Thursday 26 February 2015

... let's consider the issue of stale bread

Hello everyone.

This may seem like an odd topic, but for a moment, let us consider the subject of stale bread.

I am sure that a large part of the population would simply chuck it into the rubbish bin and that would be that.

But it need not be.

For starters, as soon as the bread has begun to go beyond what you think is palatable, your first option is to make bread crumbs. Dead easy. Tear the bread into smallish pieces and toss them into the food processor, if you happen to own one. My mother did not own one and she would leave the bread to get just a wee bit staler, not hard at all yet, and she would grate it on a box grater. It worked just fine.

Now, these wonderful fresh breadcrumbs can be used as they are in their fresh state or if you want to keep them for a while, just let them dry out. Put them on a cookie sheet and just leave them for a few days. Give them a stir every once in a while if you walk by and happen to remember. When they are completely dry, and absolutely not until, store them away in a jar. Moist breadcrumbs closed up in a jar will quickly turn into a science project. Not nice.

My mom also had this little trick of hers which was to very slightly dampen the loaf of bread and wrap it in foil and put into a warm oven for a few minutes. I imagine that the wee bit of water would create some steam inside the foil packet, thereby softening the bread. It works just great.

Now, there is another way to deal with the stale bread. Use it in soup. Yes, that is what I said, in soup.

We had a visit from my dear sister and brother-in-law a few weeks ago and I made a dish from a cookbook Mary had given me as a Christmas gift. The book, "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by Marcella Hazan, is simply wonderful. Mary got it at a thrift store and upon receiving it, I immediately turn to any pages that look like they have seen some wear. THAT, I tell you, is where the really good recipes will be! 'Cause they have been made over and over!!

I found a terrific recipe in there called Tuscan Peasant soup. I actually had to make some slices of bread stale to line a casserole dish with them. Needless to say, the soup was brilliant.

Now, we love bread in this house. We love it in all forms and we especially love baguette. We cannot eat a whole baguette at a meal so there is always some left over. You just know that I am getting back to the whole soup thing, right?

Here are a few slices of nearly rock hard baguette from a couple of days ago.


And into the bottom of my soup bowl they go.


And on top I pour my nice hot leftover soup, potato and vegetable with a small bit of kolbassa tossed in, just in case you were wondering. :)


Yes indeed, I had this leftover soup for my lunch today and it was delicious. Those stale, rock hard little pieces of bread are instantly soft and you can just munch them up with the rest of your soup. There is absolutely no reason at all to throw any bread into the rubbish. 

Thanks so much for visiting with me today. Stop by again soon to see what is happening on the 'ole homestead. Cheers.  :)

Saturday 21 February 2015

Clean out Yer Fridge!

Greetings to you all!

I have a routine in my house regarding the refrigerator and using up what is in it.

Every Sunday, I make out the menus for the coming week. And before I start, the first thing I do is look in the fridge to see what is in there. 

As you will see from this photo, my fridge is NOT jammed full of stuff. We do have all the usual suspects in there like mayo, mustard, peanut butter, etc.
But we do not have lots of little containers that have been in there for ages turning into science projects. I also prefer to use glass containers if I can. For one thing, you can see what is in there, and secondly, as a personal preference, I do not like plastic.



 


We try VERY hard not to waste food in our house. In the first place, food is expensive here where I live and probably more important, I think that it is simply shameful to waste food.

After a meal there is pretty much always something left over. Yes indeed, it does go into a container and it gets put in the fridge. Depending on what it is, I am usually the one to eat the leftovers for my lunch. I actually love leftovers and it is fun to see just what you can do with them so they rarely last long. Today I fried up some leftover garlic mashed potatoes in a bit of olive oil and had them with some cheese and a bit of leftover salad. Yum!



However, on occasion there is more of them than I can consume during the week and on Sunday, there they are. Waiting. So, I happily oblige them by making note of what they are and what can I do with them.

Let me give you an example. When we had the meal with the garlic mash, we also had roasted vegetables, you know: carrots, parsnips, red bell pepper and sweet potato and garlic. Well, there is still a container of them in the fridge. So, I will use them up on Monday and make roasted vegetable soup. There is just enough of them that if I add about 2 cups of chicken stock and then zap them with the blender I will have a lovely velvety roasty toasty soup to start dinner. Most of the work for that soup is already done for me as the veg is already roasted. Just add the stock, blend and enjoy. 

By having a good look at what is in there, EVERY WEEK, you will not lose stuff, you will have fast to make meals from leftovers that taste delicious and you will stop wasting food. So, make it a habit. Every week, have a look at what is in there and decide how you can use it up. And then, as NIKE say, just do it!!!

Thanks a lot for visiting. Stop by again soon and do let me know what you think of the blog and any suggestions. Cheers.

Thursday 19 February 2015

Experiment update and some new growth

A wonderful chilly Ontario morning to you all,

We are in the deep freeze here in Ontario with LOTS of snow and no real end in sight of this prolonged cold weather. We are well below seasonal temperatures and they predict that will continue for at least another two weeks at least. 

If the sun is shining, I do not really care all that much about the cold. Our home is passive solar and on a sunny day, it is like a day at the beach in our house. :) Also, I have my new baby plants on the windowsill and they would like some sunshine so that they can become adult plants. :)

OK, enough of this foolishness!  

The ongoing experiment about garden expenses versus garden production continues. To date I have spent $158.49 on seed and planting mix. 

Also to date I have harvested absolutely nothing so I am totally in the red at the moment. That is to be expected. However, as you will see from these photos, that will all change shortly. I have planted out a large pot of assorted lettuces that I will use as cut and come again micro greens for salads. They are growing their little hearts out, bless them. 



Also, because I like to try things that people tell me I cannot do, I have also planted out a pot of bean seeds. These were old seed that I was not even sure would germinate but look at those little angels sprouting away like mad. I have never tried to grow beans on a window sill but I though, what the heck, I am going to give it a try. What do I have to lose? 



The pots of leeks are doing very well. They are straight and strong and about 2" - 3" tall now. I simply love leeks and would plant even more if I had he room this year, but I do not. When they reach about 6" tall I will trim them back a bit to encourage strong growth. Do not throw out those little cuttings. Carefully remove the seed remnants if they are still there and then use those little cuttings as you would chives. They are great in an omelet or scrambled eggs!



Well, that is it for me for today. We had a light dusting of snow last night and I need to don my snow pants and coat and get out there and get the the solar panels cleared off so we make power. Some power is still made with a bit of snow on the panels but not all that much. We try to be sure our battery bank is fully charged before nightfall, if possible, so even that little bit of snow hinders production. So, off I go. 

Thanks so much for visiting with me. Any comments you would care to leave about my blog would be appreciated. Have a great day. Cheers.
.

Thursday 12 February 2015

Using up Leftovers

Good evening everyone,

We had family visiting this past weekend and my dear sister-in-law Mary made the most amazing butternut squash and kale pizza for dinner one night. It was one of the best pizzas I had ever tasted. After making it, we had 1/2 a roasted butternut squash and most of a bunch of kale left over.

Now, using up the squash is easy peasy as there are tons of things you can do with it. The kale is not so easy, mostly because my dear husband does not really like it. He remembers it boiled and mixed with mashed potatoes as a dish from his childhood and he hated it. I can get him to eat it if I disguise it somehow. That is until tonight.

Tonight we made "Kale Chips". We had bought these once before and he just loved them. So, I made them myself. They are dead easy. 

Simply strip all the leaves off the kale stems and after washing and drying thoroughly place in a bowl and drizzle on a bit of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of fine sea salt. Mix very thoroughly. You want all those kale leaves to have a very thin film of oil on them. 





Now spread them out evenly on a cookie sheet and pop them into the oven. I cooked them in my wood-burning cookstove and I am guessing that it was about 400 degrees in there. The kale chips only take 5-10 minutes. You want them to be dry. Once during the 9 minutes that mine were in there I opened the oven and gave them a little stir. I baked mine in two batches so that they were spread out in a single layer on the cookie sheet.



Once out of the oven, they are dry, crispy and utterly delicious.






Now, back to the issue of the butternut squash. I decided to make soup with it. I found a recipe in a cookbook that I had recently purchased which is called "The Everyday Squash Cook" written by Rob Firing, Ivy Knight and Kerry Knight. This is a fantastic cookbook because it is all about squash, a vegetable that I love to grow and love to eat. I made the "Squash, Apple and Cheddar Soup" and it was truly divine. I used up all my leftover squash, an apple that was starting to look more like an apple doll than an apple and a small piece of cheddar that was getting a bit dry around the edges. All of these cast off ingredients made for the most stunning soup. Although the recipe does not call for it, I added a few of my kale chips on top at my husband's request.



So dinner tonight was made almost entirely from leftovers with no added cost at all. I just love the thought that all that food was used up, nothing went to waste and the whole thing was delicious.

Thanks so much for visiting with me. Hope you had a great evening. See you soon. Cheers.

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Reducing Food Waste

Hello friends,

I have been reading lately, and hearing on the radio, about the amount of food that the average North American family wastes. They estimate that around 30% - 40% of the food that is purchased ends up in the rubbish bin.

Now, I don't know about you, but I find that to be utterly shocking.

The mere idea of wasting something as precious as food is totally foreign to me. We strive all the time to be sure that no food goes into the garbage. Sometimes we fail and we lose something in the back of the fridge but not often. 

I was preparing dinner tonight and we were having broccoli and carrots as the veggies to go along with our shepherd's pie. As I began to cut up the broccoli I wondered how many people just cut off the floret bits at the top and chuck the stem in the compost bowl, or even worse, the garbage!



There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating the stem, in fact, it is quite as delicious as the rest of the plant. You merely need to peel off the outer layer which can be a bit tough and you have some lovely broccoli. In fact, eating the stem means you have about 50% more broccoli to eat.



So the next time you are eating broccoli, do not forget about the stem. :)

Thanks a lot for visiting with me. Have a great evening. Cheers.

Monday 2 February 2015

More Seeds and some progress

Greetings all.

My final seed order has arrived from Baker Creek Seeds. If the photos on the packets are anything to go by, these are going to be wonderful. Just take a look at these lovelies.


On another note, the leeks are growing well, some over an inch tall now. Still some slow pokes just germinating but that is OK with me.


It is a very cold windy snowy day here so I am staying indoors and looking at Mother Nature from a warm spot. Hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are. Cheers.