Zero for Two

Well, I'm having the best of luck in the kitchen lately.  A little awhile ago, I made vinegar instead of the dark ale the recipe was for. So that's my adventures in brewing. During this time, I've also been canning food because that's a good way to save food. Especially useful with the amount of food we get from the food co-op. Tomatoes, pickles, and fruit jelly are the most common items to can. my last batch of jelly didn't turn out well. What you're supposed to do is mash the fruit with sugar to make a syrup and then the syrup is supposed to set as it goes into the jars. In this latest batch, the syrup never set and I don't know why. It's still strawberry syrup so it's not like the whole batch has to be thrown out. It's just one of those things that I'll have to try again with more berries some other time. Oh well.

Seedy

For many reasons, I've decided to reduce how much food I waste.  I compost almost all of my kitchen scraps which then becomes soil to grow more vegetables in the garden.  I am also using more of everything, like getting a week's worth of meals from a single chicken.  Something I've started recently is roasting seeds.
Pumpkins and other gourds like squash make edible seeds and planting just a few can lead to a bountiful harvest. The remainder of the seeds can be roasted for a nutritious snack.  I've been doing it with every spaghetti squash I get from the food co-op and the effort is well worth it.

Step One

Sterilize everything... no, not really.  But I'll never retire a good running gag.  My first step to roasting seeds is to brine them.  Scoop out the pulp and seeds from the gourd.  Pumpkin, squash, sunflowers obviously, and even some melons yield seeds suitable for roasting.  

Wash and separate the seeds from the pulp.  Take the pulp out to the compost and soak the seeds in salt water.  Two cups of water to one tablespoon of salt is a good ratio but you can adjust this for taste.  You can even replace the table salt with a salt based flavoring like Old Bay.  Brining the seeds soaks flavor into the seed rather than sprinkling it on the surface after roasting.  

Soak the seeds any time from overnight to 24 hours or so.

Step Two

Before taking out the seeds, preheat the oven to 300 ^oF.  Now that the seeds have soaked overnight, drain and rinse the seeds and decide on a flavor.  The seeds will be damp after rinsing but don't pat them with paper towels; the seeds will stick to the towel.
I've found that the most effective way to flavor seeds is to toss them in a bag with flavoring.  Any powdered spice will work.  Remember they'll already be slightly salty from the brine.

• Old Bay is a Chesapeake regional classic.
• Go with Hatch, NM, chili powder for pepper heads like me.  
• Garam masala makes an Indian inspired snack.
• Use oregano and parmesan for Italian flavor.
• Barbeque flavor can be yours with brown sugar, chipotle pepper, and ground cumin.
• Or just leave the seeds brine salted.

Spread seeds evenly on a cookie sheet one layer thick.  If you have a lot of seeds, use several cookie sheets.
Roast the seeds for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Step Three

Eat and enjoy.  Gourd and melon seeds are high in dietary fiber along with many essential minerals influenced by the soil they're grown in.  Roasted seeds are a very healthy snack and making them yourself lets you limit things like sodium that overwhelms store-bought snacks.  

Gizmo Likes Bread, Too

In the foreground is a loaf of the trencher bread I made.  In case you wanted to know what it looks like being eaten by a greedy cat.

Winter Stew

Here's another article in my cooking series.  This one covers a stew I like to make and like even more to eat.

Stew's on

Ingredients

For the stew in the photo above I used chicken stock, potatoes, carrots, peas, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, bacon, and Country Gravy mix.  The amounts needed depend on your inventory and number of guests.  I used about two cups of stock, one cup of peas, one pound of bacon, one good sized onion, several hefty carrots and potatoes, and one head of garlic.  

There are numerous places in this recipe to make substitutions or additions.  For example, any broth or stock you have on hand is the right kind to use here.  Swap out the meat stock with vegetable stock and leave out the bacon for a vegetarian stew.  Also, I used gravy mix from the grocery store but flour or corn starch will also thicken up the stew.  

Directions

Prepare your ingredients.  Cube the potatoes, slice the carrot and onion, mince the garlic. 

Put the potatoes on to boil in the chicken stock.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Mash the potatoes when they are soft.  

Brown the bacon in a skillet and set it aside.  Saute the onions and garlic in the skillet.  

Add peas and carrots to the potatoes in the stock.  Return to a boil then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until done.

Add onion, garlic, bacon, and stir in gravy mix.  Stew will thicken.  Serve with bread.

This warm hearty stew straight from the root cellar has everything a working Viking needs to raid on through the winter.  

Stock Up

I don't buy cuts of chicken from the grocery store anymore.  I prefer whole birds because they are much more versatile.  A whole chicken can provide several more meals after the meat is consumed.  This applies to any bird; chicken, turkey, duck, or goose all work for this.  Don't settle for just the meat off the bones.
After dressing the bird, put the carcass in a stock pot, cover it with water, and put it on to a low boil.  Boil until everything falls apart then strain out the bones and other solids and reduce the stock.

Moments later, the camera fell in.

Reduction is a cooking term which just means to keep boiling off the water to concentrate a liquid and reduce its volume.  Since this recipe started with enough water to cover the bird in a stock pot we can get a reduction down to easily half the original volume.  For a fryer size chicken in a one gallon stock pot, I usually end up with about a quart of stock at the end.
Now this stock can be used as the base for any soup or stew recipe which calls for it.  If your three sisters harvest came up better than mine then corn, beans, and squash is a great vegetable combination to use for this.

Sun Tea

I like using old-fashioned tricks in the kitchen and occasionally coming up with a few of my own.  One of the old ones I rediscovered from my childhood is sun tea.  It's tea brewed using the heat of the sun so it's perfect here in Arizona.  The recipe is super simple, too.

Utensils

For equipment, I use a translucent one gallon pitcher, but an opaque pitcher should still work if it's dark enough to absorb sunlight.  The only other piece of equipment is a patch of ground that stays sunny all day.  Moving the pitcher around to keep it in the sun through the day is also an option.  A spoon can help stir in sugar.

Ingredients

I use eight teabags and one cup of sugar for a one gallon pitcher.  Select an inexpensive generic black tea due to needing so many.  While I prefer eight teabags per gallon, the strength of the tea can easily be adjusted.  I also add one cup of sugar after the tea has brewed but that can also be adjusted for taste.
Oh yeah, making sun tea also needs a gallon of water.  Tap, filtered, or bottled is all fine.  Obviously, if your tap water is undrinkable you'll need a gallon of bottled water.

Process

Fill the pitcher with water and hang the teabags in the water.  Place the filled pitcher in direct sunlight.  If needed, move the pitcher throughout the day to keep it in the sun.  

In strong sunlight like summer in Arizona, the tea can brew in an hour.  In weaker sunlight, the tea may need to brew all day.  

After the tea has brewed, stir in sugar and put the tea away in a refrigerator.  Take it out and enjoy at regular intervals.  

Please drink responsibly.

Hidden Toppings Pizza

I love cooking, almost as much as I love eating.  And very occasionally I will even come up with something new in the kitchen.  For example, this pizza.
Most pizzas are made in the exact same way.  Put down the dough, spread sauce on top of that, followed by cheese, then toppings.  This recipe came about because I got out of order when making a pizza and I put the toppings down right on top of the sauce before I put on the cheese.  And I decided that's not wrong.

Rolling in dough

Sanitize Everyth- no that's my other series

That's a joke from my Febrewary homebrewing series where the first step in homebrewing is to SANITIZE EVERYTHING!  We're just cooking here but you should at least wash your hands.

Getting sauced

Saucy

Here I've used a commercially available premade crust and sauce but I add extra spices like crushed red pepper flakes to the sauce before I spread it around.  That distributes the flavor nicely across the pizza.  

Top of the pops

Top it off

Now I add the large solid toppings like the pepperoni slices, olives, onion, pineapple, etc.

All covered with cheese

Hide the pepperoni

Now I add my cheese on top of the toppings.  Two cups of pizza cheese mix does a good job covering everything up.

Baked

Done

Follow the remainder of your recipe to cook the crust and melt the cheese.  The cheese itself forms a solid cap over the works like an Arctic ice floe.  And the best part is you can hide anything under the cheese.  Anchovies, sliced jalepenos, it's all fair game now.