Sparkling Sunday

I love gingerbread around this time of year.

I love how it smells when it's baking and I love how warming it is to eat.

I especially love it when it sparkles.

Which is why I love this recipe.

I made this with one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of all-purpose flour.

And only because I didn't have any oranges on hand, I didn't include the orange peel.

It was delicious, but I bet the orange peel would have really knocked it out of the park.

Highly recommended.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

Love, T.

#4. Make Croissants from Scratch

...or, One of Few Reasons I Will Wake Up at 4:30AM

These were such a treat. Not easy, but so worth it in the end.

Recipe

Love, T.

Elderberry Syrup

Well, I think I've set a record with this extended absence of mine.
And today, for some reason, I have decided to dip my toes back into this space.

Eventually I hope to catch you up on what we've been doing these last months, but for now I am following the sound advice of my wonderful in-laws by starting with what has been happening in these parts lately.

This weekend, in addition to reattaching the camera to my hip, I made elderberry syrup.

I've been sick for the past week and a half or so with a lingering cough that just doesn't want to end. The doctor told me it was a virus and that I would have to wait it out, but this kind of cough gets old quick and I am determined to get better.

Elderberry is an anti-viral and is frequently used in the prevention and treatment of colds and flu. You can buy elderberry syrup at health food stores, but it's usually quite expensive...and it's actually super easy to make on your own. So I did. This is the video that taught me how:

I have never tasted medicine so delicious. I've been taking a tablespoon every hour (willingly) and my cough is already lessening. This syrup is definitely a keeper, especially during cold and flu season.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has expressed encouragement in getting through my blogging slump! I appreciated every kind word and intend on visiting this space a bit more often, so I hope you do too!

Love, T.

No Sugar Added

I'm back to being more relaxed with sugar. I've drastically cut down on the amount of sugar I eat, but won't refuse a small piece of sweetness anymore if it comes my way.

And I'm still committed to finding other ways to satisfy my sweet tooth that have less to do with added sugars and more to do with natural sugars. Like these from CCK. (They are amazing and taste like brownie batter. Seriously.)

A huge gap in my efforts has been baking. I mean, how do you bake a cake without sugar? I plan on finding out...and when I have developed a recipe, I'll share it.

In the meantime, I did manage to adapt a banana bread recipe to make it a bit healthier than it would have been otherwise.

-:- Healthier Banana Bread -:-
adapted from here

2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 c. Greek yogurt
2 eggs, beaten lightly
3/4 c. butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. liquid stevia
1/4 c. applesauce

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.
Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside.
Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, stevia, applesauce, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Next time I might try adding a fourth banana instead of the stevia. I have a feeling that'll work just fine. But this turned out wonderfully too and it has given me a bit of courage to try a No Sugar Added Chocolate Cake.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Love, T.

(Sugarless) Vegan Fudge

This whole no sugar thing has been great in a lot of ways. It has also been not great in a lot of ways. I have craved sugar a lot since I gave it up a few weeks ago, especially after dinner when I usually have a bit of dessert.

Enter CCK with a whole slew of sugarless, healthy dessert recipes. She has other recipes too, which I'm sure are great...but frankly I've been overwhelmed by my new-found dessert options that I haven't paid too much attention to anything else.

The first thing I made was some sugarless, vegan, delicious, almond butter, chocolate fudge. Yes, really.

And you know what? It's pretty good. Find the recipe here.

I doubled the recipe for the peanut butter chocolate fudge, substituting almond butter for peanut and adding a few drops of liquid stevia. I think I'm going to play around with the almond butter/coconut oil ratio a bit and try some of the other flavor options.

Next up? These. This weekend, probably. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Thanks for the blog introduction, C!

Love, T.

Sick Days

Last weekend was all about fighting sickness. Casy is fighting against an upper respiratory infection and I am fighting against getting it. We have both been successful.

We drank fresh ginger lemon honey tea. We gargled with salt water.
We drank orange juice and tons of water.
We ate immuno-booster gummi vitamins.

We broke out the neti pot, hot water bottle, and humidifier.
We put Mentholatum on before bed.

And we ate a simple, homemade chicken soup with brown soda bread for dipping.

There's really nothing like a chicken soup at any time, but especially when you're sick. Even in its simplicity, it gives you everything you need to feel better. It's almost magic that way. And could it be any easier to make?

-:- Simple Chicken Soup -:-

olive oil

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

3 celery stalks

6 carrots

water

chicken bouillon

some bone-in, skin-on chicken (we used drumsticks since we had them in the freezer)

Chop the onion and garlic and cook in olive oil in your soup pot until translucent. Chop the carrots and celery and add them to your onions for a couple of minutes. Add enough water to fill your pot (leave a few of inches at the top), add the chicken and bouillon, and bring to a boil. Cook until the chicken falls off the bone. Remove the bones and skin from the soup, taking any remaining chicken from the bone and placing it back in the soup.

The bread recipe comes from here, except I used 4 cups of whole wheat flour for mine and prepped my baking sheet with olive oil and wheat bran.

Perfectly paired.

Love, T.

gotta have...

Black Eyed Peas on New Year's Day!

This is a Fath family tradition for good luck in the New Year.

Here's how my husband makes them:

-:- You Need -:-

One can of black eyed peas

Turkey bacon

An onion

One can of green chilies

Some olive oil

Finely chop your onion. Sauté it in some olive oil until soft.

Add your turkey bacon and cook until done through.

Add your (undrained) can of black eyed peas and green chiles.

Season as you please.

Cumin and chile powder are recommended.

Cook until hot.

Serve with cornbread.

Love, T.

gotta have...

Homemade pretzels!

-:- Ingredients -:-

1 c. warm water

2 packages (about 4 1/2 tsp.) active dry yeast

2 tbsp. sugar

3 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

butter

1 egg

Kosher salt

-:- Method -:-

Mix yeast and warm water.

Add the sugar and stir. Let the yeast proof for a couple of minutes.

Stir in the flour.

Knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes.

Let the dough rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Bring half a pot of water to boil. Add the baking soda to boiling water.

Form pieces of dough into the classic pretzel shape.

Set the formed pretzel in boiling soda water for 5-10 seconds.

Place on a greased cookie sheet.

Brush with beaten egg wash and sprinkle with salt.

Bake until golden brown. Ours were in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Love, T.

gotta have a plan b

There are some days where all you can do is throw your hands up and have a cup of hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows.

Today was one of those days.

Love, T.

Lately, from our Kitchen

We have been so busy with life lately, enjoying our favorite season, getting out and about in the crisp air and colorful leaves, and spending a whole lot of time in that lovely kitchen of ours, cooking and baking up a storm.

We have a never-ending sink full of dirty dishes, vegetable peels are constantly on the floor, and our noses are regularly dusted with flour…but oh, the food that comes out of that kitchen.

Bread by Casy...gorgeous and delicious!

We’ve been experimenting with some new ingredients and filling our bellies with flavorful, hearty, good for us meals…and at the end of the day, it’s so worth the mess.

Pumpkin Kamut Pancakes from here.

Our new favorite fall grain happens to be barley and I’m honestly surprised that we haven’t already discovered it. Here’s the recipe that clenched our love of barley for us, adapted from Heaven’s Banquet, a wonderful vegetarian cookbook recommended by a wonderful coworker of mine.

2.5 cups veggie broth

¾ c. pearled barley

Various root veggies for roasting. We used carrots and parsnips because that’s what we had, but you can also roast beets, turnips, and potatoes.

3 cloves of garlic

A shallot or two

Onion powder

Ground sage

Olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Bring the broth to a boil, add any salt that you'd like, and stir in your barley. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 45 minutes. I added a bit more broth than the original recipe called for because we tend to enjoy stews and soups and wanted to have that feel with this dish. If you prefer a less soupy dish, reduce your broth by 1/4-1/2 cup.

Meanwhile, peel and prep your veggies (including your garlic and shallots), coat with olive oil and season as you desire. We used onion powder and ground sage, but do whatever strikes your fancy. Roast in oven for around 35 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Remove from the oven, slice the veggies, and add to the barley and broth once the barley is tender.

Love, T.

#17. Make Applesauce...

...with the apples from #16 and can it for winter.

Check.

At 8PM, I decided it would be a good time to start making and canning applesauce. My advice to you would be to start canning things earlier than 8PM.

Earlier in the week, I hid a bunch of apples from my apple-eating-monster-head husband. This man has been eating about four apples a day. On average. Sometimes more. So I knew I had to do something before #17 disappeared forever from my list.

When I told him I was going to make applesauce this weekend, he said, "I don't think we have enough apples for that anymore, babe." But I did cause I'm a girl.





So I washed my jars and lids, stuck the jars in the oven and the lids in simmering water, started boiling my huge pot of water, and made my applesauce. Casy helped me core a little over 6 pounds of apples and we tossed them into a big pot with a tablespoon of lemon juice for every pound of apples. We left the skins on...I read somewhere that they give your sauce good color.

(I should say before I go any further that this is all based on the applesauce recipe from Williams-Sonoma The Art of Preserving. I decided to use less sugar and cinnamon, but the basic recipe came from here. I can also highly recommend the book in general...it's a good one to have on hand for all kinds of preserving recipes and instruction. Ours was a library find, but I have a feeling it'll work itself into our collection eventually.)


I added about 6 tsp. of sugar and about a half cup of water to the mix, stirred it all up, and brought everything to a boil. Then I covered it and let simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every now and again.

When I had nothing left but apple mush, I put everything through a ricer, removing the skins, added some cinnamon, and reheated the applesauce on the stovetop. And then I canned, boiling my filled jars for 20 minutes in their huge pot of boiling water.

I heard them pop throughout the night (because I started at 8PM) and it made me smile.

Love, T.

365, Week 4

Homemade pizza on Pizza Friday

Root Veggie Casserole

Love, T.

gotta have...

...Bavarian potato pancakes! And here's how you make them...a method from our very own Frau Boch, passed from her to my mom to me to you.

The pictures in this post show ten pounds of potatoes, but when I talk about the recipe, I'm going to use much smaller quantities. That way you can increase the recipe if you want, but won't be locked into eating potato pancakes for the next month (as enjoyable as that would be).

-:- What you need -:-

2 lbs potatoes

a food processor

a dish towel (not terry cloth)

a big bowl

some white vinegar

1 egg

3 tbsp. flour

an onion

salt to taste

-:- What to do -:-

Peel your potatoes.

Fill the bowl with water and dollop some white vinegar in there. Our bowl was pretty big and we used about a half cup of vinegar. This keeps your potatoes white.

Wet a towel and place it inside the bowl, with the corners of the towel draping over the edges. The ultimate goal is to strain the potatoes with this towel, so you want to be able to gather the potatoes up in it.

Food process the potatoes and put them in the bowl.

When all potatoes have been processed, gather all four corners of the towel until you have a ball of potato in the middle. Wrap this tightly and squeeze the potato ball over your bowl until no more water comes out. (You'll see another towel in that second photo...we put it there because we had so many potatoes! You probably won't need a second towel if you're working with 2 pounds of potatoes.)

Don't drain your bowl full of water! It contains potato starch that will settle to the bottom...we'll use that, so let it rest while you finish your batter.

Put your potatoes in another big bowl. Food process your onion and add it to your potatoes. Add your egg and flour, then mix well. Add salt if you'd like to. These can also be salted once they are finished.

Check your potato starch...when you start to empty your bowl, you should see some of the starch at the bottom...if you don't see it, let the bowl rest for a bit longer.

Once the starch is ready, drain the bowl completely and add the starch to your batter.

Heat some oil in a skillet on the stove. When the oil is nice and hot, add a spoonful of batter to it and spread it out until it's pancake shaped.

Cook until the edges look brown...when you flip the pancake, it should be golden brown on the other side.

Serve with applesauce and/or sour cream. I always eat mine with both. Yum!

Love, T.