Planting & Do One Future Food Activity Each Day, Fermenting Kraut & New Fermenting Kit, Mojo Cuban Pork Roast & Cuban Sandwich

Do One Future Food Activity Each Day-
I first want to thank people who posted some condolences on the death of my brother-in-law. It was tough not being able to go to his burial but we made it thru... On a happier note I was thrilled to receive flowers that were delivered for Mother's Day from my one daughter. One of my other daughter's surprised me with a DVD I had always wanted and never gotten around to buying! Mother's Day was nice, we got some amazing takeout Mexican food for dinner, a nice treat. We also started planting our store bought veggies (finally!) for the summer and some of the seeds I planted are coming up-

Two kinds of radishes, green onions, will thin radishes

Borage

Collard greens

It was 87 yesterday that was kind of crazy! Luckily it will moderate but I think summer is here hopefully. Didn't really tough starting seeds outside the last two months because of the ups and downs with the weather. We planted most of our veggies I bought I while back. I wasn't sure if there's be a shortage, so I bought early. I put them in our mini indoor greenhouse-

They loved it!

One cherry tomato was almost 3 feet long!!!

I took some of the seedlings I started and put in bigger pots for now, want to til they're just a bit bigger, Lemon Cukes (can't find any starts) and green squash- 

Herb box and other plants doing well, need to bring out Basil

We planted 10 tomatoes total, five more to go, as we ran out of cages. Also four peppers. I asked Dave to build some tepee-type frames out of our scrap cedar lumber. These supports are on their last legs, will build new ones next year out of better wood-

 Extra tall tomato is happy!

Three more on the side, will add more peppers, old berry plants were ripped out-

Rest of the garden will get squashes, three kinds of cukes and more warm weather veggies- 

Kale is doing great, has doubled in size!

I bought some red cabbages and purple Kohlrabi to try-

They look interesting! Sometimes called Sputniks like the satellites!

Photo from Motherearthnews.com info there too!

I belong to the Facebook group RetroSuburbia Community. I highly recommend the group, tons of ideas there! A member, Kath, mentioned that she tries to do

"one future food activity each day whether planting, or preserving, bulk cooking, harvesting, dehydrating, etc." 

I really liked the wording, and it helped me focus on that as a great goal.  It made something that might seem complicated much easier! I took her statement, added a free piece of clip art and printed it out. A little mini poster for myself. I put it over my kitchen sink where I can see it everyday since I'm a visual person! It inspires and motivates me. I thanked her as well-

Fermenting Kraut & New Fermenting Kit- 
Quite a few years ago I bought a Vegetable Master Half Gallon Fermenting Jar , see above. While it works great I can only do one batch at a time which can take weeks. With two of us I was wanting to start make more smaller batches. I decided to buy a Masontops Fermenting Kit, link on the left side of my blog-

Normally I'm not a kit kind of gal BUT when I saw it included four glass weights and a pounder I was sold! These items will fit standard wide mouth jars and rings that you already have. The silicone nipples burp out and release the gas from fermenting, insuring no spoilage, ditto the glass weights-

Nice, thick glass, keep things submerged in the brine

Silicone venting top, can't see the X on the top

I ordered from my local Ace Hardware store to help support them (same price elsewhere). I'm really impressed with the quality and love the heavy storage box! Great to store when not in use. Comes with a nice basic recipe book as well-

I wanted to make a big batch of kraut so started in my old jar, two heads cabbage and this recipe
Culturesforhealth Sauerkraut It's always messy making slaw but worth it. Several years ago I bought a cheap mandolin to shred quickly and easily-

Add salt, toss, squash with your hands, then pound!

Nestled away in fermenting jar, top with a large cabbage leaf, then weights. I waited two hours after this photo, then completely submerged the cabbage leaves and weights. Usually the jar is full to the top-

 Dated, then covered, will wait about 10 -14 days and check flavor-

I've made Curtido several times, amazing! That will be my next big batch-

Mojo Cuban Pork Roast & Cuban Sandwich-
I had seen the movie Chef a while back, amazing food and cooking scenes! I found this recipe based on the film's recipe Cuban Mojo Pork Roast I decided to make it, for something different. The flavor was incredible! Really juicy, a nice blend of citrus and cumin. It's easy to blend all the ingredients in a food processor, then bag and let sit overnight-

I took the suggestion and then made her Cuban Sandwich Cubanos also from the movie. I made them for dinner and served with some veggies. I would say the sandwich was good, but not great, but that's okay. At least I know what they taste like now! Sorry no photos, but you can see some on the blog listed above. It was the first time I used my cast iron skillet on top of a sandwich to create a sort of Panini. I gave me the idea to do that again next time with some different ingredients. I used my regular skillet on the bottom, parchment paper on top of the sandwiches, then my heavy cast iron skillet on top. Works great had a really crispy crust! Will be making the roast again this week with a boneless roast!

Smoky Summers- The New Normal? Fermented Pickle Results, Movie Star Maureen O'Hara's Estate Sale

Today in Boise

Smoky Summers- The New Normal?-
We first moved to Boise in 1996, when our children were in elementary school, and they're all grown now. That gives us some perspective on what used to be normal weather here. We used to get occasional thunderstorms coming through in the summer with torrential downpours or hail. The thunderstorms that pretty much stopped except for very rare circumstances. We never had smoky skies here in the city until a few years back. The worst we had was 3 years ago when it was so smoky you could see the smoke looking down the streets. Seattle is really smoky, as are parts of Oregon, and meteorologists and scientists are saying this may be the new norm. When you have environmental issues, droughts, stupid people who light fires intentionally/accidentally, a combined with other events and fires rage. Ironically there have been very few fires in the Boise foothills this summer. Most of the fires in Californian and British Columbia are large enough that all the smoke comes into our valley. When it's nice outside and 80° you want to do something outside. All you have to do is look at the foothills, or where the foothills used to be, and say I don't think so. When you have respiratory issues and allergies it just exacerbates them even more. I've had to break down and use steroid nasal sprays because I've been so congested from this. I avoid that when possible, but wind up using them several times a week. We use a good furnace filter and we have a HEPA filter that I run all hours in our bedroom except when we sleep. You do what you can to keep the contaminants out but it always comes in anyway. I started thinking if I want to keep living in Boise long term is every summer going to look like this? Time will tell, but it's sad. I'm very grateful that we don't have any risk of fire in our city, like people in other areas.

Fermented Pickle Results-
Last weekend I made my first batch of Armenian fermented pickles! I checked them after 3 or 4 days, but they weren't very sour at all so I waited until today. Fermented pickles are one of those personal preference, taste choice things. The longer they ferment the more sour they will get. It's all about what tastes good to you. When I tested one this morning I was happy to see that they were crunchy! I had added a black tea tea bag in the bottom of the jar as I had read that helps with keeping the pickles from getting soggy or mushy. The flavor was good, but I think next time though I would add more garlic and more pickling spice. I strained the liquid and then put the pickles back into the fridge. It's very normal for the liquid to be murky and a lot of that will normalize after it gets cold.

My fermenting kit comes with a regular plastic jar lid and so you just take the fermenting lid off and use it on top. Into the fridge they went. They will still ferment a bit more slowly and get more sour and that's fine.

From The Quiet Man

Movie Star Maureen O'Hara's Estate Sale-

My daughter dropped by yesterday and told me a fascinating story. One of my favorite actresses from older movies, some made before I was born, was Maureen O'Hara. I didn't but about 3 years ago she moved to Boise to live with her grandson. She passed away a few years ago and she used to frequent a store called Ricochet. It's a re-sale store that specializes in furniture and home furnishings. Apparently said she and her grandson used to shop there, so her estate sale went to that store. Some of her belongings went to museums in Ireland where she was born. The sale started Friday, ran Saturday and finished yesterday. Here's the local news story- Ktvb.com  My daughter bought a pair of long leather gloves that went to her upper arms, and a leather ethnic belt that look like it was from the 70's. I dropped by the store yesterday for a few minutes and the only thing left for shoes and clothes, but lots of great photos of her. I thought it might be nice to buy a teacup and saucer, but sadly all gone. I looked at some low cut riding boots and she had very petite feet! She really had a fascinating life story and I always loved the spunky women that she portrayed. She had a interesting personal life as well and there's lots online. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery with her 1st husband who was in the military. Loved her movies!!!!

Have a Happy 4th!!!

From The American President-

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag."

A Trip Down Memory Lane

A Trip Down Memory Lane-
My Mom was a HUGE William Holden fan. Brilliant actor as I discovered much later, and gorgeous :)   I saw this movie on TV as a kid (made before I was born) and I've had this film score section stuck in my head my whole life. Beautiful cinematography. Turn up the speaker, enlarge and see what romance used to look like. When Holden's and Kim Novak's faces come close together, oh boy. Almost made me swoon... Part of this scene's score is the famous song Moonglow And if you haven't seen it rent The Bridge on the River Kwai, a great film for him. Thanks Bill...

Buttermilk Pie W/Fresh Strawberries, Make Buttermilk & Sour Cream, How To Wash No-Wash Wool Rugs, "The Stand" Movie Kitchen

Buttermilk Pie W/Fresh Strawberries-
I found this recipe going thru some food preservation recipes and gave it a try. It's wonderful! Almost a cross between cheesecake and custard. Very cheesy and almost chewy filling. Not too sweet either. The berries were great with it. When our blackberries ripen I may try that instead. It's a fast recipe too- just mix everything together, whisk and pour. With the hot weather I put it in the fridge to cool, after a bit, to finish it off. I used a 1 lb. of berries on the top.

Baked in a deep dish pie dish

Buttermilk Pie with Fresh Strawberries 
(from Vegetarian Times)

3 large eggs
1 cup minus 2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp AP flour
1 ¾ cups buttermilk
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp grated or ground nutmeg (I used a bit more)
1 9-inch store-bought crust
2 pints strawberries, hulled and halved

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Whisk together eggs, sugar and flour in large bowl.  Add buttermilk and butter, whisk until combined.  Stir in vanilla extract and nutmeg.  Pour buttermilk mixture into crust, and bake 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool completely.
3. Place strawberry halves in concentric circles on top of pie, with wide stem ends facing outward, and serve.

I found some other useful info. I'm tired of buying buttermilk (it's really "clabbered milk"), and I found I can make my own, as needed! Much cheaper too :) You can do the same for sour cream. Since I don't have my own dairy you can use store bought milks. Recipes are here, from a class I took-

Buttermilk:
Buttermilk is made with a 1-to-3 ratio of cultured buttermilk to regular milk.  So, if you want a cup of buttermilk, mix ¼ cup buttermilk with ¾ cup milk; for a quart, mix 1 cup buttermilk with 3 cups milk.  Cover the container and let sit at room temperature (preferably between 70°F and 75°F) for about 24 hours. When finished, the cultured milk should coat the container (or back of a spoon).  Refrigerate.  Buttermilk can be perpetuated indefinitely—just remember to make new buttermilk with your old supply within about 2-3 weeks, and you should be fine.

Sour Cream:
Sour cream is made with cultured buttermilk and cream, at a rate of about 1-2 tbsp buttermilk per cup of cream (you can experiment here to achieve your preferred tartness and firmness).  Mix the desired amounts together, cover the container and let sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours, checking after 24 hours, and then refrigerate.  Deciding when sour cream is done takes a bit of experience, as sour cream mellows considerably (as well as firms up quite a bit) once it’s been refrigerated.  So, a sour cream that tastes very tart indeed on the counter might give you a very nice, subtle sour cream once cooled.  Experiment to see what you like.

How To Wash No-Wash Woven Wool Rugs-
I have  nice Nate Berkus Target wool runner rug. I bought it at Goodwill for $10.00. It's perfect in our heavy traffic entry way. I vacuum it every week, but I knew it was just dirty. With chocolate brown, it didn't show. I did some research on how to wash it without damaging it. I took a risk and it worked! Here's how I did it-

vacuum rug, both sides. Take outside o hot day, and lay out on your deck. You could do this on a clean sidewalk also. Spray down both sides with a cold hose on the blast setting. Do both sides. Then I sprayed on some 7th Generation all purpose cleaner. I wanted something mild, no dish detergent to strip the wool. Spray all over, then blast again til all the bubbles are gone. Flip over do again. Leave overnight in the shade. I moved it and flipped it several times when it started drying. Total dry time was about a day and 1/2, and it was 100 here. It's MUCH cleaner and no shrinkage!!! I think the trick was- handle as little as possible, use cold water, and leave flat to dry.

rug weave

All clean and dry!!!

        Mother Abigail's Home

"The Stand" Movie Kitchen-
I was watching "The Stand" lats night and I love Mother Abigail's character. Old, feisty and loving. Her most famous line is I'm 106 years old and still make my own bread. I loved the old kitchen and was able to grab some screen shots. It's near the end of episode 2. Here's a few-

Cooking fried chicken on a wood cook stove

Preparing for the guests, she has the sun tea!

 Note old shelves on the wall, old tools, no cabinets. I wish they would have shown the other angles of the entire kitchen, but I don't think they did the rest of the full kitchen for the set.