Kitchen Quick Tips - Easy Lettuce Coring

To quickly core head lettuce, rap the core hard on the counter.  The core will then be easy to pop out leaving the lettuce ready for cleaning and prep.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Easy Cake Decorating

An easy way to decorate a cake is with two paper doilies.   Place the cake on a cutting board.  Place a small doily to fit the surface on the cake.  Sprinkle icing sugar, sugar cinnamon or cocoa powder over the doily covering all open spaces.  Lightly brush off excess on the doily.  Carefully remove the doily to reveal a beautiful lacy pattern on the cake.  Place a large doily on a cake plate then place the decorated cake on top of the doily for presentation. 

Kitchen Quick Tips - Protect Knife Blades

Chef's knife blades should be protected from getting nicked but also for safety to prevent accidental cuts.  Store in a knife block, on a magnetic strip or use a knife protector cover.  Make an inexpensive knife protector using the spine of a report cover.  Just cut the spine to the correct length and slip on the knife blade.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Peeling Garlic

The easiest way to peel garlic is to place each clove rounded side up on a cutting  rounded side up, lay the flat of a chef's knife on to of it then hit with your fist just enough to break the skin.  The skin will now easily come off the clove.

Our Thanksgiving Turkey 2011

We hosted Thanksgiving at our new home this year.  There were a total of twenty-five from our family including ourselves.  Larger scale entertaining takes a bit more planning and prep.  This is one time where I do use menu planning.  We were at our vacation home but thanks to email my husband's sister took care of a lot of the menu details.  We provided the turkey and ham as well as our home.  It only seemed fitting especially since both his parents have passed.  My husband is the eldest of his siblings  and since we do a lot of entertaining we have all the extra needed for larger gatherings. 

I am getting used to cooking with natural gas and so far loving it immensely!  The new stove was hooked up just a couple of days before we left for our vacation home so I didn't have much time to experiment.  We've only been home not quite five full days so in total have had less than a week to use the stove.  I made a banana loaf, roasted a chicken, and used the stovetop a bit.

We roasted a 23.7 lb turkey for part of our Thanksgiving feast.  There honestly isn't much difference between roasting a chicken or turkey other than timing.  I always roast both stuffed and covered at a lower temperature until the last fifteen minutes or so when I remove the lid for browning.

A turkey this size would have to be in the oven by 10 AM to be ready for dinner at 6 PM, or a total of eight hours when I was using an electric oven.  I put the turkey in at 11:30 AM and discovered it was cooked perfectly by 4:24 PM, for a total of only 5 hours without the need to remove the lid for browning!  The turkey pop-up timer has sprung with confirmation by a meat thermometer at an internal temperature of 175ºF.  Not only are we saving on the price of cooking fuel, the cooking time is reduced.  Now I have to ponder why as the temperature was the same I always use - 275ºF.  Technically, the cook time should be the same regardless of the cooking fuel.

Pictured is the beautiful beast, and doesn't it look delicious?  We roasted the turkey the day before our Thanksgiving feast.  It is a lot easier to de-bone then reheat for larger gathering.  The stuffing is scooped into an oven-proof baking dish for re-heating.  I made the gravy then as well which worked out nicely for defatting.  I kept the carcass for making turkey stock later.  The ham (not pictured) was warmed through the next day.

Tip:  When warming deboned turkey, pour a small amount of water over it then cover well with tinfoil.  This will prevent the turkey from drying out.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoy entertaining our family and friends.  We have a long standing tradition of sending left-overs from larger events home with our guests.  Yes, we could use up the left-overs ourselves but some of our family and friends travel a fair distance to attend meaning they don't get home until after midnight or later yet have to be up for work the next day.  Some of them have little ones as well.  This is our gift to them to help make the next day just a bit easier for them. 

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Cooking Disasters

Anyone who has cooked at one time or another has experienced a cooking disaster.  I'm talking about the type of cooking disaster that there is really no way to salvage.  I don't care what you try to do or add or whatever woobie joobies you wave at the dish it is clear cut it is a disaster.  Today's Frugal Kitchens 101 discusses cooking disasters and what to do.  Sometimes this simply falls under the toss it rule.  Learn from the mistake(s) made in the dish and move on. 

Smaller disasters happen in my kitchen on a fairly regular basis because I like to experiment.  I've always said one of the beauties of cooking is you can eat your mistakes.  That is not always true!  A few years ago I made a beef burgundy.  It was absolutely stunning looking, perfectly plated AND that's where it ended.  Neither of us could eat it as it was about as horrid tasting as it could get to the point the garburator would not eat it.  So what was supposed to be a great romantic, candlelight dinner for my husband and I turned out to be a disaster.  The thing is in this case there is absolutely nothing I could have done to salvage the beef burgundy.  It would have been spending good money after bad so the frugal choice was to toss the dish.  Looking back at the whole experience I can laugh but then it was horrible because wasting food goes against all of my principles and besides we had no dinner!  Actually we did not have the dinner I had planned but rather a quick put together pantry meal.

Eat The Weeds: Episode: 114: Cast Iron and Pig Weed

Awhile back one of the Frugal Kitchens 101 topics was foraging. Foraging is an excellent way to extend your food dollar while increasing the variety of foods you eat. I came across an wonderful video series on YouTube by Green Deane of Eat the Weeds. I highly recommend these videos if you are interested in learning more about foraging. Foraging involves cooking some of your foraged goodies.

The topic of pots and pans hasn't been discussed in great detail here although I have talked about some of the pots and pans I prefer. I will go into greater detail in future posts. A cast iron fry pan and dutch oven are a couple of the best cookware pieces you can possibly have in your kitchen. The great thing is you don't have to spend a lot of money on cast iron just a bit of inginuity and time seasoning to get one of the best non-stick performers possible. Here is one of his videos that shows how to rehabilitate a rusty cast iron pan into a useful pan that can be used for generations if properly cared for. Once he has seasoned the cast iron pan he shows how to cook pig weed, a common garden weed here in Ontario as well as elsewhere.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Pasta

Add ¼ tsp garlic powder or 2 cloves of garlic to pasta water when cooking for a wonderfully flavoured pasta. Alternatively cook your pasta in stock rather than water for a nice flavour.

On the Father's Day Menu

My husband and I have never celebrated special days with paper cards or gifts between us. It stems back from our early years of high school sweethearts and quite frankly I would not have it any other way. What we do instead is do a few extra things to show our love and cook a special meal for the other. We have a couple of rules when it comes to cooking special meals for each other. First it has to be within our range of cooking abilities and second it has to be something the other requested. There is usually a slight element of surprise just to keep things interesting.

Happy Father's Day

Pictured is the special graphics I made for my husband this year for use in my blogs and scrapbooking. I recently posted my thoughts about my husband's role as a father. I have to tell you I love Photoshop® not only for creating my own graphics but also for tweaking the images for my blogs.

What many might not realize is virtually all of the images of food on this blog have been tweaked to some degree. Edges and a © mark is added. In most instances the background is removed and changed to black to put the focus on the food. At the same time I try to keep the tweaking to a minimum in order to show you the dish as it really looks. Ok so there is a little tid bit about the behind the scenes workings of this blog.

Omelet

Pictured is the bacon and red onion omelet I made my husband for brunch. As you can see it is a fluffy omelet. Over the years I have seen many ways to make omelets and the main complaint is they are not light an fluffy. The main reason is cheese or milk or water is added to the egg mixture. This results in a rubbery textures far from fluffy and I like fluffy omelets! So I developed my own method of making fluffy omelets. The resulting omelet is light, fluffy with a wonderful texture.

Method: Chop onion and fry bacon pieces until almost crisp. Place bacon pieces on paper towel to absorb extra grease reserving grease. Beat 6 eggs until lemony yellow. Heat a non-stick fry pan on medium heat with a little butter or bacon fat for flavour. Pour the beaten eggs into the hot pan. Sprinkle onion and bacon pieces over the eggs. Cover the pan checking until the mixture is almost cooked through. Fold over and let cook until set. Plate. Garnish with shredded cheese and parsley.

Grilled Rib Steak

My husband's dinner request was grilled steak with sautéed onions and baked beans and baked potatoes. Now for the past week he has not been able to have any red meat so I can understand the steak. I paired the grilled rib steaks with Old Vermont Baked Beans and oven baked potatoes.

The steak was grill to medium rare then topped with sautéed onions. This is a very common pairing that has appeared on this blog several times. So let me tell you how I prepare oven baked potatoes.

Method: Wash large baking (Russet, Long White, Idaho) potatoes and dry. Poke a few holes in each potato. Place in a pre-heated 180ºC (356ºF) oven. Bake until skin is crispy and flesh has a good give when pinched. Remove from oven. Split down the middle. Fluff the inside and top as desired.

Sourdough Starter

I've talked a discussed sourdough breads that rely on sourdough starters. The most common questions that arise with sourdough breads is how to create and maintain the starter. The starter is critical to a good sourdough bread! Essentially the starter is nothing more than equal amounts of flour mixed with water then set in aside at room temperature to collect the wild yeast. If you have made a lot of bread there will be a lot of wild yeast in your kitchen. If you don't it will take longer for your mixture to become inoculated with wild yeast.

There are two warnings your must head when using sourdough starter. First, you cannot make yogurt and keep the starter on the counter. The reason is the bacteria that causes the yogurt to yog (get thick) competes with the yeast. This is why you eat yogurt if you have bacterial stomach or gastrointestinal problems such as thrush. The yeast from the yogurt kills off the bacteria. Well this principle demonstrates why yogurt making and sourdough starter cannot co-exist in the kitchen. Either or both will fail. Second, despite all good maintenance your starter may get contaminated. If at any time your starter does not look right, discard it and start again. For some, fruit flies (Drosophilla melanogaster) that feed on the yeast not actual fruit can be a problem so either protect your starting using cheese cloth or use your starter mainly through the winter months when these insects are less likely to be present.

Before

Sourdough starter requires regular maintenance normally referred to as feeding. That is because the yeast population that is doubling exponentially in the starter uses up the food resources. In this case the food resource is flour. Once the food resource is depleted the yeast population will begin to die off. You don't want that because the starter will no longer have leaving power. To prevent yeast die off from happening a portion of the starter is removed and either used for a second batch of starter or discarded. An equal amount to what was removed is then added in the form of half flour and half water, mixed well into the remaining starter. A plastic container is preferred because any starter on the sides can easily be scraped back into the main starter. The starter must be fed before making bread.

Pictured is the starter just after feeding. As you can see it immediate reacts by showing signs of bubbling. If your starter does not do this discard it and start again. You should smell a deep, aromatic, yeast smell to the starter that is rather tangy. If you notice any other smell, discard the starter and start again. If you notice any peculiar colour that indicates spoilage, discard the starter. Note: It is normal for a liquid to form on top of the starter. This is called hooch. The hooch should be stirred back into the starter before feeding.

After

Many sourdough recipes tell you to let the starter get spongy. Well that can be a bit confusing to those new to making sourdough breads. A sponge is just that. The starter takes on the appearance of a sponge with a lot of air pockets and somewhat springy texture. Think of it as an edible form os spray foam insulation that expands after spraying! The sponge will be light and airy while more than doubling it's size so be sure to use a large container.

If you want the sponge to form quicker or if your kitchen is cold heat a grain pack in the microwave oven. Cover it with a tea towel then set the starter on top. This will provide enough warmth for the starter to form a sponge. When measuring the sponge, spoon it into a measuring cup and always warm any liquids going into the bread dough to allow the wild yeast to continue multiplying giving that lovely sourdough flavour that just can't be beat!

Roasted Chicken Dinner

The traditional family meal for many families is roasted chicken in cooler months but you know roasted chicken makes an excellent weekday meal as well. Chickens are generally small enough that they can be roasted in about an hour in a conventional oven depending on the size of the chicken. The perfect weekday to roast a chicken is one that you either don't have to work or a day that either yourself or another family member can put the chicken on about 4 pm if you normally eat at 5:30 pm. If you are a WAHM, SAHM or homemaker roasting a chicken on a weekday makes perfect sense. Why would you want to roast a chicken on a weekday? The reason is quite simple. Not only will you enjoy a lovely, comfort meal but there will likely be enough left overs for the following day's lunch not to mention the carcass for when you want to make stock.

Roasted Chicken

We love roasted chicken but whole chickens are expensive here averaging over $8 each. I can actually buy a cooked, ready to serve rotisserie chicken from the deli for $5! For a few dollars more about the $12 range I can buy a turkey in the US when they are on sale so I don't roast whole chickens very often. Whole chicken can be roasted unstuffed on a broiling pan or stuffed using a simple stuffing made with homemade poultry seasoning.  The roasting time for chicken is 20 minutes per lb at 135ºC (350ºF) in a conventional oven. Internal temperature should be 75ºC (165ºF) using a meat thermometer. Do not over cook as this will dry out the chicken.

I have mentioned several times on this blog how much I enjoy using my Hamilton Beach® 6.5 quart countertop roaster. What I have noticed is that foods cooked in this roaster cook considerably faster and that includes roasted chicken. Using a countertop roaster of this size can easily shave off a good half hour of roasting time for chicken something that is appreciated when roasting chicken anytime. Roasting using a countertop roaster saves both time and energy costs!

Gravy

Some people pour the drippings and any liquid from the roasting pan through a strainer into a sauce pan then thicken for gravy. This is not a good idea for a few reasons. First and foremost you are losing a lot of flavour by using this method. Always make your gravy in the roasting pan. The only time this will not work is if you roast in a clay baker. For that reason a clay baker is not the best choice for roasting. Straining the gravy before making it removes all those little tasties that add to the flavour of the gravy as well. Leave these bits and pieces in the pan while you make the gravy. Pour your gravy through the strainer into a gravy separator before serving the gravy.

Roasted Chicken Dinner

Monday I roasted a chicken for dinner using the countertop roaster. I served the roasted chicken with stuffing, steamed spinach and reheated sour creamed potatoes left over from Saturday's dinner. It was a lovely, comforting meal on a cold, blustery March night.

Often vegetables are overcooked which is a shame. When you overcook vegetables not only do they lose visible appeal, the texture becomes mushy and they also lose valuable nutrients. One of the worst offenders is boiling vegetables to cook them. Instead, I prefer steaming vegetables to al dente (meaning with bite) to keep their beautiful bright colours and nutrients. Steaming your vegetables also saves you energy costs. So instead of covering those vegetables with water to cook them, try steaming instead. I'm sure you will love the results!

I reheated the left over sour creamed potatoes in a covered glass casserole dish for about 20 minutes at 135ºC (275ºF). Quite often reheated potatoes can be drier in texture and that is because they lose moisture during the reheating process. Covering the casserole dish with a lid ensured any moisture in the potatoes stayed in the potatoes to keep them moist. They warmed up nicely!

The Blender

Note: I have added a new feature that you may have already noticed. At the end of each blog there are three pictures or three links of similar posts from this blog's archives. Clicking on one of them will take you directly to that post. I hope you find this feature useful.

Next to my slow cookers my blender is likely right up there as one of my least used on a regular basis kitchen appliances. Usage tends to be quite seasonal with higher use during the summer months, preserving or doing bulk canning sessions. A couple of weeks ago someone on one of the Yahoo!® groups I read mentioned using canning jars with the blender. It was as if a light bulb went off!

Blender & Jars

When I got my blender ages ago it came with two mini jars (red arrow) with lids that I used quite a bit for grinding coffee before getting a coffee grinder. I use the jars mainly for grinding herbs. The white lid shown in the picture is a Bernardin® storage lid for mason jars available where ever canning supplies are sold. The heavy plastic jars screw onto the blender fitting then are turned into the blender seating. Standard (70 mm) two piece mason jar lids fit these jars.

I did a bit of research after hearing about the mason jar tip. One source said that at one time a mason jar with lid was included with every new blender along with instructions for using it. Now it makes perfect sense to mix sauces and dips directly in the container you want to store them in. Many sauces and dips need to sit for a period before serving so the flavours meld together. Grinding herbs directly into storage jars eliminates that fine powder from going everywhere when the blender pitcher is opened. More importantly there is a lot less mess and clean-up using the smaller storage jars.

Method

I make a lovely vegetable dip for the Super Bowl party using the mason jar method. If you don't have a mason jar a recycled mayonnaise jar or any jar that a mason lid fits will work. I spooned the sour cream, herb blend (garlic & onion) and Miracle Whip® into a 500 ml (pint) mason jar leaving about an inch headspace (1). Then I screwed on the blender fitting (2) and inverted the jar with fitting onto the blender seating (3). I held the top of the jar while blending just as I would when using the regular blender pitcher. I stopped once mid through the blending to give the jar a good shake. When the dip was fully blended I removed the jar with the fitting from the blender and inverted it allowing the contents to settle for about 5 minutes (4).

Ready for Refrigerator

After the contents settles a little I removed the blender fitting and placed the plastic storage lid onto the jar. The jar went into the fridge while I did the clean-up of washing only the blender fitting and two spoons - no spatulas, no bowls, no large pitcher, no funnel. There was no mess or spills either. It was quick and convenient!

This really was a case of having the equipment but not using it to its potential until I was reminded of the possibilities. True I had been using the method for grinding coffee and herbs but there is so many more possibilities when it comes to sauces and dips. So check your blender to see if you can use this tip. It will save you time and ultimately money with less clean-up.

Eating Healthy on a Budget

If you have been following this blog for any length of time you will know I often bring economics into consideration especially when it comes to home canning. The reason I do this is to show that home canning can be one way to save on food costs while putting wholesome, healthy foods on the table. In today's economy of cost of living coupled with increasing unemployment it doesn't take long for the conversation to turn to the rising cost of food. Those recently unemployed or on fixed incomes are especially hit hard with rising food costs. I found this good video on YouTube for eating healthy on a budget. Please take a few minutes to view the video for some very useful tips that are all sure fire ways of reducing your food costs. A point form synopsis of the video and my comments follow the video.

Eat Healthy on a Budget Tips

1. buy raw ingredients and cook at home instead of eating out
2. use coupons
3. frequent farmer's markets
4. don't buy conveniently packaged processed foods
5. buy in bulk
6. eat foods that are in season
7. plan your menu then form a grocery list from your menu
8. buy whole foods

I have practiced all of these methods with the exception of menu planning except for special occasions and entertaining. Menu planning does not work for me for day to day cooking because I have a very well stocked large, walk-in pantry pantry with 2 full freezers. I cook from my pantry so there really is no need for a menu. I keep a running grocery list of items I need as I get low on them then shop only when needed. It works for us. Coupons also do not work well for us because here in Ontario the coupons tend to be for expensive non-food items we don't use anyway and the stores never double or triple coupons. However, at one time my husband was the coupon king when we shopped for groceries more in the US. He once managed to get $200 worth of groceries for $15 which was his top record. Now even when shopping in the US we very seldom bother with coupons but that is not to imply that coupons don't save money when used properly. I would suggest joining a coupon exchange group to get the coupons you will use. There are also online sources where you can get coupons sent to you for products you use.

Many folk think that cooking is time consuming and inconvenient. Cooking does not need to be either! Personally I think driving to a fast food restaurant and standing in line for inferior quality food is more time consuming and inconvenient as well as being environmentally unfriendly. In the length of time it takes to go through a drive through you can easily put a nutritious, healthy meal on the table at a fraction of the cost and while it is cooking have a bit of time to unwind. Don't forget that you can have a wonderful meal without cooking at all or minimal cooking like frying bacon. Think outside of the box and you will find many great sandwich and salad meals that require no or minimal cooking. When you use these meal ideas you realize not only a savings on the cost of the food but also on the preparation costs and let's face it even though it's not often considered the electricity or gas used to prepare a meal is part of the overall cost of the meal. Pre-cut vegetables when you bring them home from the grocery store for quick starts during the week. Keep packages of pre-cooked seasoned or unseasoned ground beef and chicken strips in the freezer for those days you don't have time to do a lot of cooking. For more quick start meal ideas check this blog's archives. Make your own convenience foods and can or freeze them for more savings.

I mentioned before the average food travels 1,500 miles from farm to table. During that time and the time you use the food it is losing nutritional value. I cannot stress enough that one of the best ways to reduce food costs is to have a home garden. Supplement with produce from your local farmer's market or farm stands if at all possible. At the very least keep a window sill garden of fresh herbs and a couple of pots of leaf lettuce, spinach or Swiss chard. Sprouting your own beans is a very easy way to add more nutrition to salads and sandwiches.

Something not mentioned in the video was shopping the sales but it was mentioned to only buy what is on your grocery list. I disagree with buying only what is on your list because some grocery stores have unadvertised in store specials and reduced for quick sale specials. I shop the sales but only for those things I know we will use then I buy enough to last until that item goes on sale again. For example, dry pasta is currently on sale and I know it goes on sale this time of the year every year but it also goes on sale in the spring. So figuring on 2 pasta meals per week at 2 meals per package I need 52 packages for the year. I bought half that amount that will get me to the next good sale on pasta. At one time making stops at multiple stores to cherry pick the sales was another food dollar saving strategy. However, with the current price of gas unless the grocery stores are located within close distance to each other preferably on a route you normally take (eg. on the way home from work) it is no longer cost effective to do this.

If you follow the tips on the video along with some of the tips I've mentioned you can pare a significant amount of money from your food bill while eating healthier foods!

Tomatoes Continued - Days 4 & 5

It has been a very busy week of processing tomatoes. At this point I have now processed 5 1/2 hampers of tomatoes. I'm tired and very achy so by the time you are reading this I'm already well into enjoying a much appreciated weekend away.
Tomato Harvest

Ladies and gentleman as promised here are pictures of the tomato harvest.  Tomato wagons are connected to tractors then a tomato harvester follows along side the wagons.  Pickers stand in the harvester to remove green tomatoes.  As the tomatoes are harvested they travel up conveyor belts to be deposited into the wagons.  When full the tomato wagons are hooked to transport trucks or tractors depending on the distance needed to travel to the processing plant. 

  

Testing pH

When home canning pH is very important.  In general if the pH is above 4.6 then the food is considered low acid so it must be processed using a boiling water bath canner.  If you only use tested USDA approved recipes (which all new canners should use) then all you have to do is simply follow those guidelines.  However, I wanted to can my own sauces using recipes it has taken me years to perfect so that means testing pH.  The simplest method is to use pH paper but if the sauce is strongly coloured it will throw off the reading.  Another problem with pH paper is there is a level of guestimation by simply trying to match the colour to the indicator.  For example I tested 5% acetic acid white vinegar with pH paper that read at pH 2.5 however using a pH meter the pH was 2.1.  In terms of pH this is a big difference.  So while pH paper is a useful indicator a pH meter is better for more accurate readings.  Tomatoes and tomato products for the most part can be processed using a boiling water bath or pressure canner but in both cases the current recommendation is to acidify by adding either citric acid or lemon juice.  Virtually everything I can that is tomato based is tested for pH mainly for my own records.
Spaghetti Meat Sauce

Pictured is 14 - 500 ml jars of my famous spaghetti meat sauce.  This is a slow cook sauce that takes a fair amount of preparation and about 4 hours cook time before being ready for canning or freezing.  I use one particular variety of plum tomatoes.   The tomatoes are peeled then quartered.  Other ingredients including fresh ground, lean ground beef, fresh herbs and fresh mushrooms combine to make a mouth watering hearty sauce.  This sauce originally was made from scratch for dinner with left-over sauce being froze.  About 6 years ago I decided to try canning some as a convenience product.  The results were wonderful!  While making this sauce fresh is still the primary way I make it having  several jars on hand is a real time saver!

Marinara Sauce

Pictured are 5 L of marinara sauce and you would have seen the other 6 - 500 ml jars but they were in the canner and I needed the photo since we were leaving for the weekend.  This sauce is an improtu since it was not on my original list of tomato products to can but that list really changes anyways as I do the canning.

Marinara sauce is named after the mariners who made this simple yet tasty sauce.  It consists of tomatoes, olive oil, onions, garlic and fresh basil.  That's it.  Yet this sauce is tasty by itself as a pasta topping or can be used for a blush sauce.  It is a bit thinner than some pasta sauces.  

The simplicity of this sauce is one of its beauties.  You must use all fresh ingredients with the basil being picked within minutes of going into the sauce.  For canning purposes, a greatly reduced amount of olive oil is used added for the flavour since pressure canning increases the antioxidant properties of lycopene much the same as olive oil does.  

Processing Tomatoes (Day 1) & Pizza Sauce Recipe

I had planned on getting an early start processing tomatoes yesterday and while I was up early, I didn't start tomatoes until mid-morning. It was a beautiful, warm autumn day with no breeze. I took one look at my nice white countertops and decided using the food mill outdoors would be a great idea. It was also a practical idea as the counters are now ⅞ inch higher after the renovation meaning I would have to be standing on my step stool to run the food mill, not quite a pleasant position when processing a lot of tomatoes.

Outdoor Setup

I set up the food mill on one of the picnic tables just off the covered patio the kitchen opens onto. I had a pleasant view of the water and the warmth of the sun's kisses while I worked so it was quite relaxing. What I notice was it was a lot easier to use the food mill when set to the lower level of the picnic table. The seat made a dandy leg rest for shifting weight while working. Another thing I noticed was there was very little mess.

Pictured is my outside set-up. Not pictured are the bar towels that I used to cover the food mill hopper and shoot as I transported tomatoes from the kitchen and the purée to the waiting stock pots. I washed the tomatoes in the kitchen. Field tomatoes tend to be dirty resulting in dirt pieces on both the countertop and floor. This was easily kept in check with my hand held vacuum cleaner as well as wiping the counter. I should mention that I'm a firm believer in clean as you go whether it be cooking or home preserving.

Tomato Purée

A food mill is essential for making smooth tomato sauces. I'm still using a manual food mill but plan on buying the food mill attachment for my KitchenAid® stand mixer. A food mill consists of a hopper (where you put the food), an auger covered with a screen (the work part of the food mill), a wide shoot where the purée exits and a funnel shaped shoot where the waste exits.

Pictured is the first bowl of tomato purée for 2008. Tomato purée has a deep, rich, orangy-red colour that is just a beauty to behold. It's enough to tantalize the taste buds and that's before turning it into mouth watering sauces. Two hampers were processed into tomato purée with the third hamper left until the following morning.

Day's End

A large portion of the tomatoes I process are made into various sauces and convenience products for the pantry. The reason for this is I enjoy convenience as much as anyone else. The only difference is I prefer homemade convenience. I also prefer to make sauces our family likes that you can't find in the stores and I like to put them into jar sizes that will be used entirely when I use them.

Kitchen Tip: Lately there has been a lot of talk about BPA (Bisphenol A) in plastics marked with 7 or PC in the recycle symbol. However BPA also is found in the coated liner of some tomato products. BPA leaches from the plastic when exposed to high heat, acid foods/drinks and harsh detergents. Any commercially canned food is exposed to high heat and some foods are high acid so the BPA in the coated liner can leach into your foods simply through the commercial canning process. As more and more is known about the effects of contaminates such as BPA and the health effects of food additives and preservatives, home canning and freezing becomes a viable solution. The glass mason jars are inert so you never have to worry about anything leaching into your food.

Yesterday's yield from 2 hampers of tomatoes was:

• 8 - 250 ml jars pizza sauce (1)
• 3 - 500 ml jars pizza sauce (1)
• 3 - L jars plain tomato sauce (2)
• 16 - 500 ml jars meatless pasta sauce (3)

I pressure canned (PC) the tomato products for two reasons. First, pressure canning increases the antioxidant properties of lycopene so it is a healthier product. Second, sauces processed in a boiling water bath (BWB) canner take 35 minutes for 250/500 ml jars and 40 minutes for L jars with burner on high heat. Processing using a pressure canner takes 7 minutes vent time (high heat) and 15 minutes (setting 7.5) for 250 to L sized jars. So not only am I saving time by pressure canning I'm also saving electricity (every kW counts) at 22 minutes per load verse 35 to 40 minutes per load. My cost for electricity goes from 6¢ - 8¢ per load down to 4¢ per load, clearly not a huge amount but consider as many as 4 or 5 loads per day over the period of just tomato season. At an estimated 10 days averaging 3 loads per day I'm saving 60¢ to $1.20 as well as reducing my carbon footprint. However, those savings are actually greater because I'm able to process 14 - 500 ml jars in the pressure canner verses 7 in the boiling water bath canner reducing the number of loads needed saving more time, money and electricity.

Pizza Sauce
modified from:  Bernardin, Tomatoes Canning & Speciality Recipes, (2000), Pp. 61
13 c tomato purée
½ c lemon juice
½ c tomato paste
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp garlic powder

Put half of the tomato purée into a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Maintain a constant boil and the remaining purée 1 c at a time. Stir in remaining ingredients. Boil hard stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Continue boiling to desired thickness. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars. Wipe rim. Adjust two piece caps. Process using one of the two following methods;

BWB Processing: 35 minutes for 500 ml (pints), 40 minutes for 1 L (quarts) for altitudes below 1,000 feet above sea level, for higher altitudes adjust using the altitude adjustment chart.

PC Processing: 15 minutes for 250 ml, 500 ml or L jars at 10 lb pressure for altitudes below 1,000 feet above sea level, for higher altitudes adjust using the altitude adjustment chart.

Homemade Pizza and Bosco Sticks

Have I ever mentioned how much we love cheese? If you follow this blog it quickly becomes apparent that we eat a lot of cheese. Cheese is the ultimate comfort food! A little cheese can go a long way in adding flavour to otherwise bland dishes. We made pizza and our homemade version of Bosco sticks for dinner last night. This was a frugal yet fun dinner!

I have often mentioned making homemade bacon bits yet have only described how to do it without pictures. This time I remembered the pictures. Real bacon bits adds a lot of flavour without adding a lot of meat so they are a good budget stretcher. Buy bacon when it is on sale. Remove the bacon from the package. Place on a cutting board with the long side facing you (1). Using a sharp knife, cut across the strips at about ½ inch intervals. Place the bacon into a fry pan and fry until crisp. Remove from fry pan and drain (3). Divide the bacon into smaller quantities of about ¾ c. Put the bacon bits into small vacuum seal bags. Vacuum seal and freeze. You now have convenient to use bacon bits. Use them on salads and pizza or toss them into bread dough or soups. The ways to use the bacon bits are endless.

Part of the fun of eating out is discovering new foods and ways to present foods. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Bosco sticks we had enjoyed at a bar & grill we stopped at while boating. I did a google for a recipe for Bosco sticks only to find out these cheesy bread sticks are made and distributed by Bosco's Pizza Co. in Warren, Michigan. They can be found in the freezer section of some stores but I've never seen them here. Failing to find a copycat recipe I decided to try and duplicate Bosco sticks myself.

To my way of thinking since these cheese sticks were made by a pizzaria there was a good chance the breading was pizza dough. So for this attempt my husband and I used pizza dough, 4 mozzarella and 2 cheddar cheese strings (1). Our homemade version of Bosco sticks were very close to what we had in the bar & grill. The dough was formed into oblong pieces about an inch longer than each cheese string and wide enough to go around the cheese string with some overlap. To form the breaded cheese stick we put the cheese string in the middle of the dough and folded each narrow end over the ends of the cheese stick then wrapped the long sides around and sealed. We baked the cheese sticks at 400ºF until golden brown (2) and served with homemade pasta sauce. [I'm completely out of pizza sauce so that will be one of the first tomato products I make this weekend.] When cut the cheese filled the cavity just the way it should (3).

Did you know you can make a gourmet style pizza at home for a fraction of the price of delivery pizza? Seriously if we order a large pizza with 3 toppings and extra cheese along with 2 lb of wings the total cost with delivery is $38. A homemade pizza with as many toppings as we want costs under $5 even when factoring in the cost of electricity. If we add 2 lb of wings the cost increases to about $8 total or when compared to delivery $30 cheaper!

Two tried and true pizza dough recipes are my best pizza dough and cornmeal pizza dough. Both can be made fresh or in advance and frozen until you want to use them. Making the dough only takes a few minutes with a KitchenAid® stand mixer or breadmachine. You will have to plan for the thawing time if frozen as well as the rise time whether fresh or frozen.

My husband and I like making pizza together something we started just after our first child was born. Even then we realized how much of a savings it could be to make our own pizza. As the kids grew we had weekly pizza nights and allowed them to choose their own toppings. It was a lot of fun as the tradition continues even though they are now adults and we pass it down to the grandbabies. This pizza was a thick crust topped with thickened pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese, Spanish onion, bell pepper, sautéed mushrooms, chopped ham and bacon bits (7). If you notice the toppings are sandwiched between two layers of shredded mozzarella cheese. The pizza was baked at 400ºF until the crust was golden brown and the cheese was bubbly. Once baked the pizza we removed the pizza from the oven to a cutting board. Cutting is best achieved using a pizza wheel (8). As you can see from the sliced pizza (9) this homemade pizza was delightfully yummy!

Buying Locally

Despite growing a lot of vegetables and herbs as well as living in a rural area we simply cannot produce all the food we eat. We are very fortunate to live in an area where I can buy a fair amount of locally produced foods directly from farmers, orchards and roadside stands. This includes beef, pork, eggs, fruits, vegetables We also take advantage of local hunting through friends and fishing ourselves. Why do I stress buying locally?

Buying locally ensures you get the freshest produce often shortly after picking or in some cases you can pick your own. The produce is at its peak when purchased in season so always tastes better. Both fruits and vegetables begin losing nutrients as soon as they are picked. Ideally for canning or freezing you want to have as short of a time frame between picking and processing. When you buy locally you get to know who is growing your food. You get to know the animal husbandry practices as well as their field management and produce growing practices. Buying locally keeps local farmers in business creating a stronger community. Did you know the average food travels 1,500 miles from farmer to your table? Buying locally greatly reduces this distance quite often to well under 10 miles. Talk about an effective way to reduce your carbon footprint while saving money on food! Finally buying locally is in my experience always less expensive than buying in the grocery store. So if you want to save money on your food bill, buy locally produced fruits and vegetables.

My Purchases

Imagine my disappointment when the closest orchard/farm stand closed up shop last winter. This is a place I frequented two or three times a week! It is normal for some of these types of markets to close over the winter but this one had always remained open. The reason for the closure was mis-management by the new owners of the business end. As produce came into season it looked more and more like this farm market would not be re-opening. Resigning myself to that fact I set about finding a weekly farm market, a traveling weekly farm stand and an amazing organic farm market. All of them are local within about 30 to 40 minutes drive, not the best solution but better than nothing.

A week ago Monday I was reading through the paper last week when I noticed an ad. The former owners of the farm market had re-opened the market under their own management. The still owned the land, orchard and buildings so rather than let the community down by keeping the market closed and despite being well beyond retirement age, they opened it back up under their old business name. I excited called them to thank them for opening back up and told them I would be there that afternoon. Suddenly a day that really was making a valid attempt at being very much annoying took on a whole new meaning. I finished what I was doing in the kitchen, quickly changed and grabbing by eco-friendly cloth shopping bags headed out the door.

It was like greeting a long lost friend when I walked through the door. We chatted for awhile then I set about choosing what I wanted. I bought 10 lb cooking onions, 10 lb Spanish onion, 10 lb L-star apples, 3 nice looking field tomatoes, a quart of peaches and a quart of grapes. The total cost was $16.50, definitely under grocery store prices and oh so much fresher. The L-stars had been picked that morning! The price was a bit higher because of the smaller quantities I bought as well as the apples just starting. The prices will drop within a week or so as larger quantities become available. I noticed the potatoes were $12.95 for a 50 lb bag so at 26¢ per pound is a good deal but she assured me the price would be going down to my familiar $7.95 which works out to 16¢ per pound, a better deal. All of the variety of apples they grow will quite inexpensive as will the squashes and other root vegetables. Spanish onions will likely be down to their normal $3.95 for 20 lb. I have to tell you I am a very happy camper!

The Classic BLT

It's tomato time! That means for the next two or three weeks I will be canning tomatoes, pasta sauce, meat sauce, chili sauce, salsa, soup, juice and putting up tomatoes in any form I can. At the same time our consumption of raw tomatoes will sky rocket compared to other times of the year and we eat a lot of raw tomatoes. Home gardeners will attest that tomatoes have been available from their gardens for awhile. In many cases these tend to be heirlooms, cherry and beefsteak tomatoes as well as yellow and purple tomatoes. These are the same tomatoes that are either unavailable in the stores and/or high priced.

Did you know? - One of the worst things you can do is refrigerate tomatoes. Refrigerating causes a loss of flavour as well as a change in texture causing the tomato to become mealy. When growing your own tomatoes, leave on the vine and pick when ripe just before you are ready to use. The exception to this is if you are like me with upwards of 50 tomato plants sometimes you will want to do a clean pick of all ripened fruit. This encourages more fruit as well as prevents over ripening. In this case set aside what you can comfortably use in three or four days and turn the rest into sauce. When buying tomatoes buy vine ripe if possible and only buy what you will use within two or three days. Keep the tomatoes on the counter out of direct sunlight.

Beefsteak Tomato

Tomatoes have to be one of our favourite fruits. In general tomatoes fall into one of three categories - slicing, sauce or salad. We eat tomatoes in some form almost daily if not more often. As soon as the beefsteak tomatoes start to ripen the taste buds are in high gear patiently waiting for the first juicy bite. Beefsteak are huge, firm, meaty tomatoes bursting with a rich, robust flavour.

Beefsteak tomatoes are by far my favourite tomato as they are the perfect slicing tomato. Serve the slices sprinkled lightly with sea salt and fresh ground pepper or light dash of Italian seasoning as a side. Top the slices with fresh mozzarella and lightly grill.

Classic BLT

The classic bacon, lettuce and tomato aka BLT is simply just that, a toasted sandwich made with iceberg lettuce, slices of tomato and a few pieces of bacon. Mayonnaise, salt and pepper complete the sandwich. The origin of the classic BLT is unknown but I can remember when I was first introduced to them. I grew up in a small village that had one restaurant and the Met (Metropolitan Five & Dime). I loved the Met because it had a squeaky wood floor that smelled awesome. I was probably about 7 years old when my Mom took us on the bus [Mom never learned to drive] to the nearest larger town and there was the sign I recognized! My Mom took us to the Met for lunch. They had a long counter where you could sit on stools. We ordered BLTs and milkshakes. I was hooked on BLTs with the first bite! They are still my favourite sandwich.

With rising food costs everyone is looking for ways to save a bit on their grocery bill. BLTs make for a very frugal meal especially if you grow your own lettuce, tomatoes and make your own bread. However even with having to buy lettuce, tomatoes and bread they still fall into the very frugal meal category. The most expensive ingredient will be the bacon but bought on sale and using two pieces per sandwich the cost can be kept to a bare minimum. In fact a rough calculation at buying everything the total cost per sandwich works out to be about 56¢ so a family of four at 2 sandwiches each would cost $4.48 using a price of $2.49 per 500 g or 30¢ per slice. Again if you grow your own tomatoes and make your own bread you could easily shave off a good $1.50 making the total cost $2.98 for a family of four. That is what I would call a very frugal meal! Not only are BLTs frugal but they take under 15 minutes to make and really for some fit into the comfort meal category.

I am a BLT snob! Sorry, I won't settle for those anemic, cardboard tasting, flavourless tomatoes for a BLT. Well I won't settle using those at all for anything so perhaps I am really a tomato snob. The best tomatoes for a BLT are one of the beefsteak varieties. Ideally it should be picked while still warm from the sun's kisses and sliced within minutes of picking. You really want this sandwich to be about the tomato with the other ingredients being accents. Each slice should be about ⅝ inch thick. One slice should cover almost the entire slice of bread.

Method: Toast bread. Fry or bake the bacon (not too crisp). Spread Miracle Whip® or mayonnaise on each slice of toast. Place a nice layer of crisp iceberg lettuce on one slice followed by a thick slice of beefsteak tomato. Sprinkle on sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Add two or three pieces of bacon and the other slice of toast. Cut the sandwich in half.

Bell Peppers

We live in an area where local produce is quite abundant and often priced well below the grocery store prices. This is an ideal way to get produce for preserving if you don't grow that particular fruit or vegetable or if your garden didn't produce enough. If you have been following this blog and my gardening blog you know that the focus this year continued to be ripping out in the gardens and starting new raised beds with no vegetable garden other than that planted in containers. Still container gardening is better than not growing any vegetables.

Bell Peppers

I knew I would have to buy bell peppers this year. We use a lot of sweet peppers in cooking so freeze them for use during the winter months. Pre-cut and ready to use the packets of frozen peppers are nice convenience ingredients to keep on hand. Oh sure I can get green peppers in the grocery store year round (and for fresh during the winter I'm force to) but home grown and locally grown are superiour in flavour and size!

My husband brought home 15 lovely, large bell peppers bought from the same farmer as the sweet corn. The price was a reasonable $5. As their name implies these peppers are sweet in the sense they do not have any heat to them. Sweet peppers are green but will ripen to yellow, orange, purple or red depending on the variety. Green bell peppers are unripe so are less sweet with a slight bitterness. When fully ripe they have a sweeter, mellow flavour.

A bell pepper is a bell pepper, or is it? Did you know that some bell peppers are better for eating raw while others are better for cooking even within the same variety? It's true! Look at the bottom end of the pepper and count the bumps. A pepper with three bumps is sweeter so is best used for eating raw. A pepper with four bumps is firmer and not quite as sweet. They are better for cooking.

Cutting

Use a sharp knife for this type of food prep. I cannot stress this enough! More accidents happen in the kitchen as a result of trying to cut with a dull knife than with a sharp one. A knife sharpener is an inexpensive yet essential piece of kitchen equipment. While on the topic of knives, your food prep knives should never be put in the dishwasher. They should be hand washed and dried after each use then placed on a magnetic rack or in a knife block to protect the blade. Keep them sharp and honed so they are ready to use.

Bell peppers are quite easy to prepare for freezing. Prepared this way they are suitable for cooking. I cut from the stem on one side around to the stem on the other side then cut around the stem and pop the pepper in half. After lifting the stem and core out, I cut away and of the pith and tap to get any remaining seeds out. With the pepper cut side up, I cut into strips then cut across the strips to form pieces. Then I gather the cut pepper into a pile and work the knife with a tip to heel motion without lifting the tip from the cutting board from one side of the pile and back. The pepper pieces are then ready for packaging into freezer bags.

Vacuum Sealing

As you know just about everything I freeze with the exception of bulk meat purchases that come wrapped in butcher's paper is vacuum sealed using a FoodSaver® (model V2480). Vacuum sealing is the number one method for preventing freezer burn. Eliminating freezer burn extends the freezer life of your foods as well as having to toss a food because it is freezer burnt.

I vacuum sealed the pepper pieces in pint size bags ending up with 6 bags. Two green bell peppers went into the fridge for an event we are hosting this weekend. Four partially ripened bell peppers were set aside to continue ripening for use on a vegetable tray for the event.

Ripening

Bell peppers that are entirely green will keep that way for several days in the crisper. If there is colour changes as pictured indicating ripening, set the peppers on the counter out of direct sunlight until they fully turn to the ripe colour depending on the variety. This should take a day or two. Once ripened put the peppers in the crisper to keep for a few more days if desired. To shorten the ripening time place a well ripened tomato, apple or banana by the peppers. The natural ethylene given off by the ripen fruit will help hasten the ripening of the unripe peppers.

Yummy Dinner! White Pizza

One of the nicest things about the internet is we can easily keep in touch with our kids. Sharing pictures of what we made for dinner has become a favourite activity. They are all talented cooks! A couple of days ago I received pictures along with the recipes for a white pizza made by one of our kids. I immediately called to ask if I could blog about it. Even though I knew there wouldn't be a problem sharing this wonderful pizza with my readers, I still asked. (Thanks for sharing both, sweetie!)

My best pizza dough has both beer and sugar as ingredients something the kids are avoiding as much as possible with the grandbaby. We occasionally use alcohol as an ingredient when cooking however despite claims that the alcohol burns off during the cooking process, that is false! There is a handy alcohol burn off chart here. Even though there isn't a lot of alcohol left in the food there is still some and that needs to be considered when serving the dish to children or those who for whatever reason choose to abstain from alcohol. We have both family and friends that abstain so I make two versions of the same dish, one with alcohol. So do consider do the same if you cook with alcohol. Food like wine jelly or jams made with alcohol should be well labeled as they tend to have a fairly high alcohol content.

White Pizza

The kids have been raving about the following pizza dough that they accidentally stumbled upon. According to them "Hands-down, one of the best pizzas we have ever had! The dough is so fluffy and good that we are making calzones out of it tonight." The kids said that even though the dough contained cornmeal it was not gritty. Using chicken and broccoli is a lovely combination. The Alfredo sauce was homemade as well.

It looks so mouthwatering that I have this recipe on the top of my next to try recipes! The dough was made in a breadmachine but you can easily make it using the KitchenAid® stand mixer. Simply mix the dry ingredients together in the stand mixer bowl then stir the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and slowly pour into the dry while mixing on speed 2. Adjust flour if needed so the dough leaves the side of the mixing bowl. Knead on speed 2 until smooth and elastic.

Cornmeal Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
3 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup medium-grind yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Combine ingredients and follow your manufacturers directions for your bread machine.


White Pizza
- dough as prepared above
- slice mushrooms and broccoli and cook together (no seasoning)
- cook chicken with no seasoning
- spread Alfredo sauce on bottom
- add broccoli and mushroom mixture
- add chicken
- sprinkle garlic pepper on top
- top with shredded mozzarella cheese

Please Note: Photo and instructions are ©b1 (one of Garden Gnome's kids who is looking at the possibility of changing careers to become a professional chef in the next few years).