Turkey and Mushroom Chili and Italian Bread

I made Turkey & Mushroom chili for supper tonight, along with Italian Bread (two small loaves), garlic & rosemary cheese bread, and garlic cheese bread. (I figured you've all seen my garlic cheese bread before, so I didn't take a picture of it.)

It's the best chili I've ever made. Not too sweet, not too spicy; just perfect.

Turkey & Mushroom Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb. turkey sausage, browned
1 c. slow roasted tomatoes, chopped (they were frozen)
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can black-eyed peas, drained
1/2 qt. beans from the garden (there are about 6 varieties in the bag)
1/4 c. dried mushrooms, chopped (or 1/2 c. fresh mushrooms, chopped)
1 qt. tomato juice, thawed
6 c. water (or less, depending on how thick you want your soup)
dried rosemary to taste (about 1/2 tsp.)
chili powder to taste (about 1 1/2 tsp.)
dried thyme to taste (about 1/2 tsp.)
1 tsp. honey (or to taste)
1/8 tsp. cinnamon

Combine all ingredients into 8 qt. pot or dutch oven. Cook over low heat 4-5 hours, or in slow cooker 6-8 hours. Feel free to experiment with other beans or even add veggies; I only had those types of beans on hand.

Definitely a delicious supper!

One Local Summer Meal #1

Potato, Swiss Chard, and Beet Leaf Scramble

Meal #1 for One Local Summer.

Ingredients:

1 small head of garlic, or 4 cloves
2 tbsp. olive oil (this was not local, obviously)
6 baby carrots
1 small onion
approximately 1/4 cup fresh basil (I used three kinds--Genovese, Petra, and Sweet)
8 small or new potatoes (I had yellow, red, and white)
Approximately 2 cups of swiss chard leaves and beet leaves, or spinach, or other dark leafy greens
Approximately 1 cup of swiss cheese, or your favorite local cheese (I used Amish swiss cheese from the local Amish community.)


You'll need to use a deep skillet or a shallow dutch oven or whatever you call the thing I used. :)
Over medium heat, put 2 tbsp. (or less) of olive oil in the bottom of the pan. Let it get hot, then add chopped garlic (I microwave the cloves first to get them peeled easily), the chopped onion, and chopped baby carrots. Cook this mix while you're slicing the potatoes, then add the potatoes.

Chop up the basil, and add it to the mix. Cover, and cook until potatoes are soft. Wash the swiss chard and beet leaves, and then roll them up into tubes and slice them into curls. I don't know how else to describe it! Add the swiss chard and beet leaves to the mix, and cover.

Cook for approximately 1 1/2 minutes, or until the swiss chard and beet leaves are slightly cooked but not completely wilted, if that makes sense. They'll change colors a bit too, and the potatoes will probably have little pink spots because of the beet leaves.

Add the shredded swiss cheese, cook until the cheese melts, and then serve hot. Makes 2 servings.

Very easy, very yummy, and I'm glad I made this instead! I'm definitely going to make it again. Maybe even tomorrow night. ;)

More pictures here.

Whye Bread and Salad

Earlier this week, I made four loaves of bread. Actually, five, if you count the one in the bread machine. Two white, and three (I'm not really sure what to call them--white with rye flour? Oh, I know!) Whye. :)



I made the Whye bread in my hand-crank bread maker from 1904. Three loaves at a time was a snap for it; I could have easily done five, at the very least. I'm probably going to have to freeze one loaf at least; there are two left, since I brought one to work.

Anyway, the Whye bread is absolutely scrumptious. Here is the recipe:

Whye Bread

4 1/2 cups of warm water
10 cups of bread flour
1 1/2 cups of dark rye flour
4 tsp. yeast
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste; I never put much salt in my bread)
2 tsp. sugar, honey, or other sweetener

If you're using a mixer like mine, follow the directions on the lid, which are liquids first, then dry. Crank for 3 minutes or thereabouts; the dough will form a ball and clean the sides of the bucket. Either let rise in the bucket or transfer to a large bowl. Set in a draft-free spot for about an hour, or until doubled in size. (It really depends on the temperature.)

When it has risen, punch down, form into large oblong, and cut with a sharp knife into three pieces. Form those three pieces into loaf forms, or freeform if you wish. Slash the top with a sharp knife. Be creative. Most of the books say 'slash three times' or whatever, but really, do what you want. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 30-35 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

I made a small personal pizza to go with this, since one of my loaves was a big large. It was yummy!

Tonight for supper I had a salad from my garden. The only thing not from my garden that was on the salad were the sunflower seeds and the salad dressing.

What you see:

Turnip, baby carrots, beet leaves, curly lettuce, deer tongue lettuce, the other lettuce I have in the lettuce bed, and baby peas.

It was quite delicious!

Mozarella! And more!

I am currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, et. al., and thoroughly enjoying it. In the book, she mentions Ricki Carroll, aka the "Cheese Queen". Of course I had to check it out, since I had been wondering just how difficult it is to make cheese. (Or not.)

WELL.

Some of these (especially the 30-minute Mozarella) are going on my to-do list for vacation.

Cup Cheese. Farmer's Cheese. And more! And even more!

Wow. What a great resource! And it doesn't seem so terribly difficult, either!

Evidently, Creeping Charlie (also known as ground ivy) is a source for vegetable rennet used in cheese. Now all I have to do is find out how to make that, because I have lots of ground ivy around the garden. Lots and lots and lots.

Tea!

From the left: Teavana Black Currant, Raspberry Sangria, Rose Marzipan Delight, Adagio Raspberry Patch with Oolong #8, and Teavana Thai Tea Blend. In the cup: Adagio Raspberry Patch with some Orange Pekoe tea.

Crockpot Chicken

Yesterday morning at 6:15am, I put a whole chicken in my crockpot, shook some dried herbs (basil, rosemary, garlic powder, and a seasoned salt mix that contains peppers, among other things) and turned it on low. (I added no water, because everything I read said the chicken would create its own juice.)

12 hours later, I came home to a wonderfully smelling house, a tender chicken, and a yummy supper.

The top was a bit dry. I think a bit of olive oil brushed on top at the beginning might help this; I'm going to try it next time.

But I will definitely do this again.

Barbeque chicken pizza and calzones

This was my first attempt at calzones. Obviously they didn't really work, but at least all the filling didn't escape. I ate the pizza for supper, so we'll see how the calzones taste for lunch tomorrow.

Oolong Tea

After much taste-testing, I have discovered that I really like Oolong Tea. And no, not just because the name is fun to say--Oooooolong--but because the taste is smooth and as close to my normal tea as I can get.

My normal tea is Lipton. Regular, plain old tea. Nothing fancy, nothing flavored, just tea. The tea you get in many restaurants (well, maybe not Lipton, but Orange Pekoe/Pekoe Cut black tea.)

I've tried just plain Ceylon, I've tried Darjeeling, and just about everything else, but Oolong is my favorite so far in plain teas. Which is nice, because I ordered a bigger tin of it from Adagio.

I also ordered tea from Teavana, and both boxes arrived on the same day! Wow.

Hmm.

The pizza tastes like wood-fired pizza. It definitely has a different taste than pizza on a pizza stone! I wonder why that is?

Bread and Pizza

If I ever had to go wheat free, I think I would die.

Today's bread:

This is my 'enriched' white bread. (Enriched means eggs and olive oil added.) It's quite yummy.

Pizza on a griddle.
I read about this on a website, and decided to try it with the larger griddle. I haven't eaten the pizza yet, but the crust came out very nice.

There is one more bread coming--the enriched white bread with poppyseeds, basil, oregano, and rosemary.

Bread Failure

Well, my rice wine isn't good for bread. I used it instead of water yesterday in a loaf of what was supposed to be Oatmeal/Ginger/Cinnamon bread and... ick. Just ick. I won't do that again.

It tastes so terrible that I might just make the rest of it into vinegar after all. But we'll see.

Today, I'm making a more sedate loaf, just enriched white bread (with white whole wheat flour) and I'll be making pizza dough later on, for supper.

Tea Shelf, meet Tea Cabinet

I have a tea shelf in my kitchen:

As you can see, it's getting rather full. And in fact, I can't fit the tea I bought from Adagio teas on my tea shelf, because there's not enough room. (The only thing that doesn't have tea in it on the shelf are the teapots. The box is full of tea.)

Yesterday, Dad and I went to an auction, where I found what will become my new tea cabinet:

It's a nice kitchen cabinet-type cabinet with a glass front and a drawer. The two inside shelves will be for tea. The drawer will hold tea things, like tea balls and such, and the bottom will hold the lids to my pots and pans and casseroles that are currently in drawers.

Just what I needed; more space!

Rice Wine

Well, it's finished. For having five pounds of sugar in it, it is not what anyone could call sweet. In fact, I think it's 100 proof hard liquor. I swallowed a tiny, tiny bit to my lips and just about fainted from the alcohol content. Whew! I think you could get drunk on a shot glass of this stuff. But that could be just me. :)

It was not clear. In fact, it's yellow, like watered down orange juice. Which makes sense, really; it does have three oranges in it. However, after four filterings, I was unable to get it clear enough to see through. So it will have to be cloudy. (Which is fine, because I'm not drinking it; I'm just going to cook with it or something--in fact, the rest of the wine in the bowl is going to hopefully end up as vinegar, if it doesn't contain too much alcohol.

So another experiment... but vinegar will take much longer.

Now I have to go do dishes...

Wine update

The wine smells like wine!

It changed overnight from smelling like vaguely rotten fruit to smelling like wine! (Meaning: fermented rotten fruit. *grin*)

But still--I think it worked! We'll see how things go on the weekend when I strain it, etc. I'll have to dig out that cookbook again. Boy, that was a fast three weeks.

Adagio Teas and an update on the Rice Wine

Why didn't anyone ever tell me about Adagio Teas? I stumbled across it two days ago, placed an order, and got my order today. Wow. One point in their favor.


A very good smelling order, I might add. It was all nicely packed in boxes and cute little tins (I bought mostly samples, and at $2 a piece, that is so cheap) and for the two I decided to splurge on (pomegranate and lemon at $6/each) nice UV inhibited containers.

Since this was my first order, I decided to get one of their IngenuiTEA teapots, which is really an infuser. You put the loose tea inside of it, fill it up with water, let it steep, and then put it on top of your teacup. Then it drains into your teacup at a rate too fast for my camera to catch (I forgot I had turned it off, in truth.)

It makes just enough tea for me to fill up the rest of my cup with cold water, since I can't drink it that hot. Obviously my cup holds more than 16oz, which is what the IngenuiTEA holds.

I tried the Pomegranate tea, and I hate to say this (well, not really) but it really blows Harney and Sons' Black Currant Tea out of the water in smoothness of taste and flavor. It's very, very smooth. I've never been one to call something 'full-bodied', but this has a very full body, if that makes any sense at all. I imagine it will make a great iced tea as well.

If the rest of what I bought is as good, then I now have a new favorite tea site. I did really pick and choose; I did get a lot of flavored teas, because they just sounded so good. But I got some other ones as well. And I will be trying them for weeks, at least.

(The nice thing is that if you buy $50 worth of stuff, you get free shipping. And it's fast shipping, too. Two days! And I ordered at 9pm on March 7th! Impressive! Also, you get points as you order, and when you have $100 points, you get a $10 gift certificate. Which is nice, too, especially since the samples are so cheap.)

So I have a lot of tea to try. :)


Update on the Rice Wine:

It's starting to smell very interesting now. It's still bubbling, too, so that's good. And I realized today that I--totally unintentionally--will have finished wine on St. Patrick's Day. Maybe I'll have to have a toast.

Wine

When I stirred the wine this morning, it was fizzing like well, carbonated pop. Interesting.

(I decided to stir in the mornings. I'm less likely to forget that way.)

Run out of syrup?

If you've just realized you're out of syrup (after making pancakes or waffles, of course), then raid your jelly for a solution. I used Simply Fruit Blackberry Jelly, but you can use whatever you have on hand. Put a little bit (A tablespoon or so) in a small bowl, and put it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Voila! Blackberry Syrup.

(Hint: It tastes better, too, unless you're used to using Pure Maple Syrup.)

Wine!

Well, in three weeks, at least.*

The crock is not mine. It was my Dad's grandmother's sauerkraut crock, so I think she would approve. I borrowed it on PAIN OF DEATH that it not get broken. I think my little oak table will hold it nicely.

And let me tell you--the ingredients make this crock not only heavy but really, really full, too. This is the perfect size for a full batch of this wine.

So... in three weeks I guess I'll see what happens! I do have to stir it every day, so I'm planning to stir it every night before I head up to bed. It will be like brushing my teeth; not something I will forget.

I am wondering, however, how it will smell... I guess we'll see about that too!


*hopefully

Lentil & Brown Rice Soup with Black-Eyed Peas and any Vegetable I could get my hands on

It was good.

This is soup for the week--I like to eat soup for lunch at work and I hate to buy cans of soup if I don't have to spend the money.

Here is the recipe:

Lentil & Brown Rice Soup with Black-Eyed Peas and Vegetables

1 can stewed tomatoes, chopped, with liquid
1 can black-eyed peas
1 cup lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
1 can corn, drained (or 1 cup frozen or fresh)
1/2 bag frozen crinkle-cut carrots (or 1 cup fresh)
1/2 bag frozen lima beans (or 1 cup fresh)
1/3 bag frozen peas and carrots (or 1 cup fresh)
13 cups of water
1 tsp. dried basil (use a bit less if fresh, and this goes for all the herbs)
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. salt, or to taste
dash of pepper, or to taste
(I didn't put garlic in this, but you could definitely add some. I would add at least three cloves, chopped.)

In a large (8 qt.) pot or crock pot, combine all ingredients. Stir, then cook over low heat for 2-3 hours or until vegetables are tender and rice is done, stirring occassionally. In a crock pot, cook on low for 6-8 hours or until vegetables are tender and rice is done.

Serves 6-8, or a whole week's worth of lunches.

Tastes great with homemade crusty bread, or garlic bread.

Cuban Bread and Rice Wine

I made Cuban Bread from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads today, because I decided that I'd rather make something quick and finish the cleaning I needed to finish. It turned out fine, but I'm going to lessen the salt next time--it called for 2 T. and I didn't even put that much in. And I like to eat my bread without tasting the salt. Another thing I won't do next time is split it into two loaves. I also like my loaves of bread to have some weight, and this recipe only made two small loaves.

As for the Rice Wine part of the title of this post, I have an old cookbook from 1933 that I picked up in a box of cookbooks at an auction last year. This particular cookbook is The Chapel of the Good Shepherd Cook Book, a collection of autographed recipes, all tried and some of them cherished.

In this cookbook, submitted by Mrs. Julie V. Stewart, is a recipe for Rice Wine. Now, I don't drink alcohol, but I think I might just have to try this recipe. The ingredients aren't that bad (I'll post it in a minute here) but the hard part is what to put the ingredients in.

I'm posting the recipe as it is written in the book.

Rice Wine
from Mrs. Julia V. Stewart

3 pounds rice
3 sliced oranges
2 yeast cakes
7 quarts water
2 pounds seeded raisins
5 pounds granulated sugar

Put all above in crock and stir every day for 3 weeks. Strain through cheesecloth. Let stand, to be sure it is perfectly clear. Put in bottles and seal.

I'm having a hard time finding something large enough to put this in. It doesn't say cover it, but I'm assuming this is a crock with a lid she's talking about, and I don't believe I can go to just any store to buy something that will fit these ingredients. I know I don't have something that will fit all of this, except for a metal pot, and you're not supposed to use metal pots for stuff like this. So, unless I find a good deal on a very large crock or figure out something else I can use, I'm going to have to wait a bit to make my very own wine.

Or would this be something more akin to saki?

This looks interesting...

I might just have to try this: No-Knead Bread.

And this sounds like an interesting site: The Fresh Loaf.

I am going to attempt to use my Universal Bread Maker (from the early 1900s) with this recipe today. We'll see how it goes! (If I can clean it out enough, that is. It needs a good scrubbing.)

Double Chocolate Bread

I wanted something chocolatey tonight for dessert, so I adapted a recipe from one of my quick bread books and came up with this.

Double Chocolate Bread

2/3 c. sugar
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 c. milk
1 egg
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bread loaf pan--whatever size you have is fine. I used my stoneware bread loaf pan and the loaf stuck a bit on the bottom, so be aware of that.

Beat sugar, melted butter, milk, and egg until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, and cocoa. Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are blended. Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake 50-55 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out mostly clean.
Let cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from pan.

This is a very rich bread. It would also be a good recipe for small loaves for gifts--it would make 1 regular sized loaf or 4-5 small loaves.


Taste-testing proved that this is a really rich bread that needs nothing to add to the flavor. Butter or cream cheese might make it too rich. Definitely tasty, though! I'll make this one again.