Beet Greens Smoothie

Ryan and I recently signed up for a local CSA (community supported agriculture) and I kid you not, I was like a little kid at Christmas when I opened up our first box. It was exhilarating, and I've never seen a bunch of more beautiful vegetables in my life [yes, I know I'm a huge nerd and I'm OK with that].

[a small bunch of the veggies from the box]

In our box were two ginormous beets with a ton of greens still attached. Beet greens are edible, but I usually end up throwing them out for lack of ideas of what to do with them. These were too great to toss, so I snipped them off, gave them a quick wash, and then threw them in the blender with a bit of water to make some beet greens puree. Then I froze them in ice cube trays and have been adding a few cubes into our breakfast smoothies. I love it because they give the smoothies extra purple color and up the nutritional value a bit too (high in Vitamin A + C, plus calcium and iron too).

Want to try one? They're good, I promise. Even Ryan likes them!

Beet Greens Smoothie

4 cubes frozen beet greens (see above for how-to)

6 large strawberries

1/4 cup fruit juice - I used pineapple

1/4 cup plain yogurt or kefir

1/2 cup oats

1 tsp hulled hemp seeds or chia seeds (optional)

Pour liquids in blender first, then add the remaining ingredients. Add additional pineapple juice (or yogurt, milk, or liquid of your choice) as needed to reach your desired consistency. Bottoms up!

Rhubarb Fizz

If you haven't noticed, I've been a very into making my own drinks and syrups lately. Recently, I made yet another syrup - rhubarb.

It was so simple and so delicious. I used Marissa's recipe from her blog, Food in Jars (I love her blog!). I had  frozen bag of rhubarb pieces, already chopped and everything.  I threw it in a pan with some water and sugar and let it simmer away until the rhubarb was broken down.

After straining it all, I put it in a glass bottle and tucked it into the fridge. I'm planning on mixing with some club soda for a little rhubarb fizz. Add a splash of gin or rum and you have yourself a fancy cocktail!

Update: I tried it mixed with some club soda (about a 1:3 ratio of rhubarb to soda) and a squeeze of lime and it was delicious! Be sure to stir it up - the syrup stays on the bottom if left not stirred.

Beautiful fruit and other things

First and foremost, Happy Easter to all you folk out there! I hope you have had a glorious day! I am thankful I was able to spend today with my family - it's always a good time.

I've had a great weekend thus far - Ryan and I went over to Malibu Canyon yesterday for a little morning hike. It was a beautiful day and perfect for hiking. We didn't go too far or anything, but it was great just to be spending time outside. On our drive back we stopped at a little roadside fruit stand that was selling some beautiful looking strawberries. I bought a case of them with the intentions of making some strawberry jam. And strawberry jam I made.

I love jamming.

I also made some lemon curd for some poppy seed tartlettes I brought over for Easter dinner. I love homemade lemon curd. I have some leftover from the tartlettes so I will probably be eating spoonfuls of it this week.

In other news, I have been trying to brainstorm different types of fiber art classes I can take this year. I was thinking perhaps an advanced needle felting class? I know the basics...but I think it'd be fun to learn more techniques. Any ideas?

I can't believe how quickly this weekend flew by...it's already Sunday night?! My how time flies. 

Here's to a new week!

Lemon squeezy

I went to the store for 3 lemons, and came home with 15.  Turns out buying an entire bag is waaaay cheaper than buying just three.  So this week I'm attempting to plow through 12 extra lemons.  Luckily, I came across a few awesome recipes. I originally bought the lemons so I could make some lemon bars (amazing recipe from my sister's mother-in-law), then ended up making some salted preserved lemons as well.

I got the idea over at Marisa's blog, Food in Jars, and here I am...preserving lemons with salt. I'm not going to lie, I'm slightly skeptical but hopefully optimistic. 

I'm very excited to see how they taste added to an old obsession: grain salads.  I think it will pack the perfect punch to said salads. I just have to wait 3 more weeks until they are ready for consumption!

In other news, I had a glorious time with my family while they were in town. We went to Disneyland, play Euchre, ate delicious food, and just plain ol' hung out with one another. It was magnificent. I love my family.

Now, back to the grind.

Party party!

The newest member of the family is here - wooooo!!!  My sister gave birth a week ago to this beautiful new girl, my new niece, Hannah.  Doesn't she just melt your heart?  

She arrived a little early, so early that the doctor didn't have time to get to the hospital and a nurse had to deliver her.  Woah.  But I am SO glad she's finally here!  I already love her to pieces.

While nothing this summer will top the arrival of Hannah, Ryan and I have been trying to soak up the CA summer by getting to the beach more.  Here we are at Santa Monica beach in the evening awaiting the sunset.

Here is the said sunset.

And tonight I tried a new pickle recipe - pickled fennel with orange zest.  I got the recipe from my friend, Jo.  She has an awesome blog all about knitting and eating, check it out.  I love fennel and I can't wait to see how this turns out!

In other summer news, Ryan is job hunting like no one's business.  I think he applied to almost 50 jobs yesterday, no joke. So if you live in LA and happen to own a thriving company, please hire my husband.  

Happy August!

Apple Butter

Well, Fuji apples were on super sale here in California this past weekend so I bought 5 pounds with hopes of either baking or canning with them.  Canning won out.  It was a toss-up between making apple butter or Swedish apple cake (this is amazing if you have yet to try it...), and since I haven't canned anything in a while I went with making the apple butter.

I discovered apple butter later in life, I think sometime around college (back in the early 2000's), and have never looked back.  There are many variations from very basic (just apples) to very spicy.  I decided to go the spicy route this time around.  I even threw in a 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom for the heck of it.

The one drawback of making fruit butters in the amount of time it takes.  Peeling, chopping, slicing, heating, simmering, and simmering....and simmering.  It seriously feels like it simmers f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  Since you really want a thick consistency it takes quite a bit of time (especially with juicier fruits like peaches or pears) to evaporate most of the liquid until you're left with a very spreadable and edible butter.  But, it's totally worth it.

In non-butter related news, it's been a grand week thus far.  A good friend just moved closer, my pepper plants have made a triumphant return after I was certain they were dead, I finished reading the Hunger Games series (amazing!!!), and to top it all off today is Leap Day!

Adventures in Home Dairy

I recently acquired Home Dairy, a fabulous book all about how to make yoru own dairy products ranging from cheese to sour cream.  Let me tell you, it is amazing.  If you are at all interested in making your own dairy products this book is a huge help! Ashley English does a fantastic job of laying out all you need to know about your favorite dairy items and how you (yes, you!) can make them at home.

Making cheese has been something I've done twice before, both times a simple farmer's cheese.  I was feeling ready to take on something a bit more challenging...but not too much more.  So my friend Alisha came over and we decided to tackle the Indian Paneer cheese recipe in the book.

We got to work. We brought the milk to a gentle boil, which took quite some time, but we were being extra cautious and kept it on pretty low heat to avoid scorching the milk.

The best part of the process was hands down when we added the lemon juice and saw the milk coagulate before our very eyes.  Gets me every time.

 Then we drained the curds in a cheesecloth.

And pressed the curds with some weight.  We used some heave books and heavy votives.

And three hours later, voila! Paneer!

Another great thing about the Home Dairy book is that after giving you a number of recipes for cheese, yogurt, and ice cream (among various other delicious dairy delicacies...), Ashley includes recipes that incorporate the dairy products you just made, such as Saag Paneer.  It's a delightful combination of Indian spices, spinach and the paneer cheese.  Mmmm.

The day was a raging success.  Next we will try our hand at another cheese - goat perhaps?  Then onto the complicated cheese section - swiss and gorgonzola here we come!

DIY Vanilla Extract

If you haven't noticed, I love baking.  One of the things I don't enjoy about baking sometimes is the price of the ingredients, mainly pure extracts. That stuff is expensive. So what better way to cut down the cost than to make your own?!  I decided to start with making my own vanilla extract.

You will need:
1 - 2 vanilla beans
Approx. 1 cup vodka
1 glass jar to store your extract

It is actually surprisingly easy.  It's just vodka + 1 split vanilla bean.

I used 1.5 Madagascar vanilla beans to make the extract. First, cut your vanilla bean in half lengthwise so that it will fit into your glass jar.  Then cut along the bean exposing the inside.

Then put your beans in a clean, glass jar. I reused an old jam jar. Pour vodka over your beans. I read that you should use about 1/3 cup vodka per bean. I used almost a full cup for my 1.5 vanilla beans. I then made sure all my beans were fully submerged in the vodka.

Now, it's just time to wait until all that vanilla goodness is sucked out and into the vodka, about 2 months stewing time. And when you think of it, give it a gentle shake every once and a while.

Here it is after 1 month of stewing.  You can see it's already much darker from all that vanilla-y goodness.

I'll be sure to let you know how it compares to the store bought variety when I can use it in a month.  It smells sweet and delicious already!


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Caramel Nut Grahams

Saturday was spent doing a marathon of Christmas cookie baking with my sister. We made chocolate peanut butter balls, pecan tassies, and these delicious caramel nut grahams. They are so easy and so addicting. And they keep well when made in advance, because who really has time to make fresh Christmas cookies the day before?!

You will only need these 4 simple ingredients:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

pecans, coarsely chopped (we used about 8oz)

Graham crackers

First, break graham crackers into 4 rectangles. Line them up in the bottom of a jelly roll pan, touching each other.

Melt the butter and sugar together in a saucepan and let simmer for a couple minutes. Pour mixture over the graham cracker layer in the jelly roll pan. Spread evenly. Put pan into a 350 degree oven and bake for 8 - 10 minutes, until they have bubbled throughout for about 3 minutes. Immediately sprinkle with coarsely chopped pecans. Let cool for about 4 - 7 minutes and remove from jelly roll pan with spatula, transfer to waxed paper. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Yum.

I am linking this cookie recipe over at Pam's (Gingerbread Snowflakes) Cookie Swap 2011. There are some awesome recipes there, check them out!

And come back on Tuesday, December 13 for the kickoff of the Scandinavian Christmas 2011 series. There will be more recipes and crafts to share!

Baked goods...

Ryan gave me Deceptively Delicous by Jessica Seinfeild for my birthday last week and ever since I've been testing out a few of the recipes. The cookbook is all about incorporating veggie purees into items that usually don't contain them to make them a little more nutritious. It still doesn't really make a pan of brownies healthy just because you add 1/2 cup of veggie puree, but it's still fun to add some in and see if you can tell.

The second recipe I tried were these oatmeal blueberry bars (with spinach!) and I thought they turned out great! You can't taste the pureed spinach at all in the filling, which is 1 cup low-sugar blueberry preserves (I actually used a mix of my homemade raspberry jam and IKEA lingonberries...) and 1/2 cup pureed spinach. Even Ryan couldn't taste it and that means it's a winner.

But....the first recipe I tried definitely had remnants of vegetable taste in the spice bread. It's official name was gingerbread spice cake, but we call it broccoli bread. The 1 cup of broccoli puree with 1/2 cup carrot puree really stand out and overpower the bread so it doesn't taste very gingerbread-y at all. It actually tasted less like broccoli when it was fresh out of the oven, but once cooled....eek.

It looks pretty though!

It's been fun pureeing veggies into baked goods, now I need to try some of the non-baked recipes in the book.

Spiced Carrot Pickles

Yes, carrot pickles. After living in Japan and eating pickled veggies with practically every meal, I've recently started to miss it. Good thing I've been in a canning phase, because I've found sound pretty awesome pickled veggie recipes. Today I tried my hand at some pickled carrots.

I was inspired by Marisa's (Food In Jars) pickled carrots and went from there. I used a blend of coriander, pepper flakes, garlic, chinese star anise, and crushed bay leaves for my spice blend for the brine. I'm anxious to dig in...but I have to wait until they are fully pickled!

I'm planning on keeping these in the refrigerator, so I didn't process them to make them shelf-safe. If they turn out well, I'd love to make a larger batch...maybe even use baby carrots? Wouldn't those be cute? I love mini things.

Jam, a love story

Jam. I’m currently in a jamming/canning phase. I’ve only made two batches so far, but I dream about all sorts of things to jam and can. If only I had an unlimited supply of canning jars and fresh produce…and time, too, I guess.

My love of canning goes all the way back to two weeks ago; when I stumbled across this blog. It makes you want to can pretty much everything you see.

My love for jam, however, goes back a bit farther. Back in college, my bestie and I spent a summer in northern Michigan. We were ice cream-scoopers by day, jammers by night. We had a freakishly strong right arm (because of all the scooping) which only helped us in our jamming ventures. We even created our own jamming company - We Be Jammin’. Although, it should be said that we gave away more jam than actually selling…but, hey, we had fun. We picked our own strawberries and blueberries and made delicious jams and preserves. Needless to say, it was a grand summer.

My first batch of jam this season was raspberry jam. I found these cute little jars – 4 oz. quilted Ball jars – and got to jamming. Then a couple days ago I made peach vanilla-bean jam. I’ve never used a real vanilla bean before, it was fun! I love seeing all the flecks of vanilla throughout the jam.

Photo from Food In Jars

I'm dying to try this Orange-Ginger Marmalade...yum. And then I want to attempt homemade pickles. Anyone know of a good recipe for either dill or bread and butter pickles?