Sourdough Discard: Brownies!!

Yes, I made brownies with my sourdough starter discard! They turn out a little more cakey than fudgy. But I imagine you can add more chocolate chips and less flour, too. Now I am super, super picky about brownies. SUPER picky. I don't like cakey brownies and I don't like gooey fudgy brownies. I like them right in between. This is my brownie recipe but I substituted part of the flour with starter.

New Obsession: Sourdough Starters + Sourdough Discard Drop Biscuits

I am totally, totally obsessed with fermentation right now, especially regarding bread and starters,the old fashioned method of capturing wild yeast and bacteria to leaven bread. From biga to poolish and beer starters and sourdough... I'm completely obsessed! Sigh. More to add to my "to do" list. BUT.... when the world goes to hell in a hand basket (or a greased pole) I will be ready to feed the masses!

Soooo.... I've been feeding my pet starter for the past 2 weeks now.

Cream Drop Biscuits with Thyme

Last night, I was being a lazy cook. I really, really didn't feel like cooking. One of my easy go to recipes for a fast dinner is to boil boneless chicken thighs in BBQ sauce. Any BBQ sauce will usually work as long as it's not too thick. So that's what I did last night, but I also wanted some starch to go with it. I'm not big on potatoes. I'm just not. So I decided to make drop biscuits. You know the kind you don't have to make with yeast. It's really quick to make.

I don't have good pics BTW, cuz we pretty much devoured them and it didn't even occur to me to take photos because I also doctored a recipe so I thought the biscuits would be a disaster.

Homesteader Weekend: Concord Grape Jelly

Guess what I did today??  I canned for the very first time!!  One of the things I've always wanted to learn is to put up food properly especially via canning.  So far, I'm fabulous with freezing, which I have to say is still my favorite way to put up food.  Right now, I have two giant bags of Chinese long beans, a bag of rapini, tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, a Swiss chard/mustard green stir fry mix, and basil all packed in my freezer for the winter.  I love freezing but it was time to venture into hot process canning.  I just didn't think I would be making concord grape jelly.

Fried Green Tomato BLT

I am a Southern girl.  I've come to terms.  I once considered buying Emeril's dutch ovenesque smoker to smoke meats in your oven while living in Cali because I had a hankering for BBQ but couldn't find it the way it was made in the South. I also have a hankering for fried green tomatoes every summer.  I LOVE fried green tomatoes and they have to be made with cornmeal.  CORNMEAL!!  Not panko and not a mix of flour, panko and super fine cornmeal.  JUST CORNMEAL.  Just like southern BBQ needs to be smoked, fried green tomatoes ain't right if it's dredged in anything else but cornmeal.

It is tomato season right now.  My tomatoes are just starting to ripen. I'm growing a green heirloom variety, Emerald Evergreen.  Perfect for a fried green tomato BLT!

Quinoa with Collards, Red Onions, Cilantro and Preserved Lemons

Picked the first collards of the season this evening!  I planted collards in the fall to see if they would taste sweeter and boy do they ever!!  I think the extended winter we're having has helped improve the flavor even more!  So I was wondering what to make with my collards and decided to add it to quinoa.

Thai Red Curry Soup

The weather has been getting colder and I wanted a spicy, coconutty Thai curry soup for dinner tonight.  This recipe is pretty easy and delicious!

Sunday Breakfast: Lemon Kefir Pancakes

I wanted pancakes this morning.  Buttermilk pancakes.  But I don't keep buttermilk around on the regular.  Then I wanted ricotta pancakes but no ricotta on hand either.  I thought about making my own ricotta, but no whole milk on hand.  I looked in the fridge and there it was, my jar of kefir!

My Not So Relaxing Vacation Week

This past week was my first week off!! A real vacation. OMG! Great, right?  Sleep in, watch a bunch of TV, spend the whole week in pajamas.  Yeah, I suck at vacations. I have a hard time doing nothing.  I think I spent one day sleeping in and being a couch potato but then the rest of the week, I pretty much spent it thinking up stuff to do like preserving herbs. It was "thyme" to dry thyme....

Fresh from the Garden Meals

It's been rainy all day.  What better way to spend it but eating and cooking....

So what to do with garden tomatoes and the last of the basil?

Kefir: Make it, Drink it!

Months ago, like MONTHS ago, we bought kefir grains...

We've always been yogurt eaters but one day, I couldn't find a brand of yogurt that I wanted to eat.  Now I've made yogurt from scratch but for the boy, the texture just wasn't what he wanted.  Because of the lack of yogurt choices, I went and bought kefir instead. Boy, has it changed our lives!!!

Sunday Dinner: Chorizo Tacos

I had chorizo tacos at a local eatery and they were delicious!  I love me some carnitas but I loved the flavor of the chorizo.  I thought I'd try making them at home.  It's such an easy, quick dinner.

Bold Bunnies + Mostly Local Salad for Dinner

I'm always amazed that I can grow anything at all.  So far, the best crops have been the collards and kale and even when the baby bunnies nibble on them, I still usually pick 3 to 4 leaves per week of each.

How to Eat Lexington, NC BBQ

Step 1:  Bake up some pig skin or cracklin.

Step 2: Put pulled pork on bun.

Valentine's Strawberry Shortcake

Happy V-Day!  The boyfriend and I don't do much for Valentine's Day but I love to do a little cooking!

Cinnamon Roll Sunday!

I've been thinking about what to do with the Japanese milk bread dough besides just making  a loaf.  Granted, I love the bread as a loaf itself but it's always good to make something new.  Well, the boyfriend suggested making something sweet with the dough.  I like to bake for the holidays as opposed to gifting something that can't be used up and besides having a brownie obsession, Japanese milk bread obsession, BBQ obsession- I can go on and on- I also have a cinnamon roll obsession.  I've been looking for a good homemade cinnamon roll recipe.  Every time I've tried homemade cinnamon rolls, I've been a little disappointed.  They're usually good, but the dough tends to be too bready and heavy than I would like it to be.  Anyway, so last night, I made cinnamon rolls with the Japanese milk bread dough and baked them this morning.

Easy Way to Cook a Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!! I'm gearing up for food coma and some more food coma today.  Breakfast this morning is a cup of coffee and a lot of food prep!  I'm a bit psycho when it comes to cooking my Thanksgiving meal. The sides may change but the turkey, well, the turkey is serious business. Usually, it's just me and the boy so I don't cook a full turkey, just a turkey breast, but I'm traditionally a briner.  I make a brine with apple cider, salt, peppercorns and herbs and soak that puppy for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.  The turkey always comes out super moist and delicious! BUT this time I decided to try cooking the turkey differently thanks to my boyfriend's mother.  After moving, I've been a little beat lately and I didn't want to spend all day cooking a turkey so last night, I seasoned my turkey breast the way I normally would but cranked the oven up to 500 degrees and allowed it to really get hot- 30 minutes to an hour.  In the roasting pan, you pour in 4 cups of water or chicken stock (I did the chicken stock) in the bottom of your roasting pan. Cover the entire roasting pan with aluminum foil and pop it in the oven. Cook for 1 hour and turn the heat off and go to bed!  I was totally skeptical but this morning, I pulled the foil off to this....

Panettone French Toast

Sunday Breakfast:

The Best Fresh Donuts Ever!

Mrs. Yoder's Donuts.  Three were eaten before we even got in the car.  Need I say more?

I Luv Pie!

I seem to do a lot of late night baking.  Baking pies are one of my favorite baked goods to make!!  LUV PIE!  Especially fruit pies.  It's so perfect.  You get all of your 4 food groups- fruit, carbs, protein, and dairy (I put an egg and cream wash on the surface before baking plus the dollops of butter all over the apple filling.....mmmmm). I particularly like apple pies.  It's so all-American goodness, but another reason I tend to lean toward apple is that I can't seem to eat most apples raw (gives me stomach aches, except for Fuji apples and I have no idea why) but I can eat all apples cooked!! Now if I weren't lactose intolerant, a big scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on my slice of warm apple pie...that would be heaven!