Simple Summer Party...

      So early this Summer I asked one of my favorite vendors at the Lake Forest Park Farmer's Market to do me a favor.  My gal, Tracy, at Social Ice Cream makes the best ice cream in the entire world.  Problem is, a solid portion of my friends can't eat sugar, dairy, soy, gluten, food colorings, flavorings, like basically anything.  But I knew Tracy could handle it. What did I need two gallons of sugar-dairy-soy-gluten-everything-free ice cream for?  You already know, don't you, you smart thing you!

My oldest's Cub Scout manual lists plan a party and make an obstacle course for your friends as two things you can get badges for and we're all about the badges around here.  We need all the stinkin' badges.  Fittingly, he chose blue and yellow as the colors.

He helped with all the set up, too!

 

 These little marigolds were just the right color and had a light citronella scent that, I think, helped keep the bugs a way.  So did the little fans you see in the background.

I found a thing on Pinterest about making little flags to mark drinks.  Good ol' party store came through with these puppies.

My oldest also had a say in the menu so we planned hamburgers and hot dogs and left the rest up to the generosity of our guests! 

My neighbor supplied us with this gorgeous caprese salad appetizer. 

My garden has been generously pumping out cherry tomatoes like nobody's business this year.

My honey making friend also dabbles in flavored vodka.  Holy man.

And she brings homemade bread.  Yeah she does!

These homemade hot mix pickles were my offering this year.

Hot Pickle Mix

From the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

4 C sliced trimmed pickling cucumbers (1/4 inch slices)

2 C cauliflower florets

1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips

1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips

1 C sliced, peeled carrots

1 C peeled pearl or pickling onions

2/3 C pickling or canning salt

8 1/2 C water, divided

3 C sliced seeded hot yellow banana peppers (1 1/2- inch slices)

1 clove garlic

8 1/2 C white vinegar

3/4 C granulated sugar

2 Tbs horseradish

3-9 jalapeno peppers, halved and seeded

In a large glass or stainless steel bowl, combine cucumbers, cauliflower, green and red peppers, carrots, and onions.  In another large glass or stainless steel bowl, dissolve pickling salt in 7 C of the water.  Pour over vegetables.  Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.  Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars, and lids.  In a colander placed over a sink, drain vegetables.  Rinse with cool running water and drain thoroughly.  Add hot yellow peppers and mix well.  In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine garlic, remaining 1 1/2 C water, vinegar, sugar, and horseradish.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 15 minutes, until liquid is infused with garlic flavor.  Discard garlic clove.  Pack vegetables and 1 to 3 jalapeno pepper halves into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 inch of top of jar.  Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover vegetables, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and and adjust headspace if necessary, by adding hot pickling liquid.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

 

 We bought our burgers from Martiny Livestock at our farmer's market.  People said they were some of the best burgers they ever had!

Little bit of local cheese to top it off...

A little bit of socializing and then it was finally, finally time for...

Ice cream and sorbet!  We had Coconut Vanilla Bean, Peach Raspberry sorbet, and Raspberry Lemon Verbena. All made without soy, without dairy, without white sugar, but made with coconut milk, honey, and fresh local produce.  Because Tracy is a flippin' wizard.

Then it was obstacle course time!  First down the slide, then a search through bubbles for a statuette, and a quick hula hoop for 5 seconds before a dash across the finish line!  Fastest time wins!  It was a quick, fun game and they loved it!

 

Even this dude and he doesn't like anything...

The ol' Blue and Gold.

     When I was a kid I had absolutely no interest in being a Girl Scout.  I didn't know what they did, except every now and then, they'd show up at school in their uniforms and apparently they sold cookies, though I don't think my folks ever bought any.  (I made up for this in college by buying and consuming an entire childhood's worth of Thin Mints every year on the first day of sales.  This was how I learned that eating an entire childhood's worth of mint extract makes my tummy feel funny.  And by "funny" of course, I mean "rolling around on the bed moaning in agony while still shoving Thin Mints in my face." This may or may not have helped solidify my complete lack of excitement about Girl Scouts.)  But anyway, what I really wanted to be was a Boy Scout.

     My brother was a Cub Scout for about 30 seconds when we were kids.  He went to a few meetings, made a pinewood derby car, we went to a Jamboree one year, and I think that was pretty much it for him.  But we got Boy's Life for years and years and I loved them.  There was some kind of comic about a burro and I'm pretty sure Boy's Life is where I learned how to install insulation.  You know... Like you do. 

     One of my greatest hopes for my boys is that they would want to join the scouts when they were old enough and last week we went to my son's very first meeting.  He is beside himself.  My little one is a grumbling ball of jealousy.  Fortunately, the second meeting he attended was the Blue and Gold Banquet which is for families.  My youngest was amazed by the theatrics, my eldest mostly wanted to run around like a monkey with all his new friends, while I was mostly sitting there bursting my goshdarn buttons.

     Our den's offering for the banquet was spaghetti and seeing as how it was my son's very first one and how it was only our second meeting and how I was so goshdarn proud and all, I decided to make homemade sauce.



Blue and Gold Pasta Sauce
22 Roma tomatoes
1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 large onion (about 12 oz), chopped roughly
8 oz small sweet peppers, sliced into 1/4 inch rings (about 2 1/2 C)
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 C mixed olive tapenade (opt)
2 Tbs tomato paste
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 C sliced, frozen artichoke hearts (still frozen)
4 Tbs chopped fresh basil
1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp thyme

Cut X's in the bottoms of tomatoes and broil until skins begin to brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool until you can touch them.  Remove peels and set tomatoes aside.  In a large stock pot, heat olive oil.  Cook onion until slightly brown and softening, then add peppers and mushrooms.  Cook until soft.  Make a small well in the middle of the veggies and add garlic to the dry pan, heat until scent blooms and stir in.  Stir in tomatoes and olives.  Cook until tomatoes have softened, about an hour.  Add salt, pepper, tomato paste and artichoke hearts.  Heat a little more until hearts have warmed up.  Remove from heat and stir in fresh herbs.  Makes enough to coat 1 16oz bag of pasta well.

Review:
My youngest, aka Mr. Idonlikeit, ate three helpings of this pasta at the banquet and hasn't turned his nose up at leftovers, either.  When I was making it, I ate a solid cup of it with a fork before I even got the pasta ready.  This stuff is serious, ya'll.

A Post About the Super Bowl. Yes, that Super Bowl...

     There are a lot of folks out there who love football.  I am a folk who enjoys listening to football on the radio.  The commentary is more interesting and the commercials are less flashy.  We may make an exception this Sunday since the Seahawks have made it to the Super Bowl.  The excitement is a raging contagion here.  People talk to each other in line at the grocery store or standing at their cars pumping gas.  Even my boys, one of whom thinks it's called the "Super Goal," are pumped up, counting down the days till the Hawks battle the Broncos over a small brown ball and bragging rights.

     If you are one of those folks who loves a good game, I've got a little menu here I think you might enjoy.  If you're not, I've got a little menu here I think you might enjoy.  A burrito bar is a great way to feed vegetarian and carnivores simultaneously without too much fuss.  This one has a few different options.  My favorite combo is the sweet potatoes with rice, kale, beans and avocado.  My boys prefer just bean and cheese.  Lettuce, chips, rice and beans with a little salsa makes a great salad.

Everything on the bar can be prepped ahead except the meat, avocado, and the sauteed veggies. 

Pico De Gallo

8 oz tomato, chopped
2 oz garlic, minced
4 oz green pepper, diced
4 oz onion, diced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp lemon or lime juice (optional)
1/4 C chopped cilantro (optional)

Mix all ingredients and serve immediately or up to a day later.  Stir in a minced avocado and you've got a top notch guacamole.

     For a family friendly celebration, a Mockarita may be the way to go.  My boys had mixed reactions, but I liked it a little less sweet.

 

Mockarita

6 limes
2 navel oranges
1/2 ruby red grapefruit
3/4 C sugar
2 C ice
2 more C ice (optional)
1/2 C sugar (optional)

I peeled the skin off the limes, oranges and grapefruit with a knife, checked for seeds, and threw the fruit into a blender.  I buzzed it up, then strained the pulp out.  I returned the juice back to the blender and added the sugar and ice.  A few more seconds and they were ready to pour!  You could jazz these up with some tequila but the virgin version is just as exciting in my opinion.

     We followed up our feast with some Tres Leches Cupcakes.  The recipe I used came from a cookbook, but you can use any recipe you want.  I wanted to make sure with all the extra liquid that these would hold up.  I tried some in nut cups and some in these fluted cake cups.  They both held up extremely well, though the cakes in the nut cups pulled away from the sides.  These fluted ones were definitely much prettier.  I cut the baking time down to 20 minutes from the 30-35 which was recommended for a full cake.  The recipe I used also suggested a sweet whipped cream frosting.  I just chose whipping cream and vanilla for mine and relied on the sweetness in the cake and milk glaze. 

Have a nice Superbowl Sunday!

Good Morning...

     Welcome to my new series featuring my favorite vendors at the Third Place Commons Farmer's Market in Lake Forest Park Washington.  What better way to start off than a lovely breakfast?

     A familiar face at the market has a new name.  Anthem Farm was previously called Five Acre Farm, but has grown so much they had to come up with a new name.  I couldn't be happier for them.  This year they are selling beautiful pasture-raised eggs by the truck load besides all the beautiful produce they bring!  Today, I'm featuring an egg laid by one of their lovely ladies, and some jam I made using their luscious strawberries.

     New to the market this year is Shen Zen Tea.  These guys take tea seriously.  I bought their Masala Chai tea (pictured at top) and it has got to be one of the most wonderful teas I've ever had.  A couple of weeks ago, on one of the hottest days of the year so far, they ingeniously debuted tea soda.  You can tell when you taste it how dedicated they are to their craft. 

     And finally, another new addition this year, R Heritage Farm.   When the Third Place Commons announcement went out about this farm, I looked them up immediately.  What I found nearly made me cry.  I'm not kidding.  I had little happy tears dancing in my eyes for, like, 30 minutes.  I told everybody I knew about this farm, in fact, I may have even stopped some strangers on the street.  They raise pigs, chickens, and turkeys and get this: the animals live outside.  The pigs root around in actual honest to goodness dirt.  The chickens eat bugs.  The turkeys are brown, for Pete's sake!  I had never cooked a heritage breed bird before, and all the meat is in the "wrong" place!  The legs are long and firm, the breast is much smaller, and the back has a lot more usable meat.  I am debating trying to get a Thanksgiving group together this year just so I can make a turkey.  They're taking down payments already!  I can't say enough about this farm.  I really like these two, I like the way they run their farm, and I'm happy to buy their meat.  And I'm a vegetarian, so my husband feasted on a lovely bratwurst this morning! 

  

I modified Rachel Saunders Children's Strawberry Jam recipe from The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook (p. 177) to make my 

Strawberry Rhubarb Cherry Jam with Thyme

3 1/2 pounds hulled large strawberries

2 large rhubarb canes (about 3 oz)

 2 oz pitted cherries

4, 4 inch sprigs thyme

2 pounds 10 oz white cane sugar

3 2/3 oz plus 2 2/3 oz strained freshly squeezed lemon juice

Place a saucer with five metal teaspoons in a flat place in your freezer for testing the jam later.

In an 11 or 12 quart copper preserving pan or a wide nonreactive kettle, combine the fruit, rhubarb, and thyme with the sugar and 3 2/3 oz of the lemon juice.  Place the pan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula.  After a few minutes, as the juice starts to run and the mixture begins foaming a little around the edges, gradually raise the heat to high, stirring often.

Boil the mixture vigorously for 20-30 minutes, gently scraping the bottom of the pan every minute or two with your spatula to be sure the jam is not sticking.  If it begins to stick, decrease the heat slightly, being sure the jam continues to cook at a rapid boil.  Continue to cook, stirring and scraping frequently until the foam subsides, the mixture acquires a darker, shiner look, and the berries appear softened and saturated with liquid, about 25 minutes total.

At this point, stir in the remaining 2 2/3 oz of lemon juice, continuing to stir frequently.  Fish out the thyme sprigs.  If necessary, lower the heat slightly to prevent scorching.

After 3-5 more minutes, your jam should look shiny and thickened.  At this point, remove from the heat and test for doneness, using a stainless-steel spoon to carefully scrape all the white foam off the top of the mixture while you test.  Do not stir.  To test for doneness, carefully transfer as small representative half-spoonful of jam to one of your frozen spoons.  Replace the spoon in the freezer for 3-4 minutes, then remove and carefully feel the underside of the spoon.  It should be neither warm nor cold;  if still warm, return it to the freezer for a moment.  Tilt the spoon vertically to see how quickly the jam runs; if it runs slowly, and if it has thickened to a gloppy consistency, it is done.  If it runs very quickly or appears watery, cook it for another couple of minutes, stirring, and test again as needed.  This jam, while spreadable, has a relatively loose texture, Pour the jam into sterilized jars and process according to the manufacturer's instructions.  (Ball's book on home preserving says to process jam in a water bath for 10 minutes.)

Review:

This jam is a little looser than most jams, but is still pleasantly spreadable.  The rhubarb really shows through and the herbiness of the thyme is my favorite little last minute finish on the palate. 

I hope you enjoy this series as much as I am already.  I love these guys...

Claiming Immunity...

     This has been a particularly bad year for germs in the Pacific Northwest.  The kids have been continually sick, their friends have been continually sick, and more importantly, I have been continually sick.  This just doesn't happen.  While it's true that I observe the holy pre-Christmas tradition known as Snotmas Eve, I rarely get sick the rest of winter.  I save my bouts of pneumonia for Summertime when it's pretty outside.  Like God intended. 

     This last cold was the straw that broke the camel's back.  It's my third of the season, the kid's fifth, and my husband's second.  The time had come to boost the immunity in this place.  So I sat on my couch with my tissues in my hand and my pocket and tucked into my cleavage and searched that mighty database of human knowledge known as the Internet for "immunity boosting foods."  And then I went to the store and bought All Of Them. 

The top contenders were:

• yogurt
• leafy greens, particularly spinach
• broccoli
• citrus fruits, particularly oranges
• raw garlic
• fish, beef, and chicken (particularly chicken soup)
• black or green tea
• orange foods like sweet potatoes, carrots, and winter squash
• mushrooms, particularly Shiitake, maitake, and reishi
• apples
• oats
• beans and lentils
• nuts like almonds and cashews

     I didn't want to eat yogurt because it may or may not increase mucus production depending on who you listen to, so I bought probiotic capsules and also a vitamin D supplement since it is good for boosting immunity and it is well known that people in this area are deficient.  One of the main ways to get it through food is salmon, which of course, I don't eat.

     I set to work.  One night we had steamed sweet potatoes with kidney beans and steamed broccoli tossed with raw garlic.  We had oatmeal for breakfast.  And last night the meat eaters had salmon cakes with this salad.

Immunity Salad with Raw Spinach Garlic Dressing
Dressing:
1/2 C raw cashews
1/2 C water + 1/4 C water
1 carrot
1 C raw spinach
Juice of 1/2 meyer lemon, seeds removed
2 small cloves garlic*
1/4 tsp salt

Blend cashews and 1/2 C water in a blender until the cashews are completely liquified (about 1 minute or so).  Add remaining ingredients, using the extra water to help the blending process throughout.  If you want a thinner consistency, another 1/4 C of water would probably do it.

*Taste the strength of your garllc before adding the second clove, some varieties are stronger than others.  You might even want to add a third small clove, depending.

Salad
4 C raw kale pieces
1 large apple, cubed
1 large orange, segmented
1/4 C cashews toasted in a pan

Put all ingredients into a large bowl and toss to combine. 

Review:
     The boys are funny about salad.  My eldest loves kale all by itself so he was upset there was salad dressing on it.  My youngest loved the dressing and the kale, but didn't like the cashews and apples.  In the end, they both ate their entire salads for the promise of splitting the last salmon cake.  Here's to Health!  Oh!  And this just happens to be little green for St. Patrick's Day!  Happy Eatin' o' the Greens!

Resources:
Livestrong.com
Prevention.com
Eatingwell.com
Webmd.com

Y'all Got No Idea...

I'm about to lay on you two of my very favorite foods of all time.  

Get ready.

These are Anasazi Beans:

And this is Garlic Herb Sauce:

When people say "Awesomesauce" this is what they're talking about.  Even if they don't know it.

When you add rice to them you get this:

Holy crabnuggets, Metromon.  

     My next door neighbor, Nancy, turned me on to Anasazi beans a couple of years ago.  They were a favorite from her youth and she asked me if I'd ever seen any in the crazy stores I go to.  I hadn't.  These suckers are hard to find.  Then one day I ran across some and took her the very last in the bin (about half a pound).  Late last year, I actually found these beauties mislabeled as black eyed peas at a Fred Meyer nearby and then suddenly, my favorite grocery Central Market, Shoreline started carrying them!  I am in bean heaven.  (And so is Nancy!)

     Anasazis taste a little like pinto beans, but sweeter and the texture is so smooth.  There's hardly a comparison, really.

     I have only found these in bulk bins.  If you can't find them in the store, anasazibeans.com has them for $1.00 a pound.  They are totally worth paying shipping for, friends.

     Cook Anasazis like you would any other bean, soaking them overnight or doing a quick soak and then boiling them until they are soft.  They cook a little bit quicker than pintos.  These took 45 minutes unsoaked in the pressure cooker.  For this recipe, if you can't find Anasazis, try kidney beans.

     The sauce is a homemade version of one I buy from my farmer's market.  It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn close.

Garlic Herb Sauce (AKA Awesomesauce)

1 1/2 C Cilantro

1 C Parsley

3/4 C Mint

3 very large cloves of garlic

5 Tbs good quality Olive Oil

2 Tbs Lemon Juice

1/4 tsp Salt (heaping)

1/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce

Toss the garlic in a blender and buzz until it is chopped pretty well.  Add lemon juice, salt, and 2 Tbs olive oil and blend until garlic is liquified.  Add herbs, remaining oil, and Tabasco sauce and blend until all the herbs are very finely chopped and the sauce forms a watery paste.  

Notes:

• This is best if you let it mellow in the fridge overnight, but you can use it right away if you need to.  
• This sauce will easily keep a week or more in the fridge, if you don't use it all up the first night!  
• Depending on the strength of your ingredients you may want to modify the amount of herbs you add.  The cilantro and mint I bought when developing this recipe was pretty mild.
• I love this sauce as a dip for pretzels and on warm potatoes or cold ones as a potato salad!  I've also used it to perk up hummus and I bet it would be lovely in some cream cheese as a spread on crackers.

Anasazi Beans and Rice

3 C cooked Anasazi beans

3 C cooked rice (I used Jasmine but brown rice would be healthier)

2 Tbs Garlic Herb Sauce

Salt and pepper

Basically, you cook the beans and rice and mix it all up with the sauce.  Add more sauce if you like and salt and pepper to your own taste.

Review:

My husband and I love this, though I find it hard to believe anyone can love this as much as I do.  My eldest asked for extra sauce on his rice and he begs for pretzels to dip in it.  My youngest wouldn't touch the green rice with a 10 foot pole.  So that's where it stands in this house. 3 to 1 in favor of Awesomesauce.

Put Some Butter On It!!

     You might say I have a slight obsession with dairy products.  You might also say I look like Gisele Bundchen but you'd be wrong and maybe a little high.  It's not so much milk itself I'm obsessed with, but the things you can do with it.  I've been making my own yogurt for a while now.  I haven't bought a tub of whipped cream in years.  I gave you a peek into my foray into cheese making (I want to try cream cheese next.)  And I have been known on occasion to buy a pint of cream to make butter.  I seriously just need to suck it up and buy a couple of cows.  Cows won't scratch up my hardwood floor much, right?

     I can't even begin to tell you how simple it is to make butter.  Which is to say, I totally can tell you exactly how simple it is.  It's extremely simple.  All you need is two bowls, a mixer, a strainer, a spatula, and some salt which is optional.  Start with heavy cream.  This one looks lumpy, I know.  The brand I buy is a local one and almost always has a heavy plug of cream at the top of the bottle.  I know they don't homogenize their milk.  I don't know if the plug is a result of that or because it travels far enough to begin churning in the bottle on the way to the store.  At any rate, it doesn't effect the outcome at all.

     Start whipping your cream at the top speed of a mixer.  This stage is whipped cream.  You could stop here if you want.  I encourage you to actually...  Stop, taste it, wonder why anyone would ever buy store-bought whipped cream. Forge ahead.

A moment later it will cease to be whipped cream.  It's crazy how fast this happens, actually...

Almost done here at the "scrambled eggs" stage.  Notice how much yellower the cream has gotten.  I swear, there's nothing here but cream!

At this point, the milk begins to separate from the cream.  You're almost done! This process from pouring the cream to milk separation takes about 5 minutes.  Maybe less.

At this point, drain the buttermilk out of the butter.  Keep it!  It's great for cooking with!  I pressed mine a little with a wooden spatula not enough to mash the butter through the strainer, but enough to push out a good bit of milk.

     You can stop here if you like.  It tastes fantastic!  I find that butter at this stage will only keep for a few days.  Of course, it's so delicious you will probably eat it up before it goes bad anyway.  If you'd like to save yourself from needing to eat a half pound of butter by yourself in two days, that's where washing comes in.

 Pour cold water over your butter and push the butter with a wooden spatula, wooden spoon, or rubber spatula to squeeze out as much buttermilk as you can.  I actually bought this spatula specifically for butter making but you certainly don't have to.

 Drain and rinse again.

This is how the final rinse will look.  You can see the water is very clear and I'm not getting any more out when I squish it with my spatula.

     For a little more longevity insurance, I add 1/4 tsp sea salt.  The amount of salt you will want to use varies with the type of salt you have.  Try an 1/8th of a teaspoon first and then add more to your liking.  I store mine on my counter in a butter crock which keeps it soft without going bad for up to a week and sometimes a week and a half if it lasts that long.  You can also keep it in the freezer if you want to keep it for months at a time.  One pint of cream yielded 3/4 C buttermilk and 7 oz of butter this time, though yours may vary some.

 You just made butter, my friend!

Quit drooling and go make some already!

The Earthiest of Earth Days...

     Way back when, post-marriage, pre-children, young me decided I should plant a huge garden and produce enough food for us to live on.  We lived in a high-rise apartment with no balcony.  I grew houseplants.  Then we moved to an apartment with a balcony and I grew cherry tomatoes then the outside of the building had to be painted, we moved everything inside and the cats ate/peed in everything.  Then we moved to a condo with no sun so I grew a couple of onions, a lot of geraniums, and weeds.  Then we moved to a house with lots of land located in the Pit of Darkness.  The first year my garden plot got shaded out.  The next year, all I got out of my plot was a little spinach and lettuce, still not enough sun.  So last year I decided to rip out half the lawn.  But first, I tested the sun by planting everything in pots.

  And the sun never shined.  Like, all Summer.  But I still managed to get beets, lettuce, chard, a couple of scrawny tomatoes,

 (I took this picture on 9/10/11, hah!)

bunches of bolita and purple podded pole beans, and a fair number of peas and potatoes.  Squash, cucumbers, and kale all failed miserably.

 

Admittedly, there may have been more than lack of sunlight involved in the demise of the cucumbers...

     All this to say, clearly, I had better luck and the lawn must go.

     Back in October, my buddy Danika hauled over a load of straw bales so we could have a storytime spot for our Halloween party.  Those suckers were a little heavy.  Because they were a little heavy and also because I was a lot lazy, they sat there, slowly killing the grass underneath it.  Unfortunately, it was the wrong grass. I finally got sick of looking at it back in March and chopped it into layers and moved it over to the part of the lawn that will become my garden.  Guess what I learned?  1) wet straw is even more heavy than dry straw 2) wet straw gets moldy 3) wet straw mold gives me a cough so bad hubby fears I may actually have mold growing in my lungs 4) when you go to the doctor because you are allergic to mold and have a cough so bad your husband thinks you may have mold growing inside your body you win an inhaler!  But wait!  There's more!  Also, nasal spray!  Sweeeet...  Also, slugs reeeeeeeally like wet, moldy straw.  Ew.

But it was moved and it sat in the right spot killing the right grass.  

     Spring sort of sneaked up on me this year.  It was Winter, it was Winter, it was Wiiiiiinteeeeerrrr, SPRING!  I planned to start some seeds last weekend (waaaay late) and I opened my storage spot and a mouse had eaten all my leftover seeds and half a baseball.  You know, I'm a little afraid to mess around with a mouse that eats baseballs.  So rather than shaking him down for my seeds, I placed a new order.  I did get a few new seeds like salsify and miner's lettuce, so I'm counting it a win. 

     Saturday, I spent an hour or so forking the area I want to plant spinach and lettuce in because I learned on Victory Garden that that's the best thing to do (also because "forking" sounds kinda dirty).  Got a rockin' callus.  I was apparently in the bathroom during the part on Victory Garden when they said to wear gloves when forking... duh.

     And so on Earth Day, I moved the straw again.  Took a dose of allergy meds beforehand.  And you know what?  It's still heavy!  But it did a great job taking care of the weeds and grass.  Moss, not so much, but fortunately, moss is pretty easy to fork.

     Another project we've been working on is sheet mulch.  Hubby's been saving cardboard in the garage for us to put down over the weeds we want to mulch over.  Last year we tried mulching over weeds and they just grew up right through it.  I think we didn't have quite enough coverage.  This time, buddy we're going to have enough coverage!  So I spent quite a few hours stripping plastic tape and metal staples out of cardboard boxes and laying them in my flower garden so I would have somewhere to move the straw to.

 

 I've managed to pretty well get everything covered, but I still had half a garden full of straw!

 

I made a compost pile next to my composter...

And so, in the spirit of do-it-yourselfedness, I decided to make almond flour this week.  Almond flour is the the very best gluten free flour flavor-wise, but it's really darn expensive.  I had seen a video clip by Greenbacks Gal about making almond flour in a coffee grinder.  She also uses an old-fashioned sifter in her process and blanched almonds.  Since I didn't have most of that stuff, I decided to give it a whirl with my regular almonds, in a food chopper, and a strainer.  Here's what I did:


I found some raw almonds at a discount grocery store for about $4 a bag and I knew I had to try to make almond flour.  To start, open your bag.  I know, thorough, right?  Then, put a handful or two into a food chopper.


Run the chopper for about 30-40 seconds.  This part is really loud.  You might want to wear ear plugs...


When the mixture is pretty fine, stop and pour the almonds into a fine mesh strainer.


Sift out the finest pieces just like you would sift confectioner's sugar onto a cake.  (Tap the strainer against the heel of your hand until the fine stuff falls out...)

This will be the result.  Big chunks in the strainer, fine stuff in the bowl.  Rocket science.


Put the big stuff back into the chopper and process another 20-30 seconds.  Filter through the strainer (there will be considerably less flour this time) then repeat once more.


You can see how moist the big chunks are by the end of the third processing.  I wasn't able to get much more usable flour at this point.


 So I set it aside.

Repeat the process, chopping the almonds, sifting them, returning them to the chopper until you've finished your bag of almonds.  My $4 one pound bag yielded 2 Cups of almond flour the first time I did it and 2 1/2 Cups the second time.  I wrote the amount and the date processed on the bag and stuck it in the freezer.

 Homemade almond flour with skin in the foreground, store-bought blanched almond flour in the background.  If you want to blanch your almonds first, pour boiling water over a bowl of raw almonds.  Let sit for about 30 seconds, drain, and pop the almonds out of their skins!  Let them dry completely on a cooling rack before beginning the flour making process.  Blanched almond flour in the store can cost as much $14 for a bag of  around 3 cups (I like Bob's Red Mill).  So though, I yielded less than 3 cups with my 1 pound, I can get about 6 cups for the price of 3 cups of the name brand.

Now, you could save all your little too-wet pieces of almonds for mixing into pancakes or muffins or even use them as breading for chicken, but I decided to try my hand at almond butter.


 One at a time, pour 1 Tbs of water into the "wet" almond pieces and pulse.  It will take a while for the mixture to fall off the sides.  I eventually added 6 Tbs of water to this batch.

This is about the right consistency.  It has fallen off the sides, and begun that fun whirlpool motion around the blade.  Process until it's as smooth as you like it.  I like mine a little crunchier.

 I got about a cup of butter.  Here you can see the difference between homemade raw almond butter and roasted store-bought "grind it yourself" almond butter.  It's considerably lighter, but also so much sweeter!  You could mix a little salt in if you want during the blending process, but I like mine plain on whole wheat with a little honey...  I also used some as filling in a cinnamon roll.  Pretty good, but it needed something... Haven't quite worked it out yet.

Review:

I just made chocolate chip cookies with the flour.  Aw.  Mah.  Gah, Ya'll.  It's a beautiful thing, friends.  You can use this in any of your gluten-free recipes or as a supplement to your regular flour recipes.  Lots of pancake and waffle recipes floating around on the web right now.  I sense they will be floating around my belly pretty soon...  Be careful though, there are a LOT more calories in almond flour!  160 calories in 1/4 C almond flour to white flour's 114.  It does have twice the protein, though so there's that...