Colliers Beer Bread

Here's a new bread recipe that I'm testing, I tweaked this a little in hopes that it won't be bland (or just plain yucky the original recipe called for american cheese, gross!). I always end up searching for the ingredients for recipes using the ingredients I already have. The beer and cheese are treats from the Winter Fancy Food Show. It was a blast working with such a great team of people, and of course the food was amazing. Hopefully this bread will be deserving of such yummy ingredients and good memories.

Colliers Beer Bread
1 1/2 teaspoons rapid rise yeast
3 cups flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1Tablespoon sugar
10 oz Guinness
2 Tablespoon butter
I cup grated Colliers Welsh Cheddar

So it came out a good consistency but was a little heavy on the Guiness, I think I'll try this one again with a lighter beer.

Busted Bread

I've been having bread issues, it all started with a hand me down bread machine that my mom gave me, lord only knows where she got this contraption.  The first couple times I used it I was just curious to see if it worked and it did. I used regular AP flour and the bread was an okay texture but bland. I picked up some bread flour and WW flour and mixed them 50/50. The next loaf was an oat bread and was delicious but I must have trashed the slip of paper it was written on. Another loaf with the closest recipe I could find online was not great, it came out kind of flat and heavy, like it had deflated. I then tried a Rosemary Bread recipe, which came out a little tough, had good flavor but no one in the family except me liked it. So I tried the oat bread recipe again and used the WW setting on the bread machine but it was seriously deflated and hard. Shouldn't this thing be idiot proof?? I'm going to try again and use the "rapid rise" setting in hopes that my bread will not be flat. The chickens seem to be the only ones enjoying my attempts at bread making. 

Spicy Pickled Grapes

This recipe originally called for white vinegar but I subbed Chardonnay and Raspberry Champagne vinegar for a more delicate flavor. I have read that canning grapes makes them mushy and the finished product looks plenty soft, but I still think they will taste amazing.

3 cups grapes
2 cups vinegar

4 inch sprig of Rosemary
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

Clean grapes in cold water, remove stems, and fill sterilized jars with grapes. Bring water, vinegar, rosemary, and chili flakes to a simmer. Pour hot brine into jars leaving 1/4 inch head room. Process jars immediately in a boiling water bath, 20 minutes for pints.

Honey Goat Cheese Recipe

Today I made a great honey goat cheese, I used Meyer lemon juiced that I canned this spring and honey from our farm. This cheese was easy to make and will be great on toasted bread with fresh herbs and heirloom tomatoes.


Honey Goat Cheese

1 Quart goat milk
1 third cup Meyer lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Honey

Bring the goats milk to a good boil over low heat, stir in honey, add the lemon juice and let cool on the stove. After it's cool strain through cheese cloth or a handkerchief until most of the whey has drained off, for a softer cheese leave more whey or  for a harder cheese weight the top of the cheese to force more out. Refrigerate after you've reached the desired consistency.

Rainbow Fish

Inspired the beautiful colors of the radishes, beets, and carrots I harvested today I made "Rainbow Fish" for dinner. This recipe is simple and quick, plus it only takes one pan! Enough for 4 people it took about 15 minutes to put together.



Rainbow Fish

1 cup Quinoa rinsed and drained
2 cups water or broth
Variety of radishes, beets, and carrots sliced thinly
3 Tablespoons fresh herbs (I used sage and oregano)
2 Tablespoons butter
4 fillets of fish (I used Tilapia)

Rinse and drain the quinoa, a fine sieve with a handle works the best for this job. I've always had trouble with the quinoa floating away if I rinse it in a bowl. Put quinoa and 2 cups liquid in a baking dish. Chop the veggies and herbs, add to the the baking pan with quinoa. Put fish fillets on top of the vegetables and quinoa, top each fillet with a half tablespoon of butter (note: I used frozen fish so it didn't over cook in the time it takes for the quinoa to cook, if using fresh fish you may want to bake it for about 10 minutes before adding the fish). Grind fresh pepper and sea salt over the entire pan. Cook for about 20 mins on 400 until the quinoa and fish are fork tender.

Watermelon Pickles

I have been wanting to try canning but have been nervous about screwing it up and wasting food or worse making us all sick. So I decided to try making watermelon pickles. You make the pickles with the watermelon rind, I figured at least if I totally screw up it's something I would have thrown to the chickens anyways. I did end up screwing up but it wasn't a big deal (I overcooked them but they still taste okay) better safe than sorry right? I didn't buy any special equipment other than jars. I used my big camping kettle with a veggie steamer rack in the bottom and some tongs to fish out the super hot jars. This worked fine for doing just a few pints, but I don't think the steamer rack would hold up to pint jars or that my pot will be big enough for that matter. I used the rind from one watermelon it yielded 3 pints of finished product and we sampled the last few pieces that didn't fit in the jar, mmm. Watermelon pickles it turns out are sweet and have a hint of clove. I don't usually care for sweet cucumber pickles but these actually taste pretty good! They look pretty in the jar so I think a jar or two will go towards what I want to give away for the holidays. Here's a pic of the finished product and the recipe as found in the Third Edition of Putting Food By by Hertzberg, Vaughn, and Greene.



Recipe: Watermelon Pickles

8 cups prepared watermelon rind
1/2 cup pickling salt
4 cups cold water
4 teaspoons whole cloves
4 cups sugar
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water

Step 1) Prep the rind: Trim all green and pick off rind and cut into 1 inch cubes, thick rind is best.

Step 2) Dissolve salt in cold water pour over rind cubes (add more water to cover if needed). Let stand 5-6 hours

Step 3) Drain and rinse well. Cover with fresh water and cook until barely tender no more than 10 minutes (err on the side of crispness), drain

Step 4) Combine sugar, vinegar, and water, add cloves tied into a small cloth bag (I used cheese cloth), and bring to boiling, simmer for 5 minutes, pour over rind cubes and let stand overnight.

Step 5) Bring all to boiling and cook until rind is translucent but not at all mushy, about 10 minutes.

Step 6) Remove spice bag and pack rind cubes in hot sterilized pint jars, add boiling syrup leaving 1/2 inch of head room (tip- divide the syrup evenly among the jars then top pff with water if needed).

Step 7) Process in a Boiling Water Bath for 10 minutes Remember to Adjust for Altitude!! Remove jars and complete seals if necessary. Makes about 4 pints (mine only came out 3)

Pass the Cheese Please Part Douche

I recieved some feed back on my cheese I sold...it wasn't very good. Evidently my cheese wasn't how the customer had imagined it would be and "didn't taste like his grandma had made it when he was a child". I made him two 1 pound batches, one pound of garlic farmers cheese (tasty but plain) and a pound of (complete pain in the booty to make) creamy goat cheese with fresh herbs from my garden. At first I was a little disappointed when I heard my new customer hadn't liked my cheese, I had worked very hard on it. Then I realized what the crap!! He didn't like my cheese because it didn't live up to a childhood memory that he had never mentioned?!?! Ain't that some shit! Now if he had told me that his grandma made some special cheese when he was a kid back in the stone age, I would have done my very best to replicate it (Pterodactyl turds and all). But given that I had no prior knowledge that my cheese would be judged against the taste of a sweet memory and he didn't specify what kind of cheese he wanted: you get what you get, now shut it! Since I sold myself short and spent hours making cheese then sold it for less than the cost of the milk to make it I won't be doing this again anytime soon and won't be selling to that guy again period! He didn't even bother to return the brand new container I sent the creamy goat cheese home in. I do plan to continue making cheese and selling it but this first experience has soured me for the moment. The icing on the cake was when my sweet hubby suggested that I ask the 20 year old turd working the cheese department at Nugget for advice "because he had been to a cheese factory probably". I know he's just trying to help but when my ego is bruised he should be saying "pass the cheese please" and "this is great babe, that guy wouldn't know good cheese if we hit him with it" which I would then suggest is an excellent idea! The next cheese I make should be eaten with my girlfriends and washed down with wine, they I'm sure will appreciate all my hard work!

Quick No Mess Mexican Pizza

One of my favorite fast and easy lunches! It only takes a couple minutes to prep and is done in the oven in about 10 minutes.

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
Tortillas
Pesto
1 can refried beans
Veggie toppings
Shredded Cheese

Directions: Cover a cookie sheet in foil. Line tortillas up on the foil and spray with cooking spray (I like to use the olive oil only kind), flip the tortillas.

Spread pesto and beans evenly on the tortillas



Top with veggies. Red onions and tomatoes are my favorite for this.



And LOTS of cheese!



Put "lids" on the quesadillas and spray with cooking spray again.



Bake in a 400 degree oven about 10 minutes until tortillas are crispy and cheese is melty. Enjoy!

Crazed over Cake

I love to make birthday cakes! I only get to make them for my kids birthdays or parties we have because they can get pretty complicated and time consuming. My daughter has her second birthday coming up soon and I am trying to decide what kind of cake to make her. I have a new butterfly cake pan and I might even be able to do a standing butterfly! I love making stand up cakes like this sunflower I made for her birthday last year, but you have to use pound cake and they are very difficult to frost. Thankfully my bff was on hand to help me with this one!





Here's a Dinosaur pull apart cake that I made for Ashers birthday last year, fun and easy since we had just moved.



This is my favorite part! It doesn't get any better than when the are covered in frosting and giggling like crazy!



A skull cake I made for last years Halloween BBQ. This one was surprisingly hard to frost considering it's such a simple design.



I only have a few weeks left before I get to make another cake and the choices are endless! Butterflies, flowers, a fish bowl, a teddy bear island?? Just wait and see!!

Pass the Cheese Please!

I am the kind of person that hates to say "No" so last week when someone asked if I would sell them some of my homemade cheese I agreed. Now in the process of agreeing to this I made three mistakes: 1) I said yes 2) I agreed to have it ready too soon, and 3) I agreed to not nearly enough money (at my own suggestion) for way to much work! So now I had to make two pounds of cheese in two days plus six big cassaroles for my freezer club meeting, uh oh! I busted my cassaroles out and comenced making the cheese. The first batch I tried using a different method that said to heat the milk to a lower temperature than usual which was a disaster! The curds were so small that they went through the cheese cloth. Finally after about 2 hours of me trying to save the cheese and making a HUGE mess, I strained it through a tightly woven hand kerchief and managed to get it into a very soft consistency perfect for goat cheese. After adding some fresh herbs the cheese was so tasty that the thought of selling it nearly brought tears to my eyes! Since a fair amount of cheese was lost down the drain I needed more to complete the order. For the second batch I stuck to a better recipe. I wanted a simple cheese that anyone would like so went with a more solid form and just a little garlic for flavor. It was tasty but I was still obsessing over the creamy herb one and trying not to freak out about having to share. The second batch filled the order but only left me with less than 8 oz of cheese for our family, not nearly enough! The only way I was going to be able to hand over all my hard work was if I made some that I could keep so I put another pot of milk on. This batch was the hardest to decide how to flavor. There was a lone jalapeno on the stove that kept mocking me "you're too scared to make me into cheese" it taunted, so I diced it up and added it to the milk! I put it in th pot to steep in the milk hoping that it would temper the spiciness. I was a little worried that it would be spicy hot and bitter from the jalapeno so I added a touch of smoke chili powder just before straining the cheese to give it a smokey hot flavor. With my fingers crossed I tasted a few of the piping hot curds, spicy but delicious! My first order went out and I kept the whole third batch for myself, though I did share with friends that came over for a play date. I learned that making cheese is hard work and I am going to have to charge more to make it worth my time, I felt like I was giving away something precious.

I ♥ Tupperware

Well Ladies (and Gents), two things I discovered recently: 1) Gain (the laundry detergent) is more addictive that crack; and 2) I LOVE Tupperware!! My friend recently started selling the stuff and I went to her first ever party a couple weeks ago. It was fun and I saw a few things I wanted so decided to host my own party to save a few bucks. Today was my big day and we had a blast! Some of my mommy friends couldn't make it but my awesome MIL drove almost 200 hundred miles just to come to my lil party, so sweet of her. I found even more stuff that I'm sure I need (despite that my kitchen is already vomitting kitchen gadgets from nearly every cupboard). I tried to stick to only the things I am sure I will use for my order (food savers that keep produce fresh) but had to get this awesome food chopper thingy for my kitchen and camping. Now I can't wait for it to get here and will be calling my friend every other day until it's in my Tupperware obsessed little hands. Hey no one ever said I was patient (as far as I'm concerned babies should only take 9 weeks, just long enough to shop!) If anyone needs some Tupperware or wants to host a party please let me know, soon you might be as obsessed as I am!

Tale of the Squash Blossoms

While perusing a small farmers market with a friend I ran across squash blossoms. I have tons of squash blossoms in my garden but what exactly do you do with them? I asked the seller and was told they could be stuffed, used in salad, or battered and fried, hmmm this gave me ideas! First I sliced some up and put them in salad, they were nice not strongly flavored at all. I had my five year old guessing what I put in the salad and the blossoms really stumped him! Then I got creative, stuffing them with some ground beef and my homemade goat cheese. I sauteed some tomatoes, zucchini, red and yellow bell pepper, red onion, and garlic until nearly tender and threw the blossoms on top to steam. They came out fantastic and there was nothing left over, a miracle with my kids.