Stovetop popcorn

I've been watching a couple episodes of Jim Henson's story tellers here and there, amongst all the other crazy crap I get into.  I've never seen them before, and I'm entranced by them.  I think I remember being petrified by the opening sequence with the raven.  The series came out when I was just six.  At the moment, I'm actually quite glad I did miss them as a child.  I would not have been capable of really appreciating them at that age.  It's nice to see them fresh, so no, I don't feel I had a deprived childhood for not seeing them.  I mean, at least I saw the princess bride when it came out, and american tale, and the ninja turtles.  I didn't see many of Henson's heavier works until much later.  Labyrinth I was 17, Dark Crystal I was 20 when I first saw those.

I also finished my faucet and plugged large-ish holes from pipes that were in the hardwood floor I'm working on.  And I got some laundry and dishes done, and layed in the sun for a considerable span of time.  Anyways, here's the sink.  Note the actual water actually coming out of the tap.  Hehe.

Did you ever wish you could make just one serving of popcorn?  I don't know about you, but I find the microwave packages a problem.  You can't eat it all without feeling disgusting, and you can't save it for later.  Also, wouldn't it be nice to be able to flavor your popcorn however you like?

But we've been lead to believe that popping our own corn requires contraptions.  Expensive and hard to store contraptions.  Good news - it's not so!  All you need is a pot with a lid, in actuality.

Stovetop popcorn
(makes one serving, and no more, just small bowl full)
(sorry my pot is a little scorched from this, but a little steel wool pad takes it right up, I just didn't bother before the pictures)

Pour about 3 tablespoons olive oil into the pot
put 1/4 cup popping corn in
Set stovetop to very lowest heat
All told this takes about 8 minutes.
The trick is to cut the heat and set the lid ajar as soon as the popping slows.  Any longer and it will scorch.

Using a sloted serving spoon, put the popped corn in a bowl.  Then flavor it if you like, it's also great plain.  My two favorite flavors are below.  Regular butter and salt, or maple pie!

Flavoring as regular butter and salt:
Place the thinnest sliver of butter you can manage on top while it's still pipping hot, and/or salt.  Stir just a little to distribute the butter and salt to all the corn.

Flavoring as maple pie!
While still pipping hot, drizzle about 1 teaspoon maple syrup on top of the popcorn, and stir to distribute.  Then sprinkle just a little apple pie spice on top and stir again.

I hope you love this as much as I do!

Recipe organizing

I think it's kind of sad that I still need my recipe book for my own creations.  I've made Flapjacks a-la glutenless probably three hundred times, but I can't get past the first step before I'm going "Crap, wait, what do I do next again?  Where's that darn recipe book?"

I guess at least I still remember how to start it.  Cook grits with butter, add Xanthan, then......   I dunno!  I'll have to look.  Something to do with eggs, and milk and corn flour, and maybe some other stuff, too.  And I scutter off to find the recipe book.

So I was thinking maybe I'd show you how I keep my recipes organized.  For me, what keeps me organized is being able to quickly reference, having a table of contents, and keeping the cards protected from spills.  The cards are supposed to say how to make the food, not have the ingredients of the food all over them and obscuring the words!

You'll need a cheep photo book, small permanent marker, your recipe cards, and two blank cards.

Here's my photo book.  It was $2, doesn't have to be anything fancy.

Add page numbers

Inside write the page number on each page (above) then create a table of contents (below) and fill in your recipe cards accordingly.  If you have a lot of recipes it helps to have a couple photo books by topic.

Table of contents

Ok, so that said, the flapjacks were definitely a success!  Yay.  See, I forget to eat sometimes, so this was kinda late in the day.  Oops.

AND, when I finished the flapjacks, I was full.  So I added two pinches of baking powder, and puta dab of butter in each of three teflon cupcake molds and put the batter in there.  (Aren't those just the cutest darned things you've ever seen?)  They came out great!  I want to try making them cheesy.

More related to the pancakes, wouldn't you know that Log Cabin came out with something I can eat!!  Nice! Carmel coloring is the bane of my existence because it's commonly derived from barley (and malt is too) and so I've been having to spend more than I'd like to for real maple syrup.  It's great, I love it and all, but when I was a kid I loved smothering each pancake in butter, stacking them up, and then drowning them in syrup.  That's an expensive habit to continue when syrup costs at least a buck an ounce.  This 22oz bottle has not corn syrup, and is the same price as a 9oz bottle of real maple!  Good deal!!

Pretty roses all over in the garden!

And I wore my Rolling Stones t-shirt today and picked a lot of  "early garlic" because I've got WAY too much garlic around.  If you know me and want some, just say so, it's ridiculous.

And my kitchen sink is busted.  I'll soon be displaying my skills with plumbing.... sigh.  It was quite the geyser of hot water, I got soaked.

Have a great night, all!!

Icing (for a cake)

So first I should note that the only special ingredient that I keep on hand at all times is Coconut flour.  I get it at amazon.com because it really isn't carried in any stores.  It's always in my freezer because it makes the best cakes and stuff.  I don't need much, just a bit, killer good.

So July 9th we are celebrating the "triple mega birthday" in my family.  My little brother is turning 21 in late June, Dad turning 60 the 9th and me 30 on the 10th.  So we figure we better celebrate kinda big.

So as the date arrives I'll have a couple recipes for sweets.  Why?  Because if I don't make it, I don't get any!

But honestly there's some great gluten free cake mixes out there these days.  That's less of a problem unless you really feel like having something special.... or if you're bored with the mixes your store carries.

The real problem is icing!  Well... the real problem is modified food starch.  It's getting more common for companies to specify what "food" they have modified the starch from.  So modified corn starch is safe.  But the cheapest starch to modify is from wheat, so if it just says "food" it's probably not safe.  And almost all icing has modified food starch.  Especially the sugar free stuff.  Ugh, glutenless it is not.

So I have two icings for you.  One is decadent and more fattening than you can shake a stick at, the other is smooth and delicious and can be made diabetic friendly.

Okay, so decadence in the form of Mint Chocolate Chip Icing that tastes like the ice cream.....

Cream together:
3 packages (8 oz size) cream cheese
2 cups brown sugar

Stir in 1 Tablespoon peppermint extract
Stir in 1 cup mini dark chocolate chips.


And this one can be made sugar free - pudding icing.


In 3/4 cup skim milk
dissolve 1 package instant pudding (again, watch out for modified food starch)
I used white chocolate flavor last time, pick your favorite, and to make it diabetic friendly, use sugar free instant pudding.
Beat until mostly smooth, the tiny bumps will smooth naturally with a little time


Add 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Beat on increasing speed from low to high as it thickens


It's really fun to put one thin layer of icing on, then put diced strawberries down and put another layer of icing on top!  I did this in the image below, then put slices on top as decoration.  

The reason that counter top isn't ugly is because it's my mom's counter, at Easter.  This was my easter cake.


Either of these recipes thickly ice a 9" round or thinly ices a 9x12 cake.

So it's about to storm and I gots to go to bed!  'Night all!

On cupboards and companionship

Really, does anybody else feel like the combination of a garden, house, bird and cat are more than enough companionship?  They sure do keep me busy!  Gardens are the best companions.  If only they could help with the chores, that's the only thing that would make them better.  If they could help with chores and projects I would want for nothing.  I love being here.

Cozy spots

Food

 

Beautiful blooms

 

Gorgeous views

And a wonderful dose of dirt, weeds and any other sort of soul food I could think of.

And this is all just today!

As for the house, my hardwood floor project has sure been keeping me busy too (which I'll share here eventually, like when it's done and I can show all at once).

The bird makes for nice music, he's a canary and a fine singer.  The cat is a silly talkative little bugger wanting constant attention.

So I was thinking it might be good to review some of the basics I keep in the cupboard for baking and cooking!  Starting with the easy basics and followed by some special occasion stuffs.

• Corn flour (Make sure it's really wheat free, most are mixes, and watch out for cross contamination on the shelf.  I've done well with Hodgesons, and they're non-GMO too.  The local Save-a-lot also has "Maseca" generic brand tortilla flour and that's done well for me too and is a finer texture which is nice, plus it's super cheep.)
• Grits
• Eggs
• Milk
• Olive Oil
• Baking Powder
• Xanthan Gum (crumbliness preventer, readily available in any store that has an organic section, mostly the stores around here stock Bob's Red Mill brand.  It's about $12 a little bag, and that will last forever, keep it in the freezer.)
• Brown Sugar
• Baking Cocoa
• Peanut butter
• Apples
• Garden Produce of course!!

Having said all that, did anyone else ever have their junior high home economics teacher tell them there's a safety reason the microwave beeps??  If you went to my junior high then sorry, but I know you had the same teacher.  On being questioned I became completely unsure of the soundness of her warning.

According to our home ec. teacher, and I don't remember her name, it is not safe to open the microwave before it's done beeping.  She said this is because the beeps are set to stop only after all the microwaves have cleared from the cooking area.  If you open it too soon then the waves will get out and get you, she said!  I'm not sure at all if this is bogus.  Does anyone have some input?

Well anyways, have a great night!!

Apple Chicken in the crock

So this is something I make so often it's ridiculous.  Why wouldn't I make it so often, it's really ridiculously easy and wonderfully delicious.

Apple chicken has 3 steps.

Step one: put apples in the bottom of the crock.  Apples absorb and distribute the heat so you can have evenly cooked meats.

Step two: put any bone-in chicken on top.  Here I used thighs.  Legs or split breasts are also great.  Boneless chicken comes out looking a little odd, but still tastes great, so that's up to you.  I also added coriander seed on top.

Step Three: 10 to 11 hours (with lid on of course) on high.  Done!

Yes, that's really it!  So yummy!  So easy!  Love it, can't be beat.  I recently switched to a timed crock, which makes this even easier.  I highly recommend the upgrade to timer for anyone who uses a crock pot relatively frequently.