I picked Bartlett pears Gravenstein apples for the first time with the Portland Fruit Tree Project at a farm in Hillsboro, OR. That was a fun experience. Volunteers are allowed to take 10# of each type of fruit picked, but is an excessive amount for me to process into something tastier. Gravensteins are eating apples and might be good for cooking, but they are rather sour -- like they're a cross between a honeycrisp for size and water content and a granny smith on the sour and hard texture side.
This year I tried to can hatch chilies. If you keep them in a closed plastic bag in the refrigerator door (warmer part of the fridge), the fresh chilies keep for a few weeks. I made a really good tomato-based salsa with half as many pounds of tomatoes as last year's batch and the same amount of jalapenos; so, extra kick and less added salt. I ate a quart of it before canning.
Here's what I made this year:
6 pints spicy tomato salsa (no onion, no red jalapeno, 2 tbsp less salt)
6.5 pints Gravenstein apple sauce (slightly sour)
4 half pints organic no-sugar added applesauce, yellow delicious - homegrown apples
8 pints apple butter - red winesap apples
Four 4 oz jars green hatch chilies
2 half pints dill pickles
And for the fridge because I ran out of pint jars:
1 quart dill pickles
1 quart organic dill carrots
Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms
This is one of my mom's recipes and it came out looking and tasting quite nice.
Ingredients
1 lb fresh shitake mushrooms
1/2 lb ground pork
8 large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Shaoxing red rice wine
3 stalks green onions, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 F.
0. Wash and remove stems from the shitake mushrooms. Reserve stems for later.
1. Chop raw shrimp into small pieces. Mix together with ground pork, green onions, ginger, cornstarch, Shaoxing rice wine, and soy sauce.
2. Fill each mushroom cap with a tablespoon of the mixture.
3. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and drizzle some olive oil on top, and return to the oven for another 3 minutes.
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| Ready to eat: Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms |
1 lb fresh shitake mushrooms
1/2 lb ground pork
8 large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Shaoxing red rice wine
3 stalks green onions, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 F.
0. Wash and remove stems from the shitake mushrooms. Reserve stems for later.
1. Chop raw shrimp into small pieces. Mix together with ground pork, green onions, ginger, cornstarch, Shaoxing rice wine, and soy sauce.
2. Fill each mushroom cap with a tablespoon of the mixture.
3. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and drizzle some olive oil on top, and return to the oven for another 3 minutes.
Stovetop Popcorn
When I think about kitchen appliances, I still don't own nor use a microwave for cooking; mostly because microwaves (and dishwashers) are energy hogs. Making popcorn this way is not any healthier than preparing that microwavable stuff. A quarter cup of coconut oil has roughly 470 calories. This recipe ratio makes about 5 quarts of popped corn.
I used an 8 quart stockpot with its lid to make this. I suppose you could use Alton Brown's method and use two heavy gauge metal mixing bowls instead.
Ingredients
1/4 c organic coconut oil
2/3 c organic popping corn kernels
Directions
0. Add coconut oil and 3 corn kernels to a stockpot and cover with its lid. Heat on stove over medium-high heat until the kernels pop.
1. Remove popped corn from pot. Add remainder of corn kernels. Cover with lid. Occasionally shake the pot (side-to-side, or in a swirl motion) as the kernels are popping.
2. Turn off heat as soon as the kernels slow down to one or two pops. Use a measuring cup or shake popped corn out into a serving bowl.
Kitchen Notes:
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| Stovetop Popcorn: what you see is what you get |
I used an 8 quart stockpot with its lid to make this. I suppose you could use Alton Brown's method and use two heavy gauge metal mixing bowls instead.
Ingredients
1/4 c organic coconut oil
2/3 c organic popping corn kernels
Directions
0. Add coconut oil and 3 corn kernels to a stockpot and cover with its lid. Heat on stove over medium-high heat until the kernels pop.
1. Remove popped corn from pot. Add remainder of corn kernels. Cover with lid. Occasionally shake the pot (side-to-side, or in a swirl motion) as the kernels are popping.
2. Turn off heat as soon as the kernels slow down to one or two pops. Use a measuring cup or shake popped corn out into a serving bowl.
Kitchen Notes:
- the popcorn has a lightly greasy feel to it (from the coconut oil)
- eaten plain, popcorn can make you feel hungrier
- there are 1-2 tablespoons of unpopped kernels leftover
Kitchen Notes: Measuring Flour
All this time I've been using the scoop+level method for measuring flour, meaning getting a cup of flour at a time from the container of flour then leveling it off with a straight edge. The alternate way, as suggested by most baking sites is to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level it off. And, if you are a master baker like Martha Stewart, you can just eyeball it with the scoop and shake method (no leveling off). Food Network suggests to scoop then level off dry ingredients. Local IoT app maker, Perfect Company, combines a digital scale with Bluetooth technology that walks users through guided measuring and baking steps. The rationale against the scoop+level method is that the flour gets compacted. Is an extra 20 g of flour that big of a deal?
Visually it all looks the same. Though, when weighed, it's not all the same. Today's measurements with a digital kitchen scale (100% humidity outside):
1 cup of all-purpose flour =
Visually it all looks the same. Though, when weighed, it's not all the same. Today's measurements with a digital kitchen scale (100% humidity outside):
1 cup of all-purpose flour =
| Sample | Scoop+Level | Spoon+Level | ||
| 1 | 153 g | 139 g | ||
| 2 | 149 g | 129 g | ||
| 3 | 156 g | 136 g |
I have noticed over the years that when making cookies, I often have a lot more flour leftover in the mixing bowl; though this was more prevalent in southern California where the air is dry nearly year-round.
But, when looking at online recipes by others, the dry ingredient units vary--even from the same author.
| AB | measure | suspected | ||
| sugar cookies | 3 cups AP flour | volume | ||
| oatmeal cookies | 16 oz old fashioned rolled oats | weight | ||
| lentil cookies | 9.5 oz whole wheat pastry flour (about 2 c flour) | weight | ||
| vanilla wafers | 7 oz AP flour | weight |
Apple Bread Pudding with Apple Cider Sauce
This year I planned to do a pumpkin bread pudding, but alas, had no pumpkin puree to work with. I also didn't get around to the store to pick up bread, so I made it that morning using the no knead dutch oven bread recipe (a basic bread). The custard part of the bread pudding came out fine; but the exposed part of the bread above the custard seemed dried out.. like I should not have tried to dry out the bread before adding the custard by baking it for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Twice baked bread doesn't quite make the texture of dry, stale bread. Anyhow, onto the recipe...
Bread Pudding Ingredients
1 load white bread, cubed
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced + 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 1/2 c whole milk
1 c raw apple cider
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bread Pudding Directions
1. In a nonstick skillet, heat apple with ground cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until the apples are tender.
2. Butter a 9" x 13" glass baking dish. Add apple and cubed bread, distributing both evenly in a single layer.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, apple cider, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs. This is the custard base. Pour it over the cubed bread. Be sure to dunk all the bread into the custard mixture. Refrigerate dish for 1 hour before baking. This will help to flavor the milk and eggs with the apple cinnamon.
4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and drizzle on apple cider sauce.
Caramel Apple Cider Sauce - this was the sauce I made for the bread pudding; and the ratios seemed off. One, the caramel part of the sauce was too watery and I never got to the dark amber part. The heavy cream and the caramel separate if you let the sauce sit to cool down from the stove to room temperature. Two, the sauce was ridiculously sweet; and three, it made too much. To keep myself from re-making this awful sauce, I am posting an alternate Apple Cider Sauce recipe to pair with the bread pudding.
Apple Cider Sauce:
1 c apple cider
1 tsp cornstarch + 2 tsp cold water
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp bourbon (or apple schnapps), optional
In a small prep bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water before adding to the apple cider. Bring cider and butter to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the cornstarch and let the mixture thicken. Stir in bourbon (if using) and cook for an additional 30 seconds; remove from heat and pour on top of bread pudding.
The recipe ratio of the cider sauce can be doubled, if necessary.
Bread Pudding Ingredients
1 load white bread, cubed
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced + 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 1/2 c whole milk
1 c raw apple cider
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bread Pudding Directions
1. In a nonstick skillet, heat apple with ground cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until the apples are tender.
2. Butter a 9" x 13" glass baking dish. Add apple and cubed bread, distributing both evenly in a single layer.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, apple cider, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs. This is the custard base. Pour it over the cubed bread. Be sure to dunk all the bread into the custard mixture. Refrigerate dish for 1 hour before baking. This will help to flavor the milk and eggs with the apple cinnamon.
4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and drizzle on apple cider sauce.
Caramel Apple Cider Sauce - this was the sauce I made for the bread pudding; and the ratios seemed off. One, the caramel part of the sauce was too watery and I never got to the dark amber part. The heavy cream and the caramel separate if you let the sauce sit to cool down from the stove to room temperature. Two, the sauce was ridiculously sweet; and three, it made too much. To keep myself from re-making this awful sauce, I am posting an alternate Apple Cider Sauce recipe to pair with the bread pudding.
Apple Cider Sauce:
1 c apple cider
1 tsp cornstarch + 2 tsp cold water
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp bourbon (or apple schnapps), optional
In a small prep bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water before adding to the apple cider. Bring cider and butter to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the cornstarch and let the mixture thicken. Stir in bourbon (if using) and cook for an additional 30 seconds; remove from heat and pour on top of bread pudding.
The recipe ratio of the cider sauce can be doubled, if necessary.
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