Quinoa Pudding with Macerated Strawberries and Pistachios

Ok, so I am going through my weekly routine of substituting quinoa for rice in all the recipes I like and I come up with this brilliant idea ... quinoa pudding! A very good friend of the family has this awesome rice pudding recipe and I thought I might try my hand at converting it. Well, I didn't exactly have the recipe for this awesome rice pudding, but I thought I new the secret and I could make my way through it. So, I get on the internet like I normally do and start studying other people's rice pudding recipes and the thought came to me to search for quinoa pudding and see what comes up. I got several hits on Google and I felt a little deflated because my idea wasn't so original after all. So anyway, I am making my way through the results and I hit the Quinoa Pudding Mother Ship! Canelle et Vanille is a blog by Aran Goyoaga who is a pastry chef and photographer. What a great food blog with excellent photos. If you are food lover you have to check it out. I immediately switched gears and started adapting Aran's recipe for the stuff I have around the house.

Quinoa Pudding with Macerated Strawberries and Pistachios

2 1/2 c regular milk

1 c vanilla coffee creamer

1 c quinoa (uncooked)

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 c sugar

1 tbsp sugar

1 pinch of salt

1/2 c sliced strawberries
1/4 c chopped pistachios

Get the sliced strawberries going in a bowl with the tbsp of sugar on top and let it sit while everything else comes together. Rinse the quinoa good. I do this like sushi rice and put the quinoa in the pot I am going to cook it in and just run lots of water on it to get the bitter dust off the grains. Drain the quinoa as best you can. Combine the quinoa, milk, creamer, vanilla, 1/4 c sugar and salt in a pot. Mix well and bring to a boil while stirring often. Immediately turn the heat down to medium low. Stir every minute or two for about 30 minutes. The mixture will thicken. Serve in an appropriate container topped with strawberries and pistachios. Makes about four servings.

This recipe, done well, will knock your socks off. :-) Enjoy

TTFN

BTR

New Pressure Canner

So I have a few canning session under my belt and I decided to get a pressure canner. Actually, as I am writing this blog I am canning Gramma and Grampa's pasta sauce. Little pressure noises are eminating from the kitchen. I went to my favorite kitchen gadget store and priced this 22 quart model at around $100. I also noticed their Ball jars were about $3 dollars more than the country store where I grew up, so I left there and made my way south and was rewarded with a $20 savings on the pressure canner at the country store. Kaching! This should provide some more blogging material. Hasta.

BTR

Chinese 5 Color Pepper Plant

  A good friend of mine got me this Chinese 5 Color Hot Pepper plant. These are very beautiful ornamental hot pepper plants. The fruit is edible and comes in green, purple, yellow, orange and red. It appears the peppers change color as they mature. I am told the little peppers pack quite punch too. I am going to see if I can save some seeds for next year. What an awesome gift. :-)

TTFN

BTR

Garden Update 2

  Well, I guess the garden is in full production now. In the last two days we got two large bowls of produce. The tomatoes and peppers are coming in large quantities. The zuchini and squash have dropped off a bit. They may be getting too much water between the everyday watering they get from me and the large amount of rain we got in a short period recently. I have three softball sized watermellons and two butternut squash on the way as well. None of the root vegetable did very well in the buckets. I will probably skip those next year.

Both bowls are destined for the sauce pot. The tomatoes will be used for my mom's family pasta sauce recipe and the hot peppers will be used for hot sauce.

TTFN

BTR

Refrigerator Pickled Hot Peppers

This started out as more of an experiment than anything because of the shear number of hot peppers my plants are producing. I was afraid they would go to waste if I didn't find something to do with them. I like pickled hot pepper rings, so I thought I would try to make my own. Note: This process is not suitable for storing the jars outside of a refrigerator.

Refrigerator Pickled Hot Peppers

2 medium cucumbers sliced lengthwise and halved to fit in the jars

5 pints mixed hot peppers

8 c distilled vinegar

8 c water

1 c pickling salt

16 whole cloves garlic peeled

8 tsp whole peppercorns

8 tsp dried onion

4 tsp dried dill

8 pint canning jars with lids

ice

The trick to crunchy pickles is an ice bath before jarring. The cucumbers were cut into spears and sized to fit in the pint jars. The peppers were cut into rings where appropriate and long skinny peppers were cut to fit in the pint jars longwise. We used Cowhorn, Jalepeno, Cayenne and Hungarian Wax peppers. Once the peppers and cucumbers were cut and sized, they all went in to a pot slightly bigger than the volume of the vegetables and were covered with ice. Add enough water so that icy water covers all the vegetables. Leave in the ice bath for 2 hours. Add more ice if needed.

All jars and lids should be cleaned and sanitized. Boiling water can be used to sanitize. At about the 1.5 hour mark line the jars up and in each one add 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp peppercorns, 1 tsp dried onion and 1/2 tsp dried dill. Combine the vinegar, water and pickling salt in a sauce pot and bring it to a boil. Drain ice and water off the peppers and cucumbers and begin to pack them into the jars leaving 3/4 of an inch space at the top. Put a wide mouthed canning funnel in the first jar and ladel enough of the boiling brine into the jar to cover the vegetables but leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top. Immediatly put a lid on the jar. Follow this process for each jar. After a few hours of cooling, the lids should all have 'popped' in. Check each one to make sure they have formed a vacuum seal. After about 8 hours they should be cool enough to store in your refrigerator.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the flavor and crunchy texture of the pickled goodies. I only waited 2 days before sampling the first jar and I thought they were pretty good. I will be trying this technique on some other vegetables as well. If I had it to do over I would use bigger jars because the pint jars were a little too fiddly trying to pack enough stuff in to each one. From the information available on the internet it looks like these sealed jars should keep in the refrigerator for 6 months.

TTFN

B

Awesome Strawberry Daiquiri

I threw some of my favorite things into a blender and this came out. WOW! This was very tasty and refreshing.

Awesome Strawberry Daiquiri

1 c vodka (or rum)

1 c frozen cranberries

1 1/2 c frozen strawberries

1/2 c sugar

1 shot of lime juice

1/2 c grape juice

ice

In a 5 cup blender pitcher add vodka, cranberries, strawberries, sugar, lime juice and grape juice. Blend well. Add ice to fill the remainder of the pitcher. Blend until smooth. Serve in a glass with a shot of whipped cream.

TTFN

B

Vegetable Lasagna

  The continuing saga of trying to find ways to use up all the zuchini and squash the summer months provide. We used Mom's regular pasta lasagna recipe and swapped a few things out, most notable was the zuchini and squash for the pasta. We also use ground turkey instead of hamburger or sausage because that was what we had in the freezer.

Vegetable Lasagna
7-8 c good tomato sauce (recipe)
6 c mozzarella cheese shredded
2 lbs ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 lbs ground turkey browned and seasoned
3 medium zuchini's
4 medium squash
3/4 c fresh parsley chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees farenheit. Slice zuchini and squash lengthwise in 1/4" thick pieces. Combine ricotta cheese, eggs, salt, pepper, parsley in a bowl. Mix well.

In a deep pyrex or stoneware baking dish layer the ingredients. We used a 13x9 stoneware baking dish. Put a layer of sauce (about a fourth), slices of zuchini and squash, meat (about a third), ricotta cheese mixture (about a third), mozarella (about a fourth). We got three layers in this pan. Finish with a layer of sauce and top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake covered with foil for 30 minutes then lower the temperature to 350 degrees farenheit and bake uncovered for 30 more minutes. Enjoy!

TTFN

B

Quick Tomato Sauce

My mother whipped this together one night and it was so good we will definitely make it again and put it on anything in need of a good tomato sauce.

Tomato Sauce
2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes with basil
5 cloves garlic pressed
1 bay leaf
1 fresh rosemary branch
1/4 c chopped fresh basil
1/8 c chopped fresh oregano
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Saute garlic in a sauce pan on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook on medium high heat until it starts to bubble then back off to medium low heat for about 30 minutes more. Remove the rosemary and bay leaf. Makes about 8 cups. Enjoy!

I was surprised at the depth of flavor and substance this sauce had after such a short time. Definitely a keeper.

TTFN
B

Fried Green Tomatoes

  Fried green tomatoes may be food related to usage of all those green tomatoes that will go to waste if not eaten at the end of the growing season, but I have a whole bunch right now and I don't want to wait for 3 months. I have eaten them fried before, but never made them myself until now. Once again I looked at everyone elses recipes and used that information as the basis for my own.

Fried Green Tomatoes

3 large green tomatoes cut into 3/8" to 1/2" slices

2 c canola oil for frying

1 c panko crumbs

1/2 c corn meal

1 c flour

1 c milk

2 eggs beaten

salt

pepper

  Lay tomato slices out onto a cookie sheet or similar surface, salt and pepper each side and let sit for 15 minutes. Heat oil in a skillet on medium high. Setup a four station assembly line: milk first, flour, egg followed by panko and corn meal mixture. Plates work well for the dry ingredients and bowls for the wet. Take each tomato slice through the assembly line. Coat each one with milk, dredge in flour, coat with egg and finally dredge in panko and corn meal mixture. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel. Season with salt as soon as they are removed from the oil. Serve with lemon wedges and hot sauce. They are pretty good with ketchup too. :-)

  This version came out very crunchy and will definitely be served here again.

TTFN

B