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Homemade Apple Butter

by ladypbwiggins

I love homemade apple butter. It brings back warm, loving,memories of hot biscuits on Sunday morning at my grandmother Modear’s  breakfast table. Thinking about it is as comforting as big hugs. Over the years since leaving home, I have not found GOOD apple butter. Some didn’t even have that smooth texture much less the remembered taste. One day I saw a jar in the Polly’s Pies Restaurant. It looked right. I picked it up to give it a try and all the disappointing memories popped up. I decided to try making my own and put it back on the shelf. I searched for a recipe and found it in Fannie Farmer cookbook that I have owned for over 30 years.

I did make a few adjustments. I don’t typically use white sugar but I had about 1/2 cup left from a bag my daughter-in-law bought on her last visit. I supplemented with agave. I also added a red delicious apple to the granny smiths apples. I didn’t simmer until smooth because it took too long. I let it cool about 10 minutes and then put it in the blender. I blended it until smooth, less than a minute.

The results were just as I remembered. Warm, creamy, comforting and safe; all those taste and feelings of Sunday morning breakfast at Modear’s. I made biscuits and it was Hmmmmm good!

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4 lbs tart apples

 ∗I added a real sweet red delicious apple for added sweetness

2 cups cider, cider vinegar or water

∗I used water to cover the apples and 1 c apple cider vinegar

Sugar

 ∗ I used 1/2 c sugar and 1/2 c of agave

Salt

2 tsps cinnamon

1 tsp  ground cloves

1/2 tsp allspice

Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

  ∗ I used the whole lemon except seeds

Cut the apples into pieces without peeling or coring them. Put them in a pot, cover with the cider, vinegar, or water and cook until soft. Put through a sieve or food mill. Measure. Add 1/2 cup sugar for each cup of apple pulp. The whole mixture, add a dash of salt and the cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and lemon rind and juice. Cook, covered, over low hear until the sugar dissolves, taste and adjust the seasonings. Uncover and cook quickly, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until thick and smooth when a bit is spooned onto a cold plate. Pour into hot, sterilized jars and seal.

Continued Search for Gluten-free Sandwich Bread

by ladypbwiggins

I have tried several different recipes for gluten free bread. They all have been described as guaranteed sandwich bread. The first one I tried looked okay but crumbled when you sliced it. That was the result for several of them. I was about to give up and then I found the recipe using Teff flour online. This bread is gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, egg-free and vegan bread. I have no health need that actually requires this kind of bread but if I can find one that is gluten-free that tastes good and slices for good sandwiches, I am on board. I am interested in anything that reduces inflammation. Arthritis, you know.  🙂

I didn’t know about Teff flour. It is a grain used in Ethiopian cooking for baking and as a side dish. It’s color ranges from light to dark  brown. I used a brown teff because it is the one I found in my favorite market. Bob’s Red Mill Teff Flour

I am learning about different kinds of flours and their uses. My only experience with sorghum was syrup my great-grandfather bought from a friend in the country. I didn’t know it could be made into flour. The recipe is below. It makes two loaves.  Enjoy

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1 1/2 cups millet flour

1/2 cup teff flour

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup cornstarch (double the potato starch if you can’t eat corn)

1 cup potato starch

1 cup tapioca flour

4 tsp xanthum gum

1 tbsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tbsp active dry yeast (not rapid rise)

Add:

4 tsp olive oil

3 1/4 warm water (not hot)

I halved the recipe to make one loaf. I mixed the ingredients much like making regular wheat bread. The difference is, there is no need to knead the mixture.  I allowed it to rise about 50 -70 minutes sitting on top of a warm stove. I baked at 400 degrees for 10 minutes uncovered. I then baked covered it covered for 35-45 minutes. When it has baked completely, let it rest on a rack to cool a little.

As you may have noticed in the picture the bottom and sides were beautiful. The top cracked open. I don’t know why. It was delicious while warm. The next day the top and sides were hard and a little more difficult to slice. After three days it began to mold. I guess we don’t eat it fast enough. Refrigeration was not an option because it dried out the loaf.The source of the recipe suggested making bread crumbs, or croutons after the second day.  I should have done that.

I may try it again or I may just turn to flatbread for sandwiches.

To read the recipe and the full instructions aprovchar.danandsally.com

 

Teff Flour Cornbread

by ladypbwiggins

First of all what in the world is Teff Flour? Growing up in the southern United States the only flour you are usually familiar with is all purpose white flour. Unless you are from another country and it is common to your culture, you may not even realize there is another kind of flour. I discovered Teff flour when I was looking for a recipe for a gluten-free loaf of bread. That outcome is another post. Back to the cornbread.

I had made a Quinoa-lentil soup and I decided I needed cornbread to complete the meal. I looked in my pantry and discovered the types of flours I had purchased didn’t inspire me.  I checked my vegan and gluten free cookbooks for a four blend that would be satisfying. I was missing some ingredient. On my way home from church I had the thought use psyllium husk and Teff flour. The words of my friend Morgan came creeping into my thoughts. Write down your experiments and write your own cookbook. I don’t know about the cookbook but I tried my first true experiment: Teff Flour Cornbread

1 c Teff Flour

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Before Cooking
1 c Cornmeal

1 tbl psyllium husk

1 tbl baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbl coconut oil

1 – 2 tbl olive oil

2 eggs

nondairy milk as needed for desired consistency

Let sit for about 5 minutes so the psyllium husk can do its thing. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes

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After Cooking
It didn’t rise as high as I had hoped but it tasted good. The texture was true to cornbread and it was great with the soup. I call my first true experiment, my recipe a success. I will try more psyllium husk or baking powder next time. You are welcome to try it and modify. Let me know your results.

Teff Flour Cornbread and Quinoa-Lentil Soup

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What I’ve Been Up To

by ladypbwiggins

Like any scientific endeavor, food scientist must spend some time in research. I decided to save myself some time with making my own condiments. I know there have to be food techs out there that have published their findings. I found two that seemed promising. They were

Homemade Condiments: Artisan Recipes Using Fresh, Natural Ingredients
Homemade Condiments: Artisan Recipes Using Fresh, Natural Ingredients by Jessica Harlan
and
The Homemade Vegan Pantry: The Art of Making Your Own Staples
The Homemade Vegan Pantry: The Art of Making Your Own Staples by Miyoko Schinner

Unfortunately, the first one was out of stock. I purchased the second and I have been very pleased with the information contained in the book.

I have been interested in vegan and gluten-free cooking, so this book provided vegan options. In one place I can find instructions for condiments and sauces. There are explanations regarding seaweed, tempeh, and soup concentrates. I am most excited about the vegan cheese recipes. The instructions are clear.There are also recipes that use the items.

I also discovered another book that I will mention here but it deserves its own post. It is The Healthy Mind Cookbook. God knows my mind needs all the help I can get.

Homemade Ketchup and Hot Sauce Update

by ladypbwiggins

This is the ketchup making update. I used fresh Roma tomatoes before. The recipe is found at What is This . I stated that I planned to try it with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and onion. I used dry sun-dried tomatoes so I had to re-hydrate them. I put the tomatoes in the Vitamix with enough water to cover and about an inch more. After the tomatoes were re-hydrated, I added garlic, onions,  and apple cider vinegar. I also substituted raw honey for agave. I fired up the Vitamix to high and pureed until smooth. It was a pasty texture. If you would like it more fluid add some water. I noticed the sun-dried made it sweeter than the Romas. I haven’t decided if I like it better but it is good. I think the next time I will leave out the honey and use distilled white vinegar.

I am really getting into making these condiments. I grilled some salmon for dinner so I tossed some Serrano peppers, and red peppers on the grill. They got a little of the salmon oil on them so I wasn’t sure how that was going to affect the hot sauce flavor. The next morning I made oatmeal for breakfast. While I was waiting for the oatmeal to come to a boil, I threw the peppers roasted and fresh with a pinch of salt into the Vitamix with some distilled vinegar. I left the seeds in. Awesome stuff. It was so quick and my supply is renewed. It is hotter too. Love it.

It was so simple. I did not use any recipe for the hot sauce. Glad it worked out.

My Garden Beginnings

by ladypbwiggins

I have been thinking of beginning my own organic container garden but I just kept putting it off. I am not a natural garden interest type person. I just like the fresh produce. One day I was standing in my favorite organic market looking at the cost of vine ripen organic tomatoes and thought if I had started my garden by now I would have my own. I then moved to the yellow bell peppers and the cost of those were ridiculous.

That’s it. I am starting this garden I declared inside.

I bought organic soil and fertilizer after conferring with a successful gardener friend. I proceeded to the plant section to discover that they sold organic seeds but not organic seedlings. I googled organic nurseries in my area and found one very close to my home. I thought they only sold landscape vegetation. I discovered they sold non-GMO organic vegetable plants.

Inside myself again I screamed “Yes!”

I bought yellow onions, green onions, jalapeno pepper, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper and tomato plants. I spent approximately 15.00 for a sustainable supply of veggies.

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The other thing I did to insure some of these plants had a chance at survival was to purchase a self-watering container. It holds two gallons of water and the plants drink as they need it. The tomato and jalapeno plants are in a conventional pot. I pray I don’t kill it. My thumb is real light green.

 20160217_151024                                            It has begun.20160217_151013

What is this?

by ladypbwiggins

20160115_131340 (2)What is this?

It’s a little jar of successful goodness!

For weeks I had been thinking about the ease or dis-ease of making my own condiments. I watched those chefs on the Food Network make sauces and it didn’t look so hard. I quickly followed that thought with, “You are not a professional chef and you don’t even like to cook.” I chickened out and bought the organic ketchup from my favorite store, The Organic Roots.  The desire to make my own resurfaced as I thumbed through the Daniel Plan Cookbook. Lo and behold there it was: a homemade ketchup recipe. I have had this book for  months and I didn’t notice the recipe. So here is my version

The recipe called for 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes. I didn’t have enough so I used organic tomato paste and organic Roma tomatoes. All ingredients are certified organic unless otherwise stated.

6 Roma tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of agave  (I didn’t have raw honey)

1 teaspoon of sea salt

I threw all ingredients in the Vitamix. Blended on high until smooth.

It’s homemade ketchup.

One more thing off the grocery list except in emergencies.

Note. The consistency is thicker than the ketchup in the store. It was also sweeter. It didn’t hve that tangy taste. Store in the refrigerator. There are no preservatives. I plan to make it again and use the sun-dried tomatoes and add a little onion and garlic. I’ll let you know what happens.

 

Turkey Sausage Revisited

by ladypbwiggins

A few weeks ago I tried a homemade sausage recipe that I found. In that post I gave the source credit for the recipe. This time I tried it just as she wrote it except I substituted vegetable broth for chicken broth.

  1.  I bought a turkey breast and a turkey thigh. Using my virgin boning knife I removed the meat from the thigh bone. The breast was already removed from the breast bone. I must admit this process caused me to consider becoming a vegan.
  2. I used my KitchenAide meat/nut grinder to grind the meat. I used both the light meat and the dark meat believing the dark meat would add a little fat. My hope was that the turkey would be juicier.
  3. Next I used my mortar and pestle to grind the basil and oregano.
  4. I added that along with the rest of the spices to the ground turkey.
  5. I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
  6. Mixed it all up be sure to evenly distribute the spices.
  7. Finally, into the pan it went. I used a little oil in the pan so the patties wouldn’t stick. I think I used grapeseed oil or it might have been coconut. Either works.
  8. The results were very good. It was less dry but not what I wanted. Sooooo

Next time, I will bake a turkey part and use the drippings to add a little fat to the mixture.

For the recipe review Making Turkey Sausage.

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The Next Phase To Complete Healing

by ladypbwiggins

This post was written earlier but it an integral part of the journey, so rather than update it timewise, I decided to post it as is. I will follow with an update to some things mentioned.

It has been a very educationally journey that I and my family have been on since my husband’s heart attack in March. He finally came home from rehabilitation on Friday. He has improved so much but we still have a ways to go to reach complete restoration. Several things have come to my attention that will be included in this next phase. I discovered Dr. Steven Masley’ 30-day Heart Tune-Up. This is an eating plan which focuses on heart strengthening. I have also discovered or at least it has been confirmed that we should really pay attention to the drugs that are being prescribed for us and our loved ones.

The Tune Up

We began the 30 day journey on Saturday August 1. I had to make some adjustments because we do not eat chicken, beef or pork. Today the Chicken Stir Fry was made with tofu. The dish was quite tasty.  Just in these two days I feel better. I have also noticed the pain from my husband’s neuropathy has decreased. I will be watching that because I was told neuropathy cannot be cured and that nerve regeneration was not possible. This side effect to the eating plan is welcomed but the jury is still out on the lasting effectiveness.

Drug Fight

I will be making appointments to visit Carl’s doctors on Monday. Our discussions will center around the drug Amioderone and Warfarin initially. Amioderone has some very serious side affects that are counterproductive to his healing. Waffarin is rat poison. Need I say more?

Stay tuned

Is There a Food Cartel?

by ladypbwiggins

I woke up yesterday morning thinking of cartels. I guess I was influenced by the CSI:New Orleans episode I watched the night before. We usually think of the drug trade south of our borders when we use the word cartel. I decided to look it up because I realized that I really didn’t know what it meant. This is a definition from one of several sites.

car·tel

  1. an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.
    “the Colombian drug cartels”

    • historical

      a coalition or cooperative arrangement between political parties intended to promote a mutual interest.

When I read it I thought this seemed awfully familiar. The definition below is what I remembered from a business class I attended.

 OLIGOPOLY
A situation in which a particular market is controlled by a small group of firms.An oligopoly is much like a monopoly, in which only one company exerts control over most of a market. In an oligopoly, there are at least two firms controlling the market.

When a market is controlled, doesn’t that include prices and restricting competition?

There is a campaign going on against foods containing genetically modifies organisms. The battle is mainly against the Monsanto corporation. But it doesn’t seem like they can have the kind of power they are having without help. Some believe members of our Congress have been bought by Monsanto. Others believe the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is in the mix. The things that have been happening certainly make you wonder. I just read an article about the meaning of “natural” on our food labels. This is an excerpt

“What is important to understand is how natural flavors are created. Scientists, or flavorists as they prefer to be called, blend natural or synthetic chemicals to create flavorings. The only difference between artificial and natural flavorings is the original (natural) source of the raw ingredients/chemicals. The formulas for both are the same although a small change can result in a different flavor.” The bold is mine.

These are FDA approved foods. Is this what you think of when you want natural? If you are like me, you thought natural meant devoid of artificial or chemical anything. I was in the 2/3rds mentioned below. Are you? We have been deceived for years.

“When we see a product labeled as such we perceive it as better for us, in fact a Consumer Reports survey found that two-thirds of Americans think the word natural on the label means it contains no artificial ingredients, pesticides or genetically engineered organisms and as a result has launched a campaign to ban the use of the word “natural” on both packages and in all marketing for foods and beverages.”

Read the rest of the article. The FDA has no clear definition of what “natural” means.

So now we have Monsanto and the FDA appearing to be working together to control what is in our food. What part is Congress possible playing in this. Antitrust and fair trade agreements? All I know is that it seems others profit at our expense.

The last parties to this perceived cartel is the medical profession and the pharmaceutical concerns. I don’t mean all doctors. I am referring to the system that they have to operate in. Treat the symptom, don’t search for the cause. Prescribe a pill because it cost too much to spend the time searching for the cause. Doctors are required to operate in that 15 minute window unless they are private practices that control their own offices. I had an interesting conversation with one of my husband’s doctors. Because of some heart problems, he has been prescribed Warfarin or Cumidin, rat poison. I asked the doctor if he could regulate the situation with foods that are natural blood thinners. She said no. I asked why. She said because they could not track it. This is how they track it. Take a certain number of tablets and check the blood. If the thinness is in a certain range you are okay. If it is too high, decrease the number of tablets. If it is too low, add more tablets. If the blood test is the telling factor, you could eat more or less of the vegetables depending on the thinness level. They rather he take poison, so they can regulate the dosage, rather allow him to eat fresh, certified organic vegetables and get healthy. Does that even seem reasonable to a rational, thinking mind?

I love my country but “the love of money” has removed standards and logical reasoning that can be trusted. What cartel should we fear first?

The end of the article mentioned above states the only way you can be sure your food is natural is to purchase USDA certified organic products. I am also buying from stores who have verified their products as non-GMO. I don’t know what those organisms will do to us.I am choosing to go that route. I hope I can trust the USDA.