The Beautiful Truth

I came across a documentary on Netflix the other day, The Beautiful Truth. What intrigued me at first was that this documentary was created by a 15 year old boy who lived in Alaska! Anything Alaska, I'm all over it. I was very impressed with this boys studies and learned much more about food and health in general. There are some parts that make you wonder but overall I felt it was a very well made movie. He is a smart individual and I am grateful for the knowledge this film gave me. Go check it out! Watch some of the other films too, they are all amazing.

Homemade yogurt

I have been intimidated to try making my own yogurt even though everyone says it is so easy. My MIL bought me a nice yogurt maker for my birthday last month and now I am really excited about the prospect of having a good supply of my own homemade yogurt sans HFCS and preservatives. I made a batch and then ate some sweetened with real maple syrup topped frozen blueberries and it was delicious! I'll take homemade over store bought any day. If you want to give it a go, here is what you do: (this recipe comes from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon which my MIL also gave me. It is a very good book)

Yogurt

Makes 1 quart

1/2 cup good quality commercial plain yogurt or 1/2 yogurt from previous batch
1 quart pasteurized whole milk
a thermometer

Gently heat the milk to 180 degrees and allow to cool to about 110 degrees. Stir in yogurt and place in a shallow glass, enamel or stainless steel container. Cover the container and place in a warm oven overnight. In the morning transfer to the refrigerator. (Throughout the day, use paper towels to mop up any whey that exudes from the yogurt) I have a yogurt maker now and after I heat and cool the milk, add the yogurt I set it in the yogurt maker and it is done 4 hours later. I've heard it is good to have a maker so that the temperature is constant. I now our house fluxuates so much in temperature it is probably a good thing to have one.

There are also recipes to make butter, kefir and cream cheese in this book which I will be making this next week as my raw milk comes TOMORROW (sing songy voice). I am so excited.

Favorite Rolls

Here is my favorite roll recipe. I have modified the ingredients to make it a little more healthy, but will leave the original recipe and put my modifications next to the ingredients.

Perfect Dinner Rolls

1 T active dry yeast
2-1/4 C warm water (110-115 degrees)
1/3 C sugar (I replace with organic cane sugar)
1/3 C shortening (I replace this with coconut oil)
1/4 C powdered nondairy creamer (I use gluten flour)
2-1/4 t salt (sea salt)
6-7 C bread flour (I've only needed around 5 cups of flour for some reason and I sometimes use wheat flour or 1/2 wheat 1/2 white)

In a large bow, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, shortening, creamer, salt and 5 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).

Turn onto floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into 24 pieces. Shape each into a roll. Place 2 in. apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pans to wire racks. Enjoy!

What are you eating?

Recently I have been thinking a lot about our food and where it comes from. With the ramping up of The Produce Box again for this next season, it has been on my mind a lot lately. There are a couple of movies/shows I have watched which really makes you think about what we are doing to our earth. One of them is Food, Inc. which if you haven't watched, it's a must see. The other shorter shows are called Eco Trip, both of which I have been watching on Netflix. Check them out, watch them and let me know what you think.

In other news, I have been in search of raw milk for a while now. My mother-in-law swears by it and I have enjoyed drinking her precious supply whenever we visit her home in Ohio. I think I may have finally found a place to get me some! I am really excited. Oh, and I am also getting a yogurt maker for my birthday. Goodbye high fructose corn syrup!

Weekly Farmer's Market Report

Hello everyone! I got back to the market this week. We're on the cusp of things disappearing (fewer cantelope to choose from, only a few vendors with blueberries) and new things appearing (plums were everywhere - yum!). Apples are next on the horizon, and then back around to cooler weather vegies.

For those of you who did Produce Box for the first time, what did you think? How much did you spend? How much variety was there? What was the quantity and quality like? Will you do it again next summer?

In culinary news, I made spaghetti sauce with a quart of my frozen tomatoes. Very tasty! Over and out!

Weekly Farmer's Market Report

I am being bold and brave! I picked up two boxes of tomatoes to can tomorrow. It's the only thing we used to do at home that I haven't done as a wife and mom myself. I called my mom and asked her what her ratio of tomatoes was to quarts produced. She said she remembers getting 14 quarts out of a bushel. I went online to check how many pounds of tomatoes are in a bushel . 53! The boxes at the farmer's market are 20 pounders and I want to end up with 24 pints so I got two that were heaping. The lady thought they were 25-30 pounds each. I'll let you know how it turns out. I will be recovering from my knee surgery next week so there will be no report. I'm hoping Sweetie will do my hunting and gathering for me. I can't think of a better way to recover than with fresh fruit and veggies!

Weekly Farmer's Market Report

I just realized I never reported back last week. Sorry about that! The purple and cream peppers were very pretty but tasted just like green peppers. They were great grilled. I found out more specific info about winblown peaches. They come on around the 4th of July and are available for a few weeks. I've noticed there are different varieties of peaches every couple of weeks. The peach lady told me all the peach trees blossom at the same time but they develop at different rates. Hence the changing varieties. The ones there right now are the softer, meatier peaches we always used to can. I also picked up a lavendar skinned eggplant last week. The lady told me the skin is much thinner. I cut it into 1/2 inch slices, salted and drizzled them with olive oil and red wine vinegar and grilled them for 2-3 minutes on each side. Wowsers! Even Mr. Eggplant Hater said they were okay. I thought they were fantastic. I also found the cutest little round zucchini called 8 balls. I'm going to carve out the insides, saute them with onion and basil, mix in bread crumbs made out of my whole wheat bread and a little parmesan cheese, and then bake them. Should be tasty! Over and out!