Blog

If you’re ever wondered how to make fromage blanc, here’s your tutorial! If you have no idea what fromage blanc is, keep reading!This is what sealed the deal when I was considering a milk share. My friend Holly brought this to work on a few occasions and I couldn’t get enough. She told me it was super easy. She was right!

What you’ll need:

• 1 gallon of raw or store-bought milk (NOT ultra-pasteurized).
• Large stainless steel pot.
• 1 gallon container (sun tea or pickle jars work great).
• Thermometer.
• Starter culture.
• Butter muslin or cheesecloth.

The process:

1. Heat milk in pot to 86F.

If I have a lot of milk in my refrigerator that I need to use up, I’ll double the recipe. Note that I do NOT stir with the plastic thing below, it’s just a thermometer holder.

2. Stir in starter packet, put into containers, and do not disturb for 24 hours.

Notice that if you forget, the directions are right on the packet! Except that I usually let it set for 24 hours, not 12 hours.

My fanch-schmancy jars. Note they really are clean, the labels are just in various stages of coming off.

And since I’m making this on a vacation day, and not after work, I’ll write what time it started on a small slip of paper. If I have a lot of jars culturing at once, I’ll write one for each jar and indicate what’s what. That way I don’t get my kefir, fromage blanc, or other cultured goodies mixed up.

3. Drain your curds into a colander for 4-6 hours.

Or until it has the consistency you like. I rig up a large bowl with another bowl inside to keep the colander off the bottom and to catch the whey (the watery stuff that drains off). Don’t throw the whey away!

4. Add flavorings.

This is the fun part. You can use whatever you wish. Herbes de Provence is a popular choice.

What do I do with it?

• Spread on crackers, bagels, or toast
• Use as a dip for veggies
• Use on top of pasta
• Pipe into tomatoes or mushrooms for an appetizer
• Use any way you would cream cheese

Ah, the dreaded kale. Are YOU wondering how to cook kale? The first year I did a CSA (community supported agriculture, where you purchase a share and get 1-2 bags of vegetables each week from a farm) I had no idea what anything was. There was a large chalkboard indicating how much of each thing you were supposed to pick up. Luckily it was listed in order, so by process of elimination I could determine what the mystery vegetables were. One of the things that were most difficult to differentiate were the leafy greens.

At first I didn’t even try to keep the names straight. I just put “greens you’re supposed to cook” in one bag and “greens for salad” in another. Ever have a salad that made you cry and tasted like horseradish? I have. That was before I knew the difference between lettuce, arugula, radicchio, etc.  But today we’ll focus on kale.

For three years, I chopped it up and used it in scrambled eggs. Or gave it away to our friends, who tried cooking with kale and decided it wasn’t for them. That stem sure is tough. Then last summer I took a “cooking with greens” class and discovered that you’re not supposed to eat the stem – or if you do, it needs to be cooked separately. That was a huge “aha!” moment. All the ideas below are for de-stemmed kale. My dog LOVES to chew on the stalks. Or you can save the stem for soup. So here, without further ado, is the

Top 10 Things to Do with Kale

1. Chop it up, saute’, and scramble with eggs.
2. Add a handful to yogurt, berries, and blend to make a green smoothie.
3. For a healthful addition to a cold pasta salad, add chopped kale to the pasta the last 10 minutes of the boil. Drain. Add pesto or your favorite oil and vinegar dressing and additional chopped vegetables (a great way to get rid of those random vegetables!)
4. Kale chips.
5. Add to your favorite stir fry recipe.
6. Add to any soup.
7. Greens in peanut sauce.
8. Saute’ and add to your favorite hummus recipe (pretty AND nutritious!)
9. Confetti Kale.
10. Kale Potato Soup.

What are your favorite kale recipes?

I’ll bet you can guess the secret ingredient! In the summer, it’s zucchini. In the winter, it can be beets. Because if you add vegetables, it cancels out all the calories, right?

2 cups zucchini (shredded)
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 eggs
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Puree the zucchini with the applesauce and set aside. (Note: Can also use cooked pureed beets)

2. Combine sugar, oil, yogurt, and eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer for 2 minutes.

3. Add the cocoa along with the vanilla and the zucchini puree and beat another 90 seconds.

4. Gradually sift remaining ingredients (except chocolate chips) into the batter, mixing it in with a spoon but stirring only until blended. Then stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Pour into a greased 9×13 pan and bake in a preheated 350F oven until knife inserted in center comes out clean, 40-50 minutes.

Servings: 24

I used the white frosting from Cook’s Illustrated that I talked about in the Black Walnut Cake post.

The Verdict: I’m not sure why, but this cake was also super rich. Either it’s the Fair Trade cocoa or the zucchini. My bet is the cocoa. This too went over well at the family gathering this weekend.

Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1/24 of a recipe (2.2 ounces).
Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients.
Amount Per Serving
Calories 173.54
Calories From Fat (33%) 57.84
% Daily Value
Total Fat 6.65g 10%
Saturated Fat 1.66g 8%
Cholesterol 26.74mg 9%
Sodium 141.74mg 6%
Potassium 94.02mg 3%
Total Carbohydrates 27.1g 9%
Fiber 1.39g 6%
Sugar 13.18g
Protein 3.04g 6%

The original recipe from Simply in Season calls for 16 cups of spinach. Unfortunately I don’t get near that much spinach from my CSA. But you know what I do get oodles of? Swiss Chard! So I substituted two bunches of Swiss Chard (one from last week’s pickup, one from this week’s) for this dish.

1 large Clove garlic (minced)
1 medium onion (minced; I substituted about a cup of scallions since, once again, I have oodles of those)
3/4 cup uncooked rice
3/4 tsp turmeric
1 Tbs oil
1 1/2 cups broth (turkey, chicken, or veg)
16 cups fresh spinach (loosely packed; I substituted two bunches of Swiss Chard, which was about 16 cups very loosely packed)
1 1/2 tsp garlic (minced)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (I omitted this)
2 cups cooked black beans
1 Tbs chili powder
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese (shredded)

1. Saute’ garlic, onion, rice, and turmeric in oil until onion is tender, stirring often.

2. Add broth and mix well; simmer, covered, until liquid is absorbed (about 15 min for white rice; 40 min for brown rice). Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes, and fluff with fork.

3. While rice cooks, heat 1 T oil in frypan on high heat. Add garlic and spinach, one handful at a time as it wilts, adding a little water as needed to prevent sticking. Spinach should be moist, with loose leaves, not clumped together.

4. Mix black beans and chili powder in a bowl. Layer ingredients in a 2 quart casserole dish as follows: 1/2 spinach, all the rice, all the beans, remaining spinach.

5. Sprinkle 1 C cheese on top. Cover and bake in a preheated oven at 375F until sizzling, 45 minutes. Or heat in microwave about 10 minutes and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve by spooning into warm flour tortillas and garnish with all the fixins: salsa, sour cream, etc. (Here’s where I again differed. I realized that the Swiss Chard had cooked down too much to really make two layers that would be even across the pie plate, so I just put the Swiss Chard on the bottom, then the rice layer. I heated the beans in the microwave–forgive me–then added the cheese on top and zapped it for another minute).

Servings: 4

The Verdict: Very spicy and yummy! I could have eaten the rice on its own, but the turmeric really paired well with the bite of the Swiss Chard. DH ate his as a dip with tortilla chips.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/4 of a recipe (14.1 ounces).
Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients.

Amount Per Serving
Calories 444.61
Calories From Fat (28%) 122.73
% Daily Value
Total Fat 13.98g 22%
Saturated Fat 6.33g 32%
Cholesterol 25.14mg 8%
Sodium 627.01mg 26%
Potassium 1204.85mg 34%
Total Carbohydrates 59.03g 20%
Fiber 11.41g 46%
Sugar 2.37g
Protein 22.91g 46%

For this month’s Can Jam Challenge, we were to make something that featured carrots. I looked through my books and decided that I would give marmalade another go. After all, this is supposed to be a learning experience, and I thought I might learn something if I tried again.

This recipe is from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving

Ingredients: 2 lemons, 4 C shredded carrots, 4 C sugar, 2 C crushed pineapple (drained), 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1  pouch liquid pectin.

Procedure:

Peel lemons, cutting peel into strips, removing a small portion of the white pith. I took a large portion off, remembering the bitter lime-ginger marmalade experience! Slice peel and set aside. Squeeze lemons to measure 1/3 C of juice, and throw everything except the pectin in a large pot. Stir until sugar dissolves and bring to a boil. Add liquid pectin and return to a rolling boil for one minute. Stir marmalade 2 minutes (oops forgot this part). Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

The results:

The flavor is very sweet. I love it, although I almost wish I had left more pith on. It doesn’t seem to be setting up, though – probably because I forgot the stirring for 2 minutes step. I’ll check it tomorrow afternoon when I get back from my work trip.  On the bright side though, I heard lots of “pops” which means most have sealed, and it’s only been an hour! The whole thing took me about 2 hours to complete.

Although I normally eat kohlrabi raw, I had to try this recipe from Simply in Season. I discovered that I like it cooked as much as raw!

1/2 cup onion (chopped; I substituted a handful of scallions)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp coriander
1 cup kohlrabi bulbs (peeled and chopped)
1 cup potatoes (chopped)
1 cup tomatoes (chopped)
1/2 cup water
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup kohlrabi leaves (I didn’t have these as I had removed them earlier, so I substituted a handful of shredded kale)
1/2 cup peas

1. In a large soup pot, saute’ the garlic and onion in 1 T of oil about 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the spices and stir briefly.

3. Add the tomatoes, water, salt, and sugar, bring to a boil, and let simmer until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 15 minutes. (Here’s a time-saving secret. I added the kohlrabi leaves and peas about 5 minutes in and everything turned out perfect at 15 minutes total.)

4. Add the kohlrabi leaves and simmer 8-10 minutes.

5. Stir in peas and cook until they are done; serve over rice.

Servings: 4

The Verdict: 4 servings as a main dish? I think not. Very little protein. Still, the flavor was excellent as the kohlrabi really paired well with the turmeric and other spices.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/4 of a recipe (9.1 ounces).
Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.

Amount Per Serving
Calories 125.38
Calories From Fat (5%) 6.17
% Daily Value
Total Fat 0.73g 1%
Saturated Fat 0.09g <1%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 210.47mg 9%
Potassium 699.22mg 20%
Total Carbohydrates 27.04g 9%
Fiber 5.24g 21%
Sugar 5.84g
Protein 4.74g 9%

Ever have one of those days when everything goes wrong? This morning I woke up to discover that I had a flat tire. Why not just put the spare on? Well, because the spare was in use because a different tire went flat over the weekend. And for some reason my car has odd tires and it takes a couple of days for the new ones to come in. So I took a vacation day while DH went to get the tire fixed on his lunch hour.

Then, I went to make dinner tonight, only to discover I only had one cup of lentils left and the recipe (which you’ll see later this week when I get more lentils) called for two.

So, I asked DH to pick up some sausage on the way home, ’cause I was going to try the Nutty Sweet Potato Waffles from Simply in Season. Unfortunately my night didn’t improve. I’ll write the directions, with my actions, below.

1. Melt 1/2 C butter and set aside to cool. So far, so good. I luckily had enough butter. Interestingly, DH had bought butter that had 1/2 sticks instead of whole sticks. Weird. I was also reminded that I need to try making butter again one of these days.
2. Cook and mash 2 C of sweet potatoes, stir along with 6 eggs (beaten) and 2 C milk into the cooled butter. I pulled out my Betty Crocker and found out that in order to cook sweet potatoes, you need to poke them and stick them in the microwave for 8-10 minutes. I only had two sweet potatoes left so I hoped it would equal out to 2 cups. Meanwhile I got out the eggs–only to discover that I had exactly 6 left. Whew. So I beat those and added the milk. I went to get the sweet potatoes out of the microwave – I put set it for 5 minutes because our microwave is powerful and it worked out perfectly. They were nice and done. I stuck them in a bowl and got out the masher. Hmmm. That doesn’t look like 2 cups. I measure. Nope, it was only 1 1/2 cups. Never fear, I found a can of pumpkin and added 3/4 C of that.
3. Stir together 1 C whole wheat flour, 1 C rolled oats (finely ground in blender), 1 C pecans (finely ground), 2 T baking powder, 2 tsp salt. I got out my handy food processor and ground the rolled oats. That was actually kind of fun. Then I ground the pecans. Hmmm. I wonder if you can make pecan butter? The oil had made it into more of a finely ground pecan paste. Oh well.
4. Sift together into the sweet potato mixture. Mix until combined and bake in a hot waffle iron.

The verdict: The batter made 8 waffles as promised. They were VERY filling but so very, very tasty. I could taste the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin. I wanted to sprinkle some cinnamon and nutmeg and whipped cream on top but DH said he thought they were just fine. It took a bit of work to make these, but when I think that it didn’t contain any white flour, I’m pretty impressed. So these are a good brinner recipe, or breakfast when you have time to actually make a breakfast instead of dashing off to work.

If you’re new to this blog, you may not know that I’m a mushroom fanatic. Anything with mushrooms, I’ll order. I think it’s because I grew up knowing that May Morels, as my Dad calls them, are pure gold.

I remember strings of them hanging in my Grandfather’s window to dry (OK the food safety police would probably be all over that nowadays, but he was extremely healthy. Of course, he attributed that to a shot of whiskey every night before bed.)

When I was growing up there was a creek behind the field behind our house, about a mile back. We loved to play back there (which is also probably not allowed nowadays, a creek without adult supervision?) We’d end up super muddy. One day my Mom came back there with us, she must have wanted exercise. I was screwing around with my three younger sisters and tripped. On the ground I noticed something sticking out of the ground. It looked kind of like the dried things on the strings on my Grandpa’s windowsill, only it was much, much bigger and more puffy.

“Mom!” I yelled. “What IS this?” She came over and said “I think those are mushrooms! The kind you can eat!” She knew my Dad would be thrilled. We looked around and there were more! Lots of them! We didn’t have any bags with us so she ordered us to remove our socks. We filled our socks to the brim (that’s eight socks! Granted, they were little girls’ socks, but still . . . )

When my Dad came home we showed them to him, and he confirmed that they were indeed morels, definitely edible. My Mom cut them in half, soaked them in water to remove the bugs and dirt (I don’t remember if it was a few hours or overnight), and then my Dad sauteed them in butter. Oh man, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Unfortunately, the mushroom spot fell victim to development. It is now a well-manicured lawn. And morel spots are super secret in these parts; people who know where they are could tell you where to find them, but then they’d have to kill you. While you can find them for sale on the side of the road, they are uber expensive.

So as it’s not May, and as I have no hookups for any sort of fresh mushrooms (shiitake or otherwise, as the recipe calls for), I had to resort to making do with this.

Yes, that’s right my friends, the dried mushrooms that I had used with the risotto. It says right on the box easy to use, eh? So I decided to experiment.

3 Tbs butter
2 1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped (I substituted 2 C of the dried mushrooms)
1 cup onion, minced (I just used a whole medium onion)
1 tsp salt
7 tbs broth (I used vegetable broth; it also said you can use sherry)
2 Tbs flour
1 large clove garlic, minced
2/3 cup broth (can also use water, but I used the same vegetable broth)
1 cup sour cream (I used “light” sour cream)

1. Melt butter in a large frypan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, onion, and salt. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
Here’s where I began to differ. A few minutes in, I realized that the dried mushrooms had soaked up all the butter! Oops. And they were looking like they might scorch. So I added the 7 T of broth and let it finish cooking.
2. Stir in the broth, turn heat to low and slowly sprinkle in the flour, stirring until the flour is mixed in.

By the time the 10 minutes were up, the broth had been soaked up, so I added another 7 T. By the time I added the flour it was all soaked up again, so I kept drizzling more broth as I incorporated the flour so it wouldn’t end up a gummy mess.

3. Add the broth, sour cream, and stir until it’s all incorporated and heated through.

At this point I was thinking wow, those mushrooms are going to be super flavorful! Chock full of butter and vegetable broth. I added some fresh cracked pepper.

4. Serve over pasta with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

I served it over whole wheat egg noodles. And please don’t shoot me, but I forgot to pick up Parmesan cheese when I was at the store so I had to use the emergency “green can” that DH keeps on hand. Whenever I make something vegetarian or what he thinks is bland he usually fixes it by dumping half a can of “cheese” on it and adding canned chicken.

The verdict: YUM! So creamy, FLAVORFUL. The mushrooms were a bit on the chewy side (duh, they were only partially rehydrated), but I kind of liked it that way.

Nutrition Facts (Note: This is ONLY for the mushroom sauce, NOT the noodles, so you’ll need to add that in)
Serving size: 1/4 of a recipe (7.9 ounces).
Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients.

Amount Per Serving
Calories 250.97
Calories From Fat (75%) 187.27
% Daily Value
Total Fat 21.3g 33%
Saturated Fat 13.12g 66%
Cholesterol 48.2mg 16%
Sodium 827.68mg 34%
Potassium 347.16mg 10%
Total Carbohydrates 11.11g 4%
Fiber 1.24g 5%
Sugar 2.73g
Protein 5.49g 11%