Fruit count

My work has a farmer's market on Tuesdays. Here's my in/out takes for the day...

• 6 peaches ($1/ea), now nicely bruised from rolling around in my bag with sharp objects.
• 6 pints of blueberries (2 pints for $5), I have already eaten 3 pints in the past two hours. 6 cups of blueberries are in my body at the moment. Antioxidants, check.
• 4 pints marionberries ($1/pint). They were having a sale on them and they are delicious and sweet. I bought the last four pints. A good thing since I would have bought more if they had them. They gave me another pint of blueberries as a thank you, bringing the blueberry count to 7 pints, just shy of a gallon.

Yes, I am feeling sick at the moment.

Nesting in a jar

I'm having some irrational nesting tendencies lately where I need to do all sorts of projects. As in immediately. I know this is completely irrational but apparently I am not stronger than oxytocin. So, I'm running with it.

This weekend, I decided to start some more projects. I'm fully aware that we already have 6+ gallons of jam in 4 varieties (strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, blueberry and cherry). But oxytocin told me that I have not processed any figs or plums yet.

And so this post begins.

On Saturday morning, I went to Beti's house to pick 5.25 lbs of figs from her tree. Later that evening, we went to Brian & Laura for dinner and I picked 5.8 lbs of plums from their tree.

Sunday morning was cooler, so I began to process everything:

*For the figs, I washed and halved them before throwing them on the grill with balsamic vinegar and salt for ~20 min. I let them cool while we ran some errands (we needed to get shelving in the closet immediately). When we got back, I ran them through the food processor until they were almost paste-like. Without sugar, they tasted almost like olives to me (in their vinegar-y salty brine). To some of the puree, I made a strong simple syrup and cooked the figs in that until they were soft and preserve-like. I then canned a couple jars of the mixture and made fig newtons with the rest.

*For the plums, I am fufilling my dream of making Japanese plum wine, a la Caroline who introduced it to me in NY when I first started dating Ken. I went online and found a recipe for it that seemed to produce good results. The recipe is below in case the site goes down. We have a local homebrew store, so I wrote down all the ingredients I need in order to make it (~$12 to make 1 gallon of wine). They close at 5:30 so Ken's picking everything up for me today since I'm on the bus these days and can't get there in time. I called into the store and they theoretically have everything waiting for him at the counter.

Ken goes out of town starting tomorrow and I will start my plum wine the minute he leaves (gives me time to clean up any plum puree that has an excellent chance of ending up everywhere). It takes a couple of months to fully ferment. Perfect timing since Katie arrives in October.

STU'S
FORMULA FOR PRIZE WINNING PLUM WINE

This recipe can be increased or decreased proportionately starting with a recipe for 3 gallons of wine.
15 lbs. ripe plums.
3 gallons hot water. About 140 degrees.
1 ½ tbs. Yeast nutrient.
1 ½ tsp. Peptic enzyme powder.
3 Campden tablets.
1 tbs. + 1 ½ tsp. Acid blend.
1 package Cote Des Blanc yeast.
7 ½ lbs. Sugar.

For cleaning and stabilizing

3 tsp. Spakolloid.
1 ½ tsp. Sorbistat stabilizer.

Tools needed

A wine hydrometer, a thermometer and a bucket or fermenter.

Crush fruit and remove stones. The fruit should be soft enough that you can squash it with your hand. Let the juice and fruit fall in a clean bucket that holds about 5 gallons.

Put all of the ingredients except the yeast, sorbistat, sugar, and sparkolloid in the bucket which we will now call the fermenter.

Add hot water and 5 lbs. of sugar and mix until you do not feel any sugar on the bottom of the fermenter. When cooled take a reading with a hydrometer. (I will put a hydrometer correction table for temperatures at the end of this recipe.) The hydrometer should read 1.090 degrees or around 23 brix if lower add a cup of sugar and mix and check again.

When cooled to room temp. (Probably over night) sprinkle yeast on top and mix lightly cover with plastic and use a large rubber band to hold plastic on and keep bugs out before fermenting starts.

Fermentation should start in one or two days. Put fermenter in the coolest place you can find. Stir down cap in morning and evening. After three days of fermenting take a hydrometer reading everyday. When the hydrometer reads 1.020 degrees carefully remove as much of cap as possible by hand and strain the rest through a coarse strainer into a carboy and fill to about 8 inches or more from the top put a baggie over top for two days then use a airtrap.

After three weeks siphon off lees (silt on bottom) into another container and fill as high as one inch from top. You can always top off with water if necessary but remember you are diluting your wine. Rack again in three months.

Use sparkolloid to clear after another two months. When clear you can sweeten to your taste, use sugar or sweet and low. If sugar is used add sorbistat to stabilize.

Hydrometer correction table

Temperature of liquid-------------------Correction

59----------------------------------------------none
68---------------------------------------------Add 0.009
77---------------------------------------------Add 0.02
86---------------------------------------------Add 0.034
95---------------------------------------------Add 0.05
104-------------------------------------------Add 0.068

Berry Mania

I went berry picking last Friday night with my friend, Mindy. She could be a migrant worker thanks to her ability to pick berries quickly. But I finally, for the first time, beat her picking quantity. I picked 13 lbs of berry wonderment (see bottom two trays). I think she had 12.5 lbs (top two trays). It was a fact that I will cherish.

We picked blueberries and raspberries at a farm about 10-15 miles from Portland until we were asked to leave. Seriously. They had to pull the tractor around to tell us they were closing. I froze one tray of blueberries and made a double batch of blueberry jam out of another 8 cups, but Ken and I ate the rest. Plus, we ate all of the raspberries.

It was a tasty berry weekend. Maybe that's why Katie started kicking.

Cherry Experimentation

I processed 5 pounds of cherries last week in my quest for the perfect Old Fashioned after Katie is born. I have dreamed of having Oregon cherries to complement my drink but I had never attempted to can cherries before. My motivating factor was a coworker who attempted it with success last year, combined with the fact that my parents are coming to help take care of Katie in October -- and my father makes a mean Old Fashioned.

I read in the Oregonian last week (June 30th Food Day) that pouring boiling simple syrup over raw cherries and sticking the jar in the fridge can preserve them for up to 3 months. But Katie's born in just around 3 months, so I needed a more drastic preservation method to be sure that I won't have cherries-gone-bad come October. That would make me sad. All that work and no cherries.

So I decided to look into pressure canning the cherries, which prolongs their shelf life by years. According to several reports, canning cherries can really change the texture, rending them soft mushy blobs. I also read that brandied cherries are excellent. I couldn't decide which to make. Thus, I created a mini experiment to test the effects of pressure canning and brandy on cherry texture for our delicious drink-to-be.

The Syrup
Most recipes for preserving cherries say to submerge the cherries in hot water or a hot simple syrup when processing. I chose a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water, boiled. I made 8 cups and added 2 cinnamon sticks, zest of a lemon and 5 drops of calcium chloride (latter for added firmness). According to some food science articles I looked up, adding a 0.04% solution of calcium chloride improves firmness in processed cherries. Since I happen to have a calcium chloride solution in my kitchen for cheesemaking (bottle doesn't say the concentration; just to add 1/4 teaspoon per 2 gallons of milk), I figured I'd add a few drops. Note: I didn't have enough cherries to control for calcium chloride concentration else I would have. Also note: I feel ridiculous for having calcium chloride on hand.

The Cherries
I used Bing cherries from the farmer's market at ~$2 lb. I only used firm cherries, which I pitted and stemmed. I left the stems on two of the jars because my father insists that Old Fashioned cherries have stems. Luckily, I had enough cherries to control for stems vs no stems in pressure canning.

The Experimental Groups
I tested for:
a. pressure canning (used a standard 10 lbs pressure x 10 min, which translates to roughly 240 degrees F -- enough to kill all sorts of buggies)
b. brandy (used 1 part brandy, actually an unsweetened Tuaca base, to 3 parts simple syrup described above)

My groups were (only one pint jar per group due to limited cherries):
1. Stemmed cherries in syrup, put in fridge (control)
2. Stemmed cherries in syrup + brandy, fridge
3. Stemmed cherries in syrup + brandy, pressure canned
4. Cherries with stems in syrup, pressure canned
5. Cherries with stems in syrup and brandy, pressure canned

The Results
I opened jars 1, 2, 3 and 4 this weekend to check for taste and texture. We had 6 tasters.

The cherries in the fridge had a much better texture than the canned cherries. All tasters preferred the texture of the refrigerated "preserved" cherries, which tasted "like fresh cherries" according to one taster. Great for making cherry garnishes in advance for a party, but I was sad since this isn't a preserving option for me for October. The pressure canned cherries were pretty soft but passable (especially for a drink).

The brandied cherries were excellent. Not too strong but gave a nice flavor that complemented the cherries. They were good in both cases but the brandied pressure canned cherries were a really nice distraction from the texture. (Keep in mind that the fridge cherries were by far the winner, but for my drink in October, the brandied pressure canned cherries are the winner).

Stems don't seem to make a difference when pressure canning. All stems stayed on fine and didn't change the texture of the cherries.


The Outcome
I have one jar of pressure canned cherries with stems leftover from this experiment and I canned 3 more jars this weekend (all with brandy) for October. I am looking forward to my Old Fashioned. I even have homemade bitters to use in the drink. It will be a homemade Old Fashioned, that's for sure. Well, minus the booze. I've been saving a bottle of Bulleit bourbon just for the occasion.

Dirty Drawers Floors

After the strawberry jam incident, you'd think I would have had enough. But I still had several pounds of berries on the counter to process last weekend, so after Ken went to bed on Saturday night, I stayed up and plowed through them.

I washed and hulled them all, dividing them into:

1. Large intact barries - for cutting and drying
2. Medium intact berries - for fresh eating (washed but unhulled)
3. Small intact berries - for freezing in a single layer and then bagging
4. Perfectly ripe, but not for long - for popsicles and sorbet
5. Bruised but fine - for jam

I sat down for most of this, but I was still exhausted by the end. After they were all safely stored in the freezer, fridge or dehydrator, I went to bed. The next morning, I got to work on the processed berries. I made:

1. strawberry rhubarb jam -- 14 pints of it.
2. strawberry popsicles
3. strawberry sorbet
4. Pulled the dried strawberries from the dehydrator for later use
5. Bagged the frozen strawberries for later syrup
6. simple syrup (pressure canned for future lemonade applications)

I finished around 1, sat down and ate brunch. Apparently I still had some energy afterwards because I got back up and made:

7. 10 lbs of gnocchi (froze individual pieces on cookie sheets and then bagged when frozen solid for later boiling)
8. Chocolate chip cookies (froze as pre-formed balls on cookie sheets and bagged for later cookie cravings).

By the time I finished this, it was 5 or so and I was still in my pajamas, exhausted and sticky from gnocchi dough/jam/cookies. I also had a line of flour running across my belly from where it now touches the counter when I work. I had a pile of pots in the sink and was working through them, exhausted. It was at this point when Ken asked if I wanted to have people over. I told him I wanted to get through the dishes first and then we could talk about it. He then asked if he should send a text message out to people, which is when I must have snapped at him because he went to the basement for 20 minutes or so before going out to hide in the garage.

I went on with the dishes, ignoring my lack of patience and social grace due to exhaustion. I had been working for 8 hours and felt somewhat excused. It was at this point of rationalizing that I heard running water downstairs. I yelled to Ken in the garage to see if he'd turned on some water. He said no. I went to the basement to investigate, only to find water rushing onto the basement floor at a record pace.

I yelled to Ken as I ran downstairs to turn off the water main.

Nothing.

Water is still streaming onto the floor, now reaching the drywall I just installed.

Ken passes me and went for the washing machine. Apparently, the water was coming from the output of the washing machine, which had somehow come undone from the wall and was draining onto our basement floor. 60% of our floor was now covered in water, including the area rug, the new moldings I just installed, parts of the gear room and soaking any cardboard boxes that were on the floor, etc.

I am still in my pajamas and slippers, covered in ick, now mopping up dirty, soapy water from our washing machine. I began having flashbacks of the basement hell from a few months ago. Meanwhile, Ken got out the shop vac and we exchanged jobs (since holding a vacuum cleaner hose is easier than manual mopping). It took us 30 minutes, a 30 gallon pot and two additional shop vac empties to rid the floor of water.

Ken saw my look of despair and finished up for me while I finished the remaining dishes in the kitchen (after turning the water main back on). I then took a shower and put on other PJs. I was beat. I think I sat on the couch, barely moving for the rest of the night (about 2 hours) before crashing.

The rug has since dried and the jam is now safely stored in the basement. Yet I still think of the basement, covered in water. It brings panic to my heart. My one bit of solace is thanks to my mom, who talked us out of putting laminate wood floors in the basement. We've had water on the floors twice, so that would have been a disaster for us. The painted concrete has held up very well so far. The drywall seems unharmed and everything seems back to normal. The only cardboard boxes damaged were empty anyway. I try to keep water-resistant things on the ground floor -- apparently for good reason.

I am hoping that the basement saga will end soon. I recently remembered that I forgot to cut holes in the soffits for access to the outside water lines. I remembered when I tried to turn on the hose in the front of the house. Fitting that in order to do so, I had to pull out a drywall saw and cut into the ceiling. I still have another to go, as well as some access panels for vent shut offs. Then it's creating the access panels to cover the holes. Likely to be done next week. Ken installed an ethernet/cable jack in the basement so we can move the office down, but we need help in order to do so because the furniture is too heavy.

Once the furniture's downstairs, then we can work on Katie's room. Now if only the basement would stop causing me headaches.

Pork for Jam

A few weeks ago, I bought some fresh pork belly from our local butcher to make bacon. I got it home, put it in the fridge to deal with the next day since we were having company that night. Then something came up the next day so I figured I'd cure it the next day. Or the next. Or the next. It went rancid before I could cure it and my heart sank. I wasted food and money. I was really, really sad about it. I didn't tell anyone but Ken, it made me that upset.

I vowed to take on only projects that I could tackle (if they involved perishables, at least). Yesterday, I went strawberry picking on Sauvie Island. I picked 12 lbs of berries and when I went to pay for them, I saw that they had a jamming flat reduced for quick sale. My inner struggle. Get the hurting berries or leave them. It was the pork incident all over again.

For $6.50, I purchased the additional flat of berries and went to a barbecue at a friends house while they sat in the back of my car. By 9:15 p.m, I was on my way home. By 9:30, I was sitting in a chair pulled up to the sink, hulling and washing berries. Come hell or high water, these berries wouldn't rot on me. By 10:00, I was almost finished processing the 15 cups of strawberries that would make up my jam. By 10:03, I realized I didn't have enough sugar. I called Ken, who was on his way home from kickball and work to pick some up. (You have to love a husband who knows you well enough to know that when you ask for sugar, you mean a 25 lb sack of it -- he called to confirm that's how much I wanted, which it was. He didn't ask why I wanted it either. He just picked it up for me. Another reason why he's my best. Sidenote: he was also very understanding about the pork incident.)

Back to the stove, it was now 10:10 on a work night. I had my pot of boiling water going for the jars and I'd just finished processing the strawberries and adding the lime juice when Ken walked in with the dog and a 25 lb sack of sugar over his shoulder. I am stirring a 26 gallon sized pot of red goo.

His only response: "You're doing this now? Is this because you're motivated to make jam or because you're still feeling guilty about the pork?"

Yes. Talk about hitting my reasons out of the ballpark.

Ken said he needed to walk away from the canning madness. I mumbled something that may have sounded like "ok" but I can't be sure. I was in jam-land. I added the sugar, cooked it all down, ladled the jam into the jars and processed it in the boiling water. Thankfully, it was a cool night (a welcome change from normal jamming weather) so I was only a sticky mess rather than a sweaty, sticky mess. By the time I pulled the last of the jars from the water and cleaned up, it was around 11:30 pm. I had 24 pints (around 3 gallons) of perfectly-set, jewel-colored strawberry jam. I left it on the counter overnight so I could admire my work the next morning.

Upon seeing my work this morning, I was proud of what I accomplished but I am still thinking about the pork. I am also thinking about the other 12 lbs of strawberries still sitting on my counter.

Beating the Summer Heat

I wilted this weekend. In 85 degree weather. It was sad.

I have come to the realization that this summer won't be like the others. Already, I can't stand for long periods of time without my feet swelling to cankle-like proportions. I need to sit often and with my feet up. I had to sit down to chop cabbage yesterday. Weird.

But, something's got to give. Right now I LOVE fruit. I also love popsicles. So I called a local kitchen store and ordered the following. I'm going to pick them up tomorrow after work. I can't wait.

Grilled Pizza

If you have not yet made this awesome and fast summer meal, I recommend marching out and grabbing some dough tonight (or make it yourself).

Ingredients:
Ball of pizza dough
Cheese
Toppings (if you want)
salt

Instructions:
1. Heat grill on high.
2. Grab a handful of dough for personal pizza. No need for flour, oil or a rolling pin. Just stretch it out with your hands.
3. Throw on hot grill. No oil needed. Reduce heat to medium. Let it sit 3 minutes or so
4. Flip and add cheese/toppings/salt. Cover. Let sit another three minutes until cheese is melty and dough is cooked through.
5. Pull from grill and eat, sinking back in your chair in heavenly delight that you made dinner in six minutes without heating up the kitchen on a hot summer night.

I'm sure you can imagine the endless possibilities for toppings, but just keeping it simple has been amazing. I haven't even bothered with tomato sauce. So far, my combinations included:

• mozzarella cheese, truffle salt & balsamic vinegar
• mozzarella cheese, fresh garlic-infused oil & salt.

I can only imagine the deliciousness when fresh tomato and basil season hits. This would also be a great meal for a small crowd since adults (and kids) LOVE stretching their own dough and making their own pizzas.

4.875 gallons of beer on the wall...

We always get a k-egg for Easter. This year we got Deschutes Brewery's Green Lakes Organic Amber. Ken had to return the keg tap today, but wanted to save whatever was left in the keg since it was pretty good. He asked me if I had any jars, to which I smiled and gave him access to my lovelies... twelve 1/2 gallon mason jars that he got me for Christmas.

And out to the porch he went. We bet on how many jars he'd be able to fill -- I thought they'd be 2 jars worth, he thought 5. We were both wrong. A total of 4.875 gallons were pulled from the tap. So delectable. I took a sip when we tapped the keg and it was delicious, so I am sad that I won't get to help drink the rest of it, but I'm sure my brother will oblige and take one for the team. And whatever goes flat, I will use for cooking.

Behold, the beauty of our kitchen island (before it went in the fridge):

Chocolate Cake for Teens

Last night was the teen cooking class, chocolate cake edition. It went really well... much better than last week's class which was a disaster.* This week, I had lots of stations laid out (dry, wet, fat, acid, loading and icing). Each teen drew a number from a hat to see which step they were in charge of... (they will fight over the best jobs if there isn't some order). They were excited about drawing numbers and being in charge of a station. Then they all got to help each other complete the cake. It was great to see them working together and hearing them talk about why we're keeping the dry ingredients separate from the wet ones.

The cupcakes came out of the oven with 10 minutes to spare. Plenty of time for icing and eating. There were a few grumbles about "I don't like cream cheese icing!" in the beginning but, wouldn't you know, every kid (but one) put icing on their cupcakes and ended up saying they preferred it that way.

Modesty aside, these cupcakes were amazing. I got the recipe from the Best American Classics cookbook. I found the recipe for the cream cheese frosting on the internet. Both were winners, especially together. And the kids loved them -- which you could tell by the batter and icing covering their faces. And the ooohs and aaahs as they bit into them.

Here are the recipes in case you'd like to give them a whirl. This has replaced my previous favorite chocolate cake recipe:



*Last week was spaghetti carbonara. I wanted them to have an alternative to spaghetti with tomato sauce, so I showed them this egg-based sauce where the heat of the cooked noodles cooks the raw egg into a creamy sauce. It would have been fine except it took 50 minutes for the water to boil. A big problem for the 50 minute class. Especially when there weren't enough steps in the recipe for 9 kids to divvy up and not be bored. Utter chaos. That said, they loved it when they ate it. And 2 out of the 9 made it at home for their families this past week! So I guess, despite the boredom, the class turned out better than I thought although I learned the important lesson of always have something for the kids to do. Boredom is trouble.

Cooking Class

A student in my cooking class wrote an article about the class for the Community Center's newsletter. Very cute. Enjoy.

Pizza, Calzone and Stromboli Class Tonight

I had a few more people register for my class this past week, making it officially "full". Pretty cool. I will have 8 teens tonight with access to lots of flour and water. I'm hoping everything stays calm, pizzas get made and they even learn something.

I'm a little nervous.

First Class Recap

In short, it went well. I have 6 kids in my class, one was absent last night due to the flu. The class is offered to kids ages 12-18. I have 6 kids under the age of 13.
I forgot how much they talk.

About everything.

And all the time.

We'll be mixing flour and water together when one gets my undivided attention to tell me "My mom makes brownies with spinach". Um, ok. I can't remember all of the quotes, but they were hilarious. I repeated as many to Ken as I could remember when I got home.

Some of my favorite moments of the night:

• "My mom makes brownies with spinach"
• "I don't like yeast; they smell like corn"
• "I don't like corn, only baby corn"
• "Me too!"
• "Look!" ( I look over to see one of them holding a bloody stump of a tooth.)
• "I don't like star fruit"
• "Cooking is in my blood"
• "I thought it was because of color but it was the mineral content"
• "I don't like heat"
• "She's afraid of the oven"
• "Can I take all the dough home so I can show it to my grandpa?"
• "I dropped mine on the floor"
• "Onions are gross"
• "I want to make cake"
• "and then...." (options endless)
  

The pretzels turned out great. They LOVED topping them with various things (I had salt, parmesan cheese and cinnamon sugar). I think they dumped cinnamon sugar on practically every pretzel. Each kid got to eat pretzels at the end of class as well as take theirs home. Even moms got to have a pretzel when they came to pick up their kids. Note: bribing moms with food is as effective as bribing kids with food. Plus, it was fun to meet the moms.

Next week, we make calzones. Requested pizza toppings: pineapple and pepperoni.

Science of Cooking -- Class for Teens

A friend of mine asked me to teach a class for teens at the local community center where she works. I happily obliged -- besides the fact that she's a great girl, volunteering at her place is how I found my current job.

The class I'm teaching will be 8 weeks long for an hour each week. I got to pick the topic, so my class focuses on the science of cooking, something that I love dearly and know very well. I decided to add the science part in because it's easy to tell kids to "add this" or "stir that", but if they don't know why they're doing it, then what's the point. Plus, if it gets them even a little bit more interested in science (or cooking), then it's a huge win.

The first class in the 8 week series starts tomorrow. Here's the syllabus:



Tomorrow's class is about pretzels. Why pretzels? Because they're easy to make, very hands-on (the students will actually get to feel the gluten forming in their hands as they mix and knead the dough) and they're really, really good coming hot from the oven. It's a great first lesson.

I've figured how many batches of dough I need to make so I can swap dough out as needed. (3 total, in case you're curious). The class is only an hour -- way too short to make pretzels from start to finish (due to rising time). Luckily, I've watched enough cooking shows to know that I can swap out my bowls of dough. i.e. We'll make the dough in class so they can feel what it's like. Dough needs to rise. Swap bowls with a dough that has already rose. They'll get to punch down the dough and roll out their pretzels. Then swap again since the pretzels need a little more time for their final rise. They'll get to boil and season the pretzels before we bake them. Then, we'll still have time to eat them at the end. A lot for an hour, but I did a dry run and had time to spare, so I'm hoping it will all fit.

Rather than just talking, I'm also going to try to have hand-outs for each class. For example, here's tomorrow's pretzel class hand-out. You'll see the recipe on the left, which I've broken down into colored steps (middle column). In the right column is the why behind what we're doing.



So wish me luck on Wednesday night and hope for no whammies. It will be my first multi-day class that I've solo taught.

Dream realized, almost

One of my dreams in moving to Portland was the idea that I would be able to make beer out of the hops I grew myself. It takes hops 3 years to produce cones. I planted four varieties and 2 of the plants produced cones this year - Willamette and Cascade. I made my first beer from them last weekend -- a hoppy amber, if I got it right. Brian, I was channeling your lessons and guidance. So a dream of mine is coming true. The almost part comes in because it's only in its first stage right now. Moving it to the secondary fermenter tomorrow. But the yeast were going like mad and are still going steadily. Fingers crossed for no contamination and a tasty beer.

Camping Food: Lessons Learned

We've done quite a bit of car camping lately, usually with large groups of 15-30 people. Ken organizes the trip logistics (activities and campsite) and I tend to be in charge of organizing the food. Divide and conquer.

Making burgers and brats for a large crew is easy but gets old quickly. So I've been thinking of new meals for camping that can be made with at least a few of the following characteristics (in no particular order):

1. easy to make
2. parts of the dish can be made ahead of time
3. ingredients easy to transport
4. entertaining to me
5. tasty
6. easy to clean

Some dishes that I've done in the past that are great for a group are:

Thai curry (veggie and/or meat) over rice - A few cans of coconut milk, a premade curry paste and then the veggies/meat that you want to add. The hardest part is the rice, which is why I'll use instant rice if I'm worrying about it or want to relax. I imagine this could be expanded to indian food, like a simmer sauce, but I haven't tried that yet.

Shrimp and grits - Shrimp and bacon are packed frozen. Veggies and grits are easily stored without refrigeration. Cook the grits over a low heat while you're making your shrimp gravy... Saute bacon until crisp, remove and crumble. Saute onions, bell peppers and garlic in the grease until soft. Add your flour to make a roux. Season the peeled shrimp with salt and cayenne and add to the mix. Adjust seasonings of shrimp gravy and grits to taste. Yum.

Low Country Boil - Another south carolina dish that is awesome for feeding a large group while camping. Plus it's easy to prepare and super social to eat. To make for 20 people, I use 2 sacks of little red potatoes, 7 sweet onions, 8 lbs sausage, 20 ears of corn, 8 lbs frozen shrimp. Shrimp and sausage are frozen. Everything else can be kept at room temperature. I make the dipping sauces ahead of time: cocktail sauce, tartar sauce and a honey mustard. Everyone helps chop and those who don't like cooking (or if you run out of jobs) can decorate the sauce containers. I cook it in a turkey fryer pot and dump it out onto newspaper. Simple cleanup.

Omelettes in a bag - an old boy scout trick. Perfect for a breakfast on the last day and great for using up leftovers. A sharpie allows each to mark their own bag. Dump in eggs and desired ingredients. Cook in simmering water until cooked through. (Note: I'm starting to steer away from this though since eating food cooked in heated up plastic probably isn't good for the body)

Reubens - This is a decadent treat. Pastrami can be pricey, but if you can find a great deal on it, these are so fun to make. Rye bread, thousand island dressing and sauerkraut can be pre-purchased and kept at room temperature. Pastrami and cheese need refrigeration, but they don't take much room. Easy to bang out a bunch of them on a griddle. I find that slicing them in half and serving halves is easier. People can come back for more and they're hotter/less soggy than if you gave each person a full one.

Burritos - Nothing fancy but they sure are delicious after a long day and everyone can choose their own toppings, so everyone is happy. Perfect for the lone vegetarian in a sea of meat-eaters. I used 3 lbs of ground beef for 20, which I froze ahead of time. Season it in camp. Toppings include: iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, avocados (decadent), salsa, sour cream (critical) and as a great touch of sweetness, some chopped nectarines. The latter may sound crazy, but it brought out a flavor that was unexpected and exciting. I brought the nectarines to make a fruit salsa, but I left all of the other salsa making ingredients at home. Other note: I also had taco-sized flour and corn tortillas, but everyone preferred the burritos because you don't have to get up as much and it's less messy. Good to know. I'm skipping the taco sized tortillas next time.

Things I recently tried that were a huge hit:

Arepas - Venezuelan english muffins, if you will. They're cornmeal that's similar to the masa of tamales. It is cooked on a griddle on both sides until it sounds hollow, then it's split and filled with deliciousness like shredded chicken, cheese and avocado. Served hot off the griddle -- people add their own fillings, so it's similar to burritos in a sense. The Arepa dough is made from equal parts of P.A.N. precooked cornmeal (at latino stores, not the same as masa harina) and warm water. The cornmeal was kept at room temperature and I made the chicken & caramelized onion filling ahead of time. The only thing I had to do after setting up camp was warm up the fillings and make/cook the arepas. I will cook them on a griddle next time instead of a small pan. People loved them and were staking them out.

Monte Cristo Sandwiches - Perfect for breakfasts and a nice change from sausage and scrambled eggs. You'll need bread, some ham, cheese (I used provolone) and a few eggs. Make your ham & cheese sandwiches and then dip them in an egg mixture (a few eggs mixed with a touch of milk or water and some salt/cinnamon). Cook them in a pan like you would french toast. I cut and served halves for the same reason as the reubens above. I also learned that a little bit of jam on the bread before closing up the sandwiches brings out a great sweetness -- think cranberry sauce on a turkey sandwich. People ate them with their hands and then came back for seconds. Not messy and easy to prepare.

Mussels or Clams - I've done mussels for a large group before. Sara brought littleneck clams this weekend. Both were cooked in a pan a little bit of butter and beer (or wine if you have it). It is amazing. Didn't serve either with bread, but I bet it would be delicious. Folks go nuts for these. Perfect for a first night of camping. Especially if you have a fast river/ocean/dumpster to throw the leftover shells.

Irish Cream - I know this isn't exactly food, but I always bring milk and sugar for my morning coffee. A friend brought a bottle of baileys this weekend. Needless to say, a little irish cream in your camp coffee is totally luxurious and covers a multitude of bad camp coffee issues... overbrewing/too hot/lots of grounds in your cup, etc. I don't do this at home, but it's a great change when camping.

New ideas for camping food (but I haven't tried them yet so take them with a grain of salt):

Korean BBQ - This past weekend, I was all set do do a Korean BBQ with chicken for the group (marinate it in gallon bags and put it in the freezer a couple of days before you leave -- the frozen chicken serves as ice packs until it thaws and then marinates some more). However, they had fire restrictions so I decided to cancel the BBQ since I didn't want to do it over a small propane camp grill (too messy). I have 10 lbs of chicken waiting in my freezer right now, but I digress. Even though it's essentially the same as normal BBQ chicken, I thought it would be a nice change to adjust the seasonings.

Indian Food - sooo many options. A spinach/paneer dish over rice? A tandoori chicken? A korma? I think there are a lot of options that I haven't even begun to explore yet. Plus, if you can do some of these indian dishes in a crockpot, you can do them in camp. Plus, it's outside the normal realm of typical camp cooking and can be spicy, both things people tend to like while sitting in camp chairs.

Grilled Pizza - I think this could be a great campfire dish, but I would need to test it out before recommending it. Expanded metal grates could work well for this -- or cast iron griddles. I see them sitting over hot coals. I hear that pizza dough needs only a few minutes on each side before it's topped with cheese and some easy toppings. If you keep the toppings pre-cooked and simple, this could be a winner.

Chicken and Dumplings - could be a nice alternative to chili on a chilly, fall evening.

I'm sure there are more things, but that's all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to post your favorites. I'm always looking for something new and fun.

A weekend of DIY

Smoked Turkey Chili
The cold weather meant I stayed indoors most of the weekend and cooked. I made a big batch of turkey chili -- eating some of it last night for dinner and freezing the rest. I got two free turkeys at Thanksgiving which I broke down; froze the parts in bags and made stock with the carcasses. I smoked the turkey legs this week, pulled the meat, rehydrated/cooked the beans and then combined it all on Sunday. Yum. I am eating it for lunch today, too.

Bread
My new job means a whole new world. Filled with yeast. I couldn't do anything yeast-related before since yeast spores travel easily and can ruin a month of experiments in the lab. But now, the lab days are over and my days making bread (and soon-to-be beer) are just beginning. I got The Bread Baker's Apprentice from Ken's folks for Christmas and have been happily reading it nightly and trying the different formulas. Fermented dough. Sicilian bread. Baguettes. Boules. Whole wheat rustic loaves. I am having a marvelous time. I'm not very good at it (yet), but I am loving it. I made 4 loaves this weekend and have some dough in the fridge to bake off tonight.

Cheese
I made my second batch of queso blanco on Saturday. I cooked the curds and allowed them to coagulate longer this time. The texture seemed a lot better. I am excited.

Homemade Bitters
I love Angostura bitters. Love them. So, when I found the Last Crumb's blog on making homemade bitters, I had to try it. I bought a bottle of rye and started infusing this weekend. I am trying a quarter batch of the House Bitters and the Cherry Vanilla bitters. Recipes can be found here. They smell wonderful so far.


Homemade Tuaca
Made a new batch this weekend since we finished the last two bottles. I use the same recipe that I posted before, but I've stopped adding sugar since it gets too sweet for some drinks. Can always add it later to taste. I have learned that I like the homemade (unsweetened) tuaca in Old Fashioneds. Delicious.

Birch Beer
Birch beer is my favorite. Especially old school, Pennsylvania Dutch birch beer. It is hard to find in Oregon, so I looked up some recipes to make the extract myself. Everything from steeping the bark for 10 minutes in boiling water to fermenting the birch bark with fresh sap, honey and a yeast-soaked piece of rye bread. Hmmm. I settled on the overnight soak. The first 30-120 minutes smelled divine. 3 days later, it smells like the woods. The wintergreen aroma is completely overwhelmed by the smell of bark and dirt. This was not my favorite project from this weekend.

Homemade Tonic Water
This is a project in the works. A Portland bartender makes his own and published the recipe last year. This inspired another Portland blogger to try it himself. Hilarity ensued. But Kevin Ludwig, the bartender who is opening Beaker and Flask in June, insists it isn't hard. So I'm going to try my hand at it and ordered 4 ounces of chinchona powder (aka quinine) from the herb store 5 blocks from my house. I'll keep you posted on how this goes. I'd love to figure it out in time for the summer. And Kevin says you can freeze the extract once it's made.

Cocktoberfest

This whole year has been spent curing meats. I made bacon for the first time last christmas and it has progressed from there. Pancetta is my favorite to make since it is expensive in stores yet is so easy and requires no special equipment. Plus it keeps for months in the fridge. Perfect for winter pasta carbonaras at a moment's notice.

But then came Batali's meat class/seminar. And the taste test. Both convinced me that I needed to try more things. Enter Jafo and Natascha. My meat nerd counterparts. They went to the Batali class with me and became hooked, too. And so began "Meat Club" and our first event in honor of "sausage".... Cocktoberfest.

We decided to have a two part event. Class 1 was the quick salami that Batali taught us in class. We started at noon. I made apricot mimosas and had some cheese; Jafo (aka Jason) brought two kinds of awesome meat -- a parmesan crusted coppa and a spicy soppressata (I think). Both were awesome. Here are Natascha and Jason enjoying meat and mimosas before getting started:


First we measured out the meat and fat, cutting everything into chunks before sending it through the food grinder. Here are Jafo and Natascha teaming up to prep and grind the meat on ice:



Tobriah takes a turn mixing in the spices:


And here are Kathy and Jason stuffing the meat into the casing. The meat is supposed to be stuffed into fibrous casings, which you can order online. Jafo insisted on the camouflage ones:


A little later in the stuffing process. 5 lbs of meat produced two giant salamis:



We put the meat in the oven to cook (Batali said a low oven for 30 minutes or until it gets to a certain temp -- but after 45 minutes at 250, it was barely warm, so we kept turning up the temp until the time seemed about right. 300-325 seemed to work. Good to know). While the meat was cooking, we began the first step in making pancetta (curing the pork belly). We mixed up the spices and here is Natascha rubbing it over the meat:


She flips it over and I realize that I forgot to cut off the pork skin:


So I get to work removing the skin: (Sidenote: Marsha, I made that cajeta recipe you sent me. It worked really well in a crock pot. It was used for an ice cream topping -- I had a lot leftover and when I told Natascha about it, she wanted to taste it. We devoured it (see white gravy boat dripping with goodness). We learned that cajeta tastes really, really good on sliced granny smith apples with gorgonzola crumbled on top. Yum)


Meanwhile, Tobriah loved the smell of the pancetta spices (bay leaves, juniper, thyme, brown sugar, etc.) on her hands:


We finally get the pork skin off, finish coating the meat with spices and put it in a gallon sized bag to cure for 7-10 days before hanging to dry. As we get finished, the salami comes out of the oven. Jason thinks it's good enough to eat:



In all, we had a great time. It would have only taken 90 minutes or so, if not for that blasted oven. Oh well, a few more mimosas on a Saturday afternoon never hurt anyone.

Hog Roast 2007

We had a blast and it was like nothing we've ever done before. 50+ people, 8-10 dogs, a keg of cold beer and a 170 lb pig. Chris' family does it every year and they were kind enough to invite his friends from Portland.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon to see Tent City in the front yard.


When we walked around back, they had a side yard where the pig would be going. They dug out a 3x5 foot pit about 2-3 feet deep. They put a metal grate level with the ground so the spent ashes could filter through. Then they used cinder blocks to pile around the pit and hold the coals. Everyone was to bring a bag of charcoal. An uncle had made the rotisserie using an old refrigerator motor and some chain. They've used it for years, but apparently this year was too much for it and the whole thing was destroyed. More on that later. Here are the coals just getting started:


From the side yard, you go down a small path to a large backyard and the Alsea river. Here's a view from the river looking back towards the house. The pig sideyard would be on the right. We played lots of games in the backyard and spent most of our time back there:


One of the games people played all weekend is Cornhole. It's from the midwest and one of our friends made it -- he's from Arkansas; I can't believe I actually know someone from Arkansas. Anyway, it's basically "get the beanbags in the hole/on the board" mixed with a bit of shuffleboard. People played it nonstop all weekend. Including a certain husband of mine.


A group of people had gone crabbing that morning, so there were lots of fresh crabs to eat. Just like back east but without the old bay. I was in heaven.




They also had a giant bowl of crawdads they caught from the river out back. I've never seen so many crawdads in my entire life. Here's me eating them. I liked the claws best. Most people saw them as too much work -- some would only the tails, leaving me with lots and lots of claws. Note, the giant bowl on the left was full; the bowl on the right are all of our leftover shells.:


Meanwhile, there were 8-10 dogs running around. It was a dog and water park combined! Plus food! It was Kinley's own little version of heaven. Here he is running down to the river to see some other dogs. Our tent is behind him on the left.


One of the dogs had been taught to "smile" to get treats. Here she is smiling:



So where is this pig, you ask? Right here. 18 hours of roasting compressed into a few pictures. Chris had done 100 lbs of pig in the past but upped it to 150 given the number of people. When the pig arrived, it was 170 lbs.

170 lbs of pig all dressed up:


Putting the pig on the spit. Pretty gnarly. You go through the skull and out the back end. Steel pole plus hammer equals good eats?


Here's the pig just after it went on the spit. Apparently 170 lbs of pig can immediately bend a steel pole. But it does not rip a cigarette from the pig's mouth. That's addiction for you.


At first the skin just starts to char. Very unappetizing. Since the motor broke and the pole bent, we had to hand-turn it every 40 minutes.


Plus, we had to keep basting the pig to keep it juicy. We used a watered down barbecue sauce and beer. Here's James basting the pig:


But all that basting and rotating eventually pay off. Here's the front of the pig before it got a lemon in its mouth:


And the backside of it around midnight.



I went to bed around 4 am. I couldn't make it up all night. Luckily 2 persevered until being relieved at 5:30. The pig was finished cooking around noon (as determined by thermometer in the ham) and was pulled to a picnic table. They covered it and allowed it to rest for about an hour. Even after all that time, it was still hot to the touch. Dogs started circling. They knew. Apparently some juice started dripping. Kinley started licking the ground while other dogs were licking his head onto which more juice was dripping.

When it was time, we started carving and picking the meat to be served. I have never pulled pork in a bikini before. Now I can say that I have.



Once the meat was pulled and the bones mostly cleaned, each dog got one. They were so happy. The meat was delicious and there was quite a bit left over. I think it's partly due to it being so hot on Sunday. Hot temperatures do not make a person want to eat hot pork. I slept most of the day on Sunday and we moved our tent to Tent City before crashing at 10 pm. I've never slept so well in a tent in my entire life.

Many thanks to Chris and his family for hosting us.

Making Salami

Natascha, Jason, Joy and I went to Armandino Batali's cured meats class on Friday night. It was awesome and one of my favorite things he taught us was this salami that can be made in the afternoon and eaten that evening (it's cooked rather than dry cured). He served it sliced thin as hors d'oeuvres, but you could easily make this for an amazing sandwich meat too.

He makes 15 lbs at a time, which is a little much for the home cook. 5 lbs is more reasonable per my charcuterie book, so I've shrunk the volumes accordingly. It's super easy (pretty much mix meat A with spices B and cook). The only tricky part is griding the meat and finding the sausage casings/curing salt. Here's the recipe:

Armandino Batali's Quick Salami
4.3 lbs Pork Butt
10.7 oz back fat (available from your butcher)
2.3 oz kosher salt
0.34 oz ground white pepper
0.17 oz ground nutmeg
2 oz mace
0.4 oz nonfat dry milk (it serves as a tenderizer)
0.5 oz whole peppercorns
0.17 oz curing salt (aka pink salt which is a premade mix of sodium nitrite and salt. it gives the meat a pink color when cooked and contributes a little to the flavor. he insists on it -- even though this is a quick salami.)

Grind pork butt and pork fat very coarsely (a coarser grind produces better texture that is more tender; a kitchen aid mixer with sausage attachment will do the trick.) Combine all other ingredients and then fold in with the meat. Extrude into a fiber casing (see details below) and cook low and slow in the oven (he said lower the better, I'm guessing around 200-250). He cooks it approximately 30 min or until the internal temperature hits 150.

He lets it cool, removes the inedible fiber casing and slices it thin when ready to eat. Shelf life is around 6 weeks.

*Fiber casings are best for the oven and can be purchased from www.butcher-packer.com or www.sausagemaker.com (Batali prefers the first place).

P.S. he also gave out the recipe for a corned beef recipe he really likes that doesn't take any special equipment (besides the pink salt/saltpeter/sodium nitrite)