Something I've been making frequently recently is a desert I may as well call Hot Black Currant Jam.
1.5Cup black currants from freezer (I guess I'll be using fresh ones soon.)
1/4 to 1/2Cup dark brown sugar
1/4Cup water
Put on low simmer and cook down till it's not watery. Everything caramelizes. Lovely tart desert. This makes enough for two. Honestly, the tartness is a lot for a tummy to handle all at once, so make half the amount if you're only feeding one person... your tummy might not be so happy with you if you eat 2 people worth :)
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Have you noticed that my recipes are always estimates? Honest, I never measure things. I measure for you, specifically. That's a lot of extra work, is what I think. For my own purposes, I just look at it and say "that's about right" and keep on going. You can't screw this up. Oh, you could burn it, yeah, but the ingredients and proportions are so forgiving!
~ ~ ~
Right now I'm making beef and collards. When I get ground beef, I cut it into cubes and freeze it for later placing it on a skillet. So I put collards from the freezer, and a cube of ground beef into the freezer and flipped things over until everything's cooked through. Usually the collards have to come off the skillet first.
I ran out of frozen cabbage cubes because those are my preferred combination in this skillet food. Beef and cabbage (red or white) skilleted together are fantastic and caramelize so nicely - which is kind of the idea with veggies and skillets, I think!
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Federally madated minimum milk cost
The federally mandated minimum cost for milk had created an interesting effect at Aldi...
A half gallon of almond milk at Aldi is currently similar in price to the same quantity of cow milk next to it on the shelf!
I don't know about your Aldi, but at mine, the cow milk is usually expiring "today" or "tomorrow" - which is fine for a half gallon, what I don't drink I'll cook with. But with a full gallon, that's an impossible time frame.
Almond milk at Aldi is great, and doesn't expire for a couple months! Really. I don't like refined sugar, I've become quite adapted to the taste of raw dark brown sugar, so I don't like the flavored ones, but my friends do, so they must be pretty good for the normal palate. I like the non-flavored! And I treat it just like my usual milk. You'll find it either in the dairy section or in the section near the fancy cheeses, depending on your store.
Very Yummy.
Just thought I'd let you all know.
A half gallon of almond milk at Aldi is currently similar in price to the same quantity of cow milk next to it on the shelf!
I don't know about your Aldi, but at mine, the cow milk is usually expiring "today" or "tomorrow" - which is fine for a half gallon, what I don't drink I'll cook with. But with a full gallon, that's an impossible time frame.
Almond milk at Aldi is great, and doesn't expire for a couple months! Really. I don't like refined sugar, I've become quite adapted to the taste of raw dark brown sugar, so I don't like the flavored ones, but my friends do, so they must be pretty good for the normal palate. I like the non-flavored! And I treat it just like my usual milk. You'll find it either in the dairy section or in the section near the fancy cheeses, depending on your store.
Very Yummy.
Just thought I'd let you all know.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Kitties + garden + arm therapy progress
This has nothing to do with cooking. Lol. I'm okay with that. I think you'll live, too. Hehe.
First, CAT IN A BAG!
And My garden is sweetness! I provide you here with a short, unorganized, rambling tour. Hope you enjoy! Lol.
And did I tell you I broke my arm in February? Well that explains my disappearance a bit, doesn't it? Couldn't really type! Lol. I'm doing great, building muscle and getting strong again. Been having my chiropractor coordinate my therapy, he is really helping, it's going great. I'm enjoying playing around with 3 and 5 pound weights and hope to be able to lift my kayak to the car roof soon!
First, CAT IN A BAG!
And My garden is sweetness! I provide you here with a short, unorganized, rambling tour. Hope you enjoy! Lol.
And did I tell you I broke my arm in February? Well that explains my disappearance a bit, doesn't it? Couldn't really type! Lol. I'm doing great, building muscle and getting strong again. Been having my chiropractor coordinate my therapy, he is really helping, it's going great. I'm enjoying playing around with 3 and 5 pound weights and hope to be able to lift my kayak to the car roof soon!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Things I put together (1)
Apparently I've been making this too much work for myself. Since I dip out the planted blogosphere for spans of a month just to pop up and say "nope, not dead" and recede again into places unknown.
NEW SERIES?? Maybe?
Things I put together. Because I'm eating soup. And who the heck would think to put this stuff together is what I always hear.
Warning - this stuff is largely from my garden. I need to be more proud of that! Yet I look at the ingredient list and I think "nobody else in the world is gonna have this stuff! Ever!" So, yeah, farmer's market? In-season yummies? Farm-shares? I seriously don't know. What I do is walk paths in the garden and pick stuff.
What did I put together today?
Last night I soaked a combo of black beans and black eyed peas. Drained and rinsed them.
In a stock pot.
One large soup bone chunk.
(I love the meats department at Khun's - an odd little grocery chain here in PA)
I browned the meat on the meaty half of the bone.
Added the beans that were all soaked and rinsed and ready.
And a bunch of water.
Then out to the garden!
Radishes
Bulb tops from my 'walking onions'
Let me see if I have a pictures of this species...
I do! It's the little reddish bulb looking tops that I snapped off and threw in. :)
Then to the freezer!
Sunchoke slices (I really don't recommend freezing these, grow them in pots or raised beds and they harvest from under the snow just fine! And taste way better. But this was a couple years past failure. Needed used up.)
Cooking cook cookness.
Soup! Yum.
What will I do next?
Strain some of this out, wrap it up in some of the red cabbage leaves I have frozen, and wrap the soup mix into the leaves for stuffed cabbage yummies and bake it at something like 300 for an hour or something.
Hey! That was fun! And easy!
NEW SERIES?? Maybe?
Things I put together. Because I'm eating soup. And who the heck would think to put this stuff together is what I always hear.
Warning - this stuff is largely from my garden. I need to be more proud of that! Yet I look at the ingredient list and I think "nobody else in the world is gonna have this stuff! Ever!" So, yeah, farmer's market? In-season yummies? Farm-shares? I seriously don't know. What I do is walk paths in the garden and pick stuff.
What did I put together today?
Last night I soaked a combo of black beans and black eyed peas. Drained and rinsed them.
In a stock pot.
One large soup bone chunk.
(I love the meats department at Khun's - an odd little grocery chain here in PA)
I browned the meat on the meaty half of the bone.
Added the beans that were all soaked and rinsed and ready.
And a bunch of water.
Then out to the garden!
Radishes
Bulb tops from my 'walking onions'
Let me see if I have a pictures of this species...
I do! It's the little reddish bulb looking tops that I snapped off and threw in. :)
Then to the freezer!
Sunchoke slices (I really don't recommend freezing these, grow them in pots or raised beds and they harvest from under the snow just fine! And taste way better. But this was a couple years past failure. Needed used up.)
Cooking cook cookness.
Soup! Yum.
What will I do next?
Strain some of this out, wrap it up in some of the red cabbage leaves I have frozen, and wrap the soup mix into the leaves for stuffed cabbage yummies and bake it at something like 300 for an hour or something.
Hey! That was fun! And easy!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Primary Ingredients!
The primary ingredients to my gluten free life, this is basically my GF life in a bullet pointed nut shell!
instinct
Shit, did I burn that?
My garden
Taste contrast... some of the craziest things work!
Freaking busy schedule
zero disposable income cuz I'm poor
Aw, man, I didn't turn the stove off!
Slow cooker, slow cooker, slow cooker!
Eating the same thing several days in a row. Often.
Forgetting to eat on weekends
Living off of hot cocoa, basically.
Realizing I'm hungry at midnight
forgetting I have so much amazing stuff in the chest freezer
investigating the chest freezer... again.
Shortcuts. LOTS of shortcuts. As many shortcuts as possible.
Eating what I burned.
Seeing the adventure in the act of of feeding myself
Listening to lengthy involved recipes that people want to share with me.
Remembering two key ingredients of that recipe, forgetting the rest, and succeeding!
Failing.
Eating my failures. Often.
Thinking "I have this, and that... hmmmm?" and ending up with good food.
Microwaving water. Milk. Radishes. Stuff. It's a shortcut.
Never ever ever doing dishes before the crisis stage.
Vinegar. Mmmm Hmmmm. Oh, and olive oil.
Skillets! Yes! Skillets!
Oversized bowls in the microwave so things don't bubble over.
Soaking beans.
Going to the little grocer to see their cool meat cuts!
Freezing things that shouldn't be frozen, and skipping blanching entirely.
If I can't put a shortcut on the time invested, then I better shortcut the price.
Being cheap. Yeah. Can't afford to be any other way.
Spending a lot of time not-in-my-house.
Asking the cats to help me catch up with my chores. Yeah, it's that bad.
Going and checking the chest freezer again.
Digging through the mass of stuff in the regular freezer.
Washing the dish I need. The pan I need. The crockpot I need.
Putting things out to get rained on. On purpose. And forgetting them.
Herbs! Fresh from the garden! Or fresh from the kitchen pot! All year, yay.
I dunno. Other stuff too.
Well, that was fun, wasn't it?
I have pictures to show you how to make your own super laundry soap for pennies a bottle! Woah. Need to post those for you guys. :) And the garden is awesome. Um.... strawberries! The cats are great, too!
instinct
Shit, did I burn that?
My garden
Taste contrast... some of the craziest things work!
Freaking busy schedule
zero disposable income cuz I'm poor
Aw, man, I didn't turn the stove off!
Slow cooker, slow cooker, slow cooker!
Eating the same thing several days in a row. Often.
Forgetting to eat on weekends
Living off of hot cocoa, basically.
Realizing I'm hungry at midnight
forgetting I have so much amazing stuff in the chest freezer
investigating the chest freezer... again.
Shortcuts. LOTS of shortcuts. As many shortcuts as possible.
Eating what I burned.
Seeing the adventure in the act of of feeding myself
Listening to lengthy involved recipes that people want to share with me.
Remembering two key ingredients of that recipe, forgetting the rest, and succeeding!
Failing.
Eating my failures. Often.
Thinking "I have this, and that... hmmmm?" and ending up with good food.
Microwaving water. Milk. Radishes. Stuff. It's a shortcut.
Never ever ever doing dishes before the crisis stage.
Vinegar. Mmmm Hmmmm. Oh, and olive oil.
Skillets! Yes! Skillets!
Oversized bowls in the microwave so things don't bubble over.
Soaking beans.
Going to the little grocer to see their cool meat cuts!
Freezing things that shouldn't be frozen, and skipping blanching entirely.
If I can't put a shortcut on the time invested, then I better shortcut the price.
Being cheap. Yeah. Can't afford to be any other way.
Spending a lot of time not-in-my-house.
Asking the cats to help me catch up with my chores. Yeah, it's that bad.
Going and checking the chest freezer again.
Digging through the mass of stuff in the regular freezer.
Washing the dish I need. The pan I need. The crockpot I need.
Putting things out to get rained on. On purpose. And forgetting them.
Herbs! Fresh from the garden! Or fresh from the kitchen pot! All year, yay.
I dunno. Other stuff too.
Well, that was fun, wasn't it?
I have pictures to show you how to make your own super laundry soap for pennies a bottle! Woah. Need to post those for you guys. :) And the garden is awesome. Um.... strawberries! The cats are great, too!
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