Dark Chocolate-Cranberry Cookies

These are only slightly modified from my all-time favorite cookie recipe for White Chocolate-Cranberry Cookies. Obviously, the adaptation was not a difficult one…These cookies are chewy, rich, and delicious, and can easily be made via traditional recipe or adapted to a vegan cookie. Dark chocolate in a vegan cookie? Indeed! Any high quality dark chocolate should be vegan in fact. As a rule milk fat is only added to poor-quality dark chocolate, so if you are vegan, just be sure to read the ingredient list before selecting your chocolate, or, of course, you can always use carob instead…

I’m trying to make the switch over to thinking in terms of fall ingredients, and now that the weather has (finally!) cooled down a little that shift seems a bit more natural….Not that dried cranberries are particularly a “fall” ingredient, but fresh cranberries do begin to come into their peak in October, and we generally associate cranberries with Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it’s not that much of a stretch to count this as an autumn recipe….is it? I am trying to start assembling my Thanksgiving recipes now so that I can get some of them up on the site in plenty of time for the holiday, and requests and suggestions are always very much appreciated…What are your favorite Thanksgiving side dishes and desserts? I’d love to hear about what dish you most look forward to at your holiday meal….

Anyway, the cookies:

Ingredients:

Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

– 1 c. flour

– 1 tsp. salt

– 1 tsp. baking soda

– 1 c. butter or butter substitute, softened

– 3/4 c. brown sugar

– 3/4 c. white sugar

– 1 tsp. vanilla extract

– 2 eggs (or 1/2 c. applesauce, plus 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil for vegan cookies)

– 1 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips or pieces

– 1 c. dried sweetened cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F

2. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl

3. In a large bowl  combine butter (substitute) and both types of sugar. Beat until smooth and fluffy

4. Add vanilla to creamed sugars

5. Add eggs one at a time, or if making vegan cookies, mix together applesauce and oil and add slowly to your sugar mix

6. Slowly begin to mix in your flour, adding a bit at a time and mixing well after each addition

7. Add dark chocolate to your cookie dough. Mix well.

8. Add dried cranberries

9. Use a spoon (or your hands!) to scoop out cookies. Place on greased baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes.

10. Remove from oven. Allow to cool on baking sheets 2-3 minutes.

11. Transfer to a cooling rack or paper towels to finish cooling.

12. Enjoy!

Someone really wants that cookie…

Vegetables and Dumplings

My husband and I were craving some comfort food the other night, and my husband’s go-to comfort food of choice is chicken and dumplings. I should mention here that my mother-in-law makes what have to be THE BEST chicken and dumplings in the universe. So, attempting to make a vegan version of the dish that wouldn’t shamefully pale in comparison to his favorite food of all time and just scream incompleteness to his meat-loving palate was a challenge indeed. But, I think that this recipe was a success. I certainly loved it and plan to make it very soon. I think that it is terrific as it is, but you could certainly add meat to it if you are so inclined. Now that it’s cooling down a bit and we’re heading in to fall I plan to be doing lots of vegan/vegetarian translations of comfort food classics — Ideas and suggestions are (as always) encouraged!

Ingredients:

Yields 4-6 servings

For the vegetables and gravy:

– 3 Tbsp. butter or butter substitute, such as Earth Balance

– 1 medium yellow onion, diced

– 1 small leek, cleaned and thinly sliced

– 2 medium carrots, diced

– 3 ribs celery, diced

– 1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms

– 6 cups vegetable stock

– 2 Tbsp. flour

– Salt and pepper to taste

For the parsley dumplings:

– 2 c. flour

– 1 tsp. salt

– 3 tsp. baking powder

– 1/4 c. butter, Earth Balance, or vegetable shortening

– 1/2 c. finely chopped fresh parsley

– 1 c. milk or vegetable stock

Directions:

1. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter (substitute) over medium heat. Add prepped onions and leeks, sautee 2-3 minutes

2. Add carrots and celery and sautee an additional 5 minutes, until vegetable begin to soften

3. Add mushrooms. Cook 3-5 minutes.

4. Add vegetable stock, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for at least one hour uncovered

5. Use a ladle to remove 1 c. of the hot stock from the pot, being careful not to include any pieces of vegetable. (A few bits here and there won’t matter, but you do not want huge pieces of veg in the stock you’re using for this step)

6. In a skillet or saucepan melt the remaining 2 Tbsp. of butter (substitute) over medium heat

7. Add 2 tbsp. flour to the pan and sautee, stirring constantly for 2 minutes

8. Slowly add your cup of hot stock to the pan, stirring constantly until a thick gravy is formed

9. Add your gravy to the pot of vegetables and mix well. Allow to simmer.

And now for the dumplings!

10. In a large bowl sift together flour, salt, and baking powder

11. Add parsley

12. Cut in butter (substitute) or shortening and work in with hands until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs

13. Gently stir in milk or vegetable stock, just mixing until integrated. Do not over-mix!

14. Dip a measuring spoon or melon-baller into the hot stock/gravy and then immediately scoop out a spoonful of the dumpling dough (dipping it into the stock first prevents the dough from sticking to the spoon). Drop into the simmering vegetables and gravy. Repeat with the remainder of the dough.

15. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes

16. Cover pot and simmer for an additional 10 minutes

17. Serve immediately, ladling plenty of the hot vegetables and gravy on and around the dumplings. Enjoy!

How To Make Your Own Yogurt

Making your own yogurt is easy, fun, better for you and better for the environment. Plus, if you’re like us and eat a lot of yogurt, it better for your bank account too! And, after you make yogurt once, you can continue to make yogurt from your existing batch because you have the live cultures you need — all you’ll need to buy is fresh milk after the initial batch.

Yogurt makes a delicious and healthy breakfast or snack, especially topped with some fresh fruit and granola, but it can also be used to add tangy creaminess to soups, as a healthy alternative to sour cream, or as the base for marinades and salad dressings. Many yogurts you buy in the grocery store contain funky chemicals and additives, and even many of the organic brands contain things like pectin and other thickening agents, plus are usually loaded with a ton of sugar. If you make your own you are totally in control of what goes into your yogurt, and thus, what goes into your body.

Since homemade yogurt does tend to be less thick than the store-bought kind, I do add milk powder to thicken it, but this is solely a matter of preference. Similarly, you can use whole, raw, pasteurized, low-fat, or skim milk for this recipe, but I like the results of raw whole milk the best. As for your starter yogurt, any high-quality plain yogurt will work, just make sure that it contains live, active cultures. Some health food stores even carry yogurt starter cultures if you really want to go from scratch, but these can be hard to find and using a ready-made yogurt yields equally pleasing results.

What you’ll need:

– A large pot

– A clean container in which to store your yogurt — I used glass mason jars but you can certainly use a plastic container, just make sure that it is super-clean — you don’t want any bad bacteria growing in there with the good yogurt bacteria

– A meat or candy thermometer

– 1 quart of milk, preferably organic

– 1-2 Tbsp. organic, plain yogurt containing active cultures

– 1/4 c. powdered milk (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the milk into a large pot over medium heat. Stir often.

2. Without boiling milk, bring temperature up to 180F. (This is achieved by heating milk slowly over a longer period of time — to get refrigerated milk up to 180 it should take you 25-35 minutes)

3. Remove milk from heat

4. In a separate bowl combine your yogurt with your powdered milk, if you are using it. Mix well.

5. When milk has cooled to 115F pour off about 1 cup of it and add to your yogurt. Stir until an even consistency is achieved

6. Add yogurt/milk mixture back into pot with the remaining 115F milk

7. Transfer your mixture into your clean container(s)

8. Turn your oven to the “Warm” setting, or so that pilot light alone is on — the ideal temperature for making yogurt is 95-105F

9. Place your container(s) into a tray with an inch or two of water in it and place in your warmed oven

10. Let yogurt develop in a warm place for 4-7 hours, checking occasionally to make sure environment has maintained the proper temperature. For milder flavored yogurt develop less (4-5 hours), for tangier, and thicker, yogurt, develop longer.

11. Cover securely and refrigerate. Will keep 1-2 weeks.

*If you’d like to make flavored yogurt, simply combine 1 c. fresh fruit with 1/4 c. honey and bring to a boil on the stove, cook until fruit softens and begins to break down. Stir well. Once cool stir into your yogurt.

How To Grow Your Own Sprouts

This is to be the first entry in the “Grow Your Own Food” series I’m working on. Amongst the foods I plan to include for the Autumn/Winter series are sprouts, radish, spinach, cabbage, beets, rutabaga, kohlrabi, fennel, carrots, and potatoes. Sprouts without a doubt are the easiest, and quickest, of these foods to grow — they take such little effort; the hardest thing about growing them is remembering to rinse them twice a day!

The goal of this series, or one of the goals anyway, is to demonstrate how easy it is to grow your own food. I think that we tend to have this notion that gardening/growing our food is super difficult, tedious, and time-consuming, but it’s not. Really, I promise, it’s not. The hardest part is digging your garden and preparing your soil, but you can just set aside one afternoon and it’s done in a few hours. After that it’s just planting the seeds, watering, and a little other occasional maintenance. Or, there are many foods that can be grown in a simple planter box — radish, spinach, arugula, anything with a shallow root system — all you need is a planter, a bag of soil, some seeds, and voila — you’re done! I plan to demonstrate this technique when I grow spinach in a few weeks…

Our winter garden — look how big the radishes are already just a couple of weeks after planting:

Sprouts however, require very little, and can easily and quickly be grown in your kitchen. I must credit my wonderful mother-in-law, Sue, for giving me the idea to grow them — I would have surely overlooked them otherwise.

Sprouts are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, many of them containing large quantities of vitamin A especially. A number of seeds, pulses, legumes, and grains can be sprouted, such as mung beans, quinoa, alfalfa, radish, cabbage, mustard, adzuki, fenugreek, lentils, chickpeas, soy beans, wheat, rye, sunflower, and green peas. Experiment! For this entry I used alfalfa and mung beans.

What You Will Need:

– Seeds, beans, whatever you want to sprout — about 2 Tbsp. usually yields around 4 cups of sprouts, but this varies according to what you are using*

– A clean mason jar, or other glass quart container

– Cheesecloth

– Rubberbands

– A source of clean water

– A strainer

*Most health food stores will have the seeds to start sprouts, and you can also cheaply purchase pulses and other legumes from the dry bulk section of these stores. For instance, I think that mung beans generally run about $2-3 per lb. and 1/4 c. of these will produce about 3 quarts of sprouts….Or you can simply buy lentils or quinoa, or even cheaper and easier; buy packets of radish, celery, or cabbage seeds from your local nursery or hardware store.

    

Directions:

1. Place the seeds into your container and cover with warm water. Soak overnight (6-8 hours)

    

2. Rinse the seeds with lukewarm water, then return to cleaned containers

3. Cover jars with cheesecloth secured well with a rubberband

4. Seeds will need to be rinsed 2-3 times a day. I did this once in the morning while I was making my coffee, and once just before going to bed. Simply fill your jars with lukewarm water, let sit for a minute or two, lightly shake your jars, and turn upside-down to drain

*I found it helpful to leave jars over drinking glasses to allow them to drain completely, and then once drained, left them on their sides so as to not become waterlogged

Mung beans on Morning # 1 — already starting to sprout!

Morning #4:

5. Most sprouts take 3-7 days to mature. Sprouts are best grown in a warm (70-80 degrees F) place with little light. On the third day, however, you will want to expose most varieties of sprout to some natural light, so that they can increase their chlorophyll content.

6. Place mature sprouts in a water-filled container and rinse to remove hulls (seed coverings) and fibrous roots. The hulls will float to the top — skim them off, then strain sprouts and allow to drain dry.

7. Sprouts are best used immediately upon maturation, but will keep in a covered glass or plastic container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Black bean and red wheatberry burger with tomato and alfalfa sprouts. Oh yeah.

“Sprouts are very nutritious because they contain all elements a plant needs for life and growth. The endosperm of the seed is the storehouse of carbohydrates, protein, and oil. When the seed germinates, these become predigested amino acids and natural sugars upon which the plant embryo feeds as it grows to maturity. When used as food, the life force is released and supplies the energy which is capable of generating healthy cells in the body and supplying us with new vigor and life. Used as an adjunct to the diet, sprouts can retard the aging process, since they contain ample amounts of male and female hormones, available in their most assimilable form. Processed foods often lack the vitamins and minerals necessary to a balanced diet. Research shows that, in sprouts, one finds one of the foods highest in vitamin and mineral content. Sprouts should, therefore, occupy a prominent place in the diet. Among their other virtues is the fact that the seeds are low in cost, can be stored indefinitely, and are easy to grow, and, when sprouted, increase their nutritional value many times.” — from http://www.rosicrucian.com

Hanging Letter and Key Organizer – No Woodworking Experience Required!

A few years ago I was in a home design store in Baltimore called Red Tree with my wonderful friend, Bronwyn (belated birthday shout out!), and while trying to talk myself out of buying half of the store, I saw some very clever and artsy key organizers. A simple concept really: a painted board with hooks in the bottom of it to ensure that you never again arrive 30 minutes late to an appointment because you were turning your home inside-out searching for a misplaced key ring that turned out to be (duh) in the freezer, or under a cereal box, or whatever other bizarre place you may have absent-mindedly placed them. I am famous for this by the way — I have had to replace my entire set of keys four, yes, four times because I misplaced them and was never able to find them again. For serious. In a stormdrain somewhere, or in a landfill, or in the lair of the evil elf that steals half of my socks from the dryer, are four sets of my keys, to this day, still waiting to be discovered….

How was that for a tangent?! Jeez, anyway, back to Red Tree. So I stood for a while, inspecting the key organizers, turning them over in my hands, and hemming and hawing over whether or not my broke-ass could justify spending X-number of dollars on something that, despite my track record with lost keys, I deemed to be a non-essential item, when suddenly it occurred to me that I could make my own key organizer.

Well, it only took me about three years, but I’ve finally gotten around to doing it. I decided to add a letter compartment to the organizer, because in addition to being the master of misplaced keys, I am also the queen of unsent letters. I’m pretty sure that I still have thank you notes and birthday cards that I wrote back in 2003 being used for bookmarks or breeding mold in boxes in the attic…

Anyway, this is a fun little creative project, and is really quite easy, and would be great to do with kids.

What You Will Need:

– A scrap of plywood or piece of board — I used a leftover piece of plywood from an ill-fated attempt to build a bookshelf but if you don’t have any pieces of wood laying around, the folks over at your local hardware store would probably be happy to cut a piece for you. Also, if you are not going to be making a letter holder in addition to the key organizer you can use a much narrower piece of wood than I did.

– Sand Paper – 3M makes an assorted grit combo-pack that is awesome

– Paint

– Whatever image(s) you’d like to use. These can be cut from books or magazines, or any other paper source. Old botanical drawings would be really cool, or you could draw your own image. I cut some of my images from an old poster I had and the rest from a beat up Alphonse Mucha book. The letter box is covered in a sheet of Art Nouveau wrapping paper.

– Scissors and/or X-acto/utility knife

– Super glue or wood glue

– Polyurethane

– Screw Hooks

– Cardboard (only if you are doing the letter box as well as the key organizer – an old shoe box will work just fine)

– Thumbtacks  (smooth head or quilting)

– A thin chain or sturdy twine to hang your organizer — I used a broken necklace!

Directions:

1. Sand your board. Start with an abrasive paper and finish with a fine or superfine to create a perfectly smooth and splinter-free surface.

2. Paint your board. Apply multiple coats if desired. Allow to dry.

Steps 3 and 4 only applicable if making a letter holder. If you are only making a key organizer, without the letter holder, skip ahead to step #5

3. Cut your cardboard into the shape pictured below. Fold over flaps and fit to the bottom of your piece of wood. You may have to trim the cardboard again to ensure a good fit.

4. Cover cardboard with decorative paper, wrapping paper ends over the edges and securing with super glue. Or, you can just paint your cardboard. Or do a collage over it…

*Be sure to fold your cardboard before gluing on the paper to ensure the proper fit

5. Select the images you wish to use and cut out with scissors or utility knife

6. Do the layout with the images you are using

7. Once you are certain of your layout use super glue or wood glue to adhere them to your board

8. Cover your board with the glued image(s) with several coats of polyurethane, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next

9. Fit your letter holder to your board

10. Use thumbtacks to secure the perimeter of the letter holder, spacing them evenly every 2-3 inches

11. Screw hooks into the bottom of the letter holder/board, making sure that they go into the direct center of the board’s width so that the wood doesn’t splinter

* If you are using plywood you should be able to screw in the hooks directly. If however you are using a denser type of wood you may need to drill holes into your board before being able to screw in the hooks

12. Screw in the rest of the hooks, spacing evenly

13. Admire your work — you’re almost done!

14. Secure your chain, twine, or string to the back of your board with thumbtacks. Use at least two tacks per side.*

*If you are using twine or string be sure to tie a knot in each end so that the tacks don’t pull through

15. Decide where you want your new, nifty, handmade key and letter organizer! It can be hung using a single nail.

Peach Layer Cake

With bits of fruit mixed right into the cake batter, a layer of freshly made preserves, and nectar-sweetened cream cheese frosting, this cake is about as peachy as it gets! And yet, the flavor is not overwhelming — sweet and summery and bright — this Peach Layer Cake is sure to delight and impress.

My darling daughter, Harriet, turned one this week. Sigh. Despite all of my cynicism pre-motherhood, I am totally one of those moms who likes to take a million pictures of their child wearing ridiculous outfits…So needless to say, I had my heart set on getting one of those cliche pictures of baby covered in cake and frosting at her first birthday party. However, the thought of loading baby up with the metric ton of sugar found in most birthday cakes was cause for hesitation, even despite the insanely adorable mental image I’d been nurturing for weeks of Harriet’s sweet little face plastered in pink frosting. I decided to compromise: there would be cake, but it would at least have plenty of fruit in it. So, cake + frosting + fruit = healthy…right? Right!

Okay, so this may not be exactly healthy, but it is seasonal, it is delicious, and it does indeed have lots of fruit in it…for whatever that’s worth. This recipe is my own — created by combining about 5 diverse recipes (none of which was for peach cake) with a little guesswork and a lot of luck, but I will definitely be making it again soon — it was a big hit.

Ingredients:

– 5 c. fresh ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and diced (about 7 medium peaches, plus one for decorating, if desired)

– 1 c. sugar

– 4 c. flour

–  2 tsp. baking powder

– 2 tsp. baking soda

– 1 tsp. salt

– 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

– 1 c. butter, room temperature

– 1 c. brown sugar

– 2 eggs

– 1 tsp. vanilla

– 2/3 c. milk

– 1/3 c. sour cream

– 2 8oz. packages of cream cheese, room temperature

– 1 c. powdered sugar

Directions: 

1. Prepare your peaches. Peaches should be ripe, but not overripe. Try to dice them into fairly small bits, but don’t worry yourself too much — the fruit will break down quite a bit throughout the cooking process

2. Put peaches into a medium saucepan over medium-low heat and cook with 1/4c. water

3. Stir frequently and bring to a boil

4. Add 1/4 c. of the sugar, stir well, return to a boil. Remove from heat

5. Preheat oven to 350F

6. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg

7. In a separate bowl (use an electric mixer if you have one) cream together the remaining 3/4 c. of sugar, the brown sugar, and the butter

8. Add eggs, one at a time, to the creamed butter/sugar

9. Add vanilla, milk, and sour cream to the liquids and mix well

10. Add your dry ingredients to the wet. Mix well

11. Fold in 1 1/2 c. of your cooked peaches

12. Grease and flour 4 cake/pie tins (You can do this in batches if you don’t have enough tins)

13. Distribute batter evenly amongst tins

14. Bake in oven at 350F for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer or knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean

15. Allow cakes to cool for 20-30 minutes before (carefully!) removing them from tins.

Now, for the frosting…

16. Measure out 1 c. of your cooked peaches, trying to include as much of the juice from the pan as possible. Put peaches with juice into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth

17. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat both packages of cream cheese until smooth and creamy and free of lumps

18. Add powdered sugar, beat well

19. Add blended peach puree to frosting and mix well. (You can also add food coloring if you like — I added two drops of red plus three yellow to make a “peach” colored frosting)

20. Make sure that your cakes are completely cooled. Transfer the first one to a cake stand or serving platter

21. Using a sharp, serrated knife carefully create a flat work surface by shaving any rounded part of the cake, as shown below. You can also flip each cake upside-down — using the bottom of each cake as your flat surface as you work your way through the layers. I usually evaluate each as I go along

22. On the top of your first cake, heap about 1/4 of your frosting and spread just to the edges

23. Place your second cake directly onto of your first

24. Create your smooth surface, then spread the remainder of your cooked peaches (you should have about 3/4-1c. left) over the top of the second cake

25. Place your third cake directly on top of your second, create a smooth surface, and then cover with an additional 1/4 of the frosting

26. Place your final cake on top of the third

27. Cover top and sides of cake evenly with frosting

Don’t stress if your cake doesn’t look perfect — it takes lots of practice. As you can see, my frosting skills need a lot of work!

You can slice an additional peach if you’d like to decorate the top. Peach candies would also be a really cute way to decorate.

I think Harriet liked her cake….

This is one of those things that I actually think tastes even better the day after you make it — the preserves saturate the cake beneath it making it super moist and yummy….Enjoy!

Caramel Custard Bread Pudding

Its going to be difficult for me to describe just how delicious this is without using expletives…..Let’s just say that this is the kind of thing that you may want to eat in private because there will probably be sufficient eye-fluttering and moaning to cause some embarrassment in mixed company. It’s what would happen if creme brulee, caramel, and French toast had a menage a trois…Yeah, it’s that good…

I never liked sweets. Given the choice of a cheese plate or popcorn (or a cocktail) versus dessert, the savory option would win every time. And then I got pregnant. Aside from wanting to put cream cheese on everything, I also craved sugar. Hard core. There was a key lime pie phase, a lemon bar phase, a chocolate-raspberry truffle phase, a peanut brittle phase, and a cinnamon ice cream phase. Not that I was turning down any other sweets available amidst the cravings….I had assumed that once my daughter was born the cravings, and the sweet tooth, would go away. Incorrect. It seems that the sweet tooth that was neglected for so many years is here to stay, and wants to make up for lost time…

Now, despite my newfound love of all things dessert, I’ve never been a big fan of bread pudding; but, my sweet, wonderful sister recently brought me some amazing local eggs and raw milk from the farm she works on, and I wanted to put them to good use.

(Quick note: Sea Island Eggs are a much-coveted Charleston delicacy. Known locally as “Celeste Eggs” they are found on the menus of all of the best local restaurants. Why? Because they are delicious — nothing like the eggs you find in the grocery store. Next time you’re at your local farmer’s market, see if you can find a local egg purveyor. You’ll never be able to go back to supermarket eggs again, I promise.) I also just baked a loaf of bread yesterday, so putting the eggs, milk, and bread together for an easy dessert seemed like a no-brainer, but how to make it more appealing was another question entirely. I considered strawberries briefly — and then, out of nowhere, it hit me: caramel.

One of my favorite sweet things in the world is caramel. I LOVE caramel. Like, love it the way peanut butter loves jelly, like Ricky loves Lucy (bad analogy: my love for caramel is waaaay more affectionate), like a fat kid loves cake…or caramel for that matter… Eating caramel is an other-worldly experience, but for all of the complexity of its flavor it is astonishingly simple to make: milk (or cream), butter, brown sugar. That’s it — three simple ingredients. For this recipe the milk, butter, and sugar are all baked together with the bread, rather than separately making a caramel sauce, so it’s just about as easy as could possibly be.

Ingredients:

Yields 6-8 servings

– 2 2/3 c.  whole milk

– 1/4 c. butter

– 1 c. brown sugar, plus 2 Tbsp.

– 3 eggs

– 1 tsp. vanilla

– 1/4 tsp. salt

– 3 c. cubed (about 1”) day-old bread — use the rest of that baguette left over from last night’s dinner, or some crusty French bread, or use my easy recipe to bake your own, but don’t use pre-sliced sandwich bread — your results will be disappointing

– 1/4 tsp. vanilla

– 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Cut bread into cubes, removing crusts

2. Toast bread briefly under broiler, until crisp. I tossed mine in about a tablespoon of melted butter, but it’s not necessary

3. Set oven to 350F

4. Scald milk*

*Scalding milk is not a common practice anymore. It used to be crucial when baking, but now that our milk is pretty much all pasteurized there’s not the same concern about bacteria. However, when working with breads it is a good idea to scald your milk to keep the bread fluffy. To scald milk:

– Heat milk over medium-low heat

– Stir frequently

– Cook until just beginning to bubble and steam, but DO NOT boil

– Remove from heat

5. Add butter to scalded milk and let cool

6. Add two eggs, plus one egg yolk to one cup of the brown sugar. Mix well.

7. Place bread cubes in a greased bread tin or a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish

8. Add cooled milk to egg/sugar mixture. Add vanilla and salt. Mix well.

9. Pour liquid mixture over bread cubes

10. Sprinkle cinnamon and remaining 2 Tbsp. brown sugar over top of bread

11. Set casserole/bread tin in a pan containing about 2” of water

12. Bake in oven at 350F for 50 minutes or until a skewer or knife inserted into the center comes out clean

* Be very careful removing the pan from the oven! That water is HOT — strain it carefully into the sink before attempting to remove your casserole or bread tin from the pan.

Serve warm or cold.

I was kicking myself for not having any vanilla ice cream or whipped cream in the house — that would have been unbelievable. I topped it instead with a little bit of powdered sugar and a splash of raw milk. So good I had two pieces and had to stop myself from eating more…

It also occurred to me that adding chopped apple, pear, or banana into this would be absolutely insane. In a good way. Or chunks of dark chocolate?!? Craziness! It might be too much to handle…

Adapted from Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook, 1959

How to Make Your Own Shampoo

I’ve been wanting to try making my own shampoo for a while now: finally the monster pump bottle we had been using for what seems like the past year ran out! As much as I like to try to make everything from scratch, with an increasingly mobile almost-one-year-old wobbling every which way around the house, I was definitely not going to be messing around with lye. That’s just me though, if you want to mess around with the hard stuff, I commend you, and here’s a link to get you started. So, I guess you could say this is the cheater’s version of homemade shampoo….

Cheater’s version or not, making shampoo this way is not only better for you (no chemicals), and better for the environment, but it’s fun too! Plus, you can customize your shampoo to make your very own scent — at the end of this post I’ll include some information on aromatherapy, but you can use anything from cooking extracts, to tea bags, to citrus peels and slices of fruit, to dried herbs and spices. Or, you can get creative combining essential oils — health food stores usually have a wide variety to choose from. I made one bottle of peppermint shampoo for daytime use, and one bottle of calming, nighttime shampoo with lavender, chamomile, and rose oil. (Both are baby-friendly too!)

As far as cost goes, you’re probably not saving that much money in all honesty, depending on which shampoo you usually buy. I mean, you can’t really beat a bottle of VO5 for $0.99 price-wise….But I’m going to assume that you’re reading this page because, like me, you don’t want to be lathering your hair with chemicals, and maybe also enjoy the process of making things yourself and breaking dependence on large corporations…. In that case, here’s the cost breakdown: I purchased one 32 ounce bottle of unscented liquid castile soap (this can also be used for making laundry detergent, by the way…) for $10, which seems to be about average price-wise.

If I use this castile soap exclusively to make shampoo, using this recipe, I will be able to make eight 8oz bottles of  shampoo. So, that’s $1.25 per bottle of organic, custom-made shampoo. As a point of reference, one 8oz. bottle of Rainforest Shine Shampoo from The Body Shop costs $4.00 (but The Body Shop’s Ginger Shampoo costs $10.00 per 8oz), an 8oz. bottle of Organics Shampoos cost $5.50 on average (as do the confusingly similar Organix shampoos), and Burt’s Bees averages about $8.00. And 80z of homemade shampoo can easily be found for upwards of $15.00 on etsy.com and from other smaller purveyors. So, yeah, if you want the organic, good-for-you, good-for-the-planet stuff, you will definitely save money making your own…And it’s super easy!

What You Will Need:

Yields one 8oz bottle, but recipe can be multiplied for larger batches

– 4 ounces of unscented liquid castile soap, such as Dr. Bronner’s, Desert Essence, or Dr. Woods

– 4 ounces distilled water

– 1 teaspoon of coconut, jojoba, avocado, grapeseed, or other light natural oil

– essential oil, herbs, tea bags, extract, or whatever you want to scent your shampoo with!

Directions for Shampoo Using Essential Oils or Extracts Only:

1. Mix together castile soap, water, and oil

2. Funnel mixture into an 8oz plastic container

3. Add 15-20 drops of extract or oil into bottle

4. Shake well

Yup, it’s that easy.  Homemade shampoo is a thinner consistency than store-bought however. You need to tilt the bottle directly over your head, but it lathers nicely, cleans well, and will leave your hair light and shiny. I used peppermint extract when I made shampoo with the above recipe. It is a great energizing scent, perfect if you prefer to bathe in the morning. My husband loves this one…

Directions for Shampoo Using Herbs:

Though slightly more complicated than the above recipe, this one’s still pretty foolproof…

1. Boil water

2. Add herbs, flowers, tea bags, leaves, or spices. I used about 1/3 lavender per 1/2 c. water plus two bags of chamomile tea here, but you can use whichever herbs you like. See section below for some notes on aromatherapy and suggested scent combinations

3. Turn heat to low and let just barely simmer for 20 minutes

4. Strain

5. Allow to cool completely

6. Combine herb water with castile soap and oil. Add additional essential oil if desired (I added about 10 drops of rose oil to mine).

7. Funnel into a plastic container and shake well.

As you can see, the lavender imparted a very dark hue to the shampoo — not to worry — it will not effect your hair color. I have very light blond hair, and have seen absolutely no change in my hair color since I started using this shampoo. Your shampoo may come out green, purple, yellow, or brown, depending on which herbs you choose. While chamomile does have a very slight bleaching quality, and hibiscus may augment reds, most herbs will not alter your hair color at all.

Different scents effect us in different ways. Below I have categorized some common scents into some basic categories that I thought may be helpful in determining which ingredients to select for your shampoo:

If you want an energizing shampoo select:

– Peppermint, Ginger, Citrus, Pine, Thyme, Sweet Basil, Eucalyptus, Nutmeg, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Green Tea or Thyme

If you prefer a relaxing scent, to help reduce anxiety and promote sleep select:

– Cedarwood, Chamomile, Sandalwood, Cinnamon, Sage, Bergamot, Rose, Neroli, Myrhh, or Marjoram

If you something mood-lifting try:

– Geranium, Ginger, Juniper, Citrus, Mandarin, Nutmeg, Oregano, Rose, Tangerine, Sage

Something comforting:

– Vanilla, Allspice, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Clove, Fennel, Marjoram

Or for something sensual try:

– Ylang-ylang, Jasmine, Sage, Neroli, Patchouli, Rose, Sweet Orange, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Gardenia

Some awesome scent combinations:

Sensual/Exotic: Vanilla + Rose + Cardamom

Relaxing/Comforting: Lavender + Coriander + Rose + Patchouli

Stress banishing: Lavender + Juniper + Orange

Relaxing: Lavender + Rose + Cedarwood

Sensual/Comforting: Rose + Patchouli + Jasmine

Sexytime: Ylang-ylang + Sandalwood + Vanilla

Anti-depression: Lemon + Sweet Orange + Ylang-ylang

Energizing: Rosemary + Peppermint + Holy Basil

Calming/Exotic: Vanilla + Cinnamon + Clove + Cardamom

Make your own shampoo for healthy, chemical-free, shiny, scent-sational hair! If I do say so myself….

Spiced Orange and Fig Preserves

Figs, like dates and apricots, are one of those fruits that many of us are familiar with in its dried form (or its cookie form for those of us who grew up believing that eating sleeves of Fig Newtons was a healthy way to snack), but that we rarely have the opportunity to eat fresh. This is mainly because fig season is so short, but also because figs do not thrive in most places in the States and are extremely perishable.

Moving to the Lowcountry of South Carolina my husband and I were used to the fertile earth and amicable growing conditions of Virginia and our first year here attempted to sow our garden with as little thought to fertilizer and pH levels as we had in previous years. Big mistake. What few plants actually yielded fruit were extremely disappointing: our tomatoes never fully ripened, and even our watermelons were mealy and flavorless. Our sole source of horticultural joy has come from the massive and abundant fig tree in back of our house, which we had absolutely nothing to do with planting…

Fresh figs are incredibly luscious and sweet and are an excellent source of dietary fiber, potassium, and vitamins A, C, and E.  Eating a fresh fig is a study in texture — the toothsome resistance of the skin, velvet juiciness of the flesh, and crunchiness of the seeds. The fig is sensual too, conjuring images of Adam and Eve preserving their modesty only with fig leaves and stands of hair, and when figs become ripe they are purple and swollen and leak a milky substance from their base. I also always think of Hermann Hesse describing Kamala’s lips (in Siddhartha) as being the color of “a freshly cut fig.” What a lovely image….

Anyway (apparently I’m feeling a bit loquacious today), if you can get your hands on fresh figs, do so. They are delicious to snack on, a great way to dress up salads or baked chicken, and are absolutely divine transformed into preserves. This recipe makes a wonderful gift and is a delightful addition to any cheese plate, pairing especially well with funky, robust blues and mellow goat cheeses.

 

Ingredients:

Yields 24 oz. preserves

– One whole orange

– 4 c. fresh, sliced figs

– 4 Tbsp. filtered water

– 1 Tbsp. minced ginger

– 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

– 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

– 1 vanilla bean, scraped (optional)

– 3/4 c. honey

– 2 tsp. fruit pectin*

*Pectin is a thickening agent, usually extracted from citrus fruits or apples and is available in many grocery stores and most health food stores.

 

Directions:

1. Wash and rinse your jars; let stand in hot water. Meanwhile, boil your lids and rings in a large pot to sanitize. Let stand in hot water also.

2. Zest your orange.

3. Chop orange, removing remaining peel, seeds and membrane

4. Remove stems from figs and chop. You do not need to remove skins

5. Place orange, figs, and water in a medium-sized saucepan and cook over low heat

6. Add ginger and spices. Scrape in vanilla, if using. Bring mixture to a boil.

7. Measure out honey. Stir pectin into it, then add mixture to boiling fruit. Stir vigorously for 2 minutes to dissolve pectin.

8. Return to a boil, then remove from heat

9. Remove your jar lid and ring from your large pot and return water to a boil

10. While waiting for water to boil fill your jar(s) to 1/4” of top and wipe clean. Do not overfill or jar will not seal properly.

11. Screw on lid (with ring) tightly. Place jar into boiling water to cover. Boil for 10 minutes. Add 10 minutes boiling time for each additional jar.

12. Remove jar (carefully!) from water. Let cool. Check seal — lid should be sucked down/un-popped.

13. Label and enjoy! Jam should last about 3 weeks once opened.

 

I put one of the jars of preserves in a gift basket I gave to my sister for her birthday, along with a big hunk of blue cheese, a sheep’s milk cheese washed in Prosecco, a goat cheese, fresh pear, toast points, and some baked goods:

I’m a total geek when it comes to birthdays, and a firm believer that nothing can compare to a thoughtful handmade/homemade gift…

 

 

Best Blueberry Pancakes

Blueberry pancakes are the perfect lazy Sunday breakfast, though, I would gladly eat these for dinner any night of the week…These pancakes are substantial and yet somehow light at the same time, and showcase one of summer’s best fruits.

 

Ingredients:

Makes about 1 dozen pancakes, depending on size

– 1 c. flour

– 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

– 1/2 tsp. salt

– 2 Tbsp. sugar

– 1 egg, beaten (or 1/4 c. applesauce)

– 1 c. milk (or almond milk) — 1/4 c.  more can be added if you desire thinner pancakes

– 4 Tbsp. melted vegetable shortening or butter

– 3/4 fresh blueberries

*ingredients in parentheses are for vegan recipe

 

Directions:

1. Heat skillet or griddle over medium heat

2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar

3. In another bowl, add milk to beaten egg and mix well

4. Stir melted shortening or butter into milk-egg mixture

5. Combine flour and liquids at once and beat until perfectly smooth

6. Fold in blueberries

7. Grease griddle

8. Using a soup ladle or 1/4 measuring cup, pour batter into center of heated pan

9. Bake until you see air bubbles appear on the top of the batter, then flip until both sides are golden brown

10. Continue with remainder of batter

11. Serve immediately with maple syrup, fruit reduction, honey, butter, or jam

12. Enjoy!

Adapted from The Modern Family Cookbook, 1942