Falling Back on Island Time

[Kerry Beal]

 

Took these out of the oven this morning - thought to myself - they don't smell quite right.  Smell like they have no sugar!  Yup - no sugar.

 

To make silk purse out of sow's ear - 

 

 

 

Bread pudding in the oven now.  

[rotuts]

bet the B.P. was excellent.

[Anna N]

A little slow on the draw this morning. Comes with maturity! But eventually I managed to feed my very active starter, make a bite for breakfast and put together a Drunken Apple Cake from Leite's Culinaria.

Once again leftover pork with apples and onions on toast.

]

Apple cake ready to go into the oven.

[Kerry Beal]

 

Lunch - bacon, cheese and tomato - non vegetarian version.

[Toliver]

Bread pudding in the oven now.  

Brilliant recovery! I applaud your good sense of "recycling"!    It looks delicious.

 

I hope you're able to source a cider press soon or you'll be knee-deep in apples before you know it. 

[rotuts]

the more I see those sugar-less muffins the more interested i become in them and what you then did with them

 

what was their texture like ?  can  you pass on the Rx ?  Im interested in something like that w a firm texture to then do something else with 

 

as you noted.  maybe even with a little corn-meal in them

 

something to think about.

[Kerry Beal]

Brilliant recovery! I applaud your good sense of "recycling"!    It looks delicious.

 

I hope you're able to source a cider press soon or you'll be knee-deep in apples before you know it. 

Failed to mention - when I was at work the other day - a few phone calls found someone who has a grinder and a couple of presses and lives about 15 minutes down the road.  I will take my apples over there on the weekend and get them run through.  Think I have a couple of containers of sufficient size to bring the cider back for fermentation.  Next issue will be the Uhaul to get all that fermenting juice back home!

[Kerry Beal]

the more I see those sugar-less muffins the more interested i become in them and what you then did with them

 

what was their texture like ?  can  you pass on the Rx ?  Im interested in something like that w a firm texture to then do something else with 

 

as you noted.  maybe even with a little corn-meal in them

 

something to think about.

Their texture was not too far off a regular muffin - perhaps a tiny bit denser.  

 

• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1 cup frozen blueberries

Combine oats with yogurt and let stand. Add egg and melted butter. Stir in dry ingredients just until moist. Add berries. Bake at 400 F for 15-22 minutes.

[rotuts]

"""  Next issue will be the Uhaul ""*

 

this one Ive mentioned it before

 

it would suit the Lunch Ladies

 

and might be a bit cool :

 

http://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/Sport-Trailer-Rental/ST/

 

time to get in Gear !

[MelissaH]

Failed to mention - when I was at work the other day - a few phone calls found someone who has a grinder and a couple of presses and lives about 15 minutes down the road.  I will take my apples over there on the weekend and get them run through.  Think I have a couple of containers of sufficient size to bring the cider back for fermentation.  Next issue will be the Uhaul to get all that fermenting juice back home!

Well, if you're lucky, by the time you're ready to bring it home, the cider will be ready to be transferred into a secondary fermenter, and will have blown off all its foam and whatever else it's going to spray off. Did you happen to bring a hygrometer or refractometer with you, so you can keep track of the fermentation and know when it can safely be put into a container with a lid?

[Kerry Beal]

I've got a triple scale hygrometer here.  

[Smithy]

Well, of course you do. ;-)

Glad you've found the other gear you need too.

[Anna N]

The finished apple cake.

[ElsieD]

Oooh, that looks good!

[Smithy]

Last time I did it - I forgot the wait at the bottom part too.  Remade it twice.

This, and allowing the ingredients to separate before beginning, did the trick. I have a successful batch of immersion blender mayo, some of which went into tonight's tuna salad. Thanks to you both for the elucidation.

[Anna N]

Good morning.

As with science so with cooking. Not all experiments are resounding successes. I thought I could make breakfast of roasted tomatoes and a portobello cradling an egg by using the Cuisinart Steam Oven. All seemed to go brilliantly until I broke the egg into the mushroom cap. It immediately slid off and nestled comfortably in the baking tray under not in the mushroom cap. Nothing to do but leave it there until it firmed up. Meanwhile I became distracted feeding my starter. The egg firmed up all right until it was solid without even a hint of runny yolk. Ah well. Breakfast was still OK.

[Kerry Beal]

Little behind on posting pictures - bear with me while I catch up.

 

 

For my breakfast this morning - a nice piece of toast with Anna's bread and damson plum jam I made with the remaining plums.  

[Kerry Beal]

We ran out this morning to do some errands.  The condo owner had brought us some more plums.   Of course we hit the liquor store to get a bottle of wine - with plans to make methode Rotuts. 

 

 

Plants had arrived from Richter's - included were a few things I needed to make Chartreuse - unfortunately they didn't have dried herbs so had to buy live plants.  But see the little waterlily like plant on the right? - wasabi!  Think I can keep it alive?

 

 

A few odds and ends from the grocery store.  Notice the cream of mushroom soup and french's crispy onions.

 

[Smithy]

You're going to treat Anna to the casserole!  The damson jam looks plum wonderful.  (I had to do that.)  It's good to see you both back; I was beginning to worry that Hydro had gone down.

 

Did you get any advice about how to grow wasabi?

[Anna N]

Lunch was very nearly a complete failure. Once again I attempted the Serious Eats ramen in a jar. New noodles but again they were far too al dente. I dumped everything into a bowl and nuked it. The boiled egg was really, really fresh and impossible to peel so I scooped it out with a spoon. Back to the drawing board.

[Anna N]

You're going to treat Anna to the casserole!  The damson jam looks plum wonderful.  (I had to do that.)  It's good to see you both back; I was beginning to worry that Hydro had gone down.

 

Did you get any advice about how to grow wasabi?

Wait! Wait! I am the one making the green bean casserole. Kerry. has much higher aspirations.

[Kerry Beal]

Plugging away at making Ivan Ramen Ramen.  I brought up already made chashu.  Making about 1/2 a batch of each ingredient.  

 

 

Chicken stock - a nice big (and very inexpensive) chicken pressure cooked for an hour or so.  

 

 

Dashi under construction.

 

 

Dashi completed.

 

 

Shio Tare - made with sofrito that had about 5 hours in the oven.  

 

 

Katsuobushi Salt

 

 

Toasted rye noodle dough.  Used about 1 tsp of lye water in half a batch - made for very chewy noodles.  

 

 

After running through the pasta maker.  

 

 

The sofrito and the eggs (I think overcooked) soaking in the chashu cooking liquid.  

 

Anna was not a big fan of the noodles - I thought they were fine.  

Edited October 8, 2014 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

You're going to treat Anna to the casserole!  The damson jam looks plum wonderful.  (I had to do that.)  It's good to see you both back; I was beginning to worry that Hydro had gone down.

 

Did you get any advice about how to grow wasabi?

Apparently it grows near fresh flowing water - so we put it close to the sink.

[Kerry Beal]

 

Tonight's cocktail - called My Black and Bitter Heart.  

[Anna N]

We finally finished up the sandwich bread except for a small heel which I cut up into croutons and threw in the freezer. After our errands I quickly pulled together the dough for another loaf (it is nice sometimes to be able to pull together a loaf of bread without referring to a recipe).

Of course I will soon tire of this!