Recent Kitchen Endeavors

Wow, what’s this – posting two days in a row?  It’s like I’m on a roll or something…

http://justanotherdayoutwest.com/recent-kitchen-endeavors/

How to deal with mud.

How to deal with mud?  Don’t.  Yesterday I was thinking it would be dry enough to work the footing in the arena and work some horses today.  Wrong.  It took until at least noon for the ground to thaw.   Which means the moisture didn’t start moving through the ground until then.  This is what it looked like at 2:00 in the afternoon.

Yummy, standing water with mud underneath.  I tried walking in the arena and realized I would definitely get the tractor stuck out there.   Maybe tomorrow I can work horses.

Here’s how my day started.  Bruce wanted out first thing, so I let him out the front door and saw that my chickens were roaming about.  Crap!  I forgot to close them in last night.  I treat the flock of hens with the rooster kind of like a Koi pond.  I don’t have a specific count of how many there are, but as a unit they should have a certain look.  As near as I can tell they still look the same, so I’m under the impression none were lost to coyotes.

Then I went out back to let Karat out of her stall.  (She is being prepped for the breeding season by keeping her under lights for part of the night, simulating summer light which makes her body think it is breeding season.)  As I stepped out the door, a little yellow head was in the pen directly behind the house.  Exactly where it didn’t belong.  There was also a small sorrel and bay out there.  Yes, the babies (yearlings) had gotten into the pasture with two of the older horses.  As I held my breath to prepare for the worst – blood, babies being crashed into fences by bigger/older horses, miles of fence down – I realized there was no catastrophe.  In fact the palomino filly was holding her own with Ki.  (She’s so in love with him.)  The colts were sticking to themselves.

I traipsed out to put the babies back where they belonged and at least put a band-aid on the fence.  There was mud right by the barn where they all hang out.  Once I was thirty feet away from there the ground was frozen with a nice crust of snow on top still.  The colts came running up to me.  Probably trying to tattle on the filly, that it was her fault the fence was broken and it was her idea that they should all be in the same pen with the grown up horses and it was because of her that they couldn’t figure out how to get back to their pen.  Uh-huh, yeah, sure.  After I got everyone sorted out to where they were supposed to be, I did a red-neck fix on the fence.  It held through the day.  Fixing fence is someone else’s department and they didn’t get to it.  Maybe tomorrow, huh?

This is what you do when you are a princess filly after you got to run around with the big horses and seriously flirt with your crush earlier in the day.

You nap on a bed of hay the colts made,

and eat some when you feel like it.  BTW, don’t you just love the look of a muddy horse!  I have no idea how she got her hip that covered in mud.

So what did I do all day?  I made stuff in the kitchen.  I knew it was cold enough in the morning that I could concoct things until noonish.  I watched for the snow to melt off the driveway.  When that happened I went out to see if there was any possible hope for the day.  Not seeing any, I took pictures of mud and a muddy baby horse.

So here’s what I made and what I thought of it.

BarBQ Pulled Chicken to make into sandwiches for dinner.  I’d include a link, but I just kind of throw stuff in the crock pot for this and stop when it smells good.  This one had about three or four pounds of chicken thighs (skin on, bone in), a can of pineapple tidbits, a roughly chopped red onion, a yellow bell pepper, a red bell pepper, about 5 cloves of garlic, a bottle of BarBQ sauce, a bottle of hard cider and a jalapeno pepper.  I shouldn’t have used as much liquid (probably could have eliminated most of the cider) as it turned out soupy.  Good, but soupy.

Scotch Eggs.  Sausage and egg married together in loving harmony.  The first place I saw this was in the 30-page sample of Well Fed.  Then I saw a slightly different version at Mark’s Daily Apple.  The version I made was closer to the one at MDA.  I think next time I will try to just bake them like Melissa does in Well Fed.  Not that I mind frying things up a bit, but I had them in the oven for about 20 minutes anyhow before the sausage was cooked even with frying them to start with.  Why bother with grease and potential grease burns (or actual ones, like I wound up with) if it doesn’t hurry things up.

You need to know that I don’t care much for hard-boiled eggs.  Just have never been something that I enjoy.  In a salad they’re ok.  Sort of.  Sometimes I avoid salads that have hard-boiled eggs in them.  These were really good.  I ate one warm in a bowl, it would have been great with a little bit of ranch or mayo.  I used chorizo sausage which added tons of flavor and pretty well masked the stinky boiled egg-ness of it.  I have leftovers for breakfast tomorrow and will likely make them again.

Yesterday (I think, but it might have been the day before) I saw this recipe for Flourless Crack Brownies.  Pretty much any combination of chocolate and peanut butter has me thinking it will be a good thing.  What I love about this recipe and how Brittany has it laid out is that it is so flexible.  Also, the options.  The options that she says are ok and that she encourages you to do what you need to do are awesome!  Yumminess.  Mine were made with normal powdered sugar (trying to use it up and get it out of the house) and mostly almond butter, but didn’t quite have enough so I added a little bit of peanut butter from the near empty jar that I’m planning to not replace when it’s all gone, also I used gluten free oats (again, trying to use them up and get them gone – now that I’m not making granola for my mornings).  I think I shall now semi-worship Brittany as a kind, helpful kitchen goddess.  She has tons of other recipes that look absolutely amazing.  I also love that she is not at all fazed by someone being upset at her calling these Crack Brownies.  Seriously, some people need to get a sense of humor and a life.

I’m almost positive that either part of this recipe could stand on it’s own.  The brownie part would be a flourless tort.  It would be way better and cheaper than the semi-ok one they sell at Trader Joe’s.  The Nut Butter topping would totally work as no bake cookies.  In fact one thing to note in making these is to not mix the topping up too early.  I would suggest timing it be ready as you take the brownies out.  If not, do not sample it, unless you have very good self-control.  I had to walk out of the kitchen and wait for the timer on the brownies, other wise I was going to just set there and pick away at that nutty delicious mess until it was all gone.  Needless to say, the finished combination is heavenly and is calling me back for another bite right now.

Finally, I made grain free flat bread to use as buns for my BarBQ sandwich.  Stupid easy and quick to make, I just mixed mine in a measuring cup and really followed directions (for once!).  They did spread and poof up a little.  I like coconut, I just wasn’t expecting to taste it here.  Not because I didn’t think the taste would carry through, but because I was expecting (normal) buns.  Totally my screw up for having wrong expectations.  These did a good job of sopping up the extra liquid of the BarBQ.  I think for me to love these I need to use expeller pressed coconut oil, to cut down some on the coconutty taste.

Oh and I threw together cole-slaw quick too.  Don’t be too impressed, the cabbage was prepared (from a bag) and the dressing was store bought.  It hit the spot with the chicken though.

I’m off to double check that all my birds are locked up for the night.

Had to share this…

Having been through the grief process several times in my life because of the loss of people (and animals, they are people too), and more recently realizing that any change I put myself through can create a grieving process, this post on grieving over food at Whole9 rang very true.

Now please note that I have not gone through their Whole30 program, a 30 day challenge to clean up your eating habits.  It is on my radar.  Once I get past a bit more of my grief over gluten, I’m thinking I’ll go ahead with it.  (On missing gluten, I do not miss what it does to my body.  I do miss buying the fresh loaf of french bread while it’s still warm and smelling its sweetness the whole drive home then tearing a chunk off it and slathering it in butter.)

Meanwhile, I am pushing myself a bit more to go grain free.  Today I succeeded.  I failed though at eliminating sugars and chocolate.  Failed big time.

Tomorrow is a new day with a clean slate.  Sort of a clean slate, I actually have a few things planned food wise that fall within the clean eating realm.  What I am doing in effect is narrowing my diet down to the restricted Whole 30 program.  Probably not the way to do it.  (In fact their instructions are very clear to just start in on it, now.)   In a way it reminds me of the people who can’t/won’t get up to speed to merge on the freeway and nearly causing a pile-up on the on ramp while someone in the lane they want to merge into is slowing down to let them in nearly causing a wreck on the freeway.  Sound familiar to anyone in Portland?

I think I’m stuck at number 3 on the list.  Bargaining.  A lot.  If I give up all grains can I can have chocolate?  If I bake with good ingredients I can have a cookie?  If it is consumed with alcohol it doesn’t count at all right?  (My logic here is that alcohol is flammable, so in the metabolism of my body burning up that fuel the alcohol just goes right up in flames taking everything consumed with it, with it.  Faulty logic you say?   You say that’s right up there with broken cookies don’t count because all the calories fall out when they break.  Hmm, way to be a friend.)  No matter how I try, if I’m making compromises its like I’m stepping on the accelerator while I’m holding the emergency brake and I still haven’t let the clutch out.  Not. making. any. progress.

What I’m trying to say, is whether you embrace a Paleo-ish diet, or Gluten Free, or anything other than what is considered the Standard American Diet the post on grief is helpful.  Go read it.  For me, it’s shining light on some BS I’ve been feeding myself for the past couple of months.  I know what I need to do, I just want to be able to eat like I used to.

OMG… you gotta try this.

Ok, I wound up with a chocolate craving tonight.  No idea why this time.  Just wanted a quick fix.  So I was scanning through recipes and found this: quick pudding recipe at Tropical Traditions.  Please be warned that it is decadent.  I’m including a link for their Coconut Cream Concentrate (below) as that is the one thing that might be tricky to find at the store.  Actually, I really like their Virgin Coconut Oil too.  If you follow the Coconut Cream Concentrate link and purchase anything from them, they will include a handy book all about Coconut Oil.

1-Pint (16-oz) – Coconut Cream Concentrate

Of course,  me being me, I had to wing it a bit with the recipe.  I did not want to take the time to warm the concentrate or the oil prior to mixing it in, so I just put the whole mess over a small pot of water and the stove and made like a double boiler.  Because it was all warm after that I stuck it in the fridge for all of about ten minutes (tops was fifteen mins.)  If you leave it in the fridge too long, it will solidify completely giving you fudge.  I added some shredded/flaked (unsweetened – also from Tropical Traditions) and mixed it in.  Something like a Pots de Creme/Chocolate Mousse with coconut.  Abs. O. Lute. Ly.  Heavenly.  Or, utterly sinful.  Certain boundaries get blurry for me where chocolate is concerned.

At some point in the next week or so, I’m thinking of telling you how my gluten-free kitchen is stocked.

Full disclosure:  the Coconut Cream Concentrate link is part of a referral program they offer.  For each order placed using that link, I get credit with them.  To my way of thinking it’s a win/win… you get something good for you (all the products from them have been superb), plus a free book – and I get to buy more goodies from them.  Details on this.   Really truly though, everything about this company seems good.

Craving chocolate

So, the thing is I am trying to post every day.  I figure if I’m going to do this, I should do it right.  Which for me means I need to do it everyday otherwise it will fall by the wayside.  Then three months later I will check in and be shamed that I just let it all drop.  However, yesterday did not go as planned.  In the morning I had this lovely thought train going about why I am doing this blogging thing and was planning to share it.  By the end of the day I was kind of worn out and then there were the connectivity problems.  Just about the time my MiFi would connect it would somehow not be connected.  Gotta be the sunspots.  That combination (tired and internet issues and my, um, distractability) meant that post didn’t happen yesterday.  In fact, by the end of the day that post was gone from my mind.  Nothing concrete was replacing it, but odds are good it would have been whiny.  Probably things worked out for the best as I know no one wanted to read my whining.

That brings us to today.  No whining today.  Very, very happy.  Got my first ride in the new pen today.  It works just fine.  There is plenty of room to get a green one kicked up to a lope, but not so much room that they are tempted to be stupid.  More riding planned for tomorrow.   There are at least four horses I need to work, two of them need ridden.  Also happy that the back cinch and billets I ordered to match my Martin saddle came today too.  Now I have an extra work saddle and can accomplish more.  More!  Can you here the horses, they are all so excited.  That’s half true.  As soon as Kanak saw the halter in my hand today he was running across his pen.  “We get to do something?  I get to work?  What are we gonna do?  I’m so excited!”  He is a dork, but a happy dork.  At the other end of the spectrum was Ki, his older half-brother, who conveniently angled himself so that getting out the barn door was a challenge, as he has to do an immediate 90 degree turn to come out the barn.  He just stood there and looked at me, “but I can’t you see.  There is just no way I can make that sharp of a turn and pick my feet up over the threshold of the door.  It can not be done.”  With a little encouragement he realized it was possible, quite simple and very easy.

Onto the cravings.  Usually for me chocolate cravings happen for two reasons – my world has gone to shit or my hormone system is under demonic possession.  Tonight I am craving chocolate.  As you can surmise, my world is good.  Cravings caused by option number two.  Normally, I have chocolate stashed somewhere in the house.  It seems that all known easy chocolate supplies have been exhausted.  That means no chocolate chips anywhere.  That means no instant chocolate fix by grabbing a handful (or three) of chocolate chips.  That also means I can’t bake chocolate chip cookies to try to cure the craving.  Uh-oh, I had to get resourceful.   Just out of the oven is a batch of brownies.  Gluten free of course.  Recipe here.  As usual, I made substitutions.  Traded honey for the brown rice syrup. Only had unsweetened chocolate.  Didn’t have enough regular brown sugar, so subbed one cup of Sugar In the Raw.  Added a teaspoon of almond extract, because I like it.  Didn’t have any heavy cream so used coconut milk instead.

One thing that I think is great about this recipe is except for the brown rice syrup and coconut flour all the ingredients are pretty standard pantry items.  And even I used a different sweetener, because I keep honey, maple syrup and regular sugar on hand.  I could rant about all these sugar alternatives, but the long and short of it is I understand why some people want to avoid too much sugar and I am not one of them. It’s not that I think too much sugar isn’t a problem.  Just that I’m not going trade a fairly natural sweetener for some chemically concocted thing that may or may not have health consequences that we’ll all find out about ten years down the road.  I’ll stick with the devil I know, thank you very much.

Because of the lack of cream, I had an opened can of coconut milk.  At first I thought I would just make whipped cream out of it and throw that on top of the brownies.  Then I decided to make frosting. I am all out of powdered sugar, so couldn’t make a version of butter cream.  Elana’s Pantry Coconut Cream Frosting looked like it would work, with a substitution or two.  Oh man, am I really that bad?  It seems I am unable to follow a recipe exactly.  About those substitutions, the only thing I didn’t have was agave nectar.  Instead I did equal parts honey and maple syrup.  Then I added vanilla and almond extract.  Why?  Because I like it.  Didn’t we just go over this?

My only problem with the frosting recipe is it requires time to cool and harden.  Sometimes, I’m not so patient.  This is one of those evenings.  Two shots of rum later (with other stuff mixed in) the frosting was ready to whip and put on the brownies.  One of these days we’ll have a chat about how to mix the yummiest, froo-frooiest rum drink.  Meanwhile, here’s pictures of the brownies.

This was my first attempt at gluten free brownies from scratch.  These are by far better than the Betty Crocker mix available at stores.  While that mix is faster and has done for me in a pinch, it has an odd aftertaste.  Truth is these have a (very!) mild coconut flavor.  I’m pretty used to that now.  My only issue with this batch of brownies is that they are slightly dry/crumbly.  Not sure if someone who didn’t know what was used in these, or hadn’t had similar baked goods before, would notice anything other than they are dry.  I don’t have an unsuspecting guinea pig handy to confirm this though.  I’m thinking of adding some mini-chocolate chips next time.  It is also possible (gasp!) that I over-baked them.  About the frosting, remember my lack of patience tonight?  Well, I didn’t let it cool completely before I was out of all patience and decided it had to be done.  So my frosting is much more of a glaze.  It works.  It tastes good. It may help keep the brownies moist and less crumbly, since I baked them for too long.  Chocolate craving cured.  For now.

Adding a quick note:  The next day I couldn’t detect the coconut flour.  That first night I could taste/tell the texture of the coconut flour.  After that, it seemed to fade into the brownie.  I am likely to make these again.