Making apple butter couldn't be easier.
Take 10 lbs of free apples.
Peel and core them.
Throw a few cups at a time into a food processor until it has the consistency of apple sauce. Put the apple sauce into a slow cooker.
Repeat until slow cooker is almost full. Add 2 cups sugar and 1 cup lemon juice (for 8-10 lbs of puree) to the slow cooker and spices to tast. Mix well. Set slow cooker to low, put lid on such that some steam can escape and let simmer for 8 hours.
If you wish to can your apple butter. Sterilize pint jars by placing jar and lid (but not ring) into boiling water for at least 5 minutes. Spoon apple butter into jar, seat lid and screw on ring. Boil jars for 10 minutes with water at least 1" above top of jar. Place jars in area free from drafts and disturbances until cooled.
Enjoy!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
There are lots of options in the bread aisle at the grocery store. There's even probably some bakeries nearby that make some great bread. But I've found that I enjoy making my own bread. Even the locally baked stuff doesn't compare (probably because I can make it to suit my tastes) and I can use locally grown wheat and honey to make mine even more eco-friendly. A loaf of this bread costs about $1 to make compared to $4-$5 for a comparable loaf at the store or bakery.
Honey Wheat Bread:
1 Stick Butter
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Honey (I love mesquite, it goes wonderfully with the whole wheat flour)
Heat on stove until reaches about 150F (or basically until the butter melts and everything mixes well). Let cool til reaches room temperature
In mixer combine
1 packet yeast
1 cup warm water (around 105F)
1 tsp honey or sugar
Let sit 5-10 minutes
Mix in butter mixture and
20 oz bread flour
Knead with mixer until ball forms. This should take several minutes (8-10). If it's still not sticking together add a little more flour ~1Tbsp at a time until it gets the right texture.
Put in bowl, cover, and let rise until double the volume.
Punch down bread, and then place in one or two round balls on cookie sheet. Cover and let rise again. When the bread is done rising, place in pre-heated oven at 375F for about 25 minutes (crust should be evenly browned). Let cool and enjoy a some amazing bread.
A well risen loaf of bread (not yet cooked).
Honey Wheat Bread:
1 Stick Butter
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Honey (I love mesquite, it goes wonderfully with the whole wheat flour)
Heat on stove until reaches about 150F (or basically until the butter melts and everything mixes well). Let cool til reaches room temperature
In mixer combine
1 packet yeast
1 cup warm water (around 105F)
1 tsp honey or sugar
Let sit 5-10 minutes
Mix in butter mixture and
20 oz bread flour
Knead with mixer until ball forms. This should take several minutes (8-10). If it's still not sticking together add a little more flour ~1Tbsp at a time until it gets the right texture.
Put in bowl, cover, and let rise until double the volume.
Punch down bread, and then place in one or two round balls on cookie sheet. Cover and let rise again. When the bread is done rising, place in pre-heated oven at 375F for about 25 minutes (crust should be evenly browned). Let cool and enjoy a some amazing bread.
A well risen loaf of bread (not yet cooked).
Friday, August 21, 2009
Motivation
My first post will be about my food philosophy. I generally cook with what I have on hand, I won't run to the grocery store to get one ingredient for a dish. I rarely use a recipe as-is, most get modified to accommodate my tastes and what I do have on hand. Sometimes I make stuff up as I go, trying to get a specific flavor. I enjoy eating good food and find that cooking is a fun creative outlet.
Most of my food choices comes from a desire to minimize my environmental impact. This has been getting easier in the last few years as it's now trendy and cool to be green. I'm happy about this as 1) it makes it easier to find eco-friendly food sources, 2)other people are doing this too so it's helping the environment and 3) I don't get as many weird looks/disparaging comments for my food choices.
Here's where my food comes from:
Meat: I'm not a vegetarian but I only eat local naturally raised meat. Virtually all meat I eat comes from Wilcox, AZ which is about 65 miles from my home. This means I usually go meatless at restaurants. I limit my seafood a lot while I'm in Arizona and when closer to the ocean I try to limit to the species listed as good by the Monterey Aquarium.
Vegetables (& Fruit): The majority of the plants are from my local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). This provides me with local, seasonal, and sustainably grown produce. Farmers markets are used to supplement this if necessary. I stock up on fruit in the summer from local pick-your-own orchards (last year I started canning). I grow a modest amount of produce in my yard. Part of it is watered through grey water (plants where the fruit doesn't touch the ground such as trees). I'm hoping in the next couple months to put in rainwater harvesting for the rest of the garden.
Other:
Oil- I use olive oil from The Queen Creek Olive Mill (about 100 miles from home, but they often show up at my farmer's market)
Milk- cow "share" from a small local animal santuary
Eggs- I get through the CSA (there's a huge taste difference in naturally raised chicken eggs). These come from either Wilcox or from other CSA members who have extra from their backyard chickens.
Flour (Corn and wheat)- I recently found a local source for these but haven't tried them yet, need to use up what I already have. Will update later.
My weaknesses (the 3 C's)
Coffee-not exactly locally grown but I do get stuff that is fair trade, shade grown from Mexico and locally roasted.
Chocolate-not a staple, but that's imported from Belgium when I do have some.
Cheese-I do get local goat cheese (and goat's milk caramel... yum) and sometimes cow's milk cheese depend on what's available but everything else is organic and/or imported (generally from Europe where they have stricter agriculture regulations about hormones etc).
About environmental impact of non-food items that come with food (ie packaging). Most people are at least aware of re-usable shopping bags now. In addition, I use lightweight mesh bags for my produce instead of plastic bags. If I forget them or only have a couple items I'll just forgo the bag. The milk comes in a glass bottle that is sterilized then re-used. I will try to reuse packaging I can't get rid of (like plastic bags for bulk food items and the paper bags for coffee beans).
Making food from scratch makes it possible to avoid cardboard or plastic packaging (like yogurt, it's very easy, cheap and I can make a quart at a time and then add my own fruit in the morning for breakfast). The best part is homemade food is cheaper, it tastes better and you can control what goes into it (I can go weeks without ingesting HFCS).
Most of my food choices comes from a desire to minimize my environmental impact. This has been getting easier in the last few years as it's now trendy and cool to be green. I'm happy about this as 1) it makes it easier to find eco-friendly food sources, 2)other people are doing this too so it's helping the environment and 3) I don't get as many weird looks/disparaging comments for my food choices.
Here's where my food comes from:
Meat: I'm not a vegetarian but I only eat local naturally raised meat. Virtually all meat I eat comes from Wilcox, AZ which is about 65 miles from my home. This means I usually go meatless at restaurants. I limit my seafood a lot while I'm in Arizona and when closer to the ocean I try to limit to the species listed as good by the Monterey Aquarium.
Vegetables (& Fruit): The majority of the plants are from my local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
This provides me with local, seasonal, and sustainably grown produce. Farmers markets are used to supplement this if necessary. I stock up on fruit in the summer from local pick-your-own orchards (last year I started canning). I grow a modest amount of produce in my yard. Part of it is watered through grey water (plants where the fruit doesn't touch the ground such as trees). I'm hoping in the next couple months to put in rainwater harvesting for the rest of the garden.Other:
Oil- I use olive oil from The Queen Creek Olive Mill (about 100 miles from home, but they often show up at my farmer's market)
Milk- cow "share" from a small local animal santuary
Eggs- I get through the CSA (there's a huge taste difference in naturally raised chicken eggs). These come from either Wilcox or from other CSA members who have extra from their backyard chickens.
Flour (Corn and wheat)- I recently found a local source for these but haven't tried them yet, need to use up what I already have. Will update later.
My weaknesses (the 3 C's)
Coffee-not exactly locally grown but I do get stuff that is fair trade, shade grown from Mexico and locally roasted.
Chocolate-not a staple, but that's imported from Belgium when I do have some.
Cheese-I do get local goat cheese (and goat's milk caramel... yum) and sometimes cow's milk cheese depend on what's available but everything else is organic and/or imported (generally from Europe where they have stricter agriculture regulations about hormones etc).
About environmental impact of non-food items that come with food (ie packaging). Most people are at least aware of re-usable shopping bags now. In addition, I use lightweight mesh bags for my produce instead of plastic bags. If I forget them or only have a couple items I'll just forgo the bag. The milk comes in a glass bottle that is sterilized then re-used. I will try to reuse packaging I can't get rid of (like plastic bags for bulk food items and the paper bags for coffee beans).
Making food from scratch makes it possible to avoid cardboard or plastic packaging (like yogurt, it's very easy, cheap and I can make a quart at a time and then add my own fruit in the morning for breakfast). The best part is homemade food is cheaper, it tastes better and you can control what goes into it (I can go weeks without ingesting HFCS).
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