Garden Progress!

   And since I forgot to post garden progress yesterday...here it is! We built a 12 ft x 12 ft offset tiered garden patch. It seems to work pretty well. Although next year we either need to move the zucchini, cucumbers, and squashes...or just not plant so many of them. The yellow squash and the zucchini squash are overtaking the garden plot. LOL. I got the top tier completely weeded and just need to get the bottom tier done. That's not happening today though. It's way too hot for that right now. Oh, and that background photo for the blog? That's actually a photo of the lettuce when they had just sprouted! :D It kinda makes me happy to use that, especially since I'm posting garden stuff on here right  now. :)

There's about 8 pepper plants, 6 strawberry plants, mustard greens, mesclun, and lettuce

eggplant, sad looking broccoli, basil, and ittle-bitty oregano plants

Squash invasion!

lots of weeds, tomatoes, squashes, and cucumbers

Fermenting and Gardening Away!

   A couple weeks ago or thereabouts, I posted about making sauerkraut. It's delightful! I fished the peppercorns and dill sprig out of it and managed to fit it all into 2 jars! I think they might be pint sized, I forgot to compare and check to see if they were that or quart. :blush: Ooops. I got them at a yard sell for cheap, so it worked for me at the time. LOL. You can see where we already enjoyed some prior to me jarring it. YUM! It has a nice bit of heat to it and a lot of garlic flavor.
   My next project was to do some regular sauerkraut (so we can enjoy some during the week without wiping out co-workers with the garlic aroma) and let it set longer. I also read about fermenting Salsa Verde, so I decided to give that a whirl as well. Besides, the Salsa Verde gave me a reason to check out some homemade airlocks too!

   I didn't use a recipe per se for the regular sauerkraut--just sliced a head of cabbage (it was about 2.5 lbs prior to slicing) and added a couple tablespoons of salt, massaged and beat the cabbage, stuck it in what I'm referring to as my "kraut jar", added a bit of brine, then weighed it down with a fruit bowl, custard dish, and ziplock bag partially full of brine. Hey, it works and it's fairly inexpensive to do. LOL.
   For the Salsa Verde, I used this recipe from Domestic Soul. Instead of culturing it with whey though, I used some of my brine from my garlic kraut stuff. I probably didn't need to use 4 TBSP of it (recipe only calls for 2), but I wanted to make sure I had something to kickstart it since I'm a bit paranoid. I checked it a few days later and it was perfect! I think I'll add some corn and ground cumin to it next time though. It's pretty dang tasty, so I'm thinking it's a win. I'm not sure just how well my homemade airlocks actually worked since this was a short ferment and there really wasn't that much bubbling. Nothing molded which is always a good thing. LOL.

   The airlocks you see up there? Not too hard to make. Just get some of the plastic lids that Ball makes (or even the Mainstays WalMart brand), drill a hole, pop in a grommet (I used a food grade silicone one), then stick an airlock in there. I got the airlocks for pretty cheap off of Amazon.com. I wasn't sure which style I'd like more, so I ordered a 3 pack of 2 different styles to check out. With it being a short ferment, I just used water. Next time I think I'll use brine just in case it gets in the food and to keep it from molding. Not sure if it makes a difference one way or the other, but I'd really hate to be growing stuff in one of those. LOL.
   This weekend's events will (hopefully) be: making yogurt, feta, and red sauerkraut with apples. Since I'm trying a longer ferment time with my regular green sauerkraut, I'm going to attempt the red kraut in a canning jar with an airlock. We'll see just how well this works, but at least hubby and I were able to find some half-gallon sized canning jars so I should have enough space if I split it up into whatever jars it fits it! I'll post another blog post when we get stuff done (or started in the case of the kraut) and get some photos of it. Until then though, I guess this is it. :waves:

Close up of the Salsa Verde. Ooooh! Pretty!

P.S--And I realized after posting this that I didn't address the gardening-- our garden is doing well...it's kinda huge, actually. LOL. I'll do a separate post for that one another time though.

Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut (Cthulu included!)

     Someone from plurk got me interested in fermenting stuff. Not sure why I suddenly jumped on board with this, but it seemed intriguing...and we now have a good sized garden which should hopefully produce lots of veggies. At least that's the hope. Anyway, back to the fermenting bit. So I became intrigued with the idea and was directed to a Facebook group called "Fermenter's Kitchen" which led me to a post about using whatever pickle recipe you like and modifying it to work for cabbage. Oh, what a dangerous idea. I'm not a huge pickle fan. Not sure why because I like the spices just fine other pickled items I've tried I like, but pickles just never caught on with me for some reason. Sauerkraut on the other hand...well, let's just say that I rather like it with various things. After a bit of research and some questions, I delved in and started my first batch June 18, 2014! Whee!
   I didn't think to take photos while making it, so you just get a few of it in various stages of fermenting.

This is the sauerkraut right after I put it in my handy-dandy jar. It's looks so pretty and green! I'll include a list of what I put in there too after I'm done with all the photos.

Off to the right are photos from about 5 or 6 days into the ferment. I had a bit of an issue trying to keep most of my cabbage bits under the brine. FYI-- A stainless steel steamer thing might seem like a good idea at the time, but it's really not. I had some odd gunk in there from the brine de-greasing it. Remove gunk and steamer and use a small fruit bowl and custard dish with a gallon ziplock partially filled with brine, stack like so, and viola! No more gunk and most stuff stayed submerged! Boom. Awesomeness abounds!

And here's the photo from yesterday. A little over a week into fermenting. It's rather warmish in the apartment (about 72F-78F, sometimes up to 80F), so we figured it'd ferment a bit faster. We had some kraut on a sandwich with some cheese, meat, cheese, and Parmesan ranch dressing and it was delightful! Had a bit of a bite to it due to the chili flakes in there. Mmmmm.

And you see that dill weed sprig there? Hubby and I decided that it looked like a sea monster...or Cthulu. Hence the Cthulu in the blog post. LOL.

OK, time for the recipe.








 Deli Style Sauerkraut

4 TBSP pickling salt (Salt to taste. You don't have to use quite this much, but make sure you get at least a 2% brine in the jar.)
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp, heaping of ground coriander
2 TBSP of dill weed (you could probably use dill seed, but I'm not sure how much.) I just pinched off a good sized sprig
pinch of red pepper flakes
2 heads (I only used about half a head) of garlic, minced
a 2-3 lb head of cabbage

Chop cabbage into thin slices. Place cabbage and salt in bowl and massage and knead and pound the cabbage so it can release some water. Take your time and get what you can out of it. I mixed in my other spices after that and let mine set in the bowl for about an hour before putting it in the jar. You can let it set in the jar overnight or just add water to cover the cabbage. You probably want it about an inch or so over the cabbage. Place a weight on top if needed to bring the cabbage below the brine. You don't want anything hanging out at the top for too long or it will start molding after a bit. Just let it sit for however long you want (some prefer 3-7 days, others 4-10 weeks...or more). Taste every few days to see if you like how it tastes. :D

Aeble-what?

   I've been known to find some different (and on occasion, bizarre) foods. It was when I was doing some searching for Aloo Palak that I found--by a rather circuitous route-- Aebleskivers. To be honest, I'm not a fan of pancakes at all. Not sure why, I think it's something about the flavor and texture, but something about these little round Danish pancake balls really sounded interesting. So for kicks and giggles I found a cheapish pan, scoured the web for recipes, and gave it a whirl. Happily, I rather enjoyed them and have made them rather often for a quick brunch or snack to have on hand. After some time, I was a bit tired and bored with just the plain ones. After yet more scouring of the the web I found a winner-- Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread Aebleskivers. I can't seem to find a reference to the first recipe I used (I'm beginning to think maybe I just made cornbread and added stuff to it), but tonight while satisfying my Cornbread Aebleskiver craving I found a keeper. This tasty little recipe comes from the blog "The Other Side of Fifty".

  First whisk some flour, cornmeal, salt, brown sugar, baking soda and powder, cayenne and black pepper together in a medium bowl. I really recommend adding a touch less than the 1/2 tsp of cayenne called for if you're not a fan of spicy stuff. This was almost too much for me and I love spicy stuff, so I'd probably do a scant 1/2 teaspoon the next time.

   Next, whisk some buttermilk (this will help tone down the cayenne quite a bit), melted butter, and eggs in a small bowl. Not the most appetizing look concoction. Now dump that lovely stuff on the dry ingredients and mix until combined. You don't want to overmix it, just get everything moist.

  Done with the combining? Now add your diced jalapeños to the mix (if your using them) and give it a good stir. At some point in time, you'll want to melt some more butter and heat up your aebleskiver pan. It usually doesn't take too long to do that, well at least with my little cast iron pan it doesn't anyway.


   Now you're going to want to brush the wells of your pan with some butter and add a Tablespoon or less mix to it. Add a chunk of cheese, add a little more mix (try not to overfill) and let the sides brown, flipping once each side is done. There are a couple ways to flip these things, but my personal favorite is using a knitting needle or bamboo skewer and flip them a quarter turn each time the side is brown and holds together. This takes some practice, so don't worry if they look funny. The first time, batch, and attempt with new recipes usually do look funny until you get the hang of it. The other way to flip them is to brown one half and flip it all the way over and cook the second half. Oh, and if you have an aluminum pan use a bamboo skewer so you don't scratch the non-stick coating. I have better luck with a knitting needle on my cast iron one, so it's just a matter of trying one and seeing which suits you better.

   Once you're done browning the little lovelies and making sure they're cooked all the way through, enjoy! I love eating these with a bowl of chili. It's just a different variation of cornbread, but I think that's what makes it fun. :)

Pumpkin Gnocchi

     It’s not quite fall yet, but I’m starting to see pumpkins and Halloween candy in the stores, Thanksgiving decorations, and cooler mornings and evenings. I love this time of year. I’m not sure what made me think of pumpkin gnocchi earlier, but it sounded like the perfect thing to do for dinner tonight. I didn’t exactly plan it out too well because all I had was regular spaghetti sauce and Kraft Parmesan cheese to put on them. ::lol:: That’s OK, they turned out pretty dang tasty anyway. :)
     I wasn’t sure if I still had the pumpkin gnocchi recipe I used last year, so I did a little internet scouring to see if I could find it (which I did), but I found this recipe as well. I decided to give it a whirl and I’m glad that I did. It was excellent! I’m currently assuming that you want to see my photos, so here you go!

   First, I dumped a 15 oz can of pumpkin (*not* pumpkin pie filling!!) into a bowl. If it’s watery, make sure to drain the water off of it first. You can use homemade pumpkin puree, but I was going for quick and easy tonight. Especially since I didn’t want to turn the stove on when it was about 90F out.


   Next, dump your spices and flour in there and mix it up until you get a soft dough. You don’t want it too sticky, but not too dry either. The recipe called for a dash of nutmeg, pepper, and salt. I added a little bit of cardamom just because it sounded perfect for it. Don’t get too carried away with the nutmeg (or cardamom) though. This isn’t a pumpkin bar. ::lol::


    You’re going to want to divide the dough into 6 pieces and roll them into a 1 inch diameter log. Cut into 1 inch pieces, and if you feel so led, use a fork to imprint them so they look more like potato gnocchi. It doesn’t change the flavour any, it just makes it look cool. I think. Heaven only knows the real reason behind gnocchi imprinting. LOL.


     Gently place your gnocchi in a pot of lightly salted boiling water. They’ll sink to the bottom when you first put them in there, so don’t worry about them. Keep an eye on them though, because when they start floating in a few minutes, they’re done. 



     As I said, all I had was spaghetti sauce and Kraft Parmesan. LOL. Personally, I like mine with pesto and freshly grated Parmesan, but you really could use anything.
   If you by some chance won’t cook all the gnocchi at once (say, if you’re single like me), place them on a cookie sheet or something lined with parchment paper or wax paper and stick them in the freezer for a little while before sticking them in a freezer bag to use later. You want to freeze them on the sheet first, so they don’t stick together. or all you’ll have is a frozen clump of gnocchi that tastes goopy if you just stick them in the bag and freeze them.

Buon Appetito!