what you have, and if you find you enjoy making tarts, then invest in a good tart pan. Toast the walnuts first to help them keep their wonderful crunch.

Honeyed Walnut Tart
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appétit, October 2005~
8 servings

Crust
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling
3 cups toasted walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange liqueur

1 egg, whisked to blend with 2 teaspoons water (for glaze)

Crust:
Blend flour and salt in processor. Add butter; using on/off turns, process until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add 5 tablespoons ice water; process until moist clumps form, adding water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Much of this will depend on the amount of humidity in the air. I have to add more water in winter when the air is dry, less in the summer. Gather into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and let stand for 1 hour (do not chill). This is a very easy crust to work with, holds together and rolls out well.

For Filling:
Mix first four ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk eggs, honey, lemon juice, and orange liqueur in another medium-sized bowl. Add egg mixture to nut mixture; stir until well blended.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll crust out on lightly floured surface to an approximately 14-inch round. Transfer to an 11-inch-diameter tart pan with a removable bottom, allowing crust to drape over pan (or use any pan that can withstand the 400 degree heat and shape as you please). Pour filling into crust, spreading evenly. Fold edges over filling pleating as needed. Brush with egg glaze.

Bake tart until filling is deep golden and almost set, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a rack; cool 15 minutes. Carefully insert small knife between top edge of crust and pan sides in several places to loosen tart. (And here is where the removable bottom comes in so handy.) Gently push up on tart bottom to release tart from sides of pan. Cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead, cover with foil and store at room temperature.) Cut tart into wedges and serve with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Desserts / Pastries

Potato Soup with Bacon

2012-01-21T21:49:00.000-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

The other day while among a group of friends our conversation turned to food, we discussed what we had cooked for dinner the night before and what we planned to cook for that evening's meal. I have noticed that conversations with friends always seem to come back to food; a terrific restaurant someone ate at while traveling, a new recipe someone tried, or how a particular food is prepared. I have both male and female friends that love to cook and try new foods, their adventures in the kitchen inspire me to try something new or remind me of a dish that I have not made in a long time. Good old-fashioned, homemade potato soup was one of the dishes we touched on in our conversation and it reminded me that I had not made potato soup in a long time and I have never written down my recipe, never even taken the time to measure ingredients, just threw it together in approximately the same fashion time and again. Now I have a recipe if anyone asks, or if I forget what made it so good last time.

People often ask for the recipe when they find out I make something at home from scratch, not a premix or canned or frozen product. Most recently it is my trail mix I have been asked about. I always carry a container of homemade trail mix in my car so that when I am out and about for the day I have something ready for lunch or a quick snack to eat rather than driving through a fast food establishment. I have been amazed by the number of times I have heard the comment, in reference to my trail mix, "you made this?!". It is not as though I grew all the fruits, nuts, legumes and seeds in the mix. I simply purchased a pound or so of each item at our health food store and mixed it together, sometimes adding fruit I dehydrated at home, but not always. Actually, though, when you compare whatever mixture I currently have put together to the bagged trail mixes you buy at the big box or local convenience store there is a noticeable and, I believe, improved difference. I understand the desire for a recipe, whenever I taste something homemade that I think is really good I pick the cook's brain for tips or even the recipe, written down, word for word.

This homemade potato soup is worlds apart from that canned potato soup I would rather leave on the shelf. This soup is packed full of flavor and nutrition with the dill weed, parsley, onion, garlic, potato skins and of course, bacon. However, I think the key to a good soup is to start with a good stock. Not only is homemade potato soup worlds apart from the purchased canned stuff, homemade chicken stock is worlds apart from the chicken broth you buy in a can or box at the store. My stock has simmered for hours with the bones, meat, and vegetables until it forms a gelled consistency when cooled. It is full of flavor and could be a meal onto itself.

Potato Soup with Bacon
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen~
If you are using fresh herbs rather than dried, add them at the end of the cooking process when you add the half and half and remember 1 teaspoon of dried herb = 1 tablespoon fresh. In other words, it is a 3 to 1 ratio, 3 teaspoons fresh = 1 teaspoon dried. Dried herbs need more cooking time, fresh herbs are better added at the end of the cooking process to keep their fresh flavor.
Serves 6

1 pound red-skinned potatoes (about 4 medium-sized)
4 slices bacon
1 medium-sized onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
1 quart (32 ounces) chicken stock, preferably homemade
1/2 cup dry white wine, such as a Chardonnay
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 cup half and half
Salt and Pepper to taste

Wash and scrub potatoes very well, you will not be peeling them. Chop potatoes into 1/2 to 3/4-inch cubes. Using a kitchen scissors or knife, cut bacon into small pieces and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until nearly crisp. Add diced onion and celery and cook until soft and bacon has crisped. Add garlic and sauté another minute, stirring.

Into a soup pot pour the chicken stock and wine, add onion, celery, garlic and bacon mixture, potatoes, carrots, parsley, dill weed, and a little salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, turn heat down and simmer until potatoes and carrots are tender. Once potatoes are tender add half and half and rewarm over low heat, do not boil.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Soup

Chocolate Nib Zucchini Cake

2012-01-18T22:12:00.000-06:00

Winter is here with avengeance. We had been enjoying one of the mildest winters in some time, but this week the temps have dropped below 0 and winds are creating wind chill temps in the -35 degree range. When temperatures are this low you bundle up good and make sure your winter survival kit is in the car before heading down the road. You take all necessary precautions so you are not out in the elements for too long. I had the first two covered, I was wearing my below zero gear and I had my winter survival kit in the car, but I made a foolish mistake that could have kept me out in the subzero temps longer than would be healthy. You see my daughter and her husband are currently in Costa Rica and I am keeping an eye on the cats. They live approximately 20 miles out in the country with few neighbors near and when I stopped to check on the cats I got a phone call, after taking the call I foolishly set the phone and my car keys down on the kitchen counter and went out with food for the outdoor cats. Closing the door behind me I headed out not realizing the door would lock. Now I was locked out with both the car keys and phone inside and with the nearest neighbor a few miles away, not at all certain they would even be home. I am not sure if it was the extra adrenaline or if I am stronger than I thought, but I now know how to kick a door in and repair the door jamb damage (this time with longer screws for a tighter hold), all within a few minutes. Lesson learned! Think before acting in these extreme temperatures! All's well that ends well, but it could have been a different story if that door jamb had not given way so easily.

I came home and made chocolate cake. This recipe was born out of a desire to do something with a sample bag of organic cacao nibs I recently received. I had been debating how I wanted to use them, panna cotta with caramel sauce and cacoa nibs on top would be good but I wanted the nibs inside and truffles with nibs sounded good, but would be sweeter than I wanted. I decided what I really wanted was chocolate cake with bits of nib, no frosting, just a touch of coconut vanilla ice cream on top. Cacao nibs are raw chocolate, they are pieces of roasted cacao beans, the basis of a chocolate bar. Actually, they are quite healthy, high in potassium and magnesium. Just what a girl needs after an adrenaline rush. This raw form of chocolate contains more catechins, an antioxidant, than green tea. You can eat them plain, but they taste better mixed in with some other delicious ingredients.

It is also that time of the year when I need to make sure I am using up all that free zucchini I shredded and froze. Frost burned zucchini is not nearly as appealing. I freeze my zucchini in 2 cup measures since that is what most recipes call for, but when the shredded squash is thawed it is no longer 2 cups worth. That is fine, it has just shrunk a little, use whatever amount it measures to after it is thawed and drained.

Chocolate Nib Zucchini Cake
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen~
With the addition of zucchini, this is a very moist cake, the nibs provide a nutty texture and the coconut oil adds a subtle flavor. Top with a small scoop of coconut vanilla ice cream and you have a perfect welcome home.

Makes one 13 x 9-inch cake

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil (melted over very low heat)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 cups freshly grated zuccchini (or frozen, thawed and drained, measured at 2 cups when fresh)
1 cup cacao nibs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl.

Beat sugar, butter, and melted and slightly cooled coconut oil in a large bowl until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Mix in vanilla extract and yogurt.

Stir in sifted flour, cocoa, and other dry ingredients. Then mix in grated zucchini and cocao nibs. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 325 degrees for about 50 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool and serve with a scoop of ice cream.

Broccoli, Kale, and Feta Quiche

2012-01-04T22:15:00.001-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

I realize many people are thinking about eating light, cleansing, dieting, whatever you want to call it, but let's face it, winter is still with us and will be for awhile, it is cold outside, maybe even a little snowy, and we sometimes need some good old comfort food. This quiche is comforting and yet on the healthy side, though I have no idea how many calories it has, and I don't care. I make sure my food is healthy and control the portion size, but I don't count calories, more power to those who do, I just can't keep track of those kinds of things.

With ingredients like broccoli, kale, garlic, onions, eggs and feta it is not a heavy meal, it is a meal packed with nutrients. The crust holds butter (this is where the calories would ratchet up) and whole wheat flour, not so terribly unhealthy either.

Basically this recipe was born out of a desire to not waste any of the food I had in my refrigerator. I had a little bit of broccoli and kale leftover from another meal and for some reason I had 3 dozen eggs. Then there was that wonderful block of feta, not that I wanted to use it all in this dish, no, half would do. And so the Broccoli, Kale and Feta Quiche was born.

Broccoli, Kale, and Feta Quiche
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen~
Makes 1 quiche

Pie dough for a 9-inch pie

12 eggs
1 cup feta, crumbled
1 medium onion
1 cup kale, chopped
1 cup broccoli, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Olive oil for sauteing

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare and roll out pie dough. Place in a 9-inch pie pan and prebake with foil and pie weights at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, cut onion in half from stem to root. Peel and thinly slice both halves. Saute onion over medium-high heat in a small amount of olive oil until translucent. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add kale and broccoli, sprinkle with salt and pepper and continue sauteing for another three minutes stirring often, careful not to let the garlic burn.

Whisk eggs and stir in crumbled feta. Add sauteed mixture, green onions, fresh oregano, and salt and pepper to taste, mix well.

Pour mixture into prebaked crust and place in 350 degree oven. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until quiche is puffed and eggs are set (the center will tremble slightly when shaken, but will set up as it cools).

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Eggs

Pie Crust

2012-01-02T22:23:00.003-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Thirty years ago when I learned to make pie crust I was making it with white flour and Crisco. The pie crust always turned out perfectly light and flaky with a beautiful edge. There was a price for that perfect look though. Our bodies did not know what to do with the trans fats in all that hydrogenated oil. At the time Crisco or similar products were thought to be a better health choice over lard. Since then others have sung the praises of lard. I would use lard over hydrogenated oil any day, but I find myself using butter rather than either of those. It is what I have on hand, although lard may give me that "perfect crust".

I also prefer to use whole wheat flour whenever I can so that we get the most nutrients possible out of our food. This does mean that the crust will end up a little thicker at times and the dough will not stretch as well, but it also has more flavor.

I have wanted to do a "Pie Crust" recipe for some time. I had included a recipe for pie crust in with a Quiche Lorraine recipe I did a year and a half ago, but I wanted this pastry staple to have it's own post. I have written so many recipes that call for a crust that it is about time I make the crust the star of the show.

Often recipes call for only one crust and often then we are asked to bake the crust first so that the liquid we add as filling does not make the crust soggy. When this is the case I use pie weights to keep the crust from forming bubbles. Rather than purchasing weights I simply use dried beans. This is all quite simple until you try to get the beans back out, to do so you have to pour or scoop very carefully so as not to damage your lovely crust. To avoid this annoying and potentially hazardous (to the crust, or perhaps your sanity) situation, simply place a layer of aluminum foil on the bottom of the crust and lift out when ready to discard the weights. The recipe makes two crusts so if you are using only one be sure to store the other in the freezer, clearly labeled. Then when you are ready to use that frozen crust, simply thaw in the refrigerator and roll out as you would a fresh ball of dough.

Pie Crust
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen~

Makes 2 pie crusts

2 cups flour (preferably whole wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold butter
1/4 cup ice-cold water

Mix flour and salt together. Cut butter into flour mixture using a pastry cutter until mixture is pea size crumbs. Then add water and mix with hands just until it forms a ball, do not overwork. Add more water by the tablespoon if dough is too dry to form a ball, however the ball should be on the dry side and not too moist or sticky.

Flour working surface, divide dough into two balls, roll out dough into a circle to fit your pan. Flour rolling pin and starting on one side roll dough onto pin and unroll into ungreased pie pan. Flute edges with thumb on one hand and thumb and index finger on the next, pinching the dough to make points. Bake according to quiche or pie recipe.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Pastries

Lemon Ginger Tea

2012-01-01T17:10:00.000-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Winter has finally come to these parts, we had a gorgeously long, mild autumn but it looks like winter is finally here. Friday we had our first snow that stayed and yesterday we had freezing rain that covered the snow with a crust so hard that even the 30 mph winds late in the day could not budge the snowflakes beneath. Today the wind has blown long and hard enough that some of the snow has broken loose and began to drift. No matter, I am currently sitting in a warm house with sunshine streaming through the window and enjoying a good book. I am now reading "Two in the Far North" by Margaret E. Murie and loving it. I find life in the remote regions of Alaska, especially along with the early history of that state, fascinating.

I am also enjoying a cup of lemon ginger tea. I was cooking with crystallized ginger earlier and decided to make some tea with it as well. The ginger is not as strong in the tea as I expected, but I have also been eating the soaked ginger pieces. I like the pungent, spicy taste and its nutritional benefits to the digestive system, the antioxidants, anti-inflammatory effects, and it is being touted as a preventative to various types of cancer. I am not sick, but with all the colds and flu going around I am taking preventative measures. And yes, I know my stove top needs cleaning. I don't mind, a dirty stove top is simply part of a busy kitchen.

Lemon Ginger Tea
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen~

3 or 4 pieces of crystallized or dehydrated ginger
1 lemon
1 tablespoon honey (optional)

Place the ginger into your tea mug, or into a tea strainer, pour boiling water over the top to fill the cup. After steeping the ginger for 3 to 5 minutes, remove the strainer, if using, add the juice of one lemon, add honey, if using, and slowly sip the tea. Eat the ginger pieces for their health benefit and spicy flavor.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Drinks

Split Pea Soup

2011-12-10T21:28:00.000-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold... remember that children's rhyme? I remember playing the hand game to that English rhyme when I was in grade school. Do children still play hand games, or was that just an early 70s thing? I didn't know what pease porridge was back then, but I thought it sounded awful, now I know it is simply split pea soup, and I think it is wonderful. I realize many people think it is still awful, just some mushed up over-cooked peas, but that simply is not true. However, I think soup is comfort food and I like all soups, at least all homemade soups, so I may be biased. There is big flavor in this soup, chicken broth, sausage, carrots, a hint of lemon with the lemon thyme, and a splash of hot sauce.

Although you begin this soup with dried split peas, they soften and cook up quickly so this soup doesn't actually take all that long to make and the flavor can be adjusted to personal taste. The type of sausage chosen will change the flavor of the soup, I chose a mild country style sausage, but a chorizo, hot Italian, or andouille would be a good, spicy alternative. Give this soup a try again, you just may find that you actually like split pea soup.

Split Pea Soup
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appétit October 1991

1 pound dried green split peas, rinsed
1 pound fully cooked smoked sausage, sliced
2 quarts chicken stock
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, diced
3 large celery stalks, chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons dried lemon thyme
1 large bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Optional Garnish
Bottled hot sauce
Homemade Crème Fraîche or sour cream

Combine the first ten ingredients in a heavy-bottomed soup pot or dutch oven. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer until peas are tender, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with crème fraîche or sour cream and hot sauce to taste, serve hot.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Soups

Pumpkin Pie with Spiced Whipped Cream and Candied Pecans

2011-11-20T21:57:00.000-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

The classic pumpkin pie recipe made creamier, the whipped cream spicier, and a sweet crunchy garnish added. That, and these pancakes, was the the way I used a pumpkin a couple of weeks ago. To be honest I kind of missed the full flavored pumpkin in that classic recipe, this one is toned down a little. And yet, chilled, this is very tasty. The whipped cream with cinnamon and candied pecans is the perfect bold topping for this mild mannered pumpkin pie.

The color of pumpkin puree depends largely on the pumpkin you are using and how much liquid is cooked out of the puree. I don't have space to grow my own pumpkins, so every year I hope to find a Sugar Pie Pumpkin, one of the best cooking pumpkins. Usually though, the only pumpkins I can find around here are the large kind people use for decoration only. Most people plan to purchase their pumpkin puree in a can and not bother with the whole pumpkin. I like cutting into a whole pumpkin so that I can roast the seeds and cook the orange flesh down to the consistency I prefer. This means that the color of my pumpkin pie, bread, brioche, or any other pumpkin baked good is not as orange as it would be if I purchased pumpkin in a can, that is fine, I like knowing my pumpkin was grown nearby.

I really wanted to pressure can some pumpkin this year. My freezers are so full of various fruits and vegetables I put up this summer, as well as, the chickens we butchered and the beef from our family, that I didn't want to add pumpkin to them too. However, I simply ran out of time this autumn, maybe next year I will can pumpkin. When canning pumpkin, or any other squash, the flesh needs to be cut into chunks, water added and pressure canned. Puree is not save to can at home, too much pressure builds up in the jars. When using a jar of pumpkin chunks, they would need to be pureed and cooked down before using, not as quick, but then home-cooking is not always about being fast, sometimes it is nice to slow down a little. I am still learning to slow down, it is both a mental and physical change which takes time itself.

Pumpkin Pie with Spiced Whipped Cream and Candied Pecans
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appétit, November 2003~

Pie
1 9-inch pie crust

2 cups pumpkin puree or 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Roll out dough to form a circle for a 9-inch pie pan. Place in pan and flute edges. Pierce crust with a fork in several places, pour in pie weights, and bake crust for approximately 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on rack. Turn oven temperature down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk pumpkin, condensed milk, sour cream 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, vanilla, allspice, and nutmeg in a large bowl until blended. Whisk in eggs. Pour into crust, careful not to top the fluted edges.

Bake pie until filling is puffed around the sides and set in the center, about 55 minutes. Cool on a rack. Chill in the refrigerator.

Candied Pecans
1/2 cup whole pecans or pecan pieces
1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Place the pecan pieces, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter in a non-stick pan. Turn the heat to medium-high and stir while the heat dissolves the sugar and thickens the sauce. Let the sauce bubble while stirring for a minute or two and turn off the heat. Candied pecans will harden as they cool.

Spiced Whipped Cream
3/4 cup chilled whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat whipping cream, sugar and the 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon until peaks form. Spoon over slices off the pie, decorate with candied pecans and enjoy.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Desserts

Pork Chimichangas with Adobe Sauce

2011-11-18T12:18:00.001-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

If you are looking for something to supply a little heat during this chilly season this recipe will fit the bill. There is no need to drown the chimis in a heavy sauce, this adobe sauce (normally reserved for enchiladas) packs a lot of heat and is big on flavor, a little goes a long way. The recipe starts right away with the heat by having you toast the dried ancho chiles and then pouring water over them and bringing them to a boil, this sends the spicy nature of the chiles into the air and soon all your senses are aware that you will be eating something sensational tonight.

I started preparing for our chimichanga dinner the day before by slow-cooking, I mean very slow cooking, over low heat, a 5 1/2 pound pork roast for approximately nine hours. After a day on low heat the roast literally falls apart when lifted from the pot. Then I shredded the pork setting aside at least 3 cups worth for making these chimis. That left plenty of shredded pork to make a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw on top. I then strained the pork stock to get any bits of meat or bone that remained and I stored the stock, uncovered, in the refrigerator.

The next day I took the stock out of the refrigerator, carefully lifted the solid pork fat off the top and set it aside to be used later in this chimichanga process. The stock was added to those rehydrated ancho chiles in a blender along with onion, wine, and spices and it was blended into a beautiful sauce. Mexican oregano is used in this sauce because it is stronger than Mediterranean oregano and stands up well in such a spicy, full-flavored sauce. The sauce is then added to a pot and reduced by about half, the color turning darker and the flavors richer in the process. The sauce I chose to make is based loosely on a chile sauce in the cookbook "The Homesick Texan" by Lisa Fain.

You won't be able to resist sticking a finger into this sauce and giving it a taste, then you will decide you need to take a piece of pork and dip it in as well, just to make sure the sauce is as good as you thought it was with the finger test. Save some of the sauce though to mix in with your shredded pork and green chili mixture and some to pour around the rolled chimis. Both shredded chicken and turkey can be substituted for the pork in this dish and chicken or turkey stock can be a substitute for the pork stock, use what you have on hand, it will be good.

Using homemade flour tortillas, or store-bought, you will warm and lightly toast the flour tortillas in a small amount of the reserved pork fat to cook and lightly toast your homemade tortillas or to warm and lightly toast your store-bought tortillas. Pork fat may have a bad reputation, but the truth is it is high in both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and low in trans fatty acids. These chimichangas are then baked at a high temperature to crisp them rather than deep-fried, making them less greasy.

Pork Chimichangas with Adobe Sauce
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen~
Serves 4

Adobe Sauce
4 dried ancho chiles, stem removed and seeded
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobe sauce
2 cups pork stock
1 medium onion, about 1 cup, chopped
1/4 cup Merlot, or similar medium body wine
3 large garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano
Salt, to taste

In a dry heavy bottomed pot heated on high, toast the ancho chiles on each side for about about 10 to 15 seconds. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the chiles. Leave the heat on until the water begins to boil and then turn off the heat and let the chiles soak until the are soft, about 30 minutes. Once the chiles are hydrated, discard the soaking water and place the chiles in a blender. Saute the chopped onion until it is tender and translucent. Add the chipotle chiles, garlic, sauted onion, cumin, oregano, allspice, wine and pork stock to the ancho chiles in the blender and puree. The sauce should be smooth and thick. Pour the sauce back into the, now empty, heavy pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for approximately 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and reduces by about half. Add salt to taste. Set aside.

Pork Chimichangas
8 small- to medium-sized tortillas, homemade or store-bought
1 tablespoon reserved pork fat
3 cups shredded pork
1 4.5 ounce can of chopped green chiles
1/2 cup adobe sauce (recipe above)
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro or 1 tablespoon dried
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Dried cilantro to sprinkle
2 tomatoes, diced
2 avocados, diced
Sour Cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix shredded pork, green chiles, adobe sauce, and 3 tablespoons of cilantro in a medium-sized bowl. Place a small amount of the adobe sauce in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Heat a heavy skillet and place a small amount of pork fat on the hot pan. Place tortilla on the skillet warming and lightly toasting on both sides. Remove tortilla from skillet to a clean plate, place 1/3 cup of pork mixture in the center of the tortilla and fold one end in and both sides in, place filled tortilla in baking dish and continue filling flour tortillas until all 8 are filled and in the baking dish. Sprinkle shredded cheese across the top of the filled tortillas and ladle adobe sauce around and across the top. The sauce should not cover the tortillas completely, that way the tortillas can crisp in the oven. Sprinkle with dried cilantro. Place in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes, until tortillas are crisp and lightly browned.

Serve with diced tomatoes, avocados, and a dollop of sour cream.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Main Dishes / Pork

Pumpkin Pancakes

2011-11-09T15:49:00.000-06:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

I have two complaints about pancakes. One is that they are sometimes too dry and soak up so much syrup that they become overly sweet and the other is that they can become heavy, it is really bad when they are both heavy and dry. These pancakes are neither dry nor heavy, they are so moist and light that very little syrup is needed. In fact, they are packed with so much spicy cinnamon flavor, who needs syrup, well that might be going a bit too far. They would be good with a little maple syrup and were very good with the honey I added.

I was reducing some pumpkin puree from a farmer's market pumpkin I picked up when I started thinking beyond the pumpkin pie I would be making. There was enough puree here to make more than pie, and oddly my first thought was pancakes. I was convinced that pumpkin would be a good addition to pancake batter, but it took some trial and error before I reached the right proportion and combination of ingredients.

I wanted these pancakes to not only be light and moist, but I also wanted them healthy. So I started with whole wheat flour, which normally would make the "light" part of my plan difficult, but with so much pumpkin and yogurt added it was no problem. I added wheat germ since it is particularly nutritious, full of Vitamin Bs, Folic acid (Folate), Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, and too many minerals to list. Check out the facts on wheat germ here. Just a touch of honey for a little sweetness and the batter was complete.

Oh, the luxury of a day at home. To be able to take the time to make a hot breakfast while a cold stiff wind blows outside. No matter, I am staying in, soaking up the sunshine coming through the window and cooking up a new recipe. My house smells wonderful and feels warm from the cooking.

Pumpkin Pancakes
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen~
Makes approximately 12 - 15 medium-sized pancakes

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon honey

Stir together all the dry ingredients. Then make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and place the pumpkin puree inside, add the eggs and yogurt and mix together with the dry ingredients careful not to over work the batter. Add the honey, stir, and put one ladle full onto a hot, lightly buttered griddle. Cook until several bubbles form and pop on the first side and flip to the other side to finish cooking. Serve hot with honey or maple syrup.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Breakfast

The Frugal Kitchen and Home

2011-11-04T19:53:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

We have always tried to live a simple, frugal life. Thinking before purchasing, never spending more than we have saved for an item, always conscious of turning off lights and keeping the heat low and so forth, but we have never been more aware of living frugally than we are now. In May we made the decision together that I would quit my well-paying, full-time job; step out of the rat race and live a slower, simpler, more purposeful life. Best decision we ever made. The decision was made in May, I gave notice at work the end of June and my last day was August 31st. We did not rush into the decision, it was a life changing decision to make, I had been at that job for 20 years and the decision needed to be made carefully. We wanted to pay off our car and we had drain tile to install and wanted to save to pay off that bill as soon as the work was done, so those were two large bills that were paid for with my summer checks. We are completely debt free and well prepared mentally and physically to keep our expenses low and me working only part time. I now work part time managing my parents health food store and will continue to do so until they sell their business.

In order to keep our life simple and less stressful we must live frugally and not be side tracked by the many gadgets and pretty things there are to purchase or by thinking we need to be going and doing all the time. We actually prefer time spent at home and a home cooked meal, some people may not, but we have come to appreciate a quieter, home-based lifestyle. We now have just basic TV and cell phones (no land line), saving ourselves about $75 each month. These simple changes really add up, there is a mindset that we "need" these items, but they are not at all necessary and are really a distraction. We are not only saving money, but time as well. I started thinking about how we could cut our budget even more, so that more of our income could go into savings for when the unexpected occurs. We are not foolish enough to think that unexpected repair or medical bills will not occur from time to time. I made a list of things we do to keep expenses low and hope to expand this list as time goes on. No doubt there are many things I have forgotten to add to this list, I always seem to think of things shortly after I have published a post, but here is a start and perhaps I will add to it as more are remembered. I also hope that if you have a way of living frugally you will share it in the comments so that we can learn from each other.

A local grocery store was recently bought out and they marked all their goods down, so we stocked up on the items we use regularly and a few splurge items for the occasional indulgence, such as chocolate and that coke my husband likes. We have one freezer full of summer fruits and vegetables and one full of the fall butchering meat, just as we did last autumn, so after I add a few more items to our pantry, our pantry and freezers will supply us with the majority of our grocery needs over the next year. Not going to the grocery store so often saves money on impulse buys and gas, not to mention wasted time. Now for that list.

The Frugal Kitchen and Home List

Buy ingredients, not prepared foods
Stock up during sales
Make dinner at home from scratch, not eating out or ordering in
Make simple homemade breakfast foods such as oatmeal, muesli, yogurt or granola
Buy bulk, less packaging
Buy off brands
Live healthy and use home remedies to avoid Doctor visits
Preserve foods from the garden or farmers market
Make your own coffee or tea and take it in a well-insulated travel mug
Bring a sack lunch from home to work or while running errands
Use vinegar, baking soda, homemade cleaners and homemade deodorizers
Mend our clothes
Make homemade hand soap and antibacterial spray
Borrow books from the library rather than purchasing
Use hankies instead of tissues and cloth napkins instead of paper
Take care of possessions so they last longer
Dry clothes on the line as long as possible (it was below freezing when I hung them out this morning)
Buy second hand items
Trim bangs to lengthen time between haircuts
Use homemade dish cloths and scrubbers
Keep the thermostat at 62 now and 65 when it dips below zero outside this winter (and keep those wool socks handy)
Turn off unnecessary lights and unplug unnecessary appliances
A hankie and a pinkie rather than a Q-Tip (little things add up over time)
One part vinegar to one part water in a spritz bottle to clean eye glasses
Be generous (it will come back around when needed)

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / A Homemade Life / Kitchen and Pantry

Simple Winter Plans

2011-10-23T22:31:00.000-05:00

My winter plans are quite simple. Although it sounds like fun, I will not be traveling south for some sun and warmth. No, my winter plans are simply to stay home and that is fine with me. I look forward to spending some time reading and trying out some new recipes. Time always passes quickly and this winter will be no different as I continue to learn my new job as general manager of our health food store. Lately I have not had as much time as I would like to cook and read. Autumn is always a very busy time putting up food for the winter and working in the garden. I am now done with the year's canning and the garden is ready for the winter so I am beginning to catch up on the housework. As I dusted these shelves (there is a lot of dust left behind from putting drain tile in the basement) this evening I began to actually look forward to those cold winter evenings, wrapped in an afghan, reading to my heart's content.

I have neglected my collection of cookbooks and cooking magazines this summer/autumn (not to mention this website). I do hope to get back to testing new recipes and creating a few to share, but I have a very busy schedule for the next month so I am trying to be patient and remember there will be time...soon.

The Garden...Ready For Winter

2011-10-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

The compost has been spread, sand sprinkled, and a layer of leaves laid down to both fertilize and make our clay rich soil more friable.

The inspector approves.

Made at Home

2011-10-13T23:11:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Made at home. That is the simple goal I have for my kitchen and pantry. Of course, simple does not mean easy or a lack of effort. I have been very busy this summer and fall so that my pantry will be filled with homemade goodness. I have been canning, freezing, dehydrating, and storing. The garden has now been put to bed. The last of the green tomatoes have been picked in preparation for the frost we are forecast to receive next week, they are now ripening in the house. The potatoes have been dug, raspberries thinned, and all the annual plants have been pulled and composted. We added sand, finished compost, and we are piling leaves inside the fenced garden in an effort to make the soil more friable once they are tilled in next spring.

The apples have been picked and I have been making apple juice with several more buckets and cloth bags to go. If I had more time I would stop by the many, many homes that I see have apple trees that have not been picked. People are often happy to have someone pick their apples so they don't have to clean up their yard later, you just need to ask.

This apple juice needs no sugar added and I can trust the source of the apples. No sprays or chemicals have been used on the plants or during the juice making process. With this particular juicer all I have to do is rinse, cut these, on the small side, apples in half and toss them in the juicer. The sterilized jars seal themselves after the steaming juice is placed inside. This really is simple canning.

The remaining pulp and discarded leaves are added to the compost so that it can provide nutrients for next summer's garden. This is my compost bucket, an old ice cream bucket. There was no need to purchase a fancy compost container to set on my counter, I store this well-used bucket under the sink.

We are finally, as of last week, finished putting drain tile in our basement. Now our basement will stay dry next spring and we can use all areas of the basement. We have swept, scrubbed and started filling the pantry shelves again. Unfortunately, in the process of putting in the drain tile we had to tear out our cold storage room. This has not been replaced yet so my potatoes are on the bottom shelf of the pantry and we will keep the basement unheated and hope they keep until we can provide cold storage. We had smaller yields of potatoes this fall (thanks to a very wet spring and summer) so I think we will use them up long before they get soft.

I have several more jars to bring down to the pantry yet, these shelves will be full before long. I am just so thrilled to have my pantry in one place again. I have been living with jars of food lined up in front of all my books on the bookshelves for a couple of months now. I don't even know what I all have anymore it is in such disarray. I do like the made at home look of these shelves, and I know the quality and nutrition of the food in these jars is top notch.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / A Homemade Life / Kitchen and Pantry

Apple Raisin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

2011-09-21T15:52:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

It is nearly apple season, but not yet, at least not around these parts. For some reason, as soon as September hit, I started craving apples. I can't wait to sink my teeth into a crunchy red apple, letting the juice run down my chin. And yet, the apples are not ripe, I will have to wait for another couple of weeks and a good hard frost to pass before I can pick apples.

So I turned to the applesauce I canned last fall and I started thinking that applesauce paired with golden raisins in a bread pudding with caramel sauce poured over the top would be delicious, which is odd because I have never been a huge bread pudding fan. However, once I started thinking about the combination, I couldn't get it out of my head, and I'm glad, it was just as delicious as I had imagined. It is not crisp like a fresh picked apple, but it sure tastes good while impatiently waiting.

I took a recipe I had seen in an old Bon Appétit magazine for pumpkin bread pudding and reworked it to fit my desire for apple raisin bread pudding. The results may not be exactly photogenic, but the taste of creamy apple bread with caramel sauce is out of this world good.

Apple Raisin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appétit, November 2000~
Makes 6 servings

Bread Pudding
2 cups half and half
2 cups lightly sweetened chunky applesauce (homemade, if available), excess liquid drained through a fine sieve
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 cups 1/2-inch cubes day old challah (egg bread)
1/2 cup golden raisins

Caramel Sauce
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream

For the bread pudding
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk half and half, drained chunky applesauce, dark brown sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until well blended. Fold in bread cubes. Stir in golden raisins. Transfer mixture to an 11 x 7-inch glass or enamel covered stoneware baking dish. Let stand 15 minutes. Bake bread pudding until tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

For caramel sauce
Whisk brown sugar and butter in a heavy medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat until the butter melts. Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes. Resist the temptation to stick a finger into this hot, yummy sauce until it has cooled.

Serve the bread pudding warm with the caramel sauce drizzled over the top.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Desserts

Pressure Canning Chicken Stock Or Is That Chicken Broth?

2011-09-20T07:59:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

With this year's chickens in the freezer it is time to take out of the freezer any chickens left over from last fall. Which makes this the time of year I pressure can chicken stock, or is that chicken broth? Although they seem like the same thing, there is a difference between chicken stock and chicken broth. Chicken stock has a richer flavor and when used to deglaze a pan it will bind the pan drippings, making it a good substitute for butter in sauces. The reason for this is gelatin is released when bones are simmered for a long time.

Chicken stock is made by simmering chicken bones for several hours, approximately six to eight, to release the gelatin. The back and neck are good parts for this, as are the breast bones with little meat left on them. Chicken broth on the other hand is made from the meat, as well as other parts. For broth the bird is only simmered for approximately 3 hours.

So why do I call what I made chicken stock even though I used the whole bird? Quite simply because of the length of time I simmered the bird. Look at the gelatin in that cooled stock in the above photo. When stock is refrigerated it will turn to a gel consistency, scrape the hardened fat off the top and you are left with a very flavorful and nutritious gelee that turns liquid when heated. I like to use the whole chicken as well as celery tops, onion ends, mushroom stems, garlic, herbs, and even a few carrot ends. For several months before making stock I save these ends while cooking and place them in a freezer bag in the deep freeze. Then on the day I make stock I take the bag out of the freezer and place the vegetable pieces straight into the pot.

Making and pressure canning stock is really best done over the course of two days. The first day the chicken or bones are covered with water, vegetable pieces are placed in the pot and slowly simmered for approximately six to eight hours. Any chicken meat on the bones will be falling off and the carcass will easily fall apart. I do this both in my crock pot and on my stove top since I always make several batches at the same time. Once the stock is done and cooled enough to handle, strain it through a fine sieve, discard the vegetables and bones and save the pieces of meat. I then place the meat in 2 cup measures, in freezer containers, this provides for a quick meal, such as soups, casseroles, or sandwiches later. Then the stock is placed in the refrigerator overnight, uncovered. The following day scrape the solid fat off the top of the stock, reheat the stock, prepare your jars and pressure can according to the directions that came with your canner. Mine says to can at 11 pounds of pressure for 25 minutes for quart jars, however, yours may be different and if you are at a higher altitude you will need to adjust for that.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / Kitchen and Pantry

Hollandaise Sauce

2011-09-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Summer time is a busy time around here, it seems we always have some place else to be or some project to work on (currently we are preparing for drain tile to be put in our basement) and there is no time for complicated dishes, the simpler the better. I'm either battling slugs in the garden, canning garden produce, stocking the pantry for winter, butchering chickens or I am headed across town to my new job managing my parents health food store. Life has slowed down for me, I only work part-time now, but I haven't really noticed the slower pace yet since the late summer, early fall, season is so full.

Yesterday I canned 14 pints of our zesty tomato salsa, made from our garden produce. This may still be a busy life, but I love spending the day harvesting, chopping, cooking and canning. All that future food preparation does not leave much time for preparing the evening's meal though. When I thought of what to make for dinner, I remembered the 3 dozen eggs we have in our refrigerator, we had just received another dozen eggs from friends who raise chickens for the eggs.

Somewhere, sometime in my past I had a hollandaise sauce that was quite lemony and I wanted to repeat that experience. Besides, I hate to admit it, but, I have never made a hollandaise sauce and found the thought rather intimidating. Which, of course, meant I had to give it a try, never be intimated by food. I found this sauce to be very simple to make and the end result made it taste like you had slaved over dinner, or breakfast if you choose.

I searched through a few of my cookbooks and found a basic hollandaise sauce recipe in, what else, Mark Bittman's cookbook, "How to Cook Everything". I made a few adjustments, more lemon, a little smoked paprika, and I used a combination of both the stove top and the blender method.

With the sauce under way I quickly fried an egg, a slice of Canadian Bacon, and a slice of fresh tomato. Placed on a toasted, crusty piece of bread, with the hollandaise poured over the top this is a meal fit for a king.

Hollandaise Sauce
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything"~
Makes about 1 cup

The key to this recipe is to start with really fresh eggs that you trust, preferably eggs from a local farm. This way you don't have to worry so much about how hot you are heating your eggs and if they are safe. Try this sauce poured over a fried egg, Canadian bacon, tomato, open-faced sandwich.

3 egg yolks
Salt
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Put the egg yolks, 2 tablespoons water, and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan over very low heat. Heat, whisking constantly,until light, foamy and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. In a separate pan, over low heat, or in the microwave, melt the butter; careful not to let it brown. Combine the heated egg yolks, lemon juice, and paprika in the blender, and begin blending. While the blender is running slowly drizzle in the butter, the mixture will continue to thicken. Taste and add more paprika if desired.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Sauces / Eggs / Breakfast

Slugs in the Kitchen Garden

2011-09-06T22:12:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

With all the rain we have had this summer we have an unusually high number of slugs. Thanks to our cold winters our slugs are small, nothing like they grow them in the Northwest, but they do a tremendous amount of damage to the produce. They have eaten 1/3 of a good sized cucumber, the green bean leaves look more like lace than leaves, and it is a race to see who can get to the tomatoes first, which means I pick tomatoes before they are completely ripe, cheating us out of that extra flavor they get ripening on the vine. To make sure we have enough produce to preserve for winter use I have had to become more aggressive in my efforts to rid the garden of slugs.

I was recently at a local community harvest festival where there were booths set up for everything from gardening to canning to making cheese to dying wool. I settled in at the gardening booth for a while asking various questions, but what I was really anxious to learn was how to control my growing slug population. The horticulturist I spoke with said that slugs do not like to crawl across sand or gravel, this jogged my memory all the way back to a conversation I had with the man we hired to till our garden this spring. He suggested we add a few bags of sand to the garden to make the soil more friable (we have lots of clay). I had intended to wait until we tilled again to add the sand, but I figured now might be a better time if it discourages the slugs. So off to Tractor Supply Company I headed and came home with two good sized bags of sand. We just sprinkled it over the garden like we were sprinkling powdered sugar on a a cake. Some fell on the tomato vines, the tomatoes, the beans, potatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and some on the soil itself.

This trick has worked amazingly well. The slugs are now avoiding the areas of sand and when I do find them they are not looking as plump and healthy as they were before. My next move was to use beer traps, I say let them die happy. The beer traps also work very well, the slugs crawl into the beer and, some say, dry out from the beer. Or perhaps they are just attracted to the smell and end up drowning in the beer. Either way we have reduced the population considerably.

Tonight when picking tomatoes I noticed that there are a few frogs in the garden helping us reduce our slug population as well. With the combination of these methods to reduce or discourage slugs, I have seen much larger fruit and vegetable yields. I now have 25 quarts of whole tomatoes canned and enough tomatoes to make and can salsa for the winter, I would not want to go all winter without my homemade salsa. I also hope to make and can several jars of tomato soup this fall.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / In the Garden

Creaming the Corn While Cutting It Off the Cob

2011-08-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

By "creaming the corn" I don't mean that awful stuff you buy in a can. No, I mean the natural cream that comes from fresh corn. This simple process makes the corn taste so incredibly sweet and creamy, plus it involves no cooking before freezing so it is quick and super simple. Start with fresh, ripe corn on the cob.

Slice down the cob about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through each kernel, leaving some behind to go back to scrap off.

Then draw your knife up the cob scrapping out all the creamy goodness.

The end result will be some kernels that are nearly whole and some creamy bits of corn that are wonderfully sweet.

Package your "creamed corn", as my mother used to call it, in freezer containers. I put in approximately 2 cups of corn in each container, that is the right amount for a meal for my husband and I, with maybe a little left over for another day. If I have company I just grab two or three containers to defrost.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / Kitchen and Pantry

Cucumber, Tomato and Feta Salad

2011-08-29T06:45:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

This past weekend I met a woman who has a fantastic "Summer Kitchen" and I am so sorry I did not have my camera with me. It is an old, small, simple building that has been on her farm for many years. She has it tucked back into the trees so that it stays cool and it is surrounded by hostas and other shade plants. It has a wonderful old-fashioned screen door, baskets hanging from the ceiling, a small table, above the window a shelf that holds her canners, an old cabinet for jars, etc., a stove, small refrigerator, and sink. She had several jars of canned black raspberry jam and grape jelly, made from fruit growing nearby. There were, what she called, "Granary" refrigerator pickles in a bucket on the table. She said she spends a lot of time in her summer kitchen, cooking there keeps the house cool. Years ago, before air conditioning, a summer kitchen was a common sight on farms around here. They were commonly built before there was electricity and a wood burning cook stove was the means of cooking. Come summer the stove would be hauled out to the summer kitchen to keep the house cool. I would love to have one in which to do the year's canning and preserving, even dehydrating heats up the house.

Cucumber, Tomato and Feta Salad
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen~
This salad was born out of an excess of cucumbers and tomatoes coming out of our garden last year. It is the salad we have been eating nearly every evening for the last two weeks and we are still not tired of it. I prefer the cucumber peel be left on, for some reason these had been peeled, I can't remember why. No specific measurements are needed, the ratio of tomatoes and cucumbers are up to you or your supply. I use red onion, green onion, chives, or herbs, whatever I have available in my garden, for added flavor.

Cucumber, washed and diced
Tomato, washed and diced
Red onion, slivered or green onion, chives or herbs, minced
Oil and vinegar for a dressing (or Italian Dressing)
Feta, crumbled over the salad

Mix and serve.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Salads

Butchering Chickens

2011-08-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

We spent our afternoon butchering chickens with friends. Early this summer friends of ours said they were planning to buy some chicks to raise for food and asked if we would like them to raise some for us as well, of course we said yes. Part of the deal was our willingness to help them butcher. My husband grew up butchering chickens in the fall with his family. I had no chicken experience, but I did help butcher turkeys on two occasions. I have no objection to eating meat, but I do have an objection to the way much of the meat available for purchase is raised. Feedlots and the close quarters chickens are raised in turns my stomach, so we buy our beef from my husbands family, chickens from friends or local family farms, and pork from a local family farm. I feel fine about eating meat when I know the animals have been treated well, I have seen how they were raised, and I know they are healthy, quality meat.

These chickens were fed grains and seeds, and allowed to roam freely eating all the bugs they wished. I would have liked to have borrowed them to eat the slugs in my garden, but that is a post for another day. The killing was swift, one quick motion, and we then moved on to gutting and pulling feathers. These birds are an excellent size, they said they watched closely so that the chickens were not over fed, causing their legs to give out under their weight, this happens on large chicken farms where they are over fed and do not get exercise.

Not all the chickens were butchered today. Our friends let their children each chose a chicken to keep, so three birds were spared. They said they are not sure how these birds will fare over the winter, but they will keep them around as pets and perhaps they will even begin to lay eggs, time will tell. The children helped some with the butchering, played with the live chickens and also played with the discarded chicken feet, they are rural children.

This is Princess, one of the chickens whose life was spared.

These are some of the family's laying hens. We went home with a dozen of their eggs today. I am looking forward to the many meals all the chickens have provided us, both the laying hens and the meat birds.

Tomatoes Galore

2011-08-27T08:40:00.000-05:00

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

2011-08-24T07:48:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Tomatoes are coming in fast, so I am all about tomatoes this week. We have had such an abundance of cherry tomatoes this summer that I have been trying new ways to preserve them. I have frozen them whole to be served in soups, stews and pastas this winter, they have been dehydrated, and I have even skinned and added them to jars of whole tomatoes I was canning.

I had seen several mentions of roasting tomatoes on websites and in cookbooks and decided to give that a try as well. I have coated them with olive oil and salt and roasted them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit with good success, but this time I decided to try an even lower temperature for a very slow roasted tomato. With 300 degrees I had to watch the tomatoes a little closer so they didn't dry out too much. With 200 degrees they eased into a chewy roasted sweet tomato. Really any temperature between 200 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit works well, keep an eye on the tomatoes and when they are done to your liking they are ready to eat or freeze. They will be placed in pastas and on pizzas this winter.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes
There is no specific recipe because the amount of tomatoes gathered from the garden are what will determine how many you will have to roast. Plus, measurements are just not necessary with this process.

Cherry Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and place in a bowl. Pour enough olive oil in the bowl to coat the tomatoes and stir until they are all coated. Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet cut side up and sprinkle with sea salt. Place baking sheet with tomatoes in oven and roast until they have shrunk and are chewy and sweet.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Vegetables

Pressure Canning Tomatoes

2011-08-22T23:03:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

I always pressure can my tomatoes, I realize not everyone does and it may not always be necessary. Heirloom tomatoes have more acidity and if you're not sure how much acid your tomatoes have, two tablespoons of lemon juice in the quart will supply the acid needed. However, I choose to pressure can for a couple of reasons. First, I use a variety of tomatoes, some heirloom, some not, all have varying degrees of acidity. Second, pressure canning is so much quicker and puts far less steam into the air. According to the instructions that came with my pressure canner, if you want to use the water bath method you have to boil the jars of tomatoes for 85 minutes. We are trying to save electricity by not using our air conditioning accept on the unbearably hot and humid days, adding that much moisture and heat to our house would likely cause us to turn on the air conditioner. When pressure canning there is only a little moisture added to the air at the beginning and they only need to be kept under pressure for 25 minutes.

I used to think pressure canning was a scary process, it's not. Just follow the manufacture's instructions carefully and the process goes very smoothly. You start by placing the freshly washed ripe tomatoes in boiling water for one minute, then plunging them in icy water to cool them so they do not continue to cook. Take the tomatoes out of the cool water, peel off their skins, core them and place them into prepared jars. "Prepared jars" means they have been washed in hot soapy water, filled with boiling water and let sit full of the hot water until just before tomatoes are placed in them.

Fill the jar with whole or cut tomatoes and press down to fill all the space with tomatoes and the juice that squeezes out of the tomatoes. The directions that came with my pressure canner said to add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a quart or 1 tablespoon to a pint of tomatoes, whether you are pressure canning or processing in a water bath, not sure why it would be necessary if you are pressure canning, but there you are. Fill the jars with tomatoes and the directed lemon juice, leaving 1/2-inch headspace, work out the air bubbles with a nonmetallic spatula. Then wipe the sealing edge clean with a damp cloth and place a new lid (that has been prepared by placing it in simmering water for approximately one minute) on top and screw on a clean band. Let the jars sit until you have enough jars to fill the canner or until you have used all your tomatoes, such as was the case above with my measly four quarts.

Once all the jars are ready, place them in the pressure canner, pour the amount of boiling water into the canner that the manufacture instructs (for my maximum 7 quart canner, 3 quarts of boiling water is required), add two tablespoons of white vinegar to keep the jars from getting a white film on them, hold the lid toward the light and look through the vent pipe to make sure it is open, and then secure the lid to the pot. At this point you raise the temperature quite high until a free flow of steam comes out. After 10 minutes with a steady flow of steam, place the pressure regulator on the vent pipe and watch the pressure gauge. These are the instructions for my pressure canner, be sure to follow the specific instructions for your canner.

Once the pressure gauge reaches the number of pounds your manufacturer indicates (mine calls for 11 pounds for whole tomatoes) set your timer for the required amount of time (my manufacturer calls for 25 minutes), back off on the heat a little. Then just watch the pressure gauge closely and increase or decrease your heat as needed to keep the gauge at the required number of pounds. Don't panic if you see it rise above the number, just turn the heat down slightly and you will see the gauge stop rising and slowly fall. You don't need to sit and stare at the the gauge, just keep looking back at it while you go about your work. I use this time to clean up the kitchen and 25 minutes is about the right amount of time to wash the dishes and wipe down the counters, while still keeping a close eye on the gauge. After the required amount of time under pressure turn off the heat and allow the pressure to drop on its own accord, do not try to cool it down quickly. The pressure is completely reduced when the air vent / cover lock and overpressure plug have dropped and no steam escapes when the pressure regulator is tilted. Attempting to speed the cooling of the canner may cause jar breakage or it may force liquid out of the jars. Again, follow strictly the directions that come with your pressure canner, the directions I mention are just to give you a general idea of what is involved.

The finished product will be beautiful jars of tomatoes preserved for future sauces, chili, stews, you name it, it will be good. Don't let a pressure canner intimidate you, they are really a simple and safe way to can. I spent approximately $50 on my pressure canner, it holds up to 7 quarts at a time and throughout the years I have canned whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, marinara sauce, tomato soup, chicken broth, chicken soup, and green beans. Most vegetables require pressure canning, or pickling if you want to stick with the water bath method. I have had canned corn, but I prefer it frozen. For fruits, pickles, and jams I use the water bath method. Plus the recipe I use for salsa has vinegar in it and specifically says not to pressure can, but to use the water bath method, so I do. Getting comfortable with a pressure canner opens up the possibilities for more local products canned and on your pantry shelves for later use.

I had better be comfortable with my pressure canner I have a lot more tomatoes ripening in the garden, those 4 quarts were just the beginning. When we had all those high temperature and high humidity days in July the tomatoes really took off, some of the plants are 5 feet tall and loaded with tomatoes.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / Kitchen and Pantry

Green Smoothie

2011-08-21T21:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, not everything I eat is uber healthy, in fact, my diet could stand some improving, specifically it could use more leafy greens. Enter, the green smoothie, this drink is very nutritious (the highest nutrients are listed below). Kale has been called the "queen of greens", it is one of the healthiest vegetables. Kale is in the Brassica family, along with broccoli and cabbage, rich in antioxidants. I have made smoothies with spinach before, but I have been wanting to make a smoothie with kale for a while, I just needed to wait until I had enough to pack in a full two cups. Kale is a cool weather leafy green so it is perfect to plant in late summer to provide us with fresh leafy greens through autumn. Add fresh parsley, the world's most popular herb though it is often used only as decoration for our plates, a shame sense it is a powerhouse of nutrition. The parsley flavor really stands out in this smoothie, if it is too much for your taste buds it could be left out. Last, but certainly not least, kefir is a terrific source of probiotics; this website lists its many health benefits. Someday I hope to obtain some kefir grains and make my own, saving us grocery money. I won't normally bore you with nutrition details, at least I hope not, but these ingredients are just so powerfully rich in nutrients and health benefits, plus, why else would you drink a green smoothie, I mean it tastes great, but there are so many other smoothie options.

1 cup raw kale 1/2 cup fresh parsley 1/2 cup blueberries

Vitamin A - 10,302 IU Vitamin A - 2,527 IU Vitamin C - 7.2 mg

Vitamin C - 80.4 mg Vitamin C - 39.9 mg Vitamin K - 14.3 mcg

Vitamin K - 547 mcg Vitamin K - 492 mcg Manganese 0.25 mg

Calcium - 90.5 mg Folate - 45.6 mcg

Potassium - 299 mg Iron - 1.85 mg

Green Smoothie

~from the Sense of Home kitchen~

Serves 2

2 cups fresh kale, packed

1 cup fresh parsley (optional)

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup kefir

Place ingredients in blender and puree until smooth. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Drinks

Restocking the Pantry

2011-08-18T08:07:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

I did a fair amount of canning, freezing, dehydrating, fermenting, and storing in either the root cellar or on pantry shelves last summer/fall. However, after eating mainly from our pantry we have dwindled our supplies down and it is that time of year again when I stock up for another, possibly, long winter. I have my hopes set on a mild winter, but I've be hearing talk, they say that according to the Farmer's Almanac...well, I'll just wait and see, and be prepared for whatever comes our way. I also want to take advantage of the garden produce and sales so that we can keep our grocery bill low.

My brother has a cherry tree, same as ours, but his is older, larger, and bears much more fruit. As you can see from the first photo, the cherries are small and they are a bit tart, but they make wonderful juice. According to Science Daily tart cherries are good for your heart and they are high in antioxidants. They are found in extract and pill form at health food stores. Since they are available locally, and the price was right (free) I made sure I took the time to turn them into juice we will enjoy in the months to come.

When I find a bargain on bananas I buy several pounds and dehydrate them and store them as banana chips. They are high in Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Potassium, and Manganese, these nutrients are not destroyed in the dehydrating process as long as you keep the temperature below 115 degrees Fahrenheit. They are a healthy snack that I love to add to the trail mix I make.

Although our garden is too small to grow corn, my parents have more space and are able to grow corn. This year they planted the "honey and cream" corn seed, it is like candy, but we love it. In the middle of winter when the snow is flying it is so nice to be able to pull out a container of this corn that I took off the cob; tastes like summer. It really is amazing how fresh this corn tastes, even after it has been frozen for months. I always "creme" the corn as I take it off the cob, which just means I scrap the knife along the cob to get the juices and small bits of corn left behind from the first cutting. I may write a separate post on cutting corn off the cob and freezing it so that the "how to" will be available in the Homemade Living section of this website. I have a lot of articles I would like to write when I have time; this is such a busy time of year with the garden and preserving produce, plus I am still working full-time. My last day as a children's librarian is August 31st and I begin managing the health food store on September 1st (with much more training from my mother).

We had an abundance of cherry tomatoes this year again and I have preserved them in the past by dehydrating them or freezing them, both work very well. This year I decided to try roasting the tomatoes to caramelize the sugars they hold. I cut them in half, put them in a bowl and added enough olive oil to coat them and placed them on a baking sheet. Then I sprinkled the tomatoes with sea salt and placed them in a 300 degree oven until the sugars began to caramelize, darkening the edges. Do not leave them in until they are dry, this is not a dehydrating process, just leave them in until they shrink, become a little chewy and a touch of brown around the edges. After cooling I placed them in a container and then into the freezer for use in pastas or on pizzas later.

I had yesterday morning off since I had to work last night, so I canned some peaches and peach jam. We have a few jars of peaches left from last year, which we will use up first, so along with the jars from last year I think 8 quarts will be enough to take us to next summer. We also have cherries and apricots canned, several berries in the freezer and some dried fruit, so our fruit supply for the fall/winter/spring is in good order. Next I work on some more vegetables and I am hoping for a good crop of apples to make several quarts of juice. Last night we got a call from some friends who are raising chickens for us, they will be ready to butcher soon and we will be helping them. Then there will be chickens in the freezer and chicken stock to make and can. This is a busy time of year, but I enjoy seeing the shelves filling up and providing nutritious food for seasons to come.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / Kitchen and Pantry

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

2011-08-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

We have been picking a bowl of raspberries several days a week for the past month or more, they have been very prolific this year. Picking raspberries reminds me of one of my grandmothers, she has been dead for many years now, but the memory of picking raspberries and making raspberry jam with her lives on. She had a raspberry patch so large you had to squeeze your way between bushes to get to the center where the really large and juicy berries were (along with a few large and scary spiders).

Grandma's raspberry freezer jam was particularly good and I remember having it on some croissants I made. These muffins may not be fresh made croissants with homemade jam, but they are a good substitute for someone with a busy schedule. I love the fresh taste of lemon and raspberry, it makes a very good combination.

I planted three raspberry plants, sticks really, from the garden of an acquaintance, two years ago. They grew very fast and began producing berries the first year they were planted. They have spread each year and now threaten to take over the garden. I have been pulling out suckers like they are weeds. This fall we will cut back the older plants and let the new plants produce, the berries from the new plants are larger and better tasting. There is always more chores to do in and around the garden and more recipes to try in the kitchen.

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

~From the Sense of Home Kitchen~

Makes 12 muffins

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 cups fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare muffin tins, greasing well with butter and dusting with flour, or line with muffin papers.

In a medium-sized bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar, mix in eggs, then lemon juice and zest. Gradually mix in the flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in raspberries. Spoon muffin mixture into prepared muffin pans and bake for approximately 20 minutes.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Muffins

Garden Produce

2011-08-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

There has been much written about eating local, I have written on the subject myself. This has proved much easier to do in the summer when the garden is producing so well. Lately we have been eating from our backyard; the berries, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, and peas have been producing abundantly. This afternoon I was able to spend much of my time out in our gardens. The temperature finally cooled down, we have had temps in the 90s with humidity to match, or close. The gardens have become a jungle of growth, making up for lost time with the very cool June we had. I always think I am leaving enough space between the plants in the spring and about this time of year I am struggling to get between plants well enough to pick the produce.

These bamboo poles have worked very well, holding the weight as the plant grows and produces fruit. As I was weeding, adding more lattice to the shed for the grape vine to cling to, dead heading flowers, and picking produce, I was also grazing. That's right, lunch directly from the backyard. I ate blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, peas, and green beans, not necessarily in that order. From plant to mouth, fruits and vegetables at their peak, which means they were at the peak of their nutritional value, as well as their flavor. The green beans and peas have been particularly sweet this year, likely due to all the rain we have received.

I have only watered the garden once this summer, rain has provided all the water the garden needs, and then some. I pulled some small onions this afternoon because they were sitting in an area that was consistently water logged and I was afraid they would start to rot. Hopefully the other row of onions will be able to stay in the soil long enough for some serious growth. The raspberries have been producing like gang-busters, we have eaten them fresh, frozen them for winter baking and smoothies, and I have baked with them. I made raspberry muffins late this afternoon for Sunday morning breakfast, the recipe will follow later this week (if I have time).

We have been eating much of the green beans fresh and raw, they are so good there is no need to cook them and destroy vitamins. I have also blanched and frozen a few pints for winter meals, this afternoon I added another pint to the freezer. Food preservation has not moved into high gear yet, the corn is not ripe yet and we have only had enough ripe tomatoes to eat fresh, with the exception of cherry tomatoes that I roasted and froze, more on that later too. Once the majority of the tomatoes on those 20+ plants start to ripen I will have my hands full with canning. I should have a little more time to tackle that project then since that will be closer to September and I will be "retiring" from the library at the end of August and working part time managing my parents health food store.

This was our dinner; fresh vegetables picked or pulled from the garden and placed on homemade pizza dough. As you can see, we do not eat completely local, the cheese on the pizza and the olive oil in the pizza crust are not local, but this time of year much of what we eat comes right from our backyard. That saves us money, it tastes better, and it is better for us and our environment.

Quinoa with Grilled Vegetables and Garbanzo Beans

2011-08-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Summer is grilling time and I was searching for an accompaniment to grilled chicken last weekend and this turned out to be the perfect summer dish, with the added benefit of providing a terrific lunch to haul in the bicycle basket to work this week. Jeanne Kelley, of the beautiful cookbook "Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes", developed the recipe that was the beginning of the recipe I list below.

I came across this recipe in the August 2008 Bon Appetit. I like to browse old Bon Appetit or Gourmet magazines for recipe inspirations. Sometimes these recipe experiments work, sometimes they don't, this one worked great. All these fresh ingredients, grilled and spiced, then added to a the grain, or rather seed, quinoa, delicious.

While cooking I listened to the Delany Sisters' "Book of Everyday Wisdom", the library I work at had a copy of the audio book. Have you read or listened to this book yet? There is some very down home advice about living a healthy, frugal, natural life in this book. I read their first book, "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years", back in the 90s when this book came out, and I loved reading their thoughts on life, but I had not read or listened to their second book until now.

Quinoa with Grilled Vegetables and Garbanzo Beans

~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted considerably from Bon Appetit, August 2008~

1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

2 garlic cloves, peeled

2 teaspoons ground cumin, divided

1 teaspoon turmeric, divided

1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika, divided

2 cups water

1 cup quinoa (about 6 ounces), rinsed well, drained

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/2 pounds small to medium zucchini, trimmed, quartered lengthwise

1 large poblano pepper, trimmed, seeded and quartered lengthwise

3 green onions, thinly sliced

2 very small onions

1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

10 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Combine garbanzo beans and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons oil; press in garlic and stir to combine. Let marinate at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon paprika; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add 2 cups water, quinoa, and sea salt; bring to simmer, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until all water is absorbed about 16 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare grill, warming to medium-high heat. Place zucchini, poblano pepper, small onions, and cherry tomatoes on rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon paprika. Toss to coat evenly.

Place zucchini and other coated vegetables on grill; sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Grill until tender and browned on all sides. Transfer to work surface. Cut zucchini crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces, dice pepper and onion and add to garbanzo bean mixture. Add green onions, parsley, grilled tomatoes and quinoa. Toss to blend. Season with salt and pepper, if needed. Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve cold.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Grains

Natural Foot Care

2011-07-26T20:34:00.001-05:00

This is an article I wrote recently for the my health food store's website. It is not exactly "kitchen", but some of the ingredients are kept in the kitchen and I wanted to share the information as it relates to natural, homemade living. I hope some of you find it helpful, skin is our largest organ and what we place on it is absorbed into our bodies, so the skin products we choose to use really do matter. Here is the article:

Poet Khalil Gibran said "Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair". This well describes our feet in summer, we walk around our yards with bare feet, we swim and place our bare feet on hot pavement at the pool or sand and gravel at the lake. Our feet take a lot of abuse, they support us all day and yet we rarely give them a second thought. They can become too warm, dry, and even itchy. People with diabetes in particular need to take good care of their feet, but we should all show our feet a little appreciation. Athletes foot can become a problem with summer travel, hotel rooms, and swimming pools. Soaking feet in warm water with antiseptic essential oils, such as tea tree oil or clove, will kill bacteria and deeply cleanse the feet. Essential oils are highly concentrated oils extracted from the root, flower, fruit, leaf or wood of plants from around the world. Essential oils can be used to nourish your skin, some have antifungal or antibacterial properties as noted below. Quality is very important to getting the most benefit from the oils, be sure you use only 100% pure essential oils.

Antifungal Foot Soak
10 drops tea tree oil or clove essential oil (antifungal, antibacterial)
About 1 gallon warm water

Combine oil and enough warm water to soak your feet. Soak.

For a refreshing foot scrub try adding your favorite essential oil to slightly abrasive and odor removing baking soda. Peppermint is especially cooling and refreshing for your feet, with the added benefit of being antifungal. If you want the scrub to be a little more abrasive add salt to the mixture, careful if you have any cuts on your feet, salt is antibacterial, but will sting.

Foot Scrub
1/2 cup baking soda
10 to 15 drops of your favorite essential oil
1/2 cup sea salt (optional)

Mix the baking soda and essential oil. Then stir in the salt, if using. Store in a tightly closed glass container, such as a canning jar.

Place the jar of foot scrub powder in your natural medicine cabinet. It will keep indefinitely.

This is a refreshing rub for burning, itching feet. Stored in the refrigerator it will keep well and be soothing. Scoop a small amount of the mixture out of the container and warm slightly in your hand to soften enough to rub into your feet. The coconut oil helps to cover the strong odor of the tea tree oil, while it softens and soothes your feet.

Antifungal Foot Cream
2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
15 to 20 drops antibacterial and antifungal essential oils such as clove or tea tree oil

Melt the coconut oil in a small pot over a low temperature, do not simmer or boil. Once the oil has melted, pour it into a glass container and stir in drops of essential oil. Cool and use. The coconut oil will thicken as it cools. Store in a tightly closed container in the refrigerator. Use a butter knife to break off a small piece to rub on your feet, it will warm and melt on your skin and can then be rubbed in.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / Healthy Living

Garden Update

2011-07-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

The garden has really taken off with this heat wave we are experiencing. Today, despite the 90 degree temperature I was out driving bamboo stakes into the the soil to support the tomatoes. Fortunately it rained an inch and a half early Friday morning so the soil was moist and easy to push the supports into. I really like these bamboo stakes I bought last year, they are 5 feet tall and sturdy enough to carry the weight of a tomato plant loaded with fruit. I saved a couple of pair of tights that had holes in them and an old sheet to use as ties, (the tights work really slick).

You can see the bamboo supports a little better in this photo, just ignore the hankies, socks and other assorted pieces of laundry hanging on the line, I was up at 5am this morning to start the first load of laundry, I wanted all three loads on the line before I had to leave the house.

I am really looking forward to trying the first of our grapes this year. The cherries are delicious and I am headed out tonight after it cools a bit to pick a bowl of cherries. I can't decide if I want to preserve them or just eat them fresh, it is such a treat to have fresh picked cherries.

The cucumbers are making their escape from the wire confines of the garden. For dinner last night I made us each a salad, using the lettuce and spinach I picked last week and two cucumbers from this vine. Meals have been simple lately, both out of necessity and because we are eating produce straight from the garden.

The raspberries, though late this year, are very sweet and juicy. Only a few have ripened so far, but the bushes are loaded with berries so I will have plenty to freeze for winter.

I love lemon balm, it's light lemon flavor is terrific in tea or even just to pick a leaf and enjoy. It has many health benefits, which I wrote about here.

My pistou basil is beginning to flower. This basil plant is compact and perfect for my small hanging pot. It has a mild basil flavor and is very good added to cooked dishes or salads. As the season wraps up I will pick and dry the leaves for winter use, or perhaps I will replant in a pot and bring into the house for fresh basil year round.

Relying On Our Kitchen Garden

2011-07-10T20:49:00.003-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

This has not been a particularly good year for the garden, June was a very cool and cloudy month for us and the seeds I planted at the end of May were very slow to grow. In fact, the lettuce and spinach were barely out of the soil at the end of June, it wasn't until the heat came in July that they grew enough to pick for a salad and then the spinach bolted and went to seed. I will plant lettuce and spinach again at the end of summer. The tomatoes really took off when the July heat arrived and we will soon be eating tomatoes from our garden. I have planted 24 tomato plants, that includes cherry, plum, and a variety of heirlooms. I hope to can as many tomatoes as I did last year, about 36 to 40 quarts, as that supplied all the tomato sauce and whole tomatoes that we needed for the year, plus several jars of salsa and tomato soup. The potatoes and beans are growing well, the peas are slow to produce, they should have produced and be starting to die already, but I hope to get enough for summer eating.

Canning is a little way off yet, though I have a tree full of small cherries that I will be turning into jelly before too long and it seems that once canning starts it is full-steam ahead for a good month or two. I am hopeful that there will be a good supply of apples this year to provide us with juice for the winter and lots of good eating. The strawberries have produced well, we have frozen several quarts for winter use in bread and smoothies. The plants are now producing smaller berries that we are eating standing in the sunshine in the garden or in yogurt or ice cream. There is also an abundance of raspberries that are set to ripen within a week or two, enough for eating, freezing and perhaps some jam. The blueberries are few, but the grapes are coming in heavy and this will be the first year we harvest grapes from our vine, so I am excited to taste them.

This is the last of the spinach and lettuce. I finally picked it all as it was going to seed and just not going to produce more with the upper 80s and 90s that we have been getting. Seems odd that it grew so poorly in the cool days of June since it is a plant that likes cool weather, I suppose that it too needs plenty of sun to grow well. Each year is different with the garden, last year I had an abundance of lettuce and spinach for a full two months, enough to freeze some of the spinach, and again a good fall crop. This year I am hoping for a good fall crop and missing all the salads we ate last year. We will be relying on our canned, dehydrated, frozen and preserved by any other method more this year than ever.

As I mentioned in an earlier post we are living more frugally in anticipation of a change in circumstances. I turned in my resignation at the library just over two weeks ago and I will be working my last day there on August 31st. This is a huge change for me since I have worked there for over 20 years now, I loved change when I was in my 20s and 30s, I find it scarier in my late 40s. At the same time I am excited for the new opportunities that having more time will bring. My husband and I have personal goals that we will have more time to pursue with a lighter schedule. I will not be leaving the work force completely though, and that is the second part of this big change, I will be working with my mother in her health food store. So in light of that you can expect to see more health related posts and recipes in the future. I am really looking forward to this change, but in the meantime I am super busy working full-time at the library, part-time at the health food store, gardening, and living as homemade and sustainably as we can to see how little money we can live on. Writing has been pushed aside for living, but I still have much to write about as time affords.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / In the Garden

Roasted Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Fricassee

2011-06-20T22:30:00.000-05:00

I've started reading a new children's novel called "Okay For Now" by Gary D. Schmidt, author of a Newbery Honor for his book "The Wednesday Wars". You know when you are holding an award winning book, the writing is exceptional and you find you care about the characters and are absorbed in the story. The descriptive writing in "Okay For Now" has me feeling a little jealous, to be able to paint a picture and hold readers attention is a real gift. It felt good to be absorbed in a book again.

Naturally all that reading made me hungry, so I went in search of a snack. Now if you think that this asparagus and mushroom dish was my snack, you would be mistaken, no, I was in the mood for something sweet. Which I found in the form of cake, making me really glad I did all that cooking earlier this year and put some of it in the freezer for later. June is my busiest month at the library with all the summer programs and well-deserved vacations to cover. Of course, enjoying parsnip spice cake and a good book got me to thinking about another recipe I made recently that I am guilty of not sharing, Roasted Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Fricassee.

When searching through my pantry I found some wild mushrooms that I decided would go well in this fricassee. Now a fricassee by definition should have a white sauce and most have meat, but this fricassee is a vegetarian version with a lighter sauce. The original recipe came from an April 2001 Bon Appétit magazine and I made a few changes to suit my pantry. I used dried wild mushrooms, soaked until reconstituted, rather than fresh, and added a dry red wine. I happened to have some fresh tarragon, a rare event, so I used that and found it to be a perfect match.

~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appétit, April 2001~

Serves 4

1 pound medium asparagus, tough ends trimmed

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 tablespoons butter

1 large shallot, minced

0.5-ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms, reconstituted and sliced, liquid reserved

0.5-ounce dried oyster mushrooms, reconstituted and sliced, liquid reserved

0.5-ounce dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted and sliced, liquid reserved

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon

To reconstitute the mushrooms:

Wash the dried mushrooms to remove any grit. Boil a small-sized pot of water, remove from heat, then soak the dried mushrooms in the water for 20 to 30 minutes as it cools. Remove mushrooms and reserve liquid, slice.

Roasting the asparagus:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange asparagus on rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle oil over and turn to coat. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast until just tender, about 10 minutes.

Fricassee:

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot and sauté 1 minute. Add mushrooms until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup reserved mushroom liquid. Cover; cook until mushrooms are tender, about 3 minutes. Add wine and dried parsley and cook uncovered until the wine is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Stir in fresh tarragon. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide asparagus, top with mushrooms and serve.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Side Dishes / Vegetables

Keeping the Grocery Bill Low

2011-06-12T19:15:00.000-05:00

My husband and I have some goals for this summer and beyond, more on that in a couple of months. In order to fulfill these goals we will need to keep expenses down in all areas of life. We took a serious look at all discretionary spending and have dropped two services that were not necessary. We are now down to only the very basic of necessities; heat, electricity, phone, water, and the car payment. We still have Internet service, but we will drop it if we find we need to in order to reach our goals. We have been working to pay off the car early since we purchased it, but we have stepped up that effort in order to pay it off by the end of the year.

Groceries is one area where we can, and have, cut spending. I have a very well-stocked pantry and freezer that can sustain us for quite a while yet, that, along with our fresh vegetables and fruit growing in our garden, means we will need to buy very little. Eating mainly from our stores of food will of course mean our pantry will be depleted and need to be restocked. I will be working on this all summer long as the garden produces and seasonal foods are abundant and inexpensive. We are also making the most of the foods that grow abundantly in our area. I picked rhubarb at my grandmother's house and our house, some I cut up and put in the freezer for use next winter and some was used to make my grandmother's rhubarb cake recipe, some used to make a rhubarb crisp.

It is also asparagus time again in our area and although I have had no time to forage for asparagus, with Grandma's funeral and family gatherings, my friend did go and shared some of the asparagus with us, which we gratefully accepted. We love asparagus drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and roasted in a 400 degree oven or on the grill. Sometimes the simplest preparation is the best, really fresh food doesn't need a lot of extra flavors. In fact, I love to eat the fresh asparagus raw, straight from the jar of water in the refrigerator where they are stored.

We have ordered chickens from three different friends this year. They will be ready in the fall and with one of the friends we will help butcher, making those birds particularly inexpensive. One of the friends we have purchased chickens from for several years now allows her birds to be completely free ranged, so they are small and a little tougher, I have found that they are best for making chicken stock, which I will then pressure can. The other birds will be used for eating. We will also purchase some beef from my husband's family this fall so that we will go into the winter with a well-stocked freezer and with canning, freezing, and dehydrating produce from our garden, the garden grown at the company where my husband works, and from the gardens of our generous friends and families, we will be well-stocked again soon.

For those items I can not grow or my friends and family do not raise, I watch very closely for sales. Bananas will sometimes be discounted when they start to brown, I buy these, place them in the refrigerator to slow the ripening, and when I have time I make banana bread. Yesterday after work I made these three loaves, one for eating, two for the freezer, this time they were made with whole wheat flour and often butter is substituted for the vegetable oil in the recipe. We rarely go out to eat and rarely eat any prepared purchased food. It is just too expense to make these kinds of foods a part of our regular diet, and they are not as nutritious as homemade. It takes extra time and effort, especially noticed when I am so busy this summer with a full-time job and helping my mother at her health food store, but I believe it is worth it.

Preserving Lemons and Limes

2011-05-31T22:35:00.000-05:00

Life has been a little crazy lately and I think that will continue for most of the summer. Grandma held on longer than anyone thought she would, sadly in a lot of pain or sleeping. She died peacefully last Friday evening with my aunt and I by her side. There will be an auction to prepare for and relatives coming and going. We have been enjoying seeing and visiting with so many relatives. In the past week I have cooked for and had a house-full of family on several occasions and was pleased to discover that I could make everything from our stored food in both the pantry and freezer. I have seen the value of a well-stocked pantry and I will continue to work hard this summer building our pantry up for the colder seasons to come and for the convenience of having on hand what I need to make several meals for expected or unexpected guests.

On top of everything else, we need to have drain tile put in our basement this summer and because of the way the house and garage sit on the lot we will have to have this put on the inside rather than around the outside of the house. This means moving everything in our basement either upstairs or several feet away from the outside walls. The pantry has already been moved upstairs, sharing space with my many bookshelves, to avoid the dust that will be created as the concrete is broken up. It will be a month or more before the workmen can start the job, but due to work schedules and other commitments we have begun cleaning out and moving things already. The up side of all this is we have already gotten rid of several items we have not used in several years, sharing these with other family members who will make use of them and clearing out space at the same time.

When I bought strawberries a few weeks back I also came across large bags of lemons and limes for an excellent price. I dehydrated several providing us with a quart jar of lime slices and another of lemons for use in water glasses and jugs. I also zested some of the lemons and limes and then juiced them, freezing the zest in 1 tablespoon measurements and the juice in ice cube trays which measured about 1 tablespoon each. I can use the juice and zest in baking and I also used one lemon juice cube in glasses of water when I had company, this gave the water a nice fresh lemon flavor. My writing and reading may be a little scarce right now, but I am still cooking, putting in a garden, and preserving foods.

Food Preservation 2011 Begins with Strawberry Smoothies

2011-05-25T22:23:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

The season is off to a very slow start, but I have now begun to preserve a few fruits. This cool spring has robbed some of my enthusiasm for planting and preserving. I finally planted lettuce and radish seeds and just tonight bought the rest of my plants and seeds. The forecast is warning of a possible freeze tonight so all the plants are tucked away in my garage, hoping against hope for at least one warm sunny day this coming weekend.

At least there were these strawberries at the store for a very good price, too good a price to pass by, enthusiasm or not. I always end up buying more than I reasonably have time to take care of, but this time round, besides eating several, I decided I would just wash, hull, cut in half and freeze the strawberries for use this coming winter, and with these fall like temperatures that feels all too close.

If I want strawberry smoothies and strawberry bread when the snow is flying I had better get some in the freezer now while the berries are sweet and affordable.

Strawberry Smoothie

~from the Sense of Home Kitchen~

Serves 4 to 6

1 quart kefir

1 quart strawberries, fresh or frozen

1 to 2 tablespoons honey

If the berries are fresh, wash, hull and slice them in half. Place berries in blender with a little of the kefir and purée, add honey and the rest of the kefir and blend until smooth.

Note: If I have whey left over from making cheese I will substitute whey for some of the kefir. Adding a banana is also good and I often substitute other fruit for the strawberries. Yogurt can be substituted for the kefir.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Drinks

A Quiet Week and a Busy Summer

2011-05-18T22:43:00.000-05:00

This has been a quiet week for me, my grandmother is close to death, they gave her 24 to 48 hours today, so I have been spending more time with her. I will be helping my mother at her health food store this summer, besides my full time job at the library, making these next few months extra busy. I have several recipes to share and I will do so as I have time. This photo is from last year and I am very happy to report that this hydrangea survived the winter and is growing nicely. Tonight we hired someone to till our garden and we ate hot dogs for dinner. Some days, some weeks are like that.

Sunday Stills

2011-05-15T05:00:00.002-05:00

Beef and Bacon Meatloaf

2011-05-13T17:03:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately when Blogger went down this week it published this post, but deleted all the words and the recipe. I do not have the time or even the energy right now to rewrite, so I will just repost this recipe for future reference.

Beef and Bacon Meatloaf
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appétit, January 2009~
Serves 4

1 medium red onion, coarsely diced
3 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 1/4 pounds ground beef (10% fat)
1/2 cup ketchup, divided
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
7 slices thick-cut bacon, 5 coarsely chopped, 2 halved crosswise
4 slices day old ciabatta, torn into pieces
1 tablespoon dried parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Blend onion and garlic in a food processor until onion is finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl; add beef, 1/4 cup ketchup, and next 3 ingredients.

Add chopped bacon and bread to processor. Using on/off turns, blend until bread is chopped. Scrape mixture into bowl with beef. Add parsley; stir gently to blend well. Transfer mixture to a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Arrange bacon-slice halves crosswise on top of meat, spacing apart and tucking edges down sides of loaf. Spoon remaining ketchup between bacon slices. Bake meatloaf until cooked through and meat comes away from the sides of the pan, about 1 hour. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes. Slide spatula under one end of the meatloaf. Tilt pan and slide loaf out onto platter. Slice and serve.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Beef / Main Dishes

Parsnip Muffins

2011-05-11T05:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

I lead a quiet, simple life, some might even call it dull, I am ok with that. Simple things interest me, one of them is planting a kitchen garden, seeing it produce and then making use of the fruits and vegetables by canning, freezing, dehydrating, and storing the produce in a root cellar. It is a satisfying feeling come fall to stand back and look across the pantry shelves full of the fruits of our labor. But, now the labor begins again. I have used up the majority of our preserved items from last year and soon I will be preserving again. First though, I need to plant my garden.

I had hoped to begin digging in my garden this weekend, but it has been raining nearly all this week and after a late snow melt our soil is saturated. It is still too early here to put out the tomato plants, but the potatoes, onions, spinach and peas could be planted. So I have high hopes that the sun will shine and begin to dry up my little garden, oh how I look forward to picking spinach and peas from my kitchen garden.

This recipe has got me thinking about the kitchen garden because it has the last of the parsnips, from our neighbor's garden, in it. I took a carrot muffin recipe and turned it into a parsnip recipe with some other slight changes. Parsnips are slightly sweet, as are carrots, thus making them perfect for muffins or even cake recipes. Add honey instead of sugar, substitute whole wheat flour for half the flour in the recipe, use dried fruit and nuts that you have in your pantry and you have a healthy muffin to go with your morning tea, or coffee if it is the weekend, our morning drinks of choice.

Parsnip Muffins
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet, May 1998~
Makes 18 muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup honey
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup shredded parsnips
1 tart apple, peeled, cored, and shredded
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup unsweetened, flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and prepare 18 1/2-cup muffin cups with muffin papers or butter.

Into a medium-sized bowl sift together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In a large mixing bowl cream together butter and honey, add eggs and vanilla, and mix well. Gradually stir in flour mixture, stirring until just combined.

Stir in shredded parsnips and apple, pecans, raisins, and coconut, stirring until just combined. Do not over mix or that will cause the muffins to be peaked.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin cups, filling them 3/4 full. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until golden brown and a tester comes out clean.

Cool muffins in cups on racks for 5 minutes before turning out onto racks to cool completely. Muffins keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days. Muffins can be frozen for up to one month.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Muffins

Two-Pepper Shrimp

2011-05-09T05:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

The weather has warmed and I am once again riding my bicycle. I ride to work when the weather permits and I have written about the benefits here, the "Ode to Bicycles" poem by Pablo Neruda here, and how I like to stop at the farmer's market on the way home here. Yes, I am thrilled to be riding bike to work again. Friday evening my husband and I went for a 6 mile ride, winter was long, cold, and snowy, but I think (hope) spring is here to stay. We even hung our clothes on the line on Saturday, the first time this spring, 6 weeks later than last year. That is one of the things I like about writing, I can look back and see what I was doing this time last year.

Last year I had started preserving asparagus already and just shy of a year ago I went foraging for asparagus for the first time. Spring came late this year, but the plants will catch up and we will be in full-swing before I know it, I had better be prepared, find that pickled asparagus recipe and make sure I have canning lids on hand.

With the arrival of warmer temperatures we are cooking some lighter dishes (not completely as you will see in upcoming recipes) and eating more salads. This recipe is light and has just enough spice with the crushed red pepper and black pepper to provide lots of flavor. I used precooked shrimp because living in the middle of the country sometimes means you take what you can get. Because it was precooked and only takes 2 minutes to heat through I did not add the shrimp until the sauce was made and warming then I added them to the sauce and heated it all together. The shrimp is served on a bed of romaine lettuce and cucumbers that have been soaked briefly in rice vinegar. The leftover shrimp and sauce I served the next night on Thai rice noodles, which was wonderful too.

Two-Pepper Shrimp

~From the Sense of Home Kitchen adapted from Bon Appétit, April 1996~

Serves 4

The Shrimp

1 pound of uncooked large shrimp, peeled deveined

4 tablespoons dry white wine

2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

The Vegetable

8 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 cups cold water

5 cups shredded romaine lettuce

1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

The Sauce

1/2 cup bottled clam juice

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

4 teaspoons olive oil

1 pound onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons of reserved juice from canned whole tomatoes

1/2 cup canned whole tomatoes

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon dried parsley

Mix shrimp, 2 tablespoons wine, ginger, black pepper and crushed red pepper in a large bowl. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Remove the shrimp, reserving the marinade.

Pour 7 tablespoons rice vinegar into another large bowl. Add 2 cups of cold water to the bowl, then shredded lettuce and cucumbers. Let stand 5 minutes. Drain.

Whisk clam juice, remaining 2 tablespoons wine and remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar in a medium-sized bowl to blend. Add cornstarch, salt and sugar; whisk until cornstarch dissolves. Whisk in reserved shrimp marinade. Set aside.

Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and sauté until just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon transfer shrimp to plate. Or if you are like me and using precooked shrimp, just wait until later to warm the shrimp in the sauce right before eating. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons juice from the canned tomatoes and stir 1 minute. Add tomatoes and garlic and stir 30 seconds. Re-whisk the clam juice mixture to blend. Add to skillet and boil until sauce thickens, about 1 minute. Add shrimp and parsley and toss to coat. Heat shrimp through about 2 minutes, careful not to overcook, shrimp should form a letter C when cooked, not an O. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Divide lettuce and cucumbers between four plates. Spoon shrimp mixture and sauce over and serve.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Fish and Seafood

Sunday Stills

2011-05-08T05:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

Vidalia Onion Tarte Tatin

2011-05-07T09:30:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

I just read yesterday that Melissa Clark has a new cookbook coming out called Cook This Now. I have her other book In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite and have really enjoyed both the writing and the recipes so I was thrilled to hear she has another one in the works. According to Amazon, her new book is scheduled to be out in October and they are taking pre-orders for the book now. Of course, I had to add this book to my cart, I'm resisting buying any new ones at present, after my cookbook buying spree this spring, but hey, this book does not come out until the fall, and that is a way off, really. There have been so many wonderful new cookbooks in the last few months I picked up a few of them for my personal library. Last October Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table came out, then in November there was Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys by David Tanis. April brought a plethora of new cookbooks for my library, David Lebovitz's book Ready For Dessert: My Best Recipes, Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day, and Patricia Wells' book Salad As a Meal, which I finally received after being back ordered for a while. So I have happily been busy reading cookbooks and trying new recipes. Any new cookbooks on your shelf that you are loving?

I have also been busy reading Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, which I borrowed from the library I work at. You see I often get side-tracked in my reading, I see another interesting book and I'm off reading that, ignoring the book I started and listed in my "Currently Reading" section of my website. That is why it takes me so long to read some of those books, I am easily distracted by other shiny objects. One of the dishes I have been seeing and reading about lately is tarte tatin and in my quest to cook foods I have never cooked before, and make dishes I have never made before, I had decided it was time to make a tarte tatin, but what kind?

Off to the grocery store I went and found that they had Sweet Vidalia onions in the produce section. Now, it is rare we see Vidalia onions around here, they ship them in once or twice a year and so when I see them I am sure to snag a few pounds. This made an easy decision on what kind of tarte tatin I would make. These onions are so sweet that the tarte tasted almost more like dessert than an addition to dinner. Add a few tarragon leaves and some balsamic vinegar and this was, although not beautiful, a delicious tarte tatin. The photo below shows just how caramelized the finished tarte tatin gets and although some of the onions look on the burnt side there was no burnt flavor, just a rich caramelized sweet onion flavor. It is best to use a cast iron skillet to get good caramelization, a nonstick pan just does not cut it.

Vidalia Onion Tarte Tatin
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, inspired by A Chefs Daughter~

2 tablespoons butter, additional as needed
1 teaspoon sugar
2 pounds of Vidalia onions, peeled and thickly sliced to reveal rings
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed, but kept cool

Using a 10 to 12 inch cast iron skillet, melt the butter and sprinkle in the sugar. Remove for the heat.

Arrange thick onion slices in the skillet, filling in any spaces with thick onion pieces. Lay tarragon leaves on top of onion slices and season with salt and pepper.

Return to the heat and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking until the onions are a deep golden brown on the pan side (this may take a little while, for me it was about 10 to 15 minutes, be patient you want the onions to be caramelized), add additional butter if the skillet begins to go dry. Turn on oven to preheat to 375.

Once the onion is a deep golden brown on the skillet side, add stock and vinegar and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the liquid is syrupy and almost completely reduced. Remove from heat and let cool about 5 minutes.

Roll one sheet of puff pastry out to the size and shape of your skillet. Place puff pastry sheet on top of onions right in the skillet and tuck the edges down between the onion and the pan.

Place skillet in preheated oven and bake until the pastry is golden brown and juices are bubbling, about 25 minutes, watching close so the pastry does not burn.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate. Serve warm.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Pastries / Side Dishes

Spicy Stew (with a side of compost)

2011-05-05T05:00:00.005-05:00

Sense of Home Kitchen

A few nights ago, a week ago to be exact, it was a beautiful spring evening, everyone was out working in their yards and my husband and I decided to go out and work a bit with our compost. We compost all winter long, even though temperatures dip down to 20 below, or worse. We just keep dumping the fruit and veggie peels and egg shells in and let them freeze. In the spring everything melts, begins to decompose, and we dump in a large container of leaves we collected last fall. We have two bins, one is a tumbler and one is an old garbage barrel with holes in it, which we stir occasionally with an old broom handle. I was stirring the garbage barrel compost and decided it looked ready to dump on the garden, and besides we needed an empty compost to start dumping in while we let the tumbler rest and cook. So I was shoveling compost over the fence and into the garden and I get down far enough that I think we can now carry this barrel around the fence and dump it into the garden. As we dump the contents the stench hits us. It turns out the bottom 8 to 10 inches which held an interesting mix of newspaper and soggy composted material had not been getting stirred and it just sat there putrefying. Well, aware that our backyard now smelled like a ripe barnyard on barn cleaning day I was spreading and shoveling dirt on top of it as fast as I could. And then I hear the teenage neighbor, from down the alley mind you, say to her mom, "It smells like something died out here". We do not hear mom's reply, but we can only assume she is gesturing toward our yard and quietly commenting while rolling her eyes. Then we hear the daughter say, "I thought there was a dead body out here". At which point I say to my husband, "and I am burying it as fast as I can".

While this may not be an appropriate dinner story it was dinner that started this decaying garden fertilizer. We eat a lot of vegetables which creates a lot of compost. This recipe alone created a small pile of compost material in our old 1/2 gallon ice cream bucket that we later added to the bin. Garlic and shallot skins, potato and yam skins, they all went into the bucket, and their tasty insides went into this spicy stew. Serve this stew with a piece of crusty bread and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Spicy Beef, Shallot and Root Vegetable Stew
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, inspired by Bon appétit, October 2001~
6 Servings

1 pound beef stew meat
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup chopped garlic
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 dried red chili pepper, with seeds, if you want the heat
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups beef stock
2 cups whole tomatoes in juice
3 medium-sized potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 medium-sized yams, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup dry red wine (use the same wine you plan to drink with dinner, if you are drinking any, I used a Cabernet Sauvignon)

Place beef chunks in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add flour; toss to coat. Heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat, sauté stew meat until brown, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer beef to another bowl; reserve flour remaining in first bowl. Add shallots and garlic to pot, stir one minute. Add reserved flour and stir for 30 seconds. Add both stocks, thyme leaves, and crush the chili pepper into the pot (removing the seeds if you don't want as much heat, but we love the heat). Bring to a boil and scrap up browned bits. Add tomatoes with their juices and beef with any accumulated juices; return to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Uncover; add potato and yam cubes. Add red wine and simmer uncovered until potatoes, yams and beef are tender and sauce thickens, stirring often, careful not to break potatoes, about 40 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Stews

Rosemary and Leek Focaccia

2011-05-03T05:00:00.002-05:00

Sense of Home

I have had a few days off work recently and besides some spring cleaning, appointments, and organizing files I spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen. There are so many dishes I want to try, it seems my list grows even as I am cooking. I have also purchased a number of amazing cookbooks this spring that I am excited to cook from and hope to share my version of a few of the recipes I try. One of the books that I have really been enjoying is Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys by David Tanis, which came out in 2010. Mr. Tanis, by the way, is the head chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, according to his book, so he comes to the kitchen with plenty of experience. He is also the author of A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, which came out in 2008, two beautifully artistic, cookbooks full of wonderful recipes to try. The focaccia recipe is so good you can imagine all kinds of ingredient adaptations to place on top of the basic dough recipe.

I had leeks and rosemary on hand so those are the ingredients I chose for toppings. In some ways focaccia is like pizza dough, any toppings will work, just use the ingredients you have available and the ones your taste buds prefer, you can't go wrong with that.

Rosemary and Leek Focaccia

~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Heart of the Artichoke, by David Tanis~

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon honey

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading

2 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 cup olive oil, plus extra for drizzling and cooking leeks

1 cup finely sliced leeks

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Place 1/2 cup of the warm water in a small mixing bowl, add yeast and honey and stir with a wooden spoon. Let the mixture sit until bubbles form, about 5 minutes.

Add the remaining 1 cup of water, 3 cups of flour, salt, and olive oil and stir with the wooden spoon until a sticky ball of dough forms and all the flour and oil are incorporated. Dust the work surface with flour and turn out the ball of dough onto it, dust the dough with flour and knead for a couple minutes.

Drizzle a little olive oil into the bowl and place the dough back into the bowl, turning dough to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until it has about doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, take it out of the bowl and place it on a baking sheet lined with Silpat or oiled. If you want a thicker focaccia use a smaller baking sheet, thinner use a larger baking sheet. Work the dough into roughly a rectangle shape filling most of the baking sheet, if you do not have Silpat, the oiled sheet will take a bit more working with the dough before the dough relaxes and lays in place. Cover the focaccia with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for another hour.

In the meantime clean and finely slice your leeks until you have approximately 1 cup of sliced leeks. Sauté the leeks in a tablespoon or so of olive oil until they are soft, set aside. Prepare your rosemary by roughly chopping, and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Uncover the risen focaccia dough, place the leeks and rosemary evenly across the dough, drizzle dough with olive oil. Poke small indentations all over the top of the focaccia dough with your finger, and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until it is browned on top and the bottom appears done. Cool on pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Sense of Home / Recipes / Bread

New Address and Title

2011-05-02T11:53:00.000-05:00

The Sense of Home web site is moving to a new address and title. Sense of Home will change to Sense of Home Kitchen and the new address is www.senseofhomekitchen.com

Blogspot assures me that the old address will work and will redirect traffic to www.senseofhomekitchen.com however, for the small number of you that are linked to my site, you may want to enter the new address.

Why the change? Well, if you have been reading for awhile you may have noticed that this website has become more focused on cooking. I am planting a garden and will post photos from that, I will be preserving produce from the garden and farmer's market again this year and I will post about my adventures in canning, pickling, dehydrating, and freezing, my focus will still remain on homemade, however, I will be focusing on homemade as it pertains to the kitchen, which is my passion.

I do hope you will continue on the journey of discovering new recipes, food, cooking methods, and adventures in the kitchen with me.

Sense of Home Kitchen
~Brenda

Leek and Mushroom Egg Bake

2011-05-02T05:00:00.004-05:00

Sense of Home

I think egg bakes are one of the easiest ways to make a simple meal that will provide good leftovers for the workweek. Egg bakes are also a perfect brunch food, serve this with a big fruit salad and you have a full meal. I actually made this a couple weeks ago and we got a couple of dinners and several lunches out of this dish. At the store I had purchased fresh leeks and mushrooms because they looked so good, then I wondered what I would make from them. A soup sounded good, but we had eaten several soups lately, including this spicy chicken curry soup, that famous French onion soup, tomato soup that I had canned last fall, and it wasn't too long ago that we had wild mushroom and leek soup. We like soup, but I wanted to make something different with my leeks and mushrooms.

Leeks are always so sandy that I cut off the root end and the dark green leaves, then I slice the remaining white and very light green leek in half lengthwise and separate the leaves, place the separated leaves in a bowl of water, and give them a good swish, then let the bowl sit while the sand settles to the bottom. Once the sand and grit has settled, gently remove the leaves and dry them on a clean kitchen towel. Leeks may be a little trouble to get them clean, but their mild onion flavor is perfect for this dish.

Leek and Mushroom Egg Bake
~from the Sense of Home Kitchen, inspired by a December 2008 Gourmet Egg Custard~
8 servings

3 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cups thinly sliced leeks
10 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 cups grated Gruyère (approximately 6 ounces)
10 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (you can eyeball this one)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. with rack in the middle. Butter a 9x13x2-inch baking dish.

Place 2 tablespoons of butter in a large sauté pan and sauté sliced leeks until tender, reserve butter and spread leeks evenly on the bottom of prepared dish. Add one tablespoon of butter and sauté sliced mushrooms, spread these on top of leeks in the prepared dish. Sprinkle Gruyère evenly on top of the mushrooms.

Blend eggs, milk, cottage cheese, and nutmeg in a blender with pepper and salt until smooth.

Pour egg mixture over leeks, mushrooms, and Gruyère in dish and bake until puffed, set, and golden, 35 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Eggs / Vegetarian Dishes

Sunday Stills

2011-05-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home

Artichokes

Parsnip Spice Cake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-04-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home

A nearby neighbor plants a huge garden every year and they have often shared some of their produce with us. They were part of the 'back to nature' crowd that began here in the early 1970s, heating with a wood stove and growing a huge garden. Late last fall and then again in January they gave us several squash, and just a couple weeks ago they gave us parsnips. Wherever they store their produce it keeps quite well because these parsnips were nice and firm, although as you can see in the photo below they were starting to grow and needed to be used soon.

Parsnips get a bad rap. I know I didn't want to eat them as a child, my mom would sauté them and I would declare them disgusting and do whatever was necessary to avoid eating them. Perhaps it is their pale color or their surprisingly sweet flavor that turns people off. It was not long ago that I decided to give them another try, and now I can't quite figure out what it was that I did not like about them. According to the March 2006 Bon Appétit magazine, where I found this recipe, in Europe parsnips were once more popular than potatoes.

After the first frost the starch in parsnips turns to sugar, contributing to their sweet and nutty flavor. Parsnips are a good source of Potassium, they are high in fiber, Vitamin C, Folate and Manganese. Like carrots, parsnips are such a versatile vegetable, they can be sautéed with other vegetables, {a thought for food} has a recipe up for Parsnip Fries, and earlier I made Lemon Thyme Parsnip Mashed Potatoes. They are so versatile that they even wiggle their way into dessert. You would never guess there is a vegetable in this spice cake and next week I will post a recipe for some muffins I squeezed parsnips into, eating your vegetables was never so easy.

Parsnip Spice Cake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

~from the Sense of Home Kitchen adapted from a March 2006 Bon Appétit recipe~
12 to 16 servings

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3 large eggs

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided

2 cups (packed) shredded peeled parsnips (about 3 large)

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

3 cups (about 12 ounces) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Combine flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon salt, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves in a medium-sized bowl, stirring to combine.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, add eggs, buttermilk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla while whisking. Gradually add the flour mixture, stirring to just combine. Stir in parsnips and walnuts.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool completely.

For Frosting

Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in heavy cream, grated ginger, the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Spread the frosting over the cake and serve.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Cake

Homemade Crème Fraîche

2011-04-28T12:17:00.002-05:00

Sense of Home

I have come across several recipes calling for crème fraîche, however it is not available to purchase at the stores in my home town, and I have heard that it is expensive when available. I have substituted sour creme which works fine, but I wanted to know what crème fraîche tasted like, and how it differed from sour creme. Food In Jars website had a post on homemade crème fraîche back in February, reminding me that I could make my own.  So I did just that, and now that I have made my own, I have found it to be so simple that there is no reason to search out the expensive product in neighboring cities. Crème fraîche is not as sour as sour creme, it tastes more like a thick sweet creme with a slight tang. I followed the directions in the book The Lost Art of Real Cooking (a good reference book that covers many of the basics of traditional cooking), which says that it can be whipped and served with desserts and that it has less of a tendency to curdle during cooking.

Crème Fraîche
In a pint or quart jar, depending on how much you wish to make, pour in fresh sweet cream (not ultra-pasteurized*) add a large or small (depending on how much cream you are using) dollop of plain yogurt or buttermilk, and stir. Cover and leave the jar sit in a warm spot for a day or two (longer if your house is cold). I placed mine in my microwave so that it was out of the way and it is a warm spot since it is located above my stove. Once the cream has thickened (mine took two days with temps in the upper 60s, in the summer heat I'm sure it will take less time) it is ready to use. Store in the refrigerator where it will keep for a couple of weeks.

*Although the directions in the book I used said the cream should not be ultra-pasteurized, the only cream I had available was an organic ultra-pasteurized whipping creme so I gave it a try and it worked just fine. I also make homemade whole-milk ricotta using organic ultra-pasteurized whole milk and it has worked every time.

Sense of Home / Recipes
Sense of Home / Homemade Life / Kitchen and Pantry / A Homemade Life

This post is linked to: Simple Lives Thursday and Homestead Barn Hop.

Artichoke, Potato, and Portobello Mushroom Casserole

2011-04-27T05:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home

I've been on a quest to learn to cook foods I have never cooked before, one of those is fresh artichokes. Oh, I've eaten fresh artichokes before at a friend's house, dipping the steamed leaves into homemade mayonnaise, and I have cooked with canned artichokes before, but I have never taken a fresh artichoke and tackled the choke, turning the spiky globe into something eatable.

It is not the easiest task the first time around. I wasn't sure I was doing it right when I seemed to be throwing in the compost bucket more than I was placing in the acidulated water. I ended up with so few slices of artichoke I opened a can of artichoke hearts and added some to the casserole, I wanted to be sure we could actually taste the artichokes in the dish. Below the spiky, purple leaves that gave me more than one nearly impossible to see sliver, is the hairy center that needs to be removed (I found a small paring knife worked well). This is best done with the assistance of someone who knows what they are doing or after watching this how to video. If I had seen the video before attempting the task I would have forged ahead with confidence rather than trepidation.

Ok, it is not that bad, but the next time I buy fresh artichokes, and there will be a next time, I will know what I am doing and I wouldn't spend the whole time thinking that perhaps I got some bad artichokes, because it appears to have gone to seed and there just isn't any usable fleshy heart in the center. I finally sliced the last two artichokes in half to see just what was inside, the heart I was aiming for, which as it turns out is just the base of the artichoke, right above the stem. This is what makes cooking so much fun for me, it is a science experiment, a chance to create, make a mess, and in the end have something interesting, maybe even delicious, to eat.

These large portobello mushrooms really are large and every bit as good as the baby portobello I love to saute in butter, adding a splash of wine towards the end.

This casserole is layered like lasagna, but it is a lighter dish, less cheese and no heavy sauce. The feta cheese paired well with the artichokes and the house smelled fabulous with the white wine, garlic and mushrooms cooking in the oven.

Artichoke, Potato, and Portobello Mushroom Casserole

~from the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appetit, April 2006~

6 - 8 servings

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

4 large artichokes

2 pounds of Red potatoes, about 4 or 5 medium-sized, peeled thinly sliced

4 large portobello mushroom caps, thinly sliced

6 ounces Feta cheese

4 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 lemon (for preparing artichokes)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Brush13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish with 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Add the juice from half a lemon to a large bowl of cold water. Cut off the artichoke's stem; rub cut surface with the other lemon half. Peel off the leaves. Cut off, or twist and pull out the purple leaves, taking some of the choke with them. Clean out the remainder of the fibrous choke with a small paring knife. Rub the artichoke all over with lemon and drop it into the lemon water.

Using a food processor or mandoline, thinly slice the potatoes. Drain and slice artichoke hearts. Arrange half of the potato slices in the prepared dish, covering the bottom completely. Top with half of the artichoke hearts and half of the mushrooms. Coarsely crumble half the feta over the dish, layering everything as you would for lasagna. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and half of the garlic, then 1 tablespoon Parmesan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Cover with remaining mushrooms, then artichoke hearts, feta, garlic, 1 tablespoon Parmesan, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Top with remaining potatoes. Pour wine over; drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Cover dish with foil. Bake 40 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F. Sprinkle top with remaining 1 tablespoon Parmesan. Bake uncovered until potatoes are tender and top is brown, about 25 minutes. Cool slightly and serve.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Vegetables / Vegetarian Dishes

French Onion Soup

2011-04-25T05:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home

Nosing through my freezer earlier in the week I came across a few jars of beef stock and started thinking about what I wanted to make with the stock. I hadn't settled on anything by Sunday morning, but when I woke it was cloudy, cool, and rainy, perfect for a pot of soup. Then I found this recipe over at Smitten Kitchen, where there is always another creative and delicious recipe to try. Ms. Smittenkitchen herself adapted it from Julia Child's classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I stuck close to the recipe, just leaving out the Cognac I did not have, and using the homemade beef stock I had. I toasted the French bread rounds under the broiler before placing them on top of the soup, they soaked up some of the soup as we broke them apart with our spoon, but they kept their crunchy exterior.

The beef stock is not from 2010 as the jar lid would indicate, I just didn't cross out the '10 when I crossed out the Apple Juice label. The beef stock was made back in January and placed in the freezer, it almost looks like chicken stock in its frozen state. I find stock to be very easy to make and freeze or can, for later use. In fact all the necessary ingredients can be placed into the crock pot, I can head out to work for the day and come back to a finished full-flavored stock. Toss the bones and vegetables and place the remaining stock in quart jars and into the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, remove the solid piece of fat from off the top, put on a lid and place in the freezer. It is perfectly good for several months.

I really like the finishing touches to this French Onion Soup. I ate it with and without the gratinee, but prefer it with, it balances the soup nicely. A strong flavored Gruyere and Parmesan are perfect with the strong onion flavor. This recipe reminds me of the scene in the movie Julie and Julia, based on the book with the same title by Julie Powell, where Julia Child is practicing chopping onions, with a mound of chopped onions in front of her and tears streaming down her face. I shed a few tears while chopping onions for this recipe. This is my second Julia Child recipe that was not as difficult as I anticipated. This recipe is actually very simple, and both recipes I have tried are very tasty.

French Onion Soup

~adapted barely from Smitten Kitchen where it was adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking~

1 1/2 pounds (about 5 cups) thinly sliced yellow onions

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt, additional to taste

1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 quarts beef stock (preferably homemade)

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used a Viognier, from Cline)

Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

To finish [Gratinee], optional

1 tablespoon grated raw onion

1 cup freshly grated, Parmesan cheese

1 cup grated Gruyere

olive oil to drizzle

approximately 12 1-inch thick rounds of French bread

Heat butter and olive oil on medium-low heat in a large, heavy bottom pot. Add onions, stirring to coat. Cover pot and reduce heat to low, letting them cook and soften for 15 minutes. Now, if you are like me and tend to cry over onions, run your hands under cool water and dry your tears.

After the 15 minutes is up, uncover the pot and turn the heat to medium, add salt and sugar. Saute onions, stirring frequently, for 30 to 40 minutes until they are a deep golden brown. Sprinkle caramelized onions with flour and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the wine in full, then add the stock a little at a time, stirring between additions. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and simmer partially covered for 30 to 40 minutes, skimming any foam that rises to the top so that the soup will remain clear. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if it needs it, just remember, if you finish with the cheese and bread topping, the cheese will be adding salt to the soup, so go easy. Set aside.

If finishing with the Gratinee: Place French bread rounds on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Broil bread rounds until toasted, watch closely. Grate the onion. Mix the two cheeses together.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Arrange six oven-proof bowls or crocks on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bring the soup back to a boil and divide between the crocks. Add to each crock of soup, 1/2 teaspoon grated raw onion and approximately a tablespoon of grated cheese Stir to combine. Place one or two toasted bread rounds on top of each crock of soup and mound as much cheese as you like on top.

Bake soup bowls or crocks on tray for 20 minutes, then preheat broiler. Broil for one or two minutes under the broiler until the top is lightly browned. Enjoy!

Sense of Home / Recipes / Soups

Sunday Stills

2011-04-24T05:00:00.003-05:00

Sense of Home

Inside-Out Mango

A Jar of Applesauce

2011-04-23T09:28:00.000-05:00

Sense of Home

I love finding breakfast on the pantry shelves and eating it right out of the jar.

Chai-Spiced Cheesecake with Ginger Crust

2011-04-22T05:00:00.005-05:00

Sense of Home

My day began with sour milk in my oatmeal and the cat puking on the carpet, after that my expectations for the day were not very high. I had story hours around town and the sky was gloomy and spitting rain as I ran from my car to the preschools. I returned to the library to find an email from a board member saying that a reporter wanted to do another story on our potential building project at 5pm, which meant one more bad photo and incoherent quote; like I said my expectations for the day weren't real high. Arriving home I decided to open one of the jars of chicken noodle soup I canned last fall for dinner, in part to warm up and because I could not muster the energy to do anything more.

The soup was warm and comforting and the sun actually began to peek out as it was setting. My thoughts turned to the weekend and what I might cook or bake, these thoughts are never very far from my mind, but the day was not over and there were evening chores to take care of and preparations for the next days work. Then around 10pm, while watching the local news, I began to page through an old Bon Appetit and came across a recipe for Chai Cheesecake. Both my husband and I enjoy chai tea, those east Indian spices, the hot milk and cream that warms you from the inside out. I was sure this recipe would be a hit, but I turned to my husband anyway and asked what he thought, his response was "Yes!", as if I really needed to ask, of course he would like chai cheesecake, so it was settled, I would make chai cheesecake on the weekend.

Did you know there is black pepper in chai? Likely you did, but I was surprised by this in the ingredient list. Look at all the wonderful spices in this cheesecake. There is even crystallized ginger in the crust. There is no need for a fruit topping on this cake, the flavor is all inside, I added the sliced strawberries for photo color and eye appeal, but they simply are not necessary. This is a creamy, rich cake, I mean 32 ounces of cream cheese, 8 ounces of mascarpone, I sent some home with my daughter and we still had plenty left over to eat on since a thin slice is all you can eat at one time.

Chai-Spiced Cheesecake with Ginger Crust
~Bon Appetit, February 2007~
12 servings

Crust
Nonstick canola oil spray
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup minced crystallized ginger

Filling
4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 8-ounce container mascarpone cheese
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Topping
1 1/3 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To Make the Crust:
Spray a 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 3-inch-high sides with the nonstick spray. Sift the flour, ginger, and salt into a bowl. Then in an electric mixer bowl beat butter and sugar until well blended. Beat in egg yolk and flour mixture, then stir in the crystallized ginger. Gather dough into a ball and on a floured surface flatten into a disk. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a 9-inch round. Carefully transfer the dough to the prepared springform pan. Press onto bottom and 1 1/2- to 2-inches up the side of the pan. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Position oven rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pierce frozen dough crust all over with a fork. Line crust with foil or parchment paper and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until set, about 30 minutes. Remove paper and beans and continue to bake crust until it is just golden brown and cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes, watch closely. Cool crust on rack.

To Make the Filling:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add mascarpone; beat until smooth. Beat in in whole eggs, 1 at a time, then beat in yolks. Add the next 6 ingredients and beat until blended. Transfer filling to cooled crust in pan.

Bake cake for 1 hour. Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees F. and continue to bake until the cake is set around the edges but the center moves slightly when pan is gently shaken (the top of the cake may crack), about 25 to 30 minutes longer, watch closely. Remove cake from oven and increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

To Make the Topping:
Whisk all of the topping ingredients in a small bowl and spread evenly over the top of the cake. Bake until set, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and run a knife around the cake sides. Refrigerate uncovered overnight, then cover and leave chilled until serving.

This dish can be made 2 days ahead.

When Serving:
Remove pan sides. Cut into wedges and serve.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Desserts

This post is shared with Sweets for Saturday.

Sherried Chicken

2011-04-20T05:00:00.003-05:00

Sense of Home

I had taken a whole chicken out of the freezer and as it sat thawing in my refrigerator for a couple days I thought about what I wanted to make with it. Would it be Chicken Tagine with Apricots, Roast Chicken with Lemon and Thyme, or Garlic Roasted Chicken and Vegetables? I was really undecided until the last minute when I saw a 2008 Gourmet recipe for chicken Reisling that started me thinking about a chicken dish that I used to make often, it had sherry, Dijon mustard and cream, most of you probably make a version of this dish and it is always good. Wanting to make a one pot meal with plenty of left overs for the week, I switched it up a little, with good results. In the photo above the skin is removed, I remove it just before eating (unless it is very crisply fried), allowing the skin to add to the flavor of the dish and helping the chicken to stay moist.

The birds we have are locally raised and run about 2.5 to 3 pounds each, so they are not large birds, but they are just right for the two of us. I think it is better to buy chickens whole and cut them up, they are cheaper that way, they taste better (the variety of pieces adds to the flavor of the dish), and you have the option to roast them whole or cut them into pieces, plus eating a variety of cuts provides a variety of nutrients (the dark meat contains more of some vitamins and minerals). Here is a good video by Gourmet on how to cut up a whole chicken. I sectioned the chicken into breasts, thighs, legs, wings and yes that is a neck there. I leave the neck in the pot mainly to add flavor to the juices, however, there is a little meat around those bones if you are so inclined. I lightly browned the chicken in a large pot, then took the pieces out and let them rest on a plate.

Next I caramelized a white onion, sauted minced garlic for a minute, placed the chicken back in the pot, added some sherry (which goes so well with chicken and cream), large pieces of carrot, and into the oven it went. This is where the one pot meal goes awry. I then chopped some potatoes and boiled them, once they were tender and drained I tossed a handful of Italian parsley, gave it a stir and just before serving I added the potatoes, some sour creme, and a splash of lemon to the chicken pot.

Sherried Chicken
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen inspired in part by a Gourmet, March 2008 recipe~
Serves 4

1 whole chicken (about 3 pounds), cut into 8 serving pieces
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 large carrots, chopped in thirds diagonally
1/2 cup medium-dry sherry (not cooking sherry)
4 medium-sized red potatoes, peeled and cut to 1 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley
2/3 cup sour cream
Fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Dry chicken pieces with a paper towel to prevent splatter when placing them in the oil. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat oil and butter in a large oven-proof pot over medium-high heat. Brown chicken in a single layer, turning once, doing so in batches if necessary. Transfer to a plate, reserving 2 tablespoons fat.

Saute sliced onion over medium heat in the same pot using the reserved fat, until they begin to caramelize, add garlic and saute for one minute more. Return chicken and collected juices to the pot and add carrots and sherry, simmer uncovered for 3 minutes. Cover and place in preheated oven and braise for approximately 25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and carrots are fork tender.

While chicken cooks boil potatoes in salted water until they are just tender. Drain and return potatoes to the saucepan. Add parsley and gently stir to coat.

Once chicken is cooked stir in sour cream and potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to taste.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Main Dishes

Maple Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

2011-04-18T05:00:00.005-05:00

Sense of Home

I worked a forty hour week, then a full weekend, followed by a 12 hour Monday, a 10 hour Tuesday, and then finished off the week with eight hour days. In the middle of all that craziness I went to the nursing home to help my Grandmother with her lunch. I haven't mentioned it before, but my 96 year old Grandmother went into a nursing home this winter. She now cannot eat without help and the wonderful staff at the home help her when my mother or I are not able to come, but usually at noon my mother stops by to help her with lunch and I have taken my turn. I brought a simple sandwich made with this bread and ate my lunch while also helping her to eat hers. This woman who raised 6 children, countless chickens, grew a huge garden and canned it's produce, helped to run a farm, for years used a wringer washer and hung clothes on the line to freeze-dry in winter even though her hands grew so cold they were stiff and hurt, cooked three square meals for her large family and farm-hands, now needs someone else to help her with the very basic of needs. She feels useless, and wishes she could still be active, and yet, even when I am so busy and feel stressed and rushed I find that while I spend time with her I begin to feel myself relax and I always come away feeling very calm, she has more worth than she will ever know.

Baking bread has a similar calming effect, kneading bread dough is therapeutic, working out the stress of a too long week. Yeast is a live, single-celled fungus, most of us are familiar with the beige granules we buy in packets or jars, this organism lies dormant until it comes into contact with warm water, in effect waking up the yeast and turning it into a bubbling brew. Add flour and the yeast begins to feed on the sugars in the flour, releasing carbon dioxide and causing the bread to rise. Yeast adds much to that fresh baked aroma and flavor so many of us love. It takes time, kneading the dough, letting it rise, kneading again, and letting it rise again. I like working with my hands to knead and stretch the dough, working the proteins in the wheat flour, which combined with water form gluten, the hand work allows time for my mind to wander and work out building maintenance issues, work schedules, and brain-storm future programs. I begin to feel myself relax and end the process feeling calmer than when I began, similar to the calm that comes over me while visiting my Grandmother.

Maple-Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from a February 2008 Bon Appetit recipe~
Makes 1 loaf

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (105 degrees F. to 115 degrees F.)
1 tablespoon yeast (or 1 packet)
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (grade B)
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon salt

Combine warm water and yeast and let set for 5 minutes to activate the yeast. Place egg, butter, maple syrup, maple extract, and yeast mixture into a heavy-duty mixer. Stir with paddle until combined. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. Attach a dough hook onto the mixer and beat at a low speed while gradually adding dry ingredients, scraping down bowl occasionally. Beat until dough is smooth and pulls cleanly away from bowl, adding more flour by 1/4 cupfuls if dough is very sticky. Scrape dough from hook and turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead dough for 10 to 15 minutes. Place back into bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap and towel. Let rise in a warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Butter a 9x5x3-inch metal loaf pan. Butter sheet of plastic wrap. Scrape dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth, about 2 minutes. Shape into 8x3-inch log. Place in prepared pan; cover loosely with prepared plastic, buttered side down. Let dough rise in a warm draft-free area until center is 1 1/2 inches higher than pan, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Gently pull plastic off dough. Place bread in oven; bake until deep golden, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the bread; turn out of pan. Cool completely on a rack.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Bread

Sunday Stills

2011-04-17T05:00:00.003-05:00

Sense of Home

Sunset

Lemon Butter Cookies

2011-04-15T05:00:00.002-05:00

Sense of Home

There were lemons galore at the grocery store I shop at, they had them in bins just inside the entry way, by the fish, and over in the produce section. No doubt they got a good deal on them because they were priced low. Not all were organic though, just one bin in the produce section, I wanted to use the zest, so I snagged a few of the organic lemons. I was thinking of making either a lemon cookie or maybe even a lemon cake.

Well, I was short on time and I do love cookies, so the cake would have to wait for another day. I saw several lemon cookie recipes, but none of them were quite what I had in mind, I wanted a really lemony taste, so in the end I made a butter cookie and added lemon zest, lemon juice, and a really fine lemon extract.

According to a Purdue University research paper the true home of the lemon is unknown, though it has been linked to northwestern India. Gradually spreading through the area, the fruit was prized for its medicinal virtues in Egypt and Syria around 1174 - 1193 A.D. A few centuries later Christopher Columbus carried the seeds to Hispaniola in 1493. They have grown in California since the mid-1700s and in Florida since the mid-1800s though a devastating freeze in northern Florida the winter of 1894-95 halted commercial production until 1953. It was a long journey, but I am glad to see this yellow citrus in the bins at my local grocery store as I'm sure most people are. Although I like to eat oranges, lemons are my favorite citrus, I crave that strong acidic flavor with its pucker power, I have been known to eat a fresh wedge of lemon.

These cookies can be baked as drop cookies or rolled, chilled, and sliced as refrigerator cookies, providing fresh baked cookies all week.

Lemon Butter Cookies
~from the Sense of Home kitchen~
Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons lemon extract
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. Add eggs, lemon extract, and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together, add lemon peel and stir into butter mixture.

For drop cookies:
Drop by spoonfuls on baking sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes in a 350 degree F. oven.

For refrigerator cookies:
Dust work surface with flour. Roll dough into two or three cylinders, depending on how many cookies you want to bake at a time. Wrap dough cylinders in plastic, chill in refrigerator for up to a week. To bake, cut dough cylinder into 1/2 inch slices and bake at 350 degrees F. for approximately 13 minutes.

Store cookies in air tight container for one week or store in the freezer for up to one month.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Cookies

Chicken Curry Soup

2011-04-13T05:00:00.001-05:00

Sense of Home

Yes, I know, it is not soup season anymore, but I would argue that this is an island soup, where it is always warm, and the spice can make a person sweat, producing a cooling effect. Plus I love soup and I think it is always soup season so I actually went in search of a spicy soup recipe.

I've had this can of coconut milk in my pantry for a while now, can't remember the recipe that prompted me to purchase it or why I did not use it when I bought it, but, there it was, sitting between the beans and the chicken stock looking a little lonely. I would need chicken for this recipe, so out came a whole chicken from the freezer, neck and all. This would provide both the chicken and the stock for the soup. Though I needed to cook some chicken, this recipe would actually be a good way to use up left over chicken.

The Fresno pepper has the same level of heat as does the jalapeno pepper. They are bright green as they grow, turning orange or red once they have fully matured. I chose to use this pepper both for the amount of heat it would deliver and the color. I believe adding a variety of colors to a dish provides eye appeal, making the dish taste better, not to mention a variety of colors provides a variety of nutrients in our diet.

Chicken Curry Soup

~From the Sense of Home kitchen; adapted from Bon Appetit, August 1993~

Serves 4

2 cups chicken stock

1 13 1/2- to 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 tablespoon curry powder

1 Fresno chili pepper, minced

2 cups cooked, chopped chicken
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

For Garnish:
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup freshly cooked white rice
Lime wedges

Bring chicken stock, coconut milk, curry powder, and chili to a simmer in a heavy medium-sized pot over medium heat. Simmer for 10 minutes, add chicken and continue to simmer as chicken warms and flavors blend, about 5 minutes. Mix in lime juice; season with salt and pepper.

Spoon rice into individual soup bowls, ladle soup over rice and garnish with green onion and cilantro. Serve lime wedges separately.

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