Resist, then give in

I had to resist all caffe ine for a little while since my acid reflux became constant and uncontrollable, and since my sugar is mostly in my beverages, I also had less sugar. Then, when I got my medication I gave in. Thats been going on since. So now its back to the resist side. I am going for a one sugar and caffeine drink a day (total is one drink). I just read this thing about controlling your blood sugar for keeping alert. Which I and everyone knows, but I still have to give in and my sugar intake has really increased a lot so I have been pretty anxious which causes compulsive talking, and thats never good. Resisting is fun, too.

I have been really successful this week thinking about how to divide my recipes into categories. First, I think of the base, which is the pasta, or rice, or tortilla. etc.

Then the protein

Then the vegetables

Then the spices
Then the sauce.

The cooking method (baked, loose, fried, grilled, boiled)

The recipe practically writes itself. I was successful in this with a pasta dish I made the other night. Here is what I did:

cook 1 box of whole wheat penne until its still kind of hard, cause we are baking this in sauce

I made a sauce out of about 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 1 cup of rice milk, and almost all of a wedge of fontina cheese. maybe over a cup. I made this in a large pot, because I am adding everything to it. I cooked an onion in this pan before I added the milk and cheese, and also added about 2 tablespoons of butter. Then I added the vegetables. I added mushrooms that were quartered, some spicy greens that were called kale but I have my doubts, and broccoli. For my protein I added some tofurky cut into cubes and some green peas. for the spices I did spicy-ish since its a white sauce. black pepper, paprkia, and red pepper flakes. I put all of this in my thickened sauce and added the noodles. Then I put it in a 350 degree oven until it was cooked. about 20 minutes. it was pretty good.

good biscuits with a buttermilk substitution

This biscuit recipe is way better than my older one.

It comes from the Better Homes and Gardens 14th edition cookbook, which is awesome, by the way.

What was the most useful about this cookbook is it explained how to substitute buttermilk and get the same results. apparently buttermilk is acidic, and in recipes with buttermilk there is also baking soda, and when those acid and baking soda collide there is that volcano action from our science project youth. so to subsitute you want to put one tablespoon of acidic liquid like lemon juice or vinegar into a glass measuring cup or a one cup measuring cup. then add enough milk to make one cup total. (not a cup and tablespoon, but a cup of combined liquid total). Rice milk works fine, thats what I use. let sit for 5 minutes.

3 cups all purpose flour (but I do half and half all purpose and half whole wheat successfully)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (just give up substitution and buy it)

3/4 cup cold butter (I found out you want it cold, cause I used to melt it and add it, so that when the butter melts in the dough while cooking it releases steam causing the flaky layers)

1 and 1/4 cups sour milk

this is a wet dough by the way

Preheat oven to 450 deg.

combine dry ingredients. (1-5)

cut up butter and add into dough. you can use a pastry blender, or two knives I have heard you can use, I rub it in with my fingers until its all flour/butter granuals.

make a well in center and add milk

stir until moistened. its pretty wet.

flour your board and kneed it a few times and pat it out until its about 3/4 inch thick (I guess) and cut out biscuits with a cutter or in my case a cup rim. cook for 10-14 minutes.

This recipe should cook about 12 biscuits. I always cut it in half.

some things I have found out or heard:

don't kneed them too much or they get ruined. I don't know the consequences, and I also don't know how much is too much. I've heard that from multiple sources.

secondly don't oil your baking sheet. I have done this. my bottoms cooked way faster, I think.

The recipe says not to do this, but I was scared of them sticking so I did it anyway. you don't need to.

Lebanese garbanzos

this calls for fava beans, but every time I buy them and cook them they smell a little funny and never get fully soft, so I just use chick peas and everything works out fine. So use what you want.

2 cups beans (I just use a can of chickpeas) can also be fava or broad beans

2 garlic cloves crushed and finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup oil

1/2 cup cut up parsley

green onion

in bowl combine everything after beans are cooked. I like my beans to still be hot, though.

energy bars

we can't eat the store granola bars cause of the nuts, but this works

1 cup rolled oats (I don't use instant, but the recipe says you can)

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (use what you want)

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup dried fruit + 1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dry milk

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (but who are we kidding, I love cinnamon, I probably use like a tablespoon)

1/3 cup maple syrup (unless I have it for a special occasion, I use honey here. It works not as well in taste, but fine in consistency after which I have heated to make runny).

2 eggs

preheat oven to 350 deg.

coan 9X13 pan

put everything but syrup and eggs in blender (of course I use the magic bullet, and do this in batches)

after you get it out of blender then add syrup and eggs.

put into pan and coat bottom evenly.

cook until brown. it says 20 minutes, but mine cooked way faster than that, so check it after 10.

cool for 15 minutes.

sweet potato pancakes

1 pound sweet potato

3 scallions

2 large eggs beaten

1/2 cup all purpose flour

salt and pepper

oil

grate potatoes

put in bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix together

I used a cast iron skillet and heated up the oil and used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure out and fry. make sure you really flatten them out after you put them on the skillet. 4-5 minutes per side, or you know, until they are brown.

the problem I always have with stuff like this is that some are out while others are frying, which always leads the the first ones being a little greasy (in my opinion). I kept them warm in the oven after they drained on some paper towels for a little while, but still, I wish I could fry everything up at the same time.

millet salad mexicano (but I used quinoa)

I have used both quinoa and millet in this recipe and both are good.

1 cup millet

2 cups water

salt

kernels from six ears of corn (I did about 1/2 cup of frozen)

2 ripe avacados

2 tablespoons green onion

4 chopped tomato

(although the recipe didn't call for it I added carrots and celery and put it all on top of greens instead of just the grain being the base, and it worked fine)

dressing

combine:

1/2 cup of lime juice (I used lemons both times, except this last time I combined lemons and lime juice, and it worked fine both times)

1/4 cup oil

1 tablespoon cumin (I cut this in half, don't LOVE the cumin)

1/4 cilantro

So if your doing millet roast grains for 5-7 minutes. then combine millet and water to boil, adding salt, for 30 minutes.

if your doing quinoa I just followed the directions on its box.

put on baking sheet to cool.

put down greens and add grain, then the rest of the salad ingredients. pour dressing on top. sooooo good

I got a mixer, I got a mixer, I got a mixer, I got a mixer

Yea. I got a mixer. The kitchen tractor. Finally. I have been nagging Clyde for 2 whole years about it, and so he said "lets go get it". We got a 5 Qt. one from cosco. I can't wait to get the pasta making attachment. I think the reason clyde finally caved is that he is currently prescribed opiates for his wisdom tooth pain, so he is more suggestive. but whatever, I finally got a mixer.
Here is how it went down:
I am blurry because I am jumping up and down.





Here it is on our counter next to our new espresso/coffee maker which we love (the magic bullet is in the middle because it always has to represent as the REAL kitchen tractor)



Today is sunday, which is already bread making day. I followed the recipe in the book, it went like this:

Kitchenaid bread:
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
2 cups hot water
2 packs of Active dry yeast
5-6 cups whole wheat flour (I only used 5)
3/4 cup powdered milk
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup oil
(Instead of 5 cups flour, I substituted 1/2 a cup of 6 grain cereal that I grinded in the greatest magic bullet. Usually I will also do another 1/2 cup of a mix of grinded flax and sunflower seeds, but clyde is afraid they may get into his tooth hole)

Dissolve 1 tablespoon of brown sugar in all of the water and yeast until the yeast rises. this takes about 10 minutes.
Put 4 cups of flour, the powdered milk, the rest of the brown sugar, and salt in the mixer. attach the kneading hook. turn the mixer on to the kneading speed and mix a few seconds. while its kneading add yeast liquid and oil. let it mix for about 2 min longer, may have to stop and scrape. Gradually add in the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time ( allowing it to be completely mixed in between half cups) until it doesn't stick to the side of the bowl. At that point let it go a few more minutes.
Put into an oiled bowl and let rise about an hour. I put the oven on 400, left it on a few minutes (it never even reached 400) , turned it off and put the bread in there.
After an hour cut the bread in half and put it in two loaf pans, or like I used to do, a loaf pan and shape one in an oval and put it on a flat pan. Let rise another hour.
After that put in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the temp to 350 for another 20 or so minutes.
its not as good as my old bread, but I will adjust.
here it is:


Take it out of the pan so that it doesn't get soggy.

I also made roti, but it doesn't mix well in the mixer, so I wouldn't suggest it.
Roti
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (but you can just use 2 cups all purpose if you want )
1 teaspoon of salt
Mix these together
Add 2 tablespoons olive oil
Mix
add 3/4 up hot water.
Mix into ball o' dough.
Its sticky. Then I heat up my pan on about 5-7. Med - med. high heat. I use cast iron with no oil. My Teflon did well for this with no oil, but my aluminum (?) metal pans they just stick to with no oil. But if you use oil they turn out crispy. So I take out small balls of dough. really small. smaller than the falafel. I use a wine bottle for a rolling pin for this because it makes it easy to hold one side of the dough while rolling, because you want it pretty thin. Recently I have made it less thin, like maybe the thickness of a tortilla. and about the size of a small tortilla. So when your done you pretty much have a tortilla, which i have used as replacement when I didn't feel like making this bread, but this bread is better. They cook really quick, just a few seconds on each side, and they get bubbles of air on them while cooking. they are good.

I have been putting them on wax paper and inside a plastic bag in the freezer, they last.

Last I made pizza tonight. (to use the mixer again) We had good toppings:
zucchini cut thin, garlic, onions that were sauted, black olives, broccoli, spinach, and mozzarella cheese. I used the frozen sauce from last sunday. it was good.



I had the thick crust on the right










I'll come back to the pizza dough in the mixer recipe, because I did not do it right.
Here is the old way:

Pizza dough:
1 and 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour (I use half wheat and it works)
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Put yeast in a small bowl and cover it with 1/4 cup of the hot water. Let it sit until its all yeasty, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile mix dry ingredients.
When ready add yeast mix, oil, and rest of the water.
mix and kneed on floured surface about 3-5 minutes.
put into an oiled bowl, make sure its covered with oil, and let it sit for an hour.