Cranberry, Chocolate, Orange Bars

Chicken Lentil Soup

Made for a friend who has a sore throat.  A medicinal soup.

In 

1/4 cup bacon drippings

Saute briefly:

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 Tablespoons mashed, rested garlic

1 Tablespoon mashed ginger root

Add

5 cups water

1 cup green lentils

6 Tablespoons chicken broth

1 teaspoon Jacobsen Sea Salt

Gently boil 30 to 40 minutes until lentils are softened.

Add and warm

3 cups roasted chopped carrots

2 cups roasted, chunked chicken

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

Serve hot.  About 6 or 8 servings.  May need to add salt.

Delicata Squash, Roasted

Delicata squash is ready for harvest so I decided to experiment with one.

I separated the seeds and coated them in the same oil and spices used to coat the squash.

Cut the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and then cut squash in 3/4 inch slices.

Coat squash slices in about 1/8 cup olive oil, 1/8 cup pure maple syrup, salt, pepper and cinnamon to taste.

Roast at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, gently roast the coated seeds.

Once the squash and seeds are ready, toss together and garnish with French thyme.

On a rare occasion I have currant tomatoes.  Today is one of those days.

Basil Lemon Parmesan Pasta Salad

Zest of 2 lemons

6 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 crushed garlic cloves

1 tablespoon coconut aminos

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

Salt, pepper

2/3 cup toasted pine nuts

2 lbs bow tie pasta, cooled

2 cups fresh basil snipped small

5 ounces grated parmesan cheese

Mix the dressing together in large bowl while cooking pasta.

Combine cooled pasta with dressing.

Snip and add basil and parmesan and stir to combine.

Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.  Add pine nuts and serve cold.

Rose Lemonade With Maple Syrup

Someone important to me wanted rose lemonade today but the usual source did not deliver.

Since the heirloom rose Ebb Tide is abundantly producing roses it seemed like a good idea to experiment.

I ended up with 3 cups washed rose petals.  In the next photo you see them soaking in alkaline water weighted with a cereal bowl.

 

Next up was 6 cups of water set to boil.  Once the water boiled the 3 cups of petals went in.

And very soon it looked like this:

Which is not attractive.

But leaving it to cool slightly then straining...

...then adding 3 tablespoons lemon juice, it turned to this....

This took two times because the 4 cup measuring dish was too small.

But in total, it took 6 tablespoons lemon juice.

In each of the fancy bottles left over from previous purchases, I combined 

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup rose water

2 tablespoons lemon juice from concentrate

1 tablespoon maple syrup

They are in the fridge for later.

Today she wanted some as she went out in the heat to work.

Since the two bottles are still warm, I made another batch in a glass, added ice and sent her on her way.

Well she poured it all into a travel cup to be more accurate.

It is a bit watered down with the ice, but now that the rosewater is cooling in the fridge the next batch should be great.

I prefer less sweetness and maybe one tablespoon maple syrup per bottle is too little for some.  Easily remedied by adding to your taste.

This turned out more peach colored than the original product.  But in reviewing the ingredients there is beet juice and no rose water,  just rose oil.

And beet juice is a great color even when diluted.

rose apron

Rose Petal Jelly using Ebb Tide David Austin Heirloom Roses

Two years ago I made rose petal jelly. Using a slightly different recipe.   I like the other recipe better as it uses less sugar. There is a post about it (June 18, 2019) but I want to do another one anyway because it is such a special thing to make and eat.

And oh the scent and flavor.  Lovely!

Rinse 7 roses and pull off the petals.  This should add up to one cup.  I made it a heaping cup.

Add the petals to 3 cups cold water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

 Very shortly they will lose their color.

 Set the pan off the heat and rest 10 minutes.

Strain the juice.  Press the juice from the petals.

Add 3 tablespoons lemon juice and immediately the color looks better.

The three cups of juice goes back in the pan.  Bring back to a rolling boil that stays boiling while stirring.

Add one pouch of liquid pectin. Stir in well.

Add 4 cups sugar slowly while stirring in one cup at a time.

Boil rapidly for one minute.

Pour into sterilized jars/lids and do the step of preserving in a canner if you need to store it more than a month.

I don't do this step because I give it to friends with instructions to use up within one month.

Gourmet Mexican Rice

At work Wednesday I stood in line for over two hours to get my Covid vaccine booster which made me feel quite ill for over a day.  The first shot did not make me feel poorly but my arm was quite sore for three days.  This time I took Arnica 30c about one hour and again at half hour before the shot.  And again after the shot.  This time my arm was a lot better, but I felt many symptoms of Covid for the following 36 or so hours. But I digress from the subject of the post.

The kitchen manager was with me in line.  We were behind at least 100 others and settled in for a long wait.

I like to get to know people so I began my usual questioning.  My most frequent go-to question is "Where did you grow up?"

"Mexico" was the answer.  And I wanted to know how old he was when he came to the USA.  "Age 20" was the next answer.

Eventually, as the line very slowly crawled along, I found myself asking him if his mom cooked alot..."Yes". And she was a good teacher.  She was and is always cooking food grown on the family farm in Mexico.

"And how do you fix beans?"... This took up a lot of the time and how fun to be learning about cooking authentic Mexican food.  Hopefully a future post will be about trying out what I learned.  I do wish I had something to write it down, but I am fairly sure I can get a refresher at some point.

Hungry for more learning, I asked about Mexican Rice.  I mistakenly called it Spanish rice.

And again, I can't remember everything he said, but today I gave it a go with my own twists and turns...because I wanted to use home made chicken bone broth rather than canned chicken broth.

Aaaaaannnnnddddd my son recently gave me a sous vide.   Really!!!

So the 6 chicken thighs were in the fridge, thanks to my husband who does all the shopping for our household.

I vacuum packed them and put them in the water and using the sous vide at 165 degrees for 1.5 hours they were done just right.  And here is an additional benefit...we left the house with 55 minutes to go on the timer knowing we would not be back in time for it to be done cooking.  We got home a couple hours later and all was well.

When chicken is done in the sous vide, there is a small amount of liquid in the bag which when refrigerated turns to a wobbly gel. It's the collogen and it's good for us.

From these 6 chicken thighs, there was one cup of this liquid and I wanted that for the Mexican rice recipe. The recipe calls for 4 cups broth and to get the other three cups needed, I trimmed the cooked chicken off the bones and put those chicken bones in a pan with 6 cups water and gently boiled them for a couple hours That was about setting number 6 out of 10 on my stove. 

Also, it was supper time so I wanted to eat a piece of this chicken which by this time was medium warm. And I wanted to crisp the outside. With some butter in the pan, I fried the chicken for about 10 minutes on a medium heat. There was more liquid in the pan now and some crispy bits. Which seemed like a great starting point for the rice recipe if you ask me. Add a 1/2 cube butter to the chicken drippings. Now take a large white onion and cut off some. Finely chop it. I did about 1/4 cup and more would have been fine.  Saute in the butter and drippings for about 3 to 5 minutes. 

Using the morter and pestal, I smashed about 10 small garlic cloves and put them in the chicken fat, butter and onions. Saute 🧄 a minute or so, stirring. Add 2 cups white Niko Niko Calrose Rice. Saute until some (half?) are golden. Add one cup collogen and 3 cups bone broth along with 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. Now add 2 scant tablespoons of tomato paste and whisk it in to blend with all the other ingredients. 

Cover the pan and when the lid is hot, turn the heat to a lower setting. I cook it for 20 minutes at a low heat. That is a 3 on my electric stove. 

Ingredient list: 

Chicken drippings from finish browning 6 thighs (already Sous Vide cooked). 

1/2 cube butter 

1/4 cup finely chopped onion 

10 small garlic cloves smashed 

2 cups Niko Niko Calrose Rice 

1 cup chicken collogen 

3 cups chicken bone broth 

1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

2 Tablespoons tomato paste 

optional:

Finely chopped Jalepenos added with onions 

And/or cilantro added after cooking

DIY Dried Cranberries

 Boil water in large pan.  Turn burner off.  Add 10 ounces fresh cranberries to hot water and let sit 5 minutes while they split open.

With a slotted spoon remove cranberries to mixing bowl containing 2 tablesoons date sugar and one tablespoon coconut oil.  Add a generous sprinkle of sea salt.

Let sit until oil melts then gently stir.

Spread the coated berries onto a cookie sheet.

Place in 225 degree oven.  Stir in one plus a half hour and bake for yet another 1.5 hours.

Cool and refrigerate until ready to use.