Random Kitchen Information

Rather than buy brown sugar I buy molasses.  Add it to crystalized sugar, and you have brown sugar.  It is true - just read the bag of brown sugar you just purchased.

Cumin is the key ingredient in taco seasoning.  I never buy packaged taco seasoning instead I use this approximate recipe (I rarely measure, just guess).  As long as I have cumin it tastes like tacos!  1t salt, 2T Chili powder, 1t cumin, 1t garlic powder/clove garlic, 2T paprika.  Sometimes I add oregano.

Teriyaki sauce can be replaced with 2T soysauce, 2T apple cider vinegar, 2T honey.

Baking is my favorite way to prepare bacon.  It stays flat so it stacks in sandwiches nicely, plus I love the finished taste and texture.  Lay it on a  metal cooling rack in a pan (single layer), or if you have a crisping pizza pan that just happens to fit perfectly on top of your deep dish pizza pan you can lay your bacon on it.  It sometimes helps to coat the pan before placing the bacon to avoid sticking.  Put it in a cold oven, turn on your temperature to 400 and bake for about 20 minutes.  I have tried it with a warm oven and it does not work as well.

I like to make a large batch of bread dough in a 5 gallon covered pail and pop it into the fridge.  Similar to the 5 minute artisan bread books.  The 5-minute doughs tend to be wetter doughs so you do not have to knead them... however, for my basic bread recipe, I make it the same way whether I am baking that day, or prepping the dough for use throughout the week.  Make your dough per the usual directions, only rather than letting it rise in a warm place for 1 hour or so (first rise), put it in your bucket and put it in the fridge.  Want fresh baked bread, reach into the bucket and pull out a hand-full.  My loaves usually start with 20oz of dough.

That is all for today!

Blue House Garden

I would like to build Blue House Garden into something amazing. A business that fully carries our family. A venture that serves as an example to others.

I watched a video recently about building a business. I will sum up the main point as: Find your passion, package it perfectly, and find a give-away to get them interested. This is a great concept, even if I have over-simplified its core. I am trying to sort out what that means to me and Blue House Garden, to figure out what Blue House Garden is, which direction to take it, where it wants to go, or where I want it to go.

First I need to revisit our family mission:
We wish to live well on God's land, being good stewards of his creatures, plants, and soil. We wish to raise our children healthy and strong - physically, mentally, and emotionally. We wish to be independent of the economic tide. Work well, play hard, create beauty.

Then I need to address the question of which passion, which packaging, which give-away.

Among my list of passions is Wholesome Foods: Growing, creating, baking, and selling of wholesome foods make me happy. I love being in the kitchen and attacking a recipe mad-scientist style.

Side questions:

When does a recipe become your own? The writer in me wants to attribute recipes to their source. Where do all the "new" recipes come from published in the new cookbooks (even ghost cookbook writers must get it somewhere)? Are they just slight modifications from the original? Do they change one ingredient, or even just relabel it and call it their own?
I was given a newspaper clipping of a cracker recipe this week. I was missing one ingredient, and contrary to my usual methods, actually went and purchased the one ingredient instead of substituting. I also did not make the other usual modifications I like to make to recipes. Had I made these modifications, would it then have been my recipe, and not needed a reference? I did use a different method for one step. Does that make it mine? If I explain in a different way, does that make it mine?

These questions swirl in my mind as I consider what Blue House Garden is going to be. What direction I will take. I can imagine myself one day having a book. Perhaps a guide on how to be a homesteader. Perhaps a cook book with the tips, tricks, and twists I use in most of my cooking and baking. Maybe a combination of both. Maybe a story, with the recipes, tips, and guide rolled in unexpectedly?

What can I give for free to encourage my customers to want more? We usually have samples at our farmer's market stand. Most of the time that works well. What else can we do?

An article I read this week spoke of a family that had an open door policy one night per week, everyone was welcome to "Taco Tuesdays". It helped them get to know the neighbors and their kids friends.

What if Blue House Garden instituted Tasting Tuesdays. Every Tuesday at dinner, the doors are open to everyone, and anyone. Come try out the latest recipes, tour the farm, meet the goats. It might help with word of mouth advertising. It might show people a little more about who we are. It might encourage people to buy the product because they were getting a small taste.

Things to ponder...

Being a reformed night owl

When I was young and carefree I would go out dancing at night. Most of the time I would get the urge between 9:00 and 10:00 pm, head out, and arrive back home after 12:00 am. I always found myself energized the following day despite my lack of sleep. I loved dancing. I loved the late nights.

Husband, kids, and a long early-morning commute have changed my options for dancing and late nights. Most evenings will find me winding down and climbing into bed between 9:00 and 10:00 pm.

Sometimes I still feel that longing. The 9:00 craving. The 9:30 restlessness. The 10:00 urge. There must be somewhere I need to be. Something that must be done. Dancing!?

I have found my replacement.

Food.

Sometimes it just means I get the munchies.

Quite a few evenings it means recipe research and experimentation. This month alone has included the following late night recipes: Fresh goat's milk mozzarella, baked healthy doughnuts, homemade yogurt and ice cream (without an ice cream machine).

We will see if this trend continues and I will post recipes soon!

Recipe: Sweet Honey Morning Muffin/Bread

I came across this recipe while looking for a cake made with honey on the internet. Google came up with quite a few entries, but only one did not have sugar. Reading the recipe I thought it would be more like a quick bread - and we were right. Still, it is a perfect addition to my Farmer's Market Menu - and super yummy!

Click here for Original Recipe

When I made it, I made it two ways, one with the almonds, one without. I love nuts in things, but hubby does not, so I thought I should see if it was worth making again if I did not add nuts.

1 C sliced almonds
1 1/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 C Unbleached White Flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 C butter (it called for unsalted, but I used salted)
1 C honey (my store honey was almost gone - i used 3/4 C store honey, the last T of local honey, and the last t of buckwheat honey my sister gave me) it was not quite a full cup
4 large eggs - these were fresh from my chickens!
1/4 C yogurt or sour cream: I used a plain greek yogurt that was milk & active cultures.
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Directions

• Preheat oven to 325˚
• Grease a 9" round cake pan (I used 2 loaf pans - one with almonds, one without)
• Sprinkle bottom with 3/4 C of the almonds
• In one bowl - mix dry ingredients (Flours, Soda, Salt)
• In another bowl: mix butter, honey, and eggs. My batter was lumpy at this point. I mixed by hand, I wonder if I had used my electric mixer if the cake would have been fluffier? I also am thinking I might try to lighten it up further by separating the egg whites, and mixing till fluffy, then mixing in creamed butter, egg yolks, and honey.
• Stir in flour
• Stir in yogurt
• Stir in almonds - this was the point where I poured 1/2 the batter into the almond free pan. Then added almonds to the rest of the batter.
• Make sure everything is evenly moistened
• Mix 1 minute more
• Pour the batter over the almonds in the pan
• Bake for 50 - 55 minutes (this was plenty of time for my two loaf pans to finish as well)
• Cool for 15 minutes
• Remove from pans and cool before serving