The Smoothie King

 I love the eating habits I see developing in my little man!  Ever since he mastered a straw he has wanted some of our morning smoothies.  Once I realized how much he really liked them I started fixing him his very own glass (the mason jelly jar is just the right size for a little stomach and little hands - plus the lid helps keep spills down!).  Boy is he big stuff!  He loves doing what Mom and Dad do, and they drink smoothies!

At first I was worried that he wouldn't like all of the extra 'boosts' I put in (yougurt, spinach, kale, spirulina, kefir, beet juice, etc. - not all at the same time, but I try to put at least two 'boosts' in every smoothies), but so far he hasn't rejected a single one!  Possibly because I ate these while he was nursing, but more likely because he sees Chris and I eat them.  

We have been slow to introduce him to the raw milk and kefir, and I was honestly hesitant to do it at all yet since he is still so young.  However now that the cows have been on full grass for a few weeks and their systems are up to optimal we decided to start introducing them slowly - and smoothies were the perfect place to incorporate them.  Now that he has time for his tummy to get used to the new good bugs (and he has never had a problem with his stomach the whole time!) we have dispensed with store bought yogurt for our smoothies and are able to completely use our raw milk kefir, and Eb is now enjoying "cow milk" on a regular basis!

In addition to the smoothies, Eb loves fruit of all kinds, probably his favorite being blueberries or strawberries.  His favorite food ever is still cheese and he is a champ when trying new table food!  While I don't have him enjoying as many vegetables as I would like, I fel like we are off to a good start for a healthy eater!

Of course everything is better at Grandma's!

Simple pleasures...

It's so easy for me to get caught up in over thinking my food.  I love using my sour dough and kefir, incorporating their goodness where I can.  I love packing as much nutrition into my smoothies as possible - sometimes (okay, often) I go overboard and they lose their appeal (maybe aloe, spirulina, kale, spinach, protein powder and kefir are a few too many add ins all at once :) ).  This week though, I rediscovered one of my simplest food loves - fresh strawberries on toast!

I can thank Evie for rediscovering this enjoyable slow down.  While with Eb I craved Turtles and Ruffles with Chive and onion dip, with Evie I've been craving Snickers and strawberries (just about any way I can get them!  On toast, with fruit dip, in smoothies, on cheesecake, on salads... You get the picture!).

My Granny introduced us kids to this treat when we were small.  It was often a simple breakfast on one of the hot mornings after spending the night at her house.  Definitely not complicated, quite quick and easy, but still tries my patience at times just because I can't wait to get it in my mouth!  So many things make this a delightful combination, cutting up the strawberries ahead of time so that they are syrupy enough to soak into the toast, super buttery toast, the contrast between cool strawberries and warm toast, and of course, strawberry juice running down your chin and all over you clothes!  My favorite thing about this combination though, is the memories it rekindles of sitting at Granny's table in the summer, enjoying a tasty treat and time with Granny.  Memories of slow mornings, with the prospect of a walk and maybe some baking project ahead.  Simple memories.  Sweet memories.

Afraid to crack that egg?

We've all done it.  You are digging in the fridge and find a mysterious carton of eggs.  How long has that been there?  Are they still good?  Do I dare crack one to find out?  Never fear!  Here's a sure fire way to tell how old those eggs are!  

With all of the chickens running around at Mom's, we sometimes have a surplus of eggs and lose track of what order they were collected in! When that happens we pull out a bowl or glass of water and give the eggs a little bath.  If they float we know they are old and need tossed, if they sink we know they are nice and fresh!

Just like this...

 The brown egg just happens to be really old, so it floats like a cork.  The white egg is fresh so it sinks all the way to the bottom.

So what exactly is going on here?  Well egg shells aren't as solid as we tend to think.  They are actually porous to allow gas exchange in case there is a chick growing inside.  Over time the dense liquid inside the egg can evaporate and shrink, allowing more air to displace the space left behind.  Eventually the egg is so much lighter that it floats when placed in water!  Obviously this doesn't happen all at once so there is a gradient of where the egg stays once placed in the water.  The freshest eggs lay right on the bottom, the oldest float to the top, and those in between - well, they settle somewhere in between the top and bottom.

Surfing around on the web you will find lots of opinions about what to do with the "floaters".  Some say toss them, some say that as long as they were stored at an appropriate temperature you can use them for boiled eggs - here at the farm we like to play it safe and toss all the ones that float.  We also try to use only the freshest eggs in things we might consume raw (like cookie dough!).

So next time you encounter those 'mystery eggs' confront them confidently with a bowl of water and you will never be surprised by that awful sulfur smell again!


Please note: I am not a medical professional   Common sense should dictate your decisions about your food.  If there is any question in your mind about food's safety please throw it out!

Christmas is Sweet!

I love sweets and Christmas is a wonderful excuse to makes lots of them as we celebrate! You already saw our Christmas cookies, in addition to those we've made No-Bake's, Rice Crispy Treats, Seven Layer Bars (Magic Bars to some of you) and Chris' favorite - Buckeyes!  I have a super simple recipe for these that anyone can do which I would like to share with you!

Super Simple Buckeyes
1 pkg Peanut butter chips
1 Carton vanilla frosting
Dipping chocolate (I find the chocolate almond bark to be cheapest it works great!)

That's it!  Melt the chips really slowly over low heat, once melted remove from heat and add vanilla frosting.  Blend thoroughly and cool in the fridge for about an hour stirring occasionally.  Once cooled shape into one inch balls (cooling again is optional at this point but it can help when you dip them in the chocolate).  Melt the dipping chocolate (if microwaving only cook for 10-15 seconds at a time or you may scorch the chocolate), use a toothpick to dip the ball of peanut butter into the chocolate leaving a circle on top uncovered so they look like real buckeyes, put on wax paper and back into the fridge to cool completely.  Enjoy!

Spicy Experiment

Chris really enjoys eating spicy food and has even more fun making spicy food.  One of the men we work with at the farm introduced him to a salsa or sauce made from Datil peppers.  Datil peppers rank right up there with Habaneros and are in fact one of the parents used to breed the legendary pepper.  Chris liked the salsa so much that our friend offered him the recipe and a bag full of Datils! 

Chris was so anxious to make his own that he started dicing the peppers without gloves!  He won't do that again!  Time and some rubbing alcohol helped the burning enough for him to finish the next day with gloves. 

It turned out just like he hoped, sadly he had to wait until we got to my parents before he could find someone to enjoy it with him. My brothers love hot stuff and are always pushing their limits as to what they can handle, so Chris was excited to share his recipe with them.  After a few tastes one was still wanting more and the other two were running for a glass of milk!

Here are some shots of the experiment in process!



Before Cooking




Chopping Away!



Blueberries!

 One of the girls in my office is working with different blueberry varieties and methods of propagation (making new plants-cuttings versus tissue culture specifically), so that means we've got to help her harvest and sample all those berries right?  And of course there will be extras and something has to be done about that! :)

Last week she let us know it was time for her to harvest again so we spent the day in Citra helping here pick and weigh the ones for her research... and then picking a whole bunch for ourselves too!

There was netting over the rows to keep the birds away.  Since the rows were so long it was easier to crawl under than take it all off and put it all back on!

The netting kept trying to grab my hair!

 We came home with SO MANY berries!  And the season isn't even over yet!  Here are some quick shots of washing up!  Right now we are going to just freeze them all.  Most will probably go to smoothies in the near future, but I hope to post about some other fun things I have planned for them (such as cobbler, pie and smooshed fruit!).

The size variation was amazing, we picked some as big around as quarters and some much smaller than dimes.  While the smaller ones had more taste, I kept going back to the bushes with the bigger berries because they filled my cartons up faster!  Here are some next to a dime for size comparison...

Sylvia (my office mate) said the variation was mainly due to the different varieties.  I guess just like you can have all different kinds of apples, you can also have all different sizes of blueberries!

Hope you find something to sweeten up your week!

Corn on the Cob in APRIL!!!

One of the perks of living in Florida is the wonderful, fresh produce we have access to!  Including corn on the cob!  I'm not used to having this fresh until sometime in July, so when I saw it for sale at 6 ears for 2 dollars I got really excited!!!

It was soo delicious!

Why, yes I do look crazy, but its Corn on the Cob!

Gifts in the Mail!

When Grandpa and Grandma Shirley were here we got to go shopping in a kitchen store and I saw some things that I really liked and didn't have in my kitchen yet.  I was over budget for that day so I decided to put them off for later.  Grandma Shirley remembered them however and I was surprised by these in the mail last week!!!

I know its crazy but after almost five years of marriage I still did not have a pie sever!  Also Chris has been interested in making his own tea from different herbs (he especially likes mint) but we didn't have any way to steep the tea, so Shirley sent not one, but TWO options!  I was so surprised and excited by our gift so I wanted to share!  What kinds of gadgets have made your day lately?

Strawberry Series: Strawberry Pie

 This is the last strawberry post, I promise!  I can't finish without talking about my strawberry pie, however!

Strawberry pie is one of those things that I associate with my Granny.  It was a treat she made for us in the summer and it was always somewhat mysterious to me.  That may sound silly, but it just always amazed me that you could make a pie out of strawberries.  This is a desert that I associate with a nice, cool break during a hot summer day full of hard work with my family.  I never attempted this recipe until after she passed and I no longer had anyone to make it for me.  Mom and I made a pie while she was down and it made me want to try again with these berries. 

While I think Granny had her recipe memorized this is what Mom and I cobbled together from memory and other, similar recipes.

Granny's Strawberry Pie

One deep dish, baked pie shell
Fill shell with topped, halved berries

1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons corn starch
1 cup water
1 3oz pkg strawberry jello


Mix cornstarch and sugar before adding water so cornstarch isn't lumpy.  Add water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, boil until mixture thickens. Add jello.  Pour over strawberry filled pie shells.  Refrigerate until set. Serve with Cool Whip on top. Enjoy!


This recipe makes enough jello mix to more than fill one deep dish pie or fill two shallow pie pans.  Its a cool, yummy summer treat.  It made a lot of happy memories for me and I hope it will continue to make good memories in the years to come!

Strawberry Series: Chocolate Covered Deliciousness

With all these strawberries you've got to have some chocolate!

I really like the little cartons of dipping chocolate you can find in the baking isle.  They are great for just one quart of strawberries, easy to use and easy to store.  If you are wanting to do a bigger batch however, I recommend the big bars of chocolate almond bark that you also find in that section.  They are much cheaper per ounce and will last forever in your fridge, even if they are a little difficult to chop up into microwavable size portions!

You don't have to go to Godiva to enjoy some decadent strawberry treats!

Strawberry Series: Tiny Cheesecakes

 I'm stealing a trick I learned from Shane while he was visiting us!  We had some leftover cheesecake filling from his visit, and he showed me where to find these fillo shells in the freezer section of our grocery, so putting this desert together for Bible study was a snap!

I used two boxes of frozen, pre-baked, mini fillo shells from the grocery.  This is what they looked like.

I filled them with the left over cheesecake filling, not as good as home-made, but better than you would expect!

I stuck some topped, quartered strawberries in and sprinkled with sugar.  Then they baked in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

They smelled awesome while warming up and looked and tasted even better!

Great option for a quick, fancy snack!

Strawberry Series: Smooshed Fruit

There is a snack from Strech Island Fruit Co. that I really like and they used to call it Smooshed Fruit.  The name has since changed but the product is still the same.  It is basically a whole food fruit roll-up.  They use minimal processing and additives and make dehydrated tasty fruit snacks!  Problem is, if you buy them individually they are about fifty cents a pop.  The concept isn't too hard but I don't have a food dehydrator and so didn't consider trying to make these... until I ran across this blog post at Berlin's Whimsy while searching for things to do with peaches.  The recipe sounded so simple and tasty AND she dehydrated the fruit in the oven!  I printed it off and put it away for peach season... then remembered it and tried to adapt it for strawberries!

My first batch was a flop.  When they say spread it 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick, they really mean as close to 1/8 of an inch as you can get.  They say this for good reason, if its not thin enough the fruit will dry out on top quickly, but then the moisture can't escape from the bottom and it will never dry properly, ending in a sticky mess that you can't do anything with... phooey.

Also, as wrong as you may feel about using plastic wrap in the oven, it worked much better than the wax paper I tried that first time (because nobody is supposed to put plastic wrap in the oven, right? Surely they meant wax paper, right?  Wrong...).

The second batch worked much better and I will show/tell you what I did for that instead!

 Strawberry Smooshed Fruit


Roughly 3 cups washed, capped and halved strawberries (you want two cups pureed)


Puree in blender until smooth, add extra berries if needed until have about 2 cups.


Pour into sauce pan, add 3/4 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons lemon juice (you can adjust to taste, but remember the flavor will intensify as it cooks and dries)

Cook on low/medium-low heat for about an hour.  The mixture should be bubbling and reduce in volume by about half.  It will darken some as it cooks, this is ok.  Be sure to stir regularly or it will burn on the bottom.


Spray a sheet pan lightly with cooking oil (I used spray olive oil), then line with heavy duty plastic wrap (I used Saran Wrap Premium with good results, Do not use wax paper!), and also lightly spray the plastic wrap with cooking oil. 

 Once the strawberry mix is finished cooking spread into prepared pan.  This is the tricky part because you want the pan covered but you don't want it too think because it won't dry and you don't want it to thin because it may scorch.  About 1/8 of an inch seemed to work well.

Put in the oven on the lowest setting possible.  Most often recommended was 120 degrees, but the lowest my oven goes is 170 and that seemed to work fine.  Mine took about three and a half hours to dry.  When dry you want it to peel away from the plastic easily and you don't want to see any uncooked portions on the bottom when you peel it away from the plastic.  It may still be tacky to the touch on top.  If your oven can go lower it will probably take longer to dry (some took as long as 8-12 hours in the recipes I found).

Cool completely on a wire rack, I actually pulled the plastic off the pan and put it directly on the rack after this picture to allow it to cool faster.

Once cool, invert the smooshed fruit onto a piece of wax paper, peel off the plastic and roll tightly with the wax paper.  This should last for several weeks on the counter, several months in the fridge and about a year in the freezer.  Enjoy!

The second batch worked great but I wish I had it in smaller rolls, it was pretty hard to cut through the paper, fruit and all.  So on the third batch I cut the fruit into portion size strips with kitchen scissors, cut the wax paper about an inch or two bigger, and wrapped individual portions, then I twisted the ends like a peppermint wrapper.  I think it will work much better!

I have seen several recipes for different fruits and hope to try some others as the season progresses.

So it sounds all involved and difficult but it was really a simple snack to make, once I figured out what I was doing!  Hope you can find a use for smooshed fruit!

Strawberry Series: Save them for later!

We have started eating a LOT of smoothies for breakfasts the last year, and a tasty ingredient is strawberries!  Most of the strawberries that I got on sale found their way into quart freezer bags and into our tiny freezer.  We have access to my Granddaddy's deep freezer, so on our next trip near his house we are going to drop most of the berries off there for longer term storage.

Not only can we use these strawberries for smoothies down the road, but I get ambitious I can turn these into other yummy goodies, like jam or smooshed fruit.

What's that?!?! You've never heard of smooshed fruit?  Well stay tuned, I will introduce you next time to one of my favorite snacks and my attempt to make it at home!

What do you do with a two whole flats of strawberries?

 Find lots of ways to eat them of course!

As you saw from the posts at the strawberry festival, strawberries are in season here in Florida!  The Horticulture Club at the University of Florida apparently holds a strawberry sale every year to earn money for the club.  because they buy the strawberries in season and at wholesale prices, they offer them for a really good price.  I only paid $10 per flat!  (Each flat holds 8 quarts- the container size you get in the grocery- so I essentially paid $1.25/quart!) So I bought two!

Then I got them home and thought 'Oh no, now what am I going to do!?!'.  But never fear! Not a berry went to waste!  What did I do with them all?  Well you will have to wait for the next few posts to find out!

Warning: 
Not responsible for: drool damage to computer during future posts, sudden berry cravings, or berry burn-out!

Chris has a birthday!

My wonderful husband turned 26 in January!  We kind of spread his birthday out over the whole month and had several small celebrations.  We gathered with others at our work for lunch in my adviser's lab.  I made Chris Reece No-Bakes, something he had wanted for a while but I never got around to trying.

The next weekend we were able to go to our local Sushi place and celebrate again!  Afterward we went to the free movie night on campus and finally watched RED, a movie that several of our friends really liked.

I'm so thankful for my hubby who has supported and encouraged me through thick and thin!

Eat your heart out Macaroni Grill!

The last time we went to Macaroni Grill I discovered to my dismay that they no longer served the highly delicious Chicken Tuscona Soup that I would combine with their Tomato Mozzarella Salad to make a wonderful meal!

Since I was carving it the other day I decided to see how hard it was to make and if there were any free recipes out there.  I found three!  This is my first attempt and I was pleasantly surprised!  I didn't know if my homemade version would be as good as the original but I got much closer than I hoped, a few more tweaks and it will be just right!

Just Like Romano's Macaroni Grill Chicken Toscana Soup Recipe

Makes 2 servings

Macaroni Grill Chicken Toscana Soup Recipe Clone Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup cooked chicken, preferably roasted
• 1 ripe tomato, chopped
• 4 ounces packaged gnocchi, cut in half
• 1/2 cup cream or half-and-half (I used whole milk but I think the cream would give it a thicker consistency)
• 3/4 cup fresh baby spinach leaves (I coarsely shredded spinach so it wouldn't be as big of chunks)
• 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• Fresh basil

Cook the onions and garlic in olive oil for about 5 minutes, or until onion becomes soft and transparent and garlic becomes golden. Be careful not to burn the garlic or it will taste bitter.

Add chicken broth. Turn up heat and let it come to a boil. After the broth starts boiling, add the precooked chicken, gnocchi, and chopped tomato. Turn down to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Next, add the cream. Add spinach last. Stir spinach until it wilts. Remove from heat.

After putting the Chicken Toscana soup into individual bowls, sprinkle with generous amounts of Parmesan cheese and a little basil. 

Enjoy with some homemade bread and a yummy side salad, or some Tomato Mozzarella Salad!

Fab Five Friday!

So at one point I had the ambition of copying my dear friend Sarah and her tradition of fabulous Friday posts, but alas I couldn't keep up at all!  This is a post I prepared while still at my Mom's house in June!  While extremely late these things are no less fabulous and thinking about them makes me smile!  Maybe I can do more recent ones in the future but here are some Fabulous Friday memories!

1. Cruise Control!

This is a carry over from our trip to FL but it also made my Monday much easier as I was driving Mom to Indy and back for adoption work!

2. Strawberries!!!!
Probably my number one favorite thing about this week is that strawberries are ripening at my Granddaddy's and we got our mouths (and taste buds) on the first batches this week!  Chris and I were able to freeze enough for smoothies for the next couple months, have strawberries on toast, with cream cheese dip and in pie! Marvelous!

3. Borsch!
If you don't know Borsch is a vegetable soup made with winter vegetables and beef... and it is AMAZING home food!  Since some of our family friends were coming in last week the kids wanted to introduce them to our favorite Ukrainian/ Russian meal.  Super filling and comforting!

 

4. Company!
We were so blessed to have our former pastor and his family in this last weekend.  I haven't seen them since Chris and my wedding and we really enjoyed their company.  It was so encouraging to catch up on what was going on in their lives and just enjoy their company for a time!


5. Storms!
We had some awesome storms this last week and they are so fun to watch from under the covers!  The kids especially enjoyed being with out power for a couple of hours, until they discovered it was still light enough to do school without the power!

6. Ice cream maker... need I say more?   Once the bowl has been in the freezer for 12 hours simply add milk, sugar and vanilla and voila!  Tasty Ice Cream! Milk from our own cows makes it extra creamy!


7. Lemon Cake!  I think I've discussed this elsewhere, but this recipe of my Granny's is served cold and is delightful on a hot day!


What made your week fabulous?

Borsch!

When my parents went to Ukraine for the first time they discovered an amazing soup called Borsch.  I really didn't want to try it when Mom made it the first time because it had beets as one of the ingredients... but I did and it has become one of my favorites EVER!

It is now one of my 'home foods' that Mom makes almost every time we go to her house!  Just in case you are curious it has roast beef, potatoes, carrots, celery, beets, onions, cabbage and tomatoes.  You can either boil the roast to make a beef broth or boil the vegetables in water to make more of a vegetable broth.  This is a great winter soup (since all of those veggies store well) but we got to make it from veggies fresh from the garden, all we had to purchase was the celery (we haven't tried growing celery yet!).  It was marvelous!  Hope you can try something new this week! Maybe you will find a new favorite! 

Memories of a Grown-Up Cookie Lover

When asking my Dad what kind of cookies he wanted this last week, I was expecting him to ask for a tradition choice like chocolate chip or peanut butter.  But when told I would make him whatever he wanted he proceeded to tell me about a cookie my Granny made for him when he was 5 years old.  They must have made quite an impression!  They were shaped like an owl's face with a cashew for the nose, the outside was peanut butter and the inside was chocolate and they had chocolate chips for eyes.  

After I realized how cool these had been to him I was off on a search for the recipe, since I'd never had them before! Most of the recipes had vanilla on the outside and chocolate on the inside so I replaced the vanilla with a refrigerator peanut butter cookie. Dad really liked them and said they tasted like he remembered!  They still need some practice but were really fun!

My New "Pet"!

I would like to officially introduce the world to our newest "pet", Demeter!  It is squishy, tan and terribly tasty when cooked up right!In case the picture didn't tip you off we recently acquired a sour-dough bread started! 

On our last trip to Bowling Green we stayed with some of our dear friends who have recently converted to making all their own bread!  They were wonderful hosts and made some of their bread for us, sent us home with more and gave us some of their starter!

This last week I tried my first loaf from this starter, unfortunately it did not raise as much as my friend's wonderful bread, but as Chris kept reminding me it was my first try and it still tasted great!  My friends felt that the reason their bread raised so high was that they were using a local honey which interacted well with the local bugs that work as leavening for the starter.  I used some local honey as well but I think my main problem was that I didn't allow the starter to "proof" long enough.  It was bubbly when I started making it but it didn't have much of a 'sour' smell to it.... what can I say? I was excited about eating it and pretty impatient!

Above is one of the loaves from my first try, it was kinda short and dense, but so tasty both loaves were nearly gone before nightfall!  Sometime I want to discuss some of the advantages of sour-dough over baker's yeast bread but for now I just wanted to share the joy of bread!  Hope you made something tasty this week!