Happy Kefir-versary!

And just what ever happened to that half-gallon of murky Concord grape juice that I threw in the freezer last month? Well, part of it went into making some kefir soda. It so happened that we were out of store-bought juice and there was all that leftover grape juice just sitting there.

I introduced it to my water kefir and SHAZAM! As you can see in the photo, water kefir loves raw organic unfiltered unpasteurized fruit juice! Duh, right? Of course it does! Fizzy bubble-rific-ness. Delicious, free (yea!), and full of all kinds of health and happiness. Hubs calls our kefir sodas Fizzy Lifting Drinks, after his favorite boyhood film.

It's been just over a year since I started these kefir grains. We still drink kefir soda every single day and the little darlings seem to be going strong with no signs of stopping... except that one time when I left Hubs in charge of them... but enough said on that. They bounced back and were none the worse for the ordeal.

We've all settled into a nice routine and they're pretty forgiving if I'm late a day here or there. I still make the kefir soda as cheaply as possible, and I only make as much as we can consume before the next batch is ready. It works out really well... nice and predictable!

My secret to making great budget kefir soda (from juice), is this: Use the best juice you can find for the best price you can find it at.* It sounds obvious, and it sounds easy... but it isn't if you're trying to do this on a squeaky-tight budget. I tried a lot of different brands from a lot of different stores and read a whole lot of labels...

Strawberry Mint Lemonade

Last time on As The Strawberry Turns we saw the husband make garden pallet-craft for his loving wife, even though he really really doesn't like pallet-crafting... we shared their hopes and dreams of a bounteous strawberry-filled summer... we saw 15 strawberry plants survive neglect and abuse at the hands of the sweet but forgetful couple... 

By the start of September however, the girl was afraid that something was amiss. There were still no flowers, and thus no fruit, happening on these 15 remaining plants. It was then that she began to suspect that these "mid-to-late season" strawberries that they planted (and her dream of berry-ful bounty) might have to wait until next summer for fruition.

The girl, not wanting to take any chances, went and did what any other girl might do in her position and she got herself to the nearest CostCo and bought a big bountiful bag of beautiful (but frozen) strawberries.

The End... (at least until next summer anyway).

Strawberry-Mint Lemonade

5 cups water
20 frozen strawberries (or fresh if you've got them)

2 sprigs of fresh peppermint
1/2 cup lemon juice
6 Tblsp honey

In a small pan, bring 3 cups of the water and the strawberries, to a boil. Remove from heat, add the mint, cover and let cool. Smash the strawberries in the pan, then strain through a sieve. Add the lemon juice, the honey, and the rest of the water. Mix well. Serve over ice.

Notes: A lemonade that's "just right" for me may be too tart (or too sweet) for you. These things can always be adjusted though. Experiment with different amounts, different herbs, different sweeteners... on a hot day you can't go wrong as long as it's poured over lots of ice.

Twig Tea (on the rocks)

 
Saving can be good: saving lives, saving money, saving endangered species, saving time, saving the document you've worked so hard on...

But saving can also be bad: saving used staples, saving bellybutton lint, saving junk mail, saving every issue of Underwater Basket Weaving Weekly since 1967.

I like to think that I fall somewhere in between. Although truth be told, I probably skew a bit further to the bad side of saving stuff (just short of the used staples and bellybutton lint). I can't help it... I like to wring every last drop of usefulness out a thing before throwing it out. Even if it's going to be composted.

Save up and stock

For instance, when I dry herbs from my garden and strip the leaves from the stems, the dried stems go into my "stock jar". When I use fresh herbs in my cooking, I save those stems too, letting them dry first, then I add them to the jar. The next time I make stock, I throw a big handful of those dry stems into the pot. They add depth and make my vegetable stock more flavorful.

The sweeter side

It's a good system and it works great for things like rosemary, oregano, and basil. But what about the "sweet herbs"; the lemon verbena, lavender, and the mints? Well, I save those stems separately in a big bowl on the counter and make Twig Tisane (herb tea) with them.

Simply Simpler Simple Syrup

I kind of love recipes that are expressed as ratios; where any unit of measure will work regardless of whether you use metric, Imperial, or an old chipped teacup. You know: one part of this to three parts of that, where the "part" can be anything from a thimble to a 5-gallon drum. Super simple.

Well, the other day I needed to make a small amount of simple syrup for a batch of iced tea I was making. The classic simple syrup recipe is 1:1 (one part sugar to one part water, boiled together and cooled). Couldn't be simpler... or could it?

It was HOT that day—the day I needed to make my liquid sweetener. I did not want to turn on the stove for anything. Not even 10 minutes. Besides, I really didn't need a lot of it; hardly worth dirtying a saucepan for. And that's when it hit me... when I feed my water kefir grains, I just add the sugar to the water and swirl the heck out of it for a few seconds until it dissolves. No heat required... Hello!

I quickly tossed a half-cup of sugar and a half-cup of water into a pint Mason jar, then I capped it and shook it like I meant it. It took about 2-3 minutes of shimmying, but the result was a jar of liquid sweetener, ready to use.

Banana Split… In A Glass… For Breakfast

It wasn't until taking the last few sips of my breakfast smoothie the other day that I realized just how much it reminded me of a banana split. Up until that point I just kept thinking, "This tastes gooooood! Maybe too good for something that's supposed to be breakfast?… Nah!"

Just like a real banana split it's got dairy, bananas, strawberries, vanilla, and chocolate (yum!). The only things missing are the whipped cream, sprinkles, and a cherry on top. Oh yeah... and the "I-can't-believe-I-ate-all-that" guilt. There's not a lick of that.

Unlike a bona fide banana split, this is packed with pro-biotics, leafy greens, and wheat germ. But you'd sure never know it from the taste....

Savoring The Simple Gifts Of Summer

I didn't plan on taking a photo of my dinner last night. I didn't plan on blogging about it today. I didn't plan the meal at all. Sure, I knew we'd be having leftover bratwurst with mustard, but beyond that, it all just fell together, and when I sat down and started to dig into it... my senses took everything in and I had to grab the camera.

What you don't see in the photo is the color of the summer evening sky. You can't feel the perfectly soft warmth paired with the gentlest of breezes in such contrast with the scorching heat earlier in the day. You might get a hint of the relaxed ease of the meal, but what about the thrift? What about the sense of accomplishment, stewardship, gratitude, and relief? And, of course, there's the deliciousness to consider as well. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but how many can you really see? To anyone else, it's just a plate of food, but to me it represents so much more...

How Smoothies Are Like Marinades (and how I am like Rocky Balboa)

tend to not use recipes when I make things like smoothies or marinades. I might use a recipe as a guide, but more often than not, I just don't bother. Instead, I use a formula... really it's almost more of a rhyme or mnemonic. Breaking the finished product down into it's basic elements makes for a super-flexible and creative approach. As a result, my smoothies and marinades all tend to be of the "everything-but-the-kitchen sink" variety: always tasty, occasionally spectacular. If I hit on a particular combination that knocks it out of the park... I write it down in a messy notebook (or on this blog) for the next time. Here's my approach to smoothie making...

Love Is A Many Blendered Thing

I've been wanting to try making a green smoothie for a while, but never seem to have any extra greens sitting around. What I do have are a lot of herbs in my garden… they're green, do they count? I even have beet greens... although the variety we planted are ruby red, I think they'll do.

Wandering through my front and back yards, I clipped a bit of this, snipped off a bit of that until I had a big handful of "greens"...
 

Also intriguing me has been the idea of the whole-citrus vinaigrette. I just love the idea of pulverizing and consuming the whole fruit. Maybe I'm just excited about not having to slice, squeeze, zest, or otherwise fuss with it. It is simplicity and laziness together at their beautiful best. Why not try it in a smoothie?

I picked a small ripe lemon from our dwarf Meyer tree on the back patio and headed into the kitchen...

The smoothie I created is entirely experimental and admittedly, a little bizarre. I basically shopped from my garden and my freezer with a "let's see what happens" attitude. What happened was a surprising combination of flavors and a smoothie like no other. It's very lemon-forward due to the whole lemon of course, but also to all the lemon-scented herbs I used. Each one lemony, but in slightly different ways.

I've included the recipe here, not because I think anyone else would want to recreate it, so much as to show just how completely crazy you can get when making smoothies, and still end up with something really tasty....

Keeping The Colony Happy

In addition to my oft-neglected sourdough starter ("Edwina"), I have for the past six months been caring for and benefiting from, a different kind of bacterial colony... Water Kefir Grains. Never heard of 'em? Don't worry, I hadn't either. But now (thanks to this gracious lady), I am involved in a mutually beneficial relationship with what amounts to a science experiment. You see, I feel responsible for the well-being of my colony, like I would with a bowl of goldfish. But in a way that goldfish never could, my little colony is responsible for my well-being too. Intrigued  yet?

More fun than a barrel of Sea Monkeys
There is so much info on the web about water kefir that I won't spend time or space here reiterating it. I will however link to some info at the end in case you're still curious and want to read more about it. In a nutshell, water kefir is a type of SCOBY... a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. Now before you get scared off... just think "probiotics". You know, the good/friendly/beneficial bacteria that are so good for your gut and immune system. That's what water kefir is: pure probiotic goodness.

I see so many products trumpeting "Now With Probiotics!!" on the packaging, not to mention the probiotic supplements that you can buy (I shudder to think of what they would cost to take regularly). The beauty of these little water-babies is that you only have to buy them once. That's it! Feed them and care for them and not only can they be used over and over again, but if conditions are favorable, they just may even multiply so you can share them with friends.

While You Were Steeping

Ordering iced tea in a restaurant shouldn't be a complicated matter. But somehow it is. "Do you remember if we liked the iced tea here?", Hubs and I furtively whisper to each other as soon as we sit down. We love iced tea you see, and there's nothing worse than taking that first sip and finding something stale and old (or even worse, from a mix) at the other end of the straw. 

Rare is the restaurant that takes as much care with their iced (or hot) tea as they do with their coffee. We tea drinkers are partly to blame. We're just not as bold, robust, and vociferous a group as our coffee counterparts. The differences between us are much the same as how these two drinks act upon my brain: coffee is like jumping out of an airplane, while tea is more like jumping out of an airplane with a parachute... I'm going to hit the ground either way, it's all just a matter of how soon and how hard. This may explain why tea lovers are often mellow, easy-going types who as a group get overlooked by most restaurants and chains.

There are exceptions of course. One of my favorite deli/cafés delivers the ultimate order of iced tea: a tall glass filled to the brim with ice and a small pot of strong hot tea on the side. As soon as the tea has steeped to satisfaction, you pour it over the ice and have the perfect glass of fresh brewed iced tea. This is precisely how I used to make it at home, and still do, when a single perfect glass of the stuff is all I want.

Refreshingly Redundant: Watermelon Melon Water

For the second year in a row, we have had an unseasonably cold summer. The fog creeps in each evening with its damp chilly mists, thickly blanketing the whole valley and daring the sun to burn it off the next day before noon. Elsewhere there are chart-busting heatwaves... but not here... not in Brigadoon.

Because warm sunny days are so few and far between, when we are gifted with one, I try to make the most of it by doing something super summer-y. Something best experienced only in the summer. Like drinking aguas frescas and dancing in the craggy heathered foothills with Gene Kelly... before the mists return.

Watermelon agua fresca is one of my favorites. It's especially refreshing when sparked with peppermint and lime...

My Summer Loves

straw hats clothes drying on a line cherries crushed ice  

children playing on the lawn fields of lavender in bloom strawberries 

soft breezes through open windows eating breakfast on the patio blackberries  

sunflowers ripe cherry tomatoes warm from the sun wearing flip flops every day

blueberries flying kites at the beach bossa nova  

farmer's markets and lemonade...  

For me nothing quenches on a hot summer day better than homemade lemonade. Lemonade redolent with fresh herbs and ripe fruits in a tall glass of ice. Pick your favorite summer flavors and customize your next pitcher or glass of lemonade.

I made two today: Triple Berry-Lavender and Peach-Thyme (that's the one in the photo)...  so now I'm going to go have a seat in the shade, put my feet up, take a long sip and remind myself that maybe, just maybe, summer isn't so bad after all.

Quoting... DeSylva & Brown

"You’re the cream in my coffee, 
You’re the salt in my stew; 

You will always be my necessity— 

I’d be lost without you. 

You give life savor, 
Bring out its flavor; 

So this is clear, dear, 

You’re my Worcestershire, dear."

—From the show "Hold Everything" (1929) 
Lyrics: B.G. DeSylva & Lew Brown / Music: Ray Henderson

(Click here for the song!) 

PS...Happy Birthday Honey! 

Marshmallows & Cocoa

Here it is the end of February and it's colder than ever... time for a big mug of hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows! I've never made marshmallows before but it looks like a lot of fun (and the homemade ones I've tasted are so much better than the store bought). I'm game if you are! Here's a list of links to some yummy hot chocolate and marshmallow delights... go snuggle up to one of them tonight and keep the bitter winter chill far far away.

Limes Fly When You're Having Rum

A well crafted Mojito can be a beautiful thing. Tropical yet bracing with a hint of sweet, a wisp of sour and a kiss of mint. Tall, cool and refreshing, it's the perfect quencher on the hottest of muggy summer days. Those are precisely the kind of days when I feel most like a slug however, and slugs don't have the energy (or thumbs) to make a well crafted... anything. What's a thirsty girl to do? Short of hiring a cabana boy (which might get awkward if she doesn't have a cabana), she can quickly mix up the ultimate "Faux"-jito. Basically it's little more than a spiked Italian soda, and I will admit here and now that it will fool no one (unless maybe they've never had a real Mojito before). What my Mojito Syrup does best is to approximate a Mojito. Go ahead and call it a lazy-girl's Mojito. For that is exactly what it is... and I am that lazy girl.

Why am I talking about tropical drinks and heat waves in November? It's because of the 5-pounds of limes I bought of course. I made up a double batch of this Mojito syrup... so that's 6 more limes used up and the last of the fresh mint too (at least until next spring when it will miraculously revive and dominate the side yard once again). Don't ask me how many fake mojitos this makes... I could figure it out, but I don't think I want to know.*

Pumpkin Spice-tacular

October has flown by at a wicked pace. Here we are at the end and I've only cracked open one can of pumpkin purée so far. There was some talk of a shortage of the slimy orange stuff this year. But then there was talk last year of a shortage too. Whether an actual deficiency exists or not, when people are afraid that they won't be able to get something, they buy lots of it, stocking up so they won't be without. I've personally not seen any evidence of a shortage, but I still bought two big cans of it when one small can would have sufficed. Hey, it's not like I won't use it or anything, right?

Of course, if the pumpkin in the cans is simply a melange of winter squash, then... I may just make my own stash of frozen purée using these directions from The Kitchn. It will of course depend upon the price difference between winter squashes and the canned pumpkin. But in the meantime I bought the big cans of pumpkin anyway. What did I do with them? Take a peek....

Like Breakfast For Dinner

Usually when I think about eating breakfast for dinner, I picture long interstate road trips and truck stops that are open all night and advertise "breakfast served all day". Well, why not? I've certainly consumed my share of breakfast combo plates in the middle of the night and in the middle of nowhere. 

Breakfast-for-dinner can also be a way to stretch the food budget out when the cupboard is dangerously close to being bare. A couple eggs and a little cheese are all you need for the most rudimentary of omelets. It's a simple and filling meal, if a little bit boring. Poke around in the fridge and pantry though and see what else is hanging around that might wake that omelet up. After all, it's like a blank canvas. Create something unique with it.

I started with some chard that needed using up, added some bacon (we had splurged on it a couple weeks ago), a little fresh sage and finished with the last of the shredded mozzarella (an odd choice of cheese perhaps for an omelet, but it's what we had). It all went together fast and tasted fantastic. Definitely one of those "more than the sum of it's parts" type dishes. I just love those. All that was missing was a glass of chilled Rosé and it would've been the perfect late summer dinner on the patio. Without the Rosé... it was still pretty much perfect. 

 

Omelet with Ruby Chard, Bacon and Mozzarella

Serves: 2

2 slices bacon

2-4 chard leaves

3 eggs

Splash of milk or cream

1-2 fresh sage leaves, chopped

Salt & pepper

1/4 cup mozzarella or other mild shredded cheese

1. Wash and dry chard. Remove the spine and stem and cut into 1/2-inch strips. Set aside.
2. Cook bacon on medium-low until done but not crispy. Set on paper towel until cool enough to handle. Turn stove to low. Stack bacon and cut into pieces. Set aside.
3. Pour off all but a tablespoon of the bacon fat. Sauté chard in the same pan on low for 4-5 minutes, or until wilted, stirring often. Set aside.
4. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the milk, the sage and a big pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
5. Pour egg mixture into (yep) the same pan. After about one minute, scatter the chard and bacon evenly across the eggs. Sprinkle the cheese over the top. Put a lid over the pan and check progress of omelet every minute or so until it's as cooked as you like. Shake pan every once and a while to make sure omelet is not sticking.
6. When omelet is ready, shake it down to one side and ease it onto a serving plate, flipping the pan over at the half-way point, folding the omelet in half.
7. Cut into portions, and serve.

Notes: I served this with sourdough toast and a (pitifully small) handful of our Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. I used a 10 inch cast iron pan (different pans may cook slower or faster). With eggs, I always cook them low and slow. That way the outsides never overcook before the insides are done.

Feeling The Heat: Sustenance for a Suddenly Sizzling Summer

Almost this entire summer, through last Saturday... 68-79°
Sunday... 85°
Monday...94°
Tuesday...111°

To think that just a few days ago we were still having hot porridge and pots of tea for breakfast (and we were laughing at the absurdity of me wearing Ugg boots in August). Clearly that's all over now. After two months of the mildest (or as some say, "coldest") summer on record, I was actually hoping for a little heat.*  I just didn't think that we'd get ALL of it at one time. Jimminy Crickets!

Even though our appetites are somewhat diminished from the excessive heat, we still do get a little hungry. Deliberately turning on an oven or stove and cooking hot food is the last thing on my mind though (which means it simply isn't going to happen).

They Go Together Like... [fill in the blank]

Peanut butter, banana, chocolate & coffee. Four regular residents in my kitchen. Sometimes they like to be on their own, but they always love getting together when they can and seem to truly enjoy each other's company. They're good friends. They bring out the best in each other by being supportive, encouraging, and complimentary. With so many different and delicious ways to combine them, where does one start?

Start here... How To Make Homemade Peanut Butter (Joy The Baker) and make your own peanut butter from honey roasted peanuts... that's right, honey roasted peanut butter. Pure genius. How could I not try it? The honey roasted peanuts were cheaper than the plain ones after all, and I'm all about saving money. It is, incidentally, by the way, and in fact, fantastically tasty. Is making peanut butter from scratch cost effective? Not sure. Math was not one of my strongest subjects, especially when trying to compare weights and volumes, but if you can find peanuts that are at a really good price... go for it. At least you'll know what is and (maybe more importantly) what isn't in your peanut butter. O.k.? Now, go work through the following two lists of recipes...

Sipping On Sunshine

Monday morning was drizzly gray and I was a moody blue. I needed instant sunshine. I needed an influx of happiness. But how can you generate that from within a foggy funk? Fresh fruit (and a little alliteration) always perks me up. Maybe it was time to do something with the mangoes I got at the market the other day (2 for $1.00!). It's as good a starting point as any, and frankly, a lot better than some.