Sauerkraut

Western NY is the country's largest producer of cabbage. Oh boy, you say, rather flatly, I love cabbage. Um. I think.

Cabbage is not a terribly exciting vegetable, I'll admit. I'm not a big fan of cabbage rolls, cabbage is not my favorite reason to eat corned beef, but I do like coleslaw. And sauerkraut.

I know what you're thinking: "But June, sauerkraut is gross. It is slimy and mushy and you always say we shouldn't eat canned vegetable."

Guess what? You're right. Sauerkraut is slimy and mushy and you shouldn't eat canned vegetables. But I'm not talking about sauerkraut from a can. I'm talking about homemade sauerkraut.

Homemade tastes nothing like the pucker-your-mouth in disgust stuff that comes out of a can. And guess what? It is pretty easy to make.

You may recall that I ordered a ridiculously small crock to use for pickles. Yeah, that didn't work out, but I made pickles anyway. The crock, however, is the perfect size to use for a small batch of sauerkraut.

So, the first thing you do is slice the cabbage. I used the slice disk on the cuisinart, the shredding disk would make it too small. I used a really small cabbage, probably only about two pounds. After slicing, I put it into a glass (non-reactive, get it?) bowl and sprinkled it with pickling salt, (about 2 T) juniper berries (1 Tsp) and caraway seeds (1 tsp). I mixed it with my very clean hands (or you could wear gloves). Then the fun begins.

You have to pack the sauerkraut into the crock really tightly, a little at a time. I used a potato masher to tamp it down. At first, it seems you may not get it all in, but keep going. You can pack a lot of cabbage if you take out all of your aggression on it! Once it is packed tightly, you need to weigh it down a bit. Most recipes tell you to put a plate and a heavy weight, and you can do that, but I used a piece of wax paper and a ziploc bag full of water.

After a couple of days, take the weight off of it and skim the top of any gross looking scum. Do this every two or three days, making sure the cabbage stays submerged in the brine. After about four weeks, put it in the fridge. It will keep for a long time. It will have a nice mellow flavor.

Make a reuben. Or choucroute. Or a hot dog. I don't care, just try it.

Excuse the background mess in the last picture. I just got done packing school lunches and making smoothies for breakfast with the giant drink mixer. You can also see the cool meat slicer in the background. I bought a hunk of ham on sale and sliced it for sandwiches myself, cause I am just that awesome.

Wine and Whine

Last night I hosted Wine and Whine. It seems we haven't been able to have as many of our Women Who Wine (and Whine) get togethers as we used to, so I was really looking forward to it. I wasn't disappointed.

And I should have taken a picture to post. I am really bad at photography and I know I should work on improving it, because it seems pretty important in the food blog world, but generally, I find it a pain. And we all know by now that if I find it a pain, I'm generally going to skip it.

So there are no photos, but there was lots of fun and good food.

Here are the rules of the wine and whine (ok, they're not really rules so much as just the way things evolved): one of our group of ladies picks a date and tries to get everyone else to clear their calendars. Everyone brings food and wine. It's a collaboration. When Laura can make it, it is a great opportunity for a certain blogger to make fun of her offerings. Like the time she brought Cheese Doodles wrapped in bologna. Which the kids actually really liked. And the time she brought an award winning spam-ball pate frosted in cream cheese. (One of the most vile things I have ever tried. And believe me, I only tried it so I could make fun of it.)

Last night, we were not blessed with Laura's presence, she felt like she just had to have dinner with her parents who were in from out of town. I hope next time she gets her priorities straight, though. A few others had to do annoying things like work or spend their one free night a week with their families.  But my hard-core women were here: Priscilla, Jan, and Deb. We had a fabulous time.

I hadn't made too much of  a plan because these gatherings are intended to be low-stress, casual, and no pressure. Also, because I wanted to see what looked good at the Public Market in the morning. I found last of the season green tomatoes and 3 for a $1 butternut squash. I grabbed both.

I made a Butte tsrmilk Ranch Cayenne dressing that really complemented the fried green tomatoes well. It was really easy.

Buttermilk Cayenne Ranch

1 1/4 C mayo
1 C Buttermilk
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/4 C snipped chives
1tsp salt
2 tsp cayenne
1/4 c grated parmesan

Mix everything together. Chill. ( I like to use my immersion blender to make this.)

Speaking of immersion blenders, Deb thought she was ordering one, but instead she ordered this Hamilton Beach Commercial Drink mixer.

It is FANTASTIC!!!!
Deb decided it was too big for her kitchen and bestowed it upon me! Hannah came home and saw it and shrieked with delight. She actually jumped up and down. This morning, I popped a carton of plain greek yogurt, some frozen blackberries from Priscilla's bush, honey, and pomegranate juice into the metal cup and whirred it all up. The only thing I can say is "amazing". With no effort on my part, no pulsing, no stopping to stir, nothing, it powerfully blended everything until it was perfectly smooth. And delicious. I may have a smoothie obsession starting. Or a margarita one.



Jan made delicious salsa and guacamole. Prissie made a fantastic fig and mesclun salad with a port wine reduction vinaigrette.  Jan also made really tasty, yummy cherry tomatoes stuffed with bacon, mayo, and green onion. I used to make these a lot, they are the perfect little bite of salty bacon, creamy mayo, sweet tomato, and a little kick from the green onion. Just hollow out the tomatoes with a melon baller or spoon and stuff with the bacon mixture, just enough mayo to hold it together.

Wine night was great, next time, maybe Laura will show up with Cheez Whiz and saltines again, can't wait.

Another upcomnig review and Eggplant

It's official. I'm selling out. I am going to accept more free stuff to review. Okay, I don't really consider it selling out because I'm only reviewing stuff I probably would have bought anyway, from places I probably would have bought it. Places like CSN stores. CSN has over 200 stores with everything from dining sets to cookware, clothes, shoes, you name it, they've got it. So, I'll be ordering this egg cooker and I'll see what I think.

 

In the meantime, I need to tell you about what I've been cooking and also rant a bit. First, the rant: if you happen to want to raise some money, and you happen to put on a fundraising dinner, try to at least make the food taste good and don't even think about making people pay good money for food from a box. If you have a really good main course, don't ruin it by taking shortcuts on the sides. I'll support you, but next time, I might just give you a donation and tell you to keep your bad food. Life is too short to eat bad food. And calories are too precious to put bad tasting ones in your mouth! "Nuff said? I think so, consider yourself warned.

The end of the harvest is here and several of my friends have dumped unwanted produce on me, assuming (correctly) that I can turn their would-be compost into a feast! And I have!

My dear friend, Deb, brought two enormous eggplant and a plethora of hot peppers my way. She crinkled her nose at the eggplant she had received in her weekly CSA allotment and resigned herself to the fact that she had no time to figure out what to do with all of the peppers. Well, I did have time. In fact, I kinda stole an idea from her, although I changed it up a bit. Deb takes those cute little multi-colored sweet peppers, whacks the top off of them, stuffs hot Italian sausage into them and then grills them. They are quite tasty. She may be a little mad when she realizes that she could have done an equally easy and tasty recipe with the yellow Italian frying peppers she gave me. I cut them in half down the middle, stuffed them with chicken and wine sausage mixed with Parmesan and breadcrumbs and then drizzled them with olive oil and stuck 'em in the oven. Mighty tasty. 

The eggplant ended up as stir fried Chili Garlic Eggplant. You know, a little bit Chinese-y. First, cut up the eggplant into cubes, salt it lightly and set it to drain over the sink or a bowl for a good 30 minutes. Then, squeeze out all of the liquid you can from it. Next, heat a couple tablespoons of oil in the wok (wait, I can't believe I just said that: heat the wok until it smokes, then add the oil, geez, I must be losing my touch) anyway, then add a couple of tablespoons of chopped ginger. Stir once, add the eggplant. Cook, stirring for about five minutes, or until the eggplant is cooked through. Add about a tablespoon of chili garlic sauce from the Chinese section of the store. Be careful, it is really hot. You can always add more when the dish is done, but you can't take any away. Add a half cup or so of soy sauce and 2 T of sugar. Cook for a couple of minutes, until the sauce reduces. Stir in a handful of chopped green onions and serve with sticky rice. 

Note: you might want to use Tamari, because regular soy sauce can make the dish really salty if you use too much; you can also thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch mixed with water, if you like your sauces the way they are in your take-out Chinese. But guess what? Chinese people don't really do that very much.

Brazillian Mango

No, it is not a hairless mango. Mangoes don't have hair to begin with and certainly would never undergo such a ridiculous and painful procedure.

Today, at the Chinese food store, I spotted a sign that said "Brazilian Mango". They were hard and green, but I had to buy one, because my loyal reader, The Reader (I do know her name, but she kinda went cuckoo over the whole online privacy thing, so I'll respect her wishes and not use her name!), is an expat living in Brazil. She is always going on and on about the fruit there. So of course, I have to try it. I'm going to wait until it is soft, even if it doesn't change color (which it might, you never know). I'll let you know if is good or not. I haven't ever had a mango as good as an atulfo or champagne mango, but we'll see. Champagne mangoes are smaller than regular supermarket ones and yellow instead of red/green. My kids will eat boxes of them. I love it when I find a healthful food of which they can't get enough. I'll buy a big box of them, even if it $20. At Weggies, they cost around $3 a piece, when they have them, but at the Chinese store they average $1.50 a piece.

Update on the SNAP challenge, wherein I attempt to feed my family for $18 for one day, for all three meals: it is not going well. Yes, I suppose I could trot out some oatmeal for breakfast (kids hate it) and serve canned spaghetti sauce and pasta for dinner with no meat and canned green beans for dinner, but I am trying to do something better than that. I am still planning. Imagine if that was all you or I ever had to spend on food. Which I guess is the point of the challenge. We need to support our local food pantries because they supplement the diets of people in need above and beyond what food stamps provides. Believe me, I don't think anyone is living high off the hog on food stamps. I think they are scraping by and I think the fresh vegetables and good quality protein the food pantry provides are crucial to the families' well being. So, I'm still thinking and I have a half written blog post about it. I figure I'll take a regular day and cost it out item b y item and compare it with my SNAP challenge day. But tell me, how am I supposed to get through a day without using extra virgin olive oil or or real butter? I'll tell you, it ain't gonna happen.

Savor Rochester and Hunger Challenge

Blogging is a kind of a small world. You read a blog, you follow a blog, they read your blog, you read some of the blogs they follow, it gets very circuitous. Another Suburban Mom reposted something from Amid Life’s Crisis (which I don’t follow, but have read) about Hunger in America. This was kind of an interesting coincidence, because just the night before she posted this, I attended a fundraiser for Foodlink, our local food bank provider. It was fun and delicious (for the most part, with a few notable exceptions) and it supported this vital service to the poor in our community. I took Alex and he was the only kid there, but boy, was it his kind of event.

He is willing to try just about anything because I have forced him from a young age to eat a bite of everything on his plate. He has learned that even though he may think it sounds bad or that he won’t like it, often he is surprised and finds that he enjoys it.

Now, mind you, I am not being self-righteous and smug about my kids not being picky eaters. Alex still manages to be fairly picky, the difference is, I just don’t care. You don’t like spinach you say? Oh well, eat it anyway. Because. I. said. So.

And Alex’s big brother the Marine Foodie was perhaps the pickiest child eater ever to live on the face of the earth. When enforcing my “take a bite of everything” rule one Christmas Eve dinnerwhen he was four, Marine Foodie promptly threw it back up. His father told me to not ever force him to eat anything, ever, again. I think he ate only ten foods for his entire childhood. He came around, though, sometime between his fifteenth and seventeenth birthdays. Now he’ll eat anything. And loves it. (Of course, being in Iraq camping out in the desert eating only mre’s will do that for you, too.)

So I determined with my subsequent children to go back to enforcing my rules. And this has turned planning dinner from “What can I make that picky eater will eat?” to “What new recipe should I try tonight?”

Which brings me back around to the Savor Rochester Fundraiser. There was a lot of good food. The tuna tartare tacos with sriracha, guacamole, micro greens, and caviar from One were amazing. The best thing there. Alex tried it, but didn't really care for it.

There was also a lot of pulled pork. (Which Alex DID like!)  Yes, barbeque is very popular now and there are so many good places to get it, and pulled pork is easy to keep hot and serve over a three hour time period, but it takes no imagination whatsoever.

A vegan restaurant (yes, I know, what possessed me to sample the vegan food? Well, Alex stepped up to their booth and I followed. I didn’t want to be rude, so I tried it) offered butternut squash risotto. I love butternut squash risotto. Butternut squash risotto is one of the best comfort foods in the world. Unless you make it with minute rice and no cheese. Yes, that’s right, I said minute rice. This café (it shall remain nameless) concocted something they purported to be risotto with what had to be minute rice. It stuck together. It was not creamy. It was mushy. I couldn’t even taste the butternut squash. It was one of the most awful things I have ever tasted. Now, if I were going to try to make a vegan version of it, I would simply substitute vegetable broth for the chicken stock. I don’t know what I would do about the Parmesan cheese, I suppose you could leave it out and add more salt. I don’t know, but I would not use minute rice. Period.

Which brings me back around to the Hunger in America issue.

I am a food snob. I know this, you know this. My monthly food budget for four people is around $1200 a month. Or about $40 a day. This is over twice as much as a family of four receives on food stamps. And $40 a day for four people still doesn’t seem like a lot to me.

Some agency in the Midwest has issued this challenge: feed your family on $4.50 per person per day for a week.

The SNAP Hunger Challenge Rules

• Spend no more than $4.50 per day in total, per person, for all meals including beverages.
• Don't use food already on hand unless you deduct the value from your weekly amount. Salt and pepper don't count, but all other seasonings, cooking oils, condiments, snacks and drinks do.
• Don't accept food from family, friends, coworkers and others.
• Try to include fresh produce and healthy protein each day.
• Keep track of expenses, food choices, etc. and share your experiences on your blog

There is no way I can do it for a week. But I’ll try to do it for a day. I’ll start the day right off the top with $1.25 in the hole from a pot of Starbucks French Roast. I will. Not. Start. My. Day. Without. My coffee. And Folgers doesn’t count as coffee, it counts as brown, tasteless water.

I don’t know what I’ll cook, but I’ll let you know.

I know it will not be some of the menus that I browsed on frugal living and couponing blogs recently. Maybe you can’t do it for any length of time without relying heavily on cheap, processed foods, but I am determined to make a reasonable menu that my family will like (for the most part). I’m thinking I’ll try to do it after I shop this week so that I can keep track of what everything costs. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

Piergoies-channeling my inner Pole

Last weekend I happened to catch a few minutes of Diners, Driveins, and Dives on Food Network. I don't watch much Food Network anymore, since it turned into Food Competition Network, but I was surfing and Triple D was on at the time. I like the show a bit, it features a spiky-haired guy traveling around and eating food from some of the country's best down- to- earth eateries. They all feature homemade everything. None of them rely on frozen, pre-packaged, anything, in other words, the kind of restaurant at which you'd actually want to eat.

Can you guess I don't like chain restaurants much? I don't really see why I should pay money to have someone heat up frozen, pre-packaged food for me. If I want that, I can do it myself. If I go out to eat, I want something I wouldn't make at home, or something that someone makes better than I do. (Is there such a thing?)



On this particular episode, the spiky blond guy was visiting an Eastern European place in Minnesota. I am not a huge fan of Eastern European food, it seems pretty bland to me, and not terribly interesting. But they showed the restaurant's homemade vareneky, or pierogies. They looked amazing. Nothing like the crap that comes out of a box. Since Rochester seems to lack a Ukranian/Polish restaurant, and since my Russian sister-in-law's pierogy is more like a cabbage filled bread than a savory dumpling, I decided to make my own. I couldn't find any recipes for the one's they make at the place in Minnesota, so I settled for finding a few different recipes and turning it into something approximating what I saw on the show. I don't know how it compared for taste, but mine were excellent. And not really terribly hard to make. One batch was enough for four of us for dinner, with no leftovers, and only a little fighting over the last two.

June's Pierogies

For the filling, I used leftover mashed potatoes and mixed in some sauteed onions and grated cheddar cheese. That's it. Pretty darned simple, huh?

Dough
3 C Flour
1/2 C Sour Cream
1/2 C softened butter
1 Egg

Mix all ingredients with a dough hook in a stand mixer, or kill yourself and mix by hand, I don't really care. I know which one I'll be doing. Roll out until 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 3 in circles, fill with 1 T filling (you want them pretty full, you should just barely be able to close them.) Seal by pinching together. Boil a few at a time in salted water until they float.

After you have cooked them all, put some butter in a saute pan and add at least one sliced onion. If you really like onion, add two. Saute it gently until browned and caramelized. Remove the onion and add more butter. add the pierogies a few at a time and lightly brown on both sides. Serve immediately with the onions and a side of sour cream mixed with horseradish.

30 day Menu

A turkey-cooking challenged friend of mine(who overcame her difficulties with about 30 minutes of phone coaching by yours truly) recently begged all of her friends to send her their 30 day menu plans. I was horrified. Not because I am against being hyper-organized, but because I have read some of those thirty day menus. They tend to rely heavily on the crock pot and prepared or convenience foods, e.g. dump some packaged baby carrots over a piece of chuck roast, top with a package of onion soup mix and cook on low for 10 hours. Can you say "yuck"?

These menus also deprive you of taking advantage of that lovely piece of produce that you run across at the farmer's market or even at the grocery.

I think a better strategy to getting dinner on the table is to keep a well-stocked pantry and some key ingredients which you can use to get some dinner on the table without too much fuss.

Like tonight, I made an awesome Chinese meal without going to the store for one thing. In my freezer I had ground pork and dumpling wrappers. In my fridge, I had eggplant, ginger, green onion, leeks, chili garlic sauce. In my pantry, I had rice noodles, Korean beef stock, dried shiitakes, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar and garlic.

I made:
pan fried pork and scallion dumplings
Leek and shiitake soup with rice noodles
stir fried eggplant with chili garlic sauce.

I didn't have a plan before this morning. While drinking my coffee I think about what I have, what I want, and how much time I have that day. Does dinner ever get away from me? Yes. Do I find myself at 5:00pm wondering what I am going to make? Yes. But, I can usually get something on the table by 7 without too much fuss.

I'm sorry I don't have time to post the recipes tonight. I will try to get back to it and add them later. Kisses.