Hoods. They Are On.

Hoods are delicious. Sweet. Juicy.

Brief.

This year they are early. Which means they are still delicious and juicy. But they aren't as sweet as they will be. Nor as brief.

I've perused the internet to find as many ways as I can to eat them. My Pinterest is loaded with what I've found. But I'll be adding more. Cuz I just can't get enough.

I made Fresh Strawberry Muffins this morning. Oh yum. They are a veritable taste treat all by themselves. 

But I couldn't leave it at that.

We had then with Strawberry Butter. 

Decadent. 

If these aren't better than strawberry shortcake...

The natural sugar of the berries mixed with the salty of the butter, then the lightly sweet taste of real maple syrup all blended together in buttery goodness and, ohhhhh, sweet mother of mouth-melting goodness.

Strawberry Butter ala Delish

~Cut up a bunch of berries. This is a great way to use up the mushy ones.



~ Mash them up, however you choose to do that.
I used my great grandma's nut chopper and it worked great.

~Mix those little beauties into softened butter (mine comes from grass-fed cows:). Or, as in my case, completely melted butter. Hey, my little guy wanted something to drink and the butter jumped from polar freeze to liquid inferno in 20 seconds flat.

~Stir in***REAL*** maple syrup to taste. I must stress the word "real". If you use Aunt Jemima or other pancake syrup, you will end up with high fructose corn syrup butter, not lightly sweetened perfect butter.

The muffin recipe says the muffins aren't too good the next day.

Ummmm, I'm thinking that won't be a problem...

Roasted Pecans

Did you know that the nuts you buy at the store are often not as good for you as they could be because of the chemicals and processes they have undergone?

I didn't either. That's another one of those things I learned when I read Nourishing Traditions. I also learned that soaking nuts and seeds (as well as grains and flours) helps remove naturally occurring substances that can make it harder to digest them.

I am sure there are recipes online for preparing all types of nuts. I more or less use the recipe in Nourishing Traditions. I have tried almonds and pecans. I wasn't a fan of the almonds, but I might try again and add more salt. That's what I did with the pecans and I found that, in addition to the nutritional benefits, we really enjoy the taste of these, much more than the ones we buy at the store already roasted.

I add a bag of pecans, approximately 4 cups, to a container large enough to accommodate the pecans and several cups of warm water. I bought my pecans at Costco. Not the healthiest, but I'm on a tight budget so I do what I can.

Nourishing Traditions calls for just a couple teaspoons of sea salt. I add a full Tablespoon. At least. I stir it all together until I know the salt has mostly dissolved. I come back and stir it a few times. Unless I'm sleeping while they soak. Then they just are what they are. I let it soak for at least 7 hours, usually just overnight. When I get up, I turn the oven on to 200 or 225, then strain the water out using a colander, making sure it's pretty well drained. I pour the pecans onto a baking sheet in a layer and stick them in the oven. I leave them there at least all day. Of course I have to sample once in awhile to make sure the salt is right. If it's not seeming to be quite salty enough, I sprinkle on a little more, but only if the nuts are still moist.

At the end of the day, I usually turn the oven off, but leave the nuts in there. When I get up the next morning, they are perfectly done and ready to top my yogurt!

Let me know if you try it!

It's official. I'm ready for summer.
Well, at least I will be by the time it gets here.

I FINALLY made sauerkraut again. My mouth is watering just at the thought of it. On a polish dog. Or just plain. Cuz it's really, really good. Well, it will be. 

I've made this recipe many times before. My Mr. Picky Pants used to love it when he was a baby and would practically make a meal of it. Once I added shredded apple to it and it was pretty good. If I ever did it again, I'd leave the apples in bigger pieces because I don't really like soft apples. 

If you haven't read about lacto-fermentation, you should Google it. I first read about it in my favorite, most life-changing cookbook, Nourishing Traditions. I have it in hard copy and on my Kindle. That way I can look up a recipe whenever I am (there's a new one now for babies and kids too. Can't wait to get my hands on it!). So anyway, I learned about lacto-fermenting food there. It's much like pickling, only way better for you. After doing alot of reading, in addtion to the wealth of knowledge in that book, it's my understanding that, while pickling veggies and such in vinegar does preserve them, it lacks the health benefits of lacto-fermenting. And it doesn't taste nearly so delicious.

In order to lacto-ferment food, one must have whey. In fact, this is teh third time I have purchased cabbage in order to make sauerkraut, but then didn't make it because I could not find a close source of the culture needed to make any cultured item I'd need to make in order to get whey. Well, when I was out of town visiting friends recently, we went to a garden store and -- lo and behold, they had what I needed! So I finally made chevre this week. I can't stand the taste of goat milk. But I like the chevre I make because, when I make it for myself,  I make it with cow milk. Which begs the question -- is it still chevre? I'll have to look into that, but it gave me whey and that's what I was going for. Another plus for using cow milk is that the whey I got will leave no goaty aftertaste in my fermented foods. 

Here's chevre I had this morning, with pepper jelly and crackers. Yummy. 

If you decide to make this, do it soon. It takes some time to sit and ferment. Just how much time varies, depending on your taste. You need to let it sit out for 3 days, then refrigerate, but it still needs to age in there. I like mine at least several weeks old. 

I used two and a half heads this time.

Then I cut it up into small pieces. As with the apples, I used to shred it.
But I like the texture better when I cut it up small, but not so small as to be shredded.

 

Then I add sea salt, whey and caraway seeds. If you don't like caraway, you don't have to add it, but I love it!
I found this cool, very old crushing tool years ago. Someone told me it has an actual name.
It's kind of like a big pestle, as in "mortar and pestle" , but that wasn't it. Whatever you use, you need to do it for about ten minutes or so to release plenty of juices.

When I pack my jars, I use the wood pestle pounding thingy to push in down so the liquid will cover it.
My tool is perfect because it just fits perfectly into a wide mouth canning jar.

Now for sunny days, friendship, eating outside and sauerkraut! 

I can't wait!