andiesenji

I compost all vegetable and fruit scraps and I have a large kitchen. I use a basket, lined with a plastic bag and hang it from the edge of the counter, wherever I am working, with one of the purse hangers that began showing up a couple of years ago. They are meant for ladies to use in restaurants to suspend their purses, rather than set them on the floor. I got one as a gift a couple of years ago and then found them at Big Lots (cheap) so bought some more. They have a non-slip surface to keep them in place. http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Swirl-Purse-Handbag-Hanger/dp/B001D8RO2A/ref=pd_sbs_a_8 I also keep measuring cups in with most frequently-used staples. I found some long-handled scoop-shaped measuring cups that are particularly handy for some of the deeper glass jars (2-qt & gallon sized). (Another good buy at Big Lots) I have arthritis in my knees and a bad back. I do not bend easily so I have near me at all times, while working in the kitchen, one of these handy tools.http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=188572 I actually have several, for the decks, one in my studio, one in the laundry room. The one I have has a fairly stiff brush so it will easily sweep up a dropped egg and then the spray followed up with a paper towel to finish the cleanup. It also helps with spilled dog food when Aston the basenji is feeling particularly playful with his food or his cookie treats.

I mix finely chopped nuts with finely chopped/ground dried fruits, coconut and possibly other things like sesame seeds - almonds combine beautifully with apricots - probably because they are related. Hazelnuts and figs or dates are also a "classic" combination. I can't find my photos but there are two 'varieties' pictured in post # 18 in this topic: The top picture is apricot/almond/coconut and the bottom one includes apples, apricots, ginger and ground pistachios. There are so many possible combinations with the huge variety of dried fruits now available. I recently dried kiwi fruit slices that turned out to be very tasty combined with walnuts. They can also be dipped in chocolate - lots of possibilities here. You can also make savory ones with dried tomatoes and peppers. If they are too dry I steam them for a few minutes - same with the fruits.

Yesterday is rather a blur in my memory. Breakfast was uninspired - cold cereal with low-fat milk and a banana. Some friends arrived mid-morning to participate in baking some cookies and other treats for the local shelter for women and children and the senior citizen center. They brought lunch and took me out to dinner so I have nothing to report. It was quite late when I got home and was much too tired to report on my day, particularly since it was so mundane. This morning I have some mixed grain cooking in the rice cooker - I have plans to prepare a supply of porridge cakes to go into the freezer for later attention - and will have a bowl for breakfast with butter, milk and honey crystals. A guinea hen that has been defrosting in the fridge for a couple of days is going to go into the oven and braised for dinner. I am thumbing through the recipe book that came with the TMX and a stack of recipes from the 'net as I want to prepare a side dish to go with the hen and I also want to start a batch of bread. I have made stollen (turned out very nice) but want to try one of the recipes that starts with whole grain that is milled in the TMX. I have yet to decide on lunch but as I have several cheeses, some rather ripe pears and some grapes that have been languishing in the small fridge for a few days, it is probably going to be a combination of these. Chris, regarding condiments - I supposed I use them without thinking much about them unless I make my own. I do plan to make some cranberry/apple/orange chutney-like stuff to go with my guinea hen but will have to wing it because I never use a specific recipe and it is different every time.

I checked and discovered I did not buy the Belgian waffler from Chef's - I bought it from Pleasant Hill grain. I bought this one: https://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/waring_waffle_maker_pro_belgian_waffle_makers_professional_WMK300.aspx The only difference between it and the commercial model (3 1/2 times the price) is that part of the housing, handles and etc., are "plastic" instead of stainless steel. I like commercial appliances but unless there is a specific reason, do not buy them for superficial appearance. Since I got mine Waring has added the WMK400 to the line but it is essentially the same as the 300. Same wattage, etc., and mine bakes the waffles more rapidly than the one I had previously (Euro-Pro).

I spent most of yesterday adding to the set-up for my holiday baking routine. Measuring and segregating the dry ingredients, nuts &etc., into plastic bags for several more batches of cookies, some traditional "English" cakes, as well as quick breads and a couple of experimental items. As is usual in these situations, there were some things that resisted discovery and I spent more time than expected in digging into the far reaches of the pantry for items that have not seen the light of day for several months. My meals were, with the exception of breakfast (a Dutch-baby pancake), pretty much catch-as-catch-can. For lunch I consumed the remains of some paté that I had prepared for lunch last Saturday. For dinner I tossed together some salad greens, defrosted baby peas and some smoked trout that was getting near its use-by date.

The Belgian type waffle irons (stovetop) were not readily available in the U.S. until sometime in the late '60s, early '70s after they were "discovered" by a few professional chefs and were introduced at restaurants here and there. I collect antique and vintage electric kitchen appliances and I have not been able to find an electric Belgian waffler made prior to 1974 (Toastmaster). There are several patents dated earlier but no actual production before then. I still use my 1950s era Sunbeam waffle iron - not non-stick but it has developed a "seasoned" surface after fifty years of use and the waffles turn out beautifully crisp. If you want the Belgian type waffles, I think the best ones are the flip style that will adequately bake both top and bottom of the waffle throughout. I haven't had much luck with the regular ones - the waffles are always a bit soggy in the centers. I have the Waring Flip, purchased from Chefs Catalog, and it works fine for me.

It's the same citron that one uses in fruitcakes, stollen, etc. You don't really need a full pound half that should be enough (one of the 8-oz packages). You have to put it through a meat grinder or food mill or else chop it extremely fine - it should be almost like a paste. It is there strictly for the flavor.

I have a small microwave (Panasonic 1.2 cf) with inverter in my studio that I thought would be more versatile but I really haven't noted much difference between it and a regular m-wave except it is perhaps a tad faster at heating liquids and defrosting fruits and etc. In my kitchen I have a large microwave/convection combo oven that is much more versatile. I've owned it for several years and wouldn't be without it, use it constantly. (made by Sharp) I also have another large Sharp microwave at the other end of my kitchen (and on a different elec. circuit) which I like because the cooking chamber is taller than the newer ones. It really annoys me that they are making the newer ones more compact and one can't use taller vessels - to me that's impractical. I've also been using m-wave ovens a very, very long time. My first was an Amana Radar range purchased in 1968 when the company sent a technician to one's home to instruct how to use it. I have not been without one since...

I should imagine that Frosted Flakes on top of an egg custard or flan - creme brulee or similar dessert would be quite interesting because of the differing textures. I recall that back in the 70s or 80s there was a fad where this cereal was layered in parfait glasses between whipped sweet stuff and fruits. I think it was one of those awful Cool-Whip thingys....

Here's a photo of the mushroom risotto I had for dinner last night. Prepared in the Thermomix. And here are the scones I baked this morning for breakfast (had two soft-boiled eggs). Lunch was a salad of greens with a little crumbled asiago cheese. Dinner will be arriving with a friend who is bringing stuff from the Thai/Chinese restaurant her in town. She wants to watch a DVD and her DVD player is dead. I will "suffer" through the dinner of stuff that requires no effort on my part. (Except for getting out a couple of plates, little dishes if needed and the chopsticks.)

You can also candy-coat it. http://www.typetive.com/candyblog/item/sugar_coated_fennel/ The local middle eastern market sells them as does the Indian market in Palmdale. http://www.sugarindia.com/xmastreat.htm I have a "recipe" from a very old cookbook for "comfits" that are candy-coated fennel seeds or caraway seeds.

I came across this blog about using honey in baking - she makes a couple of good points, in particular the note about reducing the oven temp. She also notes about adjusting liquids in the recipes. http://keeperofthehome.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/baking-with-honey/ and this Organic Gardening site notes some of the same tips and one or two additional ones: http://www.organic-gardening-and-homesteading.com/baking_with_honey.html I looked through an old listing of my cookbooks and found three - one only noted as Honey, M. Lo Pinto, one listed as W.Virginia honey cookbook and the other Honey, War Eagle grains. I have yet to find the cookbooks, they are probably in a box as I "reorganized" some of my cookbooks several years ago and haven't been able to find anything since, except by chance.

Another spicy tea from Adagio. This one is Spiced Apple Chai. Very warming on these chilly days. Not as strong in the cup as some chai blends I have tried from this vendor but the tea stands up well to milk and sweetener and is an extremely pleasant drink with a long, smooth finish.

Yesterday is rather a blur. I spent a good portion of the day preparing Pork Mincemeat. While it was roasting I made a batch of marzipan in Thermomix. For dinner I made stir-fry veggies and Trader Joe's potstickers(steamed). I know I had something for lunch but I think it was just fruit and cheese. Breakfast was toast and a soft-boiled egg. I drank a lot of tea - all day long kept the tea brewer on until late evening. This morning I prepared a mixed-grain hot cereal - I have a lot of grains on hand and will have for some time. I have prepared dough for stollen in my Thermomix and am waiting for it to finish rising to bake it off. Lunch was a large mug of butternut squash soup left over from a couple of days ago. For dinner I am preparing risotto with mushrooms(dried porcini)& cheese and served with steamed mixed vegetables. (Another Thermomix experiment.) I don't plan on leaving the house at all this week in any event. (Unless I have to go to the doctor or the hospital.) I am preparing for my holiday baking marathon, doing all the little fiddly tasks that take up a lot of time, i.e., measuring dry ingredients, gathering and cleaning, if necessary, baking pans, molds, etc. Each recipe gets its own tray or bus tub with a copy of the recipe and items checked off if they have been added to the tray.

The lard was stored in milk cans in the spring house - it contained a cistern where very cold spring water came out of the ground and the overflow spilled into a concrete trough in which the cans were placed (along with milk waiting to be used or made into cheese, also butter, eggs and anything else requiring cooling. The spring house was like a fridge - easily as cold as most and one could now stay long in it without a heavy coat. It was used in all kinds of cooking and in preserving some meats(canned in jars) - some was sold to local stores or traded to other farmers for their products. In the kitchen the ready supply of lard was kept in a large crock that sat in a shallow crock filled with water. The evaporation of the water kept the larger crock cool even in summer. The cover was wood with a rim that kept it from dropping into the crock. I was born in 1939 and this way of processing lard was carried on until the late 60s when the farm converted to more high tech methods.

I grew up on a farm where hogs were slaughtered at this time of the year, lard was rendered in big, outdoor "pans" in fact, they were the same wood fired pans in which sorghum molasses had been cooked a couple of months earlier. After the rendering and skimming off of the brown bits of stuff that cooks into BCBs, the cooling lard was constantly "raked" with what look like wooden combs on a long handle and this went on round the clock until the lard was uniformly cool, "white" and there was no more separation and the lard took on a slightly grainy appearance. Modern methods have made this process more rapid - sometimes with the use of additives - but have not really improved on the process that worked just fine for hundreds of years. You can get a similar effect by pouring the rendered lard into a mixer bowl and setting the paddle or beaters at the slowest speed and run it while the lard cools. You can wrap a stainless steel bowl with a towel wrung out in ice water but have to stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as the more rapidly cooling lard congeals on the sides. (Unless you have one of the beater paddles that scrape the bowl sides.)

How close is this recipe to the one you usually use for marzipan? To get stuff out of the bowl - I usually remove the bottom, then turn the whole thing upside down, letting the blade fall out. Quick scrape of the blade, and spatula out the rest of the bowl. I use the same technique to get dough out of a food processor. That's what I did. Took longer to get the bottom off the bowl and scrape it out than it did to process the batch. I love it!! The texture and flavor of this batch is as good as any I have made and even throughout - no little clumps of not-quite-fine granules of almond. My regular batch makes close to 3 pounds of marzipan and is labor-intensive- very...

Today I have a couple of projects going and decided to try this TMX recipe for marzipan, since I use so much of it. http://www.ukthermomix.com/recshow.php?rec_id=69 It took me longer to measure out the stuff than it took to mix and knead it and I must say that it is as close to perfect as I have ever made. Total time 23 minutes to measure everything process, empty and clean the bowl. And it was effortless, except for getting the stuff out of the bowl. Now I can make one of these small batches fresh as I need it and not have to knead and wrestle a huge mass that my regular recipe makes and which takes me most of a day to do. Now that I know how this came out, I want to see if it will process my poppy-seed pastry filling that is also time-consuming and messy. Clean up was super easy - just fill bowl with hot water and a drop of Dawn detergent and run it on turbo for 10 seconds or so, then pour that out and rinse with hot water. Wow!

I'm bumping up this topic because it's fruitcake time again and I spent time yesterday prepping for today as I am making a batch of the pork mincemeat for cakes, empanadas, tarts, stuffing and "sausages." (I've ordered some of the 21ml clear collagen casing material to make cocktail sausages.) I am using raw pork as I just got 1/4 of a hog that my neighbors and I purchased several months ago and had raised and fattened almost to the bursting point. It was butchered on Monday and broken up into easily handled portions and prepared for freezing. I picked it up yesterday and now most of it is in my freezer. A good section of the loin has been cut up and ground for inclusion in the mincemeat. As Viva mentioned in her post, putting meat like this through the meat grinder is such a satisfying task. I have a lot of dried apples from a local grower, dried pears from another local grower and other dried fruits I dried myself. This year I am going to ship one of the cakes to my dad and another to my relatives in Kentucky to see if they think it is close to Meemaw's cake.

The seeds look perfectly ripe and very fat and should have a lot of flavor. The best way to harvest them is to cut the main stem so they are long enough to fasten together and place them seed head down in a paper grocery bag, gather the top of the bag and the stems together and snug up with a rubber band. Put them in a warmish, dry place and leave them to dry for a couple of weeks. You can shake the bag every so often and when you hear some seeds rattling about in the bag, they should be dry enough to knock off the heads. Spread them on a baking sheet and finish the drying in a very low oven - 150° F. - for an hour or so. This type of fennel can be cut back, after harvesting and will grow back next year. You can begin picking and using the fronds as long as you leave at least half on the plant. As I stated in my earlier post, this is a very hardy plant.

The Prepared Pantry site suggests using the honey crystals One for One - in volume. As I noted above, the stuff doesn't weigh the same as sugar so you have to adjust recipes that are by weight. Browse their recipes, they have some good ones and I get the emails from them every week. This site has a few recipes and says to use the crystals, also 1 : 1 for sugar (at least the sugar cookie recipe is essentially the same as one I make. http://www.mamahealthy.com/recipes/honey-crystal-cookies This site has suggestions for substituting regular honey for sugar. http://www.pickyourown.org/SubstitutingHoneyForSugar.htm I found an "Oatmeal Lace" cookie recipe that is very near to the one I made. http://www.rwood.com/Recipes/Oatmeal_Lace_Cookies_Gluten_Free.htm I am pretty sure that I used barley flour because one of the kids had a mild wheat allergy.

A couple of years ago I saw a cookbook that was all about using prepared or "cold" cereals, when I was cookbook shopping at Barnes & Noble. Favorite Cereals cookbook, I think. I use oatmeal, both steel-cut and flakes (raw organic), or barley (same types) in many dishes - meatloaf and meatballs are improved (in my opinion) with these additions. Rolled wheat flakes and wheat nuggets lightly toasted in butter are lovely tossed with fresh egg noodles. I don't keep as much cold cereal on hand as I did years ago when my kids were still home, however there are a few that I like and buy from time to time. Trader Joe's has a couple that are especially tasty, high fiber and healthy.

I came across this recipe yesterday, while selecting some things to try in my new Thermomix and since I had some lovely quince, I decided to try it this morning. http://www.britishlarder.co.uk/quince-curd/ It was so delicious that I plan to prepare it again - the batch I made was consumed at brunch by myself and two guests. Although I used the TMX or "Bimby" the basic recipe is conventional and while it may take longer, it is not terribly labor intensive.

I have two or three honey cookbooks, one is from War Eagle Mills - I can't recall offhand the names of the others, they are all from years ago and are long out of print. I'll see if I can find them and check the recipes. I recall one recipe that I made when my kids were still at home that I think was made with raw oat flakes, some finely chopped nuts salt and pepper (I remember the pepper because it was odd) mixed together and formed into little balls and then baked. They turned out like "lace" cookies and the honey flavor was pronounced. My kids called them "honey crunchies" and liked to make ice cream sandwiches with them - a bit messy but as they did the clean-up, it was okay by me. I've never seen the recipe anywhere else. I may have it in one of my card files but I have at least a dozen of the little boxes and will have to hunt a bit before I can do a search.

This morning I have brewed a pot of Murroughs Welsh Brew (Welsh hwyl) loose tea (sent to me from England because it is practically impossible to find here - although the tea bags are available.) The tin states "Welsh Brew is a blend of fine quality African and Indian teas selected to compliment Welsh waters. A tea yielding that traditional colour and flavour relished by true tea drinkers." It is, in a word, a Hearty! tea. I brewed 8 cups in the TeaMate, using half the amount I would ordinarily use because this is a CTC tea and that amount was more than enough. This is a very assertive tea. It doesn't exactly leap out of the cup and slap me awake, but it certainly gives one notice that it is real TEA! I added honey crystals and milk, more milk than I usually use but this tea can stand up to it.