Oven Fries

For supper last night I used most of a 10 lb bag of Yukon Gold Potatoes to make oven fries.

I have enough done ahead now for about three meals.

For one meal serving four people I peeled and sliced 4 potatoes, placed in a large mixing bowl with 1/4 cup grapeseed oil and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.  Tossed this and spread out in a Pampered Chef clay jelly roll baker.  Baked at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.  This particular time I quadrupled the recipe and baked several pans full.  This is one of the reasons I am so happy to have a double oven.  The large batch baking happens in half the time.

Unbaked and tossed with oil and salt.

Sugar Snap Peas Fresh From The Garden

This is an attempt at a selfie shot bringing in an unexpected bounty from the pea patch.  You know the color the peas should be so you can see the photo wasn't what it would be if someone was holding the camera instead of a load of peas and getting the lighting right.  A timed photo does not work so well because of the auto focus while keeping my load together (didn't succeed).  Plus I was having a lot of trouble getting any photo at all because of the lighting and time of day combined with the load.

Years ago my room mate Esther shared a wonderful pasta recipe using snap peas.  I would have made it yesterday except I didn't want to go to the store for ham.  I will share the recipe with you soon because I can see more of these crispy morsels are in my future.

Instead I sauted them in grapeseed oil and sea salt.  Yummy!

The abundance in the pea patch is a first for me.  For years I've planted these and gotten a few at best and none at worst.  This has been an exceptional year for crops in this area.  I've noticed it everywhere I look.  Also, these were planted in March instead of April which is a big deal here because of the heat.

Alkaline Water, Filter Out Floride, Heavy Metals

Today one of our customers called to order new filters for their Tyent Alkaline Water Machine.  This customer had been researching fluoride put in city water systems. He told me fluoride binds itself to the molecular structure of water and never goes away unless it is put through an extreme water purification system.

The Tyent Ultra filters out about 50% (to 9/10ths parts per million) fluoride.  If you use their T-Pure filters (3 filters) they can remove 95% or down to 2/10ths parts per million fluoride and heavy metals.  Even so the calcium and magnesium minerals remain in your water which is a good thing.
For more information on these pre-filters: Tyent pre-filter

The EPA allows 4 parts per million floride in water systems.  Most municipalities add 1.8 parts floride per million.

Testing our well water PH levels from the Tyent.  Drink the one on the left.  The middle and the right are great for removing pesticides from food. soak your fruits and veggies in those two.

 Above:  Alkaline water

Below:  Acid water for cleaning comes out the drain hose.

One year ago I became a Tyent Dealer and we began drinking alkaline water.  My personal experience has been that I feel stronger ( I am thinking I am getting as much done as I did in my 20's and 30's), have noticeable improvement in mental clarity and have not been sick since.

Click this link to view my favorite video of how blood looks under a microscope after drinking Tyent alkaline water.

What happens to blood after drinking Tyent water.

Orange or Tangelo Muffins From Scratch

A few weeks ago the Music Boosters group at school was having their annual fundraiser of selling citrus.  We got a box of tangelos and a box of grapefruit.  They are quite good, and we are eating them right along, but they need used up faster than we can eat them.

So this morning I experimented with a recipe given to me by my grown up daughter.  I'll give you the original recipe then I'll post today's experiment at the end.

Delicious Tangelos

Tangelo Muffins made in the Demarle At Home Butterfly tray:

Next is the original recipe I started with . . . (It's a family favorite).  My daughter who claims she isn't creative designed the decorative recipe card.  Ha!  Not creative?  She will eventually get it that she is creative and just hasn't recognized it yet.

Then the adaptions based somewhat on items I needed to use up (egg whites) or just because I like less sugar and more healthful (part fresh ground Prairie Gold whole wheat flour).

Orange or Tangelo Muffins

LIGHT AND FLUFFY!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

6 egg whites beaten to a stiff peak

1 cup butter softened, no substitutes

¾ cup raw  sugar, could reduce to 2/3 cup

2 teaspoons tangelo zest, wash them first

6 Tablespoons tangelo juice, fresh squeezed

Note: this recipe would work great with any citrus fruit

1 cup fresh ground Wheat Montana Prairie Gold whole wheat, variety is important for light fluffiness

2 teaspoons baking powder without aluminum

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat egg whites.

Cream softened butter, sugar, tangelo zest and juice.

Combine dry ingredients then add to butter/sugar/tangelo mixture.

Fold in egg whites.

Divide into Demarle At Home tray.  I used the butterfly tray and baked for 14 minutes and also the teddy bear tray and baked for 17 minutes.

Added a few days later.

These didn't last long.  By the time the children got home from school that day they were history.  A success and they want more if you please mother...

Spring Chicks, Flowers, Garden Awakens

Spring is in the air and are we ever enjoying it.

Daffodils are beginning to bloom and tulips will follow soon.  The appearance of morning dew is actually rain in the night.

And if that's not enough of a taste of spring, here are photos of the nectarine tree in bloom.

 

This next photo maybe isn't the best photo, but it was as close as I could get with the lens I had on at the moment without sliding down into the creek to get closer.   Anyway, it gives you the idea what's blooming today and why I am so happy.  There are flowers everywhere.

Bonda's garden is waking up.  The lettuce and peas are in but not showing yet.  The tomato tires are going to go away.  Bonda's husband Bondo, met a man at the farmer's market last spring who said you get better tomatoes if you plant them in tires because they hold the heat in.  That did not work and I won't put up with the look of the tires two years in a row.  They will be leaving soon.

 In our neighborhood we have a family who provides fresh eggs.  Her chickens live a good life because they are protected from the plentiful predators plus grounded. (A blog for another day).

Our neighbor lady works at a store I often shop at so as I was going through her check out line the other day she said, "I have eggs if you want them."  Never, do you turn that offer down because she has plenty of people who will buy them from her and I so enjoy the rich yellowish orange yolks and the large size, and on and on.

Anyway, she said she has baby chicks and the children could come over and hold them after work.

So we did.  These will be the source of our future eggs.

Mini Cheesecake Natural Food Coloring

Cheese cake batter made from scratch in the food processor ready to be divided into 6 colors:

There is a very important 3 year old  (just turned 4) child in my life.  She has spent some time on Pinterest selecting a birthday party theme.

Everything brightly colored was a noticeable theme including rainbow colors in her Pinterest pins.  A rainbow cake was requested and I volunteered to make cheese cake rather than regular cake. Should I be using petroleum based food coloring?  I made a quick dash to several nearby stores which should carry natural food coloring and when I could not find anything suitable I dashed back home and ordered this from Amazon.  Yay!  It arrived with one day to spare.

The colors are pretty enough before baking.  For this cheese cake I used the Demarle Round Tray.  Each opening holds 8 ounces, but I didn't even fill them up half way.

                               Raspberry (intended on red),     yellow,               blue ???,

                           Orange                            Green?????                      Lavender????

As you can see, the colors are not really turning out and after baking they were even more questionable.  After baking, the green turned tan so we skipped using that one.

Fun balloons, yellow plates and purple table linen came from Sandy's U-Rent Party Store.

From around the house we gathered brightly colored objects to anchor the balloon centerpeice.

Interactive is always better, so the children added their own sprinkles...Naturally colored sugar sprinkles from Providence Fine Living.

I like the miniature size portions.  Two small cheese cakes served 9 people with two pieces left over.

For the main dish: Washington State University Cougar Cheese in the Sweet Basil flavor was used for Macaroni and Cheese.

The Best Corn Bread Ever

It has been several years since I made corn bread.  Meanwhile, during a cleaning and organizing mood I got rid of unused and lightly used cookbooks.  One of them had our family's favorite corn bread recipe but that was the only recipe I used out of that book. I specifically remember tearing that page out and keeping it. 

A day before the Super Bowl I decided to make tiny cornbread footballs for my son's Super Bowl party. He was making his secret Chili recipe that he won't share with me even though I have begged.   Alas, I could not find the corn bread recipe our family liked way back when. The main thing I remember about that recipe was that it had half all purpose flour and half cornmeal and no canned or frozen corn; which I don't prefer.

So I looked through all my cookbooks and tried several.  

The attempt that day was okay, but then I was on a tare to find a recipe we really liked.  

The first photo shows the mini footballs in the Demarle Boat Tartlet Tray.  The photo below is more of the cornbread in the small star tray which I also thought was fitting for the Super Bowl party.  These had jalepenos in them and sauted leeks.  I liked them but other's didn't.

Since then we and our guests have endured several attempts, some of which were bad.   I liked the jalepeno version but no one else did so that was a no go.  Then just two days ago my daughter and son in law let me know they have a favorite at their house.  It is Taste of Home Sweet Corn Bread.  They have a cherished copy of a Taste of Home Cook Book which they received as a wedding gift.

Last night I made the recipe and we agreed with them it is the best recipe ever...even better than the old one I could no longer find.

Of course I was not satisfied with that because whenever possible I like to make food with less white flour and sugar. So being my predictable self, this morning I made that recipe again but with some changes and decided it is the second best corn bread I’ve ever had.  This will probably be repeated in our house more than the original version because it is healthier.

1 cup Prairie Gold whole wheat flour (instead of all purpose)

1 cup cornmeal (Bob’s Red Mill, Medium Grind, Stone Ground)
1 Tablespoon sugar (instead of 1/4 cup) (next time I'll use honey)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (aluminum free)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (instead of refined salt)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream (not light)
1/2 cup skim milk (instead of 1/3 c 2%)
1/4 cup butter, melted (do not substitute margarine)

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk egg, sour cream, milk and butter; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Divide into 12 space Demarle heart tray.  Bake for 18 minutes at 400 degrees.

There was a little left over which didn’t fit in the heart tray so I thinned the remaining batter with milk and made into two pancakes for my husband's breakfast and he liked it enough to be repeated.

This is for today's lunch.  Left over cornbread from three different recipes.  The best one is on the far right...last night's version.  Not today's version which were sent off to friends for their breakfast and I forgot about a photo.