Feel free to use this template. Right click and select view image in another window. Then right click the image in the new window and select save file as...
Happy Baking!
Printable Grocery List - Grocery excursion 4.18.13
Happy Baking!
Grocery list - Thursday 4.18.13
I have a Macbook Pro laptop, and use Pages. Pages is the equivalent to Word for PC users, they both have a built in chart.
I have been using the notepad on my iPhone for some time, but it really puts things in perspective when I can see what I usually have bought in the past from Albertsons, and their prices. I also flipped through the competitor's weekly circulars and various coupon sites. Also, a tip for a newbie coupon clipper, if you're looking for a particular brand, like International Delight or CoffeeMate creamers, 5 times out of 10 they have coupons on their website. If not, they have an email address or physical address you can contact them and ask for coupons. Saying something along the lines of, "I'd really like to try your XYZ product, but it's a bit out of my price range. Would you send me coupons by mail or email?" Nothing spectacular, just include your home address and you'd be surprised. :)
Any who, as I posted on Monday about the Dollar General ad and coupons, I'll be shopping there Friday (the 5$ coupon is for 4/19 Friday and 4/20 Saturday only), and i'll be going to Albertsons, Vons and CVS tomorrow morning.
Don't discard your CVS circular this week! They have a 20% off regularly priced items, that does not exclude using coupons. Vitamins aren't cheap, and Nature's Bounty has a coupon up at coupons.com.
I'll give this more accurate method a chance, if it works, i'll make a user friendly PDF version of what i'm using!
Happy Baking! :)
Sourdough recipe
Sourdough is, in my opinion, the easiest and most cost effective bread to make on a weekly basis. Flour and water.
To get started though, you need a liquid yeast. I recommend King Arthur's brand. However, there are others out there via Sourdoughs International or Carl's Friends. I was lucky and received a wonderful starter from my sister in Ohio for Christmas. However, when you order a starter, follow the instructions from the person/company you got the starter from to maintain the starter and sometimes you have to nurture the starter before you can actually use it for sourdough making.
With that aside...
I store my starter on the top shelf of my fridge in a mason jar.
I "feed" it once a week (every Friday). When you hear the term feeding, I mean, this is a living yeast, so the recipe to feed is basically allowing the yeast to eat and stay yeasty (kind of smells like beer)! I also recommend doing this first thing in the morning, explanation coming up!
The starter feeding recipe is:
1 cup of starter
1/2 cup of room temp water (72-75 degrees F)
1 cup flour (I recommend bread flour, but all purpose works)
To get started though, you need a liquid yeast. I recommend King Arthur's brand. However, there are others out there via Sourdoughs International or Carl's Friends. I was lucky and received a wonderful starter from my sister in Ohio for Christmas. However, when you order a starter, follow the instructions from the person/company you got the starter from to maintain the starter and sometimes you have to nurture the starter before you can actually use it for sourdough making.
I store my starter on the top shelf of my fridge in a mason jar.
I "feed" it once a week (every Friday). When you hear the term feeding, I mean, this is a living yeast, so the recipe to feed is basically allowing the yeast to eat and stay yeasty (kind of smells like beer)! I also recommend doing this first thing in the morning, explanation coming up!
The starter feeding recipe is:
1 cup of starter
1/2 cup of room temp water (72-75 degrees F)
1 cup flour (I recommend bread flour, but all purpose works)
It really comes in handy if you have a basic KitchenAid mixer, but if you don't or don't want to spend the money on one, this is easily done by hand. When I did mine by hand I'd use a potato masher to mix rather than a whisk. It's just easier to clean.
So this is what your finished feeding should look like after you've just mixed it.
Once you've mixed your monster, I usually transfer it to another mixing bowl other than my KitchenAid mixing bowl as I have baked oatmeal to make the next day (Saturday) in my routine of housewifeyness.
Cover it tightly with saran wrap, or if you're oh so lucky like me, and live in a dry environment, I use press n seal because saran wrap just doesn't like the Vegas desert!
Let this bad boy sit for 4-6 hours. I like to let it sit and eat for 6 hours, more fermentation and I have more time to do other things.
Alright, you've let it sit, have a peek!
Your starter should look bubbly and fizzy, and smell like beer.
So now, just put the saran wrap/press n seal back on, tightly, and stick it in the fridge.
As I mentioned before, hopefully you did this in the morning. Leave this bad boy on the top shelf in your fridge until the next day/morning.
Day 2
So, good morning, firstly!
Taking the starter out of the fridge, you're going to want to stir it a bit. You might have a pinch of yellow juicy film on top. That's good stuff. Stir it until it's all mixed.
Put 1 cup of the starter in your mason jar, make sure not to tighten the lid too tightly, but just enough it doesn't make your fridge smell like beer, y'know? Keep it on the top shelf of your fridge until next week!
Next take out 1/2 cup of the starter and set aside in a small bowl, and either empty the contents of your starter into your sink running hot water and with the garbage disposal running, or if you're so inclined to share your awesomeness, give 1 cup to a friend, relative or whomever as a gift!
So now, as in the picture to your right, basic tools. If you're doing this by hand, again, add a potato masher to these tools.
To save money, I just reuse the press n seal I used on day 1 for the starter, so just set it aside.
Put the 1/2 cup of starter in your mixing bowl and get ready for the next step: making the sponge!
Recipe for the sponge:
1/2 cup starter
1/2 warm tap water (80-85 degrees F)
1 cup of flour (again, i'm using bread flour, all purpose works)
After it's mixed, however you mixed it, this is about what it should look like. Less liquid, teeny bit more solid and way sticky.
Cover the bowl tightly with the saran wrap/press n seal you set aside, and let the sponge sit for 2-3 hours.
** I have granite counter tops, which run cool, so I use a oven mitt to sit the mixing bowls on at all stages of making this sourdough just to keep the temperature of the dough at room temp. (72-74 degrees F)
2-3 Hours have passed, it's dough time!
This part requires much patience.
Dough Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups or 2 cups of water
4 3/4 cups of flour
2 1/2 tsp of salt
and the sponge
Sift your flour first. I use a hand held colander, if you don't have a screened (like your window screens) colander, just measure your flour one cup at a time and then shake the flour out of the cup.
Pour your water in with your sponge along with the salt. By hand, use your potato masher in a deep big bowl and carefully mix the two together until they're completely mixed. Wear an apron or clothes you don't mind getting messy! If you're using a KitchenAid mixer, put your dough hook on and keep the speed on low. You may be tempted to speed it up a notch, but you'll find out mid-way through adding flour your mixer is hot to the touch. So keep it on the lowest speed.
Alright, so now you're going to start adding the flour. Whatever mixing method you're using, add 1/4 cup at a time.
By hand: You will know when you can no longer use the potato masher. At this point you're going to get your hands dirty. Don't forget to take off your rings! I'd say use gloves, but when I tried gloves it was near impossible to mix because the sticky dough stuck more to the gloves than it stayed in the bowl.
With a KitchenAid mixer, it's important to have a spatula nearby. I've seen so many bad reviews on the KitchenAid classic mixer in regards to bread simply because they didn't read the owner's manual. Common sense comes into play here as well.
The picture on the left is me mixing the sponge with water. A failed experiment, just stick to the dough hook or you'll get splashed by dough goo!
Every other time you add 1/4 cup of flour, use the spatula to clean off your dough hook and scrape the inner sides of the bowl. Towards the end of mixing, your KitchenAid mixer may get more hot than you're comfortable with. Unplug your mixer, drape a towel over the top and use an ice pack to cool the motor for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, use a wet but wrung out towel to cover the dough so it doesn't stiffen. I've only had to do this twice mainly because our A/C was off and the mixer naturally got hotter than it normally should. Fun times.
After all the dough has been mixed in, either by hand or mixer, separate the dough into two equal parts.
For me, this bread means weekly bread. My husband takes sandwiches to work and we use the other loaf for dinners.
So I put one dough ball into a loaf pan, and the other in a bowl. Spray your bowls, pans, whatever you use (not a flat cookie sheet, some kind of bowl or bread pan so it rises upwards, not outwards) with some sort of non-stick spray. I always use Pam's extra olive oil spray. Then put the two dough balls in their respective containers.
Spray the tops of the dough balls with your non-stick spray, and then cover tightly with saran wrap/press n seal.
Let it rise for 3-5 hours.
Once it has risen for 3-5 hours, put it in the fridge overnight.
Day 3
Good morning again!
It's baking day!
Sometimes, but not all the time, my dough will continue to rise in the fridge. Go ahead and take both dough pans/bowls out and let it sit at room temperature for 3-4 hours.
Baking:
400-450 degrees F
20-30 minutes
If you're making a bread loaf in a loaf pan, use a sharp long knife and cut the dough length wise about 1 inch to 1/2 inch for breathing in the oven. With your round loaf cut the same depth, but in a cross as shown in the picture.
The degree and time variance is for altitude. I'm approximately 2000+ miles above sea level. So I bake at 400 for 23 minutes. The lower the altitude you're at, the higher the baking temp and the longer you bake it. Vice-versa for higher elevations.
I did get a good picture of our dinner loaf, but my husband quickly took away my pan loaf ;)
The dough will be hot out of the oven (duh you know, right?), but let it sit on the counter or a rack for 30 mins as it's still cooking on the inside. After that, Bon Appétit!
Happy Baking! :)
Coupons - Dollar General - Monday 4.15.13
We're buying a house and my husband insists that I continue to be a professional housewife, yet I find myself helpless seeing him stress over the finances for closing costs. What can I do?
Well, I can cut our grocery budget down to $50.00 a week. So I am scouring every inch of the web for coupons and deals.
Some people turn their noses up at Dollar General Market, but let me tell you, they have never let me down.
This week they are having a sale on:
(click here for their online circular, enter in your zipcode)
eggs - 1.25 - usually they run between 1.99-2.50 for a dozen
land o' lakes 1lb lunchmeat - 3.50 - typically 3.99-5.29
kraft cheese - 2.25 - compared to 4.49
quaker oats - 2.50 plus 2$ off when you buy 2 ($3.00) - usually 4.19
blueberries - 2.50 for 6oz - usually around 3.99 for 3.2oz
various detergents - 5$-7$ - you know the average prices....
.JPG)
Happy Baking! :)
Well, I can cut our grocery budget down to $50.00 a week. So I am scouring every inch of the web for coupons and deals.
Some people turn their noses up at Dollar General Market, but let me tell you, they have never let me down.
This week they are having a sale on:
(click here for their online circular, enter in your zipcode)
eggs - 1.25 - usually they run between 1.99-2.50 for a dozen
land o' lakes 1lb lunchmeat - 3.50 - typically 3.99-5.29
kraft cheese - 2.25 - compared to 4.49
quaker oats - 2.50 plus 2$ off when you buy 2 ($3.00) - usually 4.19
blueberries - 2.50 for 6oz - usually around 3.99 for 3.2oz
various detergents - 5$-7$ - you know the average prices....
.JPG)
Plus, a 5$ coupon when you spend 25$ or more before taxes.
They have a lot of other coupons on their site, click here.
Happy Baking! :)
Fresh spaghetti sauce
Making your own spaghetti sauce takes a while, but when dinner comes, it is sooooo rewarding. It's the kind of fresh quality you'd expect from an upscale Italian bistro!
What you'll need:
4 lbs Roma tomatoes
2 big hot house tomatoes
Italian seasoning - click here for the recipe to make your own
1 big garlic head
1 medium-large sized yellow onion
1 small can of tomato paste (6oz)
First you de-skin your tomatoes. I recommend doing this in the morning so when you finish peeling the skins off the tomatoes, you can put them in the pot that you plan on using in the fridge to ferment a little. If you didn't see my post on how to de-skin/peel tomatoes click here to view the post.
With the garlic and onion, peel those after the tomatoes and purée and also put those in the fridge to set a bit in either a ziplock baggie, tupperware, or I just put the detachable food processor container in.
When I say morning, I usually do this around 8 or 9 am. When 3 pm rolls around, the same day, that's when I start 'brewing.'
So at 3 pm, I take the lot out of the fridge. The tomatoes and puréed onion and garlic. With the puréed mix of onion and garlic still in my food processing container, I add 3-4 tomatoes at a time. Mind you, take the peeled tomatoes out of your pot first, and as you purée your tomatoes, you'll pour the lot into the pot.
Once all is puréed and in the pot, put it on your stove and for me, because of the altitude i'm at, I set the burner between medium to medium-low. This is going to be brewing for about 3 to 4 hours. You don't want a rolling boil.
So, add in your Italian seasoning and tomato paste at this point, stir it in well. If you have any other ingredients you'd like to add at this point, add it now! This is a pretty versatile recipe, so you can add cheese, or ground meat if you want a meat sauce.
You want to wait until the sauce does a little :bloop: ditty. Not boiling, but the sauce should start to thicken and you'll see air bubbles slowly start to bubble up. I call it blooping. ;)
Depending on how you or your family like your sauce, runny or more solid, you can add or subtract the amount of time you brew, but I do recommend at least 3 hours of brewing.
The 2 large hot house tomatoes are for juice. So if you prefer less juice, forgo the big guns and just stick with the 4 lbs of Roma tomatoes. I say Roma because they do really well, flavor-wise, for fresh spaghetti sauce. Also, since it's just my husband and I, and this serves 8 people, it's a blessing in disguise for me. It lasts the week (7 days max) in the fridge without freezing, and I just keep it in a tight sealed tupperware container. I pull it out every other night, dump half the container into a pot, and use it with Jenny-O Sweet Italian turkey sausage or just add mushrooms.
Also, for fresh pasta, I blogged a recipe and how to make it, very simple.
Happy baking! :)
Vanilla Extract - day 5
So, my experiment is coming to fruition! It's day 5, and here are the results!
I'll post another update on day 20!
Happy Baking!
 |
| For reference, this was day 1 |
 |
| It's kind of hard to tell with the whiskey bourbon, but it smells divine! |
 |
| The rum is coming along quite nicely, each bottle at it's own pace it seems ;) |
 |
| The vodka, same as the rum. Coming out nicely, but each bottle at it's own pace! |
I'll post another update on day 20!
Happy Baking!
Italian Seasoning Recipe
Pretty simple:Ingredients:
Oregano
Basil
Marjoram
Thyme
Rosemary
Depending on how much you want to make, it's one part each. So, 2 tbsp of Oregano, 2 tbsp of everything else.
I get my fresh herbs from my local Albertsons produce. They didn't have Marjoram, so I found it in Smith's (Kroger's) produce.
Don't be intimidated by buying fresh herbs. Making and drying your own herbs is sooooo much cheaper than buying the stuff pre-processed. If you're a penny pincher like me, it's well worth it. Especially if you use tons of spices.
-Drying herbs with a dehydrator, is a beautiful thing. Just make sure they're dried all the way.
-Air drying herbs takes about 5-7 days depending on where you live. Before I got my dehydrator, I used a card table, and cardboard box lids and placed the table with the lids sitting on top under a ceiling fan.
-Storing dried herbs, I have a bunch of saved spaghetti sauce glass jars before I learned how to make spaghetti that I was going to use for still life painting, but you can use mason jars, too. They're a bit pricey, so use what you got! Repurposing is being green and recycling! :)
I'm so excited about getting into our new house, we're currently renting, so I have no leeway for gardening... yet!! I'm going to love blogging about gardening. It's new to me, so I can point out mishaps and what to watch out for. :)
Happy Baking!
Baked Oatmeal
I get asked for this recipe a lot. It's inexpensive compared to buying processed instant whatever flavored oatmeal packages, and this recipe lasts us the entire week.
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs (1/2 cup egg beaters)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1 tbsp cinnamon (Saigon cinnamon is goooood!)
1/4 tsp salt (I use pink salt)
1 1/4 cups milk
3 cups of oatmeal (quick/instant)
1-2 cups dried fruit (blueberry craisins are the best!!)
Whisk milk and eggs first. Add butter, whisk until smooth, then add everything else and the fruit last.
Let it sit on the counter at room temp for 20-30 mins covered.
Pour into a casserole dish and use a spatula to even out the top.
350 degrees for 35-45 mins. We're at a higher elevation, so I cook it for 35, but you can always pop it back in if it feels squishy in the center. It should be slightly squishy like ummm.... Squishing your fingertips, but not squishy in the center like pudding, yah? :)
Cut into squares and store in a Tupperware container, lasts a week!
I cut my oats with a food processor, so the texture is more even, and then add another 1/2 cup of oats uncut. You can add more brown sugar or less fruit to taste. :)
For you visual learners, I took photos of the steps I take and what it looks like:
 |
| ingredients |
I use pink salt and love the richness of Saigon cinnamon
On the left is uncut oats and cut oats via food processor. Just for texture.
 |
| I usually cut via my processor for 3 cups and add 1/2 cup uncut oats for absorption. |
I whisk the melted butter and milk together first, so when I add the eggs, the melted
butter doesn't turn the eggs into egg drop soup ;)
After the milk, butter and eggs, I dump everything in, including my fruit.
I make my own raisins, but if you aren't into the whole non-processed food thing,
I recommend Craisins - Blueberry flavored.
Let it sit, covered for about 20-30 minutes to give the oats some time to soak.
If you're using regular oats and not quick oats, you'll have to stick it in
the fridge, covered, overnight.
 |
| Spray your pan of choice with Extra Virgin olive oil spray or Pam Im using a Paula Dean casserole dish from Walmart, love it! Just hand wash it! :) |
 |
| Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. Let it sit and cool before cutting! |
Happy baking! :)
Grocery List - 4.11.13
Grocery
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Albertson's - see app
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Foil
Ziplock freezer bags
Brown sugar
Milk bones
Tomato paste 2/$1
Oats
Almond ext
Milk
Bottled water 2/$5
Gr turkey 5@$3.99
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Albertson's - see app
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Foil
Ziplock freezer bags
Brown sugar
Milk bones
Tomato paste 2/$1
Oats
Almond ext
Milk
Bottled water 2/$5
Gr turkey 5@$3.99
----check prices at Smith's----
Marjoram (produce or spices) 5
Beets 3
Bananas 2
Grapes 2
Oregano 5
Basil 5
Rosemary 5
Hot house tomatoes 2
Garlic 2
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Glaziers
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Fuji Apples 12 @ .68¢lb
Sweet potatoes 4 @ .88¢lb
Eggs $1.50
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Smiths (Kroger's) - get card
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Roma Tomatoes 20 lbs @ .89¢lb
Vidal sassoon Conditioner C
Vitamins BOGO free
The above is my list for this morning. Decoding it is pretty easy, but prices sway where I go for certain things. Glazier's is a locally owned (most of the time expensive) grocery store but they actually beat the prices at my regular one stop shop, Albertsons, so did Smiths (also known as Kroger's).
I usually check for coupons twice a week: Once on Monday and then another sweep Thursday morning before I head out. The grocers here, in Las Vegas, tend to put out their ads in the mail on Tuesdays and run the ad sale from Wednesday-Tuesday. I remember living in Texas and it was Monday-Sunday, but whatever. :)
Here are the links I recommend this week for coupons:
http://www.coupons.com
http://www.pgeveryday.com
http://www.couponmom.com
I generally visit more than the above three, but here lately the other sites seem less reliable. There are coupons for C&H Agave liquid sugar if you can get your browser to print it. Redplum doesn't like me this week. ;)
I'll update this once I get home and see what my total comes to be! :)
•••••••••••••••••••Update••••••••••••••••••••••••
So I ended up getting 2 weeks worth of groceries, 5 weeks of tomatoes for spaghetti sauce, and some of the deals were also misleading.
The tomatoes were well worth buying, for my household anyway. Not everyone will buy 20lbs of Roma tomatoes, and I definitely got some funny looks needless to say! lol Definitely living in the desert drives the prices of those bad boys to the roof. Usually they're a $1.29lb. Win!
Now, I'm super picky when it comes to buying produce, and seeing the other two stores' produce selection that I normally do not go to, you bet your buttons i'm sticking with Albertson's. I did finally find marjoram at Smiths, so I bought the lot to make my own Italian seasoning. (another thing i'll have to blog the recipe for)
Also, while in the foil/ziplock/container aisle at Albertson's, I found ::reusable:: freezer containers. Perfect for freezing the tomatoes in.
In the end, I spent about 3 hours shopping and spent around 200$ stocking up. At the end of it all I saved around 100$ and had about 40 bags full of groceries!
Until next week's shopping adventure,
Happy Baking! :)
Make your own vanilla extract
Castoreum. If this word does not disgust you, then you haven't heard the news! Castoreum has been used as a "natural flavor" additive in most imitation flavorings, including vanilla extract. Castoreum is dried beaver anal glands. Most people haven't heard this, like me, until I stumbled upon an article one of my fellow foodies posted an article about it.
I've researched quite a bit online just to verify this, and what I found was... just... disgusting.
Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/castoreum.asp
Parents: http://www.parents.com/blogs/dadabase/?p=12957
Food Republic: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/03/14/6-scary-things-hiding-your-food
So, yeah. I'm making my own vanilla extract! Very simple, really. Liquor, vanilla beans and time.
After doing some searching online for "expert" advice, I found various opinions on what the best liquor to use, the best vanilla beans, etc. Whatever. :)
I went to my local liquor store here in Las Vegas, Lee's Liquor, and decided on getting the teeny cute bottles you usually see on flights airlines they overcharge you for, except these were 1.99 each.
I decided to try 3 types of liquor, from left to right (picture above) vodka, whiskey bourbon and rum.
Next, finding the vanilla beans, which worried me. I do live in a desert after all, we don't exactly have cheap produce, and i'm too impatient to wait for Amazon.com to ship me a pound of vanilla beans i'm not even sure will be of good quality. So I called the first grocery store on my list, and voila, they had some!
Mind you, the vanilla beans in those fancy pants seasoning jars... I had price sticker shock! $9.99 For one bean in a single jar. Obviously, I bought 6 teeny cute bottles, and I wasn't about to spend $60 for beans! lol
I found my match in the sort of produce section. It was well hidden, but way more affordable at $2.49 for each plastic bag that had two beans. I bought them out.
This is my recipe (with the help of my southern belle 75 year old grandmother):
1 - 1 1/2 vanilla beans (just snap em in half) per 50ml bottle of vodka, whisky bourbon (or bourbon), or rum. Let it sit on your counter for 30 days. The longer it sits, though, the more flavor you'll get.
I'll update this post in about 3-4 months (seriously!) and let you know how each liquor/vanilla combination came out.
Happy Baking! :)
I've researched quite a bit online just to verify this, and what I found was... just... disgusting.
Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/castoreum.asp
Parents: http://www.parents.com/blogs/dadabase/?p=12957
Food Republic: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/03/14/6-scary-things-hiding-your-food
So, yeah. I'm making my own vanilla extract! Very simple, really. Liquor, vanilla beans and time.
After doing some searching online for "expert" advice, I found various opinions on what the best liquor to use, the best vanilla beans, etc. Whatever. :)
I went to my local liquor store here in Las Vegas, Lee's Liquor, and decided on getting the teeny cute bottles you usually see on flights airlines they overcharge you for, except these were 1.99 each.
I decided to try 3 types of liquor, from left to right (picture above) vodka, whiskey bourbon and rum.
Next, finding the vanilla beans, which worried me. I do live in a desert after all, we don't exactly have cheap produce, and i'm too impatient to wait for Amazon.com to ship me a pound of vanilla beans i'm not even sure will be of good quality. So I called the first grocery store on my list, and voila, they had some!
Mind you, the vanilla beans in those fancy pants seasoning jars... I had price sticker shock! $9.99 For one bean in a single jar. Obviously, I bought 6 teeny cute bottles, and I wasn't about to spend $60 for beans! lol
I found my match in the sort of produce section. It was well hidden, but way more affordable at $2.49 for each plastic bag that had two beans. I bought them out.
This is my recipe (with the help of my southern belle 75 year old grandmother):
1 - 1 1/2 vanilla beans (just snap em in half) per 50ml bottle of vodka, whisky bourbon (or bourbon), or rum. Let it sit on your counter for 30 days. The longer it sits, though, the more flavor you'll get.
I'll update this post in about 3-4 months (seriously!) and let you know how each liquor/vanilla combination came out.
Happy Baking! :)
How to cut a pineapple
Cutting a pineapple, to me, was an adventure. I always see those weird, tropical, looking fruits in the produce, but never ever thought to buy one, let alone cut one! But alas, my husband loves pineapple and banana chips, so in my non-processed food mind and way, and with the help of my dehydrator (and my produce guy!) I cut a pineapple!
The first thing you'll want to know is how to pick one out. Heaven forbid it's easy like finding an apple or a good bunch of bananas! :)
So depending on when you want to cut your pineapple, whether it be immediately or days, this is how you tell: At the top of the pineapple, where those funky leaves are, try to pull one out from the center. If it comes out easily it's ripe, if it take a few tugs it's not and can sit on the counter for a bit. Also, the more lighter yellow on the pineapple's trunk/bark, the more ripe it is.
So, here's my pineapple!
I wanted it to be a bit unripened, because my week was busy and I had nooo idea when i'd get around to cutting it!
So the first thing you want to do is take the top "leaves" off. Just grab the lot, twist and pull it off.
So, it kind of looks naked now, but it's cool.
(See the yellowing compared to when I first got it? That's a ripe!)
Now, for me, because I let it sit on the counter for... days, and if you did, too, put it upside down on a plate and stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
This allows the juices that collected on the bottom to re-juice the top.
So once your 30 minutes is up, or you're ready to cut, we'll start with the ends. Cut between 1-2 inches off both the top and bottom.
So, putting your pineapple on either end, you just start to cut the sides off.
Left overs!
If you have a melon scooper, that would be ideal, but a potato peeler will work just as good!
The goal is, is to get all those brown wells out and just incase, any "imperfections!"
When you cut your slices, there is a core that isn't so tasty, you'll see it. However thick or thin you cut your slices, just cut it out with your knife!
And that, my friends, is how you cut a pineapple! :)
Happy Baking!
Easy Fresh Pasta
This may seem like a huge task to some, but it's really simple and the possibilities are endless.
When I first starting making pasta, I just used a bowl, a rolling pin, a knife and a clothes drying rack. Now I use my wonderful KitchenAid mixer and my pasta machine. I'll go through both processes as we go along.
First, the ingredients!
4 eggs (I don't recommend using processed egg beater liquids, but if you do, 4 eggs = 1 cup)
2 cups of flour (I use whole unbleached wheat, but all purpose and bread flours are fine)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Everyone on the web says, "make a well in the flour." Honestly, after making pasta on a weekly basis for six months, I find it works easier to follow these steps:
1) Whisk your eggs and extra virgin olive oil together in a sizable mixing bowl.
You can do this with a fork and an arm of steel or a KitchenAid mixer using the
whisk attachment. I strongly do not recommend using a whisk for this part.
2) Add flour 1/4 cup at a time.
I find that by adding the flour 1/4 at a time, it's easier to mix and your hands stay cleaner longer.
Use a fork to stir in the flour, a whisk or your KitchenAid mixer using the bread
hook attachment.
3) You'll start to notice, if you're doing this by hand, sans KitchenAid mixer, that the pasta dough is becoming a lot less accepting of your fork. At this point dump the contents onto the counter, messy but it'll come together, I promise. :)
Hand kneading dough is fairly simple. Just remember to push the dough away from you,
then fold it back towards you and push it away again. After doing this a few times, roll
up your dough into a ball and with any excess flour you dumped out, simply put the
dough ball over it and knead. Push away and fold. Repeat this process until all 2 cups
of flour have been absorbed into the dough.
If you're using a KitchenAid mixer, and you find the dough isn't getting the flour on the
bottom of your mixing bowl, dump the contents onto the counter and follow the
instructions above!
4) A lot of text, but not that hard, right? Now you just ball up your pasta dough and put it under a bowl on the counter. Let it sit like that for 20-30 mins to rest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Interlude~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5) Alright, 20-30 mins have passed, your dough should be looking just about like playdough. Squish it so it's not a ball, and cut it (like a pizza) into 8 pieces. With your bowl turned upright, ball up those 8 pieces and put them in the bowl and put a plate over the bowl to keep those dough balls from drying out!
Alrighty, this is where i'm going to divide the "by hand" and "by pasta machine" tutorial up.
By hand:
6) Take your first ball of pasta dough and your rolling pin and roll it flat. Start by rolling it out about 12-20 inches long, fold it in half and roll it 12-20 inches long again. This may take a bit, but keep rolling until you get the thickness/thinness you want.
7) Sprinkle some flour on one of the sides of the now flat pasta dough and flip it over onto the floured side and set aside. It will need to dry out a bit before you cut it. Remember which one was your first.
8) Repeat steps 6 & 7 until all 8 dough balls are flat, elongated looking pancake things.
9) So taking your first flattened pasta dough, (it should feel a bit harder than it was when you first rolled it) fold it around and around itself. Take a pizza cutter or a knife, and cut thin/thick slices.
10) Once cut, hang them on the drying rack. Repeat step 9 with the remaining 7!
By Pasta Machine:
6) Set your machine's dial to 7 (or whatever highest number you have). Flour is your best friend, so sprinkle flour all over that pasta machine! Take your first dough ball, and flatten it evenly first with your rolling pin. Not too thin, just enough so your machine doesn't throw a hissy fit that the dough isn't all one width.
Sometimes the pasta machine just doesn't cooperate.
You can try patting the pasta dough with
your hand without the use of a rolling pin,
but I find it easier just to use the rolling pin to make
a flat oval shape that the pasta rolling pins won't fuss over.
7) Feed your flat oval shape dough through the rolling pins by cranking slowly. Once it's through, fold it in half and slowly crank it through again. Put the dial down to the next number down, in my case, dial 6.
8) Repeat step 7 until you get to dial 5. On dial 5, a trick I saw on youtube, when your dough is about, eh, halfway through the rolling pins, take the other end of the dough that has already been fed through and stick it to the other end making a loop! Stay cranking on dial 5 for a bit to make sure the dough has stuck together.
9) I usually stop the dial at 3, sometimes 2, but if you want to go to 1, go for it! Just be careful, this dough is now super thin.
10) Instead of letting the dough dry a bit, flour both sides lightly with flour, move your hand crank to the cutter attachment you plan on using (I like the fettuccine one), and just feed it through. Grab the cut pasta and hang on the drying rack.
It is totally fine if the pasta edges stick together. When they dry they'll probably still
be stuck together, but when you cook them, they separate like magical unicorn hair!
11) Repeat steps 7-10, making sure you sprinkle flour on the pasta machine between each dough ball.
Both by hand and by pasta machine:
I usually let mine hang out for 24 hours and store in an airtight tupperware container.
 |
| By hand |
 |
| By pasta machine |
For cooking, wait until your water has come to a rolling boil, and toss your pasta in. As for how long, it depends on how thick or thin you made it. I use a pasta ladle and catch a pasta strand and bite into it to see if it's done or not.
That's all! More typing than anything! You can also add herbs to the ingredients, my favorite is dill, but oregano, basil, garlic powder, etc all make great tasting pasta!
Happy Baking!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)