I Love Food

Fresh Bee Pollen – Something I eat every morning

sheila — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:10:01 +0000

Most mornings on my cereal (usually oatmeal or muesli), along with the fresh sliced fruit and nuts and sometimes plain Greek yogurt, I almost always have fresh bee pollen. I started eating it, originally, as a way to hopefully combat or alleviate seasonal/environmental allergies. In the meantime I’ve found out it really is a superfood with so many vitamins and nutrients. When I’m feeling off, sometimes I will realize that I haven’t had my bee pollen that day, or for a few days, and once I get back on it I’m feeling much better. The following two links have good info about fresh bee pollen. I usually buy it at the local farmers market.

http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/2011/05/whats-all-buzz-about-bee-pollen.html

http://www.durhamsbeefarm.com/bee-products/bee-pollen.html?left

Chicken and Dumplings

sheila — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:11:18 +0000

So recently I saw a recipe pop up on my Facebook feed for Chicken and Dumplings. It looked pretty easy and quick, so I decided to give it a go. The recipe is from EatingWell.com, who provides healthy recipes, or at least “healthier”. I didn’t have any whole wheat flour on hand, I found out in the midst of dinner prep, so made this with all-white flour. I had thought I had some whole wheat on hand. In any case, the entire family enjoyed this meal. It made a generous 6 servings for us.

Old-Fashioned Chicken & Dumplings | Eating Well

Chicken and Dumplings

Quick Chicken Cordon Bleu

sheila — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:56:51 +0000

Well, here’s a new recipe I tried tonight:

Quick Chicken Cordon Bleu | Eating Well

Thought it sounded good. Chicken. Ham. Cheese. Breadcrumbs. Seasonings. How could that go wrong? The chicken breasts from the market were a bit large, about 1.8 lbs for 3 breasts with the tenders attached. I cut them in half cross-wise to get six more reasonably sized pieces. Probably should have pounded them a bit thinner, but didn’t. So I had to increase the cooking time.

I thought it was a pretty tasty recipe. But hubby apparently has an aversion to Chicken Cordon Bleu. You’d think he might’ve mentioned this when he saw it on the menu-board a couple of days ago. But no, I find this out after I’ve served it to his plate. Both children thought it tasted a bit odd. I guess I won’t be making this particular dish again. Hmmm.

Pumpkin Fudge!

sheila — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:13:12 +0000

So a couple of months ago, a friend of mine shared some pumpkin fudge that he had made. Wow, delicious! I had to have the recipe. And finally did get it and wanted to make it for Thanksgiving to take over to my mom’s and share with the family.

Now I’ve never made pumpkin fudge before. But I’ve made chocolate. And it came out grainy. And I’ve made a few other kinds of candies. It’s something I do rarely and don’t have a lot of skill with. So, thank goodness for YouTube because you can learn to do almost anything by watching YouTube videos.

So I tested my candy thermometer. In boiling water for 10 minutes. Thermometer registered 208F, 4 degrees too low. So I figured I should cook my fudge until it got to 230F (four degrees below softball stage). I also watched some videos on testing for softball stage with the cold water test, so that I wasn’t relying only on the thermometer (which I did not trust).

Also, just for general edification, I watched a couple of videos on how to make fudge. Of course, these two videos were about making chocolate fudge, not pumpkin fudge. So I wondered if there were videos on how to make pumpkin fudge. Well, of course there were. The recipe in this particular video is similar to, although not exactly the same, as the recipe I was given by my friend. I did find the exact recipe my friend had shared with me also on the web.

So, after all this education from YouTube, I set out to make my batch of fudge. Even though the recipe said to stir constantly during the boiling phase, I did not, since some of the videos I had watched said not to do that. Of course, they were for a different fudge recipe, but…I dunno…I’m kind of dumb that way. Also, I was boiling this fudge, and boiling it, and my thermometer was hardly even getting up to 220F. So I did the cold water test to see if the candy had gotten to soft ball stage, yet. Not yet. And I tested every few minutes, but by now I’d been boiling it much longer than the 11 minutes suggested in the recipe. Eventually, when it had been boiling for almost 20 minutes, the cold water test seemed to indicate that it was at soft ball stage, and I took it off the heat. Stirred in the white chocolate morsels and the marshmallow creme and vanilla extract. But it took a lot of stirring to get these ingredients to blend in thoroughly. And the white chocolate morsels did not completely melt. Put it in the pan to cool and harden.

Well, a few hours later I turned it out of the pan to cut it. But it was cracking and splitting. Kind of dry and crumbly. I could not cut it into squares. I got a bunch of funny-shaped, irregular pieces. It still tasted good. I brought it over to my mom’s for Thanksgiving and everyone liked it. On the Friday after Thanksgiving I shared it with one of the bike groups I ride with, and they all liked it a lot, too. Someone even asked for the recipe. But I knew it wasn’t right because it was so crumbly and I couldn’t cut it properly.

Well, I asked for advice on Facebook and Twitter and decided to try a second batch. Several people suggested that if it was sort of dry and crumbly, that it was likely overcooked. Well, I sort of thought this myself, especially since I had cooked it for almost twice as long as the recipe suggested. But then again, my thermometer never even got close to 230F (I hate that thermometer…I’m sure it lies) and by the cold water test, it had only just started to get to soft ball stage. So how could it have been overcooked? Well, it was also suggested to me that I might have stirred it too much during the cooling phase. Technically, I think the person who made that suggestion was thinking of a more traditional recipe like the chocolate fudge recipes I viewed on YouTube. Nevertheless, I did stir quite a bit while trying to mix in the morsels and marshmallow creme, and it wouldn’t surprise me that I had over-stirred. Yet another person suggested that I may have cooked it at too high a heat, and that the heat should only be just high enough to keep the candy boiling until it reached the right stage.

OK, so armed with this advice I undertook on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to make a second batch. I kept the heat lower. Just high enough to boil. I stirred constantly during the boiling phase, just as the recipe said to do (figured I ought to follow the recipe as instructed, right?). I did cook it still for over 18 minutes. And the thermometer never even got to 220F and the cold water test indicated it was not quite at soft ball stage, although I think it was almost there. But 18 minutes…enough already! I took it off the heat. I put just the morsels in to start, to try and stir them in quickly and melt them. They almost completely melted. Then I put in the vanilla extract and marshmallow creme and tried to stir it in quickly and not over-stir. Poured it into the prepared pan, and it seemed just about right. Seemed like it was cooked enough that it would set up.

Well, this second batch (pictured above) was not dry or crumbly. If anything, it may be a tad too moist. But I’m not ready to try yet another batch. I have been eating so much fudge this past week, and it is not good for me. So no more fudge for a while, now. I have to get back to some healthier cooking and eating. More veggies and fuits. Less sweets.

Pork Loin Roast with Dessert Wine Gravy and Pumpkin Saute

sheila — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:00:27 +0000

Tonight I made a pork loin roast and served it with steamed green beans and a delicious pumpkin saute. My new 12-inch cast iron skillet arrived today from Amazon.com. I’ve been using a 10-inch one for a while now, and it is finally getting a real good seasoning on it and I’m now able to make over-easy fried eggs in it without them sticking. But I’ve been wanting a bigger skillet and when this new one arrived today, it was just big enough for the 3-lb pork loin roast I was planning to make tonight.

I heated the skillet and melted some bacon fat in it and then seared the roast on the top (fatty side) and two sides, but not on the bottom. Then I put dried roasted minced garlic, salt and pepper on all four sides, put the bottom down in the pan and put it in a 325F oven for about 1 hr 10 minutes. Actually, I turned the oven down to about 275 for the last 20 or so minutes. This turned out to be too much cooking time and the roast was overdone. However, I really did save it with the most incredible gravy/sauce. I’m going to have to get a decent roast thermometer. It seems the pork loin should be cooked to an internal temperature of about 137F and then removed from the oven to rest for a bit and that would do the job.

In any case…here’s how I made the sauce, which really should be repeated (if possible)…

I had quite a bit of meat juices in the pan (probably due to overcooking the roast). But I deglazed the pan with an expensive Riesling Ice Wine (dessert wine) that Chris and I bought in Las Vegas last month. I meant to only put in about 1/4 – 1/2 cup, but I just kind of glugged it into the pan without measuring. May have been closer to a cup. Heated this up, scraping up the browned bits (there was the dried, minced roast garlic bits in the pan, too) and then I put in a cornstarch mixture (1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with about a cup of water) and stirred and brought it to a boil and simmered until slightly thickened. It was incredibly good stuff.

I guess if I do not cook the roast as well done next time (my preference, to be sure), then I won’t have quite as much pan drippings. I also think I would use a much less expensive dessert wine, or other sweet wine, next time.

The Maple-Pumpkin Saute got raves from Chris (my spouse) and the kids liked it pretty well. It is a nice and simple recipe. I cooked it in my 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Following directions, medium high for nearly 20 minutes, it became quite soft…almost mushy. I think I turned it down a bit and cut the time a little short. But it was good. Instead of ginger I used Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie spice and I increased the raisins to about a half cup (didn’t really measure…just tossed a couple of handfuls in). Entire family liked this. I think this would work well with any winter squash, such as butternut, kobacha, delicata, etc…

Italian Sausage and Bean Soup with Kale

sheila — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:23:25 +0000

So here’s the soup I made tonight…more or less:

1 lb of sweet Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
1/2 lb Jacobs Cattle heirloom beans, soaked
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tsp herbs du Provence
salt, to taste
fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 bunch of kale, stems removed and leaves chopped

Soak beans about 6 hours in sufficient water to cover them plus about 2 inches.

Brown the sausage in a dutch oven and remove from pan. Set aside. Cook onions, celery and carrots in the sausage drippings for about 10 minutes, until softened.

Add beans and soaking water to the vegetables plus about 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Lower to simmer and add herbs du Provence, salt, pepper and sausage. Simmer for about 1.5 hours, or longer (until beans are tender). About 15 minutes before serving, add kale and stir in and cook until just tender.

This was pretty tasty and I would make it again. I didn’t cook mine quite long enough for all the beans to be as soft as one might like and to form a really rich bean-broth. I suspect the leftovers will be better. I didn’t have mine cooking for an entire 1.5 hours. Maybe 2 hours would be even better.

Homemade Biscuits

sheila — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:11:14 +0000

Today I was making chicken, slaw and biscuits for dinner. Well, I wanted to make Cowboy Biscuits, which I have made before and are delicious. But when I went to the cupboard and looked for yeast, I saw that all my yeast was VERY old. Like a good year or more past “use by” date, and I wasn’t willing to risk it. Guess it’s been a long time since I made anything with yeast in it.

Somehow I inadvertently came across Paula Dean’s Biscuit recipe yesterday, and happened to have on hand all of the ingredients. I love a recipe like this, that doesn’t require anything special. I was short on flour, though. So I only made a half-recipe, which worked out fine for our family of four. I can’t believe the recipe claims it would make 3 dozen biscuits. Those would be awfully tiny, if so.

I used 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tbsp baking powder, 4 tbsp butter (cubed) and less than 1/3 cup milk. After mixing the dry ingredients together, cut in the very cold butter until you get a crumbly mixture (Paula says resembling cornmeal). Then slowly add milk a little bit at a time, mixing with your hands as you go, until it begins to hold together. If you use all the milk, it will likely be too wet.

I patted the dough out into a sort of round square, about 1/2-3/4 inch thick (didn’t roll it out) and I cut it into 4 quarters with a sharp knife (instead of using round biscuit cutter). So they looked like kind of small, wide scones. Put them in my buttered cast-iron skillet and into the oven at about 350 for 12+ minutes until they began to brown. Pretty good. Not as flaky as I might’ve liked, but I think I might’ve over-kneaded the dough (mistake with biscuits!) and I might need to get fresh baking powder.

I made some nice, impromptu oven-fried chicken, too. In a ziplock bag tossed some flour, salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder and oregano. Shook it up. Tossed the drumsticks in one at a time, coated them, put them into the hot, cast-iron dutch oven that I had thinly coated with vegetable oil, and put it in the oven at about 350F. I turned the drumsticks a couple of times during the 40 minutes or so that they were in the oven. They were quite yummy. Easy. Not messy. The whole family liked it.

Fabulous Cake

sheila — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:01:01 +0000

I must make this cake:
Harvest Cake with Vanilla Cream

It is grain, gluten, dairy and processed-sugar free. Uses honey. Has grated carrots, zucchini and chopped apple in it. And a vanilla cream made from raw cashews, dates and honey. Wow. The pictures look fab.

Can we eat to starve cancer?

sheila — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:44:56 +0000

Another excellent TED talk. This one about eating natural, unprocessed, whole foods and how they can help us to beat cancer.

Why so many Food Allergies Today?

sheila — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:28:37 +0000

This TED talk video points a strong accusatory finger at GMO foods and their relationship to ever increasing food allergies and sensitivities in today’s society. About 18 minutes and worth every second.

TEDxAustin Robyn O’Brien 2011