Alas, columnar apples are not the reason for my post. The other two parts to my birthday present were mushroom kits. !!!!!!!

One for reishi and one for pink oyster. That’s right, I’m growin’ shrooms!!! I’d tipped him off that I’d like a kit from Fungi Perfecti, a mail-order crazy train for the mycologist in you (or me). But I didn’t expect two! Reishi mushrooms are for the patient enthusiast, they take a few months to grow. They are also known as Ling Zhi in Chinese medicinal pharmacology and have all kinds of amazing health benefits…they’re super beautiful too. The pink oyster one however, has produced my first crop in just one week! They are indoor kits, so you can keep them in a shady spot somewhere out of the way, and spray them with water 2-3 times a day. They come with a humidification bag to keep them moist…as a decorative element, everything is in plastic so I wouldn’t say they are attractive. But, after two harvests or so, you can break up the contents and inoculate something outside for long term benefits. Compost, wood chips, and old log or tree stump…VERY EXCITING.

I harvested my first batch today, and am going to make a delicious savory brunch scramble, with greens from the garden. Below is a picture taken of the bag just before harvest – amazing, isn’t it?

More soon,
-Jen!

How is it that this perfect, delicious, easy breezy breakfast item has eluded me for 37 years? I don’t know but in a way I’m glad because it’s so fun to meet you for the first time, Dutch Baby!!

If you are on my wavelength though and this post is YOUR intial introduction, well today is your lucky day! Because if you love airy, souffle-like baked goods like I love airy, souffle-like baked goods (think popover the size of an ENTIRE PAN) then you are going to be one HAPPY home cook!

Dan’s cousin Jeff and his wife Patti made these for us when we visited them in Salem, MA last weekend over Halloween and it was such the perfect fall breakfast, warm and eggy but not too heavy. It goes perfect with coffee. And apparently Jeff makes them so often that he was able to give me the recipe off the top of his head, though they really couldn’t be easier. I’m not even going to include any ‘process’ pictures, because these are so simple. Here’s what you do:

DUTCH BABY
1 C flour
1 1/4 milk
2 eggs
t salt
T sugar

Combine everything in a bowl, stirring until well mixed, and place in a seasoned cast iron skillet. Bake in a 400º oven for 30 minutes, and you’ll have a gorgeously puffed up Baby, that will deflate slightly after it’s removal from the oven. Slice and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and warm syrup.

Enjoy!
-Jen!!

So now that the weather is getting cooler, cooking is becoming fun again. It’s not out of the question to think about roasting vegetables and braising meats. And when I consider these types of things, I am so glad that during the last part of the summer, I undertook a project of making my own raw sauerkraut. We have big jars full of beautiful purple lacto-fermented karut to pair with whatever fall menu I fancy!

I consulted a few sources before starting, the most helpful being Wild Fermentation, a book by Sandor Katz and this blog, The Sunny Raw Kitchen. The two of them together were really helpful and put me at ease with understanding why the anaerobic brine of saltwater keeps the kraut safe, even when small bits of mold (or ‘bloom’ as Katz calls it) appear on the surface. My first attempt dried out, I wasn’t checking it often enough, and then the second batch did get some ‘bloom’ on top towards the end. But I nervously scraped it off, and immediately separated the submerged kraut into separate, sanitized jars and have been enjoying it with no problems since. There is a lot of information out there on the health benefits of lacto-fermented foods, and knowing of it’s potency was definitely an encouraging factor. I have one friend in particular (you know who you are) who eats raw sauerkraut three times a day to keep the flora in his gut balanced. But my main motivation was more the edible experiment of it. I love a kitchen project! So here’s what I did, nothing special, it seems this is the standard way of producing sauerkraut, at least in closed quarters and for a family of just two. I’ve read lots of accounts of people remembering their grandmothers making sauerkraut by the barrel-full!

Raw Sauerkraut
5 lbs cabbage (2-3 medium) (I used a mixture of green and red/purple)
3 T pickling or kosher salt
filtered or distilled water
container (I used a glass gallon jar with a fermentation water-lock on the lid – more on that in a second)
weighting system *

Peel off the first few layers of cabbage, rinse, and set aside. Using either a food processor, a mandolin or a kraut grater chop your cabbage in small batches, placing into a large bowl (separate from your fermentation container). As you fill your bowl, add some salt – you basically just wanna eyeball, and divide your 3T evenly throughout your whole batch. So add a little here, and a little there…as you add your salt, massage the cabbage either with your hands or with something else (like a smaller bowl placed on top of it). It should start to feel moist (I know)…place it in the fermentation container after it’s been massaged, packing it down as tight as you can as you go. You do NOT want any air in there…squish it!

Once you have it full of kraut and pressed down as tight as it can be, assemble your weighting system*. My container had a water-lock lid, shown above, so the lid helped with the weighting system. If yours doesn’t, once the kraut is weighted just cover it all with a clean towel. Either way, once it’s covered, you wanna stash it someplace cool and out of the way. Check it after about two days to see how much brine has risen – if the kraut isn’t completely submerged, add some salt water (i think about 1 T salt to 1 1/2 C water is what I read). Be sure to place your container on a drip plate too, as the brine will likely spill over some.

It should take two or three weeks for fermentation to finish, depending on the temperature of your room. Fermentation happens slower in cold weather, but also, I’ve read, produces a tastier kraut. Check your kraut if not every day then every other, and scrape off any signs of mold/bloom, making sure your kraut is staying submerged. Once you are ready to eat, transfer into mason jars with the natural brine, and keep refrigerated. I’ve had mine in there for about a month now, and I eat on it a few times a week – and it’s even better now than when I first transferred it. And the color, from the red cabbage, is GORGEOUS.

Enjoy! -Jen

* Some ceramic pots made for making sauerkraut come with weights. if yours doesn’t, you can use a number of things – anything heavy, really. A plate with something heavy on top, a clean brick or stone in a plastic bag…I took the top leaves from my cabbage that I had removed and set aside, folded them up into bunches, and placed them at the top of the container. I then filled a plastic zip-lock with salt water (in case it leaked, which it did) put it on top, then used the screwtop lid to push it down.

So this is a salad I’ve made a million times, in a million slightly different ways. It’s usually dictated by what’s at the market, and what will make it tasty and colorful. I typically use barley as the grain base because I like how chewy it is, but you could use farro, wheatberries, even wild rice (have made it with black wild rice and it was BEAUTIFUL) and the dressing is always super simple, in this case just some lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil, so that the flavors of the ingredients make it…and I always add fresh herbs for this reason. And the crunch of toasted nuts always adds a nice texture and depth of flavor. I’ll give you my recipe, but it’ll be loose – you should be confident to add whatever’s in season and looks yummy!

BARLEY SALAD

4 C cooked grain (I used barley)
2 beets, roasted and chopped
1/2 C chopped beet greens, washed well
3/4 C chopped purslane
3/4 C chopped fresh basil
1 small red onion, chopped
1 ear raw corn, kernals cut off the cob
2 carrots, sliced thin (I cut them on the diagonal using a mandolin)
2 stalks celery, sliced thin (I also did these using the mandolin)
1/2 C sliced fennel (again, mandolin!)
1/2 C toasted hazelnuts (I have also used sunflower or pumpkin seeds)
2 lemons
1/2 C olive oil
Pinch of salt

Making sure your barley has fully cooled, just mix all ingredients in a bowl. Dress with lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil. Add a pinch of salt. This salad is best served cold, and is great for days afterwards.

ENJOY!
-Jen

Forgive the Italian, but it is the one language other than English that I speak (sort of) so hey, when you got it, flaunt it. Today I made eggplant in olive oil, a simple pickling recipe that will give me a few weeks worth of gorgeous eggplant to put in salads, eat with bread and cheese, or just to eat alone, unabashed. The farmers market yesterday had some gorgeous eggplants, and of the 3 I bought, I only ended up using two of them. The process was simple, and though the recipes I looked up did not mention having to boil water and do a hot pack, I did boil water to sterilize the glass jars and lids anyway, just to be safe. I did not hot pack however, so for such a hot day it wasn’t too torturous a project. Here’s what I did:

EGGPLANT IN OLIVE OIL

Two large eggplant
Sea Salt
Desired spices (I used garlic, carrot tops, chives and thyme)
Olive Oil (everywhere I looked said to use the best you can afford)
Red or White Wine Vinegar (I used red)
Mason Jars and Lids

Step one was to slice the eggplant thin and uniformly (I used a mandolin), and place in a collander that is positioned over a bowl. I sliced long to give me lovely ribbons, but you can also do rounds if you prefer. Layer in the collander covering each layer with salt. Place a clean tea towel on the top when done layering, then place a small plate on top of the cloth, and weight down with whatever will stay balanced (I used a large unopened box of almond milk). Let sit overnight, or at least for a few hours.

Prepare your herbs and spices (wash, chop, etc..). Bring equal parts water and vinegar to a boil. Boil the eggp[lant slices in the vinegar solution for a few minutes ata  time, in small batches (you will only need a few inches of the liquid, as you will only be doing a few pieces at a time). Place the slices to drain on a clean tea towel.

Meanwhile, sanitize your jars and lids if you wish to do so, in a hot water bath. Once eggplant has all been boiled in the vinegar and your jars and lids are ready, slowly layer your eggplant and herbs in the jars, covering periodically with olive oil. I packed mine in pretty tight, though I have read that the eggplant will expand as it absorbs the olive oil. Once you reach the top, make sure the olive oil is covering everything, and seal tight with the lid. Place in refrigerator, and eccola! They can be left to pickle, or eaten immediately.

Buon Appetito!
-Jen

It’s harvest time! The market is KICKING and the prices are down…so Dan and I walked over with the two largest tote bags we own, and came back with so much stuff I kept having to stop to change hands because the bag I was carrying was so heavy. I LOVE this time of year!!!

Hi everyone…so I got a ‘Cease and Desist’ today, seems someone has a trademark on ‘Scrapkins‘ and felt threatened by the cloth napkins I was making, so had his lawyer send me a squash letter. If he only knew this blog gets about 4 hits a week, and that I’d only made 8 sets of napkins total, EVER!! Alas, I will find a new name if I continue the project.

Anyway, my birthday was a few weeks ago and I got some AWESOME kitchen related presents, so I thought I’d share. The above gems are 3 pieces of La Chamba pottery, given to me by my mother, her husband, and my grandmother. They’re made in Mexico from volcanic clay (!!), hand-burnished, no glazing…you can use them on any heat source including open flame!! Their shape is SO BEAUTIFUL and I haven’t had a chance to use them yet because it’s been so hot, but I’m so looking forward to it.

You boil water in them to season/seal them, and if that doesn’t create a non-stick surface, you boil MILK. I just might boil milk anyway because it’d be so pretty, the creamy white on that ashen black…alchemy in the kitchen!!!

The second present I wanted to share is the piece of polish pottery my husband gave me. Feast your eyes:

It’s a ‘bowl with handle’, hand painted in a traditional ‘Daisy’ pattern. It is so beautiful, I feel like it feeds my brain just looking at it. I can’t wait to have an occasion to fill it with a green salad, a bunch of colorful fruit, or some kind of finger-food (even though that sounds gross). Maybe even something made from one of my next and last two presents – Asian cookbooks!

My husband got me Andrea Nguyen’s cookbook on Asian Dumplings, which little did he know I’d read about on 101cookbooks.com not too long ago…and his parents (with a little coaching, I suspect) got me the Momofuku cookbook!! Two VERY EXCITING and potentially timesucking reads that I am excited to have the time to get into. I’ve always been intimidated by any kind of Asian cooking other than stir-fry, and even that I don’t feel like I’ve ever done really well. So will be a fun project.

I am a lucky gal.

Some co-workers and I decided to start an office food-swap. There are a few of us who are always talking about what we made over the weekend, oooing and aahhing over the leftovers each of us are eating at lunch…so we picked a day and the plan was to all bring in something to share. It could be whatever…but it needed to be homemade. The day came and everyone forgot, except me – actually I did forget until about 11am the day before, but I made sure to show up that Monday morning with little mini zucchini bread loaves for everyone.

I just got this new cookbook that I’d read about on 101cookbooks.com, called ‘Good To The Grain’. I am always buying grain flours, using them once, and then they just sit there. So I got this cookbook which focuses on baking with whole grain flours, to have ways to use them up and make some space in our freezer!

This zucchini bread was VERY moist, and the basil and mint were great additions…I had chocolate mint so that’s what I used. I think it could have used a bit of a powdered spice to get into the batter a bit better…or maybe I didn’t chop my fresh herbs fine enough. But regardless it was delicious, and with as much rye flour as I have, I’ll be making this again!

ZUCCHINI BREAD

2 T basil (about 12 medium leaves)
1 T mint (about 8 medium leaves)
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 lb zucchini (about 2 medium)
1/2 C plain yogurt
2 eggs
1 C rye flour
1 C all-purpose flour
1/4 wheat germ
1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t kosher salt

Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350º. Lightly butter a standard bread loaf pan (or if using mini loaf pans like I did, lightly butter and then line with parchment paper)

Pick the basil and mint leaves from their stems, and roughly chop. Melt the stick of butter. Add herbs and let them infuse the butter while you make the batter.

Grate the zucchini using either a box grater or a food processor with a grate attachment. Transfer grated zucchini to a bowl, and add yogurt and eggs. Whisk together.

Sift the dry ingredients into a separate large mixing bowl. Scrape the butter into the zucchini mixture and stir together. Pour the zucchini mixture into the dry ingredients and gently fold until combined. Scrape the batter into your prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 60 – 70 minutes if using a large bread pan, and if using mini loaf pans like mine bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Wrapped tightly in plastic, it can be kept up to 3 days, getting better the next day due to the flavors having some time to meld together. Enjoy!

A few months ago I went upstate with a friend to his GORGEOUS house just outside of Roxbury, NY, near the Catskills. He is a super crafty, smart fella who had been making his own cloth napkins from Japanese lunch wrappers (furoshiki). I thought this was such a cute idea, that I decided to make cloth napkins out of the one furoshiki I had at home, that my sister had wrapped my Christmas present in that year. That got my mind rolling, and I started thinking about all the cute fabric I had at home, as remnants of altering vintage dresses, or just scraps I had bought through the years for various projects that never got finished. On top of that, what about all the vintage dresses I had in my closet that were falling apart from too much wear but that I couldn’t bring myself to part with because I loved the fabric too much?! I could make them ALL into cloth napkins!!!

I started out just doing a simple folded edge on my sewing machine, but realized after one wash that that wasn’t going to hold up to much use. So I invested in a serger after doing an experiment with a friends’. I then got invited to share a table at a craft fair, which gave me the excuse to spend two days wrestling with my new machine, trying to figure out how to read the stitches and adjust the tension settings to get a nice, professional looking rolled edge. It was hard! And not every napkin in this first batch looked perfect. But the project was fun and satisfying and I came up with a cute name and packaging idea…voila – SCRAPKINS!

Some sets are 4 matching napkins

some are mismatched sets….cute, right?