Apple Butter 2013

I slept until 9 this morning, but that didn't stop me from having apple butter assembled in the crock pot by 10.

The family starting peeling and chopping and we had the crock pot full of apple chunks.

My daughter scooped about a tablespoon of local raw honey into the pot with some cinnamon and ground cloves. I poured in some lemon juice. We set it on high, put the lid on, and stirred it every hour.

At 1 p.m. we had applesauce and I scooped it out to have with lunch.

The whole house smells like apples and the flavor was delightful but a tad tart. We used Jonagolds from a local farm.

By 4 p.m., the applesauce had turned a lovely caramel color and I removed the crockpot lid so more liquid can evaporate. As soon as the liquid boils off, I can process in a hot water bath.

After about seven hours, the last hour with the lid off, I loaded the dishwasher with my Ball jars and got the hot water bath ready.

It's been about eight hours now and the dishwasher is approaching the rinse cycle and the apple butter looks like this:

My daughter is getting so adept at filling jars, I couldn't keep up! She also ate the last jar-- you know the one that wasn't quite full enough to process?

Baked omelet

Since our chicken sitting adventure began, we have received 31 eggs (I think)    from our feathered friends. 

We've had a round of fried egg sandwiches and then last night husband made chocolate chip cookies.

Tonight we got home from a long day at work and I had dinner all planned. Preheat oven to 400.

We toasted the last six slices of Pepperidge Farm rye bread and put some sweet potato fries on the cookie sheet.

We whisked about eight eggs (we lost count), added a little cold water and whisked some more. I got a 11x7 Pyrex pan and swiped it with some oil. 

In the bottom of the pan I poured the remaining bruschetta we made a few days ago. I sprinkled lots of local broccoli    on top. Poured the egg mix on top of that. Added some of last night's roasted peppers here and there. 

Put it in the oven.

The fries needed to be flipped after 12 minutes. About five minutes after that, I pulled the omelet out of the oven and sprinkled some tiny pieces of extra sharp cheddar on the top and seasoned it all with fresh ground four-color pepper, a touch of garlic powder and some Italian seasoning. I returned it to the oven for five more minutes.

I ate my portion on the rye bread like a sandwich, complete with horseradish sauce.

The bruschetta really made the vegetables zesty and juicy. This was incredible.

Garden Taco Night

I am happiest when I am cooking. I don't mean that when I cook I become happy, I mean that when I am happy I cook. And I do good stuff. Not the eat for survival stuff. 

The chicken sitting adventure is going well. We got 18 eggs today and rushed home and made thick egg sandwiches on rye before school.

I whipped up some soft taco filling: ground beef, beans that I made today not from a can, the last batch of corn preserved from a local farm last year and diced pepper from the lady who owns the chickens.

Spices for the batch include paprika, cumin, chili powder, hot chili powder and garlic powder. I use a lot of each, to taste.

First day with the chickens

Like true farmers, we woke really early today and left the house at 6:45 to care for our temporary wards, the chickens. The chickens' "momma" left us broccoli, beets, squash, tomatoes and a rainbow of peppers for payment. Yum!

It's raining today. So that provided some fun as we fed and watered chickens and gathered eggs. We only found seven eggs today and one little lady was not getting up from her nest. Can't blame her. I don't want to get out of bed on a rainy Monday either.

Pictures probably tell the story better than words so...

Chicken-sitting

A friend of a friend is heading to a conference in Pittsburgh and needs someone to care for her chickens. I thought it'd be a great lesson for my nine-year-old.

We headed out to the farm this morning for our chicken care primer and the chickens had laid 4 eggs since their owner had gathered eggs earlier in the day. So my daughter collected them-- still warm! 

We brought them home, washed them and made a big broccoli-tomato omelet. The tomato came from our garden.

Lasagne soup

The title is a joke.

I made lasagne in a bread loaf pan because I only had 8 no boil lasagne noodles.

So I layered plain sauce, noodles, ricotta from Klein Farm, heaps of spinach, some garlic powder and some Italian seasoning.

I didn't do the egg and multiple cheese thing. Wanted to keep the dairy to a minimum and keep the recipe quick.

It was tasty even if it was soupy.

Farm visit

Spent $41.25 (thank you, Mr. Visa) at Klein Farm today.

Smoogurt (their yogurt smoothies) were buy one, get one free so I bought 2 blueberry, one egg nog and one vanilla maple.

I got a pound of bacon.

The medium jar of unprocessed local raw honey, a quart.

A pint of raw milk.

Garlic pepper cheddar.

Ricotta.

And a dozen jumbo eggs.

Crazy Southwest Pizza

I saw something similar to this on the back of a can of Del Monte corn at work.

I made one of my multigrain pizza crusts, this one with organic white flour, unbleached white flour, whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, sorghum flour, and corn meal.

For the sauce, we used Archer Farm raspberry salsa. Then we piled on spinach, pinto beans thawed from the freezer, and leftover turkey.

Someone ate all the black olives so that's out.

We topped with some of my home-canned corn salsa and a cup of grated cheddar cheese from the farm. We intentionally kept the cheese minimal because of girlie's ears.

It's now baking and before I serve I'm going to sprinkle with the crumbs of organic blue corn tortilla chips.

Sunday Reflections

Food is such a vital part of our lives, and since I'm finishing school, interning at USAID, trying to be productive on the library board, and laying out the GLVWG newsletter, I'm stressed. Oh, I forgot my job at Target and the job hunt. Two interviews this week.

I decided that since I'm stressed, I'm making an extra effort to eat more whole and less processed food. I have a tendency to eat less healthy when I'm stressed and then my physical performance suffers.

This week I ate a lot of salad wraps. Homemade apple butter. Fresh feta from our favorite deli.

Today I stopped at Nature's Way for some funky flours-- some gluten free, others not. My family doesn't have gluten issues but many of the gluten-free recipes incorporate a better balance of carbohydrates/protein than wheat.

I have a long history if requiring a certain blend of carbohydrates and protein with lots of good veggies to keep from self-destructing. I experience incredible weakness if I skip meals that can't be fixed without hearty protein. Testing my blood sugar reveals that it's "fine," but that I feel ravenously hungry with a blood sugar of 90.

Anyway, my adventures with flour hopefully will start with multigrain biscuits.

Then we went to Kline Farm where I got yogurt, dill Colby, a huge pumpkin, apple cider, ground beef, sausage and pork chops.

I planned to make a "quick" 4 course meal before I go to work, and realized I must be delusional.

We started with a salad and big glass of water.

Next I heated my spiced apples in my skillet with pecans and butter and served with vanilla ice cream.

Now I'm frying pork chops in the same skillet I warmed the apples to capitalize on any apple flavor. I'm also heating corn we froze off the cob this summer.

Apple Butter, part one

I have wanted to make my own apple butter for a long time. My daughter loves the stuff. I occasionally like it. My husband is not real fond of it. So if I buy it, it often goes moldy.

We have awesome apple orchards locally so the idea of canning our own apple butter makes sense.

We can preserve the butter in smaller jars that won't spoil before we use it.

I found a recipe online using the crock pot, from Simply Canning, a canner I also follow on Facebook: http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-apple-butter.html

My Better Homes and Gardens canning book also has a standard on the stove recipe, but that one requires lots of liquid. The crock pot version has no liquid.

We overfilled the crock pot with chunks of fresh apples. 6 pounds seems to be the estimate provided on the recipes. I added a few splashes of local apple cider, a few splashes lemon juice, some local raw honey (about 1/4 cup) and spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and just a pinch of ginger.

The Simply Canning web site says to cook on high one hour, stirring, and leave on low overnight. By morning you should be able to whisk instead of stir.

We've almost done loading the crock pot.

Fall!

Today we ran out to Kline Farm to get honey, eggs & yogurt. While I was there I also grabbed some bacon and a pound of local grass fed beef that came from a farmer with whom I used to serve on the Penn State Cooperative extension board in my county.

Then I also grabbed a gallon of apple cider from a local orchard. So we've been drinking a lot of hot apple cider with fresh ground cinnamon.

For dinner, there was a family effort to make burgers from the beef, which we served on tortillas with fresh spinach, garden tomato, and our own lemon pickles. Sides included homemade French fries and roasted cauliflower.

Man, am I stuffed.

More pickling

The first jar of solar pickles lasted less than 2 days. Child and I decided to repeat the experiment, using up our leftover farm fresh cucumbers and carrots.

We used one pint sized ball jar for each.

Ingredients
(in the order we put them in the jar)

In the cuke jar
- a big handful of dill from the garden
- between 1/2 and 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground salt
- 3/4 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3/4 of a large farm fresh cucumber, sliced, and artfully stuffed into jar
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- fill half the jar with apple cider vinegar
- add 2 teaspoons It's a Dilly (I'm hoping the lemon flavor will add some pizzazz to my pickles)
- fill the rest of the jar with water
SHAKE

For the carrots:
- large amounts of dill from the garden
- 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground salt
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- carrots, in sticks, to fill jar
- fill half of jar with apple cider vinegar
- fill the rest of the jar with water

Farmers' Markets

Today, my family and I went with my friend Gayle to meet other friends, Kev and Tracy, at the Collegeville and then Phoenixville Farmers Markets.

I spent a total of $39, which includes some contributing to parking and a almond milk/ green tea/ some sort of wheat grass iced latte.

$9 went to Iced by Betsy for some incredible cupcakes.

Got a canning guide and free recipe booklet from the folks that make Ball jars. It has recipes for apple butter, salsa, chutney, pickles, even barbecue sauce.

Got cucumbers, zucchini, zesty white and regular carrots. Lime hummus, wow did that have an unusual fresh flavor and it wasn't made with tahini. Had to buy some ($5) to try and replicate it in the future.

But the real winner for culinary creativity was the lady who made kale-zucchini-cream cheese dip. $6 for 8 ounces. Expensive, but another combination of flavors I had to enjoy. And I'm a minimal connoisseur of kale.

When we got home, we made a giant platter: cheddar, pepper jack, Calandra's fresh mozzarella, crackers, toasted Archer Farms multi-grain bread, cucumbers, carrots, the kale dip, the hummus, strawberries, figs from Forks Mediterranean Deli, unsalted cashews, leftover lamb shawarma from the deli... Oh! And greens and sorrel and fresh dill and fresh parsley all from my garden.

And between my husband and I, we conjured a sandwich of toast, kale dip, greens/sorrel, cucumbers, a touch of Annie's Cowgirl ranch, dill and a thin layer of mozzarella.

Peanut butter and honey

While my daughter was struggling to recover from her ear infections, I fed her some peanut butter and local raw honey sandwiches. She fell in love with peanut butter and honey, which we mix at a 50/50 ratio. Peanut butter and honey was a trick I learned from my college roommate. We've had several recent breakfasts of peanut butter and honey on Archer Farms breakfast bread-- like the blueberry streusel or apple fritter.

Summer fruit and fresh herb chicken salad

This is to accompany that bread I have on the rise. A perfect cold meal for a hot day.

-12.5 ounces chicken
- one cup fruit (I used local strawberries, local raspberries, a handful of red grapes and a three by two inch chunk of watermelon)

Dressing:
- 1/8 cup vegan mayo
- 1/8 cup Chobani mango yogurt
- two teaspoons Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut Dressing
- one teaspoon country herb blend
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Stir then add from the garden:
- 3 large leaves French sorrel, chopped
- about four tablespoons parsley
- one tablespoon dill

Cheesesteak soup

Today, I will make the transition from chicken soup to beef soup.

I prepared a pound of chip steak in the Le Creuset skillet with extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil, garlic powder, oregano and a few tablespoons of Pacific Foods Organic Creamy tomato soup.

In the crockpot I mixed:
- a cheap can of condensed vegetable beef soup, with 1.5 cans water
- about 10 (?) ounces creamy tomato soup
- 32 ounces wegmans culinary beef stock
- 3/4 of the meat, with cooking juices, chopped ridiculously tiny
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- more than 1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar

I did it!!! It tastes like a cheesesteak!

Beginnings of a garden

Last weekend I weeded. Yesterday I planted seeds. Today I planted herbs. I'm excited about this year's garden, and I think daughter is too.

In the perennial department, the oregano, lavender, chives, mint, catmint and lemon thyme are off to a good start. For seeds, we planted some of mom's marigolds, violets, wildflowers, bush green beans, and salad greens. Today we added basil, dill, French sorrel (the salesman said it was the best for cooking) and cilantro.

All in my tiny flower bed and postage stamp backyard. Tomatoes and more herbs later this week...

Today's herbs courtesy of the Easton Farmer's Market.

Hot Grape Nuts

A long time ago, maybe it was college, I discovered a recipe for hot Grape Nuts. Heating them and adding honey makes them soft and sweet, though not soft enough for me to eat in present circumstances. I made a bowl for daughter and she seemed to enjoy them. The trick is to determine how soupy you like them.

As a base:
-about 1/4 cups Grape Nuts or generic Nutty Nuggets cereal
- one teaspoon local honey
- soy milk

Heat in microwave until toasty warm.

Errands

Last night, I asked my husband to buy a few things from Target and Wegmans. We had a coupon for ocean spray juice and another for Silk almond milk from Target. And I wanted some of those sour infused raisins from Target. They add sugar to them, so they're really not that healthy. But they fill my jelly bean craving so... That's a fine trade.

Husband bought two boxes of Morningstar breakfast patties, Market Pantry cranberry-pomegranate juice, ocean spray blueberry juice, two packages of the golden infused raisins, two cartons of vanilla almond milk and a quart of half and half... The total came to $19-something so it should have been $17-something with the coupons but the cashier missed the one coupon. But we still had a $5 gift card from an earlier promotion and my discount so I guess that works out okay.

At Wegmans, he spent $11 and bought vegan mayonnaise for the child, organic spring mix for the tortoise, broccoli and a bag of Doritos.

Now today we were heading to Kline Farm to buy eggs, meat and local honey (another attempt for alleviating the daughter's ear problems). We stopped at Forks Mediterrannean Deli because we were hungry. We spent about $13 for four portions of zaatar bread, roasted sunflower seeds and a bag of the zaatar spice. Yes, I hope to make my own zaatar bread.

Finally, we made it to the farm. We spent $38.50 and bought:
- 3 lbs ground beef
- 1 lb beef cubes
- 1 pound chipped steak
- a fairly big jar of local raw honey
- apple butter by a local artisan
- one dozen brown eggs

farm tour #1: maple syrup

Guest columnist is my friend Gayle.

Angel and I share many philosophies about food. One is that people should know where their food comes from.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a big fan of the factory tour. And the farm tour. I love to see how things are made. We always did factory/farm tours on vacation. I thought it was the educational component. It was much later in life that I realized we did them because they were free.

Hopefully this will be a series of guest columns on farms, farmers markets and food tours. 

A few weeks ago I received an email from the Easton Farmers Market  and one item was about the Open House at Dutch Hill Preserves in Canadensis. You could see how maple syrup was made. Cool. I emailed Angel and asked if we could take Bug.  She said maybe. Depended on her work schedule.

So today we went. 

When we arrived, there was a crock pot of maple baked beans to taste (yummy!) and maple chowder. It tasted like chicken soup. Some maple syrup bread and a wonderful spread with walnuts. Actually I think it was walnuts soaked in maple syrup, warmed, and  poured over cream cheese. Devine on the bread. There was also lollipops. Mom said no. Bug asked the wrong adult!

After an intro on syrup making, the group marched down to the woods. And I was shocked. As we approached the woods it looked like it was strung with blue plastic tubing. I was expecting the traditional bucket and spout.

The season is brief. Using the trees and the bucket technique you might have to empty the bucket several times a day. There would be 22 acres of bucket. Yikes!The tubing eliminates that problem. However, animals, especially squirrels eat the tubes. That's a big problem..

The blue tubes were attached to the trees and dripped the syrup into a black collection tube. The collection tube sent it to the collection barrel, which was suctioned into the sugar house for processing.

Sixty gallons of sap makes 1 gallon of syrup. It makes you wonder how the original syrup makers thought of tapping a tree for sweetener. They really didn't need another labor intensive activity!

Children were given the opportunity to do it the old-fashioned way. But the sap wasn't running. It was too cold.

On the way back from the collection site we pasted the chicken coop. Bug loves chickens. When she's on her own, I fully expect to see a chicken coop in her yard.

Bug asked on the way home if they were having pancakes for breakfast. It's a school day so mom had to say no.

All and all it was a fun educational day. If you can ever see the process, do. If you just want some fresh, local maple syrup (or preserves), then stop by their stand at the Easton Farmers Market. It opens May 7th!

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