Let's make some stuff!

One of my goals in the new year is to make some stuff. 

I have a lot of unfinished projects and ideas galore.  One of our favorite sayings is, "More ideas than time."

In an effort to make good on some of my promises to myself and the desire to make some stuff and tell people about it, I made vanilla.

I get a real kick out of trying something, just to see if it will work.  I had read about making vanilla and it seemed pretty straight forward.  My first batch was purely for our consumption - just in case it went terribly wrong.

Well, it didn't!

I read a few recipes and followed the instructions and it turned out pretty great!

Just before the holidays, I started four more jars.  You can see in the picture a jar that has had three months to process and a new jar on the right.  The small bottle in the foreground is the sample that I sent home with my mom.  The big jar of vodka in the back - the main ingredient that makes all of the magic happen.

One of the hints I discovered in my research was to order the vanilla beans in bulk - they can be expensive at the local grocery store. I ordered from Vanilla Products USA on Amazon.

I also read some conflicting advice about the vodka to use - some recipes recommended the cheapest possible and others recommended buying something more expensive.  I went for middle of the road.

Fishing and picking blueberries

So, our Canada vacation was certain to include fishing - a lot of fishing.

And, that was great!  I actually enjoyed the fishing a thousand times more than I initially planned.  And, we caught fish! 

The website for our camp said that one of the owners would take us blueberry picking.  As soon as I read this piece of information, I was set on picking blueberries.  I talked my husband and dad into going along.

I had in my head an idea of what picking blueberries might entail.  But, I had no idea that wild blueberries are so small! And, close to the ground!

After driving down some rough back country roads, we pulled over to pick in these sections between rows of trees.  The blueberry plants were about ankle high and really plentiful.

So, my husband was a great sport.  He put on his geeky fisherman hat and as with everything he does, he went after it.  I think he took it as a personal challenge to pick more berries than our host.

My dad was also a super good sport. I have some pretty special guys in my life who will give up an afternoon of fishing to pick blueberries.

Since we have been back, we have made some blueberry muffins with these flavorful, tiny berries.

Jam pan!

 Earlier this week, I was super excited to see that I had a delivery at the house.  We were about to leave for a short run, but I insisted on opening the box first.

My husband was curious about what I had ordered and I was building it up and telling him how happy I was that "it" had finally arrived.  So, when I opened the box, he responded with an unimpressed, "What is that!?"  And, I yelled back that it was a jam pan!

He then teased me for the entire two mile run about being excited for a jam pan. We also decided that it sounded like some weak attempt for a hip name for an outdoor music festival. "Jam Pan." 

 I kept telling him about all of the great features - the pour spout, measuring lines inside of the pan, the non-reactive surface, the size, how it heats evenly, etc.  I also told him about the great sale price and free shipping!  I am not sure he is nearly as excited, but I am sure I can win him over if I can actually make something with it.

Vintage finds: cookbooks

I have a small obsession with cookbooks.  Some of my best memories are of cooking and baking with my mom and grandmas (and later my dad).

My dad passed along a ton of vintage items for us to sort through.  I was thrilled to find a whole bunch of vintage cookbooks - some from the 1930's.  There was this great Girl Scout cookbook, a version from GE meant to guide the cook on the new methods of preparing food (i.e. using an electric oven), and the Good Housekeeping Cook Book.  There is also a very rare Chinese cookbook and a volume called Roundup of Beef Cookery, and a few more.

Now, the big decision...keep or sell?!

Silver linings, lemonade from lemons, looking at the bright side and such

We had a carefully planned Saturday.  We each had a list a mile long and planned to go in separate directions and meet back at the house in the evening.  My husband got started with outside chores and I was working on some things in the kitchen, including our meal plan for the weekend. 

I requested a few items from our freezer. First, you should know that our freezer is in the basement and our basement is the old coal cellar of the schoolhouse.  There is an exterior entrance and we usually save up our trips to the freezer and combine it with a trip outside for chores or another errand.

My husband returns to the kitchen and tells me that the freezer has stopped working and we have many, many pounds of partially thawed meat.  We had retrieved something earlier in the week, so we counted up days and took stock of the food and decided that it was all still edible, but we needed to  move fast. I quickly cleaned out our freezer upstairs and we shifted all of the food that was still frozen to a new spot.  That left us with some (a lot! of)  food to prepare.

Between Saturday and today, we browned around 12 pounds of ground buffalo and three packages of buffalo sausage, cooked two buffalo roasts, some soup bones, and a whole turkey, and we grilled about eight buffalo steaks.  I ended up making a few freezer meals and adding a lot of prepared meat to our freezer.

Here are some links to recipes for the freezer meals:

Lasagna casserole

Cheeseburger casserole

Black bean taco soup

Tater tot casserole

For several weeks I had been wanting to do some cooking ahead and the broken freezer pushed me to action.  It wasn't really in my plan and I am still a little grumpy about all of the dishes I washed over two days. We just kept saying, "it could have been worse!" 

The silver lining, the lemonade from lemons, and the bright side is that our new freezer is installed and has several new food items for us to enjoy over the next few weeks.

Kitchen gadgets

My husband celebrated his birthday this month.  I always struggle with finding something creative for his gift.  This year, I found the perfect gift - a Zoku slush and shake maker.  We already have the quick pop maker and really like it.  The slush and shake maker works in a similar way - you freeze the cup, pour in the liquid, stir it every 60 seconds, and in around seven minutes, you have a slushie or a shake.  Magic!

I am usually really skeptical about kitchen gadgets.  I love them and can easily be talked into buying them. Then, I have buyer's remorse when I feel guilty for having something we don't use and begin to think that the item junks up our kitchen and crowds our cupboards.

Our good experience with the other Zoku product made me think we had a winner.  I was so excited to have an idea I knew he would love.  It was all was going well until I placed the order and found out that they were on back order and would not arrive in time for his birthday.  When they finally did ship, we had only one in the box, though the packing slip said there were two included.  Geez. I can't win.

We do have one Zoku with a permanent space in our freezer - the second on the way.  My husband likes it - birthday gift success.  He is already talking about all the different variations of slushie he wants to try.

Image credit:www.zokuhome.com/pages/slush-shake-maker

Author crush

I am currently experiencing a mad author crush on Shauna Niequist.  After reading her book, Bread & Wine: A love letter to life around the table with recipes, I have proceeded to follow her on every available social media option, put her blog on my blog roll, and try some of the recipes in her book.

Her writing spoke to me in so many ways.  Her stories of friends, family, love, loss, disappointment, food, entertaining, health, running, Chicago, and marriage were in line with where I am in my life right now at this very moment.  Her style is really accessible - both in writing and living.  I love reading work that is lovely and filled with beautiful words and at the same time is straight forward, with no pretense or effort to try to be too fancy.  Her writing is smart and honest.  I love her.  I want to be her friend.  Yeah, I know, I am crushing hard.

I have made her breakfast quinoa and have a number of others on my list for this weekend - gaia cookies, Nigella's flourless chocolate brownies, mini mac and cheese, breakfast cookies, and more.  Ok, maybe I won't make all of these this weekend, but I may get to one or two.

Depression-era cookbook

While in Chicago and shopping one of my favorite little stores, P.O.S.H. on State Street, I found another cookbook to add to my collection.  You might know that I was under a self-imposed ban on buying cookbooks and then I broke it twice right before the holidays.  Both cookbooks are great finds and will result in a lot of good recipes and fun times while cooking and baking from their pages.  In the end, I am glad that I broke my rule.

First let me rave about P.O.S.H.  It is a little boutique in a historic building with vintage wares and a European vibe.  The inventory includes vintage hotel glassware, old postcards and maps, new linens, great stationery, and a lot of cute gifts.  We stumbled on this store a year or so ago while walking to one of our favorite restaurants.  We try to stop by when we are in the city.

This cookbook is both about the recipes and the story of the Great Depression.  As you read through the book, you will find sections of food (and a whole section devoted to pickles!) and stories from people who lived through the Depression.  Some stories drive home exactly how tough it was for some families and others share a funny memory or details about life at home, school or church.

The recipes are easy to read and very straight forward.  The style of cooking reminds me of dishes my grandma considered staples in her kitchen.

I really enjoyed reading the cookbook during the flight home.  The stories made this time in our history come alive and the personal accounts were heart warming and heart wrenching at the same time.

Cookbooks...I can't resist

 So, I broke a promise to myself.  I vowed to buy no more cookbooks, ever!  I have stacks and stacks - some I purchased myself and others gifted to me.

I love to read cookbooks and think about making great recipes.  The reality is that if there are more than 10 ingredients, I lose interest.  Most cookbooks are beautiful to look at (and I do adore beautiful food photography), but not practical.  I make one or two recipes and the books just sit.

Plus, with the online resources and Pinterest, one can find a recipe for anything at anytime and no need to think through which book had the recipe, wrestle with the index, and search through different books until you find the recipe you need.  This all sounds practical and prudent, too practical and prudent.  There is something about holding the book in your hand and dreaming about beautiful, tasty dishes you might make.  I am especially fond of walking on the treadmill and reading cookbooks.  This practice always seems funny to me.

Well, in the span of two weeks, I bought two cookbooks.  The first is a fundraiser for a student group I advise.  My mom has always told me that the cookbooks that are a collection of favorite recipes from a women's group at church or in this case a group of college women, are the best.  Real people offering their favorite recipes (and sometimes family secret recipes), and the results are usually really good food!

I like the quotes on the section title pages and the cookbook title itself is very sweet - From Field to Fork.

If you are interested in a cookbook, let me know.  There are a few left and the money goes to a great cause - supporting collegiate aged women interested in agriculture.  Their professional development and philanthropic activities get a boost from your monetary support.

Happy cooking!

Two super star side dishes

Side dishes tend to be an afterthought for me.  I am making a conscious effort to expand my recipe base by trying more side dishes as part of our regular meals.

I have enjoyed experimenting with quinoa before and thought the Two Peas and Their Pod Cilantro Lime Quinoa sounded great.  It was an easy and delicious addition to our supper, though it seemed like a better pairing for Tex-Mex or Mexican fare.  I made it with the Roasted Tomato Caprese Grilled Cheese with Balsamic Glaze I blogged about yesterday.  While the dishes weren't a perfect match, each had great flavor and I loved them on their own.

My next experiment was the Pioneer Woman's sister-in-law Missy's Marinated Tomatoes.  In retrospect, I should have started marinating the dish in the morning and served it that night.  I only gave the flavors an hour or so to blend while I made the roasted chicken and boiled some new potatoes.  Still, the flavors were great.  We dipped bread into the marinade and it was the best part of the meal.

Two winners!  I can't wait for fresh garden tomatoes to try the marinade again.  Enjoy!

Cilantro Lime Quinoa

Ingredients:

2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a large pot, bring the 2 cups of vegetable broth to a boil. Stir in quinoa and cook until broth is evaporated and quinoa is tender, about 20 minutes. Pour quinoa into a medium bowl and fluff with a fork.
2. Stir in garlic, lime juice, cilantro, and sugar. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve warm.

Missy’s Marinated Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 cup canola oil
1/4 cup  balsamic vinegar
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 whole green onions, sliced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
18 whole basil leaves (chiffonade)
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
2 pounds tomatoes, cut into quarters (if big) or halves (if small)
1 whole baguette, sliced
1 clove garlic, peeled

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except tomatoes in a large glass bowl. Whisk to combine, then add tomatoes. (You can up the quantity of tomatoes if need be.) Use regular red tomatoes, or a mixture of red, yellow, heirloom, etc. 
2. Allow to marinate for at least 3 to 4 hours, several hours if possible. Tomatoes will give off liquid as they marinate. 
3. Use leftover tomatoes to make bruschetta: slice baguette and brush slices with olive oil. Grill on a skillet or grill pan until golden. Rub slices with garlic cloves. Top with tomatoes, allowing juice to drip on the bread.

Where Women Cook magazine

My mom and I share subscriptions to several magazines.  There are two magazines in particular that we are always excited to see in our mailboxes - Where Women Create and Where Women Cook.

The most recent issue of Where Women Cook was another great collection of profiles of female bloggers, authors, cooks, chefs, and even artists who cook!  They include at least one profile of a male cook in a feature called, "the men we crave."

I am a huge fan of the photography in these magazines.  The images inspire me.  Even if the article is about cooking, I am soaking up great ideas for entertaining and home decor.  Plus, these magazines just fit my style and interests so perfectly.

It is always a treat to settle in with an inspiring read with great images.

Loved these cute little cones of flowers.

Inspiration about canning and preserving food.

Lilacs in a mason jar - simple and beautiful.

I love this old truck and the chalkboard menu.