Viva DIY Month!

And I'm off! Day 4, and I'm still enthusiastic. I've had a crazy busy summer (working in 2 labs, dancing 3 nights a week, teaching dance one night a week, taking an online course), but things are finally slowing down (relatively). It's really felt like a treat this weekend to take some time in the kitchen.

There will be some changes here this month from previous months, but my basic tenets are:

• I will make everything from scratch (within reason). At this time, it is not currently within my means to milk my own cow, press my own oil, etc. However, if I can take a step back in the process of preparing an item, I will do so. For example, orange juice comes from oranges, and I can reasonable juice some oranges.
• No canned or frozen fruits/veggies/beans/etc. I chose August to do this, as fresh produce is plentiful in Wisconsin. 
• I will allow myself beer, wine, coffee, and tea. Someday, I will attempt making these things.
• I will allow myself to "cheat" for 3 meals during the month. Many celebrations and social events will be happening this month, and it would be a shame to exclude 

New Kitchen Gadgets = New DIY Possibilites

Since the last time I've done a DIY challenge, I have acquired some kitchen gadgets that will open the realm of eating possibilities:

Ice Cream Maker

Last August, I received this ice cream maker as a gift from my boss before I went back to school. It's hardly new, as Michael and I have used it 2-3 times a month to make various ice cream concoctions. We've pretty much set aside room in our freezer so that the bowl is always chilled and ready to go. There's not to much further "homemade" you can go with this, but we'll for sure put it to use this month!

Meat Grinder/Mincer/Pasta Extruder

I also received this as a gift from redditgifts' Secret Santa exchange. My randomly-matched gifter had seen from my twitter feed that I love to cook, so he got me cooking and drinking gifts, this included! I've extruded some rigatoni with this machine a couple of times, but I'm looking forward to attempting some sausage and ground met. You can see the full review of my gift here.

Flour Mill

I recently purchased this flour mill using birthday money. I've made a few batches of flour before this month, and it's very simple! I can get wheat berries from my local co-op for $1.19/lb, and I've milled small batches of flour and keep them in the fridge. This month, I'll also be able to make some corn meal, bean flours, and nut flours.

Dehydrator

I also purchased this dehydrator with birthday money. The prospect of homemade jerky, tomato powder for tomato paste making, fruit leather, dried herbs, are exciting!!

Smoker

My office mate rescued this smoker from a neighbor, and generously offered it to me. She is a fellow food-lover, though much more experienced than me, and likes to hear of my trials and tribulations. This smoker will allow for some BACON, as well as other smoked delights, such as smoked salmon and chipotles!

Kitchenaid Mixer

Michael and I purchased this stand mixer together as a mutual Christmas present. Previous roommates have had one, and it was tough to get along without one once I had seen the light. It's amazing to have this workhorse mix and knead, so I can do better things (such as clean up my kitchen messes).

Time to stop writing and get back to the kitchen! I'll post updates and recipes as I go. Cheers!

DIY Month 2012!

So I'm already one week into the thick of it! That is, making everything I consume from scratch. A while ago, in a lonely stairwell in the hospital, I came across a lone tortilla chip. There, in between the sixth and seventh floors it sat for months, and the only thing that that happened to it was a little dust settling on it. I couldn't help but imagine that sitting in my stomach. I know the stairwell lacks the same enzymes in my digestive tract, but it still eeked me out. All the more reason to pursue knowing exactly what I put in my body.

The rules are the same as last year:

• I will make everything from scratch ...within reason. At this juncture, it is not currently within my means to milk my own cows, mill my own flour, press my own oil, etc. However, if I can take a step back in the process of preparing an item, I will (e.g. orange juice comes from oranges, and I can reasonably juice some oranges).
• No canned or frozen fruits/veggies/beans/etc. I chose July/August as the month to do this, as fresh produce is plentiful in Wisconsin.
• I will allow myself beer, wine, coffee, and tea, although someday I wish to venture into preparing each of these.
• I will allow myself to eat out 3 times during the month. I'm only human, and there are so many good restaurants in Madison. Also, many celebrations and social events take place at restaurants, from which I would not like to exclude myself.

I had many favorites from my forays last year, and I look forward to making those again. I also have a list of things that will be new this year. As my first week went last year, most of what I've eaten this last week consisted of fruit and raw veggies, so my week wasn't too exciting. I did get around to making some new stuff though, and I will share them in the coming week.

Frozen grapes: nature's popsicle

Happy reading!

A Year in Food

So I've decided to do it again: another DIY month! This year I've decided to go from July 15th-August 15th. I'm moving on August 15th, and I didn't want to suffer through unpacking my kitchen and having to make everything from scratch.

So I recently realized just how quickly July 15th is coming up, and besides trying to eat up everything not homemade in my pantry/fridge/freezer, I thought I'd post about some of my food adventures over the last year (most of which I had intended to blog about, but never got around to doing). So here goes:

Thanksgiving

Every year since 2005, I've made pumpkin ravioli for Thanksgiving. It started when I was a strict vegetarian and has continued on because it is that good. Trust me. It's a basic pasta dough filled with fresh ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, and spices that is tossed with a creamy, sage-butter sauce.

pasta dough, pre-kneading

after 10 minutes of kneading

homemade ricotta, draining

Christmas

This year for Christmas, I tackled co-worker gifts by making chocolate truffles and caramels. Good stuff. I also ended up making the pumpkin ravioli again, as requested by my family in Omaha, since I had to stay in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving.

New Year's Resolution

For the New Year, Michael and I resolved to eat more sushi. I can say with certainty that this is the longest I've upheld a resolution. We quickly delved into making our own sushi (it's super easy), and we have gotten pretty creative. If it's not super clear, Madison doesn't have the greatest selection of fresh seafood, but we've done a lot of things without fish. It also helps that Muramoto has an all-you-can-eat sushi deal for $25.

bacon cheeseburger sushi with pickles 

Vegan Week

In order to reduce environmental impact and negative health consequences of eating meat, Michael has enacted a vegetarian week. It's exactly as it sounds: one week a month of not eating meat. It's a steadfast way to eliminate 25% of the meat from one's diet. Michael wanted me to join him, but as a mostly-vegetarian, it would be too easy for me to just do veg. So I decided to make the leap to veganism for one week of every month. It started out quite difficult, but it's gotten easier every month, as I find more breakfast and snack-type foods that are vegan.

delicious granola with almond milk

I look forward to you joining me for another month of DIY!

Weeks 4-5

August was a looooong month. Although the month is over, I'm still pursuing my challenge for another week, since I had many opportunities wasted with a broken fridge. The cravings have been getting worse. The other day, I put a patient of mine on a diet (meaning I recommended foods and liquids that would be safe for her to eat), and I was just about to break as she was ordering grilled cheese and tomato soup. However, I've stayed strong, and I've made some great things:

Corn Chowder with Sausage and Vegetables (adapted from here)

This is what you do when you get 9 ears of corn from your CSA and need something to do with them. I must say, though, that the kernels of corn were so tender, you could just bite them off the ear without cooking them first.

What you need:

• 6 cups of cubed potatoes
• 3 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2-1 lb pork sausage
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 jalapeño, chopped
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 5-6 ears of corn, kernels removed (see picture below for a neat trick for removing kernels)
• splash white wine (which, according to Michael, every soup can benefit from)
• 1/4 cup half and half
• salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1. Boil potatoes in water with a bay leaf until tender.
2. In the meantime, brown sausage and onions in a medium-large saucepan.
3. When the sausage is brown, remove, and add the green pepper, jalapeño, carrot, and red pepper flakes, and sauté and soften in the sausage fat.
4. Add the corn and cook for a couple more minutes.
5. Add the sausage back in and deglaze the pan with the white wine.
6. When the potatoes are tender, mash them a little bit in their boiling water. Add potatoes and water to veggies.
7. Add the half and half and heat through.

Michael and I found ourselves listless and bored on a Saturday night (during the second time that my refrigerator was broken). We had some bacon left over from omelets that I had made him that morning, and Michael came up with the idea of making meatloaf (something I had never partaken in before). He had had a couple delicious meatloaf sandwiches before at Monty's Blue Plate Diner, and had found a recipe for their "Meatloaf of the Gods" in their cookbook, which my roommate owns. It calls for oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs, which worked for me, as I was not prepared to make bread, dry it out, and then turn it into breadcrumbs. Our major roadblock was the ketchup. 1 cup needed for inside the recipe and some for putting on top. I had about 1/3 cup of tomato paste in the (working) freezer from our enchilada escapade, but that wasn't going to be enough to suffice. We spent a good 30 minutes racking our brains, trying to figure out what else to do, looking up steak sauce recipes and such, until I realized that I had some homemade barbeque sauce hidden in the freezer from some ribs that Michael and I made after winning them in a Meat Raffle last fall. The combination was perfect; not too barbeque-y, not too tomato-y. I shall say, my first meatloaf experience was a good one.

The next day, I made some pita bread. Man, there is nothing like the smell of fresh bread in your kitchen. I made these with a 2:1 ratio of bread to whole wheat flour, but I think next time I'll either do 1:1 or 1:2. With these, I had made the mistake of forgetting to remove the top rack of the oven, after moving the bottom rack as low as it goes and placing my pizza stone in there (don't worry, Maggie, I keep my pizza stone near the floor). I could only fit two pitas on the stone at a time, and flipping them was a bit of an ordeal. However, they turned out wonderfully, and it was quite fun to watch the pitas puff up. The pitas were great for use in meatloaf sandwiches, which constituted my lunches for most of Weeks 4-5.

This week, I also made Cheez-It style cheese crackers (recipe here). Unfortunately, they didn't last long enough to be captured on my camera. I learned a lesson while making these: do not make them at 10:30pm and decide that it'll be a good idea to use the time while they're in the oven to brush your teeth. Your kitchen will emanate scents of baking cheddar, and you will not be able to resist testing them (you need to make sure they're at a good level of crispness). You won't be able to eat just one, and the cheddar will overrule your teeth-brushing, and you will need to repeat it. I shared these with coworkers, who were amazed at the taste and simplicity, but I was unable to give any to Michael, who consumes more Cheez-Its than any other human I know. I'll make some just for him, maybe for a first day of (grad) school treat.

Enchiladas and an Exception

First, the enchiladas:

A few Sundays ago, Michael and I made enchiladas. With this challenge being as it is, it took the *entire* day. I started out making tomato paste, which is essentially reducing 5-6 lbs of tomatoes down into about 2 cups of paste. Of course this was the morning that my refrigerator broke for the second time, and only about 1/3 cup made it safely into the freezer. The rest had a one-way ticket to moldsville. Despite the lengthly process, thepaste was actually quite delicious. However, Michael had asked me if there was something I had made this month that I wouldn't make again, and the answer is definitely now tomato paste. It was a lot of time in the making, and wasn't very cost efficient. Maybe I'll make it again some day when I have a garden overflowing with tomatoes and there's nothing else I can think to do with them. If you're interested in taking this journey into tomato paste, here's the link with instructions.

The next step was to make veggie broth. I adapted the recipe from Super Duper Soups, a wonderful cookbook that I had bought on sale a couple years ago. It also has a recipe for the best shiitake mushroom soup that I have ever put in my mouth and hour-by-hour instructions for a one-, two-, or three-day detox plan. I've done the one and the two, but I've never ventured into the three. Maybe that'll come up after the month is over. I have never felt better in my life than the morning after doing a detox. Anyways, this was a great veggie broth, but again, I don't know how often I'll be making my own broths without having 1) a garden and 2) to share a freezer with 2 roommates and a ton of frozen food.

The tomato paste and the veggie broth were made to go into the enchilada sauce that can be found here (on which I based the entire enchilada as well). One note: when it says whisk in broth, whisk in a little at a time, as if you were making a roux. Otherwise, it'll be too liquidy, and you'll have to add some cornstarch to it, because at that point, after cooking all day, you'll be too lazy and hungry to wait for it to thicken on its own.

That aside, I decided to make some queso fresco to adorn the enchiladas, instead of the cheddar jack called for in the recipe. Queso fresco was delightfully easy, much like ricotta, and can be made with materials you may have in your kitchen (milk, white vinegar, and salt), and it takes about 40 minutes, including draining time.

Then onto tortillas! I followed the step-by-step

directions I found here. Again, very simple: masa (corn flour) and water. I read on another site to roll out the tortillas in between cut up ziploc bags instead of saran wrap. I'll second that here. I would definitely make these again, as they were far superior and easy to roll for enchiladas than the store-bought ones (read: they didn't split the second you put them into a concave shape).

Then Michael, the carnivore, added his contribution to the enchiladas by giving some chicken breast a nice flambé in some tequila (sorry about the picture quality; the sun had gone down at this point):

The food was delicious, and it was fun, long day (good thing the PGA finals was on to entertain me). I may not do it all again from scratch, but these were some pretty nice enchiladas. I also made some guacamole and baked some of the tortillas into chips, but I was ready enough to be done at this point, that their pictures do not exist.

And now, the exception:

Last Thursday, I decided to donate blood with the American Red Cross, who comes to my workplace every 8 weeks. I've given twice before, but was unable to the last time they came, as I had research subjects coming in and was unable to sneak away. As you may know, it's important to eat before and after donating blood. However, I had forgotten that they were coming that particular day, and had only packed enough food to eat before. And so after I tried to give blood (the needle slipped from my vein, leaving them with just a little bit of my blood and leaving me with a nasty, < shaped bruise on my arm), I felt a little lightheaded, and so I decided to not risk passing out on the way back up to my office. I ate a run-of-the-mill blueberry muffin with some sugary cranberry juice, and I don't feel one ounce bad about it!

Week 2-3

So the bad news is that our refrigerator is broken again. It stopped working last Sunday and we still don't have a new one. Our landlord is working on it, but it is really hard to make food when I don't have a lot of fresh ingredients on hand and I can't keep any leftovers. The good news is that I'll be extending my challenge for the first week of September to make up for it! There are too many things on my list of things I want to make and there were too many instances of popcorn-for-dinner this last week. I've traded Michael dinner in order to keep my yummy, fresh, CSA veggies in his fridge, but that makes eating them a little difficult, especially now that he lives across town.

However, I was able to make some gems in Week Two:

Honey Roasted Peanuts (adapted from here)

What you need:

• 1 lb raw peanuts (found in the baking aisle, usually)
• 2 1/2 Tbsp honey
• 1 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup (the real stuff, please)
• 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pour peanuts in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine honey, maple syrup, butter, salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and ginger powder in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in the microwave until the butter has melted.
4. Pour the honey mixture over the peanuts and stir well to coat.
5. Arrange peanuts into one layer on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, and bake for 5 minutes. Remove baking sheet from the oven and stir the nuts. Bake for 5-7 more minutes, until the nuts are golden brown. Don't be fooled by the skins on the nuts, look at the nut meat itself.
6. When the nuts are sufficiently roasted, remove them from the oven and toss in a clean, large mixing bowl with the sugar and some more salt to taste.
7. Cool completely, and try not to eat the entire batch in one sitting

These nuts were very tasty. They had a nice maple undertone that you don't get with your traditional Planter's honey roasted peanuts. I had intended to make half of this batch into peanut butter, but I ate them too fast. I'll just have to make another batch for peanut butter...

Last Saturday, my roommate Trevor hosted a breakfast celebration in honor of his girlfriend, Sarah, finishing the MCAT. On the menu:

• strawberry rhubarb muffins (a la Emily)
• pork sausage with mushrooms (a.k.a. umami overload; by Michael)
• sourdough pancakes with a fresh berry compote (pictured in-action right, back; implemented by Trevor and Sarah, respectively)
• hash browns with caramelized onions (pictured right, front; de moi)
• baked doughnuts (pictured below; recipe here; a Michael & Corinne creation)
• crisp ginger beer (brewed by Trevor)

So much deliciousness. Here's a quick run-down of what I did to the hash browns:

Hash browns with caramelized onions (did you know hash browns are two words? I always thought it was one...)

What you need:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1/2 tsp Herbes de Provence (aka the best herb mix ever)
• pinch salt
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb potatoes (I prefer red, used here, but good ole Russets will do the job)
• 2 Tbsp pork sausage grease (or a mixture of butter and olive oil)
• salt and pepper, to taste

What you do:

1. Caramelize the onion in the olive oil with the Herbes de Provence and a pinch of salt.
2. In the meantime, scrub the dirt from the potatoes and grate them (but please don't peel them!)
3. Place the grated potatoes on a plate lined with a paper towel. Place a paper towel over the potatoes and wring them out over the sink. Be careful for breaking paper towels. Replace the paper towels and let the potatoes "drain" while the onions are finishing.
4. When the onions are all caramelized and delicious, add the garlic and brown for 1 minute.
5. Add the grease and potatoes. Stir to combine and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. If you have too many potatoes to comfortably fit in the pan, make in separate batches. Just remember to take some of the onions and garlic out for the other batches.
6. Cook until browned on the bottom, then flip and brown on the other side

101 Cookbook's Baked Doughnuts (recipe followed to the letter from here)

Oh my, these are good. Even Michael thinks so, and he's got high standards when it comes to doughnuts. We made these the night before, and the ones we dipped in powdered sugar had turned into glazed! Words of warning: they take a while to make, since they're yeasted and need time to rise. So don't expect to wake up on a Sunday morning and have doughnuts before you've finished your coffee. They're definitely best fresh out of the oven, but they don't fare bad after a night in storage. They do have a tendency to dry out after a couple days, but can be nuked for a couple seconds if you're in a pinch for breakfast and don't want to have oatmeal, again. Also, if you want a hole in the middle of your doughnut, you'll need a super tiny cutter for it. Smaller than the smallest one that comes in the graded biscuit cutter set.

That night, I made fettucini with a fresh tomato sauce. Although this is not a new recipe, I am delighted to share it here:

Fresh Pasta (adapted from a recipe provided in a pasta making class I took in 2008)

What you need:

• 9 oz (about 2 cups) AP flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 eggs
• 1-3 Tbsp cold water
• 1 tsp olive oil

What you do:

1. Pulse the flour and salt in a food processor.
2. Crack eggs into a liquid measuring cup. Pour cold water on top of the eggs to make 1/2 cup. This could vary between 1-2 Tbsp, depending on how large the eggs are.
3. Add eggs and water, along with the olive oil, to the food processor and mix until the dough comes together. It will be sandy.
4. With the processor running, add 1 more Tbsp of water through the chute. At this point, the dough should come together into a ball. If not (and it has been longer than 30 seconds), keep adding water, 1 Tbsp at a time, until it does.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Not 5 minutes, and that should be good enough; 10 minutes. Add flour as needed, but don't overdo it. At the end of 10 minutes, the dough should be smooth and sticky enough to make a wonderful smacking sound when pressed, without sticking to your fingers.
6. Wrap in plastic, and let rest in the fridge (it was functioning at this time) for an hour.
7. Roll out as desired. You do not need a pasta machine to do this; I have only had mine for a little over a year now. You can watch a video on how to make the super yummy shape trofiette here.
8. Dry while your pasta water is boiling and cook until al dente. Make sure you salt the water to an adequate degree (more than you'd think), so the flavor is imparted to your noodles.

Three Five Ingredient Tomato Sauce (adapted from here, one of my favorite food blogs)

This sauce is seriously amazing. I've made the three-ingredient version before many times, but once decided to add two additional ingredients, which heightened it beyond belief. I usually keep a bottle of white wine in the fridge (when operational) for cooking purposes, and I talked about my love of Herbes de Provence above. When I made the sauce with fresh tomatoes, it was a little more liquidy than when I had made it from a can, but I was too hungry to let the sauce thicken any more over the heat.

What you need:

• 2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled; or one 28-oz can whole, peeled tomatoes
• 5 oz unsalted butter
• one medium onion, peeled and halved
• salt to taste
• 1 glug white wine, good enough quality that you can drink it, because you need a glass of wine with you when you cook; it's not fair to yourself to cook with wine and not drink it
• 1 pinch Herbes de Provence

What you do:

1. Combine all ingredients besides salt into a medium saucepan, put over medium heat, and slowly simmer for about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, pressing the tomatoes against the side of your pan with your spoon.
2. Taste, and add salt as needed. The sauce is ready when the fat separates from the tomatoes. Discard the onion.

Michael and I made enchiladas with everything from scratch (duh) last Sunday, right as the fridge was descending into tepid-ness. It will be a post of its own and will be up in the next few days.

Sunday Picnic

One of the items on Michael's and my summer to-do list was to go for a picnic in Governor Nelson State Park. This time, our focus was more on the picnic than the park, but we'll make use of his state park parking sticker later in the season to check out some of the other park attractions. On the menu: chorizo burgers with a roasted red pepper aïoli and cucumber salsa and sponge cake with fresh whipped cream and berries.

I didn't mess with the original recipes much, so I'll just post pictures and links:

Hamburger Buns (recipe found here)

These buns were super simple to make. I used 1/2 and 1/2 whole wheat and AP flour, and topped them with my "Everything" mix (an assortment of kosher salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and granulated garlic and onion). I made good use of my roommate Emily's KitchenAid stand mixer, and I don't know how I survived without one! The dough hook is my favorite, doing the kneading for me while I can get some other stuff done. I had a lot to do Sunday morning, so I needed to stay up on my dishes. I didn't make them quite as big as traditional hamburger buns, as the recipe called for 12 buns. They were quite dense for hamburger buns, but they were sturdy enough to handle the juicy/oily nature of the chorizo, and the flavor of the buns was right on. I froze 6, and was very tempted this morning to bring one out for breakfast...

Roasted Red Pepper Aïoli (recipe found here)

For the experience and the challenge, I made up this aïoli by hand; just me, a bowl, and a whisk. For those interested in doing the same thing, I would suggest recruiting someone to pour the oil for you. I found myself using the measuring cup to try and steady the bowl as I beat, but then I would splash in the oil a little faster than intended. For a delicious addition to the David Lebowitz recipe, I would definitely recommend freshly roasted red peppers. The acidity of the peppers was balanced really well by the creamy egginess of the aïoli. So many levels of yum. (And for those wondering, our refrigerator came back to a semi-working level, but I bought a new case of eggs for this. No salmonella for us.)

Cucumber Salsa (...or cucumber tomato salad, found here)

I made a cucumber tomato salad to eat as a side dish, but Michael had the brilliant idea to use them as a crunch factor on the burgers. It worked out perfectly, especially because I forgot to bring lettuce and tomato for the burgers. While the balsamic dressing on the salad didn't quite fit the flavor profile of the chorizo, it was a nice complement. In hindsight, it would have been amazing to have some avocado slices to top the burgers. Next time. (And please note the aïoli dripping off the bun in this picture)

Glorious Sponge Cake (I did not make up the name for this recipe)

There are 6 eggs in this cake. Six. And surprisingly for me, no butter. I learned that I'm not that great at separating eggs. And when I was fishing egg yoke out of my bowl of whites, I remembered an episode of Good Eats wherein Alton Brownie (Michael and my moniker for one of our celebrity crushes) was describing the scientific reason why it was paramount that you shouldn't have one bit of yoke in your egg whites during whipping. I can't remember the reason, but it exists out there to haunt me. I also learned why angel and sponge cakes are commonly baked in springform pans. Save the lecture; just don't bake it in a bundt pan, unless you want to be scrubbing out sponge cake bits, even after you've let the pan soak all night.

All in all, it was a successful picnic! After eating all of this rich, heavy food, I treated myself to a 4-hour dance rehearsal. I'll just say it wasn't as bad as eating Thai food before dance rehearsal... Some more pictures from the day:

Grillmaster Flash