Moving Away From Teflon: Sticky?

So, I make one of my kids scrambled eggs a lot. I got rid of our Teflon pans a while ago because of health concerns. And I pretty much hate doing dishes at all, but the daily layer of impossible-to-remove-scrambled-egg gunk was pretty much making my head split right down the middle. Does *everything* healthier have to be a PIA, I wondered?

Actually, it turns out I am just a lousy cook! What I needed to be doing was to heat up my pan super hot and then add the olive oil (if I used butter, it would stick even less). Who knew there was a different way to cook to keep the horrid scrambled-egg crust from bonding like SuperGlue to the bottom of my pan?

Apparently, Ask Metafilter (thanks to not martha) and Harold McGee knew. I love the way the interwebs make me a better person cook.



*Photo courtesy of sxc. Read more!

Protein-Packed Granola Recipe

We lurve granola in our house. Crunchy people, crunchy breakfast, right? But, really, what's a girl to do when Whole Paycheck's bulk bins have stale granola in 'em and I'm too lazy to get myself all the way over to the People's Republic of Takoma Park to their commie co-op nirvana of bulky goodness? Make my own cereal, of course. And, since I am even lazier than that, I had to shake down my interweb friends for recipes. So a huge thanks and shout-out to Jodifur, GreenBeanDreams, and BurbanMom for their amalgamated recipe(s). I also ripped off parts of a granola recipe from my Vegetarian Times Cookbook, btw. Since I grew up in the same house as a man I'll affectionately call Pumpkin Head (not to have gross insensitivity to people who suffer from life-threatening allergies, but, well, to have gross insensitivity in all honesty?), we avoid nuts in our home. Tree nuts, peanuts, you name it. I do, however, love the crunch and protein power packed in those yummy seeds. So consider this doctored recipe my paeon to crunchy, nut-free granola goodness.

MamaBird's Granola

7 cups rolled oats (not quick cook)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 cup millet
1 cup (uncooked) oat bran cereal
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup flaxseeds (I used toasted ones)
1/4 cup maple syrup
5 egg whites
1 cup apricots + 1 cup diced dried plums OR 1 cup dried cranberries + 1 cup dried blueberries

I know you're not going to believe this from a kid who used to ask her mom if we could find yogurts with no sugar or artificial sweeteners, just fruit in them, but I really don't think this recipe is sweet enough. It's pretty good, but I think I will up the maple syrup and brown sugar to a full cup each.

Stir it all together, and bake at 300F for 30-45 minutes. Till it's as crunchy and golden as you like it! Mmmmmmmmm....

Read more!

Dem Bones: Beef Broth

Turn your heads, gentle vegetarian readers, turn your heads. I just had to share the delightful bubbling mess that's been brewing in our house for, oh, the last three days. We buy much of our meat from Polyface Farms, including some hot-damn hot dogs. In addition to really tasty grass-fed meat and the world's most delectable grub-fed chicken eggs, they helpfully sell giant sacks of beef bones, as well. I've been following Sally Fallon's recipe (well, pretty closely) and thought you might want the lowdown on how you, too, can make your own bone broth without too much trouble.

Define "trouble"...is it a recipe you can make in one day or in three, depending on what suits your schedule? Not in my book. That's what I love about this broth. It just gets better the longer you ignore it and let it simmer undisturbed. Let it cook for as little as 12 hours or as long as you like (if you keep adding water, all will be well...obviously, you don't want to cook off all of your broth and let the bones char to the bottom of the pot, not that I have done that, and to be honest, Fallon gives you a three day window which I have blatantly overshot in the past with no injury).

Here's the basics: take your knuckle bones and almost-meatless bones and throw them in big stockpots with enough water to cover them and 1/2 cup vinegar per pot. You're going to add some vegetables so don't fill the pots to the brim. Let the vinegar-water-bones mixture sit for an hour. While that's sitting, take the meaty bones and brown them in a 350 degree (F) oven for awhile so you get nice brown bits. Scrape as many of those bits off the pan and put the whole mess in your pots on top of the stove. Chop up a big onion, a couple carrots, and some celery for each pot. Grind some green peppercorns and throw some thyme sprigs into each pot. Bring each giant vat to a boil. During this first boil, spoon off the bubbly goo that rises to the top of the water and discard it. Then, bring the heat down as low as you can go and let your bones simmer. Make sure you throw in a bunch of parsley and let it simmer for 10 minutes before you're ready to finish your broth.

Whenever is convenient to be handling giant pots of lava-temperature bones, fish them out with a slotted spoon. Use a colander to contain the mess. It's pretty revolting-looking stuff. If you want, you can take a knife and dig the marrow out of the bones to eat on a piece of toast; it's tasty and quite good for you, too, if Fallon's to be believed. I like to think of it as showing some reverence for the animal, too, to be eating up every last scrap. Anyhoo, get rid of the overcooked veggies and bones (trash 'em, or feed the super-soft veggies to a baby and let a deserving canine gnaw on a bone or two) and let your broth cool in the fridge.

When it's got a rock solid layer of congealed fat (beef tallow? anyone making soap? no? just old-school McDonald's fries?) on top, take it out and save the fat to feed to the birds (perhaps in a suet holder, I gotta ask my dad). I used to chuck the tallow! See how blogging helps me grow? Now I know I can feed that fat to the birds! Ahem. Then strain your broth through cheesecloth, store it in glass mason jars (leave at least 1 1/2 inches at the top for expansion or they'll explode) and put your broth in the freezer.

Use your broth for a delicious stew or soup base, or the foundation for rockin' gravy. I don't use beef stock to cook rice or couscous, but if you do the chicken bones version, it's delightful cooked into grains.

Hope you all are getting to hang with the people you love and tackle interesting, high maintenance projects yourself this weekend as we remember those who have given so much so that we can putter in peace.



P.S. If you live in NoVa, apparently you can buy Polyface meat at the Arlington farmer's market; I dunno about honkin' bags of bones, but it's worth asking.... Read more!

Make Your Own Fingerpaints (Wholesome Handprint Goodness)

Make your own nontoxic finger paints with this recipe from planet green. I adapted the recipe to use natural dyes but you could use food coloring. We've only made pink (smirk) with beet juice* 'cause we are waiting for the opportune carrot and blueberry moments to make orange and blue. No matter; rose rocked!


One cool thing about this recipe is that you can make it without flour, so kids who have gluten sensitivity can still play.


DIY Fingerpaint

2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 cups water including beet, carrot, or blueberry juice as dye
1/4 cup liquid dishwashing soap (add after cooking!!)



1. Mix the sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan and slowly stir in the water.

2. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture is a clear, smooth gel. Stir in the soap and remove from the heat. When cool enough to handle, scoop it into storage containers.




*In case you're curious about the origin of our beet juice, the way I cook beets is to put about a half inch or an inch of water in the bottom of a slow cooker or a stockpot and slowly steam/parboil the beets until soft. When you take your beets out to devour with olive oil, sea salt and lemon, you have plenty of dye left over for art projects. Throw it in the fridge until you want to use it. I like the beet juice because it's a cooking byproduct and therefore not wasteful. If anyone has any other ideas for easy, natural dyes, I'm all ears. Read more!

scritch scratch

These recipes completely fit my worldview. We should be able to eat comfort food, delicious, not-particularly nutritionally admirable food (ok, not plants), without worrying about evil ingredients far worse than a little sugar or fat (what, really, is Velveeta? cheese food? and why did anyone create partially hydrogenated vegetable oil when sticks of butter are there for the melting? c'mon...PHVO! faux!). I so totally am going to make the following...

via A Mighty Appetite, a recipe for queso without the Velveeta

via not martha, recipe for homemade samoas at baking bites (you know, the most universally beloved of the Girl Scout Cookies? and depending on the caramels you choose to bake with, you can avoid trans fats despite the worthless Girl Scout cookie vendors who decided to stick with the original scary-ass artery clogging ingredients)

Just to rant, altho the Samoas cookie box may say "trans-fat free" that's just a loophole; anything under half a gram of trans fats doesn't count for labeling purposes. CSPI captures my dilemma nicely (emphasis mine):

That's something for cookie fans to keep in mind as they open a box, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"If it says zero grams, but contains partially hydrogenated oil, people should know it does contain a little bit of trans fat," Jacobson said. "If somebody ate several servings of those foods a day, someone could consume 2 or 3 grams of trans fat, which is significant."

If someone ate, say, a row of Samoas at a time? Because a serving of Samoas is only two measly cookies. If someone tended to purchase, oh, a case of Samoas at a time, much to the delight of the local Brownie troop? That someone should make their own Samoas! I hear that unlike PHVO! faux! untouchables, butter-laden cookies are best eaten in multiples. Ahem.

And since really I am just a hair away from Little House on the Prairie myself, here are a couple utilitarian recipes I want to share that I've used for the past five years (read: since kids) to save time, $, and stay whole-grain. I may love the (organic) Fatty McFat cheese dip (fats are good for brain development!) but I avoid the White Flour like the plague. Inconsistent, yes, I know.

I originally got these bulk recipes during a short-lived Flylady fascination, but the titles are links to the original recipes, which belong to Leanne Ely over at Saving Dinner. I've adapted them but they are pretty close to hers, which teach you how to make your own breakfast mixes. In general, I am indebted to Leanne for introducing me to whole wheat pastry flour -- substituting it for white flour in pretty much any recipe gives you the whole grains without the heaviness of plain whole wheat flour. I might even try to use it in the Samoas recipe....

Pancake/waffle mix:

8 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (stone ground)
1 1/2 cups oatmeal (blend in your blender till powdered)
5 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons salt

This will make four quarts. Mix all together in a very large bowl and divvy up into gallon sized freezer storage bags. Mark the date with a Sharpie pen and keep it in the freezer. Write the following instructions right on the bag.

To make pancakes or waffles:

1 cup pancake mix
1 egg
1/2 to 2/3 cup milk (start with the lesser amount first and add if you need to)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, stir mix with milk, egg and vegetable oil. Heat your griddle and make your pancakes as usual! To make waffles, double the batter. We are pretty big fans of adding a cup of frozen blueberries to the batter.

***
Basic Muffin Mix
Makes 11 cups

8 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg

Combine everything in a large bowl and divide into freezer zipper topped bags. Mark date with a Sharpie pen and store in the freezer or cool dry place. Write following directions on the bag:

To make muffins:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together 3 cups baking mix, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup berries, raisins, chocolate chips or whatever else you'd like.

Bake in a prepared muffin pan-that means lightly greased, filling cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely browned. Cool for five minutes in the pan then turn out on to a rack to cool. Makes about 12 muffins, depending on the size of your muffin tin. Read more!